Smithy

When you assure your husband that no, 200 cookbooks isn't excessive, you know people with far more, and no, it isn't time to weed the collection; When you go sleep-deprived for a week because you're staying up till all hours doing a braising class after work and then posting about the results; When your husband doesn't dare come upstairs for all the whooping and laughing going on during a recipe testing session for a cookbook; When you proudly show off the newly-published cookbook with your name listed in the acknowledgements as one of the eGullet team of recipe testers; When you've struck up a friendship with the cookbook's author, and your family members know who you're talking about; When your real-world friends stop blinking at the oddball cooking equipment that keeps turning up in your kitchen. (Doesn't everyone have a tagine?) When dinner ranges from Cajun to Lebanese inside a week, even though you haven't a trace of either culture in your upbringing; When a friend or family member says "how does that online group say this xxx should be cooked?"

Grouper in Utah. Isn't that a testament to fast travel for food? Either that, or you don't know how it's supposed to taste. Somehow, I think you'd know if the fish were off, though. That's impressive. I like the Wasatch microbrews. I didn't know there was a Moab winery, though! How are their wines? Now *that* sounds like a great way to score game. I was in Boise over the Labor Day weekend and visiting the Basque center of town. The folks at the Basque Market told me that the local Basques have moved on to other occupations, and the Idaho sheepherders nowadays are from Chile or Venezuela. Is that true in Utah also? Are the Utah Basques dwindling in population, or just doing other things? How do you like to prepare mutton?

Thanks so much for showing those jars with the respective olives. Do let us know how they taste to you, and describe the flavors and texture to the best of your ability. I was disappointed in the manzanillo olives with thyme - somehow the flavor combination just didn't work for me. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the rest of them, to make sure I give them a fair trial, and to use them up.

Hi, Jerry, and welcome to eGullet! I don't know Toronto so can't help you directly, but I'll suggest is that you look around for a Moroccan connection in Toronto. Are there any Moroccan grocery stores in your fair city? What about Moroccan restaurants?

It's been some 20 years since I was in Moab, but I think about it a few times a year when I'm passing through the Salt Lake City area. (Provo and Ogden make great fuel stops on the way between central California and northern Minnesota.) Utah is beautiful, but my husband and I always wonder whether we'd enjoy living there. To the extent you can within the context of a food blog, please talk about the cultural influences. I know beer can now be purchased in some places. Are there wine stores? Do you drink, or cook with, alcohol? What altitude are you at, and what sorts of crops (if any) are grown there? I agree with you that taking a generator along on a rafting trip is cheating.

Here I am, bringing up the rear - sorry I was away from the blog until nearly the end. It's one of my favorite parts of the kitchen! When you walk into the kitchen from the dining room, to the left will be a small "pass" with a staging area, warming drawer/coffee center, and a speed oven. The pull-down door will open to a cleanup area on the other side of the 'wall.' I think of it as a grocery aisle, with the big refrigerator being an 'end cap' display ... pass on one side; dishwasher/cleanup on the other. It's hard to describe without having something to look at, but this is the way I think of it. The refrigerator will open to the island, and the wet bar/beverage area will be between the kitchen and sitting room. Am I making sense? My initial hope was to have the big sinks, dishwasher, storage, etc., in a separate room. I didn't want to change the footprint of the house, and to build it into this plan would make it very closed-off and boxy, which is what we're trying to get away from. ← That makes perfect sense, and now I'm REALLY envious! If I ever get to design a kitchen (or remodel ours) I'll think about how we might adopt that approach. Your kitchen is going to be fabulous. Darn. I meant to quote parts of the boys' diet business, but I'll just have to wing it. The Noodle-O's story was hilarious, as was the bit about your caving after your son didn't eat for 3 days. Good on ya for leading them rather than pushing, both in tastes and quantities of eating. Those friends of mine who weren't forced to eat everything put in front of them have been more successful than most at remaining slim after they passed their 30's. Yes indeedy, this has been fun. Thanks so much for letting us peek into your life for a bit. One of the things I love about the blogs is that they're like mini-travelogues. We get to see parts of the world and ways of life that we might not otherwise see. You've done a dandy job showing us yours. Thank you!

(Photos elided for brevity) What a beautiful, welcoming house. I love the open feel of it. It will be even better with slate floors rather than white tile. What is the "pass through with pull *** door"? Am I seeing aright that it's in the middle of a counter space in the middle of the left-hand side of the room? I'm not getting that. Do talk more, please, about traffic flow. I can see how your work triangle would drive you nuts. Our kitchen, which may or may not ever be renovated, has a large open floor plan (which we love) with the counter space and appliances occupying 2 adjacent walls. The sink is on one wall near the corner; the stove is along the other wall about the same distance from the corner; and for some reason we're always competing for that particular bit of real estate. I've been thinking that an island in the middle would help us, but it might be worse for 2 people because it would restrict our movement. I've only heard or read of Mystery Science Theater 2000, or any of the Food Network shows (I'm still a network Luddite), but I think you've got a winning combo there.

There's no tee-niney font to whisper with. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oh, what the heck---I have five sons. My life has not been a sheltered one. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The above was posted before dinner, after a LONG day of canning pear preserves---eleven pints and two fridge boxes---and getting seven tablesful of stuff out and priced and shiny, ready for tomorrow's neighborhood yard sale. I can only plead famishment and fatigue. Edited to preserve some sense of decorum. ← Coward. FFB, farther down do you really have "Green Pads"? Is that as in scrubber pads, or something more creative like lettuce in a sheet? And did I miss it? What's P.T.S? I'm still mulling that one.

LindsayAnn, I don't think you'll get sick from moldy cheeses, except sick at the thought of wasting that good food. I think you just won't want (or perhaps be able) to eat them because they taste and/or smell bad. I can tell you, for instance, that the non-stinky cheeses I favor (cheddars, some goat's milk and sheep's milk cheeses, manchego, parmaggiano-reggiano) get a really nasty sharp flavor when they start to mold. I find that refrigerating those cheeses gives them more time before they start to mold. They do taste better at room temperature, so I try to let cheeses warm up before I dive in. I don't know about all cheeses and how to store them, and there are folks here who know far more than I. You might want to go check out the Cheese glorious cheese thread. Steven, you must eat enough butter for both of us! Edited for spelling.

Oh, that looks familiar! Food hoarders unite! I had the samw comforting feeling when viewing the freezer shot. I sometimes have a bag of veggie scraps going for stock as well... Much of this went away recently when I purchased a large (for my small freezer) order of pastured meats from Polyface Farms that I had to stick in the freezer. ← We have a freezer all the way across the top of the refrigerator. In prime season we have to open it carefully, lest a cascade of hard objects tumbles thudding onto bare feet. My husband has been known to complain that there's nothing edible in there: "Shrimp shells, duck parts," he grumbles, "where's something I can cook?" As far as easy access goes, we took care to get the shelves that pull out on rollers. They pull out easily, but since some stray ice cube usually is lurking at the back to fall into that space, the return trip is a bit harder.

I never thought one way or the other about the soy sauce. We've always kept it in the fridge, but now I see a way to save some room! This comment from the Kansas City Star article surprised me: "Butter — Refrigerate it to avoid rancidity. Salted butter is slightly safer to keep at room temperature, but it can also become rancid if left out more than 24 hours." I have *never* had butter go rancid that fast, and we generally leave our butter out so it'll stay spreadable at a moment's notice. (I refer to the butter in the dish for daily use. The unopened butter and special stuff stays in the refrigerator until we need it, or - for long-term storage - the freezer.) I think it takes us 2 - 3 weeks to go through a stick of butter. This one made me laugh: " •Eat or ditch chilled leftovers within 48 hours." That would wreck our entire weekly cooking and eating strategy.

If the tomatoes are just seasoned with olive oil, garlic and herbs I think you'd see they were going off by the fuzz starting to grow. If they're packed in olive oil with garlic then I suppose there's a chance of anaerobic reactions happening, but it seems unlikely over this short time. Despite the warnings about not storing garlic in olive oil I do so, in the fridge, for a month or so. So far no superbug has hit the household. Disclaimer: I'm neither a microbiologist nor a food scientist.

Fear not: those of us who've read Fresser here knew what you meant. I'd still like to hear the story! (Maybe himself will pipe up with his version?)

I, for one, would love to hear this story. Sandy, tell me more about this. Intriguing. Maybe it's time to Google again ... ← I think I know, but I'd like to hear it too! Has anyone else asked yet for the kitchen plans? If so, I've missed it. I'd like to see what you're doing with your kitchen!

Hiding from the laundry?

This is a great tip, and I wish I'd thought of it before. Today's lunch salad was dressed with a vinaigrette incorporating some of the oil/vinegar brine from a jar of kalamatas. It was wonderful. Thanks for the idea!

What is it that makes some people unwilling to try something they have never had before, when it is put in front of them in a situation like this? It is not the same as taking a risk ordering something unfamiliar in a restaurant (although a lot of us do do that as a matter of principle) and "wasting" money on a dish they then dont like. I could sort of understand that. My sister-in-law does this regularly, and I would love to understand it better. One example of many: I once served quail, and she didn't even taste it because she had never eaten it before. No other reason. I dont take it personally (I figure it is her loss, and someone else always eats her share of whatever it is), but it puzzles me all the same. ← I too am baffled by this. I was very excited, the first time I found lemon curd sold in a jar here in the U.S. I bought a jar and cherished it all the way to the camp where my dear friends spend their summers, happy to share the wonderful find. They looked at me and said, in their kindest but most baffled voices, "You've always been an adventuresome eater." As far as I know, that jar was never opened. It hadn't occurred to me that the American association of "curd" with "curdle" might be enough to put someone off trying a delicious lemony spread, no matter how many assurances they had that it was wonderful.

Here's an Alton Brown find but it doesn't describe the important technique of mashing anchovies in with garlic, salt and other ingredients. ← Welcome to eGullet, bouche! Please tell more about the important technique. Someone upthread mentioned getting the proper emulsion. I'm not sure how one would get an emulsion - or know they had it - when adding and mashing those ingredients while the lettuce leaves are already in the bowl. Would someone please help me with this info? Edited for clarity.

What about samke harra, spicy grilled fish? FoodMan was good enough to start a thread on this a while ago. It was pretty darned tasty. It calls for a milder fish than salmon.

What do you think of Ghirardelli chocolate?

Are you sure? How many fingers did you see when you held up your hands? That lamb looks wonderful. If you were to make a walnut tapenade, how would you go about it?

ObMeToo: your late-night "slurred" typing is waking me up faster than my morning coffee! (Don't even think of editing it today.)

Well, fie. My carefully-worded and thought-out post just disappeared, confounditall. First off: I'm extremely impressed with the both of yez - your creativity, your zest, your capabilities. Add me to the folks who didn't realize the courtship going on! Hooray for you! Now, to the scores, based on creativity and presentation: Creativity: both sets of dishes blow me away. It's a tie there. If the total of 10 points is 5 points for creativity and 5 for presentation, you each get a 5. Presentation: this is pretty subjective stuff. While I can admire minimalism, I personally favor the lush, luxuriant roll-in-the-flowers full-bodied sensuous celebration-of-the-senses attitude of life, food and living evoked by IC#1. - Avocado foam? How interesting! And isn't that a beautiful setup! - Wowwowwow, look at those ribs. That's gorgeous! Would I savor that slowly or devour it greedily? I don't know. I'd love to find out. - I WANT that tartlet. Now. And the whole presentation is stunning! The mint ice cream might be just the right touch to set it off. With each dish, I keep thinking "what's next?", and then the "what's next" comes along, and I'm even more blown away. And I WANT that tartlet. Now. IC#2 did beautiful work, but in each case it's more like "how interesting". (To be fair, pulled pork isn't a photogenic dish under the best of circumstances.) As others have noted, the dessert course doesn't look like enough. This dessert is elegant and restrained, compared to IC#1's firecracker finale. I'll leave out the fact that corn anything or barbecue sauce, even a mock barbecue sauce, leaves me cold as an idea. I tried to ignore that in favor of creativity and presentation, really. But I lust after that tartlet. Please come hold your next competition at my house? Pretty please? IC#1: 9 IC#2: 8 Edited for spelling. Really, I didn't change my vote or add more points for attitude displayed as I read more into those presentations, or for the fact that I want that tartlet.

Gosh, that sounds good. Oz I know, but what's Enz?...

'Sfunny, when I look at your photos of the lobster roll and tuna roll, I remember again the conundrum of that bread: it looks terrible; I wouldn't buy that kind of bread on a bet; I adored the lobster rolls up there on Cape Cod and at Martha's Vineyard. It somehow works, that cheapo bread with the luscious lobster bound with just the merest hint of mayonnaise. I've never tried or heard of a tuna roll, but out here in the Midwest that might actually be possible to do. We're fortunate that your sister appreciates the need for journalistic integrity. P-town was quite the experience when my boyfriend-of-the-time and I visited there. The scenery was beautiful - you're capturing it brilliantly, by the way, complete with funky diners and beautiful beach - and the culture was new to us. We blew our mad money on dinner at some upscale restaurant with dim lights, velvet curtains, red-flocked wallpaper and excellent food. The waiters all flirted with my boyfriend and ignored me. It was hilarious even before we started in on the wine. Thanks for a great tour. It's not everyone who can pimp a photo shoot of a grilled cheese sandwich and tuna roll. ...and PJ! Oh, PJ! If you get a chance, show us a shot of PJ feeding Momo, please?