Country

I just have to ask. How did you get the wild turkey egg?

Hey Jaymes. This is a GREAT RECIPE! The RG Cannellini's went into the compost bucket but, since I really wanted to try your recipe, I plowed ahead with some Cannellini's I bought a couple of years ago at the coop. Pretty old, but no floaters. The first 30-45 minutes of cooking they were still looking pretty wrinkled, but they came to and were fine. Another reason for plowing ahead was, before I knew the RG's weren't worth cooking, I'd gone up the road to Morse's Sauerkraut to check out the pancetta and ended up getting some prosciutto instead. Black Forest prosciutto. They had Parma there, but it was like $26/pound, and I'd always liked the smokiness of the Black Forest so I stuck with that. That worked out well as the smokiness and salt of the BF really made things come alive, so to speak, in the soup. I used some Contadina crushed tomatoes and store bought celery, but the onion, garlic, and carrot came from last year's garden. The rosemary and thyme came from plants I bring in to the house before things freeze up. I clipped off a bunch of each and put them in stems and all, and took them out after enough had gotten into the soup. Came out just right. So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Your recipe worked out better than any other for the first time I tried it and I'll definitely be making it again.

And I'm really looking forward to hearing back what you think. Well, the Rancho Gordo beans (and oregano) arrived last Friday. The Good Mother Stollard and the Christmas limas are beautiful beans. But.... Tonight I cooked half a pound of the Pintos for refried's using the same recipe I've used for years. I have to say the Pintos I get from the local coop are at least as good, and most of the time better. Pretty disappointing to pay $5.50/pound, plus shipping, for these. The Mexican oregano is good though, and I hope the other beans I got will be better than the Pintos. Since I haven't posted in a while I thought I'd follow up on this. A few weeks after I made the post above I tried the Mayocoba's that I got from Rancho Gordo. No better than the Pintos from them. After two disappointing experiences with their beans I gave up on them until now. Jaymes posted a recipe for using the Runner Cannellini's I got from RG, so I thought I'd try her recipe for Pasta e Fagioli because it sounds good. The Cannellini's were even more disappointing than the Pintos and Mayocoba's. I put them in a bowl to wash and a lot were broken shelled. They looked like clams dug by an inexperienced clam digger. But, I thought I'd give them a try and added water to wash. At least a third of them floated - and stayed floating. No good. I've been growing, buying, and cooking dry beans for a long time and I've never had a worse experience with dry beans than I have the one's from Rancho Gordo. I'd hoped for a lot better than this.

Whenever I want to learn about what's available for appliances I check out AJ Madison. Here's what they show for Electric Double Wall Ovens They list 98 in all. I've never bought from them, but they're a great resource for comparing and specs.

Wood fire roasted, Local, Organic, synergistic, craft-brewed artisan fair-trade eco-friendly coffee. Grilled cheese at Moody's Diner is $2.39. With cheddar $2.99. But a side of fries costs another $1.89. Menu. No escargot on the menu though.

Smell it.

Average efficiency (in 2009) of natural gas generation was about 42%. The average includes the older combustion turbines which are about 33% as well as the newer combined cycle plants, some of which can run over 50%. Because of their faster response time (and lower efficiency) combustion turbines are generally only used for peak power, while combined cycle are being used mostly for base load. For reference see: Average Operating Heat Rate for Selected Energy Sources (Efficiency = 3412/heat rate) eta: But, you're correct that generation efficiency should be taken into account in the context of this thread.

Average efficiency (in 2009) of natural gas generation was about 42%. The average includes the older combustion turbines which are about 33% as well as the newer combined cycle plants, some of which can run over 50%. Because of their faster response time (and lower efficiency) combustion turbines are generally only used for peak power, while combined cycle are being used mostly for base load. For reference see: Average Operating Heat Rate for Selected Energy Sources (Efficiency = 3412/heat rate)

I often buy beef (strips and tenderloin) marked down because of expiration date, but never ground beef - and never chicken and pork. In this week's issue of the Free Press (a local free paper) Tom Sadowski, who writes weekly and entertaining pieces, devotes this week's column to the subject at hand - Cooking with Tainted Beef (Small font so you may want to increase the size.)

An electric oven typically consumes 4000 watts, while a small electric heater such as this one uses 1500 watts. Heat from the oven will likely rise to the ceiling and be heating far more than what's required for working - and consuming much more electricity than the small heater which can be placed close to where the heat is needed. And there's the problem of burning out the oven element if this is done very much. And there's Mjx's practical experience to consider.

It's 1500 watts. See here. "And while heating, it consumes 1500 watts of power..."

If the oven is gas-fired it's probably more economical than running the furnace, but if it's an electric oven it would be more economical to get a small electric heater and place it close to where you're working. Also, if it's electric, it might not be good for the oven heating element(s) to be on constantly.

Indeed, Country - right out of the water they have an unholy red color. Someone in a previous GOM Shrimp thread didn't believe they weren't dyed. First set was pretty small - only 500lbs on deck. They usually get 2000 a day a bit later in the season. Yes. They're so red right after they're caught. Beautiful. One time a friend of mine brought me a five gallon pail right after he got in and they were still alive. And on top a little flatfish about eight or nine inches long that was still wiggling a little. I gutted, filleted and skinned it and fried it up in some butter. Freshest fish I ever had. He generally gets around 2000 too after things get going. Fresh meat going for $6.99 at the local (Waldoboro) fish market today. The whole shrimp were on the small to medium side and I didn't look at the price. I'll check next time.

On the other hand, that $50 cookbook will still be usable in 10 years. Whether the app will be is a serious question. Good point. I've had my print (acid free paper, 2002) edition for five or six years and it's holding up fine even though it's been much used - and has more slips of paper sticking out of the pages for reference than any other book that I own. But, from the descriptions, I have to admit that if I could afford it, it would be nice to have the electronic version. At least if it works on a regular computer and not just iPads, iPhones, etc. None of which I own and never will.

By the top pic it looks like they set out for another tow. Empty net reel and looks like a tight wire going into the water on the starboard side. Fresh shrimp are so pretty. Thanks for the pics.

This is one new direction farming is taking... Even as snow falls outside, workers harvest tomatoes year-round at Backyard Farms in Madison, Me. About 200 of them tend a half-million plants under 42 acres of glass, roughly the same amount of floorspace as in the Chrysler Building. On a smaller scale, quite a few local growers are now using hoop houses to extend the growing season and sometimes to grow greens all winter.

Me too.

Nice work! Thanks for the pics.

Rooftop, The next time you do that it might be a good idea to clear away the pine needles from the cooking area.

Now that I think of it, I've probably used The Professional Chef for reference more than any other book, since I got it a number of years ago. The link is to the 8th edition and I have the 7th and don't know what the difference might be. It's a large, literally heavy book, and somewhat expensive, but it's a great resource and I wish I'd had one back when I started cooking halfway seriously. Not sure if it's worthwhile for a beginner though, especially as all the recipes are for fairly large quantities of food. But they're all in weights and it's easy enough to scale them down with a hand calculator.

I'll third that. All are good to start with, and good to have on the bookshelf later on.

$9.99!! I'll wait.

Thanks, Patrick. I checked out a little of the link and will read all of it later. Lots to read. So far as soaking beans - I haven't done that in 10-15 years. I can't remember what recipe I got it from, but it said to bring beans to a boil, turn off heat, and let them sit for an hour before cooking. It's always worked and I've never soaked since. On the salt at the link I gave earlier, I just thought 2 teaspoons per cup of beans would make them way too salty, especially as I rarely add any salt - at any stage of cooking. But for the Stollard's I'll trying adding a little. And for Cathy's recipe since it uses water instead of chicken broth which always has some salt in it. Going to North Haven you must take the ferry from Rockland, which is about 30 minutes from where I am. Midcoast Maine is a great place to be. Where I come from in NH was really nice too, but after being here for 35 years there's no way I could ever again live very far from salt water.

Jaymes and Cathy, Thanks so much for the recipes. They both look great! And I have, or can get, all the ingredients - which is always something to consider here on the coast of Maine. I'll definitely be trying both recipes and thanks for taking the time to go into such good detail. Patrick, your recipe for the Good Mother Stollards looks great too and I'll give that a try as well. I wasn't familiar with the Russ Parsons method so did a net search and found this - cooking beans with the parsons method. That looks good, but 2 teaspoons of salt per cup of dry beans sounds like way too much. Now to decide which of these great recipes for beans to try first. Decisions, decisions.

Nothing. I already have too much stuff, so it's nice to not get more.