BarbaraY

My first reaction was to agree with you but a Moroccan Chicken with olives wouldn't be right with browned chicken. On the other hand I have never had a desire to try Jeremiah Tower's poached fillet. It sounds awful to me.

Drat! I just went on a search at our local PBS and found that it had aired last month. I watch often but managed to miss all of them.

Well, it was advertised here but I managed to miss it. Curious to see how it is. Being a newbie to Food TV, I find I dislike a lot of it. Disappointing as I had looked forward to it.

I recently cooked a pork tenderloin on the Weber. I cooked it to a little over 140º and it was beautifully tender and delicious, slightly pink. Any more than that and it becomes dry. If I were doing a shoulder I would prefer the long, low and slow method. I hope you enjoyed it.

What a lovely setting for your celebration! I'm waiting to hear more.

We have to have a fence around our little garden just to keep deer out. Now if we could figure out how to fence out gophers..................

Hiroyuki, I just looked at your blog site. What a beautiful little garden. It looks very neat and well tended. Do you have problems with animals getting into it? I don't see any fences.

Although I detest cooking on an electric stove top I don't find much difference in the ovens. I would surely use the thermometer as suggested above. Once you have the temperature figured out there is no reason to be concerned about baking a pumpkin pie. I agree that a 12 to 15 lb bird would be enough for three people and plenty of leftovers, which I consider the best part.

I'm cooking just for myself most days. I wanted roast pork shoulder so I got the smallest piece in the case. Roasted it on a mire poix with rosemary and plenty of garlic. I thickened the gravy by blending the vegetables into the juices, baked a sweet potato (yam) to go with it. Next day I made a hash with some of the diced pork and gravy along with red bell pepper and onion and the other half of the potato. Last evening I made an individual tamale pie. I still have enough to do one more meal. I'm really glad it's almost over.

My daughter's Icelandic mother-in-law served us dried lamb and dried cod as an appetizer to a traditional American Christmas dinner. The lamb had a texture similar to Proscuitto. Her son came into the living room and announced he had hammered the fish. Had to be pounded to make it easier to eat. I liked both items well enough. I don't know where she obtained them but she didn't make them herself.

Morton's Kosher salt is available in many stores, however I prefer the Diamond Crystal to Morton's.. Penzey's Spices has it for $1.15 per lb. but I have never tried theirs.

They make me smile.

Last month my 35 year old avocado green freezer died. Rather than replace it with another freezer, we bought a larger French door refrigerator with the freezer drawer because we really didn't need all the freezer space. We gave the ten year old fridge away as I will not run two and the person who got it needed it beacuse hers was in really bad shape. Still waiting to see how this affects my power bill. A word of caution to those who use propane for cooking etc. A few months ago I had to call the repairman because we smelled propane. It was a loose connection that he fixed but he then checked out my lines which were all improperly installed. When he checked the pressure on the lines he found that we were losing gas at an astonishing rate, There was a leak somewhere underground because we never did smell it. To make a long story short we have been paying for propane as if we were burning a furnace 24/7. He said that the repairs should pay for themselves in a few months. Hope he's right.

I have purchase cream cheese from the natural foods store and like it better than Philly. It was less gummy. One thing for sure the store brand of cream cheese is horrid, awful, nasty stuff and will ruin a cheesecake.

I can't imagine trying to hold meat or a bird down with tongs when carving and I don't want my hands getting all over the food and vice versa.. A fork holds it much better. I have never noticed any holes in the meat and, as stated above, the meat should have rested long enough for the juices to settle.

I love Ratatoulle both ways. First learned to make the jammy kind and then worked with a chef that made the quickly cooked almost crunchy type. No, the eggplant wasn't crunchy but the rest of the vegetables were al dente. Heading for the garden to see how the eggplant is doing. Last I looked they were pretty pitiful.

Do you really mean baking powder, not soda? Being a California girl, I was not raised with a tradition of Hushpuppies. The first I tasted were at Long John Silver's and I thought they were disgusting dough balls. Then I needed to make them at work and used Paul Prudhommes recipe. A real revelation. They are seasoned with green onion, cayenne, black pepper, thyme, oregano, and garlic. I actually prefer them without the garlic, though.

We will be canning our tomatoes starting tomorrow. I peel and quarter the tomatoes and bring the to a boil. I add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice to each pint, add tomatoes, and wipe off the top of the jars with a clean damp cloth. Seal jars and process in a boiling water bath to which I have added about a half cup of white vinegar. Process for 35 minutes after the water boils. Remove very carefully from the water so they don't tilt. You should hear the caps start to pop within a few minutes. It's important to use bottled lemon juice rather than fresh because acid is variable in fresh lemons. Why put vinegar in the water? I have extremely hard water and if it is used straight I will get white film on the jars that's a real PITA to get off.

I don't have online access because I'm stingy. I did go to the site and it suggested country style ribs or pork tenderloin. I wouldn't use tenderloin as it's way too tender and has no fat. When cooking Chinese and Chinese style dishes I prefer pork shoulder. Love those cast iron skillets!

My food photos aren't in any way spectacular though I think I've improved. The one thing I sort of regret is the fact that during my spring trip to Italy I didn't take one food photo. Would like to be able to say to people, "Look that's how they do it!" I was to busy enjoying the food and the company to even think about a camera.

All I can do is sigh. It sounds heavenly.

I'm new to food TV as I just went from a cable that didn't carry it to a dish that does. I found Aaron very likeable so was glad to see that he was chosen. I enjoyed his first show and hope he can continue as well. The little boy is absolutely adorable and a good addition to the show. I doubt I could get one of his pork sandwiches into my mouth but the combination looked great.

Raw milk is still available in California. I can get it at the local supermarket. Very expensive. I believe it's better to have a controlled market than to ban it all together. I grew up on raw milk and have never had any health issues. Of course my grandparents were very careful to keep everything very clean. I want to know where it's coming from.

This summer we have been having chopped salads often. Diced tomato, cucumber, red onion, olives, avocado, and fresh mozzarella with balsamic vinaigrette and plenty of fresh basil. Delicious.

I find the convection is also great for baked potatoes. I don't like microwaved "baked" potato but the convection one does it in about 45 minutes depending on the size of the potato. The skin is crispy and the middle tender. I love baked potato skin so it works great for us. I also love baked sweet potatoes roasted in it.