Smithy

Welcome back, highchef. It's good to learn you made out okay too.

Thanks for showing us that soup! I just received my copy of The Cooking of Southwest France: Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine and I've been wondering where to start. Now I think I know. (By the way, I just put in an eGullet-friendly link, I think. It doesn't appear that yours is, no doubt because you had other things on your mind.) For someone who went from drought to frogstrangler wet in a day, and was rewarded with a flooded basement, you're remarkably calm. At least online. Way to go, lady. This 24/7 blog is so much fun, I predict a future requirement that teams always be half a world apart.

Kristin, how is that chicken cooked? Steamed? Boiled? Edited to add: your children are adorable. I agree with earlier posts - it's fun to watch your kids grow by watching the foodblogs.

Do you have room to freeze those tomatoes? In that case, freeze them separately, then stack them in a container of your choice (select a convenient size) and put them back in the freezer. Voila, roasted tomatoes for the winter. I don't know how well they'll keep, even roasted, on their own. You're right, that oil should be good for something.

I am so pleased to see this blog team! You two are already off to a great start. Susan, I'm with you on the weather bit. It hasn't frozen up around Duluth yet either, although they're talking possible snow by the end of the week. It's hard to believe, considering how hot it was last night while the thunderstorms were rolling through. Still, our Farmer's Market doesn't have the variety of yours. Are you going along the Nicollet Mall, or is this someplace else? And what days is it active? Kris, if and when you get a chance, please talk about learning Japanese. Could you already speak and read it before you got married? If not, how did you go about learning, and how comfortable are you with it now? I'm guessing you're quite fluent. That's impressive for only 10 years, even with immersion-by-marriage. I used to eat ramen noodles a lot, without giving it a thought. Now I'm wondering: what makes a noodle a ramen noodle, and what makes it good vs. great vs. low-quality? Expound, both of you, please.

Oh, boy! This is going to be fun! I've enjoyed the posts and blogs of both of you (I started to write 'both of your posts' and knew that wouldn't look right ) and this is going to be a wonderful tag team. Furthermore, I'm glad to see Kris is willing to take the pasta plunge again. Blog on, ladies!

Mottmott, you two are building happy memories as well as learning to cook together. Lucky you, lucky granddaughter! I'm smiling here, thinking of it. Thank you for sharing your success and good times.

Maybe I'm not reading this carefully enough, or I'm just being dense. Are you saying Dan will leave behind roughly half the production, in the hopes that it improves? How will he decide what to pick and what to leave behind? Is it all more or less of the same (spotty) quality, or can you pick bunches selectively - best now, then hit the same vines later if the quality of the remainder picks up? Sorry if you answered all that above and I missed it. You DID ask for questions and discussions, and somebody else already named the basketball hoop.

Very cool! I like the bilingual approach, too. It would be pretty neat if you could post this in Arabic AND English, but that's probably a lot more work from a blogging standpoint. You have links and links and recipes and photos...this is going to be a nice site.

I dunno about Istanbul, but I can tell you that I get better cumin and peppercorns in Cairo than I can get here in the States. I generally buy cumin, peppercorns, and nutmeg over there. I sometimes buy coriander seeds there, but when I do I make a point to freeze them when I get home: one year my whole bag went buggy (eeww!) and I heaved the whole batch into a very hot fire for pest control. I'll be interested to know whether Turkish saffron is a good thing. I've given up buying saffron in Egypt because I can't find it whole. The ground stuff that passes for saffron there is something like dried marigold petals (not sure of the flower) - okay for color, worthless for flavor. Oh, you may be able to get blocks of tamarind pulp there, too. I don't know that it's any better over there than here, but the price and availability may be better. Best of all...whether or not you buy anything, make sure to just stroll through and savor the aromas. Ohh, the spice market. Ahh, sweet pungent memory.

It's so good to see you back! and thanks for the survivalist postings. At a different time of year, extra fuel would be critical for heat, too. More propane and/or kerosene for portable heaters. Your nephew's shoebox idea is brilliant. Your comments about cooking before the water shortage hits make me wonder, as I bet it did you too, what the heck our ancestors did. I remember many times my grandmother or grandfather saying to my mother, "Ruthie, you're using too much water" when she'd be cooking or washing dishes. Nana and Papa both remembered hauling water in their earlier years. So, did they just know things like "pasta takes more water than rice"? I'm not sure I remember much pasta in their house, actually. What other foods do we take for granted now, that we wouldn't if we were pumping by hand and/or hauling water? Further to the water shortage: did you have barrels set up to catch water from the roof drainage? Finally: what ails your folk, that they didn't want to eat fruit?

Maybe I should ask this in the Jewish food thread instead, but it's pertinent here, now: why Passover, at this time of year? Could you do the same thing on a Yom Kippur framework instead? Is there a Yom Kippur equivalent of the Seder? Anyway, great idea. It's funny, I used to toy with the idea of offering up a meal, or a dessert-of-the-month, or some such, for a charity auction. I never actually did it, mind, but I thought about it. I find that the more I get into cooking and the more I learn, the more exacting I become - and the *less* likely to volunteer for something like that. Good on ya, mizducky. All your ideas sound great. You haven't mentioned Indian food, but you could take a culinary tour of India and provide a wide variety of foods, interesting and healthful.

That's a neat idea!

I've never sterilized my jars, either. As noted above, there's a huge amount of acid (even with the Meyers) and salt. The lemons deteriorate over time but I don't think it's due to anything growing in them. (Brine shrimp, perhaps? )

If I were ever to design a mandoline, I'd design that holder thingie to have a spring-loaded sleeve that adjusted to the diameter of the object being sliced. That way, said object would be held in position without extra effort on my part, and I could concentrate on pushing down on the pusher. Such a spring-loaded sleeve wouldn't help for things like waffle slices, where you're constantly changing orientation, but it would help for most other circumstances. The OXO, if that's the one I tried, did have a bit of a sleeve to cage the material in question, and it was hinged along one side to keep it more stable. Those seemed like good ideas, but that darned V-blade kept jamming the produce. Meanwhile, the produce kept going sideways because it wasn't being cradled firmly around its middle and held in the proper orientation.

Add 1 more for me: Molto Italiano. It arrived at my house for inspection because either I forgot to tell the club not to send it (I do dither on occasion) or they decided to ignore me (also happens). Its fate hung in the balance for a while: I have too many cookbooks/that's not possible; space & money vs. gorgeous photos; then somebody made gnocchi from one of his recipes over on the Fresh Pasta cookoff. I was undone. So much for unloading cookbooks. My poor husband.

Andie, thanks so much for that update. I'm glad Terry and his folks are doing so well, especially mama and baby. You know, given the way this is working out for them, I bet the kids will have fond memories of this wild storm, fishing from the deck, and so forth. That probably won't be true for the many unfortunates whose houses were flooded, but what an adventure for those with Terry! (I suspect Mayhaw Man's kids will have similar memories, given MM's inventiveness and humor. MRE's and all that. In time the horror may fade from memory, but the fun will remain.) Do you know what they're doing with wastes, such as offal from the butchered drowned steer?

I did several jars, more or less like this, this weekend. Lacking the gumption (or the romance of good company) to go get a charcoal fire burning during a driving rain, I settled for roasting the peppers until quite limp and somewhat charred in a 450*F oven, then peeling and deseeding them and cutting into, oh, quarters or eighths. Those pieces and most of their juices went into a pot with olive oil to cover, the whole lot was heated to a simmer (but not to smoking), and then packed into sterilized jars with more olive oil added as necessary to cover the peppers. I did not add garlic, salt or acid. I did not process the cans in a hot water bath. They did seem to seal. My question is, do these jars still need to go into a refrigerator or freezer, or can I trust them as is for some months? Up to a year? Will anything grow in that? Need I worry about botulism, for instance? The remaining peppers will no doubt become dip or be blistered and frozen, as time permits.

That is a fun fact, and something I'd never heard before. Thanks for that! Boy, howdy. My grandparents in Fresno had Thompson seedless grapes in the arbor out their back yard. Those were the sweetest, most delectable grapes I'd ever eaten. At the time I could hardly be bothered with our Emperor grapes, because the Thompsons were so much better. Now I can hardly stand to buy Thompsons at the grocery store; they're so insipid and tart. Their only redeeming feature until recently was being seedless, but now the seedless reds (whatever the variety) in the store are much better tasting. Grapes are yet another crop that doesn't make it to the stores in true representative style.

Welcome back, Susan, and thanks for the lessons learned. I'm glad that tornado didn't get any closer. I've never had a power loss longer than, oh, 36 hours - maybe 48 - since I've been here, but I'll add one thing to your list: charcoal and grill are good, but so are lots of propane bottles for the gas grill, and wood for the fireplace. Hmm. Now I'm sorry I gave away my hand-crank coffee grinder.

Mizducky, I think you managed to concoct something that even my dog wouldn't touch! But I do admire your thrifty behavior. Now really, folks, I refuse to go looking through photos I posted proudly on other threads. I'm sure I'll manage something before long anyway. Does anyone want to see a pot of canning water after a jar of tomatoes has broken in the hot water bath?

As far as I know, that's still how they do it. I remember seeing the screens laid out between the vineyard rows in Selma only a couple of years ago. I'll check around and see what I can learn. Do they have seeds?

Thanks so much for checking in, Patty. I pray you continue to do well and come through all right. You got it. Has anyone heard from Fifi or Foodman? I hope they're well out of the way.

Abra, those are gorgeous! You may be breaking new ground here. I can tell you that raisins in the Central Valley of California aren't subjected to 200F heat (even though sometimes it seems that hot). They are getting heat from direct sun as well as reflected from the ground, and it's probably over 100F there. Still, it takes quite a few days instead of your 17 hours. You may be able to just start them at 200F in the oven and cut down on the time, but I don't know. Are there enough grapes around that you can afford to experiment? If you hadn't said those grapes were wild, I've had said they were Emperor grapes. We used to grow those at table grapes, and they were wonderfully sweet. I was too young to know about a winey flavor. The color and size are right. I hope someone can identify them for you.

Please do, Brooks, and please pass our well-wishes on to her. Brrrap and damnation, I'll take an earthquake or a blizzard any day. I have to ask: is the east side of the eye worst because the orientation of the Gulf Coast makes those winds into onshore winds and increases the storm surge? Or is the east side always worst regardless of where you are?