ElainaA

All these comments are making me anxious for my cherry tomatoes to be ripe! (Right now I barely have a few blossoms much less tomatoes.)

@ElsieD I use it over pasta. I could imagine other uses. Maybe with grilled chicken? Or fish?

@chefmd and @rarerollingobject Those are very hard issues to deal with. I hope you have good support systems to help you through them. You have all my sympathy. I am home for a couple of weeks between two trips to deal with family business. The first trip was to help my daughter pack up and move out of her apartment. (My husband has become an expert in disassembling/assembling IKEA bookshelves.) Since her kitchen was all packed up all meals were either take out or restaurants. I am SO glad to be back in my own kitchen. Salmon cakes with corn and pepper relish and roasted potatoes. Stewed pappers over brown rice, a roasted (CSI) chicken thigh and a Parmesan crisp The second trip, in mid July, will involve driving to her new location in Fayetteville, Arkansas with her cat and her piano - two items that could not be put in the UPack containers. Hopefully by the time we get there she will have her kitchen unpacked and we can cook. I am quite looking forward to this trip although I would prefer it without the cat. Three days on the road with a cat will be a new experience for me.

I posted this recipe last year (or the year before?) in the dinner thread. I have been asked to re-post it here so it is easier to find. I'm glad so many people like it. Slow Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce 1/2 cup olive oil, divided 1 large red or yellow onion, diced 6 cloves garlic, minced 18 basil leaves, sliced plus 1/4 c. basil, sliced 1/8 t. red pepper flakes 50 (or more) cherry tomatoes 1 t. salt 2 t. sugar Preheat oven to 250. Heat 1/4 c.olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender - about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 18 basil leaves and red pepper flakes. Place cherry tomatoes in roasting pan large enough to hold tomatoes in a single layer. Sprinkle with sugar and 1 t. salt. Spoon onion mixture over tomatoes and drizzle with remaining 1/4 c. olive oil. Roast tomatoes in preheated oven 3 hours, stirring once. Serve toped with 1/4 cup basil leaves. (This recipe is wonderful but, I think, overly precise. Exactly 18 basil leaves? 50 tomatoes? I use what amount looks good. I also like it with a mix of different colored tomatoes.)

Thanks everyone! I am glad so many people like this! I will post the recipe on recipegullet so it is easier to find. I can't promise that that will happen this week as I still remain bogged down in family turmoil (the reason I have not been posting much for quite awhile) and will be away until early next week, but I will make sure that it does happen.

Toast - basic white bread, mayo, a little ketchup, lettuce and a slice of meatloaf, preferably, but now impossibly, made by my mother. This is a childhood special that I recreate often.

Life is finally getting normal enough for me to pay attention to what I am cooking. It's been months. Last night: pasta with sausage, red and green bell peppers (I know some people hate the green ones but I like them) lots of garlic and home canned tomatoes. With a salad. I wanted to go out for pizza but my AAH ( Absolutely Amazing Husband) spent all day putting up deer fence around my vegetable garden instead of working on his own project (the 1958 MG he is restoring for me. He is amazing.) And he wanted pasta. Tonight: Steel head trout smoked on the grill, beet and horseradish salad, potato salad and a green salad (romaine, cucumber, apples, scallions).

For me, one of the great benefits of retirement is NOT hand washing before bed. The dishwasher gets loaded, pans get filled with water to soak, the kitchen light gets turned off and I will deal with it in the morning. After a nice dinner the last thing I want to do is stand at the sink. After breakfast works just fine for me.

Greweling actually has 2 versions of his book - one for professionals (although I use it and i am certainly not a professional) and another for the home hobby chocolate maker. I would recommend starting with that - the batches are smaller and he makes no assumptions of prior knowledge. That one is titled Chocolates and Confections At Home.

Mine came yesterday. i never had any problem with the old blade but I'm glad to get the replacement.

Make jelly. I have done this twice when friends brought sweet wine to a party and no one drank it. The jelly is really pretty and tastes good - nice on toast or with cream cheese on a cracker. I used the recipe for Gewurztraminer Jelly from Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures - just substituting the wine I had (I'm pretty sure one was a riesling). She uses apples for pectin - cooking down 750grams ( 1 3/4 lbs) of apples then using a jelly bag or cheesecloth to collect the juice. Let it sit, refrigerated overnight so any particulates settle out. Combine 500 grams (2 cups 1oz) apple juice with the wine (750 grams or 3 cups 2 oz) ,1 kg (4 2/3 cups) sugar, juice of 1 small lemon and the grated zest of an orange in a preserving pan. Bring to a simmer, skim cook over high heat 10 - 15 minutes. Check for set, put in jars and process 5 minutes. I had to cook it longer before it set. Helen Witty has a simpler recipe in Fancy Pantry - I haven't tried this one but her recipes are usually good. Combine 3/4 cup water with 1/4 cup lemon juice in a large pan. Add 1 (1 3/4oz) box powdered pectin. Stir well, set over medium-high heat, stir constantly until all pectin lumps are gone. Boil hard for 1 minute Add 3 cups wine and 4 1/2 cups sugar Lower heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Do not allow it to boil or even simmer. Remove from heat, skim and put in jars. Process 5 minutes.

This time of year I am so jealous of you that live in warmer growing zones. The snow is finally all gone here (for now - the local weather person reminded us today that the average snowfall here in April is 4-6 inches ) I did pull the mulch off the garlic bed and the sprouts are about 4" high. I have tomato and basil seedlings growing inside under lights. We put the cover on the hoop house last weekend. I would love to get the main garden tilled soon. Due to some drama in my daughter's life I may be away for awhile - the worst time for my garden but of course she comes first.

@robirdstx Here it is. These are NOT like commercial English muffins - no "nooks and crannies" here. These are very dense. I've typed the recipe as my mother (Polly) gave it to me. I always double it. Since I always have bulk yeast in the fridge I use about a tablespoon of yeast for the doubled recipe which makes about 10 - 12 muffins depending on how big you cut them. This is an issue in dispute within my family (everybody makes these). My mother made them quite small - about 2 1/2" in diameter. My brothers both insist that the is the ONLY correct way. I like them larger - I just measured my cutter and it is 3 1/2". I ought to check with my sisters - I'm not sure what they do. Knowing that these are available for breakfast can be the incentive I need to get out of bed on a chilly, rainy morning. Polly’s English Muffins 1/2 cup milk 2T sugar 1/4 cup butter 2 t. salt 1 pkg yeast 3 cups flour 1 t. sugar cornmeal 1/2 cup warm water Scald milk. Add butter and let cool in large bowl. Dissolve yeast and 1 t. sugar in warm water - let sit until yeast is foamy. Add yeast to milk and butter. Add sugar, salt and 2 cups flour. Mix well, gradually mixing in remaining cup of flour. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead well. Flatten and cut in circles. Place on sheet pan dusted with cornmeal. Dust tops of muffins with more cornmeal. Let rise 1 hour. Cook on griddle over low heat turning once. (I actually end up turning them several times as I check how done they are.)

The "sandwich size" muffins have been available here for a few years - 4 to a package rather than 6. I do like English muffins for hamburgers and the larger size really works. I only but Thomas' muffins for hamburgers - otherwise i make my own using my mother's recipe. I was converted to hamburgers on English muffins in the early 1970's by a friend who knew MUCh more about cooking than I did - she went to cooking school in Paris !!! The !!! are my reaction at age 20 fresh from rural central NY. Anything she said was gospel. I still do a baked chicken/baked apples/baked squash dinner that she taught me. And I put hamburgers on English muffins.

Only slightly off topic - my husband's good friend, Rabbi Arnie Freitag, recently commented that running the cleaning cycle on your oven is the modern day equivalent of cleaning part of your kitchen for Passover.

Still waiting.........

@kayb @HungryChris I have always started my lettuce directly in the ground. Lettuce germinates so quickly in cool soil and grows so quickly that in a couple of weeks I am harvesting baby lettuce for salad and thus thinning the rows.And I grow A LOT of lettuce. Is there a reason that I am not aware of for starting it inside? I only start a few things inside - tomatoes, basil, radicchio, this year artichokes. Everything else goes directly into the garden once the soil is warm enough I often see flats of lettuce seedlings at garden centers. They usually look ready to harvest for salad. I always wonder why anyone would buy them to put in the ground.

Kalpudding - a Swedish dish that I had never heard of, from a NYTimes recipe of a few weeks ago. Basically caramelized cabbage on top of a meatloaf (which is pretty much invisible in the picture). The cabbage is caramelized then poured over the uncooked meatloaf and they are baked together. What is not is the picture (because I almost forgot it) is the cranberry mostarda served with it. The recipe called for a sauce made from lingonberry preserves - not available in this rural area. I consulted Prof. Google and found that cranberries are a recommended substitute for lingonberries - and I happened to have one more jar of the mostarda I made last fall. The mostarda was really necessary. The meatloaf on its own was rather bland - it really needed more seasoning. Served with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus.

I look away from this thread for a few days and have 3-4 pages of gorgeous meals to look through. So many beautiful things! I haven't been posting much but i have been taking pictures so i have so backlog. Last night: Pork chops marinated in cider and some spices then grilled (it was grill weather for the first time in months ) over creamed leeks and topped with apples sautéed with some sugar, flambeed in brandy and then simmered in cider. With roasted potatoes and a salad. Kreatopita and salad with feta and olives. CI's Tuscan bean stew - the variation with sausage and cabbage rather than pancetta and kale. My husband calls this "shovel food" because it tastes so good and satisfying that you just keep shoveling it in.

Really gorgeous meals everyone!! I roasted a chicken a few nights ago. I didn't take pictures of that meal (super simple: roast chicken with tomato chutney, roast potato, salad) but there was enough left over for two more dinners: Chicken, onions and tomatoes with cumin, chili powder (should have been fresh chili peppers but I didn't have any), Served with rice and a salad. Pasta with chicken,mushrooms, red, yellow and green peppers. (I am one of those who really like peppers of all colors.) And salad. Ran out of chicken last night. There is a pork chop under the shallots and balsamic sauce. Also mashed squash with toasted walnuts. Do I need to mention that there was a salad?

I agree. My parents' garden was fenced with 2 electric wires - one about 6" above ground level for the woodchucks and rabbits and a second at about 5-6' for deer. It worked. Unfortunately my garden is way too far from any power source to install an electric fence without major landscape disruption and cost. We have always relied on canine power, which was very effective. Sadly, that is aging.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Since my husband really liked this and also since I have several steelhead trout fillets in the freezer (they have quite suddenly started showing up at our local Price Chopper) I will certainly repeat the fish if not exactly the whole meal. I would probably try a pinot noir or gamay - or ask my husband to choose.

Actually that depends. I am by no means a wine expert but I have done some reading on this. My favorite comment that I found is "Sommelier and restaurateur Paul Grieco of New York wine bar Terroir and restaurant Hearth believes the red-with-meat and white-with-fish rule is severely outdated. “The last time this expression held true, Nixon was still in the White House. Everything is up for grabs these days, except for the supremacy of Riesling,” he told Serious Eats" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/30/red-wine-and-fish_n_5412005.html) (I would disagree on the supremacy of Riesling. In my opinion possibly very good but hardly supreme.) The basic guidelines are that meaty fish - such as salmon and steelhead trout , which is more similar to salmon than to other types of trout, work well with reds depending on how they are prepared - roasted or broiled dishes being ones that can go well with red wines. I do think you are correct in suggesting a more acidic wine -but I would probably stick with red.

Steel head trout baked then finished under the broiler, with maple/soy sauce glaze. Beets steam-roasted in the CSO. Soubise rice (is that redundant?) - Julia Child's recipe. My husband really liked this meal and tried - and failed - to come up with an appropriate wine to pair with it. (We ended up with our usual Two Vines Cab-Sauv.) So he asked me to ask all of you for suggestions. Which, of course, we will try out. I'm always up for trying a different wine. Maybe several different wines.....

@kayb At the third week of March my garden is usually still buried in snow! That's just about when I start my tomatoes inside so they can go out around Memorial Day. Sometimes I really hate my growing zone. I'd be interesting in what you will be growing. A fence to the ground will keep rabbits out but if you have woodchucks you might want to bury it at least 3-4", angled out. I thought my fence was fine until I lost all my peas and most of the lettuce in a single night. The woodchucks dug right under the fence. We dug a trench, added a strip of fencing at the bottom and buried it. This year we may have to extend the fence up as Fanny now simply watches the deer grazing in the meadow rather than scaring them away. I really don't want to plant a dinner buffet for critters.