purplewiz

No, no decent cheese danish in these parts - there is a noticeable lack of local bakeries. and the few I did find when I lived in CA mostly didn't have cheese danish. (They had great donuts, though.) The few times I have found locally made cheese danish they had the runny cheese filling, which was disappointing. I grew up in northern NJ, and cheese danish always had that sweet, dry, somewhat crumbly but still moist cheese filling. Yes, there are advantages and disadvantages to every place, even here ...but your blog is making me nostalgic for the bakeries and foods where I grew up! Not to mention those won tons - they look SO good. Marcia.

I hope this isn't going too far off topic, but you've just solved the current food mystery in our house - what flavor is "Jamaica" Kool Aid? (I'd bought a number of packets labeled in both Spanish and English, and they were all "exotic" flavors that we've been enjoying a great deal.) It was deep red, kind of fruity, and we could not figure out what it was supposed to be - it must have been Kool Aid's version of agua de jamaica! And more on topic, the pictures from the bakery nearly made me weep. I'd commit mayhem for a real cheese danish about now. Marcia.

Mom's ham and potato casserole. It's nothing more than boiled sliced potatoes, cubes of leftover ham, some onions, white sauce, salt and pepper, and bread crumbs on top, but talk about comfort food. I've tried to make it multiple times, and it never comes out quite right. Sadly, a lot of my mother's stuff is "good plain cooking" - edible, but nothing I'd want to go home for again. Marcia.

This is a fascinating concept, and and interesting essay. However, there is no way I could do it here. From what I know is grown within 100 miles, I would be living basically on bison and beef. Fresh vegetables would be available from July through September only - our frost dates run from May 15 - Sept. 15, and often shorter. There would be almost no grain or fruit products. If I were allowed to hunt in town, we could supplement our diet with venison and bunny rabbit :-). I do garden, but there is no way I could grow enough for even the two of us to live on during the winter, due not only to time considerations, but to the considerable amount of preparation the soil around here requires to successfully grow non-native plants (food). Marcia.

I'm afraid that if I mention the garden is doing well, something will fall from the sky or crawl through the fence and ruin it. The first wave of lettuce/mesclun mix is about done, and the second is poking its little green heads up through the ground. The salads have been extraordinarily good so far. The cilantro is outstanding. Nothing in a grocery store, no matter how fresh, comes close. I get high just from the scent when I brush against it. The chives are, as usual, taking over everything. The basil is large enough that I'm taking some leaves from it. The thyme, sage, and mint are going great guns. The green onions are young but growing steadily. The carrots have been thinned, and the nasturtiums are about to flower (yum!). The zucchini and yellow pattypan squash are starting to flower. The tomatoes are flowering, too. So far, the failures have been the green beans and the marigolds. Something has been eating them both, preferentially. Yes, we have something that likes marigolds. No, I don't know what. And in the non-edible category, the dahlias are doing very well. They don't flower until late August or so, right about the time I really need some color. They're the full sized ones, 2 feet tall and 8" blossoms, so when they bloom they BLOOM. I wish it would rain some more - just a little bit would help things along! Marcia.

I didn't know that - that's really interesting! But yeah, it's hard to find a good spicy jalapeno these days....but sometimes I get pleasantly surprised :-). Marcia.

One of the varieties of these "no heat" jalapenos is called a Tam Jalapeno - all the garden centers around here sell the plants in the spring. I tried growing one once, and it wasn't worth the work - no heat, but no flavor, either. I've found that the heat and flavor of the jalapenos we get varies a lot from day to day, place to place, and month to month. When I use them, I always taste a little of each, and adjust how much I use based on the current heat/flavor levels. Marcia.

I kept this topic in mind as I went grocery shopping today, and it was interesting to evaluate what I bought against whether I was going cheap or expensive. Cheap: Seltzer water. Store brand on sale since we're only going to mix it with sugar free syrups to make our own soda anyway. Meat. I love scratch and dent meat (you know, marked down because it's going to "expire" in a day or so), and since I freeze it anyway, I don't care what the date is on it. Got a fabulous buy on pork chops today - did a quick marinade and threw them on the grill for dinner. The freezer is full of $0.99/lb pork country ribs and bags of IQF chicken breasts. Canned tomatoes. I don't care if the recipe says to use the expensive imported variety, I can't taste the difference. (Also includes tomato sauce and tomato paste.) Cold cuts. Deli ham vs. the Primo Taglio ham - I like Primo Taglio better, but not that much more per pound. Eggs. Didn't buy any because they weren't on sale and I only kind of needed them. Fresh tomatoes. Whatever's cheapest - they're not homegrown, so they all need ripening at home (which helps the flavor immensely). Fresh vegetables in general. What was on sale dictated just about everything I bought, from preshredded cole slaw mix (buck a bag) to mushrooms to green onions. Expensive: Soda. We like what we like, and cheaper versions will not substitute for Diet Vanilla Coke. Yogurt. There are very few sugar free versions, and many of them taste lousy. This seems to be a trend with sugar free products - some taste great, some taste like a chemical factory. I'm willing to pay more for the stuff that tastes better. Chocolate. 70% cocoa solids or better, not too acidy, and yes, it's expensive and no, I don't care. There seems to be a third category: cheap with a limit, where I do go as cheap as possible while still having what I consider to be acceptable quality. An example is sliced cheese. I love Tillamook, but the Safeway Select is significantly cheaper and tastes almost as good. But even though the American Process Cheese Food-Alike is even cheaper, it is horrible, so I won't go there. Canned tuna is another. I like the cheap chunk light, and I get either the Safeway Select or Whole Foods 365 brand. It's still more expensive than Bumblebee, et. al., but their quality is so bad it's not worth it at any price. Finally, as I was going over my grocery receipt, I got a good laugh as I realized that almost everything I bought was either on sale or had a coupon. I guess I go cheap overall :-). Marcia.

Oh, geez, I thought I was the only one who loved that McRib sandwich....or the Burger King International Chicken sandwiches. I also miss when Arby's had real sliced roast beef on the sandwiches, instead of this formed pressed product. And their Chicken Caesar Sandwich....it really was a very tasty sandwich, especially for fast food. But what I miss most was when McD's had Diet 7up. They mixed it from syrup and soda water and it was either a different syrup or mixed in a different proportion or something, but it was among the best sodas I'd ever had. Then they switched to diet Coke and the world was never the same. Marcia.

Some years ago, when I was waiting in line at the grocery store, I happened to notice what the woman in front of me had on the conveyor belt. steak bottle of wine head of lettuce tomato salad dressing um...birth control devices I always wondered if it worked. I've only unintentionally seduced with food. I cooked what I considered to be a simple meal for he who is now my husband of lasagna, salad, and I think it was strawberries and champagne for dessert. It had unexpected side effects. I just asked my husband if he remembered that meal, and what was dessert. His response: "You, I think". Marcia. edited for typos that only show up after you hit submit

Chocolate Strawberries Homegrown tomatoes

Couple of random memories.... I read pretty much everything that came into the house, from Sears catalogs to MIT's Technology Review. My mother subscribed to Redbook Magazine (a now defunct women's magazine). I used to spend a lot of time reading not only the recipes, but the descriptions of meals eaten in the fiction or travel articles, and dream about what these exotic dishes tasted like. One of my fondest wishes was to try the much mentioned Chicken Tarragon (which, when I finally did get to try it, turned out to be remarkably unlike what I'd imagined, but I digress). I remember my Grandmother making small eclairs for some church social or another, and I remember her complaining about how difficult they were. I watched closely, and kept thinking that nothing she was doing was that difficult or tricky, it was just time consuming. This is an important lesson that has served me well throughout my life - knowing the difference between difficult and time consuming. When I was given my first cookbook many years later, the first thing I made out of it were the cream puffs, and proved my theory - they weren't that difficult, and they were delicious. The pivotal moment was Christmas the year I was in 6th grade. For our family's Christmas present, my aunt took us all out to eat at Windows on the World. I know that the view was supposed to be the attraction for "us kids", but it is the meal that stuck in my mind. It was the first time I'd ever had filet mignon, and it was the first time I'd ever had au gratin potatoes that weren't from a Betty Crocker box. I took to fine dining like a duck to water. It was that meal that confirmed that there was something more out there, something better, a whole world of experiences that my parents were avoiding for some reason or another. It was a moment lived in the future I'd only read about, but hoped for and envisioned. Marcia.

Anyone who puts chocolate chips instead of raisins in their bread pudding deserves a gold star in my book . Marcia.

Cherries. Real or artificial, in pies or on sundaes, I don't care, the smell and flavor immediately trigger my gag reflex. Licorice, or any anise flavored anything. See above. Asparagus. Mushy, nasty smelling, stringy - or worse, undercooked and crunchy. Not to mention the vile after effects. This is one of my mother's favorite foods, and for the last 40 years I've had to remind her not to waste any on me - I ain't eatin' it. I have quite a few other dislikes, but these are the three that seem to cause the most trouble with other people, especially the asparagus thing this time of year. They just don't get it that I can't stand the stuff, and keep telling me "you should really try this, it's wonderful". Yuck. Marcia.

When I'm out with just my husband, we most often do order two different dishes and try tastes. The upside is that we get to try more than one entree. The downside is often one dish is better than the other, so one person feels guilty they have a better dinner and the other person feels cheated that their dinner isn't as good. But sometimes we both want the same dish. What do we do? We both order it. No sense in one of us feeling annoyed that we couldn't have what we really wanted just because someone else did. When we're dining with friends, the only time we coordinate ordering is when we're eating family style - Chinese or Thai, for example. Any other time, people order what they want. I don't think I'd want to eat with people who prevented me from having what I wanted for dinner. Marcia.

Chocolate. Dark, balanced chocolate, the kind you breathe in deeply before partaking, the kind that you nibble and let melt on your tongue, letting the cocoa flavor slowly fill your mouth. If you want to gild the lily, nibble some of the chocolate and take a sip of hot, rich coffee, letting the heat of the coffee turn the chocolate to liquid and release the layers of flavor. I have told my doctor that if it's ever a choice of having to give up chocolate or die, well, it's been a nice life. Marcia.

I just want to second nuts or dill pickles, especially eaten with a nice big glass of water. A small handful (if I'm struggling to keep the nuts from falling out from between my fingers, it's not a small handful) of cashews and water really seems to fill me up. Same with a dill pickle spear. I try to make it very easy to snack on something reasonably good for me, and much harder to find something not quite so good. This is why I keep the pre-cut celery sticks around and pre-cut, pre-washed bags of broccoli and cauliflower florets front and center in the fridge. Yes, I know they're more expensive, and I know I could wash and cut them up myself, but I know I won't....and they're worth it because they greatly increase the convenience factor. Marcia.

My biggest one is service issues. I want to call it "stinginess", but it cuts much deeper than that. I'm thinking of a multi-star restaurant in town which we used to go to regularly. They remodeled their dining room, and the service went to hell after that. Instead of the nice assortment of breads in a basket they used to have, now there's a server going around handing out one roll at a time. I thought it might be because this way they made sure they were warm and fresh (which they were), but it turned out that was the ONLY roll we got all night. He never came back around, even though our appetizers were delayed by at least 30 minutes. During this wait we never saw our waiter, or any other server, to ask for more bread, or have our water refilled. There were other problems with this dinner, as well as the one before, but you get the picture. When I'm dining at this level, this kind of stuff is not acceptable, plain and simple. (A letter to the restaurant's management sent later went unanswered.) We decided that they did not need our patronage. Marcia.

I'm way, WAY behind in gardening this year, due to a completely unexpected but highly necessary emergency gall bladder removal two weeks ago. I have finally managed to prep two beds, I've lost a number of seedlings , and worse, a rabbit seems to have moved into the neighborhood. Any good ideas for bunny removal, short of waiting for the neighborhood cats or coyotes to dine upon it? In good news, the chive plant is about ready to burst into bloom, which means only one thing: grilled steaks with chive flower butter. Which will be followed shortly by the thyme plants blooming, which means grilled steak with chive and thyme flower butter . I also found that the sprouted garlic cloves I planted last year or the year before to help keep the deer away didn't die, just went dormant, and it's all divided and sprouted. I pulled up some, chopped it up, and added it to a sauteed cabbage dish. It was surprisingly pungent. I can't wait to keep trying it throughout the season. Marcia.

Thanks so much - your burger looked lovely, but the cheese and bread just set my mouth to watering . It's been years since I've had a properly gooey and cheesy garlic bread (I'm with you on the healthful thing), but that one....*sigh*.... Too bad the onion rings weren't as yummy as they looked! Marcia.

Wings is wings, but what is that wonderful looking cheesey bready thing? It looks SO good! Marcia.

Olives. I HATED olives when I was growing up - slimy, salty, metallic, disgusting. I couldn't imagine how anyone would voluntarily eat these things. Turns out it's only the canned common olives I hate. I had one of the Mt. Athos Garlic olives at Whole Foods, and was instantly addicted. I've grown to love kalamata olives, and the ones that are brined with chilies, and many other kinds. Except the canned. I still don't like them, even on cobb salads and pizza. Marcia.

This is the main reason I almost never entertain anymore. While I am willing to work with dietary restrictions, I am not a short order cook. When I do have people over, I've started to phrase my invitations as "I'm making my yearly onion soup feed on Saturday, would you like to join us?". When it comes to reciprocation, I'm very flexible. Not everyone is in the same position with respect to finances instead of time, but there are always creative ways around all that. Friends of ours throw a heck of a party every year, but because of their schedules they're not easily able to make it down here for dinner, so sometime during the year we usually host them at a restaurant about half way between us (about an hour from each). It works for all of us, and someday when their lives slow down I'll be happy to reciprocate more traditionally again. Heck, I'd be happy to be invited over for a cup of tea and a couple of Girl Scout cookies. It's not really tit for tat, it's just that it's nice to know that your company is desired as a guest, not only as a host. Marcia.

Mom's Potato Salad. Mom used to have to balance it just right - my father liked it sweet, and I liked it vinegary, so just when it was at the point when Dad thought it too sour and I thought it too sweet it was perfect. I have the recipe, and frankly, I like my more vinegary version better, but it's that balanced one that tastes like every summer picnic we ever had. Along with deviled eggs and shrimp macaroni salad. Marcia.

I carry one of these in my purse all the time. I've used it in many situations when I felt a little self-conscious about taking notes, like noting prices in stores - it's very small and looks very business-like if someone even notices. I've taken wine tasting notes and jotted down ideas for dishes many times. Marcia.