maggiethecat

I am so, so jealous. The place, the people, the food: my kinda gig. Did I mention that I'm jealous? But as the literary guardian/insomniac here I have to give you credit for three words that might actually glide me off to sleep with their beauty: porch foraged herbs

I stop at every corn stand I can, and I'll even buy "local" at the supermarket. I pull off the few red tomatoes from my plants and jealously guard the greenies. I harvest my Bright Lights Swiss chard and pray that the Brussels Sprouts sprout sprouts. I worry about what the heck to do with my basil and lemon verbena. Never enough corn, never enough tomatoes. I'm an atheist, but even for me late summer is a holy time, and a wistful time. Like Susan, let's respect it.

These are all great ideas, and I recommend the baguette for soaking up the oil, because bread provides ballast. The cheese platter is a great idea for the same reason -- protein and food value. I've attended some martini parties myself and I know no cocktail makes you hungrier or drunker. As the divine Dorothy Parker said: I like to have a martini, Two at the very most. After three I'm under the table, after four I'm under my host. Bread, cheese, olives, cold cuts, spiced nuts. Cheers!

I love this idea, and I give full props to Marcella about not stressing the equipment or the batterie. (She still scares me to death with her Emilia-Bologna haughtiness, but because long time ago she taught me about Italian food and still loves her cigs and her bourbon, she's my kinda Signora.) And what she -- and you -- make plain, it's not about the e fab kitchen,the six burner stove, the Subzero, it's about coaxing the best results from the freshest ingredients without fuss. And sure, go for the pork! Even in Emiglia-Romana, pork scallopine can substitute for veal. (I actually prefer it.) Keep us updated.

Major hmmmm. Thanks, Richard.

Ditto. It always used to come out gummy when simmered in a pot, so I switched to a rice cooker years ago, and it's perfect every time - nice firm grains. Plus, I prefer the taste - it has a slight nutty taste. White rice is bland to me now. ← That's a revelation of sorts. I've never felt the slightest need to buy a rice cooker for white rice, but if it can make brown rice edible I'll be thinking about picking one up at my next trip to the Super H Mart. Still, it seems that brown rice is the nutritional pet of healthy peeps mostly in North America and Western Europe. Is there really nowhere on earth where it's the standard?

Thanks, Peter, for the Korean and Thai view, and come to think of it "black treasure rice" was featured at my daughter's wedding reception. (And yes, there was salmon.) But still, I want to hear about a country or culture that puts brown rice first. Yes, somewhere out there there's a brown rice/be good to your feet karma.

I hang my head with shame and admit that I hate brown rice. Seems most of the world does too, including my new extended Asian family -- you can bet that their rice cookers are churning out the white stuff, not the long-cooking crunchy gluey healthy stuff, with its whiffs of Birkenstocks. I may be way off here, which is why I'm starting this topic: is there a place in the world where brown rice is the rule, not the exception? I'd love some geographical guidance.

When I was in my teens, a baggie of shelled walnuts and raisins was my favorite snack -- yea, better- tasting than a Coffee Crisp or a bag of Cheetos. It's been years: I think I'll go mix myself up a batch.

Spring, I've made Cornish pasties a couple of times this year The Official Cornish Pasty website is here, and I love it that it's about protecting the authentic Cornish Pasty. But I'm probing the origins of the Cheese and Onion Pasty, and would be thrilled to know more about it and other named pasty variations. (The Red Owl in Escanaba Michigan serves up a decent "Cornish" pasty, but I call it a UP pasty.)

D'oh! The BBC, of course -- thank you so much, Nick --. the recipe is really close. But Mummy never precooked the onions, and it was always a big quick family-style rectangle, like my Italian grandmother-in-law's pizza, easy to cut and serve, to say nothing of easier to prepare. And I smiled about the paprika. But I'm still not sure about the origins.

Hooray! This recipe doesn't exist in a family culinary Never Never Land. (I too have one side of my family North of England and the other side Scots from Argyle.) Oh I love me a cock-a-leekie soup.

It is, and I would love your expert opinion.

Twice a month during my childhood, Saturday lunch was a Cheese and Onion Pasty. I've never seen a recipe for it, nor have I met anyone who knows about it except my family. I suspect Mummy learned about it from my Nana, a daughter of Lancashire, so if any English northerners are familiar with this dish, please enlighten me. My mother made her beautiful retro shortening flour and water pastry (tender, flaky and crisp) and rolled half of it into a rectangle on a cookie sheet. Onto this rectangle she placed slices of good Canadian cheddar (dried out ratbait rocked), thinly sliced onions, salt and pepper and dabs of butter. Perhaps a swathe of paprika. The other half of the pastry was rolled out, placed on top, crimped and slashed. Into the oven until the pastry was golden and the cheddar bubbled through the slashes. It was perfect, but for the first time in my life, tonight I thought about addition. Ham? Mushrooms? If anyone has made or eaten a Cheese and Onion Pasty I'd love to know about where and when. And if you haven't, please give it a shot and report back.

Diane: I agree with you on every single thing you say, including milk choc. Cooking fish a point is really subjective and it has a whole lot to do with what kind of fish you're cooking. Tuna's one thing, catfish another, so is salmon, so is sole. There's no one right way to cook fish.

I make them, I eat them, I love them. I have an ancient Taylor and Ng mold and a contemporaneous recipe. To this WASP, mooncakes seem like a relative of my ancestor's mincemeat tarts, but prettier.

Jealous and Yum! ← That souffle is a serious thing of beauty. I'm not much of a dessert chick, but souffles are an exception. And I love Grand Marnier. Go, Girl.

"Tree Salad" was eaten with tiny hands by my daughter and her three-year-old friends, not because they didn't have forks but because they loved it so much. It's a simple broccoli salad, but the kids thought that the small florets looked like trees, and they named it. Cook broccoli until it's done (not hard in the middle, but not mushy.) Let cool and refresh in a bowl of cold water. Slice the stems into thin disks, and separate the florets into their smallest parts. Add grated carrots and sliced green onion. The dressing is (non olive) oil, rice vinegar and a couple of drops of sesame oil. A few gratings of ginger is optional but excellent.

It won't fall. Be brave. And if it does, it will still taste good.

Hema's rocks in every way you can imagine, and Lady T has given you the DL. The food, whether vegetarian or fleshitarian comes out of a homey kitchen where the lovely cooks make outstanding food. Five years or so ago 12 eGulls went there for dinner, ordered pretty near everything on the menu (seriously) and the bill for all this was under a hundred bucks.It was BYOB back then and we stood outside on a lovely Chicago evening drinking beer while we waited in line. Green Zebra, of course.

Don't worry about overbeating, and don't worry about the beater -- whisk, fork, whatever. Because I dislike an omelet panache (with streaks of white) I mix up the eggs so there is no noticeable white snot. Add salt and pepper and a tablespoon of water or milk per egg. I use a one buck Ikea nonstick pan bought specifically for omelets. Bring a nut of butter to a tiny sizzle and pour in the eggs. Turn down the heat and use a spatula to pull the cooked bits into the middle while you swizzle the raw bits into the empty places in the pan. Throw on your cheese, or duxelles or crab or nothing. The omelet will be moist. Flip it in half and turn it out on your plate. The entire process is two minutes and you'll be eating a tender soft omelet.

I use buttered parchment paper and string, but it's the same principle: support the ethereal.

On our drive from Ottawa to Quebec City last month I had a Tim's experience that was more about me than about Tim's but I'll tell it anyway. The Tim's was at a trucker lay by near Berthier and we stopped in for gas, powder room and a bite -- we hadn't had breakfast. The menu was entirely in French, no English translation. It was my first big push to speak French in a couple of years, and when the counter girl said: "Bonjour Madame" I discovered I hadn't lost it, and could order a bagel and cream cheese, untoasted, in French that embarrassed no one. Great confidence boost for Quebec City. But why, oh why, did they make a sandwich of it and cut it down the middle? I hate that. But Berthier ain't bagel country. And we travel with our own coffee: Tim's isn't even as good as the vastly overrated Dunkin's.

Are all Canadian 7th graders history-mad? I was enchanted with the Vikings in Newfoundland, and still hope to see L'Anse Meadow before I turn toes up. In Trois-Rivieres I grew up knowing that it was the kick-off place for the Northwest Company --Radisson, Marquette and Joliet and their crew. The Order of Good Cheer was a flat-out brilliant idea. Cooks (and hunters and foragers and fishermen) are competitive. What a great concept to reward the next purveyor of the feast. I remember hearing the "American" words to "This Land" for the first time and my ten-year-old self was outraged. How dare Americans change the words? Live and learn. Here's a link to Bonavista for non-Canadians. 1497, you gringos!

Dear Wesley: Breathe in, breathe out, and I'm not making fun. Have you learned things from your classwork that you didn't know before? Does your schooling make you feel a bit more confident before your plunge into the Real World? (Better a Community College class than a fancy degree from you-know where- that's gonna pile up years of student loans.) Keep reading books, keep the faith, and be a cook.