Mottmott

I have a bamboo grater I bought years ago for $5. It works wonderful for garlic or ginger and you absolutely cannot cut your fingers. I confess to not using it so often now that I have a microplane grater, but the bamboo grater is also a thing of beauty. Whenever I finally get a digital camera (distant future), I'll post a photo.

Fifi, well put. Though I do use Patrick O'Connell's seasoned brine for turkey. I think the length of time does infuse some additional flavor into the bird. Busboy: Wrong salt = wrong brine concentration = a bacon bird. Brining too long = bacon bird. My first brining experience was a whole chicken overnight. A beautiful bird. Then my next was chicken parts also overnight. Salty, salty, salty. Lesson learned and brining has been my friend ever since. I will not make a turkey without brining.

I agree completely. The best I've made use TONS of butter (about 12 Tbs as I recall). I made it in an LC saute pan, heavy and rounded corners.The restraint of pate brisee was needed. More flakes would just detract from the caramel soaked, no caramelized, apples. I think the recipe was from Saveur. What are your favorite apples for tatin? I usually use Winesaps, Northern Spies or IdaReds for preference, Grannies when the others aren't available.

I called the deli to confirm what brine they'd been cured in: vinegar, some salt. The deli man says some people eat the roe, but he doesn't. Anyone here have anything to add to that? He sounded so doubtful, but I'll bet it's someone's delicacy. I have the herring soaking in cold water as of early this AM. Tomorrow I'll filet them. Then I'll put them in a mild fresh brine for storage purposes, maybe adding a bit of sugar for balance. I'm not sure how the cats will react to pickled sh. They're so idiosyncratic. I've one cat wild for fruitcake, another fliped for cantaloup. One wouldn't touch fish, but you'd put her in heaven with fried chicken.

I bought this at a deli, and this herrring has definitely been processed. I haven't tasted it yet. I will probably follow the process of soaking it, then making some sort of sour cream dressing for it. For years I've been "doctoring" herring in sour cream by washing it off, then adding fresh sour cream, thinly sliced onions and citrus to freshen it up. I'll do a version of that. But what I really wanted was matjes. Oh well. My cat really perked up when I unwrapped it. edited to add: The way I've prepared pickled herring (jarred) in the past is similar to Keck's with the addition of sour cream. I think I have enough to try something else, too. And this is definitely not preserved in fat, "schmaltz" refers to the type of herring itself.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. I meant to say matjes herring, but schmalz came out of my mouth. Well, now I have three of them. Is there anything I can do with them beyond pickling them?

Personally, I haven't had to curtail any of my activities because of these increased energy costs, but then I live in a city and drive a Toyota (and as seldom as possible anyway). Just about everything I need is within a 5 mile radius. Nevertheless, I think I need to find a way to conserve energy more than I do. And yet am selfishly unwilling to give things up. Sometimes strange things. It's not just running the oven an hour to bake a potato for one to have with a pan seared steak instead of making a week's worth of casseroles on the same energy dime. It's really stupid things like putting in energy efficient window replacements to reduce my horrendous heating bill because I'll miss the crinkly window glass that throws wonderful patterns on the walls and ceilings (especially in the dining room to keep it food related). It's self indulgent, I know. So where are other places to save energy (and its costs) that are less important than good food and crinkly window glass? Has anyone tried instantaneous hot water heaters? Solar or wind energy? Hybrid cars? Care to share your experience with us? Are the fabled savings real?

I was in despair when I lost my copy of out of print Mother Wonderful. When I finally found a place that still had it, I bought 2!

It would help to give advice if you could give us a floor plan. Depending on the configuration of your room, one thing that might help would be to cover one wall with relatively shallow floor to ceiling cabinets (like bookcases with doors). In this case, you could even have shelves on one or more of the doors as a spice shelf. - In my house I was able to fit in an old (salvaged & refinished) built-in pantry which gives me slightly deeper storage ont the bottom or that's what I would have done to optimize storage. As someone above suggested, I have an open bookcase at the end of a peninsula that is very useful. I was also able to put a floor to ceiling bookcase in a 4' wide niche formed between an outside wall and a chimney that jutted out into the room. Over the years at various times I have used them to store books, equipment, food. As my cabinets are oak, I used oak stair treads which have a bullnose finish on one side for the shelves there and in the bookcase at the end of the peninsula. I find the shelves very flexible. They're very straight wood and require little finishing so were easy to use. I imagine they're available in other woods, too.

You can shorten this step by storing butter and flour in the freezer. I always keep some butter in the freezer, though not always flour.

No, unless it is too great a burden for you, you should come out of the closet. Limitation is our common fate. It’s all degree. Do not become “invisible.” Ironically, our society often treats those with greater than average limitations with callousness, impatience, or indifference. And yet many not only transcend those limitations in their personal lives but can achieve in their public lives eminence denied to most of us. Witness a scientist such as Hawkings or painters such as DeKooning who made some of his most poetic paintings in the last stages of Alzheimer or Chuck Close whose paintings after his stroke rival and perhaps surpass anything he did earlier. Further, all of us will experience some degree of impairment at some time in our lives either from accident or illness which may be temporary or from the creeping diminutions of time. We need to incorporate this reality into our society's values and practices.

Thank you for this course. I'm sure many of us are grateful. Apart from the useful information about safety and working around physical disabilities, it's inspiring to see your spirited confrontation with the limitations of the body. I'm just beginning to confront some still minor ones imposed by back and joint problems. You bring perspective as well as solutions.

You might try an art supply store.

Thanks gang. Must admit Beau Monde's not been on my to do list. Its near absence from this forum and a couple reviews suggested to me it might be more someone's idea of a "romantic" spot than my idea of good food. Maybe I'll see you at the next DDC.

I've been invited to dinner at Beau Monde and wonder if there's anything there that's "must try"? I'm not encouraged by finding only one noncommital reference on the eG Search.

What an opportunity, now you can get a new boyfriend and ply him with pasta. Have fun.

I have one of those and love it, but it's begun to chip on the edge. It's the carbon blade that makes it great. I've been trying to find one locally, but they've all "upgraded" to stainless, not sharp blades. Does anyone know of a local source? or do I really have to order one from Hong Kong!

Oooah, great thread. Oil gets all the attention. Vinaigre de Banyuls (La Cave De L'Abbe Rous) is a current favorite. I use it mostly in cooking. gastriques, deglazing where you want that fruity element. Sherry wine vinegar is more versatile, and I often use it in both soups and salads when I want a distinctive flavor (as in arugula, pear, walnut, stilton salad). I sometimes have more than one open at a time. Right now I' working on a Jerez vinegar (Finca El Retamar). I also like that Pommery Sherry Vinegar in the ceramic bottle (when I can find it) which is great in pureed vegetable soups. I've yet to find a red wine vinegar I really like as they typically have too much bite. Perhaps I should look into making one? Or, suggestions?

WOW. I'm almost speechless, and breathless waiting for Part II. All the more so as texture is so often overlooked. Every time I open eG, I check to see if Part II's arrived. Oh, where were you years ago when I was beginnning to cook? I especially look forward to your take on texture. Over a long time of home cooking, I've developed a conscious attention to balancing and playing tastes and flavors in a dish or at least within a meal. (I can still recall the sense of revelation when I accidentally discovered what a dash of vinegar can add to soup, or the magic of a gastrique or gremalata.) But texture is often trickier for me. Much of taste and flavor is a matter of choosing, juxtaposing ingredients. Texture seems often to depend even more on technique than ingredients.

Thanks Joseph. I have checked epinions, but was hoping for some discussion of the way they worked (macerating, etc), and which ones are dependable, take up less counter space, amount of power needed, etc. Oddly, when I did an eG search for juicers I found nothing.

I need help in deciding which juicer (for vegetables) to buy as a gift for my son. What are the important consideration in selecting one (I've never used one)? I know that he prefers something that is simple to use and clean and doesn't require too much counter space. edited to clarify: this is to extract juice from vegetables

While it's still cool enough to roast vegetables, use thyme (fresh or dried) scattered it over them as they roast (I also like to use rosemary which works well with thyme. It's also wonderful to scatter some of the tender fresh leaves in salads along with other.

Using small-medium white turnips, purple shoulders: Blanch them, quarter them, fry them in butter, then dust them with fried bread crumbs. For specifics, see Child's Mastering....

What a wonderful adventure for you. I wish you great happiness and success. I hope you'll consider (and have time for) a B&B Blog. We could be your diary and the core of your GSquared Cookbook.

Very attractive for only $15., but I don't see a feature to convert to metric measuring. Often the recipes one needs a scale for are metric. My personal favorite from that site is the set of cow floor protectors. http://graveyardmall.com/cowflpr.html