greengage's Profile

Oh please--if someone can recommend a reasonable upholsterer in Boston, I'd be forever grateful. Already have the wonderful fabric warehouse (Zimman's in Lynn) but need the expert...

I am also dying for a Jotul woodstove, though I draw the line at cooking my foot! I do wonder about the summer "look" of the whole thing, also of the practicality of carting wood up three flights every time I felt like having a fire.

Re pollution: woodstoves have apparently come a long way even in the past twenty years or so (I've been doing research!) as far as emissions, etc. And re attractive stoves--check the Jotuls, especially the F100 models. Vermont Castings also wins points for beauty though the experts I've talked to says that the quality of the Jotuls is better.

Hmm--I may have totally over-assumed. Thought it was an Aga--on closer inspection, it looks like not, though clearly a funky, Euro-type stove. Any ideas?

Ethically I have no problem with this at all. A hide rug is going to last a whole lot longer than that hamburger you ate at lunch. I'm much happier with using the whole animal--meat, hide, etc. than the daily, mindless consumption of factory meat, milk, eggs, etc. I have a wonderful sheepskin that we use as a throw--it's a curly, Jacob sheep with gorgeous coffee brown wool--from a farm in New Hampshire that I know practices responsible animal husbandry. I've bought yarn from them for knitting, beautiful mittens that a friend of theirs makes from their wool, and I know they sell meat lambs as well. I just don't see the issue with this. McDonald's on the other hand bugs me, but I think everyone has to draw their own line. On the reindeer specifically, I think it looks kind of cool, though yes--I always think hide feels a little unpadded if it's used on a bare floor. And you might not want to explain to small children that it's from a reindeer--you don't want them to think you killed Rudolph.

The two more exotic projects I'd like to try at home this year: doughnuts and sausage (healthy, I know). I have my grandfather's old meat grinding attachment from his old Kitchenaid mixer and I'd like to have a go at a nice lamb sausage and then a traditional British banger. The doughnuts...I don't really deep-fry stuff, but I'd like to try it just once.

Otherwise, a lot of repeats from other posts. More eating from the pantry, more beans and smart economy cooking. Less meat, or rather really GOOD meat once or twice a week. And I love the one-dinner-party-per-season idea.

For all of you aspiring bread-bakers, I can't recommend highly enough the Steve Sullivan recipe that Mark Bittman wrote about in the New York Times (you can Google "Bittman bread" to locate the recipe). I spent YEARS trying to make decent bread at home only to be rewarded with a series of doorstops and bland, unsatisfying loaves. The Sullivan bread, made with a very wet dough and baked in a Dutch oven (I use a big oval LeCreuset) is shockingly easy and produces a wonderful, rough country loaf, perfect for sandwiches, crostini, toast, etc. I make a couple of loaves a week and haven't bought bread in ages--it has literally changed my life!