JennotJenn

picked up a bottle of this the other night, despite the fact that we never drink "real" soda. But no diet, and I was curious. I think it does taste a whole hell of a lot like Coke, but a *touch* spicier. DH said it smelled like bitters mixed with Pepsi. My only complaint with it was that it had an odd aftertaste/weird mouthfeel after swallowing. Syrupy, but even more so than most hfcs based sodas. I had to eat something to get the sensation out of my mouth. Which leads me to my next thought, which is that it IS really good with food. Excellent with an all-the-way hot dog. We had a Pepsi PD&R guy come talk to us the other day...shoulda asked him if he knew if they were going to launch this in diet.

Thank you. I think I may try to cook it myself the first time, though, mostly because I can't imagine anyone else who would do it for me (my family cooks very little meat). just won't let my husband see it before cooking (he who has to leave the house when I de-bone a chicken). As long as I know that the end result will not have a slimey texture, I think I can handle it. I say that now, before I've purchased the beast. I'm not sure yet how I'll prepare it after boiling, but I'll keep reading for ideas. Thanks again.

Huh. In my original post I thought I wrote organish (a word I'm assuming is not really a word, but is meant by me to convey the "not-an-organ-but-disgusting + organ meats). Oh well, yep, I guess I should really just amend that to meat usually cast off and thrown into the pet food bin by most Americans. Hell, my mom won't even let my sister's dog knowingly eat offal. Seriously, tried to send the dog some dried tripe and a dried bull's penis (aka a Macho Stick), and my mom freaked out and wouldn't let me send them. Anyway, thanks for the clarification.

Ok, that sounds really, really good (the deli meat description). I've never had tongue, my mother could barely stomach cooking nicely packaged bits of meat that bore no trace of their origin as a once living being, much less something that LOOKED like part of an animal, or smelled especially like an animal (cooking pork chops make her vomit! she claims she can smell the blood from the rare steak on a diner's plate across the restaurant! cooked fish with their heads on make her pass out!). Anyway, back to the point. I wanna know what kind of texture beef tongue has. I should just try it, I know, but despite having a fairly open mind about such things, the memory of being licked by a cow eating lettuce out of my hand keeps coming back to the surface...so hot, so very, very, very slimey. I know that I like the flavor of beef, but I can be iffy on textures. And what should I be looking for at the market? Any tips on what to avoid in a beef tongue? How much of the membrane will need to come off after the boiling? Will it just be obvious? Must learn to cook more organ meats, just because I can, if for no other reason.

As usual, my grandma made kraut this year without informing me that it was krauting time (I beg her to tell me when she's doing it so I can come help/watch and she never does). She makes hers in a stone crock, but when I try to make it (hopefully this fall...the people in her community start around the middle of August...too hot here), I'll probably go with plastic. Anyway, I guess I'll have to read the blog for advice, since my lovely-but-eccentric grandmother keeps "forgetting" to teach me. Too bad, too, she makes great kraut. The only variation I know of isn't so much a variation...it's just the way my family makes it. We drop a whole, fresh cayenne pepper into each canning jar. It doesn't make it hot at all, oddly enough, and I've never noticed that it gives the kraut any flavor to speak of.

Me too!!! Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one that's really bugged by that. I want to rip the spatula/turner out of his hand and slap him across the face with it. Saw an...interesting...one last night. Hardee's Thickburger commercial with pretty young woman in skimpy clothing riding a mechanical bull set on slow while eating a gigantic sloppy burger. I didn't know whether I should be aroused or disgusted. (To quote the old neighbor lady from The Simpsons: "That's disgusting...but genuinely arousing"). For the record, my husband was just grossed out---the fact that the mayo on the burger was visable over-rode the fact that the woman's cleavage was also visable. Anyway, I KNOW I miss the old testamonial style Thickburger commericals. Those were hilarious.

Ok, so I removed a rather large amount of fat from a 4.5 lb pork shoulder that I bought to make carnitas and I might as well render some lard. Now, there's still some meat left on some of the fat...is this ok? Will it just be part of what I filter out when I run it through cheescloth. Or do I need to just call my buther and ask for some pure fat? I'd hate to waste what I've got, though, so if I can use it... Also, if I don't happen to get around to making lard soon, can the fat be frozen for rendering in the (near) future? Praise the lard!

I once moved 9 times in one year. Though I had few possessions at the time, I still don't like to think about it too much. It makes me very tired. We just moved into our first house last week and are in the process of unpacking. Oh, and renovating. Also, I started school this week on top of a full-time job. And I have a 30 minute commute each way, which isn't a big deal except on top of those other pesky things. When we were first working on the house (living in our apartment, going to the house and painting after work before we moved in), we had this dinner every night: grilled meat, bagged salad w/bottled dressing, and potato chips. If we didn't feel like grilling it was sammitch, salad, chips. Now that we're in, things are pretty much normal (for the time being, we haven't started tearing out cabinets and the range is more or less functional), thanks to the last out, first in box. Mom taught me that trick when I was in college. Sorta like packing a carry on bag for a flight. And this, this is ANAL, but it can help. Number the moving boxes, and make a list of the numbers. Catalogue the contents of each box by number. This only helps if you know where the hell box #15 is. But at least you know what box you should be looking for. Anyway, this time we were so filthy from painting, etc, the first couple of weeks, that going out was not an option. Seriously, too bummy for fast-food, even. We're also pretty cheap, especially w/me in school, so ordering out is a last resort. I say eat sandwiches and chips until you can't take it anymore. But again, I'm a cheapskate.

What a great timewaste!!! I thoroughly enjoyed the grocery list site. My favorite was the list that called for eggs and snuff. I have a hard time remembering things sometimes, but rather than write down something like douche or Immodium Advanced, I'd make an effort to try to remember rather than commit them to paper, especially now that I know there's a website that lists lost lists. Of course, those aren't items you want to forget to pick up, are they? But if you really need them, I don't think you'll have trouble remembering. I'm just sayin'. I always make a list and I generally list things in our silly language, which I guess is sorta embarrassing. Meaning eggs become Yeggs, milk is MY-lac (FIL: "So, formula, fake breast milk, is called Sy-my-lac, right? Whattya call real breast milk then? My-lac? It stuck and is now the generic term in our home for cow's milk). Cat food is cat fud (with umlaut over the u). Blueberries are bluets. Mustard is mus-trid. I also usually list weight and quantity. My list is also usually about 10 times longer than most of the ones on the site...maybe I'm buying too much food for 2 people.

While I'm too paranoid to like the idea of the conglomerate grocery store cards, our local gourmet shop has started a loyalty program, which I actually like. No money off at the register, but for every $1 you spend, they give you a nickel credit, which comes in the form of a coupon once every couple of months. Not a TON of money, but they have a great selection of reasonably priced beer, and they're only 5 blocks from my house, so I spend enough $$$ there to make that five cents add up pretty quickly. Besides, getting anything back is nice. They have to have your address so they can send you the coupon, which normally would bug me, but with these guys, I don't mind at all. For anyone wondering, it's Fowler's in Durham, and I'm constantly shocked that their beer is as reasonably priced as it is (cheaper than Whole Foods, anyway, with a better selection than the WF on Broad has). They sell Kinder Bueno, too, which is also helping those bonus points add up

I picked up some Szechuan peppercorns from CMC (or CDC, or whatever it is, can't remember). I'd never experienced them before, so I used the instructions that Ms. Dunlop listed in her book (take one or two, chew for 15 seconds or so, spit) . Very cool. The tongue was somewhat numb, but the most notable effect was that it felt like bees were buzzing on my lips for about 15 minutes. They tickle. Heath got a dud the first time around, but the second one he tried was active. So, 2 out of 3 peppercorns were alive. Pretty good ratio for something that's difficult to get at all. I'm guessing tian tsin peppers would be acceptable in these dishes?? ...I'm about to place an order from Penzey's and am about to throw some of those in the cart. Cannot wait to get my BlueStar range. I can't cook a damned grilled cheese on the range that's in the house we just bought (It's a 26 inch wide drop in Whirpool from about 1985 with only one large burner), much less a stir fry. I want to get started on working my way through Land of Plenty!

One. Seeds of Change Italian. Too sweet, but serving its purpose, which is to dress side salads while we're in the process of moving/renovating. Our dinners have consisted of grilled meat, potato chips, and boxed (earthbound farms) salad w/commerically prepared salad dressing. That way there's zero rinsing, chopping or dishwashing. Not the way I love to live, but it's not so bad. Once we're back to normal, it'll be lemon juice-sea salt-EVOO-anchovy-garlic or ranch in a pack mixed w/sour cream (it's good on really spicy grilled chicken salad).

As long as it's not serious body mutilation (tongue splitting and the ilk) or racist/prison tatoos, I don't care. That kinda stuff, casual setting, bar, whatever, is going to have me running for the door. OK, maybe i could handle the split tongue in a bar, but hide the prison tats, please. I'm 26, btw, and have had my share of piercings, some public, some private. My husband went through a phase where he had major piercings...'bout everything but his nose...and bright blue hair. Anyway, something lilke dirty fingernails or greasy hair is going to turn me off more than a clean person with tats or piercings at any type of establishment. I would be more surprised than disgusted to see something like that in a nice place, though.

If we're talking about badly cooked food, then hitch me up to the burnt cheese love train. Cheese toast MUST be severely burnt American cheese. Slightly burnt cornbread tastes great in stuffed peppers, too (my mom's version: extra hot breakfast sausage, corn, burnt cornbread and canned tomato...mmmmmmmmm...).

Oh. Hell. Yes. Especially with Glenmorangie. Any variety. Hells yes. Speaking of scotch and bacon, Niman Ranch uncured bacon smells disturbingly like Laphroig. I mean, identical, down to that oily petrol smell. I think the chemical profiles must be very close...maybe I can analyize them both in my food chemistry class and see. Anyway, if that is indeed the case, then: Bacon and Laphroig. editing to note that I mean the raw bacon. The cooked doesn't smell the same. So I guess the match there would be Laphroig and RAW bacon.

Me, too, and I was pretty surprised that they had chosen to call it that. But then, I also thought that the word "mulatto" was well within common parlance for most Americans. Not necessarily, at least when it applies to the younger generation and I'll include all other racial groups in that generalization as well. I'm in my mid-20s and know what it means. How? Because there's a mountain and a road in my home county still named Mulatto Mountain. It just happens to be beside The Mountain Formerly Known as Nigger Mountain (name officially changed to Mt. Jefferson on Park Service maps circa 1957). I suppose Mulatto isn't offensive enough for the government to rename it. Anyway, I guess I asked what the word meant when I was a kid, because it seems like something I've always known the meaning of. Anyway, even though I know the word, in fact looked at a re-paving document for the road last week (I work for the DOT), the name didn't strike me until I read this. I thought it was just a stupid name (and personally, I still think it's just that-a stupid name). In fact, I made a mental note that I would've tried the drink if it didn't have such a stupid name. I'm too embarassed to order something with a silly name like that. No Rooty-Tooty-Fresh-And-Fruities for me, thank you!

Yeah, Blackalicious has a few (one of my fave rhymes ever is "Who cut the provolone? Government officials put taps on my mobile phone), but the Beasties have an unusual number. I listen to the "urban station" and I can attest to the fact that they have more food refs than anyone around. Now if you start getting into some funk and R&B, James Brown sings about food quite a bit as well. The pannenkoeken line is great. I'd forgotten about that one. From Hello Nasty: I'm the Benihana chef on the SP12, I chop the f*ck out the beats left on the shelf Also uses croquette in a rhyme. Who the hell else would rhyme anything with croquette? It's funny...their albums are totally soundtracks to my overindulgences. License to Ill was the soundtrack to my year of heavy drinking (also known as Freshman year), Paul's Boutique to a couple of years spent doing some serious smoking , and now I guess To the 5 Boroughs will accompany my food obsessive years. Gotta be abusing some substance, eh? And um, Mike D After all, he is a Scorpio. I would die if we could get them on here.

OK, I was able to check the lyrics/liner notes, and in the lyrics it does indeed mention Baked Alaska, and includes a footnote to check out Sara Moulton's recipe on FN's website. I listened to the cd on the way to work, and since I have a fairly long commute I was able to listen to most of it. Also included are references to Steak-Ummms (my dad used to make these for dinner when mom worked 2nd shift at the battery factory, very nostalgic), peas, gorgonzola and another cheese (maybe cheddar...), stuffing (also referenced on Paul's Boutique) and about a million more. This has as many food references as Paul's Boutique has weed references. I like Sara Moulton too, even more now that I saw that pic of her with Fab 5 Freddy (before I mostly liked her because she seemed really nice and she is as messy in the kitchen as I am).

And oh yeah... MikeD with the bad breath---ONION RINGS Ugh. If only I could free up the part of my brain that could memorize Conway Twitty songs and food references in Beastie Boys lyrics I would rule the world. Though I guess with all the weed they used to smoke, there would be a desire for munchies. I've heard they're no longer smoking (or that MCA isn't anymore), but I'm glad to see their love for food has not diminished.

Sweet and sour like a tangerine Fresh like a box of Krispy Kreme I'm intercontinental when I eat french toast Then there's the crude Richard Pryor sample that mentions mashed potatoes (from BBoys (makin' with the freak-freak) from Ill Communication)...but that's not so much about eating mashed potatoes... The new album is good, btw. Husband has it today so I can't check for Sara Mouton refs, but my fave line is also the one about Reiunite on Ice. Mostly because it's the only one I can remember.

Oh dear Lord. I made a batch of carnitas tonight (my first batch ever) and they were heaven. I didn't even make them properly (they simmered and boiled a good part of the way), but they ended up so tender. I put in around 2 1/2 pounds of cubed pork shoulder in my dutch oven, threw in the juice of one orange, one lime and one lemon; some tequila; 3 bay leaves; some beef better than bouillion, and covered all with water. Once the broth cooked off, I shredded them, since that's how I prefer them, but will try them crisped up in the oven next time. I served them with flour tortillas, guac, pico de gallo and tomatillo salsa. They were a touch salty, so I'll have to reduce the bouillion next time, but overall these at least tie with the best carnitas I've ever had.

I bought a 20 oz bottle yesterday and one again today, and liked it until I read Jason's description of the aftertaste as metallic. I didn't notice it before, but now it seems obviously strong. I dunno if I'll buy it again. When I drink soda, it's usually Diet Coke with a regular Coke thrown in for good measure once a month or so. I think I'm headed back that way, as opposed to drinking a mid-cal more often. Cheerwine produces an all-Splenda product, btw, but has limited distribution.

Word. I have to be very careful in the bulk bin section of Whole Foods. I've caught myself eating raw rolled oats out of my freshly filled bag before. It elicits some strange looks from fellow shoppers. I love them raw, far more than unadorned cooked ones. I will also eat them raw with brown sugar. Yum. I abhor Dinty Moore Beef Stew, but feel a kinship with you anyway, as I LOVE cold Campbells Vegetable Beef Soup, straight out of the can, still concentrated. Old El Paso refried beans cold out of the can I also love ramen, but only the beef or spicy beef flavors. My husband and I will drink bottled sour mix, no added alcohol, over ice I love pork rinds, too, but not the real ones like you can get at the fair. I like the cheap air puffed ones. And this one is so bad that my husband has asked me to never do it or mention it in front of him: I love drinking Worstcheshire (Spelling???) sauce straight from the bottle.

Oh yeah, me too. It doesn't taste soapy to me (or to my husband, thank God), but I have to check myself if I'm cooking Mexican or some sort of Asian dish for others. I forget that so many people hate it (or are just eating it to be trendy, you know).l

Kraut on damn near anything savory. Hot dogs (natch), pot roast, mashed potatoes, or the holy grail---kraut on pintos with sweet onions. Also kraut eaten straight, out of the jar, over the sink. I have a strong belief that certain vegetables need the hell boiled out of them before they're edible, most notably collards and green beans. Raw cabbage cores sprinkled with salt Brussels Sprouts Ghastly, stinky cheese Penrose hot sausages on saltines Fried baloney (NOT bologna, never bologna) on white bread with mustard