Arey

Sunday dinner. Carbonade Flammande on buttered egg noodles (Penna Dutch brand), green salad, a slice of what I've always called "hearth bread" but the KA Flour recipe I use calls "the perfect rustic loaf", a glass of Willamette Vallley Vineyards "whole cluster" Pinot Noir, and the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle. Growing up, we always had what was considered a proper Sunday dinner usually served between 1 and 2 in the afternoon, although I have mine around 6. Going into the kitchen after the Sunday dinner was cleaned up for any reason other than to feed the dog would usually make my mother shout"Don't make a mess out there and clean up after yourself because I'm not going to clean up after you!" Despite being a septuagenarian arthritic bachelor I still want a proper Sunday dinner. I made the carbonade using Chimay blue label ale., The recipe called for three large onions but I used three very big onions because lots of onions are a very good thing.I made it Saturday morning so it would sit in the fridge overnight,an essential step for stews, and short ribs I've always felt. Then I portioned it Sunday morning. Three portions in the freezer and the 4th for dinner. And, the mess from making a proper Sunday dinner entree, all cleaned up and put away hours before sitting down to dinner.

No. I've never forgotten to score a loaf, but I know what happens when you're as lousy at scoring as I am. I bought a pain de mie pan from King Arthur so I could have slices of bread that would fit into my toaster without surgery, and my sandwiches wouldn't look weird. I look at Norm Matthews' bread in the above post and wonder why I can't get that result. With my loaves , oven spring looks more like oven eruption. My attempts at bread slicing don't help the matter any.

The Cheese Board, Linwood NJ, Bremner Wafers Stilton, Humboldt Fog, and a Canadian Sharp Cheddar. I don't know the name of the cheddar, but in their layout of cheese and cracker samples that was the one I picked. Around the corner at The British Connection McVities Digestives regular for when I'm eating sensibly, and dark chocolate for when I'm eating the way I prefer. At Ernest and Son a 41/2 lb. tip round roast. I went there to get a chuckroast they would have cut into 2' for my carbopnnade Flamande, but they didn't have any chuck (well it is past labor day). (ETA, because somebody possibly the cat hit the post key too soon) so I couldn't make a carbonnade Flammande, and I already had the 3 large onions, the carrots (still usable, if lit old) the brown sugar which is no more than a year or two old, and the Swanson beef broth. That was yesterday. Today at the Brigantine ACME supermarket Swanson Beef Broth because didn't look at the carton I knew I had in the cupboard until this morning. Carrots because as long as I was at the market I might as well buy some fresh, as opposed to the very well aged carrots* in the crisper and Ivins Spiced Wafers because it's almost Halloween so they're in season now. Unlike Chimay ale, carrots don't hold up well for a year or two. This is what I wanted to have for dinner today, and hope to have next week because Mel at Ernest and Son is ordering a chuck roast for me.

It may be LAYS, but is it a potato chip? Real potato chips aren't composed of ground up dehydrated potatoes formed into a round shape slightly curved and sold in a tube. Real potato chips do not involve rice flour, or soy products. They involve potatoes, oil and salt. Nor do they have ruffles or ridges. When pushed into a dip they tend to break. LAY's Classic like Coke Classic,are the real thing. Real chips do not have bizarre flavors. Wise buyers should buy LAYS. Caution:highly localized brand name pun included in the above post.

Below are the ingredients for the pesto I make using Genovese basil I grow.the pesto recipe I use. 2 cups fresh basil leaves 2 large garlic cloves 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese -- grated 2 tablespoons Romano cheese -- grated 2 ounces pine nut 4 ounces olive oil salt and pepper to taste The original recipe from a book says it can be safely stored in the fridge for 3 to 4 weeks if properly stored in an air tight container with a thin layer of olive oil over the top. For my own use I don't keep it longer than a week in the fridge because of my concerns about fresh herbs and garlic in olive oil induced illnesses. I do freeze small portions without cheese.And I being overly cautious? When someone asked for a copy of the whole recipe I changed 3 to 4 weeks to one week in the copy I gave them. My sense of smell ranges from very poor occasionally to non-existent usually so I tend to err on the side of caution with food.

In the famous Japanese director *Kurasawa's movie * Dodes'ka-den a slum dweller is at a vegetable huckster's cart stripping the outer leaves off of a cabbage and finally the huckster says indignantly that the cabbages are sold by the head not by weight. The asterisks are where I could insert links if I knew how to insert links, but there is no point in telling me how to do it now, because not inserting links is no longer the result of lack of knowledge, but rather a matter of principle.

Possibly I could put an ad in the local weeklies "Single senior citizen with car and who still can drive would like to meet single female senior citizen with a Costo card who no longer can drive. Object:Grocery Shopping

Well. I'm sure as hell not going to post her LEMon meringue (beaten egg whites and sugar, baked until browned in this specific case and used as a topping for) a pie ( food item consisting of a something, meat fruit or vegetable baked under a crust). P.S. I've heard of HP Sauce even here in deepest So. New Jersey how was I know to know that they hadn't heard of LEM in Guangxi?

I'm glad you liked it. I haven't made one for years. This was one of my mother's "from scratch" cakes. At bake sales she would eye cakes suspiciously and ask the person behind the table if it was made "from scratch". If she wanted one made from mix, she would have done it herself. She did make gingerbread cake from a mix, made LEM pudding mix, and poured the still warm LEM over the gingerbread. I could almost taste it while typing this.

Does anyone know if WHYY Channel 12 from Philadelphia, or WNJS Channel 23 in New Jersey will be showing this, and if so when. I don't get WNET Channel 13 . Edited to add that the web sites for both those channels are unhelpful and uninformative.

I won't say I'll never do it again, because I know I will although I wish I wouldn't. While making pesto in the food processor, and at the point where the oil is slowly pouring in from the food chute, remove the lid to scrape down the sides and check the thickness while the oil continues to slowly pour over whatever I'm holding the lid above.

My mother's chuck pot roast was out of this world,and the gravy was incredible. I've never been able to duplicate it. However, she always criticized her pot roast because the vegetables would get burnt. Nowadays her burnt is called caramelized and is probably why the gravy was so good that bread and gravy was a treat and her meat pie made with leftovers was equally good. As for her sausages, they were burnt, but her generation was one that believed that anything pork must be cooked forever and a day.This recipe is an English recipe from the English mother-in-law of either the wife of my father's best friend, or a teacher in the same grammar school where my mother taught. The only change my mother made was in the type of walnuts to use. My mother's handwritten recipe was titled "Mrs. ___________'s applesauce cake." (I can't remember the name) It wasn't Christmas without an applesauce cake. Mother's Applesauce Cake (Poor Man's Fruitcake) Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1/2 cup Crisco Shortening 2 cups Sugar 2 cups Applesauce, unsweetened 3 1/2 cups Flour 2 tsp. Baking soda 2 tsp. Cinnamon 15 ounces Raisins -- 1 small box 8 ounces Candied fruit cup Black walnut pieces – (English walnuts can be substituted)Cream the shortening and sugar together. Sift the dry ingredients together and add them and the applesauce to the sugar and shortening mixture. Then add the raisins, candied fruit and walnuts. Grease and flour the bottoms of 2 loaf pans and line with waxed paper. Bake at 350° until a toothpick or cake tester comes out dry.

Have any of your staff members offered to stay with the new owners, or are they already looking up potential jobs. Of course, the new owners may just want to get rid of everyone and hire their own staff, or even keep employees on and then as soon as they're of no further use to the new owner, dump them. (One advantage of being a long term government drudge was that by the time they no longer wanted me, it would have taken too much time and effort to get rid of me,so they just had to wait it out until I no longer wanted to work for them, and retired. From what Ive read on eGullet I never would have made it through 36 years in the food industry, probably not even 36 days)

What's more the PA liquor control board agents keep hogging the best parking spaces in the parking lots of DE and NJ liquor stores.

Some years ago my niece gave me a basket of fancy bath soaps.All sorts of sizes , scents, and colors, one of which so closely resembled vanilla walnut fudge, that I wanted a bite of it, and I don't even like fudge. One bite and its too sweet and makes my teeth hurt. I gave it, basket and all to my neighbor across the street. However two years before that my niece had given me a set of large bathtowels and wash cloths. After I got the soap I asked my sister-in-law if my niece was trying to give me a hint.

I've actually looked into Costo because of posts I've read on eGullet, and there's one about 30 or so miles up the Garden State Parkway, but the $55.00 membership fee makes me wonder if for a single person it would be worth it. The lack of a full sized freezer is a hindrance, even for a single person who likes to cook. I have one place where I could put a small chest freezer, but then where would I put the cat's litter box?

Huiray I gather that you're acquainted with the island I live on. Yes the butcher is Ernest and Son, although Ernest passed away some years ago and Son (Sam) has been retired for a few years now, and the shop is also known as Mels. The fish store across the way is still there, although I don't shop there since his selection is limited. I also ate there once years ago, and I don't know what the guy in the kitchen was on but it certainly made him very exuberant. I also heard more of the waitress's personal life and the only other diner's personal problems than I needed to hear. It also made it difficult to concentrate on the crossword puzzle I was doing while eating. The other fish store and attached restaurant is there, but his selection is also limited and rather expensive. For fish and produce I go off the island which is what I'll be doing tomorrow. For meat its mostly Ernest and Son. I avoid buying meat in supermarkets whenever possible, except I do buy chicken thighs at the ACME. At Ernest and Sons the selection is limited but it is fresher and better quality,and they will do things there, when asked, which an ACME or ShopRite butcher would never do, but the ACME would turn me down politely which is why I prefer them to ShopRite.

Made one of my several times a year 45 milw trips up the Black Horse Pike to Williamstown NJ to go to the Stoltzfuss farmers market to buy meat. I bought a flank steak for Sunday dinner (and yes, I have to drive 45 miles to get a flank steak) a delmonico steak for tomorrows dinner, knockwurst, bratwurst, weisswurst, and breakfast links. At the poultry counter I bought 3 bone in skin on turkey thighs, four large chicken legs and a "chicken roast" stuffed with cheese and spinach for tonights dinner. If I just had an freezer, instead of only the small freezer above the fridge I could have bought a lot more. They carry all sorts of pork products and they had a really nice chuck roast and some boneless short ribs, which I would have bought if I had anyplace to put them. The Stolzfusses are a Lancaster Mennonite/Amish family which have markets throughout the area From Lancaster Co. PA to South Jersey. They provide an enormous selection of ready to cook and precooked foods, produce, candy, bakery product and all sorts of artery clogging options. But they do sort of make me realize the very limited grocery shopping possibilities available in my area itself. There is a local. butcher shop I go to, but the selection is limited, and he's still hasn't gotten over the excitement of having been featured on Diners, Dives, and Drive-ins. And to really get his attention and get him to listen to you, you have to start with "Whadda ya think of them Iggles/Philies?" Otherwise you just stand there saying "No,no. One inch cubes!" to no avail, while the customers on either side of you debate with the butcher what the Iggles/Phillies need to do to make the playoffs. Other than the butcher shop, the island has 2 WaWas and an Acme. There is one other market on the island, but in the past several years its had three different owners and the most recent owner apparently feels there's no point keeping the shelves stocked between Labor Day and Memorial Day. So the shelves are half empty between the two hollidays, but he could at least take advantage of the opportunity to wipe the dust and crud off the shelves. I had been going to this market a couple of times a week since 1971, I knew the cashiers and the staff, and the deli counter guy knew what I was going to order before I even got to the counter, but now I go to the ACME and shopping for groceries isn't the same.

I honestly don't understand these bizarre flavored potato chips. I'm a Lays Classic (serves 3 (but only if the other 2 people bring their own chips because I won't share mine)) diehard, but am occasionaly tempted to buy a bag of Lays Salt and Vinegar Chips, but at the same time I'd have to buy a bag of regular Lays Classic Chips in case I didn't like the salt and vinegar ones, although I'd probably eat them all anyway. I can understand the need for Lays to make the BBQ flavored chips, but Reuben flavored chips? Is Lay's just trying to see how many unlikely artifically produced flavors their lab can come up with, and infuse into a potato chip? Does the Lima Bean industry continually come up with differently flavored limas to get people like me who hate the nasty little green things to eat them? Does the Brussel Sprout industry start pushing chocolate eclair flavored brussel sprouts to ensnare those people who for some reason don't like them. So why in sam hill does Lays insist on doing weird things to potatoe chips. What's next Lays? A frito flavored potato chip? end of editorial.

Congratulations. Your ship has finally left the dock, hope its calm seas and prosperous voyage from now on.

There's a blog somewheres on eGullet that gives a detailed accounting of what happens when you try to get old diners to eat new food. Can you have an early bird period say from 4:30 or 5:00 to 6:30 that's heavy on the old reliable stuff, and save the newer items for after the early bird special period. Some restaurants in this area have a separate early bird special menu with a limited selection, and lower prices. The harder you try to train your older customers, the harder they'll resist , and some take a special delight in putting " youngerish, 30-35, people" in their place. Edited to add that Alex beat me to it. But he's younger than me and can type faster.

Today at the Italian market & Deli I go to , in the meat cases there were packages of beef labeled "top round steak substitute for flank steak" There was a young guy stocking the case so I asked him if they had any "real flank steak", but they don't carry it. Actually there are only two cuts of beef available in my part of So. Jersey they just switch various names around a lot to give the impression of variety.

When my mother would put lima beans on the table I would balk at eating them. This would just make her more insistent that I eat them. Sometimes she would tell me to pretend they were turkey, but this never worked for me. A lima bean is a lima bean, and truthfully, her turkey wasn't that great either.

PB & Cheddar (cracker barrel white) on crackers was a favorite snack for me years ago. I'd probably make a couple right now only there's no cheddar or peanut butter in the house, and the only crackers are in an unopened box with a best by date of 08/12/15.

If when you are cleaning up your garden after its finished for the year, you see what look like fairly round little brown sacks don't destroy them, Matilda's babies are in there, waiting for Spring to guard your tomatoes against grasshoppers . It you google Argiope spider you'll find lots of pictures.