Katherine

I wanna come, and I'm gonna need the break. Nickn, are you coming, and can you pick me up in Saco? BTW, I can cook almost anything, so I'd just as soon wait and see what's needed. Looks like beans aren't going to be in short supply. Katie, I once made blood orange/cello, but it came out really weird. Strictly a mixer.

I steam the greens until they're done. While they're cooking, I saute chopped raw bacon, add diced onions and garlic. Mix it all together at the end, with salt, black pepper, and red pepper. Usually it's kale or chard, also napa. I cook cabbage the same way, though maybe that's not so much a "green". I've been looking for mustard up here, they don't seem to have it in the supermarkets yet.

I did read once that in Italy they don't use buffalo milk mozzarella on pizza because it makes a mess, due to the high water content. The Italian who was being quoted picked up a chunk of it and squeezed it as an illustration. I haven't tested this, as I prefer to make pizza with chunk whole milk full moisture cryo cheese that I grate and add at the last minute. Recipients are sufficiently orgasmic, I don't think they could handle any more pleasure. Fresh mozzarella is only used for tomato/basil salad in my house.

When I'm making a dry martini, I prefer 6:1 gin:vermouth. But when I'm making a sweet martini (with sweet vermouth, not a dry martini with extra dry vermouth) it's 3:1. I garnish a sweet martini with griottines, and a mandarin orange section, if I feel like opening a can. Sometimes a drop of orange oil (gotta find orange bitters, but in this hinterland...) The sweet martini is sophisticated, but unselfconsciously so. It's still not especially sweet.

Actually, the reason why Americans don't "get" Shakespeare is because the language and culture have evolved so much in the intervening 400 years that much of it now means either something completely different than what it was intended to mean, or nothing at all to our ears. Meanwhile, much of the incredible poeticism we perceive in Shakespeare's writings was at that time just a normal manner of expression, i.e., a refection of the contemporary grammar of the times. Shakespeare's works were not intended to be overacted by actors with a special feel for them. Nor did they need special theatrical devices thrown in to make them comprehensible. At that time they were just pure entertainment for their audiences. The fact that we now need to study them intensively to get much out of them means that they have lost their entertainment factor, and are now just high art. Which is ok, if you're into theater as high art, but a bit much to expect of the general population, which is still struggling to interpret the section in the VCR owner's manual on how to set the clock.

It's one of those serrated spoons you eat grapefruit halves with.

There's somewhere else? This happens to me too! I shall have to make an effort to run to the 'puter (at home or at work) and post next time it does. Examples, people! (No offense, Katherine, but if I can't do better by my red bananas than your reassuring advice, I might as well give this thread over to "eG vu.") Each to his own. But I much prefer eating them straight (being, after all, a purist at heart) than putting lots of labor into them and then throwing them away.

Gee, I always just ate them. They look and taste a little bit different different from regular bananas.

How about the kitchen staff? Are they that well paid either? Especially with the hemorrhage of funds in NYC? (My vote for a name is still "Tommy's Salmon Ice Cream Cone Stand.") Yeah, they're going to lose most of their staff. It should take them a while to get back in gear again, after building the new team. People who have to relocate to find work are gone for good.

I follow this recipe. (Warning! PDF file) You top the bucket with clear plastic freezer bags of water, so you can see through them to your sauerkraut beneath. I like using red cabbage. It's self-indicating. When it's sour enough, the color bleeds and runs into the juice, coloring the cabbage a gorgeous magenta.

According to the website, you need to buy the card for 345,60 euros to get that rate. Which is still a good rate, considering how expensive the regular prices on some of these places are. But you got it for free?

I microwave the bacon between two sections of the newspaper, lined with paper towels. It makes for an easier cleanup, too.

My mother used to make her own ketchup. Unfortunately, since Heinz is the standard against which all ketchups are compared, we found it...eh. Lotta hours wasted. She could've done something else with the tomatoes.

When I was going through my coffee-roasting phase, I would roast in the morning when I needed it, then grind and make it right away. A batch was enough for a few days, but if I blended two types, I might end up with more coffee than I could drink in a week. After a week at room temperature, it wasn't worth drinking, so I would chuck it and start again. I had a dozen varietals I got from Sweet Maria's. You can do some interesting blends by using different types and varying the roasts. I made some dam' fine coffee before I had to give it up. Sigh. I miss coffee.

She's confusing "supporting beneficial bacterial growth" (which soy products may or may not do, she has given no evidence to that effect) with providing bacteria, which fermented dairy products do. Tofu and soy milk are not fermented and do not contain live cultures.

For coleslaw, I finely shred the cabbage, add salt, sugar, and a little vinegar, mix, and let it sit a day. Now it is quick pickled cabbage. Drain well, add your favorite dressing, and serve. I would do sauerkraut, myself. In the summer it ferments really quickly.

For people who don't have nattoo available locally, nattoo starter and kits.

Breakfast sausage.

Forget the recipes. I buy what's cheap and just cook it (bake, broil, fry, stew, braise...). If the pieces are too big, I cut it up and use them that way. If there's too much, I freeze individual portions on a half sheet pan lined with parchment and covered with plastic wrap, and heave them in a freezer bag in my deep freeze when solid. If you need to get a handle on techniques and general purpose recipes, I suggest start with an all-purpose cookbook like The Joy of Cooking (not the most recent edition, but an earlier one) or Fannie Farmer. These will have basic techniques followed by lots of variations. Avoid glossy books with one recipe facing a full-page color photo. The kind of book you need is heavy on the text.

I pick out the meat over a bowl and throw everything in the pot, including the lobster juice that runs out. Makes for good flavor. The limiting factor in how strong you can make it is the saltiness, so one lobster makes a stock that will serve 2.

I thought it was going to be about what the customers do when they've had too many and got rowdy.

So the lesson here is...buy a 6000.00 sous vide machine so you can learn how to butter poach. Man...you rich guys. Butter-poaching, besides being all the rage now, is an awesome way to impart butter flavor into something without overcooking. My suggestion is use good butter for optimal results. I use Presidente when I do things for big dinners. I'm not sure of the chemistry behind it, but there's an instant osmosis--if you will--to the protein involved. It doesn't work that way when you saute in butter...maybe some of you Altonians can chime in here. When you bite into a lobster claw that has been poached in butter you get this insanely flavorful blast. You can pick out both flavors, they compliment each other in a way that doesn't occur when you dip in clarified butter. I could go on and on. I love that technique. The hardest part is prepping the lobsters. I just used enough butter in a small pan to cover the thermometer, and I think I took it up to 155 degrees, as we wanted it poached, not tepid (or incubated). The lobster was great, exactly the way we wanted it to be. I think all those other ingredients would have interfered with the flavor. But then, I'm a purist.

I posted a recipe here eons ago for habanero granita, but I didn't find it on a search.

I worked in a small place where the owner refused to serve ice cream to people who wanted to eat only ice cream, even though we kept it on hand for use in other dessert presentations. There were a lot of other things the customers wanted she wouldn't provide, either. Not only did the place close, but she went through 3 restaurants in 6 years before her husband pulled the plug on her business ventures.

Habanero granita Those of you who like it hot should try this, especially Jason. The habanero gives it a deceptively attractive peachy color 2 c water 1/2 c sugar juice of 1 lemon habanero purée* to taste Dissolve sugar in water and lemon juice, heating if neccessary. Add a small amount of habanero puree, chill, and freeze until firm. Turn out on a cutting board, chop fine, and serve in small portions to lovers of hot stuff. Habanero purée Remove core and seeds from habanero peppers and cut into pieces. Put in a saucepan with a few tablespoons of water, simmer until quite soft. Puree in the blender or food processor and put through a sieve to remove skins. Store what won't be used in a few days in the freezer. Keywords: Ice Cream ( RG542 )