Kayakado

After poking around the Red Rock website, it seems to me they are going to need a number of chefs. The place has 9 restaurants and then additional seven fast food outlets on site. I think I may have answered my own questions, but the site and the restaurants are interesting. Some like the BBQ and Mexican already name the chefs that will head them as per a press release about the dining available. I am assuming Ramsey's will be the Chop house - anyone have any other thoughts? http://www.redrocklasvegas.com/index.php

I scored a 10 piece set of commercial calphalon for $100 from my neighbor's antique mall. It looked brand new.

Thanks, I need to try some of these remedies - I get fruit flies in the cat litter boxes, even though I clean them everyday.

On my next refrigerator I am going to opt for one of those three door models with the 2 doors up top that are hinged on both sides to access the refrig and a freezer drawer on the bottom. The idea that you don't have to have that huge door to contend with sounds like a better setup.

We always shaped the loaves by folding the edges into the center, kind of like that new crunchy taco thing and they always formed nice big pockets when they cooked.

Marshmallows in pancakes sounds like fun - one of my cycling friends carried peanut butter with him for a transcontinental trip -- he used it on pancakes = flutter nutter pancakes!

Does anyone know if this is the Micahel Wray who won the first HK? The contestant was from Colorado. Michael Wray, director of restaurant and culinary administration at Metropolitan State College in Denver. (Nation's Restaurant News (9/12/05)

Here's the info on the sous chefs and everyone else. http://www.fox.com/hellskitchen/bios/ Scott Hometown: Los Angeles, CA Occupation: Sous Chef Working as a teenager in the New England-style Inns of Long Island, NY, Scott Leibfried discovered his calling early in life, quickly leading him to culinary studies at the prestigious Johnson and Wales Culinary School. Following an internship with the school’s own restaurants, he began his career as Sous Chef in private clubs throughout the Boston area. A colleague introduced him to the lifestyle of Martha’s Vineyard, where he remained for five years, working in-season at both the casual and fine dining establishments David Ryan’s and Lattanzi’s, and traveling and expanding his craft during the off-season. After relocating to the West Coast, Leibfried continued his career as a private chef in Los Angeles. He then accepted a position with The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, alternating between Dining Room Chef and Banquet Chef for four years. Recently, Leibfried held the position of Executive Chef for Napa Valley Grille in Los Angeles. A regular at many of L.A.’s farmers markets and a frequent traveler to the California wine country, Liebfried is noted for cuisine that evokes the picturesque Napa Valley.

People who worked in my mother's kitchen were constantly burning stuff onto the pans. She always put ammonia in the pan and sealed in in a plastic bag and let it sit. She claimed the ammonia and the fumes from the ammonia softened the burnt-on stuff, making it easy to clean off. Of course, you put the pan out of commisiion for as long as it takes to soak. I think sometimes she soaked it for as much as a week.

Firiends and I go camping twice per year on Cumberland Island National Seashore. It is supposed to be primitive camping, you take in all your stuff on your back and remove it all when you leave, but we've added a twist. The island has semi-primitive camping. It has no electric anywhere but has cold water at the shower house and grates for fires and boxes for food at the campsites, no water at the sites. Being locals, we've started having friends bring supplies for us by boat while we kayak to the island. We ship in large coolers, large propane stoves, propane heaters, pots and pans, top shelf liquor supply and other comforts like camp chairs and mountain bikes. We usually stay 3-4 nights. Night one we have a Italian meal with pasta, night two we have a low country boil, night three we have a fried turkey with all the trimmings. All our bread goods are home baked. We have gallons of home brewed wines. We drive the other campers nuts with the smells. We offer an open invitation to our camping neighbors but few take us up on it. I guess they prefer their freeze-dried backpacking meals.

I can remember (well not really) in the late 60's we regularly pulled out a giant lasagne pan or something similar and made a layered dessert. I have been thinking about this recently and wishing I could remember the formula. I think we layered the bottom with crackers or cookies, maybe grahams or famous choc wafers but then we added layers of chocolate chips, potato chips, coconut, chocolate syrup, caramel, marshmallows, granola, honey, brown sugar, nuts, dried fruit, pretzels, probably anything we could find and baked it in the oven. It came out in a form that was sliceable and ohhhh, it was wonderful! Salty, sweet, crunchy, gooey.........if only I could remember the details.

I had an alcoholic tenant who moved back home to Mom without telling us. I didn't even realize he had moved out permanantly until I found out he had turned off the electricity (or it was turned off for non-payment). He left a lot of stuff behind, including a refrigerator full of food. It seemes before he left the last time, he did not shut its door properly (this was 2 weeks in FL mind you before I found it). I went in to clean things out. I opened the refrig door and was faced with a crawling mass of maggots in both freezer and refrigerator. I couldn't face it until I donned sugical mask, hat, rubber apron and loooong rubber gloves. The vision, smell and texture still haunt me of cleaning and removing that mess into a garbage bag. I should have thrown out the whole refrigerator but it was still good and fairly new. I spent a week disassembling it and disinfecting every nook and cranny. It is my backup in the garage and new tenants are now required to supply their own.

...Microwaved breads!!! ugggghhhh There is a restaurant in Jacksonville FL called Lubi's that serves what is essentially a sub/grinder that's heated in a microwave oven instead of a pizza oven. It is like eating soft particle board with meat and/or cheese on it. I tried one before I realized what it was. I also hate fresh mushrooms that have been packaged in plastic and not allowed to breathe - bring back the tissue paper wrapping and wooden boxes!

My Irish grandmother used to tell us if we drank our tea with milk and sugar we'd get worms. After visiting the UK many years later, it seemed I was one of the few who didn't put milk in their tea.

I use griswold cast iron but they've been out of business for years. You have to pick it up second hand at antique stores, yard sales and thrift stores. It is very light and has a smooth polished surface, much lighter than any other cast iron. Some sizes are rare and quite pricey, but not all are. It says Griswold, Erie PA or has a cross on the bottom.

Chodorow History: In 1996, Jeffrey Chodorow, former Braniff International Airlines owner and board chairman pleaded guilty to two felony counts that charged him with impeding the Transportation Department's airline continuing fitness program and obstructing enforcement of aviation statutes. Chodorow received four months in jail and four years of supervised release for comparable offenses. Chodorow was ordered to pay $ 1.25 million in restitution to the estate, plus a $ 40,000 fine. Chodorow was accused of concealing the continuing involvement of Braniff executive Scot Spencer in the management of the airline, after the DOT banned Spencer from the company. Braniff ceased operations in 1992 and left 20,000 passengers without transportation and lost more than $ 1 million in ticket payments, and banks and other creditors were out $ 14 million.

I was surprised to see a crepe kiosk in the local mall a few weeks ago.

I use griswold cast iron pans exclusively, it seems to season better and has a nice smooth surface. It is also a lot lighter than any of the commercially made cast iron of today. Maybe this is the type of quality that Wagner is trying to capture. Maybe in the process they will polish off a few extra pounds of weight. Griswolds never seem to warp but they sure are a lot lighter than Wagner, Lodge, and the others. It makes for much more pleasant cooking when you don't need to lift weights in your off hours.

Sorry if this is a duplicate posting but I looked and didn't see it. I thought reading Rick Bayless' own words would be appropriate. This is from his website. Dear friends, colleagues and co-workers: Many of you have asked me why I chose to do that ad for Burger King. It was very seriously thought-through, and here is my reasoning in a nutshell: I decided that it’s time for those of us in the healthy food/sustainable food movement to applaud any positive steps we see in the behemoth quick-service restaurant chains. Seventy-five percent of our fellow Americans nourish themselves in their restaurants at least once a week (an even more serious statistic is that almost 20 percent eat fast food three or more time a week). I can no longer ignore these statistics, and I ask you not to either. I can’t take responsibility for feeding all those fast food customers in my restaurant. Besides, most of them couldn’t even afford my restaurant. And since our culture has made a wrong turn, several generations now haven’t even learned to cook. So my (or other’s) cooking shows and cookbooks don’t hit their radar screens. These are people who know little beyond processed food flavors. Helping them take steps toward honest, seasonal, natural flavors, means starting with them (accepting them) where they are. These folks aren’t going to change over night. And the fast food franchises aren’t going to go away. But if my BK ad encourages a few hundred thousand people to experience a tasty, less-processed sandwich of crusty bread with grilled chicken, a sauce made from roasted tomatoes and poblano chiles, plus a topping of grilled fresh bell peppers and onions—that’s huge. What realistic justification could one have for NOT promoting that? So I choose to work on both ends of the spectrum. At Frontera/Topolobampo, we’ve developed an amazing team of talented chefs a who purchased just under half-million dollars from local, sustainable family farms last year. This year our Frontera Farmer Foundation has raised nearly $300,000 to distribute to small family farms in the form of capital improvement grants. Clearly, we’re committed to promoting local, seasonal, sustainably raised products in the hand-crafted dishes at our fine-dining restaurants. But I refuse to limit myself to just this small-but-fast-growing segment, dismissing millions of Americans who are light-years from knowing the wonders of local organic produce. I want to help them along, too. Starting right where they are. I know this bridging of categories makes some people uncomfortable. But that’s honestly who I am. I’m both eco-chef and fast-food supporter, if I’m given a voice for positive change in both those camps. And I’m ethnic chef, bringing respect to a little-appreciated cuisine through restaurants, books and television shows. I’m co-author with my teenage daughter of a book out next fall exploring how cooking with folks in other countries develops a unique language of friendship and family. I’m a health writer, encouraging people to embrace the realistic role of fabulous food in healthy living. For me it is unconscionable to limit myself to one camp, since food touches our lives in so many ways. Most people think I did the BK ad for the money. Well, that’s not me—never has been. Besides, all the money is going to our Foundation to support small, sustainable family farms around Chicago. The Frontera Farmer Foundation is going to have a much bigger impact. And, I also believe, these new offerings at Burger King are, too. Sincerely, Rick Bayless

I was curious about how BK came to choose Bayless. After reading some of the posts ...I have a theory. The chairman of BK is John Dasburg formerly head of Northwestern Airlines (you know the one that kept all those passengers trapped on the plane on the runway for hours and hours). Dasburg was an executive with NW, DHL and Marriott before BK. I theorize that RB doing airline menus somehow brought RB to BK's attention or Dasburg was based in Minn, MN and may have frequented RB's retaurants. I also theorize I am the only one to even care about this kind of minutae but what the heck....

I'd kill for a Cadbury Butter Rum bar. The only place I've ever seen them is in Ireland.

I kayak camp, too but save space by making up dinner packages of say a meat and two veggies and triple wrapping them in tinfoil and then freezing them. They stay frozen/cold for as long as two or more days in a soft side cooler. We heat them over the stove or fire in their packages. They are usually items of envy by those having to actively cook their meal. A can of boiled peanuts has become a favorite and something I am expected to bring. It's a quick warming protein fill-in while sitting around waiting for dinner to heat. They are already boiled and just need minimal heating, we add cajun seasoning to spice them up. In winter, we take soups and stews in a thermos for lunch, with cheese and crackers. A cold fruit soup for summer. Breakfast is a hit with prepackaged prepared hash browns and pre-cooked bacon. I often pre-brew coffee and reheat it for breakfast, but it has to be good coffee to start. I always try to surprise everyone with homemade cookies or brownies for dessert. We also take a small alumnium roll-up table (12"X12"X6)or car floor mat on which to cook so we don't have sand in our food. We camp out in Florida and Georgia and sand gets in everything if you aren't careful.