Ilaine

We do brine first, the standard Cook's Illustrated brine, and cook in a New Braunfels Texas smoker with an offset firebox, using indirect heat.Use real wood charcoal and some hickory chunks. Try to keep temp in smoker around 300. Rack of course must be low enough to fit the turkey. Keep the backside closer to the fire since the drumsticks need to cook longer than the breast. Rotate a couple of times depending on how it's browning, as part is closer to the fire than the other part. We don't wrap anything. We don't tie the turkey, just let it flop. Let the smoke pour over it all. Rub liberally with olive oil first. Last time we put an apple inside the cavity and that seemed to add something. (Not giving details on the brine unless you don't have access to the Cook's Illustrated/Best Recipe guide -- you can do a much shorter brining time if the brine is stronger and so forth. We brine in the extra fridge in what used to be my husband's primary beer fermenter, a ten gallon food grade plastic tub. But recently I saw humongous Zip locks, 10 and 20 gallons, and I think you could use one of these if you were careful.)

I once participated in roasting a pig. The setup was quite involved, including an actual pit full of coals, and a specially fabricated metal (iron? steel?) double sided rack/cage that the split pig fit inside of, with a rod down the middle so that it could be rotated from front to back. The metal rod rested on cinder blocks and cinder blocks were used to steady the rest of the cage/rack.I got there too late to learn all the secrets of the marinade but did observe that it contained beer, wine, bourbon, hot sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper, black pepper, lemon pepper, honey, Worcestershire sauce, etc., etc., etc. I was assigned to mop the pig using a small mop that looked just like a floor mop, only doll size. The men did the heavy pig moving. I learned that women should never participate in pig roasts while wearing white t-shirts -- I was soaked in so much sweat that my shirt and bra became transparent, not to mention the fact that my hair dye melted off my head onto my shoulders and into the t-shirt, giving it a tie-dye effect. The finished product was unbelievably wonderful and worth all the embarrassment. They also barbecued chickens, burgers and whatnot on a regular charcoal grill to stave off hunger pains because the smell was so appetizing that people became famished just by smelling the smoke. Haze in the details is due to the fact that beer was involved. Much beer was had by all. Virginia Tech has a description of several methods on their website, including diagrams. Link I would love to do this again, if anybody is up for it. If we can't find a special rack, we could improvise. I have about a cord of well seasoned split oak and some fruit wood, cherry mostly, as well as grape vine.

We were there about 5 pm - the wait for the food was maybe 10-15 minutes. That said, the wait for the dessert was also maybe 10-15 minutes. Not an uncomfortable wait if you had a table, as we did, but the people standing around with no place to sit didn't look comfy. Lovely fish and chips. Fish and chips from fresh fish and fresh potatoes is a wonderful thing -- almost everyplace else I've had it, the fish was frozen and not completely cooked, or else cooked too much, but Eamonn's is perfectly balanced. I didn't like the fact that the batter wouldn't stick to the fish, though. Plastic forks are detestable, so I wanted to eat with my fingers but the batter came off and I was faced with the dilemma of how to get a bite of batter with a bite of fish. My son had the batter fried burger, the batter fried sausage and the batter fried Milky Way, all of which he enjoyed, although we were joking that his arteries were going to plug up. Unfortunately they were out of onion rings and cole slaw. The "bachelor baked beans" seemed like they were canned beans with ketchup? Maybe fresh cooked, there wasn't a canned taste but they otherwise tasted just like canned beans with ketchup. I will go back next time I am craving fish and chips and hope that then I can enjoy a Guinness upstairs.

Cork floors. Love them. Warm, resilient, spill resistant, well-nigh impossible to stain. So far we've got cork down in the kitchen, laundry room, powder room, finished basement, and upstairs hall, and eventually will put cork in the bedrooms, too.

Well, I am certainly not going to argue with you. As I said, this is not my idea. I buy as natural an egg as I can get.That said, I had no idea that I was wandering into a field (irradiation of food) that was so parlous and politicized! I think of DR as being a refuge from politics! But alas, this is, after all, Washington DC, where every choice is politically fraught.

No doubt you are correct, but I am being guilt tripped!

My 71 year old mother wants to use irradiated eggs for making fresh mayonnaise, but I haven't been able to find any. Does anybody know where to find them? (This isn't my idea.)

I am thinking of attending the annual NAFEX (North American Fruit Explorers) meeting this year, it's very close -- Lexington, KY. Last year was in California.Anybody interested in coming along and helping pay for gas? I have a Toyota minivan that realistically seats five and their luggage comfortably. Here is the link to the meeting information. May as well throw in some other links for fruit tree growers and enthusiasts. The Pennsylvania fruit growers association, Backyard Fruit Growers. Lots of interesting activity there. Coming soon: August 24 Organic Kiwi Production Kiwi Korners, Montour Co. 1:00-4:00pm;$10 PASA members; $15 non-members. Sept 23 & 24 Pawpaw Tours 23 Raffauf / Lancaster; 24 Weeden / Holtwood PA Vintage Virginia Apples sells heirloom apple trees and fruit. Not to be missed: November 4, 2006: Apple Harvest Festival from 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. The annual Apple Harvest Festival features an appearance by Tom Burford, aka "Professor Apple," an expert on heirloom apples. Saturdays in the Garden at Monticello has cool food-oriented events every year -- my favorite is the annual apple tasting, also presided over by Professor Apple, this year October 21. (Tom Burford ain't no spring chicken, but apparently an apple a day does keep the doctor away, at least in his case.)

You know, we didn't have a single incident of blossom end rot at our new garden plot this year, and I didn't put any special calcium or lime products. Just lots of fertilizer -- including Tomato-Tone, Miracle Gro, compost (home grown and purchased) and manure (purchased). According to the Espoma Products Tomato-Tone website blossom end rot is caused by both a lack of micronutrients but also dry conditions. Also, according to the Tomato Tone label this product does supply calcium, along with 15 other nutrients. Not that I am shilling for Tomato Tone, there are other products that have a full panoply of micronutrients, this just happens to be one they sell at DeBaggio's Herbs, and I like the people there, but they had at least one other brand, just don't recall the name.

I go by color and softness to the touch. If you wait until they are dead ripe, the birds will get them.

Buz and Ned's Real Barbecue is my favorite barbecue joint north of Alabama. Wonderful meat, wonderful sides, micro brew beers, what's not to love? Their greens are the best I've ever had, anywhere, and the mac and cheese is to die for. Pork spare ribs, baby back ribs, beef ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken. They grill their garlic bread, make sure you get some! A trip to Richmond is not complete without a trip to Buz and Ned's. Comfort restaurant -- new Southern cuisine -- if you are a big fan of Southern style cooking, this place is pretty much wonderful. Every entree comes with two or three sides (your choice, three sides are a couple of dollars more than two sides), and you can get a vegetable plate (some of the vegetable dishes have pork). I had the fried catfish with mac'n'cheese, greens, and fried okra as sides. Mac'n'cheese excellent, the greens do not compare to Buz and Ned's, the okra was a revelation, fried whole. Excellent corn bread. This will be added to my list of "musts" in Richmond. After complaining endlessly about the lack of really good Southern/soul food in the DC metro area, I am throwing in the towel and heading to Richmond when I have a "soul food jones."

Tiny fresh butter/lima beans today at the Fairfax City farmer's market. A mite pricey, $4 a box, but they were already shelled so you're paying something for the labor. Also some tender okra. Yesterday in Richmond, at Comfort restaurant, ordered fried okra and they were served whole -- fried, Southern style in cornmeal, but not sliced up, whole. Quite tasty that way. Has anybody seen fresh turnip greens?

So here's the question. Why not use pure cream? Why add milk? If 31% milk fat is better, what's the limit? Anybody?

Horrors! That sounds like botulism! Information on botulism from the CDC (Center for Disease Control.)

My guess is that even the manufacturer couldn't tell you whether it's "safe." It starts with Irish whiskey which would probably last forever if properly bottled, but then they add cream -- which is protein and fat, and an ideal medium for bacterial growth. Will the alcohol kill the bacteria? For how long?Maybe I'm wrong. Send them an email and ask.

2 Amy's isn't "too far" from Burke, VA! That is, if you like their style, which we do. Wood fire, extremely thin crust (when I think "thin crust" vs. "thick crust" Pizza Hut comes to mind and this is an entirely different world) , pureness, emphasis on quality rather than quantity. I grew up on thick chewy crusts from a gas fired oven, with tons of melted cheese, which is great for comfort food. But whatever style you call 2 Amy's and Pizza Paradiso, that's what we love now. It's too austere for comfort food, nevertheless I find it comforting. 2 Amy's has a slight edge over Pizza Paradiso but harder to get to for us than Georgetown so we don't go as often. Definitely worth a trip over the river, definitely worth the gas, even over $3 gallon. Good beer on tap and nice side dishes really help, as does the pleasant ambience.

Rounding off our 2006 tour of area ice cream joints, finally made it to Gifford's in Bethesda (7237 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, MD | 301-907-3436) Verdict: after spending the last month or so trying ice cream parlors all over the area, we are getting jaded. I tried to look at the place with something approaching aesthetic distance (appreciating it just for itself) but impossible after a 25 mile trip over the Beltway and through MoCo at over $3 a gallon for gas. I had coconut -- sweet cream base with shredded coconut. Pretty good. Younger son had cookie dough -- he thought they made a mistake and gave him vanilla, but eventually found a couple of chunks of cookie dough in there. Older son had butter pecan -- his comment, "good ice cream served by a pretty girl [the one with the piercings], what's for a man not to like?" Spotlessly clean, check. Places to sit inside and out, check. Napkins and water, check. Clean bathrooms, check. Nearby parking, check. (Large paid municipal parking lot a block away, 75 cents an hour parking.) If metro accessibility is important to you, check. You could also bike, roller skate, or get there by wheelchair. Would I do it again, drive 25 miles (50 round trip) just to go there? No. (One very nice thing -- a 5 gallon spring water jug contraption outside connected to a dog water dish. So, dog friendly, check.)

Report back on trying to mill partially roasted tomatoes. Not a good idea. Not at all. Most of what came through the mill was tomato water, which, considering that I had deseeded and drained the cut up tomatoes, indicates to me that the actual flesh of the tomatoes is mostly water. Next batch will mill fully roasted, concentrated. The alternative, to parboil and skin almost raw tomatoes, is another alternative.

By coincidence, today I scooped off maybe a half a cup of fluffy yellow chicken fat from a pot of cooled boiled chicken, and thought it looked too beautiful to throw away. The first step towards saving was to melt it in a Pyrex measuring cup and stick into the fridge. The fat is now a thick yellow layer on top of a thin layer of broth and lumpy things that will be thrown away. (Edit - OK, I will pour the residue on the dog's kibble. The fat I am keeping.) I have no experience with this. What's next? Matzo balls? (Funny how we're all thinking of fat at the same time. Something to do with the turning year?)

You're right, and I misspoke myself.This experiment starts with a recipe in the new Gourmet cook book, alleged "bruschetta" but essentially roasted roma tomatoes, cross-fertilized with Alton Brown's recipe. I am inundated with roma and heirloom tomatoes. It seems to me that the best way to save them up is remove seeds and skins, cook them down so that the moisture evaporates, and then when needed, they are concentrated pure tomato meat. I've observed that as roasted tomatoes cook down, they shrink. So why spread them out? I wish I took a photo of what I started with, 20 lbs of fresh tomatoes that I trimmed, and scooped out the juice and seeds, tossed with olive oil, and roasted. Here is what they look like, at this exact moment. (There are actually more in another oven.) I took them out of the oven after I read your post. After they cool down, will mill off the skins and freeze. There will be more in a few days, I will try making those more concentrated as a comparison. (Tomato plants from DeBaggio and Betty's Azalea. The ones from Merrifield Garden were ripped out due to excessive blight. Grown in raised beds full of compost, fertilized with manure and Tomato-Tone, and mulched with sheets of red plastic.)

Yes, although they didn't have a jar lifter when I needed one (said they would get more). I found one at Ace Hardware in Chantilly. They don't carry Pickle Crisp, I found that at the Food Lion in Fair Lakes. Pickle Crisp is calcium chloride, if you look on the label of your favorite Kosher dills you'll probably see it as an ingredient. In addition to Fishers, Ace, and Food Lion, you can find stuff at Walmart, Giant and Safeway. This is seasonal for most stores except Fisher, who seems to carry stuff year 'round. Or buy online.The canning pot needs to be deep enough to cover the top of the jar by a couple of inches, or else the jars need to be short enough yadda yadda. I've been using a stock pot with the spaghetti insert. Apparently you don't need the special canning pot insert, as long as the jars are up off the bottom of the pot so they don't rattle, but if I keep canning I will buy one. My task for today is tomatoes, over 20 lbs of romas and heirlooms. I plan to cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake all varieties indiscriminately tossed with olive oil until I get a sense that they're ready for the next step. Never done this before so somewhat winging it. I do have a food mill (the el cheapo without inserts, only one set of holes, from Fisher). Think I will just bake the tomatoes with olive oil and salt, mill off the skins, and pack in ziplocks and freeze, and treat them as I would fresh tomatoes for sauce. I used the hot water method for pickles, even though the best ones are fermented. I am a coward. I have a tree full of green apples, am going to attempt the Mes Confitures method of using green apple jelly as a source of pectin.I also have a collander full of crab apples, wondering what to do with them. My mother wanted me to plant her a crab apple tree, since she lives in an apartment, so I did, but now that it's fruiting she doesn't have any use for them.

I would quote Dirty Harry: "I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky?....Well, do ya?"

I'm a ruthless pitcher-outer. Every year, in the fall, I weed out unopened cans, boxes and jars and take them to the Food Bank, as long as they haven't expired. If there is no expiration date, into the trash. Also, things I bought in bulk but didn't like, like the case of mango juice and the case of Asian pear juice. The local food bank has a heavy Asian and Latino population, this stuff will be appreciated. Foods in the freezer, if they have freezer burn, out. Bags of vegetables and fruits, if they feel heavy with ice, into the compost pile. I hate the taste of rancid food and have a mortal fear of food poisoning. Thus, the oldest foods in the kitchen are things that don't seem to ever go bad, like dry rice stick noodles, baking chocolate, and tightly jarred whole spices like nutmeg and cloves. The winner is whole cloves in a bottle with a very tight stopper that I've had for maybe 20-25 years. They're actually still good. This is exactly the type of thing I'd throw away. It's leaking so air is getting in, and the oil doesn't stop food poisoning, for that you need an acid like vinegar. Remember the people who got botulism from home made garlic oil!When in doubt, throw it out! (Dump it out and recycle the bottle.)

AB = Alton Brown, from Food Network. His tomato sauce recipe starts with halved Roma tomatoes, roasted with oil and herbs in the oven, then put through a food mill to remove the skins. It definitely does not get hot enough, would need to be put into sterile jars, perhaps topped off with olive oil, and processed further. I have seen that suggested, but canning tomatoes scares me!He also scoops out the seeds before he starts, to remove the "acidic gel." Why do people do this? To remove moisture, I suppose, and then they add moisture with other ingredients, like the white wine the recipe calls for (I don't put white wine into tomato sauce! The kids hate the taste of wine so no wine at all, but it would be red if I did.) BTW- the recipe doesn't mention this but cover the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil. The juices WILL turn crusty, even in a no-stick pan.

I've been wondering what to do with all the tomatoes we are being inundated with. Alton Brown's recipe looks good, but can you freeze it? Or do I have to can it, and hope we won't be killed by food poisoning?I actually bought canning jars and a jar lifter and so forth. As for the parmesan rinds, I assume you know you can buy them at places like Wegman's, just in case you need more. Does anybody know what the wax is made of?