Terrasanct

As I mentioned up-thread, I go to a lot of sales every weekend, and I check out all of the thrift stores a few times a week as well, looking for cookbooks and other books (I sell them online). Today I found the best garage sale I've ever been to. I got there early accidentally but they were nice enough to let everyone in early. My haul (Most of which I can't remember just yet): A Kitchen Aid attachment pack, brand new, two small baby blue Le Creuset pans--one frying pan and one pot, no lids; four All Clad with lids, some other nice cookware, baking pans, muffin tins, cake, bread, etc pans. Two sets of very nice silverware--one said 18.10 France on the back and the other said 18.8. Lots of metal cake spatulas, measuring cups and spoons, stainless containers and measurers, an unopened bottle of Costco balsamic vinegar, all kinds of spatulas, peelers, small cookie cutters, scoops, steak knives...my kitchen counters are covered with beautiful things at the moment. I also got four boxes of Burt's Bees soaps and bath products, plus nice handmade soaps, and candles. That's not including a lot of miscellaneous, like a new surge protector and keyboard, and a ton of other things. For all of this I paid $80! I also got my husband a fold-up easel for $20, and paid another $125 for 14 boxes of very nice, new-looking books, mostly cookbooks and art books. My van was full. I came home without going to any more sales. Yes, it's just "stuff" but it's very nice stuff.

Are those purple or red huckleberries? I'm assuming purple. Do they grow in Spokane? I lived in Ellensburg for five years and never had lamb there. Hmmm.

It could be potentially harmful to babies, and for diabetics it's just another sugar. Or you could get your head stuck in the honey jar, which is said to be quite unpleasant.

For me, it's mostly red 40. I don't know why, but it affects my muscles. I didn't mean to imply that it was all artificial/natural coloring agents. Red's the worst, but blue and green can also be a problem. As for aspartame or splenda, I realize there are alarmists who will insist that both are bad for you. I don't know, except that splenda doesn't give me a bad reaction, and aspartame does. Plus, you can cook with splenda without the taste changing.

That's kind of a dismissive remark. I'd like to know why you say there is no such thing as artificial colors.

The only artificial food I use with any regularity is Splenda--I can't have sugar and sometimes I want something sweet. Fructose and honey are also sugar; can't have those, either. I have problems with aspartame--I have a muscle disorder and it makes things worse, even though I don't know why. Artificial colors also affect me. I don't think personal experiences constitute data, but I know aspartame isn't good for me, personally.

I grew up in the Seattle area, and foraging was a big part of my childhood. There's just so much free, great food to be had there--crabs, clams, oysters, fish, blackberries everywhere, red huckleberries, salmonberries, there used to be a lot of wild strawberries, tiny things but so delicious. Nettles, fiddleheads, horsetails, skunk cabbage, cattails, seaweed, hazelnuts (filberts), dandelion greens, etc. My mom was a great forager and was working on a cookbook that included chapters on the wild edibles, so we tried a lot of things. When I moved to Rock Spings, Wyoming, there was not a single wild food that I can remember. I began to think that I had imagined wild berries. Here in central Montana, there are a few things if you look for them. I don't fish, so that's out, but I've found lots of chokecherries--I made jelly or syrup out of them. They're temperamental, so jelly if they worked out, and syrup if the jelly didn't set up. I also picked wild plums and made jelly out of them, it's light pink and very pretty. Western Montana has purple huckleberries, but they are hard to find and their location is a very closely guarded secret. I've also seen wild strawberries there from time to time. Oh, and cattails, after years of wanting to try them, I finally did a few years ago. Picked the young stalks in the spring and sauteed in butter. Pretty good. I know you are supposed to be able to make the seeds into a sort of flour, but I've never been that ambitious.

Since the competition was so close, it really wasn't fair that the men lost again. But sorting through the recycling isn't that disgusting--they had gloves on. It doesn't hurt to think about where the trash goes, anyway. I just thought it would have been more interesting if they had put some sort of prize for the men in the trash--like something better than what the women got. ETA--right, I forgot that the men did so poorly at the dinner service, I was just thinking about the cooking competition.

It's certain I wouldn't want some of you to eat at my house. I wash what I want in my dishwasher and never feel a speck of guilt about it, either. I'm a good cook and I love having people over to eat, and haven't had any complaints. Things aren't always perfectly clean, but they're sanitary enough. The way I look at kitchen stuff is that it's there to serve me, not vice versa. I have other things to do that don't involve endlessly fussing over implements. I do have good quality things, and nothing's been ruined so far. When I'm at someone else's house, some things do bother me, like cats walking on the counters. We have a friend who's a noted artist and she has a wonderful, eclectic, cluttered house, with all kinds of pottery around. And a cat that walks on the cupboard while she makes dinner. I don't say anything, and her food is very good, but I do keep an eye out for stray hairs. But I can top all of you for kitchen grossness--this was in my own kitchen, but I was unaware of it for a long time. Once, many years ago, I caught my first husband peeing in the kitchen sink! I shrieked, What are you doing?! I wash dishes in there! He was simply too lazy to go upstairs to use the bathroom. Ugh. Got rid of him, got rid of a whole bunch of problems.

That's a cooking show I'd like to see--cooking with what you have on hand, more of learning to think creatively than running out to the store to buy a lot of ingredients. Or better yet--what about gourmet cooking for the millions of us who live in parts of the country where you can't even get some of those ingredients? I'm a displaced Washingtonian in Montana; someone make a tv show for us! As far as the show, I hadn't seen previous years, but I kind of like Amy. Maybe because she's a homemaker and seems to have her act together. Sure, she broke down, but it seems like that's what they're trying to do to the contestants--makes for better tv, I guess. She seems personable, which is important.

I can get local beef and chickens, just not lamb. I've never figured it out. Maybe lamb is just expensive because they have to fly it from the other side of the planet. Maybe they're shipping Montana lamb to Australia?

I can't answer your question but I want to know why all the lamb in the market here (in Montana) is from Australia or New Zealand, when I see sheep all over the place out here. Where are the local lambs going?

The Breyers low carb ice cream is pretty good. I like the vanilla. It has a little sugar and a little sugar alcohol, but not enough of either to be bothersome if you have blood sugar issues. It bothers me that most ice cream places like Coldstone and many gelaterias have only fat free/sugar free types, as if the only people who wanted sugar free ice cream were those on diets.

I've been thinking about this since the Hell's Kitchen where the pasta was rescued from the trash, and because of the recent NYT article about freegans. What turns edible food into garbage? For some people, it might be as simple as this--when the food leaves the plate, it's automatically unfit for consumption, whether it's in the sink or the garbage or just sitting there waiting to be cleared from the table. On the other end of the spectrum, dumpster divers reclaim edible foods from the garbage routinely. Most people probably fall in the middle. So, does putting leftover food into a clean trash bag turn it to trash? If so, why not when you put it in a clean plastic bag and put it in the fridge? Does good food go bad when it ferments? Obviously not in all cases, and not even when it begins to stink. Is a clean, wrapped box of cookies from a bakery dumpster more trash than a pot of stinky cabbage that's been buried underground to ferment? Is it just another cultural idea? In the US, we can't even bear to see that butchered animals have heads and faces, much less think about eating insects or any food that seems rotten to us. Or maybe it's the fear of germs and disease that permeates this culture right now. It's obvious how most people feel about eating what might be trash--think about the Seinfeld episode where George rescues something from the kitchen trash, and how he's portrayed as being disgusting because of it. I read some of the posts about freegans posted here, and a common thought was that they must get sick from eating garbage. It's "dirty" after all. But so is a potato dug from the ground--why does washing cleanse one thing but not another? What is the dividing line between food and garbage, and why?

I was also going to suggest cheesecake made with Splenda. It's as good as the "real" thing and could be decorated, too.

Now that you've made me curious, I had to look it up. From what I read, washing in water does about as good a job as the veggie wash. You can also make your own with vinegar or various other things. I found a New York Times article that was helpful: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...n=&pagewanted=1

Maybe it works, maybe not, but it has always struck me as another product being marketed to germ-scared housewives. Is it really healthy for everything to be so clean? Of course, we're hearing more in the news every day about contaminated food, so maybe some worries aren't unwarranted. I just can't bring myself to spend the money on veggie wash or swab my counters continually with germicidal wipes.

I can't add my cookbooks to the count because I just have too many, but I just got one that I had to mention. It's just called "The Bread Book" by Linda Collister and Anthony Blake. It has the most amazing collection of bread recipes--things like grebble, bacon loaf, smithy loaf, hoe cakes, lavash, fadge, pupusas, griddle oatcakes, challah, couronne, and tons of others. Does anyone have this one? I'm curious how the recipes are.

I suspect they're rare anywhere at yard sales. It's the only time I've ever seen one, and I go to 25 to 100 sales every weekend. They were asking $70 because they'd only used it twice, which was way more than I wanted to pay. I gave them my number and asked them to call me if it didn't sell. I paid 35 for it, which was much more than I'd paid for any of the others but I figured it was worth it. The woman had bought it to make gluten-free products for her son, but she said the bread was so heavy the kid thought it was a punishment, so she got rid of it. One of the advantages of going to so many sales and thrift stores is that I find some pretty amazing stuff. I have to pass on most of it, though. Not enough room in my kitchen. I'm still keeping my eyes open for All Clad. I did find a really nice set of Emerilware a few weeks ago, and I've been happy with it.

I've been using them for a few years, and I like them. A fair substitute for Ramen, which has too much fat and too many carbs for me these days. As far as digestive issues, they can act like any kind of fiber--I wouldn't eat too much at once if you're not used to them. My husband is a picky eater and he doesn't mind them, either.

I didn't realize there were more answers on this thread, thanks everyone. She decided to go to the Cordon Bleu in Portland and has been enjoying it. She's one of the top students in her classes, because she works hard and knows what she wants. I never quite understand how the scheduling works, but she has a different set of courses every six weeks or so, I think. She told me that she will be looking for an externship in Hawaii since that's where she wants to be working and open her own place down the line. When I visited a month or so ago, we had lunch at the restaurant. It was an interesting experience, mostly because half of the students were out with the flu and so was the instructor. They had borrowed students from the business administration part of the school to be waiters, and our poor waiter was so nervous, he was shaking. He said it was the worst day of his life, poor guy. Lunch took four hours, but we had met some family there and had a good time.

A few weeks ago at a yard sale I found a small gray pot and an au gratin dish. One was Le Creuset and the other was a name I don't remember, but it was apparently a company that LC took over. Very pretty. This past weekend I picked up several pieces of vintage Pyrex--some bowls, a small loaf pan, and one of those cute little covered individual casseroles that holds about a half cup. Last weekend I found a set of four robin's egg blue Pyrex nesting bowls and a covered chili bowl that I thought was Fiesta but turned out to be something else. Oh, and I also got a set of whatever you call them that fit together to make deep fried nest-shaped baskets. If that makes sense. I have also bought four bread machines until I ended up with a Zojirushi that was almost new (from yard sales and thrift stores) and I need to get rid of the other three now. The town I live in has a lot of garage sales, and I go to most of them every week to buy books (especially cookbooks.)

I have thousands of cookbooks because I sell them, but I think the ones that embarrass me the most are the spiral-bound type that are called something like "Burnt Offerings" or "Heavenly Dishes" that have illustrations of cutesy cartoon characters. The recipes themselves are usually fine, but some of the books have a pretty high cringe factor. I was looking at one the other day that showed a husband at the table reading the newpaper, in his suit, while the wife in apron, dress, and high heels, did the dishes. I know it was a product of its time, but I'm never sure if I find it quaint or irritating. My own personal collection is better, for the most part. My most-used cookbooks are my family cookbook, the Joy of Cooking, and a few other classics. Maybe I should be most embarrassed that even though I have thousands of cookbooks, I still look up most recipes online...

I just got this book last night and have barely started it. As soon as I saw it in the bookstore I knew I had to get it. Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, and the ideas she's talking about in her book are ones that I'm very interested in. I'm another who really couldn't eat only local foods, unless I want to eat only beef, wheat, and sugar beets (yum). I patronize the local farmer's market and wish that it didn't start so late--the third week in July, usually. But that's our growing season here in central Montana. It will be interesting to see how the book turns out. I hope it will spawn some good discussions.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned peaches. A really good, fresh peach tastes more like itself than anything else I know. And it's so hard to find a good one anymore. The best I've had are from the farmstands in Yakima, Washington. Someone mentioned Red Delicious apples, but those don't taste as good from the tree as many others. They're bred to ship.