Focus 580; The Best American Recipes 2003-2004

Good morning and welcome to focus 5 A This is our morning talk program my name is David Inge and we're glad to have you with us. It is the first Wednesday of the month and it has been our tradition and our pleasure on this program for a long time on the first Wednesday to be talking about food and cooking and generally with this guy. If you're a regular listener you know him this man we like to call our chef in residence his name is do well more. Not really a chef but a guy who's always been really interested in cooking and in the kind of stories that go along with the food that we love. And he's been with us monthly for a long time to do these shows. Every once in a while he's off and he's off traveling this month and we expect to see him again next month but we wanted to stay with the focus of cooking on the program. And we're doing that this morning with a special guest and her name is Fran McCullough. She has discovered edited and published many of the country's most distinguished cookbook writers. And she is the editor of a recently published book fairly recently published at least and titled The Best American recipes 2003 2004. And it is the fifth in a

series of these kind of books that collect together recipes that have been published in cookbooks in magazines and both the cooking magazines and more general magazines newspapers the Internet. She and her coeditor Molly Stevens have gone out and done a lot of harvesting of recipes looking for good things and put them all together in this book and indeed I think there are a lot of good recipes in it. It's published by Hoden Mifflin and is in the bookstore. If you want to go out and take a look at it questions certainly are welcome Maybe you have a recipe you'd like to share or something to discuss that has to do with cooking. You can give us a call here in Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. We also have a toll free line and that's good. Anywhere that you can hear us. Eight hundred to 2 2 9 4 5 5 ms McCollum. Hello. Thanks for talking with us today. You're only patient. How did you get interested in in a professional sense and cooking well.

Extremely interested in food itself. As a kid my father was in the Marine Corps and just after World War 2 we were living on an island in the Pacific and we had powdered eggs which are pretty disgusting. How to read Mill. It's a tough go there for two and a half years. And when we came back to the States I went to my mother's family farm in Iowa and that was just and you think they were churning their own butter and having fresh cream and killing the chickens and making homemade noodles and I just couldn't get over at. Food really tastes incredible. So I focus heavily on there after. Well the thing about food and people are interested in food. The real true foods are a kind of thrill seekers in the sense that they are

I'm sure like anybody they like their comfort foods but also they're always looking for things that are new. Yeah and and new and interesting tastes that they've not had before and maybe you know maybe it's some kind of new ingredient maybe it's cooking from someplace that they've never been but that's that's sort of the thing it's always well what's what's really new and exciting and certainly things like that do is a driving force in the restaurant world because they're always looking for new things to offer their customers. So if if I ask this question about well in this particular year sort of in the last year if you look at some of the trends that you see in the world of food what is there something that really describes where we are right now with cooking what people are really excited about. I think the spice are definitely at the top of the list. You know even five years ago when I first started these

collections if you said Spanish smoked paprika or even Chipotle powder people would go Yeah what's that. Yeah. I'm not dealing with it. I don't know where to get it I don't know what it is and these things have sort of wormed their way into a lot of kitchen and you know their inspection and gratification you know card space that people had and coffee cake made. We're starting to see it everywhere that the Chipotle is smoked whole opinio chili. Yeah and you can get it either dried or you can get it in a a saw in a sauce that's called adobo and that's kind of a sweet vinegar ie spicy sauce that has a number of different seasonings in there and there. I don't know I suppose for people who are dedicated chili fanatics they might disagree but I guess I would

say that police are pretty hot. At least for me they're pretty hot and they do definitely have a smoky flavor to them that's one of the nice things about them I guess I did not know that there was such a thing as smoked paprika. It is that and I don't remember ever having seen it actually on a shelf to to buy. Tell me Tell me about smoked paprika. Well this comes from Spain from a particular area of Spain where they always smoke the paprika peppers and it's just delicious. It's much more subtle than Chipotle really and not so hot although there is the hot version that comes in the hot and mild and it's its official name and pimento on Vera there or the valley. And it's really really good. Oh that's interesting you know just not all that long ago and just in the store sort of by accident I came across smoked a sun dried tomatoes now and which

I liked a lot and when I tasted and the first thing I thought was Well this reminds me of to portly Except it's not hot. Yeah yeah. And I thought that was it you know and so I started thinking about maybe using them in some of the same kind of ways with some of the same kind of flavorings. But but getting some of that that quality but without that that heat that can be pretty. So yeah it can. That's true. I love to buy those little canned chipotle and and with them up in the food processor and they keep for what six months in the refrigerator and you just use a little bit with the main a and a little lime juice and you have a wonderful little sauce. First shrimp for almost anything that doesn't and as I think about it now I guess it does seem to be one of those ingredients that you see more and more in a glaze As for for roasted or grilled meat

in dipping sauces like that that it's. It's one of those things that you that within last couple of years it's becoming a a much more common ingredient or at least commonly called for. Yeah yeah that yeah you're right. Called for it doesn't mean people are actually. Yeah yeah what do you have do you have off the top of your head up a recipe that uses the the smoked paprika. Or have some idea about ways in which some ideas about ways in which it's used. I'm just looking at chipotle at the moment there are a recipe in this years. Pork cornbread salad with grilled sausage and spicy Chipotle dressing. It's pretty hot. It's tomatoes avocados red and the lantern.

Sausage grilled sausage and left over corn bread toasted cornbread and then there's just an olive oil line juice Chipotle e cumin dressing and they have a quarter of a crop of chips only and this pressure for four people. That's an I don't know. I mean you know if you like stuff some people might be jumping up and down and saying Yeah but it seems to me that's an awful lot of trouble and poor people it kind of takes your head off. So we also give a suggestion that you might wanna get cut back on that just a little bit. Yeah. But last night for instance I made sure I just saw an olive oil with a lot of garlic and I put just a little bit as have pre-K and toward the end and I just pulled it all together and I squeezed a little lime over when they were done they were very very wonderful with eggs.

It sounds really interesting on what I have to go out and see if I can find some of this stuff and see what it would be like and maybe I maybe I should give my chipotle is a chance again and just rest. You just don't. Think that little tiny ass bit because that was one that particular recipe for the cornbread salad is one of those that you list in your top 10 out of the back and it does it really doesn't look good it doesn't look like it has a lot of good flavors there so you know it's something we love to find is unusual. When you serve it people say oh this is incredible what is this. You know and cornbread salad it is one of those things you know and it really delivers. Extraordinary. Our guest in this part of focus 580 is friend McCullough. She is a cookbook editor and she is the author of a number of bestsellers herself including the low carb cookbook and living low carb and is the editor along with Molly Stevens of the book The Best American recipes 2003

2004. It's published by Mifflin and it's a book that this is now it's the fifth one of these that you've done is that OK. And this will be out in October. So they'll be 2004 2005. OK we're working on the seventh. OK. Well it's really I like I like the concept of somebody who spends a lot of time looking at recipes just kind of going out and seeing everything that's out there and doing a call and and going through and then. Trying them and seeing which ones seem to really appeal and putting together the book and I do think that there are a lot of recipes in here that look pretty tasty to me. And we do have a caller here so let's bring them into the conversation listening someone listening in downs. Why number four. Hello. I like you I like the Chilean adobo sauce and blended up and then just put in the refrigerator so I can just scoop out a bit. Use it

on dealing with the slimy chili. But David you might like this. I often when I'm using you partly then I'll use some of the snowpack great paprika just to spice up that smoky flavor a little bit without having to use so much. Oh oh I think it's going to. I do really like the flavor and it tastes good to me it's just that I'm right. It's because it's pretty hot. Yeah yeah. And so there are lots of things I like to make pasta with vegetables and then stir and go cheese at the end and just a little bit of Chipotle and a little bit of the smoked paprika and that really kind of adds a subtle flavor if you don't put too much and you can use too much of the smoke that Reka rides through pretty easily and then it gets a little overpowering. And if you burn it you really don't like that you haven't ever done it well. You would never burn your smug pepper.

I made pork tenderloin must night and I made a marinated with soy sauce and a high things on and smoked and and put Tripoli in a double size. It sounds good and garlic and a little sesame oil. I keep things here for you but that makes a very nice marinate for a pork tenderloin. And did you then grill them. Yeah on that on the outside grill. The great CA to me for growing. Yeah very good. But look for the smoke that break a World Harvest food probably has it all right. Comes in a pretty little red skin at least when I buy this gun. Well thank you. Other calls are certainly welcome 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. I do like pork tenderloin myself I find it I think in our house we've been probably using an awful lot. Much much less beef

but that's a cut that we really like it's it's not terribly expensive. There's no waste. You can do all kinds of things with it. I think it's a really good thing. You know why you don't dry it out. But if you put the mare not on it. The way she was talking him down then you're fine. Well let's say we have someone here in Champaign to talk with Lie number one. Hello hello. Yes yes I'm one of those people who's pretty much a hot temper freak and I actually did find that peppers to be kind of mild so I knew there'd be somebody out there would say oh what are you talking about hot. Well that's me. So I'm I'm also an avid gardener so I grow a lot of these peppers in my backyard and I find they even get hotter when they are fresh are two really. Yes. Oh yes there's no it's interesting because the commercial jalapenos the fresh jalapenos aren't very hot at all. Every now and you get one that time.

Very often I have to use so many of them to get any kind of you know on the right and plus you can get in your backyard you can grow all these neat different kind of peppers like little Thai peppers and hop and Euro peppers which are the world's hottest peppers and believe me that I've given people habanero peppers and they've gotten a listers on there. Before us but I thought it was about another vile pepper it's pepper Seanie peppers and I love the taste of pepper sceneries and and you know Italian beef and all that but I've never been able to find the seeds to grow a pepper Seanie pepper anywhere and I've grown over a hundred different varieties of peppers in my backyard and so I just wondered if you knew anything about that or or what's the history on the pepper scene he peppered. I don't actually I don't know that. Have you tried separate these two they have I have I have I've I've totally tomatoes also just has a ton of pepper seeds and so anyway I just I just wondered if it I think are they Greek or something. I just wondered

if the region where they were grown vs. vs. an actual kind of pepper. But anyway I don't know what I call Actually no. Well maybe that maybe there's somebody else who is. Who would be listening who would know that would be great and to can call in and tell us. OK thanks a lot. Well I thank you for the call. Other questions are certainly welcome here in Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. We also do have a toll free line that's good anywhere that you can hear us that's 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 and we are talking with cookbook editor Fran McCullough and the book that she has put together along with Molly Stevens is the best American recipes 2003 2004. And there will be it's been going on now for a number of years there will be one for two thousand five and six and then for I guess the next one would be six and seven. Yeah right that's where I'm looking now. The other thing is some of the things that you talk about in the book is you know as we were

talking about the fact that people who are really interested in food they're looking for things that are new and new tastes and things that they have experienced before. And I do I have to ask you here in the section where you talk about top trends for the year in food where you say that the exotic cuisine of the year is British. I have a lot of respect for the British but you know that's that's that's always kind of been one of the big jokes is is that the British are supposed to have the worst food in the world and I'm sure that there are a lot of British cooks and chefs that would really bristle at that and put their dukes up and say oh yeah well you should come over here and come to some of our best eateries and we'll show you what good cooking is so I'm I'm sure that that's kind of unfair. At the same time I'm sure a lot of people will say what British is the exotic was you know the year. Well it's we're sort of sticking our tongues in our cheeks and we say that but it's true you know we have we've just

ignored British food for decades just because it's been such a joke. Well I have actually had some British meals when I go to England nine times out of ten I have to have it was really extraordinary. They're very good at cooking. Excellent ingredients very simply. And it really pays off. They don't seem to have had a huge amount of influence from the French which is kind of remarkable. But there is something very very delicious about British food and now we have Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver on our TVs all the time and we've started to realize that they have a you know a new way of for a new way of looking at these. Oh that is kind of exotic for us. Well what's up with someone else we have a caller in Champaign in our line number one.

Hello. Hi yes I'm just calling about the pepper scene recedes. There's one catalog that usually carries some it's called J U N G and they're in Wisconsin. I imagine they have a website and then I bought plants this year. And a little mom and pop greenhouse near Springfield it's real near Camp Butler just west of a little bit west of camp Butler I don't remember the name but I could maybe email you the name and the address. Yeah if you if you come across it you could do that and then if then the other guy if he's still listening could could get in touch with us and we can we would pass it on. I've only been there once I just don't remember the name but it's a really neat little mom and pop Greenhouse has a lot of unusual things. So how would your experience with the plants that they do well every American around them and I've only harvested a few and I haven't tried putting them up in any way so we'll see. I don't know if I'll be able to achieve the right taste or not. Yeah well you know putting them up in vinegar whatever you do.

Well I do come up here with a website for the young seed company J U N G. So that's if the other if Elihu is listening if he does have some internet access he could try that or had they almost always carry him in their catalog in the spring catalog. It's just w w w dot j u n g s e e d young C dot com so you can. Thanks. Well thanks very much for the tip we appreciate it. Well see there you go. You pose some kind of question and there's a pretty good chance that somebody's listening actually has the answer so that fella can go and check out that place on the web and again other questions are welcome 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 1 9 4 5. Do you have it. We asked you earlier about what are current food trends and you said spices and one of the things you mentioned was card which is you know maybe one of those things that people have on their spice rack and have never used or maybe yet. You know at Christmas

time they have made some. Something that has it in there I knew somebody once who put it in their coffee would like they're right and I don't know if that was something they had picked up in Scandinavia or something like that but then I part of the coffee was there. They always put it in their coffee. Yeah I think that's something that happens in India or I think of a hot cardamom coffee in India and it was it was I came I grew to like it a lot was maybe a slightly odd at the seems slightly out of it again. Do you do you have a recipe is something that again sort of occurs to you that uses cards like the shortbread made with the current delicious. Oh card among the scented orange salad that the kind of wind carries it that that is absolutely delicious and it's just a phalange show Orange is an orange flower water a little sugar and a

lot of cardamom the sea and there are some day and toasted flaked and you know mint leaves and you think you do it ahead and refrigerated overnight and take the car month Hades out before you serve it. And it's really refreshing and lovely. Well it does sound good and you're suggesting this as a winter dessert. Yes especially especially during those holidays when you know you're just stopped with food. It's a really nice treat and they serve it with honey yogurt with a little manila in it and it's a very good. Good and it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that a when you in certain times of the year you get into cooking certain things in certain ways and then you just crave something that's really different. Yeah something that just shouts of a different season maybe a different you know a different time as you know in

January with you if you could get fresh basil you know you don't want to have some pesto or something right because you'd like to have a plate of really nice tomatoes and you know fresh mozzarella or something like that with the little bays all that would be so it shows it on the talent that that says oh yeah my father would think that we're very funny. That says some are just dish cries out some are and you know I do that sometimes I mean I always feel kind of guilty when I do but there are those wonderful little tomatoes from Canada I think that is that right. And they actually smell like to me. When I know it is right for myself I think I sometimes do that much. I mean you know yeah a little yeah it's neither gives you a little taste of summer in the in the depths of winter just like I don't know I've had some times in July what I'd really like to have is beef stew or you know something that you want to make chili and

fire up the oven to make cornbread because it's just you're so sick of it being hot and humid like it is right now. Yeah I don't know if that corn for you. Oh yes here it is indeed. We have a very nice in our community and we have a nice farmer's market and you can go down there and get it. We are in the time of year when you get good sweet corn. Right which is is a great treat that is one of those things that I you know I think people sometimes talk about the fact that it's sort of too bad that there aren't seasons anymore that that you can kind of get everything any time all of that doesn't mean it's always going to be good but seems to me that this is one of those things that no it's still there's this little window in the summertime. You have it there and you enjoy it and then when it's done you say we're done we're not going to have it until next year. Right. And you just have it right then so. Yes. Now be a good time. I was talking to the plant and I said you know super sweet corn that was developed at the University of

Illinois. That is correct. Yeah that is correct. And I know that there are some varieties actually there. There's one famous Friday I think it's called a line I super sweet which was developed at University of Illinois. And I don't know if that's you know if we can lay claim to being the creator of all the sweet corn in the world but it's some of the solid varieties. Yes and it's quite it's a great thing when you can go and you can get it. You know it's as fresh as you possibly can. Actually there there's a fellow who frequently appears on this program who does home maintenance show with me and he also has some farm land and grow sweet corn and I was really surprised. One night a couple of weeks ago it was so nice. He shows up on my doorstep one night knocks on the door with a huge bag full of sweet corn that had been grown on his on his field and it was still warm. It was more into the. It was that it must have been an hour out of the field and it was lovely and

I shared some of it with my neighbors because there was no way that me and the missus were going to eat all the sweet corn and it was really really good. It's a really special sort of summer tree. One thing I wanted to ask your listeners who grow corn you know there's a Mexican called We coach corn. So delicious and I think it has to be field corn and I think here it's called corn. My dad's right. I'm just wondering if anybody in your audience has has ever tried eating you know knows anything about it. Well we'll see there. There's got to be some people who listen this morning who have some experience with growing corn and might even be might be familiar with that I know I haven't heard of it I know what it is but I've never had it have you. Have you had it.

Yes. So so what's it like. It's like it's kind of like truffle. It's just one of those incredibly heady mushroom things that's a little like porcini or those things that we never get that they get in Europe all the time. But it's you know people throw out corn you know and I know that Rick from Chicago. Yeah. His from a farmer I think in Illinois he told me it was a special strain of corn and it was treated in a special way. Well it's not it's again is that one of those things that I've ever seen offered for sale is as you say it would be one of those things where if you had it in your field you'd think you wouldn't think this is great. I have an opportunity to sell to the gourmet market you think oh my gosh what am I you know I have this right. It's not going to have to throw this away now and the idea that somebody would

the people would stand in line to eat it probably would seem kind of strange but yeah you know just all depends on how you were raised I guess. Yeah most of it here in restaurants is frozen which isn't the same it's still kind of interesting. But the real thing is pretty well if there are any corn smut fans out there you can offer 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 0 or a little bit past the midpoint here maybe I should introduce Again our guest friend McCullough cookbook editor and along with Molly Stevens is the editor of The Best American recipes 2003 2004. It's now a book series that has been coming out for a number of years and there will be more at least one for next year in the year after that. And what she and her coeditor have done is gone through cookbooks and magazines and newspapers and just looked at an awful lot of recipes and picked out those that they thought were the best and published them in the book and I do think there are some good some good sound stuff in here. One is the publisher and it's out there at the bookstore. Now along with

the other 50000 cookbooks that you will find if you go to the bookstore and see if you're curious here you have some questions or have a recipe to offer you can give us a call to me that is stunning I don't your being in the business you probably have some handle on how much that has grown in the number of books now that are available that it is just and just unbelievable. Nobody actually counts strangely really as a special special yet how to books no one has it no one could tell you how many were published last year. No but it is many. And most of them actually sell pretty well and there's a lot of compulsive cookbook readers now. Well it's a lot of fun and like looking at them and looking at cooking magazines I guess I do find myself wondering though how many of all of the cookbooks that are sold how many are ever cooked out of. I mean really. Or maybe

you get a cookbook and you make two things out of it. And well in the Internet business there is a sort of unspoken idea that if you get two or three good recipes out of a book you're doing well. One thing we're trying to do when we go looking to buy those recipes and because you know if you're behaving $40 which is not uncommon these days for a book and you try a recipe is awful which happens to us all hope that. You're pretty mad. Well I would just I'm just thinking for example that some months back I was looking at the there was a cookbook that was put together by Marcus Samuelsson. Yeah. Mayer has a very famous Scandinavian chef and has a restaurant in I think it's in New York that's a it's a big one of the big deal places. And so he's done a cookbook that combines his various interest it's certainly a Scandinavian influence but

there are other influences in his cooking and it's a beautiful book it's just beautiful. But I don't know that I can imagine making very many things out of it. It may be as you say you know their mother might be if I was feeling really ambitious I might pick something and just say well let's try this and see how it is that it's a beautiful looking book and the recipes look pretty interesting but they also look sort of daunting. Yeah actually this year this fall we have a Marcus Samuelsson recipe and we did to several. And finally one that we loved and we can't even remember what it is at the moment but he's he's one of the people responsible for the card you know that would make that would make sense that he would have his hands maybe you know and of course his other big influence is Ethiopia which is such an interesting land you know how he plays with those ingredients.

The one thing that we were always looking for you know all of these chaps are producing books and some of them are very hands off you know the chef doesn't really have much to do with the production of the book or the cooking of recipes even. And so we're trying to weed out the good stuff find good stuff and know it. But something we love is when chefs cook at home which not all of them do by any means. They cook simpler food but they still have the thing sensibility. So we've got a card for the recipe. Well that's I kid. I can imagine the chef coming home from a hard day of work and the family saying so what's for dinner. And they would say OK. Get out of here forget it I don't want you know. Don't you know let's pasta any time let's just put that in the microwave and have it come out this year the fall. We have a recipe from Rocco DiSpirito the famous

television show and it's just you know one tomato like that with I think there's four tomatoes that have an orange a large orange scattered over the top and some Spanish cherry picker with salt and pepper. And it's so good there's no oil no nothing. And he says well anything else would be an insult to the tomatoes. But it's so great to see something really simple and elegant. I mean it's wonderful for home cooks to be able to do that. Well that's seems to me that's something that maybe that's not exactly new but we've been seeing in the food world for a long time and there has been you know sometimes you see dishes that are very very elaborate but then also there's the other end of the scale where things are simple the preparation is simple the ingredient list is not that long. It's not stuff that's really exotic but it does it may indeed rely on being able to get really good really fresh. Yeah ingredients and that's

the sort of that's the catch I mean now this time of year maybe you can go to the farmer's market and you can get a lovely assortment of heirloom tomatoes if you're lucky. But not everybody is going to. Not everybody is going to have access to that to that to what might be a key ingredient and in addition you know that it's that it's the tomatoes and if you can't get the details you know you might as well forget it. Right right. Yeah that's true. Yeah I think people love to cook that way. At least I do because after all we're all incredibly young and I think it's you know we do have some complicated recipes and we really hold them to a high standard they have to really deliver. They have to be worth it. So we try to mix up those two kinds of things. Well it's don't we have someone else here to talk with in Edgar County and this is our line for toll free line. Hello. We're talking about corn much. Yes it goes on

sweet corn. It does yes because when we used to grow corn and we grew they super sweet a lot and I could I had a half brother that was an Agriculture Department after many many years ago. Started growing the stuff and corn smut is then a large amount of the corn kernel itself. It's a fungus. And in Mexico it's. We got caught up right. And they don't call it corn smut. No. In Mexico they call it taco. Stop. You know and all you do as it is is you just you can saute it in butter are you can also mix it with scrambled eggs. And the promo

is you scrambled eggs will be black. But that's you know the small price to pay. And have you done that yet. Oh oh oh oh. Well a thing is when you have smart What are you going to do. You know and the thing is you just go with the floral but nursing a drive. I want to experiment and I read about you know I've been in hadn't been to Mexico and such like. And it really is I think it kind of has it is as you said it has some progress so it's good. It's got to mushroom tonight kind of taste to it and it's really it's a shame that people just throw the stuff the right way because. Right. Should be cry it's quite good. I've never had it for us. And so I don't know about that. Yeah. And 970 gets kind of watery. Yeah. Yeah. And you caught it. That's right. It is. It means it's consistency is primary

water. Yes right right. Have you. Heard right if you're thinking of a book called the Encyclopedia of creative cooking by Charlotte courage and I don't know that. Well a friend of mine got to spy on me just recently and it has two thousand recipes. Good grief Yeah. Is it in you. I know this book is from the 80s but the thing is that they say is she is the editor of Ruth's gossip mill. And also has the creative cooking course. And these are very simple brought our recipes. They're not elaborate they're not like the French cook you know such as that. But you know they have meat and casseroles and they have proteins and desserts and and. Seafood and pastry. But it's it's not difficult at all. And the thing

is it has 800 color photographs on a teeny. And so I suggest you might take a look at it because a lot of it but you also talk about the fact it's one of those expensive books yeah. But yeah at the same time these recipes and read them you can find that there are very down to earth and they have been tested and not what you'd expect from a lot right. I mean I'm sure you don't have to go to that person that used to have a show wrong I think it was on channel 3 and that's now going to prison. But making macaroni and four cheeses you know they've got it you know it's nothing elaborate. It's just buying for different kinds of cheeses and and so it you know it I like to book you know I've got probably two or three hundred cookbooks you know I grew I go way back to my

grandmother you know she collected cookbooks and I've got I'm going back to 1890 something she needs. Do you have a favorite. My favorite I would have to say rather this one's becoming a favorite but I'd have to say that the one that I really learned to cook with is a joy of cooking. Yeah just that that book tells you how to do things. Yeah and some of that and also another book which which I like as is James Beard who he he. When I lived in New York I got to meet him and I had I have a signed copy it was a cookbook upbringing and you know so anything else that he speaks very down to earth. He was yeah he'll tell you hadn't you know how to do a short letter and it also gives you variation.

Yeah. Are the same basic recipe and the and is American cookbook is the one I have. Yeah. Which is I think just the very best. And also I like to go grow maize but I haven't looked at a difficult gardening thing Martin. I haven't clipped out of those books very much. Well when he was on channel 12 here. Live we you know watched him faithfully every Sunday. And in fact we got a couple of books through the sludge program kept well. Ha. So but anyway I just want to ask you Ron tell you about about you know that wonderful thank you. Thanks for the story next time you go around a cornfield. You know just go rock and you can break it off you don't have to take the whole ear so you know just go break it off. I'm quite sure they won't they won't mind too you're

in prison for doing that. That's great I can't wait I'm going to the country this weekend. Thank you. Thanks for the go. Well see I was going to jazz you about asking you when the last time you were in a cornfield was but it sounds like you have been in. Cornfield so yeah yeah you know it's funny when he was talking about how the 40s the macaroni turned up in this old book. Here we are looking through all these food magazines and cooked books every year and we see all these recipes and get all excited about them and everything on it and I see food magazines from the 70s sort of the 80s or read old cookbooks you know the collection or something and he said right you know these are the things that look so new and exciting. So many of them were done then maybe not. Not quite the same way but pretty close.

Yeah we made some of that with some of our ingredients aren't weren't available and were probably a little bit more concerned with the with lightness maybe would like to light Yaz up alone better. But other than then yeah there it's sometimes it seems hard to find something that's truly new that nobody has ever done before. That's true. You know we have about 10 minutes left and we have a couple of other callers So let's talk with them Bloomington Illinois. Up next lie number one. Yes I had a question unlike your earlier caller who knew what to do with what he grew in the garden I grow things in the garden before I know what to do with them. But I think right now I'm growing. It's a tiny Apple tell my tia good. So it's a pineapple flavored and they're nice. I mean they're like tomatillos I guess although I've never grown them in the regular kind. It has a kind of pineapple ie

flavor and it's kind of crunchy and small but I don't know what to do with it. Well that probably in my mouth can eat it. Yeah you can put it you can just cut up on the T O's and put them in salad. So I would thing you've created this same and and it's hard to think what's good with pineapple and tomato. Yeah. Through me when you said I thought I would I would think that you could use that to make a kind of a relish or a salsa that would be good with either grilled chicken or grilled fish from a dish I was thinking. Yeah because that you get at sort of a free you know. No we see an awful lot of fruit salsa with grilled meats with grilled fish and then I think you probably could do that with. Probably so would you. Would you add lime juice or yellow that I would think that would be

good with flavors. Would you make like a saw thought of that I would I think I would keep it raw or cooked into a little saw so that it privately run to just cooking and down with onion you know. Olive oil or some kind of oil make a little. I wonder if it would taste and guacamole you know some tomatillos cut up and mixed into guacamole that's quite good. Yeah I think it would go with the avocado taste. Sure it might you might just have to do some experimenting and kind of see what what you come up with and maybe just look for some or look for some recipes that use tomatillos and try the ones that you have and see how you like them I mean it's possible that you might make something in taste

in say with a you know but. But then again you might say you might taste and say whoa this is really this is really very good so you might have to just play around with it because certainly there are a lot of recipes now that use tomatillos For saw for sauces and and salsas. So you know maybe also you'd you know go down to the library or the bookstore and look for books. Latin you know Mexican or South American recipes and see what might be in there. OK well thank you appreciate the suggestion. Your fork might be good with a combination. Yeah. Fruit fruit flavors with pork would be nice. Yeah well good luck. Interesting letter. Let us know how if you are. You know let us know OK. Thank you. Let's go here to another caller here the line number two. And I believe the callers in Urbana. Yeah. I was wondering if you had any interesting recipe for chicken that

you've come across in your neck and no doubt what our editor or as to what I think what the chicken recipe he always I want to cut chicken almost every night. So there's always chicken and let me see. Yeah. Well you know there is a wonderful chicken and brave too with prunes but kind of wintery. There's there's a recipe I'm very fond of called Heinz and chicken that very good for it when it's hot. That's chicken breasts chicken legs chicken. The cut up for good. Yeah kind of chicken pieces low sodium soy sauce it's a cup of that half a cup of fresh lemon juice two tablespoons of fresh carrot on chopped or two teaspoons and

two teaspoons of garlic powder one teaspoon pepper three half a teaspoon of papper. And you just rent chicken and pat it dry and you combine everything else and stick it in a bowl and marinate it all you know and sort of massage it into the chicken you can donate it overnight. Yeah overnight it's the best if you have three hours. That's OK too. You turn it several times and you just grill the chicken skin side down. And. You can also cook it in the oven. You can take it or you know if the weather grows it'll be about 40 minutes at 375. And what did you call that. I mean it's convent chicken it's actually a recipe served in a real convento convent chicken yeah. I think it's freezing and it's very light.

You know it's just it's so wonderful it's got all that lemon juice and the character and you grow it on a hot fire for what about 30 minutes or what. Let's see what we see here. Place the chicken skin side down on the grill rack. If you're using a charcoal grill move the chicken away from the hottest area. If you're using a gas grill reduce the flame to medium. Cover the grill. Turn it frequently so that it cooks evenly and thoroughly should be ready in about 35 minutes. OK great. Thank you very much. Yeah thank you. Well you know we have just about exhausted our time and we're going to have to stop with for people who are listening obviously if you're interested in looking for some good recipes you might look for the book that we have been talking about the best American recipes 2003 2004 and there are a series of these books going back a few years now and they'll continue they'll be a couple of more books edited by our guest Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens and it's published by Hoden Mifflin

and friends. Thanks very much for talking with us we appreciate your taking the fall and I am so excited to learn about it. We look I think we let you go up go up there in the field and see if you can find some corn but I'm going to eat. Thanks very much. Okay thanks Dave the high.