Smithy

I've been wondering how much this blog might have interfered with your vacation, or at least added to the workload, and you've addressed that just now. Thank you so much for sharing your time and thoughts, and taking the trouble to do it so thoroughly! I'll bet the kids will be talking in the future about "that time Dad took pictures of everything we ate for a week". Maybe, after you've had time to forget how much work it was, you'll be willing to do it again! One more Southern-food question, at least from me: what is the difference, if any, between polenta and grits? It's been a wonderful week. Thanks, and bravo, to you and your family!

Ok, TheFoodTutor - HOW did you make the cardamom creme fraiche ice cream? I'm used to making fruit ice creams (recipe up this weekend, I hope) but I'd be at a loss for something like you're talking about. Spill, please! Also, how do you go about doing an herb ice cream like tarragon ice cream?

That sticky fruit dessert looks darned good! but I'd like to see a cobbler as you usually do it for you Saturday dessert, so I can learn how it should look. Your cooking is gorgeous. My grandmother made cobbler differently; I think she actually put a pastry crust over the top, but I've forgotten. Yours reminds me strongly of clafouti. Is there a difference between your cobbler and a clafouti (other than the accent )?

Wonderful blog, Varmint! I didn't think your kids could get any cuter, based on the first photos, but the kids with the, er, kids are better still. Sorry if this question has an obvious answer, but - why are the milking goats segregated? Do they spend their entire time in that "bubble"? Granted, it's a clean and airy bubble, but it still looks like the nannies are missing out on good grass outside.

Eden, I haven't tried berry ice cream like yours but I have a few ideas. First, I'm not sure why you think you had the right proportions of berry to cream, if the berry flavor seemed watered down. What proportions did you use? Other possible ways to work with these berries - these are ideas I haven't tried: make sorbet (see my post above, I want to learn about this for the dairy- or fat-intolerant among my friends); add just a touch of lemon juice to brighten the berry flavor when pureeing; try adding the berries at the last minute, whole, to the custard. Would any of those work?

Nice post, Busboy, and you make the case perfectly. There's nothing like homemade ice cream from real, truly ripe, fresh fruit. And the fresh fruit is finally coming in, so this cook-off has excellent timing! Not to contradict Busboy so much as confirm something Chris said: an ice cream maker is not absolutely required. Does anyone else remember coffee-can ice cream? It's an old scout trick. A large coffee can packed with ice and salt, with a smaller (and well-sealed) coffee can inside, will do in a pinch. I don't remember anything going inside with the batter to provide agitation as a paddle would. Recently a friend sent me a link to a commercial take-off of this same idea: UCO Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker (review) That said, I always use electric ice cream makers, and I have at least two - one that requires rock salt and one with a frozen canister. I may have gotten rid of the third when its motor was failing. I rather wish now I'd taken the old hand-crank model when Mom and Dad were clearing out the house, but in a fit of realism I let it go. I'm looking forward to seeing what people do in the way of sorbets; I have some wonderful fresh fruit ice cream recipes, but haven't played with sorbet or its variants.

Hmm. We'll want to be seeing that ultra-organized drawer in, oh, a year. Have you tried pureeing your peaches in a blender? I don't get the chunks you describe when I make my peach ice cream, and I think the enclosed capsule might be the reason. The food looks fabulous, and the bits of kitchen we're seeing look like you're putting the space to good use. I even find myself thinking succotash might not be so bad after all, if it doesn't have to have lima beans. How do you season your succotash? A vacation at home. What a great idea!

Somewhat OT, but related to California food warnings - I was very surprised last week to see warnings posted for lead in olive oil! What's up with that? The label was on the shelf, applying to all the olive oils. It looked like standard-issue California food warnings, but we didn't have time to follow up. We were in some routine California supermarket - Save-Mart, perhaps. Does anyone know more about this?

It is very common in the Upper Midwest to see it written thus in the menu: "Hot French Dip sandwich with au jus" Until now, I thought that linguistic sin was peculiar to this part of the country.

Should you head to Duluth, do take Highway 1 from Ely to Duluth, and take the scenic highway from Two Harbors to Duluth. Stop at Russ Kendall's for sugar smoked salmon, and there's also a great yarn shop in Knife River, right along the lake, with fab views and fun yarn. ← Along Highway 61 and about 10 miles shy of Two Harbors, make sure you stop in at the Rustic Inn in Castle Danger for some of their pie. I know, I know, Betty's Pies is supposed to be the main stopping point, but it just ain't so. Rustic Inn has The Best Pies that can be purchased, anywhere. Betty's is badly overrated.

One of my favorite "plural" stories is about the farmer who was having snake problems, and he wanted to order a pair of mongoose. He wasn't sure of the plural form, though: was it mongeese? mongooses? So he wrote his letter of order as "Dear Sir, please send me a mongoose. While you're at it, send me two." Back to topic: I was very surprised when I learned that a single noodle of the proper shape would be a 'spaghetto'. Like Lay's potato chips, I bet I can't eat just one anyway, so it's probably a moot point for me.

Mumin, I can't imagine the stress of trying to work while a Michelin Guide inspector is watching your every move. Good luck, and I hope the review is good!

A "moderately severe" case of West Nile? I hope he's all right now. I didn't realize the virus had made it all the way West already. 2" a day of growth makes me think: wouldn't it be fun to set up a camera to do time-lapse photography of a vine growing? Somebody - David Attenborough, perhaps - took such an approach to plants some years back and put it into a show that I never managed to see. The claim was that the plants looked like they were reaching and groping for things to cling to as they grew. I wish I'd seen it. "The Private Life of Plants" - does that sound right? Has anyone seen it?

Fist, add my prayers to the rest.

I'm with Snowangel: drying the herbs doesn't get you nearly as much flavor later. A lot of herbs take kindly to that treatment of whizzing with olive oil in the blender and then freezing. I often also mix compatible herbs - say, rosemary, garlic and parsley (or whatever suits my fancy) into a seasoning blend I'd use, then freeze them in an ice cube tray. One or two cubes go nicely into dishes later, during cooking. I haven't tried the log, but it sounds like it might be more space-efficient than my cubes. By the way, you can chop up basil, garlic and salt with oil in the proportions you'd use for pesto, then add the nuts and cheese later. It saves time and makes a nice off-season treat. You can make a wonderful chive oil that freezes well. I mix chives, garlic, and a touch of salt with olive oil to get a beautiful golden-green oil. I keep a jar of it in the freezer and thaw it periodically to have chive oil to drizzle over roasted potatoes. (Freezing it in smaller containers would have been practical, but I was experimenting.) You can also just freeze leaves - say, from basil or sorrel - but since they'll lose their texture and have to be chopped up anyway, I think it's easier to chop them before freezing. Snowangel, you did say "white wine vinegar"? My sister-in-law made some wonderful herb vinegars using white vinegar. I tried the same thing and ended up with some nicely-scented paint stripper. SIL insists it was white vinegar, not white wine vinegar, that she'd used. That would certainly be cheaper, but I'm reluctant to try it again with anything cheap. Any recommendations of vinegars that would work without breaking the bank?

Thanks for doing this blog, chromedome. It's been interesting reading. I'm especially impressed with the way you managed to keep track of, and respond to, all the questions as they were asked.

I swear, if my house were on fire, this is the first thing I'd grab out of the kitchen. I have an electric reamer that's good for juicing oranges, a plastic-bumpy lid (that I never use) that fits on a Pyrex measuring cup, and another strange handheld juicer that's pretty good - I should post a photo later - but the Wearever (a family heirloom) gets almost daily use juicing lemons and limes. It works reasonably well for pomegranates too, although the juice is a bit cloudy if you don't bother to peel the pomegranate first. This particular Wearever juicer has made gallons of lemon juice for lemonade and lemon meringue pie in my family, beginning in WWII when my mother rescued it from the trash of a navy wife who didn't know a treasure when she had one. I don't think it's very good for orange juice, however; too much of the peel oils get into the juice and turn it bitter. I agree, 100%, with the postings above: if you see one at a garage sale, buy it. And for heaven's sake, if you see one in your grandmother's house, don't throw it away.

All those hazards are known and tangible. Electromagnetic radiation hazards are not. All I can say at this point is that there are those who are susceptible to electromagnetic radiation and we may be among them. ← I hope you're keeping a respectful distance from your computer monitor.

Errm, what hazards, specifically, go with electromagnetic radiation? What will you do about the hazards of explosion, or of incomplete combusion, associated with using propane or natural gas?

That's wonderful, Marlene! You realize, of course, that your next blog will have to feature cooking with what you grew. I just got back from California, where I spent time in the mountains pondering lupines. They seem to to be neither invasive or aggressive in the Sierra Nevada, so I'm guessing the same holds true farther north in Washington and Vancouver. They most definitely are aggressive, non-native and invasive, here in northern Minnesota. (Lovely, but aggressive. Think of your favorite James Bond femme fatale.) The lupines there and here also seem to be different varieties. The advice above about getting gardening information specific to your region is wise.

Your photos are working out nicely! Thanks for taking the extra time required when you have a film camera. As with all the other posters on this thread, I'm amazed that you have the time and energy to blog atop everything else you're doing. Would you please elaborate on the following, listed in order of my curiosity (instead of order of mention) in case you run out of time? 1. Panade. I have one recipe for a panade, I really enjoy making it, and am looking for more panade ideas. Your usage of 'panade' above makes me wonder if we're talking about the same thing. What is it in this case, and how do you make it? 2. Ballotine? What's a ballotine? 3. How will you slow-cook a chicken breast without drying it out? If it isn't a trade secret...

Another blog from our neighbors to the north! Cool! Chromedome, I look forward to hearing about (and later seeing) the sights of Edmonton, especially as they relate to food. I also look forward to hearing about your work week, and your thoughts on career changing. Congratulations on waking up and deciding to steer instead of drift. As an aside: Here in Minnesota our seasonal swings are quite large, compared to what I grew up with (central California). We tend to make the most of the long summer days, when weather permits, to make up for those long winter nights. You Canadians, and our European neighbors, have even more extreme swings. I'd be interested to hear how that plays into your daily plans, if at all, and whether it influences your cooking. Blog on!

Funny, I hadn't thought about the resale value issue, but you're probably right. My personal objection is that I have some pet pans, inherited from one or two generations back, that wouldn't work with it and I don't want to give them up. I've been thinking that a portable unit like Andie's might be a fun way to increase my kitchen's capabilities, though, and give me better simmering capability. OTOH, we already have a gas grill with the side burner outside.... I just realized what your avatar is up to. Nice photo! My cats like the bathroom sink.

As I understand it, the great temperature control refers only to the way the burner goes instantly off or on, as with a gas stove and not at all as with a standard electric stove. You get the quick response of a gas hob without the gas hookup, and when you turn it off you're just left with the residual heat in the pan. I don't think the pan itself will cool down any differently, so you'll still have the slow cooling of a heavy pan and the quick cooling of a lightweight pan. If I've missed something, I hope someone with experience will set us both straight.

We had the same fine weather up here, and I got my plants into the ground - or, in most cases, pots. We go the other way on the lawn vs. garden business: He Who Mows wants uninterrupted space. She Who Grows wants more space for plants, but is no great shakes on weeding. So there's one smallish plot in a raised bed, a few renegades tossed out into the woods to fend for themselves (although I did give the horseradish some special treatment this time), and the rest is in pots. Everything got planted yesterday, with help of dubious value from the cats and dog. 3 Jingle Bells peppers (new this year), 3 Patio tomatoes, 1 middle-sized tomato (name escapes me now), more basil, 2 kinds of parsley, 2 kinds of thyme, tarragon (but last year's is coming up again! Yippee!), 3 rosemaries, 2 sages, more sorrel. A few weeks ago I realized an onion was starting to sprout, so I stuck it in a pot with some good dirt. It's putting up wonderful shoots. Now my question is, what will I do with it? Will it eventually turn into a confined onion bed? Or will it just put out nice greenery and maybe a pretty flower?