snowangel

No, Maggie, I didn't. 30 minutes just didn't seem long enough, and the sick child wanted a cuddly nap on the couch... I'll add that this recipe has all of the makings of a great "put it in the crock pot in the am and come home to a wonderful dish" meal...

Those Vodka Spiked Cherry Tomatoes are a lot of work, worth every minute (but made last last year, so they probably don't count on my behalf). But, the other day, I had a sick child a home, so took to the couch with the Recipe Box. Low and behold, when I went to get the child a beverage, a package of country-style ribs fell on my foot. A quick perusal of the Recipe Box revealed many of those "why in the hell did I bother clipping this?" but also revealed an old recipe from the NY times for Clay Pot Pork. Now, never mind that I just used a regular ceramic pot, and it wasn't a shoulder, but chunks of country-style ribs. But oh me, oh my. Everyone loved it, and best of all, the leftovers made for a breakfash of champions. The stuff you dream of. Oldies are sometimes the best goodies of all...

Most thrift stores do not have a budget for bags, and are happy to receive donations in the form of "a whole lot of bags in a bag" and are rather grateful. We can only hope that the recipeents of these bags will either reuse or recycle them. BTW, the thrift shops in my neck of the woods will accept either plastic or paper.

We took the opportunity of our first 50 degree day since sometime early in November to grill some steaks and make a salad and stir-fry some broccoli with fish sauce and a big mess of browned garlic. It was a joyful day as we saw our rhubarb nubs for the first time in a LONG while. Never mind that we will see 5-9" of the S word tomorrow, we do thing spring is on the way, the sweet corn will be planted, and I am sourcing tomato plants. Spring is but a month or two away, but the late March/almost April light is higher, earlier and later, so yes, we are assured by the rhubarb nubs that produce will come from someplace other than South America once again! Leftover steak is reserved for a Thai "yam."

How much raw spinach does it take to make a 10 oz. package of frozen spinach?

You also might want to check out this topic on general advice (successes and failures) on dishes that have been over-salted.

I agree almost completely with Rob, with one exception -- a bunch of herbs/spices in a broth or soup or sauce, in which case, I just tie them in a coffee filter. However, if you have your heart set on cheesecloth, consider cheap flour sack dishclothes -- I have used them before, but then again, I empty the contents, rise and wash them.

Thanks for bumping this up, ludja. 11 of my guests bailed on me at the last minute, so it was 8 and an 18 pounder. I gave away a lot, but still have a lot. Still bloated from yesterday, it's a simple fried rice -- ham and scallions and fish sauce -- with leftover roasted asparagus on the side. For freezing, I've had the best luck with cutting it into appropriately sized chunks, wrapping tightly in plastic wrap and sticking them into a zip lock. Oh, and I'm going to save some of the ham in the freezer for the horseradish/cracker idea for a party I'm having next month!

Susan, I am so sorry to have steered you wrong. The last time we made that dish we jazzed it up with Thai basil and some other stuff, and it was delectable - poblano beef tips (post 20186). We did use ribeye, so maybe the dish needs a good fat-laden steak? ← I re-did this dish the other day for lunch for myself with leftover charcoal-grilled chuck eye steak (an especially fatty and flavorful hunk of it) and yes, it does need a more fat-laden cut of meat. I can imagine it would also work well with pork shoulder.

You get it to coat the back of a spoon then make a narrow swipe through the middle of the coated spoon with your finger. If the mixture on the spoon does not creep back together and bridge the swiped area then it's ready. Or you could do like I do and stick a little bit on a plate in the freezer. I'm into immediate sure fire results. I mean if you make stuff all the time then yeah you get it down to a science in a few takes. But if you just randomly make something once every other Easter or something you gotta know when/if it's gonna be ok. You sure don't wanna go through all that again if it isn't gonna set up for yah. ← Well, it didn't set up quite right, and I don't think The Boy beat the whipped cream long enough. But what should have been cut into neat squares sure looked prettier as a "pudding" in some footed cranberry class "glasses" (parfait thingies?) that I inherited from my great grandmother, and the flavour was absolutely wonderful!

Linda, I shop at TeaSource regularly, since they have a retail outlet just 5 minutes from my folks house (20 minutes from my house). What's your favorite tea from them? I'm more of a coffee person, but their TeaSource Gold is my winter go-to, and during the summer, a pitcher of iced Lemon Solstice can't be beat...I probably have at least five of their teas in my cupboard at any given time.

I made a dessert for today off one of my great grandmother's recipe cards -- a meringue into a greased 9 x 13 pan, baked, cooled and filled with a lemon curd/whipped cream mixture. Everything worked just fine until I tried to get pieces of this out of the pan. It stuck like crazy. What should I have done? Baked the meringue on parchment in the pan, removed and peeled the parchment off first?

Another oldie but goodie is the Farm Journal "Freezing and Canning Cookbook." I see it at garage sales with some regularity. Back when I was a little girl spending summers on a farm in Nebraska, it was a staple on the shelves of every farm wife.

In an overly ambitious moment, I decided at 10:00 pm to make a sort of complicated dessert from one of my grandmother's recipes for tomorrow (which does prompt the question of why we do these things). But, the big question that Peter asked, to which I had no answer was "what does it mean to cook over a double boiler 'til thickened? Mom, what should it look like (an egg yolk/sugar/lemon juice mixture)?" I responded that I thought it should be sort of snot-like (remember the audience). The next question from The Boy -- "It'll get thicker when it gets cold, right?" So, just what should it be like when we take it off the heat, and what should it look like when it's cooled? What just is "until thickened?"

Not Europe. Think a long time on an airplane from Europe. Oddly, I have had two PM's guessing an Italian location. Couldn't be further, but could be that the next blogger and I have really stumped you!

I have a friend who does this every year, and says something that those of us who braise and smoke meat (yes, there is a connection -- the low and slow thing) -- allow extra time, pull it when it's time. You can always give it a little heat just before serving, but she did say that like most braised meats, it is best not served piping hot. A warm temp will allow the flavours to "bloom" and just be tastier. Lucky to have a butcher that would stuff the herbs for you; let's just hope he didn't over-trim it!

Chris: I think this makes total sense. I've also discovered that Musinex seems to interfere with taste the least, but decongestant, allergy and pain meds for me drastically interfere with the sense of taste, although the sense of smell is still present. I've also noticed that with some pain meds, the taste in my mouth is "off" even if I'm just drinking water. For example, codeine gives my mouth a very sweet taste, so all I can taste is salt, and you're right -- cheap sweets taste better than expensive chocolate. But, the crime and the horror was helping a friend host a wine a cheese tasting party at her house. She has cats, to which I'm horridly allergic, so I took a Claritin. What a waste all of that expensive champagne, wine and port, not to mention beautiful cheeses were. Fortunately, she sent home a care package with some of all of these items so that I could taste them when I could really taste them, not just smell them (and trust me, the smell was there, the taste merely disappointed).

We hit the road again on Monday, March 24, traveling quite a distance. We'll see new sites: And see new food: Hmmm. Where are we going, and who are we going with?

I'm loving the handfuls of mint and basil, but do tell more about the smoked trout. Did you smoke it yourself, or was ir purchased? And, just how did they smoke it?

Two kitchens. My, what a lot of cleaning. Who cleans which one, and which one tends to be neater day to day?

So, I'm having a mess of folks over for Easter, and the days have been sunny, and I'm on a mission to get the walls, cupboards, and all other surfaces in my kitchen (including a ceiling fan) clean and shiny. What do you use? Some prepared spray bottle? TSP in water? Spic and Span? Mr. Clean? A scrungie? I know that there's elbow grease involved, but I'm thinking that upper part of the ceiling fan has not been cleaned in an age (I know we've lived here for 4 years, and lord only knows what the previous owners didn't do...).\ This is a home kitchen, with a worthless stove vent that is couched between two wooden cupboards).

I second everything that Bruce has said. I've done both the Cradle of Flavor and All About Braising methods (and have not only done it with beef but with pork shoulder). Both renditions are amazing, and quite similar. Both took MUCH longer to braise than I thought, but I actually did all of the braising in the oven. Keeping in mind how much longer it took than anticipated, I took the last one out of the oven before the "crisping" part of the recipes, stuck in the fridge and just finished it up the next day, which made it more of an "ala minute" meal. The coconut milk, because of the serious reduction is very much a back note to the dish -- unlike a traditional coconut milk-based curry. Oh, and it looks really nasty when you start the braise, so don't be afraid!

Bruce, I was but a lass of 10 when I learned that curry tastes better the next day, or even the day after that. My family looks at me like I"m crazy for the amount of curry I make when I make it, and I often save a portion of the "curry" before I add the extras, just as one saves rice for fried rice. IMHO, there's no better breakfast than leftover curry with leftover rice. Even the nuker makes it the Breakfast of Champions (doing battle, BTW, with larp or a yam). But, if you have leftover sauce, without any of the added stuff (like scallops, or venison morsels, etc.) it sure doesn't take long to cook them in the curry on the stove-top, and nuke some leftover rice. Rule of thumb. Never make less than a quart of curry. Breakfast, lunch, after-school snack, whatever.

Right after each of my three kids were born, my aunt did a wonderful thing. She had a nice grocery store deliver a mess of stuff to me: bottled water (a whole case; a nursing mother is thirsty) as well as cheeses, sliced salamis, great bread (sliced), some sweets, etc. As I cared for my babies, I needed to care for myself, and often one-handed because the babe was most often in my arms. Oh, included in the delivery was bagged salad blends and a bottle of dressing, as well as a bag o croutons, and some fruit. Cover the food groups (fruit, veg, meat, cheese and bread) and make sure that nothing is required other than using one hand. A little jar of good mustard is not a bad thing to add to the basket. Go on line and find a nice grocery store, and I'm sure they'll be willing to put something really nice together and deliver it.

This image has haunted me for more than a few days. It is a wonderful example of a "yam"" (let's excuse the nob of butter, ahem). It's my impressions that a larb is of minced meat, but a yam of bigger pieces of meat or seafood. But, I can think of not much better treatment of seafood or meat than a Thai salad. Quite addictive, and BTW, a yam or larb would be the breakfast of champions.