WhimsyLand

This must be culinary week.  The only serious mail I received was Cook's Illustrated.  It starts out with Christopher Kimball's usual long, drawn-out reminiscences of the pastoral life: tripping over mooses and bobcats; hunting turkey; getting lost in the mountains near Andorra.  Notes from the Readers includes:  moisten cookies before applying sprinkles if you want them to stay on; store unpasteurized soy sauce in the fridge to avoid off flavors after 3-4 months; store unused anchovies in the freezer or covered in olive oil in a small container;  frozen pizza dough tastes almost as good as fresh when defrosted;  it's not necessary to boil potatoes in a bath that starts out cold ; you can refresh limp herbs (parsley, mint, basil, et al.) by trimming the stems and soaking in cold tap water.  Quick Tips includes:  Rejuvenate limp celery by (again) cutting off the bottoms and sitting in a glass of water for 6 to 12 hours (you can add some Viagra, but there is no evidence that it helps); metal bench scrapers make the best butter cutters; mince fresh chiles with your hand in a Baggie; clean mushrooms by running under water and then using a salad spinner;  olives can be pitted by forcing them through an upside-down funnel.  Skillet-Barbecued Pork Chops looked pretty good.  It's the usual drill:  choose a smaller package where you can actually see all the chops, then brine them.  This recipe calls for a dry spice rub and a Liquid Smoke lathering about mid-cooking.  Quicker Beef Vegetable Soup suggests you use cheaper cuts (duh) like sirloin tips that cook up fast, but have a loose structure.  The four flavor-enhancing additives were:  sautéed cremini mushrooms, tomato paste, soy sauce, and red wine (yeah, red wine).  Grilled Stuffed Pork Loin looked good too, particularly the one with apple-cranberry stuffing.  Introducing Ricotta Gnocchi (remember it's pronounced like Pinocchio), substitutes ricotta cheese for potato, resulting in a lighter version.  Chicken Tikka Masala has apparently replaced fish and chips as the U.K. national dish.  It's a dish made with broiled chicken breasts (or the output of a Tandoori oven, if you're so lucky), then chopped into chunks and infused with Wonderful Stuff, like garam masala, yogurt, tomatoes and other spices (cumin, coriander, cayenne, garlic, fresh ginger).  This one definitely sounded yummy.  The Best Way to Cook Vegetables sounds like one of those Harry Potter titles that Hermione keeps referring to.  Here's the poop:  Boil green beans and snap peas; steam asparagus, broccoli, and cauliflower; sauté peas and zucchini;  try pan-roasting asparagus and broccoli (absolutely, they're both wonderful caramelized); roast or broil asparagus, carrots, cauliflower, zucchini (again for the caramelizing).  How much asparagus to trim?  Bend it halfway down the stalk until it snaps.  Always salt zucchini after shredding then drain (it's not unlike eggplant).  Don't bother with anything but the flowerettes of cauliflower.  Always buy medium-sized carrots without cracks and other signs of age.  When cooking, slice on the bias (one of my favorite recipes is sliced carrots, cooked in butter, then fresh dill, and crème fraîche).  Peas?  Frozen are almost always better than anything you can buy, including those at Whole Foods.  Zucchini?  Don't grow them, you'll have enough to fill your basement, just buy them, they're just as good.  On to Improving Glazed Chicken Breasts:  Nice recipe reminiscent of Duckling a la Orange.  Secrets to Apple Galette?  You want the "buttery flakiness of croissant, but infused with soldierly layers of caramelized apples.  The secret is Granny Smith or Empire apples and some apricot preserve.  Perfecting Pear Crisp seems almost like a fruity dessert overload, but good article, and a simple recipe.  Surprisingly, good old 'Merican Bartlett pears do the best, topped with a mélange of chopped nuts, flour, brown sugar, and spices.  Lots of new sauces for your chicken.  Reconsidering Cast Iron spells out the reason you might consider cast-iron over non-stick:  it costs less.  It cures and then is almost as non-stick.  It will last a lifetime, and then you can feel righteous deeding it to your young'uns.  The winner, BTW, was the Lodge Logic 12-inch Skillet at $29.95.  Is Wisconsin (home to Sweet Junie) Parmesan a Player?  Well, the best in the lot were imported from Italy, costing more than $15 a pound.  But, Belgioioso and Sarvecchio did well at half that.  Avoid DiGiorno, Stella and Kraft.  Equipment Corner tells us the Oxo makes the best apple-corer, Forschner makes the best knife holder, and don't bother with banana hangers.

Kinda busy.  More tomorrow.