Jensen

mnebergall ... what varieties did you order? So far, I've tried three different types from them: Tiger Eye, Eye of the Goat, and Rio Zappe. They've all had different cooking times and the end product is different too. Tiger Eye has turned out to be quite creamy ... much like a pinto bean. Eye of the Goat and Rio Zappe are firmer; I quite enjoyed the Rio Zappe.

Additional time will add to the sourness of your end product but, if you want it thicker, you will need to add some dry milk powder. I've been making mine with the powder in my yogurt maker (see style here ... it's got one big container) but always wishing that it wasn't quite so firm as I prefer the European style yogurt. I finally made a batch on Tuesday without the milk powder (having just found out why all the recipes call for it) and I'm happy. I've also found the best flavour results when I've used organic milk. I sometimes use homo milk and sometimes use 2%. The most recent batch is with 2% organic and it's got a wonderful creamy taste to it.

The weather forecast was for cooler temps today (mid-60s) so I planned on Cock-a-Leekie Pie (recipe adapted from one in the February issue of Olive). The temps were higher than expected (mid- to upper-70s) but I made it anyway and served it with roasted asparagus. Good decision!

Not to discourage RG from expanding his business to "family" but ... in case such an expansion really isn't feasible at this point in time, there is a NorCal mail-order source for heirloom beans at The Bean Bag. I first encountered these beans at Whole Foods here in Sacramento. I loved them so much but every time I went back for more, there were none to be had. Just as I was about to break down and order some through their website, they made a trip to my local farmer's market.

Nahhh. The list has only one item ... butter tarts. They are the raisin's raison d'etre.

All I can say is THANK YOU for posting the butter tart square recipe. My cousin gave me a recipe about 14 years ago and I lost it. Unfortunately, said cousin died shortly thereafter so I couldn't ask for the recipe. It was great to read the Canadian references ... I miss home! (I'm from Victoria but, as part of the brain drain, we are currently living in Sacramento.)

This sounds just like the dogs...we talk about fast twitch muscle fibres too. Increasing them is definitely a breeding goal in whippets and greys but not really considered in a dog like the saluki. It's all clear to me now that I've got the cycling "breeds" straightened out in my head ...

This is interesting because, in performance dogs, the opposite is true. Sprint athletes (greyhounds and whippets) need the CHOs as a glycogenic energy source. Once a canine athlete moves past the "sprint" (a sprint activity is defined as lasting less than 30 seconds to 2 minutes in duration), then anaerobic energy systems kick in and protein and fat are used as the main energy source. If one compares the protein and fat compositions of foods geared to the sled dog racer, one sees that those ratios are much higher than the average "performance" feed. I know one cannot make a direct correlation between human and canine athletes but I also know that the energy utilisation cycles at a cellular level are the same. The Krebs cycle acts the same in my cells as it does in my dogs'. We both will eventually drop into anaerobic metabolic processes (although, I think for humans, it happens at a later time ... maybe 12 minutes instead of 2?). I wonder why it's so different. Maybe we store glycogen differently ....

Okay, it's nought to do with cycling but there is a very good PowerPoint slide show from a performance vet online in which he discusses when to feed CHOs, proteins, and other supplements. Sports Vet Presentation This link is to the pertinent part of the presentation. In short, he recommends complex CHOs prior to activity, simple CHOs during activity, and protein and complex CHOs post-activity. There is also a window of time post-activity during which the immune system is depressed. Dayton likes a pre-race cookie (complex CHO) and a post-race snack of raw beef and a cookie.

Right on! Now you'll be on the Northern Tools mailing list too and you get the catalogue in the mail. Ahhhhh. Tool catalogues ... they almost make me wish I was a guy ...

Hey, I thought you were getting the one with the reverse switch???? That one is just like mine. Cool, innit?

You know, now that I search my memory, I have a couple of friends who have the same grinder and one of them did jam up theirs. They were feeding whole pigs' feet through it and it jammed. For the chicken quarters, we'd buy a case or two, hack them into "chunks" with a cleaver, and then feed the chunks through. It didn't matter how long the chunks were but they were generally about the same width as the feed tube. We've also done one of those cheapo turkeys from Safeway (you know, $6.00 for a 15-lb. bird) in this grinder and it worked just fine. Again, there is some prep involved.

I have the first one. It was initially purchased for making dog food so it had to be able to handle bones and all (chicken and turkey though, not rabbit as in Hest88's cat food). I'm very happy with its performance, both for the dog food and for human food. It is very heavy though so it's not too "portable". Does it have a reverse function? No but it also has never jammed...not even while feeding chicken quarters (bones and all) through it. I can't imagine that just meat would cause it to jam up.

I have the first one. It was initially purchased for making dog food so it had to be able to handle bones and all (chicken and turkey though, not rabbit as in Hest88's cat food). I'm very happy with its performance, both for the dog food and for human food. It is very heavy though so it's not too "portable".

Whenever I go out for sushi, the sushi chef likes to give me little extras. Last time, he took the backbone out of the aji (Spanish mackerel?) I had ordered and deep-fried it until it was crispy. It was wonderful. Who knew fish bones could taste so good?

I saw a television show recently about a Cuban family in Miami who had a pig roast every year. They built a similar contraption out of cinder blocks and foil. Hey, I managed to find a website with the very same guys on it! And it has instructions on building the pit!

"Within days, he was vomiting up his burgers and battling with headaches and depression". Huh? Come on, now... If he was accustomed to eating a fairly low-fat diet, then all the fat in the McD's food could easily have caused vomiting. It would be akin to eating a whole lot of really rich food.

I think I need to remove asparagus and replace it with lima beans. It's either that or my axis grows to four items. You just need to revise the structure of your evils. Think of Renaissance theology...lima beans are the source so they're in the centre, the Prime Mover so to speak. After that, you can have any number of supporting axes, arranged concentrically around the source. It all makes perfect sense in my world

Lima Beans ... the source of all evil.

Last night was my turn to host our gourmet dinner club. The way our club is set up is like this: the host is responsible for setting the menu, distributing recipes, and the entree. Guests are responsible for their assigned recipes and the wine. I wanted a Belgian-themed dinner so the evening went something like this: * Moules Rôties a l'Ail * Potage Parmentier * Poireaux aux Vinaigrette * Carbonnades Flamande * Choux de Bruxelles * Gateau Chocolat

My favourite way to eat them is to put them on the grill. When they open just a tad, take them off and pry the "lid" up. Add a dab of butter and some Worcestershire sauce, wait for the butter to melt, then eat.

I'm not a bean connoiseur by any stretch of the imagination. I did find these beans to be quite creamy, as the link mentions, but also very much like a pinto bean, as Rancho Gordo said. I think I liked the cranberry beans I got at the market better (that's not to say that I didn't like these beans ... they're very good). If nothing else, the cranberry beans and these tiger eye beans have made me realise that, not only can beans be tasty, but they also have distinct flavours. I feel like a whole new food group has opened up for me

I did find that they cooked a lot faster than the cranberry beans I bought at the market. I think when I cooked those beans, they were in the oven for around 3 hours. At just under 2 hours, the tigers eye beans still had good texture.

Over the past several weeks, I've been reading a fair bit about cassoulet here. Before Christmas, I'd found some local cranberry beans at the farmer's market downtown and used them to make my own version of the classic dish. I bought some tiger eye beans at Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago and have tried them in the dish too. Beans have never really been a big hit with me but these varieties are really quite good. Who knew? At any rate, here's what I did with them today... First, I put 250g of beans in a pot, covered with cold water, and brought it to a boil. Once it was boiling, I turned the gas off and just let them soak until I was ready to use them. I also blanched some sliced salt pork. Shortly before 4:00 this afternoon, I drained the beans: I browned some chicken thighs and got the other ingredients (minced garlic and 125g strained tomatoes) ready: Once that was all together, I combined it all in my Calphalon pan. When I've made this before, I've used chicken broth (Swanson's low sodium) as my liquid. I felt like Old Mother Hubbard when I went to my cupboard this afternoon and found none there. Instead, I used some red wine and some "potato water" (i.e., water in which I'd boiled potatoes) that I'd saved for making bread. I covered the pan and put it in the oven (350 F) for about 90 minutes. Then I took the lid off for another 30 minutes to let a crust form. Here's the final result: Okay, there's no duck confit, I didn't use flageolets, and I cooked it in a metal pan. I'm calling this my anti-cassoulet. Whatever you want to call it, it was pretty damn tasty ...

I'm starting to think that this is more about expectations. I'll confess that I can't remember the last time I went to a McDonald's or a Wendy's. I just don't get around to them very much. That being said, when I do go to one, I expect the staff to be surly, slack-assed, or stupid. Right or wrong, that is my perception of the type of people that work in fast food joints. (For some reason, In'n'Out Burger employees are exempt from my stereotype.) It sounds to me like your expectations are quite different. You expect civility and manners. Unfortunately, I don't think your expectations are going to be fulfilled any time soon. It's a pity but I think it's true.