snowangel

Hope I'm getting this quote thing right! I suppose there might be a concern, but if it were promptly consumed, should not be a problem? What would boiling juice do to it? I was such a "casual" parent (bratwurst and pizza crusts as first foods!) it's a wonder my kids survived!

I make the Sour Cream Pecan Dreams from Maidda Heatter's first book, and they are the first ones gone, every year.

I try new recipes all of the time. Some of them are 'da bomb (as Peter would say) and some of them are just A Bomb. My family finally understands that when I try something new, please tell me what you REALLY think. So I know whether to pitch the recipe (if it is a cut out), write NG (no good) on the cookbook page, or whatever. And, I've also informed the cleanup team that if the recipe is A Bomb, please do not put the leftovers in the fridge so I can discover them by smell some weeks later. Fortunately, we have more successes than disasters.

I had a lot of fun doing these parties for my mom. We were very careful when we planned guest lists, and I suggested grouping based on not only the women, but what they would want to eat, and I do say I did a magnificent job. I have received actual thank you notes from more women than not. And, it gave my mom a chance to actually spend time with those she dearly loves. I will say that the first one was the toughest. It didn't help that I felt the most pressure with this group, that I felt I needed to paint the laundry room, that Heidi's teacher called as I was putting lunch on to tell me "she's throwing up, just how soon can you come and get her?" The "Thai" lunch was great. Knowing this group of women like I did, it turned into a lesson on making summer rolls, and subsequent tales of Thanksgivings at grandma's house, making Christmas cookies, childbirth, and all of that stuff that gets loosened when women cook together. It was my favorite of the three. I would urge anyone who is considering hosting something for a significant event to consider hosting a few smaller do's. Much more intimate and memorable. And, these last two were a piece of cake. I had shrimp stock in the freezer. I assembled the stuff for the tot mahn the day before. Posole? Mine is limp and weak if not made at least 2 days before hand. Empandas? Make dough and filling ahead of time. Plus, with smaller gatherings, seating is usually easier. Everyone fit around the table (holds 10) and I didn't have to worry about putting up card tables and borrowing dishes and folding chairs from work. Edited to add: My orchids and Xmas cactus are blooming, so I didn't even have to buy flowers.

There have been several threads on this subject (doing a quick search for baby food; there are probably others), including: Gourmet Baby Food Baby food, formula, etc. Baby Food (this one was in the India forum). One of the best gifts you could give would be the Happy Baby Food Grinder. It goes anywhere. Does not need batteries of a socket. I was always a table food fan, even for babies. Perhaps something even more useful will be to take over a couple of meals per week for the next couple of weeks for mum and dad. Wait on them, and clean up after the meal. This is gold for new parents.

Since my last report, I have hosted two more birthday luncheons for my mom. Both were very successful, and menu ideas inspired by the crowd. The weather, having turned more November/early December like, struck me as soup and spicy. And, the two groups of women were the right women for this. #1: Guaq and tortilla chips. Yes, I did get to the mercado and got the fresh tortillas and fried them. Also served a salsa (homemade, ala Jaymes). Empandadas (filling was pulled smoked butt and some other stuff). Posole. Make posole two days beforehand. Mine is limp if not allowed to "meld." We toasted with Marguartias. Lime sorbet was dessert. #2: Summer rolls, tot mahn (sp? - a fried fish patty I learned to make many years ago in Thailand) and Tom Yam. We washed this down with Thai beer and some of that really sweet coffee they serve there. Birthday dessert for this one was a squashy custard baked in the squash. These luncheons have been wonderful. Having several small ones has been a lot of work, but not too much work for my mom, who has done more for me in the past few years than is imaginable. It was also way more fun to do several small things than one huge thing. Food for a smaller group is more managable, and more important, the guest of honor actually gets to interact with all attendees, on a more serious and fun level, than the "handshake and thank you for coming" level. The way to go, IMHO.

I love that someone picked leaves off their tree for you. Everyone needs a kaffir lime tree. Mine does fine in Minnesota. In the sun room in the winter, outdoors in the spring, summer and fall. My sticky rice bag calls it "sweet rice." The grains are shorter and fatter than the regular jasmine rice I use. They also seem "whiter." Yes, Susan, it is a different kind of rice. There are many kinds of rice. The fresh galangal. I'd freeze it and grate it as needed. But, further thoughts make me wonder whether it acts like regular ginger when planted. You can take a hunk of regular ginger and stick it in a pot and it will grow. Not sure about galangal.

Why is it that when a bunch of us ladies get together we turn the clock whacko? Bacon at 3:00 am, mangos at sunrise. Then we did breakfast tacos at noon. Maybe it is just because WE CAN! And, like the 3:00 am bacon, it just tastes better somehow. ← Beats nursing a baby at 3:00 am! (been there, done that, in a former life!)

I can do just about everything I need to do by hand. I am strong, I have good hands, a good back, good vision, good hearing, no aches and pains. I also have a 10 year old toddler, and things in the kitchen, given that I only have two hands, are not always easy to handle. Bring on the easy gadgets. It makes it easier for me to be a parent of a profoundly mentally retarded child, and it makes it safer for Heidi. The end result is the same. So what if the process is easier and safer?

I have a stainless ruler in my gadget drawer. I love it. One side has inches, the other metric. It goes through the dishwasher like a dream. Mine is an 18 incher, but I'd be almost as happy with a 12 incher.

So is climbing mango trees. ← Well, I was wearing a t-shirt, and bikini (not thong) underwear. And, I didn't climb any trees. Nor did I step outside for a smoke without my slippers on my feet. Damn, that bacon at 3:00 am was great!

Sounds like a kaffir lime tree to me!

I have not noticed a dearth of lime leaves here (Minnesota). While I always take them off of my tree (a few years old), my asian market has had huge packets of large, lush leaves for $.50 each. I usually forget, in my ardor for larb, to make sticky rice. Or jasmine, for that matter. I have come to really like the cool crunch of lettuce (buttercrunch is my current fav) as a contrast to warm larb. Sticky rice would be more keeping with northern Thai tradition. I like my larb sort of wet, so that when you scoop it into the lettuce, juice runs down my arm. But, I'm sort of bah, humbug on using chix breasts. Coarsely ground pork would be my fav, second choice would be thighs, again, coursely ground.

We did have a sort of revlelation sometine on Saturday regarding bacon. We had made some serious plans for bacon. So, we procured bacon from every joint locally that smokes their own. We had it sliced to spec, so that all bacon was of equal thickness (or thinness). Half-way between what one would consider thick and thin. One of the things we discovered last year during our bacon taste testing last year was that you can't compare thick to thin. Anyway, the sum total was that Lenny's meat market in New Ulm was the hands down winner. They won over Schmitts (sp? in Nicollet, MN). Over the Anoka Meat & Sausage company. Over Hackenmueller's in Robbinsdale. Over the place near Glenwood. Over Miltona. And, over two more I can't remember right now. We took our bacon seriously. And, the two Susan's present were late 50's born.

Maggie, I did make each one of them hats. They were awestruck. Thanks for the pattern recommendation. I used pepper (like hot pepper) fabric. They looked rakish.

I had two kids home sick this past week, one with an upset tummy, the other with a nasty cold. They both asked that I make "your" chicken soup. A caveat. This is a modification of a soup I learned from my mom's friend Dotty. Dotty died a few years ago, but she remains near and dear to my heart. She is the one who taught me to scuba dive when I was 10. Took my on my first Andaman sea dive when I was 12. I lived with them in Chieng Mai for a spell, and she introduced me to my first Kao Soi. When I came down with a nasty head cold, she introduced me to this. Come to think of it, Dottie was the one to first introduce me to Larb. Put a chicken (cut it up; I always take a cleaver to it and really wack it up, not the traditional Western cut) in a pot. Add all of those chicken neck, carcases, bones, whatever, you have in the freezer. Cover it with water. Sliver a walnut (or bigger) hunk of ginger (that may be the magic) and a couple of star anise, and a couple of peppers (jalapeno or birds; do not chop these up, just add ones with the stem on). Bring to a simmer and skim, skim, skim that foam off. When the chicken seems done, remove. Remove meat, returning bones to pot. Boil down. Skim fat off. Add the chicken back in. Some fish sauce. A bit of soy. A healthy dollop of sesame oil. Whack up a head of bok choy or napa. Add it. You could use Chinese broccoli. Add a small packet of bean thread noodles. Serve. As a condiment, a dish of bird chilies, thinly sliced, in a bowl of nam pla (make this a bit ahead of time, or use that which has been sitting in that little Tupperware container with a lid for longer than you care to think about). My kids realize that chix soup is good; they prefer this to that with egg noodles. It seems cleaner and less mucusy (sp?). The bean threads are wonderful. If it is a head cold, a healty splash of birds and nam pla will get "things running" and clear out the head. Thanks, Dottie.

Very blated, a report. It is energizing and wonderful to spend time without the kids, without pets, without husbands, with those whom one has known for more than 1/2 one's lives. It is exciting to stand at the window and look for the ride up north. It is beautiful to drive far north when there is almost a full moon. It is wonderful to crawl into an outdoor hot tub, way up north, with those with whom you have sympatico. The teens. The mid-40's. The trying to do all you can do. It is wonderful to cook bacon at 3:00 am, after drinking a lot. It is wonderful, at 3:30 am, to eat a BLH (Bacon, lettuce and hummus, on toasted Acme) out on a deck under the stars and a full moon with a halo. It is not wonderful to leave a pumkin pie out on the counter for too many days. I argued, I really did, to put the pie in the fridge. Nancy and I did. Susan and Diane said they never did. They never before made one that was not on the LIbby's label -- one with cream, not evaporated milk. It is wonderful to stick a hunk of ginger in the supplies. It is wonderful to, for some unknown reason, to stick a small packet of bean thread noodles in. It is wonderful to be able to buy some chicken and make my version of chix noodle soup for those with whom the pumkin pie left out on the counter did not agree with. We had a spectacular time. We watched movies -- The Hours was the most powerful, perhaps more powerful because the previous flick was Mona Lisa Smile; we followed these with Dr. No and Ursula in her bikini. We drank wine. Two of us nursed those who did not feel well. We swam and hot-tubbed outdoors. We did not shop. We all called our homes, dutifully, every night. We were glad to be child free. We will not do the tapas thing again. We discovered that we want to eat odd cheese and obscure crackers. We want to eat boil and peel shrimp. We want to cook, but the tapas we did required far too many "need to be remembered to pack" ingredients. We remembered that we love having soup and salads for dinner after a day of drinking many bottles of wine and noshing on lots of shrimp and cheese and hummus and whatever. Big hit dish of the weekend was courtesty of the Kowalski's (a local grocery chain) newsletter). A spinach salad with pear, pomegranite and cheese (supposed to be blue, which we forgot, so substituted goat). I'm hoping that everyone I know has friends like I have. Those you have known longer than you can remember. Those with whom you can cook bacon in your skivvies at 3:00 am. Those with whom you can talk, or with whom you can just be silent. Those with whom you can cook or clean. Those with whom you can just be. As we checked out, we made reservations for next year. P. S. On the ride up, we do not take the scenic highway, we choose the superhighway from Duluth to Two Harbors. It is dark, we are in a hurry. On the way home, we take the scenic. Two stops, both in Knife River -- the first at Playing with Yarn. We both bought yarn. Then on to Russ Kendall's for some smoked fish. The latter is one odd spot. But, it is tradition, and the sugar smoked salmon and the smoked ciscos never disappoint, plus, we really need to bring presents home.

The gunk queen reports from here that she loves her magnetic knife holder more than you can imagine. No more gunk to worry about. One less thing cluttering up her kitchen counters (what little she has). She wonders "why didn't I do this years ago?" A magnetic knife holder (gunk free) would fit into a stocking or a box...

Some more things I'm doing this year: For my newly single cousin who loves Thai food, a "certificate" for a trip to the local Asian market to get some essentials and a lesson, to include curry, stir frying and larb I picked up an almost new rice cooker for him at a thrift store for $.75. And, yes, to works. For me and my friends, who now that we are in our mid-40's, require reading glasses, beaded eyeglasses chain things (lashes?). For about $6.00, I can get beads and supplies to make 3 of them. They are fun, they are beautiful, they are cheap. This enables us to have the glasses readily available to read recipes! Knitting. I'm an avid knitter, and have been for 40 years (my grandmother believed that if one was old enough to go to kindergarten, one was old enough to know how to cast on, knit, purl, and cast off). I have unbelievable stashes of wool. Odd bits. A skein here, two skeins there. So, I've been making slippers, mittens, potholders and felting them. I've discovered that a felted knitting makes great potholders -- either in square or mitten (knit them way, way huge). Pretty patterns with different colors of yarn. If anyone wants any hints, PM me for a couple of book recommendations. For kids to do. I had my cousin's daughters over the other day (child care crisis). They didn't know what to do for their dad for Christmas. So, I suggested some things we could do, which we did. I had a few extra spice jars with those shaker lids, so they decorated them, and we made cinnamon sugar for the jars. I had a few odd tins which we covered with leftover contact paper and they decorated, and we will make caramel corn later on and fill those. And, we took some pictures, printed them, glued them to heavy card stock and put some of those pressaply magnets to them for the fridge. For a newly married cousin, a family favorite Xmas cookie recipe and some cookie cutters. My bestest friends, the ones with whom I share everything, will receive flour sack dishclothes this year, each of them will get 7 of them, embroidered with the traditional "days of the week" messages. The iron on things for these were discovered in a box that I found when we moved. The box was from my grandmother's house. 9 sets of the iron-ons. 80 flour sack dish clothes. Geez. I'm sounding like a dinosaur.

Yes, Dave, a report, please. I'm taking a break, and will wait on floors and ceiling until after Xmas. We are discovering some electrical problems which require more immediate attention. I really hate effing aluminum wiring. Thankfully, that little problem only plagues part of the house.

December 5, 2004 From this week's Star Tribune's Taste Section Winners of the Strib's annual Cookie Contest. A couple of them look like they might be worth trying. An article on Walleye in restaurants. Is it or isn't it? We'll only eat it if we catch it ourselves way up north. Slow Cookers are back in vogue, but some of us knew they were chic all along. Review of Hazellewood and Tap Room in Tonka Bay. Restaurant notes. A handy little article on Volumes in pans. This week's City Pages features a great review of Sakura. Last, but certainly not least, Schneier and his wife Karen Cooper reviewed Barley John's, a small brew pub in New Brighton. This article only appeared in the North section which comes with Wednesday's paper. I'll search around for the other regional sections and see if there are other restaurant reviews. Given that Barley John's is a stone's throw from my folks' house, I see a visit there in the near future. <><><><><> Media Digest Notes... Updates from some Twin Cities media outlets, which do not 'go to press' by Friday each week, may be edited into each week's post as they become available. Please do not reply on this thread. For discussion of any stories which are linked here, please feel free to start a new thread or contact the forum host or the "digester" who will be happy to do it for you.

I think you'll love the more open plan. I went from a huge kitchen to a small kitchen, but the floor plan of the kitchen/dining/living room in the new house is very open, which is what sold us on the house (that and the 2nd bathroom and the tandem 2 car garage which is really a 4 car garage). But, one of the things I have really liked about my old kitchen and new kitchen is the very tight triangle. I have always been just about able to open the fridge and wash my hands in the sink while cooking at the stove. Your sink looks so far from the stove. Unrelated to your current kitchen...in our former kitchen, the stove was located in an island. Bad thing if you have kids. Kids just want to run circles around islands which at times, is not particularly safe if the island contains heating elements, hot oil, etc. Edited to add: Good luck with remodeling hell. This is the second kitchen I've redone in less than 2 years. I'm vowing never again.

I don't have a clue why the stuff is so cheap. But, it is. That's the way it is. Growing up in Thailand, I can vouch for the fact that there is no "way expensive ultra" stuff. It is what it is. I'm a Tiparos fan. I've tried them all, and go back to what every Thai cook I've ever known prefers. Yes, buy every brand you can. Should edit that. Buy every brand you can that does not contain any sort of sugar. And, pour some into some sort of small container with a lid, slice up some bird chilies (quite a lot, according to my taste). Put lid on it and pull it out whenever you are serving whatever that this would accompany well. Like my chicken soup tonight.

fifi, did you include oven thermometers? I gave them last year to my girlfriends, and all of them were rather amazed how out-of-calibration their ovens are.

Massive effort, Sam and Kathleen! Thanks for taking the time to share with photos while performing. Thanks for sharing the nuts and bolts of this with us. I thought I worked hard. I thought I was organized. You taught me a thing or two!