Jensen

Is that beer underneath the gai lan? sort of behind the garlic chives? Edited to add that I guess those aren't garlic chives, if Safran says they're ramps...

That may be cider on the table but I know there's beer in the house somewhere. Oh, were we supposed to limit ourselves to the table???? In that case, I'm not proud... eggs

Dibs on the beer!

Johnnycakes are non-sweet pancakes cooked on a griddle from a cornmeal batter. They originated in Rhode Island and do not traditionally have sugar in the batter--but they can be served with butter and syrup for breakfast or as part of a savory dish. They're said to date back to the orignal settlers who may have received a recipe like this from the Indians. edited to add: they're very similar to hoecakes as therese just described above. ← Thank you both for the clarification. I should have known that my passport is the wrong colour to have got it right the first time around.

Isn't it called "johnnycake" when it's made with sugar and "cornbread" when it's not? I could have that backwards. A friend whose family settled Oklahoma told me all about cornbread way back. I've forgotten almost all of it though...

I know I should stop being amazed by these coincidences but my mum had this series too! In fact, at some point in my life, I nicked the Italian book (the coil-bound recipe book, not the hardcover picture book) and it sits on my bookshelf this very day. And now that I have that out of the way...can you tell us more about your "tea masala"? Do you make/blend it yourself? Do you buy it?

Putting aside for a moment how the rat came to be in the spring mix, how the hell could a sandwich be assembled without someone noticing that there was a freaking rat in it! The winery and/or their insurance company should have paid the $15G if only to avoid the publicity it's now getting.

Except for my attempt to make it with the dry milk (which failed miserably, btw), I haven't made yogurt in a while for a few reasons. I started a weight loss regimen in July of last year. Since my favourite yogurt was the full-fat stuff I made at home, it obviously wasn't a good idea to keep making and eating that! Secondly, I discovered the Trader Joe's low-fat organic yogurt. It has the exact flavour and texture that I was looking for when I started making my own yogurt but without all the fat. Thirdly, I haven't been eating as much yogurt over the winter. Now that spring is starting to come about, I have been eating more yogurt though so I have been thinking about starting the homemade production back up. We've been going through a fair bit of yogurt lately, as the Spawn has discovered she quite likes yogurt and honey as a snack.

It looks like we're in for another great blogging week. I'm looking forward to dreaming about kitchen renovations...

When I was in Quebec, it was either "Fous toi" (sp?) or "Fuck you". No baise-ing at all. I do wonder though, since mooshmouse (another Canuck) saw the correlation between bouilliabaise [misspelled for pronunciation reasons] and baiser, if I was just too naive at the time to know what I was hearing. I do recall that "Fuck you" seemed to be far more insulting than the other though. (Caveat: I was in Quebec shortly after the very first referendum and so there may have been a slightly heightened reaction to the use of English.) I had to laugh at this. Again, my first thought was "But that's how it's spelled!" Which brings me to this...when I was in Germany, I learned "kassler" but since then I've seen it referred to as "kassler ripchen" (with no attempt by me to transliterate the "ch" sound ). What's the difference? I know the food is the same thing. Is it just a truncated version of "kassler ripchen"? Also, I've heard it pronounced somewhere between "kass-ler" and "kess-ler". Not quite as if it were kässler but almost. Which is the correct pronunciation?

Since this thread is about pronunciation perhaps a quick look at Tess' original comment might clarify things for you. Didn't she say that it was the pronunciation of bouilliabaisse with a voiced fricative (zed...as in baiser) instead of a voiceless fricative (ess...as in abaisser) that put her in mind of the B-word? Geez, even me with my Quebecois french could figure that one out! (And, IIRC, the F-word is the commonly used verb in Quebec.)

I've always said fillet as "fill-it" and filet as "fill-ay". In my world, fillet is applied only to fish and filet is applied to meat. Edited for stupid typo

I know how to pronounce this one but I've heard it mispronounced a lot: geoduck (goo-ee-duck, not gee-oh-duck)

Thank you so much for a great week, Chufi, and especially thank you for sharing your recipes too.

ga-vertz-trah-mee-ner Just how it's spelled...

Really????? I'm not doubting or challenging you, I'm just surprised. Do you know any history of this term? ← Ha! Ask an Englishman to say St. John (sinjin) or Featherstonehaugh (fanshaw or, like the kid I grew up with, ferney-hugh...and you'd better not pick the wrong version when talking to him!) or Cholmondley (Chumley) or Worcester (wooster). I'm not at all surprised that Salisbury is sarum. I'll just keep saying "salsbury" though. Cockburn is pronounced coburn in Canada so that one wasn't a surprise at all.

I don't speak Vietnamese but I had heard that it is pronounced the same as the French "feu". Despite that, I still say "foe"...

I've been reading this thread and turning absolutely green with envy. Not only am I stuck here in Sacramento but the Spouse picked this particular time to visit Vancouver (okay, it was on business but still...) I just had a "web conference" with him and our dear friends, Kai and Jin. Tonight, they had a big family dinner. Tomorrow night, they'll have hot pot (apparently to make up for the hot pot dinner the Spouse missed this summer while K & J were visiting here). And then, as if all that wasn't bad enough, they'll be going to a big New Year's celebration at Kai's mum and dad's house on Friday night. I'm consoling myself with the knowledge that Kai said he took pictures of the food. At least I'll have something visual to drool over...

Or, if you could find a particularly superb Gruyere, maybe French onion soup?

When the butter and peanut butter melts together on hot toast, I'm in heaven. This was my favourite breakfast as a kid. (Well, one of them, anyway.) ← There is nothing like butter and peanut butter on hot toast. As if the fries weren't enough, now I'm really salivating!

Just in case Chufi's gone to bed already...rucola is German for arugula. Maybe it's the same in Dutch.

I can't stand Mexican oregano. The first time I (accidently) bought some, I was sure that it had gone bad somehow.

Could you share the recipe for the pudding? It looks wonderful!

You could try an Asian theme with it. Marinate your steak in some soy-based marinade, broil it until rare or medium-rare, and then thinly slice it. Something like this recipe from Epicurious: Korean-style Steaks

For lunch today, Fennel, Potato, and Leek Soup from Cooking Light.