blue_dolphin

The only recipe I use it in is a faux-smoked salmon spread. During the 1994 Northridge earthquake, everything in my kitchen cupboards landed on the floor and many bottles broke, including the liquid smoke. Everyone who came in the kitchen afterwards thought there must have been a fire due to the strong smoky smell!

I'll second Shelby's thanks for sharing this story, Anna. I think it's so interesting how our growing up experiences affect us into adulthood. Like the husbands you describe, my grandfather expected a full meal (meat, potato & veg) on the table the minute he came home from work. The kicker is that he worked nights on the railroad so my grandmother had to get up and have this meal on the table at 6 AM. She then moved on to breakfast for the 5 children, packed their lunches and cooked another dinner for herself and the kids in the evening. This was in the '20s & '30s so even if it was simple fare, that had to have been a heck of a lot of work. My mom followed the same path and always had dinner ready to be served immediately following my dad's pre-dinner cocktail interlude. I'm usually on my own and follow Shelby with a little kick back time before starting to cook, but when my mom is visiting me I feel like I have to go straight to the kitchen and get to cooking as soon as I come home from work. Finally, and most importantly, thanks to both Anna and Kerry for taking us along on your adventures. I greatly enjoy following along. Oh, and I'm curious about all that fermenting apple juice. Are you going to transport it back home or will the fermentation finish in situ on the island?

This is absolutely not in the same category as the wonderful dishes you are all posting! I am visiting my mom in northern NY and picked up a few too many Macs at the local orchard. I can make some applesauce but thought I’d look for a savory application and found this recipe for Sweet and Savory Warm Apple Onion Relish. I cooked the following together: 1 yellow onion, chopped 2 apples (Macs) 2 T butter 1 T maple syrup 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 squirt mustard (recipe called for “ 2T stone ground mustard”) 1/8 c. cognac Had a bit for lunch with some crusty bread, sharp cheddar and fresh apple. Very nice. A nicer mustard than I had available would probably add something. But a nicer mustard might prefer to smeared on the bread on its own, too! I have a honeynut squash that I will cube and roast for supper and toss with some of this but I look forwarding to trying it on sandwiches and with pork chops or roast chicken as well.

My name is blue_dolphin and I am an addict.....a TJ's addict! I'm staying with my mother for a bit, here in rural northern NY. I was OK for a little over a week when the pumpkin edition of the Fearless Flyer appeared in my inbox and pushed me over the edge. Up until earlier this year, my abstinence would have continued, but there is now a way for me to get my TJ's fix. I headed to the ferry dock, shelled out $10 each way and enjoyed a bit of fall foliage on my drive down to the TJ's in Burlington, VT, opened in May of this year. Ahhhhhhhhh! It felt so good to get my hands on that red shopping cart and wheel it around the aisles filled with familiar treats. I've lived in such close proximity to TJ's in So Cal for so many years that I forgot what it's like to go without! I'm nibbling a freshly baked pumpkin crossiant with my TJ's coffee as I write this. Mmmmmmmm.

I use pretty much the same categories that Lisa Shock mentioned above. Something like that allows you to choose the categories that make the most sense for your own collection. Lisa uses sub-sections for her extensive pastry/baking/dessert collection as you might for your meat/butchering/grilling books. There are always some judgement calls - my Alice Waters books are in with the vegetarian cookbooks rather than the celebrity chef books but at least that narrows it down to two shelves to scout through!

This would be along the lines of the shepherd's pie muffins that FauxPas mentioned. Year before last, I saw a recipe for leftover stuffing muffins that incorporated any and all Thanksgiving dinner leftovers: stuffing, turkey, vegetables, even a bit of whole berry cranberry sauce, lightly bound with some beaten egg and cheese. Sounds sort of weird but I made some and they ended up being a tasty breakfast or served alongside some soup for a lunch or supper.

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed the article. I like popcorn but always remember the comment of a French post-doc in my group: "Ugh, popcorn: it has no taste and just a horrible smell!"

Smithy - I love the term "applet" for these little guys and "applet tartlet" sounds even cuter! It brings to mind my dad's name for the little beet thinnings from his garden: "beetlets." And the baby carrots were "carrot pups." Makes me smile to remember him.

I just put two pots of RG beans into the oven to cook (Russ Parson's method) - Good Mother Stallard and Ayocote Blanco. It's been so hot lately, I couldn't bear to turn on the oven so I'm enjoying the bean-y fragrance that's starting to waft through the kitchen on this delightfully cool morning. What I like to have in my pantry at all times are Midnight Black, Goat's Eye or Good Mother Stallard, Yellow Indian Woman, White Tepary and a medium-sized white bean like Alubia Blanca de San Jose Iturbide (Marrow used to be my fave but these are just as good and it cracks me up that a little bean has such a long name!) and Garbanzos. Christmas Limas are really special in the salad with quinoa, beets and avocado from the RG Heirloom Beans cookbook but that's the only recipe I love them in so they make a regular appearance but are not staples like the others. I was inspired by Andie to pull up my previous Rancho Gordo orders, dating back to 2005. I used to travel to SF often for work and picked up other varieties, some that I never saw listed on the website, at the Ferry Plaza market but I didn't keep a record of those. I bolded those I've ordered multiple times and underlined my staples. Marrow Bean - no longer available from RG Cellini Runner Bean Vallarta Bean Tepary Bean (White) Black Valentine Bean Ojo de Cabra Bean (Goat's Eye) Yellow Indian Woman Bean Scarlet Runner Bean Good Mother Stallard Wren's Egg Bean Ojo de Tigre Bean (Tiger's Eye) Flageolet Bean Nightfall (Black) Bean Tepary Bean (Brown) Santa Maria Pinquito Bean Rio Zape Bean Flor de Junio Borlotti Classic Garbanzo Beans Pebbles Bean Midnight Black Bean Cranberry Bean- Cargamanto Red Nightfall Bean Christmas Lima Bean Rice Bean Rio Zape Bean Mayacoba Bean Lila Beans Flor de Junio: Silvia 2009 Sangre de Toro Bean Ayocote Morado Beans (Purple Runners) Runner Cannellini Bean Baby Lima Beans Zarco Beans Alubia Criollo (White Runner) Beans Alubia Blanca de San Jose Iturbide Ayocote Blanco (White Runner) Beans I usually order at least 10 lbs at a time to justify the shippping cost. Garbanzos are pantry staples and I'll order garbanzos from RG but also pick them up elsewhere. I agree with patrickamory they were not relevatory, at least in my hands. edited to note that the beans are listed in the order that I first purchased them, not of preference or anything else

I'll throw in with the last 2 posters but also guess that it's the special warm flavor imparted by toasted cumin, rather than just the raw seeds.

I know you said you'd rather char the corn yourself so this is not what you want but I echo heidih's endorsement of the TJ's frozen, charred kernels that you mentioned. I've never served them on their own, but try to keep them on hand to use in my black bean salad and other dishes.

Ditto. I was impressed by range of source material they linked to. Thanks!

Look for a shop that offers tastings so you can sample and choose something that suits your palate and the uses you plan for the product. I have a couple of bottles I brought back from Modena and consider the traditional product to be a one of a kind taste, well worth seeking out. I drizzle a few drops on cheese, strawberries or vanilla ice cream but would never cook with it. I confess to a exhibiting a touch of Allgoneophobia with my last bottle of Extra Vecchio (25 yr) as it brings back memories of that trip - I can still recall the sharp, heady fragrance in the balsamic aging barn we visited. I was in my local We Olive shop last weekend and when the sales person overheard me describing the flavor of the traditional product to a friend, he offered us a tasting that included the traditional, consortium-labeled 12 yr product ($125/100ml) and a few of the "condimento" balsamic vinegars that you describe. Several of them were nice. All were lacking in some way when compared with the traditional balsamic and lacked the complexity of that product. My pick of the condimento versions was in the middle of the price range that we sampled. The most expensive condimento seemed overly thick to me but my friend liked that one so I'd recommend that you seek out a shop that offers the opportunity to taste some options.

I saw "100 Foot Journey" yesterday and enjoyed it. The apparent meteoric career of the main character was implausable as were a number of other aspects of the story and the reverence paid to the fragrance from a box of aging spices was almost absurd, though I accept the later as metaphor for the past the the power of scents to elicit memory. I read the reviews that say, "too sweet, too pretty," and yes, it's that but sometimes that's not a bad thing. I enjoy challenging, thought provoking films but don't mind an hour or two of enjoyable eye candy from time to time. After watching, I was very hungry but couldn't decide whether to go to an Indian restaurant or to have some pâté and lovely champagne. Ended up taking the later route so I'm still wanting some good Indian food!

I've heard good things about Copperleaf restaurant at the Cedarbrook Lodge hotel. I have not been there myself but would be interested in giving it a try. It's quite close to the airport.

Thanks for bringing this up. I bought a pressure cooker, mostly for beans, and gave it one try before concluding that I liked them better my usual way: unsoaked, bring to a boil on the stove, add salt, a garlic cloves, bay leaves and dried chiles, and into the oven @ 250 or so until done. Great beans and it makes for a lovely warm kitchen, not exactly what I want at this time of year! I'll give it another go and hope that finishing them on the stove will make them more like my slow oven method without as much extra heat in the kitchen.

I do this when I bring an ear of corn to work for lunch but just microwave it for 60-90 sec, depending on the size of the ear. I trim off the end at home in the AM and it still works fine.

I use my old Mouli for grating most things but love the Microplane for zesting citrus, especially when I want a lot for limoncello or the like. I also have and like the Microplane nutmeg grater.

When I was a kid, I opened up Oreos, added a layer of potato chip crumbs and reassembled them - mini potato chip sandwiches!

Loved Soba's tutorial! I sometimes make that into a pasta dish by adding the cooked pasta to the partially cooked greens, adding a ladle of pasta-cooking water and letting everything finish cooking together. Yum! I didn't watch the video to see if it's similar but the cafeteria at my workplace has a cook-to-order pasta station where they do what the OP described. Here's what I've observed: The vegetables are cut very, very thin and some do look like they've been blanched in advanceThey don't actually put very much veg into each serving, at least compared to what I would serveIt's just a single serving in the pan - cooking a family-sized portion would take a lot more time and/or heatThey start with the oil and aromatics and then add the veg and let them saute a bit. Then they usually add a bit of sauce, broth or water (depending on the recipe) and cover the pan with another pan to let things steam-cook for a minute or so before adding the cooked pasta and letting things warm through. If I'm making pasta with veggies, I like a lot of veg and I pre-cook them each separately (or sometimes sequentially, adding the firmer ones to the pan first) before tossing everything together.

I like the Bruschetta With Swiss Chard and Smoked Trout from the NYT. I posted a picture a while back on the appetizer thread. The recipe calls for chard but I've used any greens I have handy.

The arugula in this last box did indeed have leaves that were much larger, broader and slightly lighter (though perhaps not as light as it appears in my photo) than anything I've seen in the grocery stores or what I usually get in the box. Not sure if that was due to the unusually hot weather we had recently or if it's a different variety. The flavor was peppery, as usual. Tarentella is the name that this company puts on its fancy tuna belly meat. I thought it might be a common usage, but apparently not. Google books turned up a reference in a book called Cooking in Europe, 1250-1650 to tarantella as "a salted tuna belly, much like prosciutto in texture and even flavor." The product I used isn't that but is a lovely bit of canned tuna.

Thank you, both Soba and Jaymes (and to Orik as well) - I enjoyed this for dinner this evening. I had red potatos and a sweet onion from my CSA box, everything else was in the pantry. I used more than the recipe's teaspoon of capers and just a portion of that huge onion. And I minced the onion, rather than slice it. I was going to add parsley but decided to serve it on some CSA arugula instead. I left the tuna on the side since I wanted to taste the salad by itself. And, honestly, that tarantella is so lovely, I wanted to taste it on its own, too! But it will get mixed into the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. I'll be curious to see how it tastes after the sitting together overnight. It was at room temp when I ate it and it was delicious with a crisp Sauv Blanc. Thank you!

Yes, these are wonderful books. The step-by-step photos are so helpful when trying something unfamiliar. I often look to them even when I'm using a recipe from another source. I started buying them by subscription but needed to cancel after just a few as it was too expensive for my starving student budget. I've since picked up a few here and there. Here's what I have of the series. Thanks for prompting me to snap this shot - I'll keep it on my phone for used book store trips! The collection is generally very well guarded:

Just this weekend, I tried the recipe that Kenji wrote up in April on Serious Eats. I steamed mine for 12 minutes and they were perfect. Edited to add: See also this The Food Lab: The Hard Truth About Boiled Eggs where he says that a "hot start" is key to easy peeling.