jgm

Madeleines are lovely. Starbuck's has some that are remarkably good, especially for chain restaurant food. My mother has a recipe called "Swedish Rusk" that is probably not authentic; it's a dry cake containing black walnuts, which is sliced into bars and dried in the oven in the same manner as biscotti. Somehow, the coffee and the black walnuts are flavors that seem intended to go together. My personal favorite accompaniment to coffee is pie, but that's something other than intended by the person who started the thread. It's really not a "little treat".

I'm old and I have trouble cutting things...usually get the DH to do it. A few more words on this issue would be very welcome. Never heard of the idea before. Whether you'd want to do this would depend on what you're making. Say you're getting ready to slice carrots for soup. If you peel and remove the root end from the carrots and nuke them on a plate for 2 to 3 minutes, they're going to have cooked some, if not completely, and will be far easier to slice than when they were raw. (Allow them to cool before attempting to slice.) Carrots are usually added pretty early in a soup recipe, because they're hard and they cook more slowly than other vegetables. With that in consideration, you would want to put them in later in the process, depending on how completely they were cooked. That's the basic idea. There are lots of things to be taken into consideration, and it would be necessary to analyze the situation a bit to figure out what would work and what wouldn't. Some vegetables, like onions, are probably actually easier to slice when fresh than they would be when softened. Raw meat actually slices easier when slightly frozen than when completely thawed. I think it's necessary, as we age, to rethink how we do a lot of things. In my post above, when I was pre-cataract surgery, I was only about 52 years old, and utterly failed to be realistic about my situation. (The problem wasn't cataracts as much as just plain poor vision, which had steadily become worse after I turned 40.) Now, at age 55, I am taking a long, hard look at whether I really need a food processor; and if I do, whether I need a large one. I have a small kitchen, so getting one of those nifty gizmos that stores a heavy appliance under the counter and then ta-da! effortlessly moves it up to counter height, is out of the question. It's not, however, out of the question to continually evaluate new products on the market in light of whether they might be more suited to my current cooking patterns than what I have. Williams-Sonoma, for about $20, sells a food chopper that has a large ring that is pulled like the starter on a lawn mower: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/veggiechop-vegetable-chopper/?pkey=cfruit-vegetable-tools%7Cctlfvtveg It chops raw carrots, onions, and just about anything else, and in the end it's truly easier for me than a food processor or trying to chop by hand, and it's very easy to clean. Other "innovations" have been more trouble than they're worth, and it pays to evaluate carefully and ask questions.

I would encourage you to look around for specific, inexpensive equipment that can multitask, and to adapt some recipes and techniques to it. Example: for cooking pasta, most people lift the pot of boiling pasta off the stove, carry it over to the sink, and dump it in a colander. Many older people cannot safely move a pot of boiling water. I'm thinking that perhaps you could find a good, deep, wire mesh colander that could sit in the pot while the water comes to a boil, contain the pasta while it's cooking, and be lifted out with just the pasta in it, when done. There are specific pasta pots that do this well, but they're expensive. Williams-Sonoma has rubber gloves that are nearly heatproof, that would be perfect for this job; perhaps other companies do also. Many vegetables would be much easier to cut if they spent a couple of minutes in the microwave, and then were allowed to cool. With this method, however, recipe cooking times would likely need to be adjusted. It would be helpful, also, to emphasize basic kitchen logistics and safety. Before I had cataract surgery, even with my glasses on I could not read many labels. I wrecked a dish one night because I put baking soda in it, instead of cornstarch. People with vision issues need to keep a magnifying glass in the kitchen, and should keep ingredients that look similar, in containers that don't, preferably with very large labels. Our later years are a good time to pare down. My 83-year-old mother will not deal with the idea that she no longer needs all of the cooking equipment she used 10 years ago. If she resumes her old habit of crawling up onto chairs to get heavy objects off of high shelves, we're going to have to take measures to solve that problem before something terrible happens, and she's going to be very angry with us. Encourage class participants to think realistically about how they can create delicious, flavorful meals with just a few pieces of simple equipment. It's an issue, too, that Mom thinks the only bowl she can use for pie crust is the yellow one; she uses a different, but similar sized bowl for yet another task. Hence, she has several bowls of nearly the same size, none of which she will let go of. The result is an overcrowded kitchen that is very difficult to work in.

If we do a cookbook, I think it should be in electronic form. We have members all over the world. If the cookbook were printed, it would probably happen in the US or Canada, which would mean increased shipping fees for our members elsewhere. If it were electronic and could be printed by each member, then the shipping fees issue would be a moot point. Also, I'm adamant that measurements should not only include weight, but also the metric system for volume as well as the system used in America. However, I have an alternate suggestion, or maybe an additional suggestion. There is an absolute WEALTH of recipe and technique information in the threads, which for me is far more valuable than any cookbook. If you've ever tried to print out an entire thread, or have it converted to MS Word for printing, then you're aware that the process is limited; often neither the print format nor the converted format will produce the entire thread. I'm sure there are people who understand what that limitation is all about; all I know is that it's a known "issue". If we could solve that problem and make entire threads printable, I would find that much more valuable than a cookbook. It may be the case that the company that produces our software can't make that happen, for whatever reason, but the information could still be cut and pasted -- which for some threads would be a mammoth job. It might not be so bad, though, if a common format could be agreed upon, and individual members would assume the responsibility for the task. Personally, I'd be happy if we simply had the ability to convert an entire thread to Word format, so I could download and edit it in a manner that works for me.

I share the general sentiment, and Frank Bruni of the New York Times had these comments that I also think are pertinent: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/dining/27adria.html?ref=dining El Bulli hasn't been accessible to most of us, so it's hard for me to get too regretful about it. However, I do recognize that Adria's at the forefront of some interesting techniques with food, some of which will sooner or later trickle down to a more accessible level. For me, it's a situation analogous to the money spent on space exploration, in that it's actually pushed the development of several new technologies that have found their way into my life, probably to a greater extent than I realize.

This is really good information. I do use a metal bowl, but only because that's what I have, not because I chose it for any particular reason. Good to know. Thanks.

I think Pyrex probably would be a good bet. You might look for one that indicates the glass is tempered, if such a thing is available. We have some Pyrex casserole dishes that I bought quite a few years ago. I would think some version of them is still available. If you could find the size you need, the handles on the side would make them easier to handle than a bowl, plus they're specifically made to take heat - but not rapid changes in heat.

Texas Roadhouse, a chain restaurant, has one of the best steaks in town. Although we've decided to make it a point to explore other places we sometimes hear about, TR is the nearest to our home and is always packed. I'm surprised OSHA hasn't shut it down for the noise level alone. The noise is part of the "schtick", along with Polaroid birthday pictures on the walls, peanut shells on the floor, etc. Oh, and don't forget the waitstaff, occasionally performing a country line dance, each and every one of them with an incredibly bored look on their faces. There is no time when the place isn't extremely loud. We long for another good steak place to come to town that will have food as good as the Roadhouse, but be much quieter. We'll put up with the noise if we really, really want a good steak, but it sends to other restaurants more often than not. The place is always packed, though, and although I've heard a lot of other people gripe about it, they still go.

A few years ago, Williams-Sonoma had a great vegetable brush. It's about 8 inches long, with a wooden handle, with a stiff brush for potatoes and such on one side, and a softer one for mushrooms on the other. Then my husband put it in the dishwasher. I still use what's left of it. Since then, not only can I not find another like it, I can't find many for sale at all. There is the usual one with the bristles held by twisted wire, and the whole thing bent into a circle and stuffed into a handle, but the bristles tend to flatten very easily. Now what? What do you use? Where did you get it?

It had never occurred to me to use them for draining bacon. Which will allow me to have slightly less paper towel guilt.

Back in my days at Sur La Table, I had a customer who came in to buy Mauviel copper cookware. She'd just redone her kitchen. I suggested the heavier line with iron handles, but she liked the brass handled line because it was "prettier." As I suggested useful cooking pieces, she kept picking out whimsical serving pieces, such as a set of four graduated gratin dishes. All the sudden it occurred to me that she wasn't going to use any of this; it was just to make the new kitchen look "gourmet." We got along fine after that: she spent $2700 for her gourmet kitchen, and I made my sales goal for the week. She reminds me a bit of myself in my wannabe days. I bought the grandest stuff my meager budget would allow. Took me years, yes years, to realize that having cooking equipment would not make me a good cook. Once I got that figured out, I started cooking every chance I got, read every cooking magazine I could - and actually tried some of the recipes - and I actually began to have a chance at becoming a halfway decent cook. Still, we do need a new word. I don't mind "foodie", but so many people do object to it, it hardly matters. It would help, also, if it were one that differentiated someone who was very serious about cooking and eating, from someone who almost never cooks but jumps on every food bandwagon as it passes by. As far as I'm concerned, though, "gourmet" is dead and buried. It's pretentious and overused, to the point of being meaningless.

I am a mugaholic. Not only do I find them in stores and fall head-over-heels in love, but I have some made by friends who are potters, and some I made when I was a potter. And then there's public radio. The idea of sending any of them on to a secondhand store makes me grieve. Naturally, there is a point where it becomes a Marital Issue. I have learned to put them in drawers to hold things that need to be held; to put them on shelves to hold pens, etc.; on my vanity to hold brushes, etc. Whenever I see a new mug I just have to have, I start thinking about what little things I have that could live in a mug. I shake out those nice sturdy bags that line breakfast cerial boxes, and use them when bringing salads to work; they're great to dump the greens and dressing into, close and shake, and can be discarded at that point. I often buy the small, 4-to-a-package bottles of wine for cooking. The empty bottles are great for taking salad dressing to work. Cleaned out Keurig K-cups would make great funnels, especially in a pinch. Since we tend to allow several stack up before we dismantle them for recycling, there's always one available. Basket-shaped coffee filters are great for covering stuff in the microwave.

Don't give up on the bread too soon. This is the time to get creative. The dough can be protected, as others have pointed out, under a large pot, in a microwave, in a regular oven with a note on the door, or inside a cabinet, if that's a possibility for you. If you want to have baked bread protected, that can be done, too, while allowing for air circulation. Not sure how I'd do it in a kitchen other than my own, but it would probably involve two cooling racks, placed one on top of the other, with the 'holes' running different directions (assuming you have the kind that have long, rectangular spaces between the wires); the purpose being to create openings too small for a mouse to squeeze between. The racks could be placed on top of a container that holds the bread, or underneath something. . .I know you can figure it out and improvise. You could even place newspapers beneath whatever structure you build, so that if you find mouse droppings, they'll be on the newspaper instead of the counter, and they won't be so gross to clean up. We've had to do the same kind of thing in our kitchen, only our mouse is a 70-pound mutt named Fred. There is nothing he won't do to get bread into his mouth, believe me. Actually, the baked bread could be stored in an oven - again, with a note on the door. My mom used to store all kinds of baked goods in hers. I don't do it because I have the attention span of a gnat and would surely have burned the house down by now, or at least coated everything I own in smoke.

I don't think the pasta cooker will be a negative when selling the house. It's the kind of thing people will see and think "OH! Cool!" and not think about how much the will use it - or not - until they actually move in. I believe they'll see it as a wonderful luxury item. I've always wanted one, myself, but unfortunately it's in the category of "Things I Wish I Needed."

One of my favorite dinners is to put about 3 cans of low-sodium chicken broth in an electric skillet (you'd probably want to use homemade broth, but the "3 cans" gives you an idea of quantity). Each person is assigned one corner of the skillet; kids can put stuff in but parents probably want to retrieve it. It goes without saying the children should be supervised as to food safety issues. After the broth comes to a simmer, into one's corner go chunks of chicken, beef, or whatever protein you like, and I usually do offer a variety; plus chunks of whatever vegetables you like. I usually offer sliced mushrooms, onions, carrots, and celery, plus chunks of broccoli. No reason you couldn't use green beans or bok choy or some other green. When fully cooked, the mixture is pulled out with whatever appropriate utensil you have, and enjoyed with the rice of your choice. While many people would have to put soy sauce on this, I think it's fantastic just the way it is. You can use a little broth to moisten the rice if you like. Save the broth for chicken soup tomorrow night, made whatever way will work within your restrictions. I also think that various kinds of soup could be on your menu, and many would work well within your restrictions. Obviously, steak or roasted chicken with roasted vegetables is a possibility. You could always make your own hummus, if you don't already, and pita bread can be homemade and would be a nice break from regular homemade bread.

I didn't think to post about it last summer when there were pictures on the website, but Williams-Sonoma was selling a special grill basket for meatballs. Yes, meatballs. I'm not articulate enough to accurately describe it. Until then, it had never occurred to me to brown meatballs outside on the grill. The first time I saw it, I felt the heady rush one gets when realizing one's culinary horizons have just expanded dramatically...followed by the empty, sinking feeling I got when it occurred to me I had no desire whatsoever to make meatballs on the grill, and that was not likely to change anytime in the foreseeable future. I got over all the drama pretty quickly. All that happened while standing in front of the W-S window, gazing at the new display with a friend, who summed it up nicely: "Now that's really obnoxious." Is it true that Ron Popeil's evil twin has a job working for Williams-Sonoma?

Seems like I'm often running into someone writing about "great lashings" of something, usually mayonnaise. Is a "great lashing" a measurement, or more a description of someone using mayo, damn the calories?

I had the Williams-Sonoma version of one of these, along with the small one for dicing garlic. I have a lot of sympathy for what Andie's saying: as we age, we lose the ability to do some things. . .the nature of that loss varies with each one of us. At this time, I'm a few years behind Andie and I can still wield a knife decently. I gave my choppers away to a young man who loves to cook but isn't old enough to use a knife well. I don't miss them for these reasons: 1. I still have to get a knife and a cutting board dirty. 2. I often need diced onion in smaller sizes than the chopper will produce. 3. If you don't get the chopper into soapy water pretty quickly, cleanup is a real pain, even in the dishwasher. For reasons I don't really understand, I'm not good at getting the chopper into soapy water right away. I plan to, but there, at the end of the evening, is the chopper, with bits of onion nearly permanently adhered to the blades. If I lose my grip strength, as Andie has, I'll probably get another. Meanwhile, young Nate's having a ball.

I'm with the majority opinion on this...seems like a lot of trouble. However, if you're boiling the potatoes for mashed potatoes, it would be a simple matter to plunk them back down into the boiling water and let them finish. However, I rice mine, peel and all, and just fish the peel out of the ricer with a fork, after the potato has gone through. Works great. Being the daughter of really elderly parents has put me in "dealing with life when I'm old" mode. I could see doing this if my arthrits gets bad enough that a peeler is painful to use. I could also see doing this if, for some reason, I'm temporarily one-handed -- such as post-carpal tunnel surgery, post-injury, etc. In that instance, the potato could be lifted from the ice water into a small bowl and peeled with just one hand. This is a good tip to tuck away in my brain (providing I can pull it out when I need it), but not something I'll use unless I have to.

I just re-read this, after seeing it mentioned in the NewsGullet I received in e-mail this afternoon. It's been a helluva week. Moving an office, which we've spent the past two weeks doing, has been the biggest pain in the arse I've had in recent memory. The entire week has been full of (what should have been) simple projects that turned into technological nightmares, and it'll take at least all of next week to iron them out. The way things have been going, I'll be lucky if I'm not dealing with them for several more weeks. To say I'm in a bitchy mood would be a compliment I don't deserve. Then, Maggie, along comes your description of trying to find a song on a CD that will be the perfect length, and I realize someone understands, really understands, my frustration with the simple act of boiling an egg. It would take at least three glasses of wine to lift my spirits that much. Life does have its moments. When I arrive home from work tonight, perhaps my husband won't secretly wish I'd worked late. We both are grateful to you, even if he doesn't know it. Jenny

I will probably go the lentils route, but if what you say is true, it makes me wonder if it wouldn't work to put some uncooked rice in a tea ball, and let it sit in a pot of soup. Along with the liquid, I would think the rice would soak up a bit of the salt, and then I could add an unsalted broth or stock back in. I might try it, especially if my attempts to fix the soup are unsuccessful.

I think Rachel Ray's recipes are probably named to target them toward her audience - people who don't do a lot of cooking because they don't know much about it. The folksy names are likely designed to give them a bit more of a "user friendly" and less-daunting feel for inexperienced cooks. Personally, I'm not crazy about that, because I find it off-putting myself, but I've made a few of her recipes in the past and the ones I've tried have been pretty good. But then, I'm not really part of her target audience. The New Yorker food issue had a story about "Spit Cake" that was certainly an unappetizing name; it turns out the cake is baked on a spit and repeatedly dunked back into the batter, so that when it's eventually sliced horizontally, rings are noticeable. I think my attitude about recipe names is more dependent on where I find the recipe than anything else. It's probably an issue when producing a cookbook. It would seem to me that in a cookbook highlighting one region's food, such as Paula Wolfert's books, it would be important to retain authenticity, but one would also have to keep in mind the audience for whom it's written. Trying to introduce food from one country to residents of another country would require a certain amount of finesse. The example of “Beef Cheeks, Seaweed, Oyster, Sprouts and Radish” (above) is, in my opinion, an example of good intentions gone bad. "Sauteed Beef Cheeks" or "Braised Beef Cheeks" would be more attractive to me, because they give information about the cooking method, which is often important to me.

I tried this once, a few years ago, on a bean soup that I made, and it didn't seem to make any difference at all. I was surprised, because I expected it to. But it may have been that the soup was SO salty, one potato wouldn't have made much difference. I also put it in as a whole potato. Perhaps some lengthwise slices, which would increase the surface area in contact with the broth, would help. I think what's going to save this soup, is added ingredients that will expand the volume without changing the flavor much. I may try some spinach; it's pretty mild, but even if it did add a little of its own flavor, it would be compatible with the other ingredients. I called the restaurant, and the chef could recommend only "a little hot water", but that's not going to do it. The woman I spoke with, however, did tell me it has tomatoes in it, so I may look for some no-salt crushed tomatoes. Lentils Spinach Tomatoes Maybe that will be enough. I might just throw in some potato slices, just to see if they might help a little, and fish them out again after about 20 minutes.

Recently on a visit to a restaurant, I bought several servings of their lentil sausage soup to bring home and freeze. We'd had some that night, and although I found mine a little too salty for my taste, I still just love this soup. It may or may not be important to note that I routinely eat a diet low in salt - although I don't particularly try to - so that restaurant food often tastes salty to me. My husband said his serving may have been a little salty, but he didn't seem to object to it as much as I did. I know, also, that at least some of the portions I bought came from a different batch of soup. I thawed out one of the portions today, and found it so salty I couldn't possibly eat it. I'm not interested in returning it; remember that at least part of the problem is ME. I've thought of cooking more lentils to add to increase the volume of the soup without increasing the salt, and I'm thinking of adding some pre-cooked diced carrots. I think the soup already has carrots in it. I am, however, concerned about making it too sweet by doing that. Any ideas about what else to add? I don't want to depart too much from the original flavor of the soup. And if anybody has a "copy cat" recipe for this soup, I'd love to have it!

I guess it's a good thing I don't work in a restaurant, because I love tongs. I use them for all kinds of things. I have a galley kitchen, and at moments when I, my husband, our chronically-ravenous dog, and one or both of our cats decide we all have to be in the kitchen at once (even though I'm the only one COOKING), I'll use tongs for about anything - slicing butter, turning vegetables being sauteed, augmenting the use of a potholder or towel when I'm removing something from the oven, and yes, pulling out the oven rack. I can't always get to the drawers that have the other tools. They're great to stir with, too. And if that makes me a lazy, sloppy, or inelegant cook, keep the adjectives coming, so what? I get dinner on the table with the help of my tongs, and much of the time, it's damn good. They're also great for opening cabinet doors that I can't quite reach from where I'm standing, and grabbing small stuff off a high shelf. They are washed at appropriate times, especially after something like that. Can't beat 'em for turning cubes of meat being browned. And if during one of my klutzy moments, a stray piece of food escapes its pan and lands close to the flame, what else, pray tell, would be better? I remember watching an episode of Iron Chef, and one of the chefs was using his chopsticks for just about everyting that didn't require a knife. I was impressed and envious at how adept he was at using them. I would go out on a limb here and suggest that the chef's chopsticks were a type of tong. I have enough sense not to use them on fish or other delicate stuff.