Mottmott

For those cooking with gas: do you put the pizza stone on the floor of the oven or the bottom shelf?

Katie, I'll look out for those special Asian Pears this year. But I have to confess I love most fruit in its season. With fall upon us, I'm waiting eagerly for persimmons, muscat grapes, and quince. I've come to enjoy apples cooked most of all. And while an especially ripe aromatic pear is wonderful out of hand (with Stilton and port heavenly), I'm beginning to relish them poached in spices and wine or as part of a pork dish cooked in a gastrique, too.

Don't forget frittatas. What's wonderful about them is that, unlike omelets, I find them appetizing at room temperature, and their left overs can be added to soups or salads. Another good egg vehicle for leftovers is custard which makes wonderful additions to a meal. When you live alone, using up everything can become a challenge.

How sad - that means that no one can ever read it. Strictly speaking, if I view that web page, I'm reproducing it. If I were to dare to print a page for later reference, I risk being hauled off in irons. Evidence of my criminality would be readily preserved, as a copy of the forbidden material would be 'reproduced' and preserved for an indefinite time on my hard drive in the web cache. View a web page, go to jail. You may think I'm exaggerating, but that's what your words above mean, in a paranoid legal sense. And when dealing with lawyers, the only way to be is paranoid. ← Nevermind, not worth it. ← chefzadi, I will visit you again and even cook something from your website in defiance of the legalities.

I love Chemex for coffee so much I've been through half a dozen! They not only make very good coffee, they're a work of art. When I make just 1 cup for myself, though, Bodum makes a pretty decent brew.

From someone who's been on both sides of the "X." And no doubt you can find something to piss her off too. But if there are kids from that marriage, make her your best friend. Swap baked goodies when you swap the kiddies on the weekend. You'll be surprised how sweet it can be to be sisters-in-law in the X jungle.

Sorry to hear about the lawyers' bills, and I wish you a bright happy future. Make lemonade. Careful though, don't translate all that baking into pounds of problems. Use the goodies to shower on friends. Check out Cook's Illustrated for economy tips. They're really good about the best everyday balsamic (WF's 365 brand) or the vanilla question (they claim fake vanilla's not discernable in baked goods). And if you need to replace kitchen equipment, they're invaluable. As well as eG. Most libraries will have years worth of back CI issues. TJ's is good, but for baking I'd spring for the Plugra! Also consider joining a coop if there's one near you. Check out here. It not only will bring good quality food at good prices, but you may meet some new interesting people with whom to share all those baked goodies. Farmers markets are often a good source for good produce to make pies and tarts. If you have Asian or other ethnic grocery stores near you, you can often find good ingredients such as dried mushrooms and spices more economical. Examine the rest of your diet for places to save money, and even do savory baking. You can make may things you might otherwise buy. Make your own pizza and quick dinners, etc. instead of ordering out. You can turn even leftovers into wonderful dinners, for example empanadas, turnovers, spring rolls, potstickers, pizzas, etc. Some oil based doughs (especially good with savory tarts) and cakes will be less pricy than butter based (see Italian cookbooks and websites). Make a ton of ravioli and gnocchi for pennies instead of paying $5. for a handful of the commercial frozen versions. I make big batches and freeze them (separated on trays, frozen, then bagged for storage), not so much to save money as to enjoy better and more varied pasta. They make a wonderful quick meal for one or a special company dinner. As a bonus they often require little more than a simple butter or oil sauce with a dusting of cheese, bread crumbs, herbs, chopped nuts, squeeze of lemon, etc. (Dinner in the time it takes to bring the water to a boil.) Use the library for cookbooks that feature peasant and traditional cuisines that shine at turning very inexpensive ingredients into feasts. Turn your baking creativity to also making your own bread and crackers. A 5 lb bag of KA flour costs about $3., but a single loaf of good bread costs about $3-5. With your own bread, a little good cheese and home made soup can be a magnificent and cheap meal. Especially if you have some delicious home made dessert to finish it. Often economy is better achieved by not wasting than by buying cheaper foods. I find the better the quality of what I eat, the less I need of it. Use your freezer to save bits of this and that to turn into savory tarts, empanadas, pizzas, and soups or stews. Save leftover egg whites or yolks for future baking, etc. Use the orange, grapefruit, lemon peel from your fruit to candy and use in your baking. Not only cheaper but fresher and tastier than most candied fruit you buy. Bones, chicken backs, and cheap meat cuts are the basis of stocks, the sauces derived from them, and wonderful inexpensive soups, stews, braises. Do some vegetarian meals each week to balance off the high fat content of baked goods as well as save money. Look to risottos for dishes that can be made quickly and turn bits of leftovers or even just a couple shrimp or clams into a luxury meal. Have fun.

TPO, you bring up a very interesting point. I agree completely that creative people should reap rewards from their activity. Often, however, it is the dealer, middleman, recording company, or large corporations that reaps the greatest benefit, not the artist. How much does the artist make from his work is not the same as how much does the copyright holder make. In the latter case, is the profiteer the end user who finds a recipe or piece of music on the web, or is it Google, Napster, or whoever else may be running the website or selling software. The thorny question of who should profit? can be teased out: what about the reviewer paid to review a book? the newspaper or magazine the review appears in? what about Julia/Julie Project? What about art historians and curators who make their livings by critiquing, judging, and organizing exhibitions of both living and dead artists. Many people make money or fame secondary to the effort of creative people. How and where are the lines to be drawn? It's a question with uncertain answer. Without doing all the research to give you lots of examples, I recall reading of many famous jazz and other artists have received small fixed sums for their work which has made relatively large sums for many. This was particularly true in the past. In other cases where royalties were supposed to have been paid, they weren't. Becasue of their poor treatment at the hands of the recording industry some jazz and other artists have chosen to open their own labels. I believe the case is similar for other kinds of musicians, photographers, actors, etc. where they are paid for doing a set or particular job and receive no royalties from future revenues. And in the case of the visual arts, some painters all but lived on dirt while they were making the paintings, selling them off for small sums only to later see them resold with hugh profits made by those who had first bought them. The art world is replete with tales of dealers who'd buy artists' paintings wholesale, hoard them them til the artist became better known and then sell them. Or found other ways to rip off those who created the work. The artist who may or may not have been adequately compensated is not nececessarily the holder of the copyright. I'm sure the lawyers here can give you chapter and verse on this difference and have all sorts of tales to tell.

I don't disagree with your sentiment that we support the arts, but disagree that "artistic material [shouldn't be] ...free when it was intended to be purchased." Culture is not a commodity like coffee. Both the fine and applied arts, as the texture of our society, give richness, substance, nuance. For some it even becomes central to life. It's not intended to be bought and sold even if we support the writers and artists who enrich it by paying for some form of their work when we can. For most writers and artists I know, money is the fuel that allows them to work and the work and the pleasure it brings to themselves and others is their greatest reward. They above all know that some of their most enthusiastic supporters are often least able to give much material support. The rest of us who can do so should do it without grudging those who cannot. Many of us donate to museums, libraries, schools, mainstream & alternative performance spaces just to be sure they remain open to everyone. Not being able to pay to participate in our culture today should not disqualify anyone from participating in it. Many who write books today were not able to afford them when young. When I was a child playing hooky from school, the art museum (then free) was my favorite destination. As a child I was too poor to "own" books, but not too poor to use the library. reading several books a week. Today I have a small art collection and many books. It pains me that museums are no longer open access. I believe access to the arts should be available to everyone. As a painter, I'm delighted when someone buys a painting, but if a copy pulled off the web by someone who can't afford it gives them pleaure today, so be it. With respect to cookbook writers in particular: Rather than feeling they are diminished by giving away the goods, many cookbook writers go out of their way to have websites that include recipes. To take just two among many examples of people who post at eG, Paula Wolfert and Clifford Wright both maintain websites with recipes and send out newsletter notifications of updates. They and other professional writers post tips and recipes here at eG. Yet I and many others at eG own books by many of them bought both before and after finding them online. Is it, dumb me when I can have it free? First. Many people who enjoy art, whether fine arts or applied arts will not be satisfied with it online only. Most of us will continue to BUY cookbooks, CD's, paintings, etc., using the web for research and sampling. Those too poor to buy these things should not be excluded from the culture of our society. Artists and writers are not damaged when people share in art or books in libraries, museums, free concerts, or online. Second. The web gives many access to material that they may not have available where they live and lead ultimately to their ordering books and recordings they might not have known about. Third. Not everyone can afford to buy paintings, books, records. Creative people want people to have access to their work. And many of them do not want money to be the gatekeeper to their work. Many artists do free readings and have free shows. Success for them is not just selling their work, but having their work displayed to the public at the Dia Foundation, the Walker, The Painted Bride, or their local community center. Some who have achieved great financial success literally give their work away to be enjoyed by the public. At the end of his life, Matisse, then financially secure, spent 4 of his final years on the Vence chapel (which I believe he may even have helped pay for). Monet's great paintings at the Orangerie were a gift to France.

Thanks laniloa but they don't ship to Canada. I have definitely not seen anything like that in the stores here. I will continue my search! ← You might try here. They're local for me and I did see some in their store. If they don't ship to Canada, they might know who you could try up there.

Are these lined on the inside? I'm not sure I'd like to brew tea directly in an unlined iron pot.

I have hundreds of cookboods, magazines, and online access to thousands of recipes. And yet I just ordered 6 more cookbooks. Having online access to those books would not have kept me from buying them.

if you do a beet stuffing, try serving them with a gorgonzola sauce (just some gorgonzola melted in a bit of cream). Absolutely delicious. ← Thanks, I'll try that next time. Tonight I had another serving with a simple drizzle of oil and lemon (& zest). The oil/lemon complemented the beets much better than the butter/poppy.

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Today I made some ravioli filled with proscuitto/ricotta/minced parmigiano. I had a few and will freeze the rest. I don't think I'll repeat this as I found them a bit too dominated by the prosciutto flavor. If you're wild for prosciutto it might do. I prefer cheese with a strong flavored sauce or mushroom with a delicate butter or oil dressing. I'm thinking my next batch will be beets as I have some in the fridge and I may add a touch of mustard oil to the olive oil as I recently had a great beet salad with mustard oil in the dressing. I was thinking of adding some fresh herbs, but chickened out because I worried whether that would work when freezing rather than using fresh. Any experience with this out there for me to draw on?

If I may play devil's advocate here, what necessitates her being socially-conscious? She was fabulous as she was before. She earned her place, and her fortune. If this new desire to help others is genuine, wonderful, but if it isn't, that is going to be transparent eventually. Yes, she is an absolute trouper, and I admire her resilience tremendously -- but from what I'm seeing here, it's almost as if she is apologizing to America for being who she is, when there was never a reason to. Forgive me for spouting off before watching, but I am speaking here of philosophical premises, and I hope the "new Martha" does not leave the other one in the dust. ← It remains to be seen what the show will become. I hope I didn't give the impression that because Martha shows greater social awareness that it dominates the program. It doesn't. That she talks about spending some of her prison time teaching yoga and exploring microwave cooking fallen apples and foraged herbs seems quite in keeping with what we've seen of her in the past. It is similar to making picture frames with found sea shells or pine cones and holiday wreaths of cranberries. Only in prison. It's also true that she used elements of her life in the old show, too. So it's not surprising that her imprisonment becomes fodder for the TV show. It's hard to believe her experience these last few years has not changed her in some ways. I'm sure many of us are watching to see if and how. Her personal drama has become part of the present show in a way I don't recall seeing in the old show. What seems to worry most of us who liked the old show is that her new program is going to be just another idle afternoon talk show around the kitchen island.

I agree that there are very attractive track lights out there. With such high ceilings as you have, the track lights will bring the light closer to you than recessed lights will. And I've even seen systems where the track has been (home) made out of copper tubing to take a wide array of fixtures. Not sure how it was done. I strongly recommend considering low voltage type lights. They cost more up front but with energy prices going where they're going, they'll pay for themselves.

Seriously. If I hadn't seen it with my very own eyes, I would have accused you of all kinds of humorous things. Call this episode, "Martha Dug Prison" with David Spade. Besides the nachos (which Spade couldn't eat because of the hot sauce on top), she microwaved "grilled" cheese sandwiches with pre-nuked dandelion greens in a brown paper bag. Because, in prison, she got her mail in brown paper bags everyday - and you couldn't keep them, so she used them. I'm not making this up. There was a running commentary about how all of the recipes were done in prison. How she saved everything little thing to make stuff for herself and her...prison friends. I felt like I was eavesdropping on one of Martha's therapy sessions. Totally fascinating, a little frightening, yet hilarious, in an innocent bystander kind of way. ← I agree with all the snide remarks about the new Martha show - and then some. But: Whether you feel she deserved what she got, none of it, or should have had more, she is certainly dealing with the prison issue up front and without any self-pity. Her attitude towards it might be a model for many of us in the face of life trials. Something bad happened, get over it, keep living life, perhaps in a more conscious way. It's the old lemonade from life's lemons or garlic graters from used tins approach. She's recycling her life much as she formerly recycled garage sale finds. I admire that in her. One hopes that her experience there will provide more than a few comic bits of ankle bracelets and prison ponchos. There are signs of more social consciousness than her earlier show ever had, at least obliquely as in promoting ponchos to donate profits to women and children who need help. And bad as the segment on prison cooking seemed to me, it does speak to making do with what's available whether used paper bags, windfall apples, or foraged herbs - which alas is how millions of Americans live. I also hope that show gets better.

I consider duxelles a pantry (freezer) staple. You can make them in really large batches Once made, they're a quick addition to any recipe calling for a mushroom/shallot mix. The last time I made ravioli I simply added my at-the-ready duxelles to some ricotta for a quick to mix filling. If you freeze them thin and flat in a ziplock bag, it's easy to break of as little as a spoonful of them to add to whatever you want as well as larger quantities. I also use them, mixed with gruyere, herbs wrapped in phyllo for nibbles.

I'm kicking this up because I just discovered that OXO has a plastic pizza cutter that is supposed not to damage nonstick surfaces. That might satisfy both of you.

Actually, this made me think about the current offerings on both PBS and Food Network. It seems like I hardly ever see food shows concentrating on ethic cusine anymore. I'd love to see shows geared towards, Janpanese, Indian, Cuban and other food cultures. What happened? Are there no TV personalities that want to an indian cooking show (as an example)? Or, is it that the audiance is not large enough. Right now, Ledia's Italian show is the closest think I get to ethic. ← You just don't live in the right place. In Philadelphia we have WYBE, a public station not in the PBS network. It shows two hours of cooking shows five days a week. Mondays, Asian; Tuesdays, Italian; Wednesdays, eclectic (Latino, Penn State restaurant school, a restaurant tour show, low carb cooking ); Thursdays, chefs at work including Charlie Trotter; Fridays BBQ, Weir, & Americ's Test Kitchen. The individual shows change from time to time, but the format is pretty stable. Best of all and not noted on their schedule is a 10 minute filler, Posh Nosh, a BBC parody of an English foodie couple. This kind of programming is in keeping with their commitment to serve the entire community and represent many ethnicities, with news and other kinds of programs from all over the world from Ireland to Ballywood. Two nights a week they have a Korean epic historical drama (with subtitles) that I've become addicted to. It's frsh and far less corporate than PBS.

Today was Martha Stewart Light. It seems to promise a daytime talk show different from others in that it all takes place in her studio kitchen sans couches. It would be unfair to generalize this to the future, but today was disappointing though funny in unintended ways. (BTW:This is a report from someone who really liked the old Martha show.) This show needs more unreconstructed Martha who really is into the do-it nuts & bolts of life while she only pretends to be interested in people unless (like her) they give themselves over to doing someting really well. She had two guests segments, one, "Brie" from Desperate Housewives was interesting only in that she represented in her real life the absolute opposite of Brie. In fact, the whole episode came off as a kind of extended advert for the upcoming season premier of the show. They did two demo's. One was teaching Brie to make scrambled eggs (duh) and then learning how to serve them in eggshells as if someone who proclaimed she never cooked was about to serve scrambled eggs to her new lover (see Martha holding up his picture). But the real hoot was Martha teaching Brie how to fold tee-shirts (sorry, I don't know the actress' name) while Brie couldn't even pretend to be interested much less try to do it. The second was an Oprah-esque drop-in on a couple sisters making an Italian family dinner, who then later appeared on the TV show live. It's best moments were Martha obsessing on all the weeds in their garden. Now the old show did have celebrities and ordinary folk, not to mention characters from Sesame Street, of which we are promised more. But if you used to tune in to Martha to pick up any useful info, this first show does not promise what you're looking for. It may pick up, but I think the future is fortold by the change from professional restaurant stoves and ovens to GE's Monogram series. edited to prove I know future has two "u's."

VERY good point. IMHO, every light fixture should be on a dimmer switch. Rooms that you enter with arms full of stuff should also be on motion sensors (like the laundry room). ← I agree with you, and I have all my fixtures withg incandescents on dimmers. On the other hand I have replaced many incandescents with those flourescent replacement bulbs which can't be on dimmers. Now I've got to look into those motion sensors.

I wasn't familiar with these lights, so I did an online search. Mott, I think this may be the perfect solution! Here's one supplier of Xenon lighting. (I found the lights spelled as both Zenon and Xenon, but infinitely more with the "Xenon" spelling.) They have these low-voltage strips that have a profile of just 7/8 inch in the front; do you think this would eliminate the need to add trim along the bottom of the cabinets? ← If you use these lights, spring for the dimmer switch. It's rather pricy as you must get one that is specially made for the type of transformer you use. But I think it's worth it as it's really very pretty when you're not working on the counter to use it light the kitchen without the overhead lights. In my opinion, one of the benefits of this light is that you can mask it and not have the bare light in your eyes when you are sitting down for breackfast or a snack. The lights at the BACK of the cabinets are unattractively visable imo. Also, you'd be surprised at how finished it looks having that horizontal strip running the length of your cabinets. Most mfgrs of cabinets now make a variety of moldings, but you can also probably find something at the lumber yard that can be finished to match - or contrast with your cabinets. I wish I had a digi cam so I could show mine to you, but it was finished by the mfgr for me to match my cabinet and has a recess in its profile that takes a strip of laminate that matches the color of the counter below it. It gives a really customized appearance. Just one note of caution. If you do install the horizontal molding if you need to use more than one length, be sure that where you butt the two pieces that you cut them at an angle so they overlap and there is no gap and barely a visible seam. The person who installed mine didn't do that and it annoys me no end whenever I notice it. Fortunately, it's in an inconspicuous spot.

I have under the counter zenon lighting (12 v). It's relatively pricy, but I love it. It's a strip into which you push the little individual lights, as few or many to be spaced as you wish. I placed them at the front of the cabinets behind a decorative molding that masks them, so the light is right over the work space and you don't normally see the fixture as you do when the lights are in back against the wall. edited to add: heat is no problem with this system