Here it is, the day after our Thanksgiving holiday. Some folks do the so-called black Friday holiday shopping, but I’m not much on that. So I’m puttering around the house. The turkey is stripped of most of it’s meat, which is in the fridge for lunches and at least one dinner. The carcass is in a stock pot on the stove with the tops from the celery that we made stuffed celery from, a roughly chopped onion, a couple carrots, two bay leaves, and some dried marjorum. It’s on the bubble, and the house smells great!!! A big almost 24 pound turkey (about 11 kilos) fed 8 for dinner yesterday, we’ll get lunches for a couple days, supper tonight, and some great stock/soup that we can either can or freeze. I got a great deal on it with the Thanksgiving 39 cent special at Price Chopper for just under nine dollars. I love those cheap turkeys (got one at Hannaford, too) and have several in the freezer to process for some canned turkey and soup, and also some packs of cooked turkey in the freezer for quick suppers during the week.
Here it is… the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I got a great deal on a 24 1/2 pound turkey at Price Chopper for only 39 cents a pound. That’s the holiday bird. And I got another 15 lb at the same time for the freezer. There was a limit of two, so I stopped at Hannaford for one of their 40 cent Marvel turkeys about 13 lbs. While I was there, I got mincemeat, pudding mix, a large peanut butter tub, eggnog, and a bunch of other stuff I needed for the holiday. Now I’m working on a list for the traditionals that we don’t have yet. I love those cheap turkeys, though.
Lisa is in charge of the pies. She makes the best pie crust, a skill I have never succeeded in developing. We’ll have pumpkin, cherry, apple, mincemeat, and blueberry for baked pies. Then some chocolate cream and banana cream. We get both cans of whipped cream, and cool whip. Some like one and some like the other.
I make my grandmother’s butter rolls for just about every holiday meal. A double batch for Thanksgiving. I should make them more often because they are such a hit with everyone, but just having them for the holidays makes them a little more special.
It’s the first weekend of deer hunting season (rifle) here in Vermont. While my balance isn’t good enough to walk in the woods anymore, and my vision isn’t good enough to draw a bead with my rifle and be sure that I’m shooting at a deer, I still love the memory of walking in the woods, rifle in my arms, leaves rustling under my feet, and the smell of the autumn air.
4 lb To 5 venison roast
6 sl To 8 bacon
1 Sprig rosemary
1 c Water; stock or wine
1/4 ts Ginger
1/2 ts Cinnamon
2 Or 3 cloves
1 1/2 ts Sugar
2 tb Bread crumbs
1 ts Vinegar
2 tb Butter
Wrap the bacon all around the roast. Put the
rosemary in a heavy roasting pan and place the
roast on top of it. Mix together the liquid,
ginger, cinnamon, cloves and sugar, pour around
roast. Season with salt and pepper. Roast in a
moderate 350-375° oven for 2-3 hours. When done,
remove from pan to serving platter; strain off
gravy into a saucepan. Over low heat, cook juices
with bread crumbs until boiling. Then add vinegar
and butter; pour over roast. Serve with cranberry
jelly.
I realized this week while prowling around online looking for some presents to order with my Christmas Club funds that this is Christmas shopping time online. Not over-hyped Black Friday, but the first of October when savvy online shoppers start their holiday shopping.
Here are a few books that would make great Christmas gifts.
Another good book on sausage making and curing is the classic by Rytek Kutas: Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing which is currently back in print. You can’t poke around too many sites about sausage making without seeing a reference to this one!!
Not a book, but the Life on Mars complete series is now on video. I started watching this and liked it, but never saw the conclusion. Now I can!!
I freely admit that the books and dvd set are modest Associates links to Amazon.com.
It has been pretty chilly here in Southern Vermont. They had a couple inches of snow just the other day around Wallingford. One good thing is that it’s more of a pleasure to fire up the oven and do some baking. And before we know it, it will start the holiday cooking season.
MMMMM—– Recipe via Meal-Master ™ v8.05
Title: Mama’s Pumpkin Pie
Categories:
Yield: 1 Servings
1 c Pumpkin; cooked
1 c Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 ts Salt
1 ts Ginger
1 ts Cinnamon
1 pt Milk
Beat eggs well. Add sugar, pumpkin, salt and
spices. Mix until well blended. Add milk and beat
again. Pour into unbaked pie crust and bake in a
hot oven for about 10 minutes. Then reduce the
heat to 325 degrees and bake for 50 minutes more.
You can make this with leftover squash and nobody
will know the difference.
This was one of my sister’s stand-bys. Butter rolls or Devilled egg salad were the two recipes she usually brought to any get together. This recipe is both tasty and frugal, costing less than five dollars to make.
6 Eggs; hard boiled
1/2 ts Dry mustard
-=OR=-
2 tb Prepared mustard
1/2 ts Salt
Onion juice; if liked
Pepper & paprika
1 tb Chili sauce
Cream or salad dressing to
.. moisten
Peel eggs and slice longways. Carefully remove
yolks, so as not to tear whites. Put yolks in a
bowl and mash with fork, making a paste. Mix
remaining ingredients with yolks and blend till
quite smooth. Lightly pile yolks back into egg
whites. Chill. Serve on lettuce with mayonnaise or
your favorite dressing. Deviled eggs go very well
with salmon.
Last night, the new season started for the Biggest Loser (a TV show on NBC). I really need to get on the stick and eat healthier meals, as well as getting in some more exercise. We bought a year’s membership at the town’s Recreation Center in March. A real deal for something like $75 for the both of us. However, we still haven’t managed to get there. So maybe not such a deal. Hubby and I were talking about that, and he is going to stop today and get the pool schedule.
I really like watching the Biggest Loser and see these people really change their lives. It’s amazing to watch how much their health improves as they lose the weight. I really need to lose a bunch of weight. I’m small compared to some of these folks, though.
The main thing that I dislike about the show is that it sometimes seems like an hour-long commercial.
Here’s a recipe that I originally posted in a fidonet food echo, In 1994, I think it was. I had just gotten a Ronco Food Dehydrator, and was testing different recipes. This one, I like better with no smoke, which is what the original version included. I never add liquid smoke to anything anymore. yuch. I haven’t made this in awhile, but now that the weather is cooler, I’ll watch to make with bottom round roast when it’s on sale. This is actually very frugal, compared to buying those little packages in the market.
3 lb Rump roast (or similar cut)
1/2 c Light Japanese soy sauce; I
– use Kikkomon
1/4 c Worchestershire sauce
1/4 c White vinegar
1 c Water
1/2 ts Ground ginger
1/4 ts Ground red pepper
1/4 ts Ground black pepper
1 tb Onion powder
1 Clove garlic; smashed
have the butcher cut your roast in 1/8 inch slice against the grain. OR do it at home. if you don’t have good cutlery, have the butcher do it. it won’t be worth it!
Cut off the slice of fat on the bottom. separate the two distinct sinews. (you can tell, the grain goes one way on one, and the other way on the other). Trim out the “gristle” that is between them. slice the two sinews against the grain into 1/8 inch slices.
Mix the soya, and remaining ingredients to make the marinade. Marinade the meat slices for 6 or 8 hours in the fridge. (I usually place in a ziploc type bag, and place in a bowl–turning a couple of times to be sure all the slices get an equal chance at the marinade)
I prefer Japanese soya, cuz it’s lighter than the Chinese soya. And I get the Light Japanese soya, which has significantly less salt. You could add more red pepper if you like it spicey or use fresh ginger instead of bottled. If you like it sweeter, replace the water with a cup of Vermont maple syrup. Also when choosing your roast, the leaner, the better.
1/4 c Lukewarm water
1 pk Yeast
3/4 c Milk
1/2 ts Salt
3 tb Shortening
3 tb Sugar
1 Egg; beaten
3 c Flour
3 tb Melted butter
Dissolve yeast in water. Meanwhile, warm the milk
in a small saucepan, being careful not to boil. In
large bowl, mix salt, shortening, sugar, and
heated milk, and egg. When well-mixed, add yeast
mixture. If mixture is too hot, the yeast will
get killed and will not rise. Gradually add
flour a cup at a time.
Knead, let raise in greased bowl for about 1 1/2
hrs, punch down and let raise 5 min.
Divide into 12 equal parts. Form rolls in greased
muffin pans. Let rise again for 1 hr. Brush tops
of rolls with butter.
Bake 15 min at 400°. Remove from muffin tin and
brush tops and bottoms of rolls with butter.
This was my grandmother’s recipe. When I was
twelve and stayed with her after Grandpa died, she
showed me how to make them. She used no recipe,
but I measured and wrote it down when we made
them. I still have the beat up card with my
mispellings and penciled recipe. Those visits were
a very special gift.
Charlotte Welch, October 1994.
Reformatted by Carolyn Shaw 1996
which is a cookbook by the popular YouTube Depression Cooking sensation, Clara Cannucciari.
, a great book on curing and smoking meats. Just reading the description makes me hungry. 
which is currently back in print. You can’t poke around too many sites about sausage making without seeing a reference to this one!!