Jensen

Oooooo...I made a great cross-cut shank recipe the other night. Brown the shanks and set aside. Sweat some onions. Deglaze the pan with a wee bit of balsamic vinegar. Stir in two smashed garlic cloves and about a teaspoon or so of Mediterranean oregano. Add a tin of whole tomatoes (breaking them up) and the beef. Braise until the beef is fork tender. Take the beef out, put in another pan/roaster, and return to the oven. Run the braising liquid through the blender to make a sauce. Cook some pasta. Serve it all together. Yum!

* tinned whole tomatoes, cooked down to a thick "paste" in the presence of bacon fat (or butter, for the vegetarian crowd) * Hackepeter * poached egg (who mentioned "spreadable egg yolk"? I am SO with you!) * and the only sweet I like on toast...Silver Shred

Oh thank you...it was bugging me too As for 'where' to get duck eggs, I second the Asian market suggestion. I'm pretty sure I've seen duck eggs at my big Asian supermarket (and quail eggs, if anyone is after them).

I have a recipe of my great-grandmother's for apple cheesecake that calls for stirring the filling in one direction only. I don't know if the recipe was hers or was handed down to her. She was born in the 1880s or so. Apple cheesecake is not what it sounds like...it's a lemon curd (something we always called "lemon cheese" when I was growing up) pie with apple slices in the filling. Interesting that Andisenji stirs her lemon cheese in one direction...

Last night's dinner was Short Ribs braised in Porter with a Maple-Rosemary Glaze: And then tonight, I used the leftovers to make ravioli. The broth for the ravioli is the leftover braising liquid thinned with some chicken broth.

I forgot to mention...I did deglaze the pan in which I roasted the ribs with the broth called for in the recipe. Then I just set it aside until I was to add it to the braising pan. Beer vs wine? They're different animals for me. I think the beer braises taste more of the meat whereas you can get a more complex dish using wine. Given the choice, I'd take the wine braise too but a little beer braise now and again is good as well.

I didn't turn them but, if you notice the "before" picture, I did put them on the tray bone side down. I did salt and pepper them and I used the middle rack. If I had English-style short ribs, I would have roasted them longer though.

Tonight, I made the short ribs braised in porter with the maple-rosemary glaze. Although I'd talked to my beef farmer about getting English-style short ribs, the processor cut them flanken style again. Between that and the lower fat content of grass-fed beef, I decided to brown the ribs by roasting them at 450 for 30 minutes. It worked out great; I will never again brown short ribs in a pan! Here they are, ready for browning: And the pan right before it went in the oven: Just before glazing: And on the plate: I had read Marlene's comment about braising this recipe at 225 for 4 hours and so I started out along those lines. After an hour, I thought it wasn't simmering quite hard enough so I increased the temperature to 250 and pulled them out of the oven after a total of 3.5 hours. Porter was no where to be found within walking distance of my house and so I substituted an oatmeal stout. I think it gave a little bitterness to the braising liquid and, although that was softened somewhat when the liquid was reduced, I won't make that substitution again. If, in the future, I can't find a porter, I'll substitute a Chimay dark ale. I did not find the glaze too sweet but the maple syrup I started with wasn't very sweet to begin with. Edited for wacky typo...

Yeah, you're ahead of the curve. Not surprising given your geographical location...vive le GVRD libre! (I have to say that since my most recent Canadian address was in New West.) As for fresh pea soups, I have had this recipe from Epicurious and can vouch for its awesomeness. As for me, I had the Armenian lentil soup mentioned just a couple of post ago. I split the recipe in half and it made enough for the Spawn and me for dinner and then a good sized lunch for me and about a half serving still in the fridge. I moved this summer and no longer have a lemon tree so I substituted fresh orange juice in the recipe (I have two orange trees now).

How about a lentil soup? I made a really good one a while back that is either vegetarian or could be adapted to be vegetarian. Let me hunt down the recipe! [time passes] Found it! There's a photo of it here: link to eGullet post of Feb 2006 containing a photo on another site And the recipe can be found here: Lentil Soup Recipe Made with vegetable broth or water, it would be vegetarian (and it's really tasty!).

What about using daikon?

Curried Parsnip Soup:

Tonight's dinner was the Curried Parsnip Soup. In the midst of cooking it, the Spawn commandeered my computer so I had to wing it on the spices. I came pretty close though...a little more cayenne in mine and I completely missed the flour. I garnished it with some croutons made from some bread I made this morning. It was pretty darn good. Thanks for the recipe, Rover!

There were leftovers and they were incredible fried in butter (later in the evening...who can wait until the next day?). The cakes look incredible. Now I'm almost regretting having had that late night snack. (No, what I'm really regretting is not having made a ton of the stamppot!) Did you mention upthread something about freezing it? Does it freeze well, with no potato problems?

You guys just want Grandma's pickle recipe... ("Lights" are lungs. Like srhcb, I am of Scots heritage although I now celebrate Robbie Burns Day by making lemon cheese and scones.) I will offer the lowly Mushroom for "M". A few years after I'd graduated from university, I moved from a small city to a rather cosmopolitan one. My hometown was based around government and the university and the move away from it also signalled a change in goals for me. I gave up my aspirations for academia and just took a position that paid the bills. I've got a busy mind (as this thread has shown, it's not always a blessing...LOL) and so, to occupy it, I took a course on writing children's literature. In turn, that lead to a children's novel, as yet unfinished. The novel focusses on some of my favourites: alternate worlds, faeries, imagination, and even cooking. Whilst writing it, I had to invent the first meal a human child would eat after being magically transported to a faerie world. Since faerie rings had always been a big deal at my house (that Scots heritage and all!), I reckoned the first meal had to be a mushroom pie. How would I describe this? I've never had a mushroom pie. And so I set out to make one! The mushrooms were sliced and sauteed in butter. Then some flour was sprinkled over it to make a mushroom-y roux. Enough chicken broth was added to make a not-too-thin-but-definitely-not-gummy gravy and, after being seasoned with a wee bit of rosemary, the mixture was put into a pie shell, topped with another crust, and popped into the oven for baking. When the pie was cool enough, I cut myself a slice and sat down at the kitchen table with it, pen and paper by my side. It was like eating the first step you take on a forest path...the taste of the earth, of nature.

I've been a huge fan of stamppot ever since reading Chufi's first post about it. I've made it with kale, cabbage, arugula...lots of different greens. Tonight, for the first time, I made it with brussel sprouts. Maybe I should qualify this by saying that brussel sprouts are my favourite vegetable. Maybe not. It was, without a doubt, the best. Unbelievable. I might be spoiled for all other versions...

The last time I was at Ikea, I picked up two spatulas. I thought they were silicone but now I'm not so sure. I made some Dutch sugar bread before Christmas and grabbed one to loosen the sugary sides of the bread before turning them out of the pan. The heat of the sugar made bits of the rubber to fall off. Yum! (not...LOL)

LOL...not sure if it's me or not but you've laughed me out of my snit. Thank you. Here's my story about jars of green tomato pickles (written in 1998): ============ I’ve just spent a few minutes looking through my recipe box for my grandmother-in-law's recipe for green tomato pickles; I’d offered it to a friend after she complained that her tomatoes might not ripen because of bad weather. It’s a wonderful recipe. The last time I made it, my pickles took second place at the Luxton Fall Fair in the 'Miscellaneous Pickles' category. Mixed in with my pickle recipes were records of all the canning I had done in years gone by. I liked to record what I canned, when I canned it, how many pounds of fruit or vegetable I used, and how many pints or quarts that amount yielded. In 1989, I canned 54 jars of salmon. In September of that year, my husband broke his back in a workplace accident. One month later, our daughter was born. The next year, I made 2 quarts of blackberry cordial. I put it in mason jars and took one quart to 'Welcome to the Family' party my aunt hosted for my sister and her new husband. I had to shake the jar to liquefy the cordial before it could be poured as the pectin in the berries had made the liqueur set up. We all laughed at how ‘hillbilly’ we were for drinking out of a mason jar. In 1991, I tried my hand at pickled asparagus. My mum had been served a pickled stalk in a cocktail while on holidays and enjoyed it a lot. Since I couldn't find a recipe, I made up my own. When the pickles were ready to eat, my mum came over for dinner and we mixed ourselves Caesars with pickled asparagus ‘stir sticks’. I had used a little bit too much salt in the making and the asparagus came out puckered and wrinkled. Mum and I both agreed that, despite their wizened appearance, they were still crunchy and tasted wonderfully. In 1992, I canned very little – just one batch of jam and my usual batch of beet pickles. My cousin, Carolyn, died that summer of lung cancer. She was 29. approaching autumn – green tomatoes left on the vine

I'd offer up a story for a jar of green tomato pickles but I don't want to get spanked again. Carry on...

Just for srhcb then...a salad of completely different letters. * slivered Almonds * Bacon, cooked until crisp and then crumbled * Cos (okay, I couldn't wait for L for lettuce or R for romaine lettuce) * Dijon mustard vinaigrette * poached Egg Served with... * sliced French baguette * which has been rubbed with a slice of Garlic Better?

Well, it looks like I might have to search out this Wondra product. I'm all for appreciating underappreciated ingredients. I thought it might be similar to Bisto but without the colouring added but, when I checked my box of Bisto, its main ingredients are potato starch and wheat starch. No flour... Edited to add: Thank you, FG and mrbigjas, for your explanations.

When I lived in the Yukon, I was given a beaver by a friend. I lined the cavity with sliced lemons and roasted it. Interestingly enough (well, as it applies to this discussion), it tastes a lot like dark turkey meat. I really enjoyed it.

Broad noodles are a favourite around here however I do have to say that the only ones I can buy at the grocery store have a strange taste to me. I used to splurge and buy what were called "Italian egg noodles" (upscale brand, came in a paper bag) but they were discontinued at my local Raley's. I guess I was the only one buying them. I'd make them a lot more often if I could find some without the weird fishy taste. Funny about the canned peas...weren't they in Saveur's 100 edition? Can someone tell me what Wondra is? I will confess to having (and using!) a bottle of gravy browning now and again. And then there's Bisto...

Friends who obviously never had their mouths washed out with soap when they were children... Count me in the cilantro camp! D is for dragées (which will somehow figure into our chocolate-based dessert but I'm not quite sure how yet).

Marcel, One of my friends/neighbours is from Bavaria and I know from being in her house that she has at least one bread cookbook (auf Deutsch as Ludja says) on her bookshelves. I've asked to borrow it and will peruse it and get back to you. I wouldn't mind such a recipe myself. My favourites are the ones with the seeds and whatnot on top...