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Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine: click Some listed dishes: Amish Friendship Bread Scrapple Pickled beet eggs Schnitz un knepp Chicken pot pie Bova Shankel (translated as "boy's legs") Brown butter noodles Rivvel soup Apple butter Hogmaw ("Seimaaga" in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect) Chow-chow Cole slaw Pretzel Beef or venison jerkey Desserts: Shoofly pie Whoopie pies Funnel cake Fastnachts Apple dumplings

Here's a webpage with a lot more information and photos of pepperoni rolls. There are a bunch of recipes as well: click

Like the brandy caramel with the spice cake, Ling. This recipe wouldn't be the one for a wedding cake but it might fit Carolyn's earlier request: A Chinese Five Spice Angel Food Cake. This recipe is originally from Tom Douglas (Dahlia Lounge in Seattle) and was published in "Home Food". I've served it with an orange creme anglaise as he suggests and it is very nice. Here are the ingredients: 1 cup cake flour 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder 1 1/4 cups sugar 10 large egg whites, RT 1 tsp cream of tartar 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp almond extract Oven at 350 deg F. Twice, sift together the flour, salt and five spice. Sift sugar in a separate bowl. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks appear. Slowly add in sugar while beating until firm, but not dry peaks are formed. Add extracts in towards the end. Carefully fold flour mixture in using a spatula. Transfer batter to ungreased 10 in tube pan and bake in center of oven for ~ 45 min. Check if finished baking by inserting a toothpick in the center and checking for no crumbs. Remove from oven and invert over a wine bottle and let cool completely. My notes say to try using some more five spice powder next time.

It is an interesting and beautiful state. I was surprised initially to know about the Italian and other non-Scotch/Irish immigrants in parts of the state but I guess it isn't that surprising giving the job opportunities in mining earlier in the century. I have a very good friend from the more Southern part of the state, near Huntington, so I have gotton to see different areas of the state. Pepperoni rolls aren't sophisticated but are rather a great humble regional dish! As far as I can tell they originated in the northern part of the state in the town of Fairmont which is about 20 miles south of Morgantown. The origin is from Italian immigrants up there who came over to work in the coal mines in the beginning of the century. So--I think pepperoni rolls are more common in the central and northern part of the state because that is where they started. I'll check with my friend whether or not they can be found in the Huntington/Charleston area nowadays or when he was growing up there. The dough is definately not a pizza/calzone dough; it is more like a soft bread roll with a small to medium crumb.

Have you ever had a West Virginia Pepperoni Roll? It's a great regional dish very specific to West Virginia and a few neighboring areas. They are perfect and a classic for football tailgates which is where we had the rolls above before an exciting WVU-Marshall game. The versions above have some whole wheat in the dough but they are typically made with white flour. They are a great snack because the delicious pepperoni (and sometimes cheese) is neatly enclosed within the roll. They are perfect with beer as well. Here is a better description from wikipedia: click (bolding added by me) I want to find a good recipe and try to make these at home. They would be perfect Superbowl food as well.

Can you find different varieties of heirloom potatoes at some of the farmer's markets? I thought John Thorne (in "Serious Pig") mentioned that there were still some producers in Maine; the descriptions of the potatoes sounded great.

Well, I thought I would share this photo to encourage all of us. It's a homemade pork tamale with red chile sauce--but not made by me. My friend's housekeeper gave him a huge batch of these wonderful tamales which we enjoyed last week.

I would definately consider the decorated gingerbread that swisskaese mentioned above as well as the plum kuchen or maybe an apple version. The kuchen are very traditional and it should also be possible to find recipes which are made in large rectangular pans and can be cut into squares. Another great German dessert recipe which can be made in squares is "Bienenstich" or Bee Sting Cake. The dough is a sweet yeast-based pastry which has a layer of sugar and sliced almonds which bakes and caramelizes on top of the cake. After baking, the cake is cut in half lengthwise and is filled with a vanilla pastry cream. I've had this many times but have not yet made it at home. The recipe in Mimi Sheraton's "The German Cookbook" looks very good.

Yes, I have gone to the NM State Fair many times over the past 20 years. It is great fun, both in terms of people watching and in terms of activities. I absolutely have to go to the Bolack Building every year, which is the vegetable exhibition area. The Bolack Farms have a huge exhibit every year, behind a big plate glass window, of the most astonishingly beautiful produce I have ever seen. Children like the Future Farmers barn where they have quite cute baby farm animals and children can vote on their favorites. There is some good music at the fair. too, spanning a wide range of music types. I once heard a Navajo flute concert there that held a large crowd spellbound and silent for many minutes. The food is not terrific to my palate, but my family love the roast corn and the turkey legs. ... ← Thanks Petrissage and misstenacity... I don't think I'll make it out there at the right time this year, but thanks for sharing some of your experiences. I've heard of the roasted corn and turkey legs being a staple. Those pies look fantastic! I guess another regional specialty might be Navajo fry bread. I wondered if they did anything creative with green chile...

Glad my report helped to pique your interest, Pontormo! I have a bunch of southern cookbooks and this is already looking to be one of my favorites along with Bill Neal's books. I like lard in moderation and use it in places where it will really add some flavor like in a bean dish. Another key application for me is pie crusts--I use half lard/half butter. For frying, which I do infrequently, I use canola oil--the good lard I render myself is too precious! I used whited cornmeal when I lived in North Carolina for a few years but I can't remember enought to make a comparision anymore. I use yellow cornmeal and regular flour with any adjustments as suggested.

Baking: from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan I just bought it today at Costco. ← Here is a discussion thread on "Baking From my Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan: click

I had the same idea, but they may be trying to trick us by playing to our expectations...

cornbread with fresh corn and chopped okra okra fritters/pancakes made with cornmeal Nice recipes for both in Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock's, "The Gift of Southern Cooking".

It's after midnight, but I"ll slip in a vote for peaches. Beautiful dinner last night, guys! I thought the plating artistry was exceptional.

Thanks for a great blog, Fat Guy! Like a few others, it brought back wonderful memories of family vacations on the Cape. We used to rent cottages in the Wellfleet/Eastham/Truro area so you went to many of the same places and beaches as we did. A well-rested baby is a happy baby and it seems like PJ had a great trip as well. I love the ice cream photo--the rapt expression on his face and knowing it was his first ice craem cone was just priceless. Talk about finishing a blog with a bang as well! Thanks for sharing a 'typical' week with us!

Ok, this is a rather silly question but I'll go ahead anyway. When dining out with a group of people I've noticed that conversation at the table will often come to a grinding halt when the server/waitstaff/sommelier brings the bottle of wine. Part of this is somewhat necessary in order for the person ordering the wine to look at the proffered bottle. I feel more comfortable resuming a light conversation as the server goes through the process of opening the wine rather than just everyone sitting in silence during the whole process. Is this considered rude? Feel free to laugh at this question.

Good luck, birder53! I'm sure it will come out nicely. Glad you decided to peel the peaches; I think this is pretty standard and a good way to go. I really like the taste of nutmeg with peaches and use this instead of cinnamon in peach pies and cobblers. Just a pinch, in either case. A great add in to peach cobblers is raspberries, blackberries or sour cherries if you feel like trying a variation sometime. edited to add: If you still have a question re: the baking dish, I use pyrex, nicely buttered, for baking cobblers and related dishes.

Thank you for sharing the food side of your trip with us, U.E... Beautiful photographs and descriptions giving an idea of the wonderful diversity of dishes. I'm so intrigued by this steamed egg custard w/crisp ground beef. Do you remember the flavor of the custard? garlic? sweetness? more neutral? Was the ground beef spicy?

I'm also interested in checking out Ana Sortun's book. My sister and her husband just had a spectacular meal at Oleana. Here is an amazon link to the book: Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean Here is a LA Times review that also has sample recipes for: Spoon lamb Wilton's corn cakes with nasturtium butter Arabic coffee pot de crème

The menu and vibe does look really good. I may get there soon to eat and think it will be pretty difficult to choose what to eat in one visit! Any comments on the meatloaf, chicken dumplings or mac n cheeseburger? meatloaf: "ground black angus chuck blended with roasted vegetables, cabernet wine gravy, smashed potatoes" chicken and dumplings: "garlic roasted chicken slow simmered in a green chile broth with masa, cilantro and feta cheese dumplings" mac n cheeseburger: looks like a burger topped with a wedge of fried, homemade macaroni and cheese Any comments on the desserts are welcome also. They look pretty good... edited to add: Thanks, fyfas for pointing out their link to the Range Cafe which has been a favorite for awhile. This only heightens my anticipation to check out the Standard Diner.

And for the icing, the most common choice seems to be cream cheese frosting with or without toasted pecans. Welcome to eGullet, cakezilla!

A few other 2006 cookbooks I have out from the library: Donuts: An American Passion by John T. Edge This is the last book in his Americana food series which has previously featured, Apple Pie, , Fried Chicken and Hamburgers and Fries. There are lots of interesting anecdotes from his visits to donut places around the country and also some background history. He gives some recipes including that for Zimmerman's Cake Donut which sounds fabulous. Here's a description: click Another interesting book that is beatifully done is: Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert: Norteno cooking of South Texas by Melissa Guerra. I haven't seen her earlier book, The Texas Provincial Kitchen to know how they compare. Here is a review from Publisher's Weekly: click I'm looking forward to the Tartine book as well.

I have this out of the library right now and it will also be going on my list. She really has a creative array of dishes that sound great and are beautiful. I like the chapter called, "Fingers" for things like ice cream sandwiches. Leite’s Culinaria has a few of Luchetti’s recipes from the book on the site: Brown Sugar Ice Cream Chocolate Roulade and Milk Chocolate Wafer and Chai Ice Cream Dots

I am not sure what you mean by adapted. I think with a dish like that, as you point out, there are many possible additions. I got the recipe from a very old German cookbook printed in fraktur. If by adapted you mean American-ized you are wrong. If you mean I combined traditional elements ot suit my taste, you are right. ← The latter interpretation is what I meant; apologies for my ambiguous sentence. As an aside, I'm enjoying the book, which I just acquired a few months ago, very much. The first thing I made was the delicoius Wesptphalian Cherry Cake, and I'm looking forward to further exploring the book. Thank you very much for this classic book!

This won't help you in LA, but my family in CT always had seltzer refilled in the old glass bottles at local place in New Britain, CT. The place is called "Avery's" and they also make old fashioned soda like cream soda, birch beer and ginger ale with cane syrup. My mom found 12 large old fashioned seltzer bottles at a flea market awhile back and we used them, bringing them into Avery's and picking up a fresh 12 pack. It was great to have nice, fullly carbonated club soda/seltzer at will. Here is their website: http://www.yankeemagazine.com/travel/searc...searchcriteria= Since places like this are becoming few and far between, maybe you would have some luck if you contacted Avery's and asked for any LA recommendations they might know of. "Always ask for Avery's" (their old and present slogan since 1904.)