purplewiz
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Posts posted by purplewiz
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When you head off to try a new restaurant and your first thought isn't "Damn, I forgot the map!" but "Damn, I forgot the camera!"
(I forgot both. Found it anyway and had a reasonably good meal without photographical documentation anyway.)
Marcia.
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That vegetables taste a whole lot better when they're seasoned properly.
And if you don't start with Birds Eye Mixed vegetables with those horrible carrot jello cubes.
Marcia.
who likes vegetables a whole lot more now.
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I probably should use oven mitts because I'm firmly in the "if there is any possible way to burn myself on the oven I will find it" school.
But by the time I find the mitts, wash my hands, dry my hands, and get them on, the food is burned. Or I can put my hands in all yucky which makes the mitt all slippery and yucky. And there's never any good place to put them down when I'm done which isn't in the way or in the food.
I most often use towels but as others have mentioned they slip all over the place.
The best compromise I have so far are these silicone "mini mitts" I was given - they just cover the thumb and fingers. They're relatively easy to clean because they're not very deep. They don't protect my arms, but neither did traditional mitts.
The only time I use my remaining oven mitts is when I'm heating up metal skewers to burn holes in the bottoms of Solo cups for potting up my African violet babies. I don't need a lot of precision grip for that.
Marcia.
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These days, frozen entrees are things I've made and frozen myself. I almost always make at least twice as much as needed when I make chicken soup or curries so I have a "pull it out of the freezer" dinner around at all times.
The one sort of entree we always have around is frozen meatballs. Sure, I know how to make meatballs, but it's just so easy to grab a handful out of the ziplock back and throw them in the microwave for a quick meal.
I confess to liking Safeway's frozen appetizers, like their egg rolls or potstickers or "bags o' gold" (purse shaped things stuffed with what is essentially hot artichoke dip). They're rare treats, though, I don't really keep them around.
The freezer is full of things like frozen vegetables and frozen meats and frozen bread and frozen chicken carcasses - all the raw materials for quick dinners. (Ok, except the carcasses which become frozen stock when I accumulate enough of them.)
Marcia.
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Really, I'm a good cook! It's just a tough adjustment from grilling and eating on the deck with nothing but fresh veg to these days when the snow is acctuall accumulating
.I'll give you the other two, but that looks delicious. Some kind of beef stroganoff thing with mushrooms and sour cream sauce? Or just beef gravy?
I know about the transition - we're in the time of year where it could be snowing or it could be 70F out, so I don't know if I'm going to be using the grill for dinner. I'm winging it a lot of nights.
Marcia.
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Assuming there is an issue, how I answer depends on two things:
1. Do I think there's a chance for the restaurant to something about it and do I think they might actually do it?
and
2. What kind of mood am I in?
Regarding 1, I've been in restaurants where it's obvious that it doesn't matter what I say, it's going to fall on deaf ears. If I'm not being food poisoned, it's not worth it to say anything because instead of just having lousy food, I'm going to continue to have lousy food AND I'm going to be mad/frustrated/annoyed/bent out of shape at the place further because they don't care. I'll take the lesser of the frustrations, thanks.
Which leads in 2, my mood. Sometimes I just don't want to make a fuss. I'm not in the mood to take on the servers and manager and their finely rehearsed lines of BS designed to convince me that I'm wrong and this is veritable nectar and ambrosia. I want peace more than I want things changed. Maybe they will take what I say well and change things. Maybe they won't. Sometimes I don't want to take that risk.
Then again, sometimes I'm in a real piss and vinegar mood and while I'll be polite and not use four letter words, I'm going to call it as I see it. I did this once at a restaurant we used to dine at regularly until their food went down the crapper - and I spoke with the manager about exactly what had changed before we wrote them off. (Reassuring the server the whole time that it was nothing she did or didn't do, she was doing a fine job, and we left her a nice tip.)
Yes, I know that things can't get better unless someone mentions what's wrong, but sometimes I just don't want to be that person.
Marcia.
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NY strip steak. Not that I dislike other meats, or other cuts of beef, and not that I will always buy it preferentially, but there's something about the texture and flavor of a nice medium rare NY strip that will grab me every time.
Marcia.
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I had several adventures when I had my wisdom teeth removed - I kind of wish they'd all gone at once.
I lived on cottage cheese, jello, pudding, mashed potatoes, and cans of Underwood Deviled Ham spread and the Underwood Chicken spread. And bananas. Bananas smoosh well.
Marcia.
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There is Grace on Beverly (the chef Neal is going to be on Iron Chef Jan 22) or Avenue in Manhattan Beach....also Blue 32 in Hermosa Beach has great food and is young and hip
I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to say thanks for the recommendation for Avenue. I had a night free during my recent quick trip to LA, and wanted somewhere interesting/nice to eat near LAX. So of course, I searched the CA forum
.I reasoned that most places wouldn't have problems accomodating a single diner latish on a Sunday night, and I was right. I had a fantastic meal with a wine I'm going to have to track down here. The hot chocolate cake with toasted marshmallow spoon also has to be one of the best desserts I've had in a long time - rich and velvety and not too sweet so I could actually taste the chocolate. Great place that I hope I have a chance to experience again!
Marcia.
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I grew up in the NY/NJ metro area, and community feeds were always and invariably:
- baked ziti with red sauce (with or without meat), parmesan, and a rubbery crust of "mozzarella" on top
- green salad (mostly iceberg, some leaf lettuce pieces and shredded carrot for color, a few tomatoes and cucumbers) with Italian dressing
- industrial garlic bread
- brownies for dessert. The budget didn't stretch to cheesecake.
Out here in Colorado, I've only been to one community potluck, and as far as I could tell the only popular dishes were anything made with Cream of Soup(*). The hit of the potluck was this awful mess of chicken breast, canned green chiles, cream of soup, and prepackaged shredded cheese.
(*)Cream of Soup: any of the Campbell's Creamy soups used in cooking. Mushroom, chicken, celery, whatever, they all taste the same. Hence, cream of soup.
Funny thing about the baked ziti: when I lived in California, I brought a dish of it to a certain potluck, and even though there were wonderful Asian noodle salads and fresh vegetable dishes, people just scarfed it up. Several people had never seen it before and thought it was exotic and wonderful.
Marcia.
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I was in the Colorado Springs Whole Foods today, and they had both Prosciutto di Parma and "American Prosciutto". One more data point.
Marcia.
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Polygamy Porter......."Take some home to the wives!". I have two of their t-shirts. I've never tried the beer however. Even in my drinking days I was never a beer drinker. I've heard it is pretty good, though I hear that the Oatmeal Stout from Moab Brewery is better.
My husband tried some during our trip to Zion a couple years back and still has the tshirt. He said it was pretty good.
I'm enjoying the blog - it's a beautiful area and apparently has some pretty decent food!
Marcia.
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There's a rather famous place on Hwy 152 in California, between 101 and 5. We only stopped there once because our camper bus was overheating (a story for another time and board). We figured since it was advertised heavily and relatively well known, it wouldn't be such a bad place to get a meal. Silly us.
I ordered the strawberry waffle. While I didn't expect the strawberries on top to be fresh, they could have at least defrosted them. My companion ordered the spaghetti and meatballs. Watery and tasteless, gummy pasta. I don't know if they're any better now, but I never tried them again.
Sadly, this has been more the rule than the exception when eating at non-chain family restaurants around the country. Just because a place is local doesn't mean it's any good.
Marcia.
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I grew up in a house where mashed potatoes meant flakes from a box, skim milk, and margarine (very little). I didn't learn how to make them from scratch until after college, when I realized that fresh potatoes were a lot cheaper than that little box of flakes. Took a little while to get the hang of it - had a couple of instances of uncooked lumps, and then once when I forgot I was boiling potatoes and ended up with potato soup....
Marcia.
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I use it to flavor bulgur - just add some to the water, cook the bulgur as usual, then throw in some sauteed mushrooms and green onions and you end up with instant bulgur pilaf.
The traditional onion dip is also killer on potato skins.
Marcia.
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Playing with food always brings to mind marshmallow taffy.
We'd take a large marshmallow (or about 5 mini marshsmallows) and squish it between the thumb and forefinger until it was squooshy....um, soft and pliable. Then we'd pull it: grab the main part of the glob between the other thumb and forefinger and pull it away. Then grab the glob with the first hand's fingers and pull back.
It was a very relaxing motion, and after awhile, the marshmallow would get all smooth and taffy-like. Which we'd eat with wild abandon.
We had to do this when the parents weren't around because they would tell us to stop playing with our food.
Marcia.
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When I was in college, I was pretty much limited to my hot pot and a toaster oven for my culinary adventures. Best things I made in the toaster oven were brownies or bread - got a box of one of those bread mixes, kneaded it on my little plastic table (cleaned it well first!) and baked off rolls for later consumption. I had to do them in batches, but it worked well.
When I was a young kid, we used to use the toaster oven for melting margarine containers down into flat disks, which amused us no end. But I don't think that's quite the kind of thing you're looking for
!Marcia.
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My Pizelle Iron. (Pizzelle? Those thin cookies). I bought it and just never got around to using it. I keep it because I'm going to one day Real Soon Now. I don't even think I've ever opened it.
This temperature sensing meat fork. When you want to take the temperature of a piece of meat, you jab it in the meat, and it electronically tells you if it's done or not (you can set it to chicken, beef, pork, or fish). You can understand why it's in the Goodwill bin.
Marcia.
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Firstborn: Egg bagel. This is a plain bagel, toasted and buttered, with scrambled eggs (NO seasoning, no salt, nothing, nada, and 'firm'). Hey, it works for him.
Works for me, too. That looks delicious, and I'm glad to know that someone else in this universe likes their eggs scrambled firm/well/dry/no runny stuff, thank you ever so!
Marcia.
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I've never changed my order, but I'll often take a look around the room or watch the plates being brought out before ordering. If something catches my eye, I'll ask the server what it is, and sometimes I'll order it, and sometimes I won't.
My husband once asked after this absolutely perfect dessert which was being served to another table. Turned out it was "just" their gelato - something so ordinary and often not very good we usually wouldn't bother. But it turned out to taste just as extraordinary as it looked - a real sleeper we wouldn't have tried without having what someone else was having.
Marcia.
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I like them, but as people have said above, they're a blank canvas for all kinds of experimentation with seasonings and sauces. I feel guilty when I have a nice steak and then go messing with the flavor with lots of spices and sauces. But with chicken breasts, I can go wild. Think of them as modeling clay - it's nothing sitting there in the package, but with some creativity can become a work of art.
And as much as it will embarrass me to admit it, I like my chicken well done. I'd far rather have it dry than undercooked - I just don't like barely done chicken. I have a much better chance of having chicken done to my liking with a breast than a thigh or a leg.
Marcia.
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What do you all think?
I think that if I waited a year to try new restaurants around here, I wouldn't eat at many new restaurants at all. Good or not, most new places here that aren't chains don't make it a year, and I'd rather take the risk and have a couple of months of new, good, interesting food.
Marcia.
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Thai Beef Salad.
Things I might need to buy that I don't always have in the house: limes, cucumber
Timing:
First 10 minutes (all this happens simultaneously):
- start gas grill preheating (takes all 10 minutes)
- defrost beef if not defrosted (up to 8 minutes), salt and pepper both sides
- start making the dressing: juice of a lime, 5 tbsp fish sauce, seed/chop 1 jalapeno, 1 clove garlic smooshed somehow, grated ginger, sugar/splenda to balance.
Next 8 minutes:
- cook beef: 4 minutes on side 1, 4 or so on side 2, depends on thickness, I wing it.
- finish dressing if not done
- arrange lettuce on plates, add tomatoes, cucumbers
- chop green onions, go fetch mint and cilantro if they're growing, wash and cut up if you are using them.
Next 8 minutes:
- let beef rest. This is the hardest part.
- finish prepping salad ingredients as above
Last 4 minutes:
- slice beef, arrange over lettuce and vegetables above
- pour any accumulated beef juices into the dressing. Dress the salads.
- toss green onions, mint, cilantro artfully over the beef. Top with peanuts
- serve, eat.
It was hard to write out this chart because a lot of stuff goes on simultaneously, but it's 30 minutes max from when I open the freezer and take out the beef to when the salad is on the table ready to eat. But I've made this so often that I know the timing and the order of prep in order to have it all come together at the end. The cooking/resting of the beef is the gating factor for everything - the rest of the prep happens while that's happening.
Marcia.
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At least one of the following must be true:
There is a recipe in the book I want to make. As in right now, next meal available, let me go get the ingredients.
One of a select group of friends has recommended the book highly. (Friends in this group have impeccable taste in food. If they say try something, I KNOW it's worth trying.)
The book fills in a gap in my reference section.
Something in the book makes me laugh. This explains my "novelty cookbook" section, although the recipe for baby food pate in "The Phony Gourmet" is really very good.
One of my goals for this year was to cook something from at least some of the cookbooks I haven't ever cooked from, and so far, I'm batting .000 on that one. I am realizing that some of these cookbooks just aren't ever going to be useful, and I follow the above guidelines to make sure I don't buy any more in this category. I don't have room for decorative cookbooks.
Marcia.
Restaurant desserts: your innermost wishes
in Restaurant Life
Posted
Like everyone else, smaller portions. PLEASE. I just want something small and sweet at the end of the meal, I don't want another meal made completely of sweets. Offer half portions if you have a lot of clients with more room left after dinner than I do.
Better chocolate used in the chocolate desserts. I hate it when I order something that looks intensely chocolatey and find out the hard way it's made with cheap, low cocoa content chocolate. If you're going to make flourless chocolate cake, for heaven's sake, use the good stuff.
Let's generalize that to better quality of ingredients across the board. If something is supposed to be vanilla, I want to taste vanilla. If it's bourbon pecan pie, I darned well want to taste bourbon. So many of these gargantuan piles just taste sweet. Why bother? I can eat sugar by the spoonful at home for a lot less.
More clarity of flavor. I almost never order a dessert when it lists a raspberry-pistachio puree over a vanilla chocolate base with orange bourbon basil sauce and a wine sausage cabbage reduction garnish. (Just seeing if you're still reading.) At that point you might as well just puree everything in the freezer and serve it. I know, sometimes in skilled hands it works. Most of the time it's just another mess.
Fruit based desserts, or even fruit garnishes, need to be properly ripe. Or at least appropriately sweetened. If I end up with one more hard, mostly white strawberry or intensely sour raspberry, I just might scream.
Oh, yeah, and keep your basil/tarragon/thyme/fennel out of my chocolate. I don't care that it's trendy or "interesting", all I ever taste is "yuck".
Marcia.
who obviously spends way too much time thinking about dessert