Mottmott

I suppose this was directed at me, so I will respond. I advocate it, if only for one reason: the potential rewards far outweigh the risks. What is the point of living one's life in fear? If I die before I reach 30, then so be it, at least I enjoyed some good rare burgers in my day. ← I don't think my comments were diriected at you. Certainly I would advise folks to be aware of their immunity constraints. Each person needs to decide for themselves the risk/reward paradigm. You may be pushing 30, while I'm piushing 62. Jim ← We're all pushing 62, the question is how hard and from which side.

A nice ham bone which can usually be had really cheap makes bean, split pea, or lentil soup into something special. Very tasty, filling, and cheap if you use the dried beans.

I live in Lancaster County, and frankly find your characterisation of the rest of the Commonwealth to be offensive. Were I live there are a signifigant amount of conservative folks who oppose change in the system. There are also lots of folks,like me, who woulld like to see change. This sure ain't Alabama here and a discussion of the merits of the PLCB and changes to it are best served without ridiculous statements like that being made. I often post here about wine offerings at the PLCB specailty store in Lancaster, which is open on Sundays, by the way. What would you think of someone posting that everyone in Philadelphia is in favor of this change because the town is full of drunks. My reply here does not begin to describe my upset at these sterotypical, ridulous statements you made. True Fact: I do not agree with those who oppose change and picketed PLCB stores. However, I support there right to do so without calling them names or suggesting they are from Alabama. Your unsupported generalisations about folks who live were I do are un fonded and unfair. ← Ah, but you're willing to "characterize" Alabama, right?

You mean there are people who don't save them? I have collections of quart and pint plastic containers and lots of glass jars. I even save yogurt cups & covers because they're great for oil disposal. ← Even the Cook's Illustrated team recommends yougurt containers.

Good thinking. This is a wonderful service that eG'ers could perform in our communities. eGCI is a wonderful resource for those of us who are already interested and simply want to expand our repetoire. Perhaps we need to work up a course on nutritious food on a low budget for people who may or may not have much skill in the kitchen.

Will you be, perhaps, treating us to something from Venus in the Kitchen? Or is you attachment to it only for sentiment, not the author? I look forward to this week. I'm glad I caught it in real time. Alas I mostly catch up on these blogs when they're well over.

I eat shipped in citrus, avacados, bananas, pineapples, etc. I confess it. All despite my avowed gastronomic and ecological preference for local and seasonal. Otherwise, I'd never eat them. But when it comes to luscious, juice-dripping, sweet white peaches, corn, and other fruits that ARE grown locally in their too brief season, I simply cannot deal with the disappointment trucked in with their distant simulacra. So I can't make a peach pie in January, well, what's wrong with an apricot/prune tart of dried fruit transforming their summer sweetness into a January treat that would be unacceptably heavy in the August heat?

Here's a tip that might help with this technique: Pre-fold and crease the paper, using a knife handle to smooth and tighten the creases and you can even build in a pleat or two so the paper will conform to an odd-shaped object. If you have all the pieces of paper prepared ahead of time, it makes the prep work much speedier when you are doing several pieces. ← No, no, Andy, you need one of those bone folders that Martha uses.

I agree in principle with the goal of eating good food for less, shopping locally, buying organic when possible, and saving through planning. And I don't doubt one can do it on even less than $30/person/wk. But I think that it's a big hill to climb for an urban single mother trying to make it on a minimum or near minimum wage job who may have to work more hours to even make the rent. Or someone living on a minimum disability or social security payment. She's not likely to have a big freezer, less likely to have a garden. And it's improbable she'll have access (or time) to shop in farmers' markets. And it's more improbable that she could spend $30/person! in a family of 3+ , pay an urban rent, transportation to work and school. The most she can do is shop well. Taking Philadelphia as an example, there are resources, though not everyone who needs them knows about them. There are some coop stores in the city where high quality food can be found cheaper than the supers and much cheaper than WF. We do have CSA's in the area, but someone poor probably cannot manage the up-front money. The Reading Terminal and seasonal Farmers' Markets have great food, but with some exceptions, aren't cheap. One really great resource from a price point of view is our 9th St and other ethnic markets. Another issue is know how: how to cook inexpensive, tasty, and nourishing meals doesn't come easy if one's mother didn't do it. How many people with good financial resources cant/dont/wont cook food that's tasty and nourishing ? Overworked and underpaid, does one have the time and place to find out how to do it. Making pasta and bread, etc., at home is way better in every sense, and can be done without fancy equipment. But it requires learning how to do it, it requires having a sense of being in control of one's life that many of the poor lack because they are in fact, barely in control of their lives. (Try being in control while raising a family on $6-7/hr - not easy.) And try finding buffalo meat at $3/lb in Philadelphia.

Or you might try cheaper oil! It is possible to lower your standards and find decent oil for less than $13/750ml even if you insist on evoo!

I think we might call it Five Faces of Martha. Her stamp is all over the show. The range of "novice" to "pro" echoes her guests on her own show that ranged from the cookie monster to Boulud and beyond. And that's a good thing. And I have no doubt that anything I try will probably work out since most of these recipes seem to come right out of the MSL files. That said, I personally found the pace a bit hectic and disjointed, perhaps to mimic the hectic life of the people feeding everyday food to their families. But the show draws a line between itself and Martha's own show. Everything's stripped down, from the functional, institutional kitchen to the simple direct cooking. We're not likely to see Nobu in that kitchen. It's Martha without the glam and 'tude. edited for spelling

Apparently some in the UK are angry that some organic products have more fat, sugar, salt than the non-organic versions. here in The Observer

I feel oh so uncharacteristically organized! Smug, even, maybe, I made, then froze, empanadas with the leftover rib roast, roasted red pepper, cut cherry tomatoes (which somehow manage to taste pretty good even at this time of year), added caramelized onions, potato, olives and raisins. They emerged for our post NY day luncheon. If you do make them with the intention of freezing them, I strongly recommend underbaking them slightly and finishing them off just before serving by baking directly from the freezer. I'd even made extra dough and frozen it for this when making my Xmas pie. The downside of empanadas is how long they take to assemble even after you've made all the components ahead. I made them small enough to be party finger food. I also served the gravlax left over from Christmas. I must say I like the arctic char gravlax more than the salmon I've used in the past. Serendipity at work. No fresh wild salmon was available. I didn't want to use either farm or frozen fish for gravlax, so went with the wild fresh char and found it more delicate and prettier than the salmon.

Back in the days when I first began cooking with wine, there was a jug wine that came from France in gallon size. Can anyone remember the name of it? And what's your "standard" white wine for cooking?

Outrageous. Here's another use for Google: find the Key HQ address and let them know about this inexcusable behavior. When I was in Brooklyn I used Key on Atlantic. And I kept getting milk that went sour before its expiration date. I knew it wasn't my fridge, because I always keep a thermometer there. They'd replace it, grudgingly. Then I discovered the cause one day when I saw several crates of milk stored on the floor in front of the refrigerator case. It was there when I first came in, still there when I was about to leave. You can be sure I told the manager about it. It happened more than once.

It took planning. I agree with you that hash can all too easily become, well, a hash. My old inlaws used to have the leftovers with horseradish sauce, and I've seen leftovers re-emerge in my mother's shephard's pie. Personally I like them married to raisins, olives, onions, and sweet red peppers in empanadas - which, by the way, also takes up some of the leftover potatoes. And by a lucky coincidence, I happen to have made a double batch of dough when I made the pie, so have (is it coincidence?) leftover pie dough in the fridge.

My DIL loves chopped chicken livers, so I usually add them to family dinners, but don't have a recipe as such. I saute the seasoned livers in chicken fat til they're still just barely pink in the center, but caramelizing on the outside. I transfer them to processor and deglaze the pan with a splash of madiera (port or even marsala would be ok). Add that to the processor and whiz it all together with 2-3 (heaping) Tbs caramelized onions and 1-2 hard cooked eggs per pound of livers. Mostly, it's a case of taste and adjust, then taste, then taste, firm up my resolution and plate it decoratively to preclude more tasting.

I have about 2 lbs of leftover beef now destined for empanadas. What do you do with yours? I usually make empanadas in some quantity, bake them til very lightly brown, then freeze them. I later bake them directly from the freezer, finishing off the browning of the pastry in the process. Really useful to have on hand during the holidays. Of course, the leftove oven roasted potatoes make great hash browns, but what else do you do with them?

I finally played catchup on this thread while making - what else - onion confit! My most favorite use is in pissaladiere, but I often throw some in various soups, stews, etc. as an enrichment. I don't use any meat additions (demiglace, stock, etc) as I like to keep mine basic and neutral. Besides, I have a vegetarian DIL. But what I do add, that I haven't noticed any mention of: vinegar. At the end, I will often use it to balance the flavors a bit. Mostly I will use sherry vinegar, but that varies.

Like this? pepper grill ← Thanks. That's what I'm looking for, though the one on the show was square and didn't have the handles. I didn't even know what to call it!

In addition to the many good suggestions you've gotten above, several of which advocate soup/stock making: keep in mind that you may be throwing out things that can be used in making stocks (and hence sauces). This assumes you have some freezer space, For example: When you boil/steam vegetables, keep the pot juices; when trimming some vegetables (celery, dill for example) these trimmings can be used. I've read that restaurants use parings, but I assume that's when they are tourne-ing their veggies. And if you make a roast chicken, turkey, etc., serve it so that the family does not chew the meat off the bones and freeze the carcass for soup making. Similarly, when making something like a vegetable soup, even buying some soup bones to add to the soup will add flavorf and texture. A small amount of something like chuck, which is usually among the least expensive cuts, can be added to add some meat to the dish. Buy a ham bone, hocks, etc. and make a huge pot of bean or lentil soup that will have that smoky, meaty flavor without breaking the bank. Stale bread? Leftover rice? Think pudding. Make a custard (milk, eggs + seasonings), pour it over the bread. You can swing these either sweet or savory. There are lots of recipes out there for these simple dishes (see stratta as well as breadpudding in indexes. And almost everyone loves them. Oh, and for rice, be sure to get yours in an Asian market if one's available. Way better quality usually for way less money. Cheap, cheap? A bag of polenta goes a long way. It can be made easily in the oven without constant attendence. It can be served immediately as a warm substitute for potatoes, rice, noodles, the leftovers saved to be fried the next day. I particularly like it with maple syrup for breakfast, but also use it like "toast" under meats, mushroom or vetable ragout, etc. And don't fail to look at egg recipes for dinner. Frittatas, omlets, poached and added to various vegetable dishes. And ditto ditto ditto on those who have suggested scratch cooking rather than using processed foods. Why pay for all those chemicals?

On one of the cooking shows, Joanne Weir uses a special "grill" for roasting peppers, etc., that fits right over the burner. It looks like it's made of the same "webbed" metal I've I have to grill vegetables or fish on an outdoor grill without letting them fall through the slots on the ususal rack. Only this one fits right over a single stove burner. It may be one of the dodabs that come with high end stoves. Does anyone know if this is available commercially as a stand alone? If I use the one I have it will cover too much of the stove's surface. I'd rather not take my hacksaw to it to make my own.

I think handles are a huge consideration when purchasing cookware, and in this case - keep in mind that the iron or brass handles on copper cookware DO get very very hot. Stainless steel handles (like the ones on the Mauviel 2.0mm line) don't get hot under normal use, but it has the disadvantage of the thinner copper. This is definitely a consideration for me, as I don't want to have to worry about grabbing a kitchen towel everytime I grab a hot pot handle - I like the no-fuss of being able to confidently grab any pan that I own and know that the handles will definitely not be hot. Also, the iron handles will rust if you don't dry the pan immediately after washing, so that's another consideration. I really like Falk's brushed exterior (although I'm not too fond of the dull, almost grey-colored stainless steel color on the interior - the darkness makes it slightly more difficult to judge color on food) in that it doesn't seem to tarnish very quickly. I have both Falk and Mauviel, and the Falk takes much longer to tarnish. Sooo...perfect copper cookware for me does not currently exist. I would absolutely LOVE to have Falk manufacture 2.5mm copper cookware with a shinier interior as well as with stainless steel handles that resist getting hot. According to the manufacturer, they don't produce it because it costs too much. But I'd be willing to pay for this! Who else is with me?? ← You should consider getting some of those little potholder "gloves" that are so you can leave them on the pot while cooking. I have one which I don't use much as it's easier to grab a towel, but my son like it and uses it all the time.

How much oil does an egg hold? And what does it mean to say that an egg "holds oil"? I thought that most eggs held, well, egg. ← It's a little like holding your liquer, maybe. How much oil an egg can hold when making mayonnaise?

Ditto what you said. Some say, "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well." I say, "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing any way you can - when the option is not doing it." For many of us, the hand work, the prep work may be a source of pleasure in itself. And for some, doing it by hand may even be as quick as doing it by machine. It's not fair, though, to imply that those who don't do it that way are lazy, gadget obsessed, or somehow cheating the process. Everyone's situation is different. My preference is do kitchen work by hand, but as my back and joints begin to have other preferences, I find compromises in order. Sure I can whip up a pint of cream or couple eggs as fast as the KA, but anything that can be done more quickly by the processor or KA not only get a nod from my back but from my shoulder. If I did it all by hand now, I'd do less cooking probably. I've even begun to use stainless stoveware (which I don't really like) because it is lighter and easier to clean than some other materials. Aside from that, there's the time factor. If I can cuiz grate or mince something faster than do it by hand, that allows me to do something else that the machine simply won't do as well. In my case the time is not so much an issue, but a working mother of small children may have a better back than I do but not the time.