prasantrin

Ya, I hear they allow up to 75 or more insect fragments and/or up to 1 rodent hair per 50 grams of wheat flour there, too. And canned tomatoes in China can be composed of up to 12% mold. Disgusting. I'd never buy stuff like that, so I never buy things from China. Oh, wait a minute. Those are the allowable defect levels for food processed in the United States. . .

What blueberry oatmeal muffin recipe are you using? I love muffins that look like they have crunchy tops!

Yogurt pancakes with maple syrup and canned sardines (packed in oil, the spicy kind). I liked it.

ulterior epicure? It would certainly be nice to see him back, and to live a week of his food life.

Use your fancy schmancy stand mixer. Then you can solve two of your problems at once. Or the fancy schmancy blendtec.

A report of all (almost all) I ate can be found here http://egullet.org/p1647026 I did not care for Blue Pumpkin. I had stale baked goods and freezer-burned ice cream there. But that may have been a one-off. Or maybe for Cambodia, it was good. I actually didn't care much for the food in Cambodia at all. Generally I thought it was poorly prepared and not of very good quality. BUT, that being said, it is Cambodia which is very much a developing country in more ways than just the economy. They really haven't had the time to focus on and develop their food culture. Even though I didn't really love the food, I would recommend Sala Bai because of what you'd be supporting. Pretty much everywhere else I ate was fine. Not great, and not anywhere I'd enthusiastically recommend, but it was fine. And I'd drink as much young coconut water as I could. And other assorted fruit juices. And I'd have more fruit, too. And I'd buy more palm sugar and I'd finally get some cashews.

Essentially boiled whole potatoes then smashed with the potato masher to level them and open their surfaces. Oiled, seasoned and baked in a hot oven to yield a nice contrast of crispy bits and tender potato. Popularized by The Pioneer Woman blog. I first saw these in Fine Cooking. I first encountered the style in Fine Cooking, too, way back in 2004. Potatoes Fondantes by Jacques Pepin, in 2004, I think. The idea is the same, though the preparation is different. Potatoes Fondantes are much better than most of the crash potato recipes I've seen since the potatoes have more flavour.

At West Villa you have to order from a sheet. At least it was like that when I was last there (I went to the one at Tai Koo). No carts or anything like that. But I'd be surprised if they stopped doing dim sum at lunch.

Prasantrin, her +1 and I are a nay - other arrangements made. Thanks for remembering us! Haven't been reading as much lately, but I'll try to check in here more frequently!

white_lotus and her +1 should also be out--other arrangements made (hope I'm not overstepping by answering for them, but I know they may not be able to answer right now!).

My +1 and I are in for everything except Sunday night (but Sunday lunch is OK. . . I think. . . if Kerry is in, we're in!)

Could someone explain why two people of different ages, heights and weights should get the same number of points? Person 1: Age: x Height: y Weight: z Person 2: Age: x-10 Height: y+5 Weight: z+40 Both are given the lowest number of points--29. Does not make sense to me AT ALL, and I've sort of lost faith in the system. Must get a better explanation. eta--wonky formatting

Rubber spatulas are not all created equal. Some really suck--too stiff so they don't conform to the bowl, and you can't scrape the last bits out, etc. etc. This is especially true if you own a Vitamix since the containers are square-ish and it's almost impossible to scrape them out well. So what brands make perfect spatulas? Perfect for scraping cake batter? Perfect for folding egg whites into whatever? Perfect for scraping smoothies and soups out of my Vitamix? I do know Vitamix makes spatulas ($9 for 3, and they're nylon), but I'm hoping not to have to resort to mail order.

No no no! It's Bar-B-Q! Have you managed to find them in small bags, yet? I'm still hoping, but I can only find boxes. While I like boxes, I'm cutting down on potato chips, so I think I'll be safer buying a teeny bag than a big box (which would be eaten in no time!). Can't find dill pickle in boxes, either. Weird.

Coincidentally, some people at the office decided to do a "Biggest Loser Challenge" for the next couple of months, so I've joined them! Unfortunately, my 2-pound loss from last week doesn't count. @RG--excellent work! Re: yogurt--I make yogurt cheese (which I guess is similar to Greek yogurt) and use it instead of mayo or sour cream in pretty much everything, from "fill-in-the-blank" salad sandwiches to dips. It's such a great way to get creaminess without all the fat and calories!

Thanks RG. My plan is to go to meetings (a little more expensive, but I'm more likely to follow through; plus I want the books and stuff!), but it'll be three more weeks 'till I can join (I have a previous commitment on the night they've got meetings in my area). Back to food, several months ago I started subscribing to a couple of blogs that calculate WW points for their recipes. Neither of them use too many low-fat low-calorie low-taste prepared foods but mostly rely on low point ingredients, just like most people here probably do on WW. They're nice to browse through for ideas, but what I like most is that in addition to dividing recipes by categories (mains, desserts, etc.), they also divide them by points. So I can click on "6 points" and look at a variety of different recipes worth 6 points/serving. It just gives me an idea of what I can eat at certain point levels. I was reminded by a recent post, for example, that I should be eating more turkey. http://www.skinnytaste.com/ is one http://www.kitchenparade.com/ and the accompanying http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/ is the other New recipes usually have both old and new WW point values. Recipes in the archives, however, are mostly in old WW values, but I think both bloggers are in the process of recalculating their old recipes so they can add new WW point values to them. Just another resource out there.

The information I have is based on the formula. If beans are one of the foods that have altered points, my program does not account for that. That being said, when I was first trying to figure out of my formula was correct, I compared its point values to various values I found online, including this one: 300g of dry beans is roughly 2/3 cups dry beans, which is about 2 2/3 to 3 cups cooked beans (I'm basing that on the info found at http://www.foodsubs.com/Beans.html ). Using the point value given in the article, and estimating the cooked amount as 2 2/3 cups, I get about 42 points for 300g of dry beans, cooked. I once read the UK points might be different from US points, but whatever. Either way, the formula I have appears to be correct based on other samples I tried, and the formula calculates points independently of me, so my chili recipe (which really only has a couple of tablespoons of oil, bulgur, tomato juice (from the crushed tomatoes) and beans as countable points) is a whopping 6-ish points per serving (which is about 1 1/2 to 2 cups).

May I ask what you mean by "pseudo-WW"? It sounds as if you might be trying to combine old points values for foods with the new points allowances, which doesn't work. Fear not. I am not so stupid as to do something like that. And if I did as you suggest, I'd be eating even more (and therefore be less hungry) since the old point values were lower than what they are now. I use a recipe management program that will also calculate diet points for whatever program you want to follow; all you have to do is enter in the formula. When I did a pseudo-WW plan in the past, I used Points=(Calories/50)+(Fat Grams/12)–(Fiber Grams/5). When WW changed their program, I changed the diet points formula to emulate the new formula which is Points=(Protein/10.94+Carbs/9.21+Fat/3.89-Fiber/12.49). The program calculates diet points automatically for recipes I enter in my database, and also for all foods in the Nutrition Database (which contains all the foods listed in the USDA National Nutrient Database). So I can calculate points for foods I make, as well as for individual ingredients. My program, however, does not account for the freebies WW gives you (like fruit and certain vegetables), or for the "penalty points" (my words) given to some foods/beverages like wine. So when I update my daily food diary, I scale up or down as necessary. As for the number of points I allocated myself, I'm on the lower end of the WW scale (I wear a size 8 which, while not as small as a size 8 twenty years ago, is still small for the average WW user), so I gave myself 29 points. I might be able to give myself more, but with the old system, I had about 20 points and that worked quite well for me. @RG--funny, but I do end up eating a lot of soup! Soup, fish, and certain vegetables are my mainstays on WW. I'm trying to work in more beans (even though I'm not fond of them--no offense to you!), but beans are actually quite high in points--1 heaping tablespoon is about 1 point. I still eat bread (mostly rye which is more point-friendly), but I try to eat mostly Ryvita crackers and the like (Finn Crisps are my favourites). I do still eat burgers and fries sometimes, and I had a very large kouign aman yesterday, but it was the end of the week so I had some points I could use up. Plus I exercise several times a week, so I earn extra points for that. Still, I think the eating-style necessary for the low-end of the WW scale is very difficult for Asians. I think that's one of the reasons WW is not big in Asia!

Monsieur Lebovitz Have you ever tried freezing the Chocolate Idiot Cake, or keeping it a wee bit past 5 days? I made it last night to check out my oven (which has been temperamental lately), thinking if it didn't work out, I'd still have a few days to try again. But it turned out perfectly, and if I can, I'd like to keep it till Friday (which would mean keeping it for 6 days). I could still bake another one, but since it's for a work function, I can't even bring the extra one to work so I'll be eating it all by myself! (Although I could bring this one, and then try the Racines cake for Friday!)

Rellenong Manok http://asianinamericamag.com/2011/05/chicken-relleno-philippine-stuffed-chicken/ But I'd leave out the sweet relish--my mother never puts that in. And you'll find recipes that call for vienna sausage--leave that out, too. Ick! You can basically stuff it with your favourite meatloaf mixture.

Our first non-management repeat blogger! Since you're a blogger in addition to a food forum participant, I'd like to ask. . . Do you think participating in food forums helps your blogging? Which gives you more interaction, the forums or your blog? Do you tend to repeat content on each, or do you write for completely different audiences on your blog compared to as on eG. And does participating in forums help drive up traffic to your blog (through exposure, through random clicks on the link in your sig, etc.)? ETA: I'm just wondering about the blog-food forum link. I've seen a lot of food forums folks start blogs, and then drift away from participating in forums altogether and just focus on the blog. But it seems you've maybe maintained your level of participation on forums (don't know how much/how often you write on your blog).

That looks delicious! But may I ask. . . how long was it before you were hungry again? I restarted my pseudo-WW eating plan, and I find I get hungry quite quickly. I think I only get 29 points a day (I also add on 7 from the weekly 49 extra points, so I really get about 36/day), so I'm trying to eat low point but filling food. But it's very very difficult. Even the vegetarian chili I made has about 6-8 points per serving, but I find I'm hungry again about an hour or two later (there are about 300 grams of dried beans in the full recipe, which works out to about 35 points just for the beans--at 7 servings per recipe, that 5 points just for the beans!) I've lost about 2 pounds this week, but I'm hungry a lot. Trying to stave off hunger pains with fruit, but even though fruit is free, I don't want to overdo it.

OK. All the times I wrote, "Great thread!" I was lying. Actually, I wasn't lying. I was being ironic. It's different.

There are really only two possibilities 1) Just start using it. No one here can help you do that. 2) If you bought it at Costco, just return it for a refund. They have a very liberal return policy, and people take advantage of it all the time.

I want to go to the salt store! I don't think that was open the last time I was in Portland (which would have been around 2006 or 2007). Or if it was, I miss everything! Have you ever been to Sahagun? I love their chocolates. Don't even know if they're still open, though. PDX also has my absolute favourite farmer's market of the ones I've been to (other than the Naschmarkt in Vienaa). Fantastic produce and great ready-to-eat options, too.