andiesenji

I've been sorely tempted to crochet a scarf out of dog fur for my sister in law, because of the very reasons you describe. That said, my husband's aunt thought my non-dramatic and very un-problematic husband was faking his soy allergy. She made him deviled eggs with soy mayonaise. On the bright side, she offered to pay the hospital bill. So it's probably not a plan of attack for everyone ← And I have a trach scar because someone did not believe that I actually was allergic to shrimp. When I began developing hives, scratching and wheezing, she admitted she used shrimp paste in one of the dishes while my real friends were dialing 911!

Has anyone ever tried to sneak some white stilton past your barriers?

Bread pudding is another good use for leftover bread. ← And don't forget "strata" or savory bread puddings, "Pain Perdue," etc. One of the Lenten meals I recall fondly from my childhood and prepare at any time of the year is: Homemade noodles tossed with a lot of buttered, toasted bread crumbs. This is not just a topping, the bread crumbs become part of the dish. Topped with stewed dried fruits (plums or prunes, apricots, etc.,) this makes a very filling and tasty meal. The butter in which the bread crumbs are toasted can be flavored with any kind of herb or spice you may enjoy to give a more complex flavor. Make it to your taste. I have used curry spices, paprika, herbs de Provénce, etc.

Are you having trouble with the yolk leaking, or with getting the white to set? Or something else? I can never get the last stranghold of white around the yolk to set without cooking the whole thing to death or going over easy. I've tried water instead of oil, spooning hot oil onto the egg (this kinda worked but the egg was soooo greasy and nasty), tight lid, no lids. I just can't get the hang of it. ← I'm sure all the pro chefs out there will cringe, but my solution is to make the eggs in a pan with a good lid, and to pour in a few tablespoons of water next to the egg right before putting the lid on. This causes the white on top to steam, rather than forcing it to be cooked by the heat from below. I find that it works very well, though maybe I prefer my whites cooked a bit less than you. ← Very good advice and very similar to how I make them. I learned from a short-order cook who cooked SSU eggs on a flat griddle beautifully, whether one, two or three at a time. He used the clear glass Pyrex domed lids, and just a few drops of water. The lids contained the spread of the whites so when one ordered the "Lumberjack" breakfast with three eggs, one would have almost a perfect circle of eggs served on the platter. When I prepare them, I use a large skillet or a griddle so the Pyrex lid will fit snugly on the flat bottom of the skillet or griddle. They cook rapidly with the white completely done and the yolk still runny. They turn out similar to "basted" eggs but with much less fat needed.

Back in the day, I lived in a house full of hippies in a suburban neighborhood, we were the talk and the scandal of the street. Naturally, our pre-teen newspaper boy was fascinated and liked to hang out at our place, that is until the day when he opened the kitchen door and the suds from the overflowing dishwasher lapped at his feet. He backed away slowly and we never saw him again. ← My solution was always to sprinkle salt on the foam. In fact, I kept a big round shaker full of salt next to the sink for various tasks, including dousing suds that used to come up through the disposal when an old dishwasher discharged through the drain. It also works on suds erupting from the washing machine!

I was visiting with one of my neighbors this morning and got some interesting information from one of her daughters and one of her nieces, also visiting today. The girls were married last summer in a double wedding and they both received enameled cast iron cookware. Her niece was given a set of Mario Batali and my neighbor gave her daughter these pieces from Brylane Home. (The Dutch oven and the grill pan plus a skillet that is apparently no longer available.) Both girls do a lot of cooking and have said they are very pleased with the cookware they received. Her niece also was given a small Le Creuset saucepan and says she doesn't think it is any better than the Mario Batali. In fact, she thinks the stainless steel lid handles are safer to use in the brick oven her husband built for baking pizza. She also has the 9 quart oven and the lasagna pan. Incidentally, both girls are even now visiting eG as guests and I am hoping they will join as I think they have a lot to offer having family food traditions from Italy, Albania and Cyprus.

I've been following this thread and wish I had all the ambition exhibited by you all. It's a wonderful idea but each time I walk into my pantry the sheer volume of "stuff" causes me to retreat without even taking stock. Actually what I need is a starving multitude to push me into action..........

Not yet. Much as I love gadgets, I am still using the chrome "step-on" can I bought back in the '60s. I'm afraid the basenjis would have a ball with anything that admits ready access.

The Le Creuset pieces I have purchased on eBay are real, not sold by questionable vendors with thousands of sales, but by individuals. The colors of the knock-offs are a dead giveaway and I have been collecting the stuff for thirty years. Each manufacturer has their own secret formula for coloring the enamel and it is not easy to duplicate.

If you live near a high school (or a trade school) that offers wood shop as a class, you might contact the teacher and ask if he (or she) would offer the board fix as an assignment to a student. I have had a couple of projects done at a local high school at minimal cost for supplies (although I added a donation for other materials) and the students were graded on the project. Satisfactory for me and them. Work by professional woodworkers will cost more but there are people who do this as a hobby also and you can often find them via a local lumberyard or hardware store.

Personally, I haven't cared much for any of her shows and do not own any of her cookbooks, although I am an avid collector of cookbooks, those simply never appealed to me. I know people who quote her often and think she is marvelous and others who can't stand her. For people who are short of time, I like and recommend Jacques Pépin's "Fast Food My Way" ... both book and program, and "The Short Cut Cook" - Not exactly on the same plane as Delia and do not rely greatly on "instant" foods, but include mostly very easy and certainly very tasty recipes.

Just this on one site. and this on another. ABC7 (local KABC7) will have streaming video on it later today and I believe there will be other sites by tomorrow. It seems to be picking up a lot of chat on line.

If I buy something second-hand on eBay for a fraction of the retail price, I don't worry about a warranty from Le Creuset, such as the 3 1/2 qt Buffet Casserole I purchased for $45.00 a year ago. The individual selling it had received several pieces of Le Creuset for wedding gifts and was living in an apartment with a tiny kitchen and had no plans for using the stuff. At that price I would never consider invoking a warranty. It was in the original box with the stickers intact, so obviously had not been used.

The pea snacks I mentioned in an earlier posts are these: Calbee Snapea crisps Original Flavof They also have a Caesar flavor but I haven't tried them.

Only in southern California (so far) can one experience the feng shui theme at a fast food restaurant! This has been on the news for the past couple of days. Feng Shui at Hacienda Heights McDonald's.

In this morning's email was one from Chefs Catalog stating "Look what's new from Le Creuset" and clicking on the "New" takes you to This page. I'm not sure what is actually "New" as these all seem to be things that have been around for a while. A friend sent me this link to Factory Direct 2 You and asked if I thought the prices were all that great. Compared to the regular prices, they aren't bad, but one can often find new or nearly new items on ebay. The free shipping is a bonus, considering the weight of cast iron.

I have edited my original post to correct the link that was not working. The current link should take one to the story.

One of the featured stories on every news program in the southland today is about the tap water in Los Angeles. Winner of Best Tap Water It has improved a great deal since I lived in the Valley in the 1980s and complained several times about the murky appearance of my tap water.

Benne wafers? Those are common in low country cooking to use up when they go stale. ← Not the same thing at all. (I grew up in a house with a Gullah cook - she made a lot of benne-seed wafers.) These were a Japanese product - brown rice and sesame wafers that were a bit sweet and one variety had flakes of seaweed too. They became somewhat of a fad in the early '70s.

I have purchased their products and have had no complaints. I have no problems with Iranian products, in fact I have found many Iranian products to be superior to others. (Iranian caviar is excellent!) I routinely transfer spices into my own containers so see no point in paying for a container I will discard anyway.

I think this is just the company-owned stores. Franchise owners can choose to close or stay open and I know one local one is staying open. They are open longer hours than many others because they have a drive-thru and cater to commuters who leave very early in the morning.

Years ago I had cooking duties at our mountain cabin in Running Springs, CA and found that all the stuff I usually used was contaminated with bugs. (The birds had a bonus meal that day!) I dug through a box of snacks in the station wagon and found an unopened package of sesame cookies (new to us in the early 70s), crushed them and they made an interesting, although slightly sweet, coating for trout. I used some crushed green pea snacks to coat scallops last year and both the flavor and color was quite nice.

I converted an avocado hater by carefully removing the green part and dicing the cream-colored part and adding it to a chunky chicken salad. "This is just delicious, especially this creamy tofu stuff." "That's avocado." "But, I don't like avocado!" "You ate it and said it was delicious." Long pause. "Okay, you win!" Heh, Heh, Heh! By the way, I solved the maple syrup/butter in the waffle "windows" a long time ago. I heat the maple syrup WITH the butter in a lovely little Hall China pitcher, stir just before pouring and get a perfect proportion of syrup to butter in each and every dimple. Actually I simply employed the technique similar to one I learned as a very small child when my grandpa would stir soft butter into sorghum molasses before anointing a hot biscuit with this lovely sweet/salty combination.

I often add some grated ginger to it and cook it a bit more so the ginger flavor is infused into the apple butter. I use it for filling between thin layers of spice cake. That is, I bake spice cake in regular pans and slice each layer horizontally into three thin layers. This makes for a very nice moist confection-like cake, especially when coated with burnt-sugar frosting.

I have several food allergies and avoid those foods and there are some I do not care for and avoid them if possible but try to be discrete about it if they are served to me. I do know some people who have what I consider are irrational food neuroses, unrelated to allergies. One gentleman will send back any breakfast, lunch or dinner plate that might include a slice of melon, grapes or even a wedge of orange - after he has given specific instructions when ordering, to exclude these items from his plate. He has been known to follow the server back to the kitchen to demand "new" food as he does not want the food that has been "contaminated" ..... As far as I know, he has no food allergies. He has the same neuroses about using fruit-based sauces on meats, which rather defeats the point of serving certain foods with traditional sauces - Cumberland sauce, for instance. Needless to say, cranberry sauce has never passed his lips, nor has plum sauce, etc., etc., etc! There have been times when I had to prepare a totally separate meal for him while the rest of my guests were happily consuming pork with apples or similar meat and fruit preparations.