afoodnut

Just curious... Jason, Katie, Ronnie, Gifted, Coughy, anyone else? Are your families/friends with whom you celebrate the holidays open to innovative, "unusual" food at other times, and only insistent about what they're used to at the holidays? Do you have food centered gatherings with your preferred style of food with these same people at other times? Is it an issue of generations, with differences between what the young folk and old folk might prefer? The holiday gatherings I host are far from what I think you consider traditional; the food I serve is probably best described as contemporary colorado southwestern mediterranean jewish; The friends/family with whom I celebrate enjoy good food at all times, and look forward to seeing what I'm going to come up with, including twists on "traditional," traditional, and innovative. Nary a complaint. I'm part of the older generation of our gatherings; None of us are nostalgic for the Boiled and Burnt. It will be interesting to see how my daughter and the rest of her generation will think about the food when it's their turn to cook for the holidays, never having been exposed to the traditional style that I think most of you are talking about. (I'm planning on including cooking holiday food as part of my "Cooking with Kids" class for the eGCI, so I'd like to hear your comments.) Any thoughts? Edit to add: Rosh Hashana dinner we served last year; some "traditional," some not so. Many with whom we celebrate are vegetarian. (24 people for Rosh Hashanah dinner.) Apples with Honey; Round Challah; Halibut w/Tomato, Garlic, Cumin and Jalapeno; Chicken w/ Apricots and Onion, Ginger, Saffron; Rice Pilaf; Green Beans, Carrots, and Leeks; Roasted Eggplant, Pepper, Onion and Tomato; Avocado, Tomato, Cucumber Salad; Noodle Kugel w/Tofu; (pareve) Peaches with Honey and Blackberry Wine; Honey Cake

I have to vouch for Colorado water, at least most of the time. Last year, in the worst throes of the drought, water started tasting weird, because reservoirs were low, and different treatments had to be used. Our water comes primarily from snowpack/runoff, not rainfall. Boulder is sometimes noted because the city "owns a glacier" to supply water; it's true that there's a glacier in the watershed, but of course its snowmelt is a tiny percentage of the runoff. Rocky Mountain water is delicious.

There are quite a few more Little America Hotels, including in Cheyenne, Flagstaff, Arizona, south of Austin. Little America, Wyoming is actually the name of the town itself. (I think it was the site of the first of their hotels (opened in the 1930's), but I'm not sure about that.)

Well, there is a Little America, Wyoming, west of Rock Springs, near Flaming Gorge recreation area. And that part of Wyoming would certainly be a foreign country to most egulleters.

Curiosity got to me, and I looked up barbecue and barbeque online using MacDict. The definitions at least should provide more food for thought.

There's also a rather simplistic, if not obvious, reason: peppers (hot and not so hot), the *hot* spices, the ingredients of spicy foods, grow in hot climates.

Thank you.

It's very true, lump charcoal burns hotter. For long slow, use the chips and briquettes. You'll find them to be more stable than lump at the lower temps. What is the difference between lump/charcoal/briquette/hardwood? I use a product called mesquite charcoal (100% mesquite); it is not labelled as briquet or lump. In appearance, it looks like uneven chunks of wood, but charred black. It's tricky to get the fire started, it doesn't seem to get all that hot, (no thermometer, I'm only a casual griller) and it seems to burn out quickly. Reading this thread, I'm not sure which parts of the discussion might help me understand what I'm working with. Can anyone explain further? Thanks. afn

I love cooking for people, and want them to enjoy what I prepare. So yes, I want to know beforehand if they're vegetarian, allergic, just plain "don't like," whatever. I consider those issues a challenge to my creativity, not an insult.

Colorado. What people drink appears to depends on the meal. With dinner, often wine; beer with Mexican food and at brew pubs; tea, or sometimes beer, with Chinese, iced tea or soft drinks with lunches, coffee with breakfast, chai with Indian, water with everything.

Instead of boiling the potatoes first and making potato salad, you can also roast cubed (unpeeled) potatoes in a hot oven with EVOO, fresh oregano, salt and pepper. afn

I've had sliced cucumbers with what I think is ginger, soy, red rice vinegar, sesame oil (and maybe a pinch of sugar).

I posted this in answer to your question on the garden thread .There are many possible causes of so called "blossom rot," including Pythium Rot; Choanephora Rot; Gray Mold (Botrytis cinerea);Belly Rot (Rhizoctonia solani); Gummy Stem Blight Mycosphaerella melonis (Didymella bryoniae); Soft Rot(Erwinia carotovora pv. carotovora, Pseudomonas spp. and several other bacteria). I bet that's more than you ever wanted to know. These websites squash and Info both have good pictures of the fruit problems you may be seeing, as well as information on treating the problem.

Edited to try to make it look like a quote.But this entirely avoids the issue. Of course, since a vulture is a non-kosher bird, it's eggs are non-kosher. I don't need a team of learned rabbis to tell me that A chicken is a kosher bird, and so its eggs are de principio kosher. And of course if there are blood-spots, or if someone injected the egg with lard, the egg would no longer be kosher. And of course anything made from an egg must ber supervised to ensure observance of the laws of kashrut. "What makes a whole chicken egg kosher or otherwise ?" is my question. I think I'll visit the OU site and send them an email To get to the bottom of this, I suppose we'll have to answer that other question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? If, for an egg to be kosher, it has to come from a kosher chicken, then does the kosher chicken that lays the egg have to have come from a kosher egg? (Must the egg/chicken/egg cycle be unbrokenly kosher? Do we have to go back to the first chicken (or was it the first egg?)

If you want to use it for something like soothing a burn, you just break off one of the leaves, break it open, and apply. If by *getting the juice out* you mean juicing it, I don't know, but you can start by breaking off as many leaves as you want.

I find it hard to believe the way a chicken was killed will have much of an effect on its eggs, other than to make it stop laying eggs. I also find it hard to believe that the future fate of a chicken would have any effect on the eggs it lays before it meets its fate. It shouldn't take a talmudic scholar to explain that the future can never be assured. So I checked with the authority OUwebsite and they say: Edited to try to make it look like a quote.

Zucchini and other squash, watermelons, cucumbers (all cucurbits) really do like it to be hot and dry. Here in Colorado, the problem is almost always too much zucchini. A couple of websites that will help you identify your specific problems (many different bacterial and/or fungal diseases, as well as insects, can cause the symptoms you describe). squash Info

Now you got me I have never in my life heard of eggs being certifiable as kosher. Free range or organic have nothing to do with kashrut. What an animal eats is only relevant insofar as carrion eaters are de facto non-kosher animals, and carnivores are indirectly non-kosher animals by virtue of the cloven hoof/cud-chewing rule. My understanding has been that those regulations apply only to the animal in its natural condition. So a chicken is, by nature, a kosher animal. I don't understand how, if a chicken happens to eat meat (whether through artificial feed or accidentally in a free state), it might thereby become non-kosher. Indeed I am not aware of how a kashrut authority would ever know if a chicken had eaten meat, and in that case they would never be able to certify a chicken as kosher. And to extend that to an egg laid by a chicken which may have eaten meat seems extraordinary to me. Anyone know more about this ? I'm not sure about all of it, and certainly no expert, other than having grown up in a kosher home, but if I remember, the most important thing for the egg to be kosher was that the egg had to have been candled, to make sure there were no blood spots. If an egg had a blood spot, it was treif; More thinking/research if anyone cares.

Oh, sorry to hear that. docsconz's experience is more recent than mine. It's expensive, so I'd listen to docsconz.

Both Leona's and Rancho de Chimayo in Chimayo. Although it's expensive, Coyote Cafe.

Latkes (potato pancakes)

WHT, You might want to post this in the Heartland forum, if you haven't already. Lots of friendly, helpful Chicago folk post there.

I've heard lots of theories about why they're called johnnycakes, but one often bandied about is that it might be derived from journey cake (travellers taking some along). I've also heard that it might be from "Shawnee cake," after the Natives who taught the settlers how to use the corn. Edit: I just did some checking. My 1972 edition of the NYTimes Heritage Cookbook says "Rhode Island johnnycakes were originally called journey cakes because the circuit riders carried the bread with them on their travels to preach the gospel. Massachusets johnnycakes usually have wheat flour and corn meal in them." So that's one authority in favor of the journey cake derivation. And online The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition gives both journey cake and Shawnee cake as synonyms. clickheredictionary

Do truckstops count in your diner definition? The restaurant at the truckstop at Johnson's Corner on I-25 near Loveland, Colorado (between Denver and Ft. Collins) has "world famous" cinnamon rolls, boasts of never having closed its doors since it opened in 1952. Everything is made on the premises, classic truckstop food, waitresses, atmosphere. clickhere

Can you provide a quote? I'm not pixelchef, and I can't say Levine said it was his *favorite* but I can say it's the only one Levine describes as incredible.