jgm

I don't have strong feelings either way on the anonymity issue. I do post anonymously, mainly because when I first joined eGullet, I didn't know much about it and what kind of people were associated with it. I had Googled something about cooking, and an eGullet post came up. I'm not sure what prompted me to actually join; I just remember I was in a hurry and couldn't think of anything interesting to use as a screen name, so I just put in my initials. It seemed to be an unpretentious way to go. I am not a professional in the food industry, and never have been, and quite truthfully, I can't imagine why anyone would care what my name is. But like another post indicated, I have a fairly unusual name, and it would easily be traceable. In my past is an abusive relationship, and although I don't allow myself to live in fear, or allow that person to place boundaries on my life, I also don't put my name and face "out there" unless there's good reason to. I have sent personal e-mails to a few eG members for one reason or another, and I make no effort to hide my identity in that instance. If any eGullet member wants to know who I am, I would reveal that information if I thought there were a valid reason for doing so.

I use my microwave to soften butter: put 1 or 2 sticks of wrapped butter on a small plate and nuke for 10 seconds. Leave it alone for about 3 to 5 minutes and test it by squeezing between your thumb and finger to see if it's softened enough. If not, nuke for another 5 or 10 seconds. It shouldn't need anything more than that. To melt butter: Put butter in glass measuring cup, nuke for 20 seconds. Remove and stir. Repeat as necessary, shortening to 15 second intervals. I use it to heat milk and butter just before stirring it into mashed potatoes. I warm up coffee. If I need only 1 cup of boiling water, I don't mess with refilling and using the electric teapot. I put the water in the microwave, and usually 2 1/2 minutes will be perfect. I have also melted chocolate, very successfully, in the microwave. Same method as melting butter: stir every 20 seconds. I use it to heat milk for hot chocolate. I have a couple of recipes that call for liquid ingredients to be at room temperature before adding. 10 to 20 seconds, and stir, repeat as necessary, does it nicely. I do not use this method for eggs. I also nuke a wet dishrag for 1 minute, if I suspect it needs de-germing, such as when I wipe up juice from meat or chicken. I do use soap to take care of the germs, but sometimes I also follow with microwaving. My understanding is that 1 minute will kill everything that needs killing.

My copy of the book arrived in this morning's mail, and I am absolutely blown away! I can't wait to get home tonight and start making lists. I'm impressed with the variety of foods, and the creative ways in which they're used. And the presentation ideas are just wonderful. On the pullman loaf, when it comes to making the slices around the sides and ends, I would thinking that marking the knife, so that you insert it to exactly the depth you want, would be helpful. But I've never done it, either...

Wendy, here is a recipe from the Airport Hilton in Wichita, Kansas. They've been giving out this recipe for years... the last time I made it was in the late 80's. If I remember correctly, it's excellent when spread with a slightly sweetened cream cheese. It doesn't have chunks of apple, but given your expertise, I'm sure you can find a way to make that adjustment. Apple Bread Baking temperature: 325 degrees Grease and flour a loaf pan Combine: ½ cup shredded carrots, packed 1 cup canned sweetened applesauce ½ cup vegetable oil 1 t vanilla 2 eggs, beaten 3/4 cup sugar Mix above ingredients well. Separately, combine: 2 cups all purpose flour 1 t baking powder (double-acting) ½ t baking soda ½ t salt 1 t cinnamon ½ t nutmeg ½ cup chopped walnuts Combine dry ingredients, and stir into wet ingredients. Mix only until blended; do not overmix. Pour into greased & floured loaf pan, and spread evenly. Combine: 5T sugar + ½ t cinnamon Sprinkle mixture over batter bake 1 hour or until wooden pick inserted near center, comes out clean This recipe is available for pick-up at the front desk in the Legends Restaurant at the Hilton. A lovely woman indulged my request to read the ingredients off to me. I have made this before and it's excellent. Hope it's at least close to what you're looking for!

Ditto. Everything. Absolutely. Two drawbacks: 1. Takes up space on the counter in a very small kitchen. It's significant that we would rather give up the space than give up the kettle. 2. Circa 1957 kitchen has a shortage of power, and it's one more thing to juggle, electrically. I can't use it if either the microwave or the dishwasher are in use. Not-before-mentioned advantage: I have ADHD, and I have to do "things" to avoid burning the house down. Mainly, I wear a timer around my neck, which I set when I put things on the stove. Sometimes I put a chair in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room so that I will not forget to stay in the kitchen, such as when I have something under the broiler. (My husband loves me anyway. He's a saint. I make his life interesting. He always has stories to tell at work.) The kettle, however, turns itself off, and if I burn the house down, it won't be with the kettle. We love our electric teakettle.

I have a personal theory that much of what's on there is nothing but fantasy. Makes me feel less inadequate, as I sit at the keyboard eating my Campbell's Cream of Tomato Soup with a Boatload of Saltines, wondering if that's who "the other half" really is.

I've seen recipes here and there for champagne sauces. I've never tried any of them, but they sound really good. Probably anything produced with wine would be good... and you could use mushrooms for flavor. It would be better with shallots, of course!

I have a feeling this may have been covered in other threads, but none of my search terms could produce it. If it has been, the moderator has my permission (as well as encouragement) to combine the threads. Just curious... when eating regular meals at home, how much do you concern yourself with presentation? Do you arrange everything "just so" on a platter, and use garnishes? Coordinate plates and tablecloths? Use a centerpiece? (Even when you're not taking pictures to display on an eGullet or blog thread?) Or do you just put the food into serving dishes, and put them on the table, with a basic table setting? Dish up everything out of cooking vessels, and balance the plate on your knees as you watch TV? Eat directly out of the pan, standing over the sink? Come on, fess up!

Mine were forcibly pruned in 1999 by a tornado. By the time we got the roof dismantled, and dug down to the cookbooks, they were soggy and mildewed, and I had no choice but to toss them into the dumpster. I made a list of them as I discarded them, in case the insurance company ever questioned me about them. I felt like I was discarding my life. Each cookbook was purchased as I was expanding my cooking skills, and represented a particular milestone --acquiring a food processor, for instance. I'm not a particularly sentimental person --in fact, I often hide my lack of sentimentality lest others think less of me. But boy, was it difficult to see those cookbooks go. I just now looked over the list, and if I still had them, there are quite a few I'd probably get rid of today without a second thought. I recommend you prune out the ones you think you can live without, and if possible, put them away in a box for 6 months or so. Go through them again, and see if they look any different to you.

I think this is going to be my year for small items. This garlic slicer is on my list because my kitchen is very poorly lighted, my eyes are aging faster than the speed of light, and I can't slice garlic without either a) slicing my fingertips or b) getting my face within a few inches of the cutting board. I'm a big believer in doing everything with a knife, instead of buying a drawerful of gadgets to accomplish the same thing, but I think I'm going to throw in the towel on this one. I've also told my husband I'd like a food mill. (I'm having big dreams about tomato plants next summer.) The final item is something I could use some advice on. What I really want is a chinois, but I really have no place to store it. So I'm thinking about these as a substitute. I don't have to strain sauces very much, and I've seen these up close, and they do have a really fine mesh. Opinions? Advice?

I grew up doing the American switch thing. Then just after high school, I toured Europe and found that in many ways, they know so much more about eating than we Americans. College was my ruination. I've always been left-handed for writing, and right-handed for eating. I found the combination just too convenient while studying, and have gone back to switching. But I must admit the European way, with knife in right hand, fork held in left hand, tines down, makes so much more sense.

This is an interesting issue that you raise. I've been in a similar position more than once, and I simply have not known what to do about it. Case #1: New restaurant in town. Understandably, the staff is excited and enthusiastic. But how do you tell a waiter, who is trying to do his job well, that you don't need to speak to him every 3 minutes? We didn't have the heart to complain to his manager, because he genuinely was trying to serve us well. Obviously, he was new on the job. But the whole experience was not a good one, and we'll probably not go back. (The food was mediocre.) Case #2: Local casual dining (not fast food) restaurant. Two of their best offerings are their hamburger and their salad with house dressing, and I ordered both. Other than a beverage, that's all I ordered. Our waiter disappeared from our area shortly after taking our order (and was seen making multiple trips to take out the trash), and someone else brought our food - everything but the salad. I reminded that person that I had also ordered a salad. I received a blank stare. Much later, our waiter visited, and again I asked for the salad. Several minutes later, another waiter asked how we were doing, and again I asked for the salad. A few minutes after that, I motioned to the nearest waiter and said something to the effect of "I'm gonna get ugly about it if I don't have my salad before I finish my burger." (That's a paraphrase, you understand.) Within a couple of minutes, our waiter appeared with my salad, and apologized all over himself. To save space, I will just say that he revisited the table many, many times, and tried many, many times to get me to accept a free dish of ice cream, which I told him many, many times I did not want. The whole thing culminated in my looking him in the eye, and saying "Just bring the f***ing check. And NO ice cream. OK?????" In case #2, we went from egregious neglect to egregious overkill, and although I felt my entire meal probably should have been comped, it was not. It was not lost on me that the first several messages about the salad did not make it to our waiter, and that he genuinely felt bad about it. But good grief! Does one address these issues directly with the waitstaff? "Do you realize your behavior is quite obnoxious?" Or do you approach the manager, and probably get a well-meaning kid in trouble -- or worse?

That's what I'm getting! My mom is taking me to cooking school in Italy... ← Please consider doing an eGullet blog about this. So many of us have wanted to do this, and we'd love to spend a few vicarious minutes reading about it!

Great minds, Jason. Great minds. ← I feel so much better. I had thought Campbell's tomato was MY dirty little secret.

I think this is a Jacques Pepin recipe. I absolutely love it: Cube some day-old bread, and brown it either in a pan on top of the stove, or under a broiler. Put it in the bottom of a soup bowl. Sprinkle cheese on it; I think he uses about 2 tablespoons of Swiss, but obviously several variations are possible. Pour hot chicken broth (I used canned) over, and sprinkle with chives or sliced scallions. This is a perfect soup for a cold night, especially if you're worn out and don't feel like going to a lot of trouble. The broth can heat while the bread is toasting, and you're shredding the cheese and chopping the chives or scallions. And the whole idea is crying out for additions and/or variations.

Tonight's episode of "Behind the Bash" on the Food Network had some great ideas that I thought I'd pass along. It was the episode with the wedding staged inside a new building for a car dealership owned by the groom. Food ideas: miniature everything. Miniature hamburgers, servings of macaroni and cheese, tiny grilled cheese sandwiches, and single meatballs with a twist of angel hair pasta on top. I think I saw some tiny hotdogs in buns, too, but they weren't highlighted. I also saw what looked like a chunk of cucumber used for a base for something; it was about 3/4 to 1 inch thick. It had been squared off, with a circular well carved out of the middle (probably using a melon baller), to hold a filling. It wasn't discussed either, and I couldn't tell for sure what was in it. They also had miniature peach and blueberry pies, with a lattice top, sprinkled with turbinado sugar. My favorite presentation idea: The pies were displayed beautifully. They sat on a piece of clear acrylic, about 1/4" thick, that was placed over a base; it looked like a tray of some sort. There were I think 9 "spots" evenly spaced consisting of either blueberries or chopped peaches. These "spots" of fruit were about the same diameter as one of the pies, and they were surrounded by something that looked like small ice cubes. I don't think it actually was ice, which would have melted and would then have started looking bad. The part of this idea that I liked was that when all of the pies were taken, the acrylic "tray" was replaced with another (clean) acrylic tray of miniature pies, while the base stayed in place. It was a means of keeping the display fresh with very little fuss. [if someone else who saw this episode can describe this better than I have, please feel free to jump in.] Anything could be used as a base, to compliment whatever food was being served. The main point is to continually have clean, pretty acrylic trays of food to swap out for depleted ones. This acrylic is a simple sheet of acrylic that can be purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot very inexpensively. What a great idea!!!

These are great suggestions! I appreciate the responses. How could I forget about Martha Stewart??? I think I drooled heavily over this book when it came out, but didn't buy it. At the time, I think it was probably on my list of "things I wish I needed."

A friend has just opened a gallery, and in our community we have "Final Fridays", where on the last Friday of every month, there's an "art crawl". Various galleries, exhibits, etc. are open late that night. The grand opening was last Friday night, and I made some hors d'oeuvres. I had a lot of trouble, though, coming up with ideas and recipes. When I arrived at the gallery and began putting the food on the trays, I realized I don't know much about the display of such items. It wasn't a disaster, but it could have been a whole lot better. Do you have suggestions for what can be served at these events? I have access to a very small refrigerator/freezer, and a microwave. I'd like to be able to show up, drop off the food, chat a short while, and leave. In other words, I don't want to have to fuss with the food all evening, so continually warming things in the microwave isn't a desirable strategy. Also, I could really use some assistance with display. Are there any guidelines? Tips? This question is kind of vague, and I'll be happy to supply more info if you have questions. I will go ahead and say that all of the food is put out on tables and attendees serve themselves.

I can't eat chili without saltines. Lots of saltines. Oyster crackers would be good, too. I love the ice cream idea, and I love the smores idea. I'll also throw in cupcakes. And you can never go wrong with chocolate chip cookies.

Here's a recipe that can be made as healthy as you want: Put an electric skillet in the middle of the table. If using an extension cord, MAKE SURE it's heavy enough. Put chicken stock in it, about 4 to 6 cups. If using canned, at least half, if not all of it, should be low sodium, or it will get too salty. Each person is allotted a corner of the skillet. (This is a maximum 4-person recipe.) Into your corner, drop pieces of raw chicken, shrimp, lean beef, or lean pork, plus whatever vegetables you like. (Obviously, use safe food handling practices.) Things like carrots should be sliced pretty thin so that they will cook in a couple of minutes. When meat is cooked through and vegetables are to your liking, use a slotted spoon to lift it out of the pan and onto your plate. If your calorie allotment for the day will allow it, you can add white or brown rice with it. When the meal is over, you'll have great broth for a soup later in the week.

Cheddar Cheese Tartlets Serves 30 as Hors d'oeuvre. This recipe is originally from a Bon Appetit holiday cookbook. Tartlets can be made up to a week ahead, frozen, and rewarmed in a 350 degree oven until heated through. Good warm and at room temperature. Cheddar Cheese Pastry 1-1/4 c all purpose flour 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1-1/4 c loosely packed grated sharp cheddar cheese 1/2 c chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 5 tsp (approx) ice water Filling: 1 c cottage cheese 1/2 c heavy cream 1 c loosely packed grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided 2 large eggs 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/3 c finely chopped green onions (scallions) For pastry: Blend dry ingredients in food processor. Add cheese and butter, and blend until crumbs are coarse and somewhat uniform. Add water and blend until dough forms clumps. (I have actually added quite a bit more water than the recipe calls for.)Remove dough from processor, form into a disk, wrap, and refrigerate an hour, or up to 3 days. If refrigerating longer than an hour, allow to stand at room temp a few minutes. For filling: Blend cottage cheese and cream well, until smooth. Add 1 cup of shredded cheese (reserve 1/4 cup), rest of ingredients and process until well blended. Roll out pastry very thin - about 1/8 inch, and cut with a 2 1/2 inch cookie or biscuit cutter. Ease dough into wells of a mini-muffin tin. If necessary, gather dough and re-roll and cut. Spoon about a tablespoon of filling into each cup. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining cheese on tartlets. Bake until cheese is melted and filling is set, about 10 minutes. Allow tartlets to cool in tins a few minutes, then use a table knife to assist in popping them out of cups. Keywords: Hors d'oeuvre, Vegetarian, Intermediate, Cheese ( RG1452 )

I think the gifts that are most appreciated are those that one would not make or buy for oneself, as mentioned in an earlier post. Last year when I told my co-workers I was giving out cookies, they just kind of stared at the floor. I think they all get plenty of cookies and other sweets at holiday time. But when I brought them pizelles, they were really excited, and I got lots of thankful feedback. I'm not sure what all I'm going to do this year. I am surrounded by people who are pretty much meat-and-potatoes types, so I'm going to have to give it some thought.

This is a bit of a departure from the direction this thread seems to be going, but nevertheless. . . How much cooking people do, what kind of cooking people do, and how well they do it, can't really be discussed without taking the larger picture into consideration. It is part of how the world has evolved in the past half-century or so. My belief, which could be off, is that pre-WWII, people did a lot of home cooking, and were pretty good at it; they also tended to raise a lot of their own food. Obviously, that's a pretty broad generalization, and your mileage may vary. I was born in the 50's. My memory is that everyone's mom cooked, although some did better than others. In the 60's, when I was in grade school and junior high, there were only a few convenience products on the market, only a few fast-food places around, and restaurant dining was something most families did no more than about once a month, if even that. If my friends' mothers worked, it was mainly part-time. Divorce was all but unheard of. "Nice" people did not do it. I went to one Girl Scout meeting a week (I walked there from school, and walked home from there) and one dance lesson a week (we carpooled with friends). In the 70's, my mother subscribed to the Time-Life series on cooking around the world, and I was fascinated, but could not try most of the recipes because the ingredients were just not available in our area. At the same time, the number of convenience products were appearing on grocery store shelves, and fast-food restaurants were increasing in number. Divorce became more prevalent, creating more one-parent families and more women who needed to work full-time. In the 80's and on, a greater variety of produce began to appear in stores, along with a greater variety of convenience foods. Women working full-time became more the norm, one-parent families became more common, and parents began to see themselves a facilitators of their children's futures, enrolling them in language courses, sports, etc., and becoming truly concerned about the schools their children got into, whether their children were 9 or 19. Since then, ferrying children to and from extracurricular activities seems to have become a full-time job in some families. Society has changed a lot since I was born. But if we are to assert that fewer people are cooking, then what conclusion can we draw from the fresh fava beans, Swiss chard, 12 varieties of mushrooms, etc. etc. I saw in the produce department today when I went to pick up yellow peppers and basil? Someone's using all this fresh produce, and even though this is Kansas, they're not feeding it to the cattle. Perhaps it's just that people aren't cooking out of necessity that much anymore, but more out of interest, and as a hobby. We just don't live in the same world we used to. Can today's women cook? Yes, and no. One of my friends just learned a couple of years ago that the way to get her cake out of her bundt pan is to both grease and flour the pan, and I don't know how that information missed her, since I learned it as a child. And after I perused the Swiss chard and decided I wouldn't have an opportunity to use it until next week, I went down the baking aisle, and found myself explaining to someone what baking powder is. It's not a matter of can we or can we not cook. It's just a different situation altogether.

My number one favorite comfort food, which I allow myself only when something truly terrible happens, is a chocolate chip shake. I think it's made with the chocolate coating that hardens on ice cream. I always order it made fairly thin, and then the lovely chocolate chunks left on the bottom, that wouldn't go through the straw, are an extra treat to be consumed with a spoon. BUT... this chocolate, even when hardened, stays somewhat soft in a milkshake. It's not at all crunchy as nuts would be.

Andie, I want to be you when I grow up! I might have guessed you'd know how to do this. You give me something to strive for.