Smithy

Brilliant. Absolutely sheer genius...and the photos in that post make me want to go buy a pizza NOW just for the pleasure of making pizza waffle pockets. Or whatever they decide to call it.

I wish I'd seen either or both of your latest posts before yesterday's dinner party, David. They look luscious. Yesterday we had friends over to celebrate Oktoberfest, with a series of Oktoberfest beers, Gewurtztraminer and a Mosel wine, and more-or-less German-themed food. The theme broke down at dessert, however; my dreams of an apple strudel went out the window with my time management. Apple pie it was, using my standby crust and recipe, inherited from my mother. I've found yet another 'wild' apple tree with miniature apples: no more than half the size of a Red Delicious, roughly the same shape, and probably the firm delicious piquancy that the original was supposed to have. These were begging to be put into a pie. I still have a store of applets. I also supplemented the lot with a couple of store-bought full-sized apples whose variety I've forgotten, unfortunately. It was good that I bought them, because I wouldn't have had time to go get more of the wild apples. The store-bought apples (not Galas, Pippins, Fujis, Honeycrisp, Delicious, Macintosh, Granny Smiths...what was that variety?) were good filler although too sweet and soft to be ideal pie apples. Here's the blend I used: The large size of conventional apples pays off in the preparation. I use the slicer on a box grater to process apples for pie after I've peeled them. It's quicker than slicing apples and finer than using the hand-crank corer/slicer thing I have. The applets required great care to prevent losing a fingertip or fingernail to the slicer, because their diameter was 1" at most. The pie was ready go quickly: there's something to be said for tried-and-true recipes. Streusel topping makes it especially easy. The pie came out after our guests had arrived, so I didn't get a picture of the entire finished product. There wasn't much left over. I figure that means they liked it.

I ran across the recipe for Mock Apple Pie using, of all things, Ritz crackers. My mother fooled a lot of people with that novelty. Now it's hard to imagine not having ready access to apples year-round. How times have changed in the USA. If that retro recipe sounds interesting, I'll post it.

I can't find it! I'll check with the rest of the family. I hope it isn't lost forever. While I was looking, I found my cousin's persimmon pudding recipe. Would that be of interest? No ice cream maker needed to make semifreddo. You could try that route.

Heh. Jaymes, we have the evidence of your memory here! I too remember tamale pie, with revulsion. Our family never 'did' Mexican food when I was growing up; only my father liked it. Our school cafeteria often served tamale pie as one of the hot meal rotations, and on those days I was delighted that Mom had packed a lunch for me. Sometime in high school I began to enjoy Mexican food, and now I enjoy it in all its immense variety. But NOT tamale pie.

Those are fun photos, dcarch. I have to take your word for it that those tomatoes are caramelized, however; I don't see any change in color. Is that a trick of the photo, or does dehydration change the browning reactions without affecting flavor appreciably?I just toss tomatoes in oil and roast them until they collapse and start to turn brown, and the puddle of escaped juice has dried somewhat. The skins don't bother me. I usually do this with whole cherry tomatoes. (Thinking back on it, I recall that the results weren't as good with large tomatoes even when I'd sliced them in half...getting them to NOT be watery took a long, long time.) This is one of my favorite condiments for pasta and for meat mixtures to go into stuffed roasted vegetables.

Kerry, the blackcurrant puree has a beautiful color. I can imagine that in some lovely confections, and look forward to seeing what you do with it. I'm very curious to see what you have to say about the sous vide prime rib and the ozmasome. Do you have specific plans and tests for those yet? Try to reconstitute them as they are, or use the broken bits for flavor in something else? Will this mean less volume packed in the car for the next trip to Manitoulin Island, or just make room for more stuff to be thrown in? :-D

Welcome to eGullet, loosethreads. Kerry's really started something good here, hasn't she? It's nice to see other freeze-drying advocates joining in. We look forward to your contributions.

Woohoo! Breathing new life into the NYTimes Cookbook, perhaps? Too bad the app isn't for Android. Still, the web page shows some wonderful archives. Thanks for the links.

This link is nice as far as it goes, but it would be more effective as a web page in html. When I see that 'pdf' extension, I know I'm going to have to go through an extra download step before I can open and read the thing. That may not apply to every web browser, but it applies to mine.

Thank you for that link, Maedl. I didn't know anything about wild persimmons, and now I know a little. My mother used to make persimmon cookies around Christmas time, using the cultivated persimmons from our area. I wonder how those cookies would turn out with wild persimmons?

Persimmon ice cream with some nut additive sounds good. Earlier this year I spent time messing around with making persimmon puddings from fuyu and hachiya persimmons. What are wild persimmons like? Photos and descriptions would be welcome. :-)

Thank you for persevering until you got it right - and keeping us informed about the project! I think there are going to be a lot of "Bacon Burgers a la Tatoosh" being made, thanks to you. I'm looking forward to trying it. :-)

Welcome, Jason. You have an impressive set of interests and skills. We're glad to have you here, and we look forward to your participation!

After the last messy episode, I went in search of an implement that worked better than my standard knives, and came home with this: It's a definite improvement over a straight knife. The handle fit my hand and the slight curve to the blade reduced the number of cuts I had to make. It all made short work of the next 2 dozen ears, but I still did them outside. :-)

Yes. According to Jane and Michael Stern, in their book American Gourmet, you brush Dijon mustard on the steaks, saute in clarified butter, add shallots and parsley, then add warmed Cognac and flame it. I suppose I'm unfashionable, but I still get a hoot out of flaming things...and I very much like the sauce this produces. There are some great blast-from-the-past ideas in this topic!

Regarding the hot sauce: I wonder whether some things need to be reconstituted with vinegar or another liquid that isn't water? (I had to stop myself from writing 'rehydrating with vinegar' :-D)

Welcome, Mark.

That sounds like more or less what I do. I love the versatility of that skillet dish: saute the vegetables (asparagus is one of our favorites), sweat the onions if I'm using them, cook the meat to the appropriate level if it's going in, then start building the alfredo sauce around it. I've taken to using pasta water to help stretch the sauce without adding quite so many calories, but this is one of our luxury meals so I don't worry too much about it. I've never added egg yolk. A favorite version involves asparagus and smoked salmon; the salmon gets folded in as the last step. Edit: shrimp is another favorite protein, and chicken works pretty well also.

Do you have an idea of where you'd draw the line between "enhancer" and principal ingredient? I'm thinking of things like fish baked with lemon slices.

Shelby, what do you mean by "Shrimp alfredo of sorts"? It looks very good, and looks like the sort of thing I cobble together regularly, based on a Splendid Table description of Pasta Alfredo. So now I want to know whether we're doing the same thing...

Lisa has a wonderfully pragmatic answer. Hit her (your procurer, not Lisa) where it hurts. Do you think you could get leverage with the water shortage? Something along these lines: "Sure, the produce is organic, but with this poor quality it takes x more time and therefore y more gallons of water to prepare...is this a good tradeoff?"

Those two little girls are building happy memories, thanks to you and their aunt. What a fun time!

Welcome, Pablo. We're glad you're here, and we look forward to your contributions.

Beautiful, Shelby! You were quite right not to let the roux burn in order to take a photo. Fifi, bless her memory, stressed the need for undivided attention during that time, down to making sure you had extra beer (wine, in your case) before starting. I miss her and Mayhaw Man both. Your gumbo is a worthy way to honor their teachings. Thanks for resurrecting this topic, and congratulations on the outcome!