Varmint

Great site. Thanks.

I often make a ridiculously simple tomato soup. Saute onion, then garlic, basil and perhaps a touch of some chili pepper. I then cook down the tomatoes -- skin, seed and all. Run through a food mill, salt, pepper, EVOO, and usually some type of good vinegar to taste. I assume this'll work with the Cherokee Purples.

Damn, a co-worker just dropped a boatload of fully ripe purple cherokees on my desk. She's leaving for Seattle for a couple of weeks and needed to get rid of these. I'll be sure to grab some local goat cheese, basil, and eat like crazy with EVOO, but what else can I do with them? She's also invited me to help myself to her garden while I'm gone. Do these make a decent sauce? I have only eaten them raw. It's heirloom madness.

I hear he even dons a tux and hair piece and belts out a mean version of "Fly Me to the Moon."

Sounds like you and Ellen had a fantastic day, Steve. Congratulations on the 8th, and I hope you continue until your 68th.

Biscuits are actually very easy to make. You just need to be gentle on the dough. I make biscuits with southern self-rising flour (lower gluten content), a touch of baking soda, a bit of salt. Cut in unsalted butter (I use 6 Tbsp for 2 cups of flour). I then use a combination of cream, buttermilk, and whole milk for the liquid. I can't tell you exactly how much, because it depends on the day's humidity. Bring it together gently, knead 4 or 5 times to help form the layers, roll, and cut. Bake in a fairly hot oven (425 for us Fahrenheit folks) until brown. The biggest mistake is overworking the dough. It can get tough. The other key is to use the low gluten flour. I've never tried cake flour, as there is such a variety of self-rising flours here in North Carolina that have been milled and formulated primarily for biscuits. Good luck!

One other approach you could take is to do something that would require some help. Guests will inevitably ask if they can help with something. Let them help in the preparation of the meal. If you do it in a way that isn't pedantic, the guests will feel as if they played an active role in the final dish. Plus, they may pick up a tip or two that they can use at home. Or you could just call for pizza.

After their screams die down, not much.

I've always been told that you don't want to use boiling hot water, as that creates a bitter taste. The same principle applies with dried tomatoes.

Rochelle- I was thinking of the Laboratorio, but that might take more time than the clients would have. I'll run the idea by them.

I'll be in the DC the first few days of October for a meeting. I may be entertaining clients, so high end places would be welcome as well. I'm staying at the Hilton Washington on Connecticut. Thanks in advance.

I grew up with every kind of highly-sweetened cereal imaginable, and with my L'il Varmints running around, I don't want them to feel they're deprived by forcing only healthy stuff on them. Thus, we currently have in our pantry the following: Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries (I prefer my Cap'n Crunch w/out the berries); Honey Nut Cheerios; Frosted Mini Wheats; Lucky Charms; Cracklin' Oat Bran; Crunch Corn Bran; Smacks (I still call them Sugar Smacks). The thing is, the L'il Varmints rarely eat cold cereal. They eat grits, waffles, pancakes, bagels (bad ones, at that, as Fat Guy will corroborate), toast, cinnamon toast, eggs, biscuits, fruit, and other grains. I'd say they eat cold cereal once every 10 days or so. I think we use the children as an excuse to buy the way too sweet stuff.

The Mise-enberg Uncertainty Principle

Excellent

I did not do this, but I witnessed it: . . . use self-rising flour to make fresh pasta.

I promise, I swear, I covenant that I will never again pan roast something, put it in the oven, take it out of the oven, remove the meat, and begin to deglaze the pan while grabbing the (DAMN, THAT'S REALLY HOT) handle.

Thanks for all the great posts. I've frozen some, made some peach preserves, and am ready to try many of the ideas suggested here. Strange thing, though -- just when I thought I was going to be sick of them, I sliced up three peaches for breakfast this morning. I guess I won't be getting tired of them soon!

I remember eating Scooter Crunch bars in college. They came in strawberry, chocolate and vanilla and were absolutely dreadful. We ate them nonetheless, primarily because they had perhaps 2 naturally occurring ingredients in them. I can't find any information about them on the web, so if someone could find a link, I'd be grateful!

What would you do with the gastrique, and what would you use for the acid?

OK, I'm up to my eyeballs in peaches. Peaches are my favorite fruit, but I think I'm growing tired of cobbler, buckle, pie, shortcake and eating them in hand. Any ideas for other uses of peaches, preferably in the non-dessert arenas?

This is by no means the best cookbook ever, but the cookbook that introduced this small town boy to cooking was the Frog-Commissary Cookbook by Steven Poses of Philadelphia. This was the cookbook that introduced me to some basiscs of Thai cooking. It taught me how to make elegant dishes with unusual ingredients. The illustrations always caught my eye, and the recipe introductions were very helpful. The book also threw out a number of different combinations for salads, pastas, appetizers that one could put together on a whim. Ultimately, it taught me how to think and not to use a cookbook as a step by step instruction manual. The book was out of print from some time, but it's available again through Camino Books in Philly. Click right here on this spot!

Let me know where you find one, or buy 2 and send me 1. I'm with you on that point of desperation.

I think Wolfgang Puck was in The Muse. Ugh.

I almost feel like starting a new thread: "What did I cook for my 4 young children last night?" with a subtitle of, "and what did they actually eat?" Something tells me that it will lack the drama of most of the posts in this subject.

The Microplane kitchen tools are the absolute best with hard cheese and for zesting. They're also the best for knuckle skin removal. Has anyone tried their rotary grater? Click here!