kayb

AHA! I buy farm eggs, and the only thing I don't like about them is they're damn near impossible to peel if one wants to make deviled eggs. Would this technique work to accomplish that?

Down here, we'd call that a fish cooker, and it'd do double duty to boil crawfish or shrimp in. Great blog. I want that Stilton mushroom cap, and a lobster roll, and half a dozen grilled Malpeques, please!

Keep going! Loving this!

NikkiB, I use unripe tomatos; most of the farmers who have tomatos at the farmers' market will also pick a few green ones for the customers who just want to fry them. I slice and soak them in an egg-milk mixture -- they won't soak up much, but it seems to improve the texture and taste -- and then dredge them in cornmeal that has been seasoned with salt and pepper. You could, of course, vary the seasonings any way you wanted. I actually used the left-over cornmeal from shaking up the okra. Kim, I used to use a mixture of flour and cornmeal, but I find when you're frying a big batch, you wind up with a lot of burnt flour sludge in your pan that sticks to the last one. Katie,yes, we always had a lot of fried green tomatos at the end of the season, when frost was due. That was also when Mama canned "green tomato pickle," which, best I recall, included chopped tomatos, jalapenos, onion and I'm not sure what all else. It had a sort of sweet-sour-hot taste. Daddy loved it on hamburgers and hot dogs. I use green tomatos as part of my trinity when I'm cooking Cajun, because I don't like either celery or bell pepper. Dcarch, I've never had a green-when-ripe tomato. I'll have to look for those. mgaretz, lovely brisket!

More veggies, centering around fried green tomatos, but including fried okra, fresh corn and a ripe tomato slice. I didn't bother with meat this time! I always tend to think of fried green tomatos as a Southern "thing." Can those of you in other geographies chime in on that?

All of you please ignore reports of my 16-year-old son, for whom the five food groups are pizza, hamburgers, chocolate and macaroni & cheese, being whacked upside the hand with a baseball bat. If it worked for Andie's acquaintance....

Kim, here's the bacon jam recipe I use. I can buy Wright's thick-cut, smoked bacon (regional brand, good stuff), a three-pound box of ends and pieces, for way cheap, and that works just as well as the expensive trimmed-and-sliced stuff (about $8.99 per pound vs $5.99 for the ends-and-pieces three-pounder!), so I triple everything else as well and make a big Dutch oven full. I keep mine refrigerated, or frozen, in sealed plastic containers, but I suppose one could can it, if one wished. I've never had a problem with it going bad in the fridge -- y'know, it doesn't tend to stay there that long. Bourbon Bacon Jam Yield 1 1/2 cups 1 pound thick-cup applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1″ pieces 1 large sweet onion, cut into 1/4″ thick slices 3 tablespoons light brown sugar 3 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoon allspice 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon Pinch fresh grated nutmeg Pinch ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon dry chipotle powder 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/2 cup good quality bourbon 1/4 cup maple syrup 1 tablespoon hot sauce In a large skillet over medium high heat cook the bacon pieces until they begin to crisp at the edges but are still soft in the center, about 1 – 1 1/2 minutes per side. Set aside to drain. Pour all but one tablespoon of the bacon drippings from the pan. Lower the heat to medium-low and add the onion and brown sugar. Cook until the onions are well caramelized, about twenty minutes. Add the garlic and spices and cook an additional five minutes. Add the liquid ingredients and the bacon to the pan. Increase the heat to medium heat bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about two hours. Check the mixture every 30 minutes. If the mixture becomes too dry add a few tablespoons of water. You want the final mixture to be moist and very sticky. Let the mixture cool slightly them put it into the bowl of a food processor, or blender, and pulse about 20 times, or until it reaches your preferred consistency. (I prefer mine slightly chunky so you really notice the bacon)

Love it already. Perhaps reading about someplace cooler than my 102 in Hot Springs will cool me off -- can't wait to see the extreme cheese and all the seafood (and of course, good whiskey!).

Not so much for the food, but the atmosphere -- the Old Ebbet Grill, and the bar at the Willard. Both marvelous.

Your blog has been an absolute delight. Thanks!

Watermelons have been OK. Peaches have been superb. I've been disappointed with the cantaloupes, though.

A burger, sans bun, with a topper of bacon jam, spooned on while it was still on the grill so it'd get nice and warm and melt into the patty. Yum! Roasted sweet potatos with leftover barbecue dry rub, glazed with honey chipotle butter. Greek-ish salad -- tomatos, cucumber, onion, olives, in an olive oil and lemon viniagrette with oregano, topped with probably-too-much crumbled feta. And a ginger mojito.

Catherine Iino, I am thrilled to learn you can get the flat ones, still! All the cloth diapers I've seen in ages have had the quilted center piece, which prohibits their use as straining cloths AND hinders using them as burp cloths if one has an infant around! I'm off to Target! Thank you!

gfweb, nothing wrong with old school!

Scotty, love the pig. I was so proud of my Boston Butt last weekend...have yet to try the whole pig route. Tattoo is cool, too. And the dumplings look just gorgeous. Dakki, great tacos, and I have to go google to find out what chistorra is. Jan V, I had to look up onglet, too. That looks delectable.

When I got serious about losing weight a few years ago (and lost 40 pounds in a year, of which I've kept about 35 off), I did the 3 meals, 3 snacks thing, and always made sure the snacks included a good protein source since that controlled my hunger better than anything else. Now, I will occasionally snack, mostly in order to avoid eating too much at a meal, so I keep graham crackers and peanut butter, and some sort of fruit, at work all the time. At home, the snack tends to be cheese and pickles, or veggies and hummus. For what it's worth, the biggest single eating habit change that helped me lose weight was breakfast. I made myself eat a good one, and it made a huge difference.

If you want to shell the peas instead of using the entire pod, this is absolutely one of the best recipes I have ever tasted. I will confess to oh-so-lightly blanching my peas, for less than a minute, then shocking them in ice water.

Absolutely stunning kitchen, FP. And my next trip to San Diego will absolutely include a trip to Bali Hai -- I love Polynesian/Hawaiian cuisine. Am also enjoying very much the look into your cooking. The marvelous assortment of fruits and vegetables available to you is almost enough to make me want to move to Southern California! I can almost taste the freshness and the play of the flavors in looking at those gorgeous photos. In short, wonderful blog.

Kim, my potato salad is my own weird recipe, because I'm particular about the things I don't like in potato salad (raw onion, celery, bell pepper), and the way I like it prepared. I peel and cube the potatos (redskins are best, but this I finished out with russets, as I was low on redskins) and boil in salted water. The sauce is mayo, mustard, ketchup, sweet pickle relish (just the jarred store variety). I add garlic powder, Lawry's seasoned salt, and sweet paprika and stir it all together, then gently fold the cooked potatos into it. I never measure anything, but I'd guess for about six servings of potato salad, it's 2/3 cup mayo (Hellman's only, please!), 2 tbsp dijon or spicy brown mustard, 1/4 to 1/3 cup pickle relish, 2 tbsp ketchup, and spices to taste.

Oh, that sounds like a lovely barbecue party! Dying to try the watermelon feta salad and the pineapple with mint sugar!

Salvadorean breakfast cakes, aka quesadillas (I always thought a quesadilla was a tortilla with cheese and other fillings!), courtesy of the Food52 gluten-free cookoff recently. I did not have the called-for rice flour, so I used masa harina, which gave them a nice corn muffin-ish texture. With ripe strawberries and strawberry yogurt.

Pulled pork barbecue, mustard/vinegar slaw, potato salad, black bean and corn salad, and arepas. Barbecue details on the Fourth of July traditions thread. Followed by raspberry cream cheese pie, all decked out for Independence Day.

Mine has always been barbecue. And in the Memphis tradition, by barbecue I mean pork shoulder, dry rub, low-and-slow with indirect heat. I started out Saturday morning with an 8-pound chunk of Boston butt: It got a healthy coating of dry rub consisting of ancho chile powder, salt, garlic powder, allspice, paprika, coriander and sugar, then got wrapped in plastic, then in foil, and stashed in the fridge. This morning, about 8:30 a.m., it went onto the old barrel smoker grill, with coals on either end and the butt in the middle. Six hours later, it had developed a lovely charred crust, the coals were almost gone, and it was threatening rain. So it went into the oven, covered with foil, for another two hours at 200 degrees. The eight-pound butt yielded enough pulled pork to feed five hungry adults, including two males with significant appetites, and there was a gracious plenty left over. It was so good I didn't even use a sauce. A fine holiday barbecue!

LOVE the idea of the zucchini and peach salad; will have to try that. It's just about to start zucchini season here, and one of the big things I look forward to is zucchini fritters: 2-3 medium zucchini, grated 1 egg, beaten 1/4 cup half-and-half or milk 1 "sleeve" regular Saltine crackers, crushed Mix to form a thick batter, drop by 1/3-cupfuls into hot oil,and fry until golden brown.

FP -- looking forward to your week! I've been to San Diego once, and loved, loved, loved it! Anxious to return.