LindaK

Perhaps you have the 1994 Clarkson Potter edition. The 2005 Gramercy edition has weight measures. (or the other way round.) Thanks, however, it'd be really good to clear that one up! Nevertheless, the book does seem to be currently out of print, and distinctly expensive for a used copy. Sounds like one to look out for - but some patience is going to be needed. The cookbook was originally released in 1994 but was reprinted in 2005. The later edition is the one I have and should be available. Recipes have both english (?) volume and metric weight measurements.

One that's been sitting on my shelf for a few months waiting to get used is Paris Boulangerie Patisserie by Linda Dannenberg. It's a collection of recipes and tales from thirteen well-known bakeries in Paris--Lenotre, Laduree, Maison du Chocolat, Max Poilane, and others. The recipes range from the simple to the complex, and the photography is gorgeous. While I haven't yet used it (not sure why not), I'm a fan of another cookbook she published, a similar collection of brasserie/bistro recipes and stories, with recipes I've found to be very reliable. It is certainly not as comprehensive a volume as others which have been suggested, but it is one of those cookbooks that makes for great reading and inspiration.

Mash one/two very ripe avocados with some mild goat cheese, add a little lemon juice, evoo, and tabasco, salt and pepper as needed. A great spread or dip, and it keeps well in the fridge. Another vote for the grapefruit/avocado salad that's been mentioned. I didn't believe it until I tried it, but the combination is delicious.

Mostly I shop at Trader Joe's for staples, such as nuts, canola oil, canned beans, canned tomatoes (a good buy, especially the fire roasted tomatoes), and frozen things like the mango, berries, or edamame. The dijon mustard is good too, if you like it hot. But I have a few favorite items that I haven't seen mentioned here. I've never been a snack person, but I love their pita chips with sea salt--not too salty, not greasy, better flavor and half the price of the brand I used to buy at Whole Foods. The other item that's become a staple in my freezer is the tandoori naan. Really good. Though the directions say to heat them in the oven, they reheat perfectly on the stove top in a nonstick skillet in only a few minutes. Among other things, I use them to make quick flatbread pizzas for friends' kids when they are over--and for myself as a quick lunch or late snack.

Robirdstx, that turkey gumbo looks great. I would never have thought to use turkey for gumbo--but now I know what I'll do with the leftover turkey that I brought home. My "no shopping" experience is officially over--I bought Thanksgiving contributions on Wednesday and today picked up some fish and a few other perishables. But it was fun while it lasted and definitely worthwhile. I learned a lot about my shopping habits, good and bad. Hopefully now I'll be more thoughtful about my daily shopping and strategically stashing my freezer and pantry.

Oh, this discussion is making me quite jealous. It's been some years since I've been to Alsace but I still have fond memories of the lovely towns and excellent food. I stayed with friends on my visits so we only ate out occasionally. Highlights for me were the flamenkuchen and kugelhopf, both simple but simply delicious when well done. I'll look forward to readng your report.

The only gimlet I've ever had was made with vodka. Is that heresy? My first vodka gimlet experience was in college when out one night with a few students some years older than myself. They ordered a round of vodka gimlets, and then another...Compared to the cheap beer and dubious concoctions that had been my subsistence until then, it seemed terribly sophisticated. Of course, after three of them, walking home through the snow in heels was more than a small challenge. Thanks for bringing back the memories!

My everyday olive oil is a spanish evoo, brand name Crismona. It's on the lighter side but has a clear olive flavor, fruity but with a bit of pepper bite to it. No bitterness. It comes in a 5 liter jug, $43, which last me a long time, I probably buy two a year. Just keep it in a cool, dark place and it won't turn rancid. I have a small cruet near my stove that I refill as needed. For anyone in the Boston area, I highly recommend Capone's in Somerville (Union Square) for their good selection of olive oils--that's where I buy the Crismona. They keep open bottles of their evoos and vinegars behind the counter, so you can taste everything before you buy.

I throw mine in the dishwaaher all the time. If it does any harm, I've never noticed. Many I've had for years. I find them especially critical when using Le Creuset or other enameled cookware. No scratches. And for stirring risotto or polenta, I've always relied on the flat-ended wooden spatulas to scrape along the bottom of the pan to make sure nothing is sticking. Such an inexpensive tool but one of the best.

That oil is beautiful. I would happily have that for dinner. I'm nearing the end of my participation in this. Tonight was day 8, and dinner was the posole soup I made last night with the excess meat from the pork ribs. Very tasty and enough for the freezer, which I know I'll appreciate when the weather really turns. I still have a small pork roast in the freezer, but I'm reluctant to pull it out right before Thanksgiving when I'll have plenty of leftovers of another sort. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't imagine lean pork freezes/reheats very well, unlike the fattier cuts. I also have a few batches of pesto from my garden in the freezer, but I definitely do not plan on using it until I have the eggs to make homemade pasta. And I'm down to my last egg. After that, there's a lot of frozen edamame. Still, I did much better than I would have guessed, given the bareness of my fridge and freezer compared to that of most folks on this forum. Saved some money, which was a bonus. Mostly I feel like I've learned some good lessons about what to stock in my freezer and pantry. Next time, I'll go for two weeks!

Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, we had space for a spare freezer and had room to stock up on food, but when I moved to New York, I realized that it was much more practical to keep a lean kitchen and let all the nearby shops serve as the pantry. That means passing up some bargains, but we're saving on the square footage in the apartment, not to mention the electric bill. I can still survive for a week on stuff in the house, and do when we're about to travel and want to clear out the fridge or if we need to free up freezer space for something like our periodic cooperative beef purchase, but we don't accumulate a lot of excess. I save freezer space for things like beef fat, fatback, sauces, demi-glace, stock and bits and pieces that go into stock (and film, but that's another subject).That's my practice as well. Though I no longer have the space excuse--when I renovated my kichen last year I was able to carve out space for a full-size 36" fridge. Except when entertaining, I never even come close to filling it. Old habits die hard. Yes it's true. Even the owners manual of my new fridge makes note of it--especially in the instructions of how to handle a power outage. A full fridge/freezer will keep food cold longer if the power goes out. Makes sense--the cold/frozen objects keep the temp down even when the mechanics aren't running. The same principle is at work under ordinary circumstances--the condenser goes on when the temp drops, which happens less frequently if the fridge/freeze is full of cold/frozen items helping to keep the temp down. So it is no surprise that I'm starting to run low on food. I pulled a frozen slab of pork ribs out yesterday to defrost. It was either the ribs or a small pork roast, but I figure I'll get more mileage out of the ribs. Tonight I'll throw the ribs on the grill while the weather is still decent. On the side, I'll use the last celery root to make a remoulade, maybe grate an apple in there too. For tomorrow, I'll make a pozole with the leftover meat (and make broth from the ribs). I have a can of hominy that I bought ages ago (checked date, okay) and a bunch of cilantro that's starting to fade. I still have onions and some carrots, so in the soup they will go too.

This is green bean nirvana. The blanch and cold-water shock treatment is my standard technique and makes even out-of-season beans taste delicious. Salting the water is key. One benefit is that if you are cooking for a crowd you can cook the beans in advance, just dry them well out of the ice water and keep them chilled. Bt popular demand, I bring green beans to the family Thanksgiving feast for 15-20 people. All that's required at the last minute is to add them to a pans with the melted butter, toss until hot, and add salt and pepper if needed. Yes. Bean season here is over, and if my family didn't demand green beans for Thanksgiving, I'd be through cooking them until next summer. Sad but worth the wait for the real thing, like tomatoes. During the peak season, I eat them almost every day in one form or another, they are soooo good.

Very well stated. Think about the flow of people, light, function, etc. that you want, not only in the kitchen but between the kitchen and other rooms. Those decisions will point you in the right direction for you. Structural changes can be expensive but can make all the difference. I moved a doorway and added windows to get the kind of room I wanted--money very well spent. It not only made possible a well-functioning kitchen but also transformed my DR and LR. None of it turned out to be very complicated, but it was daunting to consider on my own. I needed a professional who understood the structual bones of a house and as well as how the kitchen related to the other rooms to advise me not only on layout options but also what was, and was not, possible within my budget.

All these pictures of full refrigerators and freezers are amazing to me. I always knew that I shopped lightly, but now I'm feeling like there's something wrong with me. Condiments aside, I think I had a dozen items in my fridge when I started this, and maybe another dozen in my freezer. My pantry--plenty of dry goods, canned items like tomatoes and beans, nuts, pastas, crackers and chips. Even so, it hasn't been very difficult to put together some tasty meals, and I can probably do better than a week's worth. Last night I cooked for a few friends. For pre-dinner nibbles with drinks, some tapenade--thank you, olives, for keeping so well, they were weeks old--and pistachios. Dinner: roast chicken with herbs, brussel sprouts with brown butter, rice pilaf. Dessert was a lemon tart. The latter used up most of my precious stash of eggs, but I needed something I could assemble quickly after work--my plans to bake the previous night had been thwarted by the lack of a working oven--my gas service was down and wasn't restored until the wee hours. But I made and rolled out the pastry dough and squeezed the lemon juice Thursday night, so the tart came together quickly the next day. The only thing that did not work out well was my first effort at celery root soup, which I'd hoped to serve as a starter but was regretfully tossed as disgusting. Otherwise, the dinner was simple but delicious, no one felt in the least bit deprived. Lunch today, some leftover carrot salad from the other night and an apple. Dinner tonight is out again. I'm not trying to get around the challenge. I figure since I fed four people last night, I'm still in good standing.

Yesterday was a long-planned dinner out with friends, which might count as cheating. Tonight, I was looking forward to cooking some of the brussel sprouts I'd gotten at the farmers market on Monday. Still on the stalk, they are are small and sweet and delicious. Perfect with that leftover slice of meatloaf I'd stuck in the freezer a while ago. Unfortunately, not to be. The challenge turned out to be a little different than expected. Got home around 9:30 pm to find a big notice from the gas company plastered on my door. Apparently they'd serviced a gas leak in my neighborhood during the day and they'd weren't turning the gas back on in individual apartment/condo units until they could get inside. So I sit here with no heat, no hot water--and more importantly--no gas stove, waiting for National Grid to arrive. In the meantime, I am hungry. There's not a lot to work with. So my plan is to grate some carrots, add some parsley (growing in a pot outside), slivered nicoise olives, some walnut pieces, and crumble in the last of the feta--toss all with some lemon juice and olive oil. Scoop with pita chips from Trader Joe's (I love those things!) and accompany with a glass of wine. Not fancy, but it does sound tasty and not bad for someone with a seemingly empty fridge. Or maybe I'm just hungry. Off to cook!

I'm referring to the long wall at the bottom of the kitchen area with all the windows. Sorry, didn't know what else to call it. I would be careful about any configuration with a tight entrance to the cooking area. The drawing with the eating bar opens the space visually towards the DR and LR but not functionally--it looks like a bottleneck moving in and out of the cooking area. The fridge seems like it would be a long walk... If you like this general layout, I'd think about having a smaller island that is open at both ends. More direct to/from the DR for you, the cook, and would let others access the fridge without the long walk and cutting behind you at the stove. As far as an island goes, it seems a shame to have it so far away from the stove, where the cook really can't use it. While I love a nice big kitchen, they can be really inefficient. I'm a fan of relatively compact layouts for cooking spaces.

It should have occurred to me, looking at Steven's lovely bento pictures from last night--what about lunch? I never pack a lunch, generally buying a small soup from favorite places near the office. It isn't expensive and it gives me a welcome break from work. But it dawned on me this morning that take-out soup was probably against the rules here. My options for packing a lunch were few, my fridge is pretty bare except for some vegetables. Some goat cheese on a baguette with some end-of-season arugula and a rather sad tomato made a decent sandwich, and I have a bowl of apples on my desk. Tomorrow I'll pack the leftover chick pea stew from last night with some rice and my last handful of spinach. Then I'd better make some soup or pasta to get me through the week's lunches. Dinner tonight was a quick butternut squash soup, made from some stock and squash puree I found in the freezer, spiced up with a little cumin and sprinkled with some toasted pumpkin seeds, with a little arugula salad on the side. That used the last of my prepared stock, but I found a chicken carcass from a roast that I thankfully stuck in the freezer. It's simmering on the stove now so I'll have stock for soup later in the week. I have two large celeriacs that I picked up at my farmers market on Friday. No one was buying them so they threw in a second when I bought the first. Ever since having a celery root soup a few weeks ago at a local restaurant, I've been wanting to try my hand at making one. Looks like this is the week.

Gayle, Whether you keep 2 firelaces in the house is up to you--do you use both of them? If you like having one in the kitchen, then it probably makes sense to have the seating area adjacent to the fireplace so you can enjoy it. I wouldn't rush to get rid of it before considering alternatives. Closing it off only makes sense if you want to put something else against that wall, and I don't think that's necessary unless that's the configuration that you want. And do you really want to eliminate the connection to the bathroom? Here's my latest suggestion: you could open things up a lot by moving the coat closet from its current location and get rid of the wall to the right of the fireplaces entirely. If the cooking zone was moved to the left or the back wall, that would give you a really good sized L-shaped room, a big kitchen as well as a large dining area to the right, much more open to the LR. No need to touch the kitchen fireplace. You probably don't want to lose the closet entirely, though. You could relocate it to the foot of the stairs (lower right hand corner) or behind the stairs (though that would probably might lose a window.) Endless options, don't let it paralyze you.

I didn't participate last time, I'm one of those persons who usually shops only for two days at a time, so the whole enterpise seemed too intimidating. My freezer is usually empty except for coffee and perhaps some stock. But just reading the previous thread made me a little more purposeful about hoarding ingredients and leftovers. I'd never last a month but a week I can do. So I guess I'm in for this round. Tonight I made a relatively quick batch of chana punjabi to use up chickpeas I'd soaked and cooked yesterday but discovered, to my dismay, I didn't have the tahini I'd need for hummus. This was better! Basmati rice was at hand and luckily had bought some spinach at the farmers market today (last trip, I know). Very good. edited because the first post was an accident!

Dividend, great story about your roast, I'm glad it turned out so well. If there's a lesson there, maybe it's that cooking doesn't have to be complicated unless you want it to be. Sometimes you want to challenge yourself, play with the unfamiliar--for me, that is a luxury when time is tight. Other days, no need to put pressure on yourself. It's okay if you only have time for a little S&P, evoo, and to preheat the oven or broiler. Come up with your own version of fast food. Mine is broiling some fish with soy or miso glaze, and steamed or blanched vegetables. Including prep, ready to eat in 20 minutes. For me, if I could farm out any food related task on weeknights, it would be the grocery shopping. I'd rather spend the time in the kitchen. If he doesn't like to cook, maybe DBF could be the designated shopper.

The idea of closing off the door to the bathroom is potentially a good one for the kitchen, if it works for you. I'd caution against the placement of the range as shown in cbread's 2nd drawing (nice drawings, though). With only one entry point, the only way to access the sink or fridge is to cut behind the stove--not good if you are standing there trying to cook. I've had to work in such a floor plan before, people tripping over each other next to the stove while pans are hot and gas flames are burning is NOT good. If you like a peninsula style, I'd put the stove against one of the other walls. Given the choice between a peninsula arrangement (as shown here) and an island, I prefer the island. Easier flow, more than one way in/out/around. But that's a personal preference. What are the other rooms? Dimensions? both matter a lot.

Hi Gayle, Welcome to eGullet! Kitchen design is not for the faint of heart. I finished my kitchen renovation a year ago last week, after several years of indecision and planning. But it is so worth it, so hang in there and don't start until you're ready and have a good contractor. My general advice: - get good advice, from a professional if possible. I don't know what I would have done without the advice of some architect friends, especially re: options on structural changes such as moving walls. stairs, windows. - the abovementioned structural changes are really expensive. They absolutely can be worth it, but unless money is no object, think hard about what really matters and spend your money there first. - Efficiency is more important than total square feet. My condo is also on the small side, around 1300 sf, so I appreciate the space issue. It looks like you have plenty of space. - someone else metioned the Ikea software as a planning tool. Also worth knowing that there is a web site devoted to Ikea, Ikea Fans, with a forum devoted to kitchen design with professional kitchen designers who will critique your kitchen plan. A couple of comments on your plan: - The stove location does not look practical at all, both for venting and for work flow reasons. My inclination would be to take advantage of the "L" wall you have against the back wall/bathroom wall and work with that. - You want good venting, so when siting your stove take advantage of having exterior wall access. Two locations look good to me, either the wall space between your windows (if it's wide enough for your stove) or placing the stove on the wall against your bathroom. Both would let you vent to the outside, which I doubt you could do against the stairs. - And for me, having the stove in that "L" feels more efficient and safer. You don't want any traffic flow to interfere with the work area, if you can help it. - the other rooms aren't labeled, so I can't tell if you have a dining room or not. If yes, you probably don't need a lot of eat-in space in the kitchen. Enough for you and your son, as well as for guests to hang out while you cook. - moving the stove would relocate the eating area to the right (against the stairs). That opens up possibilies of using that wall for storage, bookshelves, a desk area, etc. - If you have a DR, do you want an island eating area instead? Not clear w/out measurements whether you have room for both. An island in an "L" configuration is my idea of perfection, if there is space. Someday... Some initial thoughts but it is your kitchen, make it what you want! Keep us posted.

There's a distinction, for me anyway, between a cookbook and a recipe file. I'll be slow to give up the printed page when it comes to reading the narrative or appreciating photos in a good cookbook, or any book for that matter. But I'd welcome an easy way to store recipes electronically--from cookbooks, online sources, wherever--and make marginal notes as well--which is critical as far as I'm concerned, I scribble all over cookbooks. Lately, I've been reading the thread on Recipe Software because I'm getting tired of sifting through written notes, magazine and newpaper clippings, electronic cut-and-paste documents, hard copies of cookbooks, etc., for recipes. If there was an easy way to bring that all together electronically, I'd jump at it. Earlier in this thread, LindaCakes had a long list of "what if's..." that sounded good to me. I don't see that as being the death-knell of cookbooks at all. Though there are a lot of cookbooks out there that are just compendiums of recipes and probably wouldn't suffer if they were only available electronically. There's another issue that I haven't seen mentioned yet, and that's sustainability. Let's face it, trees get killed for books. I don't pretend to be an expert on the subject, but from what I've read the publishing industry doesn't rate highly on anyone's sustainability scale. As this becomes more important to governments and consumers, hard copies of books might eventually become luxury items. It pains me to think about it, because I cherish my books. But I'm starting to pay more attention to the environmental tradeoffs of paper vs. electronic anything.

Beautiful rice noodles, Chris. I've never seen these made before, so a novice question: you add a new layer of batter on top of the previously cooked noodle(s)? So it's not like crepes, they're not made individually. Sounds tricky. Good job.

Chris, thanks for linking to the discussion of the Ultra Pride grinder, I missed that thread. I've been making fresh egg pasta for years now. It really is worth the effort and not hard, once you get the hang of it. One thing I've discovered, as I've moved around and have had to source ingredients in new cities, is how wildly different so-called pasta flours are. My favorite is the ultra-fine durum flour often labeled "00" flour. Beware the coursely ground durum flours often sold as pasta flour. At least for handmade pasta, it's unworkable. Another variable is the egg:flour ratio. My standard is Marcella Hazan's recommended 1 cup flour: 2 large eggs. But if you crave extremely rich pasta dough, then hunt down Matt Kramer's A Passion for Piemont for his description of Piemontese pasta, tajarin, which uses 30-40 egg yolks per kilogram of flour. I've never tried it, but it did convince me to add a couple of extra egg yolks to my basic pasta recipe--delicious, but a little trickier to roll out because it's so soft.