ruthcooks

One more for me...a baking stone from my son, Chris, who makes his own pizza every Friday night. Now, I need a peel.

Several soup tips you might find useful: Nothing rounds out the flavor of soup like including a single finely diced turnip and/or several leeks. When making a soup containing noodles, rice or pasta, I cook the starch separately and add to each serving individually. When packaging for the freezer, I freeze the soup in individual containers, leaving some room at the top. When the soup is frozen, I place a spoonful of the cooked starch on the top and place back in the freezer. I find that the pasta, etc. DOES get mushy when left in the soup, whether frozen or refrigerated. The worst offender in freezing soups is cheese, especially cheddar or other "real" cheeses. They inevitably get too hot, separate and clump. Fake cheeses, such as Cheez Whiz and American cheese types behave quite nicely and in my restaurant days I found that the public prefers them overwhelmingly. A little goes a long way in flavoring soup. I like thickened soups, whether pureed, creamed or thickened with roux. I've never had any problem with separating after freezing, even with flour roux. If available, Signature Secrets thickener will ensure no separating. Don't overheat frozen soups. Freeze small leftover amounts of different cooked vegetables and puree together for soups like "Seven Green Vegetables Soup". My "kick it up a notch" kit for improving lackluster soups: chicken stock base, white pepper, Lawry's seasoned salt and hot sauce. Sometimes a little sugar or coffee. Onions are a must for all savory soups. A bit of heavy cream smooths out the flavor of pureed soups, you don't need a lot.

The contrast of hot and cold is what makes oatmeal or cream of wheat pleasurable to me. In fact, I put my light or heavy cream, never milk, in a separate bowl and dip each spoonful of cereal into the cream. I read somewhere that the British do this. I use brown sugar (now Whey-Low Gold) for sweetening. Possibly all the nutrition in the oats is rendered meaningless, however, because I eat buttered toast and bacon alongside. A rare treat, nowadays.

Was Granny from the South? They drink "boiled custard" down there, and also pour it over cakes as a sauce.

My yearly gift to myself is usually a box of cookbooks, but this year it's an oak and copper pot rack. My sort-of-kitchen is very small, so I hung it in the bay window where stacks of miscellany used to live. All the Cuisinart and All Clad cookware which eGullet made me buy this year now live there. It hangs low because I am under 5' and I love it. (Love the cookware, too.) My best friend sent me a cookbook from my Amazon wish list. I think it's the Lewis & Peacock one. Also bought The New Best Recipe for myself and am keeping it under wraps for reading tomorrow. My mother usually sends me a $1000 check after Christmas, and this year it's all going for kitchen additions/improvements and maybe a few small luxuries.

Jam Cake is big in Kentucky and Tennessee...a spice cake in layers made with blackberry jam (usually) and caramel icing. Coconut custard pie is wonderful, but only if made with freshly grated coconut. I imagine it would be the same for coconut cake. Also popular is that runny poured custard that is used as a sauce for the cakes. You can buy it like eggnog in the groceries in Tennessee.

Chocolate souffles never rise as much...due to a heavier base, I think. When I make a Harlequin Souffle, half chocolate and half vanilla, the vanilla side always rises higher. I serve a lot of individual chocolate souffles when making dinner for four. The original recipe made four, but they never rose to suit me so I doubled the recipe for 6. Now I have two souffles as leftovers, and really enjoy them cold with whipped cream, maybe better than hot. For the little something in the middle of a liqueur souffle, try pound cake soaked in Grand Marnier.

Anybody know of a good place in western Montgomery County? I live in the middle of the Collegeville-Trapp-Schwenksville-Royersford-Limerick-Saratoga-Pottstown area.

Thanks for the information. I had suspected that the heat in pepper differs from that in chilies, as I can tolerate more from pepper. Also, I could never discern any pepper flavor from adding whole peppercorns to stocks, poached chicken and the like, so will crack those corns from now on. When I want to raise the heat/flavor from pepper, I tend to mix several kinds rather than add more of just one. I combine cayenne, black pepper, white pepper, red pepper flakes, paprika and hot pepper sauces in different combinations until the desired flavor results.

For some reason I cannot stand ratatouille but I love caponata. Must be that touch of sweet and sour. I've served it chunky as a vegetable rather than chopped finely as an appetizer.

Rare beef. When I was a teenager I was served a very rare hamburger in a diner that was too busy to thoroughly cook the burgers. Pushed my hand down on the bun to compress it, and the bun was immediately soaked with bloody juices. Gag. If you ask me how rare I eat beef, the answer is: if i see blood, I'm not eating it.

For beef, there is Strathsburg (Strathborough? something like that) paste. I made this once, in a recipe calling for pot roast and anchovies. Felt like I'd just invented canned tuna fish. If you used two slices and filled before cooking, would they still puff?

Sometimes I need to eat something quick...or don't feel like cooking...or want something hot to warm me up. Often a cold sandwich or salad or skimpy leftovers need just a cup of soup to make a meal. A freezer stocked with soup in individual servings is just the ticket. I prefer thick and/or creamy soups to brothy ones. Right now on hand are lamb and barley soup/stew, broccoli and cheddar, asparagus and mascarpone, roasted squash-tomato-garlic, and chili. Others I make frequently are corn and celery chowder (my favorite, but it doesn't freeze), French onion with homemade croutons and grated Parmesan, white bean with lots of ham (a garnish of herb butter puts this over the top), several kinds of potato or tomato. In summer there's orange gazpacho, the orange referring to fresh oranges and juice, not the color.

And Andie, I'd love to have the Christmas Eve bread pudding. And may I add, I think you're just amazing!

The "S" she added to Julia Child, she taketh away from Jacque(s) Pepin. Maybe she studied their TV cooking show.

Both grandmothers from the Midwest, and Clementine was right about the pumpkin and mince pies. Or, at least, that was true in the 50's. When the grandparents were gone, the mince pies went too, to be replaced by pecan. Now a cherry pie has been added if my brother is attending, or an apple for my son and/or grandson.

In my marathon Christmas cookie days, my collection always included at least one chocolate or chocolate-y cookie. For several years, a popular version was brown sugar spritz in the cheese straw shape, sandwiched in pairs with melted chocolate chips.

What about one word used twice? I kinda like SugarSugar Lots of tag lines you could use.

With all due respect Kim WB, you didn't know the girl and you ain't tasted the dish!

My dad always said "Pretty poor." If the food was good, he didn't say anything, just went back for thirds.

My son's fiancee #2 (he finally got married to #3) requested creamed onions one Thanksgiving. Not being too impressed with that dish, I substituted this wonderful onion casserole. She approved. Onions au Gratin 4 lbs. onions, peeled and roughly cut up 4 hard cooked eggs, chopped fairly fine 2 cups Bechamel, seasoned with salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste 4 T. butter 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (you could use dry, I suppose Cook onions in plenty of boiling salted water until tender. Drain well and chop. Mix onions with eggs, Bechamel and seasonings. Adjust seasoning, if necessary. Place in shallow buttered or sprayed casserole dish, such as a 9 x 11. Melt butter in saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium heat until crumbs barely begin to take on color. Sprinkle over casserole contents. Bake until brown and bubbly at 375 degrees, about 25-30 minutes. If you make ahead and refrigerate, bake before serving for up to an hour. For bechamel (I think this is more of a sauce Supreme, but the original called it bechamel) use 4 T. each butter and flour and 1 C. each good chicken stock and light cream, plus the seasonings mentioned above. NOTE: This casserole is excellent with any roast beef. I generally do half onion and half green beans for my picky family.

Come now, not ALL Midwesterners think Cool Whip is whipped cream. Judgments and generalizations tend to set one's teeth on edge if one is among the targeted group. I haven't lived in the Midwest for almost 40 years, but I still consider myself a Midwesterner at heart. As for Cool Whip, however, the nasty stuff is making greater inroads everywhere. Here in PA, I overheard two hair stylists talking excitedly about Cool Whip coming out with new flavors. Perhaps chocolate would be better than the regular flavor which is kin to sweet shaving cream. Even my sister, who is otherwise a very good cook, served Cool Whip with her pies at Thanksgiving last year. (This could go under the "I was floored" topic.) I had to forgo my slice of pumpkin pie, which would not have been the same either with or without, but luckily there were other choices. Sorry, back to topic now.

Years ago, I read that European bakers combine pecans and walnuts together in recipes and that the result is tastier than using either nut alone. I'd never liked walnuts because of their bitterness, but I tried this and to my surprise it was true. I'd never use any walnuts, however, in any recipe which featured pecans. I use brown sugar and white syrup rather than dark syrup and white sugar in my pecan pie. I also prefer chopped pecans to whole (easier to cut and eat) and you may be able to get chopped or pieces of pecans cheaper, Lucy. Perhaps you can get almonds cheaper? I have a good recipe for a Toasted Almond-Maple Syrup Pie.

This looks like a vegetable I used to buy in Nashville which went under two different names. Broccolini was one name, and the other was something very difficult to remember which started with Asp----as in asparagus. The vegetable tasted somewhat like a cross between broccoli and asparagus (better than the first and not as good as the second IMO).

You're welcome - She will love Queen of the Turtle Derby and totally relate to it. Julia Reed splits her time between NYC and New Orleans so it will read like deja vu. ←