ElainaA

Andiesenji, thank you. You really are amazingly knowledgable concerning all things food!

I did taste it - it tastes citrus-y. It isn't very sweet at all. Not at all like most candied fruit I've had, whether home made or purchased. Although I actually enjoy the process.

Comfort food tonight. It snowed here this week. I need comfort. I'm not ready for this yet. Chicken with potatoes, carrots, shallots and snap peas stewed in cider and white wine. And a salad of lettuce, pears, pecans, red onion and cucumbers. Edited to apologize for poor photography.

All I know about citron is the plastic containers of rather suspect candied fruit I buy every year for stollen and other holiday breads. But I have been candying fruit for several years - tangerines, apricots, pears, plums, cherries and oranges. And I would love to make all my own candied fruit for the holiday baking. So when I saw a big piece of citron in my favorite Italian market I asked about it. The store owner really didn't know much about it. He said it was not already candied. It was packed in sugar. So I brought it home, thinking I could candy it myself. Then I did some research and came on this quote by David Lebovitz on his blog, re candying citron: "And I’m scared to use those greenish pieces and strips sold in containers." Guess what I have: Yeah - it's a green piece sold in a container. Everything I see on line about citron starts with really fresh - that is white fleshed - citron. So - what do I have and what can I do with it? Obviously, not what I hoped for. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Today I was at Lombardi's Market in Syracuse and got some pasta (sorry about the somewhat blurry picture - my camera battery died and I couldn't take another: A hand written card said "reputed to be the pasta used in the Vatican". How could I resist? So I made pasta with sausage and leeks. One of my favorites.

I thought I was the only one who had done that!

Calzone - I forgot to take a picture until after most of it was eaten. Filled with ricotta, mozzarella, goat cheese, pancetta , sausage, roasted peppers and red onion.

Me too.

Yesterday I found honey nut squash at a local farm stand. There was a big sign "NEW CORNELL VARIETY" ( the farm stand is less than 2 miles from Cornell). They looked really cute so I bought some. When I got home I googled them (what else?) and found they are a cross of butternut and buttercup, bred for intense flavor. Dinner: Rather monochromatic (something my mother always warned me against - she never mentioned drugs or sex but don't have a monochromatic plate. The reasons are complicated.) Roasted pork loin with honey mustard sauce and applesauce, roasted honey nut squash with lots of garlic and roasted potatoes. The squash was really good but I'm not sure if it was all that different from regular butternut. I do like the small size though (4-5"). I can never find a butternut squash that isn't way too big for two people. Anti-climax: After buying these NEW!! squash yesterday, today I saw a huge pile of them at the local Price Chopper, simply labelled butternut squash.

I'm most familiar with "deconstructed" as a term in literary criticism and philosophy - not in cooking. But then, I've never been cool. I do think that in this case it it a literal description of the dish. It's also much less judgmental than 'lazy' or 'cheater'. I also deconstruct stuffed peppers and occasionally stuffed squash. I actually did that long before I came across this recipe in one of Bittman's articles in the NY Times. editied to add: Be glad you never met my mother-in-law's constructed cabbage rolls.

Tonight: Mark Bittman's "Unstuffed Cabbage" (I think a better name for this is Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage) with rice. And a salad. I love this - it tastes like stuffed cabbage but it is easy and it makes great leftovers. This was probably the last meal this year where everything except the meat was from my garden. (Cabbage, carrots, onion, tomatoes).

The V8 looks great - it freezes really well if you get into making it in quantity. I use my food mill for applesauce and tomato sauce. You don't need to peel the apples or tomatoes - use the food mill to remove the peels and seeds. I do core the apples though. I usually put things through the coarsest disk first, then move to the fine or medium disk if it looks necessary. I find it is a lot less work than going for the fine disk immediately. I also have a recipe that I really like from Patricia Wells' Trattoria that calls for putting canned tomaotes through a food mill directly into the pan.

Here is a picture of what is left of the pear paste. I'm always amazed the something as colorless as a peeled pear turns such a lovely color when cooked a long time. Pear preserves do the same thing. I combined a few recipes I found on line - here's what I did: Pear Paste: 1. Peel and core fresh pears. I cut them in quarters. You can do any amount but the more you do the longer the cooking time. I started with about 4.5 lbs which yielded a 4" disk (about 3/4 inch thick) and a 2" x 5" rectangle (about the same thickness). 2. Poach them until they are quite soft. I cooked them about 20 minutes. 3. Drain and puree the pears. I used an immersion blender simply because it is easier to wash than a food processor. 4. Measure the puree and put it into a heavy bottomed pan. For each cup of puree, add 3/4 cup sugar. Add about 1/4 cup lemon juice. (Different recipes called for different amounts.) Stir to dissolve the sugar, bring to a boil, boil 1 minute, reduce heat to a simmer. 5. At this point there is step that is only in some recipes and is labelled optional: Add 2 T. liquid pectin. I had about 1/4 c. green apple jelly in the fridge so I added that. I don't think I would add pectin but that's just me. 6. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until very thick. It is done when you can pull a wooden spoon through it and the track stays open for a few seconds. It should be a dark orange-gold.How long this takes depends on the amount and the juicy-ness of the pears. It took about a hour for me. Most recipes said it would take longer - up to 2 hours. 7. Now you need to decide what shape you want for the finished paste. I poured mine into lightly oiled molds ( a miniature bread pan and a creme brûlée dish). I let it sit overnight and unmolded. An alternative is to pour it unto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, let sit overnight, then cut into sections. I have seen assembled cheese and fruit paste plates in Wegman's with thin squares of fruit paste like this. 8. Keep refrigerated until you want to use it. I think it is best at room temperature. One site said it was safe for canning - I think you would have to be very careful about the canning jars though so you could get it out in one piece. And, unless you are giving it as a gift, I'm not sure what the point is - it's not that hard to make when you want it. The guests really liked it - as do I. It is wonderful with blue cheese but good with a variety of types of cheese. One friend who does not eat dairy products kept eating it by itself on crackers. Quince is the traditional fruit for pastes but I have seen mentions of apricot and apple pastes as well as pear.

Dinner (?) tonight. I do not have any pictures because various friends arrived as before the food was plated - and immediately started eating. But tonight it was dinner for about 30 - and a great success. "Befores" were a cheese tray (I get crazy in the Wegmans cheese section - my husband made sure we only bought 5, well 6, different cheeses.) I was fascinated by the various "fruit pastes" on offer to go with cheese so when we got whom I consulted Google, found a recipe and made some pear paste - it was really good with the cheese - I'd post a picture but there is none left. The main meal was turkey - smoked yesterday, pork tenderloin marinated and grilled, wild and brown rice with butternut squash, leeks, and corn, a platter of tomatoes and cukes and a salad nicoise (Is this passé or retro? I don't care - it is good). Friends brought the desserts - 3 kinds of biscotti, a pumpkin cake, lemon bars and a Dutch apple pie. I kind of wish there were more left overs. On leaving almost everyone said "The food was great. The conversations were REALLY great." My kind of party.

I've been really busy. Here are a couple of dinners: Oven roasted cod with peppers and olives. Pasta with left over chicken from a couple of nights ago with peppers, garlic and onions. Tonight was very simple: pasta with shrimp and lots of garlic (no picture). This is because some crazy person in our household ( uh, me?) invited about 30 people over tomorrow afternoon for excellent conversation, good food and lots of good wine. The conversation is not a problem given our friend group - we will have a few organic farmers, an Irish poet, a long haul driver, a professor of Medieval French history, a plumber ( my husband), a social worker/weaver, a computer forensics investigator and various other interesting individuals. The wine is my husband's issue and he has it under control. The food is my area. Today we smoked a turkey and I prepped most of what I need for tomorrow. Besides the turkey there will be wild and brown rice with butternut squash,leeks and corn,grilled pork tenderloin marinated in cider,bourbon, brown sugar, ginger and a few other things, a platter of tomatoes and cukes, several kinds of bread (I made anadama bread yesterday and whatever condiments I remember to put out. I have a variety of cheeses, crackers and olives for nibbles. Our cousins are bringing dessert but being me I couldn't completely abdicate so I made some raspberry meringues that I will dip in chocolate. Any egullerters in easy reach of Vifgil NY are welcome - about 3:00 pm. I can guarantee the conversation will be great.

You are so lucky to have that index card. Maybe you should frame it? However, treasure it. Try the doughnuts some time. I have a piece of paper, in my mother's writing, labelled "Nene's Bun". Nene was my paternal grandmother's sister. (Really my great-aunt Rose but no one called her anything but Nene. She was an important part of my childhood. ) "Nene's Bun" seems to be a sweet sort of quick bread with dried fruit. I've never tried to make it - maybe I should.

This is the first time I have grown or cooked cardoon so I am experimenting. I used to see them in a local market occasionally but they haven't shown up for years now. I did blanch them for about 6 weeks before harvest but I did so by wrapping the plants in burlap rather than burying them - given the nature of our soil, more rock than soil, that seemed too challenging. As in your paragraph on Spanish use of them, I did boil them before frying them. I googled "cardoon recipes" and found a (to me) surprising number of recipes. I have 2 more plants so I'll try a couple of others - I think a gratin and a recipe for cardoon sautéed with honey and pine nuts. The soup sounds interesting too. I've read that cardoon is a main ingredient in bagna cauda so i may try that. I try to find something new to grow each year even if it is just a new variety. This was the year of cardoon and sunset runner beans - both successful. I have had some distinct failures in the past.

I harvested one of the cardoon plants today. They had been wrapped in burlap for 6 weeks to blanch the stalks. This is what the stalks looked like before cleaning. They had to be peeled and boiled to make them tender enough to eat. I breaded and fried this batch - we really liked them. They do taste like their relative, artichokes. I have 2 more plants to harvest so I will experiment with different preparations.

Dinner tonight: roast chicken with tomato chutney, roasted potatoes (my mother's version - you have to do them in butter for a very long time), breaded and fried cardoon and a salad with the last of the garden beets. I harvested the cardoon today - this is my first experience growing and cooking this vegetable. We liked it a lot.

That looks SO good! One of the things I miss most from my years living in coastal Maine is the seafood. It's very hard - no, impossible - to get really fresh seafood in central New York.

Two recent dinners - Tonight a very Marcella Hazan meal - sweet and sour tuna steaks and fried potatoes with rosemary and garlic. My local supermarket had tuna steaks for $5.99/lb! Why didn't I get multiple pounds to put in the freezer? I must not be thinking straight due to an incipient head cold. Thursday: Pasta with calamari, the small amount of left over roasted garlic/roasted pepper sauce I had in the fridge and a jar of home canned tomatoes (also in the fridge) that had failed to seal.

I finished my 3 day pear and ginger preserves: Day 1: Chopped pears, ginger threads and sugar ready to sit in the refrigerator overnight, getting acquainted. Day 2: Fruit and syrup cooked until the pears are transparent and candied. The instructions said it would take about 30 minute; I cooked it for about 45. Day 3: Fruit and syrup are separated. The syrup is cooked to the gel point, the fruit is added and boiled for 1 minute. Then into jars and processed 10 minutes. (5 if you are closer to sea level than I am.)

I have a maslin pan that I use for candy and preserves. I love it - it's one of the best pans I have ever owned. When I was researching it (about this time last year) I got great advice here. On, as I remember, Kerry Beal's advice, it came from Lee Valley - it's this one: http://www.leevalley.com/US/Garden/page.aspx?p=46628&cat=2,40733,47775&ap=2 Stainless steel, 9 liters, very heavy bottom. And tall enough that nothing (yet) boils over. It is currently full of pears and ginger - I am on day 2 of a 3 day preserves recipe. Here's a picture of mine: This was actually a Christmas gift from my husband - he responds very well to strong suggestions. Edited to say that I hope the link works.

I did the same for my daughter. However the recpies that she wanted - that for her are "home" - are not the ones that I think of that way. She had no interest in my mom's soup or pork chops (although she did want - and makes- the English muffins). She wanted my lentil soup recipe, oven roasted broccoli, and oatmeal bread. The definiton of 'family recipes' changes with each generation, I guess.

Huiray - I love the stuff:pasta ratio here. More stuff is good - especially this kind of stuff.