Ruth has suggested that those of us who are interested in food/recipes/restaurants might like to have a new thread devoted to that subject, and I agree with Ruth! So, I've taken the liberty of taking her suggestion and opened a thread on the subject.

I'm looking forward to the winter holidays (I realize not all CR members celebrate them, but we all eat) and I'm looking for new recipes and hoping to share some of my favorites.

So, I hope to find lots of new things to cook and bake here and I hope you'll enjoy the recipes I post as well.

Candied Pumpkin

Anyone who has a Halloween party or who has little ones might like this recipe for Candied Pumpkin. I make it for my niece and nephews and they love it. The adults seem to like it, too.

Candied Pumpkin

Ingredients:
· 2 small pumpkins or 2 large winter squash
· 1/4 cup slaked lime (builder's lime ONLY, available where building materials are sold, do NOT use quicklime as this could be dangerous)
· 7 cups water
· 10 cups dark brown sugar
· 3 cups white sugar
· 6 cinnamon sticks, 2 ½"- 3" long
· ¾ tablespoon anise seeds
· ½ teaspoon whole cloves
· 2 cups heavy cream for whipping (optional but delicious)

Preparation:

Perforate the pumpkin or squash with holes about the diameter of a drinking straw, making 8-10 wholes for a small pumpkin. The holes should go all the way through the shells.

Place the pumpkins in a large stockpot with the slaked lime and water to cover and soak for 3 hours. Remove pumpkins from lime solution, drain and rinse thoroughly.

Put the pumpkins back in the stockpot with the 7 cups water and remaining ingredients (except the whipping cream) which will form a syrup. Cook over medium heat for 2 hours or until the pumpkins are tender, basting with the syrup from time to time.

Allow the pumpkins to cool in the syrup.

Cut into pieces and serve pieces topped with syrup and whipped cream. Pumpkins may be prepared ahead and stored up to 4 days in the refrigerator, with the syrup stored in a separate container in the refrigerator. If using whipped cream, whip just before serving.

Each pumpkin serves 8.

Gabrielle,

That looks interesting. This is a dumb question, but is builder's lime safe for human consumption?

Oh, it's not a dumb question at all, Jane. I wondered about that myself when I first came across this recipe. Yes, builder's lime or slacked lime is safe to use, but not quicklime. Builder's lime is used for pickling and some people use it to make their own non-toxic paint.

Thanks for clearing that up, Gabrielle. I was thinking of quicklime which is often used in mystery books when someone wants to get rid of a body! It is good to be careful when you are out shopping for lime.

Oh my goodness! I didn't know quicklime was used for that! I need to go back and reread Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series, which I love. No, no one should use quicklime, though I think it would eat the pumpkins before any human got to them and was harmed.

It is good to be careful when shopping for lime! I agree.

I edited the recipe. I wouldn't want the first or even the 10,000th thing I post to kill someone.

I guess we couldn't just use limes. Wouldn't work, I suppose.

No, would ruin the whole thing, I'm afraid, Sherry, but builder's lime is fine. Just avoid quicklime - unless you're writing a mystery novel, as Jane pointed out.

Oh my goodness -- thanks for the chuckle here! Sounds very interesting indeed. I'll have to come back with a recipe.

Oh, that's terrific, Dottie. One without lime, I hope. ;)

Good thread, I will be back.Thanks Gabrielle.

This is a good time of year for soups. I think I may have posted this recipe here before, but I'll do it again. It's for Curried Chicken Soup with Carrots and I found the recipe on epicurious.com. Here's a link:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/v...

Oh, now I'm hungry. I love good chicken soup. Thanks, Sherry. I will definitely make this.

Definitely no lime here!

I had pork chops and Anjou pears and some goat cheese -- I was thinking of something abit gourmet -- then I found myself searching online recipes -- culled nearly adozen and printed them. None of them were particularly calling out and some were obviously more involved and called for other ingredients I did not have on hand -- so I took bits of two or three of them and played a bit.

I simply browned the pork chops in olive oil with salt and pepper -- and then covered them till they were done but not dried out. Meanwhile I cored but didn't peel the pears (3 of them) and cut them into half inch wedges/slices and peeled a mediium size sweet onion and cut it into wedges also. These I browned lightly in olive oil and a tablespoon of butter. Meanwhile I had a half cup each of balsamic vinegar and sweet pear liquer reducing by half in a small saucepan. This went into the pears and onions with a dash of salt and a sprinkle of cinnamon and simmered till they were cooked and dark and gooey -- but not mushy. Perfect pork chop on the plate and then next to it a slice of goat cheese about an eighth inch thick and the hot pears and onions in the sauce over it -- the cheese warmed and softened and the whole combination of flavors was wonderful. It would be good with some plain rice on the plate as well. I think I have a keeper.

I have been m aking all sorts of variations of chicken soup for some months and other soups as well -- soup is my go to when I have no clue what I want to eat and little ambition to cook -- let's see there are a couple of carrots and plenty of broth (I buy flats of ten or twelve cans of it at Costco) a qarter of a head of cabbage and some green beans and a frozen chicken breast -- soup's on! Next time it might have tomato added to the broth for different base and noodles and no cabbage.

Sherry wrote: "This is a good time of year for soups. I think I may have posted this recipe here before, but I'll do it again. It's for Curried Chicken Soup with Carrots and I found the recipe on epicurious.com. ..."

That looks really good, Sherry. I make a curried chicken soup, but it's a lot more complicated that this one. I'm definitely going to try this one.

Dottie wrote: "Definitely no lime here!

I had pork chops and Anjou pears and some goat cheese -- I was thinking of something abit gourmet -- then I found myself searching online recipes -- culled nearly adozen..."

Oh, that sounds delicious, Dottie. I love pork chops, love pears, and love goat cheese. This is a recipe tailor made for me! :)

Dottie, that sounds wonderful. I find myself making things up more, instead of relying on recipes. The other night I did a variation of a pork tenderloin recipe I found online.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/v...
Since I didn't have any cranberry sauce on hand, I used a tablespoon of currant jelly instead. I didn't want it too sweet. I also used red onions instead of white. It was very good.
Pork tenderloin is one of my favorite meats. I love to experiment with it.

I'm always substituting because I seldom look for a recipe until right before dinner. What's the chance of my having every single ingredient on hand?

You just gotta know what makes sense to substitute--like currant jelly for cranberry sauce.

I get a kick out of reading those Epicurious recipe reviews where people say something like, "This was a terrible recipe. I subsituted chicken for the salted cod, used ketchup instead of tomatoes, canned peaches instead of raisins, and it was awful!"

They are good for a laugh, aren't they?

I am going to be having smoked pork chops this evening. Smoked with hickory, after a nice marinade in kahala sauce.

Kahala Sauce

1 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 heaping teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon grated ginger

Mix the ingredients together and let the meat sit in the marinade for a while; overnight if that is possible.

It only takes a few hours to smoke pork chops, and they freeze beautifully. I like to smoke the thick ones; they absorb the smoke well, and don't dry out as much.

Pork seems to be a theme here. I have to admit it's my least favorite meat. I'm crazy about lamb.

That kahala sauce is very similar to what I used to marinate chicken for the bbq. I'd forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder.

I recently made a variation of this recipe to use up apples I had on hand.

http://hungrybruno.blogspot.com/2009/05/...

Tart crusts can be a pain with chilling and rolling and all, but this is a press in tart crust and you don't need to it weigh down when you bake it. I used four winesap apples instead of the raspberries. I adapted the recipe to suit the apples by substituting rum extract for the vanilla extract and adding some cinnamon to the brown butter filling. It came out fantastic. The proof: My grandmother (who usually skips dessert) had two pieces!

There's hardly anything as good as a good homemade tart or pie. However, I hardly ever do it anymore. Making piecrust is such a mess, flour all over the counter, the floor, the seat of my jeans... And I've always thought readymade piecrusts were drek.

So I'm glad of this press-in recipe. And I'm glad that I have discovered the Trader Joe's pie crusts are actually fit to eat.

Summer wrote: "I recently made a variation of this recipe to use up apples I had on hand.

http://hungrybruno.blogspot.com/2009/05/...

Tart crusts can be a pain with chilling and..."

On, that looks delicious! If the store still has raspberries (which I doubt), I'm going to make that one, counter space or no counter space.

Baked Apple Compote that my family and I love when the days turn chilly. I'm not sure where I got this recipe. It might be from Cooking Light. My husband promised to give me some of his authentic French recipes.

Baked Apple Compote

Ingredients

4-5 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup water
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger
Pinch nutmeg
1/4 t. salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine all ingredients in large bowl and stir well.

Pour into casserole or baking dish (I used a soufflé dish), cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes.

If the mixture looks too wet or you’d like a bit of browning on top, remove the foil for the last 10 minutes.

Ruth wrote: "So I'm glad of this press-in recipe."

It was super easy and it tasted good, too.

Gabrielle wrote: "On, that looks delicious! If the store still has raspberries (which I doubt), I'm going to make that one, counter space or no counter space."

The brown butter filling was pretty neutral. I think it would work with just about any fruit that's on hand. I used apples. Citrus and melons might be a crazy, but berries, pears and any of the stone fruits would probably work.

I love berries, so I'd love to use berries. My second choice would be pears, and then apples. The brown butter filling is what sounds so delicious to me. Well, the fruit, too. I love just about any fruit. Peaches and nectarines and plums are also favorites.

I gave a dinner party for 11 last Saturday. Our closest friends are moving to Portland, Oregon. Darn.
The menu?
just crudites for appetizers - I don't like serving heavy stuff before a big meal

farsumagru
rapini
brown rice
green salad (I like serving it after the meal)
lemon curd tart with raspberries and chocolate

Farsumagru is traditional Sicilian party food, altho I don't remember ever having it at any family affairs when I was a kid. You take round steak, pound it out thin, spread it with a ground meat mixture like for meatballs (ground beef, eggs, garlic, bread crumbs, parmagiano or romano, parsley) then layer on cold cuts like mortadella, salami, cappocolla. Line up a row of hardboiled eggs down the middle. Spinach or peas if you want. Roll and tie, brown it in olive oil, simmer in tomato sauce. Looks gorgeous when sliced.

For the lemon tart I made homemade lemon curd, but used TJ's crust. Brushed melted choclate on the crust, then the lemon curd, then the raspberries, all lined pointy ends up. It was good, but there was an engineering problem. When I took it out of the fridge to serve, the chocolate layer was so hard it couldn't be cut with a fork.

Ruth, for a moment I thought you were swearing at us.

So how many of these round steaks do you need to feed 11? Sounds great.

Gabrielle, I love any recipe that includes baked apples. I can't wait to try your compote!

Gabrielle wrote: "I love berries, so I'd love to use berries."

If you like berries (and chocolate) and are up for a not press in tart crust, try this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/v...

It was delicious!

Ruth, that all sounds delicious! I don't like heavy appetizers, either. Then no one is hungry for the main course. The lemon tart sounds heavenly. I love lemon.

MAP, hope you enjoy it! :) I like apples, too. Have you tried Honeycrisp apples for eating? I think they are delicious, and so juicy, but I still prefer Granny Smith for baking.

Summer, thanks! That does look delicious, and you're right, it looks like a lot of work, but well worth it.

MAP, I used two large round steaks to make two rolls. It was way too much. One large one was enough. The second is now in my freezer awaiting an appropriate occasion.

Ruth wrote: "Pork seems to be a theme here. I have to admit it's my least favorite meat. I'm crazy about lamb.

I agree with Ruth that I am crazy about lamb ... but who can afford it? My family used to have lamb for holiday meals instead of turkey or ham, but that has fallen by the wayside also. How many of you have looked at the price for a leg of lamb lately?? Even lamb steaks are ridiculously high, and the lamb shank, which used to be throw away meat from the butcher and super cheap, is as expensive as all the other lamb! Woe is me ... I fear I will never get to eat lamb again. Ruth ... where did you say you live??

Ruth wrote: "I gave a dinner party for 11 last Saturday. Our closest friends are moving to Portland, Oregon. Darn.
The menu?
just crudites for appetizers - I don't like serving heavy stuff before a big meal

..."

After living ten years in Switzerland, Ruth, I got used to having my salad after the entree, too. That's the way I found it was done in most Swiss homes, though some restaurants will still serve it before.

Ellen wrote: "Ruth wrote: "Pork seems to be a theme here. I have to admit it's my least favorite meat. I'm crazy about lamb.

I agree with Ruth that I am crazy about lamb ... but who can afford it? My family..."

I love lamb, too, Ellen. The Turkish restaurant's menu is heavy with lamb dishes. My husband loves lamb, but my oldest brother won't touch it. He says he feels like he's eating Bambi. I asked him if he'd rather eat Babe? He said he never thought of his sausage and bacon that way.

I bought lamb for a New Year's Eve dinner in Switzerland and my little sister, who is extremely cost conscious, really chided me about the cost. It was worth it, though. Delicious.

During our vacation to the Loire, I think my sister and I ordered lamb for almost every dinner. That was in 1999, though. Lamb was expensive, but not as expensive as now.

Since this is also a restaurant thread, if anyone is ever planning a vacation to the chateaux of the Loire, I can recommend the hotel and restaurant La Choisel in Amboise. It's right below Chateau Amboise, the castle in which Leonardo da Vinci died in the arms of the King of France, and you can also visit da Vinci's home, Clos Lucie in Amboise. And Amboise is centrally located. It's close to Chateau Amboise (you just have to look up), Chambord, Chennanceau, Azay-le-Rideau, Uze (which is the "home" of Sleeping Beauty), the elegant Blois, and many more.

And the restaurant in La Choisel overlooks the Loire. The food is wonderful, but it is expensive. The service is wonderful as well. The menu is entirely in French, with no English translation, but if you don't speak French, the waiters will help you with no hesitation and no resentment like you sometimes find in Paris. Not always, but sometimes. I loved La Choisel. I'd love to go back, but I'll never make it if I keep spending money on books.

A friend who lived in Europe for a while introduced me to the salad after. I like it too. Nice and refreshing break before dessert.

Ellen, I'm in Southern California. I don't think lamb is any more expensive than beef here. Or certainly not much more. Not enough to have made an impression on me. I'm only buying for two now, so I don't watch prices as carefully as I did when we were a big family.

Lamb shanks is one of my favorite winter meals. Nothing else makes as wonderful a rich meaty gravy.

Lamb can still be hard to find here (the Upstate of S.C.), and the price tends to be either Oh My God expensive or marked down for quick sale.

Mmmm, lamb shanks cooked with rice and spices.

Ellen, I have found the lamb at Costco to be high quality, and more reasonably priced. Not cheap, mind you, but much more reasonable than in the grocery store.

They have a boneless leg of lamb that I like to stuff with a spinach and bread crumb mixture, and serve for Sunday dinner. Everyone loves it.

That sounds good, MAP. Butterflied leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic and barbecued is a favorite company meal of mine.

Maybe I should give Costco another try. I belonged for a year and only went there twice. Too much stuff I don't want or in boxcar sized packages.

There's not Costco here in Asheville (I won't go to Sam's Club). The nearest one to me is in Greenville, SC. (Doesn't someone here live in Greenville?)

I live in the mountainous northern part of Georgia. It's a wonder that lamb is carried here at all, I suppose, but I never see it marked down for quick sale! I guess there are rich folks living here that like lamb enough to pay those prices ... ladies, we're talking $60+ for a whole leg of lamb! The rest of the lamb is priced accordingly.

There is not a Costco here either ... the closest is some 50-60 miles from here. There's not a Sam's or BJ's either. It's the grocery store or nothing.

As a comment on salad after the main course, I'm used to having it served before and I eat a good bit of it then because I'm usually starving (LOL), but I usually save a little bit for afterwards. It seems to help a meal settle and digest.

Gabrielle ... remind your brother that Bambi was a fawn ... which means baby deer! Also, as in your Loire trip, I took a trip to Maine and expected to eat lobster the whole time. Darn it, the things were expensive while we were there so I only got to eat it once.

Hmmmm ... if challenged with lamb or lobster ... gosh, that would be a hard choice, but I might lean a little more towards lobster. It's probably just the length of time since I've eaten it. LOL

I would go with the lobster, too, Ellen, if I weren't allergic to shellfish. The time I had it (before the allergic reaction set in) I loved it. But since I am allergic, I'd have to go with lamb. However, my preferred dish would be salmon.

Ellen, I don't know why my brother gets a fawn mixed up with a lamb. He knows who Bambi is. LOL

I have lobster so seldom I hardly count it in the Favorite Sweepstakes. But I do love it.

I purchased a nice leg-of-lamb from my Sam's Club for ~$20 last spring, though I'm not sure if they carry it regularly since I haven't bought one recently. But now I'm thinking I should get one again ... it was delish!!!

This is one of my favorite leg of lamb recipes:

Roast Lamb Provencal with Mint Gravy

Ingredients:

1 (6 to 7 pound) leg of lamb
Garlic
Flour
Salt and pepper
Rosemary
Water
Dry white wine
Bunch of fresh mint
5 Tablespoons granulated sugar
Cider vinegar

The Mint Sauce should be made in advance of baking the lamb.

Remove all leaves and the tender tips of the stems from a bunch of fresh mint and chop them very fine. Put in a deep bowl and add 5 rounded Tablespoons of sugar. Cover this completely with cider vinegar. Stir well and cover. Let stand about 6 hours, stirring every hour.

Insert a number of slivers of garlic into lamb so that they are distributed throughout the meat. Sprinkle the top of the leg of lamb with flour, salt and pepper, and rosemary. Put lamb in a roaster. Pour 1 cup dry white wine and 1 cup water in and covered roaster. Put into a 500 F. degree oven. Bake for 1/2 hour until it begins to brown and a crust begins to form on top. Baste. Reduce oven temperature to 350 F. and let the lamb bake for 2 hours, basting about each half hour.

After 2 hours, skim off the grease and cook another half hour. Add equal portions of wine and water as needed.

At the end of the cooking time, remove lamb to a hot platter. If juices have concentrated too much add a little more wine. In the meanwhile make a flour and water paste. In a separate saucepan put 3 tablespoons of flour and a few pinches of salt. Start mixing this well with dripping cold water. Keep whipping constantly as the water is added, until it has a creamy consistency. Stir the flour paste slowly into the roasting pan juices until the juices are thickened. The gravy should be thicker than the average gravy as the Mint Sauce to be added will thin it. When gravy is smooth, add Mint Sauce and stir thoroughly.

And this is one of my husband's French recipes. It's spicier, more exotic, like Moroccan or Turkish food, but it is French:

Lamb with Honey

Ingredients:
2 lbs.(1 kg) lamb
4 onions
1/2 lbs (300 g) bacon cubes
1/4 cup (80 g) dried raisins
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon flour
2 Tablespoons (30 g) butter
Salt and pepper,
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Cut the lamb into 1-inch cubes. Place the pieces in a cooking pot with the olive oil over medium heat and cook for 5 minutes. Chop the onions and add to the meat as well as the bacon cubes. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir occasionally and continue cooking for 15 minutes.

Cover the majority of the meat with water and cook over low heat for 1 hour.

Add the raisins, honey, vinegar and cinnamon. Mix ingredients into meat mixture and continue cooking for 20 minutes.

To thicken the sauce, melt the butter in a bowl, add the flour and mix. Then add 3-4 tablespoons of the sauce from the cooking pot to the butter mixture and mix. Pour this new mixture onto the meat and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

Serve with potatoes or rice.

That lamb with honey makes me want to go to the Turkish restaurant, Cafe Istanbul, on Tuesday.

My mother used to make leg of lamb with mint sauce! I haven't had it in years. I usually cut slits into the leg and poke garlic and rosemary into them. I think next time I'll do mint sauce, I'm sure it'll be new to Leif (my husband.)

There's a traditional Norwegian lamb stew called Far i Kal, which just means "lamb in cabbage." The traditional recipes call for layering chunks of lamb, cabbage, lots of peppercorns, and a sprinkling of flour. Pour water over and cook until the lamb is tender.

I've tried it that way, but by the time the lamb is tender the cabbage is almost dissolved. So I cook the lamb a while first before I add the cabbage. It's absolutely delicious, far more so than you'd think from the simple description.

Gabrielle wrote: "Ruth, that all sounds delicious! I don't like heavy appetizers, either. Then no one is hungry for the main course. The lemon tart sounds heavenly. I love lemon.

Dottie, hope you enjoy it! :) ..."

Gabrielle -- you mean MAP? Our profile pics confused you.

BUT -- your compote does sound good and I love so many kinds of apples -- I'll definitely be trying this.

I want some lamb -- and I want it SOON (actually, I'd take it this minute and it's only mid-morning here. All of these are making me drool -- the recipes and the travel and restaurant info -- I should hve waited till evening to read these! :-)