petite tête de chou

I never really gave this much thought until now, but my Mother often used trays to serve my Father's meals and now her boyfriend's meals. Sometimes she even includes a flower in a wee vase. I've always suspected that it had something to do with more "traditional" lady-of-the-house manners than anything else. She's quite deferential in other matters as well. But perhaps she's simply being practical- easy to serve, easy to clean up. Oh, and the trays have always been pretty- bamboo inlay, enameled, etc. Not me. I prefer to juggle my flatware, perch my dinnerware and balance my glassware on the way to the dining room. Risky yet lazy behavior is what I'm all about.

Me. either!! But considering that I really dislike that stale-oil reek and greasy fog that hangs around the house for days afterwards I don't feel too inadequate.

I don't know the answer to your gastric distress question but I love to cook rice in bean water.

...McDonalds used beef fat to make their fries?

Wow - those looks really stellar. What issue is the recipe from? I'd like to give them a whirl too. oh, and regarding the discussion above about blueberry muffins: I made the blueberry muffins with the butter and sugar topping. Not so impressed. I found they tasted mostly of sugar, not blueberries. Even without the topping, I found them pretty plain. Kinda bummed about it. CI recipes are usually the bomb. ← Hey, thanks. The soup is from September 2003 and the biscuits are from July 2004. Tonight I used a couple CI recipes. Yesterday I baked the Buttermilk American Loaf Bread (May 1996) which we ate warm with butter and a bowl of beef stew. And tonight I used a few slices of it in their Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup (September 2008). I've made this soup before using the White American Loaf bread and it's been very good every time. So this evening we'll have tomato soup with tuna salad sandwiches and Tim's lightly salted potato chips. I often find that I can base almost a weeks worth of meals around a single loaf of bread and being a frugal sort this thrills me. For what might pass as a picture of aforementioned bread and soup...

Jackal10 provided a link to a rye starter in another thread that looked good- The Times

Lost- pink Hostess Sno-Balls. An unbelievably sweet, pink chemical confection reserved for deranged fairy princesses. Kept- Sno-Cones. Any flavor, any season and any kind of ice texture. I love them unconditionally.

Steak and oysters. Really complementary- bloody/slightly metallic, juicy/wet, crusty/silky, gamey/dark ocean-type flavor...er, yeah. Those ample chunks of fat-encrusted pink beef are the grounding force for a meal that will feature no less than a dozen broiled oysters on the half shell with plenty of lemon.

Very odd cravings this time around. Red wine, red wine vinegar, seasoned (sshh) rice vinegar, soft carrots, fresh rosemary and iceberg lettuce. Gads. Needless to say, I'm going to serve beef stew with rosemary and tons of carrots for supper tonight. I'll also toss together an iceberg lettuce salad with green onions, sunflower seeds and blue cheese dressing. Hmm, not sure how many glasses of wine I'll need to wash this all down but I hope it's a lot.

I slice when the knives are sharp and chop when they begin to dull. It's that very chopping motion that alerts me to the fact that my cutlery is becoming dangerously dull. Whoops.

I believe it's a less-than-great idea to pour it down the drain with a long, hot water chaser but I've done it. Usually I pour it into a large coffee can or milk jug and toss it in the trash. Neither of these solutions appeal to me at all. I'm not sure what else to do!

Yogurt and mint?

I regularly prepare Cook's Illustrated recipes yet rarely take photos. This is mostly because that while the recipes are usually a success the photos...aren't. Tonight I made CI's Hearty Vegetable Soup (no photo- whew) and Tall and Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits. All soft food for my husband who had some dental work done today. Poor guy. Loved, loved the biscuits. Good with the soup but a *great* late night snack with raspberry preserves and tea.

Cooking a Frozen Roast Without Thawing- Good idea or Bad? Who knew that this would work so well?

Here's a pretty extensive thread- Mint: Uses and Storage I often drink a strong peppermint tisane to ease my upset stomach. It works better than Tums any day of the week.

What, exactly, are "sport peppers?"

I've never had the opportunity to eat live fish, like Ikizukuri, but the thought of the fish gasping back at you whilst you dine on it's flesh is a little disturbing. Mind you the Japanese don't have a monopoly on this, there is the Sichuan delicacy of Fried Live Fish too, not sure about this dish... ← This seems to be a completely unnecessary and cruel cooking method. Fresh fish is wonderful but this is wholly unappetizing.

Considering that gulls eat a lot of fish, do their eggs taste fishy?

I've wondered about the poor reputation also. I love fresh produce, great meats, seafood, fine spirits and ales. Especially when they're served with a well-developed sense of tradition. Lovely stuff. eG Foodblog: Jackal10 III, Smoking Bacon and a May Week picnic eG Foodblog: Jackal10, Bread and Apples eG Foodblog: Jackal, Xmas week

I made CI's American Loaf Bread- Standing Mixer Method..again. I've found that it and pizza dough have been very forgiving during my learning-about-dough-as-you-go year. I've also made the same version of bread but with a bit of whole grain wheat flour and that's a good sandwich loaf too. Maybe even better since we really enjoy strong, wheaty, flavors. Question, though. Why do blisters form underneath the crust and then deflate when the loaf is cooled? It creates an undesirable skin-type texture. For fun, I added the sesame seeds after I smeared a bit of butter over the uncooked loaf. I'm guessing that they would've stuck better if I had used an egg wash instead. It's soft and slightly sweet with the milk, honey and butter. I love it for turkey and grilled cheese sandwiches, french toast, croutons and breadcrumbs. So good!

Six months? Wow! This is good news. Thank you for the info, barolo.

For a few weeks now I've been buying bags of Honeycrisp apples and apparently we've been lucky in that all of them have been good, well, outstanding actually. I keep them in a tightly closed plastic bag in the refrigerator. I wonder how long they keep? We eat them everyday but the supply won't last forever.

My husband is totally hooked on Honeycrisps. Juicy, crispy, sweet, delicate...so, so good. Terribly expensive, though. Over two dollars a pound!

Welcome to the eGullet Society and the eG Forums! What kind of tisane did you brew last night? No such thing as "wrong" when it comes to tea. It's what you enjoy. Most people in the US start out drinking black teas, flavored or not. And there are traditional flavored black teas such as Earl Gray that have a huge following. An issue with flavored teas of any type has to do with the tea leaf used, because many flavored teas use low grade bitter teas because they know the added flavor will cover it up to some extent. Let us know about the teas you are exploring, what you are drinking each day and any questions you may have about teas or equipment. Someone here is likely to have an answer...or at least an opinion. ← Well, this is good to know. I drink tea at least three times a day and more if the weather is chilly. *But* I know very little about tea. My primary sources are from tea bags, my garden and hot water as provided by my bottled water spigot. Not the best resources, I realize. I love perfumed, flowery, subtle, woodsy, smokey, bright, intense, etc. Really, I haven't met a tea or tisane that I didn't like, though some of the smoked ones presented a lovely challenge. Earl Grey was my first love. Black, a bit acidic, masculine/feminine..the scent somehow made me...curious. Some folks say that while they can't stand the taste of coffee the aroma of it does funny things to them. This is like that, except I adore the flavor of black tea and bergamot. I mostly drink peppermint (spearmint is too sweet), jasmine green, orange spice black, Earl Grey by Stash/Twinings, Rooibos, chamomile/lavender, honeysuckle (not as good as it sounds)...I'm obviously in need of suggestions. And maybe even a link or two to a website that can provide me with great tea since I live in a fairly remote area.

Inarizushi and green tea ice cream (who knew?) were the first Japanese food items that I fell in love with during the '80's. I wasn't sure what to expect but the moist and sweet pockets were a nice surprise. I never imagined that they were tofu! It was a real eye-opener to the many, many different ways that tofu can be used. Really great stuff!