snowangel

The ledge above your stove is wonderful. Did you know when you planned the kitchen you would love it? Wine with dinner. Do your kids get tastes? Diana (age 14) now gets a taste, and is learning some differences between wine. Weekdays, what do your kids do for breakfast? Did you and FoodTutor know each other before EG?

On my way home from yoga tomorrow, need to nip to the market to get medicine for Heidi, so will also get some chicken thighs so I can participate in the braising seminar. Once I've got that going, think it's time for gumbo! Yes, we bbq'ed not long ago. It is cold, nasty, biting windy outside right now. It's that teasing time of year, no? Time to dream of cabins, Winnipeg Folk Fests, shorts and gardening.

OK, hypnotists. I have lived happily for some 47 years without an immersion blender. I need one now. Thanks. OK, back to soup. I've been eating it every day, brothy, loaded with hot peppers, and it does help clear out those nasal passages.

I have a hard time believing that part of gumbo isn't about what is around at the time one is cooking it. So, if it's veg, and the grill is going, you roast them and make gumbo. But, being a Minnesotan raised in Thailand, I probably don't understand gumbo at all. So, I will make some this weekend. Probably on Friday to eat on Saturday after a day of ice fishing.

I'm really sorry I haven't participated so far, but I've been sick enough that I haven't felt like doing any cooking. But, I'm feeling better and still planning to do the three kinds of chicken in a side-by-side. I'm not sure if this is a question or if I am just thinking out-loud, but I had intended to do this as a coq au vin, but I'm wondering, since I really want also to taste the differences between the three kinds of chicken if I'm not better off using stock? And, at some point in the very near future, I would like to try these lab experiements with poultry, since no one's tried that. Should I do this let's say next week or the week later, is it OK for me to post the results on the appropriate lab discussion threads? I'm really curious if different vessels will make as much of a difference with poultry.

I would think that the stock with the marrow would be richer. But, I've been wrong on more than one account!

I love liver. My husband loves liver. My kids refuse to eat it. Your prep above is my standard, but I'd love to read other suggestions. I am reminded that I gave a birthday dinner for a friend. There were only 6 of us, and when I asked her what she wanted, she said liver and onions. I sauteed in bacon fat. I'm lucky in that one of the markets near my house sells beautiful liver -- thinly sliced and well trimmed. Further to ideas for cooking liver, what sides to you usually serve?

Mee Krop is supposed to be sticky and sweet. I don't like it either! Been sick, so haven't done much cooking. But, yesterday for lunch, I took out some chicken broth, boiled some of those chinese noodles (fresh, the kind they use in lo mein, called ba mi in Thai), added some cooked chicken, some bean sprouts and cilantro. Loaded it up with hot peppers and nam pla. Sure cleared out my "sciences." This is similar (but was not as good as) to the noodles we used to get off the noodle wagons. Think Pho but with different seasonings. Since I'm home during the day, lunch is often difficult. I can only eat so many sandwiches and salads for lunch. One of the things I do every couple of weeks is make a huge pot of curry, and extra rice. Package rice and curry in individual containers and I have a really easy meal to reheat for myself. When I worked outside the home, this was probably my favorite lunch of all.

Be sure and read these two threads: Le Creuset And, I think that as the additional labs and discussions for the Braising Seminar unfold, more info will come out.

Thanks, from the heart of Minnesota, for a picture of something green and blooming. Warms my heart. Me does think that there are green beans in the bunch of stuff you have. Is that one tub yogurt? A question: so, the Boy and the Girl made Dutch boys. Do they do any other cooking? Do they take lunches to school or eat school lunch? If they take lunch, what do they take?

Do Ramen noodles count? Gotta love the Mama Brand pork ones. With that grease packet. Yummy. Ore Ida also makes some onion things (vidialia somethings) that are pretty good. Much easier and faster than doing the deep fry thing and dealing with all of the grease.

Thanks, Brooks, from a fellow "thin" person. This sounds like the Thai food thing. Thick curry, or "thin" curry. So, I'm going to gumbo for the first time tomorrow. Assuming that I want a thinner (runnier?) gumbo, your advice? Let's say we use fifi's recipe as a benchmark. How would you do it different?

So, Maggie, question. I have one set of the Time Life Foods of the World series. Garage sale, somewhat dog eared, but who cares. MIL calls and says she doen't want her's anymore. She needs more bookshelf space "for more valuable books." So, I say, yes, I've love them (they are pristine, I'd be surprised if any of the books were ever owned). Will they count even if they are duplicates of what I already have? If so, add them.

Along with a Maggie apron (or the pattern and fabric to fabricate same)?

I gumbo tomorrow. I have had trouble sourcing local andouille. So, on a whim, I called my new local meat market -- Anoka Meat and Sausage. "Yes, we make andouille." So, as soon as Heidi is on the bus tomorrow, I am up to Anoka Meat and Sausage. I will also order my Easter ham, and probably buy a mess of other stuff. But, back to Anoka. I have never had andouille before. I don't know what their's will be like. I will slice and take photos. But, remember that Anoka was the home of Garrison Keillor. Before he was big. So, we'll see what Anoka Meat and Sausage thinks that andouille is. Me does think that the original spirit of gumbo did not involve ordering sausage over the internet, via Fed Ex, but I could be wrong.

My typical breakfast is toast. Diana and Peter (the big and little kids) decide what they want to eat in the am). Heidi has BF at school at part of OT. But, for Diana, Peter and I, toast is our most favorite. This morning was especially beautiful. We had a heavy, wet snow last night, so when I woke and opened the shades to the door on the deck, this is what I saw: . For breakfast (this is merely 1/2 slice; the slices are too big for the toaster, so we cut them in half), we had toasted Acme sourdough. I washed mine down with Peet's darkest and greasiest beans. My mom has just returned from Berkeley, and brought us a duffle bag of Acme and a very nice stash of Petes. Toast. I love it. I could live on it, and did, throughout a miserable pregnancy. . The butter is Hope Butter. I hope I remember to post photos of a typical weekend breakfast in our house!

Thanks, Pam. I will think of you as I fix the first of the pancakes this coming summer with fresh blueberries! We are 13 weeks and counting. However, for the first time in more years than Paul and I have been married (almost a quarter of a century), opening weekend for us will be a week late, due to a family occasion. Why anyone anywhere would schedule a wedding, graduations, whatever on Opening Weekend is beyond us, but we will do The Right Thing. But, back to the task as hand. Under a magnet on the fridge (the Ruby Slipper Magnet) is a list of the stuff we need and want for The Cabin. Some of these are food items I will purchase closer to going up (flour, ketchup, mustard, baking soda, TP, etc., etc.) but some are of the wish list/gadget variety. I am the one that cooks, of everyone that uses the cabin. And, since I spend more time up there than anyone, I want it to function as well as possible. Now, keep in mind that I did stock the cabin with some "essentials" this past summer. A microplane. A wooden citrus reamer. Two silicone spatulas. But, back to my wish list under the Ruby Slipper Magnet (take me back to the cabin). I was at Target not long ago, and they are re-packaging their Chefmate line of gadgets. So, the old orange and white packages have been replaced by another color, and the orange and white ones were on clearance. So, clearance, at 80% off ( ), purchased: one digital timer. One instant read thermomenter. One digital scale (so, not great, but at just under $8.00, will do). New set of measuring cups (40 year old ones with serious dents aren't accurate are they). Locking tongs. A new 4 cup liquid meaurere that isn't chipped. A new set of whisks that aren't rusty. The wish list items have been dutifully crossed off the list, with the more perishable items remaining, for that trip to the market in mid-May. My best friend and her family will join us for the opening, and a couple of weeks before hand, we will get together to discuss menus, knowing that some of the gaps in equipment have been taken care of. Finally, I leave you with a photo. A golden retrieve is well named. This particular GR, Jake, retrieves not only little boys in styrofoam chairs with ropes, but also birds. Unlike Benson, Paul's folks former Black Lab, he does not eat the retrieved object. Yes, we remain passionate about our cabin. Ane the promise of a new season.

I am enjoying your blog very much. Diana (age 14) is also a "selective vegetarian" as The Girl seems to be. Glad, too, that you learned things during your summers with your grandmother that some people will never know. It was under her knee that I learned how to kill a chicken, what real buttermilk was, and how things grow, and are preserved.

Toast. Or greens with dressing and maybe some tuna or a hardcooked egg. Since I almost always have hardcooked eggs in the fridge, perhaps a couple of deviled eggs.

Dean, please describe your meals today!

Just this past week, I made a recipe out of Molly Steven's new braising book. Chicken braised with lemon zest, prunes and brined, green olives. My family looked at me like I was crazy. They didn't believe me until they saw the dish. I cajole each of them into humoring me and taking a bite of the chicken with some prune and olive. Voila! One happy family. Heidi didn't have a clue what we were talking about, and her first bite (I carefully loaded her spoon with some of each) revealed a priceless look -- shock melting into a delighted smile, followed by her "happy sound." Me, I'm game for trying almost anything.

That looks absolutely spectacular, fifi. Must gumbo, and soon. I'm tempted to bow out of one day of the braising thing so I can gumbo. Choices, choices, choices. So many meals to cook, so few days in a week.

I agree with fifi. The diary is a very good idea. Focus on what works and what doesn't, in terms of flow (not focusing on your specific appliances). When I first looked at these pictures, two things struck me. How many doorways you have. Doesn't look like you have a single unbroken wall! And, how far your cooktop is from the sink and fridge. In our former house, had I wanted to spend more money and time on the kitchen, I would have put the cooktop against a wall, and used the island as a big huge prep area. Think about stuff like that -- dramatically rearranging the layout of the kitchen. I know if I were redoing a big kitchen from top to bottom, I'd try and cook in as many different kitchens of friends as possible.

OK. I've just read Lab #1. So for marking meat, any suggestions? I'm going to do three types of chicken. Use different colors of embroidery floss (cotton) to mark via ties? I think I read Lab #1 carefully. But, in case I didn't, is the choice of vessel up to us? Finally, just cleaned out the deep freeze and found a major stash of stock (how can one lose stock?). I stock still viable after 8 months at the very bottom of a deep freezer which is very cold and tight enough that is has almost no frost? It is in glass canning jars. So, no aromatics, so I don't have to worry about the carrots! I am lucky. Home alone all day on Monday with nothing better to do that brown and braise (other than drywall and paint, but any excuse to avoid same is welcome!).

I remember well a day when we lived in our former house -- in a very racially and economically diverse neighborhood. I befriended my closest neighbors -- all living on close to a poverty level. None of the women drove. I offer this next bit if info just as description -- not judgement. One was a Hispanic immigrant, one a Hmong immigrant, one a young white woman. The immigrants were fairly recent immigrants, and communication was difficult. The white woman came from a painful background, shuttled from relative to relative. She had never cooked anything that wasn't out of a box in the microwave or on top of the stove in a saucepan or microwave. She never saw anyone else every cook any other way. So, one day, I offer to take these three women to the grocery store. The immigrant women wanted to stop at two stores -- the local Asian market and the supermarket. At the end of the expedition, after everyone had put their groceries away, I invited them over, mostly to steal cooking tips from two of them. What Molly couldn't believe was how much more food they had gotten for their dollars, and couldn't figure out what they would do the ingredients. Fresh vegetables. Odd cuts of inexpensive meats. Bags of peppers, cilantro, basil, rice, dried beans. As the three women and I talked, it came out that the two immigrant women didn't know what to do with a frozen waffle. Molly didn't know what to do with a fresh veg. She had never been taught. The other two women had been taught to cook from the time they were knee-high to a grasshopper. By watching, participating. The next time I was at Goodwill dropping stuff off, I picked up a Sunbeam waffle maker ($2.00!) for Molly, and taught her how to make waffles. The last time I saw Molly, she had deep-sixed her dead-beat husband, was living my herself with her kids, and she and the other two women were getting together once a week to learn each others' cooking, and Molly said that outside of basic pantry staples, everything she was making was from scratch. She said her nails were growing better, her hair was shinier. She just felt better, and felt her girls were doing better in school, had better attention and focus. She wasn't sure if this was because of her new living situation or food, but figures that the food was a big part of it. For those who have access to food, I believe that a part of the problem of nutrition is education. How to make things. How to use appliances. We learn from experience. Although my mother was not a great cook, she cooked. She tried new things. She set an example. My kids are getting a great education from just being in my kitchen.