Jump to content

Margo

participating member
  • Posts

    243
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Margo

  1. "Chow Slut." I want the tee-shirt. Ms Tenacity, your blog is great. I lived in SFe for four years after college, my pre-work retirement, so to speak. Fell in love with green chile. I'm finally going back for a week in March, can't wait for stacked enchiladas and sopaipillas.
  2. I want my Maypo! I'd forgotten that. My brother and I had the little pouches of instant Quaker oats in winter as kids. I liked the apple and brown sugar flavor. I was introduced to the range of hot cereals at Star Island, a summer resort for Unitarians. A windswept island off the coast of NH/Maine, so hot cereal was appropriate for chilly mornings. Breakfast included a choice of cold cereal or hot: Ralston, Maltex, CoW, oatmeal... a different one every day. I went off the hot stuff when I made it myself and burned the milk. Yuk. But I've been back at it for several years now. Malt o Meal made with milk with chopped chipotles in adobo. Kinky, hm?
  3. I think that two things are key: --An educated public that understands and appreciates the value of locally produced food, with all its seasonal variations, and --a rich local supply of fresh foods, such as can be found in the countryside of southeastern and south-central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and lower Delaware. Denver is situated where the Wheat Belt meets the Rockies. If I'm not mistaken, most of the agriculture of eastern Colorado is geared towards producing staple grains--the climate is not that conducive to producing vegetables, and there are no significant bodies of water to speak of anywhere near the place. That, IMO, may account for the lack of a thriving farmers'/public market in Denver. Please correct me if my understanding of Colorado agriculture and climate is mistaken. ←
  4. Actually, you can walk to the Schlesinger Library from the Harvard Square stop on the Red Line. It's at 10 Garden Street. Alacarte is right--great cookbook browsing--one of their specialty areas is culinary history. Also second the recommendation for Formaggio Kitchen. The man who runs it was just interviewed by Lynn Rossetto Kasper on "Splendid Table": he's evidently the only working "affineur" in the US, someone who is trusted to finish cheeses by high-quality producers in Europe. It was a revelation, for me, to have brie that had been treated right! And, the Deco show at the MFA is great. But wicked expensive ($15. admission plus $7. for the Deco exhibit). Have fun!
  5. I started buying copper cookware about 10 years ago, replacing the Revereware I'd had since college. My other cookware is old cast iron and Le Creuset. One name hasn't come up yet: Bourgeat. I purchased (over several years!) a 10" frying pan, 12" saute pan, and sauce pans (1, 2+, and 3+ quart). My favorite is the saute pan, I guess because so many recipes seem to call for that size. Good for braising. The "mirror finish" stainless that Bourgeat offers has scratched some, from whisking, but nothing serious. I don't polish my copper, either. Another thing, E. Dehillerin in Paris has very competitively priced copper, even considering the shipping cost. They do have a web-site, I don't have it handy.
  6. Maybe it's a matter of taste... I like chewing through the pumpkin seed hulls, even though they're kind of tough. The key is to roast them until they're nice and brown. Sometimes I just like a chewy snack. I read somewhere, maybe, that the green pumpkin seeds (pepitas?) are hulled.
  7. Margo

    Vermont

    Tell me about this one. I don't know it. Thanks!
  8. Margo

    How Many Hams

    Can I tell a story? My husband and I were in the Dordogne region (to see the prehistoric caves, way cool!) and staying at a B&B with a voluble host. The host was talking about how he slaughtered hogs every fall for ham (the time of the moon was important, a superstition, he said but one he followed). This was very common practice in the region--everyone cured their own hams. Where were they kept to cure? my husband asked. In the attic, was the answer--that was why so may farmhouses had the little dormers in the top floor that we had wondered about. So for the rest of the trip as we drove, we had a keen sense that behind every roof lurked a fabulous ham. What a country.
  9. Margo

    Vermont

    I've heard nothing but good things about the Black Sheep Bistro in Vergennes. Haven't eaten there myself. Probably a good idea to make reservations during leaf-peeper season.
  10. I can vouch for them, too. The ribs are nice and smoky, and moist--don't taste like they've been rubbed with anything much beyond some salt before smoking. The sauce is ketchup-based, sweet and smoky, a little tang to it. The coleslaw is good, so are fries. The garlic toast isn't so good--soggy white bread.
  11. It was the first meal of my husband's first trip to Paris (and only my second). We had dropped our stuff at the hotel and wandered off to explore. We ended up across the street from the Luxembourg Gardens at some non-descript cafe. We sat, ordered, and were served fabulous composed salads, Nicoise for me, with a glass of wine. We wept with joy. My husband decided at that very moment that he was French, and cursed his Polish ancestors for coming all the way to the US rather than stopping there, where he clearly belonged. I mean, it was nothing special, really. But the slight formality of the waiters (who declined to serve some other Americans who were moving chairs around and putting their feet on them), the feel of the street and watching Parisians going about their weekday business, the fact that our salads were to be dressed by ourselves from the cruets of oil and vinegar, salt, pepper and mustard all in a cute little rack... Surely we had better meals later in the trip. But that was the best.
  12. MassMOCA in North Adams, MA, has a decent restaurant called Eleven--I had a pizza with fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato there last week. I think they're trying to attract a non-museum crowd with the restaurant itself as destination. The decor and food is kind of studied cool. The Cooper Hewitt makes you pay admission to eat at the restaurant! I do tend to get over-involved with the galleries in museums generally, trying to cram everything in, but I'm always happier with myself if I take a food break. I needed that hotdog to get through the Whitney Biennial.
  13. They're available at City Market in Burlington, VT.
  14. Since my name is Margo and I live across the lake... Thanks for the heads-up!
  15. I've been eating chipotles in adobo since reading about them on the Chileheads list about 8 years ago. It took a while, but it finally dawned on me that the local Mexican grocer would probably have them. I was hooked instantly: I probably ate half a can's worth of quesadillas at one sitting. About the same time I found one of Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby's cookbooks in a remainder bin, and quickly fell in love with their orange-chipotle salsa and grilled skirt steak. I have to say that book (Big Flavors of the Hot Sun) completely changed my approach to cooking. I had recently begun eating meat after 15 years of vegetarianism and was kind of at a loss, but that book was inspirational. Back to chipotles. Now I chop them into my cream of wheat in the morning.
  16. What do you all think of bakery chains, like Great Harvest (is that the right name)? Here in northern Vermont, there are a good number of artisan bread bakers, whose goods are sold in regular groceries and health food stores. I'd rather support them than the corporate franchise, even though the franchise owners are perfectly decent people. Margo
  17. Here's another good one: Mild to Wild Pepper & Herb Co. The owner, Jim Campbell, is widely regarded as a saint on the Chileheads listserv. His sauces and powders are excellent--I've loved Ralph's Righteous Hab Sauce, the red savina-garlic sauce, and the Smokin' Chipotle sauce. www.wildpepper.com
  18. That's great to know. I didn't mean to imply Burlington-centricity (horrors)--I'm really interested in a list of places in northern New England and western MA. Boston of course has a plethora of options, and Montreal is a stand-by. But if I'm, say, driving to Hanover, NH or Williamstown/Pittsfield, MA: what might be found? Thanks!
  19. I've whined about this elsewhere, but in truth there are at least four places in and around Burlington, VT, to find specialty foods... The first one, I don't know the name, a Thai market on North Avenue in Burlington. They have fresh produce and myriad canned goods, including coconut milk at 1/3 the supermarket price. Gagan Asian Grocery Store, Williston Rd., South Burlington. Indian food, they have carried fresh curry leaves in the past but I'm not sure business was strong enough to continue. Balkan Pearls, Main St., Burlington. Eastern European. Sausage and smoked meats, paprika. European Food, Main St., Winooski. Russian, Ukrainian. The Vietnamese grocery in Winooski recently burned, but the family intends to re-open at a new location fairly soon. So where do you go?
  20. There's a good recipe for Inner Beauty hot sauce in Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby's cookbook, Big Flavors of the Hot Sun. Schlesinger developed the line--you might try getting in touch with his restaurant, East Coast Grill in Cambridge, MA, where I've seen it sold.
×
×
  • Create New...