Mudpuppie

Permission to participate? Former Texas gardener here; current California gardener. Conditions are similar enough to pretend that they're the same. (Though I have fewer bugs and have never seen a spider mite here! ) Anyone ever tried pea shoots? I got some seeds this year from the Kitazawa folks. First time out. Still too wet to plant them right now, but soon....

What constitutes a season? (Sorry if that sounds dumb.) You're in CA, right? So you could conceivably get two or more harvests a year, and a season could be six months. I have just horribly confused myself. Repeat the question: When beans are two season old, how old are they in dog years? I mean, in months?

Fifi, aren't you in Central Market country? They'd have them.

Bizarre. Just accidentally came across this article from wednesday's Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1135675,00.html

Sounds really good. I'm making this soon, and will add coriander.

My mom suggested this to me once. She swears a potato works for sucking up fishy tastes and off flavors in old oil (which I don't use anyway). Anyway, didn't work.

Cream of chili soup?

beans are good. i don't have anything else to add. Oh wait -- thought of two things. The cheapo bag of store-brand black beans I just bought has a sell-by date. I've never noticed before. It's near impossible to read -- it's a black ink stamp superimposed over the nutritional info. Anyway, the date is December 2004, meaning that they think the beans are good eating for at least a year. When do dried beans become old? Also, re salting. What a tough call. Salting in the beginning often, for me, means oversalting. By the time the liquid reduces, the beans can be positively briney. Salting in the end means the broth gets salty but the beans don't. Haven't mastered this yet. No bacon for me, so I toss in a handful of dried chipotles. The smokiness is a welcome addition.

It looks like a bowl of... yellow stuff. What is it?

Must admit that I pack a PB and Tabasco sandwich for breakfast on most mornings.

Don't excoriate me, but I've only recently (1-2 years) started really using salt in cooking. I had always avoided it because I don't like salty foods, and because my family has a history of high blood pressure. Now I'm working on not using too much. It's definitely a delicate balance. And, sigh, I've only recently developed high blood pressure, so now I'm really trying to master the art. When I'm really trying to temper myself, I'll try to add an acid instead of more salt. It somehow tricks my palate.

It's extremely rare. Either that, or she's faking. (edited because a quote is not the same thing as a hyperlink.)

a salad and water? this whole thing makes little sense to me. Don't forget the pedometer. The whole package screams "see, fast food is good for you!" (I will always maintain that McDonald's salads are obscene.)

Hmm. I always thought it was a midwestern thing. I grew up in TX and my dad ate this as a late-night snack pretty often. He's a hoosier, though, so I always thought it was imported. (Sort of like crackers and milk -- also always associated with Hoosierness for me.) My whole world is shaken.

Well, what's inside could be considered obscene....

The imagination reels.... http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=56556

They get paid well and receive health benefits. Maybe that's why they naturally fit into a different category.

Mmm. Chocolate sandwich! Dark chocolate toasted on a slice of sourdough is some good.

For me, there's a strange double standard that I can't quite figure out. I don't really want to know about how dirty a restaurant kitchen is. Ignorance is bliss. My own kitchen, like MRX's, would be lucky to get an E. But it's my dirt, and I know where my dirt has been. That makes all the difference.

Sheesh, you should see what the doors at the clinic do say. Wait, not that I've been there. It was a joke. Never mind.

Duh. That makes sense. Mine is a citrus juicer, so I regularly forget that others are out there that don't only juice segmented fruit.

I'm so glad you brought this up. I noticed lots of A's that were, at the very least, unlikely (if not downright suspicious). For one, all of the vendors at the Santa Monica Pier. This made me wonder if there's a black market for the A placards. Some of them aren't signed by an inspector, but maybe a real signature isn't required. Would love to know if this kind of under-the-table trade occurs. Er, no pun intended.

I'm not advocating boring, but I don't like it when you have to think too hard. I remember seeing doors once that were labeled, "turtles" and "tortoises." I don't think they were unisex, although maybe at the time I was too naive to realize that was the secret. I have to admit with some embarassment that I eat at Macaroni Grill once a year (xmas eve) with the family. My mother always, always comments on their bathroom doors. (The inside of the women's says "Men," like you're about to walk into the wrong one when you leave the bathroom.) She thinks that's the cleverest thing. Every year she thinks that!

SF is proposing an ordinance that would require restaurants to publish the grade from their health inspection in the window. I know the LA area has a similar ordinance. I love it -- mostly because there's a real prurient interest in spotting a restaurant with a B. I've only seen a handful in LA. Would you refuse to eat in a B restaurant? Would the sign out front generally influence your choice of places to eat? Should all localities have a similar rule? (I mean, the info is public record, after all. Why shouldn't it be so accessible?) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...BAG0O4J7DU1.DTL