-----Original Message----- From: Christopher Kimball [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 9:31 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Letter from Vermont - August 30, 2008
<http://link.ixs1.net/s/om?ei=p243591&si=c147650674> To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add [EMAIL PROTECTED] to your address book. >From the desk of Christopher Kimball <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?id=h5899070&si=c147650674&pc=82001&ei=p243591 > Cook's Country Cookbook & DVD Set Slide <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?id=85899071&si=c147650674&pc=i2002&ei=p243591 > Show of Old Home Day Dear Friend of America's Test Kitchen, Adrienne was just inducted as a member of the Grange in a secret ceremony that she is "not at liberty" to discuss, but I did learn that the Grange (their motto is "Patrons of Husbandry") was founded after the Civil War to organize farmers who were being threatened by the railroad monopolies. Hence, I suppose, the secrecy. Today they still have 300,000 members nationwide. Old Home Day parade had perfect weather this year. All the fire departments turned out from neighboring towns. The theme was "Mardi Gras," and if the floats were not quite as fanciful as those in New Orleans, the enthusiasm was high. (You can see <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?id=85899071&si=c147650674&pc=92003&ei=p243591 > a slideshow of the parade.) Afterwards, there was a carnival and I paid $1 for three softballs to try and "Dunk the Dope." The third softball hit the mark and the "dope" got dunked! Nancy Tschorn, our local Justice of the Peace, was telling us about the house just down the road that she and Doug live in. It had been owned by Spittin' Pete, who made a habit of taking discarded construction materials from all over town. He was frequently seen wearing a long, black slicker, headed home with a sheet of plywood on his back. In fact, Nancy told us that her house was finished inside with nothing but dark-stained plywood shellacked to a high finish. But it is one of the prettiest little spots in town - a small, authentic Vermont homestead. Bears and more bears. Caroline, our 18-year-old, was picking blueberries on the mountain when she saw a bear cub headed her way. She immediately sat down, hidden by the bushes, and then, sure enough, the mother bear showed up. She and the mother bear stared at each other for five minutes and then each went their own way. A few days later, Adrienne and I were driving back home around 11 p.m. and almost ran into a black bear just a quarter mile from our farm. He lumbered off slowly into the woods. Last weekend, we were out on the horses and came across a wild turkey that, as a friend commented, was "the size of an emu." Living in Vermont is getting to be like an episode of "Wild Kingdom." I have spent a lot of time in old barns and with old cookbooks, and my interest is not merely historical. There are plenty of country antiques that still make sense today: the White Mountain ice cream freezer (available back in the 19th century), the hand-cranked seeder, the wall-mounted ice crusher, the jar-lifter used in canning, and the man-powered harrow with the large metal wheel. And I have fond memories of our party-line phone from the 1950s, anything pulled by a horse including a corn binder and a sickle bar mower, and the small bells attached to domesticated turkeys. In the kitchen, my appetite for old or regional American recipes is no less deep. But separating the wheat from the chaff is heavy lifting. I can look at an old silage chopper and realize that one is likely to lose an arm using it, but when it comes to a recipe for Tres Leches Cake, 24-Hour Picnic Salad, or Creole Fried Chicken, how is one to know if it is a keeper without actually making it? There's the rub. The American culinary repertoire is replete with lost, regional, family, heirloom and classic recipes, but one has to ask, "Do they work?" And I don't just mean do they turn out OK. I mean, "Do they make sense in a modern kitchen in the early part of the 21st century?" Hence our new cookbook project, The Cook's Country Cookbook, based on the work done in the magazine and, now, the public television show of the same name. We do our best to seek out the rare and the common, the regional and the national, the personal and the classic and then find those that add up to a collection of recipes that truly expresses the genius, the fun, the enthusiasm, and the subversive practicality of the American table. (Anything that appears merely practical but then turns out to be immense fun is oddly subversive.) The next step is as important. Put these recipes through an extensive test kitchen process to make sure that they really work, the first time and every time. I love this book since it speaks to my deep love of the American table - frugal, fun, friendly, and deeply satisfying. So here's the offer. You can have this book PLUS a full set of DVDs of the first season of our new television show, Cook's Country, for only $29.95. (That's even less that the $34.95 retail price of the book.) You will get great recipes - Strawberry Poke Cake, Firecracker Chicken, Loaded Baked Potato Soup, Smokehouse Burgers, Tennessee Whiskey Pork Chops, and Blackout Cake to name just a few - as well as the opportunity to see Bridget, Julia, and me make many of them on the show (along with Adam testing equipment and Jack handling the taste tests). So go on and reserve <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?id=h5899070&si=c147650674&pc=j2004&ei=p243591 > your copy today. The corn has been terrific this year although we have had so much rain that haying is almost impossible - I heard of one place that is selling bales at a whopping $10 each. But our son, Charlie, has both of his corn stands up and running (although someone has been "borrowing" money from one of the jars) and we are steaming new potatoes almost every night from the garden. Our own Pig Roast is coming up at the end of the month and we start band practice (we call ourselves Shady Grove) next week for the event. Two pigs (not ours) have been ordered, and we expect around 200 neighbors. I leave you with the following story. Heber Brown's son, Alfred, had got Ira's daughter into a bit of trouble. The fact was that she was in a family way. So, Ira went to talk to Heber about it. As it happened, Heber wasn't there so Ira spoke to the hired girl instead. She tried to be helpful. "I know Heber gets $25 for the bull," she explained. "I don't know what he gets for Alfred." Enjoy the last days of summer. Christopher Kimball Founder and Editor America's Test Kitchen Click here to change your Email <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?id=l145262&si=c147650674&pc=k2005&ei=p243591> address Click <http://link.ixs1.net/s/link/unsub?rc=ue&rti=p243591&si=c147650674> here to unsubscribe Click <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?id=y332979&si=c147650674&pc=l2006&ei=p243591> here to view our privacy policy. _____________________________________________________________________ THIS E-MAIL WAS SENT FROM A "SEND-ONLY" MAILBOX. Please do NOT reply to this e-mail. Chris Kimball's Letters from Vermont is being sent to you as the result of a request registered with Cook's. If you want to remove your name from our mailing list, or change your e-mail address, please click here <http://link.ixs1.net/s/link/unsub?rc=ue&rti=p243591&si=c147650674> . 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