suzilightning

feliz as well... to another year! and may it be healthier and better than the last! around here it's acme fried chicken but what about a nice 1" thick strip steak - grilled- yeah, grilled. left to rest then sprinkled with some sea salt. ohhhhhh onion confit to go with it!! finish with some chocolate truffles or a slab of my black forest mousse pie a good red wine and some bubbly. whatever you decide post it here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...birthday+dining i'm still working on how to get the pictures from my 51st on there. i'd loan you the birthday tiara but don't know if it would fit

yesterday spent hopping in and out of the car -dodging raindrops- and seeing if there were any raptors migrating. finally called a halt and did what any decent woman with my obsessions would do - went grocery shopping. first cooked dinner in about a week: garlic and broccoli that had been seared in some olive oil then steamed with some verjus. added this to some cooked linguine. chicken saltimbocca - thin chicken cutlets, sage leaves from the plants on the back porch, prosciutto de san danielle. sear in a pan on both sides. remove to plate, top with provolone and into a warm oven to melt. mixed greens with some super sweet tomatoes from john's plant. dessert for john was a peach and blueberry cake topped with vanilla toffuti.

born on shelter island, east end of long island; cousins in melrose and malden; great-grandmother from rhode island. we always had cheddar(preferably rat cheese) with our apple pie. i remember there was an older gentleman who would pull up at our house in late september - he had made a trip to upstate ny for northern spies and my grandfather always bought a peck from him. johnnybird on the otherhand is from the hudson valley(poughkeepsie) and his grandmother - german- and mother german/danish always served it with ice cream. he had never seen cheddar served with apple pie until he met my mom there is a woman at work who substitutes some of the fat in her pie crust recipe with grated sharp cheese. i've never tried it.

wow - some wonderful food coming out. not too inspiring since it is the freezer clean out time though this was my first day off in 9(since i had to work 9 am- 3 pm) *note to self if we can get those picture posting thingys down ask soba to blog end of august/ beginning of hawk season - er beginning of september* i did take the time to get a ny strip from my favorite local butcher and grilled it for dinner. juicy, succulent and freaking better than the filet we have been getting here. enough left over to hack up and make stir fried rice and a wrap - for johnnybird's lunches tomorrow and monday. also potato salad - purple potatoes, onions, celery salt, miracle whip AND eggs. yellow and green squash sauteed with shallots and minced garlic. tomorrow a wedding then we get really serious about freezer cleaning since i'm on vaca and, unless it is pouring rain, i'm out in the field for at least 8 hours with all my food and liquids... happy eating to all ... and to all a good bite

hours on the hawkwatch counting those birds headed south so not too interested in cooking though... sunday: peppers stuffed with a mixture of buffalo, potatoes, red onion and salsa then baked and topped with cheese. served with a salad and supersweet tomatoes( the first) from the garden monday: grilled buffalo steak, potato salad with egg and miracle whip and garden salad tuesday: too tired and too late for me to eat but made johnnybird a foccacia he seems to have just inhaled. if i have a bit of time and some luck i will figure out how to post my birthday dinner of fresh jersey corn, tomatoes with maytag blue and red french dressing and grilled strip steak served with champagne and the obligatory tiara (last tuesday)

lia- try pub cheese cheddar and jalapeno. blows that fake cheese away but still gives you the fat and heat you crave. speaking as one who had been there suzi

happy birthday to oneidaone's dad. so cool you knew him as well as you did. all i do know about my dad was he was a mechanic with the flying tigers over the hump and later became a master carpenter. cool stories about your dad and lbj and the food he experienced. hang onto them and put them down in written as well as oral form. they are invaluable gifts to the future generations. as far as the sig line: it is almost the time to change it to my great grandmothers - though i'm sure it isn't her quote i can't quite track it down but it was always quoted to me as a kid out on shelter island.... happy memories to all

pb and strawberry jam sandwich followed with vanilla yoghurt over fresh peaches. eaten while standing out in the middle of a parking lot looking for migrating raptors.

roasted chicken that was stuffed with garlic and lemon on a bed of carrots, onion and purple potatoes. leftovers for tomorrow!!

cut the stem off. make a little X in the top stuff with (your favorite) blue cheese drape in a thin slice of prosciutto bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes. gorge yourself

oh, JUST GREAT!!!!! the last sunday i can get to lafayette (unless it is seriously raining) and it was the best visit. Windybrow had the first apples, peaches and seriously good plums. got my eggs from Danarae but skipped the fresh herbs this time. didn't need cheese. scored the first heirloom tomatoes of the year: brandywines, oxhearts, and two or three other kinds along with purple potatoes and beans, zucchini and leeks.

one more for me. someone put Kitchen Detective by Christopher Kimball (the bow tie wearing dude from Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen) into my cubby at work. i really like the way this guy writes and the recipes i've tried so far work pretty well. next up: blue cheese dressing to go over my retro iceberg wedge and jersey tomatoes for my birthday dinner.

ohhhhh... johnnyd mrsadam and i have been talking about growing up on the east end of long island and foraging for beachplums - especially to make jams or jellies. i remember steaming our crabs and lobsters with rockweed( we called them poppers or sputnik grass). do you gather irish moss like we did then use it to make dishes like blanc mange? i am loving the pictures - in fact i can almost smell the low tide and know i'm home many thanks

after reading maggie's piece on her parents' 50th anniversary(a truly wonderful piece of writing) i made myself one fried egg with turkey bacon and whole wheat toast. since we only have turkey bacon in the house(the 115 lb. guy whose choleserol count FINALLY exceeded his weight by 17 points won't eat anything but AND insists that the door to the bedroom be closed whenever cooking is going on - his clothes might be impregnated by the smells don't you know and wear out quicker) i had to substitute the bacon fat with some olive oil and it was very good. i'm not a runny yolk kind of girl so i basted the eggs until the yolk was set and the white was crispy. the extra oil was drizzled over the piece of toast that held the bacon. this took me back to when i was a small child and it was wonderful. will i eat this again? of course. next month. and i will savor it for it's unctiousness. in the meantime johnnybird will eat his fried egg sandwich on white bread with mayo and ketchup.

a photo worthy meal but HIMSELF won't teach me to use his playtoy so.... blue ribbon meatloaf - beef, pork and veal mixed with dijon mustard, salt and pepper, bread crumbs, egg, thyme and onions that had been softened then boiled down with a bottle of newcastle brown ale. shallots and yukon gold potatoes - tossed with olive oil, sea salt and white pepper stuffed tomatoes - hollowed out tomatoes stuffed with onions, tomato concasse, grated asiago and parmesan, eggs, fresh parsleyand tarragon and zucchini maybe i can get HIM to photgraph the leftovers johnnybird's starter was some whole wheat bread spread with soy margarine, cut into quarters then two were topped with prosciutto de san danielle and artichoke hearts and two were topped with prosciutto de san danielle and olive halves. also served some green olives stuffed with provolone

i have used a garbage bowl since i was trained by "father phil" in the kitchen at the chequit inn on shelter island. it was sop. we had other bowls for the finished mise. it saves time and agita!!! tonight i did meatloaf, stuffed tomatoes and oven roasted potatoes. two of the products required onions. just peeled and popped the peelings into the garbage bowl, finely chopped the onion and put what i would need for the tomatoes into another bowl since i didn't need to cook them at the moment. shallot skins? into the garbage bowl. garlic skins? into the garbage bowl. tomato seeds? into the garbage bowl. cooked off fat from the meatloaf? not into the garbage bowl. into a saved instant coffee can then into the garbage

amen, sister. amen. though now, after reading maggie's piece on bacon and eggs and this - how about a bacon cheesburger with fried egg?!!

oh, my! oh, my! i am just melting in all the sensuality of your prose. mo dowd doesn't have anything on you, maggie!! now i am craving bacon and eggs and i'm at work . guess i'll just have to fry some up when i get home. wonderful, beautiful words and imagry. thank you

don't know about Southern potato salad but we do it two ways in our house: if german style(potatoes, bacon, dill, salt and pepper, salad oil, vinegar, a pinch of sugar and grated red onion) no eggs if homestyle(potatoes, salt and pepper, miracle whip, chopped spanish onion, peas) then yes eggs i have been known to make small bowls of each - german for johnnybird, homestyle for me

thinking about all of you as the storm approaches - even if it isn't up to hurricane speed yet. oops... just turned cnn on at work and it was upgraded to a cat 1. take care and bring out those cans of beans and camp stoves.

yesterday's lunch: macaroni salad coleslaw coffee milk turkey hill ice cream sandwich i really wanted that coleslaw

last night: cooked 1/2 lb of penne. while it was cooking away took two tomatoes and made concasse of them, thoroughly washed 2 bunches of arugula then cut into 1/2" chiffondade, a handful of capers, a handful of black olives, extravirgin olive oil, salt and white pepper. tossed everything together and topped with strips of parmesan. after dinner made chicken chasseur. took the meat off the bones and put it back in the sauce. when i get home will reheat it and put it over some noodles. think i'll pull a packet of green and wax beans out of the freezer to go with it.

since my mom died 15 years ago i haven't had to deal with this problem . my sister's birthday was always celebrated on thanksgiving day (she was born on that day). because of our family birthday tradition ( see the birthday dining thread in special occasions) this meant out to a restaurant or lasagna. now adays i make 2 loaves of portugese sweet bread, onion jam, soup of some sort, a green bean casserole and ship it up to my mil with johnnybird. i then head out to the hawkwatch and come home to eat whatever i want, usually french onion soup. john gets to see his mom and siblings then goes over to his uncle's house to see his dad, aunts, uncles and cousins. the next day, if it's nice, they go golfing. winning situation all around.

peppyre- how was the party? what did you finally decide on serving? how many times were the police called - oops, sorry. you aren't in poughkeepsie any pictures?

and linda ellerbee (who also shared birthday with Julia and you, trish) wrote about finishing her birthday hike from the head of the Thames to London two days early(13 August) only to call her office and be told that Julia had died. her reaction: "Nonsense. We share the same birthday. We always exchange cards. Julia is going to be ninety-two on Sunday. How can she be dead?" this is from her new book Take Big Bites. one of the best books on her relationship to food and people and travel and life.