weinoo

This is a great reason.

I love my 2.75 qt. Staub Dutch oven (or, as they like to call it, cocotte). I like that it's black inside - but I don't know if that's any better than the white enamel of Le Crueset - I also own a few of those. Anyway, the Staub's self-basting feature is nice, and the size I list above is perfect for a whole small chicken.

Sure, there are topics about grocery shopping and what you've bought at the grocery store, or shopping at a farmer's market and what season you like best, but really what I am interested in from a foodie sociological viewpoint is how you do your shopping. That is, whether you shop alone or, if you're in a partnership, as a team. For example, I have a partner; she's my wife and she's nicknamed Significant Eater. She loves to eat, be it my cooking or at a restaurant. But man, she is not a shopper. And even if she was, I wouldn't want her along because, basically, I'm the cook and I don't need anyone's, ahem, help. And I know from experience when we've been in a grocery store or at a market together that she drives me crazy. For example, she'll say something like: "Do you have to pick up every melon and sniff it?" Or, "How many times are you gonna circle back to that item - do you think it has changed since 10 minutes ago?" In other words, a real pain in the ass to shop with. It's almost like shopping with a 4 year old in that she'll also suggest stuff that we have no need for...."Hey, why don't we get these chocolate covered licorice balls?" As you can guess, I shop solo. For good reason. To keep my sanity. So - do you tag team it or go it alone?

I think if this is done religiously, I don't have to take my EP out more than twice a year. If I was to sharpen free-hand at this point, my knives would be ugly real fast. But an unsharpened cleaver can easily smash garlic.

We pay a lot for the immature stuff. Baby carrots, baby zuke, etc.

That's interesting, because when I was asking the farmer about this, he mentioned that he's trying to emulate a number of crops grown in the Naples/Campagna region (and I mentioned..."just without the active volcanoes"). You can see a picture of the tomatoes he's growing in the thread started about farmers' markets here. I immediately thought it reminded me of gailan, although he wasn't exactly buying that!

Yesterday, while walking through the local farmer's market, I came to the realization that it's my favorite time of year for the farmer's market. I mean you have the summer bounty, literally overflowing - tomatoes (especially the late season ones that like to ripen all at the same time), peppers, eggplant, corn, cucumbers, melons, etc. And then you have the fall vegetables and fruits as well - all sorts of greens, brassicas, garlic, onions, potatoes, winter squashes, apples, pears, etc. And - it's not too hot to cook. I took home a few pounds of these wild looking Italian sauce tomatoes, which are heavy and meaty... What's your favorite time of year to shop at a farmer's market? And, why?

Yesterday, at the farmer's market in Union Square, NYC, I came across a vegetable I haven't seen before...Spigarelli broccoli. Has anyone seen, bought and or used this before? Sign said to use "like kale." This certainly doesn't seem like it would be great in kale salads, though I'm sure the leaves will sauté up just fine.

Sorry you were underwhelmed, but it has a great cheese/salumi counter, excellent meats and poultry, fine fresh pasta, truffles, and a fun selection of packaged goods, be they in boxes, bags, cans and jars.

Expect chaos. But also, if you can shop off-hours, some good stuff to buy.

And when they run specials, for example on beef, the prices are ridiculously low for good quality.

I can buy PEI mussels here, so at least those are allowed. And all sorts of shellfish from all over is allowed, so I can't imagine why not but then again, the laws are always weird. Of course, the biggest problem is invasive species and the way they get here. Regarding mussels, the zebra mussel established itself in the U.S. via ship ballast and is evidently quite a pain in the ass, crowding out native species and clogging pipes, etc. Back to Franci's issue with mussels, most people that buy this stuff in the stores don't want to deal with sand, dirt, beards, etc. And they like the clean, innocuous taste of the PEI farmed, excuse me, cultured mussels. As a matter of fact, they're probably convinced they taste better than the wild product!

What's in a fruit cake because is cheese and fruit really that weird?

I have to use my Edge-Pro more. I have a heavy 10" Wusthoff that'll hack bones...bought it way back when I was in cooking school. A bunch of other German and Global knives. I use Edge Pro and have gotten some great edges on these. An 8" Mac Santoku. A 10" Gyutou - Tojiharu. Another Tojiharu Nakiri. I'm kind of afraid to put my Japanese knives to the Edge Pro, as I think I'll screw them up. I have brought them back in once or twice to Korin, where they resharpen for free.

There's a great topic about Knife Maintenance and Sharpening, written by knife guru Chad Ward. That topic morphed in a book by Chad, called An Edge in the Kitchen, and it's a good book to add to your collection. I always usually run my knife over a ceramic "steel" before using. I have good knives that have been sharpened well, so that normally brings them right back into tip-top condition. What I'm wondering is how ofter do you physically sharpen your knives? And do you do it manually (either on a whetstone or with a system like Edge-Pro) or with a machine like a Chef's Choice?

This I might have to try, even though I'm not a Scotch drinker.

Last night, Significant Eater and I were vacillating. Actually, I was the vacillator, as she just wanted to stay home and I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go out, order in, or, gasp, make dinner (which of course means I have to cook and clean up). There was barely anything in the apartment; well, barely anything I wanted to cook (and then clean). Since Saturday night is probably our least favorite night of the week to go out for a meal, I decided to tough it out and cobble together a meal from our larder. I always have a couple of pecorinos and a wedge or two of Paremsan, so spaghetti cacio e pepe was going to be the main. But what to serve with it? I basically had celery and avocados in the vegetable drawer of my trusty Amana. And a bag of frozen peas in the freezer, peas being one of two vegetables I might buy frozen; they're quite reliable. Anyway, I cut open an avo (I was thinking celery and avocado salad) and it was bad - and thrown away. Then I decided to slice a few stalks on the diagonal (and save the leaves) while a bit of olive oil and a clove of garlic were heating up in a frying pan. In went the celery, salt and pepper and about a minute before I turned off the heat, I threw in a handful of frozen peas and the celery leaves. You know what? It worked. The celery was nice and crunchy and juicy, the leaves added the right amount celery-oomph and the peas were perfectly cooked and earthy. We were pleasantly happy. So - have you come up with any not-so-usual combos recently? And, how'd they work out for you?

Oh, buy your fish/seafood at Union Square. It's all wild and it's damn fresh. You might even run into varieties you've never seen in the south of France. I just never think stores such as Fish Tales are able to maintain the same quality as the stuff you get pretty much directly from the fishermen at the greenmarkets.

I don't know where you're located in the States, Franci, but you mention Fairway so I'm assuming somewhere New York City-ish. If so, the greenmarket farmers' markets will be your friend. I buy delicious clams at Union Square frequently, and I'm sure I have bought great mussels as well. And the scallops are simply awesome. A seafood vendor is there Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and its (all the fish/shellfish) is the best stuff around. A seafood vendor is also at Grand Army Plaza and other Brooklyn locations. My favorite vendors are Pura Vida Seafood and Blue Moon Fish, both out of Long Island. The mussels you got from Fairway are probably PEI farm-raised, and usually lacking flavor, though normally they're pretty damn clean. Whole Foods could be another place to try, but I think they also carry PEIs.

Fortunately, I have a cardiologist who takes a lot of time with each patient (my GP, not so much). But you raise a good point, and we have discussed it - there are many risk factors in heart disease. And also fortunately, both my glucose and cholesterol are fine at this point. I've given up real licorice, because I believe that's more than folk stuff. Giving up alcohol - that's a whole other story.

Oh yes, I know all about the DASH diet. I just want to hear some evidence, if there is any, from the posters here.

That's a great piece, Alex. I promise I didn't read this before I wrote the above...

For about the last 10 years, I've been on blood pressure medication. My blood pressure has never been exorbitant, more pre-hypertensive than hypertensive, but those standards are always changing anyway. And of course, big pharm wants to sell meds, so. And no, don't go off on a rant about big pharm, please. In any event, my bp problems probably are genetic, as both parents were hypertensive, though they lived good, long lives (and both had non-fatal heart attacks, as a matter of fact). The drug I started with is atenolol (tenormin), a fairly benign beta blocker which has been around for a long time (almost 40 years). Five or so years after starting atenolol, my bp crept up a bit, and my doctor recommended adding another med, this time Benicar (olmesartan), an angiotensin 2 receptor antagonist. All well and good - the 2 drugs together have worked to keep my bp below the threshold of hypertension for the last 5 years. Much of the literature I've read also says that often multiple drugs are needed to keep bp in check. OK - fast forward to recently, and bp creeping up once again. And guess what - a new drug, a diuretic prescribed as an every-other day med, with my doc stating that if it works well, then sometimes all it takes is to take it 1 day a week. Also, as a well-known self-prescriber, I actually don't take the Benicar on the day that I take the diuretic. And my bp is as low as it's been in 20 years. Cool, right? But now I'm thinking that all these medications annoy me and maybe I should really try to work on my diet and perhaps wean myself off of a drug or two. I'm not overweight (hey, who couldn't stand to lose 10 pounds, right?) and I (try to) exercise fairly regularly - living in NYC, of course, means a lot more walking than your average person does in the U.S. But - I love salumi, I love pizza, I love Asian food, I love everything salty, I love chips, I love candy, I love ice cream, yada yada yada. So - my question to any and all that might have high bp - have you tried dietary mods? If so, have they worked? I mean, literally, what was your bp before and after dietary mods? And I'm not talking about insane dietary mods, like in the documentary Forks Over Knives, because even though I think that would help immensely, I'm not about to start eating alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast every freakin' day. I need my mortadella once in a while!

Very true for a man. I learned to cook because I didn't have the money to buy a fancy Italian sports car, then I realized it is more effective to win a lady's heart to be able to dazzle her with a multi-course candle light dinner that you whipped up from your kitchen. It's all about sex, for a man. dcarch My second date with my now wife was cooking her a traditional roast chicken dinner. That was about all it took...but hey, she's ez.

I'd buy him a series of cooking classes like those mentioned above. In addition to learning how to cook, there's always the possibility he might find another partner!