Last month, I ordered a case of yogurt, meaning to make a bunch of recipes with it. The same month, hubby had to be on recovery from surgery, complex recipes were put on hold, and we stuck with tried-and-true. Except for the occasional smoothie and bran muffin (the secret is the yogurt!) for me, I let the yogurt sit and wait. So now I *have to* use them up. I still have the recipes, but I’ve lost interest in most of them. However, I’d love to try *your* favorite yogurt recipe. I know this is supposed to be a dairy-free blog now, but I’m stuck with these tubs of yogurt and I’m the only person in the house who can really eat it — and I need to…. fast.

PS I’d eat it daily with some Greek honey but because it’s not Greek yogurt the taste is really off and they just DON’T go together. I’ve tried.

It’s that time again — planning the Thanksgiving menu. This year I’m making it easy on myself by going online and plucking out recipes from Epicurious. I’ve got a lot of these recipes in hardcopy, culled from the years that I subscribed, BUT, it’s so much easier to just go through their database so…. here’s what we’re having this year (subject to change until the actual week of Thanksgiving )

• Roast Turkey — I don’t really change this anymore from year to year. Once I found the perfect recipe (for me) I’ve stuck to it. It’s basically a brine-first recipe. I thought I was going to get a Heritage Turkey for Thanksgiving but guess what — I’m late again. The local farms that raise them are already out of stock. So I’m settling for free-range from one of the local farms (I’ve e-mailed two, waiting to hear back from them) or the free-range turkey from Wild Oats, which they say they get from Zacky Farm in California. I googled, and I’m not too happy with what I’ve found, plus I really would prefer to patronize our local farmers. I hope they call me soon so I can cancel my Wild Oats order if need be.
• Allergy-free cornbread from Jenn
• An apple crisp with homemade granola topping (I’ll post the recipe after I make it)
• Wild Rice Dressing with Sausage, Corn and Leeks — which I’m planning to make with homemade sausage mix instead of storebought kielbasa
• Cranberry Sauce with Pearl Onions and Golden Raisins
• Yams with Spiced Sorghum Butter, because I’ve got some sorghum here that’s been waiting for me forever to use — I’ll make this recipe using some Earth Balance un-butter that Jenn recommended
• Haricots Verts, Roasted Fennel and Shallots

And then I’m veering off course a bit to do two allergy-full recipes — which I’m planning to prepare in time for Thanksgiving, but make into bite-size bits for our coming holiday gatherings:

• May Bsisu’s Pull Away Cheese Rolls

and

• and this “Perfect” Pumpkin Pie which my 10-yo (very mild allergy-sufferer) has been asking for; he didn’t ask specifically for this recipe, but every year we try a new Pumpkin Pie recipe, looking for the perfect one — this may be it! Or then again, maybe this!

So there you have it… if you’ve cooked/plan to cook any of these, let me know so we can compare notes!

It’s 11/15 as I write this and I’m just now telling you about these lovely scuppernongs we received from JMom. Early in the year I wrote about how my daughter wants to eat scuppernongs, after reading about them in .

JMom promised to send us some and she did! They are so fragrant and sweet that the kitchen smelled like scuppernongs for a few hours — until they were gone, that is. We did peel them, and yes, like a commenter in my previous post said, they are a bit more gelatinous than regular grapes. The seeds were bigger too. But they were a pleasure to have and I wouldn’t mind growing them in my yard at all. I gotta find me that farm first.

There’s a similar recipe here, but this one comes from , a Christmas gift from my brother 5 years ago.

From the book:

Pozole is a hearty rich main dish soup, that originated in the state of Jalisco. The main ingredient is hominy — dried white or yellow corn kernels that have been boiled and soaked in slaked lime to remove the hull, and then drained, rinsed, and cooked for about 2 hours.

I was introduced to pozole by my friend Angie. I had never heard of hominy until she told me about it — and I was so excited when I got some and saw that it’s the closest thing we have here in the US to our Filipino binatog. (More info on binatog here, here, and here. I’ve made binatog using hominy — it’s not perfect, but to someone who can’t have the real thing, it’s good enough.) At any rate, the recipe for this soup:

Pozole Rojo de Puerco

6 boneless country-style pork ribs, trimmed of excess fat, and cut into 1-inch pieces or 2-inch pieces for bone-in meat
7 cups homemade chicken broth (the recipe specifies canned, but I try to avoid those like the plague)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large white onion, chopped
6 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2-3 tablespoons ground pasilla or ancho chile
1-2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 tablespoons Mexican oregano
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 15-ounce cans white hominy, drained and rinsed
2 14 1/2-ounce cans peeled and diced tomatoes
1/2 cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 tablespoons masa harina (flour for corn tortillas)
Finely shredded cabbage
Diced avocado (which I ran out of before I could make this recipe — it would have been a lovely addition!)
Fresh lime wedges

Put pork pieces in a heavy pan. Add 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook meat until tender, about 40 minutes (mine was more like 30). Remove from heat and set aside. Remove meat from bone if desired, discarding bones.

In a large heavy pot, heat oil and fry onion 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook until onions and garlic are softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add carrots, ground chile, chili powder, oregano, cumin, thyme, and salt. Cook, stirring, 30 seconds.

Add remaining chicken broth, hominy, tomatoes, cilantro, masa harina, and reserved meat and its broth (de-fatted if you like — and I do). Bring to a boil and cook over medium-low heat, covered, 25 minutes to blend flavors. Adjust seasoning. Serve in soup bowls garnished with cabbage and avocado. Pass the lime wedges at the table.

Was visiting Karen’s blog last night and saw her response to a meme that was going around in January. I follow the link to Ces’ post (where the tag came from) and was shocked to see my name at the bottom! I’m so sorry, Ces, I totally missed this. So, this morning, while waiting for my pot of coffee to brew, I thought I’d take a break from all the current seriousness of my life and enjoy revealing just a wee bit more (but like Karen says, perhaps too much) about (copying you here, Ces) “the real Stef”:

1. My biggest pet peeve is HAIR. I hate it on soaps — yes, thank goodness for liquid soap, huh, though I still prefer the old fashioned bar kind sometimes — and of course, in food, especially in salads.
2. I studied classical piano for 12 years, but I hardly ever practice these days so you couldn’t tell from my playing. Those fingers do get rusty! Hubby and children always encourage me, though, and I am motivated to practice more especially now that my kids are learning and taking off with it! I also compose music, but what frustrates me most is not being able to transcribe what I’m making. A software that does this has been on my wish list for years.
3. I love RocketMania and word games — the few leisurely activities I allow myself. We don’t have cable, and we don’t watch primetime TV either — not in the past 8 years anyway. We do rent movies and our one TV-show collection is Friends. My favorites are period/historical movies. Hubby’s are action ones, so we take turns and compromise.
4. I HATE shopping. To me it is such a waste of time, to spend hours and hours just finding the right color, the right fit, the right cut. So I do most of it online. (Or, I sew it, though I haven’t sewn an outfit for myself in a while.) I am not a faddish person at all. I love good, traditional clothes, things that I can wear year after year and still have a dash of panache.
5. In my mind, I am the most organized person in the world. If I had the necessary budget, I would line our library walls the whole house with shelves and have everything put in the right place, I mean EVERYTHING. Then again, not having a place for everything is probably a sign that I should get rid of stuff.
6. I am a perfectionist. That doesn’t mean I’m perfect, or that I want the people around me to be perfect, just that I frustrate myself by making things more complicated than they ought to be. This goes for cooking, cleaning house, organizing, etc. I have a hard time stopping at “good enough” (with the help of good friends’ advice and lots of prayer though, I am getting better). But again, you wouldn’t know it looking at the mess in my rooms. The struggle of the perfectionist lies in WANTING things to be perfect and failing miserably half the time.
7. I am allergic to shrimp and other shellfish, but I still eat these, with a big slug of Coke. Coke helps, don’t ask me why. Maybe because it’s strong enough to clean your toilets heehee…. Actually I should clarify. I have an allergic reaction when the shellfish isn’t the freshest it should be.
8. I have tons of undone/half-done projects in the basement, that I probably can’t finish even if I had three lifetimes. These include knitting projects, scrapbooking, needlework, and sewing projects that I’ve accumulated for the past 8 years/4 moves. I am still working through them, but VERY SLOWLY.
9. I used to oil-paint and watercolor, years ago before the kids. But my oil paints have probably dried up from years of unuse. (Is there such a word?)
10. I can’t swim. Well, I can go under water and stay there and swim around for a bit, and I can float on my back — hubby was the one who taught me these things, thank goodness for him. But don’t ask me to tread water, or to breathe while in the water. Still can’t do those. My biggest fear is that I would die from drowning. So driving around/near water gives me a funny feeling.

And I’ll mimic Ces here and add one more:

11. My hubby is my #1 fan, and my moral beacon. He’s my greatest blessing. Even now I still think at times, I don’t deserve him. But I know why God put him here — to be my angel, to be my guide. As a young teen I prayed and prayed for what I wanted, but God gave me exactly what He knew I *needed*. Never underestimate the power of a good man. His love and his faith in me has really transformed me and my life. My parents were an awesome example of a love-filled marriage, but without my hubby, I wouldn’t be half the person I am today.

Still thinking of who to tag, so I’ll edit this in the next day or two.

Tagging:

1. Jenn of Feast and Feria
2. Dawn of By Sun and Candlelight
3. Hsien of Cottontimer
4.