TeakettleSlim

You can also make a mint-infused simple syrup and can it-- same basic procedure as for jams-- use at will for sweetening lemonade or other drinks, thin it out with fruit of your choice and turn it into a sorbet, etc.

Fake banana! When I was a kid, the local swimming pool sold these flavored sugar powders in little plastic fruit-shaped bottles. The banana was my favorite. I like to pretend my affection is mostly nostalgia-based, but I'm not sure that's true.

That strikes me as roughly right. I'm on board with the macaroni and cheese, mashed potato conservatives. To which I'll add grits-- I want 'em like my mom (from West PA, mind) made them: with water, then with cheddar added maybe. But nothing else. Pot roast is another. Give me beef seasoned with salt, pepper, maybe onion. Low and slow. The End. On the other hand, there were lots of other things she made that I'm happy to elaborate on-- pies are a good example. Certainly a comfort food, and one which she did very well, but apart from requiring homemade crust, I'm not particularly conservative.

I make pesto out of it. Nice on pizza or cheesy toast. I also dry massive amounts of it that get used up in chili and pizza sauce over the course of the year.

Made a very nice curried brown butter cashew ice cream yesterday-- 4 Tbs butter, browned, then 1 Tbs curry powder toasted in the butter. Whisked in 1 c. each milk and cream, 4oz brown sugar, then tempered in 1/3 c. egg (from carton-- it's what I had). Whisked in 1/3 c. cashew butter and another 1/3 c or so of cream. It was very thick-- when it melts, it's almost more of a pudding. The cashew butter was a last-minute improvisation. If I make it again, I'll reduce both egg and cashew butter a bit. But the flavor is perfect. Made a burnt sugar coconut brittle to go with it. Yeah, I'm proud of myself. I see that many ice cream recipes call for heating the milk, then once you've got the eggs and sugar and whatnot mixed in, stirring in some cream. What's the reason for adding cream at the end instead of throwing it all into the pan at the beginning?

If you ever find yourself in Indiana, seek out Traderspoint Creamery yogurt. So tart and fresh-tasting. A little on the thinner side of the yogurt spectrum (it comes in milk-style bottles), but highly yummy.

I'm a bit if a jamming addict. Every time I make a new batch of something, I'm sure it's my new favorite. That said, I find myself jealously hoarding my remaining jars of two-apricot jam with vanilla and gewurtztraminer (from Ferber's book). Generally speaking, though, I think my heart too belongs to marmalade. The food mill worked very nicely for me last year to de-seed some blackberries for cinnamon blackberry jam. I'm hoarding the last jar of that, too.

It is to weep. And shall I mention the coffee shops where they give you only one tea bag no matter the size of the cup you've ordered? But, they cheerfully tell you, you can get a refill of the lukewarm water! And resteep the sad, overworked little teabag! I read a thread from a while back here lamenting bad tea in restaurants. Apparently it's too expensive to offer? What with the china walking off and all? I'm not sure I buy it-- personally, I'd be fine with someone bringing me a prepared cup of tea, no teapot, no strainer, if it were well made. (You know, like they do with coffee). Maybe if tea became a "way of life" for more Americans, they'd find a way to make it work.

I agree it's silly-- but maybe if it catches on, we'll finally be able to get decent tea in more restaurants. I hate going to a good restauarant, enjoying an excellent meal, and then finding that the only tea on offer is Lipton.

My in-laws buy something called farmer's cheese at Fresh Market. Since we have no Fresh Market and I'm frugal anyway, I tried the Lee Bros. recipe for buttermilk cheese. The result was very similar-- very much like a fresh ricotta, a bit thicker curd (a result of how long I strained it, I assume). Couldn't be simpler, and I'll definitely be making it on a regular basis now. Nice with some dried herbs steeping in the liquid as it heats. I used the leftover whey to make bread; an excellent application if I do say so.

Our heat is out, and I need to think of reasons to have the oven on all day (or until the heater guy gets here). Baroness, your Uncle Art's cake is Reason #1! Used up all my blackstrap in it. It's in the oven now, and smells delicious. Thank you for the recipe!

I always use it (well-dusted with flour) for rolling out pie crust onto.

Roasted potatoes, butternut squash. Pears might be nice, too, but maybe the cheddar would overpower them.

Just wondering if anyone else has been baking from this book, the sequel to "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". I got mine this fall, have made a few things from it but after reading the thread on the first book, am ready to dig in even more enthusiastically. So far I've made the olive oil bread and the flax baguettes, and just started the dough for the 100% plain and simple whole wheat bread today. I'm intrigued by the whole wheat brioche dough, may have to try that next.

I'm making mustard this year! It's something I've wanted to do for a while now, but was never brave enough (not wanting to injure anyone's sinuses with badly made mustard). A couple of weeks ago I discovered andiesenji's mustard recipe, made a couple of test batches with great success (Thank you Andie!), so now it's on. I've ordered 6 lbs of mustard seeds. So far I've done apple, thyme, and white wine, and a curry-honey mustard. Still scheming about the rest...I think we're going to be sending samplers of 3-4 mustards to the entire extended family, complete with a little booklet of recipe suggestions.

Not to my knowledge, but we are kindred spirits, it would seem. The funny thing is, I never used to hate it-- not until I came up with my timesaving sort-as-it-goes-in technique. Now the whole task irks me sorely. I'll also add, in the prep category, item #3: Occasionally when I buy certain veggies at the farmer's market (broccoli, I'm looking at you!), they have all these little green caterpillars on them. I hate picking them off, but there's no way I'm going to be anything less than meticulous about it. I actually stopped buying fresh broccoli there due to this, I'm sorry to say.

1. Sorting silverware upon unloading the dishwasher. I prefer to sort as it goes in, which I try to do as it's generated, so I don't have to sort more than a few pieces at a time. Then when it's all done, I can just grab a handful out of each section of the basket and stick it in the right place without further fussery. Of course, I'm the only one in the house who does this, so one well-meaning dishwasher-loading helper can screw up my whole system. I don't want to discourage anyone from loading the dishwasher, though, so I keep my mouth shut about it. 2. Emptying the little drain basket/stopper thing in the side of the sink that doesn't have the disposal. Eew, eew, eew.

Bread. Jam. And perhaps least defensibly, I can my own beans. I don't know that they taste especially better than boughten ones, but I like to do it (and I can leave the salt out if I want).

After it dawned on me that crackers are basically a cross between a pie crust and a biscuit, I became truly cracker-empowered. My generic cracker recipe is 2 c. whole wheat pastry flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 stick butter 3/4-1 c. liquid (milk, pumpkin puree, whatever) salt to taste spices to taste, or pat seeds onto the dough before baking. Buttermilk crackers are very tasty-- change the leavening to 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, and use buttermilk for the liquid (obviously). Mix it like a biscuit-- cut butter into dry ingredients, then mix in only as much liquid as you need to get it to form a ball. Be gentle, and finish the mixing with your hands. Wrap it in plastic, let it rest a while in the fridge, then roll it out on a Silpat as thinly and evenly as you can, cut into squares with a pizza cutter, and bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. I usually remove the edge pieces just as they begin to brown and return the rest to bake a bit more to ensure nothing gets burnt or underdone. 2-3 reps of that usually gives good results.

We're hosting this year, 6 of us and a 10-month-old. I hope we'll be able to find a couple more people to invite, as we always make waaaayyy more food than we need (often we end up with 4 pies for 6 people, for example). Mainly because each family has their must-haves, and there's not much overlap. So far, I'm thinking: homemade crackers, deviled eggs, olives, some cheese for pre-dinner nibbles. Then turkey (brined, roasted) gravy mashed potatoes mashed sweet potato/pumpkin casserole (w/ brown sugar and pecan topping) mother-in-law will bring the family's meat stuffing (think French Canadian tortiere, but sans crust) some kind of bread stuffing (that's for me and my mom-- probably cornbread-based)(though whether it will be stuffing or dressing depends on who wins the argument this year) cranberry sauce (homemade, not sure which direction I'll take it this time-- I get some flexibility with this one since it too is mainly for me and my mom) butternut, cheddar, & bacon gratin roasted brussels sprouts with cinnamon-bay balsamic reduction a trio of roasted vegetables (green beans, cauliflower, parsnips/carrots?) with a mix-and-matchable assortment of compound butters. I haven't actually tried preparing roasted veg ahead and reheating yet, so this depends on that being an option. Advice, anyone? The in-laws have a gelatin salad they do, which for the first time I'm told is not a must-have (hooray!)-- there just needs to be something fruity besides cranberry sauce. So I'm looking for something interesting to do along those lines. For dessert, at least pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Sugar free apple pie? Tarte tatin? Apple/pear crisp? Whipped cream (spiced if I do it, plain if brother-in-law is in charge) Possibly homemade ice cream of some sort (maple walnut, nutmeg are the current contenders) I've been threatening to make sage marshmallow, pumpkin graham cracker, and white chocolate smores, but we'll see if that ends up being doable (or even advisable) when the time comes.

Yesterday we were on an 8-hour drive back from Tennessee. There was a disappointing stop at our (perhaps ex-)favorite BBQ place in Dyersburg (the low point is best characterized as 'candied rib jerky'). But the truly shameful part was the 9 pm package of Nutty Bars. At least it lived up to expectations, unlike the ribs (so sad).

I firmly believe that everything is better with pecans. The only possible exception I have been able to think of is matzo ball soup. Pizza purists, avert your eyes: Pecans are surprisingly good as a pizza topping or in a calzone. Snadra, your pumpkin salad is going to the top of my to-make list.

This recipe from epicurious is my longtime favorite. I've subbed whole wheat for half of the flour and reduced the sugar to 1/2 c. when I make it for my daughter, and it's still darn good (and less like cake). I don't know if your pumpkins are big enough to justify this, but it's fun so I'll recommend it: I usually use Hubbards, and they're tough to get open! So I toss 'em off the stoop onto the sidewalk, sometimes more than once, then gather up the bits. Surely a gaggle of kindergarteners would enjoy that spectacle. I usually roast the pumpkin covered in foil at 400 for about an hour, scoop out the flesh, then puree. Strain it through cheesecloth for up to 24 hours if it's very watery (if you save and reduce this liquid, you get a nice sorghum-like syrup if the pumpkin was a sweet one).

Got some new Assams in from Upton last week-- Sessa "B", Daisajan, and Banaspaty. This morning I had the Sessa. The Banaspaty is my favorite of this batch, though. My husband brought me back an assortment of Kusmi Russian blends from a recent trip to Paris-- I think I'll give one of those a try this afternoon.

I'm a pie girl through and through. cake has it's place, but that place is not suffocating the life out of a perfectly good pie. It reminds me of the time I thought, "Rum and coke! love it! Coke Float! Yum!" Then, not being able to decide between the two, made a rum-and-coke float. NOT a good idea. Now, cake-type filling in a good pie crust, that's a compromise I could get behind.