jgm

I think it would have to be my beef stew, or what others might call vegetable beef soup. It's based on the beef stew recipe in Joy of Cooking.

Huh? What are cambo tubs???

One of the best for home use is the vacuum system, such as Foodsaver. The bags and the canisters are really sturdy. The downside is that if you don't have room to keep the vacuum appliance on your counter, you have to haul it out and set it up every time you use it, and then store it away when finished, of course. That's kind of a pain. But it's a very, very good system, and bags that haven't stored things like raw chicken, can be used again. Other than that, it's Gladware (or some similar disposable product), or zip-loc bags. I do use Tupperware's modular mates for storage of staples--flour, sugar, etc. They're sturdy and meant to stack, and they can get you organized in a (pretty expensive) short time. Most of them are large enough to dip a measuring cup in, and for me, that's mandatory. I hate spooning flour out of a narrow-necked canister and then dumping the excess back in. I think the company has a new product out similar to the modular mates, which were introduced in the 1980's, but I don't know anything about it. I just saw it in a catalog. Don't miss your favorite restaurant supply shop for other possibilities.

I was hoping that someone, somewhere, would report on this thing. I cannot understand why anyone would purchase a big contraption that performs a task that is easily done and takes no equipment at all.

A little over 20 years ago, when I was not long out of college and determined to learn to cook, I found a recipe in either Bon Appetit or Gourmet for a salad of mushrooms in aioli. So I purchased fresh mushrooms, garlic, and whatever else I needed, and set to work with my trusty Cuisinart. The stuff was so garlicky it was inedible. Still, I was determined to forge ahead. I was not going to waste what were, on my meager Campbell's-soup-level salary, expensive ingredients. Over the next couple of days, I ate 3 or 4 servings of it, and each time, a couple of hours later would have a horribly uncomfortable belly. Not to mention the ...shall we say... outward-directed physical manifestations one has, following having a horribly uncomfortable belly. I reeked of garlic. I finally threw the stuff out. Years later, when thinking back on the whole sordid affair, I realized that at the time, I hadn't understood the difference between heads of garlic and cloves of garlic. Considering that each head has roughly 10 cloves, I literally would have used 10 times the amount of garlic the recipe called for.

In 1967, I won a blue ribbon in the 4-H cherry pie contest. I was in sixth grade. I'd been watching Mom bake pies for years, and decided to try it. The worst of it was producing a recipe with actual measurements--the pie crust recipe handed down in our family doesn't use measurements. We just eyeball it. Everything went well during the piemaking stage, until I got the top crust on, edges crimped, and realized I had forgotten to put butter on top of the cherries. My mom always said it takes away bitterness. So I used a table knife to lift up the edge of the crust, at the vent I'd cut, and slipped the butter in with another table knife. In the critique, one of the judges wrote, "You certainly seemed to know what you were doing." It was the 3rd pie I'd ever made.

A few years ago a co-worker gave me a very special potholder set. The two potholders were crocheted, and mine (others received the same gift in other colors) were sort of a burnt orange color. The "special" part was the hanger for the potholders. The hanger was a doll's face from a craft store; the hair was dark and braided and was meant to make her look like (I know this is politically incorrect, but I don't know how else to say it; the whole gift was politically incorrect, so give me a break!) an Indian squaw. Of course, she had a headband with an orange feather in it. Since the generic features of the doll face didn't make her look Native American in the least, the cliche headband had to do it. The potholders were hung on the hanger in such a way that they became the squaw's earrings. Picture this: 3-inch doll face; 6-inch potholder earrings. I remeber only that the silly thing never hung in my kitchen. I have no idea what I did with it. (Edited for clarity)

I'm having Campbell's Chicken and Noodle tonight. Does that count? We are smack in the middle of the area hit by the ice storm. The President Himself has declared our county a disaster area. Woohoo. We've had no power since Tuesday noon, the temperature on the interior of the house is 37 degrees, and the only reason I came to work today was to get warm. (I never imagined I'd think that peeing in a warm restroom was such a wonderful thing.) It's so cold we're not even worried about what's happening to the food in the freezer. The power company says the power will be back on "7 to 10 days maximum." I can light the burners on the stove with a match; the oven is electronically controlled, so it's not available. We do have hot water, so I carry around a hot water bottle all the time. That, and a battery-operated lantern. Is there a soup I can prepare in the dark (no chopping, in other words), top of stove only, that will keep me from going off the deep end????? If this continues for 7 to 10 more days, I'm not making any promises about my ability to conduct myself in an adult and civil fashion. I'm feeling extremely sorry for myself. Looking forward to celebrating light and heat by making a big pot of potato & leek. Everybody, enjoy a bowl of something, anything, for me.

I'm starting to think about what I'm going to grow this year. I've done a little gardening before, but this year I want to do more than putter at it. How about some recommendations for vegetables, and varieties of vegetables? Ditto with herbs. Recipes for little-known varieties, if you care to share. (What does one do with cinnamon basil, anyway?) I'd especially love to hear recommendations for tomatoes. According to the local nursery, they all taste wonderful (which, to an extent, is surely true) but which do you think is the best variety? What do you always plant, and what do you do with it?

I'm not crazy about kneeling waiters. However here are a couple of reasons why the guy may be doing it: 1. Habit. Perhaps a previous restaurant at which he worked had large, low-hanging lamps over the tables, and if he didn't kneel, he had a hard time seeing customers' faces and hearing their orders. I can think of a couple of restaurants we go to where it's just plain necessary for waitstaff to kneel. But if they're doing it to appear friendly and approachable, forget it. As a customer, I want my order to be right. But I don't need for the waiter to become my new best friend. 2. I don't know how to put this. If a waitperson must lean over for a significant period of time, to hear the customer's order, that means his or her rear end may be ummmmmm, too prominently displayed in the view of another diner, depending on how close together the tables are placed. I'm not crazy about kneeling waiters, but I'm even less crazy about looking up from my plate and somebody's butt is the most prominent thing within my field of vision. If it's just for a second or two, I don't care, but if for some reason it's a bit longer than that, I'd rather the waiter would kneel. I think you should just tell him that you don't think kneeling is appropriate in your restaurant. It's an informal action that just doesn't work well in some places. The waiter can keep his tips up by getting it right.

For awhile, I actually had a system in which I had all of my recipes in MS Word files; I then cut and pasted the ingredient lists (including quantities) into Excel files, which were downloaded onto a PDA. It was wonderful to be able to whip out my PDA in the grocery store and find out what I had to buy for a certain recipe. Obviously, I could just make out a list at home, but it's not unusual for me to find myself at the store, and find the store out of crucial ingredients for what I'd planned to make. Having a list of ingredients on my PDA allowed me to make last-minute menu changes without my getting home and having to turn around and go back for one or two more things. Sadly, the PDA was a cheap one, and awkward to use, and I just stopped carrying it. But oh, the possibilities...

I think this points to the real issue. If you understand exactly what "organic" means for the produce you're buying, you can make an informed decision. But if the state in which you're purchasing produce doesn't control the use of that term as tightly as California does, you may or may not be getting something healthful. I think the whole issue goes far beyond the term "organic." Years ago, a hairdresser was putting some henna on my hair, and he was waxing eloquent about how wonderful, natural, and organic it was. "See," he said, "it's totally organic." And with that, he dipped his finger in the bowl of henna and put it in his mouth. "Horse manure is organic," I replied. "But I'm not gonna eat it." Poisonous mushrooms that have no pesticide on them are organic, but we shouldn't eat them; ditto with many other things. Vegetables that have been raised without pesticides and within certain other restrictions may be organic, but if they've been improperly handled along the way, including in your own kitchen, they could be contaminated with e. coli or numerous other things, and they could make you so sick that a little pesticide residue on the non-organic apple you ate yesterday, is the least of your problems. I've always read that organic produce is not more healthful (other than the absence of certain chemicals, with the jury still being out on the impact that the small amounts of those chemicals may have) than other kinds, and that it may or may not have better flavor. I can't produce a source for that, though. Overall, I think Planet Earth would be better off if we all did whatever we can to reduce the amount of pesticides being used. But when it comes to an individual's health, there are so many variables in the food we eat, that I think it would be very difficult to make a claim that people who eat organic produce are better off than those tho don't. I guess what I'm trying to say is that my own negative connotation with the word "organic" is all of the fools who pay elevated prices for organic produce, and believe they're getting something that is far healthier and better than 'regular' produce, and who aren't considering all of the other issues in what that produce does and does not bring to the table, so to speak.

I'm in for doing soup every week. Sounds like a great New Year's resolution. I highly recommend the Potato and Leek soup in Saint Julia's Mastering the Art , Vol. 1. Couldn't be easier or better, and just the thing when you need comfort food. If you do a search for "celery bisque" on Epicurious, and select the option that includes stilton toasts, that's also a nice soup that is really just a variation on Potato and Leek. I don't always make the stilton toasts. It's very good, with or without them. Jaceuqs Pepin, on his website (www.jacquespepin.net), has a wonderful recipe for a simple soup that I think he calls "Peasant Soup." It's a matter of toasting a handful of day-old bread cubes, throwing them into a soup bowl and putting some shredded Swiss cheese over them, and then drowning the whole business in hot chicken broth. So extremely good, and so fast and easy when it's cold and you're tired.

Thanks for the recipe! It looks really good, even if it isn't exactly the same. We may even like this better...

One of my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurants has a mushroom soup that my husband and I really, really like. I've resorted to just short of committing a felony to get my hands on the recipe, and while I've not yet been successful, I have learned quite a lot about what's in it. Someone once told me that only button mushrooms are used--no others. I have also learned that the other ingredients are a commercial "mushroom soup base" plus mushrooms, heavy cream, and "a little white wine." That description very much fits what I've gathered from tasting and from stirring through the soup and trying to see what I can identify. The mushrooms are sliced thinly and are cooked until all their water is evaporated. I'm willing to do a bit of experimentation to achieve something close to what they serve, but I need to know more about this mushroom soup base. Anybody have any ideas or information? Does it sound like something you buy, or something available for you to buy? My preference would be to be able to make the entire soup from scratch, but if I have to purchase a commercial product, well then, I will. I realize this is a touchy subject for some, because chefs closely guard certain recipes, and for good reason. Let me say, for the record, that it is not just the soup that brings us back, again and again, to this restaurant. They have many dishes that we crave. If I'm able to replicate this recipe at home, I guarantee it won't result in fewer visits to this establishment. It's one of the few restaurants in town in which I have trouble deciding what to order, not because I like only a couple of things on the menu, but because choosing one item means not choosing another. Their food really is excellent and we are regulars.

We do casual dining on New Year's Eve, and we try to do it early, before the drunks and the police department do battle. We like to eat at a hibachi restaurant, so we end up with sauteed (or stir fried, depending on how you look at it) shrimp, beef, and chicken, along with fried rice. Some years, we stay up to welcome the New Year; others, we're in bed around 10. New Year's day is whatever sounds good with football. Usually chili, but sometimes beef stew or chicken and noodles. This year, I'm going to be cooking the Christmas turkey, which had to wait a week since we dined at my mother's house this year.

May I make a request? I've never made anything this ambitious before, and I live in an area of the country in which even procuring the ingredients would be an ordeal. (I've yet to find a decent local source for good sausage, for example, so obviously I'm going to have to mail order it, and other than Dean & Deluca, I don't even know where to begin. As for duck...I have no idea.) Therefore, I'm going to sit this one out and just enjoy reading. Since I've never made sausage or confit either... Anyone with a camera who's willing to take pictures of the making of the confit and the sausage, plus the rest of the cassoulet, would be contributing to the education of a very eager student. I promise to hold onto your every word and pixel. How about posting your progress along the way? You'd forever have a special place in my heart.

I love this thread. Man, how I love this thread. Remember the great turkey drop on WKRP in Cincinnati? "As God is my witness, I swear I thought turkeys could fly." I thought that was just about the funniest thing I'd ever heard, until I discovered this thread.

There is a probably outdated understanding on the part of the public that a restaurant should be prepared to serve anything the customer asks for. I know many people who consider it a Rule of the Universe. However, I suspect that rule originated in a whole 'nother era, and if there are any historians (or even people with a really good memory and a substantial amount of time on the planet) who know the origin of that attitude and wish to add more, I'd love to hear more about it. I don't think that idea is even the least bit applicable to restaurants anymore. Too many foods, too many cooking styles. These days, I think it's the chef's call. If it's not on the menu, the chef can decide whether to come up with it. And the chef must decide whether to risk permanently alienating the customer if the answer is "no". Having said that, I think some flexibility is in order. Some customers' choices are made due to allergy or disease (i.e., compromised immune system), and to endeavor to accommodate such customers can be an act of compassion. But it's still gotta be the chef's call.

It is really annoying... It actually starts to hurt my eyes after a while and if I don't have really good lighting I can't read it at all... ← Amen, amen, amen. What were they thinking?

This is way too cool and I am jealous. I've never even seen one of these before, and now I must have one. However, DH did pretty well for me: 2 Carrabba's cookbooks (I asked for them) A wine opener that uses a blast of carbon dioxide to pop the cork An inert gas dispenser for preserving wine A Cole & Mason battery operated pepper grinder. Lest this sound very gagety, I have arthritis in my hands, and there are days when the battery-operated feature is a godsend. Then Mom came through with: Batali's Simple Italian Food McGee's new On Food and Cooking Marcella Says Peterson's Splendid Soups And with the year-end bonus from my employer: Various goodies from Williams-Sonoma Thomas Keller's Bouchon Peterson's book on Sauces Julia's Kitchen Wisdom Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen Zuni Cafe Cookbook The Splendid Table - Kasper Grilled Cheese - Speiler Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol. 2 And with a gift card from my boss: Manchego and Membrillo from Dean and Deluca, as soon as they restock Despite the fact that I was just outbid on The Professional Chef from the CIA, I am happer than a gopher in a mound of fresh dirt. 'Scuse me. Got to go read some cookbooks now.

How about a tangerine flavored cake or cookie as a component? Quite a few years ago, a Martha Stewart cookbook had a tangerine mousse recipe that was the reason I bought the cookbook. I never did make the mousse, but I've never forgotten it, and it's on my mental things-to-do list. Tangerine sherbet?

It's definitely something to try. If it's even drinkable, it beats the coffee at my father-in-law's house, hands down, not to mention what is to be found during the 8-hour trip to get there. This isn't something I anticipate drinking every day, but out here in the American Outback (Kansas) it could be a very good thing when navigating I-70 and there's not even a McDonald's in sight.

I just made a pie with it tonight. I am very impressed with it. This particular crust is flakier than many others I've made. I don't do any measuring when I make pie crust, and I don't make it very often, so there is some variability in the crusts I make. I did note, as did Cook's Illustrated, that there's more crispness than tenderness, but not at all to an objectionable degree. This crust was very flaky. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the results. Obviously, the fat content of the crust is the same, but having fats that aren't believed to be so harmful may lead me to make a few more pies per year. I really enjoy making pies, and this product is, as far as I'm concerned, really good news.

A couple of ideas off the top of my head... First of all, I think a palate is not something one is born with; it is trained. So what a person tastes of any food will depend, in part, on what he or she brings to the table, so to speak. Also, I think we do taste things differently. I have a friend who will not drink certain brands of tea because of an aftertaste she detects, that no one else I know has been able to detect when I've asked them. I cannot drink any form of Snapple because of a very strong aftertaste I get that apparently doesn't bother others. I think this happens more often with beverages than with other foods, but I think it happens, to an extent, with all foods. And my own palate has changed as I've aged; food that tastes fine to everyone else, is often extremely salty to me. I have also noticed that what I taste, when drinking coffee, can be highly dependent on the temperature of the coffee. Certain Starbucks flavors are fine when extremely hot, but I can't stand them after they've cooled a bit.