ruthcooks

Eeeewwww! The foods are TOUCHING. Both the sight and the idea make me sick, not to mention all this talking about mooshing. To be fair to KFC, I feel the same way about fancy restaurants layering meat on mashed potatoes. They ought to know better.

Four new ones for me: "Two for the Road" by the Sterns, the two "Food That Really Schmecks" books that I read about on this forum, and I just ordered Gael Greene's tell-all.

I stopped at a little farm stand today and brought home Silver King sweet corn, beets, new potatoes and tomatoes. Drenched the first three in butter, freshly ground pepper and sea salt, laid a slice of tomato on a grilled hamburger and topped it with mayo. I'd be hard pressed to pick one thing, but that was the best corn I've had in years.

Being a diabetic, I don't make too many desserts, but for July 4th I decided to make my Great Aunt Bertha's Burnt Sugar Cake. It brought back a lot of memories to me. My daughter's non-foodie family made comments like "the frosting was too sweet" and "not my favorite, but OK". Drat their little hides, but 'cha know what? 24 hours later there was only a 2-inch section left, while there was an equal amount of chocolate cake left from a few days earlier. I don't need accolades, if they eat it up, I'm cool.

Favorite green salad: wilted lettuce with lettuce from the garden Otherwise I like green salads with lots of stuff in them like fruits, nuts, cheese, green onions, roasted meats, chopped eggs, bacon and homemade croutons. Favorite composed salad: Salad Nicoise with good French bread Also rans: my mother's Sugar Slaw; kidney bean salad with cheese, pickle relish, onion, chopped eggs and mayo; Caesar (not any old, but perfectly done tableside as made at Cardini's); Broccoli Salad with Tomato-Onion Mayonnaise; potato salad of every kind, but especially with old-fashioned cooked dressing; various Jell-O or gelatin concoctions which I usually eat as dessert.

About ten years ago, I was seated solo for lunch facing a Shoney's salad bar. After watching what transferences went on between diners and ingredients, I resolved never to eat at a salad bar again. Edited to transfer rest of post to appropriate thread.

No cherry pitter? From farming days, take an old fashioned hair pin, the one that looks like a piece of wire bent into a long skinny "U" shape, and poke both ends into a cork. Use cork as handle and hook the pit with the round end of the pin. My mother, age 88, told me that she just told this tip to her home health care person this morning. About ham loaf... Among my Northern Illinois recipe notes from my grandmother and great aunt, there are more recipes for Ham Loaf than for anything else. I tried the half ham and half fresh pork mix and found it fairly tasteless. Evidently they used home cured hams which were much more salty then the supermarket stuff. I would suggest using 3/4 ham and 1/4 pork, or using a country ham with the original proportions. Lori, you and your husband look so nice in your anniversary picture at the restaurant. No sign you ever weighed more. Did you have any trouble with loose skin, and how did you deal with it? I'm enjoying your blog immensely.

I come from a family of gilders. the first strawberries of spring were served in our version of Strawberry Shortcake. Make shortcake dough (biscuit dough enriched with sugar and cream and a maximum of butter) Sugar home grown room-temperature sweet strawberries with at least one cup of sugar, an hour ahead so lots of juices will be released) Make two large shortcake biscuits per person. Split and butter while hot and place biscuit bottoms in SOUP PLATES. Pour strawberries and juices and thick heavy cream over biscuit bottoms Add biscuit tops and pile the strawberries high. Pour heavy cream over all. Oh yes, this was dessert at "dinner", served at high noon. Also: I made those Buttered Eggs for a Brunch Class once. The ratio is 6 eggs to a stick (1/2 cup) of butter, about as much as they can absorb. Not happy with this gilded lily, I served them in a big cream puff shell, with Orange Slices in Strawberry Sauce, Ham-Stuffed Ham Rolls, and Pannetone. There are many more, but it's time for dinner now.

Pecans weren't named for Florida, but Key limes were named for the Florida Keys. Key Lime Pie it is.

I learned to make crepes by pouring too much batter into the pan, giving it a quick swirl and pouring out the excess. Coats the pan evenly and thinly as the crepe batter thickness will allow. I use a non-stick skillet, and no utensil for turning: the batter that gets cooked onto the side of the pan (where you pour out the excess batter) makes a little "handle" which I just grab hold of and flip the crepe with my fingers.

Sometimes I feel that a salad-as-first-course is just right. One of my best is Sweet and Sour Avocados. Slice avocados over a bed of Boston or Bibb lettuce. Top with a hot dressing of butter, sugar, ketchup, red wine vinegar and soy. Sprinkle with bacon pieces (the real, just cooked ones).

Christine, you could do dinners if you do it by reservation only. My first restaurant was totally by reservation on Friday and Saturday nights only. I also catered and held luncheon parties at the restaurant. Gradually I had so much catering that the restaurant wasn't open enough: people give up on you when you're never open! Sent my daughter to Notre Dame on the proceeds, which was the point. I read your menus wistfully.

Local supermarkets occasionally offer 24 count cases of Snapple for $9.99, and I pick up a couple when this occurs. I think I'm addicted to Diet Peach, which seems to be one of everyone's favorites, both here in PA and back in TN. I'll look for the White Tea, but I am diabetic so won't be a regular buyer.

Jmahl...I'm afraid Dan Rather was born "rather" late to have originated the signature line for which you quoted him. The line "Kissin' don't last; cookery do!" comes from a nineteenth century novel "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" by George Meredith. I just happened to run across the quote in a cookbook today, and looked it up.

Here's an interesting list of finger foods and such I just read on a link suggested on another thread: Appetizers from "Picnic" in New Jersey Might give you some ideas.

I have an aversion to eating from a spoon. It's OK if that is the only practical way to eat the food, such as soup, ice cream, pudding, although I prefer to drink smooth soups from a mug or cup. Everything else seems to taste better eaten with a fork. Why? Dunno, but it would really turn me off to have to eat mashed potatoes or vegetables or cake or whatever from a spoon. I also share the wood stick and peach skin aversions.

I used to make a two layer white cake with pineapple filling and sour cream coconut icing for one of my restaurants. Pineapple filling for two layers: 1/3 C. cornstartch, 3/4 C. sugar, 3 T. orange juice, 1 t. grated orange zest, 1 lb. 4 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained, and 1/2 C. butter, cooked until thick and cooled. Icing was 1 C. sour cream, 1 C. coconut, with 1 C. whipped cream folded in. Pineapple went between layers and on top, with icing on sides and 1" border around top outer edge.

Hi, Shaloop, I just tried the CI Choc Chip link and it worked. Try this:CI Chocolate Chip Cookie Just for the record, everyone: Having someone enter a recipe in eGullet or RecipeGullet directly from a printed source is against eGullet copyright policy. Posting links to the internet is the way to go. If you need to ask a question of the poster, PM privately. Thanks.

I substitute Whey Low Gold brown sugar substitue for brown sugar, but do not pack it. It tastes so good, I use it instead of white sugar or white sugar substitutes also, although not in baking. Available on line at WheyLow.com

I'm pretty sure I've ordered hazelnuts by the pound from King Arthur Flour, and they're already skinned for you. I believe I ordered Hazelnut Praline Paste (in a can) from the same source. It never got into a recipe, I ate it all like peanut butter.

Perhaps they are mythical creatures like the Shmoo, who taste of whatever you're craving when you put them in your mouth.

Thanks, JAZ, for my new signature line!

Because it is traditional for the groom's family to give the rehearsal dinner, why not ask his Japanese mother to contribute the Japanese dishes? You could offer to buy the ingredients for her. That way, the groom's family will get what they like and you can concentrate on the cookstyles which are more familiar to you. I did my daughter's rehearsal dinner, and the groom's mother contributed a big Mexican chicken and tortilla casserole. It was nice to have both families involved.

I take a sleep aid medication and it is labeled "Warning: may make you drowsy." Another medication is labeled "Warning: may increase the likelihood of becoming pregnant." Fifteen years past menopause, this is of extreme relevance to me. I also have a grapefruit warning. My doctor told me I would have to drink about TWO GALLONS of grapefruit juice to affect my grapefruit-sensitive-medication. And then what would happen? "Make the medication less effective," he said. It all comes back to Americans being not willing to take responsibility for anything that happens to them, and the lawyers who foster this attitude.

Being good enough is not an issue for you, dear...the issue is keeping yourself from eating all your product!