FistFullaRoux

Creole mustard, lemon juice, Tabasco or similar style hot sauce Oh, dear, I'm about to tell on myself.... and Thousand Island dressing (ducks and skitters away)

is it red? and kinda thick with seeds? if so, i know this brand. it's the one that chased off the suitor in the other thread about spiciest cuisines. it's hot. Actually, it is red, but the consistency of Tabasco. No visible floating particles, just a hellish emulsification that keeps perfectly at room temp. No seeds, no chunks, just pure satiny peppery drops.

I've seen TV dinner trays for sale, but I don't remember where. That may be a cool way to serve dinner, even though it's home cooked. Plop it on the aluminum tray, and give them one of those anodized aluminum glasses for their beverage of choice. As a side note, I love those glasses. there's nothing quite like holding onto a metal container full of cold liquid on a hot day. And a can does not count. Edited to add - If you are going to do soft drinks, they have to be in the old fashioned bottles. The 8oz curved green Coke bottle, or the longneck Pepsi/Dr Pepper bottles. Preferably iced down to within an inch of their lives.

Think of it as a burger, but one that already has ketchup on it. Tomatoes would work, provided they have some flavor. Pickles, onions, whatever floats your boat. Personally, I like tomatoes, a little bit of mayo, and some spicy mustard... Toasted white bread would be appropriate, but there's no law saying you can't put it on whatever you want. Even croissants or pita.

what's this, please? From the Elmer's Candies website Heavenly Hash New Orleans is renowned throughout the world as a city of good things to eat. Second only to the world-famous pecan praline is Heavenly Hash, a "heavenly" combination of double-rich milk chocolate, tender marshmallow and fresh roasted almonds. Heavenly Hash became a southern favorite 100 years ago, and for a decade it could be bought at a tiny New Orleans confectionery shop which specialized in homemade candies. In 1823 Elmer's acquired the well-guarded secret recipe, along with the copyrighted name. A Freudian slip, perhaps?

Aw, man... You are killing me. We're still in mourning over what has become unofficially known as "The Great Crawfish Massacre" and you're going to have it twice in a week. I like Birmingham, I love my wife, but I am too damn far from home during crawfish season.

Well, the sense of humor has started to come back. I keep thinking of the line "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced"... Yeah, I know. But you have to try to laugh about it.

Two things. I'm not sure, but I think Pat OBrien's either has a trademark on the Hurricane or the shape of the glass. One of the bars I used to haunt in Louisiana supposedly (according to the owner who had been known to tell a tall tale or two - say that 10 times reat last) had a trademark on a drink called "The Purple Muther&%$#er." It was purple, and you could get an extra shot of booze in it, then it was a "Purple Muther&%$#er With an Attitude". They didn't taste strong, but they would put yo lights out. Also, my guess as to what goes into the Donald? Clear hard liquor (Vodka maybe?) with tonic, with a little grenadine floating on top. It would match his hair. Silver on the bottom, red on the top, and the red up top has no business being there. Either that, or it's a real expensive brandy or liqueur with a Sacagawea dollar at the bottom of the glass. So it tastes like money.

Wow. How have I not seen this tutorial all this time.... I do have a question. I have a Leatherman multi tool with a basic 5" pocket knife blade in it. I use it for most cutting and chopping when I'm away from home (the occasional camping trip or cookout at the park). I do keep a seperate cheap filet knife - that I just realized will need some TLC before next weekend - in the tacklebox for dealing with fish, but I want to avoid hauling a chef's knife around. The Leatherman's blade had held up admirably - despite my best effort sometimes. (Don't ask me what etched the blade. OK, it was battery acid) But it is getting harder to sharpen. As in it takes more time and effort. I use the old school 3 in 1 oil on the black Arkansas stone that I inherited (along with his pocket knife and his technique) from my grandfather. I'm hesitant to grind the shoulder down, because I don't want to take off too much. That tool has saved my keister more than once. I realize that a pocket knife is not ideally suited for food prep, but you do what you can away from the kitchen cabinets. Should I abandon my trusty Leatherman (or at least depose it to the glove compartment) and get a semi-decent knife for outside? If so, what do I get? I don't normally need to field dress elk, and as long as it's compact in size it should work fine. Whatever I get should be able to stand up to the same rigors of other "camping equipment", for lack of a better term. Thanks again for a great tutorial!

Grits with a couple of over-easy fried eggs mashed up into 'em. Salt, butter and black pepper to taste. Ice cold milk on the side. Or Captain Crunch.

Here's one for you... I've heard Pulp Fiction described as film noir. Or at least an homage to it. There's a few food references in there. Bacon is goooood. French fries with mayo "They drown 'em in that *@#&" Sprite - The "tasty beverage" to wash down... The Kahuna Burger The particular coffee that Tarantino got for Harvey Keitel's character A $5 milkshake Blueberry pancakes (or was it waffles?) from Bruce Willis' scene in the hotel before he went back for his watch. Then Pop Tarts for the scene where he gets back to his apartment to find John Travolta on the can. And of course, the ever popular "Royale with cheese"

The day they come out with a Kobe burger, I'm going back to the swamp. I'll be at the 951st tree on the right.

I'm right there with you on that one. It's my normal "Screw it, I don't want to have to think about it" dinner. 7 minutes on the pizza stone, and life is good... If I'm feeling froggy, I get the cheese ones and add the pepperoni myself.

Marshmallow fluff. And a tablespoon. Ohhhh....

Ryan Seacrest="Bedhead Antichrist" I am so using that one next time I get a chance...

And Three's Company! It's the first place I ever heard (I was like 8 when the show came on) of Coq Au Vin and Creme Brulee. It seemed to be the only thing that Jack could cook, though. Those two were in a lot of episodes. And would the factory tours on Mr Rogers' Neighborhood count?

Every Church's chicken joint I've ever been to has had really greasy floors in the lobby. That's one difference between the other places and Church's. Greasy floors in the kitchen is one thing. The lobby is a different matter completely. Although years ago, the one in my home town had these marvelous fried pies. That is a different subject entirely, and us kids were known to request Church's just to get to the pies...

I say that to myself every time I put a pan on the burner. And it works, too. Dammit.

It depends on what I'm looking for. KFC's original recipe is a specific destination for me. Popeye's is close to what I grew up with, so that tended to be my go-to fried chicken place, until a couple of months ago when they made me wait 20 minutes in the drive thru lane, stuck between other cars, and with the curb preventing me from driving around the car in front. But I digress. It's KFC original when I'm specifically looking for it, but now I usually choose Hardee's, which is (or was) part of the Roy Roger's company (or vice versa), and a very similar restaurant.

Personally, I think if the guy hadn't done whatever to whoever he did it to, Food Network would not be the Emeril network. I still use some recipes that were inspired by his shows. I used to make his wine flavored gelatin, just to throw curveballs at people. They never expected it. I don't think he was a professionally trained chef, but he knew his way around a kitchen, he knew ingredients and history, and he had skills. Or skillz as the kids say. He made a lot of valid points, and was one of my earliest cooking influences. edited to add - But I don't think I'd be tempted to pick up one of his books now. If you've never read any, go for it. The books were magical. The man was flawed. I personally can't get past the name on the cover.

Well, it's not like Louisiana is out of the things. It's just the one medium-sized but lucrative 7 acre pond. If you work with the Department Of Energy, and I told you the location of the facility the pipeline was connected to, you would know exactly who we are dealing with. But because of the litigation, I'd prefer not to say right now. There are still plenty to go around, though. Spend your tourism money in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Enjoy the crawfish. It's just that these were so perfected... And I had the inside track to as many as I needed, pretty much whenever I wanted. Now I have to pay the same prices as everyone else when I go down there. edited to add a few words, and this cute little

My father-in-law, who thinks ketchup is spicy, seems to get a kick out of getting me a couple of bottles of hot sauce every year. I now have something like 15 or so bottles of inferior versions of Tabasco, made with peppers, vinegar, and salt. None of them will replace the Tabasco bottle. I need to make a big batch of buffalo wings, I guess. Although last year he managed to get one that really surprised me. The same basic recipe, but using habaneros. Made by Grace, I think it's out of Jamaica. That has been really good to me. I'm on the lookout for another few bottles to keep in my arsenal.

My stepdad has been raising crawfish for a number of years now. He's very skilled at it, and he managed to get his pond to peak in production at the beginning of the season when prices are higher. Beautiful little mudbugs that he handles properly and has the perfect recipe for. The stuff dreams are made of. A natural gas pipeline under the pond developed a leak. Ruined the whole thing. Killed every one of this beautiful strain he had, and poisoned the ground so the rice that the crawfish eat cannot grow. It'll be 5-6 years before he can even consider planting anything in that soil. Maybe another 10 before he can get it back into shape. It's (obviously) in litigation at the moment. I am so bummed out about this. The wife and I had just made plans with a some other couples to go down at some point this year, and just stuff ourselves. I am absolutely heartbroken.

I had mentioned this in another thread, but the US military is introducing a new flavor of MRE's, Dirty Rice. Only problem was they had to change the name to something like "Cajun Rice and Sausage" so the non Louisianians would eat it. They were fine with it after the name change, even though it made several of them nauseous to think about it with the original name. I get that same sort of reaction to a lot of things that I'll cook. I was cooking gumbo for friends one night (they're from Kentucky), and I was in the middle of making the roux. One of them comes running into the kitchen asking what was burning... That will instill confidence in a cook.

Fistfullaroux I think that it is Calrose rice, What liquid, rice, ratio do you like. Charlie For long grain, I've found that if you follow the directions on the packeage, as far as liquid/rice ratio, it comes out a little too gummy. I usually hold back about 10% of the water if I'm using a rice steamer. If I'm cooking on the stovetop, I'll use the full amout as written on the package. At the end of cooking, if you have no more liquid and things are not where they should be texturewise, add a little more water(1 tablespoons per cup of rice usually does it) , slap the lid back on on the lowest heat setting you have. Then give it 5-10 more minutes. You'll have a certain amount of carryover heat as well. But don't try to do this fix more than once. You will have sticky rice in that case. And don't bother cooking anything less than a cup of raw rice per batch, no matter what cooking method. It will never work out. With rice, there are a lot of factors involved, and you have to figure them all in. On the Gulf coast, I use less water than inland (like Birmingham). I've never cooked in Colorado, but I'd imagine there would be a difference there as well. It takes some trial and error. Luckily rice is cheap and easy to incorporate into other dishes if it gets overcooked. If it is undercooked, I've found that I can do a sort of risotto type of thing by adding stock or some kind of flavored broth and stirring it constantly to finish it off. Just keep trying it. I've been cooking rice for over 20 years, and sometimes I still miss.