andiesenji

I always pull part of the husk back far enough to see the size of the kernels on every ear, and if they are plump and to make sure there are no worms. It is perfectly reasonable to examine the corn and if the vendor objects, ask them to pull it back and show you the end of the ear. Otherwise, buy elsewhere. You should not have to waste your gas driving back and forth. You can also buy the ears, THEN pull back the husk and if it is no good exchange it then and there.

You didn't give any details about the kettle. Size? what does the interior look like? There are many kettles made for boiling or simmering water, not specifically for tea but rather for humidifying air. Many manufacturers of cast iron stoves (pellitized wood, coal or regular wood) also sell these kettles just for this purpose. porcelain lined tea kettles Scroll down to see the different styles and colors. Even with uncoated cast iron, after a few uses, you will not taste anything of the iron as long as there is no acid added to the water. However I would not steep tea in uncoated iron. The kettle will rust if water is allowed to stand in it for prolonged periods so it should be emptied, heated to vaporize the remaining dampness and stored in a dry place - I save those little packets that come in bottles of vitamins and packed with electronics and toss several into my kettles to absorb any stray moisture. Some kettles (such as the Japanese tetsubin) have porcelain fired on to the interior. Those can be used for steeping tea and the water can be heated in the kettle but it should not be left over heat for prolonged periods, or over very high heat. some examples of tetsubin. More cast iron tea kettles/teapots from China, similar to tetsubin made in Japan.

Because I want them. I feel that cookbooks are a fascinating reflection of our culture. I too am a collector, not only of cookbooks, I collect some early 20th century writers. Egyptology books from 19th and early 20th century, "classic" mysteries and a few other subjects. The latter half of last week I attended LA WorldCon at the Anaheim Convention Center. WorldCon is an event for Sci-Fi/Fantasy fans and vendors from all over the U.S. and even further afield, bring their goods for sale, including many, many booksellers. I acquired 21 first editions, all signed, met a few of my favorite authors and got some of my own books signed. Also bought two prints and a bunch of T-shirts and similar "stuff."

On the contrary, as someone who works in ethnobotany, I can tell you with conviction and a great deal of personal experience that it is the common names that are more often confusing. Scientific names are subject to rigorous rules and peer review and are equivalent across languages and cultures, while common names often change from one village to the next within a space of a few kilometers. I would argue that either system is useful in its own context. Andie, I've also overwintered chili peppers with great results. The South American varieties often wouldn't flower for me the first year, even when I was in Florida. ← To successfully overwinter them you have to cut back on fertilizer when the night temps drop intot he 40s, sometimes I pinch all but a few of the actively growing branches back, then repot, also trimming back some of the peripheral roots. I move them into the greenhouse in October here, because it is still fairly warm during the day and cooling at night. I begin fertilizing again in late November and start using the grow lights so the plants have a minimum of 12-14 hours full light per every 24. the plant begins putting out new leaves and stems and by mid-December is blooming. I also have a fan in the greenhouse to discourage fungus during the rainy season. Sometimes the fan is enough to stir the pollen but I usually transfer some from flower to flower on the related plants to avoid hybrids. The open pollinated varieties do not need more than one plant, they are self-pollinating. Or you can put two plants of the same species in the same pot. The "bird" peppers of the southwest and Mexico will go dormant in the winter but come back each spring. Both Tepin (Chiltepin) and Pequin wild varieties, are gathered by Native Americans in Arizona and New Mexico. I have visited friends on the reservations who gather them and some of the plants are ancient and have formed large complex groupings. They are called bird peppers because birds feed on them. Apparently birds have no capsaicin receptors.

Rocoto/Manzano peppers can vary greatly in heat, depending on how they are grown and also in the type of soil they are grown. They are often described as having an apple flavor, it is quite distinctive. They also do have the black seeds. Many of the hot peppers develop more heat if the plants are stressed, that is, if they get less water during the period of early development after pollination and the heat can vary greatly from plant to plant. I have grown quite a few and have found that the heat can even vary from fruit to fruit on the same plant, with the smaller peppers having much more heat that the larger. The flavor of Rocotos lends itself nicely to fruit salads and blends beautifully with mango, peach, pineapple, papaya, etc., for sauces. A little goes a long way, but I have found that soaking the finely chopped peppers in milk for 20-30 minutes, then rinsing well with cold water, will mitigate the heat somewhat but retain the flavor. One of my neighbors, originally from Grand Cayman, taught me this method of reducing the heat in Scotch Bonnet peppers. Rocotos also are easy to grow in pots and will keep growing if you bring them inside (or place in a greenhouse and it doesn't have to be large) for overwintering and they will continue to bloom and bear fruit. You do have to pollinate them with a fine sable brush in the winter when bees are not active. I have maintained one Rocoto, a Habanero and a Guajillo for more than 5 years. If you ever need any specific information about peppers, you can consult with the members of the Chile-Heads list. Subscriptions are free and you can elect to receive it as a digest. There is also the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University. and for the most extensive database on Chiles check out Graeme Caselton's site click on "database" and then click on the letter of the alphabet for the chile in which you are interested. A caveat! One can spend a lot of time on this site, the list of recipes is extensive and there are some great ones. I recently made Phil's Creamy White Chili which was a huge hit, made with chicken for people who do not eat red meat. I recommend it without reservations.

You can use sour salt or citric acid (in the kosher foods section at your supermarket) to get a sourer taste in your sourdough or rye bread. However, you do not add it to the starter..... Measure out a cup of the flour and into it you mix just 1/2 teaspoon of sour salt. Prepare your starter ahead of time then measure out the amount you need for your recipe. Add the majority of the flour and other ingredients, mix and knead well - it should be sticky. NOW add the remaining cup of flour and sour salt, continue kneading until the dough is smooth and silky. Follow the rest of the recipe as instructed.

Here is my posting of real "southern" cornbread from scratch. However the recipe works just fine with storebought cornmeal. However if you want to approximate the "rustic" ground corn, you can buy Bob's Red Mill coarse, medium and fine cornmeal (yellow) and mix it together to get meal with variable-sized grits which make a very interesting cornbread. If you like sweet and cake-like cornbread, this will not be to your liking. It is dense and the only sweetness is from the corn itself. However it will hold together when liberally buttered and even when dipped into bea soup.

It will keep a long time. However you can always dip it in chocolate............ I'm sure you can find someone who will eat it.

Here's a trick I have used successfully. Cut a piece of cotton twine about 4 inches long. Put 3 inches under the cake and leave one inch sticking out. Pour measured amounts of your liquid, and make notes, so you will know in the future approximately how much is needed. When the liquid has soaked to the bottom the string will act like a wick and when you see the color change, the cake layer has absorbed enough. Gently pull the string out and discard.

The cake keeps a long time. Wrap it in muslin soaked in fortified wine (sherry, port, or ???) then in aluminum foil and store in a cake or cookie tin. I have had better luck with the tins than with containers such as Tupperware. I have one of the large tins that "Danish" butter cookies are packaged in at Christmas time. Works great.

Great site dockhl!! Thanks for posting it. I intend to visit often.

I have been in Orange County for the past week (LA WorldCon was at the Anaheim Convention Center) staying with my best friend in Yorba Linda. On my way back to their house from the CC yesterday, I saw people putting stuff out in a driveway - a double driveway shared by two houses and both families were getting ready for a yard sale starting this morning. I explained that I would be on my way home early this morning so they allowed me to look at the stuff they had already put out. (Their teenage sons were going to sleep out in a tent to guard the stuff overnight.) I bought an unusual cast iron skillet with a picture of a river steamboat on the bottom and "American Cookware" "Made in the U.S.A." Also a large copper colander. Photos maybe tomorrow, I am fairly exhausted. I haven't been to a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Con for 25 years or so. I had a great time, spent way too much money on books - one dealer from New Jersey had some terrific 1st editions I couldn't resist, all signed. Well enough about the OT stuff. I also bought some vintage tablecloths, dishtowels and napkins.

You should test it first, dilute with a little milk, sprinkle in a bit of baking soda and see if it foams. In cornbread the leavening is created by the mixture of an acid (buttermilk) and a base (baking soda). Of course this is assuming you are making the traditional southern type. If you are using baking POWDER, ignore the above information. Some yogurt is much less acid than others, it depends on the culture.

I love Surfas and it is worth the 2-hour + drive for me. I can't even recall the first time I shopped there, it has to be at least 40 years ago. I have seen far too many of these "redevelopment" projects end up losing money for the cities that force them through. The new businesses that take over the space formerly occupied by old, well established and successful business, often fail within a few months or years. Sometimes it takes a decade or more for a city to get back to the tax base level it had before the change. I remember the "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" fiasco that took 20 years to repair. At one point there were so many empty storefronts the city "papered" the inside of all the windows with opaque paper with large senic photos like you would see on a billboard.

Contact this company that makes custom cutting boards. They can make you a cutting board with blocks on the back side that will fit exactly over your sink and not slide around. They can make a cut-out on one corner for pushing waste into the sink. Their prices are not at all bad and it is worth it to have something that is exactly what you want. I had them make one to fit a stainless steel utility cart that I use outside by the barbecue. I got one with a round cut-out in one corner so that I can place a container under it (I had a hole the same size cut out of the top platform of the cart) to catch waste.

Here is another opinion and assertive notes regarding mayonnaise and Miracle Whip. Some of the recipes on the MW website are pretty good. Kraft MW I believe some are from a recipe contest from a while back. Article regarding MW recipe contest.

Sounds good to me. I made carnitas from the hind leg of wild boar. this was part of the share I got for prepping other parts for the hunter who bagged it, because his wife does not want to learn how to cook game. My discussion with photos begins on this page with message #74 I roasted the chunks in a 250 F oven for 7 hours, with the entire pan (that is a full-size sheet pan) wrapped in a double layer of aluminum foil and set into a second sheet pan to prevent escape of any juices. Some of the leaner pieces were rather dense so I "larded" the meat with pork belly fat cut in strips. Most of the belly fat cooked entirely away with the long, slow cooking. I prepared the saddle (11 1/2 pounds) with a chestnut dressing and prepared a Cumberland sauce to serve with it. I made a semi-wet, savory rub for the meat that included 6-7 juniper berries, one whole allspice, ground together, plus dried thyme, winter savory, dried garlic, dried shallots (also ground to powder), salt, pepper, mixed with two tablespoons of maple syrup and a couple of dashes of red wine vinegar. It should be like a paste, I think I had about 1/2 cup total. And I rubbed it into the meat the evening before it was to be cooked, then wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap. The saddle had enough fat that it didn't need larding. The loin roast did need larding but it was roasted with just a few slivers of garlic inserted just under the surface plus salt and pepper.

I would clean the handles with a nail brush - I always have one at the sink because I wash my sterling by hand and always scrub the forks with the brush. I also scrub any of my rubber/silicone spatulas with a brush as well as many utensils that have nooks and crannies that might retain food. Ditto my Global knives.

I like them and they look substantial. Actually, there were similar flatware designs sold in the 1960s, very collectible now. Arne Jacobsen designed the flatware for the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey and it is similar but has ovals instead of rounds. There was one that had squares and rectangles incised into the surface - I think it was named "Cityscape" and there was one that had a center round with 4 points radiating from it that was named "Bright Star" . Like these, there were also several "Danish Modern" designs that had wavy lines and undulating forms incised into the surface with a rough finish on the incised parts to contrast with the highly polished finish.

I have two of the Sitram pans that I bought specifically for use on my induction burners and they work perfectly on them. The only time I have used one on a gas burner was when I moved it from the induction burner to a simmer burner (small diameter) to keep something warm because I needed the induction burner for something else. It worked fine on the gas burner, maintaining the very low temperature required for a rather tricky sauce which would have been ruined if there were hot spots. Incidentally, my All-Clad pans will work on the induction burners but they develop hot spots and I can't figure why. A magnet will stick to the bottom of the All-Clad pans but not as strongly as to the bottom of the Sitram pans. Frankly, I have many reservations about CI's evaluations of cookware and appliances. They gave my favorite DLX/AEG Electrolux mixer a thumbs down, said the bowl was too large to work efficiently. Well, that is the reason I bought it. I needed a mixer that would hold more than the KA, at the time the 5 quart was the largest consumer mixer they made and I didn't like the design of the 7 quart Kenwood mixer now marketed under the Delonghi name. The evaluation of the Electrolux was rather like comparing apples to oranges.

Some suction bases often do not work on some surfaces if there is any porosity at all in the surface. I can't get them to work on the portions of my counters that have tile, because the tile is not glazed and very smooth. It also won't work on the butcherblock portions - or rather, it will not hold for long. I have one of the glass countertop protectors and use that for suction-based things. My apple peeler has a clamp type base, similar to this one. "Back to Basics" By the way, I have purchased canning supplies from this vendor in the past and have had excellent service via their online store.

El Camino Real was the road/trail that ran from the southernmost California mission to the northernmost. Modern highways that run along the same route have been given that name. This site California Highways explains it. The story of the bells is an interesting bit of California highway history. The first ones were installed in 1906 and more were added or replaced over many years. Many were stolen, taken as souvenirs, knocked down until there were only about 75 remaining. In 2000 a grant made restoration possible and new bells are being placed along the roadways. That being said, there are some town and city streets named El Camino Real that really have nothing to do with the highway/trail itself. I am not familiar with the road mentioned in the earlier post. I spoke to a friend in San Jose earlier this evening and she says they shop at the Blossom Hill farmer's market in San Jose and love the produce there. She said she got some "awesome" peaches, nectarines and some "elephant-heart" plums last week, the latter were huge, part green and part maroon on the outside and deep red-purple inside and extremely sweet. She also found some wonderful garlic, red and pink hard neck varieties.

I stopped at a Jack-In-The-Box on my way home Thursday and got a small order of curly fries, well done. There were multiple accidents on the freeways I have to drive and I just needed a short break from the traffic and something to much on.

Actually, a quick Google search shows at least some reports of copper poisoning resulting from consuming acidic foods/drinks from copper vessels. For example, here is a report of 15 kids becoming ill after drinking a lime drink that had been left in an old copper vessel overnight. The drink was tested and found to have 300 mg/L concentration of copper, a very high concentration at which a relatively small drink would be sufficient to cause symptoms of copper poisoning. Granted this is an extreme case (very acidic drink, held for a long period in the vessel), but my point is simply that, contrary to what you say above, there are in fact at least some reports of copper poisoning related directly to the (improper) use of copper vessels. ← I only have access to official morbidity reports in the U.S. which are sent to the office from the CDC and L.A. Co. Health dept. I am sure there are probably more incidents in the world - I should have been more precise and stated that my reference was for the U.S. only. We have received numerous bulletins regarding candies containing lead, that are imported from Mexico that are sold by street vendors and in small stores. We also get regular bulletins about mercury in fish and fish products. The mentions of copper toxicity are extremely rare - as I recall the most recent occurred when too much copper sulfate was introduced to a resevoir to reduce the algae concentration, mainly because the algae was causing problems with the intake and filtering equipment. I do recall one incident, close to 40 ago, where several patrons of a small Valley restaurant became ill after drinking coffee made in an ibrik that was so tarnished that copper salts had formed on the interior surface and washed into the coffee. The coffee had been prepared by an inexperienced employee who did not know each ibrik had to be scrubbed with vinegar and salt, then rinsed, prior to use. At that time I worked for an internist/toxicologist and he was called to the ER to see some of the patients who complained of an awful metallic taste, nausea and vomiting shortly after drinking the coffee. I don't think any of them had any lasting effects.