I wanted to comment on the corn, mostly for people from my zone or near it....I will not grow Hickory King again. However, I will grow Hopi blue again for sure. There is only one spot on my property where corn will grow, a sweet spot that I think got lots of applications of composted horse manure over the last 50 years. Corn is exotic to me and very interesting. I got even more interested in it after reading 'An omnivore's dilemma'. I have been trying various varieties just for fun and to see how feasible it is to grow a crop in a 1/4 acre for grain (...not very....). It is OK, but just for holiday type meals. As I said, it will only grow well on that patch... I will have enough for corn bread to go with the New Year's black eye peas. It was nice to have something made from a non GMO, completely organic non hybrid corn, and share it with our loved ones, some of them do care about these things. The Hickory King grew vigorously and gave us decent production, but the stink bugs were on it like it was going out of style. It was a real pain to take the kernels off the cobs, since I sorted out the ones that got stink bug damage. It was also more difficult to grind, and i could not get rid of a bunch of really hard bits on it. For comparison the Hopi blue gave a larger production, grew as vigorously if not more, had no stink bug damage and was very easy to grind up. Could it be that the Hopi blue is a flour corn and the Hickory King a dent corn? I also loved the blue corn bread a lot better, even though I also like the flavor of the hickory king. Making corn bread out of freshly ground corn meal is so tasty, even with a less favorite variety. Anyway, as I said I love Hopi blue for corn bread and it does well here (in case any zone niner reading this is into trying it). I originally grew Hopi blue for tamales though, but I did not like it for tamales. I am still looking for some good tamale corn, and I would prefer blue. I know some blue corn is used in tamales since we get some at out local Farmer's market in South Pasadena, so what corn do they use? Thanks for the compliments on the raviolis. They went over big here in this crowd too, so they are on request again for the Christmas menu! Enough time between Thanksgiving and Christmas that I will feel like making them and eating them again, so that is OK. Also, first year that we grow ENOUGH winter squash. Curcubita moscata is our friend.

HU - Well....look at that, I forgot all about this old thread. 8 years ago? Wow! So, you are happy for Thanksgiving....what are you looking forward to? So, do you have family somewhere that you are not going to be able to get together with? We will not be able to get together with our family. First time in our lives that will be the case. Not one Thanksgiving or Christmas that we haven't been able to get together for a holiday dinner. So I'd say that is something to be VERY thankful for. And I'm a lot older than you are. [g]. And I hadn't thought about it that way until just this minute. So you did me a favor to bring this thread up. We are going to be making dinner, which we enjoy doing. We will have dinner ourselves but we will be delivering Thanksgiving Dinner to a couple of our kids. A small, easy, traditional dinner. I just got through making a food order. I looked at a weather forecast and it may rain on Thanksgiving, which would make it difficult to even have a short visit outdoors with anyone, but the forecast is wrong a lot, especially when it's an early one. So, what are you looking forward to HU?

My favorite right now is Sol's Honey Rolls. The recipe does not call for kneading but I put it into my bread machine anyway, works like a charm: Sol's Honey Rolls 1 Cup milk 1/2 Cup honey 1/2 Cup butter [1 stick] 2 Tsp salt 1 -2 tablespoons granulated sugar* 2 pkges. dry yeast 1/2 Cup warm water [110ú-115úF] 2 large eggs lightly beaten 6- 6 1/2 cups All Purpose flour Heat the milk, add butter and salt. Set aside while butter melts. Stir in the honey. In another bowl, combine the warm water, yeast and sugar. Let it sit until yeast is completely dissolved, about 6-7 minutes. Combine milk mixture with yeast mixture. And stir in the beaten eggs. Beat in 4 cups flour. Add enough remaining flour to make a soft, but not sticky dough. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to coat both sides. Cover and allow dough to rise 1 hour. Punch dough down, and allow to rise another hour. Punch down again, and shape dough into rolls. Let it rise again 45 minutes to an hour or until doubled in volume. Preheat your oven to 375F and bake rolls for 25 minutes or until a deep golden brown. For a very soft crust, brush rolls with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. Note: You could omit the sugar from this recipe altogether. I sometimes use about a teaspoon of the honey called for in the recipe to feed the yeast instead of the sugar. As an alternative, I like these and I do them in the bread machine too: Butternut Squash Rolls 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast 1 cup warm milk (110ð to 115ð) 1/4 cup warm water (110ð to 115ð) 3 tablespoons butter, softened 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 cup sugar 1 cup mashed cooked butternut squash 5 to 5-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in milk and water. Add the butter, salt, sugar, squash and 3 cups flour; beat until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Form into rolls; place in two greased 10-in.cast-iron skillets or 9-in. round baking pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 375ð for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Yield: 2 dozen. Annie

I'm experiencing the lull before the storm right now, so I thought I'd better take the opportunity to express my thanks for the recipe. I baked the rolls yesterday, and decided my husband and I could share one roll -- just a taste test. When he was done with his portion he told me he'd be happy to finish off the other 19 rolls all by himself and just keep their prior existence a secret from the rest of the family at Thanksgiving dinner. So I'd say they were a hit with him! I liked them too. And with some leftover mashed butternut squash and canned pumpkin, I can see me making a few more batches in the near future. Next time, however, I'll make sandwich rolls because I use those more than dinner rolls. I like having sandwich/hamburger buns in the freezer because they're so versatile. Thanks for the recipe, Annie.