tirgoddess

I really like the scissors and the paring knife with the curved handle, otherwise I thought that they were way overpriced and poor quality.

"You're undoubtedly correct that "brand loyalty" is a merchandising term, so my personal definition of loyalty may not be relevant. But to me, it does involve some degree of sticking to something even though you well understand and acknowledge that something else may be superior." Jaymes, I respectfully disagree. An example for me was Gold Medal flour. Used it for years because my Mom did, then I started working at Trader Joe's and tried the King Arthur flour because everyone said that their baking products turned out far superior with it. I broke down and tried it and in my experience it was a solid recommendation. Same with Nestle Chocolate Chips, then I saw that the Trader Joe's chocolate was Calumbet (spell?) and tried them and they are excellent. Now of course TJ no longer has King Arthur and the chocolate chip private label has changed which makes me wonder if it is the same.... Edited because I am trying to use quote feature..

I am brand loyal on many items and when they are on sale I stock up. I also shop multiple stores and coupon clip. I try to fit those stores into my weekly errand running. One place where I find some favorites is Smart & Final. They have Peerless Coffee $12./2lbs., King Arthur Flour 10 lbs./7.99 w/ card, C&H sugar,dijon mustard, eggs, white vinegar in the jug, Roland red wine vinegar. I have been buying cheaper food wraps unless I have a coupon. My zip top bags last a long time as I clean and re use them. I have yet to find a "good" soy sauce, I'll take suggestions for that. Most of my budgeting has been done at Costco where I will buy in large quantities, prepare sauces, chili, and stews and freeze versus cooking different protiens and sides every night like I use to.

"As far as I'm concerned public toilets are just disease waiting to happen, so the less I have to touch the better. Magically operated water, paper towels that roll themselves out, zig zaggy entrance ways rather than doors with handles, I'm all for it." Yes!!! And put that covered waste pail by the exit...especially if the door has handles. I am uber sensitive about the hand washing and if I can't properly wash my hands, then neither can the staff....that visual creeps me out and I have to try hard not to let it ruin my meal.

Forgot to mention that I enjoyed the blind fold challenge. It really made each chef consider all the facets that go into creating a dish. It was interesting to see each chef's approach to what was before them and their reasoning for their decisions. I hope they keep this challenge in the series. Also was glad that the scallops were dropped for the "Jen" team, it helped that they weren't prepared, but may have been a good back up move if the other protein failed.....

Disappointed for blue team....thought that Jen would take the helm as she did on the air base episode. The bickering amognst the brothers is sad to watch. I also think that house is in forclosure....the early shots in the episode showed the pool dirty and without the fountain running.

Thanks Jaymes - I will search for the original topic....at the risk of beating a horse that died along time ago, to me ANY restaurant that has disgusting bathrooms concerns me. If I am in a place and have consumed my meal then go to use the restroom and find it disgusting I will mention it to management. If I use the restroom prior to dining, and it is disgusting I usually leave and mention it to management.

The restaurant rating thread got me to thinking about where restrooms come in to play. When dining at a highly rated establishent, I often wonder if the reviewer has been to the restroom. When this "room" in the house is in shambles, poorly stocked, or has watered down soap it grates on my last nerve. Am I too OCD to think that the condition of the restroom is a reflection on the overall operation? How much consideration should be given to the restrooms in the design and planning of a restaurant and how much attention should be paid to them on a daily basis?

Before I had knife skills I was at our county fair where a guy was demonstrating a chopper that he pressed down on rapidly to chop onions, carrots etc. It was amazing how fast it worked and how the end product turned out . . . I had to have one. I think it cost around $40. and it came with accessories . . . Well my experieince was very different from the demonstration because I didn't have the guy's strength to use it.

. . . . regarding proper pronouciation . . . for llama, is it lama or yama? Always wondered, but for last nights show thought basically everyone knows that two L's together makes the Y sound . . .

I want to give my sister an easy to follow cake book that covers parchment, crumb coat, batter, trimming. She primarily wants to do celebration cakes for her family. Cake Bible might be too intimidating for her . . . suggestions please, and thanks!

I enjoyed last night's episode as well, I wish that they expanded the episode timewise to show the chefs working with their teams and focusing a little more on each dish's composition and presentation . . . . it seemed a little to rushed. Glad Bayliss won, wanted either Bayliss or Keller because they are class acts, seems that MC forgets where he came from with his cockiness . . . .

Ziploc makes a bag specifically for vegetables which extends the life of them. The bag is perforated with pinholes. I have to order them out of Canada because they didn't catch on in the US. For all of the produce that I purchase and grow it is worth the extra trouble to have them. I reuse the bags about 5 times so I am getting my money's worth.

I hate to tell you this but I live about 1/2 hour from Christopher Ranch. In August, Sept, and October I wake up to the scent of roasting garlic. They are the largest producer of garlic in the US. That being said, all of the garlic I buy is California grown. My process for garlic is to chop two heads then pour olive oil over it and refridgerate. I do this about once a week. The garlic stays moist and the olive oil goes into what ever I am cooking. Trader Joes carries a frozen product called Dorot made on a Kabutz in Israel. It is packaged in individual cubes, you just pop out the number of cubes that you need an put the back in the freezer. You can get garlic, cilantro, and basil. I use these when I am out of fresh and espeically like it in my Chimichuri sauce.

Any feedback on these two? B&N has Eof out of print but avialable in paperback at Amazon. Really wanted Essentials but haven't heard anyting about Cooking. Feedbac appreciated. ~Maria

Thank you all for the fabulous suggestions. My trip was wonderful. Friday night was Gibsons, outstanding oysters. Lunch at Fox & Obel, tomato basil soup, Saturday Spaggia (See story below), lunch Spaggia Cafe, excellent Tuscan Bean Soup, Dinner twice at Bistro 110, the duck was the best, and service was great. I walked everywhere, taxi only to the airport, it was marvelous. Went to the Newberry library, great gift shop in there for historians and book lovers. The water tower has a nice gift shop as well. So here's the Spaggia story: Excited to be in this town following such a historic event, I asked the driver from the airport what the city has been like since Obama's election, he had barely anything to say. The next day I asked the woman in the gift shop what it has been like there and she said she had been away from it all, living outside the city; then the bartender, who replied with comments about the weather. I shrugged these blase comments off as we walked to Grant Park to see where he gave his speech. Looking up from the park, I remarked to my husband that I wondered if people had witness parties in their offices as he accepted his win. Ron said, "Babe, you're looking for something that's just not there." I said, "Where's your imagination?!" and he replied that I had enough for both of us. Sort of disappointed with this exchange, we walked to the nearby Art Institute and saw the architecture and home decor exhibits-lots of Stickley, Tiffany, Frank Lloyd Wright stuff - eye candy for me. Prior to leaving home I made a dinner reservation for Spagiia for 6:15, a little early for us, but that was all I could get. This place came highly recommended fromt this forum, so I was looking forward to some refined Italian food. As we perused the menu, we saw a gnocchi dish that we had to try (since we make our own, and both of our Grandmothers made gnocchi for us). Being the season for white truffles, some dishes had them added for $75. (?!). The wording on the menu was unclear so I just had to confirm that the 75 was in addition to the list price, and in fact it was. My husband didn't totally get it so he asked again. Okay, so now we are the Klampets, whatever. Our server was pretty uptight, and we were abandoned at the podium when we confirmed our reservation so we were sort of thinking that the service wasn't to par with the pricing. As we sipped our martinis, we decided on the soup, an app, the gnocchi with the white truffles (My husband-if we are here and they are featuring white truffles, we have to have them.), and the duck breast. As we were ordering we agreed that we both were going to love the gnocchi so we asked our server to "super size" it for us. She was able to muster a grin on that one and we at this point decided to relax and have our own good time, fuck the attiude. So now we've finished our app, enjoying a lovely Italian red, and begining our entrees. The gnocchi was so worth it. They were quill shaped in a creamy ricotta with tons of white truffles shaved on top. The duck breast was fabulous as well. We were chatting about how Ron just bought a $125. pasta story to tell his Italian golf buddies and we were really enjoying ourselves. Looking up from our table guess who walks by????? Michelle and Barack!!!! Yes, really. Ron saw their faces, I just saw the back of their heads as they were being seated in a banquette directly behind us! Ron and I looked at each other like is that who I think it was? And with knowing grins and tightened butt cheeks, we just stared at each other. OMFG! We could barely let it sink in. Secret Service was everywhere. Our entree plates had been cleared, our wine was gone, and we had passed on dessert. Now that all had to be changed, we ordered more wine and dessert, just so we could continue to sit in the same room with him. I went out for a cigarette, and was frisked by Secret Service a couple of times to get back in. The guy posted and the restaurant entrance was so pleasant, he apologized and hoped that I was enjoying my evening. I was like, OMG, I'm so glad you guys are here! Take good care of him! Incredible to say the least to say the most. So my imagination and sense of wonder at this historical event has paid off and I feel vindicated. It is a wonder that we are here at this time, The Sunday Chicago Tribune was such a treat to read, it chronicled his path to November 4 and even mentioned that he and Michelle couldn't attend Saturday's Urban League gala, deciding instead to dine at the resturant where they celebrated Michelle's birthday and their anniversary. Wild, I must say. So thanks guys for getting me to all the right places, definately one of the highlights of my life!

We will be at the Millennium on East Walton Place. Sorry it took so long to get that to you guys. Thanks for all of your help.

Thanks for mentioning that prior posts should still be fairly current, I have read through most of them and will be considering some of those places for dinner out. Thanks too, for the lunch/brunch suggestion 'cause I would like to treat myself to nice lunches with good reading material. Cab or public trans are both options. I was trying to look at the "attractions" and the Fire Museum looked interesting to me. In the information that I found, it was hard to tell if it is still an open exhibit. I recall hearing of a terrific library that I would like to visit, but I can't remember the name of it. I am also having a hard time finding a decent map to get an understanding of the city layout. Please keep your suggestions coming. I've got San Francisco pretty well figured out, I should be able to navigate Chicago. When I take folks to "the City" I avoid pier 39 'cause it is so manufactured for tourism, this is the impression that I get from Navy Pier, am I off base?

I will be in Chicago from Nov 7 to Nov 11 staying downtown. Looking for updates for lunch/dinner and what to see and what to expect weather wise. I will be by myself most of the time as my husband will be working. Thanks.

Regarding the meatballs - you should be able to get the party size, they are the same as the larger ones, just smaller. The turkey meatballs aren't bad either. Some of the frozen entrees are Amy's brand (Whole Foods). The frozen Italian (made in Italy) are good with embelishments, like the olive tapenade or drained, rinsed, and chopped artichoke hearts. Whole wheat toaster waffels are good and less expensive (Van's brand). Try the Chimichurri rice - low cal, add more peas and carrots, goes great with pork, chicken, and fish. The vegetable nests, are tempura strips of kale, leek, carrot. Serve with white fish sans the sauce packet. The vegetarian enchiladas pack a lot of flavor, there is some small dice tofu in them but lots of vegetables. Great dish to heat at work as it is low cal/fat as well. Trader Joe's also has really good curry Naan bread, good with the roasted red pepper spread and goat cheese baked in oven. The brown and black TJ labeled goat cheese is actually Laurel Chenel from Northern California. It is fabulous and inexpensive. The English Cheddar with carmelized onions is good too, at parties, everyone always wants to know what it is. One decadent thing that they have there is the Mediterranean Cheese Yogury, TJ label. It is great atop the Punjab Chooley or Madras Lentils that come in heat and serve pouches. The heat and serve Indian Food is also good to bring camping, I pour it over a baked potato with the yogurt or cheese. Also in the grocery isle, black beans for 69 cents a can, and the Cuban style ones are good also, they seem the same as the S&W brand at 1.89 a can in other stores. The heat and serve carnitas are very good and low cal as well. It is best to heat over a vented pan, most of the fat (there's not much) renders off, shred into warmed salsa verde, serve with side of black beans and cumin and handmade White or whole wheat tortillas. Our store now has a flax seed cracker - that is wonderful with cheese as it has a great texture and doesn't take away from the cheese. The cereals are basically the same as Kellog's et al but much cheaper. Plugra and Kerrygold butter is cheaper and in No. Cal a pound of regular butter is 1.69. I love to hear what folks are buying and liking at Trader Joe's. Please chime inon your olive oil opinions. There quite a variety and I would like to try something new. My store is very close to home and the pricing is very good, espeically for these times. PS Sorry for misspellings.

About four years ago Fage was having import problems and the product was not availabe in the US until they were resolved. I was a Trader Joe's employee at the time and I wrote to them to get a specific answer as to why we were unable to receive their product. I was replied to in a very nice email by a woman from Greece. She continued to stay in touch with me for a while. I suggest that you email Greece instead of USA. They may be more responsive. I eat the 2% almost daily with fresh fruit and granola. Sometimes twice daily. The only difference that I notice in the USA product is that it is not as firm.

The Kirkland dog food is an exceptional buy. It has a very high quality rating and does not contain corn. The serving size on the bag can be too much for most dogs, so watch your dog's weight if you start on it. I had to cut mine back a cup a day and he is a very active Lab. It is made by Diamond brand. Many of the Costco products are also sold at Trader Joe's w/ the TJ name on them, like the artichoke spinach dip and the prfitorelles (cream puffs). The potstickers make a great "wanton" for a quick wanton soup, just add them frozen to the finished soup and let them heat through. I wish my store carried the Raspberry Chipotle marinade, great on pork. I also like the huge box of baking soda as I find it works just as well as OxyClean in my washing machine. *edited for note on dog food.

I am hosting our annual cookie baking extravagana this year. It involves children with parental supervision. This event tends to be chaotic and messy. Because of that, I am going to make sugar cookie dough ahead of time, ready to cut, bake, and frost. My frustration comes with the icing. Invariably, after 4-5 cookies the icing gets discolored from spoon mixing. My idea is to make tons of icing ahead of time then put it into squeeze bottles in various colors. Can I do this the night before? Any ideas here would be appreciated.

Northern California - Any hints regarding varietal would help point me in the right direction.

Love this recipie, calls for prunes, green olives, capers and a dry white wine, but which moderately priced and accessable wine would you serve with it?