Katherine

I wouldn't be so confident that the sheer numbers of females in training would have any effect on the power structure. While I have a degree in culinary arts, I have been working on a degree in linguistics. I can tell you that at the undergraduate level, all the students are female, but when you look at higher prestige university professorships, you see that no females are hired for these positions.

If you're comparing the $100,000 NYC kitchen you cited with the size of a typical kitchen in Maine, I'd say the $100,000 one has got to be much larger. What are your stats on kitchen sizes in Idaho, and how are you relating these to average house size of new and existing homes there? I'd also like you to be more specific about your statement that it is "much harder and more unpleasant to prepare meals in small kitchens vs large ones". I know that this is the theory behind building trophy kitchens, the bigger and more ostentatious the better, but that's really not most of America lives. How small is too small? How large is large enough? I have always had a 12'x16' kitchen/dining/laundry room in my house, and I've found it neither hard nor unpleasant to prepare numerous enjoyable meals there. As a person who does not find it pleasant to cook at all, you are in no position to judge what is an easy or pleasant cooking experience. I'm not sure what sort of kitchen facilities are present in the hotels you stay in. I'd guess that, commensurate with your income level, you stay in hotels that do provide some. The ones I stay in provide you with a bathroom sink only. Now that would be my definition of "much harder and more unpleasant to prepare meals in".

I just cooked and drained (squeezed dry) a package of frozen spinach, added cream, butter, cream cheese, and cheddar. Topped half of it with two eggs mollet (peeled soft-boiled eggs). Yum. Save the rest for another day.

Sure, you can do that. It's just harder to eat that way.

You aren't actually supposed to cut through "bone" at any point. What you're doing is slicing through the joints where they meet. The bone and cartilage is soft at that point. You should run out and buy another couple of knives right now. A boning knife is good, but a utility knife can work for you, too.

I made kung pao seitan once, and everybody who ate it agreed it was the best kung pao anything they had ever eaten.

So basically, a person who eats a mixed diet but only occasionally eats meat, can refer to themselves a a flexitarian if they want some of the presumed moral superiority of vegetarianism to rub off on them, yet not actually have to give up meat. I had a boss who was like that.

Here's a webpage I made for my daughter when she had questions about how to cut up chicken legs. Not professional qualitiy photography, but you can see the whole process clearly.

This is clearly true of Manhatten, but in no way does it represent a nationwide trend, except perhaps in a few metropoli. I do not know a single person who made a decision to forego the kitchen and invest the cash instead. No landlord here could rent an apartment without a kitchen, at any price. There are plenty of reasons why fewer people are cooking than in previous generations, but it doesn't have anything to do with saving money by eating out and not installing a kitchen. Although my ex-husband probably would have done this, had he heard about saving a few bucks this way. Then I could have divorced him earlier...

I have my doubts about how powerful a tool this is, considering the assumptions on which you base your conclusions. If I had the choice of of an apartment for $1,000,000 with a kitchen and $900,000 without a kitchen, everything else being equal, I guess I'd have to choose to remain in my current abode, which is a little run down, but serviceable, and currently evaluated at $75,000, considerably less than the cost of your hypothetical run-of-the-mill kitchen. I suppose your would be a valid analysis for someone for whom money is no object, who lives in a metropolis where it would be considered reasonable to pay $900,000 for an apartment without a kitchen, and who hates to cook. But even that person should take into account the loss of resale value you have incurred by not having a kitchen, which most people do want and at least occasionally use.

I make pickled eggs when I take the last pickle out of the jar. I hard-boil eggs and put them in. It takes about 4 days for the pickling liquid to take effect. Somebody posted a recipe for eggs mollet a while back. I've been taking some in to work for a late breakfast every day. They reheat well as a part of a plate of food.

For you, the important thing should be the final product. Tell us, does it make a difference or not?

Paleo isn't really a weight-loss regimen, it's a lifetime diet. It's based on the premise that many of the foods that are a major part of the diet nowadays are quite new to humans. The dietary restrictions are intended to return to the sorts of foods that humans have eaten for a million years. Vegetable oil is a very new food, olive oil has been consumed for thousands of years, but animal fat is what we evolved on, etc. Junk food is definitely out. But the major foods that are Neo would be grains and dairy products, which many people are sensitive or intolerant to. I myself have found that wheat gives me problems. There are many other restrictions, based on the sometimes inscrutable logic of the interpreter of the philosophy. I eat meat, eggs, cheese, vegetables, and fruit. And chocolate, as necessary. Most of the food is simply prepared. I eat two meals a day, one of which is breakfast that I pack to eat during my mid-morning break.

I gave up on Atkins after being bored silly and not losing weight. So now I'm doing a modified paleo - with some dairy - and though my diet is less varied, I'm satisfied. I think that boredom in the diet is a result of consuming an insufficient quantity of energy calories and too much protein. So if you cut out the carbs, and you don't increase the fat to compensate, you'll end up feeling logey and listless, and wondering why. I find this is really cheap, but I guess I'm shopping and eating differently from you guys. I buy eggs in a 15 dozen cube at Sam's Club ($10.81), fatty brisket ($1.28 a lb.) and pork shoulder ($.98 a lb.) at Walmart, etc. I'm not eating much fruit, and I eat only a moderate amount of vegetables, which suits my busy schedule, too. I fix and pack a big breakfast in the evening and bring it to work the next day. This is usually either eggs mollet or an omelet, a meat, and two vegetables. I consume it around 8 or 9:00 in the morning, so I'm not hungry until 2:00. If I'm working late, I'll have some peanut butter (also not paleo), which keeps me til I get home to heat something up. Actually I have lost a few pounds, which is not the reason I changed my diet, but feels good.

I've read of a couple of studies that analyzed the ketosis aspect of the Atkins diet and determined that it was pretty much irrelevant to weight loss. Results from similar low-carb diets that do not share this component are essentially the same.

It's nothing they did to the meat at the restaurant. Central procuring for the chain undoubtedly buys truckloads of frozen, pre-portioned, fabricated, ultratenderized meat to assure uniform product nationwide. If you saw the ads in food service magazines, you'd blanch.

When cheapness gets competitive, I'll be right up there with you vying for the title. But I bought an immersion blender at Walmart for $20. Just do it. No need for all those accessories, bells and whistles. It blends. You'll never look back.

As a last resort, you should always try a blender. I use one as a first resort for operations like this.

My understanding is that water is drawn out from the vegetables, which dilutes the brine. I've reused pickle juice to pickle hard boiled eggs, and after they are eaten (within a week) I throw the liquid out.

Yes, but you wouldn't need to use it on expensive meat, would you. Also, the instructions call for you to sprinkle it on just before cooking. For the record...I have a jar of tenderizer that's been sitting in the pantry for, oh maybe 8 years...seldom used...so I'm not trying to beat that drum. I wouldn't use it on cheap meat easier, just cook it rare so it won't get tough and slice it more thinly. Even brisket is tender and flavorful this way. But I admit that the reason I'll never use it again (aside from the fact that I see no need of it) is bad experiences with commercially softened meat.

I'm totally against the use of papain-based tenderizers, because they give your expensive meat the texture of spam.

No, actually it's the unfermentable carbs in the beer that give it malt flavor and body. American-style premium beers start with less carbs, and are easier to ratchet down a little. You could make a strongly hoppy beer, or a strongly alcoholic beer, but as far as body and malt, you can't do that without carbs. Beer is made by fermenting out the fermentable sugars from the malt. They ferment, you bottle it and prime it, wait a couple of weeks for it to carbonate, and you're done. Beer yeast will not ferment non-fermentables, no matter how long you give it. You can make a strongly alcoholic light beer by stoking it with corn sugar, but it still wouldn't have flavor. Rule of thumb: the waterier the beer, the lower in carbs. Actually, hops are a vine. You can buy a hops extract to add to your bottled beer to see if hoppier is happier. Not sure here. I suggest a book on beermaking before you start investing in equipment.

by table wine do you mean house wine? i can't imagine their house wines being even decent (chardonnay, wine zin, etc, according to the website). but i've never had them. I was speaking survival mode. Go with the flow. Brain in neutral. Last I saw, diners poured themselves mass quantities of table wine into tumblers, working on the honor system. I don't think their food even goes with wine, YMMV, probably a mixed drink would be better. Or several. Now I doubt you would be happy with this, since you seem to have concerns. But it would anesthetize me while I enjoyed the hot bread and waited for my dining companions to finish their meals, at which point we could probably split one of those desserts that's large enough for a table. Undoubtedly they owe it to me, as they would have had to be treating me in the first place for me to go to Macaroni Grill.

The problem with Macaroni Grill is that the pasta sauces are indigestibly greasy, and the cooked food way too salty. I couldn't eat the salad, either, as the dressing seemed to be pure vinegar. But you'll be alright as long as you stick to the focaccia and table wine.

Sorry to say this but it appears as if David Rosengarten is a sell-out. I'm not going to say that Romano's is the worst of the chains but I had a different image of David when he talks about food on his own shows or in various apperances. RMG is not high-end. This is like the mismatch between Martha Stewart and K-Mart. High-end meets low- end. Look where she has ended up!! I fear for David Rosengarten's future. David Rosengarten sold out a long time ago. Don't you get those lurid marketing blurbs from him, trying to help people who have more money than sense find more expensive food sources?