ruthcooks

Clam Dip (homemade) with Kettle Chips or any kind of chips, I guess. If I have chips and no dip, they usually get thrown out. I can't eat any kind of cracker or chip without a half-inch of gooeyness on it...too dry. Chocolate Candy. Even being diabetic, I can't stretch a one lb. box for more than 3 days. Can't remember the last time I had a box around.

My objections to CI are about the same as everyone else's, the tone, the silliness of trying ridiculous steps in the interest of being thorough. ("We wanted a crispy skin and it was imediately obvious that boiling was not a satisfactory method.") My main objections are about the fact Chris comes off like a hypocrite. I've read he has more money than he knows what to do with, lives in a million dollar condo in Boston, and yet hokes it up like Farmer John in his editorials. Also, his claim to "accepting no advertising" may be true in that he won't accept it from anyone else, but each issue is loaded with eight full size pages and who knows how many inserts touting his cookbooks. I mutter to myself every time it comes and I have to rip those suckers out. And he wants me to pay for access to his web site? In all the years I have subscribed to CI, I think I've only tried one recipe: a yellow cake which was a dismal failure, featuring a yellow rubber layer at the botoom. We have a trust issue. Thanks to all who have posted their favorites, maybe it will inspire me to try more.

State College may not be a total culinary wasteland, but it will be more of one when YOU leave! Thanks.

If you are looking for something quick to fix for supper, you don't have time to order Niman Ranch pork chops, now do you? That's one reason I steer away from recipes of famous chefs. They have permanent access to prime ingredients, and I'm sure they don't test or re-test their recipes with supermarket ingredients that are the norm for most home cooks. None of my recent failures comes to mind right now. May I suggest a name for the 2009 version of this thread? "Son of Sucky."

I've made that one, think I threw the sauce in the blender, added a T. or two of flour and reheated it.

Rachel, the way you describe "stewed " potatoes is the method my mother used for her "creamed potatoes" and other vegetables from our garden. Creamed potatoes were often paired with new green peas, tiny new carrot rounds with onions, and green beans by themselves. Cut-up sparagus was always cooked a little differently--in water with a splash of milk and a bit of butter added at the end--and served in individual sauce dishes, rather like a soup. None of these dishes work well with grocery store produce, unfortunately, and I have no garden so will have to be satisfied with memories. Sigh.

Chris...fie!.....and foul! I had been wondering where in PA you lived, the "culinary wasteland', the "middle of nowhere" to which you have often referred. Now I find out that you have a WEGMAN'S. Anyplace with a Wegman's is not eligible for that reputation! I live, as my insurance man says, between the "Shawshank Redemption" and the "China Syndrome", better known Graterford Prison and the Nuclear twin towers at Limerick PA, 30 miles west of Philly. There are plenty of grocery stores here, but no good ones, a couple of dreary little farm stands in the summer and that's about it. No meat market, no fish market, no "gourmet" shop. If there are such places near me that I've missed, anyone is welcome to make me wrong and tell me about them. Please. Looking forward to your blog.

I'm interested in your favorite spice and herb, whether it ties into your formative years (as mine do), and what dishes you make that bring out those flavors best for you. ONE spice and ONE herb, you gotta pick! Here's mine: Favorite Spice: Nutmeg My grandmother's sister, my Great-Aunt Bertha, used to come visit her every summer for a few weeks. She would make several baked items while she was there, and one of my favorites was her Butter Cookies flavored with nutmeg. My mother told me that Aunt Bertha made and sold these cookies during the depression to make ends meet. Mom used to make this recipe for our "after school" cookie, where some moms make chocolate chip or oatmeal. Cinnamon is not one of my favorites, so I often substitute all nutmeg in recipes where the spices are combined. Peaches and nutmeg were made for each other. Favorite Herb: Dill One of my strongest memories is of running up and down the rows in my grandmother's garden. I would hold out my arms and brush against the dill volunteers which grew amongst the vegetables and flowers. I love the smell as much as the taste. Grandma didn't do a thing with her dill except let it dry and use it in pickles. My best uses are in green salads, herb mayonnaise and butters, tartar sauce, and combined with fresh young vegetables such as cucumbers, tiny summer squash and green beans. My favorite dill recipes are Russian Cheese Dumplings with Melted Burtter and Dill, a Coulibiac of Beef, Rice, Egg and Dill served with Hollandaise, and an over-the-top Macaroni Salad. Interestingly, I have read cookbooks in which people have said that they lover all spices and herbs EXCEPT nutmet and dill!

How many anchovies? Sounds good.

When they say "Tunnel of Love" cake, I believe they mean "Tunnel of Fudge" cake. It was originated by a Bake-Off contestant and later translated to a cake mix I think. I quote: 'The Tunnel of Fudge Cake, a second-place Pillsbury Bake-Off winner in 1966, was developed by Ella Rita Helfrich of Houston, Texas, who won $5,000. The original recipe used a product called Double Dutch Fudge Buttercream Frosting Mix, which the company has discontinued. However, because of many consumer requests, its test kitchens developed this recipe, which uses scratch ingredients. Nuts are essential to the cake's success.' See the recipe here Bake-Off winners have often had their recipes attributed to someone else. "Dilly Casserole Bread" is a lovely no-knead bread featuring warmed cottage cheese and dill seed. It appears in many local and regional cookbooks under many names, until hardly anyone knows where it came from any more. Lots of wonderful recipes are from the 50s Bake-Offs, when hardly any mixes were used. I have a well-worn 1959 cookbook containing 1000 recipes from the first 10 contests.

It used to be considered ill-mannered to clean one's plate (too piggish?), and proper to leave a bit of food, even if only one bite. This could come in handy if there was something on your plate you didn't like: you could leave a goodly portion of it and it would be taken as good manners. That custom must have been dropped a long time ago, I'd forgotten all about it.

Randi...for your chicken pot pie, cook chicken and vegetables separately and combine in a big pot of chicken gravy/sauce supreme on top of the stove or in your roaster to keep warm. Use your oven for baking the biscuits and combine at table. I like it better this way, because biscuits get soggy if baked on top of the gravy mixture. You could call it chicken & biscuits instead of pot pie.

One of my brothers, when he was a child/teen, would not eat chicken wings because "chickens don't wash their underarms".

Christmas before last, I sent my mother a big assortment of Christmas cookies made, as always, with unsalted butter. (She will be 90 this May and is in a nursing home now.) For some reason, she got a little snippy with me and said, "I'll tell you one thing, the butter you used in those cookies was rancid." I was devastated. I knew the butter was perfectly fine, but I called my sister, also a cookie recipient, to get her opinion. She told me that my mother "always" said that about my cookies, even though she told Mom it was her imagination. I thought and thought about what could be going on, and finally remembered that my mother had always used margarine in her baking. When I next talked to her, I asked her if she had EVER made cookies with real butter, and she said she never had. So there was my answer, my mother did not know what real butter tasted like! Now when I send her cookies, I try to make those which are not dependent on butter as the major flavor. No shortbread or butter cookies, more chocolate and fruit flavors to cover up the good taste. Sigh.

Cali-Poutine: ""Sorry, I missed writing about the ramen noodles. They're in there, all chopped up. The recipe also calls for adding the seasoning packet from the ramen noodles, but I left it out because its filled with salt and msg." Randi--not that I don't throw out all nasty seasoning packets myself, but MSG is not necessarily bad when it comes to feeding Seniors. Because Srs. lose taste buds and sense of smell as they age, more than one expert in the area has suggested that they may need more seasoning of all kinds, and MSG is recommended. As for salt, I have read that in less than 20 per cent of people who have bood pressure problems is the condition related to salt use. When my brother was awaiting his kidney transplant years ago, one of his restrictions on sodium was celery. Now, you don't hear anybody say, "Don't eat celery, it's bad for you." IMO many of our dietary "legends" come from doctors, to whom it's all too eay to say, "Cut out the salt," or "Cut out the fat," instead of taking time to really determine solutions to individual problems. Speaking of fat, I finally found my Escalloped Chicken recipe, but it has quite a bit of fat in it. Does your dietary policewoman have a prescribed amount of fat per person? I seem to remember that being an issue with one of your menus.

I love to post early on a blog, so I can get e-mail updates and find the topic when I look for it. But sometimes--like with your blog--there just ain't nuthin to do but enjoy! I hope you'll blog again sometime.

Being diabetic, I can't indulge in my favorite junk food very often. But once a month, when I pick up my prescriptions at the supermarket pharmacy, I allow myself three doughnuts, usually lemon filled or sour cream cake or crullers or fritters. (Why three? They used to be three for a dollar. The price has changed, but my treat hasn't.) I get some kind of perverse pleasure from buying doughnuts and diabetic drugs on the same day, like "take that! you stupid disease!" Not to worry, however, my condition is very much under control.

Every time I make this simple rice salad I wonder where all that flavor comes from. Possibly the parsley? This was originally used as a base for Pollo Tonnato. Parsley & Peas Rice Salad 1 1/2 C. raw rice 2 t. salt 2 1/2 C. water 4 T. white vinegar 6 T. oil Salt Freshly ground pepper Lemon juice to taste 1 pkg. frozen tiny peas 1/2 bunch parsley, chopped Cook rice and salt with water over low heat for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let cool to lukewarm. Blanch peas for 1 minute only in boiling water. Drain and shock with cold water. (Nowadays, I don't even bother with this step, I just let the peas thaw.) With a fork, mix rice, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add oil, a tablespoon at a time. Add lemon juice until it has a bit of zip. Toss in peas and parsley. Chill. Added to RecipeGullet here: Parsley & Peas Rice Salad

Parsley & Peas Rice Salad Serves 8 as Side. Every time I make this simple rice salad I wonder where all that flavor comes from. Possibly the parsley? This was originally used as a base for Pollo Tonnato. I use plain ole supermarket rice. 1-1/2 c raw rice 2 tsp salt 2-1/2 c water 4 T white vinegar 6 T oil Salt Freshly ground pepper Lemon juice to taste 1 pkg. frozen tiny peas 1/2 bunch parsley, chopped Cook rice and salt with water over low heat for 20 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let cool to lukewarm. Blanch peas for 1 minute only in boiling water. Drain and shock with cold water. (Nowadays, I don't even bother with this step, I just let the peas thaw.) With a fork, mix rice, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add oil, a tablespoon at a time. Add lemon juice until it has a bit of zip. Toss in peas and parsley. Chill. Keywords: Salad, Rice, Vegan, Vegetarian, Kosher ( RG2083 )

Here's a tip which gets your metabolism going in the morning: drink a cup of hot or cold water with a tablespoon of lemon juice in it. Works for me; makes me ravishingly hungry within about a half hour. Eating about 6 times a day and keeping carbs low is about the only fool proof way to lose weight I know. One revolting "fact" I read: it takes only 2 calories a day to maintain a pound of fat. Therefore, if you're 50 pounds overweight, one of those 100 calorie snack packs can do you in. (This is in direct opposition to a comment read elsewhere on the web about a grossly overweight person: "Can you imagine the volume of food he must eat to maintain that extra weight?) I'm lucky that I love plain water and can't abide carbonated drinks. In the winter I add decaf green tea, decaf coffee, hot cocoa, chicken broth and warm milk. In warm weather, forms of diet peach tea (Snapple is the best), lemonade or orangeade sweetened with Whey-Low sweetener, or fruit flavored water. Best of luck to all you bloggers.

Clams on toast: boil down the juices from canned clams until only a couple of Tablespoons is left. Add a T. of butter and boil again. Throw in some chopped parsley and serve over toast.

Cinnamon, mixed with other spices or flavors, or as a secondary spice. I like cinnamon alone, as in cinnamon toast, cinnamon apples and Snickerdoodles. But not for me the spice cakes, mixed with cloves and allspice and ginger and such. And not in anything containing meat. Evidently most everyone likes it, because the food manufacturer's keep on adding it. Just recently, I've noticed cinnamon being combined with caramel in some new desserts like ice cream. And I haven't been able to buy a loaf of raisin bread without cinnamon for years. I think my dislike came from my mother's apple pie. Instead of mixing the cinnamon with the sugar, she would sprinkle the top of the apples with the cinnamon, which would then stick to the pie crust lid. I loved the top crust, but would carefully remove and set it aside when the pie filling was apple.

"Are you making a statement, or are you making dinner?" Mario Batali

Sure, Susan, I always do. If I am making cornbread, I crumble, not cube. And if I'm using bread, I keep bags of crumbs in the freezer and use them.

My daughter once called me a "self-appointed food expert" and she didn't mean it in a nice way. Please add my name to the list of people who want to be appointed. Actually, I would like my "certificate" to be carved in stone, if possible. and a "So there!" added at the end.