lemniscate

Ok, I am not a food worrywort. I grew up on a farm and ate vegetables/fruits right off the vine without washing them first. I keep a relatively clean kitchen, not spotless. I believe in being exposed to bacteria sometimes can boost the immune system. BUT, that being said....I buy bagged greens and have always rewashed them in a colander before consuming. In light of recent recalls, I don't think simple rinsing alone helps wash away e. coli. Now I am concerned with what's in that bag of romaine/leaf lettuce/spinach. So I got this email from Sharper Image promoting this product: http://sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product/sku__TS600 I have to honestly say I'm considering it, but I do have questions on how they know how 'santized" the food gets. I didn't see the usual microscopic before and after photos of creepy crawlies. So I have reservations about it of course. This could be the new "magnet therapy" scam of the early 2000's. Anyway, what do you think? And how has your technique of washing fruits/veggies changed in the last few weeks?

a juicy roast turkey thigh.......... Hida beef cubes on a stick from the Takayama Farmer's Market....gawd if I only had a teleporter....

I'm hoping someone may know a clone recipe for Girard's Champagne Dressing. It is my favorite dressing and I'd like to be able to make it at home for two reasons: the bottle is about 4 bucks retail (which I think it a bit pricey for the amount I use regularly) , and my local supermarket is almost always out of the Champagne due to its popularity. I've suggested they stock more, but deaf ears apparently. I've tried googling recipes for champagne vinegar vinaigrettes and nothing seems to come close to the original.

I've been making kefir for about a year now with the grains. It is very easy. My husband was lactose-intolerant until he started drinking a little kefir on a weekly basis. Now it seems he can eat any dairy without any of the discomfort he used to have. I know it's just testimonial information, but kefir has more of the active cultures than yogurt does, so maybe it can help with the lactose digestion. I tried to make a cottage cheese out of some really sour kefir I had, but it didn't coagulate. I think I needed to try something other than skim milk. The dogs enjoyed the failure immensely though. Haven't tried making kefir cheese yet.

btw, in case you were thinking I was some old person who lived thru the depression and blah, blah, blah. I'm 42, so these experiences were in the 70's and early 80's.

I grew up on a mid-sized farm about 30 miles north of Detroit. For a large part of the time, we were a "truck" farm. That means we grew fields of different vegetables for wholesale and retail local markets. The wholesale was done EARLY (2am-7am) weekday mornings at Eastern Market where we sold large orders of bushels of green beans, sweet corn, pickles, etc... to the local supermarket and larger fruit and produce stands. There was always haggling at this level because as a farmer you had to figure out what the other farmers were offering their green beans for and price yours accordingly. The supermarket buyers of course wanted the best deal. I liked this market the best. On Saturdays, we were at Chene and Ferry Market with a stall. Here we sold by the pound or by the dozen. There was always haggling here too. The dumb hagglers would show up early, some would make comments about the "low" quality, "how could you ask that price for such junk". Our vegetables were pretty darn good. Not all, but those are the idiots I remember the most. We gave special pricing on volume. The smart hagglers showed up late, just before the market closed and generally got great deals. What was left we didn't want to take home, maybe the premium veggies were gone but the stuff left was still pretty good. If we took the stuff home, we generally would feed it to the cow herd. I hated the early hagglers, I didn't mind the late hagglers. Some of those early hagglers were downright mean. This time frame was when I was a baby to about when I was 13 when we quit doing the truck farming and went into soybean farming. These people would haggle with a child. Alot of the clientele was D.P. (Displaced Persons from WWII that had settled in the Hamtramck area), I think the "tradition" of haggling came over from those Eastern European cultures. You'd think I'd be a haggler, but I'm not. Haggling takes up time. I just want to buy what looks good and move on. Back when I was on the farm, there was no such thing as "artisanal" and "organic". It was a way to make a living, a tough way to make a living.

Grimbergen Blonde Ale, a Belgian. Citrus top note, medium bodied, light finish. A nice, nice summer beer. Only 1 left from the 6 pack :-(.

We start our 9 day Alaska vacation in a little more than a week. The Alaska State Fair is on the must-do list. According to the website the food vendors include lots of local seafood (Oysters! Clams! Halibut!), reindeer sausages, caribou steaks, buffalo brats, and Alaskan Amber beer! Ah yeah baby! and did I mention the giant vegetables.........................? and lumberjacks.................

I would buy that set in a second. I love the Global look, hence I own a set of Global knives. Global knife handles are no problem keeping clean, why would these be different? I, too, do not understand the "cleaning" concerns. Looks like the grip could be ergonomic and comfortable. Might actually be good for people with hand mobility problems. Keep them and use them proudly.

Piraat by brewery Van Steenberge is the first real Belgian my husband and I tasted and it literally changed our palettes. We are committed craft brew drinkers now and love the Belgian styles. It is still my husband's number one beer. Saxo Caracole Leffe Blond Delirium Tremens I'm leaving off too many................. and Cassis (that's my dessert beer!)

Try North Coast's Pranqster and Avery's Salvation. Sweetish, not hoppy or bitter. Alaskan Amber and Anderson Valley's Boont are tops too. I do not like hoppy, bitter beers also, so I tend to go with the Belgian styles.

I have a pressure cooker that is made to be able to pressure-fry in. I have made fried chicken in it a few times. My mom fell in love with the contraption, she and I would fire it up and fry up 5-6 lbs of buttermilk-soaked, seasoned flour dredged pieces. The funny thing is all the men-folk would leave the house because the hissing/puffing/sizzling sounds of the pressure cooker scared them. Ha! They would show back up as soon as the all the pieces were draining on brown paper and the cooker was cooling down. The chicken out of the cooker is wonderful; crunchy, juicy, tender and usually gone far too quickly.

I've eaten at Pizzeria Bianco a couple times. Once way back in the day when it was located at Town & Country Mall. Then more recently the downtown location. The pizza is sublime. I had the pizza with the pistachios, red onions, and parmesan, both times. But the last time I was there, we were there right as the doors opened and were a 2 top. We were seated at a 2 top table, pretty soon all the 2 tops were full, but there was one or two 4 tops open. A couple came in, and were told they needed to wait for a 2 top table to clear to be seated. Even with open 4 tops. I know its a small place, but I thought that was a little weird. Kind of put me off the place hospitality-wise. That was 3-4 years ago. I think PB might be getting loved-to-death and over-trendified.

I don't drink commericially bottled water either. I filter my tap water (which does not taste that great straight) in my British Berkefeld water filter and fill reuseable Nalgenes with it. It tastes great. I cannot believe the amount of empty plastic water bottles tossed everywhere these days, so I made a decision to use tap and reuseable containers. Reverse Osmosis systems reportedly waste alot of water, I've read to get 1 gallon of RO water the system needs 5 gallons of tap inflow. With the Berkey, what goes in comes out minus the "impurities".

Being a frequent Costco shopper causes me to overfill my pantry. Most of my canned good have migrated into the garage, much to the chagrin of my Husband. I have to make a concerted effort a few times a year to cook from the back of the pantry forward. Lots of pastas, noodles, rices, and assorted Asian condiments are behind those doors right now. At least 10 cans of chicken stock must be present at all times. Several bottles of Herdez salsa, another thing I cannot stand not having on hand. I also have a lot of different salts and spices. Yikes, time to start culling the weak ones in the herd.

No help on the recipe request but it's funny that a Pastie Shop has opened recently in Tempe AZ. I mean, that was the last type of cuisine I would have expected to see in the Desert SW. I haven't tried it yet, but the menu sounds pretty cool. I guess we could think of them as Cornish burritos.. http://www.cornishpastyco.com/?p=menu

approx. 33N 112W, noooooo shortage of solar radiation where I live.........

We are in Day 2 since I crocked my first ever batch of my Mom's polish dill recipe. I have borrowed a 3 gallon crock from my father-in-law and have about 4 pounds of pickles with salt, dill, and garlic brining away in my kitchen. Dill is crazy expensive here in the Desert SW. I had to get the gourmet baby dill plastic packaged kind. I keep sticking my nose over the crock to whiff that briny dilly smell. I haven't smelled that in 25 years. I like mine "new" so I think I will have my first dill on Sunday. Husband likes sours, so he must be more patient. It's funny how a smell can trigger long lost memories and sensations. Like sitting on the picnic table during summer vacation with visiting cousins eating watermelon, your hands and forearms sticky from the juice running down and having a seed spitting contest. I think I will get a watermelon today and challenge Husband to a contest.

I'm not a survivalist by any stretch. I don't even camp. But I do like use solar power where it makes sense and is cost effective. I love the fact I don't heat up my kitchen to bake, cause I'd just pay to cool it down again. The farmhouse I grew up in had an outbuilding that was the summer kitchen. Maybe that idea isn't so old fashioned anymore Oh yeah! I forgot I did baked apples with maple sauce too. What types of cakes did you do and how were the results? I need to find one of those old splatterware black roasters to use the oven more efficiently. Need to go haunt a few thrift stores. Lemnisc8

A day late and a dollar short, but if someone else needs shears, I have these http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/li...hears&noImage=0 They come apart for easier cleaning, have a great grip and are strong enough for the bigger tasks. Plus they come with a cover and are under $20!

Hello, first post here. Anyone else ever use a solar oven for cooking? I purchased one off eBay a while back and have been playing around with it. I've gotten great results roasting garlic heads, potatos, carrots and mushrooms. The temp inside usually is in the 250F-300F range in full bright sun. Like a non-electric crock pot. I haven't attempted anything with meat yet, but am planning to do a pot of pinto beans as the next "experiment". The kind I have is a knock-off of the Global brand. http://www.sunoven.com/about.asp This seems to be a pretty amazing company, doing lots of "good works" globally to help people cook without deforesting their environment. I've been having fun doing solar oven cooking and am always looking for new ideas. I have been negotiating with my husband about which part of the yard I can build an hornos, an adobe, dome-shaped, wood-fired oven for breads. LOL, thank goodness he's an easy-going guy, he just smiles and shakes his head at my new ventures. I'm an engineer by trade, but as I get older I'm finding there's an inner-hippy trying to take over. lemniscate