FistFullaRoux

If you are without power for more than a couple of days, you are pretty much looking at a large scale disaster, and eating well becomes a little less of a priority. Eating, yes. Eating well and planning multi course meals, no. Camp stoves are fairly inexpensive and a good investment. I think the larger ones that can handle more than one pot start around $40, available at Wal-mart and other places. The smaller propane bottles are more expensive, but much easier to handle, and can be stored inside - an important point for apartment dwellers. Please note - these items have to be used outside. They do create carbon monoxide and can kill you. But they are great items to have. The key to long term outage survival is to use the fridge first, the freezer second, then go on to the canned goods. The fridge is good for the first day. After that, everything perishable becomes suspect and should be thrown out immediately. Many store bough condiments will be OK past that, and of course canned drinks are fine without refrigeration. Your freezer, if well packed, can last for 3-4 days before thawing really becomes an issue. Even then, if you can keep the thawed food on ice somehow, you can get a few more days out of it. By that time, there should (note I said SHOULD - no snarky comments, please) be some sort of food delivery mechanism in place, be it Red Cross actually bringing food and water around, or access to other sources, such as the MRE. You may have to venture out to get those. That being said, store bought bread can be good for a couple of days, and are a good route for sandwiches. Tortillas last for more than a few days. The key is getting some carbs for energy, but you also need protein to make you feel full. Fruit or veggies to snack on are good ideas since you really don't have anything else to distract you, and I've found that I eat more during those times. Plan extra for that reason. Many canned fruits are fine right out of the can. In fact, that's how I like peaches. Right out of the can. Of course, nearly any packaged food will last that length of time easily. Other considerations include portability. I keep Pringles instead of regular potato chips, for example, since they are easier to pack and carry if the need arises. Plus I like them. It's important to choose foods that you will actually eat and enjoy, otherwise it is a waste of time. You would be surprised how often that happens. This is not the time to get experimental. Stick with foods you know and your family likes, if you have the option. Even though the new flavor of soup looks good, get the minestrone, if that is your favorite. Get more than one flavor where available in food and drink, 7 straight days of chicken noodle will make things even worse. One other item I recommend. Get a AC inverter. It plugs into your car and can run small electrical devices. It won't do a toaster or microwave, and surely won't run a fridge, but it can help with distraction by running small TV's or laptops. A larger inverter will run fans or an electric blanket, as the need may be. You do have to run the engine of the car, as these things will suck the life out of the battery in no time. But they are good for temporary comfort or distraction. It's nice to be able to go sit in the car and watch a little bit of TV every so often. At least you can get the news.

Check with a dietician or nutritionist. They should have those resources available. Maybe an allergist as well.

Castor oil comes from castor beans. Byproducts of castor oil manufacture are used to make ricin, a chemical poison tested and used for chemical warfare. Edited to fix a factual mistake.

Just as a note, all hair falls out. No matter where on the body it is located. Now the rate that it falls out differs given the body part. Beard hair tends to stay in place longer since the hair is coarser than the top of the head. There's also more subcutaneous tissue for deeper roots. On the head, less tissue means faster fallout. Beard hair also grows faster, so it remains thicker looking longer. Unless you never step foot in the kitchen, I have a problem with people leaning over my food with no cover on the head. Even if bald. Anyone remember the schweaty guy from Hell's Kitchen season 2? Beards, eh. I have one. I know the likelyhood of a fly getting into my food is higher than a beard hair. Cover it up. The rules are there for everyone, you are not an exception.

I'm guessing that it's not so much the "free" part as it is turnover. Another cup of coffee keeps you in the seat for another 10-15 minutes. They could have another paying customer there. And I can't see paying more than $5 for a cup of coffee, no matter who made it. Most of the time it's decent drip coffee, wouldn't be surprised to see Maxwell House or similar. But that's just me. i see the nefariousness in everything. I'm a glass half empty kind of guy when it comes to things like this.

I'm a knife flipper. Either starting by holding the blade then grabbing the handle, or vice versa. Don't try this at home. I usually catch the blade flat, but I've been surprised occasionally. Then I just use fingers. Haven't cut myself badly yet. You just flip it gently instead of flinging it.

And for a slightly different one, I've always like chitlins (as a word). Also garbonzo, oleo, satsuma, cream, emulsion, martini, clafouti, and copperclad. ETA: they also make great scrabble words too.

Gnocchi is my favorite so far. Beautiful. And my MIL's name is Rosemary. Not that it's a bad thing. Sugar, Sweetie, Dumpling, and Honey all have nice associations with them as well.

It's hard to make a blanket statement like "It all comes down to racism...." Sometimes, there is racism. Sometimes there is lack of opportunity. Sometimes there is lack of ambition. These same things were said about Cajuns not too many years ago. Sometimes the boss is an asshole just for the sake of it. Sometimes, it's for a reason. Usually, it's hard to tell what someone is thinking by their actions. Let's not forget New Orleans, where probably half or better of the head chefs in the city are at least "other than white". I'd be interested to see what Food Network's target demographics are. "Other than white" may not be part of that target. How many chefs, cooks, gourmets, food writers, and restaurant owners are on TV, regardless of heritage? Far less than 1%. If we were to sit down, I'm guessing we could come up with maybe 100 famous names that have more than regional success. For superstardom, the number is far fewer. I'm thinking no more than 15 that the general public has heard of. One would also think that if there were African-American chefs ready to step up to "food personality", Oprah would have been the first to pick them for their own show, correct?

Nesquik has/had a banana flavor in powder and premixed packaging in the US. Not sure if it is the same thing. Just mentioning the medication (I had it in Donnagel) capped it for me. I had to take too much of that stuff as a kid, now all artificial banana flavoring leaves me green around the gills.

Just popping in to try for a bit of an update. I'll be in Nashville 11/8-11 for work stuff. Not sure about the hotel as of yet, but wanted to see if anything else had changed regarding the recs listed previously here. I'll only be able to do dinners, as I think "lunch" is provided by this conference. shudder.

Tater Tot, Stouffers lasagna, Hebert's stuffed chickens, and a mess of tasso.

As far as I'm concerned, I think that you should not leave the bakery without their product. If they sell macaroons and gingersnaps, they should have a macaroon and gingersnap recipe. It does not have to be yours, it just has to be a recipe. Or just leave them a Betty Crocker cookbook. They would probably be happy with that. Then leave and never look back.

I just checked out all the clips on FTV, Great stuff Chris! You're a STAR! edited to add, with his own wikipedia page (and a few spelling errors) ← I took the liberty of putting a little more info into that article. The rest of this stuff is just cool as can be. I'm so jealous. Green, I say green with envy. And tell me just how the hell you can lose 15 pounds doing a show about food? You got to take better care of yourself. No one should trust a skinny cook, unless of course he's an ex-junkie.

The operative term here is "simmer". Not boil. Boiling raises the internal temperature to 212, which causes steam. Steam make things go boom. Simmering at a lower temperature takes longer, but it is safe, as long as you do not reach the boiling point. It's really almost more like poaching. The goal is to caramelize the sugars in the condensed milk. The only way to do that in a sealed can is to slowly raise the internal temp to less than 212, then slowly allow the can (and it's contents) to return to room temp before opening. The pressure will be regulated by that. Sealed cans are heated all the time, just at the factory under highly controlled conditions. The tea towel as listed above gives you a buffer zone so the water is heating the can not the bottom of the pot in contact with the flame/element. I just thought of something. Could you do this in a crock pot? If it has a low enough setting, you wouldn't even have to use a burner on the stove. Methinks research is in order...

Guinness makes a lovely flavoring for ice cream. Most beers would work for granitas or sorbets. Does root beer count? And I just re-read the challenge. So you want a hops element, a wheat element, and a water element? Does it have to contain alcohol?

My guess is that Applebee's couldn't afford Rachael Ray. Tyler is a good fit out there for what they try to do, which is broad spectrum, "okay" food, in a rummage sale atmosphere. I love it when these chain places put a bunch of old stuff on the walls to try to give themselves some sense of permanence. And if a guy can find a way to make a buck in the business, why fault him for that? He's never claimed to be fine dining. Even Cafeteria was just that, upscale comfort food. He's aiming right at the heart of the population who would consider Applebees a special event dinner. Florence has some culinary credibility, and he is not espousing ingredients that your average eater has never heard of. Let him make his money. I'm reminded of Willie Nelson back in the early 90's when he went through his IRS issues. Willie has always been sort of above reproach when it came to his image. He had control over it, and he had respect in the music community (still does), especially in Austin. When he did the Taco Bell commercials because he needed the cash, everyone just sort of smiled and turned their head as if to say, "Go ahead and make your money. We understand." Same thing here. Let the guy make a living.

I've had good luck with pullapart garlic bread. Use a basic white or "italian" bread dough, but wheat works nice as well. I've also done this with the frozen french bread dough. Form the dough into a tube that will fit into a round cake pan. Using scissors, snip every inch or so along the length, about 2/3 if the way through the thickness of the bread. Then, softened butter, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, and a little hint of ground cayenne get to mixing. Now smear this mixture all over the bread, being sure to get in the slits that you cut earlier. Proof, then bake. The bread becomes interactive and will pull apart into chunks easily. Place the dough around the inside of the pan making a ring and bake according to instructions, but lower the temp about 25 degrees or so to keep the butter on the surface of the bread from burning. One last hint, mix the seasonings with the butter ahead of time. That will give the powders (if you are using them) time to rehydrate some and flavor all of the butter. This spread can be used on already baked bread, just spread it on and warm carefully. I've also been known to spread this onto regular toasted sandwich bread in a pinch. I quite like it that way, in fact. ETA - clarifying

I'm a ribeye guy, mostly. When I'm craving something different, though, it's fried chicken thighs. Though there is something about bacon...

Candied Carnitas?

I know that Canadian radio stations have to have a certain percentage of music by Canadian artists played per hour. I'm wondering if the same applies to televison? That would be why there are such differences between Canada and the US. I remember hearing one story from a former Program Director who worked for a Detroit station, but the transmitter was actually in Canada. He still refuses to play Gordon Lightfoot since he was forced to do so much of it.

That's kind of hard to do, since they will often cover more than one genre. I tend to go by author, with a seperate section for the variously authored "little old lady" cookbooks. One of these days, my wife's OCD is going to get the best of her, and I will end up with a searchable database on my computer. Although, my favorite cookbook these days seems to be the internet. Already arranged and categorized.

Or Marcelle Beinvenue. She posts here from time to time. She can be reached through the New Orleans Times-Picayune, I think.

I had almost forgotten about this thread. It's been a while since I've updated. Guess I was too busy living. As it stands now. Her Neurologist just released her. She is now walking again, slowly, and lot for long distances, without a walker. It is possible for her to have enough energy to get through a work day, but she completely crashes at night. Her energy level is about 30% of what it used to be. But, she is getting around a lot better. Energy levels should improve as her health is still improving. She has left her job due to the stress (collections for a utility company), and has returned to one of her previous jobs, as an "telephone sales rep" for one of the local dot coms. A cut in pay, but she does not have to arrive 15 minutes early to sit in her car and get the crying out of the way. Antidepressants? Check. Still. It was with great pleasure that we returned her wheelchair to it's rightful owner. A friend of ours is a parapalegic, and this was one of her backup chairs. The walker has gone into the back of her car, where it will stay in case she needs it. We've had a number of trips to the ER since I last updated for a variety of reasons including several infections. We've just gone 60 days without having to do that. Most people see an ER 3-4 times in their life. We're thankful to have gone 2 months. Glad it's there, just don't want to see it again. We are on a first name basis with a lot of the staff. The nutritional aspect of it is, 3 multivitamins a day, plus iron, 64 ounces of water (which she takes in Crystal Light), and at least 5 meals per day. She has not had a dumping episode from sugar in a couple of months, and now can eat whatever she wants, up to and including ice cream. Ensure drinks and shakes are now back on the menu, and she does drink them on a regular basis. Food amounts are still small, typically about 1/4th of what I eat, but she tolerates just about any food well. Are we better? Damn right. Are we back to normal? No, and we may never be. We are in the process of developing what we want in a house, and the brutal truth of the matter is that we will have to modify the house as soon as we get out hands on it to enlarge door openings, build ramps, and the whole shooting match, because we know that she will have to return to the chair, and much younger than she otherwise should have. That's the way it is. It's better now, but it will go bad again, since there was some permanent damage to muscles and nerves. And, she has been having dental trouble. Saw her dentist today since a crown had popped off. Her teeth are flaking. She is the third patient of his that he has seen that in. It's also related to the surgery, in that there was a lack of calcium for an extended time. It's showing up now in her teeth. I'm trying to talk her into a bone density study. She has also started menopause. At 37. This has thrown eveything out of whack, and it's like her body has aged 15 years in the last 15 months or so. I thank everyone for their thoughts and kind words. I never realized how hard it was to watch someone you love go through something like this. It's not as hard as actually going through it, but it still truly sucks. I could not have made it without other people, including my mother-in-law, who I will never say a bad thing about. Wait, never say never So here we go, into the future, waiting for the other shoe to drop. We've been through some really hellacious spots during this, and we have more to face. But our relationship is stronger than ever. At least we have that, right?

Edit: Never mind. I got beat to it. Less than a minute, though.