robyn

I like reheated rice dishes. Two caveats: rice seems to absorb additional liquid as it cools, so it might be a little soggy. I don't mind this a bit, but some might. Careful reheating (with a bit of additional liquid) mitigates a lot of this. Second, in my opinion, green bell peppers do not benefit from an overnight layover in the fridge (they turn sour), so if I think I'll have leftovers, I use red ones instead. I've seen Amy's around here somewhere. I'm gonna try 'em, for no particular reason other than your recommendation, though I'm suspicious of porkless andouille. Finally, the low-country boil is a terrific idea. Thanks. I buy the Amy andouille sausages from Costco - double pack of 7 each. They freeze well - so I can pop out a couple to put in scrambled eggs and the like. Can't remember exactly what they cost - it's a little less than $1/link best of my recollection. They are also available in other varieties (like breakfast sausages) through the Williams Sonoma catalogue. I am not fond of ordering perishable non-frozen food items mail order for most of the year here in Florida (stuff arrives warm - and I have to throw it away). If you find some other sources - let me know. You won't get the same taste from a non-pork sausage as a pork sausage. Or from a relatively low salt sausage as a high salt sausage. But I think the Amy's sausage does about the best you can do (and - when you eat it - you're not saying to yourself - boy - I wish I had the real thing). I do a lot of cooking for my husband - who has high blood pressure - for my father-in-law - who has congestive heart failure - and for me - and I don't much like the taste of overpowering salt. However we all like spicey hot - and this product works in that regard. Try the Baby Bam too if you can find it. I got to it in a funny way. A couple of holidays ago - Emeril put out a "kid's cooking kit". A quart sized non-stick Emeril/Allclad quality 2-handled pot with lid - 3 cooking utensils with short handles (great for small pots) - a bunch of Baby Bam - and a cookbook. Think it retailed originally for about $50 - but it wound up on close out at Linens and Things for $7.99. Hard to go wrong for $7.99 (particularly with one of those $5 off $15 coupons) - so I bought it. By the way - where do you live/work? Robyn

ya know, if i pretty myself up, maybe have some plastic surgery, liposuction and a new wardrobe, i'm sure i could be a worthy trophy husband. Trophy husbands don't have great skin tone - they have huge wallets . Robyn

good for him. i don't. and 75% of others at the above mentioned restaurants probably don't is there a point at which you'll accept that perhaps you're possibly wrong? It's not a right or wrong - especially for me. It's my husband. And if he feels comfortable in a suit and tie (he happens to look handsome all dressed up) - I'm not going to complain. His attitude is wearing a coat and tie means never having to say you're sorry. The one time we ever tried to go to Bouley (we dropped in for lunch during some sightseeing) we couldn't get in because I was wearing sneakers (I don't live in New York - and tend to do miles of walking when I'm there - so I wear sneakers). Other stuff was ok - but they didn't allow sneakers. I found it peculiar - because who the heck was going to see my feet when I was sitting down. Jeans were ok - tshirts were ok - but sneakers were not. I actually thought it was kind of a racist thing - because the only other rule was you couldn't wear caps (particularly backwards). Now I doubt those rules were aimed at middle aged Jewish women like me wearing their New Balance walking shoes. What they didn't want was "rapper types" with their untied Nikes (but they had to enforce "the law" equally). (And we in fact have rules at a local mall that prohibit wearing caps backwards - it's considered a "gang thing"). Anyway - the next day we had lunch at Le Cirque 2000. We most definitely did not feel overdressed wearing stuff we would usually wear at dinner. Robyn

P.S. I'm not sure anyone has yet mentioned using the sausage in a low country boil (the southern equivalent of a New England boiled dinner - but - in my opinion - better). Easiest thing in the world. Bring 3 quarts of water to boil in big pot. Add bag of shrimp/crab boil. Add 1 pound sliced sausage - cook 5 minutes. Add 6 ears corn - I cut them in half - frozen is ok - cook 5 minutes. Add 2 pounds unpeeled shhrimp. Cook 3 minutes or until shrimp are done. Discard seasoning bag. Simple as anything - and quick too. Robyn

I spent almost my whole adult life in Miami - what do I know . A question. My husband and I usually cook for just the two of us. So we like to make pots of stuff that we can eat at multiple meals (like tonight we're having white chili we made a couple of days ago - a big pot will be about 3 meals for us). If you put the rice in the pot in something like my recipe - does it reheat ok? By the way - commercial plug (for no particular reason other than I like it) - the sausage I use is andouille sausages by Amy. They're chicken sausages - relatively low fat - relatively low salt - nice spicing (in other words - it's something I can use for everyday cooking without killing my husband - he has high blood pressure - and I'd hate to undo the effect of the drugs he has to take with my cooking). Robyn

I am pulling on one string in this sweater. I agree that this is a political issue, but it seems to me that at some point employee wages could result in a public health issue. Am I reaching too far on this? I think so - but try to "connect the dots" for me. Robyn Okay, here's what I am currently thinking, it's early-ish so bear with me. Whether it's the food industry or any other, most employees are paid. The extreme low end of the pay scale tends to find people that a lot of times are, in my opinion, just trying to get by. No more, no less. So, a person working in a meat packing plant, for example, drops their knife on the floor. They pick it up, wipe it off on their dirty smock, and continue. The same thing happens at a unionized butcher shop. The butcher, who is paid more, cleans the knife before continuing. This is something that could contribute to a breakdown in the health chain. Does this connect any of the dots? Or am I still too fuzzy? Sidebar- I have read this entire read and was surprised how quickly it exploded. One thing that stuck out was the Walmart wage debate. Without trying to stray to far from the food issue, why is it entirely Walmarts fault? Yes, they farm out jobs to third world countries that pay crap wages. These employees in turn make, sometimes, crap merchandise. We buy this stuff. At what point does the manufaucturing company have a responsibility to pay decent wages to their employees? And again I apologize for veering off track. As someone who lives in the south - it's hard to relate to all the union/non-union talk - because - for the most part - we don't have unions (except perhaps for things like teachers' unions - and we tend to hate those). Do our workers earn less - yes. But when's the last time you saw a new house for $120,000 (you can buy them here)? Also - as far as I'm concerned - this is kind of a totally silly discussion - because there are only about 100 people in the whole country who think about this kind of stuff when they go shopping. You want to try shopping without buying stuff made by workers who earn low wages - like people in China - well I reckon it means not buying clothes - not buying electronics stuff - etc. - etc. Robyn

It's a coincidental, not a necessary connection. The issue is more about standards and care for those standards. Right now, the consumer is more concerned about the price of their beef than the cleanliness -- at least as a whole. If it started to be the case that everyone knew someone who had gotten violently ill from beef, that might change. But it's still rather rare. Traffic accidents are a huge problem, by comparison, and you don't see us switching to the monorail (what's that you say? monorail!) It's about balance and the market has decided that it's not enough of an issue to require raising the price of beef. You could think about it like airport security prior to 9-11. If we have a major, or several medium-level outbreaks of e coli that really pisses people off, or just scares them, then I'm sure the market would demand stricter regulations. Outbreaks in the past have caused companies, eg, Jack in the Box, to strictly enforce quality on their suppliers. I don't see much difference in quality, escept maybe in meats and fish sold, between a Wal-Mart and the higher-priced Safeway or a Winco and the higher-priced Albertson's. And I think CostCo shows that you can be cheap and sell good stuff. I agree with you here. But as a libertarian, I neither like laws favoring unions (such as not allowing employers to hire scabs or fire union workers) or companies (eg, requiring cooling off periods, laws not allowing unions to contract with employers to be union-only, etc). I'm all for sticking Wal-Mart's or Safeway's feet to the fire when they break the law, but if they're just tough business people, that's fine. But I disagree strongly, very strongly, that we as first-worlders or companies should be ashamed of the wages they pay in 3rd world countries or in exporting jobs. a) because their wages don't match our wages for equal work doesn't mean that the wages aren't good for them, b) service oriented jobs, such as financial and technical services, have been growing in the US much faster than manufacturing jobs have been shrinking; I'd much rather our country be working in offices than working in factories, c) why are so often the same people who lament greedy Americanism so worried about spreading the wealth, if that's what it is, anyway? d) the issue is still standards; it's not enough to assume that because Mexicans or Malaysians aren't on average as educated as Americans that they will make a poorer product, grow less healthy crops, or whatever; they still have the same brains and they can be taught what they need to be; what's necessary is standards from distributors and customers in the US. Actually we do have a monorail - in Jacksonville - the "people mover". It's not anything that most people want - or use - but it did cost a ton of money. As for your "jobs overseas" discussion - I'm afraid you're a bit behind the times. There's a lot of outsourcing of technical and financial jobs - to places like India - where a lot of people are better educated than US workers - speak better English than US workers - and will work for a heck of a lot less money than US workers. When the last time you called Dell technical support (all of it is in India now - except for the very large corporate users - they complained for various reasons and their tech support is being moved back to the US)? Also - take a look at computer programming. Again - there's a tremendous amount that's being shipped abroad. Our economy is - increasingly - a global economy. To remain competitive in the future - the American worker will have to show why he or she is worth more in manufacturing than a Chinese worker - or more in tech support than an Indian worker. It is perhaps round 2 or 3 in an ongoing battle. First jobs moved from high to low cost areas in the US (Jacksonville won out in the first round - because white collar workers who commanded salaries of $40-50,000 in the northeast were lucky to earn $30,000 here). Now - a lot of those jobs are being shipped from the northeast directly to India - where workers are happy to work for less than $10,000 a year. Robyn

But what if you are wearing white and they give you a black napkin? The same problem in reverse. I've never seen a restaurant with black napkins that didn't have white ones too. Robyn

No place listed here requires a necktie; in fact I'm not sure there are any restaurants left in the city that do. (Are there?) A few places require jackets for men, but I don't believe that's the case at Bouley, Picholine, or Union Sqaure Cafe. Places may not require a jacket and tie - but when you look at the pictures of the lunch places in the NYT this week - well I think most guys would feel out of place without a jacket and tie (except for media moguls from the west coast - and my husband isn't one of them!). Robyn My recollection of the NY Times article was not only did if feature different restaurants than Fat Guy mentioned, but a diffferent class of restaurant. The power broker lunch places may still require a jacket and tie. You will eat very well at these places, but food is not the primary reason most people eat there. My husband is an old-fashioned WASP. If 25% of the guys in a restaurant are wearing a jacket and tie - he'll feel uncomfortable without one. Robyn

I am shocked. I thought they would replace it with a new one of a different colour each time you went to point percy at the porcelain S Actually the only napkin test that counts is whether the restaurant offers black napkins so you don't wind up with little white spots all over your pants/dress/whatever. Robyn

P.S. Forgot my handwritten notes on the back of the card. Add some white wine of your liking to the pot before you simmer. And thin the sauce out with chicken broth to taste.

Here is a basic recipe - not guaranteed authentic - but not copyrighted either. Off the back of a pack of sausages. It's good - and when I play with it - it gets better 6 sausage links - sliced into bite sized pieces. Brown in stockpot or Dutch oven - remove and reserve drippings. 2 boneless chicken breasts (about 12 oz.) - washed and dried and cut into 1/2" cubes - brown in sausage drippings - adding a little peanut oil if necessary. Remove. Saute 1 medium diced onion, 2 diced celery stalks, 2 minced garlic cloves and 1 diced bell pepper in the drippings until cooked through. Add sausage and chicken to the pot. Add 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce and 1 28 ounce can or box of diced peeled tomatoes (I use the box - Pomi brand). Add 1 tsp. file powder - and 1 tbsp. cajun spice blend (I use Emeril's Baby Bam - long story why). Simmer over low heat for about an hour. Then add hot sauce to taste. Serve over steamed rice.

Sure there's a place for them. The only issue is whether a member thinks a particular place is worth what it charges. I only belong to one - a semi-private resort golf club (one of the TPC clubs) The golf course is great - and the dining room serves good food (breakfast and lunch only). It's inexpensive ($1600/year - and I play golf for cart fees only) - so it's a terrific deal in my opinion. Robyn

It's your nickel - and your life. Whatever your personal choices are - they're ok by me. I am not an expert on antibiotics or hormones - so I'll leave any experts here to comment on those. But I do know that the last time I went to a dairy farm - the cows certainly weren't sitting in their own shit. They had a new fangled thing - it was kind of like a "conveyor belt toilet". The cows stood up and roamed in kind of a semi-circle - and the cow shit wound up on this conveyor belt and was transported out of the barn on the conveyor belt. Now I am not much of a "farm girl" - but the barn looked sanitary to me. As for your other points - all I can say is you sound like less of a "farm girl" than I am. I also think you will come in for abuse here for liking your beef well done <smile>. Robyn

I am pulling on one string in this sweater. I agree that this is a political issue, but it seems to me that at some point employee wages could result in a public health issue. Am I reaching too far on this? I think so - but try to "connect the dots" for me. Robyn

No place listed here requires a necktie; in fact I'm not sure there are any restaurants left in the city that do. (Are there?) A few places require jackets for men, but I don't believe that's the case at Bouley, Picholine, or Union Sqaure Cafe. Places may not require a jacket and tie - but when you look at the pictures of the lunch places in the NYT this week - well I think most guys would feel out of place without a jacket and tie (except for media moguls from the west coast - and my husband isn't one of them!). Robyn

Saturday in NYC in a suit and tie - yuck. How about a Tower of Seafood and a couple of glasses of wine at Balthazar? Then shopping/galleries? Robyn

You eat beef - but not chicken? Why? Robyn

You want $2 lemons and $10 chickens? People can rant and rave all they want about pesticide-free this - or free-range that - but exactly how much are you prepared to spend for food? On the other hand - it might be the cure for our national obesity problem . Robyn (I never saw a fat person in Norway - no one there can afford to be fat)

do you know how those products were processed? my beef (pardon the pun) is not with any specific product. My concern is how the product got from whatever animal it came from and onto my plate. if that process involves forced animal containment and overcrowding , antibiotics, hormones, unnatural diets, assembly line meat packing plants where cross-contamination can occur, cross-country logisitics (increasing the disease vector) and the use of underskilled, underpaid, oftentimes illegal workers, then it's not something i can/will financially support. apply this thinking to whatever you want to apply it too, and suffice to say, in this day and age, it definitely limits my choices - whether it be fast food, grocery store food, or even restaurant food. The products were processed in a plant in New York City (Brooklyn if I recall correctly). I also took a look- and read the the US Department of Agriculture has put new rules into effect to inspect processing plants for listeria (previously - only animal inspections were required). There are a ton of web sites on listeria - and you can read them at your leisure. The organism that causes listeria occurs on a fairly regular basis in animals (whether they're organic or not). It's not a sign that anyone has done anything wrong. An infected animal can contaminate a processing plant - and my understanding is that once the proessing plant is contaminated - there's basically nothing you can do except shut the place down. Listeria can be killed by cooking at high heat levels - so you're most likely to wind up getting sick with it by eating processed meats - like sausages - hot dogs - cold cuts - pates - etc. - which aren't cooked a lot - or at all. Absolutely nothing you mention would decrease your chances of getting sick from listeria (or most other food illnesses for that matter). Just like nothing you mention would decrease your chances of getting a food illness from a rare burger. Cooking things thoroughly will (although obviously most of us wouldn't care to eat a thoroughly cooked pate). Are you familiar with why you have a much greater chance of getting a food illness from a rare burger than a rare steak (I'm a person who loves rare meat - so I keep up on these things <smile>)? You confuse a lot of things in your message. Forced animal containment has nothing to do with food safety. Neither does the use of underpaid workers. There are perhaps arguments to be made against these things - but they are political - not a question of public health. So you have to decide whether you want to talk politics - or public health. If you want to discuss both - at least do them separately. By the way - I have to mention - as I have in other places on this board - that I thought D'Artagnan was as terrific as it could be about this incident. It cooperated in a recall - notified people like me - as well as its many commercial customers - all the best restaurants - everyone it could find who had bought its products - and gave us a full refund - even though it lost almost 100% of its Christmas/New Year's sales one year. That is why it is still in business - and people still buy from the company. Robyn

Robyn, I am with you on the peppers. I don't see how a grocery can charge what they do for peppers (and here in South La, at least for part of the year, many of them are locally grown) at the grocery store when other outlets can sell them for so much less. I do not think that a store of any size would use them for a loss leader, as frankly, red, yellow, purple, etc., bell peppers are not something any stores sell a ton of anyway, if you use shelf space as a judging criteria. And I love em too Well - when something is expensive - people treat it as a luxury item. You buy one at a time and use it sparingly. At $6 for 6 large ones - I throw them in and on lots of things. Scrambled eggs with onions and peppers - sausage and peppers - salads with fresh peppers - heck - we even buy frozen pizzas at Costco (Freschette - 3 for about $11 at Costco) - and "customize" them with fresh peppers - mushrooms - onions - etc. When something you used to use like a luxury item becomes cheap - you start digging out a lot of recipes. I did with peppers what I did a while back with salmon (remember when it was $15/pound on sale!). And then the opposite happens too. I used to buy my pine nuts relatively cheaply at a local "health food store". Then it went out of business - and I couldn't face spending $30 on a bunch of pine nuts to make a batch of pesto (I grow my own basil - so I can get all I need for the summer for $3 at the start of the season). Then when Costco opened - I could buy pine nuts for even less than what I was paying at the local health food store. And the pesto re-emerged as a summer staple. By the way - the pine nuts at Costco are from China. Is this a moral problem (it's not a taste problem)? It's the same issue faced by US garlic growers (competition from China) - and obviously lots of other industries in the US. I ask the question rhetorically - because competition from China in terms of goods and India in terms of services is one of the largest issues the US economy will face in the next decade - and a decent discussion of the implications is well beyond what I have the time or space to write tonight. By the way - judging from your description of your mother in another message (I still haven't figured out how to unnest nested quotes so I can quote things without cluttering up the message board - so I will combine 2 messages in one) - I think you would enjoy Ruth Reichl's biographical books (especially the descriptions of her mother's cooking). Make a "hint" for a stocking stuffer if you haven't read them. My mother is straight out of the movie "Mother" with Albert Brooks and Debbie Reynolds. Everything is frozen. My parents grill a chicken - freeze it - and reheat it. No wonder it's dry as the Sahara. If you haven't seen the movie - it's fun too. Might be a good idea for a thread - "food themes" in the movies (but I don't have time to start it now). Take care, Robyn

Would take me a looooooooooong time to tally up everything for a month. Let's do a couple of items. Like I bought some chicken breasts (with ribs) for $1.19/pound - and ground round for $3.29/pound at Publix this week (I don't set foot in Walmart). So much does the free-range/organic stuff cost? Robyn

The most recent mass case of listeria which killed a bunch of people (if I am remembering correctly) came from D'Artagnan/Hudson valley products (foie gras pates and the like). It wasn't exactly low end stuff. Robyn

There's a great Neil Young song called "Piece of Crap" that I love. From the movie "Repo Man": As two guys are sitting in their car for a long time waiting, watching the hustle bustle of people going about their day, one turns to the other and says "Ordinary fucking people, I hate 'em." A classic! These are the same people that work at the grocery check out and STILL don't recognize half the stuff I buy. Holding up an artichoke, or endive "what's this again?" (I did get raddichio for the price of red cabbage once though!) Pork, I feel your pain. Most people just don't don't give a shit. There are people who live as if they had blinders on, not wanting to learn, explore, feel, smell, taste, laugh or cry because it's DIFFERENT. Sadly because of these apathetic assholes, our natural resources will soon be destroyed. It's that pig attitude of "I want a green lawn and I don't care if my dog or kid or your kid gets cancer, I'm using my Chemlawn." Or, "I don't care if workers are exploited, I want my Nike's. They don't want make waves. They want to blend in. We don't. I will try very hard not to be ad hominem and personal. All I will say is that the average person who checks out or bags my groceries at Publix is an immigrant - a high school or college student taking advantage of the educational opportunities offered to Publix employees - or a person with a definite handicap (some are deaf and have speech difficulties - some have Down's syndrome - etc.). They are unfailingly courteous and competent - and if some of them have never seen a fennel bulb before (it's only a seasonal item here) - I will gladly tell them what it is so they'll know next time they see one. I don't know what your background is. My husband and I are retired lawyers. But he spent time doing things like working on the Ford Motor Company assembly line -and I spent time doing things like working as a secretary - so we could get through school. Workers - the people who serve you - are always entitled to be treated with dignity (although they don't always get it) - not derision. Robyn

I wonder if you have ever shopped at Costco? In my refrigerator right now is a package of Sausages by Amy - chicken andouille. Are these great sausages - no? Are they very good - yes (as an everyday lower in salt lower in fat alternative to the best sausage - which is unavailable where I live anyway). And they're a heck of a lot cheaper from Costco than through the Williams Sonoma catalogue (which also sells them - they're not available locally). I also have a pack of red/yellow/orange peppers (6 for $6 - about half what local grocery stores charge) - a pack of red/yellow/orange mini peppers ($4 for lots - unavailable anywhere else here) - I do like peppers - a hunk of aged PR cheese (again half the price for what it's available elsewhere) - a lot of pine nuts ($12/pound - it would be hard for me to make fresh pesto that didn't cost more than caviar if I had to pay the $5 for 2 or 3 ounces which is charged elsewhere) - the remnants of a jar of peach mango salsa (great on grilled chicken) - etc. Note that I live in north Florida - and if I wanted to detour on the way home to my nearest Italian grocery - I might not be home until the weekend . By the way - where do you live? Perhaps you live in an area laden with good Italian grocery stores. You don't find many of them in most parts of the south. I used to shop at one occasionally when I lived in Miami - but it was almost an hour away from my house - assuming no traffic - it wasn't the kind of place I could stop by on my way home from work. Wasn't a question of money. Who wants to spend 2 hours on the road for a hunk of cheese? For what it's worth - I do the opposite of what you imply. When I'm in Costco shopping for stuff I like there - I will pick up twice as much bread as I need (good dense crunchy stuff which my local grocery stores don't sell either) - because I'm too lazy to stop at another place on the way home. Robyn