I made 2 pans of lasagna yesterday. One we had for supper, half of that is left for another meal. The other one I put in the freezer. First time I made lasagna at home. I used to make it when I cooked in a restaurant, Its a lot of work and expensive to make so I probably wont ever make it again. My son told me to just buy a Stouffers. He said they are pretty good. I am sure it cannot be any more expensive then what I made.

Had a craving for chicken wings so went to KFC since I was in that town shopping. Ate one piece so far and it was dried out awful. I picked up some turkey stuffing mix and I may just eat that. Haven't checked to see if all the wings were overcooked or not.

No cooking for me. Joined friends at Perry's Steakhouse for lunch, today. They all had the famous pork chop lunch, but I had their white bean pork chili. Looks just like the picture and was delicious!

Tonight it is going to be smoked salmon fillets with a blackberry/habanero glaze. They will be served with the steamed asparagus and garlic/dill noodles that are left over from the other night.

I made Dill Pickle soup today. I like it but next time Ill try and find some low sodium pickles. The recipe said to try it before adding salt, which I did, and found it didn't need any added salt.

Spaghetti tonight.

Marilyn Sue, what kind of dehydrator do you have? I'm thinking of asking for one for Christmas. :)

Reheating chicken potpie, gravy and acorn squash from last night. Have some asparagus that needs to be used, so asparagus on the side.

Fried oysters for supper last night. More for breakfast, and also some more for supper tonight. (I think I have had enough now until the next time.) Jody went back down to the coast to see his pulmonologist. He isn't back yet. He called and said he had already eaten, and it will be 10 or so by the time he gets home...so I decided to go ahead and have oysters. I only had a few...will have ice cream later.

Friday is no cook day, so we got a take -n-bake pizza from a local place. So good! Tomorrow I think I'll strip the last of the tomatoes and do tomato/bread soup and grilled cheese.

I made beefy smothered nachos. Made a pumpkin pie & whipped cream, chilin' in the frig.

I made Dorie Greenspans Mediterranean Shepherd’s Pie for dinner. https://foodschmooze.org/recipe/dorie-greenspans-mediterranean-shepherds-pie/

I also started a sous vide project that I’ve been wanting to try. I am cooking a 2 lb chuck roast for 24 hours. I started off following a recipe from Simply Recipes, but it called for cooking the roast in a ziplock bag instead of a vacuum sealed bag. I had read that with prolonged cooking the ziplock bags sometimes fail. I thought I could “trick” the FoodSaver into vacuum-sealing the bag with some liquid in it. Nope. Ended up with a mess and starting over with a new FoodSaver bag making sure there was no extraneous liquid in it.

bbstyx, that looks really good, I've bookmarked it. Dorie Greenspan has not steered me wrong yet, I've liked the few recipes that I've made that were hers, so I'm optimistic.

I have a dehydrator full of garlic from the garden, I stored it until it started to sprout, but now I need to dehydrate it for use the rest of the winter. I have a big 9 shelf Excaliber and just finished up the leeks, my garage is......aromatic, LOL.

I have a pork loin in the refrigerator curing, getting ready for the smoker tomorrow, and some high temp cheddar in the refrigerator, Elery is planning to make some venison sausage.

Annie

I am making chili, as well as some shortbread cookies, cookies for the holiday.

Cooper, I just have an inexpensive one from Aldi, I bought it this year. I have about 3 others that all were bought used 20 years or more ago. None of those have any kind of controls on how many hours and no temperature control. The one from Aldi does. They may not have them back in for several months. It has five round trays.

Sue

I'm making fat flush soup tonight...it's basically a turkey vegetable made with ground turkey.

@annie1992 Our cookbook club has been cooking from Everyday Dorie this year. I would highly recommend it to you. When I make the shepherd’s pie, I use the substitutes: Lemon zest instead of sumac; oregano in place of za’atar. I also use about 3/4 Tblsp of cumin instead of the 1 Tblsp called for. And a scant 1/2 tsp of harrissa paste. That stuff is speecy-spicy!

I’ve also made the Molasses Coffee Cake. It isn’t “coffee cake.” It is a cake with coffee in it. It was very good and it holds well for a couple of days. I made it ahead but didn’t glaze it until the day of our luncheon.

The Sweet and Smoky Roasted Carrots were a big hit, especially the sauce! I made the Potato Chowder with sweet potatoes and it was delish! The Ricotta Spoonable would be good to keep in the fridge during the holidays. The Honey-Mustard Salmon Rillettes is very good. It keeps for 4 days. The Lower East Side Brunch Tart is a riff on lox and cream cheese. It is wonderful!

I think the only clunker we’ve tried was the Subtly Spicy, Softly Hot, Slightly Sweet Beef Stew. All 8 of us found it to be a bit oddly flavored. I especially didn’t like the very thin broth. With a stew, I prefer a heartier gravy.

UPDATE on the sous vide project: It seems to be rocking along just fine. Just before I went to bed, I added about a cup of water to the sous vide bath. I got up once in the middle of the night and checked it. It was fine. Then when I got up a few minutes ago, I added another cup of water. It isn’t evaporating quickly, but I’m skittish about the water level. I’m using my 16 qt stock pot for the sous vide bath. I’ve got it covered with Press ’n Seal to retard evaporation. Seems to be working. If I do this often, I’m going to get a “real” sous vide set-up similar to this

Cooper....I own THIS dehydrator and really LIKE it!

I made a large batch of lentil soup because it's been cold an rainy here - yesterday it did not get above 63°. I usually add grated carrot to it, but I forgot and loved anyway. I do always add potatoes and a can of Ro-tel tomatoes. I also added 1/4 of a chocolate Habanero chili, and that added a bit more heat than I was expecting, but it was still good. I served it with tortilla chips, grated Cheddar cheese, and chopped fresh parsley. I have a lot of parsley in my yard right now, and so I was generous with the parsley, which adds good flavor at the end. I generally do not cook the parsley in the soup.

I also saved the Dorie Greenspan recipe. I've never made Shepherd's Pie, but this recipe looked good. I would substitute zucchini or turnip for the butternut squash. I already have Za'atar, harissa, and sumac on hand. I also never remove the "germ" from the garlic - I like the taste of it, but then I tend to prefer something bitter over something sweet.

I need to look into getting a dehydrator too. I think it would be good for some of my chilies, and this year we could use it for some of the apples.

It's my sons birthday and we usually take everyone out for dinner for their birthdays (two sons and their partners) but our other son and his fiance just got a new puppy on Wednesday (a golden retriever who is going to be HUGE) and they can't leave it so we're going there for dinner.

So I've made a dip for vegies, brie cheese with cranberry/pecan/brown sugar topping which will be heated up, a spinach salad, and some chocolate dipped coconut macaroons and some almond orange cookies and then we'll just order some sushi to go with everything.

I made a big batch of Brunswick stew yesterday. I took it for my contribution to our volunteer group that works our Garden light display. You never know what people will bring (crock pot soups, chili, stews, desserts, veggie trays, dips, or other snacks). Last night we had 7 different soups and stews so I have leftovers which is fine.

I fixed fried sweet potatoes to go with my lunch of the last of the turkey and coleslaw I had. It sure was a good meal. It is sleeting here now.

Sue in Central Indiana

My son and his friend are arriving for Thanksgiving this evening, so I plan to bake his favorite cookies this afternoon--spritz cookies. They don't mail well; therefore, he gets them only when he is home. Then in a couple of days, I think I will bake a pound cake for snacking. That will last for the arrival of our older son and his wife and baby. Of course, the baby won't have pound cake!

Babysitting weekend so just leftovers from the freezer yesterday and today. Tomorrow, though, I'm going to try a new recipe I found for Chicken Tetrazzini.

Am roasting chicken, jacket potatoes, sweet potatoes and beets. And baked a batch of white whole wheat anise biscotti. Since we already did our 4 mile hike I am going to eat a couple for dessert.

I'm into my seasonal cranberry push.......just pulled a loaf of cranberry orange bread out of the oven. And I am making a rustic pear and cranberry tart for Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow I might make up a batch of mushroom tart appetizers......if I am motivated early enough to get the pastry done and chilled properly!

Haven't given a thought as to what might be for dinner. Maybe just some soup and crackers.

I found a really nice looking ham at HEB, and I have it in the oven. Smelling wonderful. I have a pot of yellow squash, tomatoes and onion cooking and I think I will make some potatoes to go with it.

Frick's ham it's Frickin good!

https://frickmeats.com/our-meats/bone-portion-ham/

Pad Thai and a cucumber salad. I bought a new Staub pan recently and am loving using it.

@Lars, I use a 1/2 lb of sweet potatoes in place of the butternut squash and spinach in place of the kale. In the notes, Dorie suggests using green peas. I think it is a very flexible recipe. You might consider sautéing the zucchini to get rid of some of the water.

My sous vide chuck roast was great! DH and I were very pleasantly surprised. Yes, you could cut it with a fork (and some muscle). But it easily cut with a table knife. 135 degrees (DH prefers medium) for 24 hours with a sear before and after gets you this:

I’m pleased and will likely do this again!

We've been eating out and having leftovers so I haven't been cooking but today and tomorrow I'm going to start making and freezing Christmas cookies.

A friend gave me 5 lbs of freshly ground pork sausage, I used about a pound of it this morning to make a comfort food dish from my childhood in Cincinnati, called Goetta.

It involves ground beef, ground pork sausage, and quick oats. The meats are boiled and the oats are added to absorb all the water then the result it placed into loaf pans and left to chill and set. Then it is slices thin and pan fried until crisp, and it is served with fried eggs and toast for breakfast.

Thanks for the recommendation about the zucchini. I do think I would like the flavor of it in that dish, but I agree that it might be too watery. Dorie also suggested turnips in place of the butternut squash, and I do love turnips and think they would not be too watery, but the flavor might be a bit strong for that recipe. I think zucchini would go better with the spice mixture.

Yesterday we grilled outdoors, to take advantage of the nice weather while we have it, since it is supposed to rain Wednesday and Thursday. The main thing I wanted to grill was my chocolate Habanero chilies for my annual sauce. I ended up getting a very good crop this year and will have enough sauce to give some away as gifts. I grill garlic and red bell pepper with the chilies - the bell pepper to make the sauce go a bit further and cut the heat a tiny bit. Last year I grilled a carrot with the chilies, but I didn't have room in the grill pans this year. We grilled some locally made sausage from Bristol Farms plus some marinated mushrooms and garlic toast. The grill got hotter than expected, and so the sausage came out a bit dry, but I ate it with the mushrooms, which provided the right amount of moisture.

It was in the 40s here today, but we'll be getting snow by Wednesday again. Definitely baking weather and just on time for Thanksgiving.

Lars, I didn't have a harvest as good as last years, but we got more than we could use, so it was good enough. I dried a couple of dehydrator loads full, and have a 2 quart jar of dried peppers for Elery.

Thanks for the recommendation bbstyx. I love molasses and coffee so the cake sounds delicious, and I have lots of sumac, having dehydrated and ground my own, so I could use that too. Yes, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with a QUART of sumac powder, LOL.

Annie

Annie, a quart of sumac powder looks to me like a lot of lovely Christmas gifts. I think you can buy nice little spice jars online.