snowangel

We have our best luck fishing walleyes with worm harnesses. You? Glad you fish. Does your son like to fish? Assuming that you catch walleye and cook them for your family, what is your method?

This is one of my all time favorite Thai dishes (next to larb). I had a ton of Thai and Holy basil in my garden this year. It doesn't dry well -- loses to much of the umph. So, this year, I stuck it in the food processor with some vegetable oil. Fixed this dish (using pork) just a few days ago, and I can report that this is a good way to preserve Thai basil. I find that when I get it at the market, it has a VERY short shelf life.

It is a very common dish in Thailand, and prepared pretty much the same way EXCEPT that the meat has been grilled or seared, not poached in broth. I have mentioned above several times than when we grill steak, I always grill an extra one so I can larb it. Actually, that's not correct, now that you bring this up. I yum neua my leftover steak (or yum whatever leftover meat I have -- chicken, pork, lamb, even venison). The catch is that this does not hold the "rare" aspect of the meat very well as the lime sort of "cooks" it. It is still wonderful, even with the rare aspect of it gone. (with larb, I will often make enough for lunch the next day.)

Wow. It's making that cheap, supermarket hot dog sound all the worse. I'm drooling over the hangar and the oyster chowder. The walleye sort of got me. From whence the walleye? I don't believe it is native to your area, but I could be wrong. The only walleye we will eat is that we catch up at our Cabin (or close environs). We sort of have a thing about wild game .

In our household, tonights menu will be pizza (lukewarm, I'm sure) and hot dogs at the elementary school fundraiser. It's for a good cause. What's on your menu tonight, and how did you decide what to do with what you had? Further to this, let's say something doesn't sell as well as you want. What do you do with it? Finally, I'm not sure how long your week lasts, Chef, and want to thank you ever so much for continuing the tradition of fabulous Q & A's. Thanks for expanding my horizon.

You are my kind of man! Trust you fried the egg in bacon grease? And, how are the potbelly sandwiches? They have a couple Twin Cities locations, and would get to one if they are worthwhile.

I've spent way more on cookbooks and cooking equipment!

Didn't Dave the Cook write a Daily Gullet column about hoods? I've known three people with GE profile dishwashers. Every one of them started on fire. Given the price... A leak is easier than a fire. Trust my friends. Now, I know that this does not address the stove thing, but.

I was at game 7 (only) of the 1987 series when the Twins won. It was so special I pucked (no beer, no nothing, just pure and unadulterated excitement) in the stands. It was the Twins first series win EVER. A memory I store up there with the births of my kids . Most of those I know in the Twin Cities were rooting for the Sox.

OK, I'll admit it. I'm whining. It's been cool and cloudy and rainy for 20 of the past 21 days. It is the season of fall, past fresh, local, wonderful tomatoes, sweet corn, green beans, lovely greens. At least here, it has been an odd year. It is not the season for the grill. The lack of sun, the abundance of rain has left me, and all of those that I know that love food, with the food doldrums. There is no excitement for the farmer's market. Do you ever find yourself in this state? What do you do? I have a hard time believing that you bound out of bed every morning, evervescent, looking at what is present and saying "I'm inspired." Does weather play a part in your enthusaism? ???

I knew I couldn't compete, but at least I had the guts to be the non-winner.....but, if you read my thread about the cabin, you will read about magic and merry.

As I tell my kids, I'm the mom and that's why I get them.

I scored. At Marshall's. I got a 2-1/2 quart for $24.99. The catch was that the lid and the pot don't match, which doesn't bother me in the least. The bottom is sort of a graduated red -- more red on top, more burgundy on the bottom and the lid is greyish. This is great because it mimics the colors of my counters. Yes, I scored. It is not a second, just unmatched pieces. I did a bargain with the store manager because these pieces were just laying there. I figured if I named a price less than the two unmatched (color-wise pieces) the worst that could happen was that she would say "no, you have to pay full price (which would have been $49.99).

We have, at the cabin, a very narrow stove (I do recall it's a 27 incher). I makes me crazy. It's also a "shallow" stove. It's got a back-splash thing (which is part of the stove), which makes it so you can't have two big, wide pots on the two burners on the same side of the stove at the same time. My current stove is 32" wide, and that's minimum. I couldn't go wider without deep-sixing some of the cabinets, which I couldn't afford to do, space-wise.

Ah, skirt steak. It is not readily available in the Twin Cities, unless one goes to a Hispianic market. My former neighbors used to have these wonderful parties. They would get pounds of this stuff. Marinate in beer (must be Budwiester, accorinding to them) and lime juice. Grilled over a way hot fire, just have you have done. Crispy on the outside, rare on the inside. Jorge would take these, off the grill, put them on the picnic table and wack them up. Loaded on corn tortillas, homemade minutes before, served with "embellished" rice on the side, and two kinds of "salsa" -- one of the pico variety, the other of the fried pepper variety. That, with the music, the folk -- the grandmas passing the babies back and forth, the teens flurting, the kids racing around, and The Rest Of Us sitting around drinking beer, eating these "fajitas" and communicating in whatever language worked. Memories. Skirt steak. Ah. 'Tis a wonderful thing.

Good to know that you are having a really productive week at work. Shit man, this almost makes me want to go back to work outside the home (note I said almost).

A good buttermilk pancake recipe (joy of cooking is quite good) is as easy to whip up as any mix, and far superior.

Fifi, it's your fault. I never even thought about having a Le Crueset before. I knew about them, but could have cared less. But, I started thinking that with only three that really eat meat ( or much of anyting for that matter; Heidi and Peter seem to be on food hiatuses), I need something smaller than my 6 quart dutch oven. I end up with either too much space for the quantity, or leftovers that would feed an army. And, something in an odd color would be good in my monochromatic kitchen. I need something with some heft. I never even thought about this before. So, tomorrow, I will neglect my yard, the piles of laundry that need to be done, everything, and head to Marshall's and TJ Maxx. I called both places today, and both have that cute little thing you have that's about 2-1/2 quarts. Never mind that I never wanted one of these until YOU. At least I don't have to call in "sick" for the field trip I'm scheduled to go on with Heidi on Thursday.

As I mentioned in my reply on your blog, ronnie, squares are sometimes seen in the Twin Cities. Interesting about pizza. When we live in the city (Minneapolis) all of the local little pizza joints were squeezed out by Pizza Hut and Dominos, except for Broaday which cuts the 'za into squares. Now that we've moved to a 'burb, local pizza joints abound. Our new favorite is but two blocks away. Pizza Flame. A chain, but with only two joints, and family owned. The mom and I have kids in the same class at the same school and both chaperone field trips (OT, I know). But, the pizza is great. Cut into squares. Not greasy. Crisp crust (thinner, I think, than what you portrayed, ron). The square cut pizza. Until a couple of months ago, those little corner pieces that are almost all crust were mine. The kids have discovered them, much to my And, I like to sprinkle crushed red pepper on my pizza slices. I think sausage and onion are my favorites at The Flame.

The great pizza joints in The Twin Cities also cut them into squares, so it isn't just a Chicago thing. Gotta have pizza.

Ha! I'll never forget my first day back at work after my maternity leave with Diana. I looked in the fridge at the office, and said "yikes!" A thorough cleaning revealed a container of cream cheese (one of those plastic things) that had expired BEFORE I got pregnant (and I had a 4-month maternity leave). It had done some sort of chemical thing so that it resembed a small soccer ball more than a plastic container. Thanks for taking this over. Hopefully, your family won't be as sick as mine of me saying "no, don't eat yet. I have to take a picture first!" P. S. I love bit o honey's, but only at Halloween time when they seem to be fresher.

Do you cook at home? Do you experiment on your family? Is your child an adventurous eater? I'm a mother of three, and one of the joys of the last few years has been watching Diana (now 14) become proficient and inventive in the kitchen, and be able to handle a chef's knife adeptly. Likewise, Peter and Heidi are expanding their range of "what they will try" and they have started to really enjoy new and different foods, tastes and textures.

Thanks so much for participating in this Q & A. They are one of the many goldmines on EG. Further to this question, from where do you get inspiration? So, lets say for 4 days in a row, you get pretty much the same great stuff in. How do you decide what to do with it? Although I'm a home cook, it can be so hard to look at the same set of great things in fresh and inventive ways.

You could just be right. I've heard the 7-year or 11-year cycle (can't remember which), but when I think about our summers at the cabin, those caterpillar things seem to be on cycles, too. And, come to think of it, grouse hunting is best a year or two after the caterpillars have decided to take a rest. We got no grouse at the cabin. We went to a farm in Southern MN a week and a half ago for pheasants, but it was an awful day for hunting birds. Cold, nasty, wind. The dog only scared up one hen. We were probably too early. Paul deer hunts the first weekend in November. May go back the following weekend. The deer population is high right now in the vicinity of our cabin. The same huge buck that we spotted last summer was spotted this past summer, but I think he looks too big and too old to be much good. I should add that on our way home from the cabin the first weekend of October, we passed a truck pulling a trailer (the kind that can hold 4 ATV's or snowmobiles). More than half the thing was taken up with a gigantic moose. Pretty impressive, since they are so hard to track. I also know that a person can only get one moose hunting license in a lifetime, and the fee is $310. And, it's lottery, because hardly any permits are given our. I don't know how good moose is to eat, but I bet that rack was destined for a place of honor on a wall. Diana is taking gun safety in anticipation of hunting next year.

I think I'll just rip up the vinyl. I've done it before, and can do it again. It's fast approaching winter here, and volitile chemicals and no open windows and little kids are not a good mix. I've ripped up a little portion of the vinyl in our "new" house (with harvest gold vinyl full of cigarete burns and nicks) and the "little corner" came up fairly easily. So, just how bad did it stink?