[Wendy's]

I like Wendy's baked potato, not much else stands out.

I do fast food about once a month. If the options are Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King and Harvey's, I'll go to Harvey's. I see it's not on the survey, oh well. The veggie and beef burgers are top drawer.

[What should I do with frozen mussels?]

We go through lots of mussels -- there are aquaculture farms up and down the coast here. Never experienced them precooked and frozen although I've seen them that way at the store. I can't imagine the freezing enhances them like smoking and canning.

I agree with djyee100 that warming them through for a taste test is a good idea.

[What's the Skankiest Part of Your Kitchen?]

The floor. Have I ever mention my hatred of tile, and grout in particular? I stopped even trying...

I 2nd this.

I 3rd this, and add the air vent located under my feet when I'm chopping stuff. I don't shop-vac it often enough.

[What's the Skankiest Part of Your Kitchen?]

Don't worry: germs need at least six seconds to jump onto a piece of raw meat you've dropped.

You mean there's actual science behind the Ten Second Rule?

[You're a What Kind of Cook?]

From the Goodness of my heart, and to reciprocate within the tenets of the barter system, I catered a summer party for forty pleasant folk. Most were family, the rest I could track down if need be. They gobbled up the grub and declared me to be "Kooky Coastal Rustic".

Have you ever landed in a pigeon hole?

[Asparagus: thick or thin?]

No, no, no. Thin is always better.

[Substitute for Lovage]

When I read this topic I can't help but imagine Weird Al singing Madonna's Substitute For Love.

[Nova Scotia’s Traditional Foods]

Squab

These are tasty little birds.

Nobody around here eats pigeons anymore, except for the few who raise them or can find them on a menu. They were a major food item a hundred years ago, before the last tourtre – French for passenger pigeon – went the way of the dodo.

The Acadian meat pie gets the name tourtière from these birds which once numbered in the billions, according to my interpreter at Kouchibouguac National Park of Canada. Wow, what a place -- go if you can.

The specimens below were raised on a nearby farm. They’re a bit bigger than market quail with amazing ruby-red breasts, not unlike a wild mallard. They were coated with maple syrup and canola before hitting the backyard gas grill. New potatoes, yellow zukes and purple carrots round it off.

[Creating a recipe.]

As an avocational cook, I'm highly derivative. Get an idea, look it up, make a mess, eat it, repeat as necessary. Probably not the best business model.

I like the sound of your four-part model. Do you go back and revisit/revise your personal recipe file? How often?

[Preserving your family recipes]

Great idea for a topic, Heidi.

I've got tons of old recipes from people of no relation and zilch from my ancestors. There were a few generations in a row that were boy-heavy which I suspect explains the lack of hand-me-down recipes. That said, my expanded family of elders are, for the most part, cooking like never before. I guess what we do is more like cross-generational swaps with the books, recipes, links, etc.

[Removing Raspberry Seeds]

Don't know about the Kitchen Aid attachment, but I'm imagining cheesecloth inside a salad spinner or some other centrifugal solution.

["Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold, Young & Bilet (Part 1)]

Wow. Congrats to you and your crew Nathan.

[Why no frozen rabbit?]

My Loblaws equivalent gets fresh and frozen rabbits with no discernible pattern. My butcher in the Annapolis Valley raises and sells both. I don't think the fresh meat ages too well.

[Things from the professional kitchen that every home cook should have]

Power rollers . . . for dough, pasta, fondant, etc.

[Things from the professional kitchen that every home cook should have]

A reliable sous vide set-up.

An industrial strength submersible mixer.

A Hobart with legs that reach the floor.

[How nice can a £21 loaf be?]

Ingredients: Spelt flour, Cornish sea salt, and water.

Hmmm. £21 seems a bit steep, unless it's too big to fit in the back of a Smart Car.

[Long distance cooking buddies share their food]

I've really enjoyed catching up with you adventures in my old stomping grounds -- thank you both. I miss living across the street from Ramsay Lake and driving all around Manitoulin. My personal best Northern pike (21 lb.s) came from the North Channel near Thessalon in 1989.

Anna, did you make that bacon on an elevated rack in the oven?

[The "Topsy-Turvy" Tomato Planter]

David, your future looks tomato-licious.

This is the second year for me with a few upside-down baskets and I have to say it's not looking good. We went west for two weeks and had neighbors checking in to water everything. It all worked out except for the Topsy-Turvies. Those felt wicks failed and the reservoir got all punky with algae.

[Nova Scotia’s Traditional Foods]

So maybe you are in the wrong job. But the locals said he was made C.O. because he could hold his own when someone picked a fight at the dances and because it got rid of the worst poacher!

I get that "wrong job" feeling with alarming frequency.

Turning a bad poacher into a Conservation Officer just makes sense. I think those guys get sidearms.

[Nova Scotia’s Traditional Foods]

Striped bass

This 1 1/4 lb. specimen is from the Gaspereau Valley, Nova Scotia where it's population is doing well despite almost vanishing two decades ago. They spend part of the life-cycle spawning in fresh water and the rest in the Atlantic Ocean where they're highly sought-after by sporty types.

The knife has a 10" blade, so you can imagine this fish is barely enough for two adults. Fortunately, the garden is rife with kale, purple spuds, yellow grape tomatoes, lemon thyme and crazy beets.

[Advantage: Home Kitchen]

I prefer my home-cooked lobster to that of any restaurant I've experienced.

[Rick Moonen's "Big Five" Fish Theory]

What is your personal "big five"?

In my kitchen, there are four species of fresh fish in heavy rotation:

1. farmed Atlantic salmon

2. haddock

3. mackerel

4. halibut

After that it's a tie for five:

5. ocean perch/pollock/hake/monkfish/char/trout

I now buy less top-of-the-food-chain predators like big tuna, swordfish and shark.

[Lamb Hearts]

There's some discussion of cooking lamb hearts here starting at post #157.

Basically, it's stuff 'em and cook low & slow:

[Once-is-Enough Kitchen Feats]

So today I am making a lobster salad that calls for the lobster legs and shells to be finely chopped using a large knife and poached in olive oil to make the dressing. As I wash lobster guts off every surface in my kitchen and then will need to shower to get the guts off my person, I give you a promise that once is enough. It has since occurred to me that this could have been accomplished painlessly if done in the food processor.

Or in your thermomix! You could poach them in there too.

Could you do it outside? I usually gut fish in the yard then hose off the picnic table.

[Kitchen journals and notebooks]

I've got twenty years of sketch books that I use mostly for work and partly for fun. Overall, they're 80% architectural, 10% food/entertainment, and 10% other. I tried to keep a little black foodie book after seeing Chef at Home Michael Smith do it 5 years ago, now I know I'll just loose such dedicated little books.

As a cook who mostly uses recipes as inspiration . . .

Not me, I like pictures.