Good substance and texture and perhaps size, if you go back in time you might find more emphasis on large flowers. Going back say 30 years, perhaps the Champion orchid of an orchid show then would usually be a large flowered standard type Cattleya. Said Champion orchid would arrive at the show packed in sponge rubber to present the ideal filled in shape. Unpacked prior to the judging it would look magnificent. Next day it would flop, droop, go out of shape and no longer look a Champion. Anyway, large hybrid Cattleyas have much better substance and texture these days, Thank you hybridisers.

While I've been baking bread and challah (brioche type dough) all my life, the only yeast pastries I've made often are hamentashen in a sweet version of my mother's challah recipe. Last week, I had this sudden thought, "Pumpkin babka!" This has been a great year for pumpkins. So instead of figuring it out myself, I searched for recipes on the 'net, and found a chocolate with pumpkin dough, and one more like what I'd had in mind, which was pumpkin-pecan filling in a rich, soft dough. I usually have great results with blog recipes, and I was sleep deprived, so even though I reviewed the ingredients before saving the recipe, I didn't actually read them through for quality. BIG mistake! I don't know if it's meant to be a sabotage (the comments were useless, only discussing the pretty pictures in the post). It sort of reads, to my bread self like it was partially scalled with oopsies. I've done that scaling a recipe for myself in my head, without writing it down when I was tired. I don't know, for sure, but looking back, it also doesn't match the instructions in the demonstration. It's, um, whack! There were plenty of places where I had warning signs and should have stopped and read it over and quit, but I didn't. I was tired beyond thought. When I started the first step, and it said 2 1/2 TBSP yeast to 3 -4 cups flour, I should have stopped. I just figured she meant teaspoons, and adjusted accordingly. Then I read the gigantic amound of sugar and salt. I always adjust those to taste anyway, so I kept going. When it said 8 eggs and half a pound of butter, I just figured she knew something I needed to learn. Um. No. The result, as you who bake know, was a glutinous cake batter. I added about a cup of flour and ran it with the dough hook and let it "rise" (not that any rising was happening). Good thing I've learned so much about high hydration baking. I poured it out onto the baking mat. There was enough gluten development at this point that it didn't spill away, just made a stable lake. Much as I would have liked to use my big steel bench scraper, one can't on silicone, but a big bunch of cast flour on it, scrape up some goop with the small plastic bench scraper and push it over, led to a more stable mound. Still too soft for even a stretch and fold, but holding its shape as a mound. I covered and let it rise. And it did! And when I heavily dusted with more flour, it was manageable and rolled. It was too soft to twist nicely, but enough so that the middle has a nice distribution. You can't see the layers, though. The dough was still too soft and smushed together. And it was so soft that the outside was almost burning before the inside was done, and the corners were dry because of that. The filing was good. That's a keeper. So is the butteriness of the dough. The end result was fine eating, though not exquisite. I think if I added a little extra butter to the hamentashen dough it would be more like what one needs, and I think more filling proportionate to the dough. I had been surprised that it didn't call for toasting the pecans, but they came out great from raw. Because of the restriction I put on the excess sugar, it's really good with cranberry sauce! While chatting, i mentioned it to the Thanksgiving cousin, and that I'd put the second loaf in the freezer. She asked me to bring it, but I don't know if anyone ate any. At least I don't have to find someone to feed it to! Which is why one tests recipes ahead. I also tried to make the handkerchielf rolls. I don't think there's any saving that one. I mean, they're rolls but they have a kind of gummy mouth feel, and that's after I overbaked them a little! Nasty. The recipe was designed to sell the baking dish. I'm thinking I could rescue them with custard. Pumpkin bread pudding is in the offing. Maybe with a cranberry hard sauce. The worst breads make the best bread puddings!

Colonel Butterball O'Giblets on this end 😂 I really don't enjoy wrapping and that makes me not wonderful at it. I buy mylar gift bags in bulk, a few years worth at a time and lots of chiffon ribbon, call it good. A toy store I used to frequent in Seattle gave me the name of their supplier (they gift wrapped for free) but I think closed now and I'll need a new source... I'd do great with reindeer care, you could sign me up there... And I'm quite good at finding shopping bargains, never paying full price for anything at all so maybe something along those lines. I'll have to give more categories some thought for you, 6:30 AM not my most imaginative time of day but will work on it later when I'm more creative....

My FIL used to occasionally make head cheese. Not brave, I didn't eat it. Event took place somewhat rarely - when butchering took place. When you have 10 children, you raise much of the food yourself. But this man cooked hot food for his pigs in winter - he did not do the butchering himself even if he had trouble admitting something of a 'softie'.. The only time I ever left the table was the night blood sausage was served. Just the black color was enough for my senses/tastes. He called once with few things he wanted from the grocery store. Italian seasoning was on his list and I bought a jar in the spice aisle but was wondering why when he always had garlic, peppers, oregano in his kitchen. English was not his first language. He'd meant Italian salad dressing - one of his daughters might have known but i did not. I did watch Guy Fieri participate in the cooking and eating of pork head cheese on TV just a few days ago and it really didn't look bad ....at least to my older self. 😊