kayb

Don't you love the sound the jars make when they come out of the canner, cool and seal? Sounds like accomplishment.

Snagged that one! Thanks!

I'm a whisk wuss. My immersion blender has a whisk attachment, and that's my go-to.

@CantCookStillTry -- "Slaw-lad." I love it. I suspect you are a cook after my own heart. Step 1: "This ought to be good in there...." Step 2: "Hush, and eat it."

I was going to get the Bittman book, and discovered I had done so last year.

I made a muscadine pie yesterday. Per the way my mama did it, I popped the pulp loose, tossed the hulls (which are thicker than grape skins/hulls) into a pot, put the pulp/seeds into a food mill and used it to get the juice and pulp separated from seeds. Juice and pulp went in pot with hulls, sugar and lemon juice to cook until hulls were tender (some 40 minutes). Then into a pair of small cobblers, which I put in the oven and promptly forgot. For about five hours. Muscadine bricks, which went into the trash as soon as they cooled enough to do so. I wept.

Actually, mushroom and barley casserole sounds pretty doggoned good.

Instant Pot yogurt, homemade granola, and fall strawberries, which I found at the farmers' market yesterday. The berry people said they bought the seedling plants last spring, kept them in the cooler all summer, and set them out when the weather cooled. The berries think it's spring and, thanks to our long, warm fall, merrily start to bloom and then bear fruit. Been around gardening and farming most of my life, and never heard of this before. But I'll not complain. Fresh, local strawberries in October? Yes, indeed!

Going to look for the Lebovitz recipe. Sounds like a damn fine idea. As someone who lived in the greater Memphis area for more than half my adult life, I have to chuckle at a "renowned" barbecue restaurant in New York, particularly one that serves a mushroom and barley casserole. Come visit. I'll take you to Payne's or Interstate or Cozy Corner. I, too, loved the long underwear story. When I was a kid, Mama and I used to take off and go swimming, and one day she found a patch of wild scuppernongs (white muscadines). Didn't have a bucket. Was wearing capri pants over her bathing suit (in the early 60s). Stripped them off, knots in the legs, picked them full. Drove home in her bathing suit, and had to change a flat tire along the way. The story is here, at a storytelling hour at a local bar I used to frequent. (I would note I've lost about 70 pounds since then.)

Some farmers from whom I bought a lot of chicken and pork when I lived in southwestern Arkansas also grew mushrooms. They held a seminar every year where people prepped, took home and grew their own mushroom logs. Always thought I ought to do that, and never did.

When I was a kid and the only mushrooms available in rural West Tennessee were the sliced ones in a can, I'd badger Mama into buying a can and I'd sit down and eat the whole thing. The first time I bought and sauteed in wine my own white mushrooms from the grocery, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Then I discovered portobellos; mushroom deliciousness x two or three. I love any kind of mushroom. Buy them often at Aldi and saute them for a side dish, to put over a steak, or to top pizza. I will be eternally grateful to @HungryChris for the marinated mushrooms recipe; when my quart jar gets low, more mushrooms go on the grocery list and go right back in the same brine with a bit of topping-off. I am never without them, and eat them with a sandwich or cheese and crackers for lunch. Confession: I have never yet had a morel. That's on my bucket list. That, and to learn how to identify the "good kind" vs. the "bad kind" in the wild, and forage my own.

A collard green toastie. Saints preserve me. Sue me. Can't abide greens, either collard, turnip, or otherwise.

I think my favorite recipe in the entire book -- certainly one of the most versatile -- is for Stewed Tomatoes. As my neighbor's tomatoes stubbornly continue producing, and she keeps gifting me with them, I decided I'd make a big batch of stewed tomatoes today and can them. These 10 pints represent about a triple batch of the recipe. I cooked up to the point of adding bread crumbs, then canned and water-bath processed. When I'm ready to eat them, I can just open a jar, add the crumbs, and simmer a bit to thicken. I think these, on top of grits with eggs baked in them, are just about my favorite breakfast in the world.

Very possibly the last of the tomatoes. I made Vivian Howard's Stewed Tomatoes from Deep Run Roots, through the stage where one adds the bread crumbs. Theoretically, one could open a jar, add the crumbs, and simmer for a few minutes to thicken. I purely love eggs baked in these. 10 quart mixing bowl full of tomatoes from my 85-year-old neighbor across the street. She can grow tomatoes much more successfully than I. 10 pints of crumbless Stewed Tomatoes. A few of the tomatoes went into bolognese sauce I made Sunday and never ate, as I had to cut those plans short due to a medical issue that put a good friend in SICU. Today, I fetched it out of the fridge and froze three quarts, leaving a bit for dinner. Then we ordered Chinese, so I guess it'll be dinner tomorrow. It's the IP bolognese recipe from Serious Eats. Will be picking up some Arkansas Black apples and making apple butter week after next.

It's the time of the year for state fairs, and the Arkansas State Fair, opening this week in Little Rock, is no exception. Food writer Kat Robinson always does a detailed run-down of the assorted culinary treats available at the state fair: Here's this year's. I have fond memories of going to the old Mid-South Fair, a four- or five-state affair held annually in Memphis each fall, and eating my way across the fairgrounds. That was back in the day the fair was about the only place you could get a gyro, and I looked forward to them anxiously every year, along with roasted corn, funnel cakes, and multitudes of other wonderful stuff. Reading Kat's piece made me want to go to Little Rock and try eating my way across the state fairgrounds. Deep-fried bacon-wrapped Oreos? Yes, please!

@Nicolai -- I would cheerfully join you and the Missus for breakfast!

Just FYI, though this is probably suited better to the "snacking while eGulleting" thread, I am eating candy corn and drinking a significantly spicy Bloody Mary. They go astoundingly well together.

Had to do that too. Although if I shared the author's name...I'd change it. To do the clicky link: Highlight and copy (control+c on my Windows laptop, your mileage may vary) the URL of hte page you want to link to. Go back to your post, and type whatever text you want ("Here," "Clickety," or the name of the book, whatever). Highlight it with the cursor. Go up and click the little chain looking thingy at the top of the post. A window will open. In the top one of the two spaces that appear, paste the link you copied. Then either hit Enter or there may be a button to click to post it, I forget which. It should show your typed text word or words, in a different color or highlighted, and underlined. Then submit your post as usual.

Le Bernardin. I had to.

Just FYI. you can line up four slices on a couple of slices of bread and make a fine grilled cheese and proscuitto sandwich. I added a slice of butterkase to mine for good measure.

Interesting. Thank you all.

I understand the Joule, which I've never seen in the flesh, is significantly smaller than the Anova. If anyone has both, I'd love to see a side by side pic for comparison purposes.

Oh dear, @rotuts. Have you gone over to the Dark Side??? I've got one of those rounds of Brie, as well.

I buy all my milk, half-and-half, heavy cream and butter at Aldi; 25 percent or more cheaper than Kroger. I also buy a fair number of sausages (got the beer brats @HungryChris and @rotuts were discussing, last time I was in, but haven't cooked them yet), and they often have proscuitto at a good price. Also, Chris, I picked up one of the panino (paninos?) you mentioned with the proscuitto and mozzarella; it makes a fine grilled cheese sandwich! I've also bought frozen ahi tuna and frozen salmon there. Produce is often less expensive than other groceries, and there's a decent variety.

No frost yet down here, but my herbs usually overwinter fine four years out of five. And I've never had rosemary die from a cold winter. My sage, oregano and thyme are still thriving. Parsley bolted and gave up the ghost when it got hot.