petite tête de chou

Ashamed to admit it, but never fry bacon naked was learned the hard way in my house. ← Abso-fricken-lutely! While bacon-grease slathered boobs MIGHT seem like a "good-thing" they definitely are NOT!

Rhubarb Margaritas. Rim the glass with sugar, tho. The salt is a bit funky.

Don't hang your nose over a pan while toasting spices for a curry. Yeowch!

Put a bit of water in them and float a candle or single blossom? Use them for plant starts in a sunny window? Give them away as a prize at a New Years Eve party? Throw a Grecian theme dinner and joyfully bash them against the tiles of a fireplace?

There's quite a few comments concerning the smell. Exactly why does it smell "pooey?"

Pho with lots of Sriracha and extra herbs. Miso soup. Dairy-free Hungarian mushroom soup from Food Front co-op in Portland. Ochazuke. No toppings, just rice and green tea. Chai.

There's some ideas on this thread Portland Recommendations.

Interesting question. After a night of drinking (either micro- or macro- beers, wine, scotch or rum) my husband says that I have an...er, di-stink-t odor. He, however, actually smells just fine. When my Ma and Da used to drink, it was he who stank and not her. Additionally, my father and I actually have a...well, definite odor when we've been working hard, and yet my mother and husband smell just fine. -sigh- Perhaps this has more to do with the fact the my Da and I love really spicy, stinky stuff (such as kimchee and sardines in hot sauce) whereas my ma and husband don't. But still, whereas my ma and husband might smell a bit of the booze seeping through their pores the next day, my Da and I actually, well, smell bad.

My husband gifted me with a KitchenAid Artisan Series stand mixer in Onyx. So, I made a chocolate Truffle cake with espresso ganache and caramel sauce.

Is Christmas the most difficult season for folks in the pastry and baking service? I'm kinda guessing that it is but I would think that Easter and Valentines day would have their fair share of stress, too.

350F should be fine. Time will probably be somewhere around 20-30 minutes at 350. Start checking with a toothpick at 15, unless you can see they still look liquidy, in which case you should hold off. Pull them out when you get a a toothpick with a few tiny crumbs but no liquid. If you use an unlined muffin tin, definitely grease them, or better yet use an oil+flour spray. Nothing is more frustrating than beatiful muffins that cantr be extricated from a baking pan deathgrip. Paper liners will work fine, and you're certain not to have any release problems. Fill them about 2/3 full. You may want to bake a few test muffins to see how full you can fill the liners or muffin tins without them overflowing. ← Thank you, Patrick. The muffins took about 23 minutes and turned out fine. That oil/flour spray is darn handy!

Howdy Zucchini Mama, I adore the fact that most (if not all?) of the signs at Bernie's seem to be handwritten. That's a wonderful, loving detail that speaks of the affection the bakery has for it's products. Baking takes time as does sitting down to write all those signs. Along the same lines, the picture of your father is just perfect. I imagine him patiently depositing a blueberry into each waffle square and wonder if he sneaked a few while doing it. And at this time of the year, when I'm bombarded with RED and GOLD and GREEN images it's very soothing to rest my eyes on all the blues in your photograph. Quite soothing.

9 out of 11. The Polish and Scottish questions got me. Disappointing about the Scottish one because I kinda knew that dinner and supper aren't the same thing.

I've never tried Evening Primrose oil but I have tried Black Cohosh pills. They seemed to lessen the cramping after I was taking it for about two months. But my lifestyle was much more active than now. Remaining physically active has been the only tried-and-true method of minimizing my cramps. Now, the emotional upheaval simply calls for a quiet and calm enviroment, books, weepy old movies with happy endings, steak with lots of salt, scotch and endless wedges Huntsman cheese. That's all. Nice and simple. edited to add...I don't recommend taking Black Cohosh without your doctors approval.

Y'know, I find gelatin based desserts pretty harmless and quite pretty. Adding fruit or whipped cream to it seems like a natural but no mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, please. Those are for the sandwiches. My mother made plain Jell-o (remember when there were only a few flavors?) with a dollop of whipped cream. My grandmother made the lime jello mixed with canned pears or fruit cocktail and whipped cream. I liked it. But again, it's pretty harmless stuff. Comforting in a way, actually.

Tofu, Sriracha, toasted sesame oil and lots of shredded lettuce and crushed peanuts on top. Maybes- lime, torn cilantro, bean sprouts or thai basil. I always eat my ramen with chopsticks and slurp the broth from the bowl.

When I used to entertain more than two (!) I loved making big platters brimming with all kinds of tasty, tangy jewels. I included cherry peppers stuffed with fresh mozzarella, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and ran under the broiler a few minutes until golden brown. You could add other things to the filling but I never did. Also, you could make a filling of ricotta, horseradish (don't know if that's authentic) and chives, smear it on a slice of mortadella, add a layer of sliced gherkins, top with another slice of mortadella and repeat so that you have three layers of the meat. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate until firm, unwrap and cut into triangles.

To start, I'm really, really white. Mostly Norweigan. My family has never made this dish but it was finally offered when I was dating another white-as-the-driven-snow Norweigan at his family potluck for Christmas. But by then I was sooo paranoid about eating anything with fat, anything processed (soup from a can/canned fried onions) OR meat (that meant no bacon, folks! Hey I was young psychotic once, too!) that I didn't even taste it. I sure wouldn't mind a taste nowadays but I'm not going to make a batch for my household of two...unless it turns out to be a childhood favorite of my white-as-a-snowman-at-the-North-Pole husbands.

Five years ago I moved from a city with a population of more than a half million to a town 35 miles away with a population of not more than 10,000. Now, I'm not talking a cute little retreat that city folks go to to "get away." I'm talking about a farmers-down-on-their-luck, if-ya-ain't-got-truck-WTF town. The kind of place that's held together with duct tape and nicotene. There are all the major food chains on the highway- McD, Taco Bell, Subway etc., two Chinese restaurants and one Mexican restaurant, Dominos, Safeway, Walmart and a hoppin' liquor store. That.is.it. Oh, and one diner open for breakfast and early lunch only. At least the view of the river is palatable. The population is over 90% Caucasian. I bring this up because I have found much better food where there is racial diversity. And the few Hispanic and Asian folks that run the previously mentioned restaurants have, sadly, decided to offer only American-type ethnic dishes. Gloppy, overly salty-sweet, overcooked meats, no offal ( ) etc. There is a small island about 15 miles away that offers seasonal produce but, uh, that.is.it. Whereas I was chowing down on fresh Thai spring-rolls, organic dairy, vegetables and fruits, chatting up the butcher at City Market, ordering fantastic curry take-out, I now have nothing. If I want anything tasty, unique, ethnic or organic I must grow it, hunt it, kill it or send away for it . I've certainly become a better home cook because of it. Even with all the smog and increasingly suffocating feeling that I get in a city larger than 10,000 I really, seriously, heart-breakingly miss it's wonderful food opportunities. But I'll never, ever move to a large city again. I just keep thinking that I need more land so that I can grow the garden that will, truly, sustain my household. -sigh-

Hi folks. Since I'm almost completely ignorant concerning all baked goods I thought I'd better ask a few questions before attempting this banana recipe. Ok, I want to use muffin pans instead of baking whole loaves. Should the baking temperature be altered? How long should they stay in? Do I need to grease the muffin cups? Should I use those cupcake papers? I'd like to add extra bananas to increase the banana-y flavor, will that alter anything I should know about? How should they be stored? On a plate under plastic wrap? What do think of the use of lemon zest? Yummy or not? For such a simple recipe I can sure make it complicated! Thanks to all!

Hi Jack. What is the last picture of? Strawberry-something? They remind me of large gumdrops.

I'm a left-to-right person as well, tho I always thought of it as reading a book. The fresh vegetables and fruits are the last items I pick up and I like to take my time in the produce section. Relax a bit before checking out. I can stick to a list like nobodys business, so let the "powers that be" spend millions of dollars in product placement, subliminal music and tasting counters, I'm not buying it.

The film was already made- Supersize Me. This upcoming movie is completely unneccesary and seems to be a studios grab at a piece of money-pie.

Perhaps you could concentrate on a variety of appetizer-like dishes and fill them up that way? Or how about tamales? They're a bit of an effort but very tasty, impressive and adaptable. Use schmaltz instead of lard, shredded beef, chicken and/or a vegetarian option, serve with a salad and beans/rice. AND they can be made ahead of time. Good luck!

If I absolutely must choose only one dish that would be Mayhaw Mans gumbo. I'd been curious about gumbo and what it was, what it tasted like, its history etc. The ingredients were either already on-hand or easy to locate. I live in a fairly rural community and it isn't easy to source "specialty"-anything, this includes andouille. It certainly was not as high quality as Brooks' but it did the job jes' fine. Once I saw the pan that he was cooking it in I knew that he and I appreciated similiar things in life. I can tell alot about a person by their favorite pot or pan, it's a bit harder with utensils. So, I felt that his recipe would be very much on target with my tastebuds. And the step-by-step process with pictures was right up my "I'm-a-visual- person" alley. My hunches were correct. This is a really, really delicious dish. I especially loved the constant attention I paid to the roux. Like a fussy but loveable child you can't help indulging.