snowangel

Assuming the garlic lady is there, and they have garlic on October 11, I will do so!

I leave tomorrow for a few last days at the cabin, and will be curious when I return to see if you have managed to eat any crap or junk (other than airline-provided food).

From our farmer's market, I have been getting Polish Hardneck, Music, Georgia Fire, Siberian, Carpathian, Asian Tempest, Georgia Crystal, Red Czar, Chesnook Red, Inchelium Red. Unfortunately, I did not mark the cloves nor keep notes, but they are far superior, and very different, than supermarket garlic.

Although what you have read in this particular thread is largely related to restaurants, most of the things I've posted (on various forums) have had a lot more to do with cooking, ingredients, questions. We have three kids, and since I left paid employment for the greener pastures of home, we don't restaurant that often, either. And, Bruce's foodblog indicates that he does a pretty good job of dining in! Glad to have you here, Alex! I've been jealous of that fun-loving Chicago group that gets together with great frequency, and am happy to have another Minnesotan join us! I go state-wide with this comment since the great and wonderful "smoky" Klink has relocated to Duluth, which really isn't that far. I think it's time we tried for a gathering!

I'm surprised that you and Karen don't take your picnic idea to the airplane!

It is 22 degrees, and a thick blanket of frost is covering everything.

One Saturday morning in August when we were in town, I stopped by the farmer's market in NE Minneapolis (University NE and 7th -- or is it 9th?), picked up some absolutely wonderful heirloom tomatos and a loaf of good bread (there is a bread seller at this market) and stopped at Surdyk's for cheese and salami and wine. It didn't occur to me to stop at Kramarczyk's! That is a wonderful area of town! We had our picnic under our pergola. And, to picnic like you did in another wonderful area of town... Thanks for sharing.

Do you know this place? How long has it been open? Bruce I think they've been open just over a year. Patrick was former pastry guy at Hotel Sofitel, as I recall. They are open until early evening, and also have sandwiches, quiches, etc. I've been a couple of times (for bakery goods and cafe) and it was quite good.

It's hard to make a snide comment about stuff from Patrick's French Bakery and Cafe. A SuperAmerica donut, on the other hand, would open you up to all sorts of ridicule from me. They are worse than honey roasted peanuts.

Yeah, Jin, what's wrong with peach cobbler? I don't like cooked fruit (except rhubarb, and then only to slightly softened)! Give me raw fruit, and cooked cobbler topping, and I'm just fine. The only fruit pies I make are raw fruit sort of adhered together with thickened fruit juice -- no baking, other than the unfilled shell.

While we have to cook, etc., we don't have to get dressed, either. In fact, Peter discovered that the way to get the occasionaly fishing boat away from the front of the cabin is to bare all on the rock at the end of the dock.

Yes, people still eat cereal and milk for breakfast; at least my kids do. I'll have to get some spelt flakes -- sounds like the kind of thing Diana and I would like. I'm more likely to have cereal and milk as a late night snack. Which coop?

Ok. I am using this as my special, beautiful, go-to-sleep fantasy tonght. I am glad that you know how fortunate you are. What card games? Hearts? Euchre? Pinochle? Poker? Yes, I do know how fortunate I am. I am almost as passionate about our Little Piece of Heaven as my family. The last installment for 2003 will come on Monday; the kids have a couple of days off school (parent-teacher conferences), so we head up on Friday to button things up for the winter. I will feel absolutely horrible and bereft when we leave Cards. Pitch, spit, rummy, poker, a boxed card game called Milles Bournes. I dug out my 40 year old book of card games and think it's time I teach the kids to play Casino while I braise something. This weekend will truly herald the end of summer for us. We will probably see our first flakes of the season, and that water will be mighty cold when we get in to take the dock out.

Enchiladas

We could see our first frost tonight (likely), so everything except the pumpkins and brussels sprouts will come in tonight. We went from really nice and warm to late fall in the matter of a couple of days. I'm making stock today because I just flat refuse to turn on the furnace until after October 1, and I know that had I turned it on, it would have run by now. I am, however, still wearing shorts and my birkies (albeit I'm also wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and sweatshirt; I won't do wool until after October 15; I have a hard time accepting the onset of the F word). My tomato crop was not very good this year either, Maggie, but not as pathetic as yours. I was hampered because I was gardening across the alley, and it was an unbelievably dry year, and it was just plain difficult to water it. Plus, I think that garden has had tomato plants planted in roughly the same location for too many years. I am in the process of killing some grass in my yard for a tomato plot, and will use the across-the-alley garden next year for beans, vines, brussels sprouts, etc. Reminder that if you are growing brussels sprouts to trim many of the leaves, if you haven't already done so, and don't pick them until after the first frost. You can pick them much later, too. Maggie, have you had your tomatos planted in the same location for a few years? If so, move them to a different location next year, or give yourself a year off (painful, I know). If you've had them in the same location, till in some really rich organic matter, and plant a nitrogen-fixing plant in that location next year. Hopleaf, when I plant cilantro, I keep planting all summer; it is really a cool weather crop, and don't forget that you can plant it in and amongst other taller plants to provide some shade. Peppers were the best in years here -- combo of heat and drought, I think. Remember, too, that not all jalepenos are created equal. Some are bred to be hotter than others, but I do think the real trick is that they get hotter with stress. My sweet autumn clematises are in full bloom. A virtual while blanket obscuring that rather unslightly chain link fence. Asters are in their full splendor, and my autumn joy sedem is just spectacular. I must plant sage next year. I will miss puttering in the garden.

Diana turned 13 last Friday. Her choice was Burnt Sugar Cake Yum...

My kids would all say that the quest for the perfect chicken has everything to do with chicken skin I say for all of the reasons SuzanneF gave.

Melted cheese. Didn't like it until I hit 30. Coffee. Couldn't stand it -- smell or taste -- until I was pregnant with Peter. Now it's a pot of really strong stuff every day.

Ah, a kindred spirit. Every September-April, I wonder why I live in MN. I have not given in and bought apples, but did use the oven last night. Yes, heartier meals are in order, but I always miss the clean, simple summer food.

Thanks! Could you please describe a day's worth of menus for in a typical household?

These were so awful, I made them not once, but twice, figuring that I had screwed things up the first time around. I kept the recipe card with a big fat red circle with diagonal line through it in case I loose my memory and forget just how bad they were.

Smoked chicken (smoked by me!), sweet corn and sliced Brandywines. My 2003 sweet corn and tomato days are oh so sadly coming to an end , but I enjoy each and every kernal of corn and bite of tomato as much as the first of the season. As the days cool, braising and roasting and soup making will take over.

I find this amazing. I have three kids (now 13, 9 and 7) and NEVER bought any baby food Diana's first food, at 6 toothless months, was bratwurst with brown mustard. Her second food was pad thai.

You need a wife

Be sure and check this out, as well as the accompanying Q & A: Knife maintenance