kayb

Yes. Except for one notable year when Daddy's aim apparently was off. He shot up half a box of shotgun shells, gave up, and got the chainsaw out of the back of the truck.

A favorite memory of foraging from when I was a kid: my mother and I had gone to the lake to go swimming. She tired of the water before I did, and was wandering about the bank when she found some wild scuppernongs (white muscadines). She searched the entire car for something in which to pick them, finding nothing. Not to be defeated, she took off the capri pants she was wearing (this was probably 1963 or so) and tied knots in the legs. Mama was not a small woman. We picked them full. Came home and made jelly. Most of our foraging was for fruit -- blackberries, dewberries, crabapples, muscadines, scuppernongs. And for mistletoe at Christmas.

Awaiting delivery of mine. Damn you, eGullet and all you enablers out there!

Well, excellent. I have a different charity on my Amazon Smile account, but now will contemplating switching them out monthly or some such. Welcome to the dark side. I highly recommend Rancho Gordo beans. Long as you haven't blown your budget. (...awaiting delivery of my CSO, and calculating how much eG has cost me over the years....But I can't say I haven't bought anything that I didn't consider well worth it!)

Must have been just a .ca deal. I checked several times and $218 US was the lowest I saw. ETA: Checked one more time. Still $218. Hell with it. Ordered it anyway.

Thanks, Norm. Got it. On the list! Tuna croquettes -- haven't had them in ages. May remedy that in the next week or so! A friend posted on Facebook about making souvlaki, and that's on my list, too. Along with dolmas, as I have had a jar of grape leaves in the pantry for a year-plus. @Okanagancook, I thought I had your pig quoted, as well, but it's disappeared. A lovely pig! I'm sure it was a FINE time!

I'd love to know how many Instant Pots, CSOs and Anovas have been sold because of eGullet. I believe those three companies ought to endow the forum. (I can personally speak for four Anovas and five IPs, including my own, purchased because I learned about them here and passed the recommendation on.)

By my count, that makes you a four-IP family. I wouldn't have enough counter space or outlets. The CSO is not among the Prime deals, though that $218 price continues to tempt me. I suspect I shall buy one this month. I did spring for the springform pan. It should hold about half my cheesecake recipe, which will keep me from making such Gawdawful big cheesecakes (and, consequently, eating them).

Aren't grits the greatest? Possibly my favorite breakfast in the world is eggs en cocotte, over a bottom layer of cheese grits. But I had the corn, and that just struck me as the way to go. Pureed about a cup of it to use as part of the liquid, stirred another half-cup into the grits. Could you share your cheese-stuffed potato fritter recipe? That piqued my interest.

Odds and ends. Last of the Honeybaked Ham (had it for Christmas, froze several mealsized portions, opened the last one last week). Last of a package of co-jack cheese. Last two bread and butter pickle slices in the jar. Bottom-of-the-bag chips. Otherwise known as: a ham sammich. (With sliced tomatoes from the garden, I might add.)

After the birthday eve dinner, there was of course the birthday dinner. Baby back ribs, marinated 24 hours in a dry rub, cooked via Kenji's 165F for 12 hours method in the SV, refrigerated, then run in a 475 F oven for 20 minutes with a coating of barbecue sauce, because it was Too Freaking Hot to go outside and start the grill. These were some of the meatiest ribs I'd ever seen. Very tender, but still with a little chew to them. I was most impressed with myself. We had them with potato salad, baked beans and sliced garden tomatoes, which I failed to photograph.

Scallops (which shrank dramatically during the SV step, but otherwise were topnotch in flavor and texture) over corn-infused grits (i.e., grits with creamed corn), flavored with ancho chile powder and smoked paprika and finished with St. Andre cheese; cucumbers in a dressing of rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin and ginger; grape, cherry and Roma tomatoes from the garden, dressed with white balsamic vinegar and basil olive oil and topped with fresh ricotta. Birthday eve dinner for a friend who was visiting. Very good, despite the skimpiness of the scallops.

That particular salted caramel is my all-time favorite.

That forgives a LOT of Miracle Whip.

Got to come down on Anna's side on this one.

It appears it's going to be a banner year for tomatoes here. I'll soon be buying a couple of boxes to process, as I don't think my hybrids and Bradleys will produce enough for me to can the quantity I want. I may wind up with enough Romas that I can make tomato sauce and paste; that is, if I can get them to ripen at something approximating the same time.

I tried chia seed pudding as a sub for yogurt after hearing of its health benefits. Texture pretty much puts me off.

I'm fortunate to live within an hour of several big peach orchards, so I enjoy peaches all summer long, from the cling peaches of early summer to the freestones that bear until early fall. I'm never without sliced peaches macerated in a little sugar in my refrigerator. This morning's breakfast was a couple of spoonfuls of them atop yogurt, sweetened with honey and stirred into granola.

I'm used to making and seeing tuna poke made with pineapple. Are you using peaches, or mangoes, in yours? Looks wonderful. I love it.

Would a mini Big Green egg then be an LGE? Ain't that the truth! And the money one spends because of it! eG is right up there with National Public Radio, which is responsible for several titles on the shelves in my library. Good expenditures on things I value, from both sources!

I'm waiting to see someone post pictures of that 45-pound chicken Amazon cites.

Straight 3T:5 pounds as mentioned. I added maybe a half-cup of water to be sure I had enough brine for fermentation, and didn't need to add that. When I canned it, I dumped it in the colander first and rinsed it, as there was a good bid of scum on top of the brine, and it was quite salty. I made up some more brine (a quart of water, 1 tablespoon of salt) in a saucepan, and used it to top off the jars where needed. I might have used a half-cup of it. I can't bring myself to put it away. I still have it out on the counter so I can admire it. Reubens tonight.

After four weeks of fermentation, 10 pounds of cabbage turned into a surprisingly small amount of kraut -- two quarts and three pints. Will be watching for more cabbage from the market to do this again. It's crunchy, it's crisp, it's salty, it's sour. It's pretty wonderful. I'm calling it a success, particularly for a first effort. Reubens later this week.

Glad to have you here, Chris, and look forward to hearing about your cooking. Afraid I can't help much on sourdough, but lots of people here can!

A yeast loaf from a friend's recipe she contends she's been using for 40 years. Quite good. Very nice oven spring. Will be a bit crumbly for sandwiches, but good for toast! Forgot to slash, so we have a "separation" near the top of the loaf. Really good oven spring.