Moopheus

That's just the problem I have with mine. It doesn't actually force the food through the screens. That and the fact that the screens aren't fine enough for seeds started me thinking about the grinder/strainer.

I've got a fig ice cream recipe here (one that I have not made; it's in Frozen Desserts by Caroline Liddell) that calls for 1 lb figs, 3 tbs water, 3 egg yolks, 100 g sugar, 375 ml cream, lemon juice, and fig leaves. Basically, cook down the figs a bit in the water, then run through a blender. Cook up the custard base, then let the fig leaves infuse into the base while it chills in the fridge. When it's ready, strain out the leaves, stir in the pulp and lemon juice (just a bit), and freeze.

I just bought a 1 kilo bag of Italian sea salt for $2, at a pricey Brooklyn boutique store. So not quite as cheap as in Italy, but given basic import costs not so bad. Much cheaper than any other sea salt or fleur de sel on the shelf. I figure the price of salt isn't worth worrying about too much--this one bag will probably be enough for several years. I use a little salt in my pasta water, but not a lot. I don't like it if it tastes salty.

Yeah, Carlo's is pretty good. I was going to take my mom there last weekend but it was closed for vacation. Poo! Whe I lived in Somerville, Giacomo's on Hanover St. was always a favorite. Whenever I'm passing through that way, I always stop in at Toscanini's in Cambridg for ice cream. In JP you'll be near JP Licks, which is good too.

Really? I have to say that this didn't occur to me, but I also don't pay very close attention to Dairy Queen commercials. Has anyone besides this one guy and this thread said anything about this? Is it offensive if no one appears to be offended?

I believe there is a Judson Grill cookbook in the works. Good timing, I guess.

Back in February I had a little look at the page proofs, and it looks like it'll be a very instructive book. It's organized in sections from simple to complex recipes, so that you can start with basic techniques and recipes and build up. The pages I saw (and I didn't have time to really read much of it) were not in color, but I think the photos are going to be very nice. The production editor working on the book told me that everyone who worked on the book did a very thorough job and the recipes should all be good. Was I sucking up to get a copy? You bet.

I like eggplant. I like fried eggplant. This picture alone makes me pretty sure I want to try this place at some point. Soon.

This week's allotment included zucchini, yellow squash, beets, chicory, more cherries, and amazingly, a bag of Empire apples. A little surprised to see apples so early.

I'm thinking about getting a seed strainer for tomatoes and berries, like this Squeezo or the grinder/strainer attachment for the Kitchenaid mixer. I was wondering if anybody out there used this sort of strainer and had anything to say about it.

Variety! Always variety! I want Hasenpfeffer!

I've never quite understood the idea of an acquired taste. I mean, if I eat something and I don't like it, I don't feel motivated to keep trying again until I do. But then, tastes do change over time, without even trying. Heck, I was a typical won't-eat-my-vegetables kid, and now I'm a vegetarian. Still can't deal with kidney beans, though.

I may have to try that. This year I joined the local CSA, and we've been getting mass quantities of cherries--way more than I can use in a short time. Sadly, the farm's supply of strawberries didn't last too long--they were really good and got Hoovered right up.

We have a 5-piece All-Clad set that we indeed received as a wedding gift at our first wedding. It may be less than ideal, and I figure that someday I'll get different pans...when these wear out.

I'd guess the 1950s was the beginning of the end for the home baker. Convenience foods existed before then, but the expansion of the suburbs and the economy after the war changed the market dramatically, and there was TV to push the message. I've got this book here that I've been trying to read (getting to it in little portions), Made From Scratch, by Jean Zimmerman, which is about this very problem, and attempts to document, in part, the changes in how the value of "women's work," particularly home cooking, has changed over the years. Simplistically rendered, in The Old Days, a larger portion of the population lived in rural areas, and lived more self-sufficently, on farms. Work was gender-segregated, but everyone's work was valued because it was essential to the survival of the family unit. But this changed; the 20th century brought huge demographic shifts, and growing urbanization. AFter the war, the cities flowed out to the suburbs, leaving men working in the cities and the women at home. But the economic relation was different--economic survival for many was now entirely dependent on the man's salary (note that I write this on the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act ending legalized sex discrimination in the workplace). So the idea of spending time in the kitchen became rapidly devalued even when people still had time to do it--it was drudgery to be avoided, and became symbolic of the economic imbalance of society. Convenience foods offered a solution of sorts--you could still maintain the illusion of being the perfect homemaker, without the actual work. Personally, I think it is time for a counter-revolution (or maybe countertop-revolution) to get people to reduce their dependence on convenience foods.

Yeah, the list of qualifying ingredients is basically arranged so that you have to use some kind of processed convenience ingredient. Quantity is also specified, so no cheating by using a tiny token portion. Making a dessert from scratch is essentially not allowed. The problem (from Pillsbury's POV) I'd guess is that a recipe that only needed Pillsbury flour could be made with any flour. They want to promote recipes that can only be made with their products. JUST chocolate chip cookies? Good chocolate chip cookies ARE manna from heaven!

I guess people didn't like the dark-roast food.

Gelatin and glycerine are sometimes used in sugar-free and fat-free ice creams, to create the illusion of an ice-cream-like texture. But real ice cream shouldn't have that kind of gunk in it.

The mujaddara sandwich at Kalustyan's is also totally fabulous (though the falafel is only so-so). Junior's has excellent egg salad sandwiches. Perfectly cooked eggs with just enough mayo to hold it together.

I was always sort of mystified at never seeing (though I may have missed it) an Indian chef on Iron Chef. For myself, if I had to choose, I would probably pick Indian food over, well, just about anything else. But, yes, having many choices is good too.

I'm surprised to hear that, actually; Holland is (statistically speaking) one of the most literate nations, with a very high per capita rate of book buying. Obviousy, interesting and good cookbooks can and do get published. I'd guess the overstock dealers want cookbooks for the same reason bookstores do: people buy them. Especially considering that the list price of many cookbooks these days is in the $35-40 category. That's a common experience of writers everywhere. As for the internet replacing cookbooks, I guess it depends on what you buy cookbooks for, which can be more than just the recipe. Books have an efficiency and ease-of-use that the Internet basically still does not have. And vast amounts of information doesn't exist on the net yet. These things may change over time (so far, few people have been interested in electronic books), but for now the biggest threat to book publishing is book publishers.

Part of the problem is that the publishing (at least trade book publishing) is basically a stupid business. Not because it employs stupid people (though it does) but because its understanding of what makes books sell, what people need or want to buy, is very crude. And the system by which books are acquired, packaged, and sold encourages that crudeness, because the amount of time available to work on each book is very very small. For instance, the salesman who sells to the bookstore buyer has only ten or fifteen seconds per title to get an order. Which definitely gives an edge to books by the chef, restaurant, or fad of the moment. One advantage that cookbooks have is that a book that does well can have a much longer life in a high-priced hardcover edition than most other types of books. But beyond the fad books, the way people eat and cook does change over time, so there will probably always be a need for new cookbooks.

For the past few years, cookbooks have been one of the few strong growth areas in the publishing world, so at least from a certain market perspective the answer is yes, there is room for more cookbooks. There will always be a demand (if not a real "need") for books following the latest fads, trends, diets, new technologies and so on. There is indeed a great deal of redundancy in cookbooks. Recipes that are easily found in a hundred other books probably don't need to be done again. Some redundancy is just because of repackaging of information: one person wants a book of muffin recipes, another wants a book of fruit recipes, but there's going to be some overlap. Sometimes old books go out of print and new books appear to take their place. Another way to think of it is this: do you think that the number of possible ways to combine available ingredients into something edible and tasty is more or less than the number of existing recipes? Have all possibilities been exhausted? Probably not. Is there also more out there than anyone can make us of in their lifetime? Yes, there is.

I worked at Widener Library for a couple of years and sometimes Elsie's was the best lunch you could get on a library assistant's salary (the falafel truck that hung out on the other side Yard was good too). It was a sad day when Elsie's closed. I don't miss Cambridge so much now that Harvard Square has been completely converted to a suburban mall.

What I actually meant was that these doctors would get some pharmaceutical company to produce a refined, synthetic version of MHCP that could be sold like a drug. But then, I would have said people wouldn't pay absurdly inflated prices just to get cinnamon, and apparently I would have been wrong about that.