https://www.recipetineats.com/baked-spaghetti/
Posted on 11/01/2025 5:46:00 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Another great Nagi recipe - yay! I would love to make this for Thanksgiving, but I’m going to have to ‘trial’ it first. Also, my family is accustomed to sweet potato casserole with the brown sugar/pecan topping ... not sure they’d go for more savory.
While looking at the sweet potato recipe, I see Nagi also has a recipe for stuffing. Now this one I might substitute for the stuffing recipe I was going to make - love the ingredients & it looks delicious:
Still the BEST Stuffing ever!
https://www.recipetineats.com/best-stuffing-recipe/
Another good recipe of hers that I’ve made several times is Baked Spaghetti. My only comment would be to break the spaghetti in half before boiling it. The half pieces seem to make cutting/serving easier - the recipe cuts like lasagna into blocks:
Baked Spaghetti (Epic!)
https://www.recipetineats.com/baked-spaghetti/
https://www.recipetineats.com/baked-spaghetti/
A Thanksgiving cooking thread has been started - https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4352585/posts
Off to an interesting start - Okra, salmon, mac n cheese
Thanks!
I think I am finally adjusting to Fall this year, now that we’ve had the sub freezing temps and it’s killed off most everything but the hardiest plants. I have one purple and white verbena that is still blooming. It’s an annual type, but the leaves are still green, and not withering. I halfway want to bring it inside and see if it can overwinter. I haven’t set up my grow lights yet, so it will just depend. Plus, it may succumb soon. It’s been a nice friend to have perched on my deck.
Yesterday turned into a gardening day in the late afternoon - yay! Temps were ‘mild’ & the wind wasn’t beating us to death.
Mom got the back yard raked, the biggest job being getting the leaves out from the various bushes & plants. The trees in the backyard are bare so this should be the last leaf maintenance necessary.
I checked the truck, hooked up to the battery minder I found in the garage at our previous home - all lights are green. Next was taking a good look at the battery in Little Red & what it will take to remove it. It doesn’t look easy so I saved that for a day with more ‘project’ time.
In the shop, I moved all liquids I didn’t want to freeze into the bathroom where we have to keep a small space heater to protect the water pipes.
All the newly planted bushes needed watering. The hoses are drained & put up which made getting water from the outside faucets more difficult as they are very low to the ground. I had to fill a smaller container that would fit under the faucet & dump it into my gallon containers. The boxwoods, helleborus, Rose of Sharons & lilac were all watered (16 bushes/plants).
Next was cleaning the zinnia beds. The birds have picked all the seeds out of what was in the garden & I left the plants just for them. I had already cut blooms & saved a lot of seeds. The big surprise was that I had a calendula blooming. I tried to grow them all summer with no success & figured the 3 I had on the end of one zinnia bed were dead. We have had at least 2 nights in the 20’s and another at 31, but the flowering plant looks great. Our forsythia has been blooming the last 2 weeks as well despite the frigid weather - it must be a bit confused.
Cow Chronicles: no babies yet & they’re getting checked twice a day now.
Wildlife Watch: Thursday morning a very skinny, small fox trotted across the yard & through the woven wire fence toward the Cow Palace. I suspect there are plenty of mice around due to the hay & grain for the cows. Hunting season is in - while working on the zinnia beds, there was a shot behind our place, fairly close by. The shot was followed by another maybe 5 minutes later. I believe yesterday was the last day of muzzle loader season & today starts rifle/shotgun season.
I may go to my favorite orchard today for some late season apples. It’s cloudy & mild & the patio is wet from a stray shower. I planned to chop some leaves in the front yard today with Clyde, but wet clingy leaves aren’t the best scenario for that job so a drive in the countryside for apples is much more appealing! 🍎
We are on the road today. Will see our son and his girlfriend for a quick visit, then head back home this evening. So the yardwork at my house has to wait until tomorrow, and there are LOTS of leaves in my front yard thanks to prevailing winds and neighbors’ oak and maple trees! I just haven’t had a chance to get out there and rake yet. It will be an all day project, and maybe even a few days, depending on the weather and availability of hubby.
I, too, am in watering mode for the small shrubs and plants in the meditation garden. I think that was about 30 or so plants, but I don’t remember the count.
Beau & Jeff made it back about 8pm last night. Nice rack on the Mule Deer Jeff got. He’s happy. We got a tenderloin and a roast out of the deal, too! Yay!
Today is absolutely the most PERFECT Fall Day, so I’m asking Beau to fire up the chain saw and follow me into the garden for some much needed tree trimming!
I am going to empty the rain barrel, but first fill up the bird bath and water a few other things around the manse to use up that water.
The dogs are very sad that I’m no longer in charge of them - they’re nearly 90 minutes behind schedule today, with Beau slowly getting back into the swing of things around here. I run a very tight ship when he is gone. He’s rather slap-dash about this whole ‘animal husbandry’ thing, LOL! I did leave two messy kennels for him to clean up though, so Ha-Ha! ;)
Shopping yesterday was a good time. Each of us said in turn, ‘There’s really nothing that is SPEAKING to me and pulling money out of my wallet’ and yet the back of the van was completely full by the end of the day, LOL! I got mostly Christmas shopping done, so I met my goal.
Damage was done at: Barnes & Noble, Eddie Bauer, Bath & Body Works, The Container Store, Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel and Lindt Chocolates. A good time was had by all.
Man, I SO NEEDED a day OFF the FARM! :)
We’re looking at a mild, sunny week so there’s still time to get outdoor stuff done.
Sadly, I only see plain Almonds on these lists and not the 'Chocolate Covered' but I'll keep looking. ;)
Thank you for the reminder to check on my Christmas cactus. It’s in the basement in a dark spot. I was preparing to discard it in the Spring, but once I put it outside near the discarded plants, it suddenly sprang to life and begged me for another chance! So I’ve been trying to care for it better this year. Last I looked at it (about a week ago) I could see the very beginning of buds for blossoms on a couple of “arms”.
Made it to the orchard! Mom got a bushel: 1/2 Pink Lady & 1/2 Arkansas Black. I got a peck of Arkansas Black & half a peck of Winesaps as a gift for someone at church (his wife said he only eats Winesaps). I love this place - basically a shack at a bend in the road with huge crates of apples sitting around. You select your own apples from the crates. On this visit, the crates have been moved inside due to the below freezing weather we’ve had. The owners are about as friendly as it gets - fun to talk to. It’s a family orchard - they bought it from the wife’s grandpa who had the orchard for 40 years.
These folks grow 4 varieties & get the rest from other farmers in the county. They also grow peaches - actually more than apples. They got hit with a very hard freeze when the peaches were blooming this past spring - 22 degrees for over 12 hours & it killed most of their crop - they got 4 bushels out of 600 trees! The other orchards had similar experiences & peaches were hard to find. At Walmart, they were selling for $1.32 each & locally, $75 per bushel. Fingers crossed that the peaches do well next year - I’ll be back at this little orchard to load up :-)
I also bought a half gallon of apple cider & some Peach Salsa as a Christmas gift for a cousin - she mentioned the other day she loves peach salsa.
We stopped at a fast food place (I know, I know, but mom had coupons & was treating) & then the local ice cream stand for cones. Whew - no dinner for me tonight ... but maybe an apple or two.
Here’s the info the orchard put on Facebook about their apple inventory:
“Arkansas Black have to be one of the most beautiful apples ever! These hard apples are one of the best storage varieties available. These apples were designed to eat once they’ve been stored a few months as their sharp and tart flavor turns to more of a lightly sweet taste with accents of cinnamon and vanilla and can even take on a wine-like or molasses flavor! We have plenty in the market if you’d like to come check them out!!”
🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏
Apples in the market today:
🍎Pink Lady - tangy then sweet, more tangy now and will sweeten as it ripens, excellent winter keeper, holds shape for baking
🍎Arkansas Black - tart and very hard, one of the best winter storage apples, holds shape well for baking, ripens into a complex sweet-tart flavor in storage
🍎Winesap - tart and crispy, good winter storage apple, holds its shape for baking, excellent for tarts and pies
🍏Nittany- *low supply* - sweet and crispy, a cross between York and Golden Delicious, holds its shape for baking, great for unsweetened applesauce or pies
🍎York - tart and dense, hold their shape well for baking, known to be amazing frying apples
🍏Fuji - *low supply* - sweet with a slight tang, crispy, hold their shape well for baking, great for unsweetened applesauce
🍎Stayman - tart and dense, flavor intensifies when cooked, hold their shape well when baking, known for their amazing apple butter!
🍎Rome - tart and dense, holds shape well and known as “Queen of the Baking Apples” makes fantastic dumplings
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More info on Arkansas Black apples in this article:
Black Apples Guide: Arkansas Black vs Black Diamond Apples
https://harvestsavvy.com/black-apples/
I feel like I’m living on borrowed time; I wouldn’t have said that last week with 19 degrees and snow! ;)
Oh, fabulous. You probably put her in the sun. I have only filtered light in my house and it shows. One year I put them outside in a part-sun area and the deer ate them down to a nub. I had to nurse them back to life.
“Someday” I will build that high, high post on which to hang a basket — then the deer will probably stand on one another’s backs to get at my babies! Rats with white tails!
Nice Christmas Cactuses....I finally tried taking better care of mine this year. It has a couple little buds, just hoping to see more blooms around Christmas...it was my Great Grandmothers....I figure it is around 75 years old.
Oh, amazing!!!!!
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