kayb

It's my experience that either more people seem to be interested in a higher quality of food, or I have gravitated more toward people who are interested in a higher quality of food. I see a great many more people buying meat, for example, directly from the farm, and produce from the farmers' market, rather than canned or frozen veggies or meat from the supermarket. I see the growth in farm-to-table restaurants, and in CSAs and food co-ops. I see more people gardening or raising backyard chickens. But WalMart, which carries some of the poorest quality food I've ever seen -- I won't go there if I can avoid it -- continues to be one of top grocery retailers. I know I'm willing to spend more for quality food, and I have friends who shudder at the prospect of paying $12 to $15 for a whole farm-raised chicken. But it's worth it to me.

TFTC, I'd love to have the recipe/instructions. I cook some quasi-Asian dishes that would be improved by the availability of fresh bean sprouts. Plus, I love 'em in place of lettuce on a sandwich.

Love the coin tiles! I want to hear more about the procedure in making them, please.

I love beans. I keep several different varieties on hand, but I always tend to find myself going back to my standards of red beans, navy beans, Great Northern beans, black beans and chickpeas. I use a fair amount of lentils, as well. My favorite baked beans recipe starts with soaked navy beans, in a sauce of ketchup, mustard, sorghum molasses, assorted spices, and worcestershire sauce. With, of course, salt pork, or, in a pinch, cut up very fatty bacon. I make a very non-regulation red beans and rice with a tomato base, andouille sausage, chicken and ham. Black beans get cooked with garlic, pepper and bay leaves. Chickpeas fan out in a variety of seasonings and sauces. I do a lentil soup with Spanish chorizo that's pretty marvelous. And it's really difficult to beat a good ol' bowl of white or pinto beans with hamhock and fresh, hot, buttered cornbread. I bought some mung beans on a whim, and am trying to figure out how to use them.

ElainaA, thanks for that ketchup recipe. Saved it to use next summer. TFTC, now I am inspired to look for fresh water chestnuts at the international market next time I go. Day got away from me yesterday resulting in me heading home at 5:30 with nary a thought about what might be for dinner. That's my cue to pick up some kind of prepared protein as a centerpiece; usually either a rotisserie chicken from the grocery or pork barbecue from the local barbecue emporium. I opted for barbecue, because I had sweet potatoes, and could do this: Sweet potato and barbecue hash, with a drizzle of barbecue sauce thoughtfully provided by the barbecue place, with a side of arepas. Thirty minutes, start to finish. Just call me Rachel Ray.

That sounds marvelous.

Everything's better with bacon!

Johnsonville should be ok. If you've got a farmer or meat market anywhere close that makes them, that's usually better.

I think venison would work just fine. I browned them in the skillet over medium heat, added the wine and broth and seasonings, and then transferred to a 325 oven for about 2 1/2 hours. I turned the heat off, left them in the oven for two hours, came back and turned the oven back on for 15 minutes. That's plenty to get the round steak fork-tender. The quality of the bratwurst can really make or break this dish. Hope you've got access to good ones!

My skin gets dry and I get some cracking and splitting around my cuticles in the winter, especially. I came up with a moisturizer that's two parts coconut oil to one part Vitamin E oil, whipped up in my Kitchenaid and kept in various plastic containers in the kitchen and different bathrooms. I slather it on my hands several times during the course of a day, including after every handwashing, and it helps remarkably.

Cooler weather always turns my thoughts to German food, so yesterday, it was rouladen, braised red cabbage with cream, and German potato salad. Good stuff, though I didn't get enough mustard in the potato salad. Rouladen, ready to cook. Grassfed beef round, jacquarded and then beaten with a mallet to thin it a bit more. Brats from a local farmer. Bacon is Wright's; dills are Claussen's. Cabbage, sauteeing in bacon fat. Complete dinner, with potato salad and crowder peas.

They are traditionally served with applesauce or sour cream. But I love them with over easy eggs.

Rotuts, you might try an old Southern favorite -- Eudora Welty's White Fruit Cake. I generally add a greater variety of fruit than called for. I typically do Christmas gift baskets for friends and some co-workers. For years, I did fudge and pralines and candied pecans. This year, think there's going to be a bigger selection of savories -- some bacon jam, some tapenade, some smoked salmon spread, and an assortment of homemade crackers, along with more minimal sweets.

Years ago, we had a "gourmet" tamale vendor at the Farmers Market, and one of his tamale specialties was pumpkin and ricotta cheese. I have done that, rather than tamales, in egg-roll wrappers, filled and just folded over and the edges crimped, then pan-fried in a half-inch or so of peanut oil and sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon sugar. Quite tasty when eaten hot; don't know why I haven't done that lately. Ran across a recipe for a baked pie pumpkin (or other small pumpkin) with cornbread and sausage stuffing. That sounds pretty interesting to me; I think I must try it.

Have read and heard about Dutch Baby pancakes all my life, but never made nor tasted one until last weekend. This was a simple cinnamon sugar version. I doused it with homemade peach butter from last summer.

I can't see that I've posted this previously (apologies if I have!), but here is a dinner before I went out of town: Shrimp and andouille sausage gumbo. The shrimp were left over from a shrimp boil and frozen, in the shell; thawed and peeled, then tossed in the gumbo at the last minute, just long enough to heat through. I must be slipping. Time was, there would NEVER have been shrimp left over from a shrimp boil.

Been on the road with business travel the last three nights, so meals out. Night 1 was at a relatively new seafood restaurant with a good reputation. There were 12 of us, so the owner sent out a big platter of sushi as an appetizer for the table. Good stuff, if nothing traditional; in fact, an interesting presentation included some sushi elements wrapped in a flour tortilla and sliced into sections. It did lend itself better than "normal" sushi rolls for taking smaller bites, as the tortilla kept it together better than the rice and seaweed does. Several of the group had the seafood mixed grill -- shrimp, scallops and some sort of fish filet, don't recall what it was -- and pronounced it good, though it looked to me as if the shrimp were overdone. I had grouper, mostly because I was intrigued to see grouper away from the Gulf Coast. It was very fresh and very good, broiled in a brown butter/balsamic sauce that was just excellent, and served over white rice. The side was a "succotash" of purple hulled peas and sweet corn, which was good as well. Next night was an eastern European restaurant that's a long-time favorite of mine, particularly for its charcuterie board, which features house-made sausages, terrine and liver pate along with smoked turkey and cured pork belly. I frequently split that with a dining companion for a meal. This time, I had roast pork with red cabbage and sauteed spaetzle; the spaetzle and cabbage were excellent, but the pork was a tad heavy on caraway for my tastes. It was cooked perfectly, though. And finally, last night was barbecued ribs at a traditional popular rib joint in Memphis, the Rendezvous, which were just OK. I like my ribs cooked more slowly over a lower fire so the fat can render and leave that meltingly tender lean clinging to the bone. These are cooked faster, over a hotter fire, so have a good amount of chew and noticeable fat. But it was a half-block walk as opposed to a 10-block walk for better ribs, and we had been hard at it in business meetings and travel for three days, and I was driving home (an hour) after dinner, so we opted for close. I think I'm ready for some white beans and cornbread tonight.

After two days of big breakfasts and soups/stews for dinner, I wanted something a bit lighter for Sunday lunch/dinner/midday. I had been wanting to try my hand at steak tartare since I had the wonderful version when Cyalexa and I visited The Catbird Seat recently, so I decided it was time to do that, particularly as my beef for the year (a quarter of a grass-fed steer, and he was a BIG boy, too -- about 120 pounds finished weight) was delivered this past week. I partially thawed two small filets -- about four ounces each, and diced them in quarter-inch dice, thanking the Lord for freshly sharpened knives all the while. Mixed with those were two egg yolks, minced cornichon and capers, a bit of Dijon mustard, some chopped chives and some white truffle oil. We had it on multigrain baguette crisps. Alongside, we had a selection of cheeses (Alpine, Idiazabal, Vermont cheddar and Parrano), quince paste olives and pickles, as well as some grilled asparagus. It was a quite excellent Sunday lunch, as well as being a great change of pace.

Shrimp and sausage gumbo, with andouille sausage and shrimp that I'd frozen after it was left over from last week's shrimp boil, peeled and thrown in at the last minute, just long enough to get hot all the way through. I even unbent enough from my healthy dislike of bell peppers to include one in this. It was an orange one, though. Not even cooking Cajun can sway me to bring a green bell pepper, loathsome things that they are, into my kitchen.

Eggs scrambled with smoked salmon, latkes with peach butter, and a slab of apple-walnut oatmeal bread. I like my eggs scrambled more dry than most of you likely do. Can't explain why that's the case, as I want my fried eggs runny. Go figure. The salmon came from some I bought from the local community foundation, which smokes and sells it annually as a fundraiser. Two packages this size -- between a pound and a half and two pounds each -- for $50. A bargain, and GOOD smoked salmon, too. I'll enjoy it for a good while. I scrambled the eggs with parsley, chives, tarragon and dill. The latkes are just standard latkes -- potatoes, onion, salt and pepper, eggs, cracker crumbs.

Then I shall try kreik the next time I make it. Thanks for the tip.

I haven't. Never thought the fruit would go well. It does?

Updated with pic: Yep. Still one of my favorite fall dishes. The leading characters: Beef. (A chunked-up chuck roast.) Onions. Sliced thin, caramelized. Green Flash Double Stout. I've tried many and many other beers, but this is the best. With supporting appearances by Dijon mustard, beef broth, brown sugar, and rosemary.

Starving. Smelling the carbonnades a la flamande braising away in the oven. About to make cream cheese grits for the beef to go over. Possibly favorite fall dish ever.

Add some grated onion, lots of salt and pepper, an egg and some bread crumbs to those grated potatoes and have yourself some latkes!