Genkinaonna

One of the corn soup recipes I use has you steep the corn cobs in the liquid (in that case milk, but you could use a veggie stock or water) while you sautee the aromatics...I thought it really added a lot of corn flavor to the soup without the body that corn puree would add.

Wow... That's all I can say. Can I borrow your life for a week, if I promise to give it back without messing it up too much?

Mette- Love it! I'll definitely be doing a hitchhiker's guide theme when my 42nd rolls around!

I'm assuming you always have chicken stock in the freezer, great to thaw, sautee some onion and garlic, toss in some chopped veg (in my case usually chard or spinach, tomatoes, and zucchini) maybe some pasta, and a poached egg and call it dinner. You can throw together biscuits or corn muffins pretty quick for those who are pro-carb. I always keep cookie dough (usually a roll of World Peace Cookies) in the freezer for impromptu desserts. Dietary restrictions that have a medical basis clearly are a different matter, but if you come over with no notice, "you git what you git and you don't throw a fit" in the words of my 5 year old . I find breaking out a good bottle of wine usually smooths any rough edges on the meal as well...

I stay home with the kids now so I can homeschool my oldest, so no employees anymore. When I was gainfully employed (as opposed to working 24 hrs a day without pay ) I generally was the one who gave the foodie gifts, seldom received any. I do have one friend who owns an olive oil import company, though, so at least I'm all set in that respect.

OMG that scallop looks amazing! Feel free to head up to Portland and bring some along anytime!

Thanks for taking us along on your culinary adventures this week! Now if I meander thataway for the Heartland Gathering I'll know how to plan my meals : )

Can't wait to see what you have to share with us this week, Scotty!

I've been waiting for chapter two! Keep it up!

Nice! I love New Seasons, and my husband is all about salmon, so this is right up my alley!

Hmmm...instead of going with something like a pecan pie-type base, I'd make a frangipane-type filling with hazelnuts and add the cherries to that. I bet it would be delicious. And you could sub out dried apricots, and swap pistachios for the hazelnuts as a variation...I may have to do some experimenting myself!

I thought I'd read the proteins in breastmilk are different and so it doesn't work the same as, say, cow's or sheep's milk for making cheese. A testament to the random things one reads on the interwebs... Fat content of the milk varies based on the mother, time of day the milk is expressed, and diet. It would be extremely difficult to make a consistent product based on breastmilk for that reason. And at least in the case of my kids, what the mother eats does in fact affect the taste of the milk, mine definitely showed aversions when I ate too much spicy food, usually for the whole day after. If you have that much breastmilk available to experiment with, I'd recommend getting the mother in touch with one of the milk banks in the country who will screen the mother, pasteurize the milk, and get it to medically fragile babies who certainly need it more then we do for experimental desserts. Okay, off my soapbox now... edited for spelling

That's lovely, Nicholo...I'd happily order a couple for dinner

That's kinda what I noticed when I was looking through Around My French Table tonight...maybe I can parlay my experiment into one of my French Fridays with Dorie projects...

I guess I was thinking more like a ricotta gnocchi, not a potato one. But the same idea. Sounds delicious any way you define it!

So basically they're a gnocchi with some green in them, usually spinach? Because if that's the case, HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THESE?!? I love chard and I can't believe I've never even heard of them. I think a menu change for dinner one night this week might be in order...

I love love love caneles! I'm so jealous of that market. I'm thinking I might have to try my hand at that pork, it looked so great, although my dad claims pork gives him "crazy dreams" and so I limit the amount I make at home ... Really interesting blog so far, sorry about the hand!

Rwood-Those galettes are lovely! My crust always ends up not holding it's shape...care to share your recipe?

I plan, or I overspend. I generally ask the family what sounds good for the week, giving suggestions based on what I know is in season (since they're a little clueless on that...) and ask for general ideas, like, "do you want a soup?" Or "do you want pasta one night this week?" Then I make a list based on that. But most of what I make is pretty flexible too, so I can take into account what looks good. I do the grocery shopping on Sunday for the week, and during the summer I hit the farmer's market on Saturday for the next week as well. So this week we're having: Pizza, Fried Rice, Swiss Chard Pancakes, Chicken with Creme Fraiche and Gingersnaps, and Burritos. My list had all the basics for the meals, plus I had "veggies for pizza," "veggies to go with chicken," and "meat for burritos." That gives me a reminder of what I need without getting so specific that I miss out on something that looks good. I'm pretty good about sticking to the list, but if I see something that looks really amazing, I might swap out a meal that I've planned for something else. Having and Iphone on which I can look up recipes and ideas has been super helpful if I need to switch gears mid-shopping trip. If I had unlimited time and money, I'd definitely chuck the list, since I love browsing through interesting food stores.

Looking forward to the week, Nolnacs! That market looks incredible. What kind of ice cream maker do you have? And do you actually TASTE the cream cheese, or is it just to stabilize the ice cream?

Frijoles de Olla? And with duck fat...my my sounds tasty...

I love ranch. Kraft, specifically. There, I said it. And I'm not ashamed! I like homemade better, but I don't like the decimating effect it has on my parsley and chive plants. And I generally find I like a much higher ratio of buttermilk/sour cream to mayo, or it tastes too mayonnaise-y, which I think masks the flavor of the herbs.

Percyn- Wow, I need to upgrade my group of friends ... David- Beautiful oysters! Dejah-That's a gorgeous salad. Tonight we had the Ramen from Lucky Peach. It was a 5 day ordeal to make, and the noodles ended up a little too thin for my liking, but overall I'd call the meal a success. I don't know if I'll be repeating it anytime soon though... The pork was a roast cut into strips, marinated in char siu-type spices and cooked sous vide for 14 hrs at 156 degrees. It was the easiest part of the meal, by far, and one of the tastiest. I'll definitely be making it on a regular basis!

Thanks! And the person I made it for bakes too, so she appreciated the work that went into it, which is nice...

I got hit up to make a birthday cake for an 80's themed birthday party...here's what I came up with. The only request that she had was that the body of the cake was black, and the cake itself was vanilla with vanilla frosting, in her words," like a wedding cake-type flavor." I thought it turned out really well, especially since the fondant I used was a different brand than the one I'm used to and it was super soft although it covered well. The Rubik's Cube was a rice krispy treat covered with fondant and painted w/food coloring. You can't see them from the picture, but there's also a pac man and ms. pac man as well as the other ghosts around the edge of the cake.