kayb

There's a demo model on Ebay for $1,300. Full warranty, it sez. Still out of my range.

Oh, I LIKE that idea. Proportions of vinegar:water?

Nothing any nastier.

I don't remember where I put them last year. And I don't think the house is any warmer...

OK, pickling peeps. I have a question. I have just thrown away the SECOND batch of half-sours I tried to make this summer. I put them in jars, with the air-lock lids, to ferment on Sunday. Went to change them out today for regular lids and process them, and they were all moldy on the top, so i pitched them. Had the same thing happen earlier in the summer, and thought that was because I forgot them and left them to ferment too long. I was meticulous about sterilizing jars and air-locks, because I thought I might have gotten careless last time. Any ideas what the problem is? The same recipe worked perfectly last time. @HungryChris, it's the same recipe I gave you. Did you try it, and did you have any problem? In other news, the eggplant caponata came out wonderfully.

Welcome! You'll find everyone from experienced home cooks to accomplished chefs here. So much to learn, and everyone is willing to help! Jump on in...

Update: This week, I've put half sours in to ferment; I'll can those tomorrow. frozen 12 pints of corn yesterday, made 12 half-pints and 2 pints of fig jam also yesterday, canned eight pints of sweet-hot-dill pickles. These are the pickles, I believe, that @Kim Shook referred to where you do, in fact, make pickles with pickles. You take a gallon jug of kosher dill chips, dump them in a colander to drain, then layer them back in the jar with sugar and hot sauce. Marvelous on a burger, or a pimiento cheese and bacon sandwich! They sit in the gallon jug and age, and then, if you wish, you can move them over to smaller jars and process. Today, I'm going to try my hand at caponata, and see if the peaches are ready to work up. Tomorrow, I'm going to go get some tomatoes, and can a few more jars for the winter, as well as make the tomato relish. Then I'm through until late September, when the pears and the Arkansas Black apples come in. Pear preserves and apple butter will round off the preserving season.

As always, thanks for a vacation in the North. Safe travels, safe return.

Out of 10 pounds of figs (including 3 pounds made into puree last week and refrigerated, that I added back into the jam pot today), I wound up with two pints and 12 half-pints of fig jam. I also FINALLY got the gallon of sweet-hot-dill chips (the ones to which @Kim Shook referred recently when she made "pickles out of pickles," and don't knock 'em until you've tried 'em) broken down into pint jars and processed. Tomorrow, peach puree, peach butter, frozen peaches, whatever I take a notion for, and caponata. Then I'm through until the pears and the Arkansas Black apples come in.

I am about to bestir myself to turn 8 pounds of figs into fig jam.

I'm hungry just reading that. And I don't even like lamb.

I was quite entertained in Tokyo once to hear an arrangement, on Japanese stringed instruments, of Tennessee Waltz playing in a restaurant. I approved.

Ok. I'll bite. Sounds like something I have to have! Its eminently reasonable not to share a "trade secret," but I wholeheartedly agree with your closing stayement.

Great minds think alike. I was about to type the same.

. Squee, indeed! It will become addicting. I went in search of figs and tomatoes today. Scored figs. Did not score canning tomtatoes. That is not my last option. But tomorrow will be taken up with making fig jam and caponata, which I believe I can can, and I have enough tomatoes to do that. Once I score the tomatoes, I need to can some plain tomatoes (peeled, cored, quartered, cooked) for soups and stews and all such, and some tomato relish (a sort of sweet, not-hot salsa that I grew up on; I do not believe one can eat field peas without it, and my stash is getting seriously low). A couple of 35-pound boxes should take care of me quite nicely. (We eat a LOT of tomatoes over the winter.) I can tell you how we dealt with the no a/c issue when I was a kid. We would throw the No. 2 washtub in the back of the pickup, go to town to the icehouse, and get a 50-pound block of ice. Mama and I would carry it inside, put down newspapers, and set it in the kitchen floor. Set the box fan on a kitchen chair, behind it. Voila -- instant a/c. Saved us many a day when we were canning or freezing veggies and fruit. Me, I'm a wuss in my advancing years. I turn the central AC down REAL low, and still use fans. Then she would threaten, laughingly, to beat me for sitting on the rim of the tub and blocking the cold air.

Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. Butterless? I would die. I might could become vegetarian, but I could NEVER be vegan, and butter is a chief reason why (along with eggs and cheese and half and half for my coffee). On the other hand, I dearly love pork tenderloin. Yours looks marvelous. I like it in little sandwiches with biscuits, and sorghum molasses.

I share any recipe anyone asks for. Two get requested fairly often: my mother's cranberry salad, and my "jail slaw." I think my mother would be thrilled at people elsewhere in the wider world making her cranberry salad (never has it missed being on every Thanksgiving and Christmas table since I've been in the world). I just enjoy the jail slaw so much, and appreciated the gentleman whom I got it from giving it to me, that I'm happy to share with anyone who asks, and I think they've both been posted here, as well. If not, or if you want either, just message me! I don't think I've ever had anyone I asked fail to share a recipe with me. There have been some restaurant recipes I've wanted to ask for, but didn't; @gfron1 is right, differences in ingredient quality, ability to source them, and chef ability and personal techniques can cause a wide variation. But there have been restaurant recipes I've been absolutely thrilled to find in a regional cookbook somewhere, like the Peabody Hotel's vanilla muffin recipe, which is now my go-to breakfast muffin recipe (well, one of them; the other is the old standby bran muffin one that used to be on the AllBran box). There's one recipe I'd love to have, and one of these days when I can run the owner's widow down, I'll ask her -- it's the spaghetti gravy recipe from Uncle John's restaurant in Crawfordsville, AR (one of the three retail establishments in town until its lamented demise this summer due to a fire). Best ragu I ever ate, anywhere.

Glad to have you! Many sous vide enthusiasts, and several expert s, in here. This group is the cause of my owning a sous vide circulator...and an Instant Pot...and a Cuisinart Steam Oven...and, and, and. Not to mention a ton of cookbooks. Jump right in. Give us some of your healthy recipes. Or any other recipes or specialties you enjoy!

I have not tried their coffee. I order my coffee beans from Dallas, and if I let myself run out, I usually buy the Dunkin' Donuts brand in the grocery, so I'm not a good judge of supermarket coffee.

That may call for TWO cocktails. I expect to be looking at the same eventuality, hopefully by Christmas, more likely by next spring. Sigh. It was 55 boxes of books, last time. I shudder to think what it may have grown to.

I really enjoy having an Aldi nearby. Dairy products are much cheaper. I've found good meat, the minimal amount of meat I buy at the grocery, that is, there. Good cold cuts. Good cheese assortment, for not having a deli. Cereal and snack foods cheaper than Kroger. Flour, sugar and vegetable oil consistently cheaper. Frozen orange juice concentrate usually cheaper, except for one week when it unaccountably spiked. On the other hand, things like cake mix you have to watch; it was $1.59, and I can get them all day at Kroger for $1. And obviously, they don't have the variety Kroger has, but they get about half my grocery dollar every week.

This thing is looking more and more attractive. Not $1,800 worth of attractive yet.

Oh, now the challenge has been laid down. Better than Frito pie? Having never tried poutine (I can't get past the gravy), I will attest to Frito pie. Particularly when the chili is ladled into the bag that has been split open on one side, and liberal amounts of shredded Cheddar added. Like they do it at Sonic and FrostyTop, those centers of Southern culinary excellence.

@shain, some of all that, please! We had (midday, but it's Sunday, so it's dinner) nothing exceptional, different or out of the ordinary, but for the fact it showcased the best summer has to offer in my part of the world. Fried okra Creamed corn (G90 from the bushel I bought yesterday, which oddly isn't as sweet as I'm used to G90 being Purple hulled peas, cooked with bacon grease sliced tomatoes, well-salted And for the obligatory meat (superfluous in my mind, but the son-in-law wants meat!), country-style boneless "ribs," ie, strips of shoulder roast, that I marinated in a seasoned salt mix overnight and then seared, caramelized some onions in the same pan, added the ribs back and braised them in a bottle of cider with some allspice and juniper berries, mustard and peppercorns. No photos because we were starving and fell upon it like a horde of Visigoths late to the sack of Rome.

In the Deep South (well, really, the Mid-South), we didn't have scrapple, but we had either "souse meat" or "head cheese," which was pretty much the same thing, except I don't remember it having any filler (cornmeal or oatmeal) in it. I didn't like it, either.