ellencho

Maybe you could try frying them longer? Maybe 12-14 minutes? Also, Cook's Illustrated recommends using corn starch instead of flour. Maybe that'll help with crispness next time? I used corn starch a couple weeks ago and my wings were pretty good.

Ooh! count me as a RTM fan too! My brother just moved here from NY and he loves it too. We even bought our Thanksgiving turkey from Halteman's poultry and drove it all the way to my mom's place in NY. Good lord that turkey only lasted a couple hours after Thanksgiving. Also, my family is addicted to Martin's breakfast sausage links, and every time I go home I make sure to buy a couple lbs beforehand. And Pathmark has got to be the most disgusting supermarket I've ever stepped foot in, including Sloane's in NYC. I live on the outskirts of Philly near St Joe's and the Pathmark near where I live is beyond filthy. I won't buy any fresh produce from there in fear that someone with dog poop on his/her shoe has tread upon it before I got to it. Not only is it filthy but the cashiers are beyond slow and rude to boot! Sometimes I'm overly smiley and positive around them because I know it pisses them off! Having lived in Ardmore as well, I have to say I *heart* the Superfresh in Wynnewood. Not only is it clean, but it's well-lit, and the cashiers are pretty fast. They have a good selection and decent prices. I also like the Acme on Montgomery Ave near Narberth. It's small, but clean and they have great service. One time a cashier pointed out that the fish that I was given was stinky (I had a cold at the time) and complained to the manager herself about it. Genuardis is ok, but it's usually pretty crowded and ever since it got sold to Safeway I've felt as if the workers there couldn't care less.

Rather late to the party but thought I'd share my cannele success with you guys. I used Malgieri's recipe which is eerily similar to Roux's recipe and since my brother doesn't care for the taste of rum, I substituted an entire orange's worth of zest and an entire vanilla bean. I pre-froze the molds in my freezer before I added my cold batter. I baked them for an hour in a silicone cannele pan that I bought from amazon.com and they turned out pretty durn good. I had no problems with sinking and no problems with crust formation. The silicone pans are awesome, you don't need to grease them, the canneles pop out quite easily and they're a breeze to clean. I apologize in advance for the bad lighting, but I used a camera-phone. And also for not showing a pic of a cut cannele. Bad ellen bad!

I'm also a big fan of the cake cones - sometimes I just eat them plain without ice cream. And besides using them for ice cream I use them to bake ice cream cone cupcakes in, it's the easiest thing to do but somehow everyone ends up being horribly impressed.

So what did you do? Did you send them back? Did you eat them? How do restaurants usually respond to this sort of complaint?

I once made the Susan Feniger/Mary Milliken from their Mexican Cooking for Dummies book and it turned out so-so, not as good as what I had at their restaurant. I also made a recipe that I found at Food network's site and it was HORRIBLE. Pork Mimi's Way, Yucatan Style: Cochinita Pibil . The Feniger/Milliken recipe tasted richer than the food network recipe which was thin and way too tangy. I did not make either with banana leaves but I know you can get frozen banana leaves in the frozen sections of asian markets. But wow, neither of my attempts looked as good as yours.

Try Atkins farmer's market. They have the best cider donuts I've ever eaten. It was a farmy type store opened years ago by Hampshire college students as a school project and has been in business ever since, although I dont think it is affiliated with Hampshire college anymore. Atkins Farms webpage

Granted, I graduated years ago, but for good food try either of the two Indian restaurants in town. India House - on State st - spicier than India Palace, on Main St. There's also Cha cha cha or Cha3 - and they have big fat ginormous spicy burritos - they're on 134 Main St. Avoid East Side Grill - I had a really racist experience there once. And for dessert - La Fiorentina - very reasonably priced Italian style desserts and drinks/coffees/teas. It's behind Thornes - 19 Armory St. If you just want bar-style food then try Packards, right off of Main st on 14 Masonic St. For upper-scale try Spoletos - I'm not sure what they have there, because when I was in college I could not afford it, but when the Clintons went college shopping for Chelsea they ate there. DOwntown northampton is pretty small, and easy to navigate. And if you can't find what you're looking for, a local will always be happy to help you. Good luck, let me know if you have any questions.

So if this is even possible, without my using it, my cutting board has warped even more, and you can see a separation between the junction between the 3rd and 4th pieces of wood. Perhaps it's been somewhat humid in Philly lately? I dunno. I've decided to trash my once beloved cutting board and replace it. In the end, this worked out for the best for my boyfriend who actually thinks I'm going to hold the board while he attempts to kick it in two. Thanks for all your suggestions all. I'll definitely take better care of my next board.

bacon and peanutbutter balogna and peanutbutter hummus and bacon <-- bet you'll never see that served in a middle eastern restaurant

Hot cross buns? Communion wafers and wine? *ducks rotten tomatoes and holy water*

I've never seen this at any of the TJ's I've shopped at over the last 15 years, but maybe I'm just not curious enough? I did have a TJ's checker ask me once if I'd checked my eggs for broken ones. I looked at him and said, "you mean there are people who don't?" He replied, "you'd be surprised." But he's the only one who's ever asked me. The supermarket drones can barely manage to grunt out, "thankyoumsgarnerdoyouneedhelpouttoyourcar." All you need to do is ask. And after you take your taste (at Whole Foods at least) they're supposed to put out the remainder of the food in a sampler type passive display so it'll benefit everyone else shopping in the market. At most Trader Joe's that I've shopped at they have a little nook where a TJ worker stands while people take samples - you can ask usually ask those workers for a taste. Usually a "What does this taste like?" will get you a sample of what you like.

Depending on the store, a place like Trader joe's or Whole Foods will encourage you to sample their products before making your decision. My bf used to work at WHole foods and he was allowed to give out tastes of products to customers of things that were up to 25 bucks in value. He even let this lady try 5 different types of mayonnaise, and since she dipped her spoon back into one of bottles, he let her have it for free. Ew! And at Trader Joe's all I wanted once was a single orange, but they only little shopping bags full of oranges to buy. So the manager just gave me an orange out of one of the bags and said it was on him. When supermarkets treat you kindly like this, and at their expense, it probably helps them in the long run, because I find myself returning to Whole Foods and TJs all the time.

Korea = Kimchee* *not really a "dish" but a side dish served with all meals.

So the cutting board in question is a no-name brand that I picked up for cheap at Marshalls a couple of months ago. The dimensions are about 12"x8"x1" and it's basically just five pieces of wood held together by I don't know what, and at about the junctions of wood pieces #3 and #4 it's beginning to warp. I've never put this cutting board in the dishwasher, always been careful to hand wash and air dry. Anyone have experience with unwarping wooden cutting boards? Or can you recommend me a thread here relating to the subject? TIA! <edit> I made the rookie wooden cutting board booboo of not treating it with mineral oil, to make it more water resistant, but I defnitely will try mineral oil on my other cutting boards in the future - oh, and where can one pick up mineral oil? Do they sell it at supermarkets, drug stores etc?</edit>

So I finally broke down and visited the place. It's very smokey/hickory smelling inside, and it's really quite tiny. There's a couple small tables so you can eat indoors, as well as some picnic tables outdoors so you can enjoy your food out there. The menu looked really limited and was painted onto a slab of wood. They just had different sized portions of ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and brisket sandwiches along with a bunch of sides. We ordered a half a rack of baby back ribs and a large brisket sandwiches. For sides we ordered cornbread, collards and cole slaw. The ribs were pretty good, 9.99 for half a rack. They were served dry and before I tried them dry first. They have a nice spicy cumin-y rub on the outside, and it formed a nice crust on the meat. Although they aren't the best ribs in the universe, I would have been fine eating them without the sauce. The brisket was also served with sauce on the side and in comparison to the ribs, I enjoyed the brisket much more. It was thickly cut into hunks and served between a kaiser roll. Excellent texture. 6.99 for a large sandwich. The sauce is definitely delicious. It's a tomato based vinegar type sauce, but none of the flavors are too strong and it compliments the fattiness of the meat well. All of the sides they offer are 1.79 per portion which I thought was a bit steep. Perhaps 1.29 or even a dollar for some of the sides. Especially for a 3x5 index card sized piece of the cornbread, however, I must note that the cornbread was exceptionally delicious. It was a moist cornbread, nearly as moist as a corn pudding, very dense, and much less cakey than your average cornbread - and it had chunks of corn in it too. The coleslaw was good too, it was yellow in color, which I'm assuming is from mustard, and they threw in a healthy amount of celery seed. However I thought they could have been more generous with their portion. They didn't completely fill up the container with the slaw and come on now, cabbage is cheap guys! The portion of collards was fine though. Filled the container up to the rim and it was cooked properly with a tinge of acidity. I'm glad I tried the place, especially since it's so near to my apt, but now I"m more interested in trying the other bbq places around Philly before I go visit again. I agree totally with Holly's 3 grease stain grade.

I actually like the "Helper" product line. Granted, I've only had the hamburger ones but you've got to doctor them up. I saute my ground beef with onions, and usually add half a bag of frozen veggies. And you must not forget hotsauce! When I was a poor, anemic (my reason for eating ground meat) graduate student, I'd make a 'lunch of the week' so that I wouldn't have to waste money at the cafteria, and oftentimes it would be Hamburger Helper and a big bottle of hotsauce.

I do pretty much the same thing except that I toss my pasta with the same semolina that was used to make it in the first place. I've even frozen my semolina tossed pasta and it turned out fine and not clumpy after I boiled it.

My little brother works next door to a Domino's and once brought the hot wings home for us. I would really like to meet someone who finds these wings appetizing at all because I can't understand how Dominoes feels the need to keep these items on their menu. Needless to say, I'm glad that he did not pay full price for the wings. I can understand how folks might enjoy their pizzas, especially if they're college kids who don't want to eat the "build your own burrito bar", or the soggy, limp, stir fry that the school cafeteria offers. But eesh, what vendetta does the owner of Domino's have against chicken wings and the people of the world?

Ha! If I ever had the audacity to invite myself to dinner at the last minute to someone's house and be served what you cooked, I'd think that you were psychic and actually knew I'd be calling.

Korean superstition says that breaking your dry pasta shortens your life. But then again, Koreans think cutting/trimming (not plucking) one's eyebrows does the same thing. Either way, I'm a sucker for Korean superstitions and you'll never catch me breaking dry pasta or trimming my eyebrows.

I do a bit of a variation on Bicycle Lee's suggestion. First I spray non-stick cooking spray on the side of the foil facing the lasgane so that the cheese doesn't stick to it. Then during the first half of cooking time the lasagne is covered, but with a corner of the foil left up to vent out some steam. Then I remove the cover and finish baking. Also, I use no-boil lasagne noodles to make it that much easier. I usually use Ronzoni or Muller's. I once saw an episode of Emeril where he said you could get away with using uncooked lasagne noodles (not the no-boil type, regular lasagne noodles), especially if you're going to pre-make the lasagne and freeze it before you bake it.

Ancient Greek-style, I take it? Yes, I have it with a side of Socrates. Deelicious.

When I used Total as a starter, it didn't set. I let it set about 9 hours wrapped in towels and then refrigerated it. The next evening I checked it and it hadn't set. I left it on the counter another day because I was too irritated to throw it out. It still hadn't set by the time I poured it out. Maybe I'll try again. I currently have some Krino homestyle yogurt. I might try that, too. I usually use the Dannon plain. Was it completely runny? Or was it semi-set? I add 3/4 cup of dried skim milk powder and that's the best way to get a super thick yogurt. That, and allowing the yogurt to sit for at least 24 yrs to get that characteristic Greek Yogurt tang. The only other thing I can think of was that perhaps your milk was either too cool or too hot when you added your starter. I used to work in a micro lab and some bacteria need specific temperatures for optimal growth.

IIRC, Total Fage Yogurt has no preservatives or additives in it, and if I use it as a starter I end up with a delicious yogurt, as long as I let it sit for at least 24 hrs. Here's a link to the Fage webpage, with a listing of their products. I've eaten brown cow yogurt but never used it for a starter. If one were to use it as a starter would you include that top layer of creamy goodness?