Victory!

In November, I posted (almost) every day what I was thankful for. Along with that, I did a little rant (almost) every day. I ranted the first day about Stop and Shop not stocking soy yogurt and soy cream cheese. I asked them on their website to please stock these items, and I got back a wishy-washy letter back from James saying thanks for the suggestion. Well, I went shopping at Stop and Shop January 1st for our first annual Hunter's Feast- and what did I find? SOY CREAM CHEESE and SOY YOGURT! Yay! Victory is mine! Thanks, James- you have a customer for life!

So the Hunter's Feast was cool- all the camping families came over (minus one- guess who that was?) MR made awesome cutlets, and I burned the stew in the pressure cooker. (Anyone with experience with pressure cookers- please help! The thing still scares the crap out of me! ) Anyway, we made 2 packages of cutlets, and served the kids first. They snagged almost all the cutlets! Even with 2 platters of chicken nuggets available! I grabbed Andrew's cutlets, since he didn't want them, and Jodi was able to get Tyler's. Everyone ate, no one died, and they even complimented me on the food! Go figure! What was the crowd favorite? Mrs. Wilkes Sweet Potato Souffle.

Don't know Mrs. Wilkes Boardinghouse? Next time you're in Savannah, GA, pay a visit. Be prepared to wait an hour or so for the family style seating, but it's totally worth it. Down home cooking (only for lunch) for $16 a person. All you can eat! One year we went when Beena was around 8 year old. She managed to eat around 10 pieces of fried chicken. The large southern black women in the kitchen all came out to see the "little bitty thing that ate all that chicken!" They make you bus your own plate and glass, too! Of the Sweet Potato Souffle, Mrs. Wilkes said, "A lot of people buy my cookbook just to get this recipe." MR bought me the cookbook just so I could have this recipe! I modified it one little bit, though. I skipped the evaporated milk, used walnuts, and used grated orange instead of lemon. No marshmallows, either.

4 pounds sweet potatoes, pared and sliced
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup raisins
Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Miniature marshmallows
Place the potatoes in a pot and add enough salted water to cover. Cook until tender. Drain. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mash and whip the potatoes. Add the remaining ingredients (except marshmallows) and mix well. Pour into a greased casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover with marshmallows. Return to the oven and continue cooking until brown. Yum!

I also made corn bread using a corn muffin mix and egg nog! Just put in enough egg nog to make the batter wet. It's a dense, tasty corn bread, great for the holidays!

And just to show you my man can cook, and yes, those are the deer antlers he mounted: