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

Anzu--that's a drag. Should we branch out into a discussion of how, in our search for wholesome food and a warm hearth, we have been creating chaotic scenarios for the planet?? Perhaps not. Tread lightly and gather what you can where you can and prepare it mindfully. "So, does that mean that the morels that I gathered with an old S.O. and then fried them in butter and we had a fantastic date off of it? Hell yeah. Those morels were wholesome in spades." JSolomon---- I agree wholeheartedly!

I just received a copy of Saveur and noticed they have an article regarding the Time Life cookbooks--no wonder I can't find any in the thrift shops anymore and if I do they are more expensive than they used to be....

Pan--anything is good in moderation. Granted, mushroom picking was perhaps not a good example. To me, if it takes some extra effort or a cumulative dose of exercise to produce the food, then perhaps you can have that extra fried clam (and it will still be somewhat 'wholesome') because you will be getting that exercise or exerting that effort again should you enjoy the food..... and that's a good and wholesome (whole body) thing. Pan I notice you are an east coast forager, I certainly do miss what I could gather back there. They say everything is bigger on the west coast, and I agree, but the foraging for greens does not beat the east coast, only foraging for fungi (such as boletus, matsutake, chantarelles black and gold, morels...... oh, but I do miss the fiddleheads and milkweed)......

Earliest childhood memory-- "Ma, me help?" Ma lifts child from hip to countertop, proffers stick of butter. I peel it like a banana and contentedly and greasily gnaw and watch.....

I scour second hand shops for the old "Time-Life" 1960's cookbook series. It's rare to find the recipe booklet (when you do you should hurrah!) with the actual book but I still find these books to be a wealth of information... as well as giving you an idea of what life in these areas is most likely NOT like anymore. (If eG folks have any they want to get rid of--please let me know!!!). Anything by Hazan, Sahni, Wolfert, Beard, Child.... Some of the old New York Times stuff edited or forwarded by Craig Claiborne can be helpful and fun (look through them first to see if it fits you). The Talisman Italian Cookbook, Ada Boni (1950), is a prize. I've got an old Graham Kerr that is an absolute hoot! And maybe it's terrible but I have a soft spot in my heart for Jeff Smith. Newer? Bordain, Oliver. Odd? The Uncook Book. Oh, and McGee is a must. Sorry, scouring through my own library in my head has made me realize why I stopped trying to build a database after 200. Be careful, my friend.

I kinda think anything you gather (in the wild or from your garden) and prepare yourself to be a partial definition of wholesome. You use your "whole" self to do so--from wrenching mussels off a rock or gathering mushrooms to planting and harvesting your own produce. Makes you feel warm all over because the experience is all encompassing. I feel really sorry for these small children I see poking at the plastic packaging in supermarkets with such curiosity but in such disconnect from their own need to eat. Sorry, pet peeve.

Take a ferry to an island off the Maine coast, hang out with the locals-- Breakfast of (some) lobster fishermen (who shall remain nameless): Cheez Whiz on white bread, tall plastic glass (or two) of cheap warm vodka. Whew, that was a strange trip.

Indeed an impressive piece of kitchen equipment, but don't be intimidated. Has almost every attachment that is made, from Grain Grinder to Ice Cream Maker, ours is about 12 years old and gets frequent use. Hasn't killed it yet. ← Thanks for the chuck on the chin jw46 . I don't want to divert the direction of this thread but...--have you any direction for me on recipies with the basic attachments? Thanx, JCD

Anvi--I received a KA stand mixer for Christmas and am so intimidated by it I have not used it yet! Perhaps someone might direct me to a thread or two that can get me going. At this moment I am babying a sourdough starter and by the weekend hope to whip out some bread but I could use advice and recipes... sorry I cannot help with your question (except that I love making chapatis by hand ) but it thrilled me to see a reference to the KA here on eG. Thank you!

Happy Holidays everyone! Now that I can post I'm just SO jazzed. I've been lurking for a year! Becoming a member is my present to myself this year! Has anyone ever made their own salami? I have a recipe in an old Sunset cookbook and have wanted to try it, seems it would be a good gift. In the recipe, you actually cook the salami, formed and wrapped in cheescloth, at a low temp in the oven. You also use saltpeter to keep the meat a rosy color. Has anyone ever tried this or is there a thread you can direct me to? I'm a sucker for a nice fatty sopressata and both my husband and daughter are salami addicts.... in moderation.