fifi

Welcome nashman1975. Some people do put out a really great meal every night. Not many of us do, so don't get intimidated. I work so I do most of my cooking fun on the weekends. It is recreation for me. A lot of times I have my fun making some of my pantry items: stock, ancho paste, tomatillo sauce, whatever. Sometimes I try out new ideas and most of those are planned for leftover meals during the week. I think that the first thing to do is to get comfortable with your cooking skills so that those are adaptable to what is at hand... that butternut squash for instance. It all takes time and a lot of trial and error. In my case, lots of error. And, resources like eGullet are an excellent opportunity to learn. It is a fabulous resource. I have been cooking since I was a kid ( I am now 57) and learned at the stoves of some awesome cooks. But what I have learned in just a little over a year here is unbelievable. It is a journey. You just have to start.

Yep... Pie crust. I should have the genes. My grandma's sister, Great Aunt Minnie, was the goddess of pie crust. She would come to visit for a month or so at a time. The day she arrived was pie day. The men folk in our little family compound would have been in revolt if they didn't come home and find her lemon meringue pie. I used to stand on a chair and watch her. Grandma was no slouch, but everyone recognized that Aunt Minnie was the world's genius. Her chicken and dumplings... got it. Her pan fried chicken... got it. Pie crust... I don't do pies. I do pretty darn good skillet corn bread. My biscuits are passable. My pie crust could sink the Bismark. (Please do not tell me all of your secrets. I have tried them all and I fully understand the science behind a great pie crust. In my hands, they are all hopeless.)

Hmmm... Tabasco... Chipotle, Garlic, Green, Habernero Pikkapepper (sp?) Sriracha Mojo de ajo Preserved lemon Jalapenos en escabeche And... check out this thread on preserved citrus. My favorite marmalade is from that mystery orange tree (ultimately found to be a calamondin) lovingly made by my sister.

Years ago I (and my mother) used to start a lot from seeds because you couldn't find the range of varieties in nursery grown plants. That is not true here in SE Texas anymore and buy plants. We have specialty nurseries that offer a lot of different varieties and we seek them out. For the most part, I don't bother with seeds much. If I do, it is those types that I can "throw in the yard" and may the best survive. Check out the yellow pages in your area or ask around and you may find a local specialty nursery that can get you more variety. Then I tell myself that when I get back to full bore gardening I will start doing seeds again. There is just something magical about seeds.

Oh... Now I get it. Like you dip them out of a barrel or some other kitschy container. I have always considered those things as the repository for the beans that were sitting on the shelf in their bags and that the date had expired so we get some kid to open all of the bags and dump them in the barrel. russ... Typically, our domestic water supply in Houston and Dallas doesn't vary as to hardness. (Chlorine, yes. Sometimes gets really high in the summer.) If pintos cooked perfectly a couple of weeks ago, the water supply wouldn't normally cause Richard's problem. Just as a general question, what does water hardness do to beans? I have cooked them in my usual way in all kinds of water. In Hammond LA, the municipal water is so soft you barely need to touch the bar of soap. My well at my house there was not so soft but delicious like a spring water and about medium hardness. Bellaire TX is pretty hard well water. I haven't changed my methods over the years and the beans don't seem to change.

Sounds like old beans, Richard. Were there any "use by" date clues on the package? My perfect pintos were generic Kroger brand and they said use by some month in 2005 so I figured they were pretty fresh. I actually had that happen to me at my sister's house with Camellia Red Beans of all things. Finally, my sister fessed up that the package had been in the cupboard for a couple of years or more (God knows how many more).

Does anyone have a suggestion for a rosemary that has a columnar habit? In my sister's yard, we need to plant one at the corner of the BBQ area to anchor a corner. The lemongrass is huge and flowering. That is really interesting.

ZenFoodist... That post is a classic. Thank you so much for sharing. My family is scattered now, two grown kids living thousands of miles away. I miss those times. My son lived with me for a time while finishing school. We often revived the Sunday Dinner tradition and he would invite his friends. I cooked, of course, and he was the kitchen helper, which we both enjoyed. When they are in town for a visit, we revive the tradition. Dinner is always Sunday afternoon. Sometimes it is BBQ and sometimes a more traditional dinner of requested favorites. The food is important and usually involves at least one experiment. But the most important thing is the telling of stories, reminiscing and planning for future times together.

Wowser. That is quite an article. Well Done! I was reminded of the lessons I learned in the 70s at the stove of my own personal Gumbo Goddess of LaPlace. She had relatives and friends all over the place and was somewhat of a collector of the different styles. The author is absolutely correct. There was a lot more regionality back then. She taught me the general techniques and variations. Those were some of the most valuable cooking lessons I have ever received. There are some great ideas in that article. Now, if I can just get my family to "branch out" a little. Usually, if I try to stray from that very dark chicken and sausage version, they get out the torches and dogs. I am dying to try Pruhomme's "recipe" with the tasso.

Ok... Here is the scene... Cleaning out the fridge preparing to be gone a few weeks. There is one last container of the pintos I cooked using the parsons method. Remember that I added ancho paste at the end. Hmm... So that's where that little container of excellent bacon fat ended up. My truly beautiful shiny black cast iron skillet is sitting on the stove. I had dragged it out to measure it for purposes of a discussion of the proper size skillet for my cornbread recipe. Gee... I have been thinking of those Mexican breakfast buffets ever since some vindictive person started that breakfast thread. (You see where we are going here?) Somehow, a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat made its way into the frying pan. The stove was turned on to medium heat. The beans found their way under my masher. Plop, sizzle. Pretty soon I had the best batch of refried beans I have had in years. I like mine roughly mashed... not the runny goo you get so often. I let the liquid cook off and a little light brown crust form between turnings. When the whole mass comes together like a dough almost, all is ready. I like my refried beans to stand up for themselves, not lay around in a pathetic puddle. The only thing that could have improved this picture would have been finding some fresh lard of the asiento persuasion in the fridge. Do try this with leftover beans.

First, you should check out col klink's course in the eGCI... Smoking Meat at Home. I am currently using a Weber Smoky Mountain but it is fueled with charcoal. There shouldn't be too much difference as long as you have temperature control. The Virtual Weber Bullet site will give you some recipe ideas. There are also tons of links to other BBQ sites.

Oh man... You are killing me with those purple hulls. Good Grief, Charlie Brown! I have got to have some peas. Canned peas need not apply. I want fresh shelled peas. AND I WANT THEM NOW!

Ah... The great artichoke wars. You put just enough in to supply the very fringe of the serious eaters. Then, when they come out you quarter them to extend the supply. Then, you sit back and watch the war. That is part of the tradition. At least it was where I had crawfish boils. Same for shrimp. Actually, to keep down general mayhem and bodily injury, we would often dump in a whole basket full of just artichokes after the first boil just to keep the peace.

I'm with you on the Meyer Lemon memesuze. I just can't see myself hauling a big pot. The house will be on a peninsula in Galveston Bay so I get a little more of a chance. I have decided that I will put the Meyer Lemon, the calamondin and the Keffir Lime in a grouping so that I can cover them in one swell foop if I have to. I also might entertain keeping them pruned to a manageable size should I ever need to do that. I guess you can keep them pruned and still have them make fruit. I will have to look into that. The current burning question of the day is where my sister will plant the moon vine and morning glories so that they are more visible from the porch than they were last year. She also has to get her buns in gear and get the Four O'Clocks started. I found some white ones. they will be lovely at night. I can't wait to have those again. I haven't smelled those since I was a kid.

I have added borage in a very fine chiffonade to salad dressing, especially one with a yogurt base. It adds a nice cucumber flavor. The texture of the leaves are too fuzzy for me to use it any other way. I do like to sprinkle the flowers on salad. Actually, I just used to grow it because it is pretty.

That is great news, Elie. The more markets the merrier and maybe we will get some of the specialty farmers to participate. Hopefully, the timing will be planned so that they won't compete and there will be markets available for folks on different schedules. I really see an opportunity here in the Bay Area. There is already a market as such in Seabrook for plants, antiques and such. Folks come down here on the weekends to buy fresh seafood so I think the whole concept is ripe for expansion. Maybe when I retire in about three years I will start agitating. But I would hope that someone sees the possibilities before then.

That is truly good news, Jin. Hopefully the concept will spread. BTW... One of our favorite things to do was to load up and go to a park and have a picnic. We went into several of the stores in various parts of London and I do have to say that the quality was quite consistent.

First question... How does a "mostly vegetarian" friend deal with this romp? Second question... What started this odyssey? Tell us a story.

Ahh... Happy memories of Pret a Manger. A few years ago I spent a few days in London on a trip with my two grown kids. Pret a Manger saved our bacon. (Pardon the pun.) In between museums and such, that was our stop for a quick and restorative bite. While we ain't exactly poor, that is the only way we would have survived in London with enough money left to see more of the country. The sandwiches and other offerings were always fresh and tasty. I LOVE that place and wish we had something comparable here. Yes, we did find some interesting and affordable Indian restaurants and such but sometimes you just need to grab a sandwich and go.

I went wandering around in chardgirl's site and found this gorgeous purple cauliflower. I just want to hang that stuff on the wall. chardgirl... check out this most famous roasted cauliflower thread.

Any well done breakfast buffet in a hotel in Mexico is my idea of breakfast heaven. If you have been living right, it will have chilequiles done with a tomatillo sauce, refried beans cooked with real fresh lard that has some of the cracklin crumbs in it, those fluffy but creamy scrambled eggs that are an unreal almost orange color, some hits of a chile laden salsa, a couple of jalepenos en escabeche and the whole thing liberally sprinkled with the fresh white cheese. A couple of pieces of the local sausage won't hurt but the best thing about the buffet scene is that I can get as much of those beans as I want.

Heh... I was thinking the same thing. Those are just stunning. Is that spikey thing on the left edible? I never knew there were that many kinds of artichokes. If you are preparing them without a lot of acid, I wonder if you have to worry about botulism. The ones that you buy in the jars in oil are very carefully processed at a high enough temperature and for long enough to get rid of that worry. I am too rusty on times and temperature to be of any real help here. You might want to find a source of information on that.

I am still not following you. Do you put them in a pan? What kind of pan? Shallow? Deep? I tried smoking some salt a few weeks ago. I spread it out in a disposable aluminum pan and it didn't pick up any smoke flavor at all that I could tell. Where are you in Texas? I am able to find various kinds of wood. There is a place here in League City that has different kinds of wood. And the big Academy sporting goods stores have a pretty good selection. My favorite place is a local called "Chim Chimeney's". They sell fireplaces, fancy grill set-ups and the like and have a pretty good selection of charcoals and wood chunks. Local folks like that will normally bust their buns to order stuff for you to win you over as a repeat customer. Look in your yellow pages for BBQ supplies.

The Houston Chronicle - Food Ceremonial Seder foods play a meaningful part in Passover tradition Who knew matzo could be colorful? Good recipes are included. The Houston Press - Dining Cafe Bijan makes treats so good, somebody's grandma must've made them But you can't get baklava for breakfast. The Houston Chronicle - Dining Chef Jeff Armstrong's simple but elegant fare revives hotel restaurant

Wowser. I wonder if this is meant to displace the market in the Heights. She was involved in that, too. Hopefully she has gotten the city food inspector nazis on board for this one. I won't be able to make it for several weeks so I hope someone does and reports back.