NulloModo

I pack a lunch almost every day, the only thing the school cafeteria makes that I can eat are Chicken/Tuna/Ham salads, and those get old after a while. I like to cook a lot of one pot meals (soups, stews, chili, braises, etc) so generally I just toss an extra portion into tupperware and toss it in the fridge, then grab itout in the morning. The day is just more satisfying with a warm home-cooked lunch halfway through, and most things reheat very well via microwave.

dinner tonight as very simple: Mushroom and Spinach soup. Weigh-in day is tomorrow, so I wanted something light ;).

My philosphy with all holiday dinners is that more is always better. So, make all of the traditional favorites, and just add the extra new stuff on top. People can choose whether or not to endulge, but no one is deprived, and the more food, themore fun the occasion.

I love Eggplants (and always eggplant, never aubergine, btw). Moussaka, gratin, lightly fried in EVOO, grilled, whatever, they are great.

Were the fritos still crunchy? Dill pickes or sweet pickles? Dill pickle meatloaf with a crunchy frito coating actually sounds pretty good right now...

I don't know if we've had this discussion before. Gravy to me is either the pan drippings of a roasted meat (including and probably most notably poultry) or a sauce probably including drippings or derived in part from some part of the meat (e.g., giblets) that is meant for pouring over the roasted meat or/and accompaniments such as stuffing/dressing, rice, potatoes, etc. In other words, in my usage, there can not be such a thing as a pasta sauce that I'd call a "gravy," period, unless the noodles were an accompaniment to some kind of roasted (or perhaps broiled) meat and the sauce met my other criteria above. ← Interesting, so the use is part of the definition as well as the actual makeup of the substance? So, if someone decided to serve you a dish of spaghetti covered in sausage gravey (ala what comes with biscuits at breakfast) you would call it a sauce instead of a gravey? I personally have no problem with people calling tomato sauce gravey, actually, I am pretty liberal with any adulterations of terms. Call it what you want, as long as it tastes good, that is what matters.

Going along with the 'scratch and dent' meat thing: I just picked up from the grocery store tonight: 1.5 lbs of Italian Sausage for $1.99 4 lbs of boneless chicken thighs for $4 Safeway seems very good for marking down meat that still has quite a bit of life left in it.

I always thought that French Vanilla ice cream implied that there would be actual vanilla bean pieces in the ice cream as well. Anytime I have had French vanilla ice cream this has been the case, while regular vanilla ice cream rarely has those little specks.

I think Marie-Louise comes closest with her argument. The climate of today's society (in the US) simply does not stress, and in some ways actually discourages, finding enjoyment in food. With the huge focus on health, having a perfect body, etc, etc pounding into everyone every day, eating can seem almost shameful. Thus, to lust after a meal, to eat for any other reason than to ingest the bare minimum number of calories needed for the day, is to be slovenly, lazy, and pathetic. We are a country obsessed with image, status, physical beauty, and seem to by ravenously hungry for the approval of total strangers. Since eating well does not directly promote any of those things, no wonder it falls by the wayside.

Is it just Rum, Tequila, and lime juice then? No sweeteners (sugar) added? If if this is just a blended liquor I will have to try some, but if it drifts into sugar laden liqueurs I will have to pass...

i thought one one thing I haven't been able to bring myself to cook in the past year: Fennel or Tripe. Last year, on the last day of school, I decided to make myself a celebratory dinner of tripe braised with fennel and herbs (and some other stuff). During the prep I managed to almost completely chop off the tip of my right index finger. Now, I love fennel, and happily eat it when anyone else makes it, but every time I try to pick up those bulbs at the grocery store myself my finger starts to twitch...

Flapjack - That is truly bizarre, what is the reasoning behind that? Personally, the idea of writing off a food entirely just because you had a bad preparation of it, or once got sick from it, seems silly to me. I have a friend who won't eat fried wontons anymore because he once got sick off of them, and he really like fried wontons. The only time I can recall ever giving myself serious food poisoning was from a big batch of italian sausage and peppers that I made up, and somehow managed to not fully cook. I was sick as a dog for about a week, and I will admit, that during that week, the thought of Italian sausage was pretty revolting. Less than a month later though I was digging in with gusto to the same dish (which I did manage to cook thoroughly that time).

They aren't too hard at all, which is one thing I love about them. The Tito Al's Pork Cracklings, while having some of the hard pieces you would expect, also have a lot of the nice softer fattier ones, but none of those overpuffed ones that you get by the bag from Herr's and the like, so worth a shot if you ever see a bag.

Sequim - I use Majoram in Goulash, in chili, in anything Italian I would make where oregano would be appropriate but I am looking for a slight variation on flavor. I absolutely love the flavor of black pepper, and white pepper just tastes nothing like it to me. If somehow I happened upon a bad batch of white pepper maybe I need to go pick another tin up, or perhaps some white peppercorns and grind my own to see if I can tell the difference...

I prefer fresh shrimp to frozen when I can get them, but I'm personally only willing to pay so much of a premium to get them. The 'dumping' by China et al. has had the benefit of keeping prices on fresh domestic shrimp more reasonable. That is why I am wary of such measures as these tariffs, which hurt free-market competition and will artificially inflate the price of the U.S. shrimp. I am all for supporting our local fishermen, as long as the product is as good or better than what you can get from overseas, but if the price goes from $7 a lb to $14 a lb because of the move, I will be perfectly happy eating Chinese shrimp, or no shrimp at all.

Perhaps this would help: If this were not an LC recipe, how would you approach it? In general, what qualities of dough will make for crustier crispier results, more protein, or more fiber, or more of something else? Higher/lower baking temepratures? Less/more rise time, or something else special added?

I use Majoram, it is a lot like oregano, with an underlying piney sweetness, I love it. Another one that mystifies me is white pepper. Lots of recipes call for it, but whenever I include it, the end result ends up tasting and smelling like wet monkey-ass. My bottle (which I think was gifted to me by my parents over two years ago, and had been in their posession for at least several years before that) is one of those little McCormick doohickeys, but does pepper have potential to go bad, as opposed to just lose potency? If this stuff were any more potent I would really be worried...

If you can imagine the skin pulled from a piece of traditional southern fried chicken, but minus all of the breading, and a little crispier, that is what these are like.

Dill is great for any egg dish, try some whisked into your eggs when making omellettes, or in a frittata. Ground Cloves add a great spicey taste to chili. If you want to do a really great full-flavored slightly non sequitor chili, add some ground clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cocoa, and allspice to the normal chili spices.

I am interested in trying some Absinthe myself, but my understanding is that some varieties contain the real thujone (from real wormwood) and some don't. I would be interested in ordering a bottle witht he highest possible thujone content (hey, if you're gonna do it, might as well jump in with both feet). Any ideas of resources where I could find which bottle I want?

There is always a place for Macaroni and Cheese and tossed salad on a buffet, always. The beautiful thing about the salad is that absolutely anyone can eat it no matter what their dietary philosophy/restriction/etc (unless they are unfortunate enough to be allergic to one of the ingredients, in which case you could always do a 'create your own salad' station, which actually makes it a bit nicer, as the wet stuff won't make the dry stuff soggy over time). The Asparagus sounds tasty too, although just sauteed asparagus with a side of hollondaise is hard to beat (does hollondaise keep well over a warming plate?). There seems to be a lot of starchy sides already, so I'd go for something more green and leafy. Collard greens, southern style green beans, morrocan eggpland salad, etc, could all be great additions.

To be really exceptional I think Chex mix needs something with the potential to turn your fingers orange, such as crunchy cheetos (not those puffy abominations), cheez -its, or best yet, Andie's Hot Fries.

Hi, With the help of Scott123 I have recently been able to make a very good low-carb bread from the following recipe: 6 T Vital Wheat Gluten (or Wheat Protein Isolate) 4 T Flax seeds, ground (volume increases) 3 T Oat Fiber 2 T Polydextrose 2 1/2 tablespoons oil 1/2 teaspoon yeast 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup water Now, now that I have made this work, I would like to be able to adapt this for things like cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, etc. I have tried cinnamon rolls already, using the same recipe, and just rolling the dough out, cutting into strips, coating with cinnamon/butter/xylitol, rolling back up, and baking. They taste very good, but didn't rise/puff-up like the rolls, or a traditional cinnamon roll, would. I am also very interested in making a tasty texture-accurate (or close) pizza-dough. I am not sure what steps I should take first though. I think I might want to obviously not proof a pizza dough (just let it rise, roll it out, and bake it hot, right?) but I wonder if I shouldn't somehow change the recipe to make it crustier/crunchier and less soft as well. Any suggestions on some things I could do to my base recipe to make it work in other situations?

You may be in luck. the only reason I was able to find these things in Delaware is because I work on an AFB, which brings in an interesting international population, and therefore has a much larger than you would expect number of ethnic groceries surrounding it. I found these at a place that is just randomly ethnic, not asian, not spanish, not indian, but a blend of all three, if you are anywhere near one of the CO Military installations, you might be able to find something similar ;).

Carraway seeds are great with kraut, as mentioned above, or anything you want to add a Rye-breadish flavor too, I use it in Chili as well. Chili Flakes - Wow, this is one of my oft-used spices. Use it in anything Italian, anything tex-mex, anything schezuan, hell, just use it in anything. A nice added bite and subtle heat without being overpowering. They also can add heat without a distinct chile taste if you just want to kick up certain dishes. I go through a huge (like 1 lb) container of these buggers every month... You are talking about the stuff they have in the glass jars at any pizzaria, right?