The medjool are the ones I always see, at least when they label them.

Date palms can live here on the upper Texas coast, but the massive freeze this past February did a lot of them in. A neighbor had a yard full of mature date palms, must have had at least 15 all the same size, 35 feet or so, that survived the freeze or appeared to survive the freeze by putting on new growth during the spring, but then started to decline one by one and now they are all dead. A lot of the tall fan palms died too. Canary Island date palms made it unscathed, those are very cold tolerant. But, Canary island date palms produce only small round dates. Mature Date palms in general can handle down to about 15 degrees F, but not for long. A night in the 20s is no problem. Days of sub freezing weather and hours below 20 is not helpful.

My grandmother had a date palm in Freeport, TX that was a big mess every year when it produced. Grandmother also had a Canary Island date palm. My parents have mature daughters of that tree in their yard grown from the dates.

@karstopography
I found many of the people where you live that I was around had no idea you could eat the fruits of those palms.
I ate some one time and they thought I was nuts and I had poisoned myself.

Came upon a sauce recipe that La Hefa (my lovely and long suffering wife) claims will revolutionize our (hers, actually) sauce making endeavors; richer, creamier, tastier, and cutting that dreaded prep time in half.

*Cut tomatoes in half (no need to skin), lay face down on baking sheet lined with parchment that has drizzle of oil. Drizzle on more olive oil.
*Add paper flakes,peeled garlic cloves, thyme, oregano, etc., generous sprinkle of kosher salt.
*Roast in oven at about 400 until the skins of tomatoes blister and everything is soft.
*Add basil at the end of roasting.
*Pull out herb twigs, if you used them, and pulse everything in food processor to the texture you like. (I like mine a bit chunky)
*Heat again and put in clean canning jars. I use the pint size for this.
*You can process, or, if you have the sauce hot enough going into jars, the lids may pop anyway.
*If I have unprocessed jars, I put these in the frig where they keep for a few months.

The Gotch

Yes, the store bought ones are dried and dark. Fresh off the tree, these dates are yellow, later trying to brown up some. Lots of sugar in them.

@worth1 my experience with some of the locals is that if it isn’t a piece of meat pounded thin and preferably battered, some white bread, corn or potatoes, maybe a green bean once in a while, it isn’t fit to eat. Seems like some of the overall anglo/scotch irish settlers of Texas and their descendants weren’t and aren’t exactly adventurous eaters. I’m not talking about the earlier and more recent latino, tejano, germans, czechs, African-Americans, italians among others. Maybe it’s all different now, but what I’m describing are more of the bible belt east Texas folks. A lot them came down here for work bringing their limited menu and food preferences with them. Like I say, eat what you want and these are just generalizations or observations that aren’t important or anything.

You may have your own opinions of general regional differences of the people of Texas and their particular food preferences. Maybe it is all too blurry to even discuss anyway with all the immigration and shuffling of people from across the state, America and world. I’m happy for all immigrants for a lot of reasons not the least of which they have brought interesting and tasty food from their corners of the globe.

@karstopography
Yes I saw this too.
Half the county named Bubba.

One thing that gets me is people trying to talk me into eating something I don't want to eat.
An example is ground turkey.
I have had it at other places and times in my life and don't want to eat it.
Several years ago some guy told me I should try ground turkey burgers like I have never had one before.
Almost an insult for assuming I haven't had it.
This assumption came out of stereotyping me from being from Texas and the South.
I told the guy I didn't like ground turkey.
He said but you really have to try it like I didn't like something before trying it.
I told him no I have had it and don't like it.
But you really need to try ground turkey burgers.
I said no I don't like them.
But you didn't use the right spices.
More assumptions about me.
Seriously, now this is starting to get on my nerves.
How in the devil did he know what I used?
This conversation continues to the point I'm getting really sick of it.
Then the dreaded, "I don't understand why you won't eat ground turkey" comes out.
Last I heard I don't have to make anyone understand why I will or won't eat anything.
Well finally I thought it was over with.
Then I ran across him later on and yep you guessed it.

I don't understand why you won't eat ground turkey burgers.

Good lord, 'Enough is enough don't ya think?
No wonder this old guy isn't married.
Who could put up with this day in and day out?

Oh but it isn't over with yet.
Then the soy burger thing raises it's ugly head.
Nope not gonna eat one.
Got one by mistake and had to spit it out.
BY the way is very rare for me to do this.
It's gotta be really bad.
So to get back at him I made an assumption.
Here you want to try some canned octopus or maybe a can of sardines?
Oh no I don't think so.
I don't like them.
Have you ever had any?
No.
Then how do you know you don't like them?
I just know.
How about some dried sea weed?
Lord no, how can you eat that stuff?
Dried squid?
Lord no.

But by hoot for some reason I not only have to eat ground turkey I have to like it too.

Well no I don't and to prove it I'm going to make hamburgers with ground chuck.

Happy eating no matter what you like.
Worth.

I'm not a fan of ground turkey, when it's being used to replace beef in a burger. But when I use it in place of ground pork, in Szechwan dishes, where I have a ton of other flavors - garlic, ginger, scallions, and fermented chili paste, among others - it works out fine. Same when I make Mexican chorizo, though a little fat needs to be added. But I only did this on a regular basis when it was 99¢ a pound, vs. $1.99 for pork, if I could find it. Pork prices haven't skyrocketed here, as beef has, but I think ground turkey is even more now, so that means I haven't gotten any for a long time! I could grind some chicken thighs, however, and @1.49/lb, at best sale price, I might start using that in those highly spiced ground meat dishes!

You will never get me using those "fake meats", simply because I wouldn't buy real meat at those prices! If they give away a free pound of it, or have it at 99¢ a lb. (never happening, of course) then I'll try it in one of those dishes.

In my opinion 80/20 ratio of meat to fat makes the perfect burger.
So realistically there is nothing to gain and everything to lose with a turkey burger cooked with 80 /20 ground turkey.
Plus not a huge fan of poultry processing as it is.
Given the fact they use skin and fat in the ground turkey.
80/20 turkey is $2.99 a pound.
Now if i could get my hands on a fresh killed pecan and acorn fed wild wood duck I would most certainly enjoy it as a hamburger.

It's perfect chili making weather.
I'll see ya at the cast iron dutch oven this weekend.
Going to make it in the oven.

Not gonna make chili.
I just realized I had frozen chili in quart bags.

Yeah, I have to get some of that stuff in my freezer eaten up before creating more! lol Fortunately, I have all those things inventoried, so I pretty much know what I have. I just have to eat it!

pepperhead212 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 05, 2021 5:33 pm Yeah, I have to get some of that stuff in my freezer eaten up before creating more! lol Fortunately, I have all those things inventoried, so I pretty much know what I have. I just have to eat it!

It was my authentic Texas chili I made in August.
Left it so I could add the masa when I heated it up.
It's going on spaghetti of all things.
It's sort of like a thick liquid tamale taste when cooked and made it specifically for putting on pasta.
It's pretty spicy hot with the amount of chili de arbol.
I'm just glad I remembered before I cooked another kettle full.

To my horror I found out I didn't have any spaghetti.
Had to settle for fettuccine.
Need to make pasta run.

Stocked up on some Asian condiments and the likes.
Guess what I'm not having for Thanksgiving.

We have talked about Thanksgiving menus. Wife’s family has the most of the traditional things, we’ll all gather the weekend before Thanksgiving and do Turkey and dressing and various sides. Thanksgiving day will be limited to one or two kiddos and the wife.

I generally smoke a turkey on the BGE around Thanksgiving. I’ll wet brine a ~12 pound bird overnight and then use orange and/or cherrywood chunks to give it the smoky flavor. Cherrywood makes the skin dark Walnut wood brown, a deep rich brown. Orange wood more of a light golden brown. Cherrywood has a more pronounced, distinctive flavor than Orange. Orange is subtle and nice. Not sure which direction I’ll go in this year.

Hickory wood makes turkey taste too bacony for my tastes. Nothing wrong with bacon, just don’t want my turkey to taste like it. Post Oak is for brisket and beef ribs. Apple seems wrong for Turkey. Apple is nice for pork once in a while. One day, I might try Maple wood for turkey.

I just like some turkey meat leftover for sandwiches. Smoked Turkey sandwiches are a favorite of mine.

My work gives every employee a turkey. So i checked and it seems I still get one even though I am on leave. So I will make turkey, but I am not sure what else.

The gravy I made in the cheap eaten thread was one of the best I ever made from corn starch.
What am I saying, it was the best.
I used the drippings and added water, the Knorr beef bullion.
The second ingredient after salt is MSG.
So I started reading up on the stuff and was surprised at what I learned.
Not the evil ingredient everyone makes it out to be.
The mashed potatoes i did the same thing.
Not added salt except for what was in the butter I used.
Then I stirred in some pure MSG/AKA Accent.
Just bought it the other day.
Wow, what a difference it made in the flavor of the potatoes.
Up until the other day I had no idea what Accent was and thought it was just another spice blend I had no use for.
Leave that up to my uneducated country boy ignorance.
I personally don't have any kind of reaction to the stuff at all.
But I can say it made a huge difference in the mashed potatoes.
The whole meal was over the top.

I have a carbon steel wok.
But for way over a year more like many years I have wanted a cast iron wok.
Today l pulled the trigger and got one.
Mostly because an Asian man of close to my age or abouts on YouTube suggested them.

Heating it up as we speak.
It's 14 inches and sits nicely on my glass top stove.

Cornelius_Gotchberg wrote: ↑Thu Oct 21, 2021 7:36 am Came upon a sauce recipe that La Hefa (my lovely and long suffering wife) claims will revolutionize our (hers, actually) sauce making endeavors; richer, creamier, tastier, and cutting that dreaded prep time in half.

*Cut tomatoes in half (no need to skin), lay face down on baking sheet lined with parchment that has drizzle of oil. Drizzle on more olive oil.
*Add paper flakes,peeled garlic cloves, thyme, oregano, etc., generous sprinkle of kosher salt.
*Roast in oven at about 400 until the skins of tomatoes blister and everything is soft.
*Add basil at the end of roasting.
*Pull out herb twigs, if you used them, and pulse everything in food processor to the texture you like. (I like mine a bit chunky)
*Heat again and put in clean canning jars. I use the pint size for this.
*You can process, or, if you have the sauce hot enough going into jars, the lids may pop anyway.
*If I have unprocessed jars, I put these in the frig where they keep for a few months.

The Gotch

There's an edit button, to fix your recipe about adding confetti (paper flakes).