Varmint

Gee, Rochelle, thanks for throwing me a huge softball. There are several keys to good biscuits, but the most important thing is the flour. General all purpose flour just doesn't work, as it has too much gluten. You'll get decent biscuits, but not great ones. I use good old fashioned southern self rising flour, which is really quite similar to cake flour with baking powder and a touch of salt added. To the flour, I add a small amount of baking soda to help with the leavening. A dash of salt is good, too. I use butter as my fat. No shortening, just butter. To me, the flavor is imperative, and butter accomplishes the job (lard is also good, but Mrs. Varmint wouldn't eat the biscuits then!). For each cup of flour, I generally use about 3 Tbsp of butter, cutting it in thoroughly. Now this is the tricky part, as I can't tell you the appropriate volume of liquids: I generally use about 1/3 buttermilk, 1/3 whole milk, and 1/3 heavy cream. This makes for a very unhealthy, but luxurious biscuit. You'll want to add all the liquid in at once. Stir until the dough just comes together. Plop it onto the counter/board, and knead it 5 or 6 times at the most, making sure you get good folds with each knead. It's the kneading that creats the layers you desire (that, and all the fat). DON'T over-knead the dough, or you'll get tough biscuits. Roll the dough out to about 3/4" thickness, cut with a sharp biscuit cutter (if you're sloppy with the cutting, the biscuits won't rise uniformly), and put on a sheet with parchment or a Silpat. Pop into a hot oven (425-450) and bake until they just start to brown. Quickly take them out, brush with melted butter, and finish baking until golden brown. That should do it for you. These don't have a great shelf life at all, but then, we rarely have any left over.

Celery soup? Stir fry ingredient. Stock. I've heard that you can dice it and freeze it for use in soup.

Only jhlurie would have the brilliance to combine a dog, a blender, George W, and a Don Martin character. Gee, I need to go back and check out my 70s edition Mad magazines.

Eek, you showed her your back???

Ron- I don't find that the addition of butter makes either biscuits or pie dough tough. In fact, I use all butter as my fat in biscuits -- the secret there is the flour more than anything else. As far as pie crust is concerned, I find using all shortening indeed results in a crust that lacks any depth of flavor. Moreover, butter does not make it tough. Thus, I, like Rochelle, use a half shortening - half butter mixture. Toughness is ultimately dependent on the amount of moisture in the crust and how aggressively you work the dough. I keep everything ice cold, keep the water scarce, and then barely work it at all -- just enough to keep everything combined. To me, the crust is more than just a vessel for the filling. It is an integral part of the pie. My favorite complement when making a pie is not related to the filling -- it's for the crust!

Thanks, everyone. This is very helpful for me. My biggest problem is that I'm in town on a Sunday and Monday night -- the two worst restaurant nights imaginable. I'll track down availability for those nights. Being from North Cackalacky, I don't get the opportunity to participate in any eGullet get togethers. Please let me know if anyone is interested in getting together on September 29th or 30th. I'll go out with the client the other night! This is so far in the future that I don't expect much response, but if there's at least a trickle of interest, we can create a new thread. Thanks!

Seared tuna with sun globe tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, thyme, balsamico and garlic on a bed of soft feta polenta (I like saying feta polenta). Roasted asparagus. For dessert, white peaches poached in red wine with cinnamon & clove, served on pound cake and cinnamon ice cream.

Careful, Bushey, as you don't want to stroke Tommy's ego too much. He'll forget to take his medication.

Man, I was really thinking this was an incredible bargain until I saw the disclaimer, "Bottles Not Included." Rats.

C'mon, Tommy. You know I have no sense of humor. I just appreciate your being the straight man for once by throwing me that bone. You may resume your rightful monopolistic spot on the jokester throne.

I brewed a fair amount when I was in graduate school, but I haven't done it in over 11 years. I did learn that one should never try to sterilize bottles in a high pressure autoclave.

I've had mead twice. The first time was at a medieval party, and I remember it not being all that great. The party, however, was a blast. The best costume was a couple dressed as black rats and they handed out business cards -- they were plain black, as they represented the plague. Macabre, yes, but fun nonetheless. The other time I had mead was at Gramercy Tavern with Mr. & Mrs. Fat Guy. It only recall it was quite tasty. Unfortunately, I've lost my tasting notes from that night (damn Palm Pilot), but perhaps Steven can recall the specifics of the mead as well as what it accompanied.

oooo, i bet mr. city slicker has cold *and* hot running water too. C'mon, I'm from North Carolina. Here's a picture of our new deluxe bathroom:

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that we have no fewer than 18 large drawers in our kitchen. We have one for eating utensils, one for sharps. one for every day gadgets (peeler, cheese plane), one for measuring implements, and so on. On top of that, we have another 20 or so drawers in our dining room for napkins, placemats, etc. Even with all that space, AND keeping many spoons, ladles, whisks on the counter, I still have a junk drawer. It holds all the items that just don't "fit" into a specific drawer's category. It's a bit of an anal-retentive system, but it works.

Not to be overly stupid, but what's the purpose of doing that, as the alcohol would be absent in these, wouldn't it?

I think you generally want to start with dried figs for fig bars, however. I guess you could start experimenting with drying them, Stellabella.

I think there was a feature on gazpacho in the August edition of Gourmet. I'm not sure if it's online.

Stellabella- What do you use in your canning liquid for the figs? I never have enough figs to can, but we receive several jars every year from family on the eastern part of the state. When I married into the family, I wasn't overly familiar with figs, and everyone kept telling me that I wouldn't like them. It was just a grand conspiracy to keep more to themselves. Anyhow, I now hoard the preserves worse than any of my in-laws!

Figs and prosciutto Make a fig vinaigrette (make sure you strain out the seeds, as they are annoying) Someone had a thread about olive oil ice cream the other day -- they served it with poached figs, I believe. Yum. Roast the figs and serve with pork Figs are always good in a compote -- you might want to combine with another fruit that is a bit more tart I made a fig tart ages ago -- can't remember what exactly I did Some folks like to grill figs as a side dish I like figs with duck Consider yourself lucky. Last weekend, I was getting ready to pull tons of figs off the tree in my front yard. I got extremely busy at work and didn't get to the tree until yesterday. There's lots of bird crap now under the tree, and only a few figs in it. Damn birds.

Mine is very similar to yours, but the heat is turned down somewhat. I also add lime juice. The critical element to me is that the soup be chunky, with lots of crunch to it. I consider it to be primarily a salad with lots of liquid. I despise it when it gets pureed.

Thanks so much, Rochelle. We're proud of you and appreciate your candor. Keep it up!

C'mon, the 2 most important words for me in my marriage are "Yes, dear."

Fat Guy introduced me to the concept of cream in risotto, and although it works well in some dishes, it's inappropriate in others. For instance, when you want to get a sharp flavor to come through the risotto, such as sun dried tomatoes, the cream deadens the flavor somewhat. I don't use as much cheese, either. I guess one way to look at it is to compare pasta sauces -- some are creamy and some are not. There's many instances when the dish would have been better if the chef got rid of the cream.

Thanks; and geesh, no apology is needed. Anyhow, I needed to do something with the 'maters tonight, so thus the reason for the new thread.

I plan on eating quite a lot of the tomatoes tonight, but Mrs. Varmint and I will barely put a dent on what's on my desk right now.