ElainaA

No, Lombardi's on Butternut Street. Where is Vince's? There is little that is more fun than a new food store to explore. Elaina

Katie - When I started researching this I found multiple recipes that were extremely different from each other. 5 eggs or 2 egg yolks? 2 pounds of ricotta or 2 cups? 2 cups of sugar or 1/4 cup? Since I have never tasted this (and do not know anyone who has), I started out really confused. I ended up sort of averaging out the recipes. For the pastry I used the pasta frolla (sweet pastry) recipe from The Silver Spoon with the addition of some lemon zest. For the filling I averaged out 3 recipes: Lidia Bastianich's fromLidia's Italian American Kitchen, Sheryl and Mel London's from The Versatile Grain and the Eleanor BeanS (I really like this book) and Michele Sciclone's recipe from her blog. It not only looks beautiful, it tastes great! I was really pleased since this whole adventure started with a reference in a mystery novel I was reading (set in 1930's Naples). I was intrigued by this special Easter dish that I had never heard of. Of course I have since learned that the Italian grocery in Syracuse (NY) not only stocks all the necessary ingredients but also commercially made pastier from a bakery in Brooklyn - which inevitably sell out well before Easter. Sorry to be so long winded but this really has felt like an adventure. Elaina

What traditions did you carry out today? Ours: For breakfast my husband always makes a frittata - something he remembers his grandfather doing when he was a boy. However his grandfather accompanied the frittate with shots of Seagrams. For dinner: Roast leg of lamb with roasted potatoes, stuffed tomatoes and asparagus. Dessert: Pastiera - A traditional Neapolitan Easter dessert I tried for the first time this year - a wheat berry and ricotta cake. Really good - much lighter than the ricotta cheesecake that my mother-in-law always made. Happy Easter, Passover or what ever you celebrate.

I won't shop in our local Aldi's because of the odor. I'm not sure what causes it but it seems to be permanent and it is NOT appealing. I've noticed in it an nearby branch also. However when we visited out daughter in Austria we shopped at Hofer, which is what Aldi is called there, and everything seemed fine. I love Trader Joe's but the nearest one is a 40 mile drive. I do our basic grocery shopping at Price Chopper - meat and produce are usually good, it is close and clean and the points for $$ off gas are great. I've heard others (besides Martin) comment that Wegman's has gone down hill - I guess I haven't lived near one long enough to notice the difference. The interesting thing to me is that the same items cost more at the Wegman's in Ithaca (affluent college town) than the Wegman's in Dewitt (Syracuse suburb, less affluent.) The same thing is true comparing Tops in Ithaca to Tops in Cortland (where I work - very NOT affluent). (This is all in NY) When my daughter started graduate school, Whole Foods ran a bus from the graduate housing complex to their store during orientation week. She found it crazy that many grad students, who constantly complained of being broke, never shopped anywhere else although there was a Wegman's and a Trader Joe's very near by - both cheaper.

What experience do people have making these Neapolitan Easter specialties? I became interested in them while reading one of Maurizio DiGiovanni's mysteries, set in 1930's Naples, this one taking place at Easter. Food, while irrelevant to the plot, features prominently in the book. The necessary ingredients of pastiera are stated as ricotta, cooked wheat and orange flower water. I found several recipes on line. The Italian sites (read in translation) all specify cooked wheat without giving any further detail. I'm assuming this means whole wheat berries? Boiled? One recipe commented that you could use canned cooked wheat "which you can easily find in any supermarket". Uh, not in upstate New York. Mario Batali has a version with faro rather than wheat - I guess this would be an acceptable substitute but if I'm going to try this i'd like to be authentic (on the first try, anyway). I also looked at versions of casatiello. Peter Reinhart has a recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice that differs somewhat from the recipes I found on Italian sites. The main difference is that the Italian recipes incorporate grated Parmesan cheese in the dough as well as using cheese as a 'stuffing". He also eliminates the whole eggs traditionally baked on top of the bread. I am not sure if I will attempt both of these - but I would appreciate any knowledge/experience that's out there. Elaina

In the fridge rather than the pantry - American processed "cheese". I cringe when a guest opens the fridge - they might think we eat the stuff. Not fit for human consumption but a slice waved in the air brings our poorly trained lab from wherever she is and into the house. Works every time- I think she can smell it a mile away. We call it 'dog cheese'. Elaina

Add me to the "I am so jealous" count. My garden is under 2-3 feet of snow and more is predicted for the next 2 days. But I have cardoons and stem celery seedlings up and plan on starting tomatoes, basil and radicchio tomorrow. Fungal diseases have been a big problem here - both early and late blight as well as bacterial wilt and septoria. Since they are all carried by the wind, we are investing in a hoop house this year. I don't care for Mountain magic but I grow both Defiant (from Johnny's) and Legend (from Territorial) which are blight resistant . And 9 other varieties. 13 kinds of lettuce. In January I am driven wild by seed catalogs, to paraphrase Michael Pollen. Many years ago i planted 4 morning glory plants by my garden fence. They reseed like crazy. The pictures show last year's crop.

That is wonderful! Elaina

Thanks for the reminder. It is a great reason to make the spinach-ricotta pie from the original Moosewood Cookbook. With apple-pear pie for dessert. I wish I had a picture of the pi plate that I gave my sister (then a mathematician) years ago. A ceramic pie plate with the greek letter pi in the center and the numerical expression of pi running around the edge - at least as many numbers as would fit. It is appropriate that the apple-pear pie recipe is hers. I see that the pi plate is still available on Amazon - great gift for any mathematician who loves to cook. Elaina

FrogPrincesse - Thanks! The various versions of shrubb that I encountered in Guadeloupe all included coffee beans as well as orange peel, cane sugar, vanilla and sometimes cinnamon. I saw the Clement version in shops. Do you like it? Our landlord was very scornful of it - but he looked down on all commercial versions. One restaurant we went to had a huge jar of shrubb working (marinating?) on the bar. A waiter confided in us that it wasn't very good because it didn't sit in the sun for at least 2 months - essential (he said) for true flavor to develop.

I have just returned from a week in Guadeloupe. The owner of our rented apartment greeted us with a drink of his home made shrubb - rum infused with orange peel, coffee beans, vanilla and some 'secret ingrediants' that he refused to divulge. It was amazing and delicious. He was very negative about any commercial versions, saying they were based on 'essences' rather than natural ingredients. His son did say that the mix of rum and flavorings has to sit in the sun for at least two months (which, given that I live in upstate NY, may make it difficult to impossible). Does anyone have experience in making this? I plan on trying (once we have some hope for sun) and would love any advice. Elaina

Thanks for the Crepes and Franci - I have never eaten or cooked cardoons as they are not available in markets in my area. I was intrigued by the description in the seed catalog. (In January in upstate NY, seed catalogs drive me crazy - all those pictures of vegetables and flowers when everything outside is buried in snow.) I may ask for recipe advice come harvest time. Elaina

The key phrase here is "straight from my garden". I can't think of anything that I grow that I don't love to eat raw and fresh. Very few peas even make it into the house. I'm not sure my husband knows that I grow them. (I don't think I would eat raw eggplant but I've given up on that due to flea beetles.) Wonderful fresh and raw vegetables are one of the things I miss most in the winter. I am growing cardoon this year - not sure if that would be eatable raw. Elaina

I think the potatoes look great as is! Elaina

Butternut squash soup with chopped apples, salad with feta and olives and scallion, sea salt and black pepper biscuits. And wine, of course. Elaina

The hydration was 79.6% - this was Peter Reinhart's Pain a l'Ancienne (from The Bread Baker's Apprentice) and that is what he specifies. He describes the dough as being very wet and, since this was a first try for me, I followed the recipe as exactly as I could. The loaves he pictures are certainly not as flat as mine.However I am very happy with the crumb and the taste. Looking at his formula for poolish baguettes the hydration is 55.9% - I think I'll try that next. I've already done that! Twice, in fact, once last night and then this morning for breakfast - excellent with my Peach Preserves for a Cold Winter Morning (that is the actual name of the recipe - peach, orange and habanero preserves) very appropriate as it was just 9F at my house this morning. And I had extra time as I can't get down the driveway to work until my husband plows it. Elaina

My very first attempt at baguettes. Obviously I need to really to work on the shaping. But I'm pleased with them and they taste very good. Elaina

liuzhou - Thank you! Many things can be lost (or added) in translation! I can actually sort of see how 'naked eye' turns into ' pork rib eye' English has its own set of non-intuituve dish names - such as hopping john which I made for New Year's Day brunch. In my husband's Italian culture there is 'sheet music bread ' and 'crazy water fish' which are both delicious but the names make little sense. Elaina

liuzhou - Can you translate the translations? I am really curious about some of these dishes - especially the "American naked eye of highest grade."! Elaina

Champagne at home and, almost always (he has missed, but only 2-3 times in 33 years) a single rose from my husband. Dinner won't be anything more special than usual - I always hope it is at least a little special. Making dinner for us is one of the best things I do every day. Elaina

Be sure to look into the Health Department licensing rules - New York state is pretty complicated. For instance with a home kitchen license you can sell jam but not pickles, only non-chocolate candy and there are various other restrictions. The requirements for your kitchen are pretty strict also - I can not get licensed since my house is open-plan - you have to have doors that allow the kitchen to be closed off. An alternative is to rent space in a licensed kitchen - I have used the local YWCA kitchen for catering. Your kids' school lunch menus look much better than what my daughter was offered 20 years ago! I remember mostly fish sticks and chicken fingers. The high point (for her) was french toast sticks. Elaina

Here's my venison stew. Not really a true vinha d'alhos - although if you google the term you find multiple, very different recipes so what's true? I used the marinade from the vinha d'alhos recipe my friend gave me - basically wine, vinegar and garlic, and marinated the venison for 24 hours (the traditional recipes say to marinate 3 - 6 days). Then I really just turned it into a stew with carrots, onions,potatoes, braised garlic and sauteed mushrooms. It was delicious and extremely tender - which venison stew meat sometimes is not. With a salad, bread and wine it was a lovely dinner.

Shelby - that meat looks really good. Growing up, venison was my family's main meat - partly because my father hunted but mainly because the game warden was his best friend. (Did you ever wonder what happens to those illegal kills that are confiscated? This was 60 years ago - it probably wouldn't happen today. Or would it?) I'm just about to start a venison stew courtesy of a friend who hunts. I used his wife's recipe for vinha d'alhos - a dish that is traditionally made with pork but she says it works well with venison. We'll see tonight. We were having lunch with said neighbor this summer when he looked out the window and left the room. This was quickly followed by a gunshot. He came back in and said to his wife "Rabbit stew tomorrow, It's in the kitchen." I wish I had gotten to taste the stew. Elaina

Actually buying the cookbook is much cheaper than enrolling at the website. The website costs $34.95 - per year. The cookbook is available on Amazon for $22.83 new or $14.73 used. Paid once. I use the cookbook frequently - the recipes are fussy but they work and taste very good. I've dropped, first, the magazine and, recently, the website because, as others have noted CI recycles recipes constantly. Also, the $34.95 enrollment only gives you access to recipes published in CI. To access recipes from the Test Kitchen or Cook's Country (Yes,rotuts,I hear the banjos) you need a "multi site" membership costing $69.95 per year. Elaina