SLB

I hauled my uptown behind down there today looking for a vendor who had strawberries last week. Alas, strawberry-man was gone. But -- that NO-PESTICIDE dude was selling okra at $8/lb. Repeat: eight.dollars.per.pound. I mean . . . is there really a market for okra at that price??? I just . . . can't.

I took a class on canning safety this past weekend, and now I'm fit for canning with gusto! The training projects: Peaches; tomato blender salsa; zucchini relish; peach ketchup; plum jelly; low-sugar apricot jam; regular apricot jam; sauerkraut. We also did a peach butter, some non-fermented pickles, dehydrated stone fruits, and pressure-canned beans, but I had to leave before those projects were done. If you're using a tested recipe, none of it is rocket science; but I did want to make sure I was understanding the safety precautions with precision. And it was nice to just go through the motions over and over with someone correcting/reminding. I've learned a lot from books, but this seems to be getting harder as I get older. A whole 'nother topic . . . . On the home front -- I admit, my resistance to air conditioning may fail in the face of late-summer canning. I know that my grandmas canned without air conditioning, ruthlessly. My cousins still talk about the wonders to be stolen out of the pantry in my paternal grandma's house. But it seems like some serious suffering. Anyway. Squee! [Please do ignore that backpacking Charmin roll back left on the junk plate. I promise there is no toilet-anything in my kitchen, that was an extra NEW packet which for whatever reason didn't make it into my pack for my last hiking trip -- where it was missed, natch -- but it's not something that's ever got near a toilet scene before it landed on my countertop. Just wanted to reassure folk . . . 😳]

@kayb, just confirming, they don't dry out that way (over time)?

Agreed on the casserole/lasagna need. That said, the truth is that I rest everything, because I don't like my food to be super hot when I eat it. I feel that mostly everything tastes better closer to warm than hot. Soup can go in the bowl hot, and eggs of course come out of the pan; but most of my stuff sits out awhile.

@Shelby what I want to know is, how do you do the canning in the heat?!? What about the pickles??? That might be a different thread . . .

Here it's 78, no detectable humidity, and breezy. I've got the oven fired up for high-heat chicken. After weeks of fish and meatballs and restaurants, I'm giddy for some crispy skin. Of course, tomorrow is August. This can't hold.

I soak all the greens greens in saltwater. This is not about pesticides -- this is about bugs with legs that you can see. The only reason I do all of that is because it's how my mama did it! Then I spin dry in a salad spinner, something my mother never would've even considered spending money on. Everything else I rinse. I should do better -- I admit, I'm not that concerned about pesticides, but I definitely do not want e.coli. I should. But I don't.

So, having been so thoroughly inspired here, I'm getting ready to do some non-freezer preserving in earnest, as a middle-aged neophyte to the practice. I'm very excited, not in small part because I'm expecting to be totally swamped through the winter with my day job, and like the idea of having a lot of canned components to work from. So I've been reviewing this thread, and was reminded of something I'd meant to post. A year or two ago someone (Shelby?) posted about a pickled eggplant recipe that subsequent members raved about. I like eggplant a lot, but I tire of it long before its season has faded here in New York, so was intrigued at the idea of canning it at peak for eating later in the winter. In that discussion, @ElainaA had expressed concern that the recipe called for canning in oil, which she indicated was disfavored by expert preservers as too risky for botulism. I read something on point in "Putting Food By" (Greene, J.; Hertzberg, R; Vaughan, B.; Schmidt, S, ed.), a respected treatise. At p. 333 of the 5th edition of the paperback, a recipe for pickled mushrooms notes that products which are pickled in oil need to "first take up enough acid to become truly pickled before the oil is added to the mixture and the jar is capped. If the oil were added too early, it would inhibit the mushrooms' ability to take up the acid that pickles them (this acquired acidity makes them safe to be canned")." I the neophyte read this as speaking to ElainaA's concern -- if the item is truly pickled before it is greased-up, it is safe for canning. Just wanted to pass it along; I know you guys are expert canners, and don't necessarily need reports from the primers. But if there were nagging concerns over that eggplant recipe . . . anyway, I'm going to check out the state of eggplants at tomorrow's markets. It's a touch early, but who knows. The weather's been weird all year.

Dave Arnold gets heated about air frying, even in an outdoor setting: http://heritageradionetwork.org/podcast/keep-plucking-that-chicken/. This podcast is delightful, but the episodes are long. The fry rage begins at about 16:54. Meanwhile, I had fried artichokes tonight. Admittedly, it's cooled off -- mid-80s and low humidity.

I guess I do ok with the heat, I haven't had A/C in my adult life. This includes my years in Mississippi and Alabama. I'm considering getting a window unit for my bedroom, my tolerance at night is . . . changing. So what that means, I do have general rules for summer cooking versus winter. The main thing is, I hoard steaks and sausages for the summer, and don't really cook big roast-type meats after May or so. I do cook full meals through the summer, and even fry; but as a rule if it has to go in the oven, or cook for a very long time, it has to be done very early in the morning. Then I'll just reheat it for dinner. Also, I use the pressure cooker a lot more in the summer. I gather that the IP works along the same lines, and I would guess since you aren't running the stove it would keep the house cooler? It's weird though; I crave fried food in hot weather. Which is the hottest thing on earth to have to stand there and do, and also you don't get its glory in the reheated version. I should mention, the summer dinner cooking usually starts with a stiff gin and tonic and some cold watermelon. Possibly this is the main *tip*. But then, I just stand there and fry.

I started baking bread in August one year, in a fifth-floor NYC apartment with no air conditioning. For some reason, it seemed easier than getting on the subway to the good bakeries. So yeah, I know the call of bread.

Seconding the eggs. Someone once explained frittata to me as "Italian picnic food". Assuming your mornings are cool enough to run the oven for a bit, make it in the morning, eat it room temp for dinner.

I agree totally. I decided not to order bacon because I just couldn't see how that was gonna work. And yes, their sealing could use some higher-tech.

My Father's hocks are on the stove. I got a late start today -- World Cup/boozy brunch, and then a, uh, recovery nap -- but we're going with the pressure cooker. Can't wait. I ordered the hocks, the "prosciutto", and a pile of snacks: the ham and bacon jerkies, and a very large quantity of the cracklins. I favor high fat snacks. Of the snack products, the cracklins are fine if oily, but I'm not sure they are worth the shipping. Both jerkies are tasty, and not super dry. The bacon jerky is, in particular, to die for. But I hear it's all about the ham, so I'm very excited about these hocks.

FYI, Rancho Gordo opened their Bean Club recently to new members (it had been sold out for quite some time). And apparently they're approaching their limit for new subscriptions. So if you meant to join the RG Bean Club, I gather now is the time.

I'm prepared to make ALL THE ROUNDS. I'll bring my tent, y'all don't have to put me up. And -- I take direction, do dishes AND mop. But back on topic: I'm picking up this book this weekend.

I really think I'm gonna have to get this cookbook. Also, if I haven't mentioned it already, Shelby I really need to come over to your house soon.

@kayb, you're the bomb! I'll get in touch if it comes to that! @chileheadmike, I don't live in KC, I'm just there once every other year or so. @pastrygirl, thanks. I know of 4505, but was thinking surely they were high. I appreciate the review from someone who's actually tasted them. All that said, I do live in NYC, and need to just take my behind over to Queens and see what's happening in some of the meat shops.

Yes, I live in a Dominican neighborhood, and am familiar with the mass-produced products. There is a thread in the Cooking forum on pork farmers who produce fine house-cured and -finished pork products (including service meats and cracklings, etc). Between that and the mind-bogglingly-delicious house-made pork rinds that I had recently at a resto called "Bluestem" in Kansas City, I thought someone may have a line on something unique.

I'm interested in a source of tasty pork rinds (not the hard cracklins, the soft puffy ones). I'd be happy to mail-order, I'd like to get a lot of them.

He lives where we're from, in Denver. Somewhere there! On the unpacking: that's the beauty of the TaskRabbit hire: you design the specific scope of the task.

Wow on the no-collar. I like . My brother had a similar surgery last autumn at c4-7, but the issue was severe stenosis. He was sullen about the no bending/lifting/twisting thing. The physical therapists were, in my view, geniuses. But anyway. Yes to food delivery, it'll be an adventure. And yes to the World Cup.

I think the FD meat is good, and the fish is excellent -- better than at my Fairway (the Harlem location). The produce has not been a hit for me, and I can't really recommend it. The notable exception is tomatoes, which have been uniformly fine. But I've gotten soft potatoes from them before! And almost every green or herb I've ever purchased has been wilted. I am not bothered all that much in concept by wilted herbs, or even wilted greens that are going to be cooked. But wilted lettuce drives me crazy, even though sometimes it can be revived a little bit. And nothing wilted is supposed to cost what it costs at Fresh Direct. Wilted edibles are supposed to come at a discount. I really enjoy grocery shopping, though, and I live in NYC where it can be really very interesting. So I only use FD for specific purposes -- once when I was sick, otherwise when I just can't make the time to haul to the store(s), etc. And once I've committed to ordering, then I go to town and get cases of beer and some table wine and a boatload of q-tonic and enough LaCroix to last for the whole summer . . . . I live up five flights of stairs, so anything that is a pain for me, once I've signed on for a delivery with them, they bring it. And yes, there are cases of LaCroix in my living room. Behind the couch. ETA: Sorry for your woes, Weinoo, wishing you a speedy recovery. That thing they say about not lifting . . . well, I don't know what happened with you, but I do know that this proscription is usually meant to be taken seriously. Take good care, have fun in the world of delivery. And don't sleep on Instacart, or hiring a Taskrabbit to go pick up your stuff at your appointed vendors.

I have a Bluestar RCS (I think this was replaced by the RNB, and I suspect that this is why I got a decent deal on the range). I love the simplicity of its function, I strongly prefer the open burners, and I love the power; but in seven years I have had to replace like three of the igniters and something major busted in the oven (not the convection fan -- the oven stopped working actually). Also, the upper rack is really just too close to the broiler -- I always need to use the next rack level, which is honestly just a bit too far away for true surface-cooking. I can deal with all of this, but it seems like more hassle than one should be dealing with at that price point.

Man, that soup book. It was beautiful!