suzilightning

i am trying to contain myself since i am at the reference desk right now but i love the writing and your delving into the world of the fridge is wonderful. hey, freezing your bananas is the best way i know for banana bread or banana cake. just take the required number of pods out of the freezer, let thaw in a bowl and they are the perfect consistency for use. glad i finally got back to work to catch up...

lovely soups but it was about 90 degrees and humid here today. earlier in the week i did make a zucchini-rice soup that was served warm, not hot. it was from The Flexitarian Table cookbook which i would highly recommend checking out.

wow, i should NOT read this when hungry. now i'm craving imperial shrimp and figs... A few simple dinners recently since the hawkwatch is in full swing in our neck of the woods. This was for John. Pan fried salmon with a glaze of honey, lime and tamari sauce. The veg was zucchini and yellow squash with onion and a ton of white pepper and olive oil. Crusted chicken breast with white sweet potatoes and yellow beans in a dill and garlic hollandaise. This is what John requested earlier in the week: sloppy joes(manwich style no New Jersey deli style). I added the broccoli salad dressed with sherry vinegar, lime and some red pepper flake.

For John this past week it has been blueberry and apple cake. For me: or as the saying goes in our house "Apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze". John still prefers it for dessert and with vanilla tofutti.

I don't know much about Latvian cuisine, though I suspect it's quite similar to ours, as the cultural influences have been more or less the same (at least re: Russian and German influences). I imagine Scandinavian/Nordic elements are more prominent in Estonian cuisine.. Re: exotic meats - that's a tricky one. I don't think pork, beef and wild boar count as exotic at all I could go for some bear meat at Olde Hansa medieval restaurant, but not sure I'll have time during the week I will try, however, to use some little known fish in my cooking this week. And I'll get back to the topic on Scots food soon. Tomorrow, probably.. ← darlin' for some people around here vension is considered "exotic". bring on the boar, the caribou, and the fish. and the pork, please. i love my pork. your apple cake sounds a lot like john's german grandmother's . i still make it but use toast dope on top instead of the pearl sugar which is hard to find around these parts.

LOL I forgot to take final pics I must have been too hungry. To us, the Teal is the best tasting duck there is. It's not as "heavy" or "gamey" as other ducks. ← i agree. i prefer them to black duck or mallard but now you so rarely get them in season or in migration. <sad and grumpy face>

too, cool, pille we have a local restaurant whose owner/chef is latvian. any good(read exotic for most) meats? red deer/ caribou? or for johnnybird any salmon? what do you miss most about scots food that you can't get where you are now?

ohhhhhh beet salad with goat cheese and walnut. yum.. i really love golden and chiogga beets but to no avail. johnnybird is the husband of 25 years and he says that they taste like dirt. course this is better than most of his family that feel that vegetable s are the devils work (quote from my father-in-law " do i have horns or antlers? of course i dont want anything green"). i'll take them roasted or as a borsht. thank you for the vicarious pleasure

hey catew and jtravel - spent a lot of time on Euclid Street. actually got engaged to Johnnybird there. he went to ESF which was based on SU campus. Definition of sun - a rare celestial occurance. worked with a guy from syracuse/liverpool. he made some of the best salt potatoes.... freaked everyone down here in jersey out the first time he served them at a party. can't wait. i hear dinosaur has reopened. someone i work with has a son in his senior year at su.... will alert her and said son to the blog.

tracey on that ride through sussex county this morning/afternoon did you hit up the farmers market in lafayette village? you should have stopped by and visited me at the library..... love the house and you are an intrepdid traveler. where is the daughter going to school? william patterson or ramapo? will keep my eye out at the yard sales next spring for miss cow's missing siblings

allan - maybe a hit of 30 minutes at a high hear for a crisper skin? what kind of cheese did you have on the beet salad - goat or feta? lunfortunately john can't stand beets so if i see them out - especially salad i go for it.

it was hot last night so tried a new recipe,blender gazpacho(very good). served with some coleslaw and a grilled chicken with sundried tomato and basil sausage. johnnybird is off at the Farm Aid concert. wonder what i should do for dinner tonight? edited to say i think i should have posted this on the regrettable dinner thread. wow what a clash of colors

that looks like the makings of salt potatoes on the left - a syracuse specialty. and goodness knows there is tons of snow there as well. onions...... there are bunches of places that grow onions like near Florida. maybe phaelon or mrsadam?

Here are some of the two shelves of NEW cookbooks: and two old ones that happen to be two of my favorites.

don't know about tracey but it is the same one that came with the house we bought. maybe there was a sale on them? we still have it but downstairs in the basement. if you have a lake house up here the "front door" is the one that faces the lake since, unlike other places, our "front yard" is the area that faces the lake and usually is larger than the area that faces the street.

the last of the macaroni and cheese... and a regular o'douls. ok- now that you've finished laughing i was craving carbonation - and champagne is out since i have to hawkwatch then work- and do not like the taste of soda so o'douls fit the bill nicely.

That is ketchup but homemade sundried tomato ketchup. It's less sweet and less salty than the commercial brands. John, on the other hand, loves the commercial stuff. I love the balance it gives to a basic mac and cheese.

From Saturday a macaroni cheese. Plated with tomatoes and slaw. Last night back from the hawkwatch it was a chilled bottle of Vermont reisling and crabcakes, carrots with sage honey and dill and yellow squash with onion served on the new flounder plates my neighbor brought back from South Carolina.

tracey- just up the road, huh? what time is dinner? isn't Dietrich's amazing but if you don't want to go that far drop down 513 to 46e and Schwind's. not pa dutch but some good meats. have a blast

Well it started out ok. 4.5 hours, 16 birds including an adult Bald Eagle that went first north then finally south so I could count him/her. Since raptors are an indicator species I just count what I see but as I said earlier, being a Red Sox fan helps with that patience thing. A few more pictures to post late tomorrow before the next blogger takes over. The kitties people got home and brought me a present (thought they usually don't - the kids leave me a bottle of Korbel,usually). I made a macaroni cheese with some quinoa pasta and had that for dinner with more tomatoes and slaw. For dinner tomorrow I pulled a frozen meatloaf from the freezer. Will serve it with beans and some smashed potatoes. The leftover loaf will become sandwiches for Monday. Alton is on.... gotta go.

Ruby Chicken. Will post the recipe when I get a minute. Let's say those in the library who DO NOT cook use this as their Ta-Da dish and all ohhh and ahhhh about it. Recently she asked me for some ideas for an "easy" recipe for a shower for her future daughter-in-law. I threw out a few ideas then said "What about the Ruby Chicken recipe?" NO that is her trump card and doesn't get played....

For those of you not in the northeastern United States, this is what some of the trees are looking like. It is 1 September and it is time to pick up my instruments and put on the uniform. Load the snack box into the back of the car fudgy boubon brownies and all. Pull together lunch.

A few miscellaneous pictures. First the pocky shot. Some cookbooks. Do you think I've used the Fanny Farmer enough? Several of my mom's recipes are in the Shelter Island cookbook. Jacqueline Pell Tuttle taught home ec and was a friend of my mom's. I still refer to this cookbook occasionally.

Thanks, Judy. All the people I spoke with at work, in a coffee house and in a few delis looked at me like I was speaking Greek. It seems that now adays you are given coffee and get to accessorize it to your taste.

Toast Dope Demo John has also written The Toast Dope Manifesto which he promptly took up to Poughkeepsie with him so he will have to post that later in the Toast Dope thread. The finished product properly applied. Unfortunately I lost the best image which was the bowl filled with the sugar and piles all around of the spices and a labeled diagram of what was what. John is going to be sooooooooo angry with me.