MelissaH

It's been an interesting week. First of all, we took out the one ceiling light with circular fluorescent tubes and replaced it with one of the Ikea light fixtures. We learned that you only use the lamp holder to focus the light, not the bulb itself. Then we learned that the bulbs are available at our local home-improvement megamart, individually or as a box of 3 for about $10. The new light is nice, I think. It's definitely different from the old fluorescent. For one thing, the light's much warmer, both in color and in temperature. But I like that the light's on as soon as you flip the switch, and I really like that we were able to focus the lamps to the areas that need the light. We have one pointing at the table next to the fridge, another onto the dish-drying area, a third onto the new cart, and the last more or less down but towards the sink. You can actually do dishes and know that they're clean without having to turn on the over-the-sink light that always burns out! We oriented the fixture down the long axis of the kitchen. We'll probably replace the other light fixture in the very near future, and we're planning to install that one perpendicular to the first, across the short dimension of the kitchen, to get the lights aimed at the oven, cooktop, and the rest of the counter. We also picked up our rebuilt tandem wheel from the shop in Geneva, and instead of driving back home on the Thruway, we took back roads and paid a visit to an appliance store in Auburn, NY (home of Harriet Tubman's house). I'd wanted to go there because this store carries both GE Monogram and Viking appliances. When we got there, I learned that they also carry many other brands, including DCS, Dacor, and Thermador. We spent a little while just looking at everything, starting to figure out what we liked and didn't like. We also learned that if we go with a professional-style rangetop (as opposed to a consumer-style cooktop), we would probably not be able to put an oven underneath it. We also picked up a stack of "kitchen porn" to look through and drool over. It's shocking how expensive some of the electric convection wall ovens are! The third thing we did, kitchen-wise, was we spent a bit of time talking with a kitchen designer. I started by doing a search on the NKBA Web site for designers in our area. Their default search is apparently set for a 20 mile radius, but didn't turn up anything. I widened the search to 50 miles, and got some hits. I set my focus on Monday afternoon, because we were making a trip to Syracuse anyway to pick up a friend at the train station. I immediately crossed out the designers with Home Depot as the referral company, because we'd had bad experiences with them only trying to sell us the stuff that Home Depot sells, when we were thinking about redoing a previous kitchen. That pretty much narrowed down the list. One person on the list either didn't answer the phone or had a busy signal, so I also crossed that name off because I want to work with people who I can easily get a hold of, if the need arises. Then, I called someone who answered the phone, said they liked to cook, and was available that afternoon. So we headed down, and spent a worthwhile couple of hours there. One thing I found out right off the bat, just from some phone calls: nobody around here has any firsthand experience with Ikea cabinets. I attribute this to the lack of close Ikea stores. We'd started there for two reasons: first, it was easy to do especially with the kitchen planning software they make available; and second, we liked the combination of style, quality, and price. But the designer we talked to deals in some lines of cabinets, and that's obviously where this designer's profit comes from since our chat was free of charge. As we said, though, we aren't wedded to Ikea cabinets, and we're quite interested in seeing what else is available without us needing to drive five hours to New Haven and renting a truck for the trip home. In fact, one of the things that I'd wondered about was if the lack of customization options for the Ikea cabinets would make our kitchen trickier to plan or less user-friendly in the long run, especially since we're likely going to have at least two corners to deal with. Furthermore, as we learned, almost nobody around here wants to touch frameless cabinets; the contractors are much happier dealing with face frames. And my husband the handy guy pointed out to me the various ways in which face framed cabinets can be easier to deal with. In any case, we can price out the Ikea cabinets on our own, and we're both curious how this designer's cabinet options will compare. The designer has agreed to work on a per-hour basis if we choose in the end to go with the Ikea cabinets rather than his cabinets. The designer confirmed that separating the stovetop from the oven increases the price. This is good to know, because it means that we're likely going to be looking only at ranges, not at separates. But because we're probably not going to separate the two, we'll need to find something on which we like both stovetop and oven. I don't think this will be that big a deal, but it's good that we know this now before getting our hearts set on one brand cooktop and another brand oven. Unless we decide we'd be sorry if we only had one oven in the kitchen. Right now I can't think of many occasions we would have liked two ovens at different temperatures. (I certainly would like more oven space at times, but we've come up with ways to work around the spacial restrictions of a tiny oven.) But a second oven is probably something best considered in the original kitchen design rather than as a retrofit, which means we should make up our minds sooner rather than later! We also laid out the dimensions of the kitchen for the designer, explained some of what we're looking for and our likes and dislikes. We also brought along our latest proposal for a floor plan, and explained what we did and why. One thing I really liked was that this designer spent a lot of time listening to us, and seemed to understand that we don't know what our budget is yet but that price will likely be of some consideration so there may be places where we'd like to save money. (The one that comes to mind right away: countertops.) We should have some of the designer's plans within a month, and it will be interesting to see how those ideas differ from what we came up with on our own. Yesterday, after our visit and discussion, my husband came up with yet another iteration of our plan, based on the possibility of moving the sink away from the window...or possibly even adding a second window to the kitchen wall. He hasn't walked me through it (dinner with our friend last night, plus the Hell's Kitchen finale we'd Tivoed for her, kept us otherwise occupied), so I can't post it or say much about it yet. I'm all of a sudden really starting to question my own yearning for a pro-style range or rangetop. Yes, it's way cool. Yes, I think I'd probably get a lot of use out of it and having it would probably make me very very happy. (That in itself should be reason enough for doing it, I know.) But you do pay a rather hefty premium for getting a rangetop rather than simply a cooktop. I'm wondering if the happiness I'd derive is worth the extra $$$. And I'm also wondering how much I'd miss the extra BTUs you get from a rangetop that you don't get from a cooktop. But then again, it's not just my kitchen. Yesterday my husband cooked dinner. He had three burners going at once: one on which he cooked somen noodles, a second on which he steamed broccoli, and a third for searing tofu. Somewhere in there, one of the burners got used to toss everything together with a sauce he whipped up from oyster sauce and other stuff. Any time you're talking noodles and searing, that's two high-heat burners at once. And I'm not convinced that a cooktop will give us the heat we'd like for meals like this. I really like the idea of using whichever burner I want for whatever task I want, not necessarily being stuck with the noodle pot in the middle because that's where the highest heat is. And I think that last part dictates rangetop or pro-style range. Any thoughts on whether I'd be sorry for not going pro-style, when the dollar speaks and push comes to shove? MelissaH

Whoa! Are you saying that pea soup is supposed to be mushy? MelissaH

If I can ever find a copy of this book to look in, I'll see what he says. I sense an attempt at an interlibrary loan coming on.... MelissaH

Carswell, This sounds like plenty for me to go on. I'm intrigued with your findings about whole vs. split yellow peas, and why that has changed over the last 60 to 75 years or so. We have no problem finding split peas here, in green or yellow. (My husband contends that split pea soup must always be made according to his mother's recipe, with green peas. This is a recipe straight off a farm in Michigan, and I really hate the color of the finished soup, so I won't tell you what it reminds me of. ) I don't know that I've ever seen unsplit peas for sale, even in the market that sells Indian food. I think I'll probably try it with the split peas that are easy to find. Thanks a ton! MelissaH

Hello all, We were visiting with a friend last week. His parents were also there for a visit. One night we were all sitting around after dinner talking about the food that we remember our parents cooking. My friend's mom (she's about as old as my grandma, and of French-Canadian heritage) grew up in waaaay upstate NY, not far from the Quebec border. The thing she remembered most was French-Canadian yellow pea soup, made with whole (not split) yellow peas. Is this a classic soup that everyone in that part of North America grows up eating? What else goes into traditional yellow pea soup? Is there something else (bread? biscuits? crackers?) that always gets served alongside? Do the peas need to be unsplit, and am I likely to find unsplit yellow peas in not-as-far upstate NY? Educate me, please. If you're willing to share your recipe, I'm interested! Thanks, MelissaH

Good question, Fat Guy. (And apologies to shelora for hijacking the thread.) I suspect the answer will depend on who you ask. I always thought of a dumpling as having stuff inside some kind of a wrapper. I guess by that definition, even a stuffed grape leaf would count as a dumpling, although I never thought of a stuffed grape leaf (or stuffed cabbage) as a dumpling. But just now I asked my husband what he thinks of when I say "dumpling" and his immediate answer was "flour and water mixed together and dropped on top of a pot of beef stew." He then went to his recipe box and pulled out a card with the recipe written by his mother: He also added that these might not be dumplings in everyone's book, but may be better referred to as pot biscuits. My husband also reminded me of something available at every ice cream stand we visited in NE Ohio: apple dumplings, which consisted of an apple wrapped in pastry and baked till the pastry was done, then plopped into a bowl and served with a scoop of (usually) vanilla ice cream. I think the reason I never considered these as dumplings in my mind is the size: to me, a dumpling is small enough to eat in one or two bites. Therefore, stuffed grape leaves would still fit the definition. Did you have something specific in mind without a wrapper, Fat Guy? MelissaH

Pierogi, filled with potato and cheese, from St. Stephen's Church here in town. They make them for their annual St. Stephen's Festival (in only a couple of weeks!) and also for the Fridays during Lent. Is there any culture that doesn't do some form of dumpling? MelissaH

Well, if it's in really bad shape, you can sand or use steel wool to resurface, but then you have to reseason and begin a new life for the pan. ← I've also heard that if it's yucky dirty, you can jump-start the cleaning process by putting it in your oven for a self-clean cycle. However, my ovens have always been of the "self-clean? Clean it yourself!" variety, so I have no first-hand experience. MelissaH

Since moving into a house without a dishwasher, definitely the hands. With a dishwasher available, though, I prefer the food processor for the butter and dry ingredients. I'd still fold in the wet stuff by hand because I always overdo it by machine. It's much easier to wash hands than a food processor. Also, there's much less risk of cutting yourself on your own hands. MelissaH

I'm also very interested to see this. I love to bake, but have a wardrobe I need to continue to fit into. Therefore, things that can be made into finger food and brought into work are perfect for me, and I always like to do things that have an added "oooh" factor. MelissaH

My grandma roasted one for dinner when my sister (from Arizona) and I visited earlier this year. It was easy (no trimming required) and tasted divine. We don't see them in CNY. The closest we come in the supermarkets in Oswego are the Amish chickens, which I like better than Perdue, Tyson, or store brand. But it's getting harder and harder to find whole birds. MelissaH

Grrr! I got a rude awakening to reality last night, as I made dinner and remembered a big reason why the kitchen needs to be changed. I thought it was going to be a simple dinner, not much actual cooking because it's still hot: green beans similar to the ones in Dave the Cook's foodblog, served with polenta. I'd gotten the beans and a tube of premade polenta at the grocery store early in the afternoon, since we're looking in on an east sider friend's cat while she's on vacation this week and I was practically in the parking lot anyway. I figured I'd do the beans the way DtC did, except that instead of vegetable stock and creole mustard, I used a frozen cube of reduced chicken stock reconstituted with a bit of water and Dijon mustard. I also didn't want to open a lemon for one tablespoon of juice, so I used a little bit of an orange champagne vinegar imported from Trader Joe's. This dish gets cooked on the stovetop, in a big skillet with big surface area for maximum brownage. Therefore, I used my straight-sided NOT-nonstick pan, which conveniently also has a lid. In order to get the heat I'd need to make things brown, this pan got the back left burner of my stove, the only big burner that can do high heat. The problem arose when I realized that in order to fry the polenta in a touch of olive oil, to crisp up the slices, I'd need to use my big non-stick frying pan so all the slices would fit in the pan at the same time. The problem: the big frying pan really doesn't work well on either of the small front burners, and the only other big burner is the one with the thermostat, which is great for simmering but really lousy for anything over 250 degrees F. A new stove must be able to handle more than one large pan on high heat at the same time! In the end, I wound up doing the polenta in the toaster oven: covering the pan with foil so I didn't have to wash it, rubbing each side of the polenta slices with oil, and baking at about 400 degrees for about 15 or 20 minutes. It heated through, but it didn't get that nice crispy skin that frying or even grilling would have given it. We each got some of the green beans, a few wedges of a fresh tomato that needed to be used ASAP, and some polenta slices with shredded sharp cheddar melted over. It was about perfect for a hot night. But this cooking experience was a huge slap in the face, since over the weekend we were visiting our friends Marty and Linda in Connecticut, who completely redid their kitchen a couple of years ago. We each got a chance to cook in their beautiful new kitchen, and to remember that it can be a lot of fun to cook with friends! Marty and Linda's kitchen is more or less the same shape as ours, even though it doesn't appear that way at first glance. The big difference is that instead of having one of the short sides open onto a dining room, one of the long "walls" is not there at all, and the kitchen and living room are one big space. So instead of just a countertop and wall cabinets, they have a large island. The living room side of the island has four stools for seating, and underneath the overhang are three large two-door cabinets used to store games, cat food, computers when company comes, and the like. That all works well. Between the other side of the island and the kitchen wall, they have the main aisle of the kitchen, which feels about as long as ours is. The island has no cabinets, only drawers. There are shorter drawers for smaller stuff, medium-size drawers for mixing bowls etc., and a really tall (double-height, actually looks like two drawers) one for the KitchenAid mixer. There's a single "wall" oven in the island as well (GE Profile convection). (There's a second oven in the house: the original range from the kitchen was relocated to the laundry room, and plugged into the outlet not needed since the gas dryer was installed. When Linda baked her wedding cake layers, we needed both ovens.) Against the wall side, there's a bunch more drawers, this time to hold the dishes, silverware, etc. There are also a few wall cabinets, which mainly hold glasses and mugs of various kinds, as well as one wall cabinet under the sink. The over-the-sink cabinets have glass fronts, but everything else is recessed-panel cherry. Against this wall are the sink (no disposal to help keep the gods of the septic system happy), the dishwasher just right of the sink, and the Viking 6-burner rangetop. Under the rangetop are still more drawers, deep ones for pots and pans. One short end of the kitchen is open, with space to walk between the island and the wall of windows, beneath the three skylights that do wonders for the lighting during the day. At the other end of the kitchen, if you walk straight through from the living room, you pass (in order) the door leading down to the basement on the right, the door of the pantry closet on the right, the island on the left, the microwave/fridge landing counter/phone/more storage space on the right, and (simultaneously) the counter over the dishwasher on the left and the fridge on the right before going through a doorway into the dining room. The layout of the kitchen seems to work. There's plenty of room for two people to cook, although if two people need counter prep space at the same time, they need to use opposite ends of the island because there isn't really another big surface. All along the edge of the island, they put power strips so there's always an outlet nearby. (The computers plug into these outlets also, even though they get used from the stove. In retrospect, outlets on the other side of the island would have been a good idea too.) The rangetop and oven were purposely offset from each other, so that you don't open the oven door into the way of someone else cooking on the stove. A third person can be standing at the sink, loading the dishwasher or hand-washing the dishes that don't go in the dishwasher. Lots of people can be in the living room chatting with the cooks, either sitting on the stools on the other side of the island and doing little prep tasks or sitting on other furniture with drinks. It's just not so easy for the dishwasher to be unloaded and dishes to be put away if someone's working at the island on the kitchen side. The aisle between the island and the wall is 48 inches wide, just like the aisle in our kitchen is likely to be. All countertops are at standard height in Marty and Linda's kitchen. The kitchen floor is hardwood, as are all the other floors in the living spaces of the house. It looked wonderful in this house, and was soft enough that my feet didn't start to hurt halfway through cooking. But I didn't like the part about being careful not to drip water on the floor, or being sure to mop up any drips with a towel after they happened, or just keeping a paper towel on the floor to push along with your foot and pick up the droplets you inevitably notice long after they've happened. I still think I'd be happier with a vinyl, linoleum, or other floor in my kitchen, even though we will eventually have wood throughout the rest of the top level of the house. Linda commented that she, too, loved the way the wood looked and felt, but if she were to do it over she'd consider a tile of some sort, just for the aisle between island and kitchen wall, to give one less thing to think about. Oh, the wonderful undermounted sink! It's stainless, with a small shallow bowl and a bigger deep bowl large enough to hold a cookie sheet! No rim to catch the crumbs you sweep in, or the water you splatter on the counter! The faucet is relatively high-rise, with a single-handle control on the left and a separate sprayer on the right. It felt comfortable to work with, and didn't require any thought to know which way was on, or hot, or cold, unlike some faucets I've seen. Since we have city sewer rather than septic system gods, I'd also do a disposal. The countertops throughout the kitchen are a granite-look Corian. I'm curious if the price has dropped at all since I heard that Corian's patent protection expired. I loved having a large area without noticeable seams on the island. It looks as good today as it did the first time I saw it two years ago. But I also noticed that the countertops felt warm to the touch, not cool like stone does. This was pertinent to my weekend plans, as I'd brought everything I needed to make a cherry pie, and this was my crust-rolling surface. I was careful to keep my butter cold, and everything worked fine, with one caveat. I'd been warned that when you turned on the oven, the top of the island also heated up a bit. So I made sure not to turn on the oven until my entire pie was constructed and moved elsewhere. All the sources I've found say that Corian and other solid surfaces cost about the same as real stone, and if that's still true when we're ready to remodel, I think I'd be happier with real stone. Or cheap laminate until we can afford real stone. Their kitchen lighting scheme makes things easy to see, from what I could tell. (This time of year, there's enough daylight coming through the windows and skylights that we didn't need to test the lighting too much.) They have undercabinet lights under the wall cabinets, as well as a light above the sink. Over the island are recessed cans: incandescents closer to the rest of the kitchen, and halogens for the side with the stools. Linda's primary concern was to have enough light to see everything without having danglies from the ceiling over the island in the way of the view. For me, danglies would be less of a concern, as long as they were high enough to not get in the way. But since we can't do an island in our kitchen, we won't have to worry about that. (Something we will need to be concerned with, though: if we're getting rid of the soffit,we'll have cabinet doors just about all the way up to the ceiling, which means that we'll need to keep lights out of the way of the doors.) If we don't have wall cabinets all the way around, we'll have some places where we can't put undercabinet lighting, so we'll need a different option there. The lighting is something I'm less comfortable thinking about, and I'm guessing we'll try to find a consultant to (get ready to groan now!) shed some light on the subject. A stove like theirs would have made yesterday's dinner much easier. They have a 36-inch Viking hood over the stove, which they say is easy to clean. (We didn't need it.) The oven also did a nice job on the pie, although Linda noted that in order to get baking times in recipes to work out, the oven needed to be set 10 degrees higher than the recipe instructed. (The oven's thermostat is spot-on according to every thermometer they've stuck inside, and once it's up to temperature, the oven stays within a couple of degrees of where it's set. I wonder if many recipes are written for ovens without such perfect thermostats, hence the difference between what this oven needs to be set for and what the recipe says to use.) I particularly liked being able to turn around and set the baked pie anywhere I wanted on the cooktop to cool, and it sat level and wasn't in the way. Now, in our galley kitchen, an island is impossible. All our workspace will be along the walls. This means that we have a choice of where put our power strips on the wall OR just below the counter overhang. I'm sure now that we will not be able to put the refrigerator opposite the dishwasher, because there won't be room for anything else if the fridge door is open. (It's not uncommon for one of us to start clearing the table and the other to be putting leftovers away at the same time.) For us, wall covering choice will be crucial, because we'll have so much of it along the back of our work area. Color? About the only things that are set for sure are the off-white fridge we're keeping and my dark blue KitchenAid mixer (the color was on sale when my mom bought it for my birthday one year), which I'd like to be able to leave on the countertop. I'm not a big appliance garage type; why should I hide the facts that I like to bake and we both use our kitchen? I'm about at the point where I'd like to find a kitchen designer and see if there are other things we aren't considering, and to start to get a handle on our budget for both the "money-is-no-object" and the "we-haven't-won-the-lottery-yet" versions. Linda cautioned us to be sure that our kitchen designer actually cooks, because they found some who don't and consequently had some really silly ideas. I did a quick search on the NKBA Web site, and found 13 certified designers within a 50-mile radius. If you're in central NY and have used a kitchen designer, please PM me and let me know who you used and whether you liked them. The two worst things right now are knowing that much of this process is likely to come to a screeching halt when the semester starts at the end of the month and I'm teaching new-to-me classes full-time, and knowing that I have to live with the old kitchen another year or so. On the other hand, a full-time paycheck will be nice to have when those budget estimates start to come in. MelissaH

It's not just the midwest. All the pictures of fish and other seafood made me really hungry for things I can't get in small-town central NY. Thanks for showing all the good food, and the creative ways to cook it. MelissaH

This is where pizzas on the grill can be great: everyone gets their own, with whatever they choose on it! MelissaH

We made some purchases for the kitchen last weekend at the Ikea in New Haven. Our initial foray to Ikea happened before we moved from northeast Ohio to New York. We were thinking at the time about our previous house's kitchen. We didn't know much about the cabinets available from Ikea, other than they seemed to be much less expensive than other options. So we spent probably 45 minutes playing with the setups in the Pittsburgh store: looking carefully at cabinet doors and drawer construction, seeing how the drawers slid, checking out the sizes available, opening and closing cabinets and drawers (many many many times, not always gently!) and in general investigating robustness and quality. We liked what we saw, and have also heard positive things from both Fine Homebuilding and Consumer Reports magazines as well as eGullet, especially with respect to getting a lot of bang for the buck. So when we moved into this house and knew we'd be redoing the kitchen, our first thought was to go with Ikea cabinets. This time around, we didn't do too much with cabinets, other than pick up a new price list. We'll see if we get the order in before the prices change upward again next summer. But we did very much want to look at kitchen carts, to give us a bit more surface and storage area and allow us to remove the semicircular shelves at the end of the existing counter. There were two carts that we considered, but this is the one we ultimately went with. We liked that it had two drawers, two shelves, two wheels, a solid-feeling top, and a box that would slide nicely into the back of our car. Shortly before we left, one of the two ceiling lights in the kitchen started to go fritzy on us, refusing to turn on about half the time unless you gave it a hard tap. We were afraid that would happen: those circular fluorescent tubes are quite pricey, and we don't like the light they give. So we also explored the lighting available at Ikea, to see if we could find replacements for one or both of the ceiling lights to get us through the next year, and then either stay in the renovated kitchen or relocate to another part of the house afterward. We wound up with two of these at a price tag we could swallow. We liked the directability of the lights, and if these don't wind up in the new kitchen, we can easily see them downstairs in the family room. Our other kitchen-related purchases were cutting boards. On that initial kitchen investigation trip a number of years ago, we'd gotten a slew of plastic cutting boards in multiple colors, and some of them are now nicked up enough that we'd prefer not to use them anymore. We weren't able to find the three-packs of cutting boards they'd sold once upon a time, but we did find pairs sold in black, and a big-and-little set in white. In the scratch-and-dent area we also found a nice chunk of butcher block for $10. We didn't see anything wrong with it, other than the shrink-wrap was torn open. The surface is perfect. If we don't keep it for ourselves, we'll give it to my MIL because her wooden bread board has split and needs to either be reglued or replaced. Later today I'll give it a coat of oil. (We would have liked to have found another board for her like the one I have, shaped like a Z so it hooks on to the countertop and then has a little bit of a backsplash, but apparently those aren't being made anymore.) Yesterday night, my husband took out the semicircular shelves. They surprised me by coming out in one piece: they'd been attached to a big piece of plywood, which was then attached to the outside wall of the cabinet. So we exposed a finished surface, rather than leaving behind ugly marks where the shelves had been. We also finally opened up a small corner that's been collecting dust bunnies for who-knows-how-long, and made it possible to actually get at the valve controlling that baseboard heater. Did I say that nothing had been done to the kitchen in 40 years? I lied! When we took out the shelves, we saw a small piece of what was probably the original floor of the kitchen. Thank heavens we don't see more of it! Here's the cart, put together and in its place alongside the cabinets. (The butcher block is resting on top. We haven't organized anything on it yet; this is just where a few things landed.) We also haven't quite figured out if the cart will have a place in the new kitchen, if it will find itself elsewhere in our house, or if we'll find it a new home. We haven't gotten the new lights in yet, since we'd like to wait for a cooler day before tackling a job that may require some work in the attic. But I'm excited about the possibility of finally being able to shed some light on my counter! MelissaH

The supermarket we typically shop at gets their fish in on Mondays and Fridays. Other supermarkets have fish counters, but this is the only one that gets fish delivered on Fridays. I live in a town of 18,000 people with no fewer than 5 Catholic churches. During Lent, the line for fish snakes all the way through the produce, nearly to the customer service desk. Fridays are a great day to buy fish at this store, especially during Lent, because you know it's going to be fresh. MelissaH

Whoa: Danny Boy is gone? When I worked in North Olmsted, that used to be one of my favorite lunch spots: get something yummy from the deli, and a nice piece of fruit to go with, and head down the hill to one of the picnic tables along the Emerald Necklace. My other favorite lunch spot from those days, the one relevant to this conversation: Phnom Penh, the Cambodian restaurant on Lorain just west of 130th. Once again, it's a bit of a hike from Cleveland Heights, but as long as you're in the mood for noodles of some kind and as long as you're not looking for tablecloths and candles, it's nearly unbeatable. Have I just moved too long ago? MelissaH

vitamin C powder - from your local natural foods store, or drugstore ← More nitpicking here: vitamin C is not citric acid. Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, and citric acid is citric acid. They're both carboxylic acids, but they are not the same compound! If you're looking to buy citric acid, you may see it sold as "sour salt." I found it (sold as "citric acid") in the canning supplies at my local orchard market. If you're looking to buy vitamin C, your best bet is probably to look in with the rest of the supplements. MelissaH

Calling all geeks here: My husband just got a new toy: a refractometer, ostensibly for his homebrew habit. This is a gizmo that measures the density of liquids: you put a couple of drops on a glass surface at the end of a tube, close a "door" over the top to make a thin layer, point it at the light, look through the eyepiece at the other end, and read the density in degrees Brix off the scale. Homebrewers care about density of liquids because by comparing the density of the wort (unfermented beer) with the finished product, one can determine the approximate percent alcohol in the beer. But...it struck me the other day that this refractometer might also be a great tool to check the density of sorbet mixes, to see that the sugar content is high enough that the sorbet won't be icy but low enough that the sorbet will actually freeze. Has anyone out there used a refractometer for sorbet purposes? Will this refractometer (reads from 0 to 32 degrees Brix, I think) measure in the range I'd need? And will my husband be upset with me for prostituting his beermaking tool for other purposes? You don't have to answer that last question. Thanks, MelissaH

Yup. The original recipe (I put a link to the recipe from Fine Cooking in the blog) called for crushed amaretti cookies. I didn't have any amaretti, but I did have some sliced white bread that was getting just a little dry. I buzzed a slice in my spice grinder to turn it to crumbs, and used that instead. No problems with juice sogging my galette, even though the plums I'd used were exceedingly juicy. However, what I did notice was that I missed the little bit of nuttiness and sweetness the cookies would have added, especially since the recipe didn't call for any additional sweetener in the filling and the crust wasn't particularly sweet. If I'd had other crunchy cookies on hand, their crumbs might have been a good choice in addition to or in place of the breadcrumbs. Now that I think about it, some gingersnaps would have been a nice addition to the galette I made. Guess that means I'll have to try it again! MelissaH

BCinBC, thanks for answering for me. I'd add that by boiling your water, you're also de-aerating it, and in my opinion, de-aerated water tastes kind of flat, sometimes almost metallic. An activated charcoal filter on its own should remove the nasties. MelissaH

We paid a visit to the New Haven Ikea store yesterday afternoon. It was a semi-directed wander: we had a list of items we wanted to look at, but that didn't stop us from perusing other sections of the store. We parked the car yesterday shortly before 1 PM. Yesterday was a Friday, and we really wanted to avoid the I-95 traffic rush leaving NYC for points east, so we figured that we had two hours to do everything inside and then make tracks for the infamous Q bridge before the world got there. Our first impression was that it's a BIG store, bigger than the one in Pittsburgh. But then again, our last visit to the Pittsburgh store was a year and a half ago when we were back for a visit, so maybe I'm just remembering it wrong. But just like the Pittsburgh store, it was laid out clearly upstairs, and things were about where I'd expected them to be...which meant that we had to walk through the whole upstairs to look at the things we wanted to see. We probably spent more time in the sofa section than anywhere else, trying to find something that we liked and fit our budget, but was also comfortable to back and butt; we eventually discovered a nice-looking loveseat that fit the bill if you double up on the back cushions, but the tag said it was out of stock. (The chair and the full-size sofa were there, however.) We then moved on to the relevant section for this post: kitchens. We saw probably six or eight different kitchen "rooms" set up with a variety of cabinets, carts, and countertops. Every single sink we saw had a totally useless faucet design: little tiny knobs set right up close to the faucet so you'd bang your knuckles on the spigot every time, and you'd completely slime everything if your hands were gooped up with chicken slime. They also had a selection of kitchen carts to play with (the real reason for our trip this time) and a corner with knobs, drawer pulls, etc. But we only saw three people working in the kitchen area, and they all seemed to be occupied helping the same person. I found a selection of kitchen planning goodies, including a selection of last year's kitchen catalogs and a list of this year's prices for the various doors available. I finally got the attention of one of the workers and asked about the new catalogs, but was told that they were late, and probably won't arrive until the end of August. We picked up a copy of the old kitchen catalog, because old with old prices is better than nothing. I can't speak to the kitchen planning skills of the employees, since we didn't try them out. They seemed so busy that I hesitated to ask them about anything nonessential. That was all we looked at upstairs. Downstairs, we got two six-packs of flutes ($4.50 each) and some plastic cutting boards to replace ones that are badly nicked. We picked up a mirror to go in our bathroom, and some other little odds and ends. We went to the information desk to ask where to find the kitchen cart we chose, since it hadn't had a tag upstairs. At the info desk, we also confirmed that the loveseat we liked was out of stock. After retrieving the box for the cart, we checked out the scratch-and-dent "As Is" area and found a nice chunk of butcher block, cheap apparently only because it had torn plastic wrapping. And on our way out of scratch-and-dent, we found the area that held the chair/loveseat/sofa we liked. We saw the cushions, cushion covers, and much to our surprise the loveseat area was full with boxes that matched the loveseat number. My husband went back to the info desk to be sure it was the same thing, and once we confirmed it we loaded one of them, along with cushions and covers, onto a cart as well. Finally we checked out, and the final bill was less than I expected, always a nice surprise. I was able to sweet-talk them out of a new 2006 catalog, since we'd driven six hours to get there. And finally we loaded up the car and got out of the store and across the bridge, just ahead of the main part of the rush. My assessment: not a bad store; I wish it were closer to my house. But it looked like they desperately needed to have more workers in the kitchen section, so you don't feel like you're imposing if you need to ask a question. The setups in the rooms are a good way to see lots of different things, but again it would have been nice to see a better-staffed area with workers flocking to help as they did in other areas of the store. MelissaH

Dinner's over, and all that's left to do is the dishes. I suspect they won't all fit in the dish drainer, so I'll do one batch tonight and let whatever's left wait till morning. Anne and her mom Jeanne arrived just as we were setting out the munchies (chips and guac) on the table. We talked a little shop and a little about teaching, as Jeanne's a high school teacher. We munched and chatted until the beeper on the thermometer went off, letting us know that the chicken was cooked through. Rewind to this morning: my husband put the chicken (leg quarters, on sale for $0.69/lb this week) in to marinate this morning. He made the marinade from a quarter cup of the commercial limeade, some freshly squeezed lime juice (one lime), a chopped up onion, four cloves of garlic, half a teaspoon each of dry thyme,marjoram, and Mexican oregano, S&P, all buzzed with the blender-on-a-stick until reasonably smooth. Marinade went into a plastic bag with four leg quarters this morning, and stayed there in the fridge till evening. The chicken we get around here is standard mass-market chicken. We don't see kosher chicken, free-range chicken, or anything else special. Price Chopper does carry some Amish chicken, but lately they've only had parts of Amish birds, and on the occasions they've had whole birds, they've been big (over 4 pounds) and I really prefer something on the order of 3 to 3.5 pounds, especially if I'm just cooking for the two of us. Bigger than that, they don't cook as well when you rub them with spices and sit them on a beer can on the grill. We had a green salad to go with our chicken (this was actually a cheat, since everything but the tomatoes from today's marketing came out of a bag of greens) and also a corn and black bean salad. The idea for this salad came from one of the Moosewood cookbooks. It also contains green onions, regular onion, and cilantro, and is dressed with olive oil, orange juice, and a bunch of spices I don't remember off the top of my head. The original was a hefty salad that could easily serve as the main dish of a meal because it had rice in it as well (probably brown rice if it came from a Moosewood cookbook, but we've always used white basmati). We decided to leave out the rice, both to be more Atkins-friendly and also because we didn't want to have that much food. The chicken came off the grill looking absolutely scrumptious. During the last bit of cooking, my husband sauced them with a bit of Frontera brand tomatillo salsa, and we served a bowl of salsa to add. It gave the bird a nice smoky flavor, and just the right amount of kick. (I like that in Spanish, there are separate words for thermal-hot and spicy-hot; we no longer simply say that something is hot but specify whether it's caliente or picante.) To drink with dinner, we opened a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. And for dessert, we ate plum tart. It probably could have used a little sugar in the filling, since the bread crumbs (unlike the amaretti in the original recipe) didn't contribute any sweetness. Despite my misgivings about the wetness of the dough, the crust turned out tasty, reasonably flaky, and baked all the way through. I do think that next time I'd try reducing the water a little so it doesn't look as scary. I was concerned about the amount of juice the fruit gave off, because it looked really runny in the oven. The breadcrumbs did their job of soaking up liquid, and the extra few minutes of baking time to help brown the crust also helped to keep the filling from oozing. A little sugar inside might have helped with that also, to turn the juice into a syrup. However, we all agreed that despite my original misgivings about the crust, it was a good container for these plums. And to drink with dessert, we had a special treat, brought by Jeanne from New York City: Moët & Chandon! We drank a toast to buying new houses (Anne's), and selling old ones (ours). Thus ended a pleasant evening, spent with friends. Two random notes to tie things up: *I haven't made sour cherry soup yet, but I won't forget about it either. Stay tuned on that one. I'll be making a cherry pie this weekend, to share with friends. *Some of you may remember that I still have two eggplants from last week's farmer's market. I'm leaning toward making them into a salad for tomorrow: cutting them into chunks, cooking the chunks (bake, boil, or steam), and then marinating the chunks in some kind of flavorful dressing. I also have two yellow squash left, which may also find their way into this salad. This brings my blog to an end. Thanks for letting me share a week of my summer with you, and thanks for reading my rambles. It's been a privilege for me. In retrospect, I suppose the subtitle could have been "Local markets, and imported goodies." I like to make the best of what I can find...and find places where I can get the rest. This is one of the nicest small towns I've lived in, and it's been a joy to show you some of it. As my "parting shot" I leave you with one of Oswego's other famous products: a sunset. MelissaH In memory of Tom Sullivan, who enjoyed many meals around my family's table.

I guess that means you're heading my way somewhere in the near future! ← Yup, we'll be on our way to the Netherlands and Belgium in January, during the break between semesters! We very much enjoyed our bicycle trip last summer (Flanders and Zeeland), and can't wait to get back. We won't be bringing the bike in January, though; we'll be acting as tour guides for another faculty member, his daughter, and my in-laws! The January trip is to firm up details for another trip that will happen in May just after graduation: the study-abroad portion of a class my husband will be teaching. My husband and the other faculty member will be taking a class of 15 to 25 (probably) students to Belgium, to give them the experience of a different country with a different culture. I'll probably be along on that trip as well, as a chaperone. My husband's looking forward to all the beer, but I'm looking forward to the cheese more than anything. MelissaH

If we were going to have mud season, it would have happened today, with all the rain that's come down in the last 24 hours. Weatherwise, we're probably best known for the lake-effect snowstorms (January 2004: starts snowing Wednesday afternoon, finally quits late Friday night, 54 inches in our driveway, 80 inches in a town 20 miles southeast of here) but we firmly believe that the 4-letter word about weather is not snow so much as wind, as documented by the weather station on campus (look in particular in about the middle of the page, 15 October 2003). Although nobody will talk about it much, there are certainly some town/gown issues. They mainly revolve around the fact that seemingly all the new people here are gown-related in one way or another (except the ones who came to work at the power plants). It's subtle: little things like people not connected with the university will choose to do business with other non-university people, given a choice. Most of the townsfolk seem to have families who have been here for many many generations---and this was the first freshwater port in the United States! It's such a small and close-knit town that it can be a little difficult for those of us who move in from elsewhere to break into society. What probably doesn't help is that campus is on the outskirts of the city limits, somewhat separate from downtown and most of the shopping. But the college community has been remarkably welcoming, and I'm still somewhat astounded that I can count as my friends not just people from the science departments, but also English, music, and history (among others). That's a new experience for me, since I've been at places where the chemists wouldn't even talk to the biologists! We are not fisherpeople. I've never felt the need to prove myself smarter than a fish. But the best fish market in town is the local supermarket, and I've never seen walleye sold here or in Syracuse. You don't even see a lot of fish sold in restaurants in town, and the last commercial fishing boat from Oswego now resides in the local marine museum. I think if you want fresh fish, you either need to know someone who fishes, or catch it yourself. We've looked into what it would take to get fishing licenses, but to get the really good stuff like walleye, we'd also need to get a boat. At this point, I'd rather remodel the kitchen. It's a pretty amazing sight in the fall during the salmon run: both banks of the river are shoulder-to-shoulder people! MelissaH