purplewiz

We had a cold and rainy day today, so I finally made a nice big pot of peanut butter chicken curry. I'd been really craving some, but I couldn't stand the thought of turning on the oven. I made enough to freeze for a second meal. Marcia.

As a diner, what I REALLY want is for the problem not to have happened. But given the impossibility of changing the past, what I want is to have the problem resolved *at the least amount of additional pain to me*. I don't like confrontation, but if I'm given a graceful way to mention there's a problem, I will. However, most of the problem situations I've run into in restaurants are almost always accompanied by the Amazing Disappearing Staff problem. To be blunt, if there is already a problem that is spoiling my dinner out, the very last thing I want is to add more aggravation chasing down someone to complain about it, especially if I'm then going to have to work to convince them that yes, there is a problem. When things get to that point, I might as well not say anything at all, because I'm so unhappy and miserable that there's nothing anyone can do to make it better. I'm at the point where no amount of comps or apologies will help - all I want is to get far away from this place that is making me so miserable. The more work I have to do to mention the issue, the less likely I am to mention it, which makes me wonder if some staff deliberately set things up this way so they will hear less. Just another data point. Marcia.

I actually have one of these. It works well. 'Nuff said. Marcia.

My reaction exactly. There is a very good Chinese restaurant in town that is now off our list after they installed TVs in the dining room. If I wanted to watch TV while I ate, I have a much nicer one at home. I can see TVs being in bars or sports bars/restaurants where part of the experience is going to watch the game. But in a restaurant? No, thanks, I when I go out to eat I want to relax and converse. Marcia.

I also got a complimentary copy, and I'm glad they sent one - otherwise I might have subscribed. To say it's not my cup of tea doesn't even start to cover it - not enough cooking, too many stories I am not interested in. Marcia.

I'm a native New Jerseyan (that's what they called them when I grew up), and this last show brought back all kinds of memories. My grandmother used to take us to Asbury Park in the summer to ride the carousel and eat salt water taffy and get fried clams at Howard Johnson. Even run down, I recognized a lot of the places. The only problem was trying to explain it all to my husband. Marcia. who desperately wants cannoli now.

I think it's not just the texture, but the flavor - there is some flavor there, but it's not too much. I've noticed many people tend to want some flavor in their food, but nothing too strong, nothing too challenging. It's also more consistent flavor-wise from brand to brand, especially compared to Italian dressing, which can be too sweet or too vinegary or overpoweringly garlicky. Yes, we keep a bottle of Hidden Valley Ranch in the fridge at all times. It's my husband's dressing of choice, and I like it for dipping certain foods into, and over some salads where I don't want the dressing overpowering the flavor of the ingredients (as some vinaigrettes tend to do). The funny thing is that I don't like most ranch flavored things, like chips or especially Cool Ranch Doritos (yuck). They taste nothing like the dressing to me, just salt and acid. Marcia.

I have a set of 4 nesting Pyrex bowls in various shades of blue that are somewhere beteween 10 and 15 years old. I use at least one of the set daily, and while they have some wear, they're still looking good. They have rounded sides and a small flat bottom. I use them for everything from beating eggs to whipping cream to mixing sliced cauliflower with olive oil for roasted cauliflower. I used to have a set of plastic bowls. I no longer do because they ALL met the same fate, which can be summarized as: plastic and hot surfaces do not mix. Marcia.

Just a quick update: The first wave of lettuces and cilantro is pretty well spent. We've been eating fabulous salads - I pulled out about half the ready to bolt lettuce last night and made Mom's wilted lettuce salad. It tastes like summer. The third wave will go in ground as soon as I finish pulling out the first. And find more cilantro seed. I love fresh cilantro - if you walk by and just brush it a little, the scent is enough to get you high :-). Even fresh from the store isn't that wonderful. The second wave of lettuces and cilantro are up enough to pick some as garnishes. The green onions are small but harvestable - if all goes well, I won't be buying green onions again until October. The cherry tomato is covered, and it looks like I might start getting tomatoes sometime before Sept. 1 this year. It remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful. The nasturtiums are not only beautiful, but tasty. The basil is doing very nicely, but its pot keeps drying out. Oh, well, a little stress is good for flavor. The zucchini are not quite into full swing, which means we're eating them as fast as they're producing them. I expect this will change as soon as the pattypan starts producing. Fortunately, we are blessed with neighbors who think fresh zucchini from the garden is a gift :-). Thyme, sage, and chives are all doing amazingly this year. Even though I chop back the plants every fall, they're HUGE. Nice flavor, too. Knock wood, so far the harvest this year has been better than the total of some years. I'm counting myself lucky and well fed. Marcia.

And here I was thinking I was the only person wondering that.... I've seen the first two episodes, and thought each had a few too many contrived/cute moments, but I'm going to wait and reserve judgement. I actually enjoy the one liners. Marcia.

We don't have any time to cook. This promise of technology giving us more leisure time was a lie. Meal kits? No, because most of them take about as much time as cooking it from scratch. They just take less thought. But bagged salads, prewashed broccoli and cauliflower florets for snacks, stuff like that, yup, I use it. Without it, I probably wouldn't eat as many salads and vegetables. Out of all the prep jobs with cooking, I find vegetable wash/peel/chop to be among the most boring. (Ok, second only to peeling and deveining shrimp. But did you know you can buy shrimp already peeled and mostly deveined?) Marcia.

I'm thinking that chocolate at this level starts coming down to individual taste more than what's objectively "better", because while I have several friends who swear that Scharffen Berger is the best chocolate they've ever had, period, I find it very acidic, sour, and not very chocolatey. My taste buds must be different. Marcia.

The only reason to know the rules is to break them :-). I whip cream in bowls and beaters that are at room temperature. I cook my omelets until they're fully set (I can't stand runny scrambled eggs). If the recipe says to use just the white part of green onions, I use it all anyway. When roasting meat I throw it in the oven at a set temp and don't worry about low and slow or high then low or low then high....and you know what, it comes out pretty darned good anyway. And yes, I wash mushrooms. With water. Never noticed a problem. Marcia.

Those tomatoes look GOOD. (So does the whole salad, but I am really craving good tomatoes and tomato season doesn't start for a couple of weeks.) Marcia.

Right now, Rapunzel Bittersweet 70%, available at Whole Foods. I really like the balance between bitter and smoothness, and the deep chocolate flavor of it. There's another brand that's a favorite I found at Cost Plus, Hachez. It's available there in three flavors: bittersweet, with strawberry and pepper, and with candied orange peel, all 77%. Again, it's a nice balance between the chocolate flavor, bitter, and smooth, with just enough sweet to enhance the flavor. I've only tried the straight chocolate and the orange - they're both good, but the orange is really something special. Marcia.

It was too hot to do any real cooking today, so I composed a salad, and remembered to take a picture of it! The base is leaf lettuce and micro greens (a fancy way of saying I thinned the latest planting of mesclun greens) from the garden. The ingredients on top are: bacon, grilled zucchini (from the garden), sliced hard boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, sliced radishes, and sliced cucmbers. I marinated a couple of chicken breasts in lemon juice, olive oil, and fresh herbs (from the garden), grilled and sliced them, sprinkled sliced green onion over top (from the garden), and garnished with nasturtium blossoms (yes, they're from the garden too). I admit that after all that harvesting and washing and chopping I was too tired to make a proper dressing, so my husband used Ranch and I used Blue Cheese, both out of a bottle. He had water, I had iced tea. While eating dinner, I realized that what makes a composed salad differ for me is that it is set up in a way that you can make every bite different. I had bacon and eggs in one bite, zucchini and tomato in the next. It's one dish that becomes many as you eat - as opposed to, say, chicken salad, where you're going for an even mix. A classic tossed salad borders this distinction, because while yes, there are different ingredients so mouthfuls can be different, there usually aren't enough of the toppings. They're more a garnish to the greens. At least that's my philosophy. Marcia.

Today, the first ripe Rocky Ford canteloupe macerated in a little vanilla syrup. Marcia.

My husband and I faced the same original question when we went to change our eating habits almost two years ago. My motto when it comes to food is simple: if it doesn't taste good, I ain't eatin' it. And I'm the final judge of taste! Since like many of the posters on this thread, I've tried and failed at most of the traditional "diets", I decided to turn everything I could on its ear. Instead of food being the problem, I decided that food was the solution. The first phase was to look at all our favorite dishes, the ones that had become staples, and classify them in one of three ways: dishes that fit perfectly with the new plan, dishes that could be made to fit with some reasonable modifications, and dishes that were going to have to become occasional treats. There was a huge sigh of relief as we discovered that there were many dishes that fit into categories 1 and 2 - we did NOT have to give up everything we already liked! Second phase was to fill in the gap left by the foods that fell off the map, and that's where I started to rely on my love of food and cooking. I started looking for new recipes, especially with unfamiliar ingredients, that fit in with the new eating plan. Instead of letting this change stifle my love of new and different foods, I made it feed into this love. It not only shook me out of my cooking rut, but led to some fascinating discoveries, like that I really love kale. Who knew? The upshot is that it's working. So far, the changes have stuck not only because of the results, but because we're eating better. We like what we're eating better than what we ate before. The food is tastier and we eat a wider variety. It's easier to make a change stick when you like things after the change better than before. Marcia.

Whole wheat English muffin with sharp cheddar cheese is my favorite snack. Alternatives include peanut butter foldovers or fruit with yogurt creme on top (a little bit of whipped cream folded with 4 oz of yogurt). Marcia.

Grilled. I cut a small one in half crosswise, then each half into 4 sticks lengthwise. Coat lightly with olive oil. Grill over high heat until just softening. Remove from grill and toss with seasoned salt, garlic salt, Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle (my favorite) or any other herb blend and a little salt. Like fried zucchini, I have yet to serve this to anyone who didn't like it. And you can go through a lot of zucchini fast - plan on at least one small one per person. Marcia.

I tend to drink bottled water when I'm on the road, and then it's mostly for convenience. You know, some people drink sodas all day while on road trips; I prefer water. (Side note: I used to work for a high tech firm that provided free sodas, but I always got my drinks from the water cooler. Everyone kept saying "you know, the sodas are free", and I kept replying "I know, but I really prefer water.") I often grab a prechilled bottle when I'm out - where I live it's high and dry, and yes, if I thought ahead I'd fill a bottle of my own and put it in the car, but honestly, it's low on my priority list of things to remember :-). Again, it's the convenience factor for me. The only brand I really don't like is Evian - the rest all taste fine to me. Our tap water is pretty darned good; I've got a glass of it next to me now. Marcia.

I realized some time ago that there are a number of people in entertainment, in the public eye, who simply by being themselves, annoy the living crap out of me. They include Jessica Lange, Nicholas Cage, Emeril, and yes, Rachael Ray. I could spend a lot of time figuring out exactly why they are like nails on a chalkboard to me, but I've decided that that's a long and pointless exercise that will spend far more time on people I don't like than I'm willing to give them. I just accept that they annoy me. So the reason I don't watch her and won't is purely personal. Life is annoying enough overall that I don't want to deal with any that I don't have to. Marcia.

*whimper* It's been great reading your blog over the week - and I'm so glad a cheese danish made an appearance! Marcia.

I run a small cooking mailing list for players of an online game. It runs the gamut of experience from former professionals to raw beginners....and it's been a joy to watch a number of people who joined "just to get a few new recipes" get turned on to the whole food experience thing. Just the other night one person mentioned that he'd seen Emeril make a roux, and wondered what it was and what you'd use it for. Rather than treat it as a stupid question, we actually had a great discussion on how it was made, what everyone used it for, how it's the base for a great smooth gravy and the best homemade macaroni and cheese, flavorings to make quick sauces...and I think the original question asker is probably going to give it a whirl soon. I don't want to convert the world...the world doesn't want to be converted. I just want to help those who want to learn, and to keep on learning myself (the ex-professional is the reason I can now make decent stocks). Marcia.

But....but isn't that the point of a blog ? Marcia.