Darcie B

I would so like to be able to go to a Heartland gathering for once - I might be able to do the last week in July. The weekend before that would be even better as I am scheduled to be in Ohio anyway.

Have you ever tried roasting the pheasants instead of boiling them?

Hmmm...that to me doesn't make as much sense, especially if you hear the pronounciation of fleisch keuchla. It sounds a lot more like kuchen than kugel. My great grandparents used a lot of 'old country' words and made mashup words that were part Ukranian, Russian, German and English. I might ask my 93-year-old great aunt if she knows. My grandmother is not one to get excited about etymology - I've asked her and she just shrugs her shoulders. If your dad wasn't in the "Germans from Russia" group, that might also lend more weight to the theory that this is an adaptation of something Russian/Ukranian. We also grew up eating holubtsi (haluptsi, pick your incorrect spelling, beef & rice in cabbage rolls) which is definitely Ukranian.

Well Kuchen is cake, and the la or le at the end makes it a little version of something so perhaps "meat cakelets"? You may be on to something! And now I have to make kuchen...the German from Russia kind, which is a raised dough baked with pastry cream and fruit (usually prunes).

Andiesenji, the photo you linked to for the sour cream made it look like the texture was a bit grainy. I've had this happen sometimes with yogurt - does it happen with the sour cream or is that just a bad photo? I cannot abide that gritty texture. Thank you for all of the wonderful information you provide to this board and on your blog - you are a treasure!

I can only assume you weren't cycling in Zeeland, North Dakota, where my brothers have a farm and where they also grow wheat! Other than the continent, the difference between the Zeelands is that in Zeeland, ND they mostly grow pasta wheat (durum. Although my brothers have grown malting barley, too.

Green tomato pie? My family is of Germans from Russia descent and we make a similar recipe to the bierocks that you made, only they are called fleisch keuchla (meat "something") - I have never found out what "keuchla" means and I don't know if it is German or Ukrainian. Since we spell it phoenetically I haven't been able to get an online translator to figure it out. When I lived in WV, I used Hudson Cream Flour all the time, but I can't find it here in MN. So I use Pillsbury to keep it local Edit to add: I was typing this while you were posting the answer!

Until my husband breaks down and installs our under the sink filter (that I purchased months ago...grrrr), we are using a Brita pitcher. Our water is very hard and if I boil it for pasta, a noticeable and unattractive film develops on the surface. If I use Brita filtered water, no film. I've no idea if the filters live up to all of their claims but they are effective enough for me. I just hate dealing with the pitcher and its lid that continually falls off.

Thanks a million! In my cart it goes! I don't think that was a eG friendly link, tho...and I don't know how to do that. Can someone please point me in the right direction?

What I am looking for is a timer I can wear, since I am always going down to the laundry room or outside to the garden, or wherever, and cannot hear even the loudest timer when it goes off. Plus, timers usually only beep for a few seconds. I want something that will continue to beep until I turn it off, and that will count up once time runs so I can see just how long I've overbaked the cookies. I know Polder used to make on on a string/rope, but can't seem to find it. And I've about given up on one that counts up after time is done. Does anyone have a suggestion? PS: This has been a great blog. I'm tired just reading it! And I have extreme small appliance envy.

If it's any consolation, I had a can of scm that was just shy of a year past its expiration date. I decided to give it a shot in the bars I was baking. It did not seem as though the seal had been compromised, but the scm had darkened and developed a nasty off flavor. I suspect that it had gotten hot at some point(s) in its several years of sitting on the shelf. It was too yucky to use, albeit probably safe to eat. My friend's grandmother canned many foods, and she would keep them forever. She once ate some canned peaches that had turned nearly black and were from the 1970s (this was in the 90s). She lived to be 106.

That recipe is cacio e pepe (Saveur/Chow recently featured this recipe.) I'll second the carbonara. I cheat and just use bacon cuz it's cheaper and still tasty. Third, I will sometimes doctor marinara by adding lots of chopped olives and pretending it's puttanesca.

I have to nominate everything written by Sandra Lee. But there is no way to nominate just one book or author. There are too many church cookbooks (which must secretly be sponsored by Jello and Campbell's). I grew up eating "hotdish" and Jello salad made from these books that made the Moosewood Cookbook recipes seem downright heavenly. Really. I know the church cookbooks are still in frequent use because at my grandfather's funeral in 2006, I counted no fewer than 14 different Jello salads. For baking, yesterday I saw the worst book I have ever seen. It was a cupcake book and it looked like the decorations were done by the slow kindergarten class. I cannot believe any editor or publisher could have signed off on that one.

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll make one fresh pasta that will cook in no time and one dried, plus make ravioli that can be sauced and held in the oven for the time it takes the fresh pasta to cook and for me to assemble that dish. I hope that will do the trick.

I would like to serve a variety of pasta shapes and sauces for a dinner party (a pasta bar of sorts). Making the sauces ahead and either holding/reheating poses no challenges, but having multiple types of pasta does. I don't have enough large burners to make more than 2 varieties at once. Is there a practical method of parboiling/holding/reheating pasta that I can use at home? My biggest concerns are overcooking the pasta and having it stick. Suggestions? Or should I just limit it to the two I know I can do?

I've had the book for years and consider one of the most disappointing cookbooks I have purchased. I use recipes from the Cake Bible a lot, and held high hopes for this volume, since I am firmly on the pie side of the cake vs. pie debate. However, I found her pie crusts to be very difficult to work with, and the fillings, for the most part, underwhelming. Caveat: I was so disappointed in the few recipes that I tried that I pretty much gave up. I did not try more than a half dozen of the recipes. I keep the book as a reference but haven't even cracked it open in a year or so.

Just skimmed this thread today, so forgive me if this has been covered. I must respectfully disagree with Mr. Kinsey on the above. It's been shown that there is no clear correlation between amount of money spent on education and "desired" outcomes (i.e. test scores). As for how the U.S. compares with secondary education spending to other countries, here is this from the Nationmaster.comwebsite, emphasis added: # 1 Switzerland: $9,348.00 per student # 2 Austria: $8,163.00 per student # 3 United States: $7,764.00 per student # 4 Norway: $7,343.00 per student # 5 Denmark: $7,200.00 per student # 6 France: $6,605.00 per student # 7 Italy: $6,458.00 per student # 8 Germany: $6,209.00 per student # 9 Japan: $5,890.00 per student # 10 Australia: $5,830.00 per student So maybe we are not getting our "bang for the buck" out of our education dollars and perhaps we need to rethink where the money is being spent, but that is an argument for a different forum. My husband used to teach so I do have some insight on the problems in the education system, but neither of us ever felt low teacher pay or underfunding to be the major problems. Back to the food: when you consider that we subsidize, probably to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, the wrong kinds of foods for our school lunch program, so maybe it's not a bad idea that we should spend the true cost of the school lunches on better food for kids, and/or in training them to eat better for life. I live in agriculture country but even here most people do not live on farms or really know much about how food is grown, distributed, etc. And most probably don't care as long as they can have their Crapplebee's. (And then complain about how fat they are getting.) But perhaps we could use the education system to, you know, educate. If people make bad decisions because they don't care, there's nothing we can (or should, in my opinion) do. But if they are making bad choices because of ignorance, that is something that can be addressed. For the record, I think AW comes off as a preachy know-it-all nag, and I would rather not listen to her speak. I also have a huge chip on my shoulder for Lexus-driving, food co-op shopping, 'I only wipe my perfectly toned butt with organic unbleached toilet paper' types. But that doesn't mean AW's ideas are bad or wrong.

One of my first jobs was as a dishwasher in a mom and pop restaurant. On my first day (Mother's Day - it's a wonder I ever went back), someone put a large, sharp knife in the utensil soaking pan. In my haste to keep up with the onslaught of the dinner rush, I grabbed a large handful of utensils to throw in the tray to wash. The knife cut a huge gash in the base of my thumb. Not having any time to do much about it, I wrapped my thumb with a towel and proceeded to work one-handed until the bleeding stopped. Since that day no knives in the dishwater, by anyone. I was only 16 at the time and a lowly dishwasher, but I nevertheless chewed out the servers and cooks, not knowing who it was that put the knife in there (probably one of the cooks). I was promoted to cook after not very long - perhaps replacing the careless person (it was a LONG time ago so I don't remember). By the time I left that job, I had "asbestos" hands. Now I have namby-pamby office worker hands, but the scars remain LOL.

Local bars around here often serve free popcorn - woohoo. I think they feel the salt will make you thirsty. The local dive that I frequent does have a kitchen and makes surprisingly good burgers & steaks, but nothing fancy. Are the nibbles in your photo on the house? If so, I'm jealous. I don't expect much from most bars, especially after enjoying drinks at the Velvet Tango Room. Once you have that kind of experience, only the best will do I find, though, that if I am at a bar that is not totally slammed, most bartenders are willing to take gentle direction. In actuality I do most of my drinking at home. I'm usually the designated driver when we're out since I'm so "picky" (my husband's word - I prefer "discriminating"). To think that I used to swill Boone's Farm straight from the bottle!

Living in the grain belt, I buy locally milled flours. But since this IS Minnesota, most of the year fruits & veggies are not local. Plus I must have my coffee, orange juice, lemons and limes and that is not going to happen here. Dairy - I really don't know if all the dairy is local, but I suspect much of it is, even if not labeled so. I'd guess 80% local dairy (some imported cheeses). Schroeder dairy in the St. Paul area produces THE most excellent, non ultra-pasteurized heavy whipping cream. That stuff is so decadent I want to bathe in it. Meats - again, 80%+ since I buy from the local butcher shop that uses MN meat. Or so they say, anyway. Fruits & Veggies - maybe 40% in summer. 0% in winter. Breads & Grains: depends how far I can extend local. 150 miles: 10% 300 miles: maybe 90%? Much of the pasta sold in the U.S. is grown in ND/Canada. Seafood: what's that? DH doesn't like it, plus it's hard to find in my neck of the woods.

Was I the only one skeeved out by Nigella Lawson's comment regarding Robin's panna cotta? She said something like "when you poke panna cotta it should resemble the inner thigh of a 17th-century French courtesan." If the image brought to mind when I'm eating panna cotta is the pasty-fleshed plump thigh of someone who covers up her lack of regular bathing with a lot of perfume and wears lice-infested powdered wigs, I may never eat panna cotta again. I think Nigella's schtick is wearing thing, although I have never been a fan. Jennifer has basically given up. Unless a miracle occurs or someone else totally bombs, I predict she will be gone soon. I would be cool with Kevin or either Voltaggio brother winning, although I'm tired of Michael's "what Kevin cooks I cook on my day off" crap.

Hmmm, I can't say that I have. In fact, I've moved in the opposite direction, such as buying meats from a small local butcher shop that I figure is suffering due to other's cutbacks. Of course, my husband and I have not personally felt the recession pinch (he may yet, but I work for a bankruptcy attorney so I'm solid). For the most part I made assessments years ago, when my fortunes were not as rosy, about which items where brand mattered and which items where it made no difference. For example, I buy generic mandarin oranges, but I'm not about to touch the "white baking chips" instead of real white chocolate. I must say, though, in response to our increasingly distressed clients, I do watch the sales more closely and I clip coupons for items that I use. I'm also a hoarder, so I have taken advantage of mega sales that stores use to lure in shoppers.

I agree (especially about the lousy indexing and let's not forget the pitiful search engine), but there is one other book worth getting, Restaurant Favorites at Home. I haven't seen those recipes in any of the other cookbooks, and there are several really good recipes. Otherwise, NBR is the way to go.

Pork seems to be really cheap, perhaps in part due to the H1N1 scare (here in MN, it's verboten to call it "swine flu."). Last week I bought a pork shoulder for $.99/lb. Pork shoulder is quite versatile, you could braise it, make carnitas, pulled pork BBQ, etc. I made a meal for 4 for under $10 without trying, and we had lots of leftovers.

Fall-themed cake: white layer cake with classic buttercream.