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Okee Dokee . . . I did the drumlets. Those things are so cute they make my teeth hurt. Being smaller pieces, I didn't have the problems with the crust getting too brown before they were done. The process was not without problems, though. The first problem was temperature control, again. Even cycling in a piece at a time did not tame this beast of a burner. I could not maintain 300-325 F to save me. The best I could do was 275-300F. If I tried to ramp it up, it would over shoot the mark. It was like I had no control at all. This resulted in the final result a bit greasier than I like. Oh, it wasn't as bad as I have gotten out. It just wasn't the terrific stuff I used to make. I think the fry pan will go back in the cupboard until I get to the new stove. Well, for fried chicken at least. I used sriracha sauce instead of Tabasco® and it was really good. Next time I do that I will add more than I did. I used Martha's 1/3 cup measure for the Tabasco®. Since the pieces were smaller, I cut the salt by about a quarter as well. That was just about right. The crust was a bit thicker than the thighs. But then so was the buttermilk. It was Kroger brand (why can't I find my Borden's?) whole milk active culture. It was wonderfully crunchy. I used the old Crisco, not the new without transfats. I didn't see any difference. I am now a fan of large plastic containers for flouring the chicken. I was able to do 3 of these small pieces at a time without knocking the flour off of the pieces.

Those of you with ham bones, I may be a bit late. But I did put my Ham Bone Bean Soup in RecipeGullet. Warning. It makes a lot. Sherman's Army wasn't an option in the number of servings box.

Back in the late 60s, I participated in a bacterial survey of spices done by the FDA. Trust me on this. Irradiation of spices is something you definitely want. Having to get out Bergey's to identify some of the stuff we found, it scared the crap out of us. I do want to ask that those in California, and other paradisical climes, please remember that you are the exception. In most parts of the US, the climates are often extreme so that buying locally grown all of the time would make for a lousy diet at best. And it isn't just the cold parts. Here in the Gulf Coast, you can almost watch that tomato rot before your eyes. Our farmer's market situation here is dismal. In researching the issue and discussing with a county agent, I was told that one of the problems is that during the late spring, summer and early fall, there is just too much spoilage in some parts of the state. Growing up, we always had a garden. You didn't see tomatoes sitting on the counter or window sill either, at least until we got air conditioning in the mid-50s. If the farmer that picks those tomatoes had a way to irradiate them so that what doesn't sell on one market day can be held until the next, there is less waste and more profit for the farmer, and more available for the consumer. I read somewhere a year or so ago that some of the Ag colleges are looking into some sort of cooperative effort to offer facilities for small scale farmers. I don't know the status of that. What I can tell you with absolute assurance is that if you autoclave tomatoes and depressure too quickly, they explode! (We had this great idea for making tomato sauce. Throw whole tomatoes in big stainless beakers. Cook 'em up. Not a good idea. Do you know how long it takes to clean tomato goo out of a really big autoclave? )

Ham Bone Bean Soup A soup for every week of the year (Or… What am I gonna do with that spiral sliced ham thing?) OK, you have peeled off all of that yummy sliced ham and you now have a big ham bone with all of that ham stuff still lumped on one end. Well, stay tuned and cook up a pot of bean soup that will make you “hurt yo’self!” 2 16 oz. bags of 15 (or whatever) bean mix. 1 16 oz. bag garbanzos 4 T bacon drippings (Oh good grief… it won’t kill you and it tastes good.) 4 big onions chopped about ½” 5 big ribs of celery chopped about ½” 2 large heads of garlic coarsely chopped (Yes, the whole heads. Not 2 cloves.) 6 bottles, dark beer Wash the beans and soak the beans in cold water for a few hours or overnight. Or, don’t soak them and just cook a little longer. I gave up soaking beans because I am not good at planning ahead. I think they taste better as well. Get a REALLY BIG pot and put in the vegetables and bacon drippings. Sauté until the veggies are translucent. Put the ham thing in the pot. Drain the water off the beans and put them in the pot. Pour in 6 bottles of a good dark beer. (OK, pour in 5 and drink one.) I like Samuel Adams Honey Porter but use whatever you like. Look for a balance of sweet and bitter. You can consume a lot in the name of research. Add water as needed to cover the beans. Cover and simmer for several hours, adding water as needed. If you put the pot in the oven at 225 to 250F, you don’t have to worry about scorching the bottom. The thing is done when the meat falls off the ham bone in shreds and the beans are tender but not mushy. Yeah… take the bones out and throw them away. Or give them to the dog. Salt and pepper to taste. That is the basic recipe, quite good as is. But you can add things to it as you wish. I freeze portions of the basic recipe and add stuff to my taste when I reheat it. Some suggestions: Chopped tomatoes Chopped fresh jalepeno peppers Chopped pickled jalepenos Picante sauce Fresh herbs: parsley, cilantro, basil, etc. Chopped fresh red bell pepper Alternate cooking method: You can cut the amount down so that the recipe will fit in a heavy Dutch oven with a lid. (Or maybe you have a really big one.) Bring the contents to a boil, put the lid on and put in a 250F oven. Unsoaked beans will be done in 2 to 3 hours. Also, you don't have to worry about sticking on the bottom. Keywords: Soup, Easy, Beans, Lunch, Dinner ( RG1176 )

Ham Bone Bean Soup A soup for every week of the year (Or… What am I gonna do with that spiral sliced ham thing?) OK, you have peeled off all of that yummy sliced ham and you now have a big ham bone with all of that ham stuff still lumped on one end. Well, stay tuned and cook up a pot of bean soup that will make you “hurt yo’self!” 2 16 oz. bags of 15 (or whatever) bean mix. 1 16 oz. bag garbanzos 4 T bacon drippings (Oh good grief… it won’t kill you and it tastes good.) 4 big onions chopped about ½” 5 big ribs of celery chopped about ½” 2 large heads of garlic coarsely chopped (Yes, the whole heads. Not 2 cloves.) 6 bottles, dark beer Wash the beans and soak the beans in cold water for a few hours or overnight. Or, don’t soak them and just cook a little longer. I gave up soaking beans because I am not good at planning ahead. I think they taste better as well. Get a REALLY BIG pot and put in the vegetables and bacon drippings. Sauté until the veggies are translucent. Put the ham thing in the pot. Drain the water off the beans and put them in the pot. Pour in 6 bottles of a good dark beer. (OK, pour in 5 and drink one.) I like Samuel Adams Honey Porter but use whatever you like. Look for a balance of sweet and bitter. You can consume a lot in the name of research. Add water as needed to cover the beans. Cover and simmer for several hours, adding water as needed. If you put the pot in the oven at 225 to 250F, you don’t have to worry about scorching the bottom. The thing is done when the meat falls off the ham bone in shreds and the beans are tender but not mushy. Yeah… take the bones out and throw them away. Or give them to the dog. Salt and pepper to taste. That is the basic recipe, quite good as is. But you can add things to it as you wish. I freeze portions of the basic recipe and add stuff to my taste when I reheat it. Some suggestions: Chopped tomatoes Chopped fresh jalepeno peppers Chopped pickled jalepenos Picante sauce Fresh herbs: parsley, cilantro, basil, etc. Chopped fresh red bell pepper Alternate cooking method: You can cut the amount down so that the recipe will fit in a heavy Dutch oven with a lid. (Or maybe you have a really big one.) Bring the contents to a boil, put the lid on and put in a 250F oven. Unsoaked beans will be done in 2 to 3 hours. Also, you don't have to worry about sticking on the bottom. Keywords: Soup, Easy, Beans, Lunch, Dinner ( RG1176 )

Being a lazy sort, I just pour off as much as I can, leaving some oil and sludge in the pan, into a clean coffee can. Then I leave the can, with the fat still liquid, on the counter so that any sludge settles before it solidifies. Into the fridge it goes. I just don't dip off the sludge in the bottom of the can when I go to reuse it.

I did reheat one of the thighs in my DeLonghi toaster oven. I started it cold, not wrapped, and set the oven to 250 with convection. In about 15 to 20 minutes, it was almost as good as right out of the pan. The crust crisped up nicely.

Doing some mental mathematics gymnastics, I think Kristin's chicken quarters were a bit smaller than we get here. I am guessing from that elusive 2.5 to 3 pound chicken.

I read somewhere that two weeks works but I have no idea if that is true. I just end up keeping it in the freezer in a glass canning jar. That keeps it fresh and the jars keep it from picking up other flavors.

My GulleyLaugh for the day! I remember that episode! I use the Kingsford as well. While cruising the big Rodeo BBQ cook-off, about all you see is Kingsford. I tried the chunk charcoal once in the bullet. It was just too unpredictable. I fiddled with vents for hours trying to keep a stable temp. And it kept popping and sparking, throwing ash up into the smoking chamber.

The bugs are beetles (I forget the genus and species) and the white thing is its larvae. They are very common in any kind of ground peppers. I store my paprika and various chile peppers in the freezer for a while to kill off the eggs that are just part of dealing with ground peppers.

NO! NO! NO! Drinking beer is the activity for smoking brisket on a lovely spring day. Washing windows is NOT! You are disturbing the vibes in the cosmic ethers. The darn thing might come out tasting like Windex. Man, if you can hold that temp in a kettle you really have it down. I can't wait to see the finished product.

I come from a family of cilantro haters (tastes like soap to us) so I was interested in fitweed. Googling came up with some interesting, and possibly important, information. This plant, Eryngium foetidum, is what you want to put in your ceviche. This plant, Corydalis caseana, also called fitweed, might be useful in bumping off Aunt Agnes, providing she has a bad liver and remembered you in her will. How fascinating about the "pastry shells." Are they corn based? I was thinking of the sour oranges. Thanks for reminding me about the calamondins, Jaymes. They would be great for ceviche. Perhaps it is time for another visit to the Magic Mystery Orange Tree. Between that tree and a fisherman friend of mine, I see a smashing ceviche in my future. If the calamondins are ripe, possibly I could juice some and freeze it for when some fish comes my way.

My comments about Kennedy were about her in general. I have read enough of what she has written and reports of what she has said that I can't get through her books without that attitude in the back of my mind. The whole "Englishwoman goes to Mexico and becomes renowned Mexican food snob" just gets to me. Funny thing is, the good Mexican cooks that I know think she is nuts. Zarela started out in Veracruz telling us why she had some prejudices, then how she got past it and discovered the food.

This is a really interesting discussion. Most of the ceviche I have had, and made, is more Mexican style using the little limes that we call key limes. Some of the best I have ever eaten, and I mean EVER, was on a fishing trip in Cozumel. One of the deck hands proclaimed himself the ceviche king and wouldn't let me into the galley to turn some dorado filets into ceviche. It was pretty simple and used jalepenos as I recall. Is the use of the oranges a Panamanian thing? When you say that Panamanian style is over cooked, how long do you mean? Really fresh fish takes about two to three hours in lime juice, as I recall. To me, it is perfect when it has the texture of definitely "cooked," meltingly tender, but certainly not mushy. Oh . . . another question. Our favorite way to eat it here is on saltine crackers. How is it served in Panama?

Confusion continues. Sodsook describes salted radish, hua pak kad kem, as: Is this what we are talking about? It has been a while since I got pad Thai in a restaurant but I am not remembering eating anything like that. The one or two times I have made it, it was with a friend and I don't remember it there either. We were cooking from Sodsook's book and I now notice that he says it is optional so maybe we didn't use it.

I have been suffering from a case of radish confusion. I think all three of the recipes that I consulted in my books talks about salted radish. I was thinking that meant that you grated the radish, salted it, then drained it. Then I read about it in True Thai. In that book it is described as salty/sweet. Oopsy. Now I have to make a trip to Hong Kong Market. Oh well. I could make the 50 mile trek to the big one and see if they have the large granite mortar and pestle.

Looking through my three Thai books, two had pictures of the serving with the ground chiles and peanuts served in a heap on the side. The couple of places that I get it here typically puts small dishes of the same on the table. One place serves a dish of some kind of chile paste instead of ground roasted. I think I will try roasting my own. I have a package of the Thai chiles in the veg drawer now. Since I may not get to making this until next week, can I do the toasting and grinding now, storing it in a glass jar in the fridge? Or should I wait and do that fresh? (I am afraid they may go south before I get to this.) And can I also assume that I should not bend down and snif/snort the contents of the roasting pan? Can I also assume that the ground chiles include the seeds and is hotter than hell?

I have the same problem with Diana Kennedy. Even though some ingredients are now more available here than they once were, I still haven't cooked anything from it. There is some interesting reading there. However, there is also something about her tone that can really tick me off. Alice Waters does that to me too. (I have flipped through the books at the book store.) I don't have an Alice Waters book and probably never will. I know, I am probably missing some great recipes. But that woman is like fingernails on a blackboard to me. *ducks* Oddly enough, I have most of what Zarela Martinez has written. Even more oddly, I have never cooked anything from Oaxaca or Veracruz but I do enjoy reading the narrative parts and the pictures. But her first book, Food From My Heart, looks like a rectangular hedgehog with all of the little skinny sticky tabs. It is one of the very few cook books that I own where I actually use the recipe to cook from, not just for guidance, ideas and inspiration. So, I don't really expect to actually use the recipes in all of my cookbooks. That really isn't why I collect them. Wait . . . I just thought of the one book that I would like to dispose of . . . Kafka's Roasting. I don't know where she lives but where I lived when I first got it, they fine you after so many false smoke alarms.

Thank you for joining us. Back in July of 2003, after being chosen one of the top 10 ""America's Best New Chefs 2003" By Food & Wine magazine, you told Robb Walsh Has there been much progress since then? Do you continue to see demand growing?

I made the Bisteces Rancheros last night. My local grocery had some of those thin sliced chuck "steaks" that looked particularly good. And when I saw that the poblanos weren't all shriveled, dinner was preordained. I did buy the potatoes but ultimately didn't use them. It just seemed wrong. I also substituted Ro-Tel tomatoes and I think the dish was better for it. Another thing I did is to leave the cumin seeds whole. I ran into this idea with Huevos del Toro's chili. There is something delightful about finding that subtle burst of cumin in a long cooked dish. This recipe is a keeper. And I now know what to do with the thin cut chuck steaks when they go on sale.

What a lovely story, divalasvegas. I really enjoyed reading that. It reminded me of my post earlier in this topic. I forgot to mention that at some point, we were taught how to play with a chicken foot by pulling on the tendons and making it dance.

Kristin, that is absolutely beautiful. The color is wonderful. Do you have any idea how big the chickens might have been? The reason I am asking is that if I tried to fry a "hind quarter" of one of our typical grocery store chickens it would have a charcoal crust before the chicken was done. Boy am I confused about the chicken pricing. Is there something special about a whole chicken there?

What Malawry said about the leftovers. I usually bring some home from a restaurant. I made the mistake of microwaving it . . . once.

I have been cruising my usual markets looking for the drumlets. I am seeing packages of drumlets and the second joint of the wing but not just drumlets. I suppose I could make stock out of the second joints. With all of that skin and bone, it would probably make a heck of a batch of chicken and dumplings.