andiesenji

Those loaf pans were aluminum? Did you have any problem with the filings? The loaf pans I used were not aluminum. They were (and are) the paper ones. When I first began doing this, the paper ones were not available for consumers but I had a business and could buy from commerical suppliers - but had to buy in quantity, I think 500, but used them for a lot of things. The trick was to cut the slices, including the liner so that my helpers and I could pick up the slices and place them on the griddle - then peel off the liner. It made it much faster and easier and cleaner to handle.

Jaymes, I have been posting about this for several years. And again in other topics. I used to make a bunch of these "pudding loaves" when I was still volunteering at fund raisers. Some of the local organizations have "pancake breakfasts" and at one event they wanted something a bit more upscale because some celebrities were going to attend. Regular French toast is much too messy to prepare for loads of people standing in line to be served so I suggested we add this to the menu, which I originally developed when I was catering, back in the late '80s, so I had plenty of experience in cooking it for crowds. I baked 20 pudding loaves in the extra-long disposable loaf pans (made it easier to slice as I could slice right through the pan sides (used an electric knife) and the resulting "French toast" was a big hit. We sold out and made a lot of money for charity. It's been so long since I first developed this that I am not sure what exactly prompted me but I think I got the idea when I was preparing grits for a similar process.

When I don't have brioche and don't plan on baking, I buy a package of King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, cut them into pieces and bake them in a very low oven until just beginning to crisp then soak in the egg/milk mixture. I make the bread pudding using about 1/3 less sugar because of the sweetness of the Hawaiian bread. If I am making a savory "toast," I buy the large onion rolls, cut them up and etc., etc., etc. After cooking on the griddle, these savory, eggy slabs are perfect for topping with various sauces, cheesy, dill, avocado, creamed asparagus and make a great starter.

There is NO dipping of bread into the eggy mixture. The egg and milk is already in the bread pudding. The sliced pudding is grilled or fried in butter (browned butter is a lovely option). You can use any bread pudding recipe and bake it in a loaf pan, you don't have to use my recipe.

I haven't made regular French Toast for many years. I much prefer my "mock" French Toast which turns out lovely every time and there is much less mess. You can tweak the recipe to suit your own taste. It can be savory instead of sweet and it is a cinch that even the most inept cook can produce a lovely result. The surface is just crusty enough and the interior is like custard. For this batch I baked brioche rolls, cut the tops off, cubed the bottoms and soaked in the milk/egg mix and then added the tops and pressed them down so they would soak up the eggy mix. Top sprinkled with granulated maple sugar which will caramelize after it's turned.

I would love to hear your Chiapas / Palenque excavation food anecdotes.. any chance you have written about them... or can be persuaded to do so? BTW.. the idea that duck and turkey dish exist where sheep & cattle are not as plentiful would be a completely Spanish biased phrase (which I am sure the land owners you were dealing with probably had very well defined & "pure" Spanish ancestry). I think if you ask an indigenous person in Mexico.. particularly around Mexico State, Eastern Michoacan, Puebla etc., I think they would say they eat Beef and Sheep where Duck & Turkey are not plentiful. Maybe its more ideological than empirical but certainly around Mexico City, the more indian the person the more they talk about Duck, Turkey, Venison, Frog Legs, Crawfish, Trout etc., in almost spellbound, magical tone wheras Beef, Pork, Chicken & Lamb are pedestrian foods. Another a Bayless quotes is something to the effect that once you come across a bright yellow chicken in a Mexican market you know you are not in Kansas anymore... as you noted the Turkeys are quite different than the birds most Americans know. I don't think once can understand the Central Mexican obsession with it until have a properly raised native Guajolote When I was at Palenque in 1971, it was still very remote and the roads were marginal at best. There were no large farms in that area, known as the Lancandon Jungle the local native population was mostly Lacandon people and the farms were fields here and there cleared from the jungle and they hunted as much as they could to supplement what they grew. There have been tremendous changes since I was there. In 1988 the area was protected under the Biosphere Reserve act to stop wholesale deforestation and slash and burn clearing for farms. Also some organized revolts.

I grill things nicely on my Cuisinart Griddler. I have friends who live in a Century City high rise apartment with no balcony and who often have indoor picnics. They have two of the largest George Foreman grills - like this - they put them on a table under a window in which they have a reversible window fan that will exhaust any smoke. One is used for meats the other for veggies because they have vegetarian guests. There is always fried chicken with the various sides, potato, pasta and bean salads. Kebabs can be cooked in the oven. Fish also can be breaded and baked in the oven, instead of frying. Pita filled with meat or chicken, fish and vegetables finished with yogurt sauce. little pasties filled with savory and/or sweet stuff - empanadas. Local cookouts almost always include tamales, with or without chili.

They are more like canned green beans. Some stores in the northeast are beginning to carry the frozen ones, which again, are like green beans. The ones grown around here are the same that produce the prickly pear fruits (tuna).

Lordy, Percyn! That is just beautiful. It's a good thing I have a thinskin protecting my keyboard because I have drooled all over it. Unfortunately there are just too many calories on that plate for me at this time.

I'm not sure if they carry what you want but you might try calling Angelo's in Goleta, (Old Town area) on or just off Hollister. A friend who teaches at UCSB recommended it when I was looking for supplies for a party after a dog show a few years ago and they had a good selection. I also shopped at a place in Isla Vista that is sort of a big box liquor store that carried a lot of craft beers that are apparently popular with the Uni. bunch. The clerks weren't much help and I had to dig around on my own and you have to watch what they are charging you. I had been warned about using a credit card there so paid cash, but the prices were okay. I just got a reply to an email to my friend in Goleta. He says the name of the store in Isla Vista that is so popular with the students is Keg N Bottle. The phone number is (805) 968-1316 if that helps at all. He notes that you should go an look yourself because they don't always know what they have and their phone answers leave a lot to be desired.

That duck is beautiful and I love the nopales. I've heard from my Mexican friends about the numerous recipes for duck and turkey in the regions where sheep and cattle are not as plentiful. I remember when I was in Chiapas that we were strongly urged to shoot all the ducks and turkeys we wished because those non-domesticated fowl were so damaging to the local farmer's crops. The turkeys we found were different from the wild turkeys in the area where I was raised and were much more agile flyers.

I feel the same. I have been following her blog for quite a while and I like the way she writes. I've collected several of her recipes. I've never watched the show but then I rarely watch the Food Channel now. I do watch a few PBS food shows. I guess I've gotten a bit picky in my old age.

Almost everyone I know that has them is really enthusiastic about them. Unfortunately for my taste, the new ones are only for Belgian waffles which are not my preference. I much prefer the thinner, crisp waffles. They are not a recent invention though some companies seem to be pushing the idea that they are. In 1939 Manning Bowman introduced the Twin-O-Matic waffler at the 1939 Worlds Fair, which was extremely popular and a very efficient baker. I've been looking for the one I bought some twenty years ago. I packed it away so well I can't find it! I packed it and some other appliances when I moved up here in 1988 and have never unpacked them. I can't even remember what all I have in that trunk. Like others of that era, it is very Art Deco in styling. Here's one. Second to the bottom on the page. Over the years I have met several owners of these vintage wafflers who have been using them successfully for decades.

I'm bumping up this topic because a person in the L.A. area posted a comment on my blog indicating that she has a New, never used, in original box Armaid Grill and Waffler as well as a vintage Osterizer with a copper base. The Armaid is not rare and not all that expensive, made by Knapp-Monarch between 1938 and 1941. However it is unusual to find one that is unused. They were a mid-line sturdy appliance that held up well and was a bit faster baking than many others. The Osterizer with the copper base is fairly rare. In any event if anyone in the L.A. area is interested just PM me and I will provide the email address.

I just got an interesting sidelight about this from a family member who worked at USD in D.C. during the early part of the last decade. Some of these corporations, not specifically Hersey, got grants from the feds to pay for these student guest workers. With some nimble bookkeeping and increased tax cuts, to further encourage participation, some of those corps, already making record profits, actually had practically no costs for this labor force. She is now retired so has nothing to lose but any hint of an investigation into those practices during those years was tantamount to killing a career. People in her department were given notice that any contact with any media persons would be grounds for dismissal. Perhaps that is why some of these investigations have just now come to light during the past couple of years.

These are young people who are being exploited because they pay up front to come to the U.S. for a "cultural experience" not factory work. There are labor laws that state that companies employing more than a certain number of workers must pay overtime after the normal 8-hour shift. This apparently does not apply to "guest" workers so the company saves many dollars by forcing a 12-hour work shift. There are limits on how much workers have to lift, especially women. As these "guest" workers don't seem to fall into any worker category, they have to do what they are told or are threatened with deportation when they were INVITED to come here. They are in some cases charged exorbitant rates for housing and food which they could probably get cheaper if allowed to get their own. This is exactly the same precept as the "company store" mentioned above. They don't have a chance to see anything of America except the inside of a factory and inside what I would consider sub-standard and overcrowded housing. They are possibly the next generation of leaders in their countries. If they go home with a bad opinion of the U.S., how do thing that is going to affect decisions they make in the future. Your kids and mine will have to live with it. America should not be about how much a giant corporation can make off the labor of young people from other countries so they don't have to hire American citizens.

When I had my big garden, I used to grow amaranth. It doesn't take many plants to provide enough seeds for one or two persons for a season. I don't think I ever had more than a dozen plants and they produced plenty for me to use and save seed for the next season. The young leaves can be eaten raw, cooked like chard or spinach and the larger leaves briefly steamed and used as wraps like grape leaves. The amaranth I grew was not the small ornamental plants usually seen in nurseries but rather tall plants like sunflowers. As soon as the seeds were set, I tied nylon bags over the tops of the plants so they didn't cast seed all over the garden. Here in the SoCal high desert, the stuff grows like a weed and doesn't need a lot of water. There are several varieties. Some have black seeds but most that I grew had seeds that were tan or as pale as ivory, some reddish. My neighbor from Mexico told me that she had seen some that were purple but I've never seen them. She also says that mostly it is popped and mixed with piloncillo syrup to make dulce de alegria but sometimes it is just mixed with dulce de leche and formed into little balls. I've never noted a bitter flavor in amaranth. Quinoa certainly has a bitter flavor from the saponins it contains but I don't think amaranth has this component. Since I discovered Kaniwa, I've been combining it with amaranth and have made some fritters, not exactly pancakes. I'm going to try the pancakes.

I am so looking forward to a week of ultimate Mexican (and other) foods, showcased in your lovely home and garden. Your kitchen is lovely and your garden is something I envy. Having "discovered" Mexican food when I was first transplanted to the San Fernando Valley in 1952 (to spend a year with my dad), I have since been an enthusiastic fan and I have enjoyed your posts in various threads since you first signed on last year.

I tried it in my Thermomix but the temp control in mine is way off. The chocolate was frying with the temp control set to the next to lowest setting. I did a work-around by drilling a hole in the flange of the spatula so I could insert the probe of my Thermopen and monitor the temp of whatever was in it but have given up on using it to temper chocolate. If yours has a lower temp than mine, it should work fine but do monitor it with a separate thermometer, don't rely on the TM31 unless you are sure it is correctly calibrated. I don't work with large amounts of chocolate so I just got one of the inexpensive chocolate melting pots, which is enough for me.

Zatarain's: Root Beer Extract, 4 Oz is available at many Walmart stores. You can buy the extract at Williams-Sonoma And also at Amazon. I've ordered this and other extracts from Cooks. If you live near a Smart & Final, call and seen if they have the fountain syrup in stock. It's in larger containers but cheaper than W-S by far.

I had eggplant for dinner. I don't use flour, I just slice it in large slabs, treat it with salt for 20-30 minutes, then rinse it well, pat dry. I grill it in my Griddler, the grill plates brushed lightly with olive oil (doesn't have to be EVOO) till done, then sprinkle sparingly with grated cheese. I finish it with chopped tomato and that's it. I'm trying to lose a few pounds that sneaked up on me during the past few months so am using less of the sauces I like so well.

I have Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's The Chinese Kitchen, which includes a lot of historical references and the cultural history of some of the foods. As some of the reviewers say, this is not a cookbook for a novice in the kitchen. However, if you want to understand the WHY of certain dishes and ingredients, this is the book to have.

I forgot to answer that a gasket does come with the second bowl. However, I bought extras because my TM31 will not operate without the seal in place and in my eyes, it is the weak link in the thing. I have in the past damaged seemingly tough gaskets in pressure cookers &etc., so decided to take no chances. I don't use mine every day because I live alone and tend to cook sporadically. However, just using it for a few tasks that were previously very time consuming, makes it worth it to me.

That's sad. My grandma and my aunts were always in the running for prizes for their canned goods at the county fair but there were times there was a "dark horse" winner who did something a bit different and better, in the opinion of the judges. My aunt Hattie Anne used to always win the blue ribbon for her green tomato pie in the category that allowed for pies with unusual ingredients. Any cooking competition is essentially a SUBJECTIVE judging experience - I have judged a few. Some judges have a predisposition to certain flavors or a particular ingredient and it is difficult for them to be objective with these factors. In any event, chili competitions are great fun to visit and as long as one is blessed with good digestion and an industrial-sized container of antacids, it can be something you never forget. (Probably without the antacids you won't forget it either.)

We used a molcajete to "grind" toasted cumin seeds, caraway seeds ("secret" ingredient), dried chiles and roasted fresh chiles, a grater for orange peel (before the advent of miccroplanes) but we could have easily used an electric spice grinder. We were in a big motorhome with a generator that powered a couple of electric open kettles and a large electric frying pan. My friend had a sponsor that provided canned ingredients - Trappey's - that complied with the rules and we used a commercial soup "base" that was allowed. Much better than boullion cubes and a lot less salt. Most of the contestants were in motorhomes or trailers with self-contained power and some had portable generators. I recall one group from a local realty company that had a big diesel generator on its own trailer and they had lights strung around their area, a TV and a stereo as well as several electric appliances. They won a big prize with their buffalo chili and a lesser prize with their turkey chili. However the grand prize at that competition went to an elderly couple and their family who had a minimal set up and cooked their chili over a wood fire in a portable fire pit. There was always a crowd around their setup and I was too busy to spend much time gawking so I don't know how they worked. I think I gained ten pounds that weekend.