sparrowgrass
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Posts posted by sparrowgrass
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A lettuce mix--I bought some from Burpee's last year that made a wonderful, tasty, colorful row in the garden
Corn
Tomatoes
Beans
Potatoes
Cukes (I can't count to 5 properly)
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We have spaghetti feeds here, too, and most are of the soggy noodles variety, but if Dr. Joe is making the sauce, the $5 a plate is well spent.
He is a cranky old bastard, but his sauce is to die for, fennel-y and flavorful, noodles are al dente, and you get 2 big meatballs with each order. Skip the spongy garlic bread, but don't miss the dessert table--lovely home-made brownies, icebox cakes, pecan pies and coconut cakes.
We have ham and bean dinners and chicken and dumplin' dinners, but no verbs are harmed in those events.
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I saw a tip here for keeping fresh ginger in a jar full of sherry. I don't care for the ginger itself, because it tuns soft and won't grate on the microplane, but the sherry is wonderful with chicken.
I cut up a chicken, brown it, throw in as many garlic cloves as I feel like peeling, pour half a cup or so of the sherry in, add a teaspoon or more of chili paste, a tablespoon of soy, and a couple tablespoons of maple syrup.
Cook til the chicken is done, and reduce or thicken the sauce if you need to.
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A blood spot in an egg does not mean that is is fertilized. A fertilized egg will develop, in about 24 hours, a white donut shape spot on the yolk. If you are buying commercial eggs, those girls never see a boy, so fertilization is impossible.
I have never seen "twin" chicks from one egg, but ocasionally a chick will hatch with 4 legs--kind of a conjoined twin thing.
Commercial eggs are candled, and generally double yolked eggs are removed, because they look "suspicious" to the candler.
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I have a cute little crate that had clementines in it, and it sits on my counter. I call it my "you bought, now eat it" crate.
Periodically, I pull all those things out of the back of the cabinet, and put them in plain view in that crate.
Seems to help.
(And creates a lot of conversation when "normal" people come in my kitchen.
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French fries are not an everyday food, and don't drink from the gravy boat.
I think you just helped me lose 10 pounds.
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I once saw a low tech version of that, in an old house, It was just a little springloaded door in the baseboard, with a pan connected under the floor to catch the dirt. You just went down in the basement and emptied the pan once in a while.
It may have been homemade--I don't remember.
I have wood grained vinyl in my kitchen--doesn't show the dirt.
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I have a roombah. Cute, but pretty useless.
Takes longer to empty all the little dustbins and clean the hair out of the brushes than it would to vacuum the floor with a regular vacuum.
I have dogs. No food on the floor, just dog saliva. And dog hair.
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I love squirrel--very sweet, rich, dark meat.
No, you cannot legally purchase squirrel in the US. Wild game is actually the property of the state, and not to be sold.
If you buy rabbit, quail, elk--they are all domestically raised. I don't believe you could raise squirrels--they don't take well to captivity, not even when hand raised from a hairless newborn. Ask my cousin Mark--I believe he still bears the scars.
I could have had one for dinner the other night, with the help of the dogs.
I was sitting calmly and quietly on my porch. mesmerized by the view off the back porch.
(Inserted purely to make you city folks jealous. No food connection whatsoever.
No, I take that back--the hay eventually turns into beef. Or horseflesh, which I hear is tasty, too.)
Anyhow, I was about to doze off in the rocking chair when my 2 Aussies boiled up from around the back of the house, snarling and barking and rolling around in a big hairy ball. They flew up onto the porch and stopped a foot or so away from me.
I thought they were having a little disagreement, and they were. But not with each other--nope, the two of them were double-teaming a very pissed off squirrel.
Poor little squirrel was half dead--the back half. The front half was very much alive, and promptly sunk some very long teeth (capable of cutting thru black walnuts, or your phone line) right into the middle of Trouble's front paw.
Troub whirled in circles, yiking and spattering blood. Mink whirled in bigger circles, trying to kill the squirrel. Every potted plant and chair on the porch tumbled--including the rocker I was sitting on, because I bailed for the lawn. I did not want that squirrel in my lap.
Anyhow, Mink eventually killed the thing the rest of the way, and ran off to bury him. For the next 4 days, one dog would discover the squirrel and bury it, and the other would dig it up and put it somewhere else.
Oh--there is another food connection.
On the fourth day, I traded Troub a piece of pizza for the stinky corpse, and threw it in the trash.
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It doesn't quite meet your rising requirements, but the NYT bread recipe technique (quick stir, let rise slowly for 12+ hours, then put into bread pans for an hour or so and bake) works for whole grains.
I have done it by subbing in a half cup of oatmeal, a cup of ww and the rest (1.5 cups) white flour.
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Monavano, that is a fine idea, unless you are picking 3 gallons of tomatoes a day.
Then you might want to spread out the work a bit.I once planted a huge garden in the spring, and then got a full time job in July. With a 2 hour daily commute and 2 little kids at home, I just tossed the tomatoes in bread bags and into the freezer they went.
Worked just fine, except the stems on the tomatoes tore the bags and I had lots of rock solid tomatoes rolling around in the bottom of the freezer.
So leave 'em whole, remove the stem, and bag them. When you are ready to use, let them thaw, pull the skin off and remove the core, if there is one.
One advantage of this system over quartering is that the quarters stick together--whole tomatoes don't, so you can thaw exactly what you need.
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I had to buy cookies for an event the other day, and when I was putting them out on plates, I noticed that one package proudly proclaimed it was "oven-baked".
Funny, I usually bake mine in the fridge.
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Raising bison is expensive. The fences, corrals, headgates and other equipment needed to raise those big, tough, dangerous animals have to be much stronger than the things used for cattle.
I think goat is becoming more common--at least, I see lots of meat goats in pastures in this part of the country. But no goat meat in our stores--you gotta go buy it off the farm.
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Looks cool.
I have been cutting mine open and pulling them apart in a big bowl of water. The seeds sink, the chaff floats, and no red fingers.
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Here is a whole discussion on the topic.
Me--I would wrap them in aluminum foil, and use them.
If they crack, will you be devastated?
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Your "against" reasons decide it for me.
Why not microwave in a glass bowl? The washing up is no big deal, since nothing should be cooked onto the dish.
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I have a pint jar of nutmeats in the freezer right now, shelled by my 93 year old uncle. I haven't quite decided what to do with them, besides opening the jar every now and then and just smelling them. The scent alone is worth more than gold.
When I lived in Berea Kentucky, we had a big shellbark hickory in the yard. Shellbark nuts are as big as walnuts--those were worth cracking.
The sandbox was in the shade under that tree, and my kids had little hardhats they wore in the fall when the nuts fell. Those suckers hurt.
Forgot to mention that the nuts, shells and green outer covering of the nuts are great for smoking meats. That is what I do with the nuts from the tree I have now--they are too little to mess with.
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Penzeys' Herbes de Provence and Parisenne Bonnes Herbes for chicken and pork.
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A great idea!
I am doing something similar right now--but with the NYT bread.
We have a Civil War reenactment going on this weekend, and as a fund raiser for our friends of animals group, I am baking 4 loaves a night. They are going into the freezer til Saturday, when we will peddle them to the "soldiers".
We are also going to take some of my pretty eggs, put them on a little straw in a basket, and sell those as well--the soldiers camp out all weekend, and all their food is cooked over open fires in front of their tents.
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Chop hard cooked (I almost said hard boiled, but I have learned a thing or two from this place) with your pastry blender.
Great for egg salad or tuna salad. You can have it put together faster than you can tell about it.
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Karnak was the Johnny Carson character who held an envelope with an answer inside to his head and deduced the question.
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I missed the part where Mario actually used the bowl he made out of the parmesan. What did he do?
(And did the dishwashers get to take that bowl home?)
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You all have forgotten THE most important item stocked in country stores--ammo.
Nothing like a place where you can buy beer, cigs and shells.
Our country store is Buzz's, which is really Elaine's, because Buzz died several years ago.
Not much food there--except for those terrific roasted peanuts that should be showing up any time. By Christmas, they are all gone, but Elaine says it takes her from January til September to lose the weight she gains while they are in stock.
Apart from the peanuts, you can find pet foods of all varieties, nails, junction boxes, bird feeders, seed, plumbing fittings, and invaluable advice from Elaine--"don't forget to wrap the teflon tape around that before you put it together".
She also knows how to do the gerryrigging those of us who live in old, old houses have to do regularly. "Ah, I get it--one of those fittings goes into that thingie, and then into the parts I have."
Bless you, Elaine, and long may you prosper.
Idiot's guide to What's in Season?
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and other coles are cool season veggies. Depending on your climate, you can plant them in either spring or fall (or winter, if you are in a really warm place) but they don't do well in hot weather, because they go to seed quickly.
Same for green peas and lettuce.