Julia's favorite part of the meal

Remember this squash centerpiece?

Carried lovingly into our gathering by this vagabond:

I have the most excellent recipe below for you. This is a great one for my veggie friends, not my vegan friends, as it is teaming with cheese and cream. (For some reason I am having a terrible time coming up a G-rated description of this dish, as each time I write something it sounds like a harlequin novel). All I can say is that my little sister nearly ate this entire squash herself. She strategically parked the thing in front of her and had consumed a good portion of it before my dad could say the blessing. It is like the best macaroni and cheese you've EVER had but with squash . . . served in the squash! No cleanup!

This is a recipe from one of my mom's friends, Rosemary. Thanks for sharing, Rosemary, as no holiday meal will be complete without it. I hope you try it -- I am confident potiron will be adopted as a stable for your family, too.

My knife skills came into question after the muscle relaxant.

Potiron is the pale yellow at twelve o'clock.

Le potiron tout rond (stuffed pumpkin)

*Rosemary Fornshell’s recipe

1 large soccer ball sized pumpkin or winter squash

2/3 cup chopped onion

1.5 cups fresh bread crumbs (1 loaf inexpensive white bread)

6 T butter

1 cup grated Swiss cheese

2-3 cups whipping cream or half and half

1 tsp salt

½ tsp sage

½ tsp nutmeg

Dash of pepper

Cut off the edges of the bread and place on a cookie sheet, toast in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes turning occasionally to make sure they do not burn. Put in a bag and use a rolling pin to finely crumble. Using a large sauté pan, melt the butter and cook the chopped onions until translucent. Add the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, sage, nutmeg and grated Swiss cheese to the onion mixture.

Cut off the top of the pumpkin or squash and clean the inside out well. Save the top. Place the bread crumb mixture inside the cavity of the pumpkin or squash. Fill with cream or half and half to within 2 inches of the top of the squash. Place the top back on the pumpkin or squash and bake at 400 degrees for at least 2 hours or until the stuffing sets up. Serve in the pumpkin, scoop out the stuffing mixture with the pumpkin or squash.

The reason for the holiday

Well, folks, one very successful presentation down, one more to go next week. I can only hope that my next one will go as smoothy and will be as well received as today's. Phew! Such a relief to have it behind me and be one step closer to the end of the semester. I forgot how exhilarating that little light at the end of the tunnel feels when it warms your skin. For those of who are no longer in school -- it's intoxicating!

Hopefully you have recovered from your tryptophan-induced comas and can read about turkey and stuffing without dozing off, as I have something quite special to share with you today. The following recipe is my great grandmother's recipe for chestnut stuffing. I'm going to forewarn you: WE STUFFED THE TURKEY. For those finicky, germophobes who think you should never stuff a turkey, I know, I've heard it too. So has Grandma Joyce. Does she care? Not two shits. I quote, "I was married at twenty-one and starting stuffing turkeys at twenty-one. I'm still alive." Point taken. We stuffed our bird, and we stuffed it good.

I have to give a shout to my lovely mom who evaded all of the holiday photos, less her hands, because she was at the helm of the camera a majority of the weekend. Thanks, Mom, for your efforts, as you captured some spectacular moments.

I am fond of a particular stuffing recipe that is a lovely mingling of country sausage, granny smith apples and fresh sage. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when I heard that my beloved stuffing would be sidelined this year for Grandma Joyce's. My stuffing recipe is good . . . Grandma Joyce's stuffing is out of this world. Is it the butter? Is it the tender, meaty chestnuts? Perhaps. I think it's the fact that the wittiest, sexiest 83 year old woman I've been blessed to know made the stuffing, and she's made this recipe literally hundreds of times. I don't think I've made anything hundreds of times -- coffee maybe?

Nonetheless, this stuffing is moist (sorry for those of you who hate that word, as there seems to be a number of you!) and so flavorful. The chestnuts are the piece de resistance. From what I understand, they can be tricky to find in the grocery store, but look in the bulk section during the holidays.

I thoroughly enjoyed being her sous chef -- chopping and sautéing and following instructions. I know she appreciated having another pair of hands to stuff and pin the pesky bird. Looking back at the photos, I feel as if the kitchen was taken over by Paula Deen -- two sticks of butter and a turkey covered in bacon. Tis the season, right?

We doubled this recipe to feed ten with leftovers.

One shelled chestnut. My wrinkly hand.

How awesomely retro is this box?!

The amalgamation of goodness.

She has lovely hands.

How she produced such tall children will forever perplex me.

All tucked in.

mmmm, bacon.

Did I mention we bacon-wrapped our turkey? SHA-WING!

Grandma Joyce's turkey and dressing

10-12 lb turkey (double the recipe for a larger bird)

1 lb large chestnuts, (1.5 cups) shelled

1/2 cup butter or 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup turkey fat

1 cup celery, chopped

1/2 cup onion, minced

1/2 cup carrot, chopped (I added this)

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

6 cups fine bread cubes

1 egg

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp savory seasoning (we used poultry season)

Cook chestnuts for 20 minutes. Remove shells and brown skin. While hot, chop them. (She had pre-roasted them for us. Here's a great link that will show you how to roast and peel the little buggers).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a large skillet. Cook onion, celery, carrot and parsley. Combine bread cubes, vegetable mixture, seasonings and egg. Sprinkle inside of turkey with salt. Fill turkey with dressing. Pin up the opening to seal in the dressing. Cook 3 - 3.5 hours or until a meat thermometer registers 185 degrees.

Fat and happy

I just finished uploading over 300 photos that were taken the past few days. One would think they would be of family. However, 90% of them were of food -- glorious, rich Thanksgiving goodness -- all of which will be posted for your enjoyment over the coming week.

I figured everyone is turkeyed-out so I would amuse you with a few of my favorite photos of my very groovy, entertaining family.

Here's my mom crushing breadcrumbs

with this bottle:

Muscle relaxants that read:

may cause drowsiness or dizziness.

I may have had the best Thanksgiving in history, as I

was given one of these little guys to cure a kink in my neck.

Let me tell you, I had no stress this Thanksgiving.

LIFE WAS GREAT.

This will be part of my Thanksgiving routine from now on.

Lovely table setting. Notice that squash in the middle?

It's not just a decoration -- it's full of cheesy goodness.

Recipe to come this week.

Not too shabby, eh? My dad claimed it was the best

Thanksgiving meal he's ever had.

I'm fairly certain he says that every year.

We did have two turkeys; one organic

brined, and one butterball covered in bacon.

Hard to say which was better. I do love me some bacon.

Insert Heather's face and this picture would be perfect.

The Honorable Dad with squash from the farm.

Uncle Bryan refusing his photo.

Who knew deboning a turkey could be so fun?

This was the first Thanksgiving I had spent with my family in a number of years, and I am so glad I was able to be with them. We created some tremendous memories. We have lots to be thankful for -- health, happiness and lots of love.

I have many wonderful things to post this week. I can't wait to share with you my great-grandmother's chestnut stuffing recipe and the fun my grandmother and I had making it. That perhaps was the highlight of the weekend for me -- the two of us elbow-deep in stuffing and turkey carcass. That Grandma Joyce is a pretty special lady. Nonetheless, I hope you and yours had a safe, enjoyable Thanksgiving.

It's the final push for the semester -- two papers and two presentations, and I am done! Happy day.

Best night of the week

This past summer a tradition was started. This tradition involves a couple of fairly simple yet fundamental elements: watching So You Think You Can Dance and eating baked potatoes.

I've mentioned my television addiction, namely to a network that begins with the word FOOD, but my dear friends Bri and Luke introduced me to one of the best shows on tv -- So You Think You Can Dance or SYTYCD because my fingers are cold.

I've been a fan of Dancing with Stars (DWTS) for a number of seasons, but I am going to be brazen and say that SYTYCD is better. It's close, but SYTYCD has brought me to tears and DWTS has not. Tonight is like the Grand Prix of dance shows; it's the season finale of DWTS and just a regular episode of SYTYCD. Watching SYTYCD is like eating truffles. I LOVE this show.

I am not sure how the baked potato tradition started. Not that I need to plug the potato but, A: they are delicious and nutritious. B: they are very inexpensive. C: chili, cheese, sour cream. Need I say more? Also, it's the one night of the week when I don't have to think about what I'm going to prepare for dinner.

Heather and I fix our respective taters and plunk ourselves in front of the tele to enjoy Cat Deeley's charm and the brilliance that these dancers bring to our living room each Tuesday night. It's a tradition that I highly recommend!

A vegetarian exception

As soon as I finished the last post, google's wizards wiggled their noses and fixed my photo upload function. As promised, here is the beef short rib recipe. This is the quintessential Sunday meal. It takes a few hours to stew away on your stovetop; it fills your home with the aroma of what I imagine Heaven to smell like it; it can be served on pasta or polenta or potatoes; it makes the BEST leftovers. You can see from my notes, this recipe is well-loved. For those of you who don't eat meat, this dish should be your exception.

I served this with parmesan and a gremolata,

which is chopped parsley, lemon zest and garlic.

Beef short ribs

adapted from the lovely Giada De Laurentiis

2 lbs beef short ribs

1/2 cup pancetta (I used bacon), rough chopped

1 onion, quartered

2 carrots, quartered

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup Italian parsley

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (Giada calls for 14 oz, but I like it saucier)

1 tbs tomato paste

2.5 cups beef broth

1 cup red wine

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 bay leaf

s/p

Blend the onion, carrot, garlic and parsley in a food processor. In a large stockpot, cook the bacon until crispy over medium high heat. Remove and set aside. Meanwhile, dredge the ribs in the flour and salt and pepper. Brown the ribs on all sides in the bacon grease. Add the vegetable mixture, spices, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, bacon, broth and wine. Reduce heat and allow to simmer covered for an hour and half. Remove lid and simmer another hour and half. Before service, shred the ribs and remove the bay leaf. Serve immediately.

Little victory

So I've been trying to post a most delectable short rib recipe for the past hour now, but google seems to be having some technical issue with their photo uploading function. I could get all disgruntled and huffy, but I am choosing to take a few deep breaths and distract with you my ramblings until google's wizards can fix my internal error. Mouth-watering, oh so tender, beef short ribs will follow soon. I hope.

The past 18 months or so have been an interesting ride for me. I basically took the puzzle pieces of my life, threw them up in the air and took a big step back to see where they would all land. Fortunately, most of the pieces landed softly, cradled by the awesome, loving people who envelope me.

Well, I reached a personal fitness/weight-loss goal today that I set for myself several months ago. As I left the gym, I realized I've lost way more than a few extra pounds. I've shed an enormous amount of shit that's been really heavy and hard to carry around. One of my favorite people transformed her body by losing almost fifty pounds, and she realized that the weight was equivalent to carrying around a bag of dog food. Imagine what that feels like! Granted my little milestone was nowhere near fifty pounds, but I feel like I've molted more than a few kibbles of Purina. I've shed a lot of guilt and resentment, which are two things you don't ask Santa to bring you for Christmas.

It's amazing what time (and lots of trail running) does for self-reflection. It's almost like someone removed a pair of beer goggles. I like the clarity.

Chilled to the bone

I am cold. C.O.L.D. Cold. I've been chilled since I went to bed last night and have not been able to warm up. My baby sister turned me on to these amazing fleece sheets that make one's bed like a cocoon of coziness, but even their warm embrace left me feeling nippy.

My job has yet to kick into high gear so I had the morning off to attack the leaves that seem to endlessly appear in the yard. It's as if I finish raking and bagging one half of the yard, turn my back and the trees giggle, give me the middle finger and drop another bag's worth of leaves. I called a tree an asshole this morning.

Despite raking and bagging and swearing at trees, I was still cold. I brewed another pot of coffee, yes that was two this morning, and headed to work on some homework. Being the queen of distraction, I decided it was paramount that I move pictures from my computer to my external hard-drive rather than work on homework, and I stumbled upon my family's trip to Southern California this summer. Sunny, Southern California.

I would give just about anything to transport back to that beach right now, surrounded by my favorite women -- my mom and sisters, listening to the ocean crash (actually we listened to this woman bitch to her bank about an overdraft charge for what seemed liked hours, but that skews the image I'm going for). We had a Dora the Explorer boogie board that was the envy of the entire beach. We saw dolphins. We napped with our toes tucked in the sand. We were sun-kissed. And, you know what? We were warm. Toasty warm.

I returned from class with fingernails still tinged purple and decided it was time to end this nonsense. I had planned on making the following recipe for dinner, but desperate times call for desperate measures: SPICY CURRY NOODLE SOUP. Yeah, you did just read noodles again. I'm sorry. I love them. I wish I could describe how amazing this soup smells. The curry and lemongrass are so fragrant and wonderful. If there is a reason to make this soup, it's solely to smell it. It is heavenly. It doesn't taste half bad either. Am I still cold? As soon as I finish this post, I'm going to sit in the hot tub.

Spicy curry noodle soup with chicken and sweet potatoes

adapted from bon appetit

1 package rice stick noodles

3/4 lb chicken breasts, thinly sliced

3 tbs shallots, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbs lemongrass, minced (tough outer leaves and ends discarded)

2 tbs ginger, peeled and minced

3 cups snow peas, trimmed

2 cups sweet potato, peeled and cubed

3-4 green onions, sliced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1 lime, cut into wedges

2 tbs yellow curry paste (I could not find this ANYWHERE! I just doubled the curry powder)

2 tbs curry powder

1 tsp chili paste, like sriracha

2.4 tbs fish sauce

2 tsps sugar

2 14 oz cans coconut milk

5 cups chicken broth

2 tbs canola oil (not olive oil)

Optional: thai chiles, thinly sliced (I'm afraid so I left them out)

Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots, garlic, lemongrass and ginger. Saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in curry paste, curry powder and chili paste. Ad 1/2 cup of the coconut milk (scooped from the thick liquid at the top of the can). Stir until thick and fragrant, about another two minutes. Add remaining coconut milk, broth, fish sauce, sugar and bring to boil. Add sliced chicken and allow to cook through.

In the meantime, cook snow peas in a pot of boiling salted water until bright green, only about 20 seconds. Remove and rinse until cold water. Set aside. In the same pot add the sweet potatoes and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Remove and repeat the same process as the peas. Bring water back to a boil and add the noodles. Cook until just tender, about five minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.

Cut noodles with a scissor if they are too long and place in bowls. Divide the peas and potatoes among the bowls, and ladle the hot broth over the noodles and vegetables. Top with green onions, cilantro and garnish with lime wedges. Serve immediately.

Oodles and oodles of noodles

Can you tell what we've been hungry for in this house? It's funny because I went into cozy food overload for about a month cooking almost exclusively in the crock-pot, now I've gone the extreme opposite preparing almost no-cook meals. Heather actually just requested stew last night so I suppose it's time for some comfort food once again.

This is very similar to the recipe I posted a few days ago. I still had a majority of the veggies left in the fridge, but I supplemented with a red pepper, purple cabbage and snuck in some mint much to Heather's chagrin. It also has a different sauce -- similar, but different! According to the recipe, the carrots and cabbage in this dish have 126% of one's daily vitamin A needs. Your sparkly eyes can thank me later.

Thai noodle salad

adapted from SELF

1 package rice noodles

2 cups cabbage, shredded

1 carrot, julienned

1/2 cucumber, julienned

1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into strips

3-4 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped (I used cilantro)

1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar

3 tbsp sugar

4 tsp fish sauce

1/4 tsp sriracha

1 tbsp peanut oil

Cook noodles according to package. Place cabbage in a colander and drain noodles over cabbage, rinse with cold water. Drain again. Toss cabbage and noodles in a large bowl with carrots, cucumber, pepper and green onions. Whisk basil, mint, lime juice, vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, sriracha and oil in another bowl. Drizzle dressing over noodle mixture, toss and serve.

A smile from ear to ear

It's a funny thing writing a blog. I started this project mainly as a selfish venture to keep track of my recipes, as I am notorious for cooking something fabulous once and never repeating it. Partially, too, it was a method for my loved ones to finally track down the recipes I'd promised to write down for them 137 times to no avail.

Then Hail's Kitchen took a little hiatus, actually about a year hiatus, but who's counting? Since recommitting myself to this love affair with all things food, it has taken some adjusting. My camera is now a staple item along with the coffee pot in the kitchen. Heather no longer waits patiently for me to snap a few (or thirty) photos of our meals before she dives in. I finally realized that the majority of my cooking needs to take place in daylight hours because as you can see, my nighttime photos are more than a little lackluster. That has been the hardest part for me.

When I started posting, it felt like I was writing to no one; to this nebulous audience . . . the INTERNET. Then a few people started commenting here and on my facebook page alerting me to their participation in the process, which I'll admit felt like such a one-sided deal. Really, you like my blog? Cool!

Then I began branching out to this amazing food community that exists online. Sites like Tastespotting and foodgawker, which I always admired from a far because no way is my food/photography/writing on par with these other culinarians. I manage a photo here and there, but those folks are PARTICULAR.

Then I found Tasty Kitchen. Those of you who know me, know that I have a girl crush on the Pioneer Woman. I don't need to tout her awesomeness, just pop over to her site and see for yourself. The woman is amazing. Well, Tasty Kitchen is her version of Tastespotting and Foodgawker for normal folks -- like me! It's approachable and bright and cheery, just like Ree herself. (I talk as if I know the woman, but after you read someone's blog long enough you really do feel like you're friends).

So this morning I see an unusual amount of traffic on my site. Hmmm? After a little research as to the sudden onslaught, I discover that I am Tasty Kitchen's featured member. Really, me, Hail's Kitchen?! I immediately pick up the phone to call my biggest fan, my mom, who is equally as excited, and we freak out about the reality that PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ MY BLOG.

All I can say is thank you. Thank you for visiting, even though I still feel like you, readers, are nebulous little creatures who occasionally leave me feedback. I am flattered and humbled and grateful and very excited that perhaps I'll make some new friends from this venture.

This afternoon I made the meal I requested for nearly every birthday dinner as child: cabbage rolls. They take some prep work -- coring the cabbage and then blanching it -- but it is worth all of the grunting and near hand amputating and hot water scalding. I know I say it often, but I really could die happy after this meal. Despite all the spicing up and tweaking of this recipe, my cabbage rolls never seem to taste as good as my mom's. I suppose that's the nature of one's mother's cooking -- hers is always the best.

I used turkey instead of beef to make

the rolls a bit leaner.

Commence grunting in three, two, one . . .

This really is the hardest part -- attempting

to get these buggers out soft and still intact.

Wrapped up and ready for

dinner later this week.

I'm a working gal now!

Cabbage rolls

2 pounds ground beef or turkey

1 head cabbage, cored and blanched

1 cup instant rice

1 package onion soup mix

1 28 oz can tomato sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

s/p

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the meat, rice, onion soup, garlic salt and about a cup of the tomato sauce. Mix well. Place about 1/4 cup of the meat mixture on a blanched cabbage leaf and roll up, tucking in the edges. Repeat until the meat mixture is gone. Pour remaining sauce over the rolls. Season with salt and pepper. Bake covered for two hours. My mom ALWAYS served this with cottage cheese. The meal is not complete without it.