christinatremill's Profile

I lived in Sichuan for a year and fell head over heels in love with the food, which practically revolves around these peppercorns and dried red chilies.

I can't recommend Fuschia Dunlop's (I know I spelled that wrong) cookbook Land of Plenty enough. Check it out from the library--it's full of recipes that show the Sichuan peppercorn in all its grandeur. :) A basic technique is heat oil in a wok, add a 1/4 teaspoon of Sichuan pepper and a few dried chilies to a dish, stir-fry for about thirty seconds, then add some sliced garlic and ginger, stir-fry a bit more, and then add either some vegetables to stir-fry or some meat. It gives a wonderful, spicy and numbing flavor.

Here is one of my favorites, for "dry-fried green beans":
http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/green_beans.html

I have a kind of silly question about when/how to cut herbs from container gardening. I have a rosemary plant and a chive plant and am thinking about buying pots of mint and basil. (Not adventurous enough to grow from seed just yet.) I think I've kind of mauled my chive plant by cutting off too much, too quickly. How much and how often can I cut from my plants and still keep them healthy?

I think if I had a kitchen half as lovely as any of these I might die of happiness.

I am lucky to have married into a good set of knives. :) My husband used to be a Cutco salesman. And while it is kind of a knife-selling cult, man, those things are good. I use the chef's knife everyday for everything, and (at least according to Josh's previous knife-selling spiel) they have some sort of magic voodoo that makes them rarely ever get dull. Has worked well for me so far, and you can't argue with a nice set of knives that we didn't have to pay for...

Susan,
Thanks! The pans look great and aren't too expensive either. (A good thing, since one of the reasons I'm interested in baking is because good bakery bread is the price of solid gold around here!) The beer bread on your link looks tasty, too--I'll be trying that and the Farmhouse White soon!
-C.

What a great Mother's Day gift! I'd definitely put in my great-grandmother's recipe for homemade chicken & dumplings and my mom's delicious red velvet cake and pumpkin roll recipes. (Hey, I'm from the South.)

What a beautiful loaf! I'm curious--what type/brand of loaf pans would you all recommend for someone who's starting out & would like to learn how to make sandwich loaves?

-Christina

I will second both the recommendations for steaming/boiling and lightly salting. I lived in China for a year, and these were great as an appetizer or to balance spicy dishes.

I love edamame in salads, too. I'd recommend sprinkling some cooked edamame on this salad: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001096.html

I made it with tofu, but it would be good with chicken, too. The dressing is to die for. Easily the best peanut dressing I've had.

I have a question for all of you. At my house, we have been addicted to spinach salads with a warm bacon vinaigrette. I've been serving these in a nice wooden salad bowl that I have, but I've noticed that it's started to discolor on the bottom. It's a black bowl, and on the bottom, it says it's made of rubberwood. Does anybody know if there's something special I should be doing to preserve my bowl? (It was one of those $20 Thomas O'Brien pieces at Target, but I'd still like to keep it nice.)

I went vegetarian for Lent, so I'm trying my hand at making beef bourguignon. Bacon beef chocolate (!!!) plus a bottle of wine = yum. Also some grilled asparagus, a salad, a simple yellow cake with strawberries, and a bottle of Mountain Dew for my husband. He can't celebrate without it. :)