Hi Maxie --

Sorry to take a while to respond -- I’ve been traveling. And thanks for your warm thoughts re: Zoë. Definitely not the best part of having pets, but the math still works out in favor -- years of unconditional love and fun vs. a few weeks of heartache isn’t such a bad equation.

Vis a vis the onion skins, in cooking school I was taught that one goal in stocks is to make them as clear as possible, and that onion skins could tint the liquid. Honestly, with my stocks clarity really isn’t a big deal, but I’ve kept out the skins for so long now that it’s become force of habit. Does anyone else out there have thoughts about onions skins or not?

Hey Caleb Bo Baleb --

I’m afraid that I don’t have a formal recipe for shrimp stock. I usually just wing it by sauteing the shells and some onion and celery scraps until the shells turn pink, then adding water to cover and some stripped thyme branches, bay leaves and peppercorns, and letting it simmer until it smells strong, usually about 45 minutes, before straining it. Oh yes, often I’ll also add a few strips of lemon zest or a small shot of white wine along with the water to brighten the flavor a bit. I hope this helps.

Hey Caroline -- Indeed we are cross country stove buddies -- 30-inch Frigidaire Gallery dual fuel. What do you think of yours so far? As I said in one of my posts, I think it’s fine, but no superstar. As I type these very words I have two beef stews simmering, one on the 5000 BTU burner n back and the second on next smallest burner, the 9500 BTU one in front. Just now I wanted to put a pot of rice on there to simmer, but neither of the two remaining burners (15K and 17K BTUs) keeps a low-enough simmer for my taste. Oh well... maybe with a 6-burner range you get another simmer burner, and I can’t blame Frigidaire for my choice of a 4-burner model.

So the rice goes into the oven. No problem. Until you open and shut the oven door, because when that front simmer burner is on low, the flame is sometimes blown out by the rush of air from shutting the oven door. Once you know about this you can deal with it, but the first time it happened I screwed up the recipe I was developing on that front burner and had to start over. GGggrrrrrrrrr.......

The oven seems good, though mine runs about 15 degrees low (and I’ve been too lazy to calibrate it again -- I just compensate with the temp setting). I confess that I haven’t done much with the Pizza and Chicken Nugget settings, though I love your idea for the latter.

The pic of your cat by the heater cracks me up. Congrats on the new kitchen. I can’t wait to read more about it.

By all means, do play with the recipes to suit your tastes. Use any type of olives you prefer (I bet Moroccan oil-cured would be good), or omit them altogether. You could use some chopped sundried tomatoes (or fresh), maybe a few capers or bits of roasted pepper. These vegetable dishes are pretty forgiving. Have fun!

Hi drfugawe --

Fortuitous timing... your comment showed up just as I wondered how I’d ended up with almost two pounds of dried pineapple in the cupboard. Seriously. Seems like time to give Mrs. Harvey’s a whirl... found the recipe on your blog. Mine is different, but probably related. It’s adapted from Alice Medrich’s book Pure Dessert. In my column I described it as “not an actual cake as much as it is a jumble of dried fruits and nuts with just enough vanilla-scented batter to hold it all together.”