NulloModo

I've always wondered what would happen if I added a hearty pinch of pipe tobacco to the hickory chunks while smoking a shoulder... I will have to try sometime and report back.

Speaking of munchy-food, check out Chef Ra's Random Munchie Generator, some of it is hilarious, some of it looks downright tasty... http://www.hightimes.com/ht/lounge/content.php?page=munchie

I might have said Steingarten came off as an asshole. To clarify: I wasn't overly enamoured with the other judges either, and I felt the woman in the middle was especially ditzy. However, while they made lots of unsubstantiated positive comments, Steingarten made lots of unsubstantiated negative comments. I don't have a problem with the judges making comments either way, but I would love to hear much more in depth discussion of the food, how the flavors play on each other, how the textures are, etc, as opposed to just 'this is great' or 'this is icky'. In the original IC show the comments made on the food, even getting run through the Canadian translation service, came across as much more in depth and intelligent. My biggest issue with Steingarten on the show was that he kept trying to railroad the other judges. Several times during the judging clips he openly argued with them or chastised them for thinking something was good that he didn't, that just seems bullish to me.

My order would be: cooking, eating, planning. Not thatI don't occasionally find planning enjoyable, but I hardly ever actually plan out in any detail. I'll just read eG for a bit, look at lots of things that seem tasty, then wander into my kitchen, see what I have in the cupboards, fridge, and freezer and start throwing things together until I have something that seems like it should be breakfast/dinner/supper. Since I rarely cook from recipes this makes my planning phase pretty non-chalant. If anything it boils down to seeing a photo of something Middle-Eastern Behemoth prepared and figuring that I'll use some similar flavors in the soup I'm going to make, or seeing some asian concoction that Jinmyo put out and deciding that I'm going to dress my steak like that.

Yesterday - Some kick-ass beer and cheese soup I made. Today - breakfast of liverwurst and eggs. Liverwurst pan fried with onions is truly wonderful, a great way to start the day.

Not sure about that, but butter pecan ice cream is one of the best flavors out there, next to rum raison of course.

Speaking purely in club terms, 'cream of x' soup could be pretty fun stuff...

Oh wow, how could I forget anchovies, a gift from the gods as far as potent flavor for such a little fish goes... Still, my favorite fish-eating memory is from years back when I was visiting my uncle at the lake down in Auburn, AL. We were all ready to swim, and the rain moved in, so instead of swimming we went out to the corner store, bought a bunch of cane fishing poles (basically pieces of cane with a piece of twine that dangled from the end to which a hook and a worm could be attached) and from his pier my sisters and I easily caught 20+ pounds of great looking catfish. Fresh from the water my uncle cleaned them, fired up a huge outdoor deep fryer, whipped up a cajun style breading, and wow, that was some of the most succulent stuff I've ever eaten.

My stance is that there is a reason cream of mushroom soup and velveeta are so popular: they taste good, and are totally appropriate for certain dishes. My father can cook up authentic southern soul-food at the drop of a hat, as can many of my relatives in AL, but what I really long for when visiting family down there is my grandmom's tuna casserole based on canned tuna, cream of something soup, frozen vegetables, and crushed lays potato chips on top. Don't get into the 'gourmet rut' when only haute cuisine seems to satisfy. Americans have spent decades developing lots of very tasty lowbrow recipes, I for one would love it if some of my friends would cook some of this stuff for me (instead of their broke asses draining my wallet by convincing me to order takeout pizza and wings when they drop by).

Your ability to turn out an impressive meal on short notice frightens your Gay friends. ← Or how the combined faculty and students in your school just assume you are gay because of some of the things you have brought to school pot-luck dinners. (I maintain that I have a habit of wearing lots of pink shirts, like to sing showtunes while wandering around on cafeteria duty, and teach dance amongst other things have nothing to do with this). LadyYoung - Not to create a rift here, but I'm sure Sandy didn't mean anything offensive in his comment, hang out in the Philly forum a bit, really, he is a nice guy.

I still like Flay. His food looks very good, and I could care less about if he is or isn;t an asshole, hey, assholes can be fun sometime. I just watched my Tivo'd ICA episode 2 tonight. I actually liked the latin guy's food a bit more, but hey, the judges didn't seem to agree. His catfish dessert in particular seemed original and intriguing. One thing that really got me though, is that I wanted to slap Steingarten across the face. He comes off as a total fuckhead on the show, whether that is due to editing or not I don't know. He didn't make many intelligent comments to offset his general and negative comments. He also made comments to the other judges, which the other judges refrained from. I personally would have no problem with him being replaced with someone else on that panel.

Another cold wave slipped though today. Yesterday morning it was 11 degrees, this morning it was 5 degrees. Well, last night I wanted something warm and light, so I made a beer and cheese soup. I started with three links of habanero chicken sausage (someone gave me a bunch of this free, I would never actually buy sausage made from a chicken, but I figured a soup would be a good use), which I browned with an onion,and seven or eight cloves of garlic. I added some herbs and spices, oregano, savory, bay leaf, crushed red pepper, salt, black pepper, thyme, carraway seed, and sage. Then went in a can of beef stock, a bottle of beer, and a can of chopped pickled jalepenos. I let the whole thing simmer for a while, then stirred in about a cup of shredded cheddar. Overall nice and tasty, warm, hint of spice from the crushed red pepper, which also made it filling.

I like different fish prepared in different ways. For a simple beer-batter set-up cod is hard to beat. Tuna wins for being served sashimi style, or seared, or as a steak. It is an extremely versatile fish. Catfish is great for spicey preps, really, blackened catfish with a nice gravey on top, that is ethereal.

I've done lasagna with eggplant as the 'noodles' and it does work quite well, sort of an Italian take on Moussaka.

And by the times the Bears make the Superbowl, for all we know Edamame will be availible at your corner 7/11 ;).

To reprise my earlier analogy, airlines and certain restaurants book with the same goal in mind: to maximize profit while incurring 'acceptable' customer service issues. If customer service was the first priority then planes would never be overbooked and restaurants would leave enough of a buffer than even the most leisurely table wouldn't overlap onto another reservation. When this practice impinges upon the experience of other customers the institution should hold itself financially liable for the situation, and the customer who is put out should not have to pay for an experience that was lessened due to the money-grubbing nature of that institution. If I was treated very well and comped a ticket or meal, I would not hesitate to return to said airline or restaurant. If I am given a brush off or a paltry offering, I will see where this particular institutions priorities are set, and I will not give them any of my business in the future.

I love both green and black olives, but have never had, or even thought about, green olives on a pizza. Now, that isn't to say I wouldn't try it, I could imagine it being very tasty, but black olives are always a nice option too. The sweetness of black olives matches really well with the saltiness and greasiness of other pizza toppings, one would have to have some other very stout toppings to match up to green olive.

Well, this might be obvious, but mint goes very well with Green Tea. I like to add some sugar-free Creme De Menthe syrup to my morning cup of green tea to give it a little bit of sweetness.

I'd actually disagree about the raw vegs and hot-dogs. I like any sandwhich better when the roll is first buttered, hot dogs included. Cold cucumber slices with a little butter and then a dash of salt on top are also marvelous.

You know, this is a terribly low-brow confession, but I really enjoy the hot-dogs at 7-11. In particular the 'Bahama Mamma' is pure heaven in sausage form. I shudder to think what animals, and which parts of them, are stuffed into that casing, but the taste is ethereal. I prefer them loaded up with the 7-11 chili, some of that fake cheese stuff, jalepenos, sauerkraut, dill pickle chips, raw onion, lots of yellow mustard, and a nice stripe of mayo.

It is quite easy to boil water in a microwave. A mug of water will begin boiling in about two minutes in mine, and continue to do so for several seconds after being pulled out if I let it go a bit longer. I admit I have used the microwave for bacon when I was in a rush, but I don't like how evenly it cooks it, too evenly that is. I prefer my bacon with some crispy fried bits and with some of the fat still stringy and barely cooked, so you get that chewy texture too, I haven't been able to manage that with the microwave.

For me it was Salmon. First time I ever had salmon, I despised it. I kept hearing others talk about how much they liked it though, so I kept going back occasionally, and now I sort of like it in some settings. I made the olive oil poached salmon from Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, and that was awesome. I like the canned salmon you can buy next to the canned tuna for use in quick salads. I even really enjoyed some salmon sitting in a steamer tray in a chinese buffet they other day. The one thing I haven't been able to get my tongue around salmon-wise is smoked salmon, like lox. Now, I just just about everything else smoked, so this doesn't make sense to me, but maybe that taste is still developing.

Yes, Mannitol and Malitol are both pretty nasty as sugar alcohols go. I have had good luck with Xylitol which seems to have a very natural sugary taste, and less of the laxative effect that some of the others.

That is true, and if a restaurant is going to go with the CC requirement (which I think is fair, although how much to charge exactly can become an issue) then the restaurant has to be willing to back it up the same way. Basically, if a diner arrives on time and the table isn't ready, the meal should be comped, end of story (well, perhaps not alcohol as that could lead to some rather interesting tabs). But still, if I book a flight and get bumped, I fully expect, and have always received, a free flight out of it, restaurants should be no different.

Paper plates are great for prep-work, unless the item is really wet, then I use glass to avoid having leakage that I will later have to wipe off of the countertop. For eating - if I am eating solo, which is usually the case, paper is the way to go for anything that isn't too wet. Sandwhiches, dryish casseroles, slices of meat and cheese, whatever, it just saves cleanup. Although I do admit I use three or four stuck together at a time since otherwise they would be way too flimsy. For dinners with multiple people glass is the way to go, unless it is a huge crowd and something informal like burgers and wings, then back to paper. As for plastic cutlery, I love it, well, the heavyweight stuff anyway. How else would I eat the lunches I pack for work? I certainly don't trust myself to remember to bring back real metal forks and spoons. Plus, when I forget to do the dishes after a while and suddenly have no utensil to eat with, I can just grab some plastic stuff out of the box.