fendel

Geez -- does that really work?? I've been doing the basic side-side-breast up thing at about 400 degrees and it still takes an hour or so. Can the chicken really be done in half an hour with no turning?

Chiming in for the first time (hi, I'm new). Tonight's dinner was chicken cutlets with an orange-Dijon-rosemary pan sauce, and some fresh corn. Dessert was homemade ice cream.

Richard, I think you're right. I pulled out my beat-up Emerilware 3-quarter and set it down next to the new Tramontina, and sure enough, the new one is bigger. I knew that puppy looked strangely large in the store. Guess I forgot they make saute pans in other sizes. This might be the largest pan I've ever owned (I usually cook for two). I figured it would be nice to have if I needed to sear steaks for four or cook up an acre of chicken cutlets. No more batches for me. I just cooked a ricotta dish in the new 2-qt sauce pan, no sticking or burning, seems like even heating (albeit a little faster than my All-Clad pots). I'm tempted to toss the rest of my ancient Revereware and go get some more of this stuff. It's so inexpensive that I can buy a bunch of it without my significant other launching into his usual soliloquy on "Why on earth do you need more cookware?"

The pan-flipping trick really impresses onlookers. At least until you try to flip a 10" zucchini pancake that's loosely held together by egg whites and hope, and you splatter yourself in the eye. Ow.

I ran across a whole bunch of open-stock Tramontina tri-ply stainless steel cookware at Marshall's and TJ Maxx today. Picked up a 2-qt sauce pan and what looks like a 3-qt saute pan (12 inch diameter, I think) with lid. At $13 and $35, respectively, these were a bargain. Once I use the pans, I can't return them--so before I do, I wanted to get people's opinions on Tramontina. The stuff looks like a dead ringer for All-Clad, which was part of the appeal (I love that look). But is it actually good?

I grew up adding Maggi to lentil soup (I'm three-quarters German, maybe that's a factor here). Eventually I realized that if I add Maggi to lentil soup, the soup mostly tastes like Maggi, but weakly enough that I needed to just keep adding more Maggi. These days I don't bother with it.

Interesting topic. I grew up on the standard meat-potatoes-and-veg. My mother was a German immigrant who was a wizard with gravy--I almost said "with meat and gravy," but then I remembered the many well-done bottom round roasts I ate as a child. Vegetables were usually overcooked. Then I got interested in Chinese food as a teenager and learned to stir-fry. Then I hung out with vegetarians in college and dropped my fledgling meat repertoire altogether for a few years. Gained a ton of weight eating rice and beans and potatoes and bread. Eventually the steak cravings won out and I caved. Went through a brief and lukewarm flirtation with the low-fat trend, then embraced "eat whatever you feel like," and eventually wound up turning to a lower-carb approach because my weight is starting to affect my health and unstable blood sugar was wreaking havoc on my mood. Dang, just when my garlic scalloped potatoes recipe was getting really good! In the last few years I've been poring over Cook's Illustrated, which has been reinforcing my natural tendency to go for the basics--I want to make a perfect roast chicken, roast beef, pork chops... In a way it's the stuff I grew up on, perfected. A medium rare top round roast, or if I have the cash, a rib roast with a crisp, crackling crust. A juicy roast chicken (Beard's recipe). Fresh green beans. Omelets, but with better cheese and not all browned and puffy. I don't know, I don't get bored with those things. The jaded-palate approach -- one bizarre ingredient in every dish, unusual combinations -- never appealed to me. I remember reading an essay where the author disparaged the idea of serving guests humble fare like roast chicken. Well, that's what my guests get, and they're usually just thrilled to have real homemade gravy.

The "At Last" bars are tolerable. I discovered the almond kind is a lot better with a handful of salted almonds. These bars are missing something, and maybe a little salt helps... At least they're made with erythritol instead of maltitol or (cringe) lactitol. The best SF chocolate I've had has been "Elite" sugar-free chocolate, from Israel. It's a dead ringer for Lindt bars, in my opinion. (The only place I've ever found them has been the One-Stop Sugarless Shop. I'm waiting until cooler weather before ordering some more.) Would I rather eat "real" chocolate? Sure, but sugar makes me fat and tired. Not worth it. Lately I've been dodging the whole chocolate issue by working on recipes for desserts that can be made sugar-free without sacrificing anything. (I make a mean marble cheesecake and homemade SF ice cream, and my molten chocolate cakes are getting pretty good too.)

Mmmmmm, Wavy Gravy ...drooling... Current favorite is Peanut Butter Cup, but I'm trying to stay off sugar these days (it makes me fat and irritable). My new mission in life is to replicate the density and flavor of Ben and Jerry's in homemade sugar-free ice cream.

...forget that the pan was just in a 450-degree oven, and grab the handle... (there's an epidemic of that one, isn't there) And my father still chuckles over the time when, as a teenager, I made a pork roast but forgot to drain off the excess fat before making the gravy.

Snacks, I almost forgot. Nuts (lately it's been "Deluxe Mixed Nuts" because if I get the kind with peanuts, everything tastes like peanuts). Cheese. Sugar-free chocolate. Carbolite makes a new "At Last" line that Walgreens stocks in the diabetic aisle. It's not perfect but the Chocolate Truffle flavor is pretty good with a handful of salted almonds. Low-carb crackers until I realized I couldn't control myself. A friend introduced me to these "protein chips" that are 1 gram of carb per 3 wheat-thins-sized crackers. Within days I was eating them out of the box in a feeding frenzy, so I stopped buying those. Gum if I just want something sweet sometimes. Carefree Koolerz come in watermelon, lemonade, citrus, berry, and mint flavors, and the stuff is sugar-free but chews like Bubble Yum.

Hmm. I'm new here, I don't know if recipes are supposed to be posted in a different forum or what... here is a link instead: The Low-Carb Ice Cream Project This is my blog. It's a work in progress. Mostly notes to myself as I tinker with recipes. I've started putting the better recipes in a shaded box so they're easier to find. So far I've got vanilla and coffee down pretty much; pistachio needs a little more tinkering. Read from the bottom for explanations and to watch the recipes evolve... or just grab the better ones off the top. There are a few obscure ingredients involved, but I've tried to include notes explaining why and where to get them.

I skipped induction each time I've been on the diet. I have rarely been in ketosis. I have no objection to it; I just haven't pushed myself hard enough to lower the carbs that far. The first time I did the diet, I lost about 25 pounds. Regained some, got back on track, fell off the wagon again, regained it all, but this time I intend to stick to it... in my not-very-strict way. Fourteen pounds down so far. I have a long way to go, another 30 or 40. I think I've finally accepted that I can't just go scarfing doughnuts again someday. This time I'm staying on the low-carb "bus"... with occasional sticking of head and arms out the window. I hit a plateau a couple weeks ago, and happened to be going on vacation for a long weekend. I hadn't intended to go hog wild, but I did have a few carby dishes--some pizza, a good chocolate dessert, and by the time I was returning, I watched myself skulk into an airport kiosk to buy a pack of Reese's. Hmm, that felt familiar. But once home, I got back on track, lost the couple pounds I gained on the trip, and kept going. Now I'm below the plateau level. So next time I hit a plateau, I might take the opportunity to have a few of the dishes I miss, and then get back on track. I'm still experimenting, I guess, to see what works for me.

Zucchini-feta flatcakes. There was a recipe in one of the Moosewood books. I use roughly four medium-to-large zucchini--shredded, salted, and drained; 4 eggs, half a block of feta, a few chopped scallions, a quarter-cup of flour, and fry in butter... then serve with plain yogurt and apricot preserves. Mmmm.

What an interesting thread. (I just discovered this place a couple of days ago. Hi.) I've been back on a low-carb diet for about two months--14 pounds down, and I'm not exactly being strict about it. I think low-carb diets like Atkins are, as diets go, unusually compatible with decent eating. For dinner I might have a big grilled steak with a salad and vegetable, or a chicken dish, pork chops, fish... I add an ear of fresh corn now and then, or a couple of slices of pretty-good "lite" bread made into bruschetta with olive oil and homegrown tomatoes and basil. Dessert is rich homemade sugarless ice cream. Lots of veggies, more than I ate before the diet. Occasionally I have a little potato. Eventually when I've lost most of the weight I'll probably have a little pasta carbonara now and then, or deep-dish pizza once a month. Low-fat, on the other hand, is misery. Fat is flavor. If low-fat were truly healthy and the only way to lose weight, I would resign myself to my current weight. I'd rather be fat than eat low-fat food. foodie52 wrote: Either they're overdoing it on the low-carb "legal treats" or, like me, their love of food gets the better of them. Nights when I have lite-bread bruschetta AND the ear of corn AND homemade ice cream, I know I'm not doing myself any favors, weightwise. My weight loss is slow and goes in fits and starts. My friends who stick to the diet religiously are losing more and faster... But I am losing. Gradually. Is it healthy? I have a good friend who has lost 40 pounds in the past year on this diet. She's diabetic, and she barely needs insulin shots anymore. Her cholesterol has improved, her HDL is up around 65, triglycerides have plummeted, and her kidney function has improved. Her nephrologist, pragmatically, says "Keep doing what you're doing, because it's working." By every measurable indicator of health, she's getting healthier on this diet of meat, cheese, eggs, and veggies. Last time I was on the diet, I had my cholesterol tested, and it was spectacularly good. I know that my blood sugar is more stable when I stick to low-carb. My mood is better--no afternoon fatigue and irritability. I feel better all around. I can now walk past the boxes of doughnuts people bring to work; six months ago, eating one would send me on a three-week doughnut bender and all I could think about would be getting my next fix. I do miss scalloped potatoes and Pizzeria Uno and pasta carbonara and restaurant desserts and tall glasses of milk (I now have tiny glasses of half-and-half), and the no-planning-required ability to drop into a good ice cream parlor and have something that makes me temporarily giddy. But I will have small quantities of these things, or acceptable replacements. Lite bread can be good. Low-carb pasta, alas, is like rubber bands. Sugar-free chocolate varies. There's a brand called Elite from Israel that makes a SF milk chocolate that's a dead ringer for Lindt bars. Works for me.