Sunday, November 25, 2007

25 November 2007



We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at One Britt this year! My dear friend, Ann Willoughby and her fiancé Steve Robbins, came to visit from Kansas City. They were the perfect guests, and Ann and I cooked together all day on Thursday while Jim and Steve watched football! Later that day, Steve and Amado showed up to help, and they did a beautiful job on the table decor! For me, the day was more of an experience and less of a production as in years past! ;-) Our group was complete with the addition of Matt, George and Sylvie from Atlanta and Mia from Chattanooga. Everyone brought amazing side dishes, and I cooked the bird, Franny Betty's southern sage dressing, mascarpone mashed potatoes, Franny Betty's sweet potato pies and the usual Red Velvet cake. It was a gray, rainy and chilly day today, so it was the perfect backdrop for tonight's supper. The menu:

• Day After Turkey Soup

• Franny Betty's Refried Dressing®

• Mascarpone Potato Pancakes

• Franny Betty's Sweet Potato Pie

You'll notice the ® on the "Franny Betty's Refried Dressing" item. I created this recipe tonight – either that or my mama sent it to me from heaven or that Super Walmart in the sky! I was using the leftover mashed potatoes to make pancakes, and I thought: I bet you could do the same thing with the leftover dressing! So, I made patties out of the cold dressing and dusted them in flour. I then "fried them up" in the same pan that I used for the potato pancakes! I drained them on paper towels and sprinkled with Kosher Sea Salt. They were divine, and FB would have been so proud of me. She would have been the first person I would have called after I created this recipe! Or maybe not since she had a tendency to "borrow" other people's recipes and submit them to Southern Living as her very own! She got busted one time! So, I will spend the next few months perfecting this recipe and submit it in her honor for next year's leftover Thanksgiving ideas. The ultimate tribute indeed!

Grace and gratitude to all,

Bill

Sunday, November 18, 2007

18 November 07















It was an absolutely perfect fall day in Canton, Georgia today! Check out the slide show I made of the leaves. I love watching America's Test Kitchen on PBS, and their magazine, "Cooks Illustrated" is the best. I am an online subscriber as well, and yesterday, they featured one of their "lost recipes." I have never heard of this dish before, but it is called Chicken Rivel. It is chicken and fresh corn in a fresh stock with "rivels" which are brown butter dumplings! I was so intrigued I had to cook it tonight! It was really great and will even be better on a very cold winters night. As I post, I am also cleaning the main oven on the Viking for the very first time. What more could you want?

Ciao!

And here's the video of Fall at One Britt:

Sunday, November 4, 2007

03 and 04 November 2007


Well kids, it's been a while, but you know what I have been dealing with lately. So last night was a Saturday, but I needed to cook, and I needed comfort food! I made lasagna from my mom's original copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. It is a staple! I love her copy because it has all of the stains from meals gone by, and of course, she had all of the pages out of order! I can imagine many reasons for this...

So, Jim and I had dinner and then watched "Afterglow," a Robert Altman film starring my new obsession, Julie Christie! It was wonderful, and I urge you to get the DVD if you haven't seen it already. My obsession started when we were on our way to Asia and I watched "Away From Her," Julie Christie's latest movie. I cried like a little girl, but Julie Christie is still totally hot for an old lady! I read once that she commented that she was not a great actress, but the camera loved her. I totally agree. So we will be on a Julie Christie kick for a while!

Tonight, Sunday, we had day-old lasagna (always better). We were at the office until around 7:30 participating in a phone bank for Jack Goodwin's campaign for Canton City Council. Jack is a member of the Historic Canton Homeowner's Association, and we are trying to get him in office. Our mayoral candidate, Gene Hobgood, is running unopposed, so things are looking up for now!

Working my way back,

Bill

(photo courtesy of Jim's iPhone)