I love seeing all the people who have family recipe books. I think people should post their favorites from them. Oh, and you owe us the Swedish meatball recipe, FCM. Did I mention that one of my favorite recipe sources is the Dope?
Spaz, I think it was you who asked about cooking small batches and things like cake. There’s a recipe for cake in a mugon the blog. Not sure if it’s the same one someone was talking about having issues with sticking a ways back. Seems like it wouldn’t hurt to mix separately and grease, or grease and flour, the mug.
I’ve put away clothes and made tuna casserole (I had a hankering) and had some grapes as well. I’m considering going out to the grocery store and the new carry-out around the corner.
gotti, love your recessional. How are you doing the processional? Are you both walking down together or one at a time? Inquiring minds and all that.
Speaking of cookbooks, I was watching Alton “Sexy Nerd” Brown last night and while I was drooling over his recipe for graham crackers it suddenly occurred to me that I need to get one of his cookbooks. If nothing else, I need to know how to measure by weight and not volume like he does. Which do you, The MMP, recommend? I’m looking for something basic that 'splains stuff well.
Well damn. My poor daughter is a pretty sad young lady at the moment. One of her birds just died. Just up and died, don’t know why. It was fine last night.
Hooray! I get to go to water aerobics. I haven’t been able to make it in quite awhile and I didn’t think I’d get there tonight. However, I have talked my dad into doing the grocery shopping for me so I’ll be able to go.
As far as the gas leak goes… I’m still confused. Apparently they did fix something in another part of the building. So, I guess my area is ok. The gas company came and re-lit my stove and restored gas to my oven. We will see what happens tomorrow. But hopefully all is well because I have 3 lunches.
Is today Random Day and no one told me? Today I’ve had:
a request for a list of our employees of a specific nationality for a research project, yet no one can say when the researcher will be here, how long he’ll stay or what exactly he’s researching;
a college senior show up out of the blue and request an interview, even though he never applied with us;
and a couple of invoices dated July and received last week in Cleveland, even though they were addressed to our office.
Is it a full moon or something?
Oh, and I got locked out of our intranet, but could get out to the internet just fine.
The plan is to have our attendants walk up the aisle in pairs. As it happens, they’re three husband and wife pairs. DH will walk up with his sister and I’ll walk up with her husband. Those two will depart the stage, leaving us, our three pairs of attendants and the officiant. I don’t know if they’ll re-join us on the recessional.
And no, nothing’s being thrown. No garters, jocks or bouquets. As it is, my back is pre-thrown.
This is the sauce recipe - I don’t remember how many meatballs and mushrooms went into it. How big a bag do you get from BJ’s - 3#??
Anyway:
Swedish Meatballs
1 cup half & half
2 cups beef broth
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t allspice
4 t cornstarch
Combine all ingredients and heat till it thickens. Add meatballs and sliced mushrooms - maybe a pound?? - and heat thru. Then stand back as the starving masses descend upon you.
Home from lunch with Mom and some fambly. Still stuffed - it was sooooooo good. I also got 100# of clay, a couple of ribs, and some underglaze. Now I’m home relaxing. Guess I gotta go back to work tomorrow. Alas…
May I suggest that when discussing the departed birdy you take special care not to casually reference this cookbook conversation in the same breath.
“Ortolan? What’s what?”
The recently departed wouldn’t have even been enough for a morsel anyway. It was a little zebra finch.
Besides, my daughter just isn’t that much into cooking. She’s eighteen and doesn’t show the slightest inclination toward it. She can cook, she can bake, but she just doesn’t really do it.
Sorry about your daughter’s bird, Taters. I don’t suppose it’s just pining for the fjords? (OK, OK… that was a little tasteless, but I’ve always wanted an opportunity to use that joke)
Yay for the gas leak being someone else’s problem, Pie! Fingers crossed that all is well for tomorrow’s lunches.
Cervaise, I’ve been pondering buying *El Bulli *and/or French Laundry, but they’re on the expensive side and I’ve been unsuccessful in finding a rich benefactor who’s willing to bankroll my cookbook habit. Assuming you had to go with just one, which one would you suggest? (I’m thinking of putting one of them on my Xmas wish list in the hopes that one of my lovely friends will spring for it)
Chicken and Lentils is bubbling away on the stove and should be ready in about an hour. Nom nom nom. Unfortunately, I’ll be devouring it all by my lonesome, since The Boy is stuck working late (again) … stoopit music videos and their unreasonable timelines. grumble grumble
A coffee table book? Go with El Bulli. You’ll never, ever cook out of it. But you will look at it endlessly. The photography is amazing and the “story” of the restaurant is fascinating. The book is organized as a single chronological day; at the beginning are pictures of the sunrise over the water in front of the restaurant, then at 10am Adria shows up, then you’ve got a few dozen pages of ingredient selection and prep work, followed by preliminary cooking (and a review of the reservations book), etc, etc. At the end are some basic recipes (and some not so basic). It’s sort of an anthropological memoir, a day-in-the-life sort of thing, worthwhile because it pulls back the curtain on an institution utterly unique in the world.
A cookbook? Go with French Laundry. Keller and his cowriters (including Michael Ruhlman) really, really want to share the food with you. The recipes are long and remarkably, even excruciatingly, detailed as to technique. For example, here, on page 140, is Keller describing how to trim up a salmon fillet for one recipe: “Place the salmon fillet rounded side up on a cutting board. Trim the salmon of its thin fatty belly flap and any other fat, and cut off the last 2 to 3 inches of the tail end (reserve it for another use). Flip the fillet over and trim away and discard any dark flesh. You will see a line running the length of the fish; cut the salmon fillet lengthwise in half down this line. For this recipe, you will use the wider section of the fillet. Trim it into an even rectangular piece approximately 13 inches long and 3 inches wide and weighing about 1 1/4 pounds. (Use the extra salmon for tartare or another dish.)” Yeah, you probably already know how to do that; but (a) it’s nice to have a professional validating your technique, and, more importantly, (b) all the recipes are like that, thorough and careful and clearly explained. The idea is to place even the most difficult of his gourmet creations (assuming a little ingredient substitution) within the reach of the skilled amateur, and damn if he doesn’t come close to pulling it off.
Ummmmmmmmmmmm. I’m new to “mumping.” What is an MMP?
One of the nicest things anyone did for me: I was flooded out of my basement apartment … RAW SEWAGE spewing up through the drains NASTY. I lost a lot of treasured possessions, mostly irreplaceable stuff (out-of-print autographed books, etc.). A long-distance friend helped me replace my beloved L.L. Bean beanpot with an even-more-collectible one, and … my long-deceased mother’s wedding present to me (in 1970): “The Joy of Cooking.” The book that was lost was stained, annotated, held together with black duct tape, etc. The “new” book my friend sent me looked just about the same! (However, without my notes
Very helpful, Cervaise, and also much appreciated.
I do believe I’ll be letting Santa know that I would like French Laundry this year.* We’ll save El Bulli for next year, possibly for my birthday, because it sounds absolutely fascinating… it’s just that I generally prefer a cookbook that I can cook from if/when I feel like it (even if it’s just in theory).
…and then I’ll have to ask Santa for more bookshelves, because we’re already out of room for all the damn books in this house.
*(I find it both revealing and amusing that I first typed “Satan” instead of “Santa”)
How are you doing the processional? Are you both walking down together or one at a time? Inquiring minds and all that.
Is it a full moon or something?