chardgirl

I did the chemo dance 4 years ago, and the meds they gave me to counteract the chemo side effects made me more hungry! I can only speak from my own experience and different chemo drugs have different side effects, but comfort food, however your friend defines it, is the best thing to prepare. He might be tired, I very much enjoyed it when my friends did dishes and babysitting! Sounds like you're headed towards making some creme brulee. He's a lucky patient.

Thanks for the help. I will try adding the Japanese characters to my computer next week, month or?? My kids will go to OVERNIGHT summer camp for two weeks this summer..... Meanwhile, I'm salting my cabbage to drain it to prepare making some version of the pickled cabbage, and I've discovered my mirin to be an imposter, where the ingredients start with CORN SYRUP. Thanks for the heads up. I will visit my local Japanese grocery tomorrow and ask if they have the real stuff, if not I'll try the further-afield big Japanese grocery store in a couple of weeks. (I live in California) I'm going to try the ziploc bag method, I like recipes where you mix it up and toss it in the fridge! One last question, is there an Asian Pickle Thread here on Egullet? If not I'll start one soon. cg

The dandelions sold in stores are not typically the same type of dandelions as the ones poking up out of the sidewalks. Both kids of dandelion are generally related being fellow members of the composit family (along with lettuces, sunflowers, and artichokes) but the sidewalk dandelions are yellow-flowered plants, squat, tough and bitter while store-bought dandies are lanky, milder flavored and bloom blue. Store-bought dandelions are a chicory, closely related to escaroles and radicchios. The variety most commonly cultivated is called catalogna. In some places catalogna dandies may have escaped cultivation to grow as weeds. The typical weedy dandelion is edible, especially when young but not worth planting for sale. (my husband Andy G. wrote this, he's been organically farming veggies for over 20 years. I would add that if you're going to raid neighbors dandelions make sure they don't spray them....) Below is a photo of dandelion greens, Catalogna variety, grown on our farm and ready for sale at farmers market:

I'm a roasted beet fan. YUM. they can be eaten hot or let cooled down and made into a salad, which Chez Panisse among others have proven. Here's a raw beet preparation: SIMPLE BEET SALAD WITH ONIONS Grate scrubbed beets or cut into julienne; toss with chopped green onions and a vinaigrette you make or from a bottle in your fridge. Add toasted nuts and/or a sharp cheese (blue, Parmesan, feta). Serve alone or with lettuce. cg

Thanks for the ideas... I do have a pressure canner and I've got all the times and tables to figure out how to do the chokes if I get that far. We have a farm, and sell to farmers market, a CSA program, and to SF restaurants, we manage to sell nearly every artichoke, and I take some for my own kitchen so I can learn how to make my own. We'll let you know how it goes.... cg

I'm looking for instructions on how to make marinated artichokes. I've googled it, but I thought fellow e-gulleteers would have the best ideas... What I have: 10,000 artichoke plants, both green globe and sicilian purple. Any good ideas on how to proceed? thanks in advance... a photo of some of the artichokes we are growing, including their cousins the thistle weeds: Several Varieties of Artichokes -cg

I'm in the "I like parsnips" camp. Thick julienne, then into a bowl with cooking oil (olive is fine), S & P, then tossed onto a baking pan and baked/broiled utnil crispy, I stir once or twice with a wooden spoon. Even our children will eat these. I'm told that one or two parsnips are essential to 'real' Jewish chicken soup, but I'm not an expert there. I also like half and half parnsips and potatoes mashed, they are divine. At present we have at least 6000 pounds of parnsips waiting to be harvested and eaten, so I'm obliged to like them! Parsnip tops are never to be eaten, unlike many root vegetables (such as beets and turnips and radishes) where we should eat the fresh greens. We only sell them at farmers market and through a csa program so we never wax them. -chardgirl Parsnips for sale at the farmers market

I remember having an avocado 'shake' in Indonesia over 20 years ago... but mostly I'm a Californian who eats avocados at every opportunity. One use not yet mentioned is slices of avocado at the bottom of 'tortilla soup', a Mexican spicy chicken soup with tortilla strips. -chardgirl

I'm in the "I love my immersible blender" camp. I have the little bowl that attaches to it to do smaller amounts of sauce or dressing... Mine doesn't go into the dishwasher, but it rinses off very easily, much easier than hauling out the 'regular' blender. I make pureed vegetable soups often and always use this toy. But then I probably have too many kitchen toys....

To clarify for folks that might not know: There is green garlic early season green garlic and again green garlic later in the season later season green garlic and garlic scapes, which are the sprouting stalk and bulb of the garlic plant Garlic Scapes and garlic chives, which I'm sorry I don't have a photo for. Garlic chives do have a garlic-y flavor, and look like flat wide chives, but they aren't a true garlic plant. They are a perennial and easy to grow in a garden....

I do subscribe to CI and use the recipes often, making substitutions instead of running to the store. However my kitchen mate finds the lack of attitude unappealing. He'll take a snotty chef cook book with lots of opinions anyday!

Recent Pacific Grove (near Carmel) -B & B of choice (The Old St. Angela Inn: much better food than the other places!) -Restaurant of Choice (Red House Cafe) ______________________ The Old St. Angela Inn The decor isn't fussy like some of the places, and the food is homemade and delicious. The owners make breakfast themselves every morning. It's one block from the beach and about 4 blocks from downtown Pacific Grove. I could hear the waves in the morning. Very clean too. I highly recommend this place! The Old St. Angela Inn B & B The Red House Cafe is a must-try, in my opinion. I'd be curious to hear other's opinions about it. Here's my meal description I posted on another popular food site: My meal at the end of January: -Fresh pea soup with tarragon. This was a brothy soup truly made with fresh peas, just what I wanted and craved in this drizzly weather. -Fresh Crab Cake: a generous portion, and the best restaurant crab cake I've had outside of San Fransisco. (if you're in SF: try the crabcakes at Hayes St. Grill!!) It wasn't overly salty and it was nicely browned, served with a housemade tarter sauce. This lunch entree came with a big salad lightly dressed with a mild vinaigrette, also topped with roasted red peppers, carmelized onions, and feta cheese. My orange juice was fresh squeezed and as good as if I'd just made some at home. (very good) The lemonade claimed to be and truly appeared to be fresh and housemade. The other eaters (it was full at 1:30pm on a Tuesday) were raving over the desserts, which I declined. The decor was charming, and they served their cafe au lait in the French bowls like I've seen at other European cafes. The Red House Cafe in PG 831.643.1060 662 Lighthouse Ave.

Raw artichokes? Hmmmm They would need to be very very fresh, and the younger the better, in my opinion. Infant artichokes perhaps? Yes, whether you'll be cooking or going raw, large ones or small ones, always look for the most closed up artichokes you can find. When you see recently-harvested chokes they're nearly squeaky. Grow them in your own garden or find a farmer that will truly cut them fresh for you: most farms here in the US as far as I know sell their artichokes out of inventory: the oldest get sold down before the recent cut ones go out. Would you marinate those baby artichokes you might eat raw??

Feb. for garlic is tough, but here in CA and I hope other states too green garlic is available. Although it's different in some ways I find it can be used in many of the same places 'regular' garlic cloves might be used later in the season. Green Garlic Photo

We put a little photo series on our webpage to show how we cut up baby artichokes, the egg is there to show scale: baby artichoke how-to-trim photos