sparrowgrass

I am dead center in the middle of the country, and I would like to volunteer my house for the swap meet. Everyone bring a dish to share, too!! I have a citrus zester that has never been used--the kind with 4 or 5 little circles at the top to make long strings of peel. I just use my microplane when I need to add a little zest to my life--I mean, recipe. I also have an immersion blender that is seldom used, and a KA mixer that is used at Christmas. Maybe.

Yeah, it's more expensive for any of us to buy a chicken that doesn't lead a life of torture, but that's a reason to eat less chicken, not to torture more chickens. Besides, romantic that I am, I want to believe chickens that aren't battery raised taste better, smell better, and have sweet dispositions. I'm thinking of getting one as a pet, if my wife will let me. ←

sorry, double post

And I thought I was the only one who thought that foam looked like something a cat owner might find on the carpet. There was a picture, right here on this site, with foam and strands of chive--and cat barf was the only thing I could think of. Oh, well. I am not likely to ever eat in a foam-y restaurant, anyhow.

Well, for dessert you can go to Central Dairy, but I don't know where you eat dinner. Maybe pack a picnic?

Watermelon.

Miriam, what do you do with the asiatic day flower? My front flower bed is covered up with the stuff, despite all my efforts to pull it.

I don't like to eat pickles, but those sure would look pretty in my kitchen cabinet where I keep the canned goods! I had my first bacon and tomato sandwich yesterday for lunch, and my second on for breakfast this morning. I noticed a couple of okra pods yesterday, and the sweet corn will be coming soon--it is all silked out, but not turning brown yet. I have canned 14 quarts of green beans, and have eaten probably that many more, some grilled and some boiled with onions, garlic and bacon. And I picked 9 heads of cabbage this last week--very small because we had no rain until just this last week. They were beginning to split, so I had to pick them.

Back when I was married to the Evil One, we used to camp frequently in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. Kitchen for those 5-10 day trips consisted of a campfire, a little white gas stove with one burner, a 2 quart pot with a lid that could be used as a skillet, a pocketknife, one spoon, one cup, and one bowl each. If we caught a fish, the paddle served as a cutting board. Right now, however, I am not so austere. I have been waiting for 3 weeks for the carpenter to come in and install two little cabinets around my new dishwasher, and the counter top over all. I gave up on him this morning, and installed them myself, because I COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT MY DISHWASHER FOR ONE MORE MINUTE. (I hope the carpenter police do not come around with plumb bobs and levels, cause I am sure I will get a citation. But I feel so butch, having done it myself. )

Peaches. Don't know what kind--they were small freestones, but perfectly ripe.

I keep my fruit that needs ripening in the microwave--remembering to take it out when I need to heat something up, of course. The fruit flies can't get in there. There is similar fly called a sewer fly--they breed in your sink drain trap, and flutter around the kitchen like a fruit fly. Get rid of them with a pan full of boiling soapy water down the drain once a week or so. I have never seen them anywhere but here (Missouri Ozarks) but I see them frequently.

With my baking skills, I probably shouldn't be posting here, but I made the best piecrust of my life the other day. I used Crisco and frozen butter, half and half. I cut the Crisco into the flour til it was fine, and then grated (using the large holes on my triangular grater) the frozen butter into that. Mixed lightly, and then stirred in the water just till it would hold together. It was flaky and crisp.

I am not a bro, I am a sistah. Nutritional yeast is a yellow flakey or powdery substance from the health food store. Like brewer's yeast, but it tastes better, savory, sort of cheese-ish, maybe. Here is the Wikipedia scoopage on nutritional yeast.

Standard method in my house--Presto popper, the plastic kind that goes in the microwave. Orville's corn, sprinkled with olive oil before popping, topped with nutritional yeast and fine popcorn salt.

My ex mother-in-law was the most frightening cook I have ever met. She could take a perfectly innocent chicken and turn it into a thing of horror. Roasted in a covered pan in the oven, it boasted flabby skin and totally dry interior. Served with this was her famous chicken and noodles. Plain chicken broth--no onions, carrots, celery. No salt, far as I could tell, and lord knows no pepper. She made the noodles herself, and I don't know how she did it, but they were like soaked saltines cut into strips. A glutinous white mass, with no discernable flavor. Thanksgiving was a fright. They got up at 4am to put the turkey in the oven for dinner, which was served at 2 in the afternoon. The turkey was inevitably way overdone by breakfast time, when it was removed and allowed to sit on the counter for 4 or 5 hours. After dinner, the remains were put out on the enclosed back porch, to "keep cool." Now, that might have worked on a real cold Thanksgiving, a Thanksgiving before they insulated the porch and replaced the old drafty windows with double glazed ones. And before they put a deep freeze and gas water heater out there to warm the air up--on a sun-shiny day, the porch was almost as warm as the house. At supper, we were offered the toxic leftovers of a bird that had been sitting in warm rooms for 9 or 10 hours. I didn't even mention the orange jello with shredded carrots.

My aunt had her entire refrigerator covered with Dole banana stickers, back when that was the only fruit sticker around. Mid-sixties, probably. My dad wouldn't let me stick banana stickers on our fridge. What a grump.

I don't know if this info will be of any use, but American Indians crushed hickory nuts, shell and all, and boiled the resulting paste in water to make a soup. The nutmeats and shells were discarded after cooking, and the nut oil was skimmed off the top and used as cooking oil or flavoring for other dishes. Unless the shells have some sort of toxin that is soluble in alcohol and not water, you should be ok.

What JAZ said--wilted lettuce. Or tomatoes right from the garden, chunked up, dressed with olive oil, cider vinegar and a clove of garlic mashed to a paste with plenty of salt. Throw some cukes in there, too.

I must admit I find the idea curious. I live in a rural area, grocery shopping is 25 miles away, so going to the grocery store is a once a week (or even twice a month) event for me. Her pantry sounds like mine--except for the parnips and radishes. (I would have to sub the half bushel of leaf lettuce and the two humoungous heads of broccoli I picked last night.) How often does everyone else shop?

I am waiting with bait on my breath for my potatoes to be ready to dig. The flavor of a new potato just out of the garden is incredible, and so different from any tater you buy in grocery store. Kinda like the difference between a real tomato still warm from the sun and the red styrofoam strip mined "tomatoes" from the produce aisle. Never tasted a real new potato? Next time you have a sprouty potato under the sink, bury it in a big pot of dirt. Put it outside in the sun, let the plant grow til the flowers begin to bloom, and then turn it out and harvest 5 or 6 six little potatoes. Boiled and buttered is good, but boiled til almost tender and then crisped in bacon fat is even better. Or boil them til they are almost done, and then add the fresh peas you just picked and shelled. Cook til the peas are done, drain, and put in as much butter as your conscience will allow. Eat with a spoon, so you don't miss a single pea.

I remember gas stations like that. And I remember orange Nehi in glass bottles, and you had to drink the soda before you left the station, because there was a deposit on the bottle. The soda was a nickle or a dime, and was heavenly, so sweet and cold. Of course, the fact that we had just driven hours in 90 degree weather with no air conditioning might have helped that soda taste so good. I was born in 1954 and I am 39 years old. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

MY sister tried to teach her springer to hunt morels. He got pretty good at it--too good, in fact, because he ate them when he found them.

I planted my lima beans today. The lettuce is ready to thin, and there are lots of green strawberries in the strawberry bed. The tomatoes and peppers went in last weekend, and were well watered all week--off to a great start. When I mowed today, I noticed that I had loads of peaches on my 3 trees--what a surprise! We had a spell of really cold weather just when the peaches and apples were blooming, and most of the trees in this part of the state lost their flowers. My trees are on the side of the hill. The cold air flows downhill, and pools in the valley, so my trees stayed just warm enough to allow the fruit to set. About fifty years ago, this piece of property was an orchard--I guess those folks knew what they were doing.

I am sorry--I didn't mean to say hot--I meant to say salted. I am sure my brain is around here somewhere, but I haven't seen it lately.

Before you soak them in hot water, cut them in half. They are hollow, and the black beetles and snails that live inside some of them make for a crunch almost as unpleasant as the dirt on the stems.