saskanuck

Sometimes we do a "summer in winter" meal to break up the long winter, and I suppose this would really work well for Christmas or New Year's Eve. Grilled meat, poultry or seafood of your choice, grilled vegetables, a pitcher of sangria, margaritas or some cold beer. Fresh fruit for dessert, and it almost feels like we're back at our summer cottage. Sometimes we even turn the heat up a little in the house and wear shorts or build a fire in the fireplace and pretend it's an outdoor campfire. My kids want to do fondue on Christmas Eve, so we'll do that, but maybe on New Year's Eve we'll turn our house into summer again. We even roasted marshmallows in our fireplace, just like around the campfire. It was great fun.

Diva, my boss is a she, and she thinks she's a real Martha Stewart. She is really artistically talented, and some of her food is pretty decent. But then she goes and makes things like that salad, and bleurgh. Most of the people I work with are on low-fat, low-taste, low-carb or whatever diets, so any time there's food around that actually has taste, they fall upon it like a pack of starving wolves. About the sandwiches; people bring some really weird things to our potluck, especially since some of them can't or don't cook, but want to bring something anyway. Those are the people who should bring nuts, chips or the like. I'm the person in the group who everyone comes to for recipes, and a lot of people said they are looking forward to what I bring this time. I think I'm making a lemon/ginger bundt cake, a greek feta cheese dip, and possibly an apricot cheesecake if I get time. Not all on the same day, of course. I like showing off a little at work with my food, I must admit. To egulleters, it wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, but around here I'm a gourmet chef.

Gross! to the knife/finger-licking and finger-dipping people. What the hell is wrong with them? It's time for our company food fest/potluck again next week. Which means that there will be creamy dips, ham balls and all sorts of stuff sitting out on our table all day, and our office is a balmy 78 degrees right now. After it sits out all day, the leftovers are carefully refrigerated for the next day. I don't eat anything off that table after about 10 a.m if it's something that should be kept cold or hot One time someone brought a whole plate of egg salad sandwiches that people were still eating at about 4 p.m. that day. Our lunch potluck is a little better, because most people do refrigerate or keep their food cool if required. We'll be treated to my boss' favourite salad: broccoli, cauliflower, bacon bits and sunflower seeds dressed with miracle whip and what tasted like a pound of sugar. Many people just love this, but I think it's revolting.

If I have time, I'll join in this. My mom also used the potato starch from the bottom of the bowl, and her pancakes were awesome. She made them very thin and quite large, almost like regular pancakes, and they were fried until crispy. We ate them as a meal, with sour cream and homemade dill pickles. I could eat a ton of those when I was a skinny little kid. I will have to look in my mom's old handwritten cookbook to see if she has a recipe written down. I know it was potato grated on the bigger holes of a box grater, some egg, salt and pepper, and I think that's all. But I don't know the proportions.

What a wonderful blog, Lucy! I love your photography. You should publish a coffee table book of your food pictures because I'd buy it in a second.

I cleaned and re-seasoned 3 of my mom's old cast-iron frying pans that had been in a box in my basement for a long time. They had half an inch of crud on them, so we put them on our barbecue grill to clean them off to the bare metal, they were so bad. We scoured some rust off them, then rubbed them with lard and set them back on the barbecue grill on a medium-low heat for about 4 hours. I didn't want the smell or heat in my house because this was the middle of summer. The next day we fried a whole mess of bacon, using all 3 pans (small, med, large) and they are nicely seasoned. They're not perfect yet, but getting there, with a shiny dark hard coating in the interior. It may be a sacrilege to some, but I do use soap and water on my pans and sometimes a plastic scrubber if they're really cruddy, but I don't like the idea of just wiping them out. The smell of grease gets to me, and this is why they ended up so disgusting in the first place. I don't think my mom ever washed them. Now that they're properly seasoned, a quick swish in the dishpan is all they need, no scrubbing is required at all.

My sister and niece leave meat out to defrost on the counter all day as a matter of course. My sister takes the turkey out the night before and leaves it to thaw on the counter before cooking it the next day. I've never gotten sick, but there's always that chance. She laughed at me when I was having a fit trying to get our Christmas turkey to thaw in time using the cold-water method because at that time I didn't have a second fridge to thaw it in. They're also not so good about chilling leftovers after dinner and think nothing of leaving turkey, dressing and the like in containers for a few hours before taking them home for the next day. I'm practically paranoid about food safety in my house, and this just freaks me out. Stomach ailments are a rarity in our family, and it's usually the kids who end up catching something from the kids at school or daycare.

On my counter: Krups coffee maker (used every day), Panasonic microwave on its own shelf above the stove, white KA stand mixer in the corner under the cupboards, knife block, cool patterned metal container with bamboo cooking spoons, whisks etc., terracotta garlic keeper. My toaster, coffee grinder, immersion blender, small hand mixer and other things are kept in the cupboards, and larger stuff like the food processor, slow cooker, waffle iron and such are kept on the shelves in my basement storage room. I don't like a cluttered countertop, and there's not a lot of room anyway. But inside the cupboards, that's a different story. They are crammed with all kinds of kitchen paraphernalia.

Klary, this is a lovely thread. My husband is Dutch, born in Canada, and his parents came to Canada when they were young. They originally lived in Friesland. It's nice to read about traditional Dutch foods, and they seem to be much more tasty than the offerings my MIL serves up, because she's not much of a cook. I have to make those filled almond paste cookies, because they look delicious. We like the Gouda that has the caraway seeds in it, and I have a huge wedge of it in our fridge right now. It's hard for all of us to not keep slicing away at it until it's all gone. My youngest son didn't like it until this year, and now he's a big fan. Keep those beautiful pictures and recipes coming!

We had the requisite tossed salad with iceberg, tomatoes cut into eighths, chunks of unpeeled cucumbers, and lots of onions, topped with either Miracle Whip or bottled 1000 island dressing. Or my mom's other specialty was thinly sliced peeled cucumbers and white onions, dressed with a mixture of cream and sugar. Blech. I never liked either of these salads. The salads I make now consist of some kind of fresh greens (not iceberg), whatever fresh veggies are around, sometimes cheese, toasted pine nuts, and anything else that looks good. I usually make a vinaigrette that is quite acidic as well, because we like the tangy stuff. Me likey salad.

Dear god, you guys are making me laugh until I cry here in my cubicle. Yow, those are some bad looking meals. I've got to remember to do this when I end up making something that looks awful. Years ago before there were digital cameras, I made something called lentil stew. It looked like the product of something with very poor digestion, and I made my ex-husband go out under cover of darkness and bury it in the garden. There were no fences yet because we lived in a new subdivision, and I didn't want any of my neighbours to know what we were doing. Too bad I don't have a pic of it, or maybe that's a good thing.

M.X., I'm planning to do that very thing, starting on Friday. I'm going to make a couple of nice cakes or something that we can eat, and make some nice meals before Thanksgiving. Most of the baked goods will be gone by the time our Thanksgiving meal rolls around, so I'm not going to worry about hiding them. I just wish my family were more adventurous. The meal, aside from the dessert, isn't bad or anything, it's just same old same old, and it could be a lot better. Families. What can you do.

This is our menu for Thanksgiving. My sister is bringing the turkey/dressing, canned cranberries, and homemade dill pickles. My niece will be bringing some sort of godawful dessert, store bought white rolls, and I've been told not to bake anything because it will make the niece feel bad. So, the menu: turkey/stove top dressing, cranberries, pickles/olives/whatever, mashed potatoes and gravy, some kind of vegetable (I do frozen broccoli and cauliflower because that's what they'll eat), and a green salad with ranch and italian dressing. Boring, huh? The homemade dill pickles are scrumptious, though. This is exactly the same meal we'll have at Christmas and at Easter, sometimes with the addition of ham or cabbage rolls or both. Please, won't someone invite me to their feast? My husband and sons wouldn't mind an invite either, especially my 11 year old, who's turning into a pretty good cook and a lover of all things food/cooking.

Very nice blog, both of you. I really enjoy reading about and looking at what others here eat. This month we are so busy that our meals aren't great at all. I hate eating in a rush and having to make things in a hurry. This too shall pass (it damned well better).

Heh, thanks, kitchenmage. I've been told my food has "too much" before, too rich, too chocolatey, too whatever. But never too boring! These people are happiest with bland, ordinary foods. I made fresh cranberry sauce too, and most of it was left to languish. The jellied canned crap was gone. A flourless dense chocolate cake topped with whipped cream wasn't good to them, and they preferred my niece's cool whip and canned fruit cocktail concoction. There was just more cake for us (and calories)! Families. What can you do. And my in-laws aren't any better; they're worse if anything.

Hmph. I'm coming to spend Thanksgiving with some of you guys. I can't even think about changing the traditional turkey dinner or the rest of my family would freak. My husband and kids would be ok with it, but the rest of them wouldn't. It must be roasted turkey, Stovetop stuffing, boiled potatoes, gravy, cabbage rolls, some kind of vegetables from a bag, and pickles. Dessert usually is some mish mash of whatever my niece decides to bake. Duncan Hines cherry chip cake with fluorescent pink icing, anyone? Sigh. We do a potluck, and I've asked my sister to deal with the turkey, while I make the sides. My niece always does the baking (her choice) and I've been told by my sister not to bake, because it makes my niece feel like she wasted her time. I'd bake, too, but I can't lest I offend the niece. Last year at Christmas I made fabulous chocolate gingerbread cake, and something else. Niece thought my food had "too much flavour". I guess it'll be the same old, same old around here come October.

FFR, I was thinking about you and your wife the other day and wondered how she was doing. Thanks for the update, and I hope and pray that your wife will continue to recover and do well. God bless.

My husband is the opposite of most of the guys here. He always turns the heat down on everything, so instead of frying, it's being steamed. And he likes to put lids on frying pans too when he's frying things. He thinks anything over medium heat is going to burn the food. We've also had heated discussions over whether basil is pronounced bay-sil or bah-sil (I'm the first one). He also doesn't clean out the sink after doing dishes and leaves all the food gunk in the strainer and soap suds all over the sink's inside. This drives me crazy more than anything else. My sinks are sparkling clean when I'm done; no schmutz in them.

I reallly hate being touched by strangers, so touching in a restaurant would skeeve me out. A grandma-type in a diner would probably be ok. As a ploy for a tip; that would backfire. racheld, I love that your chinese restaurant people were looking after you. I wonder if one of them had a big cleaver hidden behind their back!

Ha! I wondered if that peeler thingy would work, and figured it didn't. It's good for a conversation piece or to have a "stump your guests" quiz. Unless they are an egulleter, they'll never guess what the hell it is.

Mooshmouse, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog. Noah is a real sweetie, and he'd be fun to have around the kitchen. All of the food pictures are delicious, but the gelato at the end just got me. God, I could just dive into that display case. I haven't been to Vancouver for a long time, and it was nice to see the pictures of the city, and of your kiwi vine! Oh, to have one of those.

I'd be a ripe brie cheese. Crusty on the outside, but soft and sensual in the middle. Fits my personality very well.

I've just finished her newest book, and I enjoyed it very much. I've read her other two books over the past few months, and I enjoyed them as well. Gourmet magazine is only ok, but I highly recommend reading all of Ruth's books.

Something like this happened to our fridge at the cottage. It's fairly old, but was working fine until one night when we discovered that the fridge was getting warm inside. After transferring everything to the really old and tiny beer fridge, we unplugged and shut off the main fridge. Just for the hell of it, we turned it on the next day and it worked just fine and has been fine ever since. It does have something to do with condensation from what an appliance repairman told us.

A coconut-filled bun made by my sister, with fresh-ground coffee made at home. Yum.