mcdowell

Ok, so we overplanted. I've never grown chard before and had no idea how it would just keep coming and coming and coming... and it doesn't look like an end's in sight. I've steamed it, stewed it, braised it, and even rolled it into enchiladas with mushrooms (very yummy). What do you do with Swiss Chard? Need some ideas, desperately, before we're forced to just open a swiss chard stand at the farmer's market.

Dress appropriately. are jeans OK? Only if they're not tucked into your boots.

You have her book, you can buy her ingredients at www.cheesemaking.com I've delt with New England Cheesemaking Supply Co for a couple of years and have always been satisfied.

To get feral and dirty, sweaty and excited, frenzied, fed, whipped, and sated, some people go to sex clubs and orgies. Food professionals just go to work. People who remain in kitchens are addicted to the heat — not just the jalapenos and poblanos warning: nerve.com isn't a porn site, not addled with naked pictures, anything like that, but it is adult in nature. Surf responsibly.

I lived directly across the street from Delancey Street for most of 2001 & ate at the restaurant weekly. Very good food, very well executed. And, as Stone said, very good cause. These guys doing good work. It's not just ex-cons, but also ex-homeless & ex-druggies. High-end halfway house, and you'd never know it from the exceptional service.

Starbucks? Peet's.

Spicy tamale pie overflowing with stewed swiss chard, mushrooms, and zuchinni (everything except the mushrooms from the tiny garden out back). Ranch-style beans on the side.

If you're going for brevity, then Haiku's the answer. Food blog, 17 syllables per meal.

Mmmm.. Actually making corn chowder today with corn we picked up 6 ears/$1 at a farmstand in the central valley (california) a few days ago. My favorite summer soups are cold. Cucumber is my favorite for a hot day, sometimes enough to carry me through the day with no other food. I also recently did a roasted red pepper soup that was really good at room temperature, but didn't work cold.

Think them Carolina boys would have a problem with a Pagan worshipping at the shrine of All Clad, sacrificing goose livers and truffles for the greater good, do you?

I think the Red Hawk washed rind is amazing. And very different from what you usually think of when you talk about American made cheeses. Pungent and creamy, it's the stuff of cheese dreams. The problem that I have is finding it in good condition. I've bought this cheese about five times in the past 18 months, and it was ammoniated three of those times. Is it that hard to store the washed rind? (I haven't tried buying it mail order from Tomales Bay/Cowgirl directly, as it's usually an impulse buy, so could well be the seller's problem & not the dairy's). The Mt Tam triple is also excellent, and we just finished a small round of that last night. Other big favorites are the Cypress Grove chevres, and Humbolt Fog goat's cheese (though I didn't see that on the SF Chron's list of winners this year).

I keep some ramen noodles in the bottom drawer, along with a giant bag of wasabi-coated peas (better than popcorn, and twice as addictive). There's also trail mix (heavy on the nuts) and about five different kinds of loose leaf tea within arm's reach. In the community conference room, we keep a case of Kraft Easy-Mac and cases of root-beer, all from Costco. I don't go near that Easy-Mac stuff. Never. Nope. Not me.

For me, it's a matter of what's on hand. There's very nearly always a decaying loaf of Acme bread in the kitchen, and that's handy for "fresh" breadcrumbs. That's what I use 80% of the time. You mentioned specifically meatballs and crabcakes. Those are two items where I usually don't use fresh, as I find I can regulate the consistency more to my liking with the fine grained "crumbs" in the carton from the grocery. Could just be laziness on my part.

oh, and we can't forget fried okra. Keep them plates a comin'!!

FG - I think you should hit the Waffle House and do a round-up taste test of all the hashbrown permutations, preferably at 3am (bring your own thermos of coffee).

Foods I can eat & eat & eat & eat... Creamy garlic mashed potatoes Jambaylia of any sort Crawfish, boiled spicy Boudin, the Creole sort, not the French Did I say boudin? Oh, and boudin. And let's not forget biscuits and milk gravy. Yum.

There are four of us in our home, two adults, two children both aged 10-11. We cook and eat in five nights/week. Every Sunday we make a dessert (pie, cake, tart, something) that will last for the next several days. Adults eat dessert three nights a week, the kids, of course, about seven. Last week, we had an apple Brown Betty. Didn't last long at all

Haven't seen this in any mainstream press, but there's an article in the current Cheese Market News about the subject of EU's geographical indications & a hearing held in Congress this week about US producer's reactions.

Burgers are good, fries too, little question. Best? Probably not. To me, it's a more a cultural icon for the Clear Lake area natives. Many memorable Friday nights began over burgers and shake at Tookies (and too many ended drunk off a boat, sobering in the luke-warm water of Galveston Bay).

That's a bold statement. Which food group do you think is missing there?

I agree completely. My own working definition says that if I don't recognize more than 40% of the ingredients listed on the package, or have to break out my old college chemistry text to understand them, then it's "junk food".

I did see Gregory's Girl at about the same time, and theater even, that I saw Eating Raoul, but I have zero recollection of the pastry chef. Need to see if they have that at Blockbuster now...

More to my tastes is Eating Raoul. One of the first movies to get me interested in food. Yeah. On cable a month or so ago I saw something called A Feast At Midnight where a new student at a British public school forms a secret society centered around cooking and midnight feasting with other school misfits and outcasts. It had the very excellent Christopher Lee. I can see those kids growing up and hanging out here.

Hmmm. I'm not sure I've ever read a pasta package; I cook until it's done to my satisfaction.

I'm not sure I'd agree in the feta case (nor did they, since the article talked specifically about Greeks being upset that some of their food wasn't on there - they want Kalamata olives and Ouzo included). There's some good feta out there that's never been near Greece. There are foods that are regionally identified and grown natively that I'd agree with limiting the name for, and many, many more that I wouldn't. I stop agreeing at the point where it crosses the line from being a product that is affected by environment (as many cheeses can be) to being a product that is simply "manufactured" in a region. Still, I could see the value of boudin only being called boudin if it's made in Acadia, Louisiana, as I've had some terrible examples made elsewhere. But where do you draw the line - wouldn't a sausage maker who transplants himself to San Francisco and starts making boudin make it just as good, the lack of Atchafalaya swamp water not withstanding, not be able to call it what it is? This essentially copyright for food name, not an area that I think has been greated explored in the context of copyright and intellectual property law. Interesting stuff.