Bountiful kitchen --Eighth Edition

By special request, it's time for a new Kitchen thread. Since it's prime farmer's market season here in the Northeast U.S., I offer this inspiring image for our meal prep and discussion.

OMG.. LOVE this one :)

Bountiful kitchen is lovely.. thank you Linda!!!

That looks lovely!

Mmmmm. It immediately made me think- Ratatouille! Those white things sort of in the middle of the picture- I was trying to describe them to someone the other day, as I used to see them all the time when I lived in Hungary, but I have never seen them in the UK. Any idea what they're called in English? Also, in the extreme bottom left, is that.......purple peppers??? That's an entirely new one on me!

I've always heard those called pattypan squash.

Yup, definitely pattypans. Cutest vegetable name ever.

Purple peppers indeed. I tried them last year, but was disappointed as they taste like green peppers, at least to me. Red and yellow are much better, in my opinion (and my mouth!).

Yum!

My daughter has a summer job in the local greengrocers, and now knows the names of pretty much any vegetable or fruit you can mention. They have things like donut peaches, damsons, loquats, honey mangoes. She gets lots for free, too, so we are trying a lot of interesting things this summer.

#9: I want your daughter's job, Janet!

Eggplant...i got eggplant...too tired to cook today...but tomorrow....i will troll the cookbooks.....

any ideas for something relatively quick??

Oh, what a wonderful photo!

>11 jdthloue:, I make this recipe a lot:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Penne-with-Eggplant-Olives-and-Feta...

Oohh...that does sound good. Anything with feta cheese and olives ....

>12 AMQS: Thank you, Anne.....recipe looks good....and, I have all of the ingredients!!

;-}

>14 jdthloue: Ooh, that's always a plus, Jude! I've made it for so long I just realized that I've adapted it somewhat over the years -- I use a full pound of penne, and usually just 8 oz of feta, though more feta is never a bad thing :)

>15 AMQS: The recipe makes a lot! I'll scale up on some ingredients...down on others...just have a small eggplant....maybe 1 pound.....a tiny bit of feta....have to see what other cheeses...looks like a good, "adaptable" recipe...i printed it out...might be a Keeper!

I'm officially hungry after looking at the photo!

Gorgeous photo!
I spent the morning blanching and freezing zucchini and pattypans - because I have a lot of both. I love seeing the lovely row of Ziplocs full of green and yellow veggies in my freezer.
Basil is the next thing up. I will probably dry some and freeze some. Oh how I wish my tomatoes were ripe!

So do you do a pattypan like you would an acorn ?

Kath, I found this link:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5124196_cook-patty-pan-squash.html

The only squash i do any more is Zucchini..in the summer...

Thanks jude!

Any time....

;-}

Pattypans are more like zucchini. But Jude already told you that.

In the fall I will have acorns and butternuts - maybe I can get a photo of my plants. I will work on that. I have tons on the vine just getting bigger. I love how they look. The sad thing is that my pumpkins either never came up or got eaten.

I think that squash and peppers are so beautiful!
Tomatoes, too.

I planted nothing this year.. no vegies, not even morning glories .. the ones in the pic on my thread are all volunteers from last years flowers gone to seed. Those babies seed prolifically! I am about to quit the battle for having all blues or moon flowers.. these always take over..

That is some impressive volunteerism Kath. I have a volunteer watermelon. Glad I didn't pull it out before I knew what it was.
Hardy perennials are the only thing I can get to come back from one year to the next - but not always. We lose plants every year.
Got to stop chatting around here and get dressed for the day. My 4 yr old's play group is coming over. Sigh. 3 hours, 7 little boys. Maybe a Valium...

I'm so glad people are talking about veggies here. At the moment (at least I hope it's at the moment), I'm barred from eating wheat, so good veggies are a blessed distraction from all the yummy bread, cake, muffins, cookies, pasta, crackers.... Waaaaaa!

I bought some of those flat peaches today - I think it was in the Kitchen that someone mentioned them and I'd never heard of them at that point. Found some in a farm shop so I'm looking forward to trying them.

#10 - Stasia, you might be less interested in my daughter's greengrocers job when I tell you that she works 8AM-7PM 4 days a week, including all Sats and Suns, for less than minimum wage, and with no breaks (although they do feed her 3 meals a day - it's a Cypriot family run business, and they just treat the employees as part of their extended family). So, interesting and fun, but hard work, long hours, low pay.

I used my eggplant today.....in this recipe. A friend brought me some ground chuck, and I have been craving meat, lately....usually don't eat a lot of meat when the weather is hot..This would be good with baked potatoes, but I cooked a box of Bow Tie pasta....will freeze whatever is left over:

http://www.dianaskitchen.com/page/skillet/skillet_recipe_30.htm

;-}

That looks good, Jude. I have eggplant from the garden to use up--I think tomorrow night will work well. Ground lamb would be good too.

I had an eggplant terrine today that looked like pate, but tasted amazingly light and delicious. I was trying to get the chef to disclose his recipe but his was a heart that was made of stone against my pathetic pleas. ;-)

#28: Janet, I work 10 hour nights 4 days a week for barely above minimum wage now, and nobody is doing the cooking for me. I would take her job :)

Fair enough, Stasia. You could take her room when she goes back to school, too!

#33: Cool beans! Now all I have to do is save up the money to fly to England :)

I copied that recipe, jude.. it looks yummy

It is, Kath..would work with zucchini, too....

I was thinking that :)

For the Eggplant, I love Eggplant Parmesan.. Last summer I actually blanched and breaded and froze some eggplant so we could have it all winter long, without spending the money at the grocery store to buy it during the winter. YUMMMY!!

Purple peppers? I have never seen purple peppers before. I love green and yellow pepers, purple is my favorite color so I would love to see purple peppers.. :)

I typically love seafood pasta, but last night I think I had the worst I've ever attempted to eat. The chef must have sneezed or had a severe hiccup when he was salting my meal because I could feel my organs shriveling up immediately from all the salt I ingested. Since my husband's gnocchi was equally salty, we are definitely not going back to this restaurant.

Caro...I'm so glad to hear someone else speak up about too much salt in restaurant foods. I'm not salt-a phobic. In fact, as an Italian, I learned early on that salt was a food group! However, I am getting so tired of being unable to eat foods that are so heavily salted you can't taste anything else. The last two times I've had that kind of food, I've sent it back, only to be told that was what the recipe called for. So (and I'm going to go ahead and mention them by name), I've told my inlaws and friends that Romano's macaroni grill is off my list (they all love it, but they're not Italian!). If you want to see unhealthy food, take a look at this menu!!. Not only are the numbers awful, the portions would feed a small village!

We also have several borderline diabetics in the family, and it wasn't until I pulled this menu up that I was able to convince them that there were other much healthier Italian restaurants where we could have good food, and live to tell about it.

I envy you your visits to Singapore and Hong Kong. When we lived in Japan for five years, I used to love our quarterly trips to those island cities so I could eat something besides sushi, soba, and tempura.

Oh Caro...i hate when the food is over-salted at a restaurant!!! I usually ask for a "no-salt" option....claim it's for my Blood pressure...then salt it myself, at the table...most times, the food doesn't need it!

I love Eggplant Parmesan, too.....except i bake the breaded slices, rather than fry...I was feeling lazy yesterday, or I would have made it!

Has anyone ever tried Chocolate Peppers? Just asking....

http://www.threadedbasil.com/2009/09/chocolate-peppers.html

I love summer vegetables! Last night I had the grill fired up for a flank steak so I grilled corn-on-the-cob (buttered, S & P, wrapped in foil) and halved zucchini rubbed with oil and sprinkled with Herbes de Provence. I also had a tomato salad with fresh basil - my favorite! I felt like I had been neglecting my family. I had been so tired when I got home the past couple of weeks that I could hardly think of cooking dinner. It also doesn't help that everyone has different schedules and I never know who will be home for dinner. My daughter came out of her bedroom the other afternoon when she heard me come home and asked what was for dinner. She moaned that she hadn't had home cooking for a while and made me feel so guilty! Yesterday I got back the cooking groove. Tonight I am making her favorite - tabouli - which will go with grilled chicken and a tomato and avocado salad. I love summer vegetables!

Justa heads up for an ebook

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/You-Believers/Jane-Bradley/e/9781609530464/

This is one of those short sales.. it looks good

check ammy, too.. I think it is available for kindle too.

Good idea, Jude. I should ask restaurants for a no-salt option on my food too and then add my own if it needs it.

Tina, that's one reason why I cook at home more often than not. At least I know I'm not risking renal failure eating my own food. I also add less sugar to my desserts and rarely eat desserts outside because I just find them too sweet. I love making fruit pies and relying on the sweetness of the fruit themselves rather than throwing in a truck full of sugar.

Speaking of which, I made a chocolate banana cream pie today.

Oh, what a lovely meringue! I have troubles with meringues. They end up seeping on me every time.

I love meringue!

that looks yummy, but.. banana? no... not for me...

what Ms McKait said about bananas....

*singing*
"Yes, we have no bananas!
We have no bananas today!"

(I like bananas myself and have THE killer recipe for banana bread from a 1950s grocery store cook book.)

haha.. Kath... I hate bananas too! I had to make the pie because the hubster brought back about 11 bananas and they were getting all spotty. So he asked if I'd make the pie for him which I did, and gave a third away to a coworker today. I do like meringues though, especially lemon meringue pie.

While I don't like bananas, I do love banana bread, so Mamzel ... if you'd like to share your killer banana bread recipe ..... *hint, hint* ... and thanks for singing ... we can always do with a skippy tune or two here.

Lemon meringue is my favorite.. coconut cream a clise second.. key lime... yum

agreed.. skippy tunes are good.

ick on coconut anything! I love fresh coconuts by themselves, but I detest coconut flavoured or scented stuff. Key lime, now that's something I can never resist.

my son in law makes a killer key lime pie..

and he's going to be moving to MA ... when?

:) his brother lives there, I think? One of them..
perhaps meeting in the middle will be necessary?
( My house)

Lemon meringue, coconut cream, banana cream (never had CHOCOLATE banana cream....recipe, please?) --- all good. Key lime pie is never as good as I think it's going to be. But there are some key lime wafer cookies that are to die for.

The house across the street from mine is going to be put up for sale, Kath!

Linda: Melt 12oz of semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler, pour it into the base of the pie crust, pile on sliced bananas, pushing some down into the chocolate, let cool. Pour in custard, top with meringue .. baked till tips are nicely browned.

The pie is better when it's chilled though, so that the chocolate and custard are set, instead of oozing all over the place.

I will keep that in mind Caro.. but you know what?
Same here! a nice widow lady and her cat are going to be moving away..

Yes, Kath but I need your son-in-law near me for his key lime pie.

Stop with the Key Lime Pie already...i only have one tiny lime in the house!

No cooking today...scarfing down leftovers...Tomorrow is another story....

Bought pork cutlets...and chicken drumsticks.....now, to decide

#57 Ahhh...so the custard filling itself isn't chocolate. See, I was having a hard time envisioning that. Sounds scrumptious indeed.

I need some good recipes for the Japanese eggplant my garden is producing. We have a seafood stir-fry dish at a Thai restaurant called Eggplant Delight that we love, but none of the on-line recipes of that name are at all like it.

Did somebody make a Key Lime Pie yet? I'd really love a piece. My absolute favorite along with creme brulee.

I want some vanilla ice cream. But every road in every direction is torn up and under some sort of construction. Our town has only one in and out in each direction and it is just not worth it to leave the house for any blasted thing.

>49 cameling: I'll gladly post the recipe this weekend. I've been too tired when I get home to do anything but veg in front of a TV. Bananas past their prime are much better than newly ripe.

#65 My husband and I just had that conversation yesterday. He likes his bananas on the "crisp" side, and I like them the day before they go soft. His mother, on the other hand, wants them mushy---she spreads them on toast! When I first met her, she talked about banana bread, and I thought she meant what I call banana bread---a loaf of quick bread with mashed bananas in the batter. No...she meant a piece of bread or toast with mashed bananas spread on it like peanut butter or something. I've never cultivated a taste for that.

>66 laytonwoman3rd:: I've never cultivated a taste for that. Yeah me neither ... instant gag reflex on that.

I always thought bananas weren't really "ripe"until the skins were totally Black...and the insides were like custard...of course, since we get our bananas when they're Green...that "custard" tastes pretty crappy...I've never had a "naturally aged" banana!

Key Lime - yum. I like bananas, too, however, not the least bit green, but not mushy. And preferably cold.

I'm having to stay away from wheat for a while - a great annoyance, but good for my waistline. So I might, just might, try cooking a little again. Nowadays, Jim and I are too much like typical Manhattanites, never entering the kitchen, and this thread is just fantasy for me. One of these days, though...

I do like banana bread, but I'll have to find a recipe without wheat the next time I try it. Anyone have one handy?

Cameling - as promised:

Banana Bread

Recipe is for one loaf but it is just as easy to double the recipe and freeze or give the second loaf to a really good friend. Bananas past their prime have the best flavor in this recipe.

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1 tbl vinegar + milk for 1/2 cup liquid

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in bowl.
In mixer, cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs.
In different bowl, mix banana and milk.
Add banana mixture and dry ingredients alternately to mixer.
Add nuts if desired.
Pour batter in greased loaf pan. Makes 1 loaf.
Bake at 350 deg. F for 60-70 minutes. Test with toothpick inserted in center of bread.

Ooh, thanks for the recipe, Mamzel ... and I'm also very very glad to see you don't have any nuts in your banana bread. I like nutless ones best. I will definitely give this a try this week. My sis-in-law and her family are coming up for the Labor Day weekend this Thursday. I'll make it for them. Any specific type of vinegar and can I use butter for the shortening?

Since we battened down today for Irene, I've had a really pleasant day just lounging about reading after a stack of blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast, made clam chowder for lunch, made 4 dozen oatmeal chocolate chip cranberry cookies, 3 dozen lemon bars, and will soon be putting together dinner. I'll be trying out Kath's delightful suggestion of bacon potatoes to go with some meatballs and peas, roasted tomatoes on the vine and a roasted eggplant and garlic spread with rosemary focaccia for dinner.

Here's a link to those blue cheese biscuits. Easier than I thought, although I have some reservations about using store bought biscuit dough. :)

http://www.hrrecipeladies.blogspot.com/

I don't like those canned biscuits at all. Blue cheese in biscuits, however, sounds delicious. I googled and came up with several recipes for biscuits using blue cheese.

See, I was thinking, no reason I couldn't do the same roll in butter and blue cheese thing with my own delicious biscuit recipe, right? I guess I'll give it a try and let y'all know. Thing is, probably won't do it until it's cool enough for soup. I don't love baking when it's in the high 90's. Makes the air conditioner work way too hard.

biscuits with or without bleu cheese or any other cheese are delicious .. but
of course cheese makes anything even better.

71 - Cameling - I actually prefer my b.b. with nuts but I understand that many do not care for or cannot eat them so it is an option. I have never tried making the bread with butter. It always comes out perfect with shortening. I love putting a nice pat of cold butter on a slice the day after they're made. I use regular wine vinegar. It's just to sour the milk. Definitely avoid using any herb flavored vinegar, though. Make sure you use over-the-hill bananas! Enjoy!

I found a banana bread recipe for my bread machine that I absolutely love. It uses sour cream, the first I had ever heard of making b.b. that way.

I just spent the morning cooking like a mad woman. I made a chocolate zucchini cake, 5 loaves of banana bread and 1 banana bundt cake with chocolate chips and pecans, and I put minestrone stew in the crock pot - again with more zucchini from my garden. Time for a rest!

That is a lot of baking.. is there a bake sale? Or will you be freezing things?
and do you have A/C... ! sounds like hot work.

5 loaves of banana bread, Jenn? I'm assuming one's on its way to me, right? *goes outside to wait for the delivery man*

Yum! I think I will let my fresh (how fresh can they be? I live in Minnesota!) bananas get darker so I can make some banana bread!

I finally made some of Stasia's Crockpot Chicken Stew (she sent the recipe about a long time ago). It was smelling FABULOUS when I left for my little volunteer stint at the Textile Center library (see, this post is book-related); I can't wait to get home so we can try it out.

Karen O.

lol@ caro :)

I am freezing a lot of the banana bread. My kids will go through the choc. cake pretty fast as well as the banana bundt. 3 lunches and 3 after school snacks a day makes for a lot of cake eating. :) That's why I put fruit or veggies in the treats. Shhh, don't tell.

*Hangs head guiltily for not thinking to mail Caro some banana bread*

It just POURED rain. Giant drops falling sideways. I did want it to rain, I did. Coming in from the car was a bit exciting, but it cooled us off about 6 degrees right away. 89 feels much better than 94. Don't ask me why. I wonder if we'll have soccer practice anyway? It's my daughter's first night of practice this season and my husband is coaching. Should be fun. Our 4 year old is also on his first team - the Jedi Knights - LOL.

I love rain! They promised us some for tomorrow :)

I want some rain!!

Lee?

I wanted to share this offer that looked good to me..
free or nearly free books are never bad, right?
so if you have an e-reader you might want to look at this.
The Thriller looked good to me anyway, and there is this
interesting offer to go with. I am going to post this in my thread, but
wanted more people to see it, so I am posting here as well.
http://richardbard.com/

Brainrush is the book you have to buy to get the credits..

It will work for Kindle or nook but if you have a nook ( as I do ) this is how it works:

It is absolutely available for the Nook! Since Barnes & Noble doesn't give the option to gift a book, send us the proof-of-purchase for the Nook version from Barnes & Noble and we will send you a $1.98 Paypal voucher that you can use to purchase two 99-cent titles of your choice from B&N. Thanks very much for your interest in BRAINRUSH!

I have a question a bit off-topic in this foodie thread. Does anyone know of a website that provides the same kind of catalog structure as LT, but for music? I've got to dematerialize my stuff, as we say in the securities industry, and as I copy everything to my computer, I want to catalog it. I've come across at least one package that allows you to do that on your own machine, but I'd prefer a website, if I can find one. chat strictly optional - not sure I'd be interested.

Like this ? http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/

collectorz.com offers cataloging of music. Someone told me that they've recently added both an online version and a mobile app.

Rateyourmusic.com is quite good, in my opinion. Highly recommended. Not great for reviews though...

Anyone want to provide a little more information on rateyourmusic.com? I've looked at it in the past , but it didn't seem to lend itself to the kind of cataloging we do here for our books. I'd like to be able to sort by genre, composer, performer, label, etc. Is any of that possible?

Collectorz.com requires a software purchase, I believe.

I have never used it.. just remembered hearing about it .. sorry :(

Thanks for the suggestions. collecctorz.com looks a little more like what I want, if it has an online section, but as you noted, not free. Not that I object to paying for something if it's worth it. I may keep on looking. Jim says he knows of some sites - I'll report back if I find something a little like LT for music.

Rather cool and damp here today....LENTIL SOUP is on the menu!

http://www.food.com/recipe/lentil-soup-truly-good-and-easy-eat-your-lentils-7297...

;-}

cat on keyboard

typing hard :P

My daughter brought me some cippolini onions from Virginia when she arrived this week. I want to make a recipe from a Cookbook ARC I reviewed last month Cucina Provera....it's white beans, cherry tomatoes, cippolini onions, potatoes and fennel. It's a cool, foggy, chilly early autumn day here - sounds like the perfect dish to let brew this afternoon to go with a big salad and some crusty bread.

Both those soups sound just the thing for these autumn days.

How can we tell when it is you typing and when the cat, Kath? Does cat have a trademark signature?

>97 tututhefirst: Recipe sounds great! My ARC has expired on that one.

Please visit this thread with good wishes for another small bookworm to come safely into the world:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105056

I woke up this morning to the beautiful sounds of a 9/11 Memorial performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with Tom Brokaw. If you would like to listen, here's a link:

http://byutv.org/seethegood/post/911-Rising-Above.aspx

I watched that this morning too, Jenn.... absolutely beautiful. I think they did a great job with the memorial and I am so very thankful that despite all the increased chatter about another possible attack of some sort today, nothing happened.

ditto what caro said.

*pokes head into kitchen*

Hello? Anyone home? Anything cooking?

It's been awfully quiet in here for quite a while.

I totally forgot about this thread! glad you revived it terri!

#105, 106 Really. A person could starve to death around here. All I have to contribute is some homemade applesauce---made from apples that grew on my one lonely apple tree. With cinnamon or without...your choice.

With please...

I wanted to make apple cake.. but I forgot to go to farmers market on thursday :(

Homemade chili cooking away in the crockpots - with meat for the carnivores and without for the veggies. Smells delicious!

Now if only the weather would cooperate and be fall-like instead of rain forest like.

Used my homegrown plum tomatoes and a new recipe for a pasta sauce that was amazingly good. Best part of the recipe is that it only had to cook for 30 min. Of course peeling and seeding the tomatoes took an hour and a half!

We had a harvest festival service yesterday morning in church (celebrating vegetables!), after which I went home and made a stuffed butternut squash topped with grated cheese - which looked and tasted lovely, I'm glad to say.

It's certainly autumn-like weather here, but then we never really had a proper summer so it has been autumnal for months.

And I've been given a huge back of windfall cooking apples, which I'll need to use up quickly as they are bruised. Any suggestions for good apple recipes?

Stuffed squash? What did you stuff it with.. I love stuffed vegies :)

I just played around with what I had to hand: chopped onion, some of the squash flesh, tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes, and an apple, and some slices of ham, with cumin for seasoning. I fried up all the stuffing ingredients together, and I roasted the empty squash shell for about 15 minutes before putting in the filling, and topped the filling with grated cheese and roasted for another 15 mins. Lovely orangey colours and very tasty, with a hint of sweetness from the apple.

sounds good...!

Some of my best concoctions were improvised----and then impossible to recreate. That stuffed squash sounds wonderful.

gennyt - When I have apples that are bruised, etc., I chop them up into bite size chunks (skin on) and toss them into the crockpot with a splash of apple cider and some brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. I cook them on low until they are soft and yummy.

You can also do this in a large pot on top of the stove.

Genny....you can take #116's suggestion, omitting the sugar, and really boil them down (removing the skins are they cook off, and then can them as apple butter. I am planning to do about 10#'s in October because my whole family now expects their jar of apple butter for the christmas stockings. Leaving out the extra sugar doesn't hurt the taste at all--just use a naturally sweet apple, and really gives the diabetics in our family a chance to have their sweet without feeling quite so guilty.

I also make chunky applesauce (again, no extra sugar) which I then serve with pork, lamb, etc all winter long. And finally, there are any number of chutney recipes to use up the apples, onions, raisins, plums, and other end of year scraps.

Now - here's a joy of living in the woods. There is a young man studying botany who has discovered that my 32 acres and our "next-door neighbors" 15 are full of edible mushrooms. He always comes to the door to request permission to harvest and offers me a bag full. Up to now, I've declined his request mostly because I've not had time to cook. But today, I got a bag of the most gorgeous chanterelle mushrooms, and decided I MUST do something with them. Any ideas anyone?

Mr. Tutu does NOT like mushrooms, but my sister is in town and she does, so some kind of brunchie, lunchie dish would work. HELP!

I love home made applesauce, chunky and cinnamon-y with no extra sugar most times..
yum.. sounds so good.

For a quick Apple dessert..
I peel, slice and toss apples in cinnamon and some sugar.
I make a boxed cake in a 9x11 inch pan.. usually just a yellow cake or sometimes spice.
If I have raisins or craisins I might toss them into the batter before putting it into the pan..
Then I simply place the sliced apples straight down into the batter. standing up-wise.
If I am feeling very ambitious I make a crumble topping, but it doesn't need it.
Bake as per instructions on box usually does the trick, sometimes another few minutes are needed.

This is a yummy and not too sweet dessert.

Last week I made a really yummy Ciorba soup (Romanian Meatball Soup), so good that I have to do it all over again this week. I found a useful recipe here. I first had this soup in Tel Aviv years and years ago and the tiny Romanian restaurant on the corner of Jabotinsky and Dizengoff immediately became a favoured place to eat.

All those applesauce recipes sound really good. Having a husband with Type 2 diabetes, I no longer add sugar when cooking apple either.

I made an apple crisp the other night - cooking/baking apples just makes the whole house smell so wonderful. And apple butter is my Favorite! I'll have to give it a try.

>121 scaifea:: we had apple crisp the other night too. Warm, with vanilla ice cream on top!

Thanks for all the apple suggestions. I must get on and do something before they start to deteriorate. I think these are cooking apples rather than eaters, so will be quite sharp without sugar, but I don't like things overly sweet anyway.

I did the stuffed squash again last night with the other half of the squash. Had no ham this time but included a bit extra cheese. It was still very tasty!

#122 Laura: Oh yes definitely with ice cream - wouldn't eat it any other way!

>118 tututhefirst: Hope you still have some of those mushrooms. Luck-y! My family has enjoyed a risotto with sauteed mushrooms added at the end. The creamy rice and Parmesan cheese really set off the mushrooms and, paired with a nice salad, makes a perfect lunch. (Yeah, I watch too much food TV.)

Risotto is one of my favorites, but I'm not sure I have enough sh'rooms or enough time to do that one justice. I think they're going to get sauteed in some butter/garlic/olive oil, and served over some quick polenta with a side of veal scallops.

Mushroom Cream soup? http://delightfuldelicacies.blogspot.com/2008/11/sauted-mushroom-cream-soup.html

Probably you've already done something with those mushrooms, but we love the cream soup.

Actually, yes, we're having the mushrooms in a Mushroom risotto tonite with maple grilled salmon and a simple spinach/blackberry salad. Trader Joes' arborio rice/barley/spelt mix makes an incredible risotto and with mushrooms and freshly grated parmesan it's unbeatable.

I do thank all who contributed recipes---I will be looking for my friendly mushroom guy and striking a little harder deal next time.

I have an old Commodore 64 computer sitting in my parent's attic, which they are trying to clear of all the things with which their children have cluttered it, and so although it pains me, I need to figure out how to get rid of it. I'd rather not just recycle it (I'm inordinately attached to the thing, I know); I'd like to find someone who would like to have it/ do something creative with it. Any thoughts or ideas?

Oh, and to make this an official kitchen post: I'm very excited that I've finally found a good rice pudding recipe. Still not exactly what I'm looking for - thing Kheer for that - but it's a good homey raisin rice pudding. Yay! Also made tasty beef stew in my slow cooker this weekend - perfect for the lovely yet chilly fall days we've been having here.

You might try eBay for the Commodore - I would think it's a collector's item by now.

I wonder if we still have our old Commodore 64? There's a closet full of obsolete electronic equipment in our basement. Always a puzzler what do with those things when you upgrade.

I just love the photo up top and I will be sad to see it go when the thread is filled
:P

I have to say that I am glad that it is getting to be comfort food weather..
chilly and rainy and I made chicken and dumplings yesterday.. everyone was
very pleased, including me! Now today?
hmmm
dunno

We have scheduled electronics recycling pickups in NYC, and I'm always glad to clean the closets of whatever is still lurking. But the Commodore is the stuff of nostalgia and personal legend, so it might be worth something to collectors.

We have to pay to recycle electronics around here.

You can recycle computers for free if you take them to Best Buy

We still have our Commodore 64s for sentimental reasons. We met back in 1989 on them. This was before the Internet, before AOL, all of that. We were part of the first wave of online dating.

Oh, that's so cool, Morphy! I don't have quite as romantic a reason to be sentimental, but I am, so I don't want just to recycle it. I want to find someone who will do something cool with it, like make a fishbowl out of the monitor or some such thing.

#135 What an extremely useful bit of information, Nora. I had no idea. I just visited their website and got the details. THANK YOU!

>135 norabelle414:, 138: wow, yes that's very helpful!

Best Buy recycles tv's too.. which is great, and helpful :)

I just made the most delicious pumpkin banana bread!

http://homecooking.about.com/od/breadrecipes/r/blbread42.htm

I left out the nuts, but otherwise followed the recipe.

141: Nittnut, that looks fantastic! Thanks for providing the link!

Karen O.

I made my first uninspiring sugarfree apple cake using a Splenda recipe yesterday, still it made my husband happy to have something 'sweet' to eat. Better eating, and demolished in a few short hours, was the Almond Orange Cake I made the day before.

I have to share this Less is More review from Horn Books of Tyra Bank's first YA novel, Modelland.

Almond Orange cake sounds scrumptious!

mouth wateringly so !

Kath - the gluten-free recipe I used was similar to this one, but the topping I used was more extravagant - 1 c Icing sugar mixed with 400 g mascapone (I only used 200g and it was fine) and 2 tsp orange pulp.

#143 - Love the book review! Hilarious. Must try the almond orange cake.

I'm putting together a 2012 reading plan for fantasy based on the 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Are Turned into a Newt list created by the Green Dragoneers. I'd like to do a monthly group read. The books for "nomination" are at the link below. Anyone is welcome!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/124802

Thanks morphy, I will take a look :)

Help! I've been given a bag of assorted chiles and don't know what to do with them. Any suggestions?

>149 amanda4242:, I have a fall tradition of making a wonderful potato and green chile chowder. It's a favorite. From Southern Living:
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/potato-chowder-with-green-chiles-10000000258088/

Yemenite zhug is a rather fiery paste that you can add to your cooking. There's a recipe here.

I made cranberry bread yesterday, and it turned out pretty well. Hubby has complimented me on it twice!

>150 AMQS:: mmm, that sounds tasty. I'm vegetarian so would substitute veg stock for the chicken broth, but I don't think that would make much difference.

>153 lauralkeet:, I think it would still be good made with vegetable stock. I would be sad without the bacon, however :)

#152 I was waiting to hear how you incorporated chilies into your cranberry bread!

I made a rather regular salad the other night with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrot, and cucumber, but Monsieur loved it because I found some bite size fresh mozzarella balls to add. A few slices of salami to give him the illusion of protein and homemade Italian dressing. I served it with a delicious loaf of whole grain bread, sliced and toasted.

#156 mamzel: Oooh, that sounds really refreshing!

155 No chiles. Sorry.

156 That salad sounds great!

Happy Birthday today to bahzah~~~~~!

don't know if this will show up correctly but

Anyone who has too cook Halloween type food...i just got this in my inBox:

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=612adc2b9f2ba95dc3b0e7ba5&id=016b2361b8&...

;-???

It's quiet in the kitchen these days. People too busy enjoying their food to tell us about it?

I've just cooked an unintentionally alliterative lunch, with some of the veg from my organic veg box:

Raddicchio and red wine risotto, with roasted romanesco cauliflower, with an almond, lemon juice and garlic dressing.

Looking forward to sitting down at last and eating it!

LOL - good one, Genny! Sounds like a lot of work though. I LOVE risotto... but just throw in parm cheese and mushrooms at the end.

Yesterday I made crunchy pork loin. Rub the pork in stone ground mustard. Drudge the pork in a mixture of panko bread crumbs, thyme, parsley or green onion (whichever you prefer), salt, and pepper. Heat oven to 450. Saute pork in a little olive oil. Two minutes or till golden brown on one side, flip over and put them in the oven uncovered for 8-10 minutes. Super Yummy!

That sounds delicious. Those little pork loins are so versatile. Everything I've tried with them comes out tasty. I have a recipe somewhere for simmering them in cranberry sauce (I know fruit with meat is not appealing to everyone).

Found the recipe:

Ingredients
o 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
o 1 (8 -10 ounce) pork tenderloins
o 1/2 cup chopped onions
o 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
o 1/2 cup chicken broth
o 1/3 cup canned whole berry cranberry sauce
o 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper.
4. Sear pork on all sides, about 2 minutes.
5. Place skillet with pork in oven.
6. Roast pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 155°F, about 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat.
8. Add onion and rosemary; sauté until onion softens, about 3 minutes.
9. Add broth, cranberry sauce and vinegar and whisk until cranberry sauce melts, about 2 minutes.
10. Transfer pork to work surface.
11. Scrape any juices from large skillet into cranberry mixture.
12. Boil until sauce has reduced enough to coat spoon thickly, about 6 minutes.
13. Season with salt and pepper.
14. Slice pork and serve with sauce.

Cee..I am sort of on the fence about mushrooms .. some days I like them, other times, not so much..

Clearly, you are in charge of the thread, and so I will not comment on fruit either with meat or without.

I've got a delish roast pork loin recipe I'll share. I got it from my grandaunt when I stayed in Lyon with her for a couple of weeks. And it's super simple to make.

pork loin
1 onion - sliced
2 garlic cloves - smashed
2 carrots, sliced
1 celery rib, sliced

Put them all in a marinating bag or bowl.

Marinade:
1 bottle dry white wine
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
6 fresh sage leaves
2 sprigs of thyme
handful of black peppercorns
1 tbsp of sugar
salt

Pour marinade into the marinating bag or bowl and marinate for 2 days, turning the pork around periodically.

Remove pork and vegetables from marinade, drizzle a little olive oil and roast in oven at about 380F until done.

Strain marinade into a saucepan, add a pat of butter and reduce. Use it as sauce on the side for the roast.

Goes really well with creamy roasted garlic mashed potatoes and salad.

That sounds DIVINE. I've never heard of marinating the veggie with the meat. Must try this.

Making chicken and dumplings for dinner tonight. It's actually a recipe from Rachael Ray. Very good and easy. Chicken breast, carrots, celery, potatoes, peas, onion, chicken broth, seasoning. I use Bisquick for the dumplings.

Sandy K

I'd love the chicken & dumplings recipe.

Me too.

This is the Rachael Ray CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS recipe that i have:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/chicken-and-dumplings-recipe/inde...

if it's the one Sandy meant.....

Instead of biscuit mix has anyone tried using Pillsbury Doughboy's Biscuits, and just drop nuggets of them into the chicken stew?

Yep, have done so, Caro...actually, i have cut the biscuits into thirds, or quarters...and flattened them a bit...to make more of a 'top crust" without rolling pastry dough...good for Pot Pie, as well

;-}

Oh, and I love your Pork Loin recipe, Caro

I have used that recipe before..on an actual boneless pork loin (not tenderloin)...if i'm going to spring for a bottle of wine...for cooking...i'm going to do enough meat to make it worth my while.

The recipe really is delicious!

Oh goodie .. I'll try the chicken and dumplings recipe out tomorrow then for dinner. Thanks for the tip, Jude.

I'm making the pork tonight. It was marinating in the fridge for the past 2 days. It smells divine in the oven right now. I used a bone-in pork loin though.

recipe sounds great caro! Something to try I think...
I love chicken and dumplings ! Never tried the crust thing, and that sounds good too!

OH my. Must go to the store and buy 3! pork loins. Now.

Kath, I love this roast pork loin. It's one of my favorite comfort foods that's so easy to make.

Was in the mood for clear broth this evening, so I made wontons with ground pork, shrimp and chinese mushrooms, and added them to a chicken vegetable broth, threw in some chinese lettuce and scallop noodles and scooped it all into 2 big bowls for our dinner. Yummy and very warming.

Soup is such a comfort food! and so easy ( unless there are wontons involved.. they sound hard )
most of the time :)

thanks, Jude, that is the same recipe that I use! I do make a few adjustments--I don't put the parsley in at all, because hubby is not crazy about it. I also do not put the peas in at the beginning with the rest of the veggies--I add them toward the end after the stew cooks for a bit. AND most important--I cook this longer than the recipe calls for so that it thickens up. After adding the chicken, I let it come to a boil again and then simmer it for about 30-40 minutes. I don't always use the Jiffy biscuit mix--I use Bisquick and just follow the dumpling recipe on the Bisquick box--2 1/4 cups Bisquick and 2/3 cup milk.

Sandy K

wontons are really easy, Kath. I make them up in front of the tv and then drop them in boiling water to cook, before adding them later to the hot broth.

Baking night tonight ....after I come back from watching the movie Moneyball. I have to make 8 dozen oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip cookies for the hubster to bring to his high school reunion.

I was researching a replacement for our old Revere Ware 1 1/2 quart saucepan. This thing has lasted decades but a friend let it boil dry and it's on its last legs. From what I've discovered, Revere Ware isn't what it used to be, which is a shame. But now I don't know what brand to get. Any suggestions?

#180 - It's true - my newer Revere ware can't hold a candle to my old. It's thinner and doesn't quite have that solid, sturdy feel. I am thinking maybe Goodwill or Salvation Army, LOL.
I did come across this interesting link in my own search: http://www.cheftalk.com/t/8614/best-pots-and-pans. Love to hear what you end up with.

>181 nittnut: I'll be getting a Paderno once a) we can afford it and b) the saucepan we want is on their specials page. We couldn't afford full price ($100+) but I've seen it on their specials page for $30.

Hey Morphidae - I think you should tell us all when it's on the specials page - after you purchase yours, of course. :)

I have a book recommendation for anyone who is into anthologies/disability studies. My husband's cousin compiled/edited this anthology and it's available on Amazon now.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/184-8243443-7099405?url=search-alias%3Dst...

Oh, life on the coast of Maine is so rough....next door neighbor called about an hour ago, said he'd pulled his traps and had too many lobstahs, could we take some off his hands? We allowed our arms to be twisted, hiked over, and now have 5 beauties steaming away. Sure solved the "what's for dinner?" dilemma....and all for the price of a couple jars of homemade apple butter!

Sounds like you got quite the better end of that deal! :)

#186: Oh, I don't know about that; I'll take homemade apple butter (my favorite) over any sort of seafood any day. Then again, I'm a midwesterner - what do I know about seafood! :)

I just finished a book so very appropriate for The Kitchen. A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. I've made two of the recipes in the book and they were both absolutely delicious. The author is also the author of the blog Orangette and writes for Bon Appetit.

Thanks for the recommendation, Jenn! I've always meant to visit Orangette as I love her Bon Appetit column. I'll look for the book!

I know you'll enjoy it Anne!

So, funny cooking story, y'all. I woke up this morning with a very bad tummy ache. 'Nuff said. After awhile, when I became a little more functional, I started wondering what I had eaten that nobody else in the house had eaten. The only thing I could think of was the Coeur à la Crème I made last night. I licked the scraper after I was done spooning it into the mold. I thought about it for a bit, then went and looked in the trash can for the container of heavy cream I had used. Sure enough. The "use by" date was 9/11/11. Wow. Time to clean out the fridge, I think. I tossed the couer and made a new one with the new cream. So - a word of advice this Thanksgiving week - check the dates on that whipping cream folks. Of course, you probably wouldn't have excessively aged ingredients in your refrigerators...

haha... good story, Jenn. I never look at expiration dates on things .. i leave that to my paranoid hubster. When I'm traveling, he goes through the fridge once he's eaten his way through everything I've made for him that's supposed to tide him over for the duration of my travels, and he starts checking all jars, bottles and cartons. He's chucked out stuff I'd forgotten I had at the back of the fridge ... after taking photographs of them as proof that he didn't throw anything out that hadn't yet expired.

This is also the man who threw out a jar of pesto I made because he thought it looked too green and therefore must be moldy.

Funny y'all should mention cleaning out the frig.....I just finished culling the science experiments, not because I'm necessarily paranoid about expiration dates, but because there were too many dribs and drabs of leftovers, and dregs at the bottom of the jars, etc. Hubbie in this house is congenitally incapable of tossing anything that might could be used "someday" --- we are having the "Come to J" meeting next week when Tutu will pitch her annual fit about the house starting to look like an episode from Hoarders.

I actually did the frig because we are having guests for T-day (the first thanksgiving in our now 7 year old "New" house here in Maine) and I needed the frig space for stuff I'm planning to prep ahead.

Caro....so sorry about the pesto....

Now, I can send Hubs off to the recycle with all those cleaned out glass bottles. WOOT WOOT

Tutu - maybe our husbands are twins, separated at birth? I was just told to save a sock with more hole than sock in the sole.

Fridge cleaning ... darn... that's one thing that's on my to-do list which I haven't done yet. It's been a while since I gave it a good scrubbing *Sigh*

Oh let's not get carried away....just because I cleaned out the jars and bottles doesn't mean I scrubbed out the refrig itself!!! Now I did get the pantry/mudroom floor scrubbed and the silver polished, so I think I'm getting to the end of the Martha Stewart wannabe phase of hostessing. Dinner isn't being served until 4pm and the sun sets here in Maine at 4:05 so with lots of candles, maybe they won't notice any neglected dust bunnies!!

LMAO !

I haven't dusted regularly for, well since I moved to CO, about eight years. The first time I dusted here I stood and watched it all settle right back down, and then I put away my duster and went and did something else. We vacuum the blinds and curtains a couple times a year, and things get dusted when I change decor for holidays. Sad, I know. I'll move someday and all that will be left will be a giant dust pile, unvacuumable due to enormous size.

197> amen.. lol I hate to dust and only do it when it is absolutely necessary :PP

Agreed -- I hate to dust, too. I think some of my dust bunnies are morphing into something like giant mutant ninja dust rabbits!

Hey, folks, I have a request: Our library staff is looking for the perfect book to donate as a memorial honoring the late husband of our Head Assistant Librarian. We've decided that a good novel which involves military planes from WWI or WWII would be the ideal book to remember him by.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

#199...Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand immediately comes to mind. It celebrates not only the planes but the bravery and fortitude of our pilots. It's not a novel but it sure reads like one.

If you go to War Through the Generations you'll find tons of suggestions.

I also can personally vouch for Wings: A Novel of World War II Flygirls by Karl Freidrich. It only addresses the women's role however, so that might not be what you're looking for.

Thanks for the suggestions, Tina. That's a neat website! I'd never been there before. Thanks for the link!

I second the nomination for Unbroken. And echoing thanks to Tina for that website ... looks like an excellent resource.

Unbroken is a great suggestion, but the library already has it, so that one won't work.

I've been browsing that website and looking up different books in their suggestion lists. All the obvious ones are non-fiction, and they'd really prefer a novel. Seems we have an over-abundance of WWI and WWII non-fiction that rarely circulates. They want this to be a book that will see a little more use.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-k...

go here.. or just go to amazon and put in WWII novels

There are some great WWII Novels out there, but not many are focused on the air component - two in particular are Coventry: A Novel by Helen Humphreys - an exquisite little novel, and 22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson.

204 Thanks, Kath!

205 Thanks, Tina!

Thanks for all the suggestions! I think I've really taken up enough of the thread here with this quest. If anyone else has any other ideas, please message me or stop by my challenge thread with a post! All ideas appreciated. (Some that didn't work for the memorial may be adding to my own reading list!)

I lost this thread for a while. I was just thinking about it yesterday and wondering where it'd gone to ..... so glad to have found it again. I miss all the food chatter and finding out what people are eating or making.

Today's a comfort food day for me. I'm making a lemon, herb & garlic roast chicken with salad and creamy cheesey polenta for lunch and I've got a Guinness beef stew in the slow cooker that I'll serve up for dinner with garlic bread.

I've got a day off work today, so lounging around in my PJs is making me crave comfort food. :-)

Hubbie in this house is congenitally incapable of tossing anything that might could be used "someday"
In my house, nobody checks to see if there is a jar of something already opened, they just get a new one from the garage. When I clean out my fridge, I generally find 3 or 4 open bottles of salsa, 2 or 3 bottles of horseradish sauce, etc.

My daughter boasted to her boyfriend about how I go totally gourmet for New Year's Eve which ends with our traditional Crepes Suzette made from Julia's own recipe. Since he is going to work this NYE I invited him over this past Saturday. I made stuffed mushrooms with a baby greens salad, steaks au poivre, roasted baby potatoes, and real flan made with a vanilla bean. I had to laugh since everyone said they were too full for dessert, didn't eat dessert, etc. but everyone finished their flans and practically licked all the caramel off their plates. Ha!

I have to come up with something to feed guests right after Christmas..
any ideas? I want SIMPLE, tasty and not too hard to prepare...
Dan's sister and his friend will be coming..

If it's breakfast/brunch go with a nice quiche (buy the premade pie shells or crusts) or a strata (like a bread pudding but with meat and savories). If it's more dinner put a nice beef stew in the slow-cooker and serve with a quickie salad and some good bread.

You shouldn't have to worry about dessert - there will be lots of cakes/cookies etc around no matter..

mmm... I love Crepes Suzette, mamzel. Haven't made those in a really really long time. What a great dinner you served up. I love making flan .. so simple and everyone always says they don't have room until they take a bite, and the next thing you know, the plate's wiped clean.

Kath, what about a nice ham (you can buy the pre-glazed, pre-slized on the bone ones in supermarkets these days) and a lemon herbed roast chicken? A platter of cheeses, tomatoes, lettuce, and a basket of warm brioches or croissants and they can make their own sandwiches.

I second Tina's beef stew suggestion too.

Tina.. right you are about dessert.. I will have cookies and Ange is going
to bring baklava...

The stew is a great idea... and cleanup from that would be easy...
maybe make some beer bread to go with?I always make some cheese balls
and I was thinking of a warm dip of some kind too..

Caro... I will have ham in the house, I think.. as Adam likes it.. but
I don't like it. :PPP so I might skip that.. I was thinking of maybe the chicken breast with the mayo, parmesan crust with mashed potatoes.. but honestly.. the stew idea is growing on me.

Thanks!

Spinach, artichoke and cheese dip is always dived into at my house and so simple to throw together. Or baked brie with caramelized onions.

Stew is great because all you really need is good bread or cheese puffs to dunk in them and I always find it cozy to eat out of a bowl the day after a holiday feast. I think it may have something to do with me not wanting to get out of PJs either the day after because elastic or drawstring pants are just so forgiving after the previous day's gorge fest.

Making briyani rice to go with a lamb curry I made in the slow cooker this morning. That should go nicely with an eggplant and paneer dry curry and cucumber relish as the sides for dinner tonight.

We just cut into the lemon cheesecake I baked last night. Simply divine. Also making a tabbouleh salad and some ciorbă soup which we seem to have become addicted to these past few weeks.

Caroline - that dinner smells pretty scrumptious from here.

I had to go down 3 pages to find this thread! I made cranberry fudge tonight. I think it will turn out. It was my mom's recipe. She had found some she really liked in Oregon when she and Dad were traveling around the country after her retirement. She ordered some from the business until it finally went out of business. Then she decided to try to make it herself. It took her several times to get it right. Last year my batches didn't turn out quite that well, but the batch I made today seems to be doing what it should.

Lori...I am always in awe of people who can make fudge. I gave up trying years ago. seems like no matter what recipe I used, it never never never make fudge. I always ended up with chocolate sludge to put on top of ice cream or frost a cake.

I did (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) make an awesome batch of peanut brittle the other night - my first try!!! It was absolutely easy, and absolutely delicious. It was from an online recipe.

This is actually a chocolate-less fudge, Tina. That does look like really good peanut brittle. It's very similar to the recipe that we've used in our family for years. I'm not sure without going back and looking at my recipe since I haven't made any in a few years.

A chocolate-less fudge??? so I suppose it's just cranberry-flavor. I never thought of that.

Tina, thanks for the link to the recipe for the peanut brittle. I think you've just solved my problem of what to make for Christmas goodie bags this year. I usually make cookies but this year, I don't have time because we're going to Orlando next week until Christmas Eve.

I'm going to make the brittle this weekend and then wrap them up in pretty bags. You're a life saver!

I've got a baking weekend ahead of me. I've got to make a Christmas cake so it has time to soak in the brandy, a layered cake and lemon bars.

Ok....I'm changing the subject here for a bit. Caro posted a link to "I want A Hippopatamus For Christmas" which was one of our favorites when we were kids. But I'm looking for "Here comes Susie Snowflake" which my sister Mary-Ruth played incessantly on her little (Fisher Price?) plastic turntable. Does anyone have a you=tube link handy for that one. I'm trying to find it for my kids!

>214 cameling: I have no idea what any of those things are.......

222 Me, either, Kath. I baked a chicken for supper.

221 Here, Tina! Will this do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdYDdm3fZiM

Oh Terri....that's perfect....we never saw the cartoon, but the words and music are definitely the ones. I'm sending this off to my sisters. Thanks for making my day!

terri... I am so glad to hear that I am not alone in my fancy food cluelessness!

Just to clarify....Suzy Snowflake and "I Want a Hippopatamus.." are songs, not foods. All beloved though.

To those of you making piles of cookies for this holiday....
I genuflect in your general direction.

--------------------

ouch

So this is what I have been wondering..
http://www.librarything.com/topic/128767

Anyone willing to jump in with thoughts?

#228....not going there yet!!!

it is just a thread to ask what your first read of the year will be...

#217 - but have you tried the recipe on the back of the Kraft Marshmallow Creme jar? It's super easy, doesn't require a candy thermometer...

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/million-dollar-fudge/

This is the one that I have used for years... simple and delightfully decadently delicious !

I went there, Kath.... now let's see if I keep to it.

As for #214 : it was just a load of Indian food. paneer is Indian curd cheese that's often used cubed in vegetable curries. I love it. Briyani is a cardomom and tumeric spiced rice that's aromatic as it is delicious and often served with a thick lamb or chicken curry. And the meal was yummy ... even if the house smelled of curry the day after.

Tonight's dinner is kielbasa and sauerkraut with a nice warm crusty baguette.

I made the peanut brittle and it was indeed really easy and delicious as promised by Tina. I think I need to make more tomorrow because I've been snacking on them this evening and half my work's already eaten.

That is a hazard of making delicious food.. it gets eaten! lol

I will take your word for the Indian food.. I doubt I will ever have a chance to try it.. I live in the
backwoods.. more or less.

Come visit, Kath. I'll make some for you, or take you to some of my favorite Indian restaurants around here. :-)

I would love to... someday :)

>231 nittnut: That's the recipe I've used my whole life -- foolproof, even at altitude!

I love Indian food...but the availability of the necessary spices is nil....where I live (and I live pretty close to Kath)

Amazon sells the spices...in bulk...I don't need six containers of anything...

I can do a decent curry...that's about it

Caro...i know from paneer and love briyani....

Kielbasa & Sauerkraut..i grew up on that

Oy!

haha..sorry Jude ....but I don't need six containers of anything... just cracked me up.

I used my leftover kielbasa for a broth to steam some mussels in. We had an unexpected guest for dinner, so the hubster went out and brought back a bag of mussels. I chopped and sauteed the kielbasa and garlic in butter, added some beer and cream, chucked the mussels in, tossed around for about 5 mins till they were opened, sprinkled parsley and voila ... It was a good addition to the kielbasa and sauerkraut.

We decided to be healthy and peel tangerines for dessert. haha

#231, no I haven't tried the Marshmallow Creme jar yet....in fact, I was just wondering if I melted mini-marshmallows (tons left from T-giving and cookie baking) if I could substitute that for the jarred creme. I have a recipe or Oatmeal Whoopie pies that calls for Marshmallow creme and crisco (along with some other stuff) for the filling. I hate to waste this little puffy fellows, but they'll be long hard and icky before we ever eat them.

Spinach gnocchi with pesto for lunch today. I had to do something with the spinach and potatoes before we left for vacation tomorrow. And I always have a jar of pesto in the fridge. So easy lunch.

Dinner will be easy too. Eggplant, anchovy and mozzarella pizza I think.

Cameling, all of your menus sound fabulous! There is quite a bit of food satisfaction one can get by just reading about food, that's for sure!

Karen O.

#240 NO! You can't substitute teensy marshmallows for marshmallow creme. Make a marshmallow shooter instead...
http://raisingolives.com/2010/11/marshmallow-gun-tutorial/

I made baked haddock for supper tonight, after my husband found some fillets on sale. It turned out pretty well.

ETA to add BTW -- a non-food thought -- our library received something really cool to distribute to patrons free-of-charge: a "novel financial literacy" calendar which uses a book title each month to help illustrate a principle of sound financial practices. January's core principle is Sense and Sensibility! :)

The cheesecake is done.

Cameling: We love Indian food over here, but I have no idea how to make it. We often end up buying the prepackaged sauce and simmering it with chicken then add some peas and throw it over some white rice. It really doesn't cut it though.
Do you have any suggestions on a good recipe book or online source? It has to be something without a hundred ingredients. That is what really gets me. We really do not have the space or time for a lot of that stuff. I only have a kitchenette (3/4 size stove and oven, fridge, etc. and no counter space).

I love biryani, curry, kadai, samosas, naan etc.

Damn, now I am hungry.

Jennifer,
Unfortunately, i think you're going to need to rely on store bought ready-made naan because if you want to make that yourself, you need a large stone oven.

I get most of my Indian recipes from Indian cookbooks I've bought overseas, in India, Singapore and Malaysia. I've found the ones here and online tend to provide recipes geared towards the American palate - meaning sweeter and less spicy. Having said that, Madhur Jeffrey's Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking and At Home with Madhur Jaffrey are decent ones. I especially like the latter because it includes some recipes from Sri Lanka and I fell in love with that cuisine when I visited that country for the first time in 1982.

I also have an old copy of Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan that has recipes for authentic South Indian dishes. If you've not tried Pani Puri .. you just have to. I could eat this all day! But I now cheat and buy the shells from an Indian store rather than make it myself because I'm lazy. haha.. I do make the potato masala filling and the tamarind mint sauce though. It's the best snack I was introduced to when I was in India years ago.

Is the Pani Puri the snack mix thing? An old friend of mine's ex-husband's family is Indian and they used to make some snack mix type thing and I thought it was called like Puri Puri or something like that. I choose spicier and less sweet in Indian food. I will take look and see if I can find any books by Madhur Jaffrey. Thanks for the advice.

Re: Naan I have been told that Trader Joe's has naan that just has to be thrown in the oven or the wave and is actually pretty good. Not as good as the real stuff, but that it will do in a pinch.

I made Pistachio Baklava with Orange Cardamom Syrup. You're all invited!



Merry Christmas!

I saw this Cranberry Nut Coffee Cake recipe online. It looked good so I decided to try it. I did add the orange peel to the batter it suggested because I like the combination of cranberry and orange.

Jennifer, no pani puri is not a snack mix. Perhaps your friend's husband's family made chewda? It's a popular snack mix that has puffed rice cereal, curry leaves, sliced chilies, crushed plantain chips, pumpkin seeds, tumeric, corn cereal, raisins, peanuts and mustard seeds.

I'm detoxing from all the rich food I ate over the Christmas holidays. Had the last chocolate cupcake after lunch today so now there are no more tempting desserts in the house. I'm making a rich beef broth in the stock pot now. I'm thinking a nice consomme and salad for dinner tonight.

247-248 - I second Caro's recommendation of Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking. I've been using it for years and I love it. The recipes are very easy to follow.

Double boiler is on the stove with a cornish hen, some ginseng, goji berries and a little bit of water - making a concentrated broth for a sick husband.

cameling: Chewda is it. At least the ingredients sound about right. Nummy.

I actually found one of the Jaffrey books that have the words "easy" and "fast" in the title. I think that might be the one I go for. Thanks for the recommendations. We actually order Indian food in last night. I had chicken biryani, samosas and naan. Good and filling. And I have plenty of leftovers. I may just have a pre-dinner snack.