I don’t know how the French survive without a good breakfast. It’s all breads and carbs and nothing that keeps you going until lunch! I was always starving by mid-morning. I did manage an ok meal schedule when I lived there: light breakfast, huge lunch, light dinner. But I wasn’t eating out at restaurants all the time, and my French host mother refused to have bread in the house!

I’ve wanted to try jellied wine since I saw a similar recipe in one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks. It certainly looks refreshing and perfect for summer. I’ll have to try it as soon as I get rid of my case of ‘pine nut mouth’!

My favorite most recent not eating out moment was last weekend, when I insisted on cooking for us even though we were tearing out the countertops, backsplash, sink, and faucet in the kitchen. That Malaysian curry was delicious, though, and it’s not so bad doing dishes in the bathtub.

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice!

I’ll take extra fennel seed on mine! :-) Fine Cooking also has a great cracker recipe that I’ve been using, from the December ‘07 issue. It’s a mix of whole wheat and AP flour with a little olive oil that makes the dough nice and supple. People are so surprised when you tell them you’ve actually made crackers!

Do what all the food magazines do, and write yourself a timeline--one for the days before Thanksgiving, and one for the day itself.

I’ve made a couple batches of apple butter (so far!)--one with a bit of Marsala added just for kicks, and the other is a maple apple pear butter that is just incredible. Those jars are going to be saved for really special people!

We’re growing the Jaune Flamme variety this year--absolutely gorgeous flavor, reminds me of apricots.

This information is really helpful--I’m a natural cook, struggling with learning how to bake. I don’t think it helps that most recipes measure by volume instead of weight! I’m just wondering, can melted butter be substituted for oil in recipes? I don’t like to use vegetable oil. And I read somewhere that butter for creaming should not be room temperature, rather it should be about 60 degrees--is that right? Any advice appreciated! :)

To add to that last sentence, miso keeps indefinitely and (bonus!) becomes deeper and richer in flavor--I compared my almost year-old red miso with a newly purchased batch, and the taste difference was significant.
White miso makes an excellent sauce with a bit of yoghurt or sour cream for mushroom burgers. Maybe add some ginger, lemon juice, and a touch of honey. Mmmmm, miso.

I’m lucky that my greengrocer’s eggs (ok, the ones that no one knows about in the fridge around the back) are only $4.50/dozen. In order to afford them, I’ve cut back to making only two scrambled eggs for my partner and me every morning, instead of three, and rounding it out with my sourdough bread. That’s my solution for many expensive local food items. Eat less food in general, and you will save money.

How about par-cooked potatoes, like for roasted potatoes?
My favorite hash is andouille sausage and green onion with a fried egg.

Rhubarb! Along with fresh tiny lettuces, peas, asparagus, chicken, lamb, well, everything, I guess. :)

Great ideas. Vegetable slaws are what get me through a winter without lettuce salads. My usual is shredded carrots and fennel, red wine vinegar, maybe some chopped parsley.

On a somewhat related note, early season rhubarb is usually what gets me through late winter, but this year, I haven’t seen it anywhere. New Seasons had it on February 15th of last year--this year, nothing. :(

I want to make the cottage cheese from this book, but it will cost me more to buy the raw materials than it does to buy it ready-made from Alpenrose. I like making things from scratch, and generally, doing so is less costly than buying prepackaged. But I have to be budget-minded too. I would love to buy the best cream I can afford and make my own butter, but it’s just too expensive. This is frustrating.

Thanks for this! I love Multnomah County Library. Often I will “preview” a cookbook courtesy of the library then buy it if I like it enough. I do try to treat them well; I once was fined by the Spokane Public Library for water damage to a new book!!

I use a paste tomato--last year it was some San Marzano variety and a Mama Roma--maybe you’re right about not being fully ripened. I’m trying a different kind of San Marzano this year; perhaps I’ll have better luck with it. Thanks Harriet, for your thoughts.

The soup sounds great! Unfortunately, I don’t have a pressure canner...

I can my tomatoes but I’m not happy with the result. They end up tasting too acidic, and I’m afraid to reduce the amount of lemon juice/citric acid called for. And I hate hate hate adding sugar to tomatoes. It does not enhance the sweet flavor, it just ends up tasting like, well, sugar.

Mostly I make sauce and freeze it, but that doesn’t help me when I’m making soup.

It just seemed rather harsh criticism, considering there are many clueless publications out there--Fine Cooking, Cook’s Illustrated, A Taste of Home, god forbid--who refuse to acknowledge that we can’t eat willy-nilly anymore. It’s necessary to consider the consequences.
I do enjoy Politics of the Plate, but the cynical side of me is only able to see it as niche marketing--you know, and here’s our section for those weirdo environmentalists. Actually changing something, even as small as a choice of paper, rings more true for me.

It took them a while??? They’ve been more environmentally friendly than most magazines for at least a year now--I would say of all the food magazines I know, they’re the best at incorporating environmentally responsible tips and articles. They switched to the non-glossy, recycled content paper last year (who else has done this? no one), and every issue has tips on topics such as sustainable seafood, green shopping (whatever that means), which method of barbecue has the least env. impact, etc.