I'm not sure there are many places that have ideal gardening weather right now, but I'm sure many of you have planted or at least planned. (Here in Northern Vermont it's 80+ and my very sandy soil is baking. But I'd rather be here than in Minnesota).

For hybrids I'm growing Sun Gold cherries, Mountain Magic (late blight resistant), Big Mama, Super Sauce, Big Boy, and Lemon Boy.

For yellow or orange heirlooms I'm growing Yellow Bell (a favorite bell shaped paste from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange), Kellogg's Breakfast (orange beefsteak), and Jubilee, a great orange.

Also growing Rutgers, Delicious, Rose (a Brandywine type from Johnny's Seeds), a mix of heirlooms so I don't know what I'll get, and Cherokee Purple

The Cherokee is new to me, and I'm growing it on a friend's recommendation. I'd be interested to know your experience with it. I can still adjust numbers.

Over time what I eat has been changing subtly, and it's clear some of that is from reading Serious Eats every day, several times a day.

1) There are so many great vegetarian recipes here, and blogs that get linked to, that I'm eating vegetarian more of the time (I've resolved to be vegetarian at least half the days this year). It gets easier all the time.

2) Kenji's vegan months have inspired me, and I'm choosing to eat more vegan meals, even when that means just leaving out the cheese I would have otherwise included in a vegetarian meal. Easier all the time.

3) I'm more conscious of adding new dishes and combinations to my repertoire, rather than sticking with the group I've been pretty happy with.

4) I've been happy to rediscover the worth of some food and ways of eating I grew up with, as more Serious Eaters are attracted to making preserves, pickles, sweets from scratch, etc. I'm freezing and canning again.

5) I treasure my garden even more, and recognize that being able to eat ripe tomatoes warm from the plant is a privilege I've taken for granted.

How about you? How has Serious Eats changed the way you eat or what you eat?

I love commercial pork fried rice with the pinkish pork. Don't think it's ham as it has the texture of pork loin, but it sure isn't plain pork. What do I do to the pork to get that effect? Cook it with a sweet and sour sauce? Ah so sauce?

Good Christmas morning all.

What's on your Christmas Dinner menu?
Other Christmas food traditions?

Ours is pot luck, and will start with a Beef Roast and Yorkshire pudding, the principal reason we have the roast. Then green salad, carrot salad, roast root veggies, potatoes,relishes, apple pie, pumpkin pie, cookies, and whatever else people bring.

What food related things will you spend some of those millions on - and how will you endow Serious Eats?

I'd need a new kitchen in a new house for starters. Probably hire a private chef - or better yet, hire a pile of chefs for a week at a time in exchange for a healthy donation to a charity of their choice.

Vermont is moving in some interesting directions in the food world, and I'd want to spend to encourage more of that - growing cooperatives, communal cheese caves, sustainability, etc.

I'd want to find a way to pay for pet food for some of those who suddenly find they can't support their pets.

And for all those currently registered on Serious Eats, a copy of Kenji's book when it comes out.

How about you?

Here in Northwest Vermont I've been a little more casual about this storm than I probably should have been. Went to get water today and of course there weren't any gallons. I don't lose water without electricity, but there's always the unlikely possibility that the supply would become contaminated.

I figured I'd open canned goods if we're without any electricity for any length of time. (I'm more concerned about an unsteady elm tree that looms over the garage)

How about you?

Any of you being evacuated?

I think I'd never encountered this until watching the food network. I always figured the front of the fork is sort of like a spoon and holds the food better.

Did you grow up eating off the back of the fork? How do you decide which things to eat off the back of the fork, and which off the front?

Are there some circumstances when you do one or the other?

A year ago a local restaurant came to our farmer's market and sold borek, (they might have called it boreg) a meat/onion mix rolled up in hand-made phyllo dough.

It was very good, but the dipping sauce that came with it was dynamite, and I can't find anything that sounds like it when I google (and the restaurant, the Euro, doesn't list borek on their menu.)

The sauce was clearly dairy based, but had an additional sharpness. Might even have been yogurt and mayo mixed with something else. Had a bit of a yellow cast. Was the texture and thickness of sour cream. Was definitely not just yogurt, which is what seems to be what's listed when I search for "dairy sauce for borek."

I don't have any idea whether it was the chef's recipe, or if it's traditional somewhere. Any ideas?

I'm planning to make some green tomato mincemeat, but don't really have enough green tomatoes left, at least not enough for all that I'd like to make.

I have oodles of tomatillos though, but not a lot of experience using them.

The only things I've ever done with green tomatoes is make green tomato mincemeat and use them in a relish that combines red tomatoes and green tomatoes. So I don't have any idea if they behave the same way in recipes.

Have any idea if I could make the substitution>

This is like the recipe I use:
http://southernfood.about.com/od/greentomatoes/r/bl30515t.htm

May affect you in other states:

This year Vermont has been dealing with a problem with persistent herbicides in compost, which cause a tight curling of tomato leaves, but also poor germination, stunting, and low productivity in some other vegetables.

There have actually been 3 herbicides found, including Clopyralid and Picloram. Nobody had registered with the Ag Dept that they were using these herbicides. Horse farms were one of the sources, and it turned out that some Purina feed included the Clopyralid.

The herbicide is not harmful to humans (in theory, and according to the VT Dept of Health). It passes right through the body, which is the problem for compost. The herbicide in the feed ended up in the manure, and survived the composting process.

The herbicides have a half life of 1-2 years. It affects plants in very, very small amounts, much less than the amount allowed in human foods. The use of this compost is not going to affect organic certification, but it sure messes up the garden.

I got some bad compost last year, from a different company than produced most of this year's problems. (The UVM and state plant pathologists thought my tomato problem was herbicides, but it wasn't confirmed, and because no one had registered its use it was a mystery.)

THE POINT OF ALL THIS IS, if you're using horse manure in your compost, or buying compost, it's really, really, important to pursue this, and particularly to find out if the horse feed being used is Purina.

Some federal agency or other is pursuing this nationally, because it may prove to be a national problem.

The problem here was actually identified by the principal seller of compost, the Chittenden Solid Waste District, which collects a wide variety of organic wastes from the Burlington area. Their web site has a lot of information:

http://www.greenmountaincompost.com/

And a link to an article on the local WCAX news:

http://www.wcax.com/story/19266557/compost-contamination-results?clienttype

This article in the NYTimes - "State-Fair calories: Do They Really Count?" actually has David Kessler endorsing the one-time indulgence of things like deep fried butter, at the fair.

I look forward every year to a fresh blackberry ice cream cone, made from the milk of cows at the fair. And I once had a beautiful piece of fried dough. Otherwise, I can never quite bring myself to eat the blooming onions or sausage with peppers and onions. That doesn't keep me from coming home and eating potato chips with onion dip though.

I feel like my horizons need broadening. What do you indulge in when you go to the state fair?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/dining/at-the-iowa-state-fair-deep-fried-butter-on-a-stick.html?_r=1&hpw

Made blackberry jam yesterday, and have 6 cups of pulpy juice left to do something else with. Might just make a syrup with it, but I'm interested in making a blackberry cordial

Online I find many recipes start with soaking berries in vodka, but that's out since I already have the juice. Some use brandy, some use vodka.

Can I make syrup first and then just add vodka to it when I want to make a cordial - in other words just use it as a flavoring for a drink?

Anybody had any experience with this, or something similar? Would appreciate any ideas/advice you can give me, including the amount of sugar to use.

It's finally a nice warm sunny day, and I've been out getting some seeds planted. The poor seedlings I've been nursing through cold and cloudy weather (some in the greenhouse of my car, on the back shelf) are basking in the warmth and a couple of hours of sun while they start their journey to toughen up for the real world.

What are you planting in the garden this year? Anything you're trying for the first time - or is this your first year? What are you doing differently from last year?

What are you looking forward to the most?

I'm planting more tomatoes (about 84, 12-13 varieties) so I can can or freeze more, and make more salsa. I froze so many peppers I haven't yet bought any since last summer, but I'm planning on even more. And I'm hoping to find a good recipe for kosher dills that will stay crisp once canned. I found I don't like frozen kale all that much so I'm growing more chard.

Can't wait for the first sun-warmed, ripe beefsteak How about you?

Cooking for a client (who needs to put on weight, no less) and he wants a steak - a sirloin. I tend to think of sirloin as pretty dry. But then I practically never cook a steak for myself. If I want a steak I go to a steakhouse.

What kind of sirloin am I looking for? I think I'll probably manage to not overcook the steak, which seems the only danger, but I'm concerned that the meat won't have enough fat to stay moist.

Am I wrong about that? Give me any hints. I'm buying the steak as well as cooking it.

I've got a vegetarian chili recipe that calls for 2-3 dried shiitakes to be ground with spices. I'm thinking it must be to add some umami, and I'm wondering if I could substitute marmite, and how much I'd use.

I know Kenji said he uses it for soups. I've never used it in anything, though there's a jar sitting in my cupboard. I tasted a tiny amount and thought it was vile, so I'm not going to be joining the marmite on toast crowd.

What do you think of this, and do you use Marmite and how?

I've thought about trying this method for awhile, because I know capsaicin binds to oil. It's pretty logical, but I haven't heard anyone mention it before. I licked some tomato off my finger today when making sweet potato black bean chili. I'd chopped jalapenos for it, and of course my lips burned.

I washed my hands in vegetable oil (a couple of tablespoons), wiped off as much oil as I could, and then washed the remaining oil off my hands with hand soap. No burning on my lip. Rather cautiously, I then touched the inner corner of my eye. No burning! I guess I might not advise that if chopping habaneros, but nonetheless, this removed enough capsaicin so there was no burning.

I make Ukrainian Easter eggs, and to finish them I roll them in polyurethane in my hands. The polyurethane doesn't penetrate the skin, but there's a problem getting rid of the polyurethane. (Mineral spirits or turpentine are toxic). The magical thing to do is wash my hands in oil, wipe them off, and then wash with soap. No more sticky polyurethane. So if you find yourself with polyurethane on your hands know this works for that too (probably for oil paints as well). Originally read this tip in a craft magazine.

Here's the sweet potato black bean chili recipe, btw:
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/sweet_potato_black_bean_chili.html

We've talked about the serious eats logo some time ago, but I noticed the other day that beside the "start a topic!" balloon it's been turned slightly so it's definitely a smile!

I was one of those who instantly thought banana when I first saw it. And was it ever yellow? That's how I remember it.

What was your first impression?

(Have already said on another thread that I'm without my part time job as of today. Too much time on my hands, evidently.)

Mine was to eat meat no more than half the days of the year. I lasted until mid-summer, keeping track every day of where I stood. Then I just sort of lost interest, and definitely ended the year eating meat more than half the days.

I think I'll probably make the same resolution again this year. All the reasons of health and ethics I made that resolution still hold for me.

How about you?

I'm planning to start making no-knead bread, and I'm thinking of asking for something to bake it in, on my Christmas list. What have you used?

I'd be happy for a new dutch oven (mine is cast aluminum and I don't use it much anymore). I'm looking at a calphalon one - can that take the pre-heating? Apparently I could use a pyrex dish, too.

Just wondering what you've used, how small/big a vessel you've used, and if you always pre-heat or if you've made it by putting cold dough into the cold oven and turning oven on, which would mean a wider choice of containers would work.

If you were asking for some multi-tasker that would also serve to bake no-knead bread, what would you be asking for?

I bought some ground pork to make sausage for some stuffing, and I've never done sausage stuffing before.

Do you use breakfast sausage or sweet Italian sausage for your dressing? I've seen it both ways, but breakfast makes more sense to me since there's already sage in the dressing.

My nephew's partner just bought a Sunbeam 16 qt roaster oven which is supposed to be able to roast a 20 pound turkey, so that her oven is free for the sides for Thanksgiving.

I don't find any reviews of this model in spite of it coming up in searches, so I wonder if it's either too old or too new to have real reviews.

But I'm wondering if you've had experience with roaster ovens in general. Can they really roast a big turkey? How large a bird have you roasted in one? Would she be better off cooking sides in the oven? Do they get really hot on the outside during the long time needed to roast a big turkey?

Any information, suggestions, or cautions you have would be helpful.

Looking to pinch food pennies. I love my rice and black beans, baked beans, split pea soup, soups in general - but I need some new ideas and a pep talk. I know some of you spend practically nothing on food, and I want to know how you do it.

I'm looking to spend no more than $35 a week on food, which I'm thinking should be plenty, but it never seems to be.

I'd like recipes and tips, especially for stretching fruits and veggies. Do you stick to in-season foods? Buy only frozen veggies? I've had a garden all summer and now I have to adjust.

Frank Bruni exchanged his job as restaurant critic for the opinion page at the New York Times, and I've really come to like his style and observations. But today he couldn't help himself and took down a too pretentious restaurant in New York.

I was thinking of Serious Eats as I was reading what he had to say. Most of us seem to like to explore the new and exotic, but I don't think anybody here succumbs to this level of absurdity.

Enjoy the read, and I'd love to know what you think of it. If my link won't take you there, the title of the column is Dinner and Derangement, and you can reach it through google. Or today you'll find it listed in opinion at the top of NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/opinion/bruni-dinner-and-derangement.html?_r=1&hp&gwh=873297E84EE1E113695A6D0665D7B357

I was reading about my Red Sox today and thinking about how Steve Jobs changed the game of baseball. All the players carry around Ipads now, and can look up statistics and watch their last at bat, not to mention the whole history of the at bats of the pitcher they're about to face. Consequently pitchers and batters have been forced to up their game.

How has Steve Jobs changed food and cooking, particularly your cooking?

I don't worry so much about buying cookbooks anymore, since I can find recipes or advice online. My small little Northern Vermont town has become more cosmopolitan in our food tastes, not just because of immigrants but because it's not so hard to figure out how to use exotic ingredients.

Would teevee alone have made these changes? It's hard to think about what it was like pre-Jobs, so it's maybe hard to realize his affect. (I still have my apple IIC sitting in a back room). What do you think?

For a long time my spanish rice didn't differ a lot in flavor from my "spaghetti sauce:" onion, celery, green pepper, garlic, tomato, oregano, maybe a few other herbs, cooked with the rice. But it never tasted like what I was familiar with from restaurant spanish rice.

It's clear I used too much tomato, but I'm wondering if that's all that was off the mark. What makes spanish rice as far as you're concerned? I'd like to make something more like what I'm familiar with by that name.

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