NulloModo

Heya, So as I was browsing around an ethnic grocery today, I stumbled upon a package of 'Tito Al's Choice Fried Chicken Skin'. Seeing as I love pork rinds (and cracklings) and that Tito Al's is one of the better brands of Pork Rinds I have sampled, I just had to pick them up. They come with a packet of hot sauce, with is a perfect match to these melt-in-your-mouth creamy, crunchy, salty, cracklings. Knowing how much eG members seem to love fried chicken skin, I figured I would put this out there. These things are definately worth picking up if you ever stumble upon a bag.

Hmm, I bought fenugreek and Fennel seed at the indian grocer a while ago, and have no idea what in the world to do with them.

That's unfortunately the problem that sometimes pops up with potlucks here. If no one specifies that certain depts/teams should bring certain categories of dishes, 80% of what turns up will be dessert. Now, I suppose 1 or 2 desserts is fine, but it is always dissapointing to see pie after pie and no real food.

Heh, wow, and there I was always thinking it was a typo...

First of all, I would recommend not being afraid of the discounted/marked down meat. The grocery is most likely not going to sell you anything that has any risk of really being dangerous. Cans of tuna are always cheap, and can be turned into interesting salads/sandwiches/casseroles. Shop for veggies at farmers markets whenever you can, you get things tons cheaper that way, and for less than $5 can make up: A bit pot of Gumbo Z'Herbe (or even regular gumbo if you stumble on some cheap meat) Collard Greens with Ham Hocks Stir-fried curried Okra Hot and Sour Soup (tofu is a great bulker in this, lots of protein, and cheap too) etc, etc.

I'd say screw it and make up a big pot of something ethnic, odd, and spicey. Who knows, some of them might surprise you, and if they balk at it, you have more to take home ;).

There is a Central/South American place around here that has a stew on the menu with the ambiguous description (eh, this isn't exact, but it is close): "Stew of beef, potatoes, cilantro, spices, french fries, and bread" I never ordered it to see if the French fries and bread were actually part of the stew...

I like to use Roumelaide, or sometimes blue cheese dressing... Sausage cheese dip is a good match too. none of these are really much healthier though...

Spaghetti noodles doesn't look that out of place to me though. The word Spaghetti to many people means the entire traditional dish, the pasta, the red sauce, and maybe some meatballs. Tell any cross section of Americans you are going to be having Spaghetti, and then invite them over for dinner, and you will get probably a majority of surprised looks if it ends up being anything other than the traditional spaghetti with red/meat sauce. So, if you wanted to make sure that you were talking only about the pasta, I don't see a problem with saying 'Spaghetti noodles'.

I tried a few when I got back today and I think they _Taste_ like flax, but it is hard to tell from frozen seeds. When a ground them they pretty much turned into a nice light golden flour, nothing oily/pasty like tahini, so, I am leaning towards flax at the moment. I just remember buying bulk sesame and flax seeds at some point, putting both in bags in my freezer, and eventually tossing one, but not sure which. Which would have greater leavning properties?

Torakris - You just have to share some of the best ones you have seen now. I think this brings up an interesting point though. To make fun of a local Chinese place for ridiculous English on the menu is considered being ethnically insensitive, and not cutting any slack for the hard working business owners trying to make it in a foreign land. However, if someone who is primarily an English speaker opens up a foreign place and botches something, they are seen as the one who doesn't have a clue or a care about the foreign culture. Seems like a lose-lose situation for anyone who is primarily an English speaker.

My current favorite is Carbolite Apple Cinnamon Granola. It tastes just like real granola, and with a bit of heavy cream poured over makes for quite and energy rich and filling breakfast. When I was younger I was all about Grape Nuts (which I think I always called Great Nuts) with way too much sugar added (enough to make some sugar-milk sludge at the bottom) and some softish fruit on top, like bannanas or peaches. I think my grandmom in AL got me hooked on that.

So all in all, it has been in the fridge for only about a week? I would personally have no problem digging in, but then again I am still merrily digging in to thanksgiving turkey that has been in the fridge since then... Unless you have an immune deficiency of some variety, I wouldn't worry.

Chipotles are indeed to precious to waste, so whenever cooking with them I tend to dump in the whole car. As far as chiles go Chipotles are more of a smokey full heat than an all out mouth on fire abdominal pain heat, so most recipes that aren't based on some intricate delicate balance can easily get by with an entire car. Using only two in a pot of chili would hardly seem to be worth the time. As for other uses: Scramble them up with eggs for breakfast, spread them on some toast with butter or peanut butter, eat them straight out of the can, they are great in a number of situations...

The crumb was not rubbery at all. It was slightly more spongey than crusty real bread, but well within the bounds of a normal bread experience. I got the idea in my head last night to try to bake up a batch of cinnamon rolls using this dough as a base. I made it up, kneaded again, rolled it out into strips, painted them with a melted mixture of Xylitol/Butter/Cinnamon, rolled them up, and then baked. They didn't rise quite as much as I might have expected, but perhaps the bit of salt in the dough had something to do with that, or my rough handling of them to get them into the rolls. Either way they taste good, I am going to keep playing with the recipe and see what happens next. As I think back however the seeds Iused might have accidentally been sesame and not flax, I have too many unmarked bags of random seeds and spices around here...

Actually, I would say the Rebel Yell has a soft flavor, similar to Maker's Mark, just not as good. Maker's Mark is a nice reasonably priced bourbon, but isn't really to my tastes anymore for sipping, I am really starting to lean more towards those with more bite to the taste.

Hmm, pepperpot soup involves tripe? I always thought it was a turtle dish for some reason...

Like Pan, I have found that the best way to deal with outrageous requests is to nod you head, say OK, and then go about your business as normal. If what they want is really vital, they will remind you again later, if not, it probably wasn't that important. My most annoying challenge was probably when I was told (45 minutes in advance, no more) that the Air Force Thunderbirds (a precision flying team) were coming to do a presentation, and that they needed a full AV projector/speaker system set up for their speach, oh, and the auditorium system we had was down because it had burnt out the previous week. I managed that like I manage most crisis situations: just prioritize, my class suddenly got a movie day, a makeshift system was put in place, and I cursed like a sailor under my breath the whole time. Still we survived, and it seems you are doing the same. Any work environment can be stressfull, sometimes the best you can do is just to deal with what resources you have, curse a lot, and hack something together.

Hmmm, I use an electric peppermill. I didn't specifially seek it out, but it was $5 at a local Mikasa going out of business sale, making it the cheapest peppermill I could find. I would prefer a manual one that I could get more ground pepper out of faster, but it works, and for $5 I won't complain.

That looks interesting, although I might be a little hesitant about that 'enzyme modified wheat' bit. The carbolose flour also apparently contains high protein wheat flour, which is just another name for high gluten flour, which at the end of the day, is still wheat flour.

Rebel Yell isn't a bad mixer, and if you can get it cheap, it makes a good choice. Despite the exciting name it is not the most exciting flavor though ;). I agree with you about the Evan Williams 7 year, the saving grace is that it is $9 per 750ml here. I feel it is just a big too sweet, but when mixing, it isn't so bad either. I picked up a bottle of Old Forester the other night, and I have to say it isn't bad at all. Would make a good mixer as well. I am a big fan of the Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon though, nice complex flavor, solid kick, and not too pricey.

Ah, I have to announce success! Check out my last post in the thread I linked above, I finally nailed the preparation of these Low-Carb rolls. Huge thanks to Scott123 for designing the recipe and offering lots of great tips/hints/advice. The taste, texture, crumb, consistency is all very breadlike, and the rolls should come out to a net carb count of only 3.75 grams or so when the recipe used is used to make 4 rolls. Who says low-carb bread has to be awful?

Ah, I discovered another I like: Roasted Chile de Arbol Sauce, sold onder the Frontera Brand, with an odd quote from Richard Bayless on the back... The sauce is thickened with roasted pumpkin seeds, which adds an interesting touch.

I love the smaller form factor of Trader Joe's. When I go to the super stores, unless I need plastic baggies or something like that, I tend to only shop the perimeter of the store anyway. Trader Joe's effective carries all of those goods, without a lot of the junk. Although I do agree, something about going into a TJs seems to make people forget how to handle shopping carts and forget aisle conduct.

Update, and Success! Scott, thanks for all the help, I think my biggest problem was I wasn't kneading the dough enough. Today I tried it with your latest recipe version, and kneaded in the food processor for a solid five minutes. Also, I used a jar of yeast and proofed it with a single packet of sugar (hopefully 3/4 teaspoon of yeast was enough to eat all that sugar). The dough turned out exactly whatI wanted, and rose much more than I expected, next time I will make the pre-baked rolls smaller. I baked in muffin tins again, used to the loose dough, but the next time I don't think I will need to. The texture was very breadlike, the crumb nice and breadlike as well, and the flavor was very similar to the O'So'Lo rolls. I forgot to put any salt into the dough, so that might have explained the slight flavor deficit in these, but I will remember next time. I also ground my own flax from some fresh seeds I picked up. The flax flour was much lighter than the pre-ground stuff, and the rolls did not have an overly flaxy flavor this time. Here they are: