Smithy

No, we're all about enabling.

@liamsaunt, even your fall-back fare looks like fine restaurant work! You didn't mention the bread, but it's fine-looking stuff too. More information about that, please? (Please don't tell me you just whipped up the bread when you got home. )

I think I managed a pasta transgression tonight, but I don't think it was as disappointing as @Margaret Pilgrim describes above. I've been merrily making sauces and salsas to take advantage of the farmers' markets around here. Today, my efforts included a puttanesca sauce, as described here. When the afternoon grew late and dinnertime approached I dithered between a platter of nachos (a known quantity, using our homemade salsa) and a bowl of pasta puttanesca with the current recipe. Curiosity won. Besides, I had this great-looking pasta I'd picked up at Trader Joe's: I boiled a handful or so of the pasta, then pitched it in with some of the puttanesca sauce to finish cooking and let them make friends with each other. I was surprised that my darling did not (a) object to the lack of meat or (b) think it all too tart. He thought it all wonderful, and I did not tell him that the sauce contained anchovies and olives. I thought the pasta wasn't the right shape, or I hadn't cooked it properly, or something...the consistency wasn't right. This particular pasta shape probably is designed for a more viscous, probably creamy, sauce. Those cavils aside, there were no leftovers from tonight's meal but there are a couple more servings of the puttanesca sauce. We're both happy with the results.

Sorry to hear it was so disappointing for you. Do you mean it overwhelmed the flavor of the hen-of-the-woods mushrooms? (I've never had them.) The basic sauce sounds delicious.

@JoNorvelleWalker, do you have access to @JAZ's Ultimate Instant Pot Cookbook for Two? On page 53 there's a good-looking recipe for butter-braised cabbage with carrots. I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my list. If you don't have access, perhaps JAZ would send you the recipe or given me permission to do so.

The label on its glass lid says "Schulte-Ufer" and I assume that's the brand name. I found it at TJMaxx some 10 or 15 years ago, and paid under $20 for it. (I love those finds, but generally try to stay away from TJMaxx lest I find another irresistible bargain.) It's cast iron, smooth inside so I never felt the need to treat it. I think it was listed as being pre-treated or whatever the term is that Lodge generally uses. Dimensions are 11" diameter x 4" to the top of the pot on the outside. The walls are nearly straight up and down, and they're thick. I think the pot weighs around 5 pounds, but it's difficult to tell at the moment. Edited to add: that is indeed the brand name. They're still in business but don't seem to make the cast iron line any more. I don't know whether this link will survive the ages, but here's the pot in question at shopgoodwill.com.

Puttanesca sauce from the above-mentioned book. It's short on capers (my fault) and I had to adjust the sweetness to suit myself, but it's going to be good. Just think: in order to make room for various toys like Instant Pots and an air fryer, this pot was slated to be given away. I hadn't used it in quite some time, but today I realized it's perfect for cooking down sauces like this. It's heavy and heats evenly; it's broad and relatively shallow: better capacity than any of my skillets, and better for this job than any of my deeper pots. I guess I'll have to make room for it somewhere.

I purchased the book Savory Sweet: simple preserves from a northern kitchen last year at my favorite Duluth kitchen store, and am trying some of its recipes. The first recipe up is too simple to call a recipe, but I used their guidelines to oven-dry some of the slicing tomatoes that aren't going to become salsa or tomato jam. (The book actually says to use Roma or cherry tomatoes for this, because the slicers are too juicy, but I made it work anyway.) 200F for maybe 4 hours, maybe only 2. I forgot to time it. Some of these will contribute to the puttanesca sauce recipe from this book. I love the idea of making puttanesca sauce now from fresh tomatoes and freezing it for later use. Even though I'm pretty sure the original is intended to be fresh, barely-cooked, and quick, the frozen version should be just as quick for when I need it. Besides, I still need to do something with all this... ...and there are eggplants and cucumbers still waiting their turn, hiding in the outside refrigerator.

Excellent video! Thanks, Toliver! @Kim Shook, I assume you're talking about the large bottles with the lid on the 'bottom' (or the label upside down, by a different view)? I haven't tried the ketchup version but I've tried the oversized bright-yellow mustard version. My problem has always been that when it comes out of the fridge cold, then warms to room temperature, the air pressure inside builds. Boom! Once that lid is opened, it pops out uncontrollably. We have to remember to leave the bottle sitting with the lid at the top, i.e. the label upside down, until time to squeeze.

Oh, I'm looking forward to this! We still occasionally experiment with meat-smoking, but it's an annual thing and we could stand some pointers. Are those pork butts? (Incidentally, we used to have exactly that same countertop material. I still like the looks of it!)

@Kim Shook, you're making me think I need to make some slaw and some pimento cheese very, very soon. Those sandwiches looked divine. I wonder whether I'll be able to find green tomatoes up here? I'll have to start asking my farmer friends as the season winds down.

Do, please, report back. I've written elsewhere about our challenges with country-style ribs. My DH adored them when we first met (it was his recipe and technique) but over the years something has changed. Were still trying to get time and temperature right. I like the sound of your accompaniments.

Yah. I THINK it's good that the jar the broke landed on the tiles. That's probably why it broke, but it was easier to clean up than if it had broken on the wood. The one that landed on the wooden floor didn't break. Who knows? At any rate, there are a couple of jars of tomato jam destined to live in the refrigerator and become bruschetta topping (or something similar) soon. I say "jam" because this batch of salsa is really sweet and thick.

Last night's salsa, which recipe usually yields "approximately 10 pints", cooked down so much that I ended up with this: and this. I had been contemplating the fact that it's a long time since a jar broke in the canning bath. So I lost my footing and dropped the tray instead. Oh, the irony! At least only 1 jar broke. Two of the others may have lost their seal (I haven't heard them pop yet) but two are alive and well.

I've been rhapsodizing over on the Corn Cook-off topic about smoked sweet corn, courtesy of my husband's daughter. Yesterday I realized that Deep Run Roots talks about that very thing, and that smoked corn mayonnaise is an element of the Elbow-Lick Tomato Sandwich. My notes from trying it (2 years ago!) was that the mayo was too sweet for my liking, but the idea had promise. I put some of that corn into a chicken salad instead, and made my own version of that sandwich: chicken salad with smoked corn, a fat slice of ripe tomato, a generous hunk of lettuce. Ms. Howard is right: I should be eating more tomato sandwiches.

We spent the Labor Day Weekend visiting my stepdaughter and her family at their "lake place" in western Minnesota. The nearby farmer's market - Beuhler's Produce - has a beautiful operation with a huge selection of produce, and it was all in full swing of the harvest season. We arrived before the rest of the family, and I went to scope the place out and buy the supplies we needed for our salsa-making weekend. This is a dangerous place for me to come on my own. The mind explodes with possibilities! So much good food! So little time to eat or prepare it! I especially like the fact that they have their chile varieties labeled as to Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) so you can see what you're getting into. In addition to the lug of tomatoes and the peppers and onions I needed for our salsa, I bought a couple of quarts of cherry tomatoes and rendered them, more or less according to @ElainaA's Slow-roasted cherry tomato sauce. I waited while the proprietors went out and picked the gallon or so of tomatoes I wanted. *That's* the type of customer service they provide at Buehler's. When my darling's daughter arrived, we set to making the salsa. We finished. "Oh, that was fun!" we said. "Oh, we have to make another batch!" we said. "Oh, we'll need more tomatoes, peppers and onions!" we said. Did I mention that it's dangerous for me to go to Buehler's alone? It's worse when I go with Lauri. Between the two of us we made some 20 - 30 pints of salsa...and there were still more tomatoes...and she only took a few of those. Today, back home, I've been making salsa again. Before... and After... (The darker color is before stirring, where the surface has dried slightly and Maillard reactions have happened.) and still, this remains: I'm dithering between putting up a quart or two of puttanesca sauce or simply roasting and freezing these beauties. We certainly don't need more salsa for the year!

That looks lovely, @David Ross. I look forward to seeing the recipe, and trying it out. And now...from the ethereal to the elemental....I just rediscovered Vivian Howard's recipe (Deep Run Roots, p.262) for Smoked Corn Mayo. Among other uses, it is an element of her Elbow-Lick Tomato Sandwich. Guess I've found another use for that smoked corn! Instead of building a mayonnaise around the corn as she suggests I added it to a chicken salad with mayonnaise, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, a touch of salt. It still needs something: celery was the plan, but I didn't have any. A touch more acid might have helped: pickle juice, perhaps. Fresh parsley for color, perhaps? I can play with it more tomorrow. This chicken / smoked corn salad mixture went onto a sandwich with a slice of ripe red tomato, a generous portion of lettuce, and a swipe of straight mayonnnaise on the bread to hold it all together. It wasn't quite Vivian Howard's Elbow-Lick Tomato Sandwich, but it made a satisfying dinner!

RCWilley is now offering the FirstBuild Paragon Induction Cooktop at $69.97 plus shipping.

I want to be sure I'm reading this correctly. Bake from frozen, at the normal temperature but for a few extra minutes? This sounds like just what I need to save some of this summer's peach/nectarine bounty.

I made crabapple jelly and crabapple chutney last year. The chutney was a bust, but the jelly was a smashing success. I'm eagerly ogling the wild local trees and hoping that their ripe crop coincides with my free time.

Yes. I've unearthed some lovely venison that was well sealed and then lost in the freezer. I don't know if I've quite reached the 12-year mark, but I've hit the 10-year mark anyway.

We "got by" with our Kitchenaid mixer meat grinding attachment, but weren't happy with it. I think it was a combination of not having much power and being a pain to clean afterward, but it's been a few years. i bought a dedicated meat grinder instead at a blow-out sale when a sporting goods store was closing. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we've used it enough to give a good assessment.

I had to look up Avocado Louis on the basis of this post, and after looking at several variations that involved seafood I arrived at this recipe from Cathy Barrow, aka Mrs. Wheelbarrow. Is this more or less what you did? It looks good, even though it may have looked better earlier.

This is what the "dining room" looks like when it's mostly set up. I snapped this after we had started the teardown from this weekend's camping trip, so some things had already been cleared from the table. Shortly after I took the picture the table had been entirely cleared and folded flat, and set atop the (also folded flat) bench seats. The seats are now near the ceiling, and the room is now the garage: filled with mobile toys and an unholy amount of produce (processed and still-to-be-processed) from the farmers' market. My stepdaughter is as avid a food shopper and cook as I, and when we get together our bank accounts take a serious hit. We have fun, though, and the families eat well.

My stepdaughter came up with an interesting and delicious treatment for sweet corn: smoking it. 1. Start with corn as it comes off the stalk. No need to peel, detassel, desilk, or otherwise mess with it. 2. Submerge the corn, tassels down, in a large pot of heavily-salted cool water. Leave it for 4 hours. (I don't know whether the orientation of the stalks really matters, but they must be fully submerged.) 3. Smoke the corn with the wood of your choice at 250F for 4 hours. 4. Remove it, and enjoy. The resulting corn has a nice wood smokiness to it, and is quite tender. Better still, the husks and silk slip off together with no effort. We have processed a lot of corn this way in the last few days, and been impressed. Some we've cut off the cob and eaten without further ado. Those who like corn on the cob have tried and liked it that way.. We've stripped yet more off the cob, bagged and frozen it for later. I hope to getting around to doing something showy with it in this topic later, but I may simply add its sweet smokiness to a casserole (excuse me, hotdish) or three.