snowangel

I do the same, indoors, using a clean dry kitchen towel. Underhand, so I don't spray the ceiling. In the shower works well if you're worried about the spray. Salad spinners are one of those mono-functional semi-disposable needs-washing the-world-got-along-fine-without-them-until-recently bulky kitchen things that I don't want in my life. Unlike, say, vertical-piston sausage stuffers, which no kitchen is complete without. ← Ahem. Minnesota in January, this just won't work unless you want frozen lettuce and a deck or driveway that's slicker than snot. Since we are only a family of five, I opt for some of my bazillion flour sack dish clothes.

I think there's a reason that I bake cakes but once a century as well (although I'm not that old). Let's start with the basic preps (german chlocolate cake, and that CI recipe had better be worth it). Paul has an October birthday; why can't he want an apple pie? I can do pie crust in my sleep! I don't have any spare guitar wires, and none of the places that sell them are open. Prepping as much as I could in advance, cutting the parchment rounds for the pans was an adventure. Peter, who is a geometry master came to the rescue. I've taken to the garage for cutting the cake rounds. I have a nice long narrow bladed saw that is battery powered and has a brand new blade, which has been washed and bleached. Naturally my serrated blade on the bread knife is not long enough to get through the cake. I have all sorts of odds and ends of 1 x 2's and 2x4's. Since we have a lot of "inventory" (read, Paul can't pitch a single thing), I'm thinking power tools, since I'm a power tool sort of person. Shit, I sharpen my own axe on a grinder, and can wield a chain saw with the best of them, but a chain saw and a cake seem like overkill. But, I'm so puzzled by this cake thing. I can garden. I can knit an Aran sweater without a pattern -- just give me good yarn and needles. I embroider dozens of day-of-week dishtowels every year. Why can't I bake? Brooks has it right. Pie is better than cake. I don't even like cake. My husband is lucky I love him as much as I do. Wish me luck tomorrow, and hopefully little blood flow!

First off, there's a very basic difference between a buttermilk brined chicken (you put salt into the buttermilk) that's dredged in flour than one that is in an egg wash before the flour dredge. Back up on page 10, Marlene talks about this. My family much preferred the shattering crisp crunch of the buttermilk/flour mix than the egg wash/flour dredge. Also, you'll note up-topic that we found that the temps for the buttermilk method should be lower. And, way back when when fifi and I were experimenting with this and talking about it over the phone as we were doing it we noted that once the chicken was in, it helped to put a lid on the pan to help raise the temp back to what it should be. Our grandmother's and great aunts always did this, and we didn't figure it out until we were frying the chicken. The oil is important. Canola need not apply. Fifi and I found that a combo of crisco and bacon grease, or peanut oil were the best of all. Now, as to the bone-in. If you watch the temp, and are doing the buttermilk, and keep it at 350, you'll be fine. And, if you don't cut up your own chicken, you're just not going to have any backs, which is the reason I fry chicken. They are mine. There is some meat, but lots of skin, and lots of nooks and crannies for crusty goodness. And, oh me oh my, if you're buying boneless stuff, you're paying someone way too much to keep some of the best parts of the chicken! Should you want boneless pieces, bone them yourself and start a bone bag for stock. But, gnawing chicken off the bone is a VERY good thing!

Bruce, your long bean dishes look absolutely wonderful. My family is always disappointed when I have to substitute regular green beans (very infrequently, as my local Asian market almost always has the long ones). The crunch and the lack of sweetness that regular green beans has is refreshing. Diana and I fight over the leftovers (since I'm the one at home during the day, I usually win!) I wonder how well they freeze? Did you grow Thai basil this year?

Paul is fascinated with Minnesota history, and our family history has been one of many, many road trips (no longer in a 1963 Chevy pick-up or a 1990 Ford Bronco; nor do we keep beer in the car, we now have a mini-van and kids). But the mini-van now sports a coupla books -- one on Minnesota place names, and one on historical places and markers. It also sports a map and a nice computer print-out of meat markets. I actually call the meat markets for hours and we plan our trips accordingly. Since most of these places are closed on Sundays, our Sunday drives now occur on Saturday. Now, when we go for meat, we go for sausages and bacon, not fresh meat. In the past year and a half, we have been to not one, not two, but 22 (!) places that sell "artisnal" sausages and bacon. Now, up here in Minnesota, they do not call them artisnal, but they are. Locally produced from home-spun family recipes. The resutls have ranged from the remarkable to the forgettable. One thing that's interesting is that as we head to the northeastern part of the state, there isn't much, although the quad cities (Virginia, Hibbing, Eveleth, Mountain Iron) is an exception -- perhaps because of the Italian influence. But, Southern MN is amazing. Chalk it up to the German/Czeck influence. But, even here in the Twin Cities, within 30 minutes of my house in the culinary wasteland called Coon Rapids, I can get to more places that are doing charcuterie than I can count on one hand. I've got some serious notes on the places we have visited, and in the next couple of days, will document them all. Tomorrow morning, to celebrate Paul's birthday, we will have a bacon taste-testing of bacons purchased in Hampton, Cannon Falls, Dennison and Nerstrand. And oh my, were the colors in the Big Woods State Park in Nerstrand breathtaking today! So, let's keep track of our favorite places for bacon and sausauges (include fresh meat if you wish). Supermarkets need not apply.

Oh Archie, such sad news you deliver How will Daily Gullet live without her. The champion of the little black dress And tales of our own MOB seamstress. Swans and streusel , onglet, bacon and eggs Smoking outside with sandals and bare legs. Aunt Martha’s hot iron transfers, my dear The artisnal prezzie season is near. Caring for mother as she watched her die Aterwards, her cooking mojo did lie. Margaret, our own poet laureate Everything you’ve written is just so great. Three days in iambic pentameter A big loud round of applause is due her.

I will confess that I am not much of a baker, outside of cookies and pie (in fact, I'm not much of a sweet eater). The recipe for the cakes I'm baking tomorrow call for the layers to be cut in half horizontally. Hints, please? This just reeks of disaster for me. Uneven cakes, cut hands, etc. Help!

Well,... I vote for just buying an extra pan or two. Look in the wedding section at Wal Mart. You can pick up decent cake pans really cheap. ← I was right by Home Goods (TJ Maxx's home goods only store) and there were four of them sitting there -- really nice heavy non-stick ones with straight sides -- regularly $18.99/each on the clearance rack for $1.99 each. I bought all four of them! But, I am thinking that with cupcakes it would work because the baking time is so much shorter.

I'm baking a couple of cakes, and don't have enough pans, and am wondering if batter will hold in the fridge (or on the counter) while the first ones are baking. I'd prefer not to buy extra pans (each cake calls for three pans, and I only have two).

Maggie might correct me, but I'm sure the "luncheon plates" (complete with cup) were a part of these gatherings, or at least they were back in the day when women wore dresses, and the cook probably had an apron on. The apron(s) were probably wedding shower gifts, either embroidered or appliqued, and the table sure had a wedding shower table cloth (again either embroidered or appliqued) along with matching napkins for holding and with which one could pat one's mouth. (Back then, in Nebraska, lipstick was blotted with two squares of toilet paper folded in half). No doubt the dishes were hand washed and dried with flour sack or linen towels, embroidered (think Aunt Martha transfers, Maggie!), that had also been given as a bridal shower gift. BTW, Maggie, I inherited ALL of those linens. Yes, be jealous. It was indeed an elegant era, wasn't it? Back when a martini was served in a coupe. And coffee and tea were served in cups with saucers (china, natch). Mugs had not been invented. Edited to add: if they didn't use luncheon plates, surely they ate off real cut glass plates or fine china, and any flatware was sterling. This was not the day of plopping a hunk of coffee cake on a paper napkin!

Question, Abra. Just what would you have spent on the 2 hour French lunch? I'm looking at what you spent, and adding three kids to the mix, and rapidly going broke...

I've added this coffee cake (Lois's) to the menu for the Ladies of the Lake when we return to a post resort on the North Shore of Lake Superior for our annual Thanksgiving weekend. We leave on Thursday, at 3:00 pm, whether we've had our pie or not, and we do eat six meals per day (or, perhaps it's one constant meal. We get our exercise by walking to the outdoor hot tub (shivering burns calories, right?) clutching our plastic glasses of wine. But swans we are, and we do need coffee cake And, while we will not look chic, we will all pitch in -- someone will cream, another will whip up a strusel topping, and another will whisk together the dry ingredients while the fourth of us will grease tha pan, wandering around a kitchen in t-shirts and panties. Oh, and the pan-greaser can make mimosas and we will be the 2008 version of the ubuer-chic women of the 50's. Oh, and that last square, among ladies, is to be divied up into 1/2" squares. Welding the knife certainly burns additional calories, doesn't it? Ah, warm coffee cake slathered with great butter, accompanied by the kind of company who appreciates the ambrosia. Be still my beating heart!

Here in Zone 3, the days are getting shorter, and the nights are longer and much cooler. I'm looking at my lemon basil and knowing that the days are numbered, think I need to make a batch of sauce for the "Grilled Coconut Chicken with Lemon Basil" from James Oseland's Cradle of Flavor (btw, this braising liquid freezes beautifully!). I have "put up" many pints of jam, using beautiful Colorado peaches and my neighbor's unwanted raspberries. At every opportunity, we grill something, and it is always accompanied by a fresh off the vine tomato. Oh, and for an after school snack, it's a diced tomatoe, with minced basil a splash of evoo on bread for the kids. Oh, and should Paul drive by the local corn stand and not stop -- he knows better than not to stop. I can't get enough of the current bounty, so the meals are not fancy. A bit of meat, and the rest comes from the garden. How do you celebrate this most bountiful of times of the year?

No cooking can apply (think motel, no kitchen, no nuker, no fridge -- but we will have a cooler with dry ice!), which is why I post in this forum. What do you serve with cocktails? We're not sure yet which cocktail to serve, but we're leaning to a martini. We're not leaning toward a citrusy cocktail.

I also quit cutting off the knob because the "handle" created by severing the tendons but not the knob make a nice handle for the legs. I can't begin to tell you, Sam, how many folks I know have benefited from this technique.

When any time a friend or family member is having a "do" (read party) and before they even send out the invites ask one of one can do the food. They all gratefully offer to pay for the ingredients, but, for some odd reason, they never seem to offer to come and help clean up the mess!

What's the neatest and cleanest way to wedge a lemon or lime and avoid as much of that white gunk that runs the length of the lemon? (Oh, and remove as many seed as possible so the kids aren't choking on them as well as the fish bones.)

How do you prevent the fruit from floating after you put it in jars?

So, let's face it, nuts aren't cheap. How do you chop them up into little bits without having what seems like half of the package turn into dust, or those little bits that seem to settle on the kitchen floor (which necessitates a mopping )? I hate to waste and I hate to clean.

There was a lengthy discussion about anti-brining -- think about pre-salting. It works. If you don't own the Zuni Cafe Cookbook (by Judy Rogers), run to your local library and check it out. She goes into depth about the why's and where-fore's of this technique. I do it all of the time, with superlative results.

For me, the pressure cooker, crock pot and toaster oven are essential. This is even more evident on a really hot day -- run the A/C or a mess of fans to cool the kitchen which I'm heating? And, when it's hot outside, I often will set up the crock pot in the garage. My second stab at energy de-consumption is that as often as I can (depending on the load I need), I ride my bike to the supermarket, and always take my own plastic bags, tote bags, etc. They fit very nicely into the plastic milk crate on the back of the bike. (Oh, and I'm getting buff in the process!)

We have been good and eaten a pre-Fair meal of sweet corn, tomatoes and green beans. We are steeled for deep fried cheese curds, mini-donuts, Pancho Dogs (or Corn Dogs; big difference from Pronto Pups), some sort of deep fried candy or cookie thing, some beer, french fries, etc., etc. Oh, and the new bacon treats! That and the big pig, the prize winning quilt, jams like you've never seens, and more odd folks than one should ever see in a lifetime. A report will follow. I'm sure it will be artery clogging. Paul and I have hit the Great Minnesota State Fair EVERY year for just over 30 years. Edited to note than since we are getting an early start, and will arrive at the fair close to the Poncho Dog stand, you know what I will breakfast on!

Is it heresy to make a ratatouille without eggplant? My family runs screaming and kicking if there's eggplant in a dish (unless they are the little Thai eggplants in curry, in which case they merely push them to the side of the plate).

I'm sure this is not the only new entry to the Food On A Stick category. But, a 1/3 lb. slice of bacon? Wonder if it's deep-fried? I'll have to check this one out, and see what kind of dipping sauces they offer. ← susan, on Good Morning, America yesterday they featured state fair foods and a new one from your fair was deep fried bacon with a chocolate coating then sprinkled with sea salt. wanna take one for the team? suzi edited to add they are called Pig Lickers and made by Famous Dave's. ← suzi: I will take not one, but two for the team. The deep fried and the other one, too. Nothing like a walk around the Great Minnesota State Fair in search of bacon!

This is my go-to potato salad method, complete with russets. The key is to slightly undercook the potatoes, and I love the results, expeciall when the warm cubes are combined with a vinegar that has been sitting for a few weeks (months?) with lemon slices and dill. Since the potatoes are tossed with the vinegar while they are warm, then left to cool, they continue to cook.