snowangel

Praytell that this Thursday's batch won't be the LAST ever. Praytell that there will be more batches in the future. Reminder that it will take you at least a couple of batches to figure out the stove! Summer is just around the corner, and fried chicken is the most wonderful summer and picnic food ever. Yes, piperdown's use of the onions was inspired. Just may have to bore my family with yet more fried chicken just so I can do onions.

I will not respond to any post in particular, Tammy. But, I love that shitake and sesame dressing. I figure it's Amy's Naturals. The only bottled dressing I will purchase. Mac and cheese? A natural with anyone, especially with salad. You get the gluttony of cheese and pasta. And, the salad makes one feels as it one has had a "good and balanced" meal. I love looking at Liam discovering mac and cheese. I can't tell you how many photos I have of each of my kids discovering different foods. The best was Peter discovering grapefruit. Thanks for the pics of the kitchen and dining area of the co-eating area. I have watched your "cooking for 40" thread with great interest. Question. How do people seat themselves? Choose different seats for they and their kids each time? Same seats? Do people always tend to sit with the same folks? Finally, sorry, but no clever suggestions for the next meal that you will do. I'll continue to think.

I'm with Jensen on the pie pastry. Smoked pork butt. And I also have a daughter, Diana (age 14) who can look in the fridge, look at what's there (including leftovers) and envision a meal. She can also cook the meal.

Bumping this up, Dean, because we want to see photos, and don't want to you have to dig for this topic!

Thanks, piperdown, for the report. I, too, have had a tough time with controlling the oil temp. I think it just comes with experience. I watched my grandmother fry chicken time and time again, and she just seemed to know how hot, when to turn the temp and down. Although I currently have a gas stove, I do well remember the two burner technique when I was on electric! I'll probably give fried chicken a rest for a couple of weeks, but am planning on doing it many Friday's this summer for food for those late nights when we get to The Cabin!

Yes, I think they are older. I know that unless I am shopping at a serious coop, organic eggs. The other thing I just learned. The egg guy was at the market the other day. You know how you open the cartons and check to make sure the eggs are not all cracked? Well, when the egg guy comes back, he takes the eggs (both the organic and regular egg guys) and the eggs in those cartons that have a cracked one or two (or more) get taken back and put into other cartons, and according to the guy I talked to, the date the eggs are put in the carton is the packed by date.

Wonderful story, Brooks. I can still remember the Farah poster! And, your mom must have felt guilty as hell for leaving you guys if she left you with a seafood casserole! When I leave, I leave a grocery list!

We have just come through, successfully, a rough period with Heidi. Lots of seizures, lots of med adjustments, lots of late night calls to the neuro. One of the things that happens at times like this is that she doesn't want to eat or drink. So, I made sure to get into her good stuff. Steel cut oats, with mashed bananas and cream and brown sugar;; fibre, fruit. Lots of juice cut with lots of water. Paul and I taking turns laying on the couch with her while the rest of us the rest of us ate dinner. One of the things that we were reminded of during the "bubble burst" was that is is unbelievably important for caregivers and the rest of the family to take care of themselves. Eat and sleep well. Get some exerciese. In my case, it was Heidi, bundled in a coat and afghan, with me pushing her in her Major Buggy, me getting exercise, her getting some fresh air. And, we both came home hungry, which was a really good thing for her. I actually asked people, as I was home for over a week with her, laying on the couch, to pick up special treats for me. Baby greens. Goat cheese. Steaks. Whatever. This past couple of weeks reminded me that if I'm not healthy, she won't be, either. She's better, now, and really, really glad to be back to school.

I struggle with the plating. I did just fine yesterday, after pilfering my mother's cupboard for appropriate dishes, and making sure everything looked right, which was served "family style" for Easter. But, I would really like to plate dinners for my family. Surely, I'm not the only person who cooks great food, but has a crowd of 4 clammoring for food. Dinner with the kids and Paul is different than what you are showing. It is a different experience. So, for example, tonight, we had a frittata, salad, beautifully roasted asparagus, and a baguette. So, just what should I do? With a crowd like mine, it is not about courses. It is about getting plates ready for everyone, getting caught up on everything. Or, do I just wait until they are all gone and it returns to the two of us? What so puzzled me tonight was wedges of food. I guess Diana and I just need to play around with this more. And, we both agreed tonight that I need some square plates. Some examples of plates with all courses on them would be helpful.

Remember to remove bone and pick clean before inserting immersion blender, maggie!

Lucy, what is your preferred dipping sauce for the jaodzi? I have super easy access to really great, nice thin wrappers, so usually cop out and buy those. For some reason, I always aim for and get 7 or 9 pleats per dumpling. I'm curious if there's something about the number of pleats?

The plumbing got done by 9:00 pm that night. Much swearing and gnashing of teeth. Easter lunch was wonderful. I had a bigger crowd than expected. Ham; two of Marlene's dishes which you'll see on recipeGullet when it reappears soon -- potato puff and maple glazed carrots; roasted asparagus (crank up the oven when the ham and potatoes come out and let it do it's thing while the other stuff is resting) and a very pretty salad with mixed baby greens, a raspberry vinagarette featuring raspberry vinegar made from home grown raspberries, Maytag and some pecans I caramelized. Oh, and bread. The day was spectacular. We had an easter egg hunt and the kids spent most of the time out of doors. My SIL got in town early enough to call and say "can I bring dessert?" Why, yes, my dear. Ice cream with fresh fruit, out on the deck. It was divine. Only one kid barfed, and only one got a bloody nose. The toilet didn't back up. As I said, wonderful. Just four days prior, we celebrated a one-year anniversary in our new-to-use house, and we were reminded that this is a great house for entertaining. I first entertained here last Easter, three weeks after we moved. This is my favorite time of year. We had as much fun enjoying friends and family as poking around in the gardens. My rosemary is showing signs of life!

Depends on the season and the year. This winter, it was All About Braising. Come early summer, it will be the St. Paul Farmer's Market Cookbook or Alice Waters Vegetable book. I guess year round, I refer probably most often to Baking with Julia or Julia and Jacques Cooking at home. But, most often, I reach for my recipe box. Recipes cut from newspapers, magazines, from friends, from family, and especially those recipes written by my great grandmother in spidery fountain pen.

Why, at The Cabin, of course! But, during the school year, days when I'm home alone, it is in the sun room. Dinner is all about being at the table the kids, learning about their days.

I prefer to think of it as "6 yankees". This keeps me from getting riled for not being selected as the champion in this little battle. ← Yes, us Yankee's. I had more trouble controlling the temp with your chicken, for some odd reason. I will try it again, put fewer pieces in with each batch so the temp doesn't drop so much. One of the problems is that I tried frying both different kinds at the same time. The buttermilk in the cast iron skillet. Your's, Brooks, in the LC dutch oven. For some reason, frying in the dutch oven just wasn't as easy, nor was the temp as easy to control. Were this to have been a really controlled experiement, I'd have done a batch of each in each pan! Next time...

Leftover chicken report. Remember, I did two versions -- Brook's and buttermilk. The buttermilk was a more successful leftover, as judged by 6 people.

My Lamb Curry from the cook off. Yuck.

It has been a long and difficult winter. But, as I "supervised" the Easter egg hunt today, I had occasion to poke around in the garden, and push and pull and lift up bits of mulch. There are daisies coming up. The rosemary is coming to life. My purple coneflowers did not die. I think I espy signs of life in the shocking pink popies I planted. The bits and pieces of thyme I pulled from the Old House and transplanted to the New House look like they have taken hold. As I crested the hill on the freeway on my way to chuch at 5:45 this morning, I was reminded that the days are getting longer, the sun has more push. The new season is soon to be upon us!

A couple of things. The buttermilk chicken was definitely the better of the two leftover. Crunchier. Just better. Taste tested by the group who ate both fresh. Tomorrow will find me in a kindergarten classroom tomorrow lunch time gnawing away on the the last back and thigh (both of which I hid today). Next comp. Pad thai sounds good. I still struggle with rice noodles. Heaven knows why. No clue. I can pleat pot stickers like the best of them, and velvet chicken like there's no tomorrow. I can make pasta. I can saute. Rice noodles baffle me. A future suggestion is crepes. But, let's get through the next round before thinking about the following one. But, fried chicken will be on our menu more frequently. In fact, I'm sure I will make it 8 weeks from this past Thursday. To haul in the cooler, as we treck to The Cabin. We're always hungry when we get there, and I can't think of a better way to satiate that hunger. Other than the stars, the water, the fire flies, the memories in the making.

A toast to your new love. Dacor. I think we have roughly the same granite counters. .

Homemade curry paste is wonderful! Just not always practial on a weeknight. The one thing I was not particularly fond of in curry paste was the star anise. One of my favorite memories was going to the market and getting curry paste. Little old ladies, huge mortars and pestals, pounding away. Big bowls of their product, heaped high. Yes, I'm sure my dad was not undercover CIA. Believe me, I knew many undercover CIA's back then, as well as many Air America pilots who kept up well supplied in high school.

I will qualify this by saying tonight was probably not the best night to fry chicken. Not only am I getting ready to have 25 over tomorrow, we had some rather serious plumbing problems under the kitchen sink which led Paul to the home improvement store at 5:00 pm on a Saturday night, and both of us sweating and swearing. But, I did it. I will spare you the photos of the two different soaking processes. My chicken, sitting in buttermilk, salt and tabasco or water and baking powder look no different from anyone else's. Nor do my frying photos. But, here are the finished products: fifi's is darker, Brook's lighter in color. We were a group of 7. One was Heidi, who does not eat chicken, but really likes chicken skin. Although non-verbal, she loved both skins. The rest of the crowd was divided. Two were definitely for fifi's method, two for brooks. One liked the skin of one better and the meat of one better. So, the test comes tomorrow for breakfast (my family doesn't know yet that they are eating cold fried chicken for breakfast). It was a wonderful experience. It is hard to keep two different pans going at two different temps. But then again, I'm often a glutton for punishment. The kitchen floor, counters and stove are grease free. We are cheering the womens' gopher bb team on as I speak. Burp.

I know how many I'm having (earlier than expected). The food has been purchased (two trips to the grocery yesterday). The house is spotless; the only remaining household tasks are to clean the kitchen floor, counters and stovetop after frying chicken tomorrow. The kid really pitched in. Sounds too perfect, right? I neglected to mention that Paul is laying on his back right now under the kitchen sink, tools in hand, swearing. We hate plumbing worse than electricial. So, we just might be washing dishes in the bathrub. It will be memory we'd never want to repeat!

Since I'm doing a side by side comparison tonight of the buttermilk one and Brook's recipe, I'm planning on doing both in peanut oil. THe memory of the buttermilk recipe in crisco and bacon grease is fresh enough in my mind that I think the comparison will be accurate. Since I'm having a lot of people over tomorrow, I'll light a scented candle before I begin frying. That really seems to help.

Strikes me that YOU need to test those burners with some fried chicken. Leftovers would make a wonderful lunch to sustain you while you unpack...