lperry

If it is pronounced with fewer than three syllables, get in the car and drive farther south. -L

In today's New York Times. Click. Look out, California - When I was in grad school in Illinois, some of us would bicycle around the local wineries tasting and picnicking. It was great fun, and we liked to support our local farmers. By the time I left, many of the wineries that had just started when I got there were producing very drinkable wines. I think this is a wonderful trend, and I'll continue to support my local wineries now in Virginia. Is anyone else up for the local wines? -L

None perceived here either - I just wanted to understand what you meant. Many people are surprised when they find out that grits are a staple food in some regions. (What annecros said). Thanks for the input, Andie, you always have great stories. I wish there were more mills around today. I remember going to one in north Georgia with my parents when I was a child. We would buy the requisite buckwheat pancake mix (why is this sold at every mill?) and the stone ground grits. I should do an internet search. A road trip may be in order to find a mill nearby. -L

Hmmm. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by lifestyle, but my grandparents had grits every day, often at two or more meals. Grits were to their diet like rice is in some other cultures. It is still amazing memory-laden comfort food for me. Now in my family grits are always served at fish fries, as are hush-puppies - it's a cornstravaganza. -L

I don't know if this is correct. In addition to the white, there is yellow hominy or posole available throughout Mexico and Peru. Purple too. Grind it up and you get colored masa, so you should also get colored grits. I looked at a couple of websites for information (Dixie Lily and Martha White), and they seem to indicate that the color of corn products is from the color of the kernels. Andiesenji and RanchoGordo make their own hominy - are you guys reading? Any insight? Just to throw in my possibly controversial two cents, if you can't get any from a mill, Dixie Lily grits are the best. -L

I owe a big "thank you" to the egullet fruit cake makers. I make one for my Dad every year, but I never macerated the fruit for longer than a night or two. This year I remembered to throw the rum and dried fruit together several weeks ago (rum is his favorite). I just tasted the fruit and I'm having to exercise great self control to save it for the cake. So, thank you! My cake will be much better this year because of everyone's advice in this thread. -L

I read this article in this morning's paper and immediately emailed it to my friends who are being very careful due to unfortunate family histories. Some people can take more risk than others. Correlations and averages aside, the "nurse study" is one of if not the longest-running, largest, and best-documented studies of women's health ever performed. Those of us who lack y chromosomes and are concerned about our health have been following the results with great interest. At the very least, these results will spawn tightly controlled follow-up experiments. In the meantime, what's so bad about organic and hormone-free? -L

Mine doesn't have it, so I'll check a couple of others. Thanks - L

Has anyone seen White Lily flour? I found Swan's Down and another brand in a red box at Wegmans, but no White Lily. -L

*bump* It's that time of year again! I'm still searching for the perfect chestnut tool, and I came across this one. Do any of our resident gadget addicts have a chestnutter? I'm seriously considering buying one, but I'd like to know how well it works. -L

Solanine occurs in all plants in the family Solanaceae. This includes eggplants, tomatoes, peppers etc. Commercially grown potatoes are usually tested for solanine content to keep it at safe levels. It can build up after testing, however, if the potatoes are exposed to a lot of sunlight in the store. Like Russ said, the potato thinks it is exposed and is protecting itself from an herbivore by producing a nasty compound. If you are worried about the effects of too much of the compound, taste the potatoes. Solanine is bitter. -L

What a great time of year to revive this thread. Thanks! Back in March I ended up making a green pipian that I served over posole. Since that time I've been doing more reading, and I am inclined to think that a pipian is a seed-based sauce (sesame is also common) and a mole is a chile-based sauce. Both types can include the other ingredients, but it seems to be the main ingredient or flavor that supplies the name. eje- I think that looks good! If you don't want to sieve, I've found that a food mill does a really nice job with much less effort. I pressed the wire out of the frame on several sieves before I realized that a little cross-cultural ingenuity might be in order.

Muffin tins work well. I've made little pecan pies in all three of the sizes that I have. -L

I've found it in my Grandmother's corn fields. It is best harvested when the kernels look horribly disfigured and are about to pop. If the kernels have exploded, it is past its prime but is probably still edible. Perhaps just not terribly palatable. -L Edit: can't type today.

They serve more pastry than I've ever seen in my life. Lots of fruit and champagne. Then there are scenes with the royal couple at a dinner table that is always elaborately arranged and dressed. There are fish covered with cucumber "scales" placed as if they were swimming and a pheasant set as if it was running through a field (etc. etc.). Truly amazing.

What a movie for food as symbol. Exquisitely arranged dinner tables and carefully choreographed meal service alongside strictly regimented court life. Conspicuous consumption of sweets intertwined with a shopping spree of epic proportions. The scene is set to the song, "I want candy." Truly brilliant symbolism and some of the most beautiful food I've seen in a film. The opening scene filled with tiered cakes and a reclining queen. The refusal of the powers that be to let Marie nurse her baby. I could go on and on. Did anyone else make the matinee? -L

Good question, Kim! I haven't been able to figure out anything definitively, but from looking on the Fagor Web site, I think (if I'm comparing correctly) that the Duo has two pressure settings (high and low) and the Splendid has only one. The Duo is the one Cook's Illustrated likes. Can anyone out there elucidate? MelissaH ← That's it exactly. Most big pressure canners have three settings (5, 10, and 15 lbs) so you can heat to different temperatures. Higher pressure, higher heat, faster cooking. It's fairly unusual in a small cooker, but useful, I think. Sometimes it's nice to have the lower setting if you are not sure how long it will take, or if you don't want to turn things to mush by overcooking. -L

I don't know about in New Mexico, but here in the DC area, it is on the shelves with other Peruvian items. There are also cans of oca and ullucu, and bags of dried "white" chuño. Is it unusual to find it in cans? -L

You may want to look through this thread. It is something of a Christine Ferber appreciation thread. -L

Thank you both for your comments. I've drunk a lot of wine, but I have just begun to learn to deconstruct it so I can better match it with food. I've encountered problems relying on labels for guidance. I've found that small, local wineries are very good at recommending food/wine pairings, but others seem to be hit or miss, particularly when it comes to pairing whites and spicy foods. I think of this combination as the perfect hot weather dinner. Most people grab a beer, but I'd rather have wine.

Spicy food makes sense. My Total Wine lists a Torrontes from the Pisano winery in Uruguay, and the first review I found online said, "absolutely delightful." I'll start thinking about what to cook.

This week I tried for the first time a Torrontes from Argentina. The first sniff after pouring led me to believe that I had accidentally bought a bottle of sweet wine. It was floral and there was an undertone that reminded me of muscadine grapes (but not quite). When I tasted the wine, however, it was dry on the palate. I tried to pull out separate flavors and aromas, but it was very difficult because after I took the first sip, it seemed that my nose was confusing my palate and my palate was confusing my nose. It was very interesting. I was drinking it without food, and I'm not entirely certain what sort of food it might match well. I don't really have a question, but I was hoping that the resident eGullet wine gurus might have some insight into this sort of taste/smell combination in wine. For the record, it was a 2005 Amaicha Torrontes - that's a five buck Trader Joe's special. I'm trying to learn more about wine on a starving post-doc's salary with the hope that I'll be well prepared later . -L

Does this product work on the intricate pans too? -L

Costco had ten pound bags of the huge Spanish yellow onions, so my first batch of onion confit came out of the crock pot this afternoon. My only question is, how have I lived without onion confit? Now I need to go back through the thread and get some more ideas for using it. That is assuming that I don't eat it all just on toast. -L

Cantine Sant' Agata Ciarea DOC 2004. $20.00 at Castiglia's Italian restaurant in Fredericksburg, VA. A white made from Cortese grapes grown in the hills of Monferrato in the northern Piemonte region of Italy. According to Winegeeks.com, the most commonly made wine from this grape is the DOCG Gavi. Dry and full bodied. Citrus nose with light honey and mineral undertones. Just lovely with a caprese salad and pizza margherita outside on a warm, late summer night. We had ordered something else and the owner came out to our table to apologize because he was out of our selection. He suggested this wine. We didn't admit that we had deliberately made our original selection because we had never heard of the wine and we wanted to try something new. -L