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Is anyone lobbying to save the lives of those little diatoms? ← You're overlooking all those poor yeast beasties. April

Thanks! I snuck in some non-dutch dishes. To the left is a pork chop with applesauce from the "Italy Today" cookbook. To the right is a gratin based on the "Pumpkin Gratin Provencal" recipe that I found here on eGullet. I replaced half the pumpkin with beets. Maybe I've started Dutch Fusion cooking? April

Hi Klary, I got out the dried capucijners that I grew in my garden over the summer and prepared them for dinner tonight. The cooked peas had a nice texture and flavor, especially with the bacon added. I forgot the fried onions, though. This is a photo of the dried peas: The pea pods on these peas are quite striking. They're bright purple. Here is the finished dish (ready for the Dinner II thread, but very tasty): Thanks again for exposing us to Dutch cooking! April edited to remove an extra word

This is the only photo that I could find of a gingerbread house I made in 2003. Sorry, my camera skills were awful. I just love Whoville! April

Hmm, that is a thought. But the year's not over yet! ← I'd like to add my vote for a group resolution. It might be one that I actually keep in the coming year! My second idea for a cooking resolution would be "A Year of Italian Desserts", but that would need to be followed by "A Year of Bread and Water and Ruthless Exercising". April

That's a truly amazing set of photos, and it'll take me quite some time to get through all of them. One question: Armenian Cucumber is called a "true melon." I thought regular cucumbers were also a kind of melon. Perhaps someone could clarify what makes something a melon. ← Pan--True cucumbers are Cucumis sativus, while melons and Armenian cucumbers are Cucumis melo. They are in the same genus, and so are closely related. April

I think the concern is that the heavy cast iron would scratch the top of the stove. The abelskivvers should turn out just fine. April

Thanks Kevin now.. apple skivvers that does not really sound like a Dutch word to me.. are you sure that's a Dutch dish? Could you tell me a bit more about them? ← The Danes make abelskivvers, which are spherical "pancakes" cooked in a pan with hemispherical indentations. My DH's Danish grandma has promised to give me her abelskivver pan someday. . . April

The Society has the right idea! People are far more likely to try unfamiliar ingredients, such as unusual vegetables, if they know what the vegetables will taste like, and if they are given ideas on how to prepare them. Were recipes made available for the dishes that you had at the dinner? Eden, you might be able to find the Chioggia beet at your local farmers market. The seeds are found in just about every seed catalog in the U.S., so I wouldn't be surprised if the beets were being grown for market somewhere. April

From weddings to funerals, from church potlucks to summer picnics, 50's-style cooking has always been in style in Mid-western America. The greater the number of people in attendance, the more likely you are to see dishes prepared with mayonnaise, cold pasta, kool-whip, or jello. These ingredients might all arrive in the same dish. I doubt that the average Mid-westerner could even name a celebrity chef. They certainly wouldn't be familiar with their dishes. My husband's family is typical. Pasta salads dripping with mayonnaise are present at every family gathering. Vegetables must be cooked until they are mushy and grey. I've never been able to get my husband to eat vegetables with any sort of crunch to them. Don't ask me about his aunt's Thanksgiving turkey last year. His mother once served me spaghetti sauce made with canned tomatoes and ketchup. My husband considers cooking and eating to be a chore. One good friend buys boxed sugar cookie mixes because making the dough from scratch is too difficult! Those who prepare these foods consider themselves to be good cooks. Why not? It's what they know, they learned it from their parents, they feed it to everyone that they know, and most people here are happy with it. For better or worse, this is "cuisine" for many in the Mid-west, and they aren't giving it up any more easily than someone in France or Italy will give up their traditional foods. That said, has anyone seen the Bush Family Cookbook? You'd think that there would be recipes for some good Texas barbeque. April Snowed-in in South Dakota

Thank you for the cheese pics! The three-year old cheese does look very close to the cheese that I ate a few weeks ago. I'm visiting my friends again for New Years, so I'm hoping to get some more of that cheese then. The appelstroop looks similar to what we call apple butter or apple cheese here. Does it have sugar and spices added to it? Dutch Apple Pie was at our Thanksgiving gathering as well. Everyone loved it! I'll try to post some photos soon. April

There's no easy way to get the job done, and those husks will leave a nice brown stain on everything that comes in contact with them. Definitely wear gloves and old clothing. I shelled many as a kid, never found it fun or easy, and I didn't like the stronger taste. I guess I'm still not over my Black Walnut Shell Shock! My Mom used them in any recipe that called for English walnuts, my Dad and brother just liked to eat them plain. Actually, if you can find a trained squirrel to husk and shell the nuts for you. . . The problem is convincing the rodent to share the walnuts afterward. Here is a link with some helpful tips: http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/19...-1994/bnut.html April

There is a recipe for vinegar in "Foods of Naples" by Giuliano Bugialli. You are instructed to place a piece of bread in a jar, pour a bottle of wine over it, loosely cover the jar mouth with cloth, and wait for about 25 days. I guess this assumes that some of the proper bacteria are floating around nearby. I just tried this recipe last week, I can let you know if it works in about 20 days. April

Thanks for the tip. I think that the local bookstore has copies in stock. April Sorenson

Hi April.. what fun to hear that you are growing these peas.. is that very unusual in the US? Over here, the fresh peas are usually eaten plain, as a vegetable, with a little bacon and maybe some fried onions. The ones I used for the Captains dinner were dried. I don't know if you can succesfully dry fresh peas yourself, I've never tried it.. over here you would buy the dried ones, soak and cook, or just buy them in a can like you would buy kidneybeans etc. as for the cheeses: the Dutch don't cook much with their cheese, at least not in the traditional cuisine. Cheese is mostly eaten with bread, for breakfast and lunch. Very old, high quality Gouda can be reminiscent of Parmesan, so maybe that's what you had in Iowa. I'm planning on getting some good Dutch cheese later on (so much to show and do! ) and talk some more about that great Dutch product. ←

Kevin, I'm fairly new to eGullet, but you have had undue influence on my cooking lately! I picked up a copy of Bugialli's "Foods of Tuscany" after seeing it mentioned in your blog, and the book went with me on my trip this last weekend to visit some old college friends. When it fell to me to make the main course for dinner, this thread was in the back of my mind. I ended up making a double recipe of Bugialli's recipe for Tuscan Ragu. The cooking smells had everyone circling the kitchen like hungry wolves. The red wine I used in the recipe was cheap red plonk, but it melded perfectly into the sauce by the end of the cooking. We made fresh pasta for the ragu using Marcella Hazan's basic recipe. The sauce was a big hit! After the meal, one friend asked me how much sugar went into the sauce to make it so sweet. He was surprised when I told him there wasn't any--it all came from the veggies. I definitely fit in with Pontormo's earlier observation--I first learned to make ragu from Marcella's book. I liked it, but didn't love it. I like this version better; maybe the difference is the red wine instead of white? After reading about the other variations out there, I have to wonder if ragu really started out as a way of using up bits of thin-n-that from around the kitchen. It's hunting season here in South Dakota, and I'm tempted to start my own "traditional" Dakota-style Ragu featuring venison, pheasant and goose, plus some locally-raised pork. April Sorenson

The red-brown feathers in the photo are the back feathers of a male bird. The more colorful feathers have been skinned off. To pluck the body feathers out, gently grasp a few at a time and pull against the grain, (opposite the way the feathers lie). Tougher feathers on the wings and tail are better pulled individually, with the lie of the feather, in order to prevent tearing of the skin and flesh. Needle-nosed pliers are useful for removing really tough feathers and pin feathers. However, your bird is already partially skinned, so it might be best just to skin the rest of the carcass. For the shot, probe the path of the wound with your fingers and feel around for anything hard. Use pliers or tweezers to remove the shot. Watch out for bone splinters as well. I don't have any experience with hanging game or poultry. The roosters here in South Dakota always seem tough, so I usually make a pheasant version of Coq au Vin. Alternately, I toss the meat in my crock pot and simmer it with some some stock and barbeque sauce until the meat is tender enough to make pulled meat for sandwiches. April

There is a similar recipe in Madeleine Kamman's book "The Making of a Cook". Various pork products are baked smothered in onions and saurerkraut with bay leaves, juniper berries and caraway. It's a favorite at my house. April

What about making "schmaltz" from turkey fat? Would it be equally tasty, or a waste of time? I'm going to have quite a bit of it in the near future. . . April