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It may be new to Mark Bittman, but I've had mine for many years...

It was actually Edward Schneider's recent column in Bitten, about creamed corn, and the tool wasn't new to him, either; there was a discussion in the comments of the tool he described versus the one (I think more like yours, Zora) that others were familiar with. My grandmother had one that didn't easily collect the kernels, so it always seemed more of a hassle than using a knife.
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I'm trying to use up pantry items and various half-filled bottles.

Polenta made from a gift bag of stone ground corn from the Mabry Mill, pan fried and then smothered with mushrooms and shallots in a sauce made from the last of a bottle of balsamic vinegar, the end of a jar of honey, and the remains of a bottle of red wine from a week or so ago. Reduction does magical things to ingredients. Topped with the last of a package of chevre.

Mixed green salad with another garden tomato.

A sidecar (for the chef) made with one of those little airplane miniature bottles of Courvoisier. It's been around here for ages, and after this delightful drink, I'm wondering what took me so long to use it.

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4-bean salad (green, wax, kidney, garbanzo)

unconstructed lasagna with bolognese sauce, roasted eggplant, homemade ricotta and mozzarella di bufala

sugar-free, almost low-fat chocolate pudding

2006 Flavium crianza

Space is a precious commodity in my refrigerator. I had some leftover bolognese sauce and a large plastic tub containing a single ball of mozzarella, as well as an unopened, full tub of mozzarella, and a large bowl of roasted vegetables that had co-habited on the grill the night before, alongside a porterhouse. I'd made some bean salad and ricotta in the morning–that was hanging up to drain in a muslin towel most of the day, and there was barely a spot to store it in the refrigerator, crammed full as it is with bread, hot dog rolls, wedges and rounds of cheese, corn, eggs, peaches, beer, wine, wild salmon gravlax, a gazillion jars and cans of condiments, jam, and many other containers of leftovers. There wasn't enough time to make a proper, neat and well organized lasagna, but I came up with a felicitous solution to the space problem as well as dinner. I boiled up some broken lasagna noodles dumped them into a casserole with the bolognese sauce and some pasta water, stirred it around, then buried gobs of ricotta and roasted eggplant in the tangled mess. I sliced two balls of mozzarella and laid them over top of the noodles and sprinkled grated parmesan over it all. Laid a sheet of foil over the top and threw it into the oven, went back to work, then drove to the Metro station and picked up J, came back and dinner was almost done. It was every bit as tasty, in this lazy, disorganized version.

I had a vague plan to slice a peach for dessert, but we were watching t.v. while we ate and a commercial for Jell-o diet chocolate pudding cups came on. J is on a "no-dessert-for-me-please-I'm-trying-to-lose-weight" kick, with varying degrees of success. "Why don't you get some of those for me?" he said. "You want low-calorie chocolate pudding? I can make some," sez I. I didn't have any silken tofu in the house, or I would have made the Bittman vegan chalk-let pudding. But I whisked Valrhona cocoa powder, cornstarch, Splenda and a pinch of salt together and cooked it on top of the stove with skim milk (okay, I added a little bit of heavy cream...). It wasn't quite sweet enough after it had chilled in the freezer, so I drizzled on a bit of agave syrup. It was a damn sight better than Jell-o, I can tell you that.

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Crabcakes tonight with corn and sliced tomato from the farmers' market. Magruder's, through tomorrow, is selling a pound of North Carolina jumbo lump for $16.00. My beloved, who learned her way around crabmeat with family on the Eastern Shore, is already eyeballing the cast-iron skillet. If I knew how to use this new system to post a photo, I'd share the image. Alas.

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It was actually Edward Schneider's recent column in Bitten, about creamed corn, and the tool wasn't new to him, either; there was a discussion in the comments of the tool he described versus the one (I think more like yours, Zora) that others were familiar with. My grandmother had one that didn't easily collect the kernels, so it always seemed more of a hassle than using a knife.

I thought it was funny that I saw this article the next day in the Post-"Sweet Corn, Any Way You Slice It" with recs on where to buy corn cutters at the end of the article. Especially since it was in the Home and Garden section, which I rarely get a chance to read, but just happened to this time.

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Corn and poblano chowder, made with buttermilk

Charcoal-grilled Bubba Burgers (J's favorite)

4-bean salad

peach-raspberry cobbler--the David Lebovitz recipe, which I ended up not liking, for three reasons: the fruit didn't need to be cooked that long, it ended up mushy; don't like flour as a thickener--tapioca or cornstarch gives product a better consistency; didn't like the texture of the biscuit, and thought they needed more sugar...but other than that, it was great! :rolleyes:

Dogfish Head India Brown Ale

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Garlicky grilled shrimp

Corn off the cob and cherry tomatoes, cooked with butter, cream, basil, S&P

Ratatouille from several days ago, which had now melded perfectly

Baguette with saltylicious Lurpak butter

ETA: Whole Foods has shrimp on sale right now that are pretty damned good

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Summer's end dinner: buttermilk brined fried chicken

Cornmeal battered fried green tomatoes (from Porcupine's garden)

Bruschetta with sweet baby Romas, garden-fresh basil(again from Porcupine) and balsamic

It sounds like borderline sacrilege, but next time try brining the green tomato slices as well. My grandmother used to brine them in salt water, with a touch of cider vinegar, before frying. She would also brine them in salted buttermilk sometimes, but that was actual buttermilk not the stuff sold in most stores these days. Flavor through the roof, ymmv.
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Corn and poblano chowder, made with buttermilk

Charcoal-grilled Bubba Burgers (J's favorite)

4-bean salad

peach-raspberry cobbler--the David Lebovitz recipe, which I ended up not liking, for three reasons: the fruit didn't need to be cooked that long, it ended up mushy; don't like flour as a thickener--tapioca or cornstarch gives product a better consistency; didn't like the texture of the biscuit, and thought they needed more sugar...but other than that, it was great! :rolleyes:

Dogfish Head India Brown Ale

Zora-I love your pudding idea. You're our kitchen McGuyver! I made a peach and raspberry cobbler pictured upthread. It's topped with biscuits and I enjoyed it-especially the sour cream biscuits. Recipe from Chow (I think i linked to it).

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Zora-I love your pudding idea. You're our kitchen McGuyver!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcguyver

Have Swiss Army santoku, will travel! Have you ever tried Mark Bittman's vegan pudding made with silken tofu as a thickener? A friend made it for me once--I call it "chalk-let" pudding, because it lacks the unctuous mouthfeel of a pudding made with dairy. It's made with 72% chocolate, not cocoa-- the chocolate is melted into a sugar syrup and then blendered with silken tofu, so it isn't sugar-free. But I am mercifully neither vegan nor lactose intolerant (though I do watch carb intake). My low-calorie pudding was a lot better.

Last night, in response to a request for a sundae, I made a quick hot fudge sauce using a small can of evaporated milk, bits of several kinds of chunk and bar chocolate (including some anonymous unsweetened chocolate lumps that I think my nephew brought back for me from Oaxaca--I've had them for a while), and Lyons Golden Syrup. The sundaes turned our really well; I sprinkled crushed salted peanuts on top and didn't get any complaints about the fat-free vanilla ice cream, which was all I had in the freezer.

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Last night was a variation on this recipe for veal stew.

I started with 1 lb. thawed veal stew meat, so I scaled the recipe down to about 1/3. Had no waxy potatoes, so I decided to omit the fried potatoes on top. Instead, I served the stew over some mashed russets. While not the original dish, this made a great comfort food meal. It seemed suited to the weather too.

Also made a slaw with red cabbage, frisee, radish, minced red & green bell pepper, white onion, and a buttermilk-mayo-champagne vinegar dressing with blue agave, chives, and celery seed. There was no green cabbage on hand, and the frisee fit well with the other ingredients in its place. I'm going to remember this combination.

I had been reading Rick Bayless's praise for blue agave syrup and bought some a while back at Whole Foods. Last night was the first time I used it. I don't like adding sugar to slaw, but sometimes it needs a bit of a sweetener. A tiny bit of this worked very well.

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Saturday, I grilled bone-in chicken thighs and breasts. I made a dry rub of s&p, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, dried thyme & oregano. I oiled the chicken and liberally applied the rub, and let it sit covered in the fridge for about an hour. I liked the rub quite a bit-the basic mix is from Everyday Food on PBS. Served with baked beans and white corn. Since I didn't get to the farmers market, I bought white corn from Safeway @ 11 cents each. Not Toigo-but for the money, it was pretty good.

Sunday, I made pizza dough and grilled pies on a stone in the gas grill. Topped with sauce, copious garden basil (have to use it up!)and buffalo mozzarella from Costco (first time buying-will do it again).

Yesterday, I shredded some leftover chicken and made another pizza for lunch. I used bbq sauce, the chicken and a shredded cheese mix for a "bbq pie". It was a nice way to use up the rest of the dough and some of the leftover chicken. Mr. MV will have more cold chicken thighs for lunch.

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Lentil soup with whole grain bread from Costco, of all places. I read a tip on eGullet (I think from Andiesenji) to take bread that is not super fresh, run water over it by holding it under the faucet, then put it in the oven and set the temp to 350 or so. Pull it out a few minutes after it gets up to temperature, and it will have the texture of very fresh out of the oven bread. I hadn't tried it on the whole grain, but it worked beautifully. I keep finding excuses to use the oven in this weather.

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BURGER NIGHT!!! - most everything from the Ashburn farmer's market

Homemade Parker House roll buns

Sirloin / short rib grind

Goat milk cheddar

Homemade sour pickles

Special sauce

Translucently thin onions

Red potato salad with chervil and homemade mayo

Grilled corn with cultured butter and sea salt

Watermelon

Breckenridge Avalanche Ale

Oreo cake from Wegman's

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I read a tip on eGullet (I think from Andiesenji) to take bread that is not super fresh, run water over it by holding it under the faucet, then put it in the oven and set the temp to 350 or so. Pull it out a few minutes after it gets up to temperature, and it will have the texture of very fresh out of the oven bread.

I do this with almost all sliced bread, baguettes and corn tortillas. And you don't need to use the oven. It works just as well in the toaster or toaster oven. Or, in the case of tortillas, before throwing them directly onto a gas burner. If the bread isn't totally dry, a sprinkling of water, rather than running under the faucet, works fine.
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I do this with almost all sliced bread, baguettes and corn tortillas. And you don't need to use the oven. It works just as well in the toaster or toaster oven. Or, in the case of tortillas, before throwing them directly onto a gas burner. If the bread isn't totally dry, a sprinkling of water, rather than running under the faucet, works fine.

I like to toss the bread into a ziploc bag with a few drops/"a sprinkling," and toss it into the microwave just until steam starts to form. Then it's into a hot oven just until toasty.
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I like to toss the bread into a ziploc bag with a few drops/"a sprinkling," and toss it into the microwave just until steam starts to form. Then it's into a hot oven just until toasty.

I dampen a paper towel and wrap the stale bread. Place in micro to rehydrate and soften. Then, the bread goes into the oven to crisp the crust and heat.

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I like to toss the bread into a ziploc bag with a few drops/"a sprinkling," and toss it into the microwave just until steam starts to form. Then it's into a hot oven just until toasty.

I dampen a paper towel and wrap the stale bread. Place in micro to rehydrate and soften. Then, the bread goes into the oven to crisp the crust and heat.

You are both brave to put bread into the microwave, even wrapped and briefly. And I made the point about the toaster/toaster oven because unless the oven is on for another reason, it seems like a waste to heat that big space just for pieces of baguette or slices of bread ...

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last night:

Boodles/Fever Tree g&t

crostini topped with homemade ricotta, capers, and bits of roasted ripe jalapeno

herb-brined Eco-Friendly chicken charcoal roasted with a can of Heineken in its heinie

fresh limas stewed with onion and bacon

grilled zucchini

charcoal roasted Toigo corn, off-the-cob

garlic toast

sliced Toigo nectarines and white peaches

Dogfish Head India Brown Ale

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herb-brined Eco-Friendly chicken charcoal roasted with a can of Heineken in its heinie

Random, but the Weezer song "Say It Ain't So" begins with the line, "Somebody's Heine is crowding my icebox" and when I was younger, I totally thought he meant "heinie" as in tush, not as in beer. (Have I mentioned I was a dork?)

This post got that song stuck in my head all day. I think Weezer will be tonight's cooking music.

No beer on the menu though; the friend who has been renting our guest room for two months departs tomorrow and has requested a repeat appearance of roasted pork loin in balsamic-blackberry gastrique. :rolleyes:

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I do this with almost all sliced bread, baguettes and corn tortillas. And you don't need to use the oven. It works just as well in the toaster or toaster oven. Or, in the case of tortillas, before throwing them directly onto a gas burner. If the bread isn't totally dry, a sprinkling of water, rather than running under the faucet, works fine.

blech. I would rather have breadcrumbs, or papa al pomodoro

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Mini pulled pork sandwiches*

Two Minute Sicilian Lifeguard Calamari (Babbo Cookbook)

*I could call them sliders, but I'll refrain. They were actually served on halved hotdog buns. The cooked meat had been vacuum sealed and frozen several months ago. It thawed and reheated (with the addition of some BBQ sauce) quite nicely.

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Oil-cured olives with herbes de provence

Snapper roasted with lemon-oregano butter

Sauteed spinach with garlic and shallots

Parmesan couscous

whatever the bottle of white is in the fridge from whenever (sauv blanc? too lazy to check)

Our (long-term summer) friend/tenant is off to 2L at Stanford and our (short-term fall) friend/tenant is out for the night. This is our first dinner alone in ages. Is this what it feels like when the kids are finally all off to college and you get the house to yourself? :rolleyes:

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last night:

guacamole and chips

iceberg and cucumber salad

charcoal grilled skirt steak

rajas de poblanos y elote (slow cooked onion and roasted poblano strips with fresh corn kernels and creme fraiche)

refried beans

pico de gallo

grill-warmed corn tortillas

Cerveza Pacifico

Rajas de poblanos sounds so good, almost like Mexican succotash-I just added some cream to bird egg beans, corn and peppers. It's all mingling with several sprigs of thyme.

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Rajas de poblanos sounds so good, almost like Mexican succotash-

Adding the corn was my own twist on the traditional dish. But rajas are so simple and delicious. When my daughter was a vegetarian--she's eating meat now--I used to make rajas for her as a taco and tamale filling. It's one of her favorite Mexican dishes. You can't do it fast--it's not a sauté. The peppers and onions have to be meltingly tender. And then some crema added and reduced a little but not cooked so long that it breaks down and gets greasy, and a little chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice at the end. You have to peel poblanos before you cook with them. The skin is tough and bitter.
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Adding the corn was my own twist on the traditional dish. But rajas are so simple and delicious. When my daughter was a vegetarian--she's eating meat now--I used to make rajas for her as a taco and tamale filling. It's one of her favorite Mexican dishes. You can't do it fast--it's not a sauté. The peppers and onions have to be meltingly tender. And then some crema added and reduced a little but not cooked so long that it breaks down and gets greasy, and a little chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice at the end. You have to peel poblanos before you cook with them. The skin is tough and bitter.

Your post inspired me to take 3 big poblanos out of my fridge (got them from Bestway a while ago..must have been pretty fresh because they've lastd a long time)and I charred them on my grill. They're now peeled and I will try your recipe probably tommorow with some Toigo corn. I think what I'll do is roast some seasoned potatoe cubes and pour the rajas de poblanos over them. Serve with adobo flank steak.

Thanks for the inspiration!

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last night:

Eco-Friendly pork tenderloin stuffed with E-F "vasciutto" and sliced prune plums, oven roasted

new potatoes with green olive and herb aioli

yellow squash gratin

2005 Marcarini Lasarin Langhe

edited to add--how could I have forgotten the fresh West Virginia kidney beans? Pork and beans, remember, z?

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