mklynch

I know a woman who is a caterer and quit giving out recipes years ago because she tired of people making substitutions, having it turn out badly, and then tell everyone it came from her. I can understand that after giving my smoked salmon recipe out twice and the first guy decides to leave it in the cure over night instead of 4 hours and the second guy decides not to rinse the cure off and both complained of how salty the fish was....well, duh. It does tweak me a bit when you give detailed instructions and they just get blown off. The funniest one involved a strange stock I had made. I was given 12 veal heads that were complete except for the tounge. I made stock out of them and then reduced it to a demi. Used it for a dinner for a couple hundred people. One of the women just had to have the recipe for the sauce and I was at a loss for what to tell her. "Just go get a veal head...." Other than that I share.

Meat on a Stick Everyone loves meat on a stick

I swore by AllClad until I bought a couple pieces of Falk Culinair. I got the 4 qt stew pan and the 1.4 qt sauce pan and am as in love with them as you can get with some copper and steel. The stew pot is so versatile. They are heavy and can't go in the dishwasher - only drawbacks I can see......well, maybe their expense.

You need to keep in mind that a tablespoon of sea salt weighs in at almost twice what a tablespoon of kosher salt does. It can make a big difference if you're following a recipe. The flakier the salt, the less dense when measured by volume, and not many home recipes give you the weight of the salt.

Every time I've done chocolate fondue, I ALWAYS made too much. We never used fondue pots or chafers, just a good preheated heavy ceramic type bowl and had no problem with it. I did a simple ganache with half cream, half cocolate and a squirt of vanilla. Half the girls are going to be on a diet of some sort, so don't be too surprised if the fruit gets hit heavy.

You might try Uwajimaya, the one in Oregon carries goat.

Why did you take out the eyes? Did you at least keep them in a jar for Halloween?

When we first moved into our house the old stove was unusable. We were craving a hot ham and cheese sandwich, so I pulled out an old waffle iron and it worked great. My husband has even taken it in to work to grill a sandwich much to the amusement of his coworkers. It works great and makes a fun lunch!

Have you been to City Market on 21st and NW Johnson - or Pastaworks on Hawthorne? Small markets..... but good resources.

I was fortunate to have Holly Mondavi teach a class in sparking wine and food. She taught us to open the bottle with a sword as well as food and wine pairing. A week later, a friend brought over a bottle of pinot noir he'd made and I was talking about the class. I have one of those diamond steels - the closest thing to a sword in my kitchen, and was demonstrating the technique with his bottle and the steel, not at all intending to open the bottle that way. Boy was I surprised (and he as well) when the neck snapped off beautifully of this non carbonated wine - didn't break the window it hit - we filtered through a coffee filter, enjoyed the wine, and now I'm MUCH more careful when demonstrating the technique.

We were in a Park City, Utah grocery store last month stocking up for camping in Moab. We split the list and I was in the back of the store when a dog came running down the aisle. My husband wasn't far behind and told me the dog had just taken a dump by the cash registers. The cashiers cleaned it up but didn't tell the dog owner to get the dog out of the store. He ran around the rest of the time we were in there. I guess the laws are different in Utah. Gives new meaning to "clean up on Aisle 7"

I ordered 1/4 # of vanilla beans and an ounce of saffron from golden gate as GG Mora recommended. Placed the order on line on Sunday. Today is Wednesday and they are here! The beans look, feel and smell great and the saffron does too. Great tip! BTW - 1/4 # of beans turned out to be 40 pieces. I didn't count the saffron threads.

Greet 'em Seat 'em Feed 'em and Street 'em...................Denny's slogan???

Never trust a skinny cook OR a fat dishwasher.

Wondering about other sayings people have that so well sum up a situatuion - Any????

If you find yourself down in Portland, give a call to Viande Meats and Sausages and ask if they have Laughingstock Farm pork. Then go buy a cooler or do whatever you have to to get it home. It's raised on hazelnuts and goat's milk whey and is like none other. Viande gets it in every so often and turns parts of it into hams, sausages, pancetta, smoked hocks, etc. and sells the uncured meat as well. YUM!

I try to hit Good Dog Bad Dog in Terminal C at PDX whenever I come or go. They are building connection walkways between the terminals so I'll be able to hit it even if flying other than Alaska Air. Yea! The reuban brat is my standard.

I have heard that one of the enzymes in raw honey can inhibit yeast growth, but not that ginger could. It would be interesting to make a tried and true bread with only the addition of ginger to see what happens.

We've had great meals at the Bay House in Lincoln City. Also liked the Side Door Cafe in Gleneden Beach. Since Rob Pounding left Salishan, it's taken a nosedive. His Blackfish Cafe in Lincoln City is good - very moderatly priced.

I don't do alot of sourdough. But when I make bread, I often start with a flour and water mix that I leave on the counter overnight. The next day it's active and I go from there. My counter tops aren't installed yet, so I'm not fully up and running.

I love the idea of the "S" hooks with the drip pan suspended from the spit! Simple yet elegant. Thanks for sharing the tip - any others?

We just did a complete kitchen remodel at home- new floors, cabinets, ceilings, appliances, windows, you name it. I do a lot of baking and am wondering if anyone has experience with how much time it takes - if any - to re-establish the wild yeasts?

I saw "copper river" salmon in a store a few weeks back for about $7 a pound. Thought there was something FISHY going on and found out it had been frozen LAST YEAR! I knew there was a reason I never buy fish at that store.

I was slicing deli turkey on a slicer and hit something hard. Upon inspection, I found the top of a rubber spatula. It was "chewed and glued" turkey roast - which I've never eaten since. (what else is in there?) I was plating cake - Sysco from a box, and found a bandaid - fortunatly, between the slices. Found broken glass in bottled water, called the company and the vice president (!) told me that was just the was it was when glass was used on a bottling line, you're bound to get some breakage at some point. Never bought their water again - come to think of it, haven't seen in for sale anywhere in quite a while. But when someone finds a lady bug in the salad, my reaction is that I'm so glad the greens weren't sprayed with some poison.

Ordered a smoked duck salad and it was actually unsmoked turkey. Told the waitress who answered "I'm a vegetarian, so I wouldn't know anything about the difference" Wtong answer. Then she came back with a lame story about how the kitchen smokes the duck with turkey to improve the flavor of the duck and I must have gotten a piece of that. Wrong answer again, but quite a creative story. Sent it back and was actually afraid to try anything else - I need at least a little trust in the folks feeding me.