balmagowry

Or, at the very outside, saying "Duh" if under the age of thirty .... Why didn't I think of that? There are no age restrictions on saying "Duh" - in fact, I think I'll say it now. Duh.

And to go with them, you can get Tomato and/or Lettuce cologne at Demeter. I was shocked to discover they haven't done bacon yet - in fact, their line is notably lacking in meat scents - but they do carry quite a few other items of interest to this crowd - Parsley, Shortbread, Dulce de Leche, Lobster, etc. Maybe we should mount a campaign to persuade them to start a butcher's/deli line; imagine being able to dab a touch of Veal Scallopine or perhaps Kosher Salami behind one's ears! Then again, what could be better than the original - a delicate shpritz of Bacon in the hollow of the collar-bone. (BTW I have tried both the Tomato and the Dirt scents, and they are remarkably well done - subtle and satisfying and not at all sweet.)

Solution: Proceed as normal for the prime rib--cooking it properly. [snip] For your misguided well-done eating friends, simply throw a small, relatively flavorless supermarket roast of lean eye-round into the oven--and cook the living shit out of it. They won't know the difference. Thus avoiding both sacrifice and sacrilege. Brilliant! (I wonder how many of us, at this moment, are slapping our foreheads and howling "Why didn't I think of that?"....)

Beltane! OMG, what could you possibly get away with serving for Beltane?

A good resource! Thanks for that link. Too bad they don't offer a wider selection of brands. Pressure cooker parts? Parts you want???? Check this out: eBay auction Uh-oh, I'm tempted. Great - more miscellaneous stuff to have lying around just in case Little Miss Fix-It suddenly gets ambitious....

Yes, well... that *is* the problem. I solve it by serving Yorkshire pud instead. In fact, I do that even when I have two ovens! Seriously, though, I do miss the flavor of potatoes roasted with the beast. Hmmmmm... I wonder what would happen if... I think there's an experiment in my future.

Wise choice - I'll find it for you... it's somewhere here, I swear.... No really, it is. I'll find it.

In that case - yes, the right footwear will certainly make a big difference, especially for your heels; but at the risk of re-stating the obvious (which no doubt you have already heard ad nauseam from your doctor/chiropractor/physical-therapist/well-meaning-friends etc.), the right shoes can only help your back so much and no more, and the rest screams out for stretches and/or some other appropriate exercise to counterbalance the strain. Not easy when you're on the hoof all day, but even taking 30 seconds every hour or so (to bend/stretch in whichever direction releases those muscles) can provide enormous relief.

Ludja~ don't know if these are the same or even similar, since I've never had a Good Humor anything,but Von's (Safeway up there I guess) has some icecream bars now under I believe, the Safeway Select name that are vanilla icecream covered with milkchocolate and almonds. They're pretty yummy! They also make them with coffee icecream. They come 3 to a package. Sounds good, but oh no no no it isn't the same at all. A Good Humor Toasted Almond has not a breath of chocolate about it; as the name implies it is covered with toasted almond, but it also has at its core the thing that gives it its distinctive flavor: a lump of some sort of almond paste, almost marzipan-ish but quite a different texture - though now I think of it the difference in texture may just be because it's frozen. I adored these when I was a little kid, but it wasn't until I tasted one again a couple of years ago that I felt the thrill of recognition and identified that prussic-acid center!

Eek - too much cleverness going on around here. OT or not, I may have to break out the old Suet Cycle in self-defense.

Brilliant! only I think you have a typo in that line - shouldn't it be "If it were so, it was a grievous salt..." ??? And as far as I'm concerned the worst things about this Ides of March are: 1) I'm not ready to plant peas; 2) I'm not ready to send in my corporate tax return.

Is that the ice cream you're not supposed to put on top of your head?

Add my voice to the Dansko chorus. Strictly barefoot at home, or if it's REALLY cold something in the fuzzy slipper line (it has to be pretty sub-arctic, though). But out in the world, Danskos. My feet are wide - not horrendously so, but enough so that a lot of "normal" shoes won't cut it; Danskos come in wide and extra-wide sizes, so no problem there. I don't have the kind of hours-on-my-pins-in-the-kitchen history that some here do, but in 35 years of ballet my feet have taken a lot of pretty serious wear and tear - there are days when Danskos are literally the only thing I can stand to put on them for schlepping from point A to point B. (Well... or Ugs, of course. But you can't wear those in the kitchen!) Oh, and another thing. In the past 5 years I've logged a lot of hours hanging around hospitals. At some point I started paying attention to the feet I saw there - feet belonging to nurses, doctors, residents, orderlies, aides, you name it. Guess what 90% of them wore. Yup. Danskos. And if you happened to bring the subject up in conversation you'd unleash a flood of rhapsody that would make the present pangyric pale by comparison. And those are people who really put in long hours on their feet. I figure, if it's good enough for a 36-hour ER shift, it's damn well good enough for me.

Pasta with clam sauce, of course. At my parents' house, and in their presence. Oy, was I nervous.

Stumbling on this thread in late-ish hindsight, I was fascinated to note that it covers damn near every possible method of roasting beef... except the foolproof one I've been using ever since I learned it three years ago. Foolproof as in, so good that it led me to discard 30 years' accumulated wisdom on the subject without a second thought and throw myself in headfirst. It's the logical extreme of the high-low-high approach, and it works equally well for any grade of meat, with or without ribs, up to - well, I was originally told the range was 4-8 pounds, but I've occasionally pushed the envelope at either end and had no reason to regret it. Off the top of my head, of course I can't remember exact times and temperatures - can look 'em up if anyone wants - but the gist is this. In the morning, rub fully-defrosted roast with salt & pepper (or whatever you fancy - S&P does it for me). Put on rack in roasting pan, bung into very hot oven for an hour. Critical: from this moment until you take it out, the oven door must NEVER be opened. At the end of the hour, turn oven off. 45 minutes before you plan to serve (or a little earlier if you plan to make Yorkshire pud), turn the oven on, not as high as before - 325 I think but don't quote me, I have it written down somewhere. At the end of (I think) 1/2 hour take it out, tent it lightly, and let rest for as long as needed to put together pudding and/or gravy. I have never NOT seen this method produce a perfect, crusted, beautifully and consistently rare roast, with just enough medium/well at the ends and edges to satisfy the few who dare to insist on such at my table. Another advantage of this method is that, though the temperatures are specified at both ends, there seems to be some natural margin for error; I've done it successfully in an oven with a somewhat unreliable thermostat. And oh how good it is. And speaking of understanding why - I couldn't explain it scientifically, I'll admit, but it makes tremendous sense instinctively. Same as the "falling oven" effect in the days before ranges with thermostats. BTW, yes of course, deviled beef bones! And Yorkshire is permissible at Hanukkah unless, of course, you keep kosher.

I used to make it now and then, and have certainly had it on St. Patrick's day - but... a recipe? Er, not exactly. Not as such. It's quite possible that I've never made it the same way twice. It's wonderful with bacon, especially if you have proper Irish bacon - but if you have that you'll be boiling it as a meat dish, in which case it might seem redundant to fry some for the colcannon as well. I tend to think More Is Better for something like this, but I also tend to throw it together out of leftovers at odd hours; the ingredients vary accordingly. The idea of making it with bacon AND butter AND leeks, and plenty of each, is making my mouth water so hard right now that I may just have to run out and do it right away. (Then again, I could have the same reaction to the mashed potatoes by themselves.) Or... you could always make bubble-and-squeak instead. Simpler; quicker; but with a special charm of its own.

Oh, I just had the weirdest thought. You know, when I posted earlier about using demi-glace as a thickener I was of course talking through my hat; because you hadn't actually described the nature of the difference in texture - except, that is, for those seductive mentions of its silkiness. OTOH you didn't take issue with my saying so, which leads me to think that what we're talking about is at least in part a thickening effect. And now you speculate about gelatine, which is after all logical, since it's a by-product of a parallel process to the making of demi-glace (as who should know better than I, after all those gallons of calf's-foot jelly!). Notwithstanding all which it suddenly occurs to me to wonder: gelatine? or... or... or... pectin? Be it clearly understood I'm talking through my hat yet again, because as I realize all too well I am just about the only person on all of eGullet who hasn't yet made onion confit. (But of course that makes me really unbiased, right? ) And I know I must not fall into the trap of extending confit into confiture merely because of semantics. But remembering what various posts have said about the marmalade-like consistency, and the evolving sweetness, and the surplus liquid - well, you see where my wayward mind is heading; I can't help wondering just what-all is really going on with those sugars and juices and acids. Maybe it really is confiture after all - or would be if you gave it that extra kick in the pants to make it jell. Onions and apples work well together - very well, as anyone knows who has made or eaten a Cheshire pork pie. So maybe natural pectin is the thing; maybe there's a future in apple-&-onion confit - with or without the -ure. Call me crazy. Won't be the first time; won't be the last. But I'm kinda thinking that I might have to try this - on my second batch, that is.

Ah me dear... I disagree. What more noble use of a good demi glace than to add that silky texture to a good onion confit? Easily answered. Why, one which also takes advantage of its flavor, of course. I do see your point, but somehow it just seems to me a bit cavalier to use demi-glace as a glorified thickener if you really aren't going to be able to taste the difference. What exactly was the point of all that carefully monitored simmering and reducing (and all that subsequent scrubbing!), if not to capture the essence, the concentrated taste of all those lovely bones and bits of things? Of course, flavor and texture are both so subjective, it may well be that one woman's texture turns out to be another woman's flavor enhancement as well; I'd want to make it both ways simply to see how I perceive the difference between the two. But IAC I shall have to start without demi-glace, because I ain't got enough of it on hand to do otherwise, and I don't want to put off the confit experiment for a minute more than necessary (the only reason I've delayed this long being a mislaying of borrowed, or rather un-borrowed, crockpot, and the knowledge that my new one can be expected to arrive Any Day Now.)

It seems Häagen-Dazs is big on discontinuing good flavors. In addition to the two you have listed, others have mentioned Elberta Peach, plus my favorite chocolate gelato which I posted previously (they say they still make the chocolate gelato, but I haven't seen it anywhere in quite awhile). I also find it annoying that I can only find their Belgian chocolate in a few of their ice cream shops, I have never seen it in the stores. I was about to say, "I have!" when I suddenly remembered, no it was Godiva's Belgian Dark Chocolate which I found so marvelous. And which was one of the few things my mother would eat during her last illness. There was a lovely version with raspberries in it too, I remember.... Oh, and for those longing for H-D Elberta Peach - obviously this is not at all the same, not at all at all, but for marvelously peachy peachiness in a different kind of Something Cold, do try Edy's Whole Fruit Peach Sorbet. Your palate will thank you. Pour a little cream over it and maybe you won't care any more about the lost H-D EP.

I don't know why it never occurred to me to look at this thread until now, or why it never quite occurred to me that it would turn out to be about... well, exactly what it sounds like. (Sometimes, Anna, a banana is just a banana.) I also don't know why it didn't occur to me to photograph the other night's special late supper - that's the last time I let that happen. Until the next time I forget, at any rate. It wasn't dinner because we were both running around until late and getting distracted (this happens all too often), and had each grabbed something forgettable somewhere along the line (this too happens all too often). So it wasn't until about 10:30 or so that we feasted on blinchiki a la mode de chez nous, which is to say accompanied by beef bouillon, and filled with the beef which at an earlier stage of the process was a by-product thereof. This made up for the tantalizing smells of stock in the making, which smells had so filled the house earlier in the week that it was all I could do to avoid just plunging face-first in to the pot. And it was (by my peculiar standards anyway) a most decadent way to end an evening. Well... almost end an evening. My only regret is running out of sour cream....

You caught it! (signed) a whiting Huh...and I thought the first one was just a fluke. Oh dear, they're really floundering now.

Seems like a waste of good demi-glace, in that case, don't you think? (Or maybe I'm only saying that because my own supply is running low and therefore being hoarded. I should really get my act together and make up another big batch while the weather is still cool....)

That does sound good. This also reminds me of a favorite Haagen Daz flavor of old: Margarita Sorbet It really tasted of lime and tequila and had it great texture. It was also nice to have with a splash of tequila over it in the summer. <sigh> Maybe I have two sorbet recipes to try and replicate now! Oh! That reminds me - does anyone other than me remember a drink, made from frozen concentrate I'm pretty sure, called Grape-Lemon? Or is it really just a hallucination? No one else I've mentioned it to remembers it at all. Circa 1963, give or take.

But that was the glorious Penn Station, right? Indeed it was - the Old Met was 5 blocks north of there.

Going very crazy. What has come over me? I got so excited, not only over the idea of owning the Papin but over the realization that it would be my third Mallinckrodt Food Classic, that... I went and looked up the series, found that there were only six in all, looked at the titles of the other three, liked what I saw... and ordered them all. Jackson: An Essay on Bread, 1758. Appert: The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances For Several Years, 1812. Accum: A TREATISE ON ADULTERATIONS OF FOOD, and Culinary Poisons, 1820. (The three I already had being Platina's De Honeste Voluptatis, Sir Kenelme Digbie, and the Papin - the latter not yet in my possession but already shipped and tallied.) eGullet has a lot to answer for. That's 3 more for me, please. :sigh: