Smithy

Boris, this has been a wonderful blog. I've been too busy at work to have any time to read "fun" stuff all week. Now I've had your entire blog to read at once, and your wonderful cookstove and kitchen to drool over, and your hangovers to laugh at. (Mine was yesterday.) I'm looking forward to trying to make banitsa. I've a package of phyllo dough, waiting for an excuse to use it. Now all I need is time... Thank you for a terrific blog, and insight to life in your corner of the world!

I'm sticking my oar in here even though I have little experience with chard. What if you wash it, then stick the stems into a bowl of ice water, as though it's some herb or flower? Would it keep? The approach works well in the refrigerator with herbs, but I've no idea whether it would work on chard out on the counter. If I had access to chard and limited refrigerator space I'd give it a try. Maybe it would keep for a day, anyway? Think of the centerpiece it could make on your dinner table! Failing that, maybe you should invest in an ice chest or two? Wash it, wrap it in damp towels, lay it in the ice chest with something frozen?

I am sooo envious. In the 20-odd years I've lived here in northern Minnesota, produce shipping and handling has improved to the point where good nectarines - really good nectarines, as in 'I grew up with nectarines and I know what I'm talking about' good - can be had in the grocery store if you shop carefully. Peaches take a bit more care, but they turn up once in a while in good shape, with good flavor. Good apricots are as scarce as good navel oranges. I don't understand it. I'd think that if you could get one variety of stone fruit out in good ripeness, shape and flavor (did I mention that good cherries arrive here too?) that you could get them all. It doesn't happen with apricots. I have recipes galore celebrating apricots - tarts, brandied apricots, the list goes on - and never a chance to use them. Grrr.... Enjoy those apricots, Andiesenji....!

Snowangel, thank you for posting your blueberry pie recipe, and for posting a pointer to it! I can hardly wait to try it, even with domestic blueberries! A friend who spends her summers at her cabin in northern Ontario - a hundred or two miles north of yours - makes her blueberry pie without corn starch; she just loads those wild blueberries into a pie shell, puts a crumb topping over the lot, and bakes. It falls into a bazillion little delicious berries when you cut into it, but oh, what a fabulous flavor. Since then I've made my pies the same way. (Who cares about the looks?!) Then, one horrid weekend last year, a friend who does the occasional favor for me asked me not to bother bringing any more pies for him as thank you gifts to be shared - or else to bring store bought. Hoping he was only joking, I brought a Perkins pie (bleah) the next time and he couldn't sing its praises enough. I won't try to thank the ungrateful heathen with my baked goods again, but if I find another unsuspecting soul I'll have another recipe to try. Edited to add: can you/do you make this pie with your berries after you've frozen them, or only when they're fresh?

oooh, yeah! to the phraseology and the sentiment, both! (I just HAVE to work the phrase 'groozly bits' into a conversation later today!) My biggest reasons for wanting to cook the turkey at our place are (1) leftovers, (2) the pope's nose, and (3) picking at the skin and the pan. When I'm elsewhere, my hosts think I'm the best guest ever because I *insist* on helping with the cleanup! Cooked spinach. Most particularly, cooked canned spinach with that vinegar stuff in it. I can make a meal out of that when the darling husband is away from home. (He doesn't even like cooked fresh spinach, more's the pity.) Those black olives some others admit to also loving. Since I grew up among olive ranchers (Dad wasn't, but his friends were) those olives Taste Like Home. Cilantro seems to be the feline of the culinary herbs: it almost always provokes a strong reaction one way or t'other. I'm in the pro-camp but have to be careful about when and to whom I use that wondrous herb.

My personal jury is still out on whether freezing or canning is better. I didn't have much luck with freezing the tomatoes individually and "popping" the skins off later under running water - no doubt it was my technique. (How much time do you give them under the water, Susan? Or does this depend on the type of tomato?) Last year I canned a bunch of tomatoes and froze a bunch more; in both cases I skinned and seeded them. The funny thing is, the freezer operation was much easier up front but the canned tomatoes have been more convenient. I rarely have the foresight to take something out of the freezer in the morning (tearing out the door, trying to get someplace, trying to make sure the cats have been fed and are inside, etc. ad nauseum). In the evening then I'm either nuking the frozen package or opening a jar. OTOH, the frozen tomatoes keep much more of their color because they haven't been cooked during the canning process. 140 tomato plants!

Isn't it funny, how every region has its threat and everyone thinks theirs is the easiest? When I go back to California people say "however do you put up with the blizzards? I'll take an earthquake any time!" Out here in Minnesnowda folks say "how do people live the threat of earthquakes? I'll take snow any time!" The Floridians seem quite attached to their hurricanes...as opposed to anything else. You picks your poison, I guess!

Eeeeeeewwwww.... If that ain't nasty enough to skeeve me off ordering rabbit for awhile, nothing is! Katie, that little "eww" face is hilarious! Interesting about the visible vermin, but I want to add a note on the invisible hazards (and then point another thread this way - I hope that's all right?). I grew up in a hunting family, but far from killing and eating the jackrabbits that pestered our young vineyards and young orchards in the San Joaquin Valley, my parents impressed on us younguns to never, ever touch those rabbits, dead or alive. We did not eat those rabbits; they were not the "eating" kind. Far from being cute cuddly Peter Cottontail or his less domesticated cousins (whom I have cooked and eaten with glee, out here in the frozen northland), they were riddled with disease and vermin. They specifically carried tularemia, a.k.a. "rabbit fever", which is a bacterial disease. I had the impression from my parents that it was peculiar to jackrabbits, but I must say that my 5 minutes' worth of reading from the CDC a couple of minutes ago suggests that other rabbits as well as rodents can also carry it. So, if I'm off base or being overly alarmist, someone should set me straight.

I just found this blog, and am thoroughly enjoying it - and almost overwhelmingly homesick, even though you're farther north than my home grounds! Blog on! Let's hear more about the corks! I've heard and read about the increasing problems finding good cork (although the reason escapes me - disease? overharvest?), and I've tasted the result of putting a crummy cork on a good bottle of wine. It sounds as though porosity is only one thing you have to check. Bonnie Doon and a few others are trying the specially engineered screw tops. Meanwhile, some of my favorite wines have plastic (perhaps plastic-coated?) corks, and I'm wondering whether that isn't the wave of the future as more of the world buys wine. What is the winery's take on alternative corks, if you've thought about that at all?

Nessa, I thought my cats were just going out into the yard at night - how the heck they get from Duluth to Dallas and back again in just a couple of hours is a complete mystery. I used to have a dog like yours, too - *sigh* - I'd sure rather think she'd worked her way from Duluth to Dallas, but I fear her fate was darker. What a kick-butt blog you've started! I can't decide whether the brisket or the pie is the most droolworthy, but my keyboard is in serious danger right now...and I can hardly wait to try making salsa! A note on taking notes as you cook: once you develop the discipline to take those notes, do develop the discipline to organize them somehow while you're at it. It's all right that my cookbooks look and read like lab notebooks, complete with dates, reactions and suggestions. It's not all right that my refrigerator is covered with magnets holding scraps of paper with our recipes-in-progress, some a couple of years old. (Dear, do you remember which magnet has the oven-roasted pork recipe?) Beware! Take heed before it's too late!

Vegetarians can be such boars. I mean...boors....no wait, I mean BORES. Second that, and thanks to Mabelline and ellencho, also! It got better: it seems as though, even though my friend isn't a vegetarian, she lives with two. Now get this: in a household of 6 people, only 2 are vegetarian...but one of them is so militant that *no* meat or meat products may be anywhere in the refrigerator. Yes, everyone has his or her own section of the 'fridge. Doesn't matter. No broth, no meat, nowhere in the house, never in the cookware or storage units. I've been poor before, but I'd have to be living much, much closer to the wind before I'd put up with that setup...

This thread reminds me of a song that's played occasionally on Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Show. I think it's just called "The Sodium Chloride Song"...I don't remember all the lyrics, but the bridge goes: then unsuspecting Chlorine felt a magnetic pull she looked down, and her outside shell was full Sodium cried, "What a gas! Be my bride and I'll change your name from Chlorine to Chloride!"

Oh goody, a place I can vent about something that's peeved me for far longer than it should have. A dear friend who lives too far away to see regularly called one day, passing through town. She wanted to know whether she could stop by, invite herself to dinner, spend the night. "Sure!" I said, "we're already cooking, and there's plenty of food, and you're always welcome!" When she arrived we exchanged hugs and greetings, and shortly thereafter went upstairs to finish cooking. "What's for dinner?" she inquired. "Pork roast, potatoes, gravy, veggies!" I responded. It's one of our favorite crock pot meals. Her response? "Sounds great! and I'm not a vegetarian, thank you for asking." She really is a dear friend, so I let it go...but really, to invite oneself to a meal, just before dinner, and then imply that the host should have given more thought to the impromptu guest's preferences, well...

I'm none too keen on radishes, myself. My parents still laugh when they tell the story of their first house together. They planted a garden, and in the course of planning it they both said "lots of radishes". The radishes were the first things up, and there were lots...and only then did they realize that neither of them liked radishes! "But I thought you liked radishes!" "No, I hate 'em! I thought you liked them!" Seth, I'm really envious of your bread experiences. I never spend enough time at it, and so, of course, the bread never gets very far. The bread machine is my friend. Your loaves are gorgeous. About that Le Creuset: it looks to me as though it's begging for ratatouille now and chicken paprikash later.

Add another for me: "50 Chowders". It arrived as a birthday present on the day it was most needed: not my birthday, which was sunny and warm, but yesterday, when spring had relapsed to late winter and the wind was howling and I was cold and grumpy and thinking of soup. Bless my friend Donna. It looks like a terrific book, and this far north it's quite timely. Y'all are terrible for my bank account. I made the mistake of reading this thread just before opening my email from The Good Cook that offered one free book for each book ordered. I have...let's see, I think there are 8 on the way. I may well send one or two back, but I'm sure I'll be keeping some, at least. Yours, following merrily into temptation, Nancy

Snowangel, I hope this doesn't sound argumentative, but - why not wash them first? I haven't tried this with wild blueberries - there are never any left! - but with fresh blueberries and wild raspberries I've tried both methods and concluded that I much prefer washing them first. The freeze-first method has been to freeze the berries spread out on a cookie sheet and then throw them into a freezer bag after they're frozen. The problem with this method has been that when I wash them later, before use, they all clump together in a new frozen mass unless I let them thaw first, but if I thaw them first they're too soft and messy to wash. The wash-first method goes like this: wash gently, spread across dish towels on a cookie sheet until dry (or barely damp), then spread across an unlined cookie sheet and freeze. Put frozen berries into a storage container. Then they're ready for use and much less hassle. I haven't been able to tell any quality difference, and the pre-washed berries are much easier to handle when it's time to cook. So...have you tried both ways? What's the drawback to washing the wild berries first? (Maybe they're too tender?) Enquiring minds and all that... I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. I snapped a photo yesterday of the first blush of spring around Babbitt, not too far south of your cabin, but by the time I get the film developed and the photo scanned, assuming it's worth sharing, you'll no doubt have seen it for yourself. A Finnish friend of mind told me once that the Finns have a name for this particular two-week-or-so season when the woods have a delicate watercolor wash of green over them: disregarding the spelling, which may be wildly off, she called it sher grynska i.e. "sheer green". If she was pulling my leg, I don't want to know. It certainly deserves its own designation.

Nope, that was quadro-triticale, the far-flung future offspring crop in "The Trouble With Tribbles". Reruns, right! Nancy "Once a Trekkie, always a Trekkie" Smith

Suckering! How well I remember suckering orange trees, across the Coast Range and 100 miles or so inland from you (Ivanhoe, FWIW). Hot, dusty, and uncomfortable work it was: those suckers had large and hostile thorns. Mary, are the suckers from a different root stock? Is grafting onto different root stock common for grapes? If so, why? With oranges it's mostly for disease resistance, although I've noticed in the last few years some growers switching their oranges, limb by limb, to another variety until the replacement saplings are in production and the old trees can be removed. Gawd, I'm homesick. Edited to add: Bloviatrix, in the case of orange trees, suckering is the removal of unwanted shoots put out by the root stock of the tree. Oranges (and possibly other citrus, but I don't know) are grafted onto a wild orange root stock that's hardier and more disease-resistant than the fruitwood of the desired crop. For a few years after the grafting, the root stock keeps putting out new shoots in addition to feeding the fruitwood, and every spring you have to go cut off those suckers: wild and thorny shoots that take sap and nutrients away from the desired stock, but don't produce a viable crop. I'm guessing that the principle is the same for grapes, but I don't recall having to go through that with our vineyards. Maybe they had matured past that point already by the time Dad bought them.

I second Alex's comment, and I wonder if there might be a simpler answer than new equipment. Do you really run those motors continuously, or do you pulse? If you're running continuously, can you grind/chop in short bursts instead, and give the motor time to cool? My spice grinder is a small cheapo coffee grinder - admittedly a chopper rather than a grinder - and it's lasted for years. I doubt I whirl anything more than 30 seconds at a time, then give it a few seconds to cool while I shake the container, and repeat as necessary. The other reason for doing it that way is to prevent the grinder from heating up the spices. Ditto on the immersion blender, too. Seems like you'd spend more time chasing around the bowl after the spices, unless the attachment confines them so strictly that you can't move the blender wand around.

Hmm. The California nectarines lose the crop if it gets too cold after budding, but the trees generally survive anyway unless it's a long hard freeze. Unless a dwarf nectarine is much more tender, your tree will probably do all right - just no blossoms or fruit this year. What a bummer! Yes, do cut her back and see how she does. I'd suggest fertilizer (or compost) of some sort, too.

We grew horseradish one year in Denver, and it was very happy here. So happy, in fact, that the next 5 years we were frantically working to eradicate it, like some three mile island mutant mint. I buy it at the store now when I get the urge for fresh horseradish! A couple of years ago I noticed that what was left of my grocery store horseradish root was sprouting. My husband had just that spring built a raised flower bed/herb garden next to the house, and I was impatient to have things growing in it other than the herbs I'd purchased, so I stuck the root in there. A couple of weeks later I was pleased to see shoots coming up from the general location of the root. A couple of weeks after that the horseradish foliage was looming over everything else. I was so proud. I named the plant Fingol (after the giant) and checked his progress every day, eager for my very own supply of horseradish root. Eventually my husband asked what was doing so well out there; when I told him, he claimed that it would be coming through the basement in a couple of months. His brother concurred later in the summer, so - with a sigh - I went after Fingol. I used a bulb planter to core around the root to make sure I got it all - and I dug, and I dug, and then I traced the little finger roots where the root had split into multiples, the better to explore its home. By the time I was satisfied I had it all I was in past my shoulder...and yes, tracing toward the house. I replanted Fingol in the woods (if you hear of the horseradish that ate Duluth, now you'll know where it started) where it seems to be holding its own against the shrubbery, but I haven't seen a trace of it near the house. Whew. What an aggressive plant. It would be interesting to plant mint, horseradish and lupines together and let them duke it out for dominance. Snowangel, I know exactly what you mean about going out to watch how well things are growing. The bulbs are poking up out of that same flower bed, the dwarf irises have already bloomed, and my sorrel has successfully overwintered. How gratifying! My order of herbs and tomatoes should arrive soon from Papa Geno's Herb Farm (a great online source, folks) but I'm already having fun.

I noticed the same white streaks the first time I tried to make caramel. Since I was in my parents' kitchen at the time, it was Mom's spatula...so we surprised each other with silicone spatulas for Christmas!

Sometimes the eggshell problem saves one from a larger mistake. My best friend and I were making a 12x batch of peanut butter cookies for the dorm bake sale in the college kitchen with the massive floor mixer. (I swear, you could wash a collie in that mixing bowl.) About the time Susan chastised me for not breaking eggs into a separate bowl and I was asking why not, I dropped a whole egg into the batter. As we were fishing out the bits of shell we started realizing the batter was very, very salty. "Uhm, Nancy? Where did you get the sugar?" We were legendary by the next day.

Am I the only one who went straight from this post to eBay and immediately started monging these? I expected you'd all be there bidding them up, but in the event I was the sole bidder on the one I bought, for a very reasonable 6 bucks and change. It arrived today, just in time to squeeze the lemon for the saffron aioli I wanted to experiment with. No wonder you love it! Man, I thought I had some pretty good lemon juicing equipment, but this beats everything I've tried. Besides, it looks like all the other gadgets I remember from my childhood. Instant nostalgia. Thanks, Smithy! Hey, I'm glad you like the juicer as much as I - and you beat the rush! I keep thinking other folks are going to realize what a gem this gizmo is and drive the price right out of sight...which is why I have two more hoarded in my closet, against the time I lose mine, or find a friend or niece who might cherish one also, or need a booster to my pension fund. A cautionary note: do not permit yourself, ever, to be so distracted by long telephone conversations, no matter how hungry you get, no matter how celebratory the calls, so that you throw the screen away with the last of the lemon rinds. Or if you do, make sure you retrieve it before the garbage is collected....

Amen to both sentiments. I have my beloved Revere disk stockpots and All-Clad saute pans that I acquired new, but my family cookware from 2 & 3 generations back may be even more precious. Some years back my parents were visiting and I was cooking something in the Wear-Ever pot set that I inherited from my grandmother. It's reactive aluminum so has its limitations, but otherwise quite versatile: 2 barely-nesting pots that mate to make a dutch oven, plus a lid and a steamer surface. Dad commented that his mother had gotten that set as a hostess gift for throwing a Wear-Ever house party on his 10th birthday...that means my treasured pot set is now some 74 years old and still cooking. Then there's the Revereware saucepot/double boiler set, insert and all (thread convergence here!) and the bombproof Ovenshire skillet/dutch oven combo with removable handle, both wedding presents to my parents 60 years ago. That venerable Ovenshire set did yeoman's duty in our camp box after Mom "upgraded" her cookware, then moved into my apartment when I flew the coop, then back into their camper, and now into my house. You just can't buy those memories, and the pots are as useful and versatile as ever.