SylviaLovegren

One of my dad's favorite stories was about a woman who brought her "famous canned green beans" to a potluck. The secret of their great flavor, she explained to my horrified father, was that she didn't boil them nearly as long as the recipe called for because all that worry about botulism was just silly. Dad said he got a couple of "gals" to keep the woman busy while he boiled the beans in an open container for 15 minutes...and then spread the word for no one to eat them anyway.

Theoretically, salt added before the bean skins soften make them toughen up. Don't know if that's actually true.

It's a wonderful book but I'm not sure it really qualifies as something I'd cook from in hard times. More inspirational.

We have just a tiny urban patio that doesn't get much sun but this year I decided to try a few containers. We have a healthy herb pot garden and the tomatoes have actually done pretty well considering the few hours of direct sun they get... Except, the squirrels have harvested nearly every tomato without us being able to get any, the little buggers. I tried bringing the tomatoes in when they were still green and letting them ripen in the window, but the squirrels apparently learned what I was up to! and have been going after the green tomatoes now. Very discouraging. Maybe next year I'll try hot chilies instead...

My old Joy of Cooking instructs to take the muffins out of the tins while still hot.

And if anyone's in the Lancaster, PA, area, stop by Zimmerman's Country Store on Old Philadelphia Pike (it's actually in Intercourse) and try the locally made yoghurt. The fresh peach will make you cry. The fresh cherry and the lemon are delicious, too. It's available elsewhere in the area but I don't remember the brand name and Zimmerman's always has it in the regular large tub or the supersize extra ginormous tub. You won't be sorry.

Don't know about local books but Patience Gray's classic "Honey From A Weed" is a wonderful wonderful book on this topic. Amazon has it but it is generally available. Amazon link

I agree about people bringing things when you haven't asked them to. Drives me nuts. We recently had a dinner party and I'd planned a Mexican meal (or Mex-inspired, anyway), with chilies and avocado and corn and cumin and lime and beans. I'd planned a nice Mexican-style beer to go with, or lime drinks for those who didn't want beer. Our friends brought blue cheese and a rich red wine which they insisted we have before the meal. Both were delicious, but completely unbalanced with the meal. Then they drank the red wine with poblano/lime chicken. Aargh. I still get the heebie-jeebies thinking about it. But if it had been a potluck and had involved marshmallows, jell-o, or cream of mushroom soup I would have loved it.

Well, I couldn't find the layered cake in my Scandi cookbooks, but I did find the classic Dobos Torte online. The layers are made as I remembered -- a small bit of batter spread thin and baked crisp. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Hungarian-Seven-Layer-Cake-Dobostorte-104023

Can't say I think of 'crisp' and 'cake' as words that belong together Hah! The cake I remember (and haven't been able to find, going through my old cookbooks) had cake batter that was spread thin in rounds and baked crisp, almost like a cookie. Then the crisp rounds were layered with some sort of filling. I WILL find it.

Thanks for doing the hard work and doing it so well. ***lots of clapping***

Somewhere in the dim recesses of my memory is a similar cake that I read about, pretty sure it was in a Scandinavian-American cookbook. Many thin layers of crisp cake layered with fruit and cream (maybe it was a jelly?) -- it seems like a classic northern European torte idea. I don't think yours came out looking half bad. And your story -- with the perfect bitter tone! -- was wonderful.

The heat makes me lose my appetite, totally. Do you have a fan in your kitchen? I have a small one that I train on me while I'm working which helps immensely (just be sure it isn't aimed at open flame!). Also in hot weather I prepare food that as much as possible doesn't heat up the kitchen -- I use the outdoor grill, the slowcooker and the microwave. Also the old time trick of doing a lot of prep "in the cool of the morning." I like cool things in hot weather but if you insist on hot things (aren't humans interestingly different!) then plan so that your exposure to the heat in the kitchen is short. Make a stew in the crockpot and microwave potatoes to go with. Or make rice in the rice maker and do a quick stir fry.

OMG. But it would make a great sitcom -- write a script!

One of the joys of potlucks is being able to have foods I'd never, ever, make or buy. If there are marshmallows involved, all the better! Nevertheless, I have a few potluck standards that are inexpensive, protein-filled, and good, usually involving beans and rice, cheese, or eggs. That way I know there will be at least one big, hearty, filling dish that I can eat in the event that everyone else brings lettuce salads (which happened at one potluck I attended).

"No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded." The Great Yogi Berra

How is the pork cake? I have my great grandmother's recipe for pork cake (she was not a New Englander, however, but from Kansas with a Penn. Dutch background), but I've never had the courage and the salt pork at the same time.

Seems to me that the poor of southern Italy arrived in America and discovered that they could have cheese and meat all the time and celebrated that fact with delicious excess. Not only can we have meatballs with the pasta, we can have BIG meatballs AND cheese! Incidentally, does anyone know the etymology of "Sunday gravy"? I'd never heard tomato sauce called "gravy" until we lived in Hoboken, NJ.

I make my own by the bowlful by adding raisins to taste and about 2 tsps of rum to a bowl of vanilla ice cream, then stirring like mad. It would probably be better if I soaked the raisins first because they get awfully chewy in the cold ice cream...but I like 'em like that.

You sure you don't wanna open a sister resto in Toronto?

We had lunch at Treadwell's today. Wow. A beautiful space, attentive service and really delicious food, all locally sourced. I had a brunch dish of Eggs Benedict with spinach, made with luscious local ham and a sensational hollandaise, very bright with fresh lemon. The hub had roast pork belly with a deep dark mustard jus, sprinkled with coriander cress from the garden Mmmmm. I had a local sparkling rose that was delicious and hub had a deep dark piney red from Pelham Estates. Finished with a peach crumble from peach trees just down the road and a tangy sour cream ice cream We left feeling cared for, with that lovely glow that comes from a wonderful dining experience Perfect.

After you've been cooking for a while you get a war chest of old reliable recipes. That helps make planning easy as well as making it simple to pivot to a new plan if a key ingredient is on sale. I also plan leftovers -- I know that tonight's braised garlic-lemon chicken with rice is the basis for tomorrow's avgolemono soup, or that the planned for extra bit of grilled steak (expensive) from tonight's supper will be the centerpiece of the chef's salad (cheap) for tomorrow's. When inspiration, the market and my freezer fail me, there's always an omelet or grilled cheese sandwiches! But get a roster of dishes that you know are relatively easy. For example 3 chicken dishes, 2 shrimp dishes, 2 fish, 2 ground meat, 2 vegetarian, 2 soups, 2 meat, for cold days and another roster of the same for warm days. With those you'll have a basis for easy to put together meals and enough variety to cater to varying appetites and ingredient availabilities. Then use your cookbooks, on-line, magazines, etc. to offer a fun change-up when you have the time and are feeling adventurous.

Get a nice glass of your favorite beer, good and cold. Get some delicious fresh Italian bread and the best butter. Put out a bowl of the veggies. Eat a few veggies. Take a bite of lavishly buttered bread. Have a sip of cold beer. Enjoy the view. Repeat to replete.

We need McGee or someone for this. I've had a lot of bad peelers lately and I heard that salting the water helped that (something about changing the ionization of the solution so the egg wouldn't stick to the shell which I've probably remembered all wrong anyway) but I haven't noticed any difference. Also didn't notice any difference in the taste of the egg.

For basic information, I'd pick up an older copy of Joy of Cooking. It has a wonderful large reference section that explains cuts of meats, different styles of cooking (braising, boiling, baking, etc.), different types of sugar, flours, spices and herbs, fats, etc. The recipes tend to be a bit old-fashioned or at least not flashy, but they also tend to be foolproof -- it is an excellent resource for basic information about food and cooking with easy to follow recipes.