Smithy

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?

My paternal grandparents, of Tennessee and Oklahoma descent (Scots, Irish, English, Welsh) also would not give sharp objects as gifts because the sharp edge would cut the love or friendship. My father remembered to his dying day how disappointed he was when his father gave him his very first pocket knife as a birthday present - and then demanded some money (a dime? a nickel?) in return. OTOH, Dad and his father loved each other deeply, all their lives, so it must have worked. I confess, I've defied the tradition a few times but never been comfortable doing so, even though MY parents gave me wonderful cutlery and it has never cut the love. I suppose the business about cutting off the end of the ham before roasting it falls more into funny stories than into old wives' tales? I'll tell it anyway. Somebody wrote the Reader's Digest long ago that her husband asked her why she always cut the end off the ham before putting it in the roasting pan. The answer was "that's how Mom taught me," and she'd never wondered why. She called her mother to find out why, and her mother said, "that's how Mom taught me." Fortunately the grandmother was still around. When they called her to ask why, she hooted with laughter and said, "Because I never had a pan big enough to fit a whole ham!"

These are wonderful. Now I'm beginning to wonder if I should get more peppers!

Well, what do you know. We seem to be part of a fad, or perhaps eGullet is more a trendsetter than I'd realized. Crate & Barrel now offers a new, improved tagine made from French Burgundy clay. It says here that the glaze is "exceptionally heat resistant, making it possible to cook directly over the flame", suggesting that the others can't. (How's that for marketing? ) It's dishwasher-, microwave-, oven- and broiler-safe, too. First Le Creuset, now Crate & Barrel. Who's next?

Well, my question may make you feel better: What's a mouli-legumes? Is it what we call a food mill over here? If so, you might have it assembled incorrectly (I don't know how, but perhaps the spring tension isn't right, or the bottom is on upside down) or, more importantly, it might not work properly. The first food mill I bought had lovely smooth stamped holes in the bottom (sieve) part. They were so smooth that the food passed over them without being torn. I got tomato puree, watermelon puree, you name it out in little dribs and drabs just as you describe. The bottom of the food mill has to feel rough to the touch, because those rough edges have to catch and tear the stuff you're moving around the sieve. There might be other reasons too, that I'm not thinking of. Finally, I might be thinking of the wrong implement altogether. So you see, your question isn't as daft as you think! Do you have a photo you can post of your mouli-legume?

Thank you very much, folks! Those are great ideas, and suddenly I wonder whether I have enough peppers after all! That pasta sauce will have to happen sometime in the next week, I think. Marco Polo, your descriptions are wonderful and evocative. I do have a technical question about canning the roasted peppers with the oil and garlic. Is it all heated in the pot, then cold-packed into the sterile jars? If so, heated for how long and to what temperature? Or are the jars processed in a hot-water bath? Or is this one of those cases where nothing would grow anyway? I'm thinking there isn't any acid in that mix you describe, so I'm wondering how long it would keep without refrigeration or freezing. (Hoists a glass of Rioja) Here's to you all, with your fine ideas.

I'm afraid our power failures up here are almost always associated with freezing temperatures rather than your sweltering, so this may not be of much help. How much can you cook together, in a giant stew, including that lovely demi? Then, how warm can you keep it with a good insulating layer? Alternatively - can you cook up a mongo everything-type stew, then chill it well (perhaps freeze, if the juice hasn't failed yet) in smaller packages? As cooked foods start to thaw they can be rewarmed with a bit of fuel, and eaten. I'd expect cooked frozen foods to hold up better than raw frozen foods as they thaw. I dunno. I'm just gobsmacked at your weather down there, and hoping y'all make it through okay. Katrina was bad enough, without visiting more misery on the South. Please let us know how you do.

I just bought about 10 pounds of red bell peppers...this on top of the 20-30 lbs of ripe tomatoes that need canning that I haven't got to yet. (As usual, my ambition exceeds my time.) I can cheerfully make up a fair number of stuffed peppers and freeze them; I can also roast a bunch, peel them, stuff them in olive oil and freeze. Still...my freezer only has so much space, and I'm supposed to be making more space for this fall's lamb and hog, not taking up space before the meat arrives. So what do I do with the rest of the peppers? In case it's relevant, and at the risk of being a kill-joy, I should note that neither of us is big on chutneys or ketchup. We do love salsas. Maybe I can do something creative with the tomatoes and peppers together? My canning capability is limited to hot-water bath. Ideas, anyone?

I'm so pleased I checked back on this thread! I'd never heard about preserving sage leaves in salt before. I have a ton of sage, and I'm going to try this one. What about tarragon? There's only so much tarragon vinegar to be made in my world. Is it best to just dry the rest, or can I whiz it up in oil? Butter? Salt? Any ideas? Tarragon is new to my garden.

I've had great success making stuffing for cabbage rolls with venison and freezing them for later. Take 'em from the freezer, pop 'em in the oven, and sometime later, with sauce - there's dinner! I have a mess of red bell peppers, and I think some of them are going to be stuffed and frozen for later. Back on topic, just remember these immortal words:

I have two bowls for mine, of the same size, and I'm really glad. If I'd been picking a KA I might have gone for the next size up, but that would have been a major counter hog - and it wouldn't have fit in the cabinet where the present one lives when not in use. I want to second what others have said upthread about the pasta attachment. As it happens, I have a motor for my Atlas "hand-crank" machine, and I wouldn't be without it. If that motor dies, I'll either replace it or get the KA pasta attachment...anything to avoid trying to crank and feed and catch the pasta with only two hands.

It depends on how discriminating your audience is. I started right in with the stuffed pasta, and am glad I did. However - after 3 attempts to get it right, with disappointment over the pasta dough every time, I've decided to take a step back and just try the noodles. If I can get the noodles to be not "doughy/chewy" (my take) or "soggy" (Russ' take) then I'll move back to stuffed pasta. It isn't hard to stuff the pasta. I think it's hard to get the pasta right. Meanwhile, dh is showing signs of test fatigue. It's easier, in my book, to make a small batch of pasta (next time it's a quarter batch) and make noodles than to go through all the stuffing making, pasta rolling, pasta stuffing, etc.

I hate to burst your buying bubble, but if you don't bake much you may not need a stand mixer. You have a whisk, or a stick blender, or a hand mixer? I use the first two far more in cooking because I can take them to the sauce pan. My husband bought me a lovely Kitchenaid mixer, to replace the Hamilton Beach job I own that's older than I am (a real antique, that) and then it developed that he doesn't eat cookies or cake! I make them sometimes anyway, and the mixer's handy for that - and for the meringue when I have someone to help me eat the all-important lemon meringue pie. Lately I've gotten into bread making, and the mixer's finally coming into its own. But for a long time, he wondered just why I'd thought the mixer would be so neat.

Wendy, I want you to know you were the deciding factor in whether I'd keep that latest Mario book that had come to my house on spec. Take the credit or the blame, as you wish; my cookbook collection just got bigger. Susan, have any of those venison ideas sounded good or sparked further ideas? Talk to us, woman! Now I've got mushrooms worked into the dish!

Can you turn those braised lamb shanks into lamb stew instead? You could make that the night before, then reheat - or at least do the prep, and start it up on Saturday well in advance. Another idea: keep with the 1.5 lamb shanks per person, and do the basic braising for them on Friday evening. You can get them mostly cooked, then defat the sauce, and let them rest in the refrigerator overnight. They'll be meltingly tender the next day, and the work will mostly be done. The problems I see with that are: (1) that's a lot of meat, perhaps more than you can handle (or afford) and (2) you're going to have to have people scattered around, or eating in shifts. #2 is true either way, but bowls might be easier to juggle - hence the stew idea. The roasted vegetables sound great! Another idea, though is to do some kind of salad that can be made Friday and well chilled. I lean toward green salads, myself - they're easy and lend themselves to advance preparation. Ham would work too, as you suggested, and the bean salad. It sounds like you have a good plan but were hoping for something a little more formal than you can manage with that many people. Is that the real problem (other than obnoxious and presumptuous in-laws )?

Whole ducks! Lucky you! Remember to save some of that duck fat and those duck thighs and legs for duck confit, followed if you wish by cassoulet. Then you can make us drool with even more lovely pictures.

These photos are very funny and very humbling. I'm sorry to say that some of my photos show glossy meat, glossy sauced pastas...and here I was so proud of them!

Ground pork certainly helps with the lean-ness of the meat. Chunks of bacon could do the same thing, or a nice oily nut, which would also add a pleasant crunch to the stuffing. I like the sound of the ancho with the cinnamon and nutmeg - that would be a nice, savory and spicy direction. That might even make the juniper palatable to me. Even though it's a popular combination, I've never much liked juniper with meat - except in the form of gin and tonic. Edited to add: egg could be the binder, too. I've had pretty good luck with that; the egg in the stuffing cooks while the ravioli are simmering.

"hokeypokey and maple semi-fredo..." ? I know hokey pokey as a dance? Can you translate what you just said for this American, please?

Don't let's let this get lost in the shuffle. I'll start brainstorming, and someone with a better idea can chime in. As I write this, I'm thinking it's pretty weak...but I got pretty good results brainstorming like this with a ground pork stuffing. Soften (I started to say saute, but not quite that hot) onions, then garlic in the pan, then add venison to brown. Season with, uhm, what sounds good to you. I'd go with something like fennel seed, thyme and sage, but I'd taste as I went and add things as they seemed appropriate - and somebody else no doubt has better ideas. Drain. Grind up in food processor or blender until the chunks are fairly small. Bind with tomato paste? or a cheese of some sort? or a mustard/cheese blend? (Obviously, these are wildly different directions.) Make that into the stuffing for ravioli. The sauce, depending on your stuffing, could be a cream sauce, a mustard sauce, or (what I keep ending up with because I run out of time) butter with chopped herbs. Here's a totally different idea: make the stuffing as above(?!) with tomato paste and perhaps a touch of Worcestershire sauce, mix with mozzarella, roll all into little wrapped rolls (are those canneloni?), layer bechamel and tomato sauce over the lot in a baking dish, and bake. Parmesan and chopped blanched sage leaves on top. The advantage of this is that you only have to take the fresh pasta to the rolling-out stage, not the folding-and-crimping stage. Wow, this IS weak, but I'll post it anyway. Sometimes I find the best way to develop an idea is to throw out something, anything, and then kick it around. Edited to add: I forgot the nuts. I love nuts in the stuffing, or the sauce. Toasted walnuts would be good, or pine nuts, or pecans if the other seasonings matched up. I think walnuts and tomatoes go well together, for instance, but I'm none too sure about pecans and tomato sauce. Pecans and mustard sauce, however...or pecans in the meat stuffing with a creamy herb sauce, now...

Yay, indeed! I enjoyed your hurricane journal last year, Susan, and welcome the chance to read your foodblog now! Do tell us the temperatures you're enjoying now. Also, please make sure to take us on a tour of your favorite shops, grocery stores, and so forth. Even if you don't feel you can take photos in there, let us know what sort of selection you have. You're up around Daytona Beach, yes? How's the traffic? Can you get around on bicycle or foot?

I have this book in hand, and I'm dithering about whether to keep it or not. It's beautifully photographed, the recipes look great, and yet...I have a pile of cookbooks right now, many of them still untried. What to do, what to do? In trying to decide whether to keep the book, I've of course been poring over the recipes. I'm curious about Mario's take on an old classic vs. Lynne Rosetto Kasper's take on the same: pasta alfredo. He uses pasta, butter, garlic, cheese, no cream. She describes alfredo sauce "the sexy, Roman way" as using (for one pound of pasta) a stick (quarter pound) of butter, 1 cup of cream, and handsful of good grated parmesan. She did allow as to how, when she's cutting back on the fat, she'll reduce the cream - sometimes to only a quarter of a cup. But it's there, and Mario doesn't list it. What do others do when they're making pasta alfredo? With cream or without? Not that it matters much to what I plan to do in the future, but I'm curious about whether there's supposed to be a definitive dish, and which way it goes. Side notes: I'm sure there are other things, like salt, that I'm omitting. This discussion is about cream vs. none. Finally, I have to give LRK credit: once I heard her describe how to make alfredo sauce right around the pasta I've used that riff on many improvised pasta dishes involving smoked salmon, or peppers and mushrooms, or shrimp, or - well, you get the idea. It's a wonderful technique.

This morning I opened up the latest issue (October, 2005, for future readers) of Saveur magazine. Lo and behold, the "Memories" article is about squirrel hunting and stew in Hopkins County, Texas. You must be in synch with the cosmos, highchef. Side note, not to argue but to boost some information: the links I found earlier about tularemia say it isn't confined to rabbits (although they're what I always associate it with) but can also be carried by assorted rodents, including squirrels. They also say the disease is rare these days, but I didn't find anything about its geographic distribution. I can send you a link for the handling safety side of it, if you want. It seems as though every concern raised so far (except Robyn's concern about mad cow - I hadn't heard that one before) has to do with the handling rather than the meat safety. If your skinning guys take the usual precautions and make sure the skinned/cleaned animals seem healthy (aside from lead poisoning ) I'd think the meat would be as safe enough. I'm glad sparrowgrass weighed in with some firsthand information.

I am amazed at the way squirrels can carry things. We used to put a cob of ear corn on a spike on a spruce tree for the squirrels to eat. One morning the cob was gone - not stripped of the corn, just gone. We later found it waaay up, at second-floor level, and waaay out on a flat frond of the spruce. After that we quit cursing the bears and deer for stealing the corn, and started watching more closely, and had the privilege (more than once) of watching a red squirrel wrestle a corn cob at least twice its size off the nail, and then up the tree, sometimes by way of the ground because of a fall first. Amazing. Eventually we got tired of losing the cobs (we use them for fire starters) and switched to a deck screw for the cob mount. The squirrels haven't figured out how to spin the cobs off, so they have to eat there. I'm trying to imagine what difference a freeze would make to the safety of handling or eating a warm-blooded animal after you kill it. I don't remember my grandfather ever mentioning that, but then he didn't have to do much squirrel hunting after, oh, about age 13. I'm also wondering what squirrels might carry, anyway. Tularemia? In that case, maybe when the ticks and fleas die off for the year the risk of infection is reduced. I'm speculating, though. Edited because I finally remembered the name of that disease.

Basically, her employer finds it easier and cheaper to pay her to stay home, for now at least. We are very fortunate in that way. She's still getting paid, she hasn't lost seniority or aything, other benefits (including insurance, thank God) are still covered and in force. It's just annoying to her that she couldn't go back, even if she felt she could. ← Ah, that's better. Too bad she can't telecommute, but it sounds like her employer is more understanding than I'd thought.