jess mebane

I am ashamed to admit that after making a lovely batch of L'cello at the front of the summer, I then zested and socked away another starter batch in the bottom of a winter coat closet, and promptly forgot it. Upon discovering the lost jar last night while socking away birthday presents, I am further ashamed to admit I made a killer cosmo: 2 pts. Lemony zested vodka, 1 pt cointreau, cranberry juice then shaky-shaky with the ice, baby, and voila! I'm thinking of calling it, "ADHD with a twist". So, always make your own limoncello, as Katie suggests, but tie a string around something so's you don't forget it.

yes, the gamey quotient definitely comes into play for me in authentic dishes, if only because dark meat can get rilly, rilly off-putting both in texture and taste. Now if it's tamales, anything's fair game (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

word.

pesto, pesto, pesto. Tomatoes: bisque, spaghetti, salsa, slices with fresh mozz and basil, in the a.m. with eggs, high tea with avocado slices . . . oy. And the corn has that fungusamongus that Jaymes says makes a great dish, but what is it and how?

Alas, a rampant case of pink-eye struck the Mebane tribe, and we had to cut the last daytrip short, careening down I-10 towards home instead of south by the sea. See, the folks are kind enough (and crazy enough), to keep all of the grandsons for a week so each summer, so Sister and her husband and I and my spouse can get a parenting breather. That's right, sportsfans: five boys, two dogs and one Grambird on the lone prairie for seven days, with my little flyweight mom 'n dad riding herd. So, once our littlest and middlest came down with the crusties, Granny and G'daddy unfortunately had to call us home. We hope our friends are kind enough to invite us again soon, but in the meantime I appreciate all the kind advice and tasty gossip, and as God as my witness, Ah will Au Gratin again! It's interesting the menu is the same for "club members" or whathaveyou--my best friends and I used to cut school for Galveston and regular room Gaido's and split two crabmeat au gratin among four girls. One evening years later one of the gals and I went back on some misbegotten nostalgia tour and had the usual, and the friendly waiter mentioned George Bush Sr. was dining there with friends. Lorie and I asked him subtle questions like, "If we were to get lost, where would we find this Senor Bush?" So we went thisaway and thataway, and came upon a room with one long banquet table. I'm standing on my tiptoes, craning around trying to find him, and Lorie is practically cracking my ribs with her elbow, pointing dead ahead and hissing, "He's RIGHT THERE. WAVING AT US." And he was, much to Barbara's chagrin. edited for smiley balance

Leave it to the aggies to document tomato afflictions like a dermatology reference book. My emotional response runs the gamut from, "ew", to "thankyewveddymuchh, memesuze!"

Hey, we're routing thru Galveston after the NOLA anniversary pilgrimage to see some friends for dinner Fri. pm at the The Pelican Room at Gaido's. If dear spouse is jacket required, what should I wear? And then order, of course. I know Jaymes has been there, and Bush, Sr., but it's too late to ring up ol' Bar--help a sista owt!

That tears it!! Balmagowry, I nominate you to administrate the first official Egullet Swap Meet, and toute suite! There clearly is too much good crap going to waste while I, I go roaster-less.............

No, no roaster, and I salivate at the thought of such a beautiful hunk o' maganalite turning up someday, but folks seem to hang onto the bigger pieces. The Rose Bowl.............garage sale mecca. That would be worth some pictures, andiesenji, my friend.

KatieLoeb, I believe someone's taken your Limoncello receipt and found yet another astounding practical application. Me, I get magnalite. The pittier the better--kidding. My fave find is this glass cheese keeper, with an instructional lid and raised feet on the insided, the whole being a depth of four dessert plates. It was in mom's garage and came with a sewing machine...

I'm probably going to lose a B'wine as well. Although it reaches over 6', the rain seems to have beaten down the vegetation above its highest cage line and we're getting brown leaves now. The artichokes, once so muscular in their thistle shizzle, man, now look like someone's stepped on them. Herbs run wild, as do the peppers and wisteria. The Super 100 cherry tomato is insidious in its advantage over some of the more waterlogged varieties; suddenly vines full of little green monsters are gleefully threading around the ponderous beefsteaks and orange oxhearts. The corn is slightly bent in spots. (sigh).

We're having the same trouble in Texas, Mr. Mayhaw, and the method listed here is good for curing green tomatoes in advance of birds or more rain: those green tomatoes lowest on the totem can be gathered and placed on their heads in a paper bag, then stored somewhere for about 3-7 days until they've reached a color you like, or placed on the windowsill once they're orange-y green. I've also had success using an old red coca-cola crate; this enables me to stack two layers of tomatoes with red construction paper in between. Don't know if this is science or superstition, but it's worked well for me the past couple of years. I also remember some of my neighbors in Lockhart would buy the red mulch product to achieve faster ripening. Burpee can just about sell us anything at least once out in Caldwell county.

I've been wondering about this year's prodigious rainfall as an effect on crop production. Did anyone see the Fredricksburg peach crop article in the Statesman a week or so ago? A peach farmer specifically said that altho this year's yield would be the best in some years, what they lacked was a good amount of sunshine to finish the peach up, so to speak. I think our Texan victory gardens this year are benefitting from all the rain by growing taller than ever, but not necessarily producing as quickly; i.e., six foot tomatoes and fennel, attack of the artichokes, etc. In the end, I would bet our egullet vegetation enjoys a big, if slow, finish.

we're planning the annual anniversary pilgrimage to NOLA (for every year of marriage you get another dozen of Acme's finest), and we have never made it out JaquesImo way. Thank you for the travelogue and commentary, tho' I think taking fotos of your dinner plates officially makes y'all the phreakiest touristas ever to rattle an empty julep cup in Acadiana.

I say go for it...'course this is pretty much my gardening motto.

That plant had the homeowners' association on my ass last week when they sent me a notice of "unsightly weed overgrowth," over my driveway-side fence. I sent them back a picture of my ungainly, six-ft. Brandywine plant, along with a few chartreuse fruit, and polite instructions as to curing them along to red/pink. Can't wait to see what they'll make of the corn patch..... But the sad part of this story is a dastardly horn worm is trying to make short work of the middle third of the same plant, and I can't seem to find the sucker.

you must've been at the table behind us; the owner sat down and received his accolades, and then mentioned the chef was from Rainbow Lodge, of all things. We had a great meal and good bottle of wine for less than $80. .............Roaring Fork has a great list, too. Rainbow Lodge in Houston? New York? San Juan? I just assumed Houston, but who knows? All would be better resume fodder for the lad than say, macaroni ghoul or johhny SYSCOrino's.

Ok, so elaborate; why LA over Clem spineless, exactly?

you must've been at the table behind us; the owner sat down and received his accolades, and then mentioned the chef was from Rainbow Lodge, of all things. We had a great meal and good bottle of wine for less than $80. .............Roaring Fork has a great list, too.

yes to the first, no to the second, but I'd try it anyway and let the experts be damned. After all, folks on this thread have grown citrus trees from their breakfast orange halves and olive trees from martinis, so why not go for it?! off-topic: with all this TX rain, my herbs and maters are leaping out of the ground, but the caterpillars are also making themselves known. Not to mix dogma, but if you say a quick prayer before committing wormicide, does it mitigate any bad karma associated with the crime?

snowangel, you must plant. I've enjoyed reading your elegant posts on this thread for almost two years now, and it would be like losing a Thalassa Cruso equivalent if you didn't keep a hand in the mix. C'mon and heel in those tomatoes, pole a bean and keep us all abreast of the progress, pilgrim.

The Cure! Show me showme showme how you do that thing the one that makes me scream she said the one that makes me love she said and threw her arms around my head show me how you do it and i promise you i promise that i'll run away with you yeah, makes my teeth grind in a happy retro way, but the things I cooked were not food, no way.

I have a Rutgers tom plant that is setting fruit along its waifiest of stem arms in the bambambam style of a cherry or patio tomato; is this typical? Surely the tags were switched at birth and this is indeed a cherry varietal. right?

OK, so I recently became a Costco schlepper, and in wandering over to this thread today, was sucked in by the contest only to be left hangin'--what gives, people??

For shame, Mabelline! I can remember the family drives to Brayton and Josephine's house in The Valley, and the way someone's cornfield geometry could hypnotize you with its perfection. Dad always bought a big bag from "the field owner", aka FARMER, for roasting ears to accompany the venison tamales at the big family Xmas party. Must've set him back a big four, maybe five bucks.