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My mom's post-holiday leftover dishes, which went in one of two directions: 1. The traditional English bubble-and-squeak - at least, they say it's traditional and English; my dad grew up on it, so I believe him.

2. The not-traditional Turkey Curry, which involved raisins and curry and, you guessed it, turkey, along with whatever other leftovers we had.

The one we had for Boxing Day dinner depended partly on whether we had more turkey or more potatoes and vegetables left over.

Let's get real here, Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Carving Kit is three interns.

I wonder, if I paid an extra 25 cents, would my local shop cut the bagel all the way through for me so I don't have to tear it apart?

Would they put a tolerable amount of cream cheese on it so I don't have to bite into a cream cheese hockey puck?

Would they start to decipher "half the usual amount of cream cheese, please" to mean "half the usual amount spread over the whole bagel", or would they continue to interpret that as "Same thickness of cream cheese, but only on one half of the bagel."?

Would they put the lid on the coffee cup so that the tab isn't over the cup seam?

On another note, there is a difference between the typical mass market doughy "bagel" and a real, true bagel - what we call Montreal style, probably similar to your NY style. I don't consider them to be the same food item. One is a bagel, and the other is a "bagel". I still enjoy them both, but for different reasons! Same name, different food. Kind of like how there's curry, and then there's what you get in England. I still enjoy English curry though :)

@ChefR0bert I've heard that before. I've risen to the challenge. Still don't like tomatoes. Unless, of course, as you suggest, the flavour of the tomato is obliterated by other ingredients.

But, as a person who has no taste for tomatoes, I've noticed that it does deeply offend people who do like them. So much so, that it doesn't matter that I make myself prepare something I've never tried before at least once a week, that I can suggest menu ideas and substitutions that make the neighbours say "wow", that guests never leave my table without a new food experience, that I've tried witchetty grubs; No, simply because I don't care for tomatoes, I need to "stop complaining and get out there to expand my culinary viewpoints".

I love this recipe for stuffed pumpkin, it's awesome. Big hit with the family too. I served it with a rich peanut soup. I'm sorry, i can't remember where I found it.

Stuffed Pumpkin

Part 1
1 whole Pie Pumpkin (8-10 inches diameter)(or a hubbard squash)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Part 2
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2.5 lbs (1134 grams) Ground Turkey
1 Teaspoon Poultry Seasoning
1 Teaspoon White Pepper
2 Golden Bell Peppers, chopped (alt: can use regular green or red peppers)
1 large Red Onion, chopped

Part 3
1/3 lb (151 grams) Precooked Turkey Sausage
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons minced fresh Oregano
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 teaspoon Black Pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, pressed

Part 4
1 1/4 cups (280 grams) Golden Raisins
1/3 cups (76 grams) Chopped Green Olives, stuffed with pimentos
1 400gram can (14 ounces) Chopped Skinned Tomatoes
3 Large Eggs, beaten

=========
Part 1 – Prepping the Pumpkin
With a sharp knife, cut out a circular top, about 5 inch diameter. Save the top for the lid.
Scoop out the seeds and scrape out the stringy guts until it is clean

Get a STOCK POT that is big enough for your pumpkin. Put the pumpkin in it and cover with water (Also fill the pumpkin). Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the water. The idea is to cook the pumpkin from both outside and inside. (If you have an electric cooking coil, place it in the pumpkin to boil the water inside.
Cover the pot, bring water to a boil, then simmer until the pumpkin meat is ALMOST tender when pierced with a fork, about 10-15 minutes
*Do Not Overcook! The pumpkin should remain firm enough to keep its shape. An overcooked pumpkin has the potential to collapse under the weight of the filling later, and it is also really hard to get out of the water.

Dry the outside of the Pumkpin

Part 2 – Meat Mixture
Heat vegetable oil in a large frypan or wok
Add Ground Turkey, Poultry Seasoning, White Pepper, Bell Peppers, and Onion. Cook over medium heat until the turkey is no longer pink. Remove from heat and set aside

Part 3 – Sausage Mixture
In a large bowl, mix together the Cooked Turkey Sausage, Olive Oil, Oregano, Vinegar, Black Pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of Salt, and Garlic

Part 4 – put it all together.
Add the Sausage mixture, Raisins, Olives, and Tomotoes to the ground turkey mixture in a wok or large frypan. Mix well. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally
Remove from heat and allow it to cool slightly
Add 3 beaten eggs and mix in thoroughly.

Part 5 – Stuff that Pumpkin
Fill the cooked pumpkin with the stuffing. Press stuffing lightly to pack it. Cover the pumpkin opening with aluminum foil. Place pumpkin in greased shallow baking pan and bake at 350f for 1 hour. When 15 minutes are remaining, replace the foil with the pumpkin lid.
When done, spoon off extra moisture. Allow to cool 15 minutes before serving. This will give the stuffed pumpkin time to firm up as well.
To serve, slice from top to bottom in fat wedges, and put wedges on a dinner plate. Spoon extra filling on top. The entire pumpkin is edible except for the woody stem.

For smaller servings, cut the pumpkin cleanly at the equator, flip the top half into another dish for cutting, and place the bottom half in the fridge for later.

Wouldn't this just be a cake?

How does this work with certain foods that could cause an allergic reaction, like shrimp?

I've never let winter stop me from using the outdoor barbecue! Just turn the flame up a bit.

Winter barbecue is awesome.

But I do have a countertop grill for stormier days in any season.

I think I take exception to this one!

Not all men are incompetent buffoons who can't feed themselves, despite what you might see in commercials.

This is how my family would probably eat if I didn't do the cooking.

The only thing I change when I'm out of town, is that I order the shrimp. My wife is allergic, so I only eat it when I'm far, far away.

I love anything made of pumpkin except, oddly enough, pumpkin pie.

One of my wife's pet rabbits died last month (8 years old) and the other one is lonely, so we've been making sure to get down on the floor and spend time with him. He's taking to licking my nose a lot, and it does look a lot like this, minus the ice cream.

I hope to get a picture so I can get my fifteen seconds of internet fame!

You know when you watch the news about some distant country where people are passionately fighting AGAINST something that you consider a basic right, like free elections, or freedom of religion, or women's rights.

And you just want to give those people a shake and say "WTF is WRONG with you? Why don't you want this basic human right?"

That's what it feels like as a Canadian watching the US healthcare debate. I consider universal healthcare to be one of my rights as a citizen, and I can not for the life of me understand why Americans would demand less.

Seriously, is there a lot of mercury in the water down there?

The only thing I hate more than tomatoes is the attitude I get about from people. I don't make a big deal of them, I just avoid them and carry on. But every family meal has some snide comment about how this would be better with tomatoes but, oh, they had to make the salad differently because Kev doesn't like tomatoes. To which I say, just make the salad the way you want, I'll deal with the tomatoes on my plate.

Or even worse, my coworkers who feel the need to make a comment about it at every opportunity. Staff lunch? "Hey Kev, we ordered nothing but tomato sandwiches!" It just doesn't stop. It gets really old, really fast. "How could you not like tomatoes?" they say. Because I don't enjoy them, isn't there anything YOU don't like?

It kind of slowed down after I said to one co-worker, "I don't have to take this from a guy who doesn't drink coffee"