NulloModo

Sandy - They take the sauce just fine. Which bar is this? It might be worth driving to Philly to watch some games and enjoy 10 cent old bay wings.

I made eggplant lasagna last night, and it was wonderful. All of the recipes I saw said to cut the eggplant into quarter inch slices and then pan fry a bit to soften... I decided to coat them in a thin layer of oil and bake them on sheet pans instead to try to get them all done faster, and to free up space on top fo the range. Maybe I baked too long, or cut too thin, because my eggplant slices turned out sort of crispy. However, they did soften up when put into the casserole dish with all of the wet ingredients, and ended up tasting wonderful. The couple slices of 'roasted eggplant' (ala roasted cauliflower) I helped myself too were also quite tasty.

Mike - There are some truly horrid LC bread recipes out there, I have tried many of them myself. I was never a fan of soy flour, the taste/texture just always seemed wrong. One of the greatest products out there for LC baking right now is Wheat Protein Isolate. It is basically wheat with all of the fiber and starch removed, leaving only the protein parts. However, it still has a characteristic wheat taste. If you combine it with other fibers and an LC flour like Flax Seed Meal, you end up with a resulting bread that has great texture, mouthfeel, and good taste as well. If you use the recipe I have at the beginning of this thread (which actually works just as well as a loaf as it does in rolls, as I find out from others trying it), the end result has a taste that is a bit nutty (from the flax seed), with a touch of whole-wheat and oat. No odd soy overtones though, no bizarre chemical burn, just a nice wholesome bready thing.

Della - Baked wings can be good, but I have never had any that hold a candle to the pure bliss of the traditional deep fried ones. Deep frying seems to be the only way to get moist meat and crispy skin at one time. Sandy - Rotel isn't easy to find in Philly? I see cans of the stuff at most of the supermarkets in northern DE in the hispanic section... I always figured it was a national brand.

I added bourbon to the glaze, but it didn't really work well. I think the bourbon flavor would have worked with a real sugar, but the carmelized polydextrose/splenda/stevia/ace-K blend was somewhat dissapointing, and not nearly as sweet as I expected.

Of all of the FoodTV celebs the one I tend to least often here reference to is Ina Garten. What does everyone think of her show? The vast majority of things I have seen her cook look quite tasty, even gourmet quality, yet the recipes and steps are kept simple enough to be easily accessible to those without fancy equipment or well-developed cooking skills. To me, more shows like 'Barefoot Contessa' are a good route for FoodTV, shows than can be enjoyed by people with a range of culinary experience.

Take Jalepeno peppers, remove seeds, stuff with cream cheese, wrap with bacon, bake until the bacon is done. Serve with blue cheese/ranch dressing. Buffalo wings are super simple and super wonderful, but more often than not I procure them via ordering out rather than getting the kitchen messy deep frying myself. Someone reminded me of sausage balls the other day, so I will probably throw those together somtime soon. A big pot of sauerkraut and brats, with just enough beer to cover, is easy, and keeps hot all day.

Results of pumpkin rolls: The dough was richer, denser, and had a great texture. However, I think I spilled a little too much baking powder into this batch, as they had an 'off' and bitter flavor. I am also wondering if I should sprinkle some splenda on top of the rolled out dough in addition to cinnamon to give it a little sweetness inside. The last batch I put a pat of butter on each roll before baking, this time I forgot to, and I think it is better with the pat of butter. I might try one more test batch tonight with a little less pumpkin, an egg, and splenda sprinkled in with the cinnamon. My polydextrose glaze was underwhelming... It carmelized well, but even with additional sweeteners added the flavor was pretty bland. I am assuming that cream cheese/butter wouldn't stand a chance on a several day shipment.

I am thinking of doing the pumpkin roll experiment tonight. However, as cinnamon roll dough is suppposed to be rich, I am wondering, what woudl the effect of adding an egg to the dough be? Would it make it more dense/creamy? Would it aid/detract from rising? Should I try?

My family has symbolic foods for new years as well, but they are served during dinner on New Year's Day, not New Year's Eve. New Year's Day dinner is pork roast (sometimes beef roast), black eyed peas, collard greens, turnips, roasted carrots, and cornbread. New Year's Eve dinner is usually an assortment of appetizers, and most are delightfully low-brow: store-brought egg-nog spiked with booze of choice, big bowl of jimmy dean sausage, velveeta cheese, and salsa all cooked and melted together to be dipped with chips, various tubs of dips, including the wonderful Onion Soup + sour cream tub variety, cocktail weiners slow cooked in barbecue sauce, buffalo wings, etc, etc. No, it is nowhere near gourmet, but it fits the atmosphere of New Years around my friends and family, we aren't looking for classy, just homey, comfortable, and something to make everyone smile. I'm not sure if any of these ideas would have a place in your party, but worth a shot ;).

I've found the best solution is to cook the roast rare, as it should be done, and then if anyone complains when served, just toss their portion (on their plate) under the broiler till it is the shoe-leather they love.

One of these popped up near me recently, I have been tempted to drop by to see what the fuss is about. I remember eating at a Fudrucker's once, many years ago, and thinking that the burger was pretty damn good there, but of course, I was 11.

Judith - That roll looks marvelous. The golden flax meal already gives them a nice golden color inside, but a bit more rustic looking never hurts. I will definately try a batch with pumpkin soon, but as I have to ship to Japan before Christmas, I suppose I'd better come up with a foolproof recipe soon. Scott - The dinner rolls worked well unrefridgerated on subsequent days. They weren't quite as wonderful as when fresh out of the oven, but they were still very good. I ate my previous batch of cinnamon rolls over the past week (although I kept them refridgerated because of the glaze) and they were just as tasty on Friday as they were on Sunday when I baked them. Day old regular flour based bread goes stale faster I assume, bit these things seem to hold onto moisture very well.

Well, the person I am sending it to is also avidly doingl the low-carb thing, so the sweet potato would be out ;). However, I wonder if pumpkin might work in place of the sweet potato? That would be carb-friendly, and also add an interesting taste....

The McRib comes and goes randomly it seems, McDonalds doesn't seem to want to support it as a full-fledged menu item, but apparently there is enough demand to bring it out as a 'special limited time' sorta thing every now and again. Actually, from what I remember, they are kinda tasty in a super-processed kinda way.

Hmm. I am still playing with this one. My goal for the cinnamon rolls is to be able to ship them overseas and have them hold up (as a gift). Actually, I can say I am pretty darn happy with the taste/texture as they are now, but I might play around with adding a little sweetener to the dough next time around, as I doubt my cream cheese/butter frosting will hold up without refridgeration for shipment. Speaking of which, I suppose I will need to figure out a new glaze. I am wondering if polydextrose would melt/carmelize like sugar would, I guess there is one way to find out... I will have to try that, with some xylitol added for sweetness, and hopefully I will come up with a glaze that will be stable at room temp for a good period of time and still taste good.

Woodburner - To my understanding 'Prime' when used to describe 'Prime Rib' does not generally mean Prime-graded meat, it is just a name of a cut, the Prime Rib. The vast majority of restaurants and grocery stores selling 'Prime Rib' are not selling 'prime' meat. Whether or not this is actually the correct way things should be named is another matter, but just seems to be the way it is.

Cinnamon Rolls v2 (sorry, no photos, they didn't come out). I used the base recipe again, but as suggested I rolled it out not too thin (about 2/3" thick). I also divided the dough into four rolls instead of six. This time the rolls puffed up much more during baking, and filled out into a more traditional cinnamon roll shape. The flavor of one right out of the oven was very good, especially with the cream cheese/butter/splenda/Ace-K/Stevia icing. I didn't sweeten the dough, although I did add some cinnamon to it. Surprisingly, I don't think the dough needs sweetening. Do you generally add sweetener to the dough when making cinnamon rolls, or is that reserved for the icing?

Assuming that you will lose a nominal amount of weight due to fats/juices cookingoff, that allots for a generous portion per guest. Given that it is the Holidays and all, I personally think that that formula sounds good. There might be some leftovers, but better to have too much than not enough.

Disco Biscuit is also club slang for the drug ecstacy.

OK, so Pizza experiment 1 is finished. I adapted the recipe by increasing gluten and fiber content while reducing the amount of flax meal. No baking powder was used either, as I figured I didn't want a puffy pizza dough. I kneaded, proofed, and then rolled it out betweeen two sheets of parchment paper, like so: I then pre-baked the crust at 400 degrees for a bit, but I think I made it a bit too thin, the middle started to cook far faster than the sides, so I pulled it out before the surrounded areas were completely done to prevent burning. I topped it (decided to go with a mexican theme, spicey sausage, chorizo, salsa instead of tomato sauce, some onion, cheddar/jack cheese, and crushed red pepper) and tossed it back in till the toppings looked done and it was browned on the outside. Positives: The taste and texture of the crust were very good. It doesn't taste exactly like regular pizza dough, but it is darn close, and the differences are not bad, at least not to my pallete, I kinda like the nutty flavor the flaxmeal imparts. The color was pretty good as well. Negatives: I think I made the dough too thin, or put on too much salsa, as it wasn't really crispy, but more limp (similar to what you find at most long island pizza joints, except the crust was not super-greasy). The inside of the outter crust was somewhat underdone still. The weight of the toppings was too much for the thin crust, next time I will make my crust thicker, or top it more conservatively. All in all this is probably the best Low-Carb pizza I have tried thus far, but it isn't perfect yet, but I will play around with it more till I get closer.

My favorite mushrooms soup is a pretty simple one: 1/2 stick of butter, tossed into a pot to melt 1/2 Large Onion, minced, and tossed in to brown 12 Ounces or so of Mushrooms (mix and match, or use one type, either works) Dash of salt Lots of black pepper Chicken or Beef stock to cover Let all of this come to a boil, then reduce heat and slowly stir in a drizzle of heavy cream till it is the creaminess you like. If you have an immersion blender and want a creamier soup vs. a chunky one, put that in and puree till it is the texture that you desire.

Sure, I will post some pics as things come along, thanks for the suggestions so far, btw. As far as the yeast goes, from my understanding the yeast will be able to feed on the polydextrose, but just in case, I have also been proofing the yeast in a bowl with 1/2 a cup of warm water and about 1 packet of real sugar, hoping to get the yeast off to a good start, and hoping that during the proofing/rising time the yeast will eat up the sugar, not leaving any in the finished product.

No one here with ideas on this at all? I am going to attempt the pizza tomorrow, adding more fiber/less gluten, and going to hope for more crisp unless I hear something different...

From my understanding, the best pizza comes from a pizza stone, pizza directly on the stone, and a blazingly irresponsibly hot oven.