kayb

Cross your fingers. If it doesn't rain by tomorrow evening, I can get the early stuff in the ground before dark and start the next round of seedlings. A promised gullywasher of a rain bypassed us tonight.

Loving it. Have watched the YouTube doc twice. I want sushi. And I love the concrete espresso cup.

Three cheers for @andiesenji. And the only idiot question is one that hasn't been asked. Given my level of coffee knowledge is low-to-medium, am I correct that espresso is generally made from a more finely ground coffee?

I thought, when I started tonight's reading of this thread, there was no way you could top the beef cutlet, which does not resemble anything I had on my trips to Japan but looks MARVELOUS. Then I saw the above tonkatsu. I'll make you a deal. You come visit, cook that for me, and I'll cook you all the honest-to-God, Southern vegetables and pork and chicken and beef you can hold.

@HungryChris -- I WISH I could learn to like squid. I've tried it all ways imaginable, including raw and tempura'd in Japan, and I have yet to find it edible. @liuzhou -- take it easy. @Shelby and I will otherwise have to come out and take care of you. We'll adopt a dozen cats to live with you, and leave you with lots of canned tomatoes. Dinner tonight was grapes, of the liquid variety. Ate a huge lunch at a noteworthy Southern restaurant icon, and I may not eat solid food for three or four days. I'm still miserably full, and that was 8+ hours ago.

OK. As noted on the "Cooking with..." thread, I caved and bought this. Based on the comments from some posters whose opinions I've come to respect over the years, I sprang for the hard copy, as I will do with books I expect to go back to over and over. I have a response for all of you: Thank you. I sat down with this tonight, after filling my brain with way too much work stuff all day, and just fell into it. I'm presently on Page 55 and so far have marked five recipes I want to try. I don't have enough Post-It notes. Plus, sistah can WRITE! Of eggs baked in tomato sauce, she notes, "...it's like one of my guilty pleasures grew up and got a job." See all of you over on the "Cooking With...." thread. I have a feeling I may hang out there for a while.

Would "sharing" extend to buying one steak, cutting it in two, and cooking her half well done and your half the proper way? I have a child who requires a very-little-pink steak. I cringe and cook it for her. I love her dearly, but I draw the line at sharing her steak.

I am now at the point of near agony of desire for fresh, marvelous, ruin-me-for-anything-in-the-US, sushi. I may have to go to the local sushi establishment today. At least it's been long enough since I've been in Japan that my taste memory has faded....

I can say it no better than this:

Who, us???? Heh heh heh NEVER HAD A PORK RIND??? Heresy, blasphemy, and a damn shame. Thursday night, I'm taking a friend to a barbecue restaurant that serves perhaps the best pork rinds on the face of the planet. PM me your address, and I'll get a bag to go and ship them to you. This kind of break in the fabric of the universe cannot be allowed to exist.

Bunch of enablers.

The first of the season's crops: Lettuce, radishes, carrots, peas, cabbage, cucumbers. They'll go outdoors next week, presuming the garden dries out enough I can get in it. The very first Roma tomato sprout: I have a dozen of these, along with five other varieties of tomatoes and three kinds of peppers waiting to sprout, as well, and will hope to set them out in a couple of weeks. The garden is growing this year. In the rear, there's a 8 by about 40-foot strip that will be all tomatoes. Up front is a 24 x 24 patch that will be fenced to keep out the marauding bunnies, where everything else will go. The front flower bed, another 60 square feet, is reserved for herbs, fennel and asparagus. It's about 1,000 square feet of garden. A far cry from the acre and a half I tended as a kid, but it should serve to feed us bountifully this summer.

Picked up my first Arkansas strawberries of the year at the Farmers Market in Hot Springs when I was down there for a weekend visit, and brought half a gallon home. Big, plump berries, surprising for so early in the year. Vendor said they'd been picking them since Monday. I think that may be close to the earliest I've ever seen berries in Arkansas, though the local celebrated vendor of strawberry shortcake announced they'd start serving them this Friday, 3/31.

Jelly.

I must cast my lot with @Tri2Cook and go along with @Kerry Beal's cited article. No raisins in my butter tart, which looks a whole lot like what my Grandmama used to make and call a chess pie. "...Raisins are the husks of grapes that have gone to hell." About the most apt description I've heard. I will make an exception for the yogurt-covered ones.

Grab the Chingkiang black vinegar while thinking I was grabbing the soy sauce. That tuna poke' had a decided tang to it.

Owwww! I'd say it will take judicious applications of sushi and sake (taken internally, of course) to treat those injuries. Maybe some loose morality, as well.... Keep the photos coming. I'm loving them.

I haven't, but I'll be following this thread; I am contemplating the same purchase. K.

I've had it for years, but I still refer to it occasionally -- Shirley Corriher's "Cooking." I also like Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything," because it gives you a basic recipe/technique for, well, everything, and suggestions on how to wing it from there. Food Lovers Companion is one I go to frequently when I have a question about a time, a temp, or an ingredient substitution. Rose Levy Berenbaum's Bread Bible, which I loaned out and need to retrieve, is possibly my favorite bread book. Several others I go to for specific regions/cuisines -- Paula Wolfert, Dorie Greenspan, Fuchsia Dunlop, Diana Kennedy, Yottam Ottolenghi, Marcella Hazan are some favorites. Michael Ruhlman for technique and method on most anything. Kenji Lopez-Alt's "The Food Lab." Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipes. And the Marion United Methodist Church's "Favorite Recipes," which is the best 10 bucks I ever spent on a cookbook.

I will be curious to see if mine actually arrives on my doorstep next week. So far, no email saying "Sorry, but..." Don't know that I actually NEED another IP, but who could turn that down?

I don't do them nearly often enough, mostly because I think of them in terms of my omelet pan, which is an 8-incher, and if I make one in it, it takes too doggone long to eat it unless I have a crowd at the house. I should get a small non-stick skillet, one that would hold about two eggs, to do one-serving ones. I love 'em with anything green that's leftover. I always have roasted cherry tomatoes in the freezer, and those go nicely as well. I do a "southwest" one with chorizo, fried diced potatoes, black beans, and cheese, and top it with avocado and more cheese, serve with salsa and sour cream, that's pretty wonderful.

After trying my hand at curing my own Canadian Bacon, I'd suggest that. I had my first meal off mine last night. It's a very mild taste, but one that grows on you; I sliced mine about 1/4 inch thick and seared, just to get a little color on it, and had it with biscuits and eggs and sorghum molasses for breakfast-for-dinner. Not sure how long it'll keep in the fridge, so I will probably slice it all in the coming days, vac-pack in smaller portions and freeze.

Yep, and I got a confirmation. We shall see.

This has got to be an error, and surely it'll be changed soon, but right now, Amazon has the IP Lux for $8.99 with free shipping! Here. I'd suggest ordering one quickly. I just did.

Read the article -- while the brown butter viniagrette tweaks me, and the grits-and-greens dish could almost make me think about trying turnip greens One More Time, it was the Red Pea and Onion Gravy that has catapulted near the top of my "I have to try this" list. I mean -- damn! And I guess I'm going to have to break down and get the book.