fifi

Oh. Ok. I can see that. I really just braise big hunks of meat and stews and such. I really haven't done any vegetable braising. I am interested in how you do that, with what, and how it comes out.

I can't imagine what this will do. I typically braise in a LeCreuset French oven and I can't for the life of me figure out what parchment would add, much less crumpling versus tenting. Hopefully, Paula will check in and enlighten us. From a technique standpoint, I usually do any browning on the top of the stove, then move the pot to the oven.

I can tell Thanksgiving is starting. I snagged some chicken thighs and a really big chicken on sale. I am now cranking up the big, shiney, new ChefMate stockpot for a really smashing batch of chicken stock. I am following the eGCI excellent method. For me, that means the following departures from my usual technique. I will be using more mire poix than I have in the past. I will steal the breast meat from the whole chicken when it is properly poached. (Thanks for that one Fat Guy! Sheer brilliance.) I will also save the chicken fat for later use. The only thing that I am altering is I am adding a little technique of "sweating" the chicken (in this case, the thighs only because that fit in the pot for this technique) before I add the mire poix, the water, and the whole chicken. Cook's Illustrated says this is really sensational. We shall see. I will keep about 6 or 8 cups of stock for the cornbread dressing. The rest I will reduce down to glace. I can use some of that to finish some green beans or brussel sprouts maybe. (We are still working on the menu.) The house is starting to smell good! I just wish it were cold outside. It is in the high 70s.

OMG! I have one of those, too. I found it in this quirky hardware store in a little town in the Texas Hill Country. I had to have it. What is really dumb is that it only makes 5 "fish". I guess I should have bought two. How do you make batter for and then what do you do with 5 cornbread fish? Well, I guess from what you say I would have 2 pans that make cornbread that really don't look like fish. *heavy sigh* I got one of those grapefruit cutter things that was on late night TV a few years ago. It has this corer and then these arc shaped cutters on the lid over a bowl. You core the fruit, jam it down on the cutters, turn the lid and, voila! Actually, the damn thing really works. The challenge is finding all of the pieces.

Here is Emeril's recipe for cranberry sauce. It is very similar to what we make if you drop the port and cinnamon. (However that does sound pretty good.) I agree that the ginger ale probably wouldn't add enough ginger. I think I will try the fresh and go with the orange juice.

I can tell you what NOT to do with the dill. In whatever form in the freezer, DO NOT store it in plastic, cubes in bags or plastic containers. Dill flavored ice cream anyone? The voice of bitter... I mean dill flavored... experience. I put it in small mason jars. I like the short, wide mouth 4 oz. ones. If you whiz the dill (or any other herbs for that matter) with olive or a neutral oil, you can spoon out what you need straight from the freezer. Wednesday will be cornbread dressing day. It is a real project and is actually better rewarmed the next day. I have discovered a source for really good tamales. Even though the nephew will be frying a couple of turkeys (you can't go to all of that trouble for just one) we are toying with the idea of stuffing one with tamales and roasting it. We did this several years ago basis an article by Jean Andrews (the pepper lady) and it was really good. (Well... Good for a turkey.)

We always have the classic with the whole cranberries and oranges. There are a gazillion recipes out there. I like the ginger idea. That sounds really good. In fact that sounds so good, I might consider scraping some fresh ginger and adding to taste. When my dad was alive, he had to have the quivering blob from the can so we had that, too.

I dunno. That wire cheese slicer thing is pretty useful for slicing Velveeta. How about those cold water coffee extractor things? You put a whole bunch of coffee grounds in this big thingy with cold water. Then you keep the extract in the fridge, put a spoonful of extract in your cup, add hot water. This is a very convenient way to make really nasty coffee. I have every garlic gadget known to man. All but one are pretty useless. The one useful one is this wonderful sculptural stainless steel mushroom that you can use to bash the garlic cloves and then rub your hands with it under the faucet to get the smell off your hands. I wish I could remember where I got it so I could give them as gifts. What I really want is one of those magic machines that you drop the head of garlic in one end and a perfect 1/16th inch dice comes out the other.

Oh good. Then it wasn't just me. How does a company like Kyocera make such a no-good product? How can a company like Williams Sonoma actually sell something like that? Doesn't someone try this stuff before they crank up the manufacturing and marketing? Sheesh. ming seems to endorse it. They probably made him take on the whole line or they wouldn't let him use their knives anymore. The knives rock. My nephew has one. The only problem is, it makes me nervous. One drop to that tile floor and bye-bye expensive knife. I have the yoke style peeler and it is pretty good, too.

Oh good. Then it wasn't just me. How does a company like Kyocera make such a no-good product? How can a company like Williams Sonoma actually sell something like that? Doesn't someone try this stuff before they crank up the manufacturing and marketing? Sheesh.

Yep. And you pose a very interesting question. That could tie your brain in knots. Fish and game laws typically require removing a claw and putting the crab back. For some reason, stone crabs are becoming more common here on the Texas coast. I have quite a colony in Galveston bay just off my place. They used to be really pretty rare here. Don't know what's up with that.

Probably from the same home demonstration thingy I have this hopeless cutter thing that has a wavy patterned blade. It is supposed to make "wavy cut vegetables for an attractive crudite tray". It was so big and klutzy and I never used it. So I threw it in the yard. I had high hopes for the Kyocera julienne slicer. I had visions of mounds of julienne jicama slaw. It doesn't work, unless you are trying to make jicama or carrot juice. At that price I should send it back.

One would think that someone like me with as many semesters of chemistry, biochemistry, etc. under their skull would realize this. Then to do it twice! I think I will blame it on the merlot. When the kids were younger, this was a fun thing to do. I had them dropping all kinds of stuff on minced red cabbage to see which way it would turn. I was in some fancy restaurant a couple of years ago and they had blue mashed potatoes. Blue corn may be all the rage, but it kinda bothers me, too. Especially if it is made into polenta.

I got really excited about Robb Walsh's review of Dona Tere, partly because I am often in that part of town. He also reminded me about tamale stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving. We did that one time. It was really good. (For turkey, that is. ) You put some in the cavity and some more on the bottom of the pan to soak up the drippings. Anyway... If Robb thinks they are good I am going to go there.

uuuuhhh... WOW! Don't be so humble, Jack. Yes, all of this stuff is available. The WOW-factor is how all of this was assembled. This made me so hungry that there is a single serving LeCreuset individual gratin pan in the DeLonghi even as I type. I just happened to have a potato that needed using and an end of gruyere. I made a corn chowder one time and thought that little cubes of purple potato would look cute in there. Nope. The color bled out and the whole thing turned blue, probably due to the fairly alkaline pH of the chowder. I should have known better. But then, I repeated the same mistake with maroon carrots in chicken and dumplings. Why is there is something deeply disturbing about blue food.

Oh, DO get the dutch oven (oops, I mean French oven in Creuset-speak). I have the normal size oval one for most uses and I got a really big round one for double batches of gumbo, braising big pieces of meat and such. I do a lot of braised dishes, stews and such and they are so good at doing the browning on the top of the stove then into the oven for the long haul. I got a hugely good deal on the big round one. I went searching for that web site for you but it seems to be defunct. My latest individual sized gratins came from the outlet place in San Marcos, TX. A good friend called me from there and was kind enough to pick them up for me. You might check to see if there is an outlet anywhere near you. They typically have incredible deals after the holidays. That could make for a fun road trip! My latest LeCreuset pieces are the gratins, the cast iron, not the pottery. The potato dauphinois recipe by Jeffery Steingarten (In It Must Have Been Something I Ate) got me started on those. He is correct. Nothing develops a good crusty gratin like those pans. Now I gratin everything I can get my hands on. It sounds like your book club may enjoy Steingarten. I love his writing as it is informative and very, very funny.

Anyone considering frying a turkey, please click here. We are considering frying one or two and possibly smoking a couple. Turkey meat is just too cheap this time of year to pass up. It goes in the freezer for later use. Otherwise, I am more in Jinmyo's camp.

(This from Sinbad's link to the web site.) OK... that is my eGullet belly laugh for the day. I am surprised it didn't explode in his luggage due to the drop in air pressure. The poor baggage handlers. Or even worse, in carry-on in the cabin.

I second what fimbul said. Personal experience... I was roasting along at 325 or so for years. Then I got Barbara Kafka's book Roasting. Gee... All of those years I had been misguided. I got new roasting pans and cranked the heat up. The only problem was, now I couldn't get a decent pan gravy but I did get screeching smoke alarms. I finally threw the book in the yard (a Southern thing) and went back to my old ways. Roasting happlily ever after.

Yeah... this is what I mean by us learning to handle the nasties. It just seems to me that our grocery stores are ignoring generally accepted hygeinic practices. If you provide a place for parking baby's butts, you should have a plan for decontaminating said place. If you have packages of leaking chicken juice, you should have a plan for cleaning it up so it doesn't contaminate other food. An aside... We have all kinds of inspectors going into restaurants. Do they look at this issue in grocery stores? This is not a rhetorical question. I really don't know if they look at things like carts, baskets, conveyor belts, and (I just thought of this) scanners.

I am thoroughly enjoying your blog. What I can't imagine is dealing with the cold. I am a Gulf Coast girl and when it gets to 50F it is time to move south. How do you cope with the cold and the impending dark days? Do you cook anything different in the winter than you do in the summer?

So true, Nick. It is all about attitude, isn't it?

That looks a little high to me. But then, I am a really short person. It might be just what the doctor ordered for a tall person. Picking the damn thing up to scrape stuff off and just to wash it would bother me as well. Suggestion... Take one of your boards and sit it up on an upended pan or something to simulate the height. Then do a bunch of knife work on it and see if the height bothers you. I agree that if you start chopping on it it is probably yours.

I am sort of compulsive. I have to start off with a clean kitchen. That includes an empty dishwasher. Then I get really organized with prep and tend to do a rather rigid mise en place. Dishes and utensils go in the dishwasher as I go. If I use a pot, I wash it right then unless I am at some time critical point in a recipe. By serving time, the kitchen is usually in pretty good order. Close friends and family usually chip in and help clean up after eating and we use that time as additional social time. Sometimes though, I put the stops on that if the mood of the evening seems to point to a leisurely time after the meal. More formal "guests" aren't allowed. (But I don't have those often.) I actually don't mind cleaning up that much. After everyone has left and the house is quiet, that is highly valued time to myself, to reflect on the evening, to have another glass of wine. I actually enjoy "watching" the kitchen come back to its original pristine condition. Weirdly, I guess I look for the rewards in the whole process. I had fun with my toys. My toys are now back in their original condition. All is right with the world.

To those that say home made just has to be "better", I disagree. Home made is just not the same thing. That is like comparing brocolli and grapefruit. Great story, Comfort Me. What a wonderful woman. What a wonderful tribute.