jgm

A couple of ideas... Cook's Illustrated, as I mentioned in another Thanksgiving thread, has a vegetable gravy that they swear is every bit as good as the real thing. It's in at least a couple of their cookbooks, if you have them, can borrow them, or can get to a library. If all else fails, PM me and I'll send you the recipe. Also, Julia Child's potato and leek soup would be lovely at thanksgiving. It's just equal parts sliced potatoes and leeks, plus water to cover, and salt. Simmer until everything's soft, then puree in a blender or better yet, with a stick blender, leaving some good chunks. Adjust salt and stir in cream, sour cream, or butter. Couldn't be easier and you can make it ahead of time and reheat it.

I finally did get one, and so far, so good! I have some cooked, de-boned chicken and some pearl onions in the freezer; I actually got around to dating the bags before chucking them in there, so we should know in a few weeks, how well these things hold up. Has anyone tried them for storing fresh vegetables?

Cuisinart has a new mixer out that has all the attachments for grinding meat, making pasta, etc., plus apparently it becomes a blender and a food processor. I have always thought that kind of design made a lot of sense. I talked to a chef friend this weekend about it, and she said she'd tried it out. She didn't like it because she was just making a single batch (of ?; she didn't specify) and the mixer just seemed to need larger quantities. She said she had to repeatedly remove the bowl and "do the mixer's work for it." It sounds, though, that you may need the increased ... bowl size? power? Not sure. But you may want to check it out. I'm looking forward to seeing reviews of it.

OK, I'm going out on a limb here. Maybe it's just me. One of the things I look forward to every morning, is pouring cold cream into my hot coffee. The swirls, the bloom of color... if my life ever flashes before my eyes, I hope that scene is prominent. For reasons I don't clearly understand, I cherish that moment because of the beauty of the two liquids mixing together. I almost hate to stir the coffee. A couple of weeks ago, I was stirring a sauce with herbs floating in it, and I became mesmerized watching the lines and patterns made by the herbs on the surface of the sauce. It was an immensely satisfying moment. I also like stirring something creamy and thick, when the surface deforms in lovely silky curls as the spoon goes through it. Or maybe I'm waaaaaaaay too easily amused. And you?

I have noticed that the discussion here applies almost exclusively to eaters, readers, bloggers, and critics living in large cities. And that's not at all inappropriate. However for those of us living in smaller cities -- what's called the "metro" area here is about 400,000 -- another issue enters this discussion, that of the advertising dollar. Several years ago, the local newspaper had to pull a local story at the last minute, and plugged some wire copy into the hole in order to get the paper out on time. No one noticed, until the outrage swelled the next day, that the wire copy was a story highly critical of car dealers. The result was that the local car dealers pulled all of their advertising and started their own car-advertising-only publication, and it nearly bankrupted the newspaper. Since then, newspaper copy in this city has been bland, bland, bland. While I can appreciate that a restaurant critic must keep in mind that harsh criticism can sink a restaurant, I think it's also true that the lack of it does an enormous disservice to readers. Because of an intense fear of losing any of its advertising dollars, the local newspaper never prints anything critical of anyone. That's one of the reasons why Wichita and other medium-sized Midwest cities are doomed to be overrun by chain restaurants. I have a lot of respect for the local restaurant reviewer, but sometimes it's painfully obvious she's working hard to find SOMETHING good to say about a new restaurant that has nothing much to offer. While I might envy a reviewer in a larger city, sometimes I pity her; I also know how she manages to stay so slender. When faced with eating absolute crap as often as it takes to do her columns, she probably has no problem keeping her calorie intake down. My point, then, is that "other-appointed" critics are not only appointed by editors who know nothing about good food, but also indirectly by the very people whose restaurants they're reviewing, since those people are often also advertisers. Their built-in lack of objectivity has nothing to do with personal compromises when it comes to accepting freebies, but instead with the realities of working for publications in which every advertising dollar makes a difference.

When paring down the menu (which is an excellent suggestion, by the way, as is looking seriously at the number of dishes you have), just make a "Thanksgiving" list and a "Next Time" list. Then the day after your Thanksgiving meal, sit down with both lists and list all the things you wish you'd done differently, and the things you DID do that you're glad you did. The Thanksgiving list will give you ideas for what to change on the other list, or ideas for things to do ahead, etc. Then begin planning your next dinner party!

For most people, gravy is really important at Thanksgiving. Some thoughts: If you aren't already a gravy master, start buying some turkey wings and/or legs, roast them, and practice making gravy beforehand. Believe me: you do not want to be trying to rescue gravy-gone-wrong in the midst of trying to get everything else to turn out. Also, there is almost never enough gravy. A couple of days ahead, you can roast up the aforementioned wings and legs, and save the drippings so that you can make plenty of gravy. Check The Joy of Cooking or a similar cookbook, and see what it has to say about making gravy ahead. I am pretty sure it can be done successfully. Additionally, the cookbooks put out by the folks at Cook's Illustrated Magazine have a method for making gravy only from vegetables. I've never done it, but they swear it tastes as good as gravy made from meat. Now about the mashed potatoes: Although most people swear that freshly-mashed potatoes are the only way to go, I have found that they can be successfully made early and reheated. If you're going to do this, make them slightly on the dry side, and then when it's within about 1/2 hour of when you want to eat, warm them either as above, in foil, or over a double-boiler type arrangement; then stir in a little hot milk until they are of the desired consistency.

Do you have any idea what the deceased person's favorite dessert was? If so, you may want to think about making it in his honor. But it also might be a bit too soon for that. Condolences. I'm having a first-year anniversary month for three deaths (two family, one co-worker) and I have a fairly fresh understanding of how difficult it is.

I have some, in about 3 or 4 different sizes, that I purchased at Williams-Sonoma. The smallest ones, I have discovered, each hold 1/2 cup of lightly-packed chopped vegetables, so no more measuring now, at least when I need 1/2 cup of something. I also have a set of Anchor-Hocking custard bowls, with plastic lids, that I keep in a secret place. When I prep a day or two ahead, they're perfect for storing chopped vegetables or premeasured liquids in the refrigerator.

We recently bought a GE Profile combination convection and microwave oven. We love it. I was under the impression that convection cooking was different from "regular" oven cooking, but the times and temperatures, so far, are the same. We can use a combination convection-microwave mode, but that would mean learning how to cook all over again, and I'm not interested. The microwave feature works even better than our last microwave did. With our old micro, a bag of microwave popcorn would always have about 1/3 of the kernels unpopped, and the popped corn was often partially burnt because the little metal pad (or whatever that thing is) embedded in the bag would overheat. In this oven, all of the kernels pop, and there is no sign of burning on the bag. When used as a convection oven, this oven performs extremely well, also. We're going to be building a new house in about a year. We'll take this combo with us; and with a similar combo installed above the stovetop, plus a double wall oven, I'll have a total of 4 ovens! Does life get better than that?

Absolutely. My sister, a nurse, once took care of a woman who had a chronic disease. Because of that, she could not have surgery to remove a problem gallbladder. And every few months, she was hospitalized with a gallbladder attack. And my sister's first question, every time the woman was admitted, was "What did you eat this time?" The answer was always fried chicken, or steak, or something like that. And to the second question, "Well, was it worth it?" the answer was always YES. The woman was dead within a year. She was hit by a truck. On the whole, eat healthy -- lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Eat anything less healthy in moderation. Have a good time. Do good things for others. Be several people's best friend, and be several children's biggest champion. None of us will live forever.

Has anybody seen this thing on grocery store shelves yet? I've been keeping an eye out for it, but haven't seen it.

I've purchased a bunch of small containers so that I can freeze leftover wine, and small bits of this and that. I also want to start saving Parmesan rinds for use in soup. I already freeze stock and soup, and some meals I've made ahead. In the fridge, I have some small trays that help to group mustards, pickles, etc. And every now and then, I get on a fridge- or freezer- cleaning binge, and I think, "I didn't even know that was in there, and now it's out of date and I have to throw it out." So what do you do to keep your refrigerator and freezer from becoming a place where good stuff gets lost, almost never to be seen again? There's gotta be a better way. I could make inventories. But it won't help to know there's 1/4 cup of frozen white wine, 2 cups of frozen chicken, half a package of pine nuts, and 2 Parmesan rinds, if I have to spend 20 minutes searching for them. Ideas! I need ideas!

Come to think of it, I just finished reading Jacques Pepin's memoirs, and he discusses, with pride, the frozen foods he produced for Howard Johnson's. He even describes serving them, at his home, to another chef, who was astounded to learn that it was a HoJo's frozen entree. Too bad that kind of quality of frozen foods is not available in grocery stores. Maybe Keller will start a trend?

Have you tried the recipe in the Les Halles cookbook? It's excellent. We add cream at the end, and a little white wine instead of the sherry. My husband also prefers to have mushroom slices in the soup, so I use a very large teaball, and put extra (additional) mushroom slices in it. Then I pull it out, puree the rest of the soup, and add the mushrooms back in. We love it.

Yes, that's it exactly--the need to feed. I'd love to have eight kids to feed, if I could get someone else to do all the other work! There are only two of us but I often get going and just cook as long as my legs will hold me up. I'm sure this is a manifestation of some deep-rooted psychological problem but it's pretty benign as such things go, I guess. What I really hate is when we invite people over and they see all the food and go "Wow, you must have been cooking for days!" It's kind of embarrassing. ← I see nothing to be embarrassed about. One of my friends, who has a day job as a social worker, has told me that she's often up past midnight, cooking, to release stress. She also has a part-time job at Williams-Sonoma to make cooking toys more affordable. What's not to love?

Most of the time, you can steam vegetables in the same dish you serve them in.

It is impressive! I hope they'll expand their offerings. That mac 'n' cheese looks pretty tasty.

This is a fascinating discussion. And it's good for me to read it; while I will readily eat the meat of certain animals, I'm downright repulsed at the idea of eating certain other animals. That's called cultural bias, and although I'm aware of it, it's hard to get past it. And now I have a new and fun cocktail party conversation-starter about polar bear livers.

I have no problem with chefs making money. God knows they work their a$$es of to get to the point where they can market their names. I haven't seen this line of frozen food. If it's good, I'll buy it. It just seems a little strange to me that a perfectionist like Keller would even be interested in something like this. But if he's producing an excellent-quality product, good for him! To tell you the truth, if I could find high-quality frozen food, I'd buy it. We all know what the mainstream stuff tastes like. It would be wonderful, though, to be able to keep a good meal in the freezer for those times when you're HUNGRY and too tired to do much about it.

Cook the raw stuff and put it all on a salad. Add other ingredients such as baked goat cheese, or shredded cheese, sliced olives, etc.

I'm wondering if storage conditions have anything to do with it. If the spices are stored in certain conditions, then maybe it's "aging." But once they're canned/bottled and that container is open, the conditions are different. Just a thought. I don't really know.

I have to fess up. . . When we were in the Marketplace at Central and Rock this last weekend, we actually bought two pieces of furniture. They're what I'd call "dorm furniture". They're bookcases with fold-down shelves (as opposed to those heavy particle board things you have to screw together). The explanation: we're building a house in another year or so, but meanwhile we need some storage space for DVDs and books, and these are easy, quick, and cheap. We didn't want to get "nice" furniture until we're in the new house and can see what we need. I doubt we'll buy furniture for the new house in Dillons, though.

I think the issue is one mainly of self-confidence in the kitchen. A co-worker recently bought cookbooks for her adult daughter's birthday, and pictures were a big deal for her. It's because the daughter has never done much cooking, but has decided she wants to learn, and the photographs will help her navigate some unfamiliar territory. People on this list probably don't care about pictures one way or the other, but less experienced cooks like to have them.

Today's Wichita Eagle says that this concept is working so well, they're going to expand it to two more stores... one of them in MY neighborhood! The latest announcement is for the 31st and Seneca store: Well, gee, this should be an interesting change. Only in recent months have canned cannelini beans been available, and when I ask the produce guys why they don't carry shallots, they get defensive and tell me I can use scallions instead. I know I shouldn't be rude to the young'uns; after all, they're not making that decision. But sometimes it's just all too much. Scallions, my ass. So now we're going from not even being able to buy shallots, to having imported (expensive) cheeses available, not to mention sushi and 'gourmet' olives... in a blue-collar neighborhood inhabited primarily by aircraft plant workers? (My husband is one of them, so I'm not putting them down.) I'm just saying that this is a little incongruous, and it'll be dammed interesting to see how it goes. Wonder if they'll carry shallots in the new store?