Smithy

I have 2 nesting melamine bowls with nonskid rings, handles and pour spouts as discussed above. I have nesting stainless bowls with lids. I have the white glass (Pyrex?) mixing bowls from an old mixer. I also have a large shallow stainless bowl perfect for large tossed salads or for mixing bread dough, and a similarly-sized glass bowl that came in an insulated carrying case, that gets similar mixing use. All types have their places, but if I had to keep just one set it would be the glass mixing bowls. They can be microwaved (unlike the melamine or stainless), they can be covered and refrigerated, and they're the heaviest and most stable. Unlike the melamine or stainless, these glass bowls are heavy enough that I can be beating or stirring with one hand and adding ingredients with the other, without no need for a third hand to hold the bowl in place. The melamine bowls rotate on their bases when I'm doing that, and the stainless bowls are so light that they not only rotate, they can tip over. (Note that I don't have the heavy stainless bowls to which Andie refers. If I did, my opinion might be different.) I've seen advertised a glass batter bowl with a handle and pour spout like the melamine. That might be the best of all worlds, but I don't know how well it nests.

How do the commercial purveyors get wild game? Do they employ their own hunters and shooters? Are there commercial hunters and shooters, so to speak? Or do the locals bring in their bag and sell it?

I'm glad I finally got over here to check out this piece, Andy; it's a fine piece of work. You've brought to mind my schoolmate, Verna, our resident JW. Like you, she suffered being different - the refusal to salute the flag or celebrate holidays or birthdays, the too-long skirts. (Oh, you didn't have to wear long skirts? ) I didn't realize she had dietary restrictions on top of the rest. We'd long since lost touch by 1975, so I was also unaware of that apocolyptic shedule. I've often wondered what happened to her. What did your mother do with all those cans of ham and beans?

Maybe the picture isn't very good in showing what's going on. They roast naked, so you invoke a direct poke. ← Pardon, my stupidity was showing.

The heathens! I'm glad somebody gets to partake of the bounty, but...but...what are these people thinking, that they don't want their catch? Why bother going out?! ← Sometimes, the meaning is in the doing, no? How many times have you prepared something for a meal that wasn't lauded in proportion to the effort expended to produce it? You have to take you satisfaction from the craft of preparation, don't you? I believe that if you take a fish from the sea, it's your responsibility to make sure it's consumed -- if not by yourself, then by others. The mate on a recreational tour will often sell the remaindered fish to local restaurants. This nets (alomst always) him a few extra dollars, and provides some choice spots with excellent raw product. Otherwise, the surplus gets sold to a fish wholesaler. Sexton's, for instance, waits for the overcatch --as well as the haul from commercial boats, especially shrimp boats. ← Points well taken. Now that you explain it that way, it sounds like a good system. I was thinking more along the lines of the deer hunters who love to hunt and who bring home the kill, only to have it buried in the freezer because the spouse won't eat or cook the game. What a waste. I am amazed, impressed and envious of the fish selection you have down there. Someone else commented on what we're missing in the way of fish, up here in the Midwest. Your photos really show it. In case I don't get back before your blog closes, I'll thank you now. Well done, especially in the middle of vacation! Oh, yeah - when you poke those spare ribs, are you unwrapping them first, or poking them foil and all? (Sorry for having to ask such a basic question.)

Do I sense an Okra Cook-off thread coming?

That's beautiful, Elie! It looks much better than mine did. My husband has already put me on notice, however, that he doesn't want any fish staring at him from the pan.

You may be sorry you started this topic, and Elie may yank it. However, on the off-chance that we can answer a simple survey question without getting into a linguistic debate, I'll start. In Upper Egypt and Cairo, it's called baba ghanoush. I assume they use the same name elsewhere in Egypt, but I have no information to confirm that assumption.

The heathens! I'm glad somebody gets to partake of the bounty, but...but...what are these people thinking, that they don't want their catch? Why bother going out?!

I'm so glad y'all discussed her further; I just got the joke in the title. If she's that good, I'll have to keep an eye out for that book - thereby ensuring that I'll have more baking books than people for whom to bake!

Wot she said. ...and thanks for the laugh about the Schuylkill Freeway on-ramp!

Here in Minnesota it's still considered rude to take the last piece - so when there's one serving left, somebody cuts that in two and takes one of the halves. The next person cuts it in half again and takes a bit. And so it goes...until we're down to crumbs, but nobody took the last piece!

I usually can resist donuts; there are so many better ways to take on more calories than I burn. However, that chocolate donut in the center is calling my name. I can hear it, all the way up here in Minnesota, calling my name.... *drool*

I'm looking forward to some of the answers regarding this. I first ran across the term "composed salad" maybe 7 years ago (and that particular salad's a winner at my house) but still don't really understand what makes it a composed salad or not. The working definition seems to mean that it's artistically arranged and not tossed - but I suspect that if I said a salad is first composed, then tossed I'd be missing the point.

Susan, I think it's the late cool season rather than anything you did or didn't do. I bought 3 tomato plants and 3 baby pepper plants (as well as a slew of herbs) from my favorite online nursery. The herbs have done reasonably well, but the tomatoes and peppers are a bust. I bought yet another tomato plant from a local nursery. These folks were willing to keep the plants in the greenhouse until the purchaser was ready to get them. I took over a healthy strapping potted tomato along about July 4 (maybe a week earlier) with many blossoms and a few green tomatoes. Now there are a few blossoms, many green tomatoes, and only a few red ones. Tonight they're predicting 38F. It's just too darned cold and wet this year. I haven't seen anything red in the Farmers' Market so far, either. A greenhouse would help. Moving would help. A south-facing wall to back up the plants (for reflected heat) would help. But basically, this has been a tough year.

That sounds gloriously messy, and do-able with my equipment. Thanks for the idea! I may also set up some syrup to make rock candy, but of course that takes a lot longer before the crystals become visible. Edited to add: how flexible would the cotton candy threads be? Is there a good ratio of glucose to sugar that would let them set up enough to be picked up, but not be brittle?

You can tell he's driving and not flying, can't you? (At least, he's not taking the airlines.) Can you imagine what the Transporation Security Administration would do with that tackle box?

I've kept the recommendations from before (and of course, they're right there upthread), so please don't think I'm ignoring them. I'm just gunshy of trying another white sea fish at great expense, considering how much I paid for that snapper and how disappointed I was in its flavor. It's a bit like Nadia's reluctance to try Lebanese again, for a while.

I think it may seem weird in some cultures, normal in others. I've been in some places where they put all the food out in front of us and then disappeared around the corner, I suppose to make it clear that we could eat all we wanted (the ultimate hospitality). Every so often someone would appear from around the corner and replenish a bowl that we'd finally managed to empty. We thought that was pretty weird, but it seemed to be the norm there. I'd say you should do as they do in the culture where you're living - which means to plate your guests' food now - except for those adventuresome guests you might have over for an "American style family dinner". Or you could do as my family did when I was growing up in California: plate the initial servings, and then pass the serving dishes around for seconds as appropriate.

This thread is a real eye-opener. I admit to being one of those folks who think "fruitcake? eww!" because the immediate recollection is of those dry things with chunks of unnatural fruit. Why, why? I ask you, would anyone make green cherries (if that's what they are)...and maraschino cherries are an abomination. Gaah. I do, however, like some fruits in breads. Stollen is wonderful stuff. Date cake is wonderful stuff. It's hard to go wrong with nuts. So as I read this, I think maybe, just maybe there are fruitcakes worth eating out there. I'm pretty sure they don't come in stores, though. One of my favorite fruited cake recipes might just barely be within the realm of fruitcake, as I read this thread, because it has dried cherries, raisins, walnuts and bourbon. It's wonderful - a family favorite - and easy to boot: Liv's Mother's Kentucky Cake from the recipe collection at The Splendid Table's website.

Well, I want to try the Charles Perry version, with cayenne, and see what happens, so I'm glad Adam posted it here. Er, what other fresh fish should I try instead of red snapper, since that doesn't seem to arrive in good condition at our markets? Does anyone know whether walleye or northern pike would work? What about rainbow trout? Herring? Or should I try sea bass next time as someone else suggested? What about halibut? Both of those come in frozen from the ocean, but might stand up better to the treatment than the snapper did. Finally: I'm fascinated by the comment that mustard was used in the days before red pepper was known. I never think of mustard as being hot. Do I use wimpy mustard?

That looks lovely! I've been looking at that issue of Fine Cooking and wanting to try the tarts, but haven't tried it yet - lack of time mostly, and a bit failure of nerve to try something new. Good on you!

I posted a question like this in the General forum, but was advised that the "sugar babies" tend to hang out here more. I hope someone can help me. I want to do a little demonstration, for people interested in geology, of how a material will take on different physical properties (bulky crystals, glassy, thready) depending on how it's heated and cooled. What I'm specifically after, if I can do it, is a way to make a single pot of sugar syrup, caramel, or some other easily cooked material that I can heat and then pour into two batches. One batch sits and cools until it's hard at room temperature in a solid sheet. The other batch gets pulled or paddled as it cools, so it makes long thin threads. (Think of the tacky threads you get when you put glue between two pieces, let it almost set, then pull it apart.) The final cooled product will in one case be a bunch of long skinny threads, and the other cooled product will be a single sheet that, when fractured with a hammer, doesn't make long skinny threads. Maybe it makes hexagonal columns instead, maybe it makes little round bits. If I had a cotton candy maker this would be easy, I think, but I don't. If push comes to shove I can make rock candy for one of the examples, but that's a slower process and also doesn't make the threads I'm after. Any ideas, anyone? I'm thinking that pulled sugar gets closest to the thready look I want, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Maybe someone else knows a better substance to cook for this demonstration.

I can't believe this blog is nearly over! Y'all really have had rotten weather lately. It's been muggy here in Duluth, but the thunderstorms have passed south of us before swinging up to wallop you. I'll bet Anne's place is helping you work out more of the details of what you do and don't want in your kitchen, when you renovate!

*FLASH* update! I went to the California Tree Fruit web site and basically asked the same question I asked here. Their representative (who works about 30 miles from where I grew up) very graciously responded within a day. She reports that no, the PLU's do not represent the fruit variety; that would require hundreds of PLU's and raise the complexity of supermarket listings to an unmanageable level. However, she said they're working on a comprehensive listing of stone fruit varieties and characteristics for their wholesalers. She says it's a bit unwieldy since it wasn't intended for publication on their web site, but she'll be happy to share it with me. That way I can cart it to the store with me, look at the fruit variety listed on the packing crates, and determine which segment of our household's market I'm shopping for that week. This has been an interesting discussion, and I thank everyone here for his or her insights.