jgarner53

All your talk of peaches is making me jealous. Peaches have all but disappeared from my farmer's market, and I'm afraid that what's left will be flavorless and mealy. (I live in San Francisco, but have never lived in Minnesota, so can't appreciate your fine, fine corn). Enjoy that late summer bounty while it lasts! I know just how you feel, yearning for braised dishes and slow-roasted meats. Fantastic blog!

Steve, it all sounds marvelous. Do you have pictures you'd care to share? We've started thinking (again) about remodeling our own kitchen, and also being spatially challenged, every square inch counts double.

Didn't Jeffrey Steingarten once write an article (I believe it's in "The Man Who Ate Everything") pondering why Chinese people don't get MSG headaches?

I've heard that bamboo is harder (or at least as hard?) as other hardwoods like maple, which is why it's great for flooring as well.

Soapstone countertops. I have all the other gadgets I need/want (for the forseeable future).

The Guinness cake I've made has met with rave reviews - one friend still talks about it months later, mentions it to people she introduces me to. "This is jgarner53. She makes the most awesome stout cake." Pyramid Ale House in Berkeley makes stout ice cream floats as well. I'm all for beer in desserts. Lord knows we usually have enough around the house.

Carolyn, if you live close enough to Berkeley, the Berkeley Bowl has some of these exotic fruits, though I wouldn't bet on them having durian.

I'm currently reading Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking. I normally have two books going at once, or a book and a magazine, particularly if one is cumbersome and difficult to lug around for lunchtime reading. Others recently read: I'm Just Here for the Food, Alton Brown (now signed ) The Art of Cooking, MFK Fisher (loved all of it) It Must Have Been Something I Ate, Jeffrey Steingarten Cookwise, Shirley Corriher, though I had to return it to the library before I finished Up next: How to Bake, Nick Malgieri (my textbook for pastry school) Cookwise, gonna buy it AND finish it! I'm Just Here for More Food, Alton Brown's baking book I've also recently been perusing Baking Illustrated, Baking with Julia, and, of course, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I spied The Tummy Trilogies at Borders last week (picking up How to Cook Everything for a non-foodie, non-cook friend). Since I loved Tepper Isn't Going Out, I should have just picked it up. Instead, it will probably go into the same Amazon order with my other stuff after labor day. Non-cooking books - Is there such a thing? Actually, I just started Eats, Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Truss, subtitled as "The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation," as my lunchtime tome. Yes, I'm a geek. Sorry, don't know how to make the Amazon link to enrich the coffers of eGullet.

So how did I get to be 6'1" eating white bread and water for lunch for at least a year in high school? (Hello, how dumb is that? ) I honestly don't remember being a bottomless pit. I have the stretch marks. I know I shot up at some point.

Since the whole fig jam thing seems at least tangentially related, has anybody tried Trader Joe's fig preserves (Marlena, perhaps you could encourage the SF Chronicle's Tasting Panel to do a tasting?) Every time I'm in there, I think "need fig preserves," and then I promptly forget. As for getting tired of fresh figs? Never. I could probably eat a whole basket just standing over the sink.

Excellent when stuffed and broiled, served with a nice little slice of proscuitto I made the cover sandwich yesterday, though I didn't have any good Italian bread, OR fig spread. The Trader Joe's honey whole wheat was way too sweet, and since I only had two tiny little figs, their flavor was a little lost. Doesn't mean I didn't finish it, though!

The cover of Marlena's book makes me want a grilled cheese sandwich right now. Oh my god. That photo is probably illegal in several states for what it makes me want to to do bread, cheese, and butter!

Why not just make biscotti without the nuts? The concept (if not the flavor) sounds essentially the same - though biscotti are twice baked, rather than left out to dry.

Yeah! No "urban/hip" green bits on that pasta with butter!

wholegrain bread PB (preferably Trader Joe's natural salted chunky variety) very ripe sliced bananas grilled or not, either way makes me happy

Yeah, what they said above. I love making caramel sauce. It's really easy, but gets big wows from people who don't know. I handed out about 20 half-pint jars of it last Christmas as gifts.

I forgot to mention coffee. It is actually one thing I'm quasi-embarrassed about. It's always seemed like the "adult" drink. Like you can't be an official, card-carrying grown-up unless you drink coffee. I know my brother learned to drink it when he had kids. Maybe the lack of sleep overpowers your natural sense of how it tastes? I love the smell, and don't mind it in small doses in a recipe (particularly with chocolate), and I've been known to quaff the rare mocha or a cappucino in Italy, but on a day-to-day basis, I just can't do it. I'll stick with my tea, thanks. And dammit, I am a grown-up! I have a mortgage, bought my own car, my own furniture, I work for a living and pay taxes. And if that don't make me a grown-up, well to you!

I am in the same boat as you, though I have made the leap and will be starting a baking and pastry program at the end of next month. I, too, am not sure where I want to end up, perhaps opening my own business of sorts. When people ask me, as they inevitably do, what I want to do when I'm done with the program, my stock answer has been "personal pastry chef!" But whether that means working with a personal chef, or a caterer, or whether I discover something else in school that really makes me happy, I don't know. You may be able to share rental of a commercial kitchen where you are, or get time in one, say, in a local church, when they're not using it.

[applauds wildly] Huzzah! Brava! Well done. A lovely week of food. Thank you for sharing your kitchen and table with us. BTW, the chili sauce is nam prik pow, and I can almost eat it straight outta the jar I like it so much. You can read more about it here. (The owner of this website is a Thai woman who lives in the Bay Area, has written several cookbooks, and teaches Thai cooking classes in her home several times a year -- and I was lucky enough to take one.)

Oh man, that makes me mad! I checked online listings for the San Mateo and San Jose PBS stations and neither mentions it. Heathens!

When I was growing up, my grandmother's vanilla ice cream recipe, which we always churned by hand in an old White Mountain with the rock salt & ice, used sweetened condensed milk (as well as cream and half & half). It would freeze to a delightful soft-serve consistency, then harden damn good so that you'd have to let it thaw on the counter for a while before serving. That said, I don't think that the traditional mixture of sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk in Thai iced tea would present much of a problem. Save me a scoop!

No, this is not true. The last time we saw her was about 7:20, or so, when she cleared the salad plate and dropped off more bread, but without any sort of "how are you doing," just cleared and left. Then we sat for close to 20 minutes before we could get her attention again to ask for the food to be packed to go. I probably would have left her a tip if she hadn't been huffy. AND, if the kitchen was having a problem with the order, we should have been informed earlier. I would have been more understanding.

Abra, did you make Nancy Silverton's starter yourself? While I haven't made it, I've seen her demonstrate it (aahh, the internet!). How does the bread turn out? If you keep the starter in the fridge, how often do you have to feed it? Since you've got it frozen, what are you doing to revive it and get it going again?

I second the notion that while the initial outlay of cash for something like a KA mixer, or a good food processor, seems steep, if you think of how much use you'll get out of it, and how long you'll have it (my mom's 25-year old mixer is still going strong), the cost becomes minimal. And definitely check out e-bay and amazon for the factory refurbs. I know someone who just got an Artisan for $90. Yeah, $90.

Cobbler, pie, pancakes, in a sauce over anything lemon (cheesecake, tart), an alternate to caramel in creme caramel. They freeze extraordinarily well, too. I rinse them, then place on a sheet pan in the freezer until solid. Once they're solid, I bag 'em up and vacuum seal, and it's blueberries in February. Or you could send some to me!