An excellent healthy and nutritious soup, and it makes a ton! I made it without the sausage. For one mealtime, we added in Boca ground crumbles.

Every summer I have mixed results selecting peaches from the farmer’s market and deciding when they are ready to eat, but not this year. The Michigan peaches have been excellent all summer! I buy a pint each week, leave them out on the counter for one day, then stash in the fridge, and I have a super-delicious, super-juicy peach for lunch every day. I don’t know what it is, but conditions were perfect in the Midwest this year for my favorite fruit!

Thanks for highlighting this recipe on the site recently. I made it without the spices simply as a way to shorten the cooking time (from roasting) and lengthen the storage time. One snag - the beet juice that dripped down through the steamer basket burned into a crust on the bottom of the pot. Not enough water? My wedges must have been larger than 1/2 inch because my steaming time was about 10 minutes longer. Maybe I should stick to roasting beets, but I love the result so I’ll probably try this again.

Agreed - the texture of the dough is great. I made several mistakes - forgot to add the oil until after the kneading was done, stretched the dough too thin on baking sheet, onions were crispy instead of caramelized - and it still turned out good. I don’t have a stand mixer, but it didn’t seem to suffer from hand kneading. I used green onion and green garlic in place of the onion slices, so I don’t know if that was a problem or if I need a primer on caramelizing. Baking time for me was 15 minutes on the nose.

I was already in love with turnips roasted in maple syrup when I found Ivy’s Maple-Glazed Baby Turnips and Carrot Coins recipe here. It’s fast, easy and delicious. Turnips are definitely underrated. Thanks.

“Joy of Cooking,” which my parents gave us as an engagement gift, always ranks high. But prior to that, in college a good friend gave me “American Food: The Gastronomic Story” by Evan Jones (husband to Judith Jones) before I had much interest in cooking. I loved the cover art (the famous “Thanksgiving” painting by Doris Lee) and the fact that it told the history of food in our country. As I’ve referred to the recipes over the years, it’s become a true favorite.

I’ve fallen in love with quinoa this year, and so invented this dish at a family gathering to try to indoctrinate others: Summer Quinoa Salad. Thanks for the contest!

Yes, I understand and agree. One question: Is the meat produced from small, independent farms subject to the the same government inspections and regulations as that from industrial farms? I know our inspection system is experiencing its share of problems these days, and a lot of the rules don’t make sense for small operations, but I’d want to know that there’s some kind of oversight in place.

I fall into the (c) category: Those who were enchanted by Julia’s memoir, “My Life in France,” and couldn’t wait to see the “Julie & Julia” movie after hearing that it was partly based on that wonderful book. I’m amazed that Julia’s masterpiece of a cookbook is being snapped up by moviegoers. I looked at “Mastering..” at the bookstore after reading the memoir, but that $40 price tag coupled with the complexity of the recipes made me return it to the shelf. Then two weeks ago, I spotted a shrink-wrapped box set of Volumes I & II at a bookstore display of “Julie & Julia” related books...priced at an unbelievable $20! I could not pass it up. I love paging through the books and reading the recipes. And I look forward to actually trying some of them, too!

Long live real cooking and printed cookbooks!

I just noticed this same thing at the farmer’s market - a bin full of husks next to the corn. I don’t get it, since we’re told that even if you just pry back the husk a little to check the kernels, the ear will start losing freshness. I keep mine intact!

“Food, Inc.” has arrived in Chicago! I hope the momentum for it continues. I still have vivid memories from reading a long excerpt of “Fast Food Nation” in The Atlantic Monthly when the book first came out.

Inspirational! I love that your numbers of participating students went up so much, even with a price hike. Proves that fresh food will always beat out the processed stuff. Good luck with your new projects!

A large company like Frito-Lay touting their locally grown potatoes is certainly a joke. In fact, haven’t processing facilities traditionally situated themselves near the origin of their raw ingredients simply for efficiency/cost savings reasons? The only benefit I see to this new trend is that maybe it will help further the transparency of these companies - having them volunteer information on how they operate in any way is a good thing. But I suspect there will always be more questions than answers.

Can I make this with regular cornmeal?

For me, the phrase “eat to your ideal” has had an ever-evolving meaning. Years ago (pre-Culinate, pre-Farmer’s markets), it simply meant emphasizing low-fat, low-salt food. When the government mandated “five-a-day” servings of fruit/veggies, that became my goal for awhile (and I discovered how hard it was to achieve it!). Then I got the bug to make things from scratch - chicken broth, dried beans. After that, came the organic movement and Michael Pollan, which turned my attention to finding out where my food comes from and how it is raised. But I still feel like I’m just getting started on the path to eating to my ideal, and I look forward to future phases of my journey!

Great interview, thanks. I just take issue with one sentence in answer to who has the biggest responsibility for preventing outbreaks: “Ultimately I believe it’s the consumer’s responsibility.” I don’t see how this can be when companies routinely keep information from consumers, government oversight is lax, and even highly regarded research can be questioned. The tomato/pepper issue mentioned is a good example. The consumer can only respond to what is made public, and we are often responding to knee-jerk conclusions. And with the peanut outbreak - was there any consumer safe food handling procedure that would have prevented the first victims? I’m all for taking personal responsibility, but, ultimately, I have to rely on the experts to supply me (through the media) with good, and complete, information.

I’m with you on the frozen homemade broths, soups & stews, and cooked dry beans, but the tomato paste technique is new to me. Thanks for the nifty tip of making a foil log out of the paste! One question: why freeze bread crumbs? I thought dry crumbs last pretty long on the shelf. Or is this just more necessary if you’ve seasoned them?

Something I’ve started using my freezer for: collecting produce ends for vegetable broth. I’ll add to a freezer bag any discards I have from cutting up carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, etc. When the bag is full, I use the contents to make vegetable broth, then start collecting again.

Beets weren’t a favorite of mine until I started roasting my own. Now, I love them. I don’t mind if the color gets on me since I can wash it off. Rather it’s the bright red ooze that contagiously spreads to any food sharing space with the beets that bothers me. Is there any way to minimize the run-off from fresh cooked beets?

I recently had a run-in with hospital food - fortunately for one night/morning only. I actually didn’t mind the sugary & salty fare of the liquid diet. I appreciated the juices and broth for quickly delivering essential nutrients I needed after surgery. And I’ve never been a big fan of jello, but that red jello was the perfect soothing treat for my sore throat! However, I was just as glad to get home to the super-food soups we had prepared ahead - one with squash & kale and the other a barley minestrone.

I never thought I’d say this: Lettuce! Before last summer, I never noticed that it could be so tasty. Now, I can’t wait to go back to my favorite vendors.