Smithy

I think it's partly convenience and partly (as Tejon suggested) a general lack of cooking skills because they've been missing for a generation or two. For some of us, TV dinners, Chef Boy-ar-dee™ and Rice-a-Roni™ are examples of the "innovative" foods that came out when we were children, and that freed someone - usually our mothers - from the kitchens. Remember, in the early 1940's a lot of women went into the work force because the men were off to war. When the men came back, the women didn't necessarily want to stay home any more; they'd learned the satisfaction of working outside the home. In the 1950's and 1960's they were starting to work outside the home in grand scale. There's only so much time available, however, as a number of posters have already noted. So, what do you do? I remember my mother coming home from work, frazzled, and working to get dinner on the table. (As my sister and I got older, we helped some. I blush now that I didn't help more than I did.) Our meals were always standard middle-American square meals: meat, potatoes (or rice, if we were to have gravy), green vegetables, maybe yellow vegetables too, and fruit salad; dessert later. We didn't have enough money for things like Rice-a-Roni™ or Chef Boy-ar-dee™, although I clamored for them (advertising was potent back then too), but I remember clearly when Hamburger Helper™ hit the scene. What a revelation: it was within our budget, and all Mom had to do was mix in the burger, maybe some water, and the main dish was done! In the 1950's, '60's and '70's the food available at the local market was much more dependent on the season and location than it is now, and there was far less variety. There weren't fruits and vegetables being shipped in from the southern hemisphere during the off-season. There was far less interest in what we call ethnic foods - that is, dishes from outside your own culture, whatever that might have been - and if you were interested, you'd have had the devil's own time finding the ingredients. Packaged foods changed that by adding variety and removing the need for local or seasonally-available ingredients. The upshot of all this history lesson (I sound like such a geezer) is that many of us are the descendents of a trend toward spending less time in the kitchen because it was drudgery, with limited options. Convenience foods cut down on the time and opened up options as well, by offering "exotic" (yes, even Hamburger Helper™) dishes the home cook never would have dreamed up. I realize there were exceptions, but keep in mind that Julia Child was a revelation in the 1960's, and she only slowly began to help people realize that good food could be made at home, the ingredients were there to be had, and other cultures had something we could readily learn. This clearly doesn't address why people live now entirely on convenience foods - I'd have to go with "convenience", "laziness", "lack of imagination" and MAYBE "indifference to food"* as the most likely reasons. But there is a historical element at play here, and some of us are old enough to remember the change. Nancy "quick, where's my cane?" Smith *Given the rampant obesity in the U.S.A. I'm not so sure that indifference to food is a widespread phenomenon. But that's a topic for another thread.

Huh. It appears that while y'all were in Idaho Springs, Dillon, Keystone and points higher, I was in Frisco. Small world, isn't it? I was pretty happy with my early morning bicycle ride to Copper Mountain and back (10 - 11 miles) with my friend before breakfast, until I read about your exploits. Showoff. I'm really laughing at your comment about being a chemist but teaching physics. During my college years, a number of us noted the discrepancy between the two: either you 'got' physics, and were bound to major in physics, math or engineering; or you 'got' chemistry and were going into that field. Only a few people 'got' both physics and chemistry. I don't know what happened to them, but it probably involved a lot of money. How cool that your husband managed to use McKee for teaching chemistry! Frankly, I think I'd have gotten more out of the subject with that kind of lead-in! Then again, I was well out of college before it occurred to me that there's a connection between chemistry and cookery (and physics) - so, maybe it wouldn't have mattered. (Smithy makes a valiant attempt to return to topic) Y'all have a wonderful farmer's market! I'm looking forward to more of this blog! ...and... Have you made the sour cherry soup yet?

That could be a wonderful tag line! Since taking the braising class and learning about tagines I find myself less inclined to use our slow cooker, but that device is my husband's specialty because of its convenience and simplicity. I can do better ribs than his by browning them first and taking those extra steps he isn't willing to take, and those steps (rather than the equipment) may explain the differences in flavor and quality. Having said that, I'll also say that he makes darned good ribs and pork shoulder in our crock pot. We've never noticed everything tasting the same from one dish to the next. Now that I think of it, we almost exclusively cook pork in the crock pot. Maybe I'd sing a different tune if I tried chicken in it.

Thank you, Elie! Please make sure to let us Midwesterners know what kind of fish is best...if not species, at least general description as far as firmness, flavor and oil content so we can substitute if necessary. If I want fresh whole fish I'll pretty much have to stick to herring, whitefish or possibly lake trout. I can get any of those frozen and whole, as well as salmon. If I want to go with frozen filets the opportunities open up, and I can get tuna, cod, talapia, orange roughy or - maybe - snapper.

Yow....the mere idea of traffic *worse* than Egypt's makes me shudder. I've never been so terrified as the time we came back along the Nile highway toward Luxor after dark. Cairo is wild, but at least the gridlock generally keeps speeds too slow for serious damage if you're in another vehicle. At the risk of starting another of those pointless and interminable arguments about origin and pronunciation (please don't let's go there): Is samke harra specifically a Lebanese dish, or do variants exist across the Middle East? I'm going to have to look in my Egyptian cookbook to see if there's something like it in there.

Ooh, a samke harra cookoff thread! Sounds wonderful! I like the flavor combinations you're describing. I've never had them with fish. <looks around for a drooling emoticon>

(After massive portions of 15 other dishes:) Why won't you try the X? You don't like X? Should I fry you some eggs? Look, I can send the kids to pick up some pastries or something. Some cheese? Come on, that's not a big enough portion, to really taste X you need to at least... My husband's Ph.D. and post-doc work led to a lot of research in the Eastern Egyptian desert. I've gone to Egypt with him 7 times now, and each time I come away with more knowledge and love of the country. That exposure to Egypt and to Arabic (I'm actually taking classes now) has led to a broader interest in the Middle East in general. I'm looking forward to visiting more of the Middle Eastern countries, one day, but I always want to go back to Egypt, too. Madame Sabra (Coptic, so not Umm somebody) of the "eat, eat! you no like my cooking?" keeps promising to take me shopping and spend a day showing me how she makes her dishes, and I might actually have the language skills by our next visit. Maybe. I'd actually rather get that invitation from our Bedouin friends over in Mersa Alem, but it's harder to connect with them.

Wow. Look at those mountains! Behemoth, I'm loving this writeup. Thank you so much. The food business really makes me laugh. Our family, of generally British Isles descent, is well-known for putting too much food on the table (my grandmother was the champion) but we're pikers compared to you and yours. I've seen the same behavior in Egypt. It's daunting, because we can never figure out a graceful way to stop. We keep hearing, "Eat, eat! You no like my cooking?!" even as we groan. Am I correct in thinking that you ate WITH your relatives? Would it be the same if you were the guests of nonrelatives? One of the particularly daunting things about being fed in Egypt was that they'd lay this huge spread out in front of us and then disappear, refusing to eat with us. I suppose that's just the finest hospitality ("what's ours is yours") but we had trouble looking at the household's food budget for a week, spread out for our sole enjoyment, and them acting insulted if we didn't eat it all. Would you get that kind of treatment in Lebanon if you weren't among family? Finally - when you figure out how to make that m'tabbal and that samke harra, I hope you'll post the recipes. I'm still struggling to work out the best proportions for baba ghanoush, and I've never even heard of that fish but now I want to try it.

Wow! Well, well, well! Ever since my first attempt at mole poblano upthread we've had a couple of containers of frozen sauce in the freezer. I didn't have enough turkey the first time around, and as the days have lengthened and gotten warmer we've gotten more interested in cooking fresh ingredients than in using things from the freezer. This evening, while I was grocery shopping, I decided to change that. Turkey breasts were on sale, and looking pretty tasty, so I bought one. While I browned it in lard I thawed a quart of the mole sauce. Then I threw it all together into a casserole dish, which went into the oven at 350F for 45 minutes or so. You know, making that sauce was a lot of work, but the result tonight was divine. I think I may just do this again, after all. I know I'm glad to have another container of frozen leftovers from the first attempt. There's a 'local' sailboat race that runs from Sault Ste. Marie, ON to Duluth, MN. The Trans-Superior race course is something like 320 nautical miles (although few boats manage to stick to the course so closely), can take anywhere from 66 to 96 hours depending on your boat and the weather, and can be either a wonderful jaunt or, more likely, an exercise in masochism. Our running joke is that it only runs every other year because it takes that long for people to forget how miserable they were and be willing to do it again. Mole poblano: the Trans-Superior of the culinary world. I may just do it again.

Well, how about that - a question that hasn't been answered yet, and is in danger of sinking to the bottom of the thread like undercooked ravioli. I'm bringing this back up even though I'm not sure of the answer, so someone who REALLY knows may see it and respond. Here's what I know for sure: the pasta floats because it's less dense than the surrounding water. Here's what I think is happening: as the pasta cooks, the starches relax their little kinks and swell, but the swelling doesn't necessarily allow an equivalent amount of water to enter the space. That means the pasta expands and becomes less dense. The pockets of filling may provide extra bouyancy by swelling without taking on water, if the ravioli is well sealed, making essentially little flotation cushions. Straight pasta noodles definitely get "lighter" (less dense) as they cook - you can tell by the way they drift around in the water instead of trying to sit on the bottom. However, the geometry of relatively skinny noodles is such that they have a very high surface-to-volume ratio. The outer surface, that takes on the most water, never really protects the interior. A rounded fat piece like ravioli, or dumplings (they do the same thing as I recall) has a smaller surface to volume ratio, so they take on less water for the overall piece. That's what I think is happening. Anyone else? Edited for speling

As opposed to the smell? Or are you talking about situations where you can't sniff the fruit?

I'm going to follow up my own answer since I've learned that my "overstating the case" comment from yesterday was incorrect. I found, on a Coptic discussion forum, a thread discussing the fact that there are 250+ fasting days per year - pretty close to 2/3 of the year's worth. I haven't followed up to see what-all the fasts are for, know how long most of them last or how they're broken. Whether most Copts follow all those fast days seems to be up for debate - but clearly, we haven't learned as much from our friends there as I thought we had! I should also add that their Lenten season is 55 days long. I knew it was longer, but couldn't remember by how much.

Congratulations on the new house! May it see much joy within its walls! Our kitchen table is an oval Chromecraft (Chrome Craft? ChromeCraft?) thing with fake, or maybe it's resin-impregrated, wood laminate surfaces and brass-colored metal pedestal legs near either end. It has rounded edges that can't bruise. I would not have picked it, as I'm a bit of a purist about using wood, but I have to admit that it's nearly indestructible, it's comfortable to sit at and it looks good in a casual way. My husband strongly prefers this style, and I like it well enough that I'd be willing to get a bigger version of the same thing when we finally get a larger table to suit my entertaining preferences. (This is, after all, the place where we eat every day, dump our mail, spill coffee, and do all those other daily-living activities.) If we ever get a dining room, then a good wooden table would be in order there. Edited for clarity.

It's been a while since I made it, but Cherry Garcia was a hit around our house. (Sorry, I wasn't doing photos at the time.) The only problem with it was that the children visiting kept competing over who got to add something next - ice, salt, ice, salt.... eventually the level of freezing stuff came up so high that it got into the canister. The ice cream was a touch salty, but still good.

Yes. I routinely freeze my Kerry Gold when I'm lucky enough to get it, then thaw it when it's time.

Given the present unripe state of my tomatoes and the cool weather (you call this summer?), those worms might be my best chance at eating tomatoes this year.

That may be overstating the case. During their Lenten season they don't eat meat or dairy, nor do they eat or drink anything at all during certain hours....after 3 p.m. until the following morning, if I remember correctly. I have to admit, we've only visited our Coptic friends between November and April, so there may be something going on in the summer of which we aren't aware.

I've been reading this thread and marveling at just how fussy people are. I thought I was fussy, but really, I'm only fussy about the quality of the fruit. I've made one - count it, one - non-fruit-based ice cream at home in my life. Maybe that's where the fussiness has to come in. Our peach (nectarine, plum, whatever) ice cream has had, over the years, milk, half-and-half, full cream, eggs, no eggs. It's all been wonderful.

So, what do we do for the 100,000 celebration? ← Publish a cookbook? Add The Tabasco Cookbook for me. I've no idea when I'll have time to use it, but hey, $7 at the hardware store...

I don't have a clue what a tournant is. Since someone else has asked what it is, I'll ask "how do you pronounce it?" and "please use it in a sentence"! I'll also ask of lambfries: which knives do you love best? Brand names are good, but types are better - for instance, do you use a Chinese cleaver? I'm a home cook with a pretty good (for a home cook) set of knives - 8" butcher knife included. Would spending money on a cleaver get me anything other than kitchen cool?

Great article! Tri-tip was always a favorite cut of meat for the grill in our family. I was quite surprised when, after I'd lived in Minnesota long enough to have money for good beef, I started looking around for tri-tip and couldn't find any. Finally I asked at a meat counter whether they carried tri-tip. He looked at me oddly and said, "Are you from California?" That was the first time I realized it's such a localized cut. Nowadays one of the good Duluth butcher shops will provide it if asked; they know it's a good cut, but it isn't requested often enough to stock it routinely. I generally marinade it in my favorite all-purpose recipe, then grill it. Lovely stuff. Sometimes I'll buy two, and freeze the second (in the marinade) for later summer gluttony. I'll have to try some of these other treatments to see how they compare. I'd never heard the expression "Santa Maria barbeque" before now, but at last I have a name to apply to these cool adjustable grill arrangements I've spotted near Mom's new apartment in Visalia. Thanks for that information, Russ. And hey! Where else but in Coalinga will you see the oil wells painted up like grasshoppers, dinosaurs and dragons?

The topic for the class is always decided by the client, and if they don't already have something in mind, I quiz them about their favorite restaurant dishes, and things they've always wondered about how to make. Ever wanted to make osso buco? How about sushi making at home? Duck confit, or perhaps some homemade lemon curd? It's really pretty easy, and most people can think of at least one thing they've always wanted to learn to do. ← That is a terrific approach to teaching, as guaranteed to yield satisfied clients as anything could be guaranteed. Do you ever get clients who just *can't* get what you're trying to show them because it's too far beyond their present capabilities? How do you handle that?

I look forward to learning from you this week, and maybe I'll even have a food-related question to ask! In the meantime, I'd like to know more about Sid.

Susan in FL, would you be willing to share your mango ice cream recipe and your white chocolate macadamia recipe? They sound wonderful. I don't know anything about cooking the custard in advance, have never thought it necessary for my ice creams, but would be willing to try it for a different kind of ice cream.

I made nectarine-plum ice cream this weekend in an attempt to adapt my old standby recipe to my newer, smaller ice cream maker. I've posted the original recipe, in all its volumetric quirkiness, with my mother's consent, on RecipeGullet: Ruth Smith's Peach Ice Cream, the original recipe. The old ice cream maker is a Rival electric ice-and-salt freezer. Here's what I like about it: 1. It cost $20, or was it $40? several years ago; 2. So far, I think ice and salt make for a better freezing mixture than the frozen gel-filled canisters; 3. It makes a lot of ice cream. What I don't like about it: 1. The ice cream canister must sit exactly upright for the arm with the cranking motor to fit down over the top and latch in place. You have to get everything right, put the cranking arm down, then start adding ice and salt. This means that you can't add anything later (for instance, nuts after the ice cream has started to thicken) without taking everything apart and dumping out the ice and starting over again. I'll post a photo if anyone's curious about what I mean. 2. Unless I get a really good ice cream salt that doesn't have black and grey flecks of insoluble salts in it, I have a mess to dump out when the process is finished. My new Cuisinart Ice-50 ice cream maker has a freezable canister that lives in the freezer (empty) so I can always use it at a moment's notice. Despite that readiness, I haven't used it all that much, and I'm still learning its ways. What I like about it: 1. It has an opening in the lid so ingredients like nuts can be easily added at the proper time; 2. That canister, provided it stays cold long enough, eliminates the salt-and-water disposal problem; 3. It's a lot quieter than a canister churning around in a bunch of ice and salt. I'm still trying to adapt the above-linked original recipe to this smaller ice cream maker. I finally asked Mom the other day what she does now, and I'll post that later after I have a chance to try it. I tried a half-sized recipe of the original ice cream in this maker, and still overwhelmed the container. The upshot was that a bunch of ice cream pooched up through the open hole in the lid, and none of it froze properly until I stuck it in the freezer for a while. Still, it's good. The texture was great, and I love being able to use summer fruit this way.