jgm

Julia's birthday is August 15. Perhaps we should start thinking now about how we want to celebrate it. Congress is too stupid to make it a national holiday, but that doesn't mean we can't do something fitting and proper here on eGullet.

This thread is fascinating! Mr. W, would you consider offering more information about the seasoned wine? How do you make it? How do you store it? How do you use it? For those of you who make duxelles, I would be interested in more information about how you use it/them. I've always heard that it's not a good idea to chop onions ahead of time, because their flavor changes. However, I was watching an old Jacques Pepin tape a few evenings ago, and he chopped them, rinsed them in water, wrung them out in a dish towel, and said they could be kept a day or so. It made me wonder if they could then be frozen. I'd love to hear opinions on that idea. Can anybody recommend books that would have recipes and storage directions for various condiments mentioned here? I feel like I've found a gold mine!!!

You mean that when I wash sheets in hot water, with bleach, the bleach is not effective at all?????

Wonderful news! Earlier this week, I made Bourdain's mushroom soup recipe from the Les Halles cookbook. It is very, very close to the recipe I've been looking for. After reading the recipes offered here, I can tell that all I'll have to do to morph it into what I've been looking for, is to reserve some sliced mushrooms before pureeing, use a little white wine instead of sherry, and add some cream. Thanks to those who contributed to my education and recipe file. And if you haven't tried the recipe from the Les Halles cookbook, believe me, it's not to be missed.

I would love to be enlightened about contemporary French food. We Americans are still fairly educable. I'm all ears. Er, eyes. Whatever.

I recently purchased Julia's Kitchen Wisdom, and she does seem to lighten things up a bit. There is a section on using cooked rice to thicken soups instead of cream. I haven't read the entire book yet, so I don't know if she makes similar efforts with other dishes. What also made her an icon, was her casual attitude in the kitchen. Although she was obviously knowledgeable, her attitude toward food and cooking put people at ease and made French cooking accessible to people who would not otherwise have considered themselves capable of it. She brought sophisticated dishes into the lives of people who would not otherwise have had an opportunity to enjoy them, and for that, and many other things, she is deeply beloved.

We don't generate much fry oil, but when we do, our county has a hazardous waste site where we can take it, and it will be recycled. Getting my husband to do that is another story... We open 4 cans of pet food per day, and were filling up our trash can pretty quickly. Just when we were thinking about ordering a second can, a neighbor told us about a nearby recycling center, so we take cans, milk containers, plastic pop bottles, newspaper and magazines there. Another center exists for things like plastic bags, but it's quite a bit farther away. On my to-do list is to find it, figure out when it's open, and drop stuff off on my way to/from work. I also have begun composting kitchen waste in the same bin we're putting yard waste in. It's too cold to be able to tell what's going to come of it, but at least it's not going into the landfill or through the garbage disposal and into the sewage treatment plant.

Fantastic! I just love it when things I cook/bake turn out well, don't you? That's just about as satisfying as life gets. So what's next?

From what I've seen on friends' refrigerators over the years, that's exactly what it is. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. Gauging by those friends' hips, these diets aren't particularly more effective than others. But don't get me started on dieting gimmicks. The only way to get me to shut up about it is to stuff chocolate in my mouth.

Looks like they've hitched on to the dieting bandwagon and the faith-based (or whatever you'd call it) bandwagon at the same time, thus killing two birds with one stone. They get a point or two for cleverness and opportunism, but I won't be one of their viewers. Actually, less and less these days, I am one of their viewers. I watched Michael Chiarello on the Fine Living Network last night, making a pannini (sp?) out of cibatta, asparagus, and cambozola. Now there's a man I can worship. Thank Heaven there's already a What Would Michael Eat? program.

I recently read a tip in a magazine that indicated you could freeze leftover wine for later use in cooking, such as saucemaking. Does anybody do this? It certainly would be handy, since I'm the only wine drinker in the house. But I'm a little suspicious. Thumbs up? Thumbs down?

I've also developed a fondness, lately, for chocolate with "stuff" added... such as chile powder and cinnamon. I once had some to which Earl Grey tea had been added, and it was wonderful, but I've been unable to find it lately. A cruise through various high-end chocolate websites would give you ideas for pairings. Might be fun to have something like this on hand. I've made truffles before, and they're not difficult. The recipe I used had to be refrigerated until just before serving, which may or may not work for you. If the lemon curd tart thing works, think about other fillings, also.

You'll be baking the tart shells ahead... I would think they'd be fine if you do an egg white wash on each one. They might be slightly soggier than if they'd been done immediately before, but I don't think it'll be a problem. You could try it ahead... it would be a good excuse to eat (a lot of) lemon curd!

I happen to be of the opinion that miniature tart shells filled with lemon curd, are to die for. Tart shells could be made a couple of days ahead and stored in airtight containers; lemon curd could be made ahead; fill the tarts by loading the lemon curd into a pastry bag, or even into a heavy-duty ziploc bag (cut a corner off after loading) and quickly pipe into the shells. You could serve as is, or garnish with whipped cream. I'll continue to give it more thought. Desserts are my favorite thing to think about.

Oh, dear. You've got it bad, haven't you? Might try fixing some tomato soup from some really good canned tomatoes. Maybe not. When you've got a "real" tomato craving, nothing else will do. Well, when the time comes, try chunks of tomatoes and cucumbers with mint and a little olive oil. Splash some vinegar on if you'd like. OK, I'm going to take a risk here. Years ago, I dated a guy who left Lebanon as Beirut was becoming an insane place to live. He was a pretty good cook... fixed lots of things I'd never seen before, including the above salad. He also took a can of Veg-all, drained it, and dressed it with mayo and a little vinegar. As I remember, it was susprisingly good. Now, I know nobody on this list has a can of Veg-all, so blanch the same vegetables, or cook them until softened, and toss them with the mayo and vinegar. This guy also took a round steak and baked it with cinnamon and cherry tomatoes. I'd probably use a better cut of meat, but that's something I'll do again. Interesting combination of flavors. Too bad the relationship didn't work. He was the ONLY guy I ever dated who would eat anything placed in front of him. Never, ever did I hear him refuse to eat particular foods... unlike someone we won't name, to whom I'm married.

I did find the Better then Boullion mushroom base locally. We spent all of last week without power due to an ice storm (interior house temperature: 37 degrees, yes, it was horrible) and I spent this week recuperating from a nasty fall in a dark house. Well, thank God that's over. I think it's going to be a mushroom soup weekend! Thanks to all who have had suggestions, and feel free to add more if you have them.

There are rare instances when one presents the whole fruit, such as with baked apples, or with a sorbet served in a hollowed-out citrus fruit. I don't see this new system doing good things for that... but otherwise, sounds like a good idea.

Go to www.epicurious.com and put in a search on "wonton soup." There was a recipe published in last January's Gourmet that was highly rated by those who tried it.

Well, there is petits pois a la francaise but the recipes I have seen, have more peas than lettuce where as I like it with more lettuce than peas. I was reminded of it because someone in the Fresh Pasta thread mentioned peas and lettuce as a stuffing for ravioli. Ideally, I think, it should be buttery Cobb lettuce and fresh peas... but my little gems and frozen peas were great all the same. ← I'm salivating. Either of you interested in posting a recipe/general directions for this salad? I have a New Year's resolution to eat more vegetables... and the carrot and celery sticks are just not cutting it.

Oh, wow! Good for you! I'm in about the same boat; the largest meat I've ever cooked is a two-pound tenderloin, and I have the same goals as you do. You've given me courage! Good job!

We have one in our community, and my husband and I took advantage of it when they first opened. It was mainly out of curiosity, but I also wanted to see what kinds of work-ahead tips I would get out of it. This particular business was centered around the idea of using 12 entrees over the period of a month, rather than a week's worth of cooking as you mentioned. Every dish was designed to be prepped, frozen, and moved to the fridge 12-24 hours before serving. With the exception of the meats, the food was mediocre at best. My own recipes for manicotti, etc., were far superior and just as easy. One thing I did pick up, was seasoning and prepping meats, especially 1/2 chickens, and freezing them. It would seem that it takes no time at all to do this; why would anyone want to? But the reality is, it really is a lot faster, and the cleanup is also done and out of the way so that you can pop the meat (which has been thawing in the fridge for 24 hours) in the oven, and get right to the side dishes. Obviously, fresh would be better, but this quality is definitely acceptable. And that's one of the main advantages to prepping ahead: you not only have the prep done, you have the cleanup done. The chicken and the salmon we brought home were both excellent--here in the Midwest, it's difficult to find fresh seafood, so thawing frozen, seasoned salmon and baking it was not a stretch for us. Even though the per-serving prices were quite reasonable, I don't think we'll use this business again. It wasn't the quality of the food itself that was a problem, it was the quality of the recipes. And the low quality of the recipes was likely a function of the constraints of not cooking first, but only assembling, before freezing. For most dishes, it works much better to cook fresh ingredients and freeze them.

I think a little perspective would be good here. I can't even begin to perceive this as a beverage. I perceive it to be in the dessert category. Starbucks would probably love it if I'd have one every day, but I'm not going to let them make that decision for me. We've all (ok well many, but not all, of us) gotten into the habit of allowing food purveyors' marketing departments make our eating decisions for us, and that's why so many of us in America are overweight. Me included. Something this intensely flavored, fatted, and sugared is something to enjoy maybe once a week at the most; for many it would be nowhere near that often. I don't obsess about the calories and fat in a good piece of chocolate cake; I don't consume mediocre chocolate cake. If it ain't worth the calories, I don't eat it. Ditto with this stuff. As far I'm concerned, this is a dessert, not a beverage, and that's the status it will have in my life. And that's why I don't care how many grams of anything are in it. It's a once-in-awhile thing.

Unfortunately, bacteria aren't the only problem. Viruses can be present, also, and some of them are far more resilient and are not killed at 140-160 degrees. I think this is a question that each household has to determine for itself. If you have children, or family members who are immune compromised, you may want to handle the situation differently than people who have, for example, only a couple of adults in the household. Part of my decision to microwave my sponges and dishcloths, and to add bleach when I wash kitchen towels and cloths, stems from the fact that we have a large dog and four cats. The dog runs around in the back yard, and we live in an area in which wild animals abound. He comes into the house, tracking whatever onto our floors; said whatever is then potentially picked up by the cats. The cats aren't allowed on the kitchen counters, but we're not home 24/7, and I'm certain that when we're not there to supervise, they go wherever they please. The dog manages to steal and devour bread that we could swear is out of his reach, so we don't like to think about what he does when we're not home. For us, better safe than sorry. Your situation may be entirely different.

I go with the research that Cook's did, and from time to time throw my sponges in the microwave for 1 minute. Cook's did follow up later, and indicate that the 1-minute thing is for WET sponges only; dry sponges could catch fire. I've been known to do the same with wet dishrags, especially if I've used them to mop up after working with raw poultry. I do scrub my sink with Comet with bleach before putting foods into it that I intend to eat raw, or I use Clorox Cleanup or just run a sinkful of water and pour bleach into it. I have a porcelain sink and the bleach also removes many stains. I spoke with a county health official a few years ago; Kansas had a nasty outbreak of hantavirus, which can be caught simply by inhaling, and which is carried by certain breeds of mice. I wouldn't want to be held to this, but it seems that over a span of about 3 years, about a half dozen people died from it. It was a cold winter, and my cats were catching mice like crazy, and I became pretty paranoid. The health official told me that dish soap and/or heat will kill most bacteria, but only bleach will kill viruses. I don't remember if he said that heat will also; I was more concerned with the surfaces of my counters. And finally, from my days in the local Coroner's office: we washed all cloth items in hot water with laundry detergent and bleach. Bleach is potent stuff. Even a couple of tablespoons in a load of laundry will kill a virus. I think I function out of paranoia on these issues, more than anything else. If people don't like my cooking, who cares. But if my cooking ever made anyone sick --or worse-- in addition to all of the other embarrassment/mortification/grief issues, it would seriously diminish the joy I find in cooking.

Although I'm not a parent, I have a stressful job and elderly parents whose health and antics are unpredictable, and there are nights I come home and barely have the energy to turn the TV on. On those evenings I do have energy, I try to look ahead a little bit. If I can slice zucchini for tomorrow's soup, I do that and put it into a plastic bag, and it goes back into the refrigerator. If tomorrow's recipe calls for 5 different spices, I get them measured out into a bowl or plastic container. Any slicing, chopping or measuring that can be done ahead, I try to do. I also have a plastic storage container that I will put unopened canned or packaged ingredients into, so that I don't even have to gather them. It's also a good way to make sure I actually have them on hand, and avoid last-minute trips to the grocery. It can be amazing how all the early prep, and getting pots and pans ready, can shave loads of time off a recipe. More importantly, it gets you organized at a time when you can devote your attention to the recipe, and those inevitable distractions that come at cooking time are easier to handle.