snowangel

One of the things I really hate about most spice blends is that the first ingrdient is very often salt. I'd rather control how much salt is in a dish.

Beautiful, Mike! I'm hankering for smoking some meat, but events have prevented it. But only complaint is the 1/2 a butt. Do the whole thing, dude!

Back to the poaching eggs. Next time you try them, first check out the ECI course on poaching eggs. It was of great help (although I'll admit last time I did eggs benedict, I fried the eggs over easy because I didn't want to dirty yet ANOTHER pan.

Pozole, while not on the regular rotation at the Fahning household, is very popular, and my kids have quite cottoned to it, especially with tomatillos instead of tomatoes. And, I've been using the canned hominy. What am I missing (as I reach for the credit card and the mouse to order some from Rancho Gordo...)? Edited to add: Pozole is a most worthy use of leftover smoked meat, BTW!

Bruce, how old are the boys? When do we get a kitchen tour?

Bruce, I notice that you have "In the Vietnamese Kitchen." I don't own a Vietnamese cookbook, and in the market. Comments, please!

Note: I've merged the two topics.

I'll never forget when I was about 4, and my grandmother (NE farm wife) got her first IH freezer. What a revelation for those farm wives! No more standing over a hot stove with hugs pans of steaming water to can. No more up until 4:00 am sterlizing jars in preparation for canning the next day while getting a meal ready to take to the men in the field. And, they, like me, think that the frozen is much getter. Not mushy before it gets onto the shelf, and the time from field to freezer was darned quick. I spent a summer during college working the Bird's eye pea (early summer) and corn (late summer) pack, and the stuff goes from the field to flash frozen in a very short time, so much of this stuff is fresher than if you stop at the local greenmarket in the summer on the way home from work and the corn, or peas, or whatever (those two especially because of the starch thing) have been sitting in the hot sun all day in little trays. I think one of the worst of the frozen veg is the corn on the cob. Ick! Why is the stuff off the cob so much better than the stuff on the cob? I haven't done any frozen fruit, mostly because we pick organic strawberries in the summer, and I freeze what we aren't going to eat immediately (on cookie sheets in the deep freeze; transferred to ziplocks). I do the same with rhubarb, fresh picked raspberries and Colorado peaches, so I'm well supplied. No, they don't eat like a fresh berry, but every bit of that summer sweetness and tang is preserved. Hmmm. Maybe time for a strawberry rhubarb pie this weekend.

Up here in the North Country, those egg noodles on the bottom shelf, and the canned beans are part and parecel of being a Good Wife. But, please add to the list a can or two of creamed corn. Add it to a corn bread, that will turn out more like a pudding and be a great Saturday morning vehicle for an over easy egg.

Have you thought about Jaques Pepin's Technique? Or Julie Child's "The Way to Cook?" One thought is to hit the library and check out a mess of cookbooks and see what strikes your fancy...

Calphalon Commercial non-stick omelet pans (12", 10" and 8" sizes) have been popping up at my local Home Goods stores (Home Goods is a TJ Maxx company), so I was able to replace the one that a member of my family trashed.

Barb, does the market have country-style pork ribs? And, if you're looking for something and don't see it out, ask the butcher. I'd hesitate to use loin for this one...

I am a terribly disorganized shopper these days, but when I worked outside the house, meal plans were essential, and I had a list of fast, popular dishes on the fridge door, so before I shopped, I made sure I had everything on hand for at least two or three of the dishes. But, now, I shop whenever I want to (more often than I'd like to admit) because I don't always know on Sunday what Friday will bring, or what we'll feel like eating. And, I've learned that some things freeze well, and are really no more work to prepare in quantity. In fact, just today, on the stove is about 10 quarts of gumbo, which will be portioned out and frozen (after dinner tonight) for fast food.

Given my food budget, I just get my chuck roasts from Costco or the supermarket; the advantage of the supermarket being that the meat guy knows me (I plied him with smoked butt the first week in our new house), and he looks in back for the most well marbled one. One that will ooze collagen. This way, I figure that I can go all out on other ingredients.

I'd have to agree with Ron here. Plus, it's just so much more fun to smoke the meat and drink the beer than let it sit in the oven! Mike, I too am feeling the call of a butt in the very near future. My freezer is in serious need of some leftover "pantry gold." And my local market always has skin on, bone in butts, and the guy knows to look for the biggest, fattiest one for me!

Fresh cilantro and Larb!

A couple of questions: Can you further describe (or show us a photo, even better) of your smoker)? Was your butt bone in and skin on? Did you put the thing on as cold as possible? What temps were you running in the smoker? Why chips and not chunks of wood? I find that things in most smokers (except one of the box type) work better with chunks that are well soaked. And, I have never considered butterflying a butt (I only do skin on, bone in) because I'm afraid that all of that luscious fat and collegen would just go into the drip pan...

I smoked a portion of one of these, and ended up adding it to chili. I don't think venison smokes very well at all. This particular deer was not very well marbled, and what fat was there was sort of like, well, tallow. Crumbly and a very odd sort of fat. So, I'll stick with braising for venison (preferred, other than the backstrap or some suberb chops), and head to brisket or pork butt for smoking.

Probably the most disappointing cookbook I ever bought was Barbara Tropp's Blue Moon Cafe book. The thing languishes, requiring all manner of "potions" that required a pick-up load of ingredients to make. The true test of this book: I did some "home shopping" and gave it as a gift to someone who said that they were lusting after the book. This book was re-gifted many times, and finally ended up back on my doorstep. None of us could wrap our hands around the bazillion potions that were required for any of the recipes. So, I hauled it Half-Price books, hopeing to get at least a cheesy mystery in excahnge. But, they had too many copies of this book on the shelf. So sad, considering how absolutely wonderfl and essential her "Modern Art of Chinese Cooking" has been in my collection. Oh, and think a re-gifting (home shopping!) of "A New Way to Cook" might be in order. Another one I can't wrap my arms around. Hopefully, one of these days, my arms will randomly and blindly select this one for an entry in the Cookbook Roulette topic!

I'll know tomorrow when I bake, but it appears that I may have finally achieved success with my sourdough starter. I'm starting with some basic loaves (I've been using BBA for advice). But, next on the docket (per the kids) is sourdough English Muffins. My barm is fairly thick, and I'm looking for some ideas on proportion of flour to barn to water.

Kerry, that is cool! Is it easy to attach? The big hit gift of the year that I purchased for folks really wasn't a gadget at all, but worth enough to report. I have a buddy in the restaurant supply business, and I got one of those boxes of parchment paper -- the flat sheets the size of a full-sheet pan (they are easy to cut in half for the half-sheets; just hang it over the counter and rip!). Gave out stacks of them to friends, wrapped in a flour sack dish cloth. Big hit. Sure beats that stuff on the roll that isn't the right width or length. And, a whole lot cheaper.

I was given a 1.5 pound bag of dried shitakes. There are a couple of lame recipes on the back of the package -- one for a soup that uses boullion cubes (!) and one for a chinese stir fry thing. What would you do with these?

You could start by checking the eGCI course on Basic Condiments!

Lori, if you still have brussels sprouts, her recipe will make lovers out of haters. Oh, and the braised leeks are wonderful. Be sure and make plenty so you have leftovers for a quiche! For the other thing, got anything hanging out in the freezer that should go? What's on special at the market this week? I have many favorites from the meat categories, so give me some guidance!

I made a few of the standard (spritz, gingerbread angels, etc.), but the real hit on the cookie plate this year was Maida Heatter's "Sour Cream Pecan Dreams." 48 of them went in no time flat, while the rest went slowly.