jgm

I started to answer this yesterday, and realized it was a more involved question than I had at first realized. After thinking about it overnight, I realized that just working with food is a form of play for me. A lot of my kitchen equipment could be thought of as my toys. Even a mundane activity like peeling and slicing a cantaloupe is something that I find myself turning into play. Using a really sharp knife to cut through the melon, is a lot of fun. How close can I come to the rind, without having any green places on the melon slice? When I dice an onion, how quickly can I do it? And how uniform can I make the pieces? And then when I make something that turns out really, really well... that's a home run! It's probably important to point out, however, that I don't cook for a family every night, and most of the cooking I do is purely for my own pleasure. That probably makes a difference.

It's true that they were all dealt the same conditions, and the changes they needed to make were changes they could have and should have anticipated. However, a contestant with more disposable income, or other advantages, could afford to hit town perhaps a week ahead, rent facilities, and try his/her recipes over and over again until the tweaks were just right. To offer a scenario, what if the officials at Minot AFB decided, as a matter of military pride, that they wanted their guy to win, and decided to provide him with every advantage possible? There are surely military facilities in the Denver area where he could have stayed, and practiced his recipes, and walked away with the $10,000. In a scenario like that, the other four might as well have stayed home. If I'd entered the competition, and made it that far, I would have spent a week at my brother-in-law's house in Denver, making sure I knew how to compensate. But not everybody has a brother-in-law in Denver. The contest should have been about the cookies, and the ordinary people who bake them. That's where the entertainment value comes from. I found myself getting very indignant on behalf of some of the contestants who were obviously done in by the altitude --and that's not entertainment. Contests are the most enjoyable when the playing field is as level as possible. K8, it would be great if you could find out some details from Mari. If she's not prohibited from doing so, I'd love to see you post a few paragraphs of her comments about the contest.

That certainly seems a plausible explanation. As a viewer, I feel a little cheated that I didn't get to see the contestants strut their best stuff. I'm glad I wasn't a contestant. I can't imagine the frustration of putting that much work into the contest, only to have my work fall flat (literally) on national TV.

Last night I was watching a cookie-baking contest on the Food Network. The bakers were all amateurs; they baked cookies in categories including chocolate chip, spice, fruit, and one of their own choosing. (There might've been another category, but I've slept since then...) The contest was held in Denver. I don't know anything about how the field was narrowed down to the finalists on the program. In fact, the show may be a few years old for all I know. Additionaly, the reason behind the choice of locations is not something I have knowledge of. The contest may have been held in conjunction with another event. One thing bugged me. There were several failed batches among the contestants due to the high-altitude difference. If these were professional bakers, fine, throw anything you want at them. But these folks were not professionals at all, and I felt that the high-altitude problem deep-sixed some batches that would have turned out really well at a lower altitude. I'm not sure that was entirely fair. In such a situation, theoretically, a contestant could arrive a few days early, rent facilities, and make their recipes several times to figure out the necessary tweaks. Some of the contestants had several kids, and there would be no way they'd be able to afford to do that. Once recipe in particular flopped miserably; it was a moroccan cookie that should have "bloomed" into a rose shape in the oven. Instead, it flattened out. The judges also weren't pleased because it was in the fruit cookie category, and the only fruit was some lemon zest. So the altitude was not the only thing working against the contestant. I feel pretty strongly that the contest should have been held elsewhere, and that throwing this kind of complication at amateurs wasn't entirely fair. Do you agree? Disagree? Or do I just need to find something else to whine about?

I do this, too, and I also put things on the stovetop. (I like to live dangerously.) Occasionally, when I'm really, really pressed for space, I'll put things inside the oven. In fact, it's an ideal place to dry fresh pasta. But this, too, has its perils. In my house, the fact that the cats can't get to what's inside the oven, is a strong enough advantage to make me do it fairly often. It seems I've seen pull-out cutting boards in some kitchens, and I've thought of having some installed when we build our house. Has anybody ever used these? I wouldn't think they'd be sturdy enough to do much cutting on, but they'd sure hold a bunch of prep dishes. In my next life, I will have a large kitchen and well-behaved cats.

There's a possibility they simply haven't announced it yet. Let's hope that's the case.

When I think about how the Internet, and specifically eGullet, has affected my life, it reminds me of the "Connections" PBS series on years ago, hosted by James Burke. Essentially, in his series, he illustrates, repeatedly, how one small change can foster a new era. And I believe we're in a new era. As many other eGulleters are, I'm in a fairly isolated area, and I don't travel that much. Before eGullet, I had to rely on the major food magazines, plus whatever was on the shelves at the public library, Borders, and my own home, plus a little on TV. Once I joined eG, though, the change was dramatic. I learned about things I never would have stumbled across on my own. I have "met" and in some cases, met in person, people with whom I never would have crossed paths otherwise. I have even grieved --deeply, in at least one case-- for people whose eyes I've never looked into, whose hands I've never shaken. But those people have influenced my cooking, and since cooking is a large part of my life, they have had a substantial effect on my life. The world has become much, much smaller. Culinarily speaking, IMHO, the creation of eGullet is right up there with the invention of the telescope. Maybe the world won't see it that way, but that's the effect it's had on my world. Through eG I've learned of ingredients, dishes, techniques, chefs, and authors I would likely never have heard of. Because of eG, I now pay $6.99 for a can of San Marzano tomatoes, and nearly $5 for a can of tuna, and I'm happy to do so. I make caramelized onions, and usually have a jar of 'toast dope' in my fridge. I no longer eat canned vegetables (except for tomatoes), and seldom frozen vegetables. Junk food is no longer something I'm willing to eat, much less do I crave it. I haven't become a food snob, but my palate has. I could go on and on, but that's the gist of it. This is an incredible place; the Internet itself augments the things I hear about on eGullet. It all adds up to a major educational opportunity for me.

The mystery is solved! Oh, gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd this is embarassing. But y'all have been so kind, and so informative, you deserve to know the truth. I made some pudding tonight. It too was inedible. That's because the (Tupperware) container that SAYS "Baking Powder" on the label, really is baking powder. It's the one that says "cornstarch" that contains cornstarch! Gooo-ooooo-oooollll-leee! But I picked up some great tips for stir-frying, so it's not a total loss, right? Right? I got a postcard from my optometrist the other day, informing me it's time for another appointment. I had to take off my glasses to read it.

May the road rise to meet you, May the wind always be at your back, and may crappy cookies be the worst problem you'll ever have. Apologies and congrats!

Fred loves to be exploited! He likes it best when we exploit him with nibbles of bratwurst. But McDonald's fries are second best. It's embarrassing to have him in the car and go to the drive up window of a bank; he's got his nose out the driver's window, sniffing for that unmistakable French fry smell, frantic and drooling all over my shoulder. Somebody always offers him a nice dog treat, which he won't even consider eating. The tellers at the bank go into hysterics over his antics as he desperately searches for his beloved fries. The time together will be really nice. And Fred absolutely adores road trips. One of his favorite parts is when he gets to sniff around at rest stops ...a friend calls it "reading the pee mail".

Last night, I made a beef and asparagus stir fry that I've made many times before. The procedure goes like this: 1. Cut beef into short strips. Put into a bowl in which soy sauce and cornstarch have been whisked together; turn beef to make sure it's evenly coated. 2. Heat peanut oil in a wok (I use a regular skillet). Briefly saute a mixture of scallions, minced garlic, and freshly grated ginger until fragrant; add beef and 1" pieces of asparagus, and stir fry about 3 to 4 minutes, or until beef is cooked through. Add a sauce made of oyster sauce, a small amount of sugar, and white wine, and cook about 1 minute longer. Serve with rice, topped with toasted walnut pieces. During the cooking process, there seemed to be a lot of extra water bubbling up within the mixture, that I don't remember ever seeing before. My husband suggested that sometimes beef is injected with water to make it weigh more, and perhaps that's where the water came from. If anyone has any other possible explanations, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I think one problem was that I had too much food in the pan, and so had to cook the mixture about 10-12 minutes total to cook all of the beef. When we started eating what is usually a delicious meal, we found that what was on our plates was inedible. It had a strong, strange, unidentifiable aftertaste; sipping water afterward produced a soapy flavor, which makes me suspect a problem with the ginger. I double-checked the recipe, and I used the correct amounts of every ingredient. I suspect the problem is with cooking the ginger too long. Will ginger develop a strong or "off" flavor with too much cooking? If that's the case, then it's clear I need to cook this recipe in a larger pan, and probably in two batches. Any other ideas?

We have a gas stove, so it's pretty obvious if the burners are on or not. I do, then, tend to put stuff on top of the stove. We especially do so when unloading the week's groceries from the car, but they're unpacked and moved off the stovetop within minutes. In allowing this habit to continue, I am ignoring the fact that the controls for the burners are on the front of the stove, and although I wouldn't tend to put something like a plastic bowl on a burner when it's on, it's always possible that someone could bump one of the controls and turn it on, and ignite whatever I had sitting on the stovetop. My mother had a habit of storing pies and cakes in her oven. Everything went fine during my childhood, because it was a habit for everyone in the family to open the oven door and check before turning the oven on. When I went to college, my roommates and I didn't keep stuff in the oven, so I got out of the habit of checking. And sure enough, we had an incident involving a Tupperware pie keeper melted all over the bottom of the oven.

As I mentioned in another forum, we will, within about roughly the next month, be driving from Kansas to the Orlando, FL area. Our anticipated route will take us through Tulsa, Little Rock, Memphis, Birmingham (probably an overnight stay there), Atlanta, and then down to north of Orlando. We will try to make the trip in two days. This is not a pleasure trip; it's to attend a funeral. We want to minimize our travel time so as to maximize our time at our destination. If you have recommendations for specific restaurants along that route, we'd be interested in hearing them. More importantly, though, is figuring out how to get good meals that don't require sitting in a restaurant for an hour. The problem is our dog, Fred, who will be in the back seat. Unless the weather becomes unseasonably cool, it will be too hot to leave him for more than a couple of minutes. (Black car. Inside and out. ) Leaving the dog behind is not an option. We don't have a suitable place to do that; he won't eat if we're not around; and it's bad enough losing one family member without leaving our first born child behind. And my sister-in-law, by the time we get there, will need the pet therapy. So here we go! So how do we do this without succumbing to eating in fast food hell? I have enough time to plan to take a little food. I also like to try to eat a low-cholesterol, low-salt diet, although those requirements may have to give a little for the sake of convenience. We also will have enough room to take maybe one regular size cooler, plus a smaller one to hold drinks. General ideas, and specific recommendations alike, would be appreciated. I know we'll eat at McDonald's at least once on the way out and once on the way back; Fred loves their fries. I figure I can deal with their salads if I take my own dressing. I'm looking for other creative ways to blend take-along food with whatever we can find, and have some good meals.

We will, unfortunately, be driving from Kansas to Leesburg, FL (NW of Orlando) to attend a funeral soon. It may be as soon as this weekend...or within a few weeks. We may want to dine out a couple of times while there; I'm thinking we may want to take my sister-in-law to dinner before we leave. So we'll be looking for a "nice place", but not extremely upscale. The idea is to find a good meal. Culinary adventures will have to wait for another time. A somewhat quiet atmosphere would be ideal. I could use some blanket recommendations as well as some specific ones. Are there areas to stay away from? Places not to be missed? We'd be looking for a place with entrees in the $10 to $20 range. I've never been to that part of the country before, so I have no idea what that will buy. Suggestions for a couple of lunch places wouldn't hurt a thing, either.

A few comments... Re the legalities of recipes: if you should decide to take them with you (leaving the employer empty-handed) when you leave, consult an attorney first. There are often nuances to situations like yours that make them, as far as legal aspects go, not what they appear to be to a layperson. (Trust me.) Sometimes it's because laws vary from state to state, and sometimes it's because of particular events that have transpired. A competent lawyer will question you to find out the scope of your situation and advise you accordingly. Don't go for the cheapest attorney you can find. You get what you pay for. You do want to avoid a lawsuit. They are expensive, exhausting, and horrible. Getting a couple hundred bucks (or less) worth of legal advice before taking action may save you lots and lots of grief later. The attorney may also be able to give you helpful advice for how to stay out of this situation in the future. Ethics-wise, I'd leave them. Your helpers aren't competent enough to really compete with you, and it wouldn't surprise me if they ditch them after awhile in favor of something simpler, and of lower quality, of course. Few people ever regret taking the high road. And you never know when a good recommendation from this employer will put you in a great job down the road. Think of them as a legacy; a young pastry chef may run across them one day, and you will have helped someone else get a good start. But my money's really with the idea that the people who have them, won't have the ability to appreciate them. As for the doctor: if he or she is in practice with a partner, demand to see the partner immediately to learn the results. Last resort: see a different doctor in a different clinic, and have that physician call your doctor or the lab for the results. There's really no excuse for leaving a patient hanging for a cancer diagnosis while a doctor is on vacation. Do make sure your doctor understands how insensitive this is. I had a similar scare once, and I had to wait only from Friday afternoon to Monday morning to get an answer. Just that long was excruciating. Very happy to hear that the cat came back! At least ONE thing in your life is going well!

Others have contributed some really good ideas in answer to your query, but these are the ones most important to me: I like the idea of having suggestions for accompaniments. I really like having a little paragraph about each dish, enticing me to try it, and letting me know what to expect from it. I also like substitution information, since I can't always get specific ingredients. Statements like, "If you can't find fresh basil, dried will do, but it will lack the flavor the original will provide" are helpful, as are "If you can't find fresh basil, try another recipe. This dish is quite lackluster without it." Pet peeve: How much garlic is two cloves of garlic, chopped? Say 1 teaspoon if that's what you mean. Garlic cloves vary dramatically in size, as do many other produce items. A "bunch" of parsley is also vague. So is a "sprig." Some of the sprigs of basil in my garden right now have six small leaves; others have more than a dozen large leaves. Be specific, preferably by weight. It's also confusing to me, to be told to saute something for 5 minutes. 5 minutes on your stove may equal 15 minutes on mine. Give me information about color, sound, smell, or whatever else is indicative of the point I'm supposed to reach. "Soft but not browned" is very helpful, since browning onions (or whatever) imparts a flavor not found in onions that are simply sauteed until softened. It's also nice to know whether a dish will reheat well the next day or not. It would also be lovely to have suggestions and information about whether I need to stick to the recipe pretty religiously, or whether I should try certain substitutions for a different character and flavor. Extreme pet peeve: Don't tell me which foods are good for me or bad for me. When it comes to nutrition, it's more a matter of what you've decided to believe, than absolutes. When a cookbook author makes pronouncements about whether I should or should not consume certain foods, it's extremely irritating. And it also severely dates the cookbook, since "experts" change their opinions about these matters quite often.

My favorite portable lunches involve tuna. One is a tuna nicoise salad. You could substitute salmon if you wish. The second is a white bean and tuna salad. I use Giada deLaurentiis's recipe, found on the Food Network website. Use an excellent canned, or fresh/cooked tuna. Lentil salads are also quite portable. And to go with: extremely colorful fruit salads with as many different kinds of fruits as I can find or afford.

Consider perusing the cookbooks written by Deborah Madison. In particular, in "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" there's a dish comprised of lentils, caramelized onion, spinach, boiled eggs, and toast that is delicious. If you don't have a library nearby, I often order cookbooks used through Amazon, and prices tend to be pretty good that way. Caramelized onion might be another thing to keep on hand to add flavor to various dishes. It's great stuff. There's a thread about making it here on eG. I'm in a situation similar to yours, in that I've had to start eating "mainly" vegetarian. It's for health (cholesterol) reasons more than anything else. I do, however, eat canned tuna (Italian tuna, A's Do Mar brand, which I mail order through Amazon), and other fish, which opens up a lot of other possibilities.

Congratulations, definitely, are in order. This is good news for all of us! After seeing a list of what's in your freezer, I have become very homesick for KC. Which is odd, since it was my home for only about 3 months, 25 years ago. Can't wait to get back and see what you're cooking up NOW!

When I make cinnamon rolls, I don't use any brown sugar at all. When I roll the dough out, I brush on enough melted butter to moisten the dough, and then add cinnamon and white sugar. The proportions are such that there's a coating of sugar all over the dough, but no more than that. Then I roll it up and slice it. Although I'm certainly no expert, I'd say you may be using too much brown sugar. It's getting moisture from somewhere; either from the dough itself or the butter, and that's why it's running. The other possibility, of course, is to switch from brown sugar to white sugar, but if you like the flavor from the brown sugar, you may not care to do that.

It would seriously piss off the neighbors, who can't seem to keep their dogs in their own yards, despite a leash law; and the dogs would just get the chickens. Which would piss me off. I've already donated way too many tomatoes and peppers to the ******* squirrels. Seems I'm the one growing the food in our neighborhood, and everybody else is doing the eating. Besides, if I grew my own chickens, I'm not sure I could kill them and eat them. Uh-oh. My duplicity is showing...

About twenty years ago (or maybe more?) I purchased a large balloon whisk. I'm not sure what I intended to whisk with it, but I bought it in a restaurant supply shop at the begining of the high-tech era where everybody started buying restaurant equipment for their kitchens. Must've been an '80's thing. Anyhow, I remember being fairly certain, at that time, that owning such items would make me a Real Bonafide Cook, not to mention actually being a good cook. Some years later I began to understand that you really can't consider yourself a cook if you only read about it but never do it. And I think that probably in conjunction with a milestone birthday, it occurred to me that there were a lot of common but uncommon dishes I'd never tasted, much less made in my own kitchen. Stuff like coq au vin and beef burgundy (yeah, it has a fancier French name, but I can't spell it off the top of my head, and I'm too lazy to look it up right now) that are common to some people but uncommon for the likes of me. So I started cooking, and joined eGullet and discovered a lot of other really cool stuff to cook. Still haven't used that whisk, but I ain't giving it up. I guess now it represents dreams and determination, more than a delusion that owning stuff means I really am a cook. What's it good for, anyway? I don't have a copper bowl to beat egg whites in. Anybody have any suggestions?

Maybe they're planning to film a commercial and go cheap on models. All they'd need to do is get releases signed, deliver the appetizer, hire the production company, .... and.....Done!

You have the luxury of having a male metabolism. Obviously, you have to work at losing and maintaining weight, just like a woman does, but any doctor will tell you it's usually easier for men than for women. 60 pounds in 9 months is the kind of loss rate I had with Fen-Phen, and I do not expect to have anything near that with my current program. If I could get the benefit of running 5 miles a day, that would be great. But previous injuries and arthritis mean I have to use a more gentle form of exercise, which doesn't burn the calories that running does. If you develop a serious injury that keeps you from running for a few weeks or months, you might also have a change of opinion. Even with the drug, I would not return to unhealthy eating habits. I would stay with a low-sodium, low saturated fat eating plan. I'm trying to think of it as a lifestyle change, not a temporary situation. Weighing 120 pounds wouldn't be much of an advantage if I had high cholesterol and blood pressure. If an injection or series of injections made it come off a little faster, and made it a little easier to keep it off. . .and if the side effects were negligible. . .it would be great. Under normal circumstances, I am optimistic and confident about my ability to do this the old fashioned way. But normal circumstances aren't in the cards for me for the next several months or so, and that's if things don't go any worse than I think they will. But my anticipated challenges over the next several months could last for a few years. I would love it if, when there are times I can't be as careful as I'd like to be, I at least wouldn't lose ground. Since my program is just beginning, I'm finding it pretty stressful to keep the appropriate groceries stocked in the kitchen... do the actual cooking... get to the gym 4 days a week (I also ride an exercise bicycle at home) ...keep the house up, the garden watered, the boss happy at work while we transition to a different corporate structure... do a few pleasurable things here and there... and occasionally drop everything to deal with certain life and family issues that can't be phoned in. I think that a month from now, it will be easier; 6 months from now, it will be much easier. But right now I'm kind of panicking over trying to keep everything going. And I haven't lost any weight for a month. I'm not looking for a get-out-of-jail-free pass. But I wouldn't turn down a little help. Oh, and there's that other thing. That cooking thing where I like to try new recipes, and new restaurants. That thing that keeps me addicted to eGullet. That doesn't fit in with losing weight particularly well. The skills I've gained are helpful. But in some ways, it would be soooooo much easier if I liked mediocre food.

If any you haven't read Ruth Reichl's "Garlic and Sapphires", you'd probably enjoy it quite a bit. The treatment of restaurant customers who don't look like the restaurant's normal clientele is essentially the story she's telling. Very entertaining and very interesting!