ellencho

If I have day-old cornbread I usually incorporate it into my next meal as some sort of filler - maybe for meatloaf, or for stuffing for a bird, or a stuffed pork chop. And I'm with patti on the buttered broiled cornbread. It also works well pan-seared, you end up with a delicious crust that will go well with your morning eggs and sausage.

My mom used to make up superstitions as a way to control her kids. My brother and I believed them unquestioningly for a really long time (like all through college). The first one she made up was that if you eat sugar and shellfish in the same meal you'll die, but I just think she didn't want to buy us sodas and desserts at seafood restaurants. Another one she made up was that if you get up and switch seats while eating a meal, you'll be divorced the number of times you switched seats. So years later, I think I was in high school or so, she told me to switch seats and sit elsewhere, so I looked at her disbelievingly and said, "but remember your superstition about switching seats?" and then she answered "It's better to be divorced than be in an unhappy marriage". God we were gullibile children. ANyway, regarding the salt over the shoulder, does anybody here watch 30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray, she always tosses salt, and says it's for "good luck". I've even see her on $40 a day and she's made chefs do that too!

When I make PT at home, it is brown, and I do use a tamarind-based sauce - should it be red? Because my tamarinds come in a big block and they're quite brown. What ingredient would turn the noodles red? The only time I've ever had a red PT is from a Chinese market that makes ready-to-go foods and when I brought it home, I realized they added ketchup, yuck.

Wow, that's such a shame, on the outside it looked perfect! All that work and your texture is off. IIRC, a dense bread could be indicative of too much flour. And too many big holes is a sign of underkneading? Do you remember if your dough had that "windowpane" affect going on at all?

Good god I love hwe with a passion. Last summer my dad's friend caught some seabass (I think) and he drove it home to us that same night and my mom sliced it up thin and served it with the sweetened seasoned kochujang and shredded lettuce. That was my first experience with "caught that day" fish EVER. Now when I look at raw fish, whether it's sushi grade or for regular home cooking, it looks so limp and sad.

I used to use their pasta but I've switched over to Ronzoni which I find to taste a bit "fuller" than Barilla. Additionally, I've stopped using their pasta sauces. I used to be a big fan of their tomato basil because it tasted so fresh, but now I've noticed it tastes more "cooked". Since then I've switched over to Bertoli. It has the taste that I think that Barilla now lacks.

Interesting thread. I used to wonder myself about metallic teapots, like aluminum, cast iron, silver etc. For the most part, I try to steep my tea in a ceramic vessel or stainless steel because I can definitely taste something unpleasant and metallic when I use other materials. At the moment, I'm the only tea drinker in my household so I brew my teas in a plastic filter that my sister brought back from London that I place in my teacup/coffee mug. That seems to work out pretty well for me.

I am ethnically Korean, and am most comfortable with asian cooking, nearly any cuisine, but mostly Thai cooking. Especially making the curries/stews. However, when it comes to Indian curries, I'm all thumbs. Some flavor is always a bit "off" or too raw tasting. Also, I'm a big ol' Northerner, but I'm quite comfortable making foods that are normally associated with southern cooking, such as smoked meats/bbq, biscuits, and braised veggies.

I'm a big fan of the 12th St Cantina's Cubana. Jeez louise they're delicious but they take a long time to press. Usually I do a little light shopping while I'm waiting. I haven't been back for them in a while though, because the guy who usually takes the money was away so the guy who usually cooked handled my money using his plastic gloves, and then began making my sandwich with the same plastic gloves. For halfway decent make at home cuban sandwiches I recommend using Genuardi's ciabatta bread. The crust gets really hard and crunchy and the inside steams up really nicely.

I confess too: I buy ice cream with stuff in it just to eat the stuff (like heath bar crunch ice cream just to eat the heath bar out if the ice cream). I also like Miracle Whip in sandwiches and Cool Whip on my Jell-o.

Sounds to me like you're the black widow of coffee makers A lovely french press perhaps? No electricity or circuitry required. Just hot water and grounds. A co-worker of mine has similar coffee maker problems herself and has a whole graveyard of broken coffee makers in her house. Why she won't throw them out is beyond me.

I want the coconut grater from the thread in the Cooking section.

Funny, I've often wondered about this myself and have asked both asian and non asian friends about their experiences in asian restaurants with forks and or chopsticks. In my experience, as an asian american, if the restaurant is patronized by a mix of races, usually there'll be forks as part of the table setting. If it is an establishment that serves mainly asians, you'll usually see chopsticks set out on the table, and forks available by request. I've noticed that when I visit an asian restaurant that happens to have forks set on the table, the server will usually exchange them for chopsticks without my asking, unless I'm with non-asian guests. My asian friends have experienced the same sort of treatment as well. My non asian friends have reported having their chopsticks exchanged for forks whilst eating at restaurants that cater mostly to asians. Maybe the servers automatically assume that asians prefer chopsticks and that non-asians don't? I dunno. Lastly, I think chopsticks are highly underrated in general. Since I have a touch of the OCD, I don't like getting my hands dirty, nor licking my fingers whilst eating snacks, and oftentimes, I'll eat chips, cheetos, and popcorn with chopsticks in order to avoid the grease on my fingers. Another situation where I think chopsticks come in handy is for eating any type of salad type dish. I find forks to be incredibly inefficient for leaf-eating and oftentimes wish I had chopsticks when eating salad at restaurants.

I had rose apples a couple weeks ago, I didn't really get to enjoy the taste because my face started blowing up from them - yet another thing to add to my "things ellen is allergic to" list. While it was somewhat crisp in texture, I don't think mine was fully ripe because it had a really mellow sweetness and little flavor. But today the most delicious thing I ate was my co-worker's chicken and dumplings. It was perfectly seasoned and and had a great mouthfeel.

Outside of Seoul I visited a similar restaurant except in this one you picked a chicken or two for your meal and they cooked it up for you. It was also an outdoors restaurant and we sat out on little mesh fenced in areas up on platforms. There was a lot of greenery and I think they grew a lot of their ingredients. We were younger when we first went to this restaurant and my dad used to threaten that he'd order the black chicken. At the time we were picky little kids and we were squicked out by the notion of eating a black fleshed chicken but now I realize that the flesh of a black chicken is not black. While we were eating the meat of the bird, they took the rest of the carcass and prepared us a really delicious jukk which was incredible. Very rich and velvety tasting. I also remember eating pork bulgogi at an outdoor restaurant that specialized in it but I'm pretty sure we didn't get to pick out our own pig

I believe that they know of two possible ingredients in beforehand and are allowed to request special items (like the pump that Ming used on his peking duck type dish)

I always wondered about this: If you have a heated pizza stone and you splashed hot water onto it or sprayed it with water, wouldn't it crack? I use an aluminum 8x8 pan filled with water for my ciabatta too but I have never had an issue with soggy bread. Were the ciabatta loaves on top of some sort of ceramic baking stone? Or were they on metal pans?

I too hated mashed potatoes when I was little and admittedly, I still don't love them now but I can appreciate them. Also, my first experience with curries was with the S&B brand that you find at asian supermarkets and my mom would always make the spiciest one and I absolutely HATED them. I still hate S&B curries but I love Indian and SE asian curries. Speaking of SE asian curries and Indian food, I have also grown to love cilantro. I always put a generous pile in my summer rolls. But oddly enough, as much as I love SE asian curries I don't like a strong taste of lemongrass or kefir lime.

The craziest thing I ever made at work was a very minimalist mocha. Half coffee half hot chocolate and fully delicious!

The pyrex can be used up to 394 degrees. I ended up purchasing the pyrex after reading the craptastic reviews on the polder. You'd think polder would have fixed their product by now.

Castella or kasutera is sort of pound cake like, but less sweet and less buttery tasting. It has a yellow cake type appearance, but denser (like pound cake) and it's usally sold in block shaped "loaves" and often given as gifts.

What sort of result are you looking for? For pork loin, I've read folks recommend letting it roast until it hits the mid 140s and then letting it rest until carry-over cooking brings it closer to 150. But I realize now that pork shoulder is different since it is fattier and has much more connective tissue. If you want falling apart, super tender like pulled pork texture you're going to have to let it go a lot hotter, closer to 210 (temperature at which connective tissue begins to break down) and you should have some sort of braising liquid or covering up your pork tightly with some foil? I once made a Tyler Florence pernil recipe, which said to take your meat to 175 and that wasn't nearly enough to make it tender. I ended up covering it up with foil and letting it go to 210 and I was fine.

Great googly moogly is that an awesome restaurant. It's a fairly decent sized space, very very clean and the waitstaff is really pleasant and accomodating. We went for a late anniversary lunch today and enjoyed an order of their hot wings, which are both smoked and crusted with a nice hot peppery rub and served with what appeared to be a homemade bleu cheese dressing and a couple of sticks of celery. They arrived steaming hot, and and easily pulled apart at the joints. I don't think a single bad thing can be said about these wings, they were simpy divine. For my entree I enjoyed a ribs and brisket platter with a side of coleslaw and root beer baked beans. On the plate I received three generous sized ribs and three slices of brisket. The brisket was a little on dry side but had excellent flavor. There was some bbq sauce on the table and that helped alleviate the dryness. The ribs were meaty and tender and I enjoyed them immensely. The coleslaw was very fresh and light tasting, with white and red cabbage, carrots and cucumber mainly. You could really taste the root beer in the beans, but amazingly enough, they weren't cloyingly sweet like lots of baked beans can be. The boyfriend had a plate of brisket with a side of collard greens and sweet potato fries. The greens were cooked perfectly with an appropriate splash of vinegar. The sweet potato fries were surprisingly crisp and not soggy at all, like some of them can be. They served a nice ranch dipping sauce to accompany the fries. And for all you folks who have a touch of the OCD like I do, I loved that they provide you with wet disposable hand towels as well as red terry cloth hand towels as napkins. Unfortunately I can't report to you on the quality of the dessert, we were too stuffed to have dessert but we didn't feel as if we were missing out. Oh, and I nearly forgot, our platters were served with two triangles of very delicious, soft rich tasting bread. I wanted to make myself a mini sandwich with my brisket, but I knew if I did, would fill myself up too fast, and I wanted to save room for everything!

I wonder if I'm the only one who does this? With my green teas (hoji, sencha and genmai) I've noticed that the first brew is sort of bitter tasting. What I normally do is heat up enough water for two batches of tea and I'll toss the first brew and drink the second brew. I've found that it tastes a bit mellower and smoother and less tannic.

Yes they work great! I save up individually wrapped egg whites in my freezer all the time, and once I"ve accumulated a dozen of them I make angel food cake :) And if you don't want to make angel food cake then make meringue maybe? And yes, you can beat them like regular never frozen egg whites. Just be sure not to get any yolk into your egg whites before you freeze them.