Nice holiday fare. Lamb chops are a favorite and was top of the list as a back-up---but we stayed on-script and had turkey with the traditional sides.

The star is always the next day planned sliders. DH's biscuits, turkey slices warmed in gravy. Stuffing/gravy and Mama Sandberg's cranberry relish.

If we had houseguests, Saturday would have been stuffing stratta for brunch and turkey soup dinner. Nice stock but ended the holiday with the sliders. Froze five pints full of meat and stock for future soups and a half dozen 1/2 pints of just stock.

Dressing/stuffing excellent as always. Combo using a traditional basic bread recipe and wild rice/wild mushroom/pecan/apple/cornbread recipe.

Eye opener was using a meyer lemon instead of the usual orange in the cranberry. So much better. Still lots of fruit on my tree ripening slowly---about two per week.

Just remembered i froze a small packet of stuffing/dressing. And the few big portobello mushrooms left over i piled on a cookie scoop of stuffing and froze those as well. Might be nice with the lamb next weekend.

Because we cut way back on sides for just the two of us, ---and just a small delivery to an elderly neighbor, ...no green beans, or a big roasted root veg sheet pan, or peas-n-pearl onions, no collards/greens, no special stuffing for the vegetarians/vegans...i just made a big shredded/sliced saladX3 to snack on all morning/afternoon. Usually a few platters of charcuterie for the grazing guests. We just snacked on ramen eggs, proscuitto bacon, piles of shredded greens. One salad had feta. Just an endless heap of meaty greens. Plattered in the kitchen with lemon and a bit of olive oil. (we would have pigged out on a cheese/sliced meat platter)

Proscuitto has minimal fat so barely any shrinkage like standard grocery bacon. No greasy spattering. A quick few minutes crisping. Costco had it for 9bucks a pound in a double 8oz packaging last month. DH got his booster and flu last week at Costco and stocked up. Just a few thin slices are such a treat. 2 ounces is all is needed for a salad topper.

Turkey was amazing. No fussy wet brine. Just a dry brine uncovered in the fridge 24 hours. Compound butter under the skin.

Tried a new potato method. A keeper. Roasted russets in the oven with a head of garlic. Scooped out the flesh from their thick skins and added to a simmered thin red-skinned potatoes quartered. Smashed with parsley and roasted garlic. Creamy and rustic. Traditionally we don't want a potato ricer for this meal.

Nice to see all the TG meals, and subsequent meals. I've been cooking, but nothing worth sharing. Just quickies.

I have some yogurt that needs to be used up, so pancakes to the rescue this morning!

Having a truly simple meal tonight, pizza and salad with blue cheese dressing.

Thanks to the air-fyer, roasted potatoes are so easy to make.

Pork roast and coleslaw.

Thanks to the air-fyer, roasted potatoes are so easy to make.

Pork roast and coleslaw.

I made some bread yesterday - freshly ground hard white wheat, rye, spelt & durum, with some KA bread flour. I added some "everything bagel" seeds inside and on top.

Dinner tonight was hollandaise salmon over basmati rice with maple butter carrots.

I too made crashed potatoes tonight by microwaving briefly and then roasting in the air fryer. They were excellent!!

Too tired to really cook tonight for some reason, so just cooked a frozen pot pie in the air fryer, baked a Yukon gold potato in the Instant Pot, and made a quick salad of iceberg lettuce and celery. It actually tasted pretty good, but I could eat only half of it so will have the remainder tonight for dinner.

I was wanting to make twice-baked potatoes in my a/f, but my potatoes are all too small. When I get a bag with some large potatoes, that's my next project.

Lovely loaf Lynda. Yummy looking roast potatoes Jasdip and Sleeve great looking meals as usual. Walnut creek your meals sound tasty and compumom crashed potatoes are winners

This was a salad I made for myself last night.

That’s goats cheese.

Another of our pork stir fries the other night which we enjoy.

Cooked a type of steak I have never cooked before last night. It was a petite sirloin. I did marinate for a short period of time and learned that it needs to marinate longer, cooked it only 3-4 minutes on each side to a medium rare; think it would be better at rare. The steak was not tough, but not truly what I think of as tender. Got a very good buy on four small steaks, which are just the right size for one serving. Good source of protein. Probably won't purchase again. Do any of you have a good recipe for these kinds of steaks?

@neely I like your pretty salad. It reminds me of summer, which of course it is in your part of the world.

@WC I am afraid I don't have much experience with petite sirloin. My DH and son like everything very rare and DH usually takes the lead on all things steak related.

I am getting ready for another potluck today. It is outside, with crock pots, insta pots and slow cookers as the theme. I am making clam chowder in the slow cooker and pairing with freshly made bread and some cookies. I will also make some lemonade for the kids.

I made German pfeffernusse and my Gran & Mom's Scottish shortbread bars. The first of three bread loaves is in the oven, once all are done, I will start with the chowder.

Last night we had red wine braised short ribs over mashed potatoes. This was my second time making this. This time we were at home, and I had access to all my fresh herbs which made a big difference. I really like a strong rosemary flavor.

The night before we had Greek lamb, with hummus, Greek salad, pita and my favorite Paso Pink wine.

Edit to add the bread:

My son's favorite - Durum loaf (1/2 Durum, 1/2 Bread Flour)

My favorite - Everything Loaf (Rye, hard white wheat, durum, bread flour and everything bagel mix)

Thanks, @Lynda (Zn9b/23 - Central CA Coast)

Oh boy, I shouldn't come here. I've had little time to cook and less time to post. The last pictures I took included Thanksgiving dinner, LOL. Here it is!

Cheesecake, Boston Cream Pie, apple pie and a gluten free pumpkin roll for dessert. Yes, that's me in the mirror, taking a picture of me taking a picture!

Since then we've had a leek and pear pizza. Yeah, I know, it's odd, but I sounded good, I still had leeks from the garden and so I made it. It was actually very good. The recipe called for bacon, which I didn't bother to thaw and add, it was good without it:

I braised more of the leeks and had them with enchiladas, a kind of odd combination...

We had a salad one day, I don't remember what flavor this was supposed to be, maybe southwestern. They're all about the same, LOL:

Thepork steak with fried cabbage and a mix of roasted purple sweet potatoes and butternut squash:

Madison turned 10, and she wanted a "Plain Vanilla" cake, but decorated like the galaxy. I thought a birthday cake was a bad time to experiment with something new like the mirror glaze, so it was buttercream. She liked it and was very happy, and it matched the galaxy print on the new skateboard that she had asked me for, LOL:

Madison, Maci and Bud went with Elery up behind the house to find our Christmas tree:

It's all lit up and pretty, and was very fresh. I hope it lasts another week and a half, Elery's son is coming from California for Christmas with his wife and three boys and Elery hasn't seen them in 4 or 5 years. So, Christmas dinner for 16 this year!

I've baked wheat bread, and Italian loaf and my latest loaf is rye:

I also made some butter toffee, the first time I've made it and it turned out really well and was much easier than I thought, but took longer than I expected.

Tonight's supper was Chinese take out, picked up by Elery because I was baking 6 dozen cinnamon rolls for a bake sale for the local virtual school fundraiser. I've been putting cookie dough in the freezer and Mother has been here for a couple of weeks. She's back home for a couple of days, then I'll pick her up Friday for her COVID booster and bring here here. I'll be baking cookies on Saturday because the girls and grandkids are coming to decorate cookies with us on Sunday. Monday Mother has a dentist appointment and I'll take her home, then Elery's son will be coming on Tuesday from California. Who knows when I'll have time to post again, LOL.

Happy Everything to Everyone!

Annie

I guess everyone is quite busy planning Christmas meals and festivities.

Yummy looking meals Lynda. Likewise Annie, so nice to see your Thanksgiving table with delicious bowls of food... also what a great cake... I have to say it ”it looks out of this world.”

Nothing exciting being cooked here. DH has not been well so food has been pretty ordinary.

The following was scallops over a carrot salad.

Wow, great meals, loaves of bread and funky cake!

I'm eating but nothing to take a picture for. So I present to you 2 outside meals.

A g/f and I went to a theater production of A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. I love her and the music. The last time I saw the show Tom played in the band. They did a 4-week gig, with sold-out shows every nite and marinees. Of course it was tough, I'd close my eyes, listen to the singer and picture Tom playing. Yeah, tears flowed. Prior to the show we had dinner out. I had pork souvlaki.

I was given a coupon for a free pizza so I used it today. I chose chicken, onions and mushrooms

I must remember to keep some leftover chicken and make it myself. At least I'd load on the toppings.

Another quick, easy, very tasty meal I made Thursday night. Ham steak in the air fryer, mac & cheese in the IP, leftover English peas made into an English pea salad, and a nice slice of cranberry-pistachio bread with butter. Could only eat half of it.

I've enjoyed seeing all your cooking. Jas, I can imagine that was hard. Glad you had a friend with you for support. Annie, we've missed you. I love that you find your own Christmas tree. Neely, your carrot salad looks so colorful and healthy. How is your DH? I hope on the mend. WC, That does look very tasty. I love mac & cheese.

We had spicy hot pot last night with pork, shrimp and bok choy.

The night before we had tangerine honey ginger braised chicken legs. A new recipe for us as our tangerine tree was so heavy with fruit that we had had to pick some to keep the limbs from breaking. It did take an hour in the oven, but was worth the wait. We had it alongside a garden salad. We have butter lettuce, arugula, red mustard, mizuna and radish harvestable at the moment. The radish was an accident from the summer, when winds blew seeds off of the patio table. Now we have radish growing all over the lawn. They must have sat dormant until we finally got some rain.

Last week, we smoked a bacon wrapped pork tenderloin and served it with our spicy pear sauce and some asparagus.

Also last week, I made calzone. The crust was made from freshly ground durum and the filling was salami, diced tomatoes, basil from the garden, garlic, shredded mozzarella and EVOO. So good, but we decided that it would be the last carb heavy meal for awhile.

I made chicken and vegetables with roasted potatoes all done in the air-fyer in batches. There's lots more than in this photo :)

Wow, a bunch of pics were not here the other day. Just now seeing Annie's gorgeous tree.

Been busy planning and ordering for holiday meals.

Jas, your air fryer is getting a work out. I keep seeing up-grade models that have three trays so a few things can be going at once.

We have been having a rotation of soups and seafood since Thanksgiving. Lots of salads.

Cod cakes

Everything ordered and here. No last minute shopping. Oysters coming next tuesday.

I also missed the HotPot pic. A favorite with houseguests in the past. Love the prep ahead and everyone is happy choosing as they please. Impossible to get my family at the table at the same time except for the one formal holiday meal---even that is often chaos.

This is a keeper from a couple nights ago. A Chicken and Chickpea Masala. Fridge diving and had a small pack of boneless skinless thighs just about thawed. A quarter jar of Raos marinara. Added a couple heaping tBsp's of garam masala and some powdered goat milk rehydrated. Shake. Meanwhile chicken packed with za'tar, not burnt. The za'atar was wet with avocado oil and the thighs were covered in the oven low and slow until 150º. Cut into chunks, then added to cubed tender potatoes in the masala sauce. Finished cooking the chicken. Haven't made anything remotely curry for years. Last few found in the freezer were dated 2016. We got sick of it and not nearly as good as this one. Leftovers made an excellent chicken salad in lettuce cups for lunch. Added celery, green olives, arugula.

DH still talking about it.

Used SeriousEats for a quick garam masala. Plenty of za'atar i made last week.

Your hot pot looks great Lynda, as does your chicken. I love your stories of all the vegetation and fruit that you grow. Radishes sprouting all over the lawn? :-D

Sleeve, I've seen the air fryers with the racks, but I do have my Cuisinart counter-top oven and it's a bear to clean, so I wouldn't want to clean a larger air-fryer that's similar.

Annie, your very own home-grown tree! Very cool. See you in the New Year.....you'll be buzzing around like crazy cooking for everyone.

Merry Christmas!

Sleeve, It is good to see what you are cooking which always inspires me to add more veggies to my dishes.

Jas, you are correct in cleaning the countertop air fryer. I love my cuisinart AF, but it is a pain to clean.

We get a lot of accidental produce. In addition to the radish that pops up in the lawn, we have arugula and red mustard that show up in random locations. We also have "volunteer" lemon guava, feioja and passion fruit that I presume have grown from seeds dropped by birds.

This was macnut crusted tilapia with a lemon garlic cream pan sauce and leftover tartar sauce.

Last night's dinner was roasted whole orange chicken with carrots and potatoes. I added a tangerine ginger honey sauce as it is that time of the year and I am trying to use up excess citrus.

Speaking of using up excess citrus, DH made this for me last week. It is a tangerine margarita made with fresh tangerine juice and our homemade/homegrown Cointreau from last year.

Merry Christmas

I would love to celebrate with one of those tangerine margaritas Lynda.

It ended up only DH and I for Christmas dinner. A covid scare with one son having to wait 3 days for test results (negative). While another son’s flights were canceled from Sydney.

Ours was a somewhat subdued dinner, no stuffing but the turkey breast was good.

Had a nice meal last night (ate only half). I tried to sort of duplicate our normal Christmas Prime Rib for just me, but although it was good, it wasn't Prime Rib. Had a Rib Eye, Mushrooms, Herb and Butter Small Potatoes, frozen Rhodes Hot Rolls, and a glass of red. I meant to cook some asparagus, but forgot. Looking forward to finishing it tonight. The mushrooms were an experiment went that was very successful. Honestly, the potatoes were an attempt to duplicate the wonderful potatoes at a restaurant here, they weren't like the restaurants, but I sort of think they were better. Let the frozen rolls proof in the IP and then baked in the toaster oven - they have a funny shape because I could not find a small enough square pan to fit in the IP.

Hubby and I liked doing some New Year's eve traditions.... superstitions if you will. One was eating lentils for dinner. Nick Stelino introduced us to this. The lentils were to represent coins which is wealth. So.... wish me luck!

Good luck Jas. I can't imagine a worse year than the past one for our province and a lot of Canada and the world. Have had a rotten cold for a week so Chinese takeout for us. Happy New Year!

Nothing fancy. I made Creamy Chicken Tuscan. It calls for just chicken broth and cream so I added wine and some lemon juice. It really helped with added flavour.

I made Chicken a la Mer yesterday using a copycat recipe from a local Cajun/Creole restaurant. I've made it a few other times before and it wasn't quite right. I tweaked the spices a bit and it turned out just as I remember it from the restaurant (haven't been there since pre-covid) I made a veggie stir fry to go along with it

Had a traditional New Year's Day dinner for us. Pork (ham), dried black-eyed pea, fresh collard greens, and a portion of a pecan praline for dessert. Very good. Oh, and a pinot for a beverage.

Tradition is comforting this season.

It has been a rough holiday season. Mother collapsed Christmas eve. Hospital. Lock-down eminent they wanted to put her in hospice recovery care...no go, we fibbed our way out of that mess. 3 weeks in no visit lock-down. 😬

All day phone call 'ear sweats'. I so hate long sibling phone calls.

Brother in Idaho tested positive yesterday. We are all vaxed and boosted.

One sister's husband is a doctor in Icu having just started night shift working the responsibility of three...lack of employees...and nurses. Six weeks previous of Thanksgiving only one walked out alive. Non-vaxed.

Now Dr. BIL has tested positive today and home.

A bright light in the family....last night. ANewYearBaby.

OMG Sleeve how awful for you and your family. I spent Christmas Day at my brother's. His son was there but my niece was isolating as she'd tested positive a couple days earlier. I haven't seen her in 3 years and was looking forward to visiting with her.

I made Chicken Cacciatore tonite with some leftover pasta.

Sleevendog, I'll be thinking good healing thoughts for your Mom and strong thoughts for you, hopefully everyone will come through this. I'm hoping for a healthier and happier New Year for all of us. Congratulations on the new baby, a bright spot in the beginning of this new year.

Happy New Year's everyone. I had a couple of big holiday dinners and today was Elery's 70th birthday, but I don't have time to post pictures right now, so you'll get some, but they'll be late.

Sorry to "hit and run", but I wanted to just leave some good vibes for Sleevendog's Mom.

Annie

@sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA) I am so sorry to hear about your Mom and the challenges in your family. Sending my good thoughts as well. Like Annie, I am hopeful for a better 2022.

This was NYE. I didn't make it even close to midnight, but we did have sushi, har gau and champagne.

For New Year's Day we roasted a duck. I am trying to be better about not wasting our citrus, so this duck was all about the orange flavor. We stuffed the cavity with orange slices and cooked on a bed of them. We seasoned with my orange salt herb blend and then I made an orange ginger sauce.

...and last night's smoked tri tip with leftover mashed potatoes and air fried peppers & onions.

An anxious time with your mother Sleevendog... lots of positive thought heading your way.

We’ve been having easy fix meals lately.... sandwiches, eggs every whichway, (canned) baked beans on toast.

I put some preparation into the following meal but not much as the meatballs were delivered already rolled. Coconut sauce covered them and garlic ginger green beans.

We just had Asian beer, and coconut chili crabs. So so good! Sort of a buffalo crab sauced clusters, but BETTER!!!

https://www.food.com/recipe/coconut-chili-crab-167421

Coconut chilli crab sounds delicious.

Homemade pizza. I made the crust thicker than I usually do. DH says ”I like it this way better”.... how many years??

LOL gotta love men, Neely!

That pizza looks fabulous

I picked up some eggplant, and mushrooms and peppers all on sale for a good price. Caponata on the roster tomorrow.

Tonight is a salad loaded with vegetables, eggs, mushrooms, black olives, chunks of cheese and julienned ham slices.

I'm trying a new wine, a pinot grigio from South Africa.

I remembered the croutons after I took the pic. Salads need crunch.

A first last night for me was a bison patty. I was actually surprised at how good it was. Also had a gnocchi with cheese sauce and roasted asparagus. I roasted the asparagus about 5 minutes too long; also cooked the gnocchi a bit too long.

Was it Ruthanne that introduced me to Caponata? If so or not, I'm eternally grateful. I love the stuff.

Made drumsticks with a sweet/sour sauce as well.

Mmm cheese sauce and gnocchi sounds good to me Walnut creek.

Jasdip, your salad and drumstick followed by your caponata look delicious. I did look up the difference between caponata and ratatouille and it seems caponata has the addtion of olives perhaps capers... did you add these to yours?

We had a few cool days and while I‘m not in a real cooking frame of mind at the moment... I did cook up Fish and six veg. I had some red sauce left over from the pizza so I made a sort of patatas brava with potatoes and sweet potatoes

Neely I never once thought of them being similar. I've always wanted to make ratatouille, so I guess I am!! LOL. Yes, olives and capers in my caponata.

I've seen ratatouille where it was cooked down to a mush; not what I would want.

Basa fillet with air-fried potatoes and sauteed onions and green beans.

Apparently, I'm in a street food kind of mood. First it was taquitos, then it was coconut chili crabs, and today I'm trying empanadas. What am I getting wrong? Not enough filling going into the dough. It made 14 empanadas like I said it would, but it's way too doughy, and I have too much filling left. Should I smash them out further and use a bigger cutter? I thought it was really thin to start with, but maybe it wasn't thin enough...

Must not be too awful, my child keeps eating them all

I like Caponata on pasta just ad much as a side dish. Great way to use up leftovers.

Had a very simple, but satisfying meal last night. Cooked bacon in air fryer, as well as baking eggs in it. Made the toast in the skillet. Did get too much Italian seasoning in the eggs, but it still tasted good.