srhcb

"devotion" may indeed be the operative word in this discussion? In the original post of this thread I was quoted on the subject of my own Mother's sudden abandonment of cooking upon the death of my Father last year. I've been hoping elaborate on this aspect of the discussion but struggled to find the right words. Your use and description of "devotion" as it applies to cooking is giving me a lot to think about and, hopefully, to soon write about. THANX SB

Thanks! I'll forward this to my cousin Dr Mike, a surgeon, who had hours of fun last Easter season with the Jousting Peeps! SB

I'm kind of a contrarian on the subject of knives. While I'd love to have a set of Kyocera Ceramic Knives, the truth is that for general home use the plain old Chicago Cutlery are the ones I use 95% of the time. Just wash and dry them immediatley after use and keep the edge straight and they're virtually indestructable. A magnetic strip is the best way to store them, but I just keep them upside-down in the wooden block. SB (use the money you save to take Mom out to dinner!)

On a personal level, being the primary cook in my household, I get to make what I want, (ie: last night we had chicken cacciatore because I felt like making it), but I prepare it in a fashion I know my partner will enjoy rather than how I would fix it for myself, (ie: no whole mushrooms or peppers). On a more macro level, I think even professional cooks, aside from their obvious pecuniary interest, cook to please others. It may be something about providing others with life-giving nourishment that evokes a more personal level of involvement than there is in other professions, (the medical field being an obvious exception). So cooking is primarily giving, or at least sharing. In a metaphysical sense, cooks might believe that if "you are what you eat", then they are what we feed them. SB (excellent questions)

Encouraged by this thread, I decided to have a glass of milk tonite with some Girl Scout Shortbread Cookies. I even chilled a glass in the freezer before filling it with 2%. I still don't like it. My dogs did though. SB (will stick to coffee)

From (click): "Bees get ready for winter by storing food, kicking out male bees, and sealing the hive. (Male bees don't do any work, and so they are a drain on resources.)" Maybe those "lazy" male bees weren't so expendable afterall? SB (gotta get back to work! Hate to get home and find my "hive sealed" )

I'm afraid that, being the offspring of Depression Era parents and grandparents, I'm of the "waste not, want not" school-of-minute-amounts-of-food-storage. This applies not only to tomato paste but nearly everything else. Whether it's .125 grams of saffron or 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour left over, I have to save it. The introduction of disposable food storage containers has futher aggrevated the situation. My refrigerator and cupboards contain literally dozens of the little four-ounce (1/2 cup) "Mini-Rounds", many less than one-third full. The little containers are, of course, also perfect for storing small amounts of leftovers! I often plan my meals in advance with the express intent of using up as many Mini-Rounds full of remaindered ingredients and leftovers as possible. This often results in very creative useage, with varied degrees of success. For instance, I've incorporated small amounts of tomato paste into dishes as varied as beef gravy and chocolate cake! SB (of course I wash and re-use the "disposable containers too ) PS: Hey Look! After countless futile attempts I finally got my Left-Handed-Flying-Pink-Pig posted as an avatar!

Sometimes when I'm lazy (which is often) I freeze whatever is left of the can scooped out into and wrapped up really tight in plastic wrap to avoid freezer burn then put that in another, thicker plastic bag wrapped tight. Yes, lazy but slightly neurotic. Then when I want a spoonful (which is usually all I use anyway) I take it out and pull out a big sharp knife and chop off what I want from the frozen thingie. ← If you buy tomato paste in cans that you can cut both ends off, just remove one end, push on the other end to extrude just as much paste from the can as you require. (it works like ice cream Push-Ups) You can then cover the exposed paste with the removed end and wrap the whole works in foil for refrigeration or freezing. SB (just be careful not to cut your fingers on the sharp can lid edges )

Last night, inspired by the discovery of some saffron I'd forgotten I had, and the receipt of a gift of some preserved lemons, I sat down at my computer and Googled up a recipe for English Saffron Bread. The recipe went together very well. I omitted the (optional) currants, and used finely diced preserved lemon in place of rind. I had to add a little extra flour, but it did ptoduce a nice smooth dough. Since my kitchen is located just off the garage, it can be quite drafty in the winter so I use my electric oven as a proofing box. I turn it on for about 45 seconds, then leaving the light on holds the temperature at right around eighty degrees. I checked after about twenty-five minutes and thought the dough was rising too slowly, so I decided to give it a warm-up. I clicked the oven on, and went to let my dogs outside. A few minutes later I smelled not "The exotic scents of saffron and lemon will fill your kitchen", as predicted by the recipe header, but .... burning plastic! I rushed to the kitchen, hoping it maybe it was just the plastic "shower-cap" bowl cover melting, and it wasn't too late to save the bread! No such luck. The plastic bowl itself had melted around the dough ball and was beginning to drip down the racks. The good news, aside from not having started a fire, is that I'd only made one half the recipe, (one loaf), so I have enough saffron left to try again. Not tonite though. I have to clean the oven. SB (it was a lovely color too!

GF likes milk, and I use it for cooking and baking, (although I prefer dried milk for baking), but I can't drink it plain. I don't care for the "mouth-feel". SB

I doubt if wrong-handed spoons directly cause many deaths either, but if you're a left-handed person who has worked in a restaurant kitchen, or a right-handed person who had to work with a southpaw, you probably can recall occasions where the thought crossed your mind. this article provides some shocking details on health risks of being left-handed, along with some little known advantages: "Statistics show left-handed people are more likely to be schizophrenic, alcoholic, delinquent, dyslexic, and have Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as mental disabilities. They're also more likely to die young and get into accidents." But, then again: "For example, when they singled out the Dioula of Burkina Faso in West Africa, where the murder rate was only 0.013 murders per 1,000 residents each year, they found only 3.4 percent of the population were left-handers. Data from the Eipo of Indonesia, meanwhile, where there are three murders per 1,000 people each year, show 27 percent of the population is left-handed." SB (thinking of exporting left-handed spoons to Eipo) PS: Did you know that knives are sharpened either right of left handed?

For a 3 1/2 pound roast I would: Remove exces fat Brown it, season it Cover the bottom of the pan with vegetables (celery/onion/carrot etc) Add a little (1/2") liquid (broth .... Set meat atop vegetables, place small piece of foil over meat Bring liquid to a boil, cover pan, place in preheated 400 degree oven, immediately reduce temp setting to 250-275 Roast for about 3 hrs Allow meat a 15 min rest before carving Beef will get more more tender only up to a certain point, at which time the muscle fibre contracts and it and gets tough again. If you leave it longer it finally will fall apart, although it has pretty much has lost it's flavor by then. SB

when .... you become engrossed in topics like This One! SB

Most important: How much did it weigh?

This is the internet. We have "virtual Italians"! SB (or e-Italians )

What's the philosophy of zucchini? ← I'm just suspicious about how anything so easy to grow could actually be that good? I doubt if zucchini themselves have any particular philosophy. SB (perhaps they're libertines )

Perhaps that has something to do with the stereotypical Italian trait of being argumentative? But I will point out that people from Eastern European countries, with their historically ever-shifting and overlapping boundries, do comment quite pointedly on even minor infractions in traditional dishes to the effect that the food in question is most assuredly not Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Polish, Albananian, Bulgarian etc. SB (believe me, I've heard it often enough! )

Maybe that's what differentiates "history" from "heritage"; the former being factual and constantly evolving, and the later being personal and static? SB (believes both views are appropriate)

After reviewing this thread I've decided that the only two vegtables I really don't like are okra and eggplant. In both cases it's more of a textural than a taste issue, and I'm willing to grant that I may never have had okra properly prepared. I don't care for zuchinni either, but that's grounded on more of a philosophical than a culinary basis. SB

You can bake eggs in the shell if you set your oven temp to about 160 degrees. SB (why you would want to, I don't know )

GF will happily eat cold cereal any time of day. If I wasn't there to cook she would probably live on it. That, and Peanut Butter Cups. SB (never touches the stuff himself)

I've always liked the plain shortbreads. SB

There's no confirmation yet on a companion tv series for the new book, but I've contacted WGBH, the Boston station that produced his other series, to see if anything is planned. SB (hoping )

Of course, while Jacques Pepin truly is from another place, he somehow seems timeless. Ever since reading about it in his autobiogtaphy I've been unable to reconcile the information that he actually read the original manuscript of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking with the fact that it doesn't seem like he could possibly be that old? SB (what a full and wonderful life he's had! )

Jacques Pepin's latest book Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook is going to be available soon. From the Amazon blurb: Of the 20-plus cookbooks Jacques Pépin has written, Chez Jacques is his most personal and engaging. Now starring in his tenth PBS series, Pépin ranks among America’s most beloved cooking teachers, and this book shows us why. The book’s 100 recipes—for soups and appetizers, main courses, side dishes, and desserts—are Pépin’s own favorites among the thousands he has created over a lifetime of cooking. Using readily available ingredients and relying upon familiar techniques, these are the dishes he makes when preparing food at his Connecticut home. But Chez Jacques is more than a collection of well-liked recipes; it’s also a captivating sentimental journey. Each dish is introduced by a recollection—of picking dandelion greens for a spring salad, of buying fresh eggs from the local farmer—that invites readers to share in the traditions and rituals of Pépin’s most intimate circle. This treasury of great food, lore, and memory is exquisitely illustrated with a sampling of Pépin’s paintings, as well as hundreds of color photographs of the finished dishes and of Pépin in all his “natural habitats”—pitching boules with a group of friends, savoring a glass of chilled rosé in the afternoon sun, painting landscapes, designing menus, and, of course, working in his kitchen. I've always admired Jacques Pepin, not only for his contributions to the world of food and cooking, but because of his elegant manner. He almost seems to be a gentleman from another time, and perhaps he is? SB (ordered his copy already)