Smithy

This cracks me up, because I can relate. I remember when I bought my first house and was installing the hose-style shower head that had moved with me through several rentals. I looked at the old fixed shower head, tried to figure out where to save it this time, and realized "Hey! It's MY house! I can throw this old sprayer away! Yahoo!" (I didn't do it, though, and 8 years later when I moved to a new house, the original went back into place.) I can't decide whether it's the leek pie or the coffeecake making me drool most, or just the idea of roasting my own coffee. I am very impressed with the amount of cooking you manage with so little counter space. What kind of accommodations do you find yourself making for that? For instance, do you try to minimize the number of dishes you dirty, or do you clean as you go along? Or do you just use whatever you need and then do a big washing-up later? I also want to know about the garden-owner. It looks as though Godzilla was a paintball target.

HEY!! Oh, you mean another Nancy. Carry on. Well, how are their immune systems? I think the catbox story upthread has my aunt beat. I didn't see it, but Mama remembers seeing the cousins' cat wandering around on the kitchen counters when food was being prepared. (Well, the cat was fed at one end of the kitchen counter to keep the dog from getting the food.) Mama was prepared to forgive that bit, but when the cat casually strolled along the counter, through the sink and across the cutting board that held the fixings for some salad or other, she quietly resolved to skip certain of her favorite foods that night.

Welcome to blogworld, Jessica! Your store looks like a lot of fun. I know I'd walk out lighter in cash if I were to visit! I'll be interested to see/read your strategies on getting good meals together with a time crunch. Our home schedule doesn't run as late as yours, but we frequently find the same time constraints. Do be sure to tell us about your avatar, too. Is that just an unflattering photo, or has that cat been living it up for along time?

I finally had a chance to make musbacha tonight eager to try an excellent Tohum tahini highly recommended by Ana Sortun. The recipe of course came from Paula Wolfert. ← Tarelki, that looks beautiful! Thanks for bumping this topic back up from its 5-year sleep, and welcome to eGullet!

Wot she said. Merci! Encore!

Thank you for the photojournalism. The virtual tours are fine viewing and reading. One of today's lessons for me is that Occitan is a living language. I only read the word a couple of years ago, and had assumed it was a defunct Medieval tongue! So.. does it bear much resemblance to modern French? Is it a language that people are actively working to preserve, or is it so well-rooted that it isn't threatened? I'd like to ask more, but even with the wide scope of the foodblog perhaps I'd best hie off to an encyclopedia. Maybe you can talk about how food terms differ in Occitan vs. French, or whether the Occitan speakers tend toward different food traditions. Upthread there was some discussion about getting the proper wines for certain foods without the American obsession on "pairing wines" with food. It sounds less fussy over there. Can you talk a bit about whether there's much variety in styles of given wines there? For instance: if one wants a nice crisp white wine here in the States, it isn't enough to just say "sauvignon blanc". You have to decide whether you want one that's been oaked, or that hasn't had so much as a toothpick near it. Then you can start deciding where it should come from. In my limited experience in France, the table wine was a simple, well-balanced red (or white) - not worthy of note, but very drinkable and inexpensive, no matter where we went. Was that simplicity a result of our cheap travel method, or of a cultural difference between the countries?

I've always preferred the cake cones, and I'm pretty sure ours also had something embossed on the rim. It wasn't just smooshing the ice cream down into the corners. The rim, with its little stiffening partitions inside, was a great place for ice cream to lurk. The best-packed ice cream cones had the top scoop smooshed down hard on top of the cone, so the little crunchy not-sweet cubicles in the rim yielded soft cold bites of creamy soft sweetness. I felt cheated the first time I got a sugar cone. It was so hard! And it was too sweet for the ice cream, and it didn't have little holes for the ice cream to hide in. Maybe that's a waffle cone. I'm not sure of the difference. I just know I'm still a cake-cone girl, if there's to be a cone.

I'll bet that's why the airplane storage building is called a hangar...yours is the older use of the term. I've always wondered why we store airplanes in hangars, since we don't generally hang them. Now, if we knew why an open-faced barn came to be known as a hangar, we could close the door on this topic. Gorgeous, all of it. I've never tried baking avocado. I'd heard that avocado doesn't stand up well to cooking and quickly loses its flavor. Is that not the case? How long and how hot do you bake that concoction? Do you buy the flaky pastry, or make it yourself? The tart is so pretty is just bears revisiting.

Your house is gorgeous, inside and out! Now for my comments and questions: In this context, what's a hanger? I don't see a place where an airplane would fit, but that's spelled "hangar", and maybe you're talking about a meat locker. Thanks for the ailiade recipe! I love walnuts. I love garlic. I'd guessed that garlic would be involved, based on the name, but I hadn't guessed the walnuts. I hadn't guessed that a drain pipe clamp could be a corkscrew, but I'm just kicking myself over that. I always did wonder how "a la mode" could possibly imply "with ice cream". I guess I still don't know. Oh, and finally - my compiments on the dinner photos! The table setting is beautiful - stunningly so. The food will no doubt live up to it. I do have to admit, however, that I can hear my grandfather yelling with consternation, in the back of my mind: "Too many forks!" He never could work out what to do with all that tableware, and loved embarrassing my grandmother with his ignorance.

Welcome to eGullet, Matt! I haven't heard of these pans. As a rule I distrust Ecko (too many yechho cheapo baking pans over the years, that were admittedly cheap but not good quality), so I'm glad to hear they have a good line coming out. The flex in the handle doesn't sound good, but given the abuse they're taking they sound like they're worth checking outl It's good to see you're coming out of lurking, and thanks for the recommendation!

What eje said. All I have to add is that if the wood is really dry you may need to do many coats of mineral oil (allowing it to soak in) to get the driest pieces looking right again. Hey, kalypso, you've changed your avatar. I always liked that ultra-flexy cat you used to have; reminds me of one of my own.

If it tastes and smells all right, I'd say you're good to go. I'm too lazy to go check a reference, but I think clotted cream presupposes a heat source. I'd be more inclined to call the more solid part clabber or creme fraiche.

You use it to support the strainer that's holding the olives as they drain. This is a terrific blog! I can't think like the French (je nais parlez pas Francais) but I do love the snapshots of the countryside and village life. The caption really makes the photo. Edited to add: or maybe it's an ash tray.

Recipe for ailiade de Toulouse: yes, I'm asking. Please! The dinner looks terrific. I didn't see anything that had looked molded or clamped. I didn't see any free-standing terrines or cheesecakes that looked like they'd been molded in a collar of parchment paper held in shape by that clamp. I'm still thinking. This might be one of the best ways even to develop new uses for old stuff, eh?

That tart is beautiful. If those apricots taste as good as they look, you've got a great source. Are they grown locally? Sorry if I missed that earlier, but going back through the topic I still haven't spotted where you got them, much less how far they had to travel. To what extent, if at all, is French produce becoming cultivated with an eye to ease of shipping and longer shelf life? California apricots seem to be a casualty of the market pressures, and the things we get out here in Minnesota are pale memories of what we used to be able to get. Edited to add: if I had a clamp like that and was planning to barbecue, I'd use that ring as a cup-holder outside. Maybe the cup would hold basting fluid, or tools. Maybe it would hold my beverage. I think I'm going to have to get some of those.

Oh!! I WAS close!! Is the food use to clamp a filter (cheesecloth, muslin, whatever) to the mouth of a jar so you can pour two-handed and not have the fabric slide into the jar?

Look at the colors in the Limogne market photo! Are those dyes or spices in the foreground? Please paint a verbal photo of the market ambience, if you can. How do people interact? Are they leisurely or hurried? Is there a lot of banter? Noise? Haggling? Fun? Music? You get the idea. Help us hear and feel what you're showing us. The clamp looks like it's intended to seat a nozzle on a sausage grinder, or a hose on some sort of extruder. That looks like a huge diameter, though: big enough to seat a fire hose on a rain gutter, and I'm betting that isn't the unintended use. The food already looks gorgeous.

Andie posted some of her favorite Fifi moments upthread. Here are a couple of my favorite vintage Fifi moments, from the thread on Moroccan Tagine Cooking. Fifi, the materials scientist: In summary, the differences you are seeing is how water is galloping around within the food, the pot and the various surfaces it comes in contact with. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the genius of the design of a tagine. (My Rifi has been ordered. ) ...and Fifi, the news reporter: *Press Release - URGENT! Immediate broadcast requested.* "It has come to our attention that there has been a run on tagines. The tagine market is in a shambles and tagine futures are soaring basis a deepseated fear in the marketplace that supply will not keep up with demand. A congressional committee in the US has been convened to investigate. Senator Honksalot has stated, 'We will get to the bottom of this deplorable situation. Our investigators are looking into a secret Society that operates on the internet.' Stay tuned to your local news sources for updates on this fast breaking news." Until I met Fifi, I'd never known water could gallop. How I miss her wit and insight. How glad I am for the laughs and information we shared!

It looks like a reusable filter bag that comes in 2 sizes: 1.3 liters and 8 liters. I can appreciate its straining capabilities, but is it any better than cheesecloth or muslin in a China cap? Or a fine-mesh chinoise by itself?

Is the clamshell a clear plastic case, semi-rigid but crushable by hand, with vent holes cut around the base and top? If so, then as far as I know all the strawberries that come to this area from California are shipped in clamshells these days. The Dole clamshells were 4-lb packages, although I think I recall seeing them in 1-lb packages for a while. The smallest I've seen for strawberries in Duluth is a 1-lb package; without having one here to measure, I'd say it was about 10" x 6" x 4" dimensions. The 4-lb box was more the size of a half-flat of strawberries. Come to think of it, even cherry tomatoes come in pint-sized plastic clamshells these days. I can't remember the last time I saw the delicate plastic baskets in a grocery store around here, even though they're still common in California. Strawberries brought in from Bayfield, WI only have about 50 miles to travel, so they're brought in cartons made of the same kind of "cardboard" that egg cartons are made from. The container is thoroughly wrapped in clear plastic wrap. Almost inevitably a berry or two is caught on the edge and dented, but there usually isn't much weeping. Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries from the Pacific coast states all come in the same sort of clamshells (smaller, of course) to our stores. I think it's pretty good packaging, except that it's yet one more waste that may or may not be recyclable in our area.

Oh, dear. I was so hoping she'd recover enough to rejoin us one day. We corresponded some, online and offline, but I'd hoped to have the pleasure to meet her in person. She made me laugh. Judging by her appreciation of "characters" and her sense of humor, I sensed she was quite the character herself. She told hilarious stories about her aunt and grandmother fussing together in the kitchen, arguing about how to fry chicken or who was being too fiddly. She and her sister must have been just as much characters: "Pull over right here! I just spotted (fill in wild forage here)!" and nearly careening into a ditch. I have Linda/Fifi to thank (?) for my now-expansive collection of Le Creuset cooking pots and my love of paprika. I can "hear" her now: "BWAA-HAHA...another one comes to the dark side!" And yes, now I too can make gumbo. Rest in peace, Linda. I'll miss you. Say hello to Julia and Mabelline for me.

Interestingly enough, our local grocery store recently carried Dole strawberries (variety unknown, but California source) as well as Driscoll's. The difference in quality is pronounced, with Dole winning easily: softer, considerably riper berries that had a bit less white in the interior than the Driscoll's. They still aren't as good as locally-grown berries (the Bayfield, Wisconsin berries are hitting the stores here now) or the afore-mentioned and afore-worshipped Chandlers, but for commercially grown and shipped long-distance strawberries they're really quite good. I called the produce manager and told him so. I hope he tries to keep them coming in. My strawberry growing patch doesn't hold much promise, and the Bayfield berries will disappear in a couple of weeks.

I just got an update from my mother. According to the growers she frequents in Visalia, the wonderful strawberries in question are Chandler strawberries. When I asked whether it's the same cultivar all season long (all the way through October as I'd reported earlier) she said she'd forgotten to ask that particular question. I'll keep checking.

Do the boys have an opinion on French's mustard? That might clinch your guess. I really am loving this thread, even though it's a vicarious joy so far.

I'm puzzled over the aluminum implements in the right-middle of this photo, just next to the squeeze bottle. The one on the right looks like a garlic press. Is that right? What about the one to its left? And is that white thing in the bottom center a cake decorator? Great fun, peering into other people's drawers!