Today is baking day in prep for Thanksgiving. I hauled out the yeast, the mixer, and set out to make some simple yeast rolls (well, the dough, at least). Ten minutes into the second rise, disaster struck in the form of my uncle, who heard from my daughter that I was baking rolls.

"No Van de Kamp rolls?!!" He sounded hurt.

"These are homemade, which is... better, right?" I tried to sound optimistic.

"I'll bring some Van de Kamps just in case."

In the span of twenty minutes, offers to bring rolls started rolling in from members of the family. (My great-aunt heard I was recession cooking, and offered me some money to buy rolls) I put my beautiful dough in the freezer, and headed to Ralphs to get the dang rolls.

Really, my family? Next year, I'm going out to dinner. Alone.

Anyone have a Thanksgiving staple that dare not be touched, replaced, retooled, or upgraded?

I was browsing through Tastespotting and Foodgawker this weekend, and came across an interesting thing: Bloggers giving warnings for recipe ingredients! I came across this trend over and over, like "warning: this recipe includes butter" or "there be sugar here"... and these were recipes for croissants and caramel candy. While I understand that there are those who can't eat certain things, I felt like I was reading fanfiction with all the warnings. It's a croissant - if you look at the picture and click for the recipe, do you not expect it to be made from butter?

On the same token, apologizing for including bacon, butter, sugar, etc in your recipe is a bit tiresome, too, as is saying "my xx is xx at the thought of all that xx"... Were croissants not made with butter somewhere in their history? The blogger in question reduced the amount of butter and wondered why the croissants were hard and untasty. Really? Fancy that! Rationing times aside, this is strange and annoying to me.

Your thoughts?

So, the new Cooking Channel launched today. Did anyone watch any of the new shows? If so, what did you like or dislike? I watched Drink Up (Tequila), and Food(ography): Ice Cream. Pretty good shows, though Mo Rocca's "Professor" voice was a bit much...

Overall, I thought the shows were a nice blend of cuisines and cultures, and a pleasant change from Food Network. (I will miss FLN for Bodacious Bedrooms, though...)

Your thoughts?

Tomorrow, I have to attend a day long meeting with the upper management at my job. Since we're working all day, my boss told me to have my lunch with me to eat during the afternoon portion of the meeting.

What is appropriate lunch food for such a meeting? I most certainly don't want to have the ultra crunchy garlic chips, or the gigantic salad with everything all drippy and chewy, but I don't want to sit in front of my bosses with a pb&j on wonder bread, either.

This is my first such lunch, and I want to make a good impression - I don't want to be "the chick who ate the Popeye's 5 piece with extra biscuits at the budget meeting"...

Any suggestions, Serious Eaters? I appreciate all your help.

LS