Wow, I really liked that, mrdux. I had a roommate from college who I later lived with in a house with her and her husband, also a college mate, and two other men. No, it was not a commune...my friends rented out the rooms to pay for overhead, etc. It's a long story. The reason I brought it up was because she was always waxing poetic about M.F.K. Fisher, and I was too busy to borrow any of her books to check Fisher out. Now, eons later, I regret that, especially since my local library has none of her books. I now know what the fuss was all about.

Thanks, Scoville, that new link works perfectly. I was just salivating over the pictures alone.

I'm with RangerSteve, I steam almost all of my veggies now, and what a difference! I even steam my ears of corn. I grew up mostly on canned with an occasional frozen. I prefer the latter in a pinch, but I tend to have mostly fresh, now.

I now make my own soup from scratch, and here's a hint for those who do. Caramelize...an overused verb these days on cooking shows, but absolutely correct...your vegetables, I usually do them separately and put them in a bowl, while I do the rest, before you put them back in the pot and add your stock. I can't tell you what a difference that makes. Yes, it's more work, but if you look at it as a bonus for yourself and all who eat your finished product, you will be well-rewarded and willing to do it. It keeps the veggies from getting soggy, too. I was surprised to read where most chefs, in the city, don't use celery much. When you caramelize it, it loses its concentrated essence that tends to overwhelm the other vegetables. Anyway, hope that helps.

I also agree that baking is more of a precision making event, but I really do believe that stovetop cooking is too to some extent, hence the caramelization aspect I spoke of. It does change the end result.

I also switched to kosher (more coarse) salt once I read that major restaurant chefs switched to keep the line cooks from oversalting. It helps if you salt each vegetable when you're working on a soup, e.g., to help sweat the produce. But just a pinch or two. It takes more coarse salt than regular to spoil a dish...that's why the switch. You can rarely miss if you undersalt. My roommate I spoke of once ruined a dish that took all day to make by oversalting, and it was for a dinner party. When we all sat down that night, and went to take the first bite, the faces we made...while trying not to hurt her feelings. Trooper that she was, she immediately forbade us from eating further and whipped an alternative meal up while we sipped on the wine. We offered our help, but she declined. Good meal, good friends.