fifi

pssst... what is a suribachi?

I never thought of doing that but I suppose you could make a batch of just about any cornbread recipe in about the same proportion as a box of Jiffy. (I don't have any on hand to see what that is but I don't recall that it is as much as a typical 2-cups-of-cornmeal recipe. I also think of Jiffy as one of the sweeter and more cake-like types of cornbread so I would look for a recipe that includes flour and a fair amount of sugar. (My all cornmeal recipe has buttermilk, no flour, and only a tablespoon of sugar. I don't think that would come out the same.)

Oh goody. Thanksgiving in Vermont. (That would make a good song title.) I am in Mayhaw Man's camp, just a little west along the coast, so this will really be fun. I sure hope ImageGullet gets up and running (I think they are working on it) so we can get pictures. Descriptions of the landscape and the current state of the autumn leaves would satisfy some of my curiosity. Down here we don't get much in the way of autumn color. Mayhaw Man, I am sending you a line of thunderstorms with a "cold" front. It is likely to get all the way down to maybe the 40s.

beer and 242 jars of assorted condiments Actually, when I had one, in a past life, it was great for storing stuff (like the condiments) that I didn't use often. It was a lifesaver around the holidays or anytime a big-time cooking event was coming up. I loved it. Must have one again one of these days.

Ummm... I THINK the muscle fibers, or at least the major layer is verticle in a stingray. I say think because my ichthyology books are in storage. As I recall, it is easy to remove that muscle layer and punch out "scallops". Just to be clear, this is a stingray. This is a skate that East Coasters may be familiar with. The scallop scam years ago was identified as stingray. As I recall, they were imported from Venezuela which would match the critter's range. Stingray's can get huge. It is not unusual to see a surf fisherman haul in big suckers that are four feet across or more.

Wok wins!

That Jiffy Mix recipe has been a favorite around here for a long time. I don't know where the original came from. The neat thing about it is that you can throw just about anything in there and it still works. We often add pickled jalapenos, use whatever kind of corn is hanging around, onion, delete the sour cream, whatever. I did see a trick on some thread here from a chef. For cheese in any kind of corn bread, you cube the cheese and let it dry out so that a bit of a skin forms on the cubes. Then you end up with these little pockets of melted cheese in the bread. My cheese always seemed to get "lost" in my cornbread. This works.

The cast iron stuff traveled with the settlers across this great country and survived. I think I will stick with a long term history of success. If you want to bean someone with a frying pan, which would you pick? Well seasoned cast iron or All Clad? The All Clad may come out dented. The cast iron will be unfazed and go on to make the next omelet or corn bread.

Oh my goodness. You bring a tear to my eye. How many gardens I have had to leave. There is something about a garden that is a living extension of ourselves. And then there are the treasured plants that we have maintained. And there are the ones that we have propogated from a treasured friend's gift. I have a pot of jade plant descended from an unexpected gift from some business friends (that became treasured personal friends) when I was in the hospital 25+ years ago. I would die before I would lose that plant. My sister has some surviving violet plants from a strain that our mother dug up in some woods somewhere maybe 50 years ago. When I was a kid, we made the violet jelly from those plants. There is the miniature rose bush that my late beloved basset hound almost killed by munching the buds and flowers. Then there are the memories related to the more transient residents of the garden. There is the trellis where the kids would "steal" the snow peas so that I never got enough for a stir fry. Here is the planting bed where my sister accused me of interferring with the sex life of the squash when I took the stamens from the one male flower in the patch and went around to the female flowers in the early morning. For my part, I mourn what I have lost from my past gardens as though they were family members. But I also look forward to building that new one as though, god like, I am bringing a new life into being. And that is a very good thing to do.

Easy. My ancient, shiny black cast iron skillet. Um... but maybe my LeCreuset French oven. Multi-tasking possibilities. No... the cast iron dutch oven. More indestructable. But I can't make corn bread without the skillet. No, I could probably do that in the dutch oven. But the skillet does make a better weapon. Maybe I vote for the skillet. But dutch ovens can do so many things. *revelation* So far, no one has grabbed the $$$$ shiny stuff. Hmmmm.

I just spit wine all over my laptop.

Thank you, gentlemen. I was beginning to think that it was some put-on. Funny how it became an icon. When I was a senior in college I helped to run a study we had been commissioned to do for the pet turtle farming industry. (Salmonella problems.) My major professor came into the lab just as I was dropping a little turtle into a running blender. He threw up in the sink. (I don't think I ever told him that the turtles had been pithed first.)

Will someone please rescue my failing brain? I know "about" the Bassomatic. I have heard of it. And I think it has even become an icon. But I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I tried google but there is some rock group called Bassomatic and I really didn't want to go through a thousand or more hits.

The results of my googling have proven me wrong. (Imagine that!) There were a lot of hits about California banning Gulf Coast Oysters, the usual hysteria from CSPI, calls for labeling laws, yelling about the FDA doing nothing, etc. etc. etc. Checking with some of my oyster buying friends that go to our waterfront just off the boat places. They say that they often see tags on the bags of oysters. That may be just because that particular oysterman chooses to do that for whatever reason but there doesn't appear to be a uniform regulation about it. I didn't get any hits about state level legislation but maybe my google skills aren't all that great, either. However... I did find this about Texas Oysters. This looks like a Texas Department of Agriculture voluntary certification program so maybe that is what the tags are about. There is a guy named Jonathan Packman on the Marketing Committee from Central Market in Austin. Maybe if foodie52 checks in she can ask him the status of any labeling legislation. There... I have learned a lot more than I want to know about labeling of ANY bivalve. (I don't even LIKE oysters for chrisakes.)

The big bowl/little bowl sink in my house was the exact same dimensions as a "standard" double sink. We checked it out because my sister wanted to replace her double sink. She hasn't done it yet but checked at the Home Depot store and they said it would drop right into the cut out she has. It wasn't an expensive sink, stainless Elkay brand if I remember right. One would think you could get a single sink in the same dimensions. Check a plumbing supply place. They might know more than one of the big box retail stores. We had a discussion a few months ago on The Kitchen Sink that you might find interesting. (Gosh... the search engine is working!)

I am not sure about this but I think Gulf Coast Oysters are similarly identified, at least at the wholesale level. I think that I read somewhere that you can ask for that information. That probably only applies to the oysters in the shell. And I should probably find out more about it before I babble any more. If I find something, I'll let you know. HOW they do it would be interesting.

I just saw a new one from the red headed lady: Grip n Flip Actually, that Dip n Strain looks pretty interesting.

fresco... Go get in your car NOW and go get a big sink. Do not delay. My house had a big sink/little sink with the disposer combo. This apartment has the usual really dumb double sink. I curse that thing every day of my being. The air today is particularly blue because I am making stock and hastling the big pot, containers and everything else is driving me bonkers. I MISS MY BIG SINK! New house will likely have a big single sink for clean up. (Prep sink is in the island.) Interestingly, the one I had in the house was the exact same size as a standard double sink, but what a difference.

(Sorry, but finding that statement in a thread about scallops kinda got to my funny bone.) Dave, I am wondering if the traceability issue is the issue of assuring that what you have is really scallops? Many years ago, some yahoos were importing chunks of meat punched out of stingray wings and trying to sell them as scallops. Stingray wings are really good for this scam because the texture and the muscle grain are really very similar. Electrophoresis was a new technique (I am dating myself here.) and I helped develop a diagnostic technique for identifying scallop juice versus stingray juice. Yes, we could have just cooked them and tasted them, because stingray doesn't taste like scallops. However, the prosecutors wouldn't take our word for it so we had to come up with "scientific proof". I really don't know if scallop counterfitting is much of a problem today. Maybe it is.

Thanks, bleachboy. Just what I need, another book. I have been meaning to get that one. My sister keeps hounding me to smoke some salt the next time I fire up the smoker. I keep forgetting, most likelly because I don't know how to do it. I am probably making it all too complicated but I keep wondering what to put the salt in. Can I just put it in a pan off to the side of my pork butt? Do you need some sort of mesh like container so that the smoke will diffuse through it? And why am I worrying about this instead of just putting a few pennies worth of kosher salt in a pan and seeing what happens.

Oh my that sounds good, dls. Can I assume you are using a ruby port?

I thought that is what braising is all about. But then, when I put the pot in the oven instead of on the top of the stove, there isn't much condensation going on so what do I know.

If you haven't clicked on melkor's link about the market, do so. What a trip! What have you done with 52 pounds of freakin' cucumbers?

Gee Nick. You are getting quite a workout on this scallop thing. I feel fortunate to get good ones that have been frozen. That is ok with me because they are likely to be a better product than something that has been held over too long in shipping just to make the claim that they are "fresh". There is a thread here somewhere about my making Coquille St. Jaques for a dear friend's birthday. Our member, project, provided some guidance on the classic recipe that I followed. It was fantastic. The scallops were fantastic. They were tender and had wonderful flavor so I have a hard time thinking that divers scallops would be worth the money. Yes, I have had them, many times. I still don't get it. If I were at the dock and got them (sort of like we get shrimp off the boat down here) for a reasonable price, maybe.

I mean the big chunks. Maybe I misread the lesson. Maybe mire poix is not the right term since it is not finely diced. I don't know. Anyway, I mean onion, celery and carrot in a roughly 2:1:1 ratio, added raw, not sauted. All I know is that I have now put the veggies and the whole chicken in, I am starting to skim, and it smells heavenly.