Smithy

You remind me of Garrison Keillor, going on about planting gardens and then reaping the, er, rewards. "Why," he asks, "did anyone think 5 hills of watermelons were a good idea? And Big Berthas at that!" He also tells, in many versions, the story of his 'childhood' in which the tomatoes ultimately took over the garden, the yard, the porch, the kitchen. "Pick up a newspaper off the kitchen table, and there would be tomatoes under it. I don't know, maybe we thought they'd climb into the canning jar by themselves."

Lucky you! I brought 4 pots inside, and only 1 survived. None of the outside rosemary survived. However, my sorrel and burnet did, and the other day I accidentally dug up something that looks suspiciously like tarragon shoots. I replanted them. Maybe I'll get lucky.

I think that's true for my tastes, too. Unfortunately, I'm trying to work out a way to make this for a friend who can't eat the dark meat (or skin). I've been nattering on about tagines and braises and the like, and she's never heard of a tagine (the food or the dish) and wants me to demonstrate next month when we're visiting. Paula, I appreciate the extra insights. You confirmed some suspicions and set me straight on others. Thank you!

Mm. I think swing-down is easier to support. I also think that a backsplash attached to a fold-down surface is a potential shin-basher - or perhaps, in this case, ankle-basher. Depending on how big you intend this backsplash to be (as in height above the work surface) perhaps you could recess the side into which it swings? In other words - fold the word surface up (no, I do not think a folding counter is goofy, I've seen many an office and library with such a beast) with the backspash sticking into a recess made to fit it.

Last night I cooked up a slightly modified version of Paula Wolfert's Ramps, Asparagus and Ham from this L.A. Times article about her, written by Russ Parsons. Wow. Wow. Wow! If you can still get ramps, I recommend this. As it happened I had prosciutto, not ham, and I had no sweet young salad greens, so this became a bowl salad without the greens instead of a plated salad. It was still wonderful, and could have been a meal unto itself. I have to go see if I can get more ramps before the season runs out! I'll post photos when I get near a computer that has a photo program I understand.

*bump* Now that my own tagine is cured, I've put it into use. I have a couple of questions. We established during the braising lab that cooking the meat, then cooling it, separating the juices, letting everything rest (preferably overnight) then putting it back together for the final braise would produce the best, most meltingly tender results. It also allowed for defatting the juices easily. I cooked up djej mqalli last night from Wolfert's Couscous and Other Good Food... and got good results, but not wonderful. I didn't stretch the process out over two days. The results were flavorful but not as tender as I've gotten in the past with a different clay pot, or with LC when I did stretch the process over 2 days. What do the Moroccans do? My guess is that they have neither the time nor the luxury of cheap fuel to do this separating, resting and reheating business. Are the results as good anyway? How long does it take them to cook a chicken, make the sauce, boil it down, etc? My other question pertains to chicken breasts. The recipe I used calls for cutting up the chicken into pieces, and (I presume) cooking them all. I reserved the entire back and the breast bones (only) for soup, and cooked everything else in the tagine. The breast meat was good, but a bit on the dry side. I don't think cooking it longer would have improved it. What should I have done differently there? Is there a way to do a creditable tagine using breast meat? I'd like to cook one of these for a friend who can only eat white meat, and I wonder whether it's a realistic plan.

Sam and Marlene, this has been a wonderful blog. Thank you both for your efforts and inspirations. If I had a toque I'd doff it to you. I remember that Sunbeam waffle iron well! I have a feeling Mom let it go when she and Dad downsized the house. I didn't speak for it because we don't do waffles around our place. Now I'll have to see...maybe she kept it after all... Sam, it's too bad you're finishing your week in the spotlight with a cold. Here's hoping you recover soon. I still would like to know - this question seems to have got lost in the shuffle - whether it would be worthwhile for me to try different dry vermouths than my stock Martini & Rossi, given that my main use for vermouth is in pan sauces and other cookery. What are your thoughts on that?

We thought about it. Should we have another issue with needing to let air out of that baseboard, I'll be revving that Sawzall! However, our nearest Ikea is a 5+ hour drive away if you limit yourself to U.S. stores (Ottawa's closer than New Haven, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or anything in NJ) and we don't know of a good source for similar stuff any closer than that. If we can find a nice cart, we may not even wait until we have air in the baseboard. On another note, we're considering Ikea cabinets, although we aren't yet sure if they'll have the right sizes for what we want. MelissaH ← I got my rolling cart from Sunny Kitchens, the online store of Catskill Craftsmen. (They may not be physically so far from you, MelissaH.) I've been very happy with it, and as I consider getting another to serve as a more-or-less permanent kitchen island, I'm thinking about buying from them again. Maybe I'm missing something. What is an undermounted sink, and what's its advantage? The photo I'm looking at looks like one more ledge to clean (the sink rim, below the counter). That would drive me nuts. I think you're spot-on about keeping that side door, now that you've described the traffic flow.

How big is this huge block of chocolate? I've a feeling you'll be using it in bits. If you're really ambitious, Mole Poblano de Guajalote is another possibility. The link points to a mole cookoff thread going on right now.

Carrot/sorrel soup sounds pretty good. Do you have a recipe you'd be willing to share?

Great topic, MelissaH, and good timing, too: giving it a year to percolate should give some good ideas. I agree with you about soffits. What's the point? In our kitchen, the cupboards don't go all the way to the ceiling, and we use the top space for storage of some more decorative items - colorful pots, large impressive stockpots, etc. We like the way it looks. Do you have any idea whether the soffits are hiding anything - like wiring? I'll be interested to see what sort of constructive suggestions you get from TCW; our kitchen isn't as cramped as yours, but we're also considering remodeling to solve similar problems. So far we've used a rolling cart with cupboards to store most of the baking stuff and provide extra work surface; it moves out to be a work island when needed, and we're considering installing a permanent island. I'm not sure you have that much room. I wonder if there's something like a fold-out work surface, similar to but smoother and sturdier than the old slide-out cutting boards that used to be in every kitchen? If I'm reading those diagrams properly, you'll be going from one corner cupboard to two. Do you have turntables in there? Are you planning to? If you check out Varmint's kitchen remodeling thread, Varmint's New Kitchen, you'll find that he installed another type of corner cupboard in there called a Magic Corner. Now that I've seen it, I think I'd rather have it than a turntable arrangement. By the way, that thread and the monster thread preceding it (Varmint's Story of a Kitchen Renovation) may have a lot of helpful info for you. You're spot-on about wanting better lighting and more electrical outlets. Edited because I finally found some desired links.

Jim, what does the V V in the name mean? I have a local wine shop looking to see whether they can get this wine, but I couldn't actually tell them what it is. "Uh, it's red," I said. Then I added that it's supposed to be really good, and not expensive. But is it a blend? Of what? and from where?

I hope they do catch the perps, and make the perps pay for and/or help with the repairs. Paying is the hard part, often, but some community service - starting with fixing what they messed up - might benefit them as well as you. It really fries me to see people destroying what others have built, or making messes others have to clean up (don't get me started on littering). My Pollyanna side keeps thinking that if they experienced some of the work, they'd stop being such pigs. My Marvin side thinks that's probably too much to hope for. My new seedlings are supposed to be getting their hardening-in-to-the-new-home period - a few hours out in the sun, then back inside. There has been no direct sun for the last few days. Between my schedule away from home and the large Siberian Husky running around outside, the only place for those plants is on the deck, on a picnic table, out of reach. Still, they look good. Horseradish, tomatoes, peppers, thymes, rosemaries, parsleys. I thought I'd ordered tarragon, but I must have decided to get it locally. If it stops raining tomorrow, I'm planting. My sorrel is coming up! My sorrel is coming up!! First sorrel panade of the season is just around the corner!

What, no Martini & Rossi? I have so much to learn. <Cue groans from the cognescenti> Acually, I can believe that dry vermouths are different - much as with wine - but I've never explored them. That's partly because of availability, but also because we don't drink many cocktails around this house. Most of my vermouth goes into pan sauces. With that in mind, is it worthwhile to try other brands?

I would love to see your foodblog, Michelle! If there's a voting system involved in this, count my vote for you. Soba? Re shopping bags: we get the choice between paper and plastic, and I always go with paper. Then I forget the next week that I have the paper bags, and I get more instead of re-using them. I used to do the same thing with canvas bags - forget to bring them along, forget they were in the car, whatever. Now I just bring spare paper bags to our Whole Foods Co-op (not part of the chain) or Farmers' Market for reuse there. We have a pretty good community reuse system going.

Well, shiver me timbers and blow me down. I could have sworn that I'd tried magnets on my cast iron skillets and they hadn't stuck - although I admit, I wondered why that would be. Since so many people insisted that yes, cast iron and Le Creuset are indeed magnetic, I just had to try it when I got home...and clearly, I wrote some bum information above. Thanks for correcting the information, y'all! Nancy "sauteed crow, anyone?" Smith

Well, I just checked the foodblog listings (yes, I need help ) and confirmed my suspicions. This foodblog isn't even finished, and it's set the record for posts. Whatta duet! or trio, if you count K!

Did you look for ras el hanout? ← Don't tell anyone, but I wouldn't know what to look for! ← It's a Moroccan spice blend, apparently with as many variations as people who blend it. Don't tell anyone, but I haven't actually used it yet!

Did you look for ras el hanout? Edited to add: I *want* one of those food saver vacuum thingies. I probably shouldn't get one, considering the way we've already overloaded existing freezer space, but still....

Marlene, you shop the way I do! When everything looks so wonderful, it just leaps into my shopping cart on the way by. You wrote that all the meals are taken for the next 3 nights, but that looks like a lot more nights - reminds me of our "weekly" excursions in which I end up buying 2 weeks' worth.

Amen to that bit! When I get gift baskets that have new spices or oils, I think it's pretty fun. My sister, bless her, has taken to doing that, and I've gotten some fine new things to try that way. In this context, however, it might have been more difficult. I wonder if Marlene can get ras el hanout at her local stores? Maybe we'll find out.

Sam, I'm reeling vicariously from the cocktails. They look glorious. I rarely indulge in the hard stuff these days - too prone to hangovers - but I can see there's a high level of artistry involved. Thanks for sharing that aspect of your evening out, as well as the photos of those wonderful meals.

how I lived so long without this I have no idea! What no garlic butter valet?? ← Until now, I'd always thought I was a gadget freak. I now realize that I'm a piker, a miser of space and money, on the continuum of kitchen consumers. I wonder whether I can make my husband believe it?!

So do we all love this thread, for the same reasons! Fear not! That anchovy paste, being sealed in the tube, should keep for a long time capped. I'd keep it in the refrigerator. The tube has a very small hole, which is plugged with the cap; there's no way that I can see for the oxygen to get to the paste. I've kept tubes of tomato sauce and pesto for months on end, with no ill effect. If the kidney beans are really dry, I can't imagine their growing mold. I don't know what that whitish powder is, but if it washes off and doesn't taste strange - and if you haven't noticed any ill effects yet - I wouldn't worry about it. I'd be interested in knowing what it is, but only to please my curiosity. Others have answered - yes, you can freeze wine (I wish I'd thought to reduce it). I'm learning about the other things, like the bay leaves. Thanks for asking the questions!

Who knew? I certainly didn't. But I do know my cats lay in my potted rosemary most of the winter. They didn't eat it, but they came away with a lovely scent. The rosemary survived the treatment, unlike the thyme.