Katherine

While it's true that people tend to miscalculate risks greatly, I'm having a lot of trouble with the idea that BSE infectivity in the meat we have available to purchase is something that we should accept. Someone who knows that there is risk involved in eating raw milk brie is taking a calculated risk. A pregnant woman who consumes ice cream or queso fresco that was mixed with raw milk contaminated with Listeria in the factory; or a child who eats an e coli infected hamburger at a fast food joint; or someone who ate a salad with green onions that were contaminated with hepatitis--these people were not taking calculated risks. The food was contaminated, it should have been safe, and it killed them. Too often the safety of the food supply in this country is based on the convenience and profit of the food industry, rather than the regs that we have in place. They cut corners because they know they probably won't get caught. Would you really say to the mother of the boy who died from eating a Jack in the Box burger that she was expecting too much?

Hahaha!

Can't one be installed, or do you have a metal door?

I think if you actually wanted to remove the meat from the shell, raw, you should drop them in boiling water for about 45 seconds. This will loosen it from the shell. Trying to remove the meat without doing this only makes a mess of shredded lobster meat. I did this with a live lobster (both ways), and the meat was still raw after the blanching operation, so we were able to use it for sushi. With the unblanched lobster, too much meat was left in the shell. Lobster tails are generally broiled to an attractive brown on top, but steaming or poaching gently will cook the meat with less likelihood of overcooking in part or whole. Try poaching in 160º melted butter (to an internal temp of 160º with an instant-read thermometer), then return it to the shell for serving.

Here's a horror story concerning my own daughter. When she was small, and still behaving in a manner that was often but not always predictable, we went to visit my parents. Background information: my mother is and has always been addicted to the television, and TV golf is her favorite sport. We had plans to go to a better restaurant, early, so that we could eat in my daughter's likely best time. Unfortunately, the golf program ran over, and my mother had to see it live. Couldn't tape it. It ran over an hour and a half. By that time, my daughter was way past going to a restaurant. In fact, she was so far gone that the backup plan, having my father take her to McD's while my mother and I went to the restaurant, was also inoperable. So we all went to McD's. The horror of it.

If I'm not expecting a package, a knock on the door can only be someone trying to convert me.

I much prefer them in their alien phase.

Not changing my beef consumption. But barring a giant influx of cash, this only means that I will be continuing to use packer briskets for almost everything.

Do you have a hall big enough for everybody to make ravioli at once?

These just taste like water, right? Why not drink vodka and soda?

So true. The chemical-laden product sold in stores resembles nothing made from dairy products, natural flavors, or quality alcoholic beverages. A true non-alcoholic egg nog should resemble a light creme anglaise in color, flavor, and texture.

I hanged more barmen...

I think you should carry it in the unopened box, with plastic bags to put it in if tbey want to cut it open to look. The inner wrapper says Velveeta on it! Cheezwiz is not a substitute for Velveeta.

When I had shigellosis, on the way home from the ER, I stopped at the drugstore to fill my antibiotic prescription just before the drugstore closed. If I had missed it, I wouldn't've been able to drag myself out of the house the next day, as I was at that point too sick to go out, even with the medication.

I also saw a reference to the fact that three victims were gardeners who (presumably?) used bone meal in their hobbies.

This occurred to me, but I couldn't figure out what temperature to use. I used to have a book that explained this in detail, but since I had to give up coffee I'm not sure what happened to it. Sweetmarias has a page about how to do this.

The "chaff removal" you're referring to is a part of the process of harvesting the beans, removing them from the fruit, and getting them ready to sell and roast. When we (those of us without acreage in Kona, that is ) buy green coffee beans, they come already dried and cleaned. There is no loose material, and the beans do not appear to have any chaff. As FG says, only during the roasting process does the chaff peel off the beans.

The scones I had in Australia were very much like southern biscuits. Have you looked for American-style self-rising flour? Try White Lily, it's the best.

Or perhaps holidays are the only days you'd need to enforce your rules.

A few years back there was an ad campaign for a computer (I think the quality of tech support was the point of the ad campaign) in the upscale food magazines. In the first ad, you saw a thirty-something woman, tall, thin, blonde, and tanned, in her kitchen, holding a cup of tea (or toast), while past her through a doorway, you could see the computer in the far room. The kitchen was an old-fashioned kitchen, but clearly restored. On the far wall were glass-pane front cabinets (white-painted woodwork), filled with a great many carefully collected antique serving dishes. Not an everyday dish in sight. To the left were large windows, through which you could see the forest at the edge of the yard. On the right was the stove, a jumbo cooker, styled like an antique model. On it were sitting a toaster, vase of flowers, and enough other accessories that don't belong on a working stove to see that the stove was never used for cooking. In the "life" of this hypothetical yuppie, the stove was only a prop. In later ads from this campaign, the stove was cropped from the picture.

Manganese effect on initial generation of prions is interesting, but not a "competing theory", except that the researcher wants to consider it that. It could be complementary, though. That the prions could spring up where none previously exist might explain some things. It is, however, irrefutable that feeding infected nerve tissue to beef cattle causes infection. This is something we can't test on people, or at least, shouldn't.

Make it every week or two to keep your starter fresh. Also, you can alternate making whole milk buttermilk (much better for smoothies than yogurt) and regular sour cream, using light cream or half and half.

You can roast more evenly in the oven on a cookie sheet, but still, by the time you get it figured out, you'd have received your new coffee roaster. Doesn't do a thing for chaff removal, though.

Meat from mad cow sent to 8 states, Guam

[emphasis added]Does this mean you have to apply for an exemption before not allowing children? Or can you apply when someone decides to bring action before the Commission on Human Rights? Would ejecting a family with children who are behaving poorly and disturbing other guests be grounds for legal action on the part of the family? What happens if you allow some children but not others? Of course, please note that I AM NOT A LAWYER, and before taking or not taking any action CONSULT A LAWYER FOR LEGAL ADVICE. Finally, the law differs in each city, county, and state. It looks pretty clear to me that the only way you could CYA in using this law would be to apply in advance, stating the exact reasons why the presence of all children would be inappropriate, and it would need to be justifiable. So saying that you can't have any children because some well-behaved child might disturb another diner who doesn't like to be in the presence of children wouldn't stand up. And it's pretty tough to find an instance where no children would ever be able to fit into the situation. Ejecting a family would be best done if you can point at the rule they broke, and show the people they disturbed. Easier to let them know in advance what is expected, so they can decide if it's something they can live with, rather than planning on ejecting people and figuring out how to deal with the fallout. I see no reason that a high-priced restaurant should not have a child's menu on par with its adult food in quality and pricing. Not overpiced, but certainly not a bargain for the people whose kids want to throw spaghetti and crush crackers.