Alex

r, where are these made?

Thanks, Rob. I'm pretty sure I seriously overcooked the jam -- after it cooled, it was dark, thick, sticky, and pretty much unspreadable unless heated for a bit in the microwave. Still delicious, though. I made six(ish)-ounce burgers seasoned with just salt and black pepper, dividing each into two three-oz patties then dotting some jam between them before smushing them back together. That was it for my burger; Ms. Alex got a bit of ketchup and mustard because, well, some things just aren't worth arguing about. When I return the book to the library, I'll ask if they could put it on the "new non-fiction" display rack for a while. There's already one hold on it, awaiting my return. There's a second copy in the system, at a different library, but its status is "unknown," which means it's probably on order.

This might not have been on KT's mind when he started the topic, but the notion of "must-have cookbooks" gets at several interesting (to me, anyway) questions. Does "must-have" mean the latest ideas/ingredients/techniques, or does it mean the books we rely on the most or would miss the most if we didn't have them, i.e., desert island books (assuming one's island came complete with a fully equipped kitchen and pantries)? Or does it mean something else? How have your choices changed over time to reflect changes in interests, skills, motivation, maturity, etc? As with the previous question, have your choices changed because of what's become available on the 'net (or via public libraries, for that matter)?

Echoing pastrygirl, what, exactly do you mean by "cooking for three years" (and "cooking for free")? Restaurant? Home? Catering?

Pearls Before Swine: "I love the practice."

The book arrived at my library on Monday; I picked it up today. Lovely. Apropos the picture just above, we already have the ingredients for bacon jam (the bacon is from these good folks at Crane Dance Farm), so that'll be first up. We're fresh out of ground elk, but we do have ground beef (also from Crane Dance). What else, if anything, did you put on the burger? Did you use any seasonings in the meat besides salt and, I assume, black pepper?

I don't truly need them, either, but that hasn't stopped me before, and didn't this time, either. What tipped the scale was W-S's bonus coupon for signing up for their email list -- 15% off plus free shipping, which took an already-good $99.95 down to $84.96 plus tax. The down side, such as it is, is that the pans won't ship until approximately November 5. Learning to deal with delayed gratification is good, so they say.

OK, gang. I need some help. I just scored a very lightly used CSO via Craigslist for $100 (the earlier model, not the one with the steam-cleaning feature). We already have the larger Breville (and a microwave and blender and...), so some counter rearranging is in my very near future. But that's not what I need help with. What I'd like is some advice about how I should start learning about this blessing from the shopping deities. It's now at 1135 posts, counting this one, in the two CSO forums, so I suppose I could just start at post #1 and work my way through, but something a little more directed would be good, I think. Thanks.

And there's even a musical about it!

The NYT article was about the Trib's article. That's why I posted the original.

I just started Ingredienti: Marcella's Guide to the Market. Such a wonderful voice. She is missed.

A secret no more, perhaps (article in the Chicago Tribune)

See the third paragraph.

This is an actual exchange in the Comments section of an article in our local online rag. I've removed the screen names. The article was about a guy who flipped himself over the handlebars trying to do a wheelie on his motorcycle. ---------------------- A wheely is not always a dangerous motorcycle move. If it goes wrong as it rarely does you need to ask why it did. I would use this as a good time to tell people how to do one the right way. I and my two boys do wheelys and could be talked to about this. If you want to. is a wheelie anything like a henway? What's a henway? around 4 pounds That's dumb. The joke, or missing it? is it an Amish hen? Because they usually weigh more.

Heart and Brain, on vacation

A.Word.A.Day did the same thing a few years ago, which included one of my favorite words, salmagundi. I seem to remember a classical music radio show with that title, in which the host played selections from all eras and genres.

I have a feeling there's some lutefisk in our future.

I always look forward to reading my emails from A.Word.A.Day. Each week's words follow a theme; this week it was "words related to food" -- i.e., English words with a food-related origin that have taken on an additional meaning or meanings. These were the five for this week's mailings: jambalaya farraginous kool-aid ragout immolate Of course, there are many more than just those. "Oleaginous," "toast/toasted," and "treacly" were the first to come to my mind. Got any others?

Interesting article/study. One issue that occurred to me is whether the three types of are being used for their optimal results, and whether some types of land are being converted, as mentioned in the avocado article you posted.

OK, people. This isn't a kale topic. As cdh pointed out here, this topic is a great example of how everything is politics (and money -- but I repeat myself). I'm trying to imagine how difficult, if not close to impossible nowadays, it would be to eat 100% ethically, so to speak -- eliminating or greatly minimizing one's contribution to environmental degradation, pesticide use, organized crime, government corruption (but I repeat myself again), etc., etc. The issue basically boils down to money, as noted in DDF's quote. It also relates to the meta-issue of what I call TMP -- too many people. From the year I was born, in the mid-20th century, to today, the US population has more than doubled; the world population is projected to have tripled by the time I die. (And the greatest proportional increase, by continent, has been, and will continue to be, Africa. That's why I think it'll be the next hot spot for conflict over the coming 50-100 years.) More mouths to feed = more opportunities for the problems I mentioned in the last paragraph. I do take issue with the Guardian's use of "hipster." Yeah, I know it's clickbait, and the Guardian has an agenda and it's their style, but the snark factor really wasn't necessary here.

I think IndyRob was referring to Paisano's in that statement, not Chick-Fil-A. Could you explain your reasoning behind withholding your money?

"Everything is politics." -Thomas Mann (1875-1955), The Magic Mountain ...which includes food and drink, of course -- from agribusiness to GMOs to alcohol regulation to raw milk to veganism to, well, you get the idea. What brought this concept to mind today was this article about an Italian restaurant in Albuquerque, NM, that's selling t-shirts with the phrase "Black Olives Matter" on the front. (For those of you who ignore the news or who reside in another country and might not know this, the phrase is a takeoff on the political/social movement "Black Lives Matter.") It reminded me of a topic I attempted to start several years ago, one related to the question, to what extent do your personal politics, etc. enter into your choosing to avoid or patronize a restaurant (or shop at a particular store or chain, stay at a particular hotel, etc.)? That question was engendered by this 2006 news story about a restaurant owner's ties to Hezbollah. The moderators at that time apparently disagreed with Thomas Mann, decided the question wasn't sufficiently food-related, and tossed the topic into the Black Hole of Irrelevance. I'm hoping the current moderators are a bit more broad-minded. Obviously there's no one answer to that question, but I was wondering how eG'ers deal with this issue, if at all. For example, there are two pizza chains whose founders' politics and practices I find reprehensible. Do I factor that into my decision of where to buy my pie?

1. Go to the topic you want to link to 2. Click, hold and drag to highlight the URL from the beginning through the end of the topic's name 3. Press Ctrl-C to copy (Command-C on a Mac) 4. Start a new topic. 5. Type what you want to type (e.g., Worst meal at some ones home) 6. Highlight a relevant part (or all) of what you typed 7. Click on the link icon (next to the Amazon link) 8. Press Ctrl-V (or Command-V) to paste the URL 9. Click on "Insert into post"

I sometimes think of CaliPoutine's three-year, 765-post blog/topic Cooking for 50 Senior Citizens whenever I see this Jimmy John's TV ad.

Renowned chef, restaurateur, and author Michel Richard died yesterday, due to complications from a stroke -- twelve years to the day after Julia Child. When I followed the main link in today's Julia Child: Cooking with Master Chefs topic, before I knew about Richard's passing, I noticed that he was one of her master chefs. Weird. Richard was best known for his Washington, DC, restaurants Citronelle and, later, Central Michel Richard. In fact, former eG'er Mark Sommelier was, of course, the sommelier at Citronelle. (Last I saw him, he was at Pennsylvania 6, also in DC.)