A couple pre-Thanksgiving tips :-)

OK - first of all - here's my fab, famously sought-after corn pudding recipe:

Corn Pudding

I use a large souffle dish (very deep so it needs to cook in moderate - not hot - oven - around 300 - 350 degrees - for a long time - up to an hour or more like a bread to make sure it gets done through but doesn't burn on top) - though you can use a 13 X 9 baking dish and make the oven more like 375 degrees. It will stay hot in the deep pan so can be made before other things that may need to cool before serving). Depending on the size of the pan and your preferred ratio of one ingredient to another, you may need to add more of one - scale back another :-). Two disclaimers: 1. This is a southern recipe so it is not going to be low-fat fare unless you customize it - AND 2. It would be ideal to use fresh corn and cream it yourself with whatever salt, pepper, sugar, heavy cream mix you use, but.... during this season, the corn is either not available or not sweet or tender enough to be good. When you do use canned corn, it will be a little sweeter, so the savory needs to be pumped up a bit and salt may need to be added (taste as you go). I suppose flash frozen organic corn may be a good option. Anyway ....

2 cups corn
2 cups creamed corn (corn, salt, pepper, sugar, heavy cream and either tapioca or corn starch to thicken - stir, stir, stir :-) and blanch corn first - OR - just use organic canned - still tastes good - just a bit sweeter.
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
16 oz. sour cream
2 cups fine, sweet corn meal (in the latin american markets - the "massa", correct?? would be great)
pinches of sugar, salt and pepper to taste (you can add eggs last if you're tasting)
1 cup cheddar cheese

Mix all the above - butter sides of dish - pour in and cook to specs above :-)!!

Not a lot of time this week, but I have a couple retail tips - specifically for the mall shoppers :-)... Nordstrom is doing one of their annual sales, and... I have to say.... things are going fast (major designer, mom-friendly bags on clearance :-). Lucky jeans has a huge percentage off all women's thermals and kids' stuff .... Janie and Jack has super cute stuff - practical, fun, retro play clothes on sale .... Juicy Couture has nothin' (yeah - shopping for my tween) - lots of bundled gifts, but... like boy boxer underwear or knee socks that are "over the top, can't wear them everyday" stuff and over $40 for like 3! Anyway.....

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm loving that my kids are telling me daily what they are thankful for..... which is great. But - of course, we also have Black Friday to deal with, so.... good luck there too!

New layout coming - I promise.....