petite tête de chou

Roasted beef marrow on toast.

Born and bred West coast girl here. Never heard of cheese with pie until my godmother introduced me to it. The menu offerings were always pie or pie with ice cream. And seeing as I have never had much of a sweet tooth, I now prefer to have pie with my cheese. Easy on the pie.

If you don't have ceiling access you might consider a suspended track-lighting system. You will need a extensions that will drop the length of track to the level you want it. As far as the track heads are concerned, there's a wide selection available. Some have halogens (non-low-voltage), some take regular "A" lamps and some are very decorative. This way you will be able to angle the lights where you want them. There's quite a few parts required but it's starting to sound like this system might work for your application.

I definitely do not care for the audience format. As much as I like Martha it's a bit unsettling looking at her creepy, adoring, stepford-wive clones. Yick. I want my Martha straight up, in a garden or renovated farmhouse kitchen teaching me neato tricks with apples and paint.

Mmmm...carnitas!

My mother always made tuna melts on english muffins with a bit of curry added to the tuna mix. Pretty good.

What about Snickers bars served by buxom women? Lots of carbs in those candy bars.

A mushroom. I do some of my best work in the dark. Pigs and dogs seem to love me...lots. And I'll kill ya if you don't know what the hell you're doing.

Add to mulled wine or spiced apple cider. Use in a biscotti recipe. Add to whipped cream.

You could slather a turkey with the cold duck fat. The duck fat combined with the turkey drippings make a very good gravy. Use it to make your roux for gumbos and such. Saute wild rice, hazelnuts (or favorite nut), onion and celery in the melted fat for a nice autumnal pilaf. Combine fresh thyme, s/p and duck fat- brush on stuffed onions or winter squash while roasting. You certainly have enough of this wonderful stuff to experiment...and with autumn right around the corner! Lucky you.

Perhaps a simple fish dish with apples, onions and a bit of curry or a turkey or chicken piccata?

A few slices of Black Diamond extra-sharp cheddar cheese with seeded crispbread, a cup of English Breakfast tea and huge red plum...while watching Shawn of the Dead. My kinda dessert.

An enormous nectarine and a mug of hot Earl Grey tea. Usually I wait about 30 minutes to an hour after supper before eating or drinking anything. And even then I usually don't want something to eat but hot tea will almost always follow my meal. A cup of sweet peppermint tea is probably my favorite "dessert."

I couldn't come up with any better ideas than these...click. All of them sound so very good!

I refrigerate all dairy- eggs, milk, sour cream, cheese, whipping cream, mayonnaise and cream cheese. I bring the eggs and cheese to room temperature before using. Cold cheese. Yuck. I also refrigerate most vegetables and all meats except for jerkys, pepperonis, etc. Fresh fruit is only given a quick chill if I'm in the mood for a cold piece of fruit. Tomatoes (cold tomatoes taste worse than cold cheese!), potatoes, onions, avocados, chilis, citrus, peanut butter and scotch are not refrigerated. Considering that I have a limited budget for food why on earth would I want to even risk hastening spoilage? I'm far from being a paranoid American...I'm simply making my food budget last as long as I can. So there.

If I didn't live in Oregon or Alaska it would be in your neck of the woods. Truly, truly beautiful! You mentioned using your local mussels (shellfish RULES!), do have any concerns about pollution from the boats and whatnot? Euell Gibbons would be proud.

Does anyone remember the "Kitchen Witch?" It was usually a straw-haired, pointy-hat wearing doll-type thing that hung on your wall. She was supposed to keep things from burning, cakes from falling etc. I've never had one because I never burn anything, my cakes are perfect and really, why would I want competition for witch-of-the-house?!

What's pickling lime? I have pickling salt but I suspect that it isn't the same thing. Do the pickles turn out red? That would be kinda fun! edited to add...whoops! reading your post a bit closer I see that they DO turn out red. Dang. Never heard or seen of the like. Hm. A Valentines Day pickle , perhaps? ← I think pickling lime is a calcium mixture that adds crispness. It falls to the bottom and doesn't get into the final product. ← Cool. Now is that something that is included in commercial pickles, too?

What's pickling lime? I have pickling salt but I suspect that it isn't the same thing. Do the pickles turn out red? That would be kinda fun! edited to add...whoops! reading your post a bit closer I see that they DO turn out red. Dang. Never heard or seen of the like. Hm. A Valentines Day pickle , perhaps?

Now THAT would make my Christmas!

Those mangos sure look yummy on that Jadeite plate.

There's some pretty good ideas here...click.

Hmmm. A few options can be found here...click

Make a wild rice pilaf with blanched, chopped collard greens and pine nuts. This can be used as a side dish or as a stuffing for fish or pork.

I go either way. If I use eggs, I smash the hard boiled yolks with the mayonnaise, mustard, etc and chop the whites, adding them to the potatoes. And using my little egg slicer I garnish the top with egg slices and a bit of paprika.