Anna Blume

So, sorry! Lperry's suggestion reminded me of something I love in Deborah Madison's Local Flavors that Nigella Lawson also does: tiny lentils (Beluga or Le Puy or mix) in a very interesting red wine sauce that depends on aliums but doesn't have to, given the complexity of other flavors. Great with braised and mashed root vegetables and crusty bread.

Citric acid? I thought someone else was looking for this recently, but can't find the post. At any rate, I seek this vs. rennet for making cheese. Thanks. ****************** If anyone else has been disappointed when searching aisles at Whole Foods for the Maldon salt they used to carry for the best price, go to Balducci's. The smoked and original flaked salts are around $5 less expensive than they are at Cowgirl Creamery.

Adherence to Lord Swaminarayan's teachings? Strict Buddhist faith? Western medical advice? How lucky you are to have such great culinary skills to deal with such a challenge! So much the better that you love baking, too. In any respect, how about this recipe for roasted pears, something I just made again with a little, leftover pinot. Abra Bennett won a contest on Food 52 for her red wine risotto which you could adapt to eliminate whatever alium she calls for. Same with a favorite ragu. Keep in mind braised red cabbage w red wine, though aliums might play a more significant role in that one.

Adam Gopnik, The Table Comes First. Family, France, and the Meaning of Food. While Gopnik is a favorite writer and Paris to the Moon is insightful, eloquent and thoroughly engaging, this recent publication seems forced. You're always very conscious of language when reading this author and usually it's in a good way since he's so versatile and smart. This time around on an intersection of subjects dear to him, the writing gets in the way. Lacks fluidity, organization of thoughts a bit jumbled and sections rather contrived. I couldn't get far into it. James Hamilton-Paterson. Cooking with Fernet Branca. Novel. Hilarious.

My first butternut squash (vs. pumpkin) pie. Over 3 more lbs. left to go on a very large squash from Tree & Leaf with Mannerist neck. Haunted by Porcupine's breakfast which is a favorite. Potato bread in some time later today.

That's adorable, Linda!!! Here's to those who don't roast turkey for Thanksgiving! Best protein on my plate was a foil-wrapped brisket cooked outdoors on a grill whose heritage is pure Texas. My contribution owes a debt to JPW and rather mindless stamina. 295 Brussels sprouts plucked off stalks, trimmed and halved before roasting.

I know a farmer who is reluctant to purchase bananas for her family, in part because she's become more and more of a locavore over the years. There is also someone else who has caused me to wonder if bananas ought to be what grapes were when I was a kid and willingly gave them up for Chavez. Banana republics. Pablo Neruda's "United Fruit Company" (poem). And playing right now at West End Cinema, "Big Boys Gone Bananas," about Dole successfully preventing the release of a Swedish documentary on its business, citing fraud and libel. Anyone else concerned about bananas? Is it naive to cite just one cheap food in worrying about human suffering linked to its production?

Some of us recognize Guy Fieri even if we don't watch the Food Network. Here in the scriptorium, they prefer to read books to us out loud.

Cuisse de canard au chou Turnips roasted in duck fat Pinot noir Memorably wretched. Recipe from Williams-Sonoma website. Should have continued search for solid advice on braising a weighty leg instead of selecting a recipe that calls for roasting it. Interesting flavors in spice rub and sauce, but despite adjustments made in timing and execution, the leg dried out before the skin browned. Not even that nice crisp, crackled skin one gets w roasted duck. Farmers market ducks are notoriously leaner critters, but I should have seared the leg and roasted it for much less time.

Before I got a food processor, I always mashed chickpeas w a cheap potato masher and people would ask for my recipe for hummus. What made it so good wasn't the recipe, it was the fact that the beans were cooked from dried (vs. canned) and the texture was neither runny nor perfectly uniform. Okay, maybe Anna Thomas deserves credit, too; she wrote her instructions for making hummus long before it became a supermarket staple. ********* Thanks for the report, Rieux.

Grapefruit, coffee, handful of almonds Steel-cut oatmeal w apple sautéed in butter, dusted w cinnamon and squirted w lemon, dried cranberries, toasted walnut slivers, maple syrup and milk Tangerine Trader Joe's quick-cooking, steel-cut oatmeal disappoints. Oats simply pulverized more than in longer-cooking grain, so you lose the distinctive chewy texture.

I like using apple cider vinegar in pastry.

Grapefruit Coffee Egg cracked into nest of garlicky, Tuscan kale Bits of maple-roasted, butternut squash Roasted cauliflower Cedarbrook's breakfast links

I wonder how many new foods are introduced to WFM stores over the course of a week and while that may be a source of the pricing problem, it seems easy enough to include three new steps into the process of displaying/stocking new products or foods: 1) make a sign; 2) check to see if all the foods rearranged to accommodate the new food also are labeled w name, bar code & price; 3) make and display all other necessary signs in that team's section of the store. Often cashiers will charge nothing for a food that doesn't correspond to the numbers they memorize or have listed in their binders of codes. This was the case Saturday in Silver Spring when I bought two unlabeled mandarins.

Goodeats, interesting point! I was thinking Honeynut Cheerios, but curiously the mascot's name is Buzz! Doesn't GM know all worker bees are female? I nominate Peeps displayed in a very sunny window.

Bowl of mostly green soup: leeks, carrots, cutting celery, potatoes, thyme, sorrel, lacinato kale, parsley, cilantro and spinach Warm triple gingerbread (including young ginger from Next Step), dollop of Greek-style yogurt and chilled quince slow-roasted w an apple Comfort food!

I'm guessing the idea stems from the use of red wine to make a classic risotto, a dish that won Abra Bennett (formerly of egullet) a contest at Food52. Cooking pasta as if it were risotto has become popular, too. FWIW, the science guru, Harold McGee swears by cooking pasta in less than the customary amount of liquid.

What about canned cherry tomatoes? For a while, WFM carried an Italian, organic brand, then discontinued. Balducci's is a schlep, but I could go to the one out near the DSW shoe outlet in Bethesda if I could be assured a pair of Boggs in my size in the Clearance section to make the trip worthwhile. Thanks.

Subbing heavy cream for white sauce? About a cup. Fonder of former vs. latter. Curious. For eggplant-stuffed pasta.

Don, you need to spend some time at farmers markets where there isn't the space for Busby Berkeley arrangements, but the range of colors is commonplace....and yes, lovely. Porcupine: Too late for suggestions? David Tanis has a recipe with saffron that I loved the first time I made it. The true revelation for me was a risotto-like prep recommended by Sarah Raven in which you cook sliced carrots (rounds) forever, till they wizen and caramelize. The British gardening/cookbook author has two versions, one stovetop [online version a bit different than what I recall] and one roasted. PS The Ukrainian eggplant stew has lots of carrots and lemon; Thistle identified name of recipe for me which helped me locate a version online from a CSA newsletter. I'd add lemon juice at last minute, though, and think about roasting both eggplant and carrots (separately) instead of stewing for sake of flavor. Edited for clarity and to include links to recipes.

There was an article in the WaPo last year, I think, since it's caught on at small farms around here as yet another way to distinguish inventory from produce at the supermarket, especially since it benefits from being so fresh. About three months in the greenhouse, I think, one farmer told me. Four? At any rate, New Morning Farm, Tree & Leaf and Next Step Produce bring the total up to five in S PA, VA, W Virginia & MD to mention here as farms that bring young ginger to local markets.

Cf. the linked web site. Permits always take forever in D.C. I imagine Oliver Friendly will post his own buzz once it's time.

I hope you mean that he's still open to renaming the business yet again. A straightforward, and perhaps site-specific name would be more welcome than something cute or precious.

Goodeats? I forgot which brand of toasted seaweed snack you found dull. The wasabi-roasted sesame here is quite punchy. Not nose numbing, but it has more of a kick than I expected, yet the horseradish does not overpower the sesame oil and there is a nice brushing of salt on the slick, papery slivers.

So what were they sampling in the Trader Joe's I visited tonight? Something creamy brown in a jar similar to its peanut better jar called Cookie Butter! 57% speculaas cookies ground up into a paste, most likely repurposed (anyone read Blink?) that also includes all sorts of cheap oils and emulsifiers. And what was the guy sampling the stuff doing with it? Spreading it on "healthy graham crackers" [his words]. Sort of like an open-faced chip butty.