lovebenton0

If I neglected to say that the eGCI is an incredible deep resource beyond the great postings of everyday, I do stand remiss. To have access to free culinary classes is a gift that eG has been able to provide through the talents and tireless efforts of all of you who present the courses without compensation. And the Q&A for those courses, which expand the knowledge by everyones participation. Not to mention our Special Feature Q&As with some of the finest, most erudite, and willing to share experts in the broad field of culinary delight. Yes, I have more time to read these days, and I thankfully have eG to provide me with some of the best info, brilliant topics, and knock out humor contributions anywhere.

Yeah, PP can be good -- but not a lot us have that on home computers. No problem inserting photos into a Word doc. I do that all the time and my printer is a good but fairly inexpensive E/S Photo 820 that produces more than adequate images. That way you can even do your own special pages with appropriate images for individual categories if you want to get fancy. Setting a template for the recipes is simple if you go that way. Basically I just have a simple format: Title Servings (special note area, such as oven temp, prep/cook time) Ingredients Method Serving suggestion Insert small photo for recipe if I want to up top my the title, etc. area. I have dumped the database crap -- not me enough. Just set up one doc in Word with basic format as above, then open that to a new Save As and insert recipe, photo. Oh so simple.

Wow! You've just given me another use for my own Tabasco mash. Thanks, Mayhaw Man.

Here's two, ashmaster. I have posted these before (and in eGRecipe archives, but that's not up yet), will post again here just for you. OK. Both of these employ eggplant - for a good reason, it is a great sub for non-meat dishes. Absorbs flavors well and has a good solid texture. I also grow a lot of it so we eat it often, very versatile veg. Let me know if you want my Eggplant Parmesan recipe too. You may not want to hit them with so much eggplant at once but these give you some choices. Both are good to make ahead. This first recipe makes use of Italian sausage (soy), and you can use the veg or mushroom stock/broth in this as suggested instead of chicken stock. My mr, a real "meat now" kind of guy loves this -- no complaints with the soy product at all. He didn't even realize he wasn't eating meat until I confessed. Tomato, Eggplant, and Italian Sausage Soup This is a nice garden soup anytime, great for end of the season harvest. Serves 4-6 as a generous main course; 8-12 as a "cuppa" soup course Ingredients 3-4 links Italian Sausage (I prefer the soy) 1 T olive oil 1 large sweet yellow onion, coarsely chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 3 cups Ichiban eggplant, halved and sliced 1/4 inch, OR Italian eggplant, chopped 8 oz sliced mushrooms 2-4 sweet banana peppers, sliced in 1/4 inch rings, OR sweet red pepper rings, chopped 2 cups vegetable or mushroom stock/broth (OR chicken stock) 8 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced, or 2 lbs canned, diced 2 T each fresh oregano and basil, OR 2 tsp each if crushed dried 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper, or to taste (I like it spicier) 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste 6-8 ounces red wine (optional but really the best - and you can use NA red for cooking if that's a concern) 2 cups or more water 1/2 cup cooked pasta per serving; pick a nice shape Method Heat skillet over medium heat for a few minutes; spray with non-stick olive oil. Brown the sausages in whole links until nicely deep golden. Remove sausages, add minced garlic, sliced peppers, and chopped onion, with more non-stick olive oil spray, or 1 T of olive oil. Stir to coat while slicing sausage. Slice sausages in 1/4 inch rounds, return to skillet with onion mixture, add sliced eggplant and mushrooms. Stir and cook until onions and eggplant are slightly tender, about five minutes. Sausage slices should continue to brown as you do this. Place all in your soup pot on medium heat. Add 2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth and 2 cups water. Add tomatoes and 2 bay leaves. Cook just to a beginning boil, lower heat, add 2 T each fresh oregano and basil, 1 T each if dried and crushed. Simmer, covered, at least 30 minutes. (Soup can simmer on low for hours, and is a good choice for your crock pot; may need to replace 1 cup or so water.) Add 1/4 tsp each crushed red pepper and salt, adjust to your taste. Now add 6-8 ounces red wine. Let soup simmer on low heat, covered, for another 30 minutes or so. Shortly before you want to serve cook some pasta al dente; pick an interesting shape, the pennes, rotinis, and small "horns" do well with this soup. 1/2 serving pasta per person (1/2 cup). Ladle the soup generously over pasta in the bowl. (The pasta is prettier, and will not lose its shape and if you keep it separate until serving soup.) Serve with fresh grated parmesan and or romano cheese, and garlic toast. A hearty sandwich. Smush Sandwich Delight Halve, slice and then saute squash and eggplant in olive oil with garlic, basil, and a sweet and a hot pepper, both minced, or use crushed red pepper (even some black pepper would do), until almost mushy. (One red Anaheim or small red bell pepper and one HOT banana or other pepper.) Add one chopped fresh tomato and cook down to smush. You may add a Tbsp or two of water, during cooking, if needed. Salt to taste. Let it cool a bit while you preheat oven to 400 and lightly butter bread as if you were doing grilled cheese, outside only (I used spray butter). Then pile about 1/2 cup veggie mush onto one piece of bread, sprinkle generously with mozzarella cheese, and top with other piece of bread. Bake for about 10 minutes (350-375) or until the bread is slightly toasty and the cheese is melted. This will make a few large slice-sized sandwiches, just double or triple (2 or 3 eggplant/squash instead of one) if your group is larger. For a tasting a half would do well per person. You can save the rest and use again chilled from the fridge, just start sandwich cold, it will heat up plenty in the oven. I had made sourdough and it was wonderful -- a denser bread like that is better.

Always cognizant of the value that food and cooking has played in my own life, eGullet has so thoroughly altered my days, for after losing direction on other fronts, I found a new focus here. My grateful thanks for being introduced to this community is with me everyday, as I read and post, question and am answered. The ability to share with others an equal interest in the higher worth of food in our lives, as well as the "get down and chow down" aspect, of what keeps us fueled on so many levels is a joy I hold both tightly and gently. The knowledge I have gained here can only be matched, even overshadowed, by the friends I have gained. Across the continent from each other I have formed friendships with unknown people that have become a daily part of my life. New friends in my own area, and the chance to share eG with old friends is a bonus. Very specifically for me the opportunity to work my amazing co-authors, snowangel and hillvalley, on a project that widened the horizons not only for ourselves, but for what the eGCI has to offer our culinary community was a revelation that targeted new goals in my life. I have to thank Richard Kilgore for a heads up on the existence of eGullet, Andy Lynes, Marlene, Gerhard, and Carolyn Tillie for their individual efforts, and most strongly snowangel and hillvalley for the months of work and raw revelations, needed to present the Cooking with Disabilities course. And you guys can make me laugh! There are gems of humor as well as wisdom hidden among the thousands of posts. Laughter lets the foodie learn without pressure, and the abundant knowledge keeps us on the high path to the food line.

You are correct. I dont jump up everyday excited. Most days im very tired as like today. Its dreary, we are very busy, I left here at 12:30 am and I have been here since 8. So I am just like you. For me though, I love comfort foods and when it rains or is could, I find great joy cooking these items. So it almost always perks me up. Plus when food gets like this, I can make it a bit spicier and use more root vegetables and squashes, which I love. Also, white truffles are arriving and they are so sensual, it makes the day go very fast. Also, its almost Black Truffle season. I cant wait. ← Weather everywhere seems to have been odd around the US this summer. For us it is still too much summer. I am longing for the luxury of heating up the kitchen with comfort foods -- braising, roasting, stewing, souping my way through the week. Even baking the bread I have been craving is not the comfort I want it to be when the heat and humidity just go on and on. Enough of my interminable summer whine! What I want to know, considering this is Halloween weekend and the lovelies are on my mind, do you make much use of pumpkin in your daily menus at this time of year? In soups, other savory dishes? Sweets?

I will stand corrected if I'm wrong here, but to cook la plancha is on a griddle over high heat, i.e. hot coals. Fire up your grill -- hot -- set your griddle (or large cast iron pan) to heat. Cook. When I do this I seldom need anything in or on the griddle as the heat releases fats from fish or meat. Very quick method. I'm sure Chef Hamilton would have a better explanation for you.

Me neither. I found it while stumbling around online searches for appropriate bottles - for the first batch of Tabasco sauce. Perfect for the small orders. Hope your nephew enjoys it too, fifi. My Anaheim pepper plants look like they should be in a gardening book. Some are four feet tall and lush as a hedge! Picked a bunch o' peps off them this morning. Jalapenos too and those plants are twice as big as a week ago! And a shirtful of baby eggplant from the Jap plants.

Fish frys have long been a tradition with SE Native American communities. I'm not saying that they "invented" it, however fish was a major food source for most of the SE. Whether riverine (most common) or coastal, the abundant fish contributed a major part of the diet and a significant measure of protein. Frying is indeed an efficient way to prepare a large amount of food-- anywhere -- in a short period of time. I seldom fry anything. Didn't even realize there was such a thing until I was taken out to a new fried chicken restaurant in our town outside Dallas while guests were visiting my parents when I was seven! (Fried bologna doesn't count! ) First time ever to eat fried chicken livers and gizzards. I do fry chicken livers. And oysters. On the stovetop -- in a big pan -- with oil. About 99% of the rest of my "frying" takes place in the oven. And i seldom eat it out either. Childhood food imprinting.

Thank you also. Let me know if I may be additional help. Good luck! Best Richard ← I can't resist asking this. Without telling tales out of the kitchen . . . Could you, please, elaborate on your method for preparing your potato crusted scallops? ← Well....that is a kind of, I dont want to say secret, but it is something I do that alot of people would love to know how to do. I hope you dont feel this is disrespectful. Its not the intention. THank you for asking about it though. ← Not at all. Exactly the reason I posed the question in that manner. It just means I'll have fun with a deeper experiment. Thank you.

Thank you also. Let me know if I may be additional help. Good luck! Best Richard ← I can't resist asking this. Without telling tales out of the kitchen . . . Could you, please, elaborate on your method for preparing your potato crusted scallops?

Oooooo . . . no. But maybe someone should sniff around ebay -- or Half-Price -- for a golden oldie like that. My recipe developed over years of commom denominator mixing for related quick batters -- and it's flexible, allows for a lot of creative input at initial production and final mixing stage. Perfect for me when I was a schooling/teaching/two job working, student, Archaeologist/Geologist. Perfect for in the field, and at home on those rare occasions I got a chance to enjoy it on a weekend. Now it's just easier to mix up more at once and have to do less trips (ooooooooops! ) around the kitchen.

I really like to mix up the dry ingredients and cut in the butter or shortening to keep on hand in the fridge. When ready add in milk, eggs (optional, but if you omit eggs you must adjust your liquid up another 1/4 to 1/3 cup), sugar and/or spices, then pour on pancake griddle. 4 cups flour (I don't sift) 1 1/4 tsp salt 2 Tbsp baking powder 6 to 8 Tbsp butter or shortening (start with 6 Tbsp and see how it cuts through) Store in sealed zippy-lock type bag or plastic container in fridge. It will keep 6 to 8 weeks. You can double this with no problem. Pancakes: For every 1 1/2 cups of your mix add (just until combined, but not beaten) 1/2 cup milk (or sour cream thinned with milk to equate), two eggs (or 1/2 cup pourable sm'eggs), and up to 1 Tbsp sugar. Also if desired -- about 1/4 tsp to taste of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, or mace to mix. You can also sub out 1 to 2 cups of the AP flour for cornmeal, or whole wheat, or oat flour, etc. Add 1/2 cup fruit if you want. Makes 8 to 10 pancakes (1/4 cup batter/pancake). It makes a more multi-purpose mix that way. As easy to travel with and mix as brand mixes, but with more you involved if that's what you want. You can adjust the flours you use as well as the add-ins to serve your preference (pancakes, biscuits, muffins, and even some simple coffee cakes).

Make your own mayo, mix in sour cream (3:1), add chives (I add garlic chives 'cause I grow 'em and get that little extra kick), minced shallots or scallions, and a splash of Tabasco sauce -- or minced hot chilies of your choice. But one of my quickie favorites is curry added to the same mayo/sour cream (3:1) base, with minced sweet onion and green apple. Or olive tapenade mixed in, pepper (black or red), crisped pancetta chiffonade with basil to top the salad. You can also add your choice of appropriate shredded/minced cheese, or cottage cheese, to any of these. I have to agree with Tess -- bleu in egg salad is great! Then I only hit it with a touch of black pepper and garlic in the base dressing. Not everyone will go for that. Gouda is good with the curry/sw onion/apple; sharp cheddar with the Tabasco; and pecorino in the olive mix, just as suggestions. Oh-oh-oh! (Hand waving wildly in the distance. . . ) Redsugar, now I want a ES sandwich -- and a bowl of your lobster chowder. I mean now. :bigrin: I love egg salad. Hope your ES is a hit at the party, ladyyoung.

LMAO! We're not discussing "deep dish" here. Are you just trying to be controversial? I guess I'm in the vast minority of locals...more or less burnt out on "deep dish" and eternally obsessed with thin crust pizza. That's pretty much blasphemy around these parts. I do love that Chicago has its own "style" of pizza and it's great when you're in the mood but for me that's only about once a year. =R= ← Thin crust a blasphemy?!! Tain't that a shame. When I was a kid around Chicago (no not 100 hundred years ago ) you just didn't see all that thick doughy crust. Thin was in. No cheese and sausage casserole in a pan. Hey, if you wanted a lot of bready dough that's what bombers were for.

And did he want to share it with you, Cusina? My friend and her older sister introduced me to crisco on bread topped with sugar, broiled to their idea of perfection -- when the sugar forms a crusty yet molten top -- then sprinkled with cinnamon and downed while still scar your mouth hot. Don't want to let that crisco cool off! I ate it at their place -- never could make myself concoct one of my own. But then they ate Captain Crunch sandwiches too!

No wonder no one remembers Jamail's (Jamal's)! That was a grocery store in Houston, family owned, cool place, still delivered for you in the early to mid-70s. I was thinking of Vargo's. Thanks, fifi, your reference to the sandpit knocked that loose wire connection back in place. Said it was a long time ago -- I still don't remember what we ate, just that we enjoyed it.

Thanks, jess. I love this place! Multitude of basic designs/color combo options/text options. No minimum required for an order. Design your own at myownlabels.com -- so easy. Lots of stuff there for foodies like us, beyond the variety of labels. I did labels for my Back Fence Grape Jelly there too -- triple batch bumper crop last summer so I still have some left. Salsa labels too -- which is regrettably almost gone. My chips and 'tillas are grieving.

Eunny, you're such a tough act to follow. All these fall-inspired meals sound and look so good. Still very much summer here! (76 at 2:00AM!) It was just me for one of those makeover nights -- and I really wanted the pecan smoked pork. Pulled it and warmed with some of my Tabasco/honey BBQ sauce. Then added some raisins and roasted red Anas, scooped it on a toasted bun and topped with sliced scallions. Asian pear and red grape salad on the side with a crumbled bleu and fresh mayo/sour cream dressing. Limeade lurking on the side. No not fresh -- if I'd had limes I might have larbed. But then I wouldn't have thought of doing this. I'd do this again in a flash for a light picnicky meal. The pecan smoke (my personal favorite) of the pork with the hot/sweet/sour of the sauce, roasted peppers, the added touch of raisins, and bite of scallions was a winner. Sweet crisp Asian pear and popping sweet grapes countered well with the creamy bleu. Later I had lemon yogurt sprinkled with Kashi for dessert.

D'oh! If you have MS Works (as I do ), fifi, you can go into the the Task Launcher or the Database and choose a Recipe Template. They do come with bleh! cutesie graphic in the corner but you can delete that and change anything you want to suit your own style.

Kinko's or a similar place is great for this. The printing is cheap enough -- especially when you're printing many pages as you would be for multiple copies. Most places have a breakdown for price per page based on # of pages. Also various styles of binders, paper stock, and colors -- including laminated covers/pages/whatever you want. And you can get cool and creative with graphics or photos for the cover. Just print out what you want at home and take it to them. Most places will also print off your CD. You can organize in categories and make fun cover pages for those too. I'm in the process of doing this myself. Kids and others have been asking for individual favorites for years and would like to have a compilation in a real cookbook format. Something I've been working on for quite a while. Still have lots of old hand-written entries (pre-computer for me ) that need to be transferred. Thanks to lcdm for the link to recipes templates also. You can create in Word as marie-louise suggested, but maybe the microsoft link is even easier or more variable. I'll definitely check that out too.

I'd give a definite yes vote for the Tabasco plant! They are perrenial if kept from freezing. I even had three return from last year after our little Austin snow event. I grow several every year and if you get into it you too can have these as your reward. The vinegar sprinkle is from some of this year's peppers. I add a couple garlic cloves and salt to vinegar. When the vinegar is sprinkled out you can add more vinegar -- it'll even get hotter for a while. I've refreshed sprinkle bottles as many as five times before it just wasn't the same. But then they're still hot enough to throw in a jar with some garden goodies for hot pickle. The red hot sauce is from pulp that I've been aging now for three years. It does increase in intensity! But it's still good and hot the first year. I age the ground pulp (dry peppers first) in vinegar to cover, keep it in quart jars in the fridge. Let the pulp drain leisurely into a bowl through a strainer or cheese cloth ball for about an hour. You can then squeeze the rest of the liquid through. I add more vinegar -- you just have to judge this based on the ergs of your pulp and your own taste -- some salt, a tid of sugar and another tid of powder blend garlic to the liquid fire when I heat it to make the sauce so I know the extras are dissolved. Wham! Hot sauce! Bottle up and keep as long as it lasts around the house. I always give this stuff around the holidays -- makes such a nice red gift. (OMG was that a MS moment?!!! ) Don't throw that pulp away! Return to a container with vinegar to cover and keep aging -- I always have separate jars for the continuing aging process, this year's fresh pulp, and the ongoing oldest. The stuff just gets better with time like a fine wine.

Very thin, crispy crust Chicago pizza cut in squares (whether a round or rectangular pie) was the pizza I always went for around there. If you try to cut that super thin crust into big wedges it just doesn't work.

What a great tip, Q. I'll have get to Costco just for these!

Does anyone remember these? Do chocolate covered ants and baby bees count?