snowangel

We miraculously escaped the band of snow that blanketed a good portion of the Midwest yesterday. It is 55, brilliantly sunny. A quick perusal of my garden reveals that I HAVE RHUBARB NUBS! I will begin my spring ritual of getting up extra early and having my coffee outside, checking what's growing, how much it is growing...those quiet moments before the kids get up.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has a wonderful restaurant. It's more of a cafeteria, but serves innovative and inexpensive sandwiches, salads, soups and desserts.

Been velveting for years without any trouble, thanks to my "cooking classes" at Wei-Chuan in Taiwan lo those many years ago (mid '70's). Barbara Tropp does a nice job of explaining, as well, but as stated earlier in this thread, I'd go with oil for just about everyting. Not velveting deprives.

I grew up in SE Asia (Thailand, 60's and 70's). I was exposed to everything. Had malaria, hep, still test postive for TB (although I don't have it, and don't think I ever had it), dingey fever (sp?). At the time I left Thailand, I could drink tap water from just about everywhere without getting "the belly." In 21+ years of working at my former employer, I missed 3 days due to illness (I'm excluding childbirth from the illness category). Breastfed all three kids. To date, Diana (6th grade, 11+ years old) has missed 3 days since kindergarten due to illness; Heidi (3rd grade, 8-1/2 years old, special needs (Angelman Syndrome), epilepsy; supposedly the "fragile one") has missed 1 day due to illness; Peter (1st grade, 7-1/2 years old) is our sickly one. He has, in three years of school, missed 4 days. None of my kids has ever had an ear infection, strep throat. They each get one cold about every 3 years (whether they need it or not). I have always wondered how much my exposure to all sorts of diseases has increased my resistence (and the resistence of my children) to illness?

I was going to smoke some things tomorrow (pork shoulder, ribs), but my grill is frozen (raining ice; prelude to snow). Kids are home this week, and wanted a smoking lesson. Please feel sorry for me.

OK, everyone. It's raining ice (prelude to snow -- 3-6" predicted). My daffodils are up -- I measured today, and they are somewhere between 1/16-1/8" high. There is no green grass, no buds on trees, no whatever that gets a gardener's blood going. I think I have espied a mite of action in my oriental poppies. Vegetables? A dream, only. I'm just about to cry. Please, Santa, come! I need green, but bad. I'm beginning to think that when we go to the cabin for the first time (mid-May) there will still be ice on the lake.

Absolutely. I think I liked chocolate in a former life. But, my husband likes chocolate and beer.

Cornbread with Flour As discussed in the cornbread thread. Here's a recipe with flour, from my recipe box. 1/4 c oil or drippings 1 c corn meal 1 c flour 1 T baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 c milk 1 egg Heat oil or drippings in a 8 or 9" skillet in a 425 oven. Combine dry igredients; add egg and milk and some of the grease from the hot pan. Pour batter into pan; bake 20-30 minutes. Additional Notes: 1)If using a 12" skillet, double all ingredients, but still bake for 30 minutes. 2)Can substitute water for milk, plus buttermilk powder (2 Tablespoons per cup of liquid) Keywords: Bread, Side, Easy, American, Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Dinner, Snack ( RG234 )

Sarah's Cornbread As discussed in the cornbread thread. Here's a no flour recipe, from my friend Sarah. 1 c buttermilk 1 c stone ground yellow cornmeal 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 egg 1 T butter or drippings Preheat oven to 450°. Put some grease (oil, drippings or lard) in one 9 inch round iron skillet in the heating oven. Stir the cornmeal, salt and baking soda together. Add the egg and buttermilk and mix well. Remove skillet from the oven, add some of the melted oil/drippings and pour the batter into the skillet. Bake at 450° for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove when cornbread is brown. Keywords: Easy, American, Bread, Side, Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Dinner, Snack ( RG233 )

Skillet Cornbread Version Without Flour 1 c buttermilk 1 c stone ground yellow cornmeal 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 egg 1 T butter or drippings Version With Flour 1/4 c oil or drippings 1 c corn meal 1 c flour 1 T baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 c milk 1 egg From The Skillet Cornbread Thread: Version 1 (Without Flour) Preheat oven to 450°. Put some grease (oil, drippings or lard) in one 9 inch round iron skillet in the heating oven. Stir the cornmeal, salt and baking soda together. Add the egg and buttermilk and mix well. Remove skillet from the oven, add some of the melted oil/drippings and pour the batter into the skillet. Bake at 450° for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove when cornbread is brown. Version 2 (With Flour) Heat oil or drippings in a 8 or 9" skillet in a 425 oven. Combine dry igredients; add egg and milk and some of the grease from the hot pan. Pour batter into pan; bake 20-30 minutes. They are both great recipes, just that the addition of flour in the second one makes it quite different. My friend Sarah also says that some people add a bit of sugar to the batter. Keywords: Side, Snack, Vegetarian, Side, Intermediate, Bread, Breakfast, American ( RG226 )

Diana (12) uses a three-ring binder. We got some archival quality plastic "pouch" pages (they may be called sheet protectors?) -- some are just one 8.5x11 pouch, some have four smaller pouches on each page. Advantage is that she can remove a page, and it's easy to clean when she's done cooking, so the recipes themselves stay nice. She's more organized than me, so she has dividers with some different categories so she can find what she wants. She puts "recipes I want to try" into the pouch thingie inside the front cover. Peter wants his own binder now.

I may have written about this before, but I wanted something under our swing/playground set. I couldn't keep grass going under the swings, and I was tired of the mud being tracked into the house. So, I planted some creeping, low thyme -- the one I chose is a lemony thyme, so as their feet brush against it, it releases a lovely aroma. It has done a great job of filling in, and is tough stuff. that's fantastic. would that also work well as a fill-in for a flagstone path? do you think? Absolutely. I got the idea from a gardening center where it was planted in between flagstones!

I may have written about this before, but I wanted something under our swing/playground set. I couldn't keep grass going under the swings, and I was tired of the mud being tracked into the house. So, I planted some creeping, low thyme -- the one I chose is a lemony thyme, so as their feet brush against it, it releases a lovely aroma. It has done a great job of filling in, and is tough stuff.

That was assumed. I figure that as essential as wood and meat for smoking. Our recycling bin sits right beside the grill

What are your favorites? Sauce, coleslaw, whatever? A couple of summers ago, we did pork shoulder for a party, and a friend brought a red onion salad from a German deli in New Ulm. I think I've duplicated it -- very thinly sliced red onions, soaked in water for a bit, drained and repeated. Dressing is a sweet-sour mayo (I use mayo, some superfine sugar, and a combo of white and cider vinegar). The deli adds poppy seeds, but people say they like it better without the seeds which just get stuck between your front teeth. It's a yummy accompaniment.

We've been smoking fairly successfully over the past couple of years on our Weber kettle. A large part of my more recent success has been due to the advice of the Smoking Gurus on e-gullet. Plus the fact that I am now stay-at-home, so we aren't limited to doing it on the weekends. But, I fear this may be the last year for our very well used Weber (we use it year round, even in Minnesota). We've repaired the handles just about as many times as we can. I'm thinking that Char Griller, because I don't want to go with a dedicated smoker -- we also like to grill. Comments? Is there a better choice?

I've not been to any of the Japanese markets in Minneapolis, but the average American grocery here has Kikoman and Kame (which I think is awful. The SE Asian markets tend to have Golden Boy, Kikoman and Pearl River Bridge. I usually opt for one of the latter two. The Golden Boy is very light tasting.

Peter (7) is home sick today. He determined that we need to make chicken soup. So, we got out the bag of bones, added a few spare chicken legs which I'd had the butcher chop into hunks. We added some onion and celery. It's simmering away. He, without prompting, said that "when it tastes nice and tasty", we should pour it carefully through one of those things with the holes in it to get out all of the yucky stuff. He has gone through the fridge, and determined that when the "chicken juice" is clear, we should tear up the chicken meat and add it back in, and also add in the two lone carrots, the handful of tomatillos, some of that green stuff that is limey (cilantro), and if it needs more stuff, there are some green beans and some potatos and maybe I should take those long wide peppers (they are Anaheims) and do the black and bubbly thing and we can scrape the black off and chop them up, because as he said "I think if it's hot spicy, it will make my nose run and I will feel better." Another budding chef in our household!

My neighbors had a party on Saturday night. Complete with the Mexican band, carnitas, homemade tortillas, that wonderful pico (very light on the tomatoes, very heavy on the jalapenos), lots of beer, people of all ages. It was wonderful. They always invite us, and I'm never quite sure how to reciprocate. So, this time, I made larp, sticky rice, and Thai squid salad (squid, handfuls of bird chiles, cilantro, red onions and lime juice. They loved it, and Cruz and I are going to trade -- she'll give me tamale lessons and I'll give a larb lesson.

A game plan! You've spent your winter wisely. I can't see that it would hurt to start tilling now.What the heck? And you would have the happy gardener feeling of checking one thing off your list My game plan? To clean up all the stuff I should have done in the fall and didn't. Are the doomed shrubs part of a foundation planting? Is so, double kudos yo you for tearing them up! Till now. There are many things you won't want to plant until the soil is a lot warmer, but if you are planning on tilling in any organic matter, it will have a head start of decomposing. Maggie, it is not lazy not to clean up all of the stuff you "should have done in the fall." In my book, it's called "winter interest." I wouldn't dream of wacking anything back until spring. It attracts birds, and sure beats looking at my neighbor's yard. It's still slow here, but the soil is still really, really cold, and the big mongo piles of snow in parking lots are going, but not gone. sigh.

I'm a zone 4-er, and I would wait a week, but I think you should give it a go! Seeds are cheap, and sweetpeas can handle cold weather and cold soil. Plus, do you really want to wait before getting dirt under your nails?

Sounds like you're raising him right. Peter's report today (after two days of slow drizzle, followed by a day of sun and warmth: "mom, stuff is coming. Wow, the creeping charlie is really, really, creeping.") Further exploration reveals that one of m azaleas may be "toast" (to quote Peter; mom, maybe we would pray or leave money so it gets better). We have spotted a few daisies coming, and there appears to be some oriental poppy acitivity. The potted mint plant from last summer seems to be perking up, as well. Time will tell if the little green things I've seen by one of my wisterias will be basil plants or weeds. Who cares. They are green and growing. Life is good. Presents do come. Yes, one can again wear t-shirts, shorts and birkenstocks. At 8:30 pm, I went looking for Peter, and he was asleep outside, under the pergola, on the wrought iron bench, covered in his dinosaur quilt. Ah, being 7 and little (he's rather small, and can sleep almost anywhere). When I carried him inside, he said "but mom, I just want to be outside and hear everything growing. And ride my bike." How many of us remember being possessed by bike riding?

We had some asparagus last night that was so perfect it never made it to the table. Steamed, and checked so often that it was gone before the pot was off the stove. My cousin picked it out of her cousin's garden in Iowa earlier in the day. So perfect, in fact, that it needed nothing other than fingers to foist from pot to mouth. It was the first true taste of spring I've had.

I am reminded of a friend's story. She was one of 13 kids. She referred to "scent of tuna sandwiches." Her mother would take a can of tuna, one hardboiled egg, and miracle whip. She'd spread it on bread -- 13 sandwiches worth -- smearing on, and wiping off -- to stretch one can of tuna for 13 lunches. On a "special" day, she'd add sweet pickle relish. The bread, naturally, was squishy white. The sandwiches when into baggies -- and the baggies were re-used forever (homemade baggies out of waxed paper).

Isn't steak all about the MEAT? Remember, meat is good. edit: mouse trouble. thought this was going to the steak toppings thread.