Kouign Aman

Brave woman, thou, doing a third blog! Congratulations on your successes. That is awesome news. I've played with your new website and am looking forward to spending more time with it, as it does meet a need. I'm looking forward to a fun in the sun week with appropriate musical selections.

Time, Time, and Time. And occasionally, fondness & familiarity. My husband loves a certain brand of pizza. So, for every 3x we have pizza, we have his favorite. The other two times, we eat the pizza we are learning to make (which has been less than pleasurable a time or two). Sometimes the desire for a fat/salt fix that I can feel but dont have to be intimately familiar with the actual quantities involved. And sometimes, because I dont know how. And in those cases, sometimes I want to learn how and sometimes I dont care. I am interested in learning to make ravioli. I am not interested in learning to make potato gnocci, tho I enjoy them equally.

And what was YOUR response to HIS question? After all, from an African-American perspective, that's equally inconceivable. Although (a) I have committed this apostasy myself on occasion and (b) I have run across blue boxes in other African-American households, though usually they are kept discreetly tucked away behind other more respectable products in the pantry. ← I'm just guessing here, but I think they both replied "that's what grandma served".

My mom has type II diabetes, diagnosed in the past few years. Although she generally does a very good job of managing her blood sugar, I've noticed that her logic gets wonky if she puts off eating too long (trying to match a grandbaby's schedule, perhaps). When mom's logic is off due to low blood sugar, it takes her ability to make the logical connection with it. So she will refuse to eat. And it gets worse.... Even guests at our house have noticed it in 'advanced' stages. Unfortunately, I dont have mom as well trained as Tejon's got her sister trained. Something to work on What is funny, is that she can spot low bloodsugar in me from a mile off.

set a timr b4 u start cooking the meat, and force yrself to remove the meat when the timer goes off ? Although, if you LIKE it well done, fine! goodluck!

shrimp cocktail, Houston airport.

Thursday nights, everyone is home for dinner. That's pizza night. We're working on making our own, as thats cooking the 2.5 yr old munchkin can help with. We dont worry about adding a veggie to that meal, if one doesnt land on the pizza. With the warmer weather, we may modify it to picnic night and eat on the back lawn - pate, cheese, salty bits, pickles, etc.

Spring Strawberries & cream Rhubarb pie or compote When the plants ripen and the tomatoes glow: Bacon/tomato sandwiches basil/tomato/mozzarella salad (caprese) marinated tomatoes fresh blueberry pancakes (August) blueberry cobbler (August) sweet corn on the cob. artichokes late fall red delicious (only for a few weeks each year do I like this variety) starting to put fuyu persimmons here, as I work on my pudding/pie recipe. winter: mincemeat pie chestnuts whole nuts (stock up on these for me, and for the bigboid a years supply)

The favorite after-work hangout, with the great margaritas and the C health rating in the window.

I will never again assume that the face-cover on the thermometer is glass. Stuck the probe in the bird, closed the oven. Came back in 10 min to check temp - smooth now-opaque-white blob of plastic melting off the face and heading for my bird! Got it out of the bird in time, and let it blop onto the cutting board. Oh my.

I see two over-reactions. The guy who took the cancellation, and the guy who called it in. The guy who took the call should have had better manners. The guy who cancelled, should take things in perspective. One rude guy on the phone, during a major festival, is no reason to badmouth a restaurant to all your friends and to vow never to go back. editted to add: at least, not a restaurant that was worth long-distance reservations in the first place. My mean streak wishes the OP had offered the guy on the phone a choice: We no-show, or we bring our normally well behaved kid who is currently in meltdown with no sign of it abating soon.

I admire you for taking on this task, and for bringing a sense of adventure to it. I know that your post on the last meal followed a VERY nutsy day. And I know how hard it is to remember to look at and focus on the good things sometimes. A complaint is just information to be added to the total pool of information (Mr So&so thinks my food is a bit spicy. Mrs So&thus prefers Jello to any other dessert), and is not to be taken personally. A compliment however, is a compliment as well as info; take compliments very personally. These folks are finishing some things to the point of nearly licking the containers. They are coming back for another meal. Some of them actually take the trouble to say nice things. These are big. I wish you luck in not over-looking them. It might help you, if you got to know your clients a little, as individuals. One person by face and name each meal. Start with the ones who come up to you for any reason - more dressing, a complaint, a request. It wont make the work any easier or the budget bigger, but it might make the whole thing more fun and more warm-fuzzy for you. When my husband and I are old and cranky and feeling beat up by physical changes, we are going to have very different culinary likes and dislikes. It would be very confusing to lump us in a single undifferentiated "seniors" category & then cook for us.

Jam is easy, but time-consuming. Need to keep really small fry out of the kitchen. I havent tried since the munchkin has been with us. Thanks for the info on the lemon grass. Im keeping it inside til the weather settles a bit, but then it will have a nice big pot with plenty room. I'll go potting soil shopping. Full sun? I havent added any plants yet. Got busy with "other stuff".

Oh my. What a day! and how did the car smell? Those are lovely plates. It must be nice to serve on them.

Im guessing there are more than one variety of quince, hence the difference in skin-color / results correlation for different people in different environments. Doncha wish the markets would list the variety with fruit, and not just "quince", "black plum", etc?

oh wow!I have but a few small quince left, but I have apples, butter and all the lovely spices. I think I'll try a mini quince-apple pie this weekend. Thanks so very much for the link.

Since that idea's already surfaced, I'll just have to outline and bake two, because 2pir (two pie are).

I dont think its only that. It IS tedious and difficult to get a meal on the table 5 days a week, within 40 min of arriving home from work, and one that is acceptable to oneself, the spousal and the offspring units. It involves shortcuts, and simple recipes. So, cooking maybe became tedious when some of us who enjoy cooking also decided to enjoy working fulltime outside the home. Its much more fun on Saturday.

I dont think I've ever had a quince before. I'd like to hear some nice uses, as there are a couple hanging on the tree still. In the house, I found the smell of the fruit odd - up close lovely tart and fruity like passionfruit, but when just passing by, it smelled like the cat had made a statement. I'm glad the lime survived too. Coastal location has its benefits I think. Has your brother started your mom's tomatoes yet? yum! How do you keep the brambles from taking over the yard? Rats and oranges - yeah, we've 'donated' a few - its kinda cool how they eat them hollow while still on the tree.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I think it would help create a sense of community too, because you'd get to know your neighbors. Its so easy to cozy up at home and never get out into the world, and here, people are doing that more and more. Apparently a new trend in high-end remodels is to put a mini-fridge and coffee maker in the master bathroom. I guess that way one doesnt even have to face the kids and pets in the morning. (Not to say that its a fantasy I couldnt buy into .... )

We use it mostly for reheating pizza and fried food (same goal - drain the grease and get the crisp going). But since I roasted my first ever chicken just this weekend (and stole all the skin), I'm glad to hear your recommendation. This summer, that sucker's gonna get a workout!

Hello! We have one of those. It came as part of the Tenor's dowry. I'd never seen another. Very cool. I am thoroughly enjoying your blog. Thanks for all the great details. We used to make "smiling" hot dogs, but I never thought of octopi. That is on the Must Do list.

As long as my memory is working correctly (I usually double check names before posting but didnt on that one): fifi is cooking for one. Mindfully and creatively, and reducing recipes etc to suit. (at least, I thought I was referring to fifi.... she of the much-envied steel mushroom)

I'm dreaming of starting my tomatoes, but havent yet. The cilantro is happy and leafy. The basil got wiped out by those few very cold nights (darn it. It was starting to re-leaf on lovely woody stems). The rosemary is more blue than green, from all the flowers. The quinces finally ripened (my friend who gave me the tree said it was a guava. She was wrong. oh well.), and we didnt like them. The cold put the deathknell to the passion fruit vine too. The lime tree is flowering as is the apple (something stole all the fruit last year - all 7 of it). Here's hoping March behaves itself! The lemon grass grew roots. I am very happy about that! Bob, how did you handle it for the transition from glass-o-water to actual dirt? Potting soil? Sand? etc?