jgm

Here's my standby: Get a few packages of button mushrooms and some sausage. If you can find fennel sausage, great; otherwise I usually use Jimmy Dean or something like that. Trim the ends of the stems of the mushrooms, then remove the stems and throw them into the bowl of a food processor. Then add the bulk sausage; you want about a 50-50 ratio, or maybe about 1/3 mushroom stems to 2/3 sausage. It's not extremely critical. Process the stems and the sausage until the stems are somewhat chopped, and mixed well with the sausage. Form the sausage into meatballs, and put each on an upside-down mushroom cap, of about the same size. Sprinkle each with about 2 to 5 fennel seeds (unless you're already using fennel sausage). Bake at around 325 to 350 for 20 minutes or so; until the sausage is cooked through and a bit browned. These are easy and really good. I've never prepared them ahead and refrigerated, and then baked just before serving, but I would think you could do that.

I've never worked in an emergency room, but I'm told that such places see an inordinate number of injuries due to people slicing their hands while slicing bagels. I would expect this thing to be especially handy when children are trying to do it. Personally, I just have the bakery do it. They do it badly, but they do it.

Would you take a stab at listing some quantities? I made something like this before after reading about it on another thread, and it didn't have any flavor beyond just the beef flavor. It tasted fine, but not what I'd call "Italian Beef." I am pretty sure I just didn't use enough seasonings.

I think you're on the right track; a sandwich, a side, which could be vegetables, and something sweet. I'm all for healthy eating, but I also think that if kids don't enjoy what's packed for them, they won't eat it. They usually are somewhat less than truthful about that, too. If there's a vegetable he's crazy about, nothing wrong with including it, but chips aren't a mortal sin. A worthy substitute could be dry breakfast cereal. Also, you could take a look at the Lunchables and similar items in the grocery store, and concoct your own versions. If he's supposed to supply his own drink, the beverages in boxes work well when frozen, and they usually thaw out just in time for lunch--and help to keep other items cool at the same time. You might also ask him what the other kids are bringing. If there's something he's impressed with, he'll likely remember it.

My copy arrived in today's mail and is on my desk. In two hours (lunch) I can start reading. If I'd known it was for-sure going to arrive today, I'd have brought something much better for lunch.

The tracking function on Amazon says my copy is on the Airborne truck, "out for delivery."

1. Mac and cheese made with a white sauce and plenty of Velveeta. To gourmet it: put buttered bread crumbs on top before baking. 2. Boil hot dogs. Make a pocket in each one; cut most of the way through the hot dog, and leave ends intact. For each, take a Velveeta slice and cut it into strips; stuff strips into hot dog pocket. Place 1/2 slice bacon over the pocket, secure it to the hot dog with toothpicks, and broil. 3. Grilled cheese: Wonder bread. Lots of mayo. Thick slices of Velveeta. Drop a hunk of butter in a hot pan, and when it melts, drop the sandwich on it. Cook on medium to medium low, so that the cheese has time to melt as the bread browns. Repeat for other side of sandwich. Serve with Campbell's Cream of Tomato soup, made with milk. As you eat the sandwich, it's inevitable that blobs of cheese will drop out. Catch those with your finger; blow on it to cool it off, and let the dog lick it off your finger. Or the cat. 4. Ritz Crackers with cottage cheese on them.

I'm having the same problem. My husband and I expect to build a new home in about 5 years. So planting a cherry tree at this location will largely benefit only the new owners of the home. And if we plant cherry trees at our new home, by the time they bear fruit I'll be closing in on retirement age. My orthopedist predicts that by then, my knees will be toast. Or metal. Next spring, I'm planning to place a want ad in the local paper, asking for the opportunity to pick cherries from someone's sour cherry trees, in exchange for doing their picking for them, or even payment. I've never seen sour cherries available in any of the markets here. I'd love to hear other suggestions, too. What makes me ill, is that a client of our office just purchased a large tract of land about a 90-minute drive from here, and he promised he'd call me a cherry picking time, and I could drive down all summer and pick whatever I wished, from the many mature fruit trees on the land. I was in hog heaven, salivating, researching recipes, planning, and dreaming. . . until ashen-faced, he came in one morning and showed me the latest pictures of his new homestead --after the fire. A neighbor's carelessness resulted in a fire that units from several communities had to fight, and which came to within just a few inches of his propane tank. The fruit trees were badly singed, and it didn't look as if they'd produce any fruit this year... but maybe later...who knows. I actually went to the ladies' room and cried.

I was introduced to the wonders of vanilla in, of all places, "Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts." Unfortunately, a tornado ate that cookbook, and I don't have it here from which to quote. If I remember correctly, she went into detail about her love affair with vanilla, and how she'd use two or three times as much as the recipe called for. Vanilla in tea? I'm off to explore the possibilities...

My dearest friend has been a diabetic since childhood, and she says the answer is to keep it positive. The turnaround for her happened one day when she was whining to her grandmother about having diabetes, and the wise grandmother told her, "Actually, you're very lucky. Had you been born a hundred years ago, we wouldn't have known what to do for you, and you would have died." My friend says that everybody is watching their diet in one way or another these days, and she feels like she is in good company. Your daughter is also fortunate, in that she is learning how to keep herself healthy, early in life. She likely won't walk in the shoes of so many of us, who woke up at 40 or so and realized that time was passing awfully fast, and the scale was inching upward with each and every year... and our fitness levels were plummeting fast. Your daughter needs to understand that health is a choice, and a gift. A cousin, recently diagnosed with diabetes as an adult, will have just one bite of his wife's dessert, and he says that's enough for him. I have a feeling that wouldn't work for everyone, but for those who could do it and not crave the rest of the dessert, it could be useful.

The one that's bugging me lately advertises an attractive kitchen sink, which the wife can't bear to use, so her elegantly dressed guests are using plastic knives and forks, paper plates, and plastic wineglasses. It's just stupid. Perhaps not a food commercial, technically, but food related...

I previously posted this recipe, and one of the ways in which it's really special, is that the dough is almost better than the cookies. I think it's that shot of whiskey...

One possibility to consider is to peel the potatoes in the morning before you leave for work, and cut them into whatever size chunks you always do, and put them in a bowl of water in the fridge. They can go on the stove first thing, and be cooking while you do other things, and your final task could be to take them through the final steps. I know quite a few people who do this, and they report that it works well. Some just leave the potatoes in the cooking vessel on the stove, without refrigeration, but I'm not comfortable doing that.

For a sore throat (for me, always accompanied by earache), I drink honey and lemon juice in very hot water. The lemon juice must be from a real lemon. If my nose is running a lot, or if there's lots of "crud" in my chest, I lay off milk and cheese. My mother always told me that dairy products will thicken mucous. I don't know if that's true, but it seems to be. I'm much more comfortable if I don't drink milk at those times. For nausea, peppermints are good. For my occasional heart arrhythmia, beer consumed as quickly as possible seems to help, especially when nothing else has. I don't know whether the alcohol relaxes me, or the belching pushes my heart back into a normal rhythm. If nothing else, the alcohol makes me sleepy, and when I wake up, the arrhythmia is always gone.

I like the suggestion of serving it, but letting people know. (That decreases their ability to sue for damages if they get sick ) How about a recipe review? It sounds wonderful!

I'm a big fan of bagged salad, and I often grab other salad ingredients off the salad bar. When we first married, my husband and I often ate Hamburger Helper, the frozen stir fry kits, etc., and we liked a lot of it. Then I started cooking, and now that we're eating "real" food, the packaged stuff just doesn't taste very good, so we don't buy it. My husband continued to eat a lof of prepackaged foods after he got home from work; he works second shift and I work regular business hours. But the beer gut turned into a keg, and finally he decided he had to start eating better foods. He's now lost more than 50 pounds. On weekends, he will eat the "old" foods, but during the week, he sticks to the good stuff. Last weekend he told me that the local grocery store has changed their fried chicken recipe, and he doesn't like it now. They haven't changed it --I asked-- his palate's just improved.

There is certainly a lot of comfort to be taken in our housing values, our relatively clean air, and the relatively few minutes it takes to get out of the city and into the country. (We are currently looking at houses in the $150,000 range; most have about 1,400 square feet plus basements, and large yards.) Most people don't realize the main Dean & Deluca warehouse is here--precisely because warehouse space here is much, much cheaper than in NYC. I do have the advantage of picking up my D&D orders at the warehouse door, without paying shipping. I can do it on my lunch hour. A few years ago, when I worked at our local library, I was trying to help a guy from the east coast who was in town interviewing for a job. He wanted to play golf, and his job decision would depend on whether he would be able to afford to play golf here. He was an engineer, applying for a $100,000+ job, and I was stunned. I hadn't realized that in some parts of the country, only the truly wealthy can afford to play. He wouldn't believe me when I told him that there are at least a dozen golf courses within 25 miles of the library, and that although some are higher-end, even library aides (~$8.00 per hour employees) could afford to play golf here--weekly. (I had to get one of them on the phone to prove it.) When I offered to take him on a tour of golf courses after the library closed, and show him all of the parks his children could play in, he thought I was nuts, and left the building. Apparently, in more populous areas, people don't make offers like that, and looking back, he probably thought he was about to be axe murdered. Wichita is technically the largest city in Kansas. The KC metro area is much larger, but only a portion of it is on our side of the state line. Lawrence is quite a bit smaller, but just a few miles from KC; intellectually, it's one of the largest cities in the midwest. We do get to KC from time to time, but have not had the opportunity to eat in the "nicer" restaurants. My husband is a jeans-and-t-shirt aircraft mechanic (whose palate is developing quite nicely, actually) and he'd have to acquire a wardrobe for the occasion. I'm looking for a food-oriented friend here who could make the trip to KC with me occasionally while he's working weekend overtime, trying to get jets ready to fly. You're on for the D.C. visit. I've got some great sources of beef. Should I bring some mountain oysters, too?

Here's one of my favorites, adapted from the March 1983 Gourmet magazine: Mixed Vegetable Salad with Sweet and Sour Dressing 1 small red cabbage, cored and shredded fine 1 T salt 1 lb cooked green beans 1 c cooked corn (I think they also added jicama, but I don't use it.) Place cabbage in a colander; mix with salt and allow to drain for about half an hour or so. Arrange as desired on a large serving platter, or on individual salad plates. The original picture showed each ingredient piled in wedge-shaped sections -- think of wedges of pie. Dressing: 1 garlic clove 1 onion, sliced thin 1/3 c honey ¼ c tarragon vinegar ¼ c fresh lemon juice 1 t dry mustard ½ t red pepper flakes Worcestershire sauce to taste pinch dried thyme 1 c vegetable oil 1 T snipped fresh chives 1 t snipped fresh dill 1 t minced fresh parsley leaves Mix first nine dressing ingredients, then add oil in a stream in food processor or blender. and store in a jar overnight. Next day, strain. add chives, dill, and parsley. Makes about 2 cups. Use about half the dressing on the above salad ingredients; pass the rest. ---------------------- Obviously, all kinds of vegetables could be added or substituted, depending upon the season and available ingredients.

I hate to tell you guys this but... (I'm from Kansas. We call everybody "you guys".) I like Olive Garden. I eat there a lot. I grew up in a small town in Western Kansas where you couldn't reliably find parsley. Vegetables came from a can. Things have changed somewhat, thank Heaven. But even though I'm in a much larger city now (the largest city in Kansas) there are a lot of foods that you probably eat frequently, that I can't reliably find here, and have never tasted. Further confessions: I have never had foie gras. I doubt it's served within 200 miles of here. I had caviar once in 1979, and it was stolen from a buffet in a fancy hotel. But I loved it. I have never had fresh seafood. (I take that back. I went to Italy after graduating from high school; probably the mussels we had with pasta were fresh. That was 1973.) I have never eaten fennel. Or a lot of other things you guys take for granted. I've never had wine from a bottle that cost more than $15. You get the idea. Would I like to eat all that stuff? Absolutely! And I hope to at least taste it before I die. Really fine food is available at only a couple of restaurants here, and it is probably nothing special, compared to what you guys on the coasts eat. I read eGullet posts about restaurants in New York City or LA, and I nearly die of envy. But that kind of life just isn't in the cards for some of us. If anybody wants to educate my palate, send me a personal message, and I'll give you the address to send the plane ticket to, and I'll be happy to be your guest for all of the incredible meals we can find. You have no idea how much I would love to eat the things you eat. There's every possibility that this woman simply hasn't had the experience of eating finer foods. In fact, I'm betting this is the case. This is your Pygmalion! Think of her as a blank canvas, just waiting for her maybe future sister-in-law to introduce her to delectable things, the likes of which she has never seen. I still have fond memories of the woman who introduced me to artichokes, even though I can't stand her and we haven't spoken in 25 years. If she hadn't cooked them for me, I would never have figured out how to eat them. She learned from the wealthy couple in Chicago for whom she was a nanny during her summers in college. By the way, you might want to take a look at Amanda Hesser's "Cooking for Mr. Latte." She describes her first date with the man she eventually marries, and even though it takes place in NYC, it's at a sports bar. She spends the entire book introducing Tad to the finer things in life, and trying to get him to appreciate them. And there's a wonderful description of speeches at (or around) their wedding. One of Tad's friends describes Amanda as "the only person who could make Tad look like a rube." (Please forgive a probably inaccurate/incomplete quote. I don't have the book nearby, or I'd look it up.)

I've been trying not to think about it, since it can be pretty depressing--realizing that cooking season doesn't start for another 2 1/2 to 3 months. But I'm not sick of cantaloupe yet, and the tomato plants are just beginning to produce, so I've got that to hang onto. It's a good tomato year here. The grape tomato plant has turned out to have expansionist policies and is about to become a zoning issue. But I'm thinking about stewing a couple of hens, and making some noodles, for chicken and noodles; plus chicken pot pie; and chicken and dumplings. I had only begun to explore the braising possibilities of my new Le Creuset pot; it'll be nice to get it out again. That means we'll have to make a trip to the little Amish community nearby, to pick up short ribs... and go across the street to the restaurant to have the only pie I'll eat that I didn't make. Julia's potato and leek soup would be good, too. Plus cream of celery soup with creme fraiche. I have plans to explore squash soups this year...

At least in my neck of the woods, this is so true! There are two advantages: lower price per pound, and you only have to buy what you need. I sure wish they had better hours, though.

My grandmother taught me to make pie crust. The woman, long after dementia had set in and she no longer recognized anyone, was still an incredible cook and baker. One of our favorite stories to tell about her happened during this period. In the middle of making dinner, she went over to the freezer, lifted the lid, and stared into it for several minutes. Suddenly she slammed the lid down, turned around, and with eyes on fire, proclaimed, "Lord God almighty, someone's stolen the eggs!" Fortunately, her pie crust recipe didn't include eggs. The method: with a fork, scoop out a hunk of shortening (about the size of one fist for a single-crust pie, two fists for a double crust) and smack it into a mixing bowl. Cover it completely with sifted flour and several good shakes of the salt shaker. Use the side of the fork to cut through the mixture, repeatedly, while turning the bowl with the other hand. Continue to work until the mixture is close to uniformly the size of small peas. Splash about a glug of milk into it, and gently work it in with the fork. The "working in" motion was kind of a cross between folding and stirring. Add more milk in small amounts if necessary, just until all of the dough hangs together. Scrape it out of the bowl onto a pastry cloth, sprinkle lightly with flour, knead about 4 or 5 times and roll out. She didn't worry about refrigerating the dough or using chilled utensils, but I do refrigerate it at least an hour before rolling it out.

Butter and salt, left to right, two to three rows at a time. The last two rows are left for the dog. While we hold the cob by its ends, the dog just plows in and delicately, with front teeth only, bites off whatever he can find, going back and forth to make sure he got it all. We learned the hard way, to take the cobs out to the dumpster immediately, after the dog dug 3 cobs out of the trash and ate them. He has a habit of eating inedible things, but we just never thought he'd eat the cobs. $129.50 at the vet's office.

There is at least one for sale on eBay right now. Also, you can go to www.powells.com and there are used copies of the hardcover edition available.

I have a love-hate relationship with Wal-Mart, for all of the reasons listed above. A few observations from local experience: If I want to find fennel, fresh herbs, or any number of other produce items that are ....well... "gourmet", I find them at Wal-Mart, including the one in my (blue collar) neighborhood. My local Dillons grocery (part of the Kroger chain) doesn't carry them. If I want to drive all the way across town, I can find them at another Kroger chain location. Target, locally, just closed two regular stores; opened a larger store; and opened two Super-Targets. They went out of the community to get non-union labor to build these stores. And when the old stores closed and the new ones opened, all employees were terminated and had to re-apply for jobs if they wanted to work in the new stores. Not sure why this was done, but it seems even slimier than Wal-Mart's practices to me. I don't shop at the Super Targets, but mainly because they are quite a distance from my house. I get frustrated with the local Kroger outlet because they have been squeezing out brand name products, in favor of their often inferior (sometimes extremely so) house brands. And if I want to take advantage of their sales, I have to pull out a company card and have it scanned. A local joke, after 9/11, was that the local Dillons store knows and tracks every can of beans I buy, and if they'd been tracking immigrants, too, 9/11 would never have happened. So tell me, where do I shop to stay away from corporate misbehavior?