Thanks for the Crepes

Very nice farm produce. What are the greens in the lower right? Sort of looks like lettuce, but not radially arranged in a head. I haven't seen such elongated beets before. If I had those beautiful beet greens I'd make a recipe adapted from "Joy of Cooking's" chard tart. I usually make it crustless to cut fat and carbs. It's a baked custard with sauteed onion, greens, parmesan and basil. I've made it with chard, but much prefer beet greens. It makes a lovely light entree.

David Ross, I have done tomatoes on the grill following Marcella Hazan's directions as part of her recipe for charcoal broiled vegetables. She has you halve the tomatoes horizontally, place on the grill for a few minutes until the flesh is charred, then turn and cook until the skin is charred and they have shrunk by half. She has you season them with salt, olive oil, garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs after turning while they're still on the grill. The recipe also includes grilled onion, zucchini, peppers, eggplant and mushrooms. It would be a very nice addition to a grilled shrimp dinner. Chris Hennes reported in this thread http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151141-cooking-with-rick-baylesss-more-mexican-everyday/page-5 yesterday about grilling heirloom tomatoes with a Mexican treatment at post 122. Looks like he sliced his. I've grilled oysters too, and I did it on a hot fire directly on the grill just until they open, but I like my oysters on the raw side. Unfortunately, weinoo's right about the "R" months, at least for NC oysters, which is mostly what we can get around here.

According to our local TV station's (AP) online article on this: http://www.wral.com/mcdonald-s-gets-complaints-that-new-toy-uses-curse-words/14764809/ These are the three sounds the Minion Caveman toy makes: "para la bukay," ''hahaha" and "eh eh." I've listened to the video on rotuts' link an embarrassing number of times now, and I hear the toy say "eh eh" once, maybe "hahaha" multiple times, which is the only one IMO anyone could construe as WTF. I can certainly see it, but I can also see "hahaha" on an ultra-cheapo speaker. Am I the only one who hears "I be damn" several times as well? I have no idea how this could come out of "para la bukay". rotuts, food in restaurants in my state must be held at below 41 or above 135 F. It would be an interesting experiment to see if the plastic cheese used by McD's melts or not at 135 F. I would think that it would, but, I know that almost 100% of the time I order anything with cheese on it, it comes unmelted, and I watch them pull it from a stainless heat cabinet these days. It wasn't always that way, of course. McD's used to be pretty durn good, which is how they got to be such a monolith. Okay, y'all after recovering from a fit of laughter and a precipitated bathroom break, I will tell you what my husband thought the Minion toy was saying in rotuts' video for what I heard as "I be damn". He claims it sounds like "I have a dick."

weinoo and ElainaA, That golden zucchini is intriguing, ElainaA. I suspect it's something I would have to grow myself to have access to like Franci's courgette trompette from Monaco, that I can only dream about. These are excellent dreams though! I agree yellow crookneck squash isn't as versatile or flavorful as zucchini, but when fried well, I'd never kick it off my plate. It's very passable too when sauteed/stir-fried at high heat with onion and red bell pepper and not overcooked. I couldn't eat it at all for years though after growing a ton of it (quite literally over a few years) in VT as a kid and having to eat it from the freezer all winter. The freezer is not a friend of yellow summer squash. Can you say squishy, watery ruptured cell structure in a veg that needed all the help it could get when it was fresh off the vine? Yuck.

djyee100, I was not familiar with abutilon, so Googled, and when I saw images of the flowers, suspected it might be in the mallow family with okra, cotton, cacao and hibiscus. Come to find out, also in that family is durian and hollyhock. From looking at some of the abutilon images with pendulous blooms, I see where I got the idea that fuchsia and orchids might be in the same family, but it turns out they are both not in the mallow family, and both belong to their own separate families. Durian and cacao also have pendulous blooms reminiscent of fuchsia and some orchids. I learn something new everyday on eG. cylexa, I found it really surprising that deer would eat your husband's hostas. That plant is poisonous to dogs, cat and horses. I would truly hate to see the lovely equines in your avatar get into that patch of hosta! liamsaunt, Did the holly your deer ate have thorns like mine does? If so, wow!, those were some really hungry deer. This is a plant that is poisonous to humans, pets, and livestock, even goats. Deer may have evolved to eat stuff the rest of us can't. I know in VT, when there was deep snow for months and months, they subsisted on foraging bare twigs mostly. Succulent produce wouldn't have a snowball's chance around these cervids! I think deer are beautiful, graceful creatures, but I feel all of you guys' pain at having them chomp up all the plants you've put so much work and expense into.

Jo, It would be like the truly top of the line Asian restaurants that plate dishes with orchid flowers! I wonder if okra flowers might be stuffed and/or just fried alone like squash flowers. I never tried it when I was growing it, and I've never heard of it. Anyone know more on this?

PastaMeshugana, I haven't been to New Orleans in decades, but this is definitely the right idea IMO for a second honeymoon/anniversary. My first honeymoon took place in New Orleans, and will be in my memory at least until I leave this world, and perhaps beyond. My new husband booked us into the Royal Orleans Hotel, but after the first night, I insisted we stay somewhere else after I found out how much it cost, ever thrifty. It was only $80 back then, but I still remember it as the only place I ever stayed that actually put mints on your pillow like you see in the movies. Lovely fresh flower arrangements! Apparently, it's been taken over by the Omni chain now, so no idea what it's like now. Just sharing very old memories. It's only doubled in price for the cheapest rooms, so maybe not such a bad deal, I dunno. I also will never forget the Cafe du Monde after the bars. The one near the French Quarter's still open 24 hours, and only serves beignets and cafe au lait. Some say it's a tourist trap, but I still treasure my memory of it, and made us beignets for breakfast after we got home for many years. The seafood is really great in NO. I especially love the shrimp po boys. I've no idea where the best place to get them anymore is, but I hope some folks more familiar with modern NO will jump in and help you out. I hope you and your wife can make some memories that you will cherish as much as I do mine.

A few of my most treasured initial investments for my kitchen when I fledged are a No. 119 carbon-steel box-grater made by Bromwell, Michigan City, Ind. 46360. They proudly stamped their name and address on their product that I purchased in the early 70's, apparently before the standard two-letter state codes came out. I was flabbergasted when I found that they apparently still exist: https://www.jacobbromwell.com/ I have not explored this website, but I'm impressed by the front page claim "Made in the USA and Guaranteed for Life". I can't attest to but the one product I own, but be assured, I will be going back to this website next time I need something to see if they can help me out. This poor grater has been put through the dishwasher hundreds of times from my youthful ignorance where I had more money than time. I wouldn't dare put it in the dishwasher now. Even through all that abuse, it has refused to give up the ghost, and I use it constantly. I also have a Mouli cheese grater from the same era stamped with a couple USA patent numbers and stamped on the other side with a couple more patent pending numbers. It's not like Blue Dolphin's or Shel_B's, although I would love to have one like that. Mine looks like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouli_grater Scroll down a bit to see photos. I use it for parmesan mostly, but also for old-style Taco Bell knock off tacos or anytime I want finely grated cheese. This one doesn't see as much use as the box grater, but it's been a great asset to me. It's worth noting that this little gadget accommodates both lefties and righties, depending on assembly. A set of high-carbon steel Old Hickory knives with a wall-hung knife board is also with me still from the early 70's. It sees little use these days, as I prefer stainless blades for ease of maintenance for most tasks. When I go to slice a watermelon, I still reach for the long Old Hickory butcher knife. These knives are stamped, Ontario Knife Company, Made in USA. I still have 1 and two-quart stainless steel, copper bottomed Revere Ware sauce pans. I don't use them too much anymore, because I prefer my stainless-clad 3-ply induction bottom 3-quart saucepans from Morgan Ware I bought later on. (I hate a boilover cleanup.) But the Revere Ware has seen a lot of use, and still gets trotted out at holiday meals and so forth. It's stamped Clinton, Ill. USA. I've got couple of 2-cup liquid measures with Pyrex, made in USA, Corning, printed on the outside of the glass, and an Anchor Hocking 4-cup measure with USA in raised letters on the bottom of the cup. From the same era are a couple pie plates. One is Corning Cornflower pattern, and so old that along with the USA etching, it also says, " for range and microwave". The other is a clear glass pyrex that has raised letters on the bottom: "Made in USA, no rangetop, no broiler".

Darienne, Oscar is adorable! How big is he.

As I have mentioned in the gardening thread, when we had a particularly hot and dry summer in Memphis, TN growing okra, everything (corn and tomatoes in particular) parched in spite of irrigation, but the okra plants had never produced as much. They just seem to thrive on heat. In that climate, you still have to pick them before they get 4" long otherwise they will get woody, not just stringy, but quite inedible. Interesting that Panaderia C.'s equatorial climate allows for larger growth without the woodiness. Different species? Peppers do well in heat too. Basil doesn't like cold, but bolts in too much heat. Anyone else notice how the beautiful okra flowers resemble hibiscus? Mr. wiki says it's related and also to cotton which has similar beautiful flowers. The real surprise is wiki also claims it's related to cocoa. I can't say anything intelligent because I've never lived in a climate suitable for growing cocoa. I searched for cacao flower images, and while exquisite too, they look more like orchids or fuchsia to me.

If I do chicken stock with a whole chicken, I'll definitely take off the usable meat after about 35-40 minutes for another use like chicken salad. Then I throw the mostly stripped bones and cartilage back to cook longer. More often, I roast chicken, cut off the meat to eat, then save the bones and captured broth and fat for other dishes. When I have cooked the life out of chicken bones, skin, veggies, etc., the coons are always appreciative of anything I give them. They're not nearly as picky as the cats others have mentioned. My cat won't touch broth leftovers, but the coons are very happy with it. It all disappears.

We had spicy Italian sausage lasagna with zucchini and mushrooms from the freezer with salad and garlic bread. Good enough, but I'll be happier when my kitchen mojo (or anything) is at full speed again. Shelby and rotuts, Field corn is what I've read is typically used for elote street corn in Mexico. Perhaps harvested early like Shelby did. It can get very starchy and tough, but when you're hungry, it definitely beats nothing, and Shelby's version looks very appealing to me. When we were kids riding our horses through the Vermont countryside, field corn was sometimes lunch straight out of the husk from the field. If we thought about it, we'd ride back to the volunteer apple tree across the dirt road from the tended orchard for dessert. You ate around the worms in these small, but tasty apples. There were sometimes wild berries to be had too.

rotuts, Have you ever tried fried okra? Even though I grew up with it, and have grown lots of it, the only way I like it is fried. It completely tames the slime. It's really good that way and worth seeking out at a Southern cooking restaurant if you have access.

rotuts and liuzhou, My mind was tracking in a similar way to rotuts' when I began reading liuzhou's post about fried rice noodles. I thought, boy that sounds good, noodles added to fried rice like Eastern Rice-A-Roni. But on close examination of his photo I saw no evidence of any rice grains. When I got to the part about his companion's dish of wheat noodles it dawned on me that he was referring to fried "rice-noodles", not "fried-rice" noodles. I almost commented on it, laughing at myself, but decided to keep quiet in my ignorance. Glad I'm not the only one. It's silly because I have access to rice, bean thread , soba and other noodles galore at my Asian market, an entire long aisle lined with various noodles on both sides from floor to much higher than I can reach, very few of which are wheat-based. But Western brains apparently track usually to wheat first when noodles are mentioned even by someone in China.

All stainless/cast iron is not created equal. My KitchenAid skillet has a mirror finish cooking surface, which is not usually hard to clean at all, some starches notwithstanding. I have an old Wagner Ware cast iron 10" skillet that has a very smooth seasoned surface, although I don't use it for eggs because I want to use minimal butter. I also don't use it for crepes because the weight's not conducive to the fast swirling motion needed. I don't own Lodge cast iron, but I've heard its cooking surfaces these days are not polished, and much harder to season to anywhere near non-stick. I also have a couple Morgan Ware heavy 3-ply induction bottomed ss 3 qt saucepans, but the lower interior surface is not mirror shiny, but rather "brushed" with very shallow grooves. I cook rice in them, but I would never expect them to be non-stick for high heat applications. For eggs and crepes, at lower heat applications, I'm still wedded to my non-stick.

Lisa Shock, If green tea is your preference, you might want to go back to the Serious Eats article of fridge tea and search for "green" with your browser's find function. It's only mentioned in the comments section, but several say the cold-brew does not suffice to bring out its flavor. I live in a hot climate too. It's not as hot per se as yours, but ours is much more humid, and I love this method that saves me from steaming and heating the kitchen. Now I just have to figure out how to get my share of the tea before the husband scarfs it all up.

I also had a can of sweetened condensed milk that had expired by many years. I had made a "key" lime pie with it one Christmas to top off a big lobster dinner. I like having pantry staples on the shelf, but why I feel the need to do this for something I use rarely is a mystery to me. I have to buy fresh limes anyway, when I get ready to make the pie. Then many years later, the next time I got ready to make this pie, I was making out my grocery list and realized how past date my pantry can was, so I bought another fresh one. I opened the old one first, and it had a disturbing dark color, much darker than Butterfly's photo. I washed the can opener meticulously, and opened the fresh can, and it was quite white, so that's the one I used. I wasn't brave enough to taste the expired one, even though it may not have hurt me. The pie turned out excellent again. I'm firmly in the meringue camp, especially, because my pie recipe (Joy of Cooking) calls for just enough yolks to have leftover whites for a tall meringue. I had a big can of tomatoes that had got pushed to the back of the shelf. I think it was old enough to not even have an expiration date, That one was bulging, so it got thrown away unopened. I'm thrifty (cheap?) but not to the point where I'll take a risk like that! I loved ScoopKW's no-brainer risk/reward assessment on page one. I'm happy to say also that I no longer stock pantry items that I don't use much and require fresh ingredients anyway to realize a recipe. This old dog can apparently learn a few new tricks from her mistakes.

Kim Shook, Outdoor cooking in Southern heat and humidity is for us thrifty types who cringe at running the A/C against the oven. I can cook even a thick steak in fifteen minutes or less on a hot charcoal fire to our liking. It's also the only way I really like steak cooked, when I splurge on it. Once I get the ashes cleaned out, and the fire laid and lit, I confidently walk back inside to wait for coals and prep stuff in the A/C. I haven't had one go out in many decades, and that was because I hadn't learned not to fool with it. I can stand a few minutes outside to keep from giving more money to our electric company which is working hard on becoming a complete monopoly here. I leave stuff like chicken with longer, slower cooks times for spring and fall too. Outdoor summer eating with heat, humidity and the record crop of insects in NC this summer? Well I don't know who that's for, but certainly not for us!

I make pot stickers in the stainless skillet and never had a problem with sticking. I just remember big problems with fried rice and grits, both of which had been refrigerated at least overnight, and the pan was spotlessly clean. I can't explain it, but it's not worth it to me to try again because it wasted a lot of food and I had to start over in non-stick anyway.

liuzhou sure has a point about quality not being commensurate with popularity. Just look at how many folks eat at McDonald's regularly. I can't afford to eat out very often, and even then, it needs to be a good value. I know Yelp doesn't get a lot of love around here or on most other food sites, but I have found it very helpful to learn about local restaurants and see photos of their food before gambling my money on them. The overall star rating is just a rough guide. If it has two stars, it's probably not worth reading further, but it it has four or five, I'll read the individual reviews and see what they ate and whether they liked it and why. In a smaller town like mine (pop. 151,000) and within the much smaller subset of Yelp posters it's possible to get to recognize some of the ones who post about the local restaurants and share similar tastes to your own. It's still a risk eating at a new place (or any place, for that matter), but since I started using Yelp I feel like it's a much more calculated risk. I just have to put in the research time, and bonus, I actually enjoy doing it. Those with more money than time may not find it worth the trouble.

I made ham and Swiss cheese crepes with white wine bechamel filling. The Swiss cheese was a brand I had never dealt with before from Aldi's, and although I used the same recipe and proportions I always do, the cheese sauce was super thick and stringy, and refused to ladle cleanly into the center of the crepes where I needed it to go. I wound up turning the air a bit blue, and finally resorting to using my hands to glob the thick sauce evenly into the center of each crepe. They looked and tasted fine in the end, but no more Aldi's Swiss for me. The cheese only had a few small holes anyway which I thought was strange. Tasted good though. I cooked up some beautiful broccoli to go with it. I love it when broccoli grows such dense florets that the undersides are lighter green in places than the areas that get more sun. This was really good. The night before was huevos rancheros served with crispy taco shells, lots of hot pico de gallo, refried beans and cheese, shredded lettuce and black olives. I really enjoyed it. Shelby, I always love seeing your flower burst platters filled with vibrant, healthy produce. I could make a very enjoyable meal out with just that!

I love my SS KitchenAid 12" triple-ply deep stainless steel bonded skillet. It works great for frying zucchini, fish, shrimp, but doesn't work at all for fried rice or fried grits (polenta). The KitchenAid is my biggest skillet, and is always my go to for veg and/or meat stir fries. It's also so heavy as to be a real problem to me these days, although it wasn't when I bought it. At least it has a "helper handle". Proteins will release, but starches won't. What a mess, trying to make fried rice or grits! I still have use for my non-stick skillets for eggs, crepes, and anything starchy. I also have a 10" Wagner Ware cast iron skillet, and if I'm caught out by a thunderstorm, when I've planned to grill out, that is my choice, in summer when I choose not to run the broiler against the A/C, although it is mostly a waste of a good steak. It does not approach the grilled flavor to me. I use the Wagner for cornbread too in the oven or for other dishes that are started on the stovetop and finished in the oven. All of them have their uses, but Shel_B, I hear you. I have reservations about heating plastics too. I never overheat my non-stick.

Shelby, My husband brought home one cucumber similarly misshapen at the blossom end like your zuke. He also brought a giant zucchini (maybe 2-1/2 pounds), that was way overgrown, but perfectly shaped. The thing was eleven inches long and working hard on four inches width at the fat end. These were from our next door neighbor. I thought the zuke would be woody and seedy and just a lost cause, but I was making lasagna, so I sliced it in ribbons lengthwise anyway. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, after tasting some raw. I used it in the lasagna, and it turned out really good. I sent some to the neighbor who grew it and his landlord, who has also done us favors. Maybe your "hider" is salvageable? Those rascals do tend to hide under the lush leaves. P.S.: Newman is a weird cat! I have one too. One of his nicknames is Weirdcat!, Fuzz Bucket, Small Guy ... it goes on. Adorable, though, as is mine.

I find myself ordering a couple of apps for dinner sometimes, because many of the great ethnic restaurants in our area seem to focus more effort on making them delicious and presented well. Cheese pakora and samosas from an Indian place, or a huaracha and a gordita from a Mexican one. Cigar bourek and felafel from our Turkish place. The first and last options are vegetarian, and even the middle one can be made to be so if desired. The places I speak of also have great entrees, but they often don't appeal to me personally as much as the apps. I have to say if I was ever seated in a restaurant that served an unappealing appetizer, I'd leave without ordering an entree.

liuzhou, Thanks for your post about what I thought was a figment of someone's imagination. I conjecture I have never seen this phenomenon, despite having butchered many chickens, because we never slaughtered young layers. It makes perfect sense that something as large as a chicken egg doesn't materialize out of thin air. If one were to slaughter young hens, I would bet they would be absolutely prime eating quality. Looks a little like roe sacs in fish.