Huevos del Toro

Milk gravy? You betcha! But I also use some bacon grease in the roux. Yum!

I thought about that, but shrimp stock is commonly made from "used" shells and I simply wanted to take advantage of a source of free shells. I'll give it a shot and see how it turns out. And I'll be very careful to not overreduce. It would be nice to have a freezer with frozen stock concentrate.

That's a very good point, Dana. Last weeks feed didn't have seasonings added after the boil, just to the water. I'll watch for overseasoning because I only want the flavor of the crawfish shells. That may mean I'll have to "flush" the shells before making stock with them.

Simon; That sounds delicious, and simple too. Now all I have to do is book my next crawfish feed. Jon; Glad you warned me about the color and possible bitterness from over-reducing. I'll use butter as you suggested to soften it somewhat. I want to reduce until I can freeze in ice cube trays. And I would never have thought to roast the shells first. Thanks. Now all I have to do is eat a lot of crawfish!!!

This being crawfish season there are literally tons of shells left from the mudbug feeds going on. Has anyone used the shells to make a stock? Is it like a shrimp stock? Made the same way I presume. I went to an all-you-can-eat crawdad boil last week and it didn't occur to me to pack the shells home. I'll hit one or two more feeds this season and bring all the shells back if I can make a tasty stock from them. Not everyone sucks the heads so some of the shells will have heads full of fat. I find the fat quite tasty but what kind of stock will it make? Anyone?

I was raised on the Cowlitz River in Castle Rock WA (the Cowlitz empties into the Columbia). Back in the 50's my grandfather used to take me fishing for steelhead in the Cowlitz, which was only a couple of blocks from my house. I'd always been told they were rainbow trout first, went to sea and returned as steelhead. He used to take the roe, treat it with borax to harden the shells and use it as bait. Heck, we had no idea you could eat FISH EGGS! They (the steelhead) sure were tasty when grandma cooked 'em up. The salmon I caught were from the Pacific off the coast of Northern Oregon (Depot Bay). King I believe they were. And smoked, they were a wonder to taste. Very oily and extremely rich. Everyone smoked their own, in little galvanized electric smoke boxes. Netting smelt during their short run is another story! Yum!

I use refrigerator temp large eggs, the cold water, bring to boil, take off heat, wait 10 min, shock and peel method. Never any problem. They don't crack because I put them into cool water at the outset (at least that's why I think they don't crack). But I'm quite curious about them not being as good if not started from room temp. Could you elaborate a little on the differences you see? Is it flavor, texture, appearance?

Dry Aged Standing Rib Roast with Sage Jus from Alton Brown's show. Cigar Aficionado magazine has an interesting article on steak, including aging, titled "Ready for Prime Time". edited to add "Ready for Prime Time" link.

I keep mine in a few, very large, computer files. I add those that I either like the "looks" of or one's that I've successfully tried. They are all in big Word documents. I have both hyperlinked table of contents and indexes. When I do use a particular recipe I just print it out and toss the copy after the fact. I also (and this is VERY important to me) make notes, describing how I changed things and the outcome. Accurate records are the only way I've found to enhance my less than stellar memory. (Is there an old and feeble smilie?) I also make footnotes so I know where I found a particular recipe or technique.

My first was "...Joy" too. After a 20 year relationship dissolved I could only grill. I hadn't the slightest idea how to make gravy so, out of necessity, I bought a copy of "...Joy". Now, 500 cookbooks later I find I use them very rarely. The one's I DO use are dedicated to a particular vegetable, fruit, meat or technique. I even have one that's devoted to all things banana! I have more fun "making things up" than blindly following recipes. For me, there's no substitute for understanding WHY things work as they do. At least I can figure out why that dish flopped! Sadly, I still have flops. I just don't agonize over it any more.

I normally roast eggplant now but when I was first introduced to it, this is how I ate it. I became so addicted to these sandwiches that I had to swear off, lest I develop hatred for them. They ARE tasty! It seems this would easily lend itself to a myriad of variations. Wish I could remember where this came from but I've had it so many years and surrendered so many brain cells in the interim it's anybody's guess. Nordic Pocket Sandwich 1 large eggplant, cubed 3 medium onions, diced 2 cloves garlic, mashed 1 pkg. (1 doz.) pocket bread ½ lb. mushrooms, quartered 2-3¾ oz. cans sardines in tomato sauce 2 green peppers, diced ½ pint sour cream olive oil 1½ c. grated Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese ¼ c. fresh parsley, chopped In a large skillet, sauté eggplant and mushrooms separately in hot oil until almost tender. Sauté remaining vegetables together until almost tender. Mix all vegetables in 13x9x2-inch baking dish with parsley, tomato sauce and seasonings. Bake in 350°F oven 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until vegetables are tender and liquid is almost absorbed. Cool. Chill in covered refrigerator containers. At picnic site, split pocket bread along 1 side and spoon in about ½ cup vegetable mixture. Add 3 or 4 sardines, 1 spoonful sour cream and some grated cheese. Eat out of hand. Serves 12. Note: Hot dog buns, toasted, can be substituted for pocket bread. Or, crusty Italian or French bread, heated and sliced, works well.

Beer consumption in 1999, litres per head: 1. Czech Republic 159.4 2. Republic of Ireland 154.7 3. Germany 127.5 4. Luxembourg 109.0 5. Austria 108.9 6. Denmark 101.9 7. United Kingdom 99.0 8. Belgium 97.5 9. Australia 91.2 10. Slovak Republic 88.1 11. USA 84.4 12. Netherlands 84.2 13. New Zealand 80.7 14. Finland 80.1 15. Venezuela 75.2 16. Spain 68.8 17. Canada 68.0 18. Hungry 65.0 19. Portugal 64.3 20. Sweden 59.3 21. Switzerland 58.6 22. Cyprus 58.2 ©Peter Lalor, editor, 2002 Australian Beer Yarns

Has anyone had direct experience with steamer/juicers such as these? I recall my mother using one (back in the 50’s) and what beautiful, almost jewel-like juice it produced. My question is, what’s the down side with a steam juicer? Is it only good for juicing for jellies but not useful for making jams or preserves? How about juicing grapes for winemaking? Any hands-on information would help me make a decision to buy (or not!).

Bottling sucks. It sucks so bad, that it's why I rarely brew. How much does a decent 5 gal. keg operation cost? How much to buy and convert one of those little fridges? As for brewing in plastic -- never seemed right to me, but lots of people I know have a plastic primary and/or secondary. When I used to brew with my ex, we switched to kegs and CO2, extra fridge and all, although we didn't ever put a tap in. It was easier, but I always thought our bottled beer was better. And it was very difficult to get the amount of CO2 right. Our primary fermenter was plastic, and we never had any trouble with it. Everything else we used was glass. Janet Yes, you're right about the CO2 pressure. You just have to play around with it because it IS rather a pain to get set properly. As for current costs for a kegging operation I'd suggest you visit a nearby homebrew supply shop. I've found most of them very friendly and knowledgable, eager to help.

And when would you have had an opportunity to eat this?? Kotzebue, Alaska, 1961. Relatively small Eskimo village. I worked in a trading post there. Kotz? You were in Kotz? How'd that happen? How long were you there? Did you go down to Nome for a good time? (Because there ain't no such thing at Kotz, right? Or was there, then?) Ever go to Nome for New Year's Eve? I hear that if you haven't spent New Year's Eve at Nome, you haven't lived! So, tell all!! I'd just graduated from high school and wanted a little adventure in my life. Luckily, my uncle worked for the N.G. Hansen Trading Company, running their Kotzebue trading post. He was a retired grocer from Vashon Island in Puget Sound. So...I flew to Kotzebue to become a gofer. I think I earned just enough to pay for the plane fare. We sold everything; firearms, ammo, lumber, Blazo (fuel oil), food, clothes, seal oil, outboard motors, dried fish, hardware, etc. You name it, we sold it. Almost everything came on the one boat a year. The sound was too shallow to allow the big boat in so they would barge the cargo. We'd spend 2 or 3 weeks restocking for the next year. It was strange to be in full sunlight at 2 o'clock in the morning. The sun would just make a circle without ever dipping below the horizon. There was no city plumbing system and we had the only flush toilet in town. It was my job to dig out the trench on the beach and empty the 500 gallon steel containment vessel when it got full. Raw, right into the sound. Who knew! The rest of the townsfolk just used 5 gallon Blazo buckets. In the winter the buckets were emptied on the ice and it wasn't bad. But when the spring thaw came everyone prayed that the ice would break up fast and move out. It got pretty smelly until it did. I did lots of fishing as well as some hunting. The Dolly Varden trout were not only delicious, they were so thick you could nearly walk across the streams on their backs. Oddly, the Eskimos didn't eat fish. They dried them on racks on the beach, then bundled them up like hay bales and fed them to their sled dogs. They starved their dogs in the summer and fattened them up in the fall so they could pull the sleds. This was before the snowmobile took over. An older Eskimo and his grandson took me out whale hunting. We were in a 14-foot boat with a 40 HP Evinrude outboard motor. The bottom of the boat was piled high with rifles of all caliber’s. There was also a handmade harpoon with a detachable ivory head. We motored out into the ice pack, about 20 miles offshore. We'd periodically stop and listen. I never heard what he was listening for but he certainly did. He was listening for the whales blowing. We finally found a pod of Beluga. We each picked up a rifle and after choosing the whale we wanted, shot for the blow hole. You had to guess where it would surface and lead it. We finally hit it enough times that slowed enough that we could catch up and harpoon it. They don't float so after the harpoon head is deeply imbedded, the shaft is pulled out and a braided sinew, tied to the head on one end and a rope on the other, to which is tied an empty, sealed Blazo can is tossed overboard to mark the spot where the whale sank. Each family paints their Blazo cans with a unique set of colors. We continued the hunt but didn't get another one. We pulled the whale up to the surface and lashed it to the side of the boat. It was about the same length as the boat. On the way back to the village the kid would whack off a piece of flipper and cut it into bite sized pieces. It reminded me of a rich nut meat. Very tasty but with the texture of a tractor tire! Chew until the flavor's gone, spit it overboard and start in on the next piece. When we finally got back, we went for a big bowl of caribou stew, which came from a limitless pot, while the village women butchered the whale. Let me say this...I never saw any sign of "sport" hunting up there. This was strictly subsistence hunting and they didn't waste ANYTHING! All in all a delightful experience, especially for a 19 year old kid who hadn't been out of the Washington timber. I got to eat some strange things too. One of my jobs was to cut up countless reindeer. They all got cut into stew meat. The Eskimos hadn't heard of steaks and roasts yet. (They have NOW!) So I had reindeer, muktuk (Muktuk is the outer covering of the whale. It includes the white skin, approximately 1-2 inches (2 1/2 - 5cm) thick, plus a thin pinkish layer immediately underneath. After taking blocks from the whale, leave 2 days hanging to dry. Cut into pieces 6 x 6 inches (15x15cm). Have water ready to boil. Cook untilit tests tender when pierced with a fork. Keep in oil in a 45 gallon (206 litre) drum after it is cooled. Store in a cool place and you will have muktuk all year. Most Inuit prefer to eat muktuk raw, as it has tender-crisp texture and tastes like fresh coconut. ), seal, ptarmagin, Dolly Varden trout, & Eskimo ice cream. Now there's the other thing I didn't particularly like, the "ice cream" was whale blubber and tundra berries mixed with seal oil and whipped up to a froth, then frozen. At least that's what I remember being told it was. It tasted kinda "nasty". You're right about a lack of entertainment there. The town was "dry" so any alcohol had to be flown in from Nome. Beer was too expensive because of the weight but EverClear was wildly popular! Mix it with a little fruit juice and you could get blind in a very short time! As soon as the populace got their government checks they would line up to cash them and get a handfull of quarters so they could call Nome and order their liquor. It was usually wise to lock your doors Friday night and not come out until Monday morning. Knifings and shootings weren't exactly common but not unheard of either. So the entertainment essentially consisted of drinking, fighting, and practicing making babies. There were several "characters" in town and if the stories (rumors, really) were only half true, there was a trail of undiscovered bodies stretching across most of Alaska. I suppose I've really strayed from the original purpose of this thread but I DID mention food, didn't I? Great memories, thanks.

My grandmother taught me to clam at Copalis Beach, back in the early 50's. She was a commercial clammer in the 30's. The secret is to be very stealthy. They can feel the slightest vibration. Find a "spout" in the sand, tip-toe around it until you're between the siphon hole and the ocean, your back to the water. Very gently put the clam shovel a few inches behind the hole, make a mighty push into the sand, throw the shovel load out of the way, take maybe one or two more quick shovelfulls, then hit the deck and find the neck with your fingers. You gotta dig FAST because they DO run like lightening, angling TOWARD the water. Then it's a tug-o-war. Whoever holds out the longest wins. I remember being buried up to my arm pit, the neck clamped in my fingers. I'd pull, he'd pull, I'd pull, he'd pull. Not too many got away because I was just plain stubborn. That said, these were all razor clams, not geoducks. I've eaten tons of freshly caught razor clams but never a geoduck. And I've never understood how geoduck could be pronounced gooeyduck, but it is. There were also mussels all over the place but nobody even thought of eating them. They were treated just like barnacles. Oh, what a waste! Thanks for the great memories!

I haven't seen mention of kegging instead of bottling. Once you convert to kegging you'll never go back to that PITA bottling method. You can buy stainless steel syrup concentrate tanks that will hold a standard 5 gallon batch. Hook a CO2 bottle to it, and stick it in a refrigerator that you've modified with a tap. The only way to go! OK, I'll admit that there may be some romance to the bottling method and it DOES lend itself to portability. It's just that I never found it to be that much fun. Home brewing involves a lot of drudgery so you really gotta like it to put up with all the cleaning and sterilizing. Still, it's more fun than wine making. At least for me. And you also have a much wider range of choices when it comes to the final product than you do when winemaking. Oops, maybe I just opened a can of worms there.

Here are 56 recipes for trifles.

And when would you have had an opportunity to eat this?? Kotzebue, Alaska, 1961. Relatively small Eskimo village. I worked in a trading post there. We "harvested" a whale and ate raw whale flipper on the way back to shore. Tasty but it had the texture of a tire. But the locals poured this nasty, rancid seal oil all over their food and loved it. When a seal was harvested, the skin was turned wrong side out, tied off at one end, then packed with raw seal blubber and the other end tied off. They sold it to the trading post where we let it naturally render in an outbuilding. Later, they would come back and buy the poke to use on their food. One of the very few unpleasant food experiences of my life.

Food wasn’t a consideration when I was a child. I only ate because I was told to. I didn’t dislike food, it just didn’t interest me. We were a meat and potatoes family, with the vegetables cooked to mush and the meat generally tough. Now that I’m older (much older) I’ve finally realized that “fresh” and “properly prepared” are the keys to the enjoyment of food. Looking back there is honestly only one food that I couldn’t stand, and still cannot…rancid seal oil. Talk about an acquired taste!!! Sure, there are foods that I don’t particularly care for but it’s usually about texture (boiled okra for example) and not flavor. I wouldn’t turn down some nice fat grubs if given the opportunity to taste them. I rather enjoy trying new foods. I had read recently about the link between food and bad experiences, how they become intertwined, never to be separated again. So if you are in an emotional upheavel or physically ill, do NOT run to your comfort foods. You may link the two together and never be able to eat that comfort food again without a very unsettling association. I suspect this applies more to childhood than adulthood but I could certainly be wrong there.

Sorry, the Kraft/Nabisco site has the recipe but it uses prepackaged pudding mix.

One Grandmothers’ Roast Leg of Lamb. The other Grandmothers’ Swedish Hash, Swedish Pancakes, Swedish Meatballs, and a never-ending supply of sugar cookies.

You might consider partaking soon because it appears abalone, especially California abalone is on its way out. I used to dive for ab's just north of San Francisco in the early 60's and they were plentiful. No longer, it appears.

Fresh - Chilled Oranges Cooked - Rhubarb

Dstone; Penzey's has 4 fl. oz. bottles for storing spices - $.99/ea. Also larger ones.