bloviatrix

It sounds like you have this chili thing down to a fine science. ← From October through April there is always chili to be found in the house. It's really one of those perfect foods.

Last week I picked up a lovely cheese pumpkin from the greenmarket. Roasted it and turned it into a lovely soup with ginger and cider. The seeds got toasted and sprinkled on top.

I made my first pot of chili for the season about 2 weeks ago. The weather had just changed, and it was so satisfying. I don't have any formal recipe for my version.... Cook 1 pound of black beans according to Russ Parson's method and add to water a smashed clove of garlic and sometimes one or two chipotles Brown 1 pound of ground beef and set aside. Sweat diced onions, green peppers and garlic until soft. Add chile powder, cumin, and either ancho powder or pasilla powder (or a mix of the two), and sometimes pureed chipotle in adobo. Return meat to pan. Add cooked beans and diced tomatoes. Simmer away. We have quart left in the freezer that we'll probably pull out over the weekend. We tend to eat it over rice. But I want to try some of the recipes referred to here.

I acquired the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America several months ago. It's a lot of fun to pull out a read. I've learned all sorts of arcana.

The one problem with Manhattan living is that unless you live in a penthouse apartment with a terrace, own a brownstone, or the owner of your building is a frum jew, it's kind of hard to have sukkah. My parents have a sukkah. They decorate using the same fake fruit that my grandparents used in their sukkah when my mom was a kid. This stuff is seriously antique - about 80 years old. When I was little I would string cranberries and popcorn. The problem is the squirrels really feasted on the stuff, so we eventually stopped with the edible decorations. We also would make paper chains - which wasn't a good idea either as October in NY tends to mean rain. We didn't put a lot of stuff on the walls of the sukkah as we have one of the cloth ones preprinted with kiddush, the ushpizin, etc. But in our original sukkah (which was destroyed in the aftermath of a hurricane) we hung posters of Israel that we wrapped in saran wrap to keep dry. We're going to my brother in law's family for the first days of the holiday. No idea what they're serving, but I don't expect much.

The peanuts came from the greenmarket. And they cost $3 for a very large batch. There's one guy who grows them, and he sells his stuff at the greenmarket near my apartment. As for how New Yorkers shop....remember that Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn are very different from the rest of the boroughs. People don't have cars, and the markets don't have parking lots. If you're doing a big shop you're either going to have it delivered, or you have a cart to schlep all your groceries. Many people just order all their groceries online via Freshdirect and they come delivered. Because real estate is at such a premium, our markets aren't huge mega-liths. And when someone like Whole Foods builds a new market that's 50,000 sq ft, it's cause for discussion. Because we tend not to have a lot of storage space, we tend to shop more frequently and buy in smaller quantities. We shop more like europeans - multiple purveyors and picking up items daily. And then on top of the stores, there is the greenmarket. There's one near my apartment I go to every Friday and I frequently go to 2 others - one is a 1 mile walk and the other is a subway ride. I have a very large canvas sack that I take and fill up. Once it's too heavy to carry, it's time to go home. If you're really curious, look at the New York forum. There are threads about food shopping. It might give you a better idea of how we function in the big city.

I picked up my first batch of green peanuts for Fall '05 today. They're so green, they're still attached to the plants.

I've got so much food left in the freezer from RH as well as stuff from our pre-Yom Kippur meal. So, I'm going with left-overs.... Chicken Soup Turkey Breast with Apricot Sauce Bulgur Pilaf Roast buttercup squash (this is new) And since we've had nothing but rain for the past 8 days, I made a big pit of chili for tomorrow's lunch.

Alice Medrich has both sweet and savory recipes using coco nibs in her book Bittersweet.

I saw them in Zabar's last week. But, I've bought them at Fairway in the past. Additionally, Scharffen Berger has a shop on Amsterdam btw 82nd and 83rd. They'll definitely have them there.

How can you eat so much food after the fast? Just the thought makes me ill. We're strictly OJ, bagels, cream cheese, lox, and whitefish people. Maybe some babka.

I made the honey cake from the Susan Purdy book The Perfect Cake. I chose the recipe because it gave the measurements by weight instead of volume. It tastes good. But it's very dry. I don't know if it's the recipe or I over-baked it.

I make Yerushalmi kugel (rarely, and only on very special request) and I've eaten many over the years. They should have a peppery-caramel taste. And, they tend can be somewhat greasy because the caramel is made by heating sugar and oil together. You have to be careful when making the caramel because if you take it too far it will burn and get bitter. BTW, there's no reason to use two types of pasta. Angel Hair works fine.

Let me wish you all a Shana Tovah. A sweet, happy and healthy year to you all.

It's not enough that I've spent most of the past week cooking for Rosh Hashanah, but I had to make dinner for tonight as well...... Borscht London Broil in a honey/rosemary marinade Roasted buttercup squash with honey, brown sugar and cinnamon Roasted potatoes Bulgur pilaf I have no idea what we'll drink. But I need something strong. Tomorrow's lunch will be a salad with sausage. There's a big kiddush in shul to celebrate sheva brachot so I'm sure we'll indulge.

I just put my brisket in the oven (lunch on wednesday). I've adapted the Texas barbaque brisket recipe that appears in Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America -- instead of using chili sauce I use my own maple-chipotle BBQ sauce that I made earlier in the week. Once finished, the brisket will be frozen and taken out on Tuesday to defrost.

GG, can I make a suggestion? Add some figs, either fresh or dried to the port. They go very well with lamb and add a nice touch.

I toyed with making lamb shanks on monday night, but was over-ruled. (I gave my diners a choice of lamb shanks, duck or veal)

There must be something in the ether because today's San Francisco Chronicle has an article titled Mama Knows Best When it Comes to Kugel

I just read about Matzoh Ball Gumbo. It's going on my purchase list. Regarding the lamb - if you put in a special order can you get it? Or is it only a seasonal thing?

I have finally set my menu for Monday night. The other night's are still slightly works-in-progress, although the cooking has commenced and my freezer is filling up with quart containers. Dinner will be.... Onion Marmalade on baguette toasts Mushroom Soup Salad of arugala, duck confit and plums with "cracklings" Herb-crusted Veal Roast with a red wine/mustard sauce Roasted Green Beans with shallots, garlic and lemon zest Apple Souffle Chocolate Deception Cake Wine will be the Recanati Special Reserve 2000. Add to start we will drink my version of a Kir Royale - cherry infused shlivovitz and prosecco.

Payard's Sweet Tart Dough is my go-to. I also love the apricot tea cakes and the coconut-pineapple tart. I've actually made a lot of items from this book and have never been disappointed. This is a thread discussing the Medrich book.

Because the women were already burnt out from the RH prep.

It's traditional to eat foods that reflect the autumn harvest on Sukkot. Additional, many people eat stuffed foods made with chopped or "beaten" fillings because of the way we "beat" the lulav during the prayer for rain. You should take a look at The Essential Book of Jewish Festival Cooking by Phyllils Glazer and Miriyam Glazer. It has some interesting information.

We will go with the traditional eggy, cakey, raisin challahs. However, I was paging through Maggie Glezer's A Blessing of Bread and she has a recipe for Sephardic Pumpkin Challah which looks promising. Apparently the symbolism for Rosh Hashanah is Glezer also has a recipe for Apple Challah.