Nyleve Baar

I only use my cast iron kettle to keep water on the wood stove in the winter. Adds humidity to the air. But it rusts like crazy.

Just the other day I feel that I achieved perfection (if I do say so myself) in iced coffee. Here it is: Into the blender goes: One long shot of espresso, freshly made About the same amount of milk A dash of sugar Then, put the lid on the blender but leave the center hole open. Start blending and drop in 4 coffee ice cubes, one at a time, while the blender is running. Blend until no more crunching can be heard. Pour into tall glass filled with plain ice cubes. Heavenly. Just heavenly. Smooth and wonderful - perfection. It's all about the coffee ice cubes.

The very best bait I've found for fruit flies is - surprise, surprise - rotting fruit. Plums or peaches work very well, but I suspect anything sweet would do. Just put a chunk into a jar, stretch plastic wrap over the top and secure with a rubber band. Poke ONE hole in the top. You may have to do this for a few days and eventually change the fruit. Position the trap in the vicinity of where the fruit flies are most numerous. You will NOT BELIEVE how well this works. And it's cheap.

You know, I figured out that Simon is just so not interested in stupid games. He doesn't fetch, he doesn't swim, he doesn't do anything really dog-like. My husband is disgusted with him and I keep hoping that maybe because he's a poodle I can possibly get through to him, culinarily. That's why the morel hunting. But really, in the fall when the big (disgusting) puffballs are everywhere - as easy to find as a sheep in a bathtub - he doesn't even notice those. I think maybe I need a Labrador retriever.

Best thing(s) ever for wine: Wine Out (that's the name of the product) or Gonzo. Both work like absolute magic. I keep a bottle of either one of them in the dining room at all times. You can get them (one or the other anyway) at places like Linens and Things and Bed, Bath and Beyond. In the cleaning section. You just squirt some of the stuff on the wine spot and it instantly turns blue, then washes out. Seriously indispensable at my house.

I have tried, for the past two seasons, to teach my standard poodle Simon to hunt morels. Here is my unsuccessful training method: We walk in the woods and I mutter "mushroom! mushroom! mushroom!" quietly as we go. This is to let him know that we are looking for mushrooms, not just walking for no reason. I find a morel and I make a big deal of it. I say "MUSHROOM! MUSHROOM!" very happily. Simon comes to investigate. I let him smell the morel. I say "MUSHROOM! MUSHROOM!" and I give him a cookie. This is theoretically to teach him to associate morels with cookies which I assume he would want to do. We continue. He does not bother to look for mushrooms at all. Ever. He thinks I am an idiot. FRENCH poodle? Ha. I think NOT.

Just came back from a brief morel-hunting foray. Have about 2 cups worth of morels. I think I'll do some chicken breasts with a creamy morel/white wine sauce. The other day I made risotto with morels and fiddleheads. Totally killer.

We have had fiddleheads for dinner two nights in a row now, and I expect that tomorrow we may have them again (I pick as I walk my dog in the woods). I consider myself to be something of an expert on fiddleheads - they can be nasty if they're not done right. Most people who say they don't like them have not had them cooked well. First, fill your sink with cold water and throw in the fiddleheads. Swish them around to loosen the brown papery skins. Scoop the fiddleheads out into a colander to drain, leaving water and brown bits behind in the sink. YOu may need to do this twice if they're really messy. Next, fill a large pot with water. Bring to a boil and throw in the fiddleheads. Let the water return to a boil, cook for just a minute or two, then drain. Repeat the boiling a second time with fresh water. There is a lot of bitterness in a fiddlehead that just doesn't go away unless they're boiled. I boil literally no other vegetable - but fiddleheads: always. Boiling them twice (as I do) isn't absolutely necessary - but once definitely is. After boiling, drain well and saute in lots of lovely butter and salt. Maybe a bit of garlic. Or, better yet, add some delicious ramps - that's how we had them tonight. Sauteed the ramps in butter first, then threw in the pre-boiled fiddleheads and cooked just for a minute or two. Once the fiddleheads have been boiled, you can use them in soup, stir fry, pasta, risotto - anything. You can even chill them and serve with vinaigrette as a salad. Nothing says spring like a fiddlehead.

I've always been two ways about this. When it comes to my own kids, I've always included them in our home dinner parties as long as they were game to be there. They rarely didn't want to join us at the table, but were always free to leave when they'd had enough of us, as long as they excused themselves. It's one way of teaching kids about good table manners and how to behave in polite company (not that we were always polite - but you understand what I mean). I think they really grew up at those dinner parties and now that they're both in their twenties, I believe they could comfortably hold their own in any social situation they might find themselves. When we were invited elsewhere, I usually left it up to the inviter as to whether the kids would come. I think it's their choice and frankly, we've been to some dinner parties with people who have no idea about kids that would have been sheer torture for my sons to have to endure. (It was almost torture for us sometimes.) Friends who have kids were different - they were comfortable around children, could make my own kids feel welcome and there was always someplace - a bedroom, den, TV room - where they could go to hang out once they tired of adult conversation. As for kids coming to our house - they are always welcome. Always. I have rarely had a bad experience with kids who are old enough to sit at the table - and I sometimes find their company pretty darn entertaining. If a couple brings a whiny young child to a dinner party, I usually find that it can be more disturbing to them than it is to anyone else - so I leave that up to them. If they WANT to bring a little whiny kid to an adult dinner, it's not my problem if they end up having to spend half the evening sorting their kid out in the den. Provided, of course, they do remove the whiny child to the den, that is.

We also live in a small town with no kosher sources of anything. We managed to have both my sons Bar Mitzvah parties at our home and accommodated all but the most religious of our family members. The meals were set up buffet-style so people could choose what they wanted to eat without explanation. Dishes were labelled as to what they contained - the spanakopita was made with normal cheese and baked in foil pans. The only ones who still wouldn't eat it were the ultra-orthodox cousins. They had decided to leave before dinner but if they had wanted to stay I would have had commercially prepared kosher meals brought in for them by people coming from Toronto. There was a choice of entree - one meat for most people, one totally vegetarian dish for anyone else. This was a big spanakopita which also, incidentally, was snarfled up by the non-kosher/non-vegetarian meat eaters as a side dish. It was delicious and substantial and both the vegetarians and koshers appreciated that we went to the trouble. Fish would have been ok too, but I had several vegetarian friends coming who wouldn't eat fish so decided to just make the veg option. There were several side dishes and salads. NO BACON on any of the salads. No shrimp either. I wanted everyone to be able to eat all the rest of the stuff without having to ask a million questions. The bar consisted of wine, beer and soft drinks. No one had a problem with unkosher wine. I think that most people whose level of kosher allows them to eat spanakopita that was prepared in my kitchen will also drink normal wine. Desserts were no problem. There is generally nothing in dessert that would offend a kosher person, unless of course they've eaten meat - and then they'd have to have a non-dairy dessert. But this wasn't the case. And anyway, there was plenty of fruit which would have been fine. You are doing quite a lot to accommodate these people and I'm sure it will be appreciated. But just to save yourself the headache, why don't you get in touch with them and ask them just a few questions. Then you'll know exactly what you're dealing with. Here are the questions you need to ask: 1. Will you eat dairy or fish that has not been prepared in a kosher kitchen? 2. Are regular plates and silverware ok, or would you prefer disposable? 3. Do you drink non-kosher wine or would you prefer to have kosher? Explain what the menu will be and ask if it sounds ok to them. That's pretty much it. Have a great time - it's YOUR WEDDING!!!

Depending on where you are - could be the start of the season or too early. I'm up in Ontario and it will be a month, most likely, before they start popping up. Maybe less if it stays warm. But I've heard they're being found in Indiana. They say that the morels will appear when the oak leaves are the size of a mouse's ear. Or: when the dandelions are blooming. Or: after the first warm rain of spring. Take your pick. I've never found a hard and fast rule that works.

My late mother in law who was from Bratislava used to make matzoh balls from whole matzohs but a little differently than that. I was always somehow dragooned into making them with her and so learned how to do it even though, every single year, she used to make them slightly differently because she had no written recipe (of course). Soaked the matzohs and mushed them up. Added egg and vegetable oil and some seasonings. And a little matzoh meal just to bind them - then rolled into balls and cooked IN THE SOUP. They were, I suppose in retrospect, delicious. But to be honest I still love the fluffers best.

My favourite misuse of quotation marks is on a small ad I have pinned to my bulletin board which reads: SKY DIVE from a "perfectly good airplane"

I'm drooling. We ate the delicious Turkish yogurt mixed with a little of those apricot preserves you get. It was so good I can't eat yogurt at home anymore. We took the Bosphorus ferry but unfortunately no one came on the boat in Kanlica with yogurt to sell. I was disappointed because I had heard about it and wanted to try it. Oh well - will just have to go back.

Ok - so what's in that incredible yogurt you get in Turkey, anyway? It was thick thick thick and not at all acidic. Even the small containers you could buy in the corner store had a layer of (ack I think) butterfat on top. Was this made with cream? I would kill for a source of that stuff in this part of the world.

Quote below (I screwed up the quoting process - please excuse): Two ducks for five years? How big is your freezer? ←

Add enough herbs and veggies and cook it long enough and you can get away with almost anything. I just cooked two ducks that had been in my freezer for 5 years and they were delicious. I brined them for 24 hours, then braised them for, like, 5 hours with garlic and herbs and they turned out just fine. Go ahead. Use it.

Ok - I'm also in the market. My criteria are this: Must be quiet Must be big inside Must be able to put wine glasses in top rack No pre-rinsing Not a ridiculously long cycle time GOOD CLEANING required Is this too much to ask? Price is no longer an object - I am willing to pay for all this. Suggestions?

When we were in Turkey this fall, they were using those crank orange juice press thingies to juice pomegranates. I still regret not buying one at the market when I saw it....

God. I am SUCH a wimp.

Great quick gozleme we had recently was filled with tahini and honey. I'll bet it would have been even better with some sesame seeds or walnuts sprinkled inside.

We will never know what halvah-fed chickens taste like. Only their eggs and, sadly, they are currently on sabbatical for the season. I would have loved to taste sesame-flavoured eggs. As for the halvah itself, it really was sesame halvah, but with some nasty red colouring and probably fake flavour as well. There was a vague taste of sesame. The texture was pasty - like semi-hardened play-dough - but with a touch of that graininess you get in normal halvah. It was cut from a large block. Should you ever encounter such a thing - run the other way. I don't really know what possessed my husband to buy such a terrible thing. It didn't even look nice.

I have made - this Sweet Potato Chipotle Gratin for the last two thanksgivings. It is killer. http://www.selectappliance.com/exec/ce-rec...t_potato_gratin Not sure if that link will work. I suck at linking.

I forgot to mention that in addition to the huge bag of Turkish chocolates my husband bought, he also picked up a selection of halvah. Now, the thing is, I do like halvah. Usually. But RED halvah? Horrible. And the chocolate kind was really bad too. Then only kinds that were edible were the plain pistachio type (it was actually good) and the marble kind (ok but not as good as pistachio). I assumed he left them in Istanbul. Imagine my surprise when, upon arrival at home, he unpacked a plastic bag full of squashed halvah from his bag. Eech. I ate what little was left of the pistachio kind, served the marble kind to friends the other night and fed the red and chocolate kinds to my chickens. They loved it. Go figure.

The last day I was at the Spice Bazaar it was the eve of Seker Bayram so everyone was going absolutely looney. It was a wild scene there - especially at the candy shops outside the covered bazaar. My husband showed up at the hotel later in the day with a huge bag of actually quite terrible chocolates that he couldn't resist buying. They are in a bowl in our den right now and no one will eat them.