andiesenji

I have made pesto with the Siam Queen spicy basil, with lemon basil, cinnamon basil and also with cilantro, with parsley, also have included lovage leaves, summer savory along with the basil as well as salad burnet which has the flavor of cucumbers (and which reseeds itself with abandon all over the yard). Also shiso, both green and red. I use the classic parmesan cheese - reggiano, of course, but also romano, asiago, occasionally adding a bit of sap sago and some other hard grating cheeses. Since I can get pine nuts locally (from people who go up into the Sierras to gather them and shell them, I use a lot more of them than other nuts. I have made a wonderful pesto with cinnamon basil and macadamia nuts, slow roasted garlic (carmelized) and Sbrinz, a Swiss grating cheese - someone gave me a big chunk and I had to use it up...... It was a glorious combination. I have a friend on the Big Island who sends me broken mac nuts from a local grower. By the way, regarding freezing stuff in ice cube trays - - - if you take a sheet of plastic wrap, lay it over the ice cube tray then push it down into the cube sections, leaving a little slack between them, you can fill them and when frozen cut the plastic wrap to separate the cubes and keep the little cubes, with the plastic wrap intact around each one, in a large ziploc bag. This way they will not stick together and the plastic ice cube trays do not get permanently "flavored".... This is a very good thing when you want to avoid a garlic flavor to your fruit purees.

Where do you live? I am surprised that your local supermarkets do not carry them. Every super market in which I shop carries at least the basic selection of canning jars, sometimes on sale at a pretty good price, usually at the end of the season which is when I stock up. Last fall Albertsons had a great (unadvertised) sale and I bought every case on the shelf and asked for more from the stockroom. I had three baskets full wheeled out to my van.

I would like to add something about thyme. A wonderful cultivar with great culinary applications is lemon thyme. It is an excellent culinary plant, has lovely foliage, slightly larger leaves than French or English thyme. It is not as hardy, will not survive at temperatures much below freezing so needs to be potted and brought inside during hard freezes. The flavor is exceptional, the lemon flavor is subtle but obvious and it is a wonderful seasoning for almost any meat, but particularly good with lamb as well as with chicken and duck or goose. I have stuffed it and a small boiling onion inside squab and game hens and the flavor has added a great deal to the (in my opinion) rather insipid flavor of these small fowl. I also grow lime thyme which has the fragrance of lime but not much lime flavor.

That is a lovely gift. I wouldn't turn them down. It really helps when you know the habits of the recipient. The following isn't exactly a hostess gift but was fun. One of my friends had to put her life on hold and turn her bakery over to her employees for several months while she relocated to her daughter's place and helped her through the aftermath of a tornado in which her husband was killed when their home was destroyed. She called me and a couple of other friends to let us know the day she was due back asked if one of us would pick her up at the airport and suggested we get together at her place for dinner. My other friends and I got together and bought a couple of crates full of the perishable staples one needs to stock up on after a long time away from home. Butter, eggs, bacon, milk, cheeses, fresh vegetables, salad fixings. I had a key to her place and we went there early that morning and did a little cleaning and freshening, stocked the fridge and made sure everything was shipshape. We then went to LAX to pick her up and drove her home. We hung around the van waiting for her to get into the house and find our surprise. She was speechless. Instead of going out to dinner, we ordered pizza so she could relax and rest that evening.

Here is the best explanation of arrowrood I have ever come across. I have been using it for 50 years and it is excellent for many applications. It has the advantage of not breaking as cornstarch will do if heated beyond a certain point. It also thickens at a lower temperature so is perfect for delicate things that need only the briefest of heating.

I wouldn't exactly call it hot, but rather spicy and not as cloyingly sweet as the commerical varieties. If you ever have tried Fentimen's, it is very similar, with a lot of ginger flavor but without the back of the tongue sear that you get with some of the new crop of ginger beers/ales. I like it far better than Vernor's.

When my kids were home we had two refrigerators, one was the kids, free for all, the other had a lock (as did the big freezer). We kept theirs stocked with all kinds of things that kids like but anything that I was saving for a job or anything that was very expensive, was in the locked fridge or freezer, otherwise they would eat frozen cookie dough and various other things that were not good for them. Now I live alone and my housekeeper knows that certain things are off limits. At the office I have a locked, fireproof file cabinet that holds things that are MINE alone. Anything in the kitchen cabinets are fair game. I have one section in the fridge that is off limits and people are good about putting their names on their own stuff. Some stuff is communal property and we all add to it as the supply dwindles. There is a jar of peppadews in the office fridge that has the lid taped down because those are mine, mine, mine....

I never take flowers anywhere. I have some allergies to certain ones and I know a lot of people who also have problems. When I invite people to dinner or for some event I always give them a heads up and ask that they not bring or send flowers. The same goes for potpourri and scented candles. I don't give or get anything that might have an effect on the enjoyment of food. Several years ago soon after getting the kitchen of my dreams, I gave a dinner party for which I had prepared a beautiful starter with fois gras. Unfortunately, one of my guests brought a date who was so marinated in perfume that no one could taste the delicate fois gras and I was furious because of the monumental waste of a serious amount of money. Rather than ruin the entire dinner I moved everything outside to the deck where, even though it was not terrible warm, at least there was a chance that the outside air could carry the scent away. However that was not the end of it. I then caught this idiot in my bathroom, smoking a cigarette, and that was the last straw. I have a severe allergy to tobacco and everyone I know knows about it. The fact that this woman had asked earlier if she could smoke and was told no, and the reason why, didn't seem to make an impression, nor did the fact that I could become seriously ill because of it. In my opinion, most people do not always consider the effect that scented things can have on the tasting of food, or of wines for those that drink, and of course for many years smoking was a normal thing to do. I never smoked but have been told by many people who have and stopped, that foods tasted so much better to them after they got it all out of their systems. Many more subtle flavors were noted. Often they finally "got" why other people raved about certain foods. One long-time friend never could see why I would get so excited about truffles when the season began and couldn't understand at all why I would spend so much on a little black lump that seemed so innocuous. Then she quit smoking and a year or so later happened to be visiting when I received a shipment of truffles by overnight delivery. As soon as I opened the package she wanted to know what it was. I prepared the classic scrambled eggs with truffle for dinner and she was hooked. She had eaten them before but had never experienced the effect. My rant is now ended too....

I forgot to mention that Stewart's sodas are often sold at rather unusual places. There is a ice/dry ice dealer that also sells ice cream and etc. products to local mobile vendors (catering trucks and etc) that sells several brands such as Stewart's, Jolt, Nehi, Virgil's, Jones soda and Dr. Brown's by the case only and at a pretty good discount. I know he sells to several little mom & pop stores and to the produce market. He also sells beer in kegs only. The thing to do is check the yellow pages in your area and call around. The distributors will generally be happy to provide you with the names of the retailers who carry their products. This is the way I have tracked down some hard to find items locally. Hope this has given you some ideas.

Yes, the health food store in my town carries it as well as Stewart's cream soda, strawberry, orange and cream and grape plus a couple of other flavors. They also carry another brand of birch beer and the best lemon lime soda I have ever tried, wish I could remember the name. Trader Joes used to carry it but I haven't noticed it lately.

see my earlier post regarding fermented lemonade.

When I posted earlier I forgot to mention my favorite honey. It is a local sage/wildflower honey sold by a beeman in Lacaster that has a permit (very hard to get) to put his hives out in the Desert Plant Preserve area. This area is protected because some very rare wildflowers grow only in that area (as well as a wonderful display of California poppies in the early spring) People come from all over the world to photograph the wildflowers in this spot. The honey is very aromatic and quite dark in color, almost the color of maple syrup. You can tell what it is the moment you open the container. It is unlike any other honey, certainly nothing like any other sage honey I have tried. The bees gather pollen and nectar from the native desert sage, also known as Cleveland sage, which is a beautiful plant with some of the largest (larger than 1 inch across) and most complex flowers of any sage. (And the flowers have a wonderful scent.) See it here. I have a beautiful specimen plant in my front yard that is more than five feet tall and 7 feet across. Unlike the wild plants, mine is cut back after the spring flowering (we save the stems with the seed heads because they are lovely in dried flower arrangements) and will get a second flowering in late September. I have two pineapple sage plants on either side of the Cleveland and the right red trumpet flowers of the pineapple, contrasted with the Cleveland is spectacular. It is a busy place for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds when they are in bloom.

Would pepper be too strong... I dont know. We would have to experiment to find out I think Black pepper is one of the spices added to some spiced coffee recipes, just as it is in some chai recipes. I mentioned in an earlier post that a friend made coffee with spices and instead of black pepper added grains of paradise or malaguette pepper which he learned to combine with coffee while living in Madagascar. I know that grains of paradise are not as strong as black pepper but have a peppery flavor and are often finely ground and added to fruit drinks to add a bit of spiciness. The Szechwan peppercorns are a completely different spice, unrelated to either black pepper or malaguette pepper. I was just wondering what effect it might have when added to coffee.

It sounds good to me but I am a big fan of that particular flavor. I grow a lot of anise hyssop, popularly known as "the rootbeer plant" - or rather it grows itself all over my yard and garden, merrily seeding itself in even the tiniest bit of earth. (I found one 3 ft tall specimen growing in an inch of soil in one of my old gardening clogs that was left under a rosemary bush out next to the fence, probably by one of the dogs.) I dry the leaves to concentrate the oils then brew a very strong infusion to which I add sugar then cook down to make a concentrated syrup. When I was a child I loved the rootbeer popsicles that we got as a treat when we got to go to "town" with grandpa. My cousins all loved the grape but rootbeer was always my choice. We always had ice cream, homemade, but the popsicles were store bought so were more desirable.

Yes, and California Pizza Kitchens began doing their thing which of course meant that some of my clients wanted me to do similar things at their homes. (That and duplicate Chasen's chili.) I often suggested they simply go to Spago or another place but far too often they would prefer to hang around the house because going out meant getting dressed......... And by this I mean putting on some clothes. I learned not to be shocked by anything but I only used male assistants when I worked in these places.

Yes, it is lovely and I think I mentioned I was going to make a sorbet from it. I did and it was lovely. Great recipe Melissa!

I wish I could remember more about the 80s. They sort of went by like a blur, mainly because I was so busy all the time because I was working my regular job full time, working as a personal chef part time and showing dogs almost every weekend. I do recall that "like" because an integral part of any conversation with many of my showbiz clients. A typical request might have sounded thusly. "Like, you know, I was in (insert trendy city nickname here) and this restaurant had, like, a bitchin sorta sandwich thing, but not a sandwich, like, you know what I mean, it was like, a sorta pizza, inside-out and like, had some veggies in it and something like, maybe a cheese in it." I would ask, "a calzone, perhaps, or possibly something in a pita?" "Maybe, but like, it was really hot, maybe it had something else in it. Like, I was really into the munchies and maybe there were like, a couple of things but one of them was sort of a pizza sandwich." "Can you make some, but not with pizza crust, that other stuff, like, you know, them fried pies?" I ask, "How did we get from the other thing to fried pies?" The answer, "Like I was maybe stoned a little. Fix whatever you think my buds will like." I ask, "How many have you invited?" The answer, "Like, how do I know, I put the word out I am back and my buds should slope on over, maybe twenty or thirty." Okay, I am going to prepare food for at least eighty. I am going to call his publicist (who went with him on the trip) and ask her if she has any idea about the foods he had while away and learn that on this particular trip he had been in Australia and the things he was trying to describe were the Oz version of Cornish pasties. Mainly I remember preparing vats of pasta primivera, salad bar selections and the introduction of some "new" fruits, odd toppingg on pizza and the beginning of "nouvelle quisine" and "architectural" presentations.

TROPICAL FRUIT PLUS CORN AND JICAMA SALSA I use this with chicken and it is also good with fish, however I do not eat much fish. With chicken it is perfect, the sweet/sour flavor and the varied texture is very nice. 1/2 cup diced barely ripe papaya You may add the papaya seeds if you wish.... 1/2 cup diced mango 1/2 cup of fresh pineapple chopped. 1/2 cup fresh cut corn kernels and the liquid from scraping the cob. 1/2 cup finely diced jicama 1/4 cup diced sweet red bell pepper 1 small fresh hot pepper, a Jalapeño or half an Anaheim or similar mild one, if you do not want it too hot, remove the veins and seeds. If you want hotter, use a Serrano, Manzano, Scotch Bonnet or Habanero. 1/2 cup diced sweet red onion juice from half a lime 1/8 cup rice vinegar 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Combine all ingredients, cover tightly and refrigerate for 2-3 hours to allow flavors to blend. Makes almost 4 cups.

'Scuse me for askin' but is the topic title supposed to be "Hungry" Like the Wolf? or as it is?

I have scales for different purposes. For general measuring with a tare function I have the Salter Aquatronic because it weighs liquids as well as dry ingredients and goes up to 11 pounds. Aquatronic scale Not all scales have the ability to weigh liquids and many of the recipes I have, particularly the ones from Australia, indicate liquid weight. You can convert, of course but this scale does the conversion for you. Not all volume measurements are equal, definitely not the Aussie ones and a error can have a devastating effect on the recipe, particularly in baking. I got mine on sale at Linens 'N Things. I think it was $39.00. I like the new one they are showing on this site, Cool scale! mainly because it looks so cool but so far I haven't gotten to the point that "I can't live without it." but the day may come....... I think I have mentioned before that I love gadgets, especially the quirky ones. (Presently I am bidding on a really odd gadget on ebay, if I win I will post a photo.)

I wish I could get this story from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Last year we had a case of "beenapping" in the area. Unfortunately the man to whom it happened will not talk about it. A local bee man who has been providing bees for orchard owners for many years found some of his hives abandoned when he was retrieving them at the end of the flowering season. Apparently another bee person, instead of simply buying bees was sneaking into the orchards at night when the bees were inactive, transferring the queen to a hive in the back of his truck and waiting until sunup for the remaining bees to leave the hive and follow the scent to the new hive. He also had vandalized the first bee man's hives that had been set out in an area within sight of the 14 freeway. He had thrown a chain around several of the hives, shut himself in his truck and then drove away, dragging those hives into others. He was caught when someone recalled seeing a guy loading a large chain into the bed of a pickup truck not too far from where the vandalism took place. Strange what some people will do. I don't think there is all that much money to be made in honey, unless one has a huge operation. The honey from Buell's farm (which nearly burned in a recent wildfire) is very good, I buy it by the gallon for my holiday baking.

Or in some cases, determining what killed off certain groups and you don't have to go back all that far to discover some interesting mysteries solved. For a long time no one actually knew why some of the mid-19th century arctic temporary settlements died off totally. There was some evidence of disease as the population, mostly men, sickened and died over a period of many months with it becoming more rapid as time passed. The anthropologists that studied them finally found the critical factor. Lead poisoning. From canned foods that they took with them to round out their diet. Early on they subsisted almost totally on foods they hunted or caught and used the tinned foods sparingly. As they began to sicken and were less able to hunt they relied more and more on the tinned foods which of course killed them more rapidly. Had they relied on the foods of the native peoples, some of which were very odd to them, they would probably have survived instead of having faith in their "civilized" foods.

I use several butters, in addition to homemade. I like Kerrygold as a table butter. I buy Plugra, both salted and unsalted on a regular basis. I also use Strauss Family Creamery butter but it is very expensive. I also like the Organic Valley butter which is very similar to the Strauss and cheaper but still much more expensive than most others. When it is available, and is from a fresh shipment, I buy the Anchor butter from New Zealand carried at the local Phillipine market. It is excellent for baking. I have tried all of the "new" European style butters and have not been terribly impressed. For general holiday baking I buy Alta-Dena unsalted butter in bulk as in highly spiced baked goods the taste of the butter is not as important to me and it has a neutral flavor that is just fine plus the quality is better than the "brand X" butters sold at some of the big box stores. I generally buy 20 pounds when it is on sale, vacuum seal and freeze it up to 4-5 months. I have noticed no change in texture or taste. For baking where butter is an integral part of the taste (as in shortbread) I use only the best. Generally I make my own for this particular application because I can control the product.

I have been thinking about the various spices that might be combined with coffee and am wondering what effect the Szechwan peppercorns might have. Since one effect mentioned is a slight numbning of the tongue, would that interfere with tasting the coffee and other spices? If it were to be combined with other spices, what should they be, what combines well with the Szechwan pepper?

My favorite is braised leeks and although I do not have a recipe (been cooking them for 50 years) Recipe Source has a basic recipe and 3 others that are made exactly as I do. I also combine them (after cooking) with glazed carrots. My recipe (somewhat unusual) is Glazed carrots It makes a beautiful presentation, the color combination and the flavor combination is perfect with meats and also as part of a vegetarian meal. I have a friend who is a vegetarian (not vegan) who always asks if I am going to prepare this when I invite her for dinner.