suzilightning

ok toliver as i said in the pms thread i prefer the miniature pb cups as they provide the perfect ratio of pb to chocolate. just tried a hershey's whip bar and, while it is ok, the ratio just isn't right. and the filling is too light... guess johnnybird's or my peeps will have 3 candy bars to snarf.

which issue? i have several waiting to be sent out with cookbooks as lagnaippe

i grew up eating cow tongue instead of beef in new england dinners(think corned beef dinner). after cooking, pop would peel the tongue before thinly slicing it. then it was boiled potato, carrots and cabbage with mustard.

glad you found the saranac... try their sasparilla if you can find it.

since i poach my meatballs from raw in my gravy(from adrienne trigiani's family recipe) i freeze raw then pull out the number i need.

had to work the first sunday of the month so had johnnybird follow horribly detailed directions for roasting a free range chicken(he is an engineer after all). after dinner i deconstructed the bird and used all the dark meat to make a chicken veg soup with some fine egg noodles.

here is an old favorite from recipegullet. also i like to make a cinnamon coffee cake with some of the cranberries tossed in.

ok, girlfriend start the freakin thread. two or three years ago we had the soup thread and this sounds like a winner..... off you go now and begin. i have been storing up recipes to try once my prime cookin' time begins - like next week.

i did my ham in the form of a quiche this morning and, unbeknownst to mr fussy eater, my greens(chiffonaded kale) and beans(blackeyed peas) were incorporated into a chicken noodle soup we had when we got home from our traditional New Year's day birding trip. i used the dark meat from the free range chicken from sunday's dinner, the leftover chicken gravy, some leftover chicken stock and another quart from the fridge. onion, carrot and bay(hard to believe but i am out of garlic!!) and when ready to finish with the rinsed and drained blackeyed peas, the kale and the cooked thin egg noodles.

lovely food RAHiggins and Tracey... if i'd known we could have hopped on Berkshire Valley up to 23 to help you eat. Schramsberg Mirabelle (eh, not that good). served some pigs in the blanket with honey mustard and oriental meatballs(sweet and sour with more sour for me). since one of my presents was a bottle of 13 year old Pappy van Winkle bourbon I HAD to try it. a few splashes in a glass with some branch to bring it down to 80 proof then served with a tasting of 4 blue cheeses: Mindoro, Roaring 40s, Gorgonzola Piquante and a Butler's Blacksticks Blue, some tiny figs and some homemade membrillo. the smokyness of the bourbon so complemented the clinging fat of the blues. some of the best eating i have done in quite a while.

no, it's from the center of america. here is the link for Swiss Valley, the dairy that makes it. yes, i made the membrillo from fresh quinces i got at a local green market last month. hey, can i come, too if i bring cheese? i have cousins in melrose and malden and am a lifelong red sox fan...

last night was our christmas celebration and included a blue cheese plate with some homemade membrillo and some tiny figs. the blues were Roaring 40's, gorganzola picante, mindoro blue and butler's blacksticks bleu. the mindoro has become my new favorite for it's staying prowess on the palate. would have posted pictures but i still can't figure out how to resize in a program then upload.

back in 1977-1978 while working to get the money to go to grad school i worked at the Pub(short for the Earl of Stirling Pub). after dinner service we did bar food. the bartenders had nuts, a kind of "chex" mix and caramel corn we did for them as well as pretzels. in the kitchen we did mini pizzas, fries we served with a garlic mayo(odd at the time but our main boss was swiss and they were our best seller), mini burgers(using the leftover dinner rolls) and deep fried hot dogs. dang, if i had known about deep fried mars bars i would have done them!!

catching up on tons of food mags and will be posting giveaways later in the winter. this takes maybe 1.5 hours to read and not much food - unless you count the cat eating the Stuckey's pecan log and barfing - BUT if you grew up with brothers or are a mother of multiple sons read Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka. Jon is a kids/ya writer and it is freakin laugh out loud funny about growing up the second oldest of 6 boys. let us just say fire, improvised mortars, model airplanes and Catholic school are involved.

i'm with you on this. have made it several times for the poughkeepsie crew. it tastes so much better using a mix of cremini and shitake mushrooms with just that smallest scrape of nutmeg in the sauce. mac and cheese for us is not a holiday dish. i do do a small dish of mixed creamed onions - mini red, mini white and cippollini. unfortunately only my mil and i will eat these. for everyone else they are too exotic.

now that the hawkgawk is over and it is nudging into that time of the year when the ambient temp rarely rises above freezing (not counting wind chill but if you know what that is you also know how to dress for it). a break to do some laundry but... tomato gravy is simmering with some previously made and frozen meatballs poaching in the pot. the meatballs will be broken up to make the meat part of a lasagna. 2 containers of lactaid cottage cheese were drained and now are mixed with some grated hard cheeses, a beaten egg and some basil and oregano to be the "ricotta". more grated hard italian cheeses for the topping. while the gravy and meatballs were coming up to temperature it was time to make some pudding. #1. go to the bathroom. just like making a roux, but usually less time, once you start making a pudding you can not leave it. #2. pour a flute of sparkling wine. #3. grab a book. in this case the new title "George, being George" a biography told by his friends and contemporaries and a wild, wonderful and joyous read so far. #4. about 20 minutes later it is time to temper an egg and add it to the pudding. return to heat and 2 minutes later pull off the heat to add the vanilla and butter to finish. when the lasagna goes in the oven it will be accompanied by a blueberry streusel cake for john's snacks this week. the butter is softening now and the blueberries were frozen over the summer. it is windy and chilly. just put the first suet and niger out for the birds - and hopefully NOT the bears.

but only the mini ones that have the proper chocolate to peanut butter ratio, right guys? ← Huh. See, I'm thinking the Big Cups are just right. More peanut butter. ← oh, but the minis have the proper balance of chocolate fat to peanut butter fat. your nachos look/taste mentally wonderful. unfortunately i am about to bid adieu to this thread(though i will monitor it from afar) since i am now in menopause and i no longer have those cravings - and miss them terribly

so far, there is no evidence that they are. In fact, Chef Scheib suggests that the most likely thing is that she will stay on. It seems like most of the talk about the change comes from people who assume that new administrations change White House staff like the way they change cabinet members and what not. It really doesn't have to be that way. ← read that as well and i do think it would be short sighted to get rid of the present chef who has performed admirably. some people seem to be equating the white house chef with a personal chef while the title includes both personal chef and an executive chef and depends on how much entertaining is done - state dinners, receptions, informal luncheons. someone can be a good personal chef but can flounder in the swamp of banquet/professional catering where they have to switch from a small number of recipents of their craft where they do most of the food production to more of an executive chef position where their function is more menu choice and overseeing production. that was the thing i came away from scheib's book with was he was truly and team player who could switch from one role to another and could pull in other professionals - or as on 11 september anyone who would volunteer -and play with their strengths in order to put the product out.

American Thanksgiving and just watched a History Channel presentation that included the history of SPAM. interesting since it was back to WWI but more importantly back to WWII when our 50th state embrassed it. also dealt with birdseye, swanson, post, kellog, etc. very interesting

tonight is the annual manhattan clam chowder dinner for johnnybird. i already have the oatmeal bread and portugese sweet bread rising though, sadly, there will not be any little kitty footprints through the towel to help it rise again this year. i have selected my dinner for tomorrow: maultashen with beef broth and carmelized onions, oven roasted cauliflower, some black forest ham and afterwords i'll start on a set of white fruitcake.

ahhh... i knew one of our british brethern would be able to answer. still my concern on the north american continent is now mainly about heavy metals.

the first question is - are they a protected species under international migratory bird treaty? my second question is - since they are at the top of the food chain and eat fish primarily are the eggs subjected to having high levels of heavy metals or other chemicals in them? as to how to gather them i think it was in Roger Tory Peterson's book Wild America when he described walking among nesting colonies of gulls up in nova scotia and how he could have just plucked the eggs off the nest. i do know in england egg collectors would rappel the cliffs to remove eggs from nesting gannet. i would think you would want to wear a hard hat, though.

i will be alone for thanksgiving as usual. i love it since i can then cook what i want. the twist this year is my dear sil, julie, is going to follow johnnybird home for a weekend visit so we will be decking the halls and she and i will get to have cooking lesson #2(lesson #1 was macaroni and cheese from scratch). for the day itself i'm thinking a day of nothing but veg that i can reheat to go with dinner on saturday. because of some health issues john has had to stay away from the green leafy veg and he has extended it to basically all veg except cooked red peppers, a moderate amount of onion and garlic and yellow or green beans. <BIG SIGH>. right now i'm craving cauliflower so maybe a casserole made with some caramelized onions, tarragon, bechemal and emmentaler. enough brussel sprouts for me and do with some garlic, broth and apple cider vinegar. carrots with sage honey and dill. hmmm..... i do have some "emergency" crescent rolls and mini smokies. maybe i will have to do pigs in a blanket with honey mustard for the main course. i'm also making meatballs to use, a la tony danza, to make THE LASAGNA on friday(this is lesson#2). saturday will be lesson #3. it is an old 60's recipe modified : game hens lacquered with a sauce of (some leftover) caramelized onions, apricot jam and red french dressing. serve with some rice and the leftover carrots.

growing up every once in a while my grandfather would decan a spam cross hatch the top, push in a few cloves and top with pineapple slices then heat in our toaster oven. that with some new potatoes and some green beans was dinner for us.

in addition to the blog, Scheib (along with Andrew Friedman) wrote White House Chef, a very, very interesting book about his time working for the Clinton and Bush families.