ruthcooks

Grate zucchini on large hole grater. Toss in a HOT skillet with some salt and butter--quickly, before the liquid starts to leak out--and stir in some room temperature sour cream off the heat. Serve as is, or as a sauce for cheese soufflé. Brilliant and quick. (Possibly a treatment of salting, rinsing and squeezing would make it last longer before it gets runny.)

The best jam I have ever tasted: Bluebarb Jam, from rhubarb and blueberries.

This topic reminds me of my favorite cartoon. A small child, almost a baby is sitting a high chair eating. The caption reads, "I say it's spinach and I say 'to hell with it!'"

I learned to cook in the 50s and 60s, when a cup of flour weighed 4 ounces. This was really easy to figure fractions of cups because each quarter cup weighed an ounce. Later, when people started coming up with 4+ and even 5 ounce measurements, I was puzzled. Finally, I figured it out. Back then the flour always needed to be sifted, as it was of a rougher texture. More air got left in it, therefore it weighed less. Nowadays, I still use the 4 oz. standard with my older recipes and cookbooks; with newer recipes, I add a little extra flour depending on the total quantity in the recipe. I don't have any problems doing it that way. Metric system and sou vide and I are not crossing paths in this lifetime. Maybe the next one..

"If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd Have Baked a Cake" another Rosemary Clooney "Black Coffee" Ella Fitzgerald "That's Amore" (When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie) Dean Martin "Sugar Time"

I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

Nasty stuff--never use it.

Looks like the bottom of a popcorn popper.

The one that always seems out of place to me is Veloute. What is it but a Bechamel, with stock substituting for milk?

I don't eat fake ANYTHING, unless I'm unaware of its being fake.

Raspberry Lady Bugs. They make a couple of other flavors, but it's raspberry or nothing for me. Heavenly, but oh-so- hard to find.

I have turned my family (daughter, SIL, son, DIL) loose at Christmas, asking them each to pick a certain number off my cookbook shelves. Each of them cooks, and they have different interests except they all like bread books. I have one bookshelf of "don't touch" books, and should they pick one off the other shelves that I'm not ready to give up, I write their name in it to have later. My best friend also comes in for a selection. I'm usually surprised by the books they choose, and sometimes I have to suggest a similar book I think they would like better. All other books I either re-read and save, give to charity, or send to my niece, but I'm thinking I really need to sell some of those. I read about a book a day, and they do pile up.

I no longer read any kind of book on Kindle. I like to flip through books to remind me of who's who in a novel, and that's almost impossible in a reader devise, plus I just love the feel of a book in my hands. I like to have my recipes on my computer so I can print off a recipe I am going to make. Then I can make notes of changes and transfer the changes back to the computer for next time.

I made a great trifle once using tiny slices of homemade jelly roll.

It isn't the turmeric, folks. I have enjoyed dishes with turmeric, especially chicken or pickles, and cannot abide curries. I think it's the cumin. I came by my prejudice honestly and early, having had a mother who added curry powder to canned green beans from the grocery store. Not enough to generate heat, just enough to make the taste obnoxious. Or should I say MORE obnoxious.

Spread strips with mustard and roll in buttered soft bread crumbs. Heat under broiler.

Are you seriously suggesting brown shelled eggs peel more easily than other colours? Absolutely!

And how about a bowl of plain boiled eggs for the carb conscious? Peeled, if you can get a volunteer. Be sure to use week old brown eggs , they peel like a charm.

My former MIL made her pickled beets with sliced onions (I like them almost better than the beets), vinegar, water, BROWN sugar, and a few cloves in each quart jar. The beets were in 1 1/2 inch chunks or whole, if small. Of course, her main secret was rich, black, almost fluffy Illinois farm land to grow the beets in. Nowadays, you have to pay a fortune for supermarket beets, 3 to a bunch.

I remember when ALL the beef at the grocery was prime, and my horror at seeing a cut marked "choice" for the first time. Do you suppose the standards for the grades have changed over time? I"ve seen quite a few pieces of choice beef which were marbled so well that they looked like prime.

What's wrong with the camera?

Perhaps you need a different source of pork, rather than a different cut. Local farmers?

Enough with the shortages and back to the excessed-- Runny eggs all over entrees and sandwiches and salads. Yellow slime!

Items on the left look like shrimp de-veiners, but I've never seen them in aluminum.

Bourdain also pays homage to him in http://www.nytimes.c...intcookbks.html Thanks for this link to the NYT article. I own the following cookbooks mentioned: Nach Waxman: “Auberge of the Flowering Hearth” by Roy Andries De Groot Jane and Michael Stern: Mary and Vincent Price's "Treasury of Great Recipes” Jason Epstein: Maida Heatter's dessert books "Michael Field's Cooking School" (1965) I also own many books by James Beard and Madeleine Kamman, although not the ones mentioned here. What wonderful memories of my introduction to cooking, and the glorious days when no one ever heard of low fat cooking.