cottage-industrialist's Profile

Kristen from Papercrave.com recently did a guest post on my blog, providing free, printable PDFs for hosting a canning party--from invitations to labels to recipe cards: Canning Party

I'm pretty sure I remember from On Food and Cooking that there is a slight difference in edge browning between cut vs. torn lettuce. As I recall, the difference is because cutting the lettuce with a knife breaks open all the cell walls in the path of the knife, whereas tearing pulls the cells apart from each other without breaking the cell walls themselves. Maybe that would explain why a serrated plastic knife leads to less browning—it's essentially a tearing, rather than slicing, device.

On the other hand, I could swear that I read something McGee wrote that said that growing in wind makes asparagus toughen by promoting lignin production, but I can't find proof anywhere. So don't take my word for it.

I have used the same tutorial as Hollyrh linked above to make water painting cards for my son. He absolutely loves them. A sharpie marker, some watercolor paper, and watercolor pencils are all you need to be in business.

I just tried spaghetti squash for the first time this week, and I'm so glad. Tossed with olive oil, nicoise olives, artichokes, capers, and goat cheese, it was fan-flippin-tastic. And in spite of the decadent condiments, because it was squash, I managed to feel virtuous the whole time!

Oh, my, I love this. Wish there were one for the Southeast!

Thanks for the shout-out! And thanks to all of you for your kind comments...you all made my day!

My mom and I recently threw a bridal luncheon for my sister. Scarred from years of miserable wedding and baby showers (with and without games), we wanted to do something different, so we held a seed packing bee! (What's that? You can read about it here: http://cottage-industrialist.com/blog/2009/4/30/a-seed-packing-bee.html)

The women at her shower were all from different times and places in my sister's life, but we all came together to have a few bites to eat, enjoy a drink, and make something special that she appreciated far more than random whoozits off of her registry. There were no awkward silences and no frustrating cliques.

I hope to do parties like this for all the baby and wedding showers I plan in the future!

For the first time ever, I managed to clog my disposal yesterday (I grew up w/ a disposal in the South, so this was a kluge 30 years in the making). What I did was totally boneheaded: I forced nearly an entire head of spoiled frisee down the drain. To say nothing of the stupidity of having let the frisee rot in the fridge, this was stupid because of how fibrous the stuff is. I remained, though, uncharacteristically calm, reasoning that since it was mere plant matter, I could solve this relatively easily. Remembering from Harold McGee that salt is the most efficient wilter of salad greens, I poured some down the drain. Then, I used the lazy woman's plunger: baking soda, followed by hot water, followed by distilled vinegar. In a matter of minutes, the clog broke free, and I was back to to spiriting my rotted veg down the sink.

I grew up with them, and I've lived without them for much of my adult life, but I must say that for me garbage disposals are one of my domestic must-haves. If forced to choose, I'd pick the disposal over the dishwasher.