Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I've been obsessed with pork carnitas this summer. This chicken recipe will be just the ticket to take our taco making another direction for a while. I applaud you allowing the meat to marinate overnight. It clearly was worth the extra wait.

OK - nobody is answering the question - HOW MUCH PASTE SUBSTITUTES FOR HOW MANY ANCHOVY FILETS? How do you know how much to use to sub in paste in a recipe please?

olive oil, parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper

Cream of butternut squash soup (w Italian Sausage)

Ravara I have two huge loquat trees in my back yard. Here in Texas, they are way past the fruiting stage for the season. All we have left by the end of July is frozen pulp (for sangria) and jam/jelly.

Unless they are on a different timetable on the West Coast I am sorry to say I think you'll have to settle for peaches or cherries for now and wait for next year's crop.

Thanks, SE posters for all the great suggestions. I will check with the Eggplant Overlord to see if he has any preferences about being frozen into tomato sauce or canned as caponata.

If I can't find a canning recipe for caponata per se, do y'all think following the time specified for a chutney type concoction will do? I have canning jars on hand but the whole salmonella thing this summer is giving me the willies. I'd love to hear from an experience canner about processing time.

Stephie - Americans waste/throw out approximately one pound of food a day per person. If you don't want to use the garlic in the jar that you bought, please donate it to a food bank (if still unopened) or to a community kitchen where they prepare meals for kids living below the poverty level or for homeless or underemployed folks?

If you decide to open it and use it - in my experience, the garlic in a jar does not taste quite as good as fresh, but it isn't awful, either. I keep some on hand for those times I unexpectedly run out and don't want to make a trip to the store for just one thing.

It works if you use a little more than you ordinarily would (to make up for the loss of allicin). I tend to throw in a bit of organic sugar to offset the loss of natural sugars in a preserved food.

Austin Agrodolce
http://austinagrodolce.blogspot.com/
Food and fun, cooking AND eating out, adventures in CSA baskets, etc

Also - my son is a chef here and has a new blog
Gastronome
http://austingastronome.blogspot.com/
Cooking/eating out/techniques

"The Butcher's' Blog" or "The Cutting Board"

Matt, I have a question for you. My grocery store has a sign saying something to the effect of "please ask us to trim your meat to your specifications - we are always happy to help!"... Only when I asked to get a tenderloin trimmed of the silverskin before taking it home, the butcher acted sort of insulted. Is there a way to ask for additional trimming without it being taken the wrong way?
.

Buying/cooking for 2 as an empty nester is almost as hard (especially if you'd gotten used to shopping/cooking for 4). What has worked for me is joining forces with a couple of other empty nester friends. We buy and then split up bags of potatoes, apples, other produce that we couldn't otherwise use before they spoiled (especially since we are trying to stick to organic produce whenever possible).

At least I hope you are able to compost the produce you can't eat? If you are able to recycle that stuff into your garden/planter soil eventually you haven't completely lost out on your investment.

TexasDeb here - native gal happily returned to the Lone Star State after living other places with husband and then 2 kids. Totally into supporting sustainable agriculture/permaculture now - taking out almost all our lawn, creating new garden bed spaces, growing more of our own food and cooking our way through weekly organically grown local CSA baskets. I'm here most of the time trying to find recipes to prepare something new (to us) in our weekly basket, like, kohlrabi. I just didn't grow up eating anything like that. I enjoy the site and appreciate helpful comments for substitutions, hints, shortcuts. I have a food blog as well- y'all are welcome to check it out: http://austinagrodolce.blogspot.com/

When I was little my Mom used to make me a soft boiled egg, toast bread, cut it into strips and we would march the toast strip "soldiers" into the egg yolk. That and orange juice mixed with ginger ale always make me feel cared for, even as an adult.

Word of warning, y'all - the Fritos bags nowadays are not as substantial as they used to be. Having something more substantial in between the Frito Pie and your lap (or hands) is recommended, especially for younger diners.

Otherwise, as we all know in Texas already, Frito Pie is just one more proof God loves us.