I can’t wait to see this book!

I like to put lovage in egg salad sandwiches and deviled eggs. A friend of mine sprinkles it on top of hot soups, so the soup steams the leaves.

Last Saturday I went to a talk about preserving given by Eugenia Bone. She was trying to get people to overcome their fear of using pressure cookers. I am quite fearful of them because when I was little one of our pressure cookers blew up in the kitchen. My mom never used a pressure cooker again. My memory is that she complained that there were shards of glass everywhere and “fish on the ceiling,” but looking back as an adult that just doesn’t sound right to me. How much glass could there have been? And, unless she was preserving tuna, who cooks fish in a pressure cooker? Fish cooks so quickly on its own. So, I am sure that I have conflated two completely different kitchen disasters in my mind, but the fact remains that I have to get over my fear of using a pressure cooker.

I couldn’t get the photos to load. Just picture a really, really big cod!

Thanks for making that point about the limitations of the 100 mile diet. The issues faced by farmers and consumers are complex and need to be addressed with a series of equally complex solutions. A 100 mile diet is very useful as an exercise in awareness of where one’s food comes from and what is happening in agriculture near our homes, but it is not, in and of itself, a quick or practical answer to the problems that we face.

The clear top cannisters that stick to the side of the fridge are gorgeous, but I’ve always avoided using them due to the way that they expose the spices to light. Do those of you who use them find that it doesn’t damage the spices? I just keep my jars on a turntable in a cabinet.

I am fortunate to live in a town with a Penzy’s and it is so much fun to roam around the aisles in a store devoted entirely to spices! There are entire sections devoted to cinnamon and curry!

Wow. I had no idea this was going on. I can’t believe that there aren’t a few California-based food manufacturers or vineyards that can’t be persuaded to step in, even in these difficult times.

This week-end I plan on trying to make caramel apples using a smoky tea in the caramel. I will let you know how it turns out!

Edna Lewis is my favorite food writer. I am glad that you are excerpting her work. The Taste of Country Cooking gives readers a clear idea of what it really means to live and eat in a way that is dictated by the seasons.

Alice Water’s new book is wonderful. I noticed that it was designed like the hymnals and prayerbooks I remember from my youth: black text punctuated with important words highlighted in red. I looked at it and thought “Yes. This makes sense. It’s a hymn of celebration for wonderful produce and a prayer of thanksgiving for guidance as one cooks.”

Peg Bracken was one of my heroes. I spent hours reading her books when I was little and I was so impressed by her irreverence. I always keep my eyes out for her books when I am in a used bookstore.

I would love to know what your mom was doing when all of you were at the store. Was she visiting with friends and family? Spending some time by herself?

I like to saute kale in a lot of olive oil with garlic and raisins. It still might be too bitter for the kids, but it makes most adults into kale converts!

One of my favorite things to do is to add a handful of dried blueberries to oatmeal (which turns it slightly purple) and then serve it very nonchalantly, as if there were nothing odd about it at all. It tastes delicious and it makes people do a doubletake first thing in the morning. You can even make it using blueberry juice. It’s good breakfast for Hallowe’en, as if the oatmeal were wearing a costume.

Many years ago I had a dream about going to an ice cream parlor where all the flavors were (at that time) unheard of, such as lemon-garlic. There were also other flavors like peppermint-basil swirl and chicken gravy with candy corn. I might try making the peppermint basil this year.

If you have never heard Lila Downs sing “La Paloma Negra” you can buy it on itunes for 99 cents. It’s the most amazing performance of any song I’ve ever heard.

When I was a restaurant critic I once ate at a particularly pretentious Italian restaurant where they refused to serve me tap water. (They had no idea I was a critic.) When I asked why, the waiter said “The tap water here is undrinkable.” “Are you saying you boil all the pasta in Evian?” I asked. He brought me the tap water.

Nonetheless, I think it’s important to know about the quality of the tap water in your community. Contact your municipality to ask if there is a way to get a water quality report.