Smithy

I hadn't thought about how cookbooks would change as thermostats became routine equipment. Of course! That's an interesting note. Add two more for me. My best friend gave me a copy of hallelujah! the welcome table by Maya Angelou. It's as much a memoir as it is a cookbook, and it's wonderful. More recently, I acquired The Arab Table by May S. Bsisu. In addition to the standards, it has recipes I haven't run across in any other Middle Eastern cookbooks or over in the Africa and Middle East forum. There's yet another take on the elusive Garlic Sauce that crops up in so many cuisines and that I'm still trying to perfect to my tastes.

Hey, I have a mini-Bundt pan like that! Picked it up at TJMaxx because I'm a kitchen gearhead and I could imagine making cunning little desserts with it. I still haven't tried it. Now that you've tried it, what do you suggest for making it easier to put batter in? Would a funnel work? What about putting a small cap over the interior tube and then pouring the batter dead-center into the mold? How full will you try filling it next time? Your raisin article gave me a fine GulleyLaugh. I like raisins, but in the future I'll be more circumspect about when and to whom I feed them!

Unfortunately, there do seem to be design issues now, although I don't think they necessarily have to be associated with price. I picked up a food mill at a local hardware store a few years ago for $25. It was stainless steel and had 3 interchangeable disks. What could go wrong? Well, what went wrong was that the beautiful disks had such smooth holes that the paddle pushed the food right over them, and around the disk without pushing much through. Since I'd never used a food mill before, I assumed at first that it was my technique, or that I'd had the wrong expectations. Eventually I got around to trying another mill and figured out the problem. I sold mine on eBay (with the caveat that it didn't work well but made a great kitchen decoration) and got an old classic on eBay that works beautifully. Its gnarly holes grab hold of skin, seeds, tamarind fibers, you name it, so the paddle can push the fine stuff through. It's small, and doesn't have interchangeable disks, but it does its particular jobs well. I'm not saying that price will be a factor in how well the food mill works, by the way. I can't see why it should be. I do think it's something to check if you can handle the food mill before purchasing it. Oh, nobody else has mentioned straining tamarind pulp. I find it's a pretty good way to get concentrate after the pulp has steeped in hot water long enough.

Beautiful dinner, Janet! I like the wavy rectangular plate. Your kitchen looks well laid out, but as you noted, small. How do you keep from running out of counter room as you work? Do you clean as you go? I tend to use a lot of dishes for the prep and cooking, and by the time dinner is ready I've put a large cutting board over the sink for more room. Do you have any tips for me? As for your statement that you need to find more room or stop buying books: the answer is obvious. Will you be shopping for another bookcase during the blog?

I don't have a smoker, but I've had wood barbecued with a touch of grape wood, and I've enjoyed many a fire seasoned with grape wood. It's wonderful. I don't know about how dry any of the wood has to be for smoking purposes, though.

I've always liked San Francisco, and I'm looking forward to seeing it through your eyes! I'd request a trip to Fisherman's Wharf, if you were taking requests. That's not so much fun with the weather you're having, though. When you let the "boys" out, do they have a back yard to hang out in? Mine ate from smaller Japanese dishes (different design) until recently, but I just switched them to something with a higher lip. It's an excuse to change the dinnerware on the floor.

Up to a point I agree with you about the test (firm and taut skin, and heavy for its size). However, I think you're missing the smell I'm talking about. The fermented smell is something that any old citrus (including lemons, for instance) will get, and it's different than the tired smell I'm talking about. (It's also different than the smell of citrus mold, but I think we can safely exclude that smell from the discussion.) Try this, if you can: pick a ripe navel orange, mandarin orange or tangelo from a tree. Get it as ripe and freshly picked as possible - within the past few days to avoid the potential for the fermented or moldy smell. (Fruit from a fruit stand will do too, if they'll sell you stuff that hasn't gone through the packing plant.) Now, go to the grocery store and buy the equivalent piece of fruit. Smell them, side by side. Do you smell the difference? Now taste them, side by side. See what I mean? Odds are you will. I have had some oranges from a grocery store that did not have that off-flavor and smell (what I call "tired"), but it's very rare. I used to think it came from the packing plant. However, I've noticed it in organic oranges (and tangelos, etc.) and I also taste it in Egyptian oranges and mandarins when I'm over there. I do not detect it in lemons or limes. I wish I knew what causes it, and more importantly, how to stop it from happening. It's an affront to a fine piece of fruit that prevents many people from knowing how good the fruit can be. It might be a simple matter of the sugars breaking down with age, but I'm not so sure: what's left of the fruit I picked last Christmas is softening but still only beginning to hint at that tired smell, whereas the much "fresher" and firmer stuff from the grocery store already has it. You really should get your friends at UC Riverside working on this. Getting off my soapbox and back to the topic, I want to know whether blood oranges are susceptible to the same degradation of quality from some aspect of commercial handling that oranges are, or if they're more immune to the problem as lemons are. The answer may determine how hard I look for the fruit in our stores. Edited for slight improvement in clarity (I hope).

Add me to the list of blood orange novices. Now I'm fascinated, and I'd like to try some. If I go looking for them in the store (no access to groves out here in Minnesota, no friends who grow them in California) can someone tell me more succinctly what to look and smell for? There's a tired smell to most oranges, tangerines, and other orange-colored citrus (except kumquats) that makes me shy away from them in stores. I *know* they aren't right and will taste old. Do blood oranges get that same smell? If they don't have that smell will they be good? What's the sniff test?

I have that same gizmo! Mom and Dad found it and gave it to me as a stocking stuffer - it was the triumph of the season for them to find one for me, after they watched me struggling to pit the best peaches of the summer. I never thought to try it on apples. I always use it to pit cling peaches and nectarines, and my parents called it a peach pitter. I like it on the clings because I can work it right in and around the pit without struggling to split the peach first. Details, details! I toast cumin atop the stove. Do you roast it in the oven? For how long, and at what temperature? Finally: did you give a recipe for the chapati dough upthread, that I missed because I'm hurrying before your blog ends? If not, is that something you can share? No, this is finally: I'm wiping drool off my computer screen after looking at those cookies. I'll have to try those, complete with the technique tips. They just *might* be better than mine... No, THIS is finally (unless I post again ): as with everyone else, I'm so glad you put your own face to the blog (you beautiful woman you), and I'm so glad you blogged this week! Thank you! It's been a wonderful blog.

I'd like a photo, too! Any chance of sending the eBay link over? Anyway...freeze-dried strawberries rank right up there with astronaut ice cream. Freeze-dried stews, perhaps? Do you camp?

I dunno about the BEST way to reheat, but it seems to involve the word "slowly". Crockpot with the meat and defatted sauce, yes. Slow oven, or slow burner, with the meat and defatted sauce, yes. Microwave - well, I've done it and the results were good, but I could tell that they weren't as good as when I'd reheated with more patience.

Thanks for that correction, Russ! Isn't science wonderful? I'll blame my mis-statement on recent developments rather than faulty memory.

Meyer lemons are larger and sweeter than the standard lemons, assuming your standard lemons are the same as in the USA. (Lisbon and Eureka lemons are the usual ones over here.) Meyers have a floral quality, almost, to the smell and taste. Botanically they're an old, well-established cross between a lemon and a tangerine. I haven't tried this, so I can't vouch for how well it would work, but if you can find clementines (or mandarin oranges) you might try mixing clementine juice and lemon juice. Say, 1 part clementine juice to 3 or 4 parts lemon juice? Use the ripest lemon you can find to minimize the sour quality.

Some explanations, please! 1. I've been hearing about fuzzy logic for years, but still can't work out what it has to do with rice cookers. What is the feature, how does it work, and what results does it give you? 2. What is the Grocery Game? I too love your grocery bag idea. That's charity where it counts. For some strange reason I had you placed up near Valencia. It finally dawned on me that Diamond Bar is a long way from there, in more ways than one. Strange that it's taken me so long. Congratulations on the impending move!

I originally read that line as "Portrait of a fiasco" and thought it could describe many of my projects. Seriously, I didn't realize that "fiasco" referred to a flask. I wonder how it came to mean a disaster? I've heard time and again about the wonders of cooking Tuscan white beans in a bottle. I have yet to try it. How do you get all the beans back out, and why don't some of them stick to the sides? I particularly wondered that about the narrow-necked bean pots I saw in Egypt; they were made of clay, and were opaque - how would you know if you got all the beans? - and were clearly not intended for a single use only. (I can imagine cooking beans in an old jug and throwing the jug away afterward.) Does the liquid carry all the beans out, in one sluice? Is the ensuing mess responsible for the common American meaning of "fiasco"?

Same for me, if I pick the Super Saver Shipping choice for the red. Northeastern Minnesota.

*bump* I am now obsessed with finding the right recipe and technique to make the garlic sauce of my dreams. My attempt upthread came closest so far, and now that the jar is finally empty I'm going to try it again. Yum. Meanwhile, in my prowls through the Middle East and Africa forum, I found this discussion about garlic sauce, complete with this link to a Rumanian garlic sauce called Mujdei de usteroi. It has broth in it, and that sounds odd to me so I won't bother with it, but it might help Daniel.

Wow. Have you tried back and forth between the home and the office, to make sure of your findings? You may have happened to catch a limited-time offer at home, that had expired by the next day you went to work. If not - that's valuable information.

It's a reasonable price, especially when you factor in the saved gasoline. Congratulations! I hope you love your LC as much as I do mine!

I wish I could answer the "safe" question. I hope someone else does. Mold, eh? My guess is that it's the standard citrus mold that ultimately wrecks the flavor and rots any (fresh) citrus - harmless based on my experience - but I don't know that my guess is correct. I like to chop up bits of preserved lemon peel and add it to my 3-bean salad (which is generally more of a 5- or 6-bean salad), and use some of the pulp in the dressing. Bits of preserved lemon chopped up and added to pilaf, or to the pan sauce built around sauteed chicken, are other favorite uses. I love the idea posted just above about adding to onions for caramelizing!

I won't be around when you wake up, Megan, so I'll say it now. Thank you for the tours, the great writing, the great fun! It's been a wonderful blog!

Yes, I've admired your smokery. (Is that a noun?) Marinading and kebabing (a gerund?) will not produce the same results, and will be much quicker. I'd like to try the venison smoking, for my own comparison, but I think you'll find the results are different. Do let me know for sure. Put the kebabs over pilaf. Use the spare marinade as part of the pilaf cooking juice. Mm.

Megan, I finally thought of something that puts your blog into perspective for me. I've been marveling - at your beeeyootiful photos, your eloquent blog, your energy, your high spirits, and your fine cookery! Yet you're so young! Can I be that much older than you? (Well yes, I could be your mother, and I grew up about 50 miles south of where your mother lives now, but aside from that... ) Here's what brings it home: when I was about 23 - so not that much younger than you are now - I threw a dinner party for some friends. It was a fondue party. There were dipping sauces. I've forgotten most of them: they were good, so not worthy of a story. One sauce, however, called for 3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely. I started on the first clove. I peeled, and chopped, and peeled, and chopped, and peeled and chopped some more. Then the second clove. Finally, partway through the second "clove" of garlic, I decided enough was enough, and I stopped, and made the dipping sauce with that half-amount of garlic. Everybody, including me, took one taste of that sauce and politely left it alone after that. I've never had anything with so much garlic heat, before or since. You've figured out by now, I hope, that what I thought was a clove of garlic was actually a head of garlic? Whew. That was a LOT of garlic. I look at how you cook and eat, and your age, and how I cooked and ate at that age, and I think: you're at least 10 years ahead of me on your knowledge, your savoir-faire. How wonderful! Way to go, girl! And great blog! Thanks!

Lori, implore them to hold back some hunks for braising and for chili. The combo of the small dice and the ground makes for a fabulous chili. I've got more venison steaks than I know what to do with (from the pro butchered one), and I'm thinkint stir fry. ← Gaah! Not that I'm against stir fry. Go for it. But please, I implore you, try barbecuing some of those steaks - either as steaks, or as kebabs. Use my mother's marinade recipe, here on RecipeGullet. Grill them. Hardy Upper Midwesterner that you are, you won't have a problem with the cold. But if you think you will, broil them instead. You won't regret it.

Add me to the serrano-manchego-mebrillo fan club! It's a great combination! If you can't find manchego, another choice is istara. Our cheese shop (Northern Waters Smokehaus, Duluth, Minnesota) often carries istara even when the manchego has run out. They're similarly made, and quite similar in taste. I think the istara is made the same way but in a different location.