Priscilla

I have a sprawling volunteer multi-vine pumpkin patch snaking out of the compost covering a huge area of my garden (out near the stinging nettles mentioned elsewhere). Immense! And it all on its own, although the Consort did tie the patch into the watering system after it became obvious it was here to stay. Loads of male flowers, bigger than my hand. (Pumpkins too! Hope they make it -- have had bad luck trying to grow pumpkins but these volunteers seem to know what they're doing.) Have fried some blossoms with a little goat cheese and parmigiano/pecorino romano inside, dipped in batter. Very mild, not tasting so much of pumpkin as zucchini flowers do of zucchini. But good. Adam, I used a crackly flour & water batter that I use for zucchini blossoms. Could you outline the proportions of the egg-rich one your Italian informants use for pumpkin? The custardy middle idea intrigues. Is there stuffing as well?

Wow Stellabella was that evocative and inspiring and all that. AND salsa dancing. Very cool. I am SO getting a comal.

Oh my it AIN'T no In-n-Out, GOD knows, but Carl's ain't so bad, in the world of fast food. I know more than one Southern Californian who can wax pretty fondly over the steak sandwich which was on the menu until pretty recently. Also the famed Ortega Burger, a nod an homage an acknowledgement of our Spanish Land Grant history. PLUS, wasn't Carl Karcher the main benefactor of the fake but brick-by-brick true-to-scale Independence Hall built at Knott's Berry Farm? Also, additionally, too, once a friend of mine attended a wedding wherein Carl Karcher was also a guest and he Carl Karcher handed out Free Burger business cards to the guests as he circulated at the reception. Huh like to see OTHER burger/similar magnates doing that uh huh.

Very cool. The top so-many leaves, just like picking tea, as I read. I can do that. Thank you!

Very cool and exciting! Thank you, um, Wolfert. Hope I've got enough in my accidental plot for lots of dishes. Using just the uppermost leaves, and anticipating stunning collapse during cooking, I'll have to harvest a LOT. They seem to suggest themselves into some of my favorite things.

Thank you, Jim. Yes to the gloves ... it'll be just like weeding, only we'll eat the harvest. So, just the leaves, or stems too? Mario, in the aforementioned nettle pasta dough, cooks just leaves as one does spinach for the same application. But the nice little stems look good, too.

Yikers! Perhaps relatedly, my research did turn up some sources advocating the use of the plant's own juice as an antidote, break a leaf and apply. Have not tried.

There's a lovely crop o' stinging nettles arising unbidden in a newly cultivated section of my garden. Rather than allowing them to flourish, ritualistically repeating the self-fulfilling prophecy wherein I excoriate them with a stream of profane vitriol when my ankle inadvertantly brushes against, I plan to cook them. Some of the best people do -- our own Jim Dixon talked about 'em in the fiddlehead ferns discussion quite a while ago, long-ago eGulletaire B Edulis spoke of them under the heading Wild Thing, I Think I Love You, Mario Batali makes pasta dough with 'em; Euell Gibbons. Anthony Bourdain evocatively ate them in soup in an episode of A Cook's Tour filmed in Scotland. My research is just beginning. I would be interested in other's thoughts.

Wow I am so making ceviche or gazpacho this weekend except with shrimp instead of scallops, and I want my friends to do like Jaymes said and stand around enjoying the cool goodness. Also, deviled eggs. Fimbul, I have many many times imagined deviled eggs with cute adorable quail eggs, and my intention is, next time I'm at the Asian supermarket, to just buy them and do it. I have, as Rachel said, bought small eggs for the task and they were nice. But oh those quail eggs. I imagine they'd need only to be brought to a boil and allowed to sit a minute to be hard boiled. And it's just true, as everyone has been saying, you can have 8,000 deviled eggs and they will ALL be eaten and people'll be scrounging around saying, are all those deviled eggs gone? Sometimes I have made variations, like adding avocado & crabmeat in there, but mostly regular. A friend told me about something she learned either from the dread Martha Stewart or the beatified Julia Child (can't remember which she said), adding a little melted butter to the filling, which of course resolidifies when chilled, helping the hold shape. I've not done this, but I can wrap my mind around it.

Last evening steak frites, nice Certified Angus NY strips + 1 tenderloin, grilled over very very hot mesquite. Compound butter with lots of chives, s&p + some Turkish Aleppo pepper I received from Penzey's just yesterday melting in generous quantity atop, the better to begin to soak the frites alongside. Beet greens given to me by my amigo at the farmer's market (of COURSE I inquired about buying them, but he wouldn't have it -- there was a big old accumulation in front of him from the folks who took their beets topped). Sauteed onion, wilted, coarsely-chopped beet greens, butter added in bits along the way as the greens, as Elizabeth David said about spinach, "imbibed" the previous addition, until critical mass was reached. Plenty of s&p, touch of nutmeg grated in there. Oh first a little shrimp cocktail bite out by the old Weber, a little glass of white sangria while the mesquite chunks did their thing.

Last evening nice Alaskan halibut on the grill over mesquite. Strawberry beurre blanc. Redleaf salad with white wine vinegar/grapeseed oil dressing. Remains of a focaccia split, grilled briefly.

Thank you for Q&Aing ... I'm getting a kick out of the disclaimers, and salute you for not merely cutting and pasting! During your time at Food Network, was there a particular show, or topic, or even ingredient eliciting a strong negative response from viewers? What were the objections?

Am I the only one thinking of Norman Mailer and Jack Henry Abbott?

J Acord the menu sound lovely but I'm not seeing the photos ... where in the U.S. was it cooked? (Wondering if the ingredients were influenced by region.)

I can say this about white Zinfandel there are people I like to whose homes I am invited on which occasions the dread white Zinfandel is the lesser of the evils on offer. And I'd drink it anyday anytime instead of chemicals-in-a-can. What I want is something called rose made by a CA winery with whatever lovely blend of grapes the talented winemaker adjudges appropriate that costs <$10./bottle and is delicious.

Actually I have had not-bad, OK not-great, but not-bad roses of Grenache from Temecula, a Southern California winemaking area. Also blends of varietals in rose, from Temecula. Some are in the sugary style, and others are not quite so Cokey-Pepsiey. You know, I really hate those chemicals-in-a-can. THEY are the REAL problem.

An ongoing mystery, indeed. I think about this all the time. I love Zinfandel, I love roses, but abhor and protest the sugary so-called self-styled "white" Zinfandels. Seems to me that Zinfandel, as a grape identified so strongly with CA and its famous CA climate, oughta be made into some of the best most wonderful roses in the WORLD.

Thank you much, Steve -- this is interesting. Alastair Little, 1 and 1, seems like. Agree with the good looks of the dish you weren't happy with. Await the report on the frozen tentacle! What about a cork in the simmering water, you know how Mediterranean cookery sometimes suggests -- is that worth a try?

Mmm used to be able to buy ollalieberries at what was my local farmer's market some years ago, from a lady who grew 'em in her backyard. Really good. They resemble boysenberries, which also appear at farmer's markets here in Southern California sometimes. Last evening, tonkatsu, fried panko'd pork cutlets. Sake-simmered carrot batons, spinach with the sesame sauce Torakris clued me in to making from scratch which I formerly bought in a packet. Nice rice from the cooker. Kikkoman tonkatsu sauce, still the one to beat around here.

Last evening, chicken devil's style, after the way I saw Mario do it a couple of years ago ... marinated for a while in olive oil s & p and a bit hit of red chile flakes. If memory serves me right, Mario used, (and when I have it on hand I do, too,) his own chile--infused oil as well. A great thing to have on hand. Must make some asap. ANYway, grilled the boneless chile-marinated chicken legs over mesquite, grilling-friendly cut, boneless legs. Risotto (using Carnaroli) with loads of diced Cremini mushrooms in there, as per the preference of the 11-year-old and the Consort. Batons of carrot sauteed with butter and sage. Baguette. Caparone Paso Robles Nebbiolo, its full flavor belieing its quite astonishingly light red color. Unfiltered, unfined, very good.

Hey! I've got bison-grass-infused vodka in my freezer even as we speak, a gift from a Bulgarian.

Also, re: T-L Foods of the World, somewhere along the line I scored a pamphlet with a master index of all the recipes. It's stapled, not spiral-bound. Very convenient for locating a particular thing. It was in one of those piles of pamphlets that accumulate in the corners of the lowest shelves in used bookstores, which I usually don't bother to rifle. Maybe it was right on top.

Yes. A person needs both. Otherwise all the recipes in the book's index with the mysterious R next to them remain just that, a mystery.

A year ago I woulda said Anchor Steam, maybe out of snobbishness. But now it's Sierra Nevada all the way, made possible by a neighbor who installed a discreet never-empty SN keg setup, always icy cold. What a good beer SN is!

Damn you. Liverwurst sandwiches 'n bread and butter pickles. I've had 4 sandwiches today since I read your post. A GREAT combo I had long forgotten about. What brand liverwurst do you use? Thumann's braunschweiger, for a while now. Really really good. What brand do you use?