Smithy

@liamsaunt, you visit beautiful places, and eat at wonderful-looking restaurants (some better than others, according to your reports). Still, I see those fishing boats come in and imagine myself itching to buy some catch(es) and cook at "home". I've only had the chance to do that once or twice. I'd be really torn between the fine variety of restaurants -- and the attendant benefits of having someone else clean up the mess -- and picking my own stuff to cook. Do you ever find yourself tempted to pick and cook a catch? Or is that too easy to do when you're at home anyway?

It appears to me that this one by WELTOHMH (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is one such clone. Do you agree? I note that it's marked down right now, from $39.99 to $28.99.

Guilty! Sorry. Sometimes it seems appropriate to me although I don't know how frequently I use that word rather than "vegetables".

Actually, that's a very good question. It isn't like "any other supermarket" but, having said that, I'll start the floundering about what makes it different. It's kind of a specialty grocery store, with their own product lines and not many from outside companies. Friends who have ready access find sometimes that they have to go to the main chain stores for certain household items...cleaning agents, for example. I think they focus on organically grown produce and humanely raised (and killed) animals. Their product labels typically don't require a chemistry dictionary. In my experience, they also must have excellent employee relations because I've never run across a grumpy or harrassed employee. As I've noted before, I don't often get to one so my experience is limited. And yes, Safeway is still a US supermarket chain. 😉 Okay, TJ's enthusiasts -- what have I missed? Let's help Ddanno understand Trader Joe's. Edited to add: their About Us writeup gives some explanation of why/how they're different from most US grocery store chains.

I'm eating some of the chicken mole right now. It's certainly easy. Pull the package out of the cardboard sleeve, poke a few holes in the plastic covering, microwave a couple of minutes. remove the plastic altogether, microwave more, and serve. Here it is (crummy photo, sorry) before I started dishing it up. @BeeZee, note that this is not a standalone dish. It's only the chicken in sauce, and it has to be served with or over something. That may matter for your purposes. In light of JAZ's comment above, I loaded it atop some salad greens and topped with chopped cabbage. I tried loading it into a taco shell, but although the taco package was unopened it was over a year old. Stale. Those taco shells are going out into the woods. Per the photo on the package cover, I then added chunks of avocado, and a squeeze of lemon. Knowing my own tastes, I also added sour cream. Eh. I'll be able to eat it, but I won't buy it again. It has more heat than I like, although the sour cream tones it down. Once I've diluted the heat I pick up some sweet notes and maybe fruity notes that I'm not crazy about. Someone may love this, but I'm not that someone. Looking at the ingredient list, I see that sugar is 4th on the list of ingredients. That accounts for the sweetness I dislike here. It reminds me of my experience, way back here in 2005, making Mole Poblano during our Mole Cook-Off. It was a messy adventure, and I'm glad I did it once, but I never repeated it. My darling and I thought it was okay, but neither of us clamored for me to repeat the experience.

I was going to rant about "cowboy" everything until i realized TropicalSenior had done so recently. Therefore, I'll shift my ire to "marry me". "Marry me chicken" was a viral recipe what, earlier this year? And the name was initially clever, and the recipe looks good. But like any virus, that darned term is creeping into other dishes as well. I don't want to read about "marry me" beans or "marry me" beef or whatever the heck else someone wants to apply the term to. Enough, already! I fear there will soon be "marry me" jelly beans.

I heard that one a few times, growing up in California. The children saying it were corrected by their parents, but of course their situation was different than your grandmother's. I didn't know it was an Ohioan take on the word.

I had forgotten that this word was already ranted about, but I'm going to rant again. I just read about a cookbook published in May this year that's apparently quite a hot seller: The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes for Everyday Luxury and Elevated Entertaining (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) I'm not in the market right now for a new cookbook, but it's always fun to look. Then I noticed that one chapter is titled "sammies". Nope. Not gonna buy it. I can ignore the all-lower-case style of chapter titles, but I refuse to consider a book that refers to sandwiches as "sammies". What's giving you a linguistic shudder these days?

Hello and welcome, @BaxterBaker! Half a cow, grass-fed and locally raised, is a big step! I hope we'll get to read a lot about your learning experiences (read: cookery) with it. In answer to your question: it depends on how much you want to post about your experience and what you''re learning, vs. the cuts you choose and how you cook them. If the focus is mostly on cooking various cuts, the Cooking forum is probably your best bet and there may already be topics you can add to. If you want to write more about your experience, decisions, and the choices you're making, then Food Traditions & Culture may be more appropriate. In any case...if you post in one place and the moderating staff thinks another area is more appropriate, we won't rap your knuckles with a ruler. 🙂 We'll just move it, an leave a pointer from the old spot to the new one. C'mon in, look around, make yourself at home! And if you have questions about how to post (photos, links, etc.) or where to post, feel free to ask a host (I'm one) or ask in the Moderation and Policy Discussion forum.

These are interesting standards, taken from the stated guidelines: I'm sure I've read on these forums that some folks prefer a bit of blistering on their pizza crusts. Maybe those aren't intended to be Neapolitan style pizzas? For instance, here is a reference to leoparding. Maybe that isn't the same thing as burnt spots...?

I blame @JAZ for yesterday's extravaganza. Her post above got me thinking about how much I like Trader Joe's and wish I had access to them. Then I realized that from Iowa, where I was reading her post, I'd be driving home right through the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. And I needed groceries. And I really love chiles rellenos but hate trying to make them. I think I knew ahead of time that it wouldn't be just the above-mentioned chile relleno package. I think I knew that. It was still a challenge to find freezer space for all that when I got home. Not shown: the predictable groceries (salad greens, bread, yogurt, etc.) I broke into one of the chiles rellenos packages for dinner last night, and it's every bit as good as she described. I don't have an air fryer but I used my Cuisinart countertop oven on convection mode at 425F for 30 or 40 minutes, flipping the chile halfway through. She's right that the sauce is thin. I'd forgotten that the chile is supposed to go atop the sauce when I took this photo. I had some of my good salsa set to go, but decided I didn't really need it. Thin sauce was good enough for me last night. The layers were good, the cheese was good. The spicy heat was just at the top end of my preferred range. The coating was crisp, and I'm glad I took a hint from her to use the convection setting. I can't decide whether to be glad I don't have to share any of this purchase or sorry I don't have anyone nearby to help with the taste-testing! My usual dinner companions include one who thinks catsup is hot, and this would be too spicy for her. So it goes. I won't need to cook for quite a while, if I don't want to.

Sorry if you explained this before and I missed it...was this an infusion of a fig leaf in the cream / crème?

This really makes me regret traveling right now. There are actually good nectarines in the Duluth grocery stores right now. i've been enjoying them -- and, to my chagrin, I left the last one in the refrigerator the day I left! (I notified a friend to go enjoy it.) The good news is that I'm going through Colorado and New Mexico. Maybe I'll be able to score some good peaches along the way. I still dream of the lug of Palisade peaches I picked up one year.

@Kerala but you must admit you've made a wonderful case for buying the full-sized BGE at this point. 😉

Not deliberately funny, but this is the best place I can think of for last night's story. The scene: a Super 8 hotel in Story City, Iowa. I note at check-in that you have to ask for a coffee maker for the room, and ask for one. The clerk notes that there's coffee available 24/7 in the lobby. I ask for the coffee maker anyway, the way I won't have to get dressed for my first morning cuppa. A half-hour or so later, I go back down the hall to ask about the coffee maker. She'd had to send her partner to the storeroom, wherever that is, to find one. She produced it. Me: "What about coffee packets to go into it?" She: "You mean there aren't any in the room?" Why she'd think that, when the coffee maker isn't already kept there, I don't understand. I never did get any packets.