Smithy

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.

Fist, thank you for the update. I've been wondering how y'all were doing, and praying for your wife's recovery when I had the spare moment. Is your wife able to do her job now, except for the company's unwillingness to accommodate her equipment and waste needs? If so, I think you need to do some checking into the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)...and then, if it fits as well as I suspect it does, start discussing that law with her employer.

Carving Swedes' skulls? Oh, so THAT's what Adam meant! What a relief! Thanks for the translation for our side of the pond!

*Groan* you mean there's a technique to this? Here I was, all set to try something 'foolproof'. Care to share the secrets ahead of time, or do we have to find all the pitfalls the hard way?

This has been a lovely, loving and luscious blog. Thanks for all your wonderful photos, loving food descriptions and luminous descriptions of family life. Thanks also for a look into Filipino food, which I've overlooked until now. More specifically, I've gotten at least 2 new uses of tamarind! Yippee! Hugs all around to you and yours for an excellent blog. Job well done, Moosh! Many, many thanks! Nancy

Wow, that chicken adobo looks and sounds wonderful. It happens I have some cane vinegar in my cupboard. I think I'll have to arrange a certain vinegar and chicken rendezvous in my LC before long.

I used 400g unbleached pastry flour, 4 large eggs, 1 T EVOO, pinch of salt, and a spot of semolina for dusting. It looks like my dough is still more limp. Yours has to be contracting somewhat to get those upturned edges. Is that a protein content thing? Still, the filled parts of both sets show voids in the filling and places where the dough collapses or puffs up to follow the contours of the filling. Maybe I'm closer than I think. Next time I'll try all-purpose flour instead of pastry flour for the slightly higher protein content, and see what that does. The tears were all little pinholes that sprang when I was tamping the top layer down over the bottom. There weren't as many as the last time - you're right, I'm learning! - but I still had to double the top layer of quite a few. None of them sprang leaks in the pot, anyway. I keep thinking about the non-lumpy, full-stuffed pillows of ravioli I had at that restaurant. Russ wondered whether they'd been baked instead of boiled. Is that possible? Or, as I'm starting to think, does having a mold make all the difference in the world for getting a well-stuffed raviolo? Those little pillows had minimal edges, and as I recall were roughly 2" diameter and 1/2" thick. I wish I'd taken a picture. Meanwhile, there's Adam: That is thunderstrikingly gorgeous even discounting the special appeal of a dish that can be made well ahead. After the last couple of nights, the advance preparation carries extra weight.

I'm down 2 books because of the Free Cookbooks! thread, but since they went to other eGulleteers the overall count should be unchanged. I don't know whether either of the recipients has already weighed in here. I forgot to ask them to.

Tonight I made ravioli stuffed with braised beef with sauteed onions, dry-fried mushrooms (THANK YOU, CHUFI!) and assorted seasonings, in a mustard cream sauce. Mindful of the past lessons and MobyP's comments both here and on the eGCA stuffed pasta Q&A, I made the dough stiffer than last time around. I think I may be at the point where it would help immensely if someone were physically at my elbow, saying "Here, poke this. Now try that. See what I mean?" Alas, all I have are photos and suspicions. (Sounds like a murder mystery, doesn't it? ) I just have to keep experimenting. The good news is that it all is edible, and far better than edible - just not the quality I'm after. My dough was stiffer than last time. It rolled out pretty well, but it tore in places it hadn't before. I think that means it was still wet! Yes or no? See below for photos. I rolled it out to #8 on the Atlas, being more daring than last time, but I ended up with tears in the top layer of the ravioli that had to be patched with double layers. Not all tore. When you look at the photos, you'll see where some stuffing showed through and some didn't. The stuffing was braised beef ribs started last night, allowed to rest, defatted, recooked. In the meantime I sauteed some onion, ground up some horseradish and celery, and dry-fried some portabellas. It all went into the food processor and then was adjusted for seasoning (a bit of Worcestershire here, a touch of pepper there, etc.) The beef, chopped and simmering the second time: The portabellas, dry-fried (what a marvelous truk) and quartered: The stuffed pasta before cooking: MobyP, or anyone else, does this texture look right? It isn't as flaccid as last time, but still may not be as firm as Moby's in the course photos. You can see in a couple of ravioli where I had to double the dough; that's a patch. Dinner! Beef ravioli with mustard cream sauce, scattered with chives. Ground pepper came after the picture. This was supposed to be on a bed of greens, but it got too late and too disorganized. The sauce broke, too. Looks pretty good, in an amateurish way, doesn't it? It tasted pretty good, too. There were a couple of quibbles with it. Aside from the missing bed of greens, the sauce was too oily. The first helping was fine, the second helping we could both tell it was oily. Didn't stop us from finishing it off, though. The other problems were more subtle. Russ said the pasta was soggy, I thought it didn't have the firm pillowy shape, with the wonderful al dente resistance followed by a firm tasty filling. See how flat and rumpled the ravioli are? Is that because the filling was too lumpy, there were air pockets, the pasta was too limp, or something else? Would these be more firm if they'd been packed with the use of a mold? The broken sauce annoys me, but that's beside the point, although it's related to being too oily. I'm more intent on the pasta right now. I have in mind an ethereal meal I had recently at an Italian restaurant. A number of us had ravioli of various types: smoked salmon, some beefy thing, lobster. In every case the little pillows were perfectly al dente: just a slight resistance, then the filling was revealed in all its smooth perfection. In every case the sauce was the perfect balance. I want to know how to do that, starting with those nice symmetrical fat pillows. Help!

... Dry-frying mushrooms is my favorite way of treating them before adding them to any dish that calls for concentrated mushroom flavor: Put mushrooms (whole is best, but you can chop them up if you are in a hurry) in a large frying pan. They should be in a single layer. Don't add any fat. Put pan on high heat and fry the mushrooms over high heat until they are completely brown, collapsed, and wrinkled. Shake the pan occasianally (which is when you will hear that funny squeaky sound of the evaporating liquid). It's amazing how long they can take over high heat before burning. When they're done, they are dry - so you don't have to worry about the wet filling ← This tip, alone, is worth its weight in the time and trouble I've put into cooking since I discovered eGullet. I've never heard of dry-frying mushrooms before tonight, much less tried it. The aroma was fabulous, the flavor even better, and the squeaks were high entertainment unto themselves. Thanks, Klary!

What johnnyd said, and I should have known, because I know they're related to gooseberries and I've even seen them growing in California. I can't BELIEVE your blog is almost done! The time goes quickly, no? I'll probably be back before you sign off, but in case I don't, thanks so much for a great virtual visit to Vancouver, as well as a reminder of Mushmouse, whom I'd forgotten. I've really enjoyed this blog. Any more ideas for tamarind? Right now I'm contemplating making a tamarind sauce to toss with stuffed pasta. The question is, with what should I stuff that pasta? Or should I mix the tamarind with the stuffing? Or is this just too weird an idea?

I can't answer any of your questions, of course, and I hope someone else can because I'll be interested in the answer. Based on my experience to date I'd take your tack: MUST do the searing in that hot roux to get the heavenly smell and all the associated interesting flavor compounds. However, this caught my eye and brain: If you could swing it, don't you think that stirring a giant pot with a boat paddle would connect wonderfully with rescue from the flood?

My cubes last a year, easy, and I can't detect deterioration in the quality. I suspect some are over a year old, just because I forget they're there. I use cubes for herb mixes that are likely to go into a stock or sauce in tablespoon quantities; it's really easy to pop 1 or 2 cubes into whatever I'm mixing without having to break off a chunk from a large frozen mass. With basil, since I use a lot of it as pesto, I tend to freeze it in larger quantities (like the mason jar, or the bags, or the logs). Actually, I've done that with the chive oil also, using the little 1-cup mason jars, on the theory that I could just thaw the jar slightly, scoop out what I needed, and return the jar to the freezer. Somebody had reported that the stuff never froze harder than the slush stage with that setup. I haven't found that to be true, and this year I may do chive oil in cubes also. Adding to what Snowangel said: the other thing the EVOO does (or butter would do) is help protect the herbs from freezer burn. You want enough fat to coat the herbs, hence her paste analogy.

Fifi, how big CAN you scale it up? I'm assuming the pot as the limiting factor, so I'm really probing into the equipment: type, size, that sort of thing. Glad you could Texans could hold up your end of the show.

My best friend and her husband came to visit me and my then-boyfriend one January in Duluth. They had been living in Malawi, but were touring the USA to catch up with friends and family. When they arrived and I went to answer the door, they were standing there with eyes as big as saucers. "Nancy," they exclaimed, "we love you dearly, but we are never visiting you in the winter again because it's TOO **#@!%* COLD!" True to their word, they've only come in July since. Back to the blog: Moosh, I know all about the time-lag of the blog (believe me, it looks worse from inside) but I still want to know about your screen name. ...and again, what a terrific cutie Noah is, and how wonderful that he's an enthusiastic eater!