SylviaLovegren

OK, you lost me there. Chocolate and salty fish? No, a thousand times no. I do like oatmeal with crumbled bacon, egg, butter and lotsa salt and pepper, though.

Not a good time of year for oysters, but you should be able to get fresh Dungeness crab. If you find a place that serves fresh razor clams, definitely try them. Delicious.

As others have said, those big Florida/Puerto Rico avocados are watery and not as tasty. (Don't let my Puerto Rican friends hear me say that, tho...) They'll do as slightly anemic substitutes, but they're nothing like the Haas or Fuertes. Slightly crisp, slightly sweet, and watery, as opposed to buttery and nutty.

I'm partial to: "Cook until done."

Is goonk a technical term? My MIL isn't messy like that, but she does manage to get every dish and implement in the kitchen dirty, fill up the sink, and cover all the counters and the stove top with mess. After having worked with her in her kitchen for a number of years, I am a fanatical clean-as-you-goer and can put dinner on the table now, in many cases, with no dishes or pots and pans to be washed after dinner at all.

Wow, your kitchen may be small but it looks cozy and well thought out and well loved. I want to hang out there! The seafood looks amazing. I want that whale butter dish.

Ayup. Also, heh.

In the 70s (yeah, I'm old!) at the first "New American" restaurant in Seattle, Rosellini's Other Place. Started with a soup of wild local mushrooms, then a roasted locally grown quail -- done just a point, with butter, no herbs or distractions. A side of wild greens. Desert was wild blackberries, local, in flaky pastry. It was a revelation. Everything fresh and local, everything cooked simply but perfectly, everything in harmony. And served in a quiet, elegant, warm atmosphere. A life changing experience.

Ain't it the truth? This heat wave is intense.

At a certain point (reached yesterday when the heat/humidity index was 125F) I get vaguely nauseated and most food sounds unappetizing. I do get hungry eventually but only want things like salted tomatoes or melon slices, cold light vegetables, maybe some cold fish or chicken. But I think people's reactions to heat vary dramatically. My husband, who's of Greek background, rarely feels hot and even yesterday was eager to go out for a walk after dinner (we went out and I couldn't finish my food). All I wanted to do was put ice on the back of my neck and lie down in a cool dark room.

My grandmother's way with the new potatoes out of her garden: boil potatoes in salted water, have ready some fresh baby peas just boiled with a little salt and some thick fresh cream made warm but not boiling. Drain the vegetables, then mix the potatoes with the peas and the cream. A little pepper if you like. Eat this dish all by itself because any other flavors will blur the purity. The cream has to be really good, no ultra-pasteurized stuff.

We've found a supplier in Toronto who started out raising healthy beef because he didn't what to eat feed lot meat. After years of cattle raising, he's started growing heritage grains on the land that is now rich from all that good manure. His chickens also deliver really delicious eggs. That's the way it's supposed to work.

If you google, you'll come up with a buncha recipes for candied pineapple. Mmmmm, my mouth is watering.

Gonzo food blogging! Looking forward to more.

Probably the first piece of advice would be to wait for the humidity to drop.

Why didn't I think of this? When I was a kid my mom had a set of elasticized plastic covers for her leftovers that looked like shower caps, except they came in colors -- this was before plastic wrap became ubiquitous. Thanks for the tip!

Had no idea there was a Rhode Island hot dog culture. Neat! Wish I could go sample.

There's nothing wrong with restaurants offering bland, familiar food in small quantities for the kids who are picky. But usually those choices are bad food, high in fat and salt and empty calories and prepared with the cheapest ingredients in a not particularly caring way. It's trash fast food and the restaurants are training kids to accept that. Some kids will only eat a few things (I know one teenager -- whose parents are both fantastic, creative cooks -- who will only eat a certain type of hamburger, plain pizza and certain hotdogs, won't eat fruit or vegetables at all and who is slim and seems healthy), but lots of kids will try all kinds of things. Our own son loved sushi, octopus, squid, curries, pate, pesto, artichokes and pretty much everything else by the time he was 4 or 5, unless it came with a cream sauce or melted cheese, which he detested (no mac 'n' cheese for him!). French restaurants generally don't have crappy kid food -- they expect the children to educate their palates by eating good food and I like that idea. Also, turn down that radio and get off my lawn!

Wonderful reporting. Feel like I'm right there -- and wish I were! Looking forward to more.

Once it's blended store it in the fridge to help keep the emulsion. Or move to the Pac NW where's its always cool enough to leave out.

I looked in DeGuoy's The Gold Book (inspired by an earlier post about this good old book) -- he doesn't give a recipe using vermouth, but there are numerous recipes for trout or sole poached in various wines, including sauternes, dry white wine, and red wine. All of these he mixes 50-50 with either fish stock or court bouillon. I don't see why vermouth wouldn't work, as well, but I'd get a dry vermouth not a sweet one. Google also yields s a number of recipes, including Saveur's sole poached with vermouth http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Poached-Sole-with-Vermouth.

Beautiful area. We go through a lot but usually go low end. Skaneateles is a favorite stop and a gorgeous, charming town -- Doug's Fish Fry is a super popular casual fish 'n' chips joint with good local beer and delish ice cream. There are a couple of "good" restaurants in town, but we've never tried them. For real local color in the bigger towns, there's the local chain of steak restaurants -- Delmonicos http://www.delmonicositaliansteakhouse.com/. They have a specialty known as "chicken riggies" (chicken with rigatoni, artichoke hearts, peppers and a cream sauce) that is known only in that part of upstate, which pleases the culinary historian in me. Tastes good, too, and the steaks are impeccable and huge. Very old-fashioned place, hostesses wear "Eye-talian Moll" outfits and there's Frank Sinatra music, red vinyl booths and big servings -- no sous vide there! Friends have said that some of the newer wineries in the Finger Lakes are really worth touring, but we've never done that. If you can find a place that sells the local aged cheddar, get it -- really good. 3 and 4 years old. If you go to Niagara, try to get to Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada (but be sure to make reservations). Absolutely gorgeous place and we have toured some of the wineries there with happy results. There's a farm market on the main road in to town that has fantastic local produce, salumi, cheese, etc. There are two, actually, but the one on the west side of the road that's close to town is a tourist trap with not-so-great stuff and high prices, whereas the one on the east side of the road that's a bit farther out of town is the real deal. Niagara-on-the-Lake has lots of VERY high end restaurants... that we have never been to . Have fun. Truly one of the prettiest areas in North America. A shame most New Yorkers don't bother to go there anymore.

Allrecipes has quite a few different bars -- this one has a lot of positive reviews: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chewy-granola-bars/detail.aspx (why I couldn't get the "link" thingy to work, I don't know)

You can also use orange peel and Cointreau or Grand Marnier instead of the bourbon, for a nice variation. Or lemon peel and dark rum, with brown sugar.

Either one of y'all (or both!) can invite me for those dinners and I wouldn't say no.