kayb

Food was a never-ending adventure on my two trips to Japan. A few off-the-wall ideas: Train station food courts. I was awed at the variety of bento and various and assorted other stuff you could get to eat on the train. Convenience stores. Lots of fried stuff, much like in convenience stores in the southern US, but they don't fry the same stuff. It's worth sampling! Noodle shops. Don't know what half of what I ate actually was, but it was all good! Sushi, early in the morning, at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. There is no comparison in the universe. If you go to Kamakura -- seaside village just north of Tokyo -- I don't know how in the world you'll find this place, but it's worth it if you can. Up in the mountains, pull off in a gravel lot, walk down the path, down some stairs, over a couple of bridges, up a flight of steps, and there's a restaurant whose roof peaks are level with the lot in which you parked. I had possibly the best meal there I've ever eaten in my life, with good Japanese and American friends and pitcher-after-pitcher of ice-cold Sapporo and platter-after-platter of wonderful sashimi.

How about rutabaga? I have half a rutabaga that must have been the World's Largest Rutabaga; it was the size of a fast-pitch softball. Half of it went into a braised chuck roast with winter veggies. Half is reposing in my fridge in plastic wrap. I think I have a parsnip left. How about a parsnip and rutabaga gratin?

A few things my pantry is never without: Bush's black beans and Bush's white shoe-peg corn -- rinse the beans, drain the corn, and you've got the basis of a good, quick salad. Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk. Always some use for it. Pet Evaporated Milk. Will replace half-and-half in a pinch and you're out of half-and-half and it's way cold or raining or snowing or you've had three glasses of wine and don't want to get out. Sweet Sue canned chunk chicken. Huge timesaver when you want to make soup and don't want to fool with cooking chicken. And, while it's jarred, not canned -- Great Value (Wal-Mart) brand black bean and white corn salsa. This is the best jarred mass-market salsa on the market. I can make a meal with equal parts salsa and grated colby-monterey jack blend cheese and a sizeable bag of tortilla chips.

Camera-less, but nevertheless, some good meals during this snowy long weekend: Saturday: Carbonnades a la flamande, over buttered egg noodles, with a side of curried apples and pears. Sunday: Freshly baked honey whole wheat bread, sandwiched with leftover sliced pork loin, and an apple salad with bacon, feta and balsamic viniagrette. Monday: Ancho-coffee braised country style pork ribs. Tuesday: Leftover pork, in quesadillas

Oh...my...God. What I would give for access to a selection of cheese like this. You do seem to be blessed with marvelous markets. And you certainly do some marvelous things with the provender from them. Enjoying your blog!

I still want to come live with you. We need to work out an exchange program, I'm thinking.

Re: Little House books -- try abebooks.com. They have all sorts of out-of-print stuff!

We have an Australian emigre' as a receptionist at my office. Her mother sent her a care package with Vegemite and she insisted we all try it. I could get used to it!

I'm camera-less, at the moment, but breakfast was cheese biscuits, bacon jam, scrambled eggs and bacon (doubled-up bacon was for the teen, who does not like bacon jam, and so I could have some to put in apple salad later on). Eggs just rise to another level when cooked in bacon fat....

Yum....the goose and noodles....please tell how you seasoned and cooked that before it went into the slow cooker! Your blog has been absolutely astounding. Please, please shoot me an e-mail when you're coming to Oaklawn...would love the chance to cook for you or take you to dinner!

That is a FINE looking dehydrator! Do you do fruit and veggies in it, too? Please tell me tomorrow is goose and noodles...I've been looking forward to that one ever since you mentioned it!

Assorted comments -- Re: Candied or crystallized ginger. Lynne Rossetto Kasper has a recipe in her "Weeknight Kitchen" newsletter that adds it to coconut macaroons, and I was pretty entranced with that. Pheasant: The only pheasant I've ever had, some that a friend brought back from a hunting trip to Kansas, was damnably dry. Is that common, or did they just not know how to cook it? Put me down in the camp of those who keep Velveeta and onion soup mix on hand, too. I have, however, weaned myself from cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups as ingredients. I have been known to dump a package of taco seasoning in taco soup, too; I'm just sayin'. Venison -- have you done venison meat loaf? With two parts venison to one part pork and one part veal, it's pretty wonderful. And there is no better chili than that made with venison. Only thing I miss about being married is not having the venison every fall. I'm SO thoroughly enjoying your blog!

Added another one. Marcella's Italian Kitchen.

Calzone. Ricotta, Parmigiano, parsley, Italian sausage. Mark Bittman's pizza dough recipe from How To Cook Everything. Crappy cell phone photo.

It's a braise, but I love it: brown the salted-and-peppered roast, take it out, caramelize a couple of sliced onions, move them to the outside edges of the pan, plop the roast back in, put a bottle of dark beer over all, cover and braise at 275 for four or five hours. You can finish off the sauce with some dijon mustard and a touch of brown sugar to give it the taste of carbonnades a la flamande, if you wish. I love to shred the meltingly tender beef up in the sauce and heap it on a baguette.

Tracy -- Use them for canisters! I have two half-gallons, two quarts and two pints I use for canisters that came from the smokehouse out behind my house when I was a kid. Wouldn't take anything for them. If you don't want yours, let me know and I'll send you the info and cover the cost of shipping them down to me!

When I was a kid, I had a friend whose family had an elderly (well, she seemed so to me) African-American woman who cooked for them. She brined venison in buttermilk, overnight; she'd put it in the buttermilk before she went home for the day with instructions for my friend's mother to drain it before bedtime, throw away the buttermilk and brine it again in fresh. It made the most astoundingly tender, non-gamy venison roast imaginable. I've never brined or marinated venison any other way.

Goose and noodles....I'm intrigued! I never thought about eating Canada geese...I guess it just never occurred to me, though I eat wild duck as regularly as I get someone to kill them for me. Can you eat snow geese (known down here as "sky carp") as well?

Sure! On one condition....we can live in Hot Springs during race season They start a week from Friday! You have to let me know when you're coming down!

Re: The smoked venison. Can I come live with you?

I recall well when we first raised calves and I named them. I was a vegetarian for a year, at least where beef was concerned. Hogs are mean critters, and I never had any compunction about eating pork, no matter I'd been acquainted with that bacon in a previous incarnation.

In 2011, I will eat_foie gras. I will make__bread on a much more regular basis than I do now. I will learn_like toolprincess, to make my own tortillas. I will read_ Everything I can get my hands on with a recipe in it.

Oh, Darienne. In all your travels, you must come to Arkansas, and I will fry okra for you. It will change your life. I swear.

I wound up doing mine with trimmings from the Christmas ham, along with tomatos and chiles and some Aleppo pepper. Good stuff.But the cabbage -- I don't do collard greens -- the cabbage was phenomenal! It's a recipe from over on Food 52, called "Suspiciously Delicious Cabbage." You saute onions, garlic and grated ginger in butter until they're translucent and soft, add the shredded cabbage, and let it cook until the cabbage caramelizes on the edges. Then you add salt and pepper to taste, and -- are you ready for this? -- heavy cream! Let that simmer another 10 minutes, covered, then uncover and let it evaporate off any excess liquid. Marvelous!

Oh, no! Failed eggs? Hate it when that happens.... I'd kill for that bar, by the way.