Take the floor, TaMara:
Tonight is about taking advantage of what is plentiful in your garden or local farm stand. So take the listed vegetables as a guideline only and use whatever makes you happy. My tomatoes are slowly ripening, about one every other day. This is better than green everyday, so I am grateful for whatever I can harvest. There is already a chill in the air- though the holiday weekend is predicted to be in the 90’s (hurray!) – but that chill means I’ll start looking at those fall menus. Let me know if you have any fall menu requests.
__
On the board tonight:
__
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1. Pasta w/ Marinated Vegetables
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2. Tomato & Olive Oil Bruscetta
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3. Grapes
Recipes and shopping list at the link.
jeffreyw
And I’ve posted a retrospective look at some sammiches I’ve known and loved.
Yutsano
Heads up: recipe for the eggplant parmigana casserole will be in your inbox here soon BHF. It came together better than even I was hoping it would, plus good vegetarian options are always in demand.
MikeJ
Via boingboing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gyR0ZIdoMM
slag
Darn! I was hoping for a vegetarian scrapple recipe.
But now that I look at it, the pasta recipe looks good too.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Open Thread and all:
9/11 happened to us all.
Take that, Islamophobes.
(Also, too: It’s worth your while to have a hanky handy).
slag
@MikeJ: That was excellent. I was worried there for a minute watching that creepy looking space not knowing what I was looking at. But then hilarity ensued.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Sneaky kitteh is sneaky.
TaMara (BHF)
@Yutsano: Oh, yippee! Just in time for eggplant harvest. How was the move? When do you officially start working for the big bad IRS?
TaMara (BHF)
@Anne Laurie – are you prepping for Earl? My friends on the Cape are stocking up on batteries and water.
Yutsano
@TaMara (BHF): THAT explains why the eggplant price came down! I’m just totally used to them not having a season, but of course they do. Duh. :)
I finish getting all the stuff over this weekend, and the first day of the new gig is September 13th. I should be settled in pretty good by my first day, although I already feel totally comfortable in the new place. I may end up staying there for quite some time.
jharp
I’ve got so many tomatoes I’m having trouble keeping up.
Several batches of salsa, 2 batches of tomato sauce, tomatoes and Spanish rice, and at least one sliced tomato for lunch every day.
Still I’ve got 20 of them on my counter after giving some to my neighbor.
Sun dried. Next year. A mountain of them. That’s what I’m going for.
TaMara (BHF)
By the bye, I have booked my trip to New Orleans….let the alcohol, zydeco and gumbo commence! I have taken notes from all your great suggestions from last Thursday. Thank you.
TaMara (BHF)
@jharp: Jealous.
Yutsano
@jharp: Two ideas:
Sauce
Booze
The first option seems more pertinent to your situation.
Violet
@MikeJ:
That’s awesome. I feel an internet meme coming on.
TaMara, menu request: various butternut and acorn squash soups. I really wish I had the recipe for the Whole Foods Crab and Butternut Squash soup. That stuff is amazing.
jharp
@Yutsano:
Thank you.
That tomato vodka looks very interesting.
And. Anyone here have trouble with the tomato hornworm?
http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/youth/bug/bug091.html
We picked at least 20 off of our 12 plants. They are bastards to find and do shitloads of damage. The best camo ever.
I also had a very good year for marconi peppers.
Yutsano
@jharp: Stuff the peppers! Hell stuff the maters too while you’re at it. Lots of good stuffing recipes online although marconis are sweeter than bell peppers.
Violet
@jharp:
Tomato hornworms are the worst. You can’t see them until you notice half the plant is eaten. And even then you have to look, look, look to find them.
Anne Laurie
@TaMara (BHF): Nah, we’re well inland (intersection of Rtes. 93 & 95/128). Worst that Earl will do around here should be a couple inches of rain, and maybe enough wind to take down the powerlines. (But one advantage to living in a residential pocket in an area zoned commercial/light industrial is that when the power does go out, it usually gets restored promptly.) I picked some green tomatoes this afternoon, in case my very jury-rigged staking gets blown over, but the surviving vines are getting pretty spindly anyway.
Hope LitleBrit and her crew are doing okay — I’m sure she’s very busy battening down and keeping the various animals from taking their panic out on each other!
burnspbesq
Anyone have any recommendations for good restaurants in Galway, Ireland? Have to go there for work next month.
jeffreyw
@jharp: I found one early on, nothing since. They turn into the most amazing moths. I hate to kill them. I just tossed it into the woods and hoped it couldn’t find its way back.
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: I think we may have to get our concern trolling up for RedKitten and her brood. The last storm track I saw pushes Earl up in that general direction. I think the last big storm that hit up that way SamKitten was still in gestation mode.
burnspbesq
Tomato hornworms are the spawn of David Addington. Nothing but pure evil.
IndyLib
BHF that looks yummy.
I’m busy this week with the makings of winter Mexican food and salsa. I spent the last 2 days, between rain showers, roasting 25 lbs. of Hatch green chilies, tomatoes and onions.
The smell of roasting green chilies give me a major deja vu kick, it’s a smell I’ve always associated the with the end of summer – there’s nothing like it in the world. I froze my chilies to use to make green chili, pasole and tortilla soup over the winter and special roasted about a dozen to use for chili rellenos.
I’m headed back to the farm stand where my husband got a bunch of veggies earlier in the week because he brought home some of the yummiest, nicest roma tomatoes I’ve ever had and I need more for salsa. My husband also brought home some of the hottest, little tiny chilies I’ve ever run across and some really interesting larger peppers that I think are banana peppers. They are pretty mild and taste a lot like bell pepper when they’re raw (they also are a huge range of colors, from pale green and pale yellow to blush orange to pumpkin orange to bright red), but lose the bell pepper flavor and gain a bit of a kick when they’re cooked.
I’m cooking for 25 or so people on Labor Day. I’m making kalua pork, lemon beer-can chicken, stuffed chilies (basically my Hatch chilies stuffed with hamburger, ground pork, onion, garlic, banana pepper, a little bit of jalepeno, tomatoes and rice then covered with Monterey Jack cheese and baked), potato salad, ambrosia salad, pasta salad with artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and homemade pesto, and a cobbler and a crisp with whatever fruit is nicest at the farmer’s market Saturday morning – hopefully peaches or nectarines and blackberries.
Oh, and brats. I think it’s illegal in Wisconsin to have a cookout/picnic without serving brats.
TaMara (BHF)
@jharp:
Yes, but when they ‘grow up’ then they look like this! (if you read the comments you’ll see my funny story of how I murdered a hornworm and devastated the entomologist I worked with)
@Violet: I will find some good ones for you. I have a couple tucked away. Keep an eye on the blog. Unfortunately haven’t been getting to BJ as often as I like to, so I might have a hard time connecting with you when I do find them.
I have a new client and the work is kicking my butt, so I’ve less free time to hang out here. (sad face). Speaking, I must go, there is still an hour of work ahead of me.
EDIT: And Jeff beat me to the pretty moth.
TaMara (BHF)
@IndyLib: Geez, Indy, maybe you should do next Thursday’s menu – replay that delicious spread. Yummy.
Anne Laurie
@jharp: Slow-roasted is the indoor version of sun-dried — and if * I * can get good results with slow-roasting, believe me, anybody can! Slice the extras in half (or big quarters), splash on some olive oil and garlic, maybe some herbs, 200 degrees for four or more hours. Once the tomatoes have lost enough water to make your kitchen smell irresistable, you can slip off the skins, dig out the seed cores if you’re feeling fussy, and freeze the good stuff in baggies or plastic containers. (Don’t tell my Spousal Unit, but this is a good way to get the best out of almost-too-ripe fruit that’s too squishy to slice neatly, and to use those giant fat delicious heirlooms with one disfiguring flaw that can be cut away & discarded.)
TaMara (BHF)
@Anne Laurie: So going to date myself here, but Gloria was my first hurricane experience. It was fun except for the electricity being out a week. (That’s what happens when you live on a dead end street, you’re dead last for repairs).
hamletta
Some comic delight for you: Dunlap & Jackie take on the Mu’fsbah Mosque controversy.
Some paraphrased highlights:
“People say we make Murfreesboro look bad, but now y’all are makin’ us look bad!”
“This is proof that Muslims have assimilated into Southern Culture: They want to build a big-ass church with a fitness center, and they want more parking!”
God, I love those guys.
Anne Laurie
@Yutsano: The late tv news here claims Earl is actually bearing further east than previously predicted — good for us Massholes, but maybe not our Newfie friends. On the other hand, the more energy Earl expends further south, the better for the Canadians… Atlantic ocean water temps are waaaay above normal this year, which if I understand correctly means Earl won’t get the extra boost that cold currents would normally provide.
sfinny
BHF I don’t know if you are still here but the last few times that I’ve cooked eggplant it has been really bitter. Don’t know if it is the eggplant or my lame cooking skills. Is there something I am missing?
Yutsano
@sfinny: Are you salting the eggplant before you use it? Eggplant really isn’t a prep and go veggie, you usually have to salt the cut slices/chunks and let them sit for about 20 minutes. I do this every time I do any eggplant dish, and the result is creamy and delicious.
Violet
@TaMara (BHF):
Thank you! I will stop by and look once the weather turns cooler. Way too hot for any kind of soup right now unless it’s gazpacho.
Violet
@sfinny:
Like Yutsano said, always salt the eggplant and let it sweat. Do the eggplant first before you start any other prep work. It can sit and sweat while you get everything else going. Definitely helps get rid of the bitterness.
sfinny
Yutsano: no I have not been salting it. Do I slice it and salt each slice?
Anne Laurie
@TaMara (BHF): Ha, the earliest hurricane in my memory hit the Bronx in the early 1960s — I thought that was another “Gloria” but Wikipedia doesn’t list it. We actually lost a window during that one, pretty rare in a fourth-floor walk-up, which is probably why my primary-school brain hung onto the sensory memories.
jharp
@Anne Laurie:
Sounds great.
I think I’d like to leave the skin on. What is the reason to take it off.
Thanks in advance.
slag
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: Very touching video, ellaesther! At first I wasn’t going to watch it because of the sadness factor, but I’m glad I did. Thanks for posting it.
Amir_Khalid
@jeffreyw: It’s daylight over here, fasting hours, and I’m sitting here looking at pictures of yummy sandwiches. There must be something wrong with me.
Violet
@sfinny:
Yes, slice and salt each slice. Set aside on a plate while you do other prep work. Give it 15-20 minutes or so, then dab or wipe off the salt (it can make your dish really salty if you leave all of it on there), and use however you were planning to use them.
jeffreyw
@Amir_Khalid: Lol! Nothing a sammich won’t cure. They are even better after dark!
sfinny
@Violet: Thanks!
burnspbesq
@Anne Laurie:
Could that have been Donna (September 1960)?
Agnes hit the NY/NJ area right at the end of my junior year of high school. Flooding in parts of North Jersey was incredible.
BGinCHI
@burnspbesq:
Eating? In Galway City? Fuck that. Get some fish & chips and then a seat at the Roisin Dubh.
http://www.galwaycitypubguide.com/all-pubs/roisin-dubh.html
Not the only place, but you want to see some music while you’re there and spend your time in the pubs. The King’s Head is nice too.
I envy your trip. I love GC. I expect some photos from a barstool…
Violet
@Anne Laurie:
I think it’s the other way around. Warm sea temps are what feed the hurricanes. Interaction with the front/trough can also increase intensity, depending on how the timing works out.
Anne Laurie
@jharp: Taking the skin off certainly isn’t required! Some people don’t like the texture, if you’re not going to puree the frozen tomatoes before using them. And some of the heirloom paste varieties have really thick, tough skins. Lazy pig that I am, I use the excuse to pull the skins off and chew on them as I’m packing the roasted fruit into ziplocks. Then in the bleak midwinter, I thaw out a baggie, saute some pancetta or sausage in a big pan, add mushrooms, dump in the contents of the baggie and after ten minutes, voila: summer memories! (Competent cooks would add onions, peppers, etc. but my Spousal Unit is a supertaster who grew up in the Midwest — it took me years to re-train his palate to the point where he’d let me use a reasonable amount of garlic, so we compromise.)
Yutsano
@Amir_Khalid: In the US we call that masochism. I do the same thing to myself during my fasting period so don’t let it get you down.
@jharp: It’s not necessary, just a lot of folks like the texture with the skins off. I’m not one of them.
Anne Laurie
@burnspbesq: You’re right, it was Donna! I was not-quite-five in September 1960, which explains the imperfection of my memory.
TaMara (BHF)
@Anne Laurie: I’m not sure they named them until the late 60’s. If it was 1960, it was before I was born, but it was also the hurricane my grandfather died during. I guess they couldn’t get him into Boston in time and he bled out from a esophageal cancer.
@sfinny – what everyone else said. And use small eggplant. Like zucchini, my experience has been the larger the eggplant, the more bitter it can become.
Yutsano
@TaMara (BHF): If you can find Japanese eggplant, you can usually skip the salting process. They usually don’t grow long enough to develop the enzyme that causes the bitterness in the mature fruit.
Violet
@Yutsano:
Yeah, the Japanese eggplant aren’t nearly as bitter. I find the salting helps with them too, though. It softens them up a bit. But I usually forget I need to salt, so I end up only salting for five minutes or so because I’ve done everything else and I’m impatient to get dinner going.
Seconding the smaller eggplant recommendation. The big ones are more likely to be bitter.
arguingwithsignposts
Lame, I know, but my food story for the evening was another slow-cooker roast with various vegetables. Leftovers FTMFW over the holiday weekend.
sfinny
Thanks for all the advice. I got so stuck to the idea that I needed to avoid salt, that I got away from salting and rinsing the vegetables. No wonder my eggplant became bitter. Thank you all for the cooking instruction, will value it when I try an eggplant lasagna this weekend.
Yutsano
@sfinny: If you’re concerned about sodium intake, use a coarse salt like kosher or sea salt that will be easy to brush off the slices. But yeah see if that makes a difference in your lasagna.
hamletta
@burnspbesq: I remember Agnes. I was in 4th grade, and my best friend and I were out in the torrent.
Our town had little drainage ditches with tiny, 3-foot-wide wooden foot bridges across them.
That night, it was like jumping over the Mississippi, so we held hands and jumped!
The flooding was awful, made worse by our house’s situation on a hill, and our perv landlord’s eternally unfinished improvement projects.
We lost all the clothes my mom had made for my brother, my dead sister, and me. I still remember the beautiful cotton pique coat she made for the first Easter after my sister died. It had red, heart-shaped buttons, which in Lutheran symbology, such as it is, represent eternal life.
sfinny
@Yutsano: Already use a kosher sea salt, but honestly I never thought about salting the veggies. The meat, of course you salt that, but the veggies? Stupid of me to think that they were different. :-)
Little Boots
What do you serve at a bloodbath? Just trying to think ahead to November.
Yutsano
@sfinny: One of the things folks rarely get taught outside of culinary schools is how to season in layers. In other words, seasoning with salt and pepper as a various ingredient or ingredients are added to result not only in textural layering that cooks the meat and vegetables perfectly but also makes it so you don’t have to adjust seasonings when the dish is served.
soonergrunt
Can’t sleep. I hate not being able to sleep.
@Little Boots: go with chili and/or tomato stew. It’ll blend better with the blood spatters.
Yutsano
@soonergrunt: Warm milk with nutmeg. Very calming and soothing for the nerves. Either that or we can poutrage you into submission. :)
Little Boots
@soonergrunt:
mercy.
or merci.
arguingwithsignposts
@Little Boots: obvious troll is obvious.
Little Boots
@arguingwithsignposts:
I wish I were just trolling. We in danger, girls.
Little Boots
but the recipes really do sound awesome.
Origuy
@Amir_Khalid:
What would a Muslim in the Arctic do when Ramadan is in the summer? I imagine that it’s hard enough at Stockholm’s latitude.
Yutsano
@arguingwithsignposts: I’m about ready to scream to the High Heavens every single time I hear about how bad it will be in November. It makes me want to put up shit like this just to knock some sense into folks. Yeah it;s from 2008 but dammit it still applies. Stop buying into what the Republicans and media want you to think and get off your duffs and DO IT.
Amir_Khalid
@Origuy: As you note, it wouldn’t be practical that close to the poles to follow the actual sunrise/sunset times. Actually, it’s a year-round problem, not just in Ramadan, because of the five daily prayers: dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset and night. My understanding is that in such a situation, one would follow a clock with arbitrary times for prayer/fasting set by one’s local mosque — or other competent authority, maybe even from abroad; mosques are hard to find in Scandinavia!
When a Saudi astronaut went up in the space shuttle, he did his prayers without facing Mecca. It would have been impossible to establish the direction of Qibla from an object orbiting at tens of thousands of miles an hour.
soonergrunt
@Amir_Khalid:
Supposedly he simply faced the rear of the ship since the orbital path was west to east and the shuttle orbits upside down and backwards, and this was the easiest way they could deal with that issue in a spacecraft that orbited the earth every 22 minutes. But don’t quote me on that because it was a long time ago, but I remember reading about it as a kid.
Yutsano
@soonergrunt: Am I wrong in thinking that’s just hella cool regardless of the logistics?
roshan
FOOD GAWKER!
Go ahead, try and top that.
arguingwithsignposts
@Little Boots: Bullshit. There is little danger that the Dems will lose the senate. They might be closer to 50, but nowhere near 49. There is a chance (according to Nate Silver PBTHN) that the Dems could lose the House. If that were to happen, the batshit crazy would definitely increase, but I’d hardly call it a blood-bath. We went through this in ’94, only more so.
We’re still before Labor Day. Real Politics doesn’t even begin until August is over.
Yutsano
@arguingwithsignposts: They won’t get to 50. Hell they might just sabotage one of their best pick-ups on the 14th if they don’t get smart and control the teabag crazy. But this is what happens when you lose control of your own narrative.
@roshan: I’ve said often if I could do my life over again I’d be a culinary anthropologist. But there is something to be said for being a food stylist as well.
MattR
@arguingwithsignposts: @Yutsano: I wonder how many of the people polled are saying they will vote Republican now but will change their mind as Election Day approaches and they realize what that vote would mean.
(EDIT: I also wonder with the generic congressional ballot poll how much of the shift towards Republicans is regional. If it is largely red districts getting even redder, then Democrats don’t have as much to worry about in terms of holding the House. I would love to see some analysis of that)
Yutsano
@MattR: There are several different kinds of voters. Ideological voters will vote either Dem or Rep and there is no changing their minds period. There are voters who make a decision in the process rather early and usually don’t get dissuaded from that choice. Others are waiting to be “courted” (I bitched about this earlier) and are waiting for the final sales pitch. And some don’t decide until they get the ballot in their hands. So it’s a crapshoot since what the polls say now will not be the end result in November. But we also know there are vested interests in stopping the Obama agenda, so that is the major monster to contend with.
Yutsano
@MattR:
I’ll also be worried when a generic Republican shows up on an actual ballot. Last time I checked actual humans had to campaign and do the work to collect enough votes to be chosen. My Dem running here is trying his ass off but the Rep who sits in the house in this area has his head so buried in the pork trough that he’ll only lose when he retires.
MattR
@Yutsano: But does all of that take into account the extra special level of batshit crazy coming from Republican candidates across the nation this year? I really wonder if there is a solid chunk of voters who are dissatisfied with Democrats but haven’t really considered the ramifications of a Republican victory, yet. Especially if it looks like the Republicans may actually regain control of one or more houses of Congress.
Yutsano
@MattR: There are those who think it can’t get worse, those that are truly dissatisfied, and those who think things have gone too far. And I hate to say it, but there are also those who are letting their subconscious racism take over and therefore the nigra has to be stopped without even being sure exactly why. The end result is the same however: the Dems will lose seats in the House and the Senate. Although I will laugh if the numbers in the Senate don’t change, just where the seats are.
asiangrrlMN
@jeffreyw: You slay me, Sir.
You know what apple butter is good on? Everything!
@Amir_Khalid: That’s actually quite a common phenomenon for people who are dieting–food pr0n, if you will.
You know, if our country turns over the reins to the Republicans again so soon after the end of W.’s regime, I will official break up with it (the country). There is just no excuse.
MattR
@Yutsano: Can’t argue with any of that. I definitely think the Dems will lose seats, but I also think the carnage won’t be that bad.
@asiangrrlMN:
I will be disheartened but this is the same country that reelected W just six short years ago.
asiangrrlMN
@MattR: Better not be. Sigh. I am not very sanguine right now. How you be on the shore?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: But…but…but…I DON’T SPEAK CHINESE!! I only know enough to get in trouble in Beijing and that’s about it.
Oh and what’s the chances of Bachmann being unemployed in November? I heard the guy who’s running against her is generating some buzz.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: When it comes to the American people, I am eternally hopeful but never optimistic.
Shore is good. No issue from Earl so far and does not look like we are gonna get hit too bad tomorrow afternoon. The biggest problem in the area has been rip currents, but since I am not going to the beach and in the water during the day that does not affect me. It is actually about 70 right now with a nice breeze blowing that gusts up a bit occasionally. I almost needed something warmer that a t-shirt and shorts while walking Ellie a bit earlier.
I do miss my cable TV though. Especially with football starting.
asiangrrlMN
@MattR: Yes, but look what has happened since! No, if the Republicans take back control of either/both houses, America will be Dead to Me.
@Yutsano: Too bad for you! I don’t either, by the way. Probably a bit more than you do, but not enough to survive. I understand more of Taiwanese, but I don’t speak that, either.
@MattR: I no haz cable, and I feel fine. People just suck. Period. I have been called a romantic cynic in that I visualize the ideal situation, but when it doesn’t happen, my cynicism is reinforced.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: I enjoy my hopeful pessimism. It’s never worse than I expect :)
I might be able to handle to cable if I had my desktop with the nice monitor with me. But it would still be hard to survive without ESPN and Comedy Central. The annoying thing is that I have a Hava player (like a Slingbox), but it does not work when plugged directly into the cable modem. It needs a wireless router, but I had to bring the router with me to the shore house :(
MattR
@MattR: I might be able to handle NO cable. FYWP. And time for bed.
asiangrrlMN
@MattR: You can haz Comedy Central online! That’s how I watch Jon Stewart and Colbert. I don’t have cable in part because I would watch way too much sports if I had it. Sorry you will have to suffer without ESPN and CC!
@MattR: I was wondering about that, but I wasn’t going to say anything. Night/morning!
Michael
Dipshit Cenk has another of his dipshit diaries up at the GOS.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/2/898599/-Unilateral-Disarmament-Has-Destroyed-the-Democrats
Of course, it has a huge backpatting commentariat.
I wish somebody would explain to all these stupid fucks that elections aren’t a football game, that they’re about effective governance for everyone, and that you should hope that the guy who gets into place does a good job regardless of whether you wanted them in office or not.
roshan
Really? does everyone win in elections and live happily ever after? Why have elections at all, if so?
There is this misunderstanding that elections and governing are the same. For the opposition party, elections are on agenda the day the other party is sworn in. The GOP has proved that flawlessly. The majority party, in this case the democrats, have basically forgotten this and watered down each and every agenda their base supports to garner votes to pass legislation. Can’t blame them too much, since votes are needed to pass anything. What’s at fault is this “we are better than that” attitude towards bare knuckle brawling in messaging. If you can’t give your base the agenda that’s on their priority then at least give them some other reason to vote for you. If not then see for yourself the results in november.
The economy has to fall off the cliff for democrats to win any elections. They forget that there are other things/issues that can be used to arouse their base to vote for them.
soonergrunt
@Yutsano: We should all have that kind of problem once in our lives.
El Cid
Awesome.
And this will likely have an effect on both coverage and the politics of regulation. Great.
[I think the title is ironic, but literally it’s not to “save” Big Oil but simply to promote shallow and vicious anti-regulationism.]