Peter the eater

I'm inspired. I didn't recognize anything until your last shot, no question that's some fine looking quinoa. Did it taste homegrown?

Another excellent suggestion. I'm a chestnut lover, just read my sig line. For some reason, chestnuts are only a Christmas thing we eat off the woodstove with egg nog. This should change, I recall reading of their virtues -- no cholesterol, low fat, better than almonds in some way . . .

Percyn, Lobster Salad #2 - With a little Mayo, Shallots and Avocado is a slam dunk for me. The Red and Green jump off the bun with a tiny bit of mayo and something oniony.

I wish my town had good street/truck food. Even my culturally diverse hometown of Toronto is chicken shit in this regard -- the municipality is afraid of anything that isn't a hot dog. Apparently Portland, Oregon is the place to get excited about mobile food vending. What food are you going to sell?

I've seen but not tasted digestible cellulose casing somewhere. Ummm. Can humans digest cellulose? ADDED EDIT: I think there may be super-thin, "edible", cellulose skins - principally for 'skinless' products! However, these are industrial products, film-thin, and beyond the possible technology of the home sausage-maker. And I still think you'd need to be a herbivore to digest them! I'll look for the product to see what they say. IIRC it's like a "biodegradable plastic bag" that breaks down into tiny particles without actual digestion.

I've seen but not tasted digestible cellulose casing somewhere.

Bamboo steamers have been around for thousands of years so somebody much more qualified than me must have the answers. I've got a few that I wash with warm soapy water when they look dirty or smell like food. I've also put them through the dishwasher which cleans them but must certainly shorten the lifespan. I like the big steamer for corn on the cob and other large veggies, and the kids like the mini steamers for individual servings.

Oh, it is, it is. Its not too short for a caffeine-lack headache (thank goodness for no doz!), but much too short for instant coffee! :LOL: KA, I see your point, but I still have to disagree. My first taste of coffee was instant Sanka back in 1984, and it was fine. Of course it's not as good as fresh brewed arabica, but it is what it is, and I still like a decaf instant coffee from time to time. If I only drank Luwak coffee from Indonesia (unlikely at $160 per pound, plus the fact it's picked out of civet shit from the jungle floor) I would surely grow tired of it, or at least I would become desensitized to it's virtues. All of our sense work on relative basis. Vive la différence!

Shalmanese, thanks for the challenging question. After some careful consideration, I'm joining the relativism camp. The only thing absolutistic about food, as far as I can tell, is that you will die if you don't eat it. Everything else is relative. Is life too short for instant coffee? I think it is not.

Lindsey, your words make me long for the Old Country although I've yet to go. The growing season here is around 120 days and there's plenty of fog. I got one eight ball zucchini from three plants, but the tomatoes did well in the new greenhouse. Does potted hough fit the second criterion "healthy"? Cobnut and sloe sound like winners. Rowan berries are also something with which I'd like to experiment. Hmmm . . . . jelly, cordial or brew?

Last week I finally made it to the Saint Croix Island International Historic Site. It's a lovely place in early September, unlike the winter, which was extra harsh that infamous year. They rightly observed the latitude to be the same as the South of France -- nobody knew about The Gulf Stream back then. Everything froze and thirty-five out of seventy-nine died of land-sickness, or Mal de terre. Next winter Champlain came up with the idea of competitive cooking for morale and survival. On the US side of the river there's a series of interpretive statues, below is Champlain:

Labor Day feels more like a New Year's Day than January first -- the end of the summer, back to school, back to work, new goals and objectives. My summer ended with a flurry of banquets, weddings and dining out that have left me replete with delicious memories. Harvest season is a good time for food resolutions. I'd like to be reminded of, or discover, ingredients that are: delicious healthy versatile

This topic is an excellent source of ideas. I've got more tomatoes than I can handle, today's pickins was 16 pounds:

Here's a chowder that's as good as any I've had: A little bit sweet and salty, with well-cubed potatoes and a good amount of seafood, outrageous popovers, and served outdoors . . .

Pork tartar?

And wash them down with a prairie oyster cocktail -- bull nuts and bird eggs, plenty of protein.

You're going to need some Cuban cigars.

Not even corn tortillas? Guess you'll have to make them yourself. KristiB50, the tomatillos I have now found -- they are strange and delicious to me.

The lads around here make black bear sausages which are quite different from the venison and pork sausages, even though the recipe is essentially the same. Like all creatures, some cuts are better or at least easier to cook than others.

The garden produced some nice onions, peppers and tomatoes this year. Today I made a batch of pickled hot orange peppers with garlic and onion. With all the big red and green bell peppers I'm thinking of roasting, peeling and preserving in oil. We'll see . . .

Grilled homemade ham, marble cheese, red onion and Keen's mustard on grilled bread . . . maybe not obscene but very tasty.

But wait, there's more! Tonight we had the cover from February -- chimichurri steak with green beans and roasted red potatoes. Instead off a NY strip (the t-bone less the t) we used a rib eye because it tastes better and was half the price this week. Argentina is a beef superpower not by accident. I really like this chimichurri union of parsely, garlic, olive oil and powdered red peppers including the sweet, the smoked and the hot.

I had a big bag of cremini caps that had to be used pronto. I barbecued them gills down then gills up so the juices were retained. Simmered in chicken stock, pureed, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, blend cream and garnished with Sriracha . . . my kinda soup . . .

September 2009, Herb-roasted chicken Italian style . . . .

I've heard this unsubstantiated story . . . Beijing imported a large quantity of pigeons a few years prior to the Olympics to give the city a more "Western Urban" look, but they all wound up eaten by the residents. No idea if it's true.