ludja

Interesting, I had never heard of this. click I also came across another German sausage: "Pinkelwurst" described as consisting of pork, onions, oat groats, and bacon.

While haggis is certainly kinfolk, the old country ancestor is more likely "Saumagen" or 'sow's stomach" from the southern Rhine region of Pfalz (Palatinate) in Germany. I think the majority of German "Pennsylvania Dutch" settlers came from that area of Germany. Here's some information on Saumagen: click Mimi Sheraton has a recipe for Saumagen in her book, "The German Cookbook". Her (probably adapted) recipe includes ground pork, ground beef, minced streaky bacon, bread rolls, potatoes, eggs, onion, s&p and marjoram. edited to add: Here are some recipes on the web: click and clack and one from Helmut Kohl’s wife, Hannelore: click

I think that is a pretty fair assessment. Can anyone come up with any other countries that use as much ice in drinks as the US does or like their sodas and glasses of water as cold? Well, I'm not proud or ashamed of liking cold drinks, so pass me an icy diet coke, please... In Graz (Austria) I found one vendor in town that carried pretty cold cans of 'coco cola light". I also bought cans to have in the fridge at home and gave my grandparent's ice cube tray some use... In Florence during very hot weather I had many nice icy lemon slushes but when I needed a cold soda, I went to McDonald's and asked for extra ice. In terms of waste, I wonder what the energy expenditure is each day to make millions of drinks (sodas, iced teas, glasses of water) filled with ice. (It would be dwarfed by AC expenditures, but still...)

This doesn't address your original question, but I remember Bill Neal's suggestion (in "Biscuits, Spoonbread and Sweet Potato Pie") to use half lemon and half orange zest and juice in his orange curd recipe. He says that the addition of lemon adds a bright taste and avoids an overly 'cooked' flavor that can result from using all orange in curd recipes. I've made his lemon curd recipe but haven't tried the orange variation yet myself. I just noticed that avid's recipe has lemon juice added as well.

David Lebovitz has a nice recent entry on his blog about fresh salicorne pickled with vegetables and thyme. Interestingly, he mentions yet another name for salicorne used in France: “haricots de mer” or "green beans of the sea". Click here to read the entire entry.

I think having lots of ice in a drink is something that has become much more popular in the US, in say, the last 30-40 years. So I do think it has been a type of conditioning--which I am a part of. Give me an icy can of diet coke. I like the bite of cold and the extra carbonation. I think people who are not used to this find the 'excessive' cold and carbonation unpleasant. (My grandmother in Austria probably thinks it is unhealthy as well.) The little to no ice in drinks is just as common in Austria and Italy per my experience. I wonder if the proliferation of McDonald's and other US fast food joints in Europe is 'teaching' the next generation to enjoy and want lots of ice in their soda? Do fast food outlets there put lots of ice in their soda as standard practice?

Hope you take photos; that sounds like a unique State Fair! Have a great time on your trip.

I don't have a recipe, but I remember reading about a prickly pear souflee once in a 'nouveau' Southwest cookbook. I think the puree was incorporated into the souflee and that it was also served a with a prickly pear sauce flavored with tequila... Seems like the puree form of the fruit is one starting point as also evidenced by some of the other suggestions for ice cream and sorbets.

I will keep watching and let you know what it is in a few weeks. ← Cool; if it is broccoli, they grow off the center stalk, facing upwards and in the center of the "cabbage" leaves in a somewhat simlar position to growing artichokes. I've heard of Rote Gruetze but have not yet made it myself. That is pretty neat that you buy a version all ready made in a jar! Thank you for a wonderful blog, Swisskaese, with many beautiful photos. It's been an informative and lovely week.

Here are some cookbooks with creative ideas on pairing herbs and dessert type dishes: Claudia Fleming's "The Last Course" Maybe also The Herbfarm Cookbook (by Traunfeld?). This book is not exclusively desserts but as I recall it has an interesting sweet section. I've made a great summer dessert recipe with herbs inspired from a post by Abra a few years back. It is a cornmeal/polenta based cake soaked in a rosemary syrup and served with sugared blacberries. The flavor combination is very good. A direct translation for a mini-version of the recipe might be iindividual cornmeal cakes or muffins baked in mini-tins that are soaked with rosemary syrup after baking.. Maybe it would work to put a fresh blackberry in the center of each little cake. Here's the original recipe: click Another idea for a fun, individual dessert serving idea could be homemade marshmallows. I haven't tried them yet but there are a bunch of posts on eGullet reporting member's successful attempts. I think there are some good recipes about for strawberry marshmallows. Maybe these could be scented with lemon verbena or rose geranium if these are in your garden. Should work well being made completely ahead of time... here is the thread on Homemade Marshmallows Nice suggestions; pretty and delicious. Welcome to Egullet, by the way, avid!

This grape or a variant of it is also found in Austria in the states of Burgenland, in the south and Styria. It is usually made as a red wine and is called "Uhudler". I recall it as a full-bodied red wine, which is not so common in Austria, but I would like to try it again as I can't fully remember the taste. The wine is not very common and has a kind cult status for its admirers. Uhudler Wine

The silvery gray cabbage-looking plant might be broccoli. They look similar to broccoli fields I've seen growing in the Salinas valley. Strawberries also like growing that area.

Thanks to becoming aware of khao soi in this thread, I tried a bowl at a local Thai restaurant in San Francisco (Marnee Thai, Irving St). I loved it! What a combination of flavors. The served dish was inititally stingy on the condiments so we asked them for some more and they happily obliged. Thanks all, for opening my eyes to this dish; I will be making this at home sometime.

Sounds like a perfect Napolean to me.... I love the classic recipe; it *is* simple in concept and everything relies on the freshness and quality of execution and of the ingredients. Crisp flakey layers, rich creamy filling and just enough sweetness from the fondant.... I've haven't tried to make them yet, but I know when I taste a good one. Thank you for the wonderful description.

I started a thread in the SW forum to follow developments on this years green chile crop: click

Here are the earlier postings from the green chile cheeseburger thread: click The local news here last night showed rivers of rushing water flowing through the streets of Hatch. That same piece mentioned that the Chile crop was spared. It's a milagro! We shall see. It's been very wet this year, so the chile will not be as hot as dry years. The weather report is for more torrential rain the rest of the week. Not good! ←

Gfron1 started some postings on the green chile cheeseburger thread. Here is a recent article from the Abq Tribube: click It sounds pretty bad for many growers in Hatch, but hopefully further damage willl be avoided. There is more rain in the forecast though and the story may change. The flooding may also have implications for the upcoming Hatch Green Chile Festival over Labor Day Weekend.

I was wondering where they source their produce from. I may have missed it, but I didn't notice any mention of this on the website which I thought was a little odd.

Rick Rodger's "Kaffeehaus" has a nice listing in the back of Kaffehaus's in Vienna, Budapest and Prague so I checked it out see if there looked liked any promising listings in Prague. The good news is that he says there are still some traditional places with beautiful architecture (mainly in the Old Town and New Town sections) but he says that the quality or finesse of the actual pastry lags behind. He ascribes this as a slow recovery in this area from the years of Communism. Does anyone have any good pastry shops or bakeries in Prague that they can recommend? (I may also start another thread on this since I am interested to hear more about this...) edited to add: This cookbook was published in 2002 so that his impressions, right or wrong, are probably from over five years ago.

A friend just returned from a trip to Wisconsin and told me about their visit to the WI State Fair and the giant cream puffs. Look here for a photo: http://weblog.textdrive.com/images/39.jpg I want to try cheese curds, regular or fried. "Fried, they're gooey, salty, hot and good; raw, they're squeaky and yummy." Has anyone been to the State Fair in New Mexico (Albuquerque)?

Thank you for your reply and good wishes during transition time at Saveur. It will be exciting to see some of the new things planned at Saveur that you outlined above. I hope the improved search engine on the website includes a complete index listing of all the recipes. That is great that there will be more coverage from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Please also remember a sector we call "Elsewhere in Europe" on Egullet. It is comprised of countries other than Great Britain, Italy, France and Spain. These are of course great cuisines that have many fans among your readership, including myself, but I also value Saveur as one of the few places that covers other cuisines, including those from the other European countries. I hope the small number of good stories from Scandinavian countries, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia, Russia, Poland and other eastern European countries don't decrease! Good luck in achieving an interesting balance; I also enjoy the regional American articles very much as well as those from points north and south of the US. There is so much great food and many interesting cultures to cover... Thank you for a great magazine.

It's too bad that for people selling perishable goods that it can not sometimes be a win-win situation to sell older or less perfect produce at a lower price. A market/store near me always has a table of marked down fruits and vegetables and it is wonderful to see the produce being sold rather than thrown away. It would certainly seem to be a wonderful opportunity to both sell goods rather than let them rot and to also make healthy produce available at a price affordable to people of lesser means. I think that some people looking for lower priced produce are simply people with less money not yuppies trying to stiff a farmer. I don't try to bargain at farmer's markets for many of the reasons already given.

Scalloped Tomatoes Serves 4 as Side. This is adapted from the wonderful cookbook of Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock entitled, "The Gift of Southern Cooking". Some variations I've made from the original recipe are to use different types of bread than just the traditional slices of white loaf bread with crusts removed. One nice variation is to use light rye bread. I've also sometime increased the ratio of bread to tomatoes. I recommend using only vine ripe tomatoes and real butter for this dish. Also, don't forget the touch of sugar. It is not added to produce a sweet taste in the dish but it balances out the flavors and acidity of the tomatoes. Here is a link to some photos of Scalloped Tomatoes as part of a Southern Vegetable Plate. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=82927&view=findpost&p=1252514'>http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=82927&view=findpost&p=1252514 Here is a thread honoring Edna Lewis that highlights and discusses many of her recipes. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=82927 6 large vine ripe tomatoes, skinned, seeded and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks 1/3 c finely chopped onion 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground 2 tsp granulated sugar 4 slices white bread, crusts removed, cut into 1/2 inch cubes 4 T unsalted butter, melted, (to toast bread cubes) 3 T unsalted butter, melted, (to drizzle over dish before baking) Put prepared tomatoes, onion, s&p and sugar in a bowl and toss. Sprinkle bread crumbs w/melted butter and toast in 375 deg F oven until crispy and light brown. Add croutons to the tomato mixture. Adjust seasoning if needed. It should not taste sweet but the sugar is important to strike the right balance. Turn into a buttered casserole dish, drizzle melted butter over and cover the surface with a round of waxed or parchment paper. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 375 deg F for ~ 30 min. Remove paper and foil and bake uncovered for another 10 min. This dish reheats nicely. Keywords: Side, Dinner, Vegetarian, Lunch, Easy, American, Vegetables ( RG1772 )

From an earlier post...

Thank you for the detailed reply to my question. I, for one, am also grateful for your detailed photo essay and accompanying text. It is extremely helpful for someone like me who, while baking a fair amount, has very little experience with Middle Eastern pastries--the doughs, how to form the shapes or what they should look like at the end. Thank you very much!