hjshorter

I love good homemade tartar sauce. NOT the nasty stuff in jars, but homemade mayo mixed with herbs, lemon juice, minced cornichons and onion.

Sour Cream Spice Cake I have been making this recipe since I was very small. My mother cut it out of Ladies Home Journal, or one of those magazines, back in the 60's. The original recipe called for raisins, but mom hates raisins and always made it with walnuts. Good with cream cheese frosting. 2 c flour 1-1/2 c packed brown sugar 1-1/4 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp cinnamon 3/4 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 1/2 c butter, softened 2 eggs 1 c sour cream 1/2 c water 1 c walnuts, chopped or raisins(optional) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan. Measure all ingredients and put in a large bowl. Blend with a hand mixer for 30 seconds on low speed, then for 3 minutes on high speed. Pour into pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cool completely Frost in the pan, or sprinkle with powdered sugar. Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Cake ( RG472 )

Orzo Salad with Apricots Serves 6 as Side. For the ginger oil: 1 good sized chunk of fresh ginger, thinly sliced 8 T light olive or vegetable oil For the salad: 8 oz orzo 1 c dried apricots, cut into strips 2 T cilantro, chopped 1/4 tsp ground coriander 1/3 c scallions, thinly sliced 1/3 c toasted almonds, sliced 4 T ginger oil 1/2 lemon salt and freshly ground pepper In a small saucepan combine ginger and oil. Bring to a simmer and turn the heat off. Let steep for about an hour. Remove ginger, pressing to extract as much oil as possible. Cook orzo until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Place the orzo in a bowl and combine with apricots, cilantro, coriander, scallions and almonds. Toss with 4-5 tbsp. of the ginger oil, until pasta is just moist. Squeeze fresh lemon on the salad and mix, then salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature. Keywords: Side, Pasta, Easy ( RG470 )

Curried Macaroni Salad Serves 6 as Side. 8 oz shells or other small pasta 1/2 green pepper, diced 1/2 red pepper, diced 1/2 c celery, sliced 6 scallions, chopped 1/4 c cilantro, chopped Dressing: combine 1/2 c mayonnaise 1/2 c sour cream 2 T olive oil 2 T cider vinegar 2 tsp mild curry powder 1 tsp salt Freshly ground pepper, to taste Cook and drain pasta, rinse with cold water. Mix with 1 tbsp. olive oil and chill until cold. Mix chilled pasta with vegetables, add dressing and mix thoroughly. For a milder salad, reduce curry powder to one teaspoon. Keywords: Side, Easy, Pasta ( RG469 )

Oooooh, I think I've hit upon Ian's cake for his second birthday... Is there an Elmo-shaped pan to be had somewhere? I know that you can get Blue from Blues Clues with the Wilton stuff at AC Moore. Just reporting back - I wimped on the coconut cake for Ian's birthday because I remembered that my dad and brother don't like coconut. So he got a white cake with lemon curd filling and buttercream. He ate every bite and smeared the frosting in his hair.

Yes, but even Mario doesn't explain everything - mostly due to his time limitations. His food would be much better served by an hour as opposed to 30 minutes. Agreed, Pixelchef. She explains everything - too much so in my opinion... but I probably have a little more knowledge than the average housewife.

All true. Emeril Live is the show I am least likely to watch - well except maybe $40/day. And C/W Spencer, I agree that he's got nowhere to go except back to the rest biz. I'm sure he's living the high life right now comparatively speaking.

That's the last thing we need. That stuff multiplies like rabbits as it is. On topic...I like the idea of food being fire, flame and magic, but on most days that ain't exactly what's happening in my kitchen. Sad to say, I'm TFN's core audience demographic, mid 30's homemaker who cooks every night and does the shopping. Just look at the ads they sell. It's true. And as such, I find that much of their programming - gasp - interests me. Many, many of the recipes I make all the time come from TFN. So I don't see them changing their tune any time soon.

Emeril Live is on at least three times a day, right? And reruns all the damn time. Essence of Emeril is much better. He has no personality, but at least he isn't capering around.

Ew. I had no idea one of his restaurants was named Tchoup Chop. That's awful. Say what you will about him, every one of his recipes that I've tried has been good. Really, really good in some instances.

I have eaten at Jaleo many times, starting about a month after they opened, and can attest to the fact that the food has evolved somewhat. Do try it. I haven't been to Cashion's Eat Place in a couple of years but it's obviously still very, very good.

Good luck! I second all of Maggie's tips (especially the portion control) plus one more - try to up the treadmill time by one more day a week. It'll make a difference after a while.

Spaghetti Marinara sauce simmered all afternoon with meatballs (pork, veal, & beef) Steamed broccoli Mesclun with herbs, EVOO and salt Ice cream for Scott and Emma. Fat free blueberry sorbet for me.

Crottin Fourme d'Ambert a tie between Parmagiano Reggiano, good sharp aged cheddar, and Taleggio.

Scott got his new DeLonghi deep fryer today - an early Father's Day present. Dinner was fried catfish po'boys with tartar sauce, tomatoes and shredded lettuce. Beer for Scott, root beer for me. Vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce for dessert. Foodman, that strawberry shortcake looks great! Strawberries are a few weeks away for us.

Hey, the more the merrier, Kobicook. Let us know if you can get the day off.

No guns in our house. But I can dream about venison. We are going to get new plants this weekend. Too late to start from seed. Sorry to hear about the tarragon, Tommy. We have lots of rabbits around here too - that's what KO'd our carrot crop last year. Too bad the critters don't seem to go for the wild onions infesting my flower beds.

OK, so maybe a Sunday afternoon/evening? June 1st perhaps? Erin and Edemuth are more than welcome to join us.

Moving this back up. I will be at the market again this Sunday 5/4, if anyone would like to meet for shopping and coffee please let me know.

Which ones? Tapas because we've talked about it, but what else? We'd have to coordinate recipes. I want to make the squid braised in beer again, and maybe something fried at the last minute. Definitely tortilla, gambas en ajillo, marinated olives... Where's Malawry? She'd be in too.

Our tomatoes that Scott and Emma planted last weekend have been munched down to nubs - stupid deer! We may have to put an enclosure around our beds. Last year they at least let the plants grow before eating all of the tomatoes. The good news is that they don't seem to go for the herbs.

Bux, are Spanish coffees available in the US? I don't believe I've ever seen any. Perhaps on the web somewhere? The espresso we had in Madrid and Barcelona was excellent.

Aw, too bad, Varmint. Alternately, if no one feels like cooking there's always Jaleo... but I'm ready to break out the Penelope Casas book and start cooking.

With the advent of warmer weather our thoughts have drifted to entertaining again. Is anyone interested in planning something? Potluck tapas perhaps?

In Spain this was true, at least it was five years ago. Everyone smoked everywhere - it was so pervasive and guilt free that even though I had quit, I smoked on the trip just because we could. There is a town near us, Friendship Heights, MD, that has considered making it illegal to smoke outdoors, not just in public buildings.