JCD

Use it in a marinade instead of hoisin or other sweet additions. We made our own years ago and did some raku beads and pottery in the fire (not about food but, well, sorry, you have to keep the fire going for SO long you have to figure out something else to do as well....)

The dog and the really cool nylon foldable dish for her. Water. Scallions, fresh hot red jalapenos, good bread and a hunk of cheese the camera

tea and honey, every day.

Redolent imported gorgonzola dolce with arugula and home grown tomatoes Home made kimchi with lots of ginger marinated herring and onions kapusta ground porcini just when added to a kickass homemade sauce gruyere esrom curry paste when added to hot oil (or aesofedita, i.e., make your own curry paste) nasturtium buds matsutake

Oyster mushrooms...they hold the batter really well. Especially satisfying after a hard day of foraging...

Blood Orange, Champagne Mango, Red Banana Salsa Great on fish tacos- Peel, section, chop all above... Add chopped scallion, garlic, red onion, cilantro. Salt. Looks cool, tastes great! Blood oranges are fun! Also good with endive, fennel, tomato, olive salad (bit of parmesan...).

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes 1978

Chard pie from Laurel's Kitchen is seriously good. Potatoes with escarole from Eating Well is the Best Revenge. Plain old fresh picked and cleaned and spun dandelion greens with balsamic and EVOO and 'homegrowed red onion' are killer. Stuffed chard, stuffed grape leaves. Escarole and endive salad..... Escarole also an easy one to grow, goes very well in soups. Beet greens with garlic and EVOO. There is also a recipe that I have tried, but not in recipie format.... it's spinach (or greens) cooked, squeezed dry, formed into little cylinders and popped into the mouth at will, dressed with what your imagination devises. I do that anyway in the spring, I never thought people do it for each other Greens rock, just don't eat too much fresh spinach..

Dinner is always so good I don't need dessert.....

Though not technically a cookbook, "The Rituals of Dinner" by Margaret Visser is interesting.

Add five for Christmas--unfortunately mostly flash in the pan stuff from friends, nice pix, lots of fluff.... But OMG--total is over 200, must thin, must thin..... It seemed like such a harmless and rewarding obsession at the beginning..... Pretty soon I'll have to move

Oh Mcauliflower I am jealous--I read them like novels. The article was specifically about the first one "French Provincial Cooking" and it's reception, review by Claiborne (bad), etc... but it also goes into the launching of the series-- it was called "Foods of the World" and how everyone was so jazzed about putting it together and took it so seriously..... check it out if you can. Will your mom adopt me?

Thank you racheld--this site and everyone associated with it are awesome Also a bit cathartic--I hadn't thought of that in a long while! My mom was an excellent cook within her own limitations and I've always tried to fly a little futher because of her. Even if she did give me the butter just to shut me up

I collect the California bay and cook with it--but definitely use WAY LESS (like 1/2 a leaf) in recipies. Punches up a spaghetti sauce just fine but it is really strong. I will think twice now that I have been alerted to it's carcinogenic qualities....

Salmon or smoked salmon is always pretty as well as tasty... maybe with some finely chopped italian parsley included and a crispy fried onion or crispy fried garlic garnish? You've got my imagination going Finnian Haddie? Purple potatoes probably woudn't make it, but it's an idea Kimchi chowder