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zoe b

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Everything posted by zoe b

  1. The first zucchinis arrived at my door this AM--we would never plant them for this reason---everyone else does! So what do you all do with them? I'm not too imaginative-- I like grated zukes, sauteed quickly in OO with some garlic and a squeeze of lemon to finish. in any kind of stir fry, or summer veggie pasta sauce. pancakes, and zuke parm is good. grilled as part of a grilled veggie platter. I don't care much for zuke bread--but maybe i just don't have a good recipe for it. Zoe
  2. ooh, that's a good idea, Glori--thanks!! will go into spy mode--haven't done google earth yet
  3. maureen said-- "I have a theory (based on nothing) that around the time the new wave of Italian restaurants (as opposed to Italian-American) were opening, restaurateurs found the customers (who had grown up on buttery garlic bread) balked at the basket of plain bread and asked for butter. The oil would thus have offered a compromise between the butter the customer wanted and the plain bread the restaurant wanted to serve. Anything in that? " yeah, right, and it's also closely related to the round loaf and crock of butter that you used to get at surf & turf joints. I've always thought that it's kind of silly--for one thing, yes, olive oil is extremely good for you, but it's still a fat--and a tiny schmear of butter on a piece of bread has to be less fattening than dipping your bread--I'm sure it soaks up at least a tbls of oil each dip. Ripping off a hunk of bread, drizzling some OO over it to hold off hunger pangs while sitting on the deck with friends, drinking a glass of wine, and waiting for the meat to finish cooking on the grill is sublime--dipping doughy bread into some weird mixture of seasonings in cheap OO is a waste. Zoe
  4. we're traveling through from NJ to Ohio next weekend and have, in all the years we've made the trip, never managed to find great (or we'd settle for decent) roadfood close to 80--I think we've eaten a few times at the Iron Bridge Inn in Mercer--and it was ok, but we'd really love an old style diner sort of place--with maybe hot meatloaf sandwiches--or a drive in--with good hot dogs and ice cream cones. Can anyone recommend a place or two? It should be in the center to the west of PA so we could hit it for lunch. I've tried chowhound in the past and not had much luck--I'm putting my faith in e-gulleters! thanks, all--Zoe
  5. I'm curious what you mean about on the mark vs al dente--I haven't been to Italy so don't know what the true Italian way is--I cook pasta until there is just the slightest bit of bite to it--what do they do in Italy? Inquiring minds want to know! Zoe
  6. I haven't made this for years, but used to make this for big parties--I think the recipe is from Martha Stewart's Entertaining--the stuffing was ricotta and spinach--I can't remember what else--probably egg, parmesan cheese, garlic--it was very simple--her recipe called for stuffing under the skin, but if your breasts are skinless you can either cut a pocket or roll the breasts around it--and this would be delicious with the pancetts. I don't think you would need a sauce with this, but you could so a wine and butter reduction of the pan juices if you wanted.
  7. so resurrecting this thread to ask--what do you use for the juice if you are using fresh pie cherries?--we just picked a container full of cherries and i want to make the hub a cherry pie.
  8. I leave food out, too. It drives my hub crazy--because his mother had a fridge full of scary old food--he's convinced all women are trying to poison him! I probably wouldn't leave a chicken out all night, but i have forgotten to refrigerate soup overnight--I just give it a good boil real quick before the hub sees it. I would pick crispy bits off off a pan the next morning and eat them while i'm finishing cleaning up the kitchen. Zoe
  9. I asked this in the Southern forum, but I think it will get more answers here. My hub's grandson just enrolled at this school. I'm wondering if it's worthwhile--I question the fact that he just walked in and they signed him up, helped him apply for Pell grants, and now he's got a quite large student loan for the remainder of his tuition. he's a kid who never liked school and never had any idea about what he wanted to do in life. Now he's working in a restaurant and loves it, and is finally interested in something. So this could be a vey good move--I hope it is--I just wish he had come East and enrolled at our local community college--much much cheaper, and at least i know that they do a decent job at training kids. Any opinions? Zoe
  10. all of the above, unfortunately.
  11. zoe b

    Isn't egg salad great?

    I'm with slkinsey--I don't care for egg salad, adore sliced egg sandwiches--I've actually been on a kick lately and have had one for lunch every day: one sliced, underooked and still warm egg from our hens. Hellman's mayo and either sricha sauce or french grainy mustard. Lettuce from the garden and it has to be on something crunchy---good toasted bread or an english muffin is ok in a pinch. you CAN add bacon or tomatoes--it's ok, but it takes away from the primal eggness. heaven!!! Z
  12. glorifiedrice said-- "Honestly? The best pizza sauce is 2-4 tablespoons tomato paste, olive oil, oregano and a little water... " I'll have to try this--I've made a quicky sauce with crushed tomatoes, but the paste might work--I have a tendency to not use it, though, as i think it can be bitter.
  13. I vary according to use--for green salads I like 3:1, but for my cannelini and tuna salad 1:1 is needed--otherwise it's too bland.
  14. oh, good, so all is not dark--now I have some alternates! dockhl said-- Classico's Spicy Red Pepper and Trader Giotto's Traditional Marinara are both sugarless. I used to buy Classico before Barilla and I like it. I assume the Giotto's is Trader Joe's brand--will try it. Jaymes--I'll try the Moms, too--there just isn't a Whole Foods very close to me. K8--ok, I'll do the tomato thing--I even have a whole window sill full of sort of tomatoes as the hub keeps buying them--he just can't wait til his tomatoes are ready. And I just made delish baked tomatoes out of a few of them the other night--the kind with garlic and bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and olive oil--so i agree that they will work on pizza--the idea about poking the goo out is genius! By the way, I tried a new pizza dough out--with semolina flour--and it was great--I got the little crispy bubbles on the crust--I've never gotten that out of my oven before. Zoe
  15. I just finished doing the prep for a pizza I'm making for dinner. I make the dough, but usually use Barilla jarred sauce unless I have a little extra red sauce in the freezer. I've adopted Barilla sauce as one of the good quality prepared foods I'm pleased to have in the pantry. Well, tonight I popped the lid and had a little taste of the sauce--Marinara-- before putting it on the pizza=-- DANG--IT"S SWEET!! What happened--ok, look on the label, and there it is--sugar--now it's like all the other sauces--sweet and awful. This is so disappointing--I'm assuming it was modified to suit the American palate--we do have to have sugar in every freaking thing....
  16. oh, I truly loved this piece--I don't know why I didn't read it before--I think the mention of Alice Waters put me off. I'm thinking about the people hating the 60s and 70s business--I don't know--I had a great time --not as much fun as you were having, apparently--but I always think that when I read an account. I was mostly in the country doing the Whole Earth thing--but i identified with the "let's put on a show" ethic. We all thought anything was possible. If you are going to write about the evolution of your life in food, you MUST start at the beginning. An important part of that era was the rejection of everything that is corporate and packaged. That feeling grew into all the different things people are doing now--growing heirloom vegetables and fruits, raising meat animals, making cheese, sponsoring farmer's markets, making breads, beers, wines, opening small personal restaurants, in my case making hand-made soaps and body care products--all of this ferment didn't just happen one day in 1990-- it started somewhere--and it's important to write about it, and interesting to read about it in my opinion, anyway! Zoe
  17. zoe b

    Ratatouille

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dining/1...ing&oref=slogin article in the Times today about it. I just saw the previews for this and I'm hunting for a child of the appropriate age to take to see it--it looks adorable! And I HATE HATE HATE computer generated animation ....
  18. Last winter there was the threat of several foie gras laws in NJ--one against serving it, but the most frightening would ban distribution. This was again, the case of an ignorant pol wanting ink meeting up with the animal rights groups--a lot of letters were written and phone calls made--these bills were either dropped or never filed. I found members of the Ag committee the most helpful in this--probably not one of those in Philly!, but if you can figure out who is most interested in food production in the city--maybe the Tourist Board is a good way to go--they don't want Philly to look ridiculous. Zoe
  19. I'm thoroughly enjoying your blogging, Randi--I especially like the real-life feeling--it's just like looking in someone's window to peek at their life. You're giving us a glimpse of your life--and as you are living it, not a staged, three perfect meals a day glimpse--including the ripped up dog trash is especially good!
  20. I know about Adrienne--and it is tragic--believe me I wanted to love this movie--the sad story, food as a powerful element, an interesting cast--if it was even a little bit good i would have raved about it, but sorry, i couldn't. I can honor Adrienne as a person, but i can only say I'm sorry she didn't get to live to make more movies
  21. this isn't a high level one, but a couple weeks ago i bought some La Costena salsa at the supe--cheap, made in mexico--no cachet about it whatsoever... and it has the exact taste of the salsa we ate on top of huevos rancheros in every little hole in the wall restaurant in small towns in Mexico-- we had so many breakfasts watching the chickens who laid our eggs running around the dirt yards. and i've made so many salsas--but this is THE ONE those very thin, half crispy, half soggy tortillas with runny eggs on top--depending where there might be black beans, ham, cheese, queso fresca, sour cream, onions, cilantro--but wherever, this is the salsa--and it brings it all back. I can get the same little tortillas at the supe and now that i've found the salsa I'm having huevos rancheros for lunch every day--we have our own hens so the fresh fresh fresh eggs are no problemo--I'm in heaven. Zoe
  22. ya know, I have to agree with Mimi here--those pies weren't actual food, they were ideas. and the movie was another stereotypical "quirky" movie--the characters familiar from sitcoms past. it made me long for a nice mob hit or a slime monster to tart things up a bit.
  23. Renka said-- "Many times my "muffins" end up being like fluffy moist scones." Yeah, it's true, even if muffins come out not the way they are supposed to, they are delish--heavy, light, big holes, dense crumb, tough or tender--what could not be good about eggy buttery and not too sweet? But i am curious to try CanadianBakins' recipe--thanks for posting it. And Ruthie--By Jove, you've got it! Those muffins are gorgeous! Does anyone have the recipe for muffins from Anna Thomas' Vegetarian Epicure--I think from II--that was my basic muffin recipe for years, then the book fell apart and i didn't replace it--I had it written down but I cleaned out old recipes when i got a new recipe file and i must have put that recipe in the wrong pile and ditched it. It's a whole wheat and molasses recipe--But the great thing about it is that i've altered it in a zillion ways and it still comes out good--it makes very solid, heavy, little muffins--the kind you can throw at your kid to make them stop acting up and it won't fall apart! Zoe
  24. I have to mention Tina Rupp--she makes food look so alive http://www.tinarupp.com/ (disclaimer--she's doing the pics for a book I'm working on!!!)
  25. I've wondered this, too--the traditional muffin recipes don't seem to work for those giant coffee shop muffins--I spent a month a few summers ago trying to develop a recipe that worked and i liked--I really don't like those super sweet heavy muffins that most places sell. Zoe
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