judiu

I was just reading the thread "I will Never Again..." and wondering if we'd see a post there from AB "I will never again try to shoot a travel show in a war zone..." Seriously, I hope and pray that AB and crew are all safe and will stay that way!

party hard, sweetie, but Khest, BE CAREFUL!

I'm no expert, but what kind of a cookie sheet are you using, and how do you lubricate it? Maybe it's too dark, or buttered too much? Have you tried using a silpat or similar gizmo? Just throwing out a few random ideas here...

I've always found that if you don't use a flash, and think "invisible" you can get away with a lot, especially if you have a tiny little digital camera instead of some big honkin' 35mm with a telephoto lens... Discretion is all!

Well, the only way we got Long Island tomatoes when we lived in NJ was the trunk of the car route when we came home from Nana & Pop's house in Massapequa! ('Course, that was lo these many years ago... )

I apologize to all you Jersey folk who might take offense, but my Grandfather's Long Island tomatoes were the absolute BEST., The water table out there is only 18" before you hit sea water, so the tomatoes come already salted, and gawd, are they good! Rich, sweet, eat 'em over the sink good. On the table, a bunch of slices takes a light sprinkle of sugar and a dab of mayo (yes, dammit, Hellman's) and it's too die for! (where's the droolie icon?)

Honey, don't worry about it; hell, I'm 55 and STILL don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

How about Bittman's "How to Cook Everything", or maybe "Jacques and Julia at Home" or Fergus Henderson's "Nose to Tail Eating" ? Just some ideas... Edited to correct Mr. Henderson's first name...

Well, I got my two books from abebooks, but they're not what I was looking for, dammit! The ones I had were large "trade size" paperbacks with real crappy paper, but ahd great recipes from suppliers like Angustora Bitters, New Zealand Lamb Council and other unususal sources. The first book had a yellow cover, and the second was red, or vice versa. I'm FRUSTRATED!

Ok, all you salty licorice junkies, here's your answer to a prayer: www.licoriceinternational.com Sorry I don't know how to turn this into an active link; I'd love it if someone would PM me with the technique! The company's very good; I was turned on to it in another thread. They also have sugar free stuff, and shipping is reasonable and fast. Enjoy!

Ned, just a thought; what kind of people are coming to the wedding? City slickers, bikers, country folk, yuppies, a mix of all of the above? The more of the "macho man" (or woman) types you have on the invite list, the more meat you'll need. You can NOT overestimate the appetite of your average Harley rider for large quantities of smoked pig! Believe me; been there, done that, got the scars and the tee shirt to prove it! Truck drivers also come under this heading... You've been warned!

My baking imagination is lousy, so I have to ask; is that a 3 oz. package or an 8 oz. package of cream cheese? Inquiring minds and all that!

My mother introduced me to iced coffe when I was tiny. Fresh coffe, lotsa ice, half & half or coffee cream. stir like mad and drink out of huge heavy blown glass goblets that are bright green. The first taste of summer on Long Island. Now I'm a Dunkin' Donuts junkie; lotsa cream, NO sugar, with a sausage, egg & cheese croissant and I'm a happy camper!

I'm headed back to the library tomorrow and am hoping to find "Mastering..." Vol 2 as easily as I did Vol. 1 ( and as cheaply!)

I was watching America's Test Kitchen today, and they pre-cooked the apples a bit to get some of the juice out and keep the bottom crust crusty... ← Yes, I always pre-cook my apple pie filling and reduce the juice that cooks out, and I also use cornstarch (more thickening power). ← The problem with cornstarch is that if it's heated too long after reaching max thickening power, it'll break down again. I've f'ed up many a stir fry that way!

I have been fascinated by what I know of El Bulli, which is very little, but this show dragged me into the mainstream of the restaurant and sort of threw it in my face. Amazing! I know I'll never get there, but I can dream..

Given that the sole purpose of jarside recipes is to get you to consume more product & buy it more often, this one becomes doubly incomprehensible. I wonder how long it will take the bigwigs at Kraft Foods to notice this oversight, fire the offending bumbler, & hire someone to create a new recipe calling for generous dollops of Miracle Whip on both pieces of bread and in between each of the five slices of turkey, with an extra glob between the tomato & lettuce for good measure. Maybe I should apply for a job with Kraft. ← Did you ever try to bite into an over-mayonised (or MW'd) sandwich? Major slide factor! Bite...zoom!

Another score for me; The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham. Big fat juicy paperback, deliciously well used, from the Friends of the Library store for all of $1.00! Whee!

No, you're right. What you mentioned is the traditional raclette. Since most people don't eat enough to get a whole wheel of cheese, the raclette set mentioned here is made for melting a small amount of cheese in small, individual trays. Here's an article on the local paper where I read about it. ← I'm afraid I'm not 100% sure of what you mean by "like a gyro but with cheese" ... but venturing in anyway ... My understanding is this: traditionally, raclette-the-dish involved taking a big wheel of raclette-the-cheese, cutting it in half, and positioning its cut surface near an open fire so that the exposed cheese started to melt; the melted cheese was then scraped onto waiting plates of boiled potatoes. I guess that is kind of like cutting off strips of gyro meat from the big chunk, eh? Anyway, seems that in more recent times raclette-the-dish has expanded to have other foods besides potatoes be the recipients of the melted scraped cheese; plus there's been a whole bunch of gizmos invented to do the cheese-melting a bit more conveniently. Ms. Diva's new toy is one such example of these new-style raclette gizmos, sometimes called a "raclette grill", but sometimes just called a "raclette", even if that is kind of confusing the name of the dish (and the cheese) with the utensil for making the dish. In this kind of grill, instead of wrangling a huge half-wheel of cheese, you put chunky slices of cheese in the little warming dishes and position them adjacent to the grill, where they melt, and can then be scraped onto whatever you're cooking on the grill's cooking surface. Edited to add: oops! cross-posts R us! ← Thanks, ladies! Nice to know that I was close, anyhow!

Sorry, maybe I'm an idiot, but I always thought that raclette was an upright sptit roasted cheese thing that the melted cheese was scraped off and slathered over boiled potatoes? Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but I swear I thought it was like a gyro, but with cheese. Am I nuts, or what?

Are you sure the meaning (or the wording) wasn't souffle potatoes? These are twice fried potato slices that pouf up during the second fry so there's a pouf of air surrounded by crispy potato on both sides. Just a thought...

Welcome ClarifiedButler, and I think I love you, or at least your taste in food!

OMG: Dunkin Donuts #4 special; sausage, egg & cheese on a croissant with a LARGE ice coffee, lots of cream & no sugar. To DIE for!

I don't know about smoked onions, but my mom used to bake halved onions wrapped in foil witha bit of butter & brown sugar. YUM! Also check out Paula Dean's recipe for corn on the cob with mayo and chili powder. I'm pretty sure you can find it at FoodTV.com. It sounds Yummy, and maybe even better if you use the mayonaise with lime...(droolie added here)

The plants in the lower right corner of the picture look like something my Nana used to call cat's claw briar. Do they have particularly nasty thorns, or do they just look like they should?