sparrowgrass

I think you picked your butternuts too early, Melkor. Next time wait til they are uniformly tan, with no green stripes. They will taste better and keep much longer. I didn't plant any this year, but last year, they kept until March, when I ate the last one. I envy your artichokes--much too hot here, and winters too cold.

I just know that sitting out under the maple tree with the White Mountain on the picnic table, cranking away on a warm day, beats the hell out of going to the grocery store. Part of the joy is nostalgia--my Missouri grandma had a dairy farm, and pulling the ice cream maker out of the smokehouse was a summer ritual. Someone went to town for the ice, grandma skimmed some cream off the gallon jars of milk in the fridge and broke some eggs from the hen house. All the kids took a turn on the crank, and swiped salty bits of ice from the machine to suck. The very best part of the whole deal was that Grandma had one of those old refrigerators with a freezer compartment just big enough for a couple of ice cube trays, so we had to eat ALL the ice cream before it melted.

Hopleaf, you probably know this already, but do plant your corn in blocks, not rows, if you are only putting a few plants in. Corn is wind pollinated, and so needs to be in a bunch, not all strung out. Mine is tasseling now, so it won't be long. I planted 4 varieties, in an area about 50 x 30. I freeze the excess. Green beans are taking over the kitchen right now--I planted one 30 foot row of bush beans, and I have picked about half a bushel or so. Made a dozen jars of dilly beans, and 5 or 6 quarts of plain beans. And I am eating green beans for dinner every night, generally boiled with bacon, onions, garlic, and a couple of new potatoes. (Us rednecks like our beans mushy and meat flavored.)

Damn it, I just gained ten pounds reading this.

I took the electric fence around the garden down so the chickens could eat the potato bugs, which they did with great vigor. However, they have now discovered the ripening tomatoes and the zucchini, so I ran them all out this morning and restrung the wire. I should have tomatoes in a day or two. Good bread, mayo, and BACON. Or a grilled cheese with tomato slices inside. The first ones will be eaten while standing in the garden, slightly bent over to keep the juice and seeds off my shirt. Later on, I will chunk up the tomatoes, dress them with a crushed garlic clove, plenty of salt, 2 glugs of olive oil and one of vinegar. Maybe some cuke chunks in there too.

Went out to the garden an hour ago and dug a few potatoes, picked some kohlrabi and few green beans. Threw 'em in a pot with some chicken stock I made last night, added a big onion, celery and some bacon. Boiled it til the taters and 'rabis were tender, and I am right now burning my tongue cuz I can't wait for it to cool.

soup beans and cornbread, fried cabbage, fried taters. Horse doovers--spread softened cream cheese mixed with ranch dressing on bologna, wrap slices around the ends of pretzel rods.

Buttermilk biscuits, sausage gravy, scrambled eggs. A sliced orange or two, just to counteract the cholesteral. No grits.

Jaymes, welcome to Missouri!! We will have to meet halfway sometime. (Someplace around Mountain View or Eminence--beautiful country, but we may have to pack a lunch.)

Shredded kitten does too taste just like tuna.

Jinmyo, can you 'splain this a little more? It sounds yummy, and I have a whole garden full of new taters out there just begging to be cooked.

I am with you, Joler. I was also raised in the Chi burbs--Woodridge and Naperville, and left for SIU as soon as I graduated. Married a guy who dragged me kicking and screaming to some pretty cold places--high desert of Utah, and most recently, way (WAY) northern Minnesota. AAARGGHH--no wonder those Scandahoovians are so dour. Snow and freezing temps start in late September, and don't let up til May, and it is dark, dark, dark all winter. Headlights on the way to work, and headlights on the way home. After 5 years in Ely, I escaped (the marriage and Ely) and settled in Missouri, where the snow knows when to go away--about 24 hours after it falls, usually. Summer foods--green salads, tomatoes, watermelons. Sometimes if it is just too hot to cook and eat, salsa and chips. Lots of grilling outside--seems silly to heat up a kitchen that I am paying to cool off. And the very instant the humidity drops and the temp falls to 70--usually in mid September--out come the bread pans and the stew pots.

little onion, little garlic, shredded carrot, finely chopped water chestnuts, and a couple of my good eggs.

I have 6 cabbages in the garden ready to pick, so I am appreciating this thread. I think I am going to make some sauerkraut--I don't like it, but surely someone does.

I like to dice a couple of strips of bacon, fry til crisp as you like it, toss shredded cabbage and onions into the pan, lots of black pepper, stir-fry til crisp/tender. And I had some kind of cabbage once, shredded into baking pan, with some onions I think, covered with half and half, topped with buttered bread crumbs and baked til the cabbage was tender.

Elyse, I think you got it. When I make pasta, I put some salt in it, unless I am planning to make enough to dry. Pasta with salt in it does not dry in this humid part of the world.

Did you know my ex-husband?

He understood, to bottoms of his chef's clogs, as he watched from the doorway of the still, dark kitchen, that if he misinterpreted her reaction to the clam linguine, it would make all the difference in the world.

While we are on this topic, let me give you my son's rice recipe. John's Smokin' Rice one part rice 2 parts water leave the kitchen to play a video game come back when smoke alarm blasts you out of your chair. How can I get carbonized rice off the bottom of my stainless pot?

The Kozy Korner, directly across the street from the Iron County courthouse, has a big sign painted on the outside wall: "Ho-made pies''. My coworker says that is a nasty thing to say about those nice ladies who cook over there.

(Off topic for just a sec!) Hey, snowangel, have you been up to see the bears at Vince Shute's? And the Soudan Mine State Park? I drive a lot, and I am usually in a hurry, so the all-in-ones are ok. A fill-up, potty break and snack, in and out in 10 minutes. I also have a tendency to hit the drive thru window, and just keep going til I get there.

Vinegar chicken--legs and thighs cooked with red wine vinegar, some anchoveys, lots of garlic, rosemary from the back yard. Jasmine rice. The kid is eating the leftovers as we speak.

Just bragging. I picked seven (7) huge (HUGE) heads of broccoli this evening, and have at least 3 more out in the garden that will be ready in a couple of days. I like to chop the broccoli (remember Dana Garvey on SNL?) with a nice sweet onion and a clove of garlic, and saute it in olive oil. MMMmmmm.

I was talking to a child and family specialist from university extension the other day about this very subject. She was stressing to her clients the importance of having family meals and communicating among family members. She said one problem with very low income people is that they don't have a kitchen/dining table. The first thing they buy is the TV, then a couch/chairs to sit on, and then (!) beds. The table is way down on the list for folks without money.

We ate dinner together every night, til the kids got jobs and weren't around. Now, my son and I eat together on the nights he is home.