Behemoth

How about tamales? I've always been too intimidated to make them at home.

Good point. I don't think this is an argument you can make. Nature is not sentient. You (hopefully?) are. That 200,000 people die in a tsunami doesn't make it more acceptable when 200 die in a car bomb.

Right. The point is, this picnic apparently involved a pig, not a wild boar or deer. Both methods are equally humane or inhumane depending on the skill of the person doing it. (When Halal and Kosher laws were written people didn’t have guns...the point is that it should be as quick as possible.) My problem is, I keep running across back to nature idiots who want to get all DIY without taking the time to learn how to do it properly. Look, I went back to eating meat about 6 years ago, and I recognize the hypocrisy in tying to delineate what is necessarily or unnecessarily cruel when slaughtering the animal, but I think that the debate itself is part of the moral obligation of appreciating where your meat comes from. Now, if this pig bypassed the entire factory farming ordeal then it probably had a better life then most, even after having to be shot four times. (I was always amazed at people in the US who got upset that my parents let me watch sheep being slaughtered in the Middle East, considering the animals had a much better life up to that point than anything you would buy in an American supermarket.) As for the fish, I would have walked up to the kids and given them a talking to.

redfox, Diana Kennedy has a recipe for avocado enchiladas that you would probably love. The enchilada sauce is just salsa verde with mexican sour cream. You basically mush up avocadoes as the filling (in corn tortillas.) then garnished with chopped sweet white onion and radishes. I know it sounds a little weird but it is very very good, especially in the summer, since it is not baked.

Hmmm, this looks and sounds delicous. Are the asparagus cooked at all before roasting in the oven? Do you add the cheese at the end? ← Very easy! Actually it is a Marcella Hazan recipe, though at this point I can do it in my sleep. I trim and tie the asparagus in a bundle and cook/steam standing up in about an inch of water until just short of done. Then put three spears on the slice of prosciutto, top with a little fontina & butter, roll up, and put two more slivers of cheese on the ham bundle. dot the tops of the spears with a little more butter, and bake in a lightly-buttered dish at 400 for 20 minutes.

We finally get around to our "Spargelessen". White asparagus baked with prosciutto and fontina, plus a fried egg. And every year I am amazed by how good this is. Gruener Veltliner to drink, followed by espresso and lemon ice. What up with my white balance? Sigh. I forgot to say so sooner, but the three seafood meals above look amazing. I heart freaky fish.

Ounces? I have no idea, all that is left is a couple of stale ones I could weigh. The recipe has each batch making 9 -- I did 10 per recipe instead. You do the math

Mama Sita's. That is hilarious. Given how "punny" all the Indians I know are, it probably was intentional. Quince - it is good served in chunks, with cheese. You got to dip your own Marker's Mark bottle in wax? That is too cool. I became a "Marker's Mark ambassador" so I could name a barrel after our favorite local Hamburg soccer team. All I got besides that was a bunch of wax swizzle sticks though.

Thanks! It was a very fun party. The tiramisu, peppers and lemon mixture were done on Friday, and then Saturday I just needed to do the greens, put the lemon mixture in the ice cream machine, shove the pork in the oven, and, well -- the bread took by far the most time. But good bread was really non-negotiable as far as I was concerned, and I just couldn't find anything around here that would hold up to the filling. Since the guests were all college kids it wasn't exactly a tough crowd to please but they really appreciated that we had made "real" food for them as opposed to what people normally feed them -- ordering pizzas or grilling hot dogs or whatever. Since I was working the griddle to make the sandwiches "to order", I was often told I reminded them of Rachel Ray or that Everday Italian show on the food network. (Meant as a complement, apparently. ) But after the first hour I got to relax and hang out. The last group of guests left around 4 am.

Just wanted to thank everyone -- the party was a huge success. The last gaggle of guests left around 4am. I posted some pics and the menu in the dinner thread. But I am especially proud of this one, so I'll post it again You know what I forgot though, music-wise? Mario Lanza!

Saturday: Four batches of Italian Bread torpedo rolls, for a party. Slashing with a straight-razor or knife just wasn't working for me, the dough would pull and pucker. I ended up doing the rest with scissors. Looked kind of cool actually, but now I am thinking of buying a lame. Today: English muffins. (And later a batch of poolish for tomorrow's Ciabatta. ) That split one didn't last very long. Yum.

Why do I even click on these threads? I know the pain they will cause me. And yet I keep doing it

I'm not sure I get your point. There are humane ways ethical farmers kill domesticated animals, and there are stupid cruel ways amatuer hobbyists kill domesticated animals. The better question is, why were they shooting a domesticated animal? Where I grew up you held the thing down, gave it a sugar cube and slit its throat. Brutal to watch, but quick. And no, I didn't do it personally, because that job was left to people who knew what they were doing.

Difficult to talk with your mouth closed, unless you are Edgar Bergen, actually. ← Ich. I meant FULL, not CLOSED. I need a second cup of coffee. Not to mention an editor.

Yes, and the more you torture them while they are alive, the more grateful they wil be when you finally kill them.

There is of course no practical reason why you should talk with your mouth open. There is just no reason, as far as they see it, why you shouldn't.

Chopsticks and a bowl are my preferred rice-delivery method, I must admit...so long as the rice is a little sticky. Touaregsand, what is the native way to eat couscous? just roll it up in your hand? I can barely remember what we did in morocco. The standard lebanese approach would be to scoop stuff up with pita bread, but of course moroccan bread isn't built for that. I think they gave us spoons and we used the bread as a pusher, since we were non-locals -- but again, I was a bit young and it was a long time ago.

By the way, having grown up inthe middle east, if there is pita bread on the table I'm going at it with my hands, no question. I'm getting my prissy euro-husband trained in that capacity too. My Lebanese cousins used to make fun of me for "eating like a rabbit", i.e. with my mouth closed, but there I draw the line. They can wait for me to swallow before answering (plus it gives me time to think, on those rare occasions I remember to do so.)

No way, you haven't offended me. I understand the tines down, but tell me, how do you eat rice? You can't spear it, and you don't use a spoon, right? ← Okay, for loose stuff you do use it like a shovel I guess (don't see how else you could do it) using the knife as a pusher. I probably do that with peas as well. But I really get a kick out of watching people try to get the rice/peas on the fork without using a knife.

Why is it weird? A fork has tines, because it is used to spear food. Held the right way, it is shaped to allow easy application of pressure on whatever you're trying to spear. I always found it weird that Americans use it like some sort of shovel. Actually, I rarely used to pay attention to this stuff. But lately I've noticed how much trouble people seem to have with their silverware. I watched one otherwise worldly guy desperately try to attack a piece of chicken with just a fork, then failing that, clutched the fork in his fist dead vertical, to hold the piece of meat down while sawing at it with the knife. The other thing that I find amusing is when people cut up their entire steak into little pieces lay down the fork and have at it with the fork-shovel method. I mean, how long has it been since mommy cut it up for you like that? Yeah, I know I've just offended a bunch of people. But come on.

I put mine in the fridge overnight to defrost, then leave it out on the counter for an hour to come to room temperature. In terms of handling it, it is not much different from using fresh dough, since I leave that in the fridge overnight as well.

Philadelphia theme dinner for 24 graduating seniors: - hard pretzels with mustard - philadelphia cheese steaks "wit" or "wit-out" onions, cheese wiz or provolone - philly style roast pork sandwich with provolone and sauteed escarole (On home-baked hoagie rolls -- gotta do it right!) - roasted red peppers - italian lemon ice - tiramisu - espresso Drinks: massive quantities of beer, and somehow we found Hank's Wishniak black cherry soda in the wilds of the midwest. Photo 1: Taking a break, 4 batches of biga in the background. Photo 2: bread done! The infamous roast pork sandwich:

Ahh, they are NOT a Southern chain. In fact, the original Steak n' Shake was located on the old Route 66, just south of what is now Bloomington, IL. Yup. Also home of Beer Nuts.

I think it might be carob, oddly enough. edited to add this link

Oh, also mbj, (if I may call you that) your recipe sounds a lot like what I did with the pork shoulder. It tasted absolutely incredible. It helped that the thing had a giant cap of fat on top, but hopefully the roast I bought is marbled enough (I didn't go for the pork loin, it was way too lean.)