iguana

The suspense!!! I can't stand it!

Dang, I hope so-- I finally found the perfect place to hold my husband's 40th birthday party, then there's a fire. Anyway, I hope he finds someplace by late January!

I heard rumors (from someone who purportedly knows his real estate agent ) that Doug is looking in a lot of neighborhoods, not just near his old place. Now my husband and I bike around saying to each other "wouldn't it be great if Hot Doug's landed here? Or here? No, here." Anyway, I didn't catch the full story as I was tending the brats on the grill. Darn, I miss Hot Doug's

I was going to suggest mint chutney-- maybe post in the India forum for a recipe. That will use a ton of mint and will likely freeze well. I'm very curious about the recipe with whey-- where did it come from? I suppose Indian cooks may have whey from making paneer, but this strikes me as most unusual. Please tell me more!

Cauliflower!

How much sugar and thickening do y'all use in your respective rhubarb pies? I have some rhubarb from the farmers market and no strawberries, so I was going to give the solo rhubarb thing a go. I imagine it needs a touch more sugar without the strawberries, but then we like sour.

This guy has some great stuff-- my husband is addicted to a peppercorn cheese (pepino? I forget the name) that he distributes. He has a great variety, especially with the blues. Having this type of distributor must be great for the cheesemakers too-- they don't have to spend all their time shlepping to various markets. Of course they don't get to meet the end-users either. Doubtless a mixed blessing.

I've had good success finding Midwest artisanal cheese in two places, farmers markets and the cheese cart at Tru. One of my favorites is the Capriole Farms goat cheeses-- keep an eye out for Wabash cannonballs. I've seen these (and met the cheesemaker) at the Green City Market in Chicago and the market in Bloomington Indiana. I've seen a couple of other cheesemakers at both markets. I think the cheeses are there, we just have to do a little seeking.

I'm glad to see another biker too! There are lots of us on egullet, including Fresser and yellowtruffle. The possibility of an egullet bike ride has been discussed-- maybe to a farmers market!

Green City Market Report: The market is amazing this week-- I shopped until I ran out of room in my pannier, then I bungeed 2 bunches of rhubarb on the back for good measure. My haul: --NY strip steaks and stew meat from Heartland Meats --Horseradish mustard from Herbally Yours --Pepper/olive/cheese bread and a chocolate croissant from Bennison's bakers --the aforementioned rhubarb --bacon, lettuce, and really gorgeous red red tomatoes from a Milwaukee farmers coop with a shivering (nervous) chihuaua Other temptations included morels, asparagus, cheese, etc. I really need to get a second pannier. I just devoured the chocolate croissant and it was delicious. As the nice lady said "Honey, it's better than Paris!" Then she apologized for calling me honey-- I told her that we're in the Midwest, you can go ahead and call me Honey. Just keep the croissants a-comin'! Edited to correct spelling and add: The tomatoes are outstanding-- real summer flavor and juice. Wow-- I just slurped the entire thing!

To make cheese, you need to coagulate the milk proteins into curds and separate them from the solubles (whey). Some cheeses use bacterial cultures and rennet, some use heat, some use acid. By my definition, (curds separated from whey), ricotta and cottage cheese are both cheeses. Yogurt, because it is not separated from the whey (that greenish liquid that seeps out after you scoop some yogurt out), is not cheese. Same for buttermilk. The cited Cheese Diaries claims a more restrictive definition of cheese: "technically, like ricotta, mascarpone is not cheese. no rennet or starter has been added." There is room for all kinds of curds under my big cheese tent.

Hmm-- it will neutralize the acid in the molasses, making for a cake with a less acid pH. I can't vouch that excess acid will make a poor cake, but I bet someone around here can.

Ricotta not cheese? I respectfully suggest that the definition of cheese includes milk curds separated from their whey, no matter what the curdling agent. Of course, you can define cheese however you like-- don't let me cheese you off! From dictionary.com: 1. A solid food prepared from the pressed curd of milk, often seasoned and aged. 2. A molded mass of this substance. 2. Something resembling this substance in shape or consistency. Here are two great sites if anyone is interested in home cheesemaking: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html http://www.cheesemaking.com/

Or how one might bowl with a burger..

Me too. It's like Xmas once a week, with better presents! I hope to hear lots of reports from everyone as their farmers markets open in the upcoming weeks. I have the Green City opener on May19th marked on my calendar.

I can't believe farmers market season is here already! Woo hoo! I love the Green City Market on Wednesdays at Lincoln and Clark. (http://www.chicagogreencitymarket.org/). The first market is May 19th. This market is less of a zoo than some others and includes some more interesting purveyors. My favorites: Beef from Heartland Meats Goat cheese from Capriole Dairy (not always there; keep an eye out for Wabash cannonballs) Whoever those folks were on the right near the back, who had the farmed trout and the people next door who had fennel to stuff it with! The market is also quite bike friendly. I'm the gal with the stickered Raleigh, black pannier, and the helmet with the "I love MEAT" sticker. I'm going to get some rhubarb, and some greens for the iggies, and some beef, and some cheese! I'm so excited!!! </spaz>

Instead of slicing and twisting this, you can also top the cheese-covered sheet of puff pastry with slices of prosciutto and sage leaves. You then roll it up like a jelly roll, cut off slices and bake those to make little spirals.

Hey! I was gonna say that! My duty on T'giving was to shovel out the stuffing and that was my prize. Other best bits: The point of leftover pie that is sitting out on the counter. The first slice of grilled flank steak-- too small to serve, might as well eat it. The last dessert bits licked out of the bowl. Good thread.

On the topic of growing horseradish, it's usually propagated from roots rather than seed. I got some roots from Johnny's Selected Seeds and planted them in the front of my flower bed several years ago. Because we have clay soil here in Chicago, instead of going down the roots shot off pencil-thin side roots, each several feet long, all over the garden. The next year we were finding horseradish offshoots all over the flower bed. It was scary-- reminiscent of the space alien from the Alien movies. So, if you plant it, try to give it a confined space. The leaves are also huge-- a Puerto Rican neighbor mentioned that his family used the leaves to wrap and steam stuff, like one would use banana leaves. We dug the main root in the fall, after a hard frost and ground it in a mini-food processor. Grinding the root starts a chemical reaction that gives the heat-- adding vinegar stops the reaction and preserves the mixture. I waited several minutes before adding the vinegar-- when I took the lid off the food processor, the whole kitchen filled with fumes and my eyes started watering. We ate it on grilled bratwurst (Sheboygan style) and froze some for future use. Grinding the horseradish fogged the bowl of my food processor.

Miniature pastries also have a higher crust to crumb ratio, for those of us who are fiends for the crisp and the brown. And they are so dang cute.

Add me in-- my current cookbook collection numbers 96.

I made the baby-cake version in muffin tins. Like you all said, it came out a bit messy-- more suited to a family dessert than a fancy dinner party. That said, the contrast between the tart rhubarb and the buttery cake with crispy edges made for a delicious dessert, especially with a generous glob of whipped cream. "Typical best" cakes:

If you're looking to add other flavors beyond chile, I recommend Barbara Tropp's Chile Orange Oil from The China Moon Cookbook. In addition to the chiles and oil, she adds orange peel, garlic, scallions, sesame oil, and a few chopped fermented black beans.

No offense, but in my experience, mint also reproduces very aggressively by runners (vegetatively). All mint plants and seeds should come with a warning-- plant only in containers! (like Birder53 said!)

I think you just answered your own question right there!