andiesenji

In my opinion you were ripped off. I have hosted parties for groups at several local restaurants and as long as I guaranteed a certain number of covers, the room is gratis. Even at Coco's, one of my clubs has had a semi-annual breakfast and they give us a room as long as we guarantee 20 or more diners. At one local Mexican restaurant I have always had two or more servers plus a bus person and the owner provides many extras. The last time he set up a buffet with several main dishes, all the sides ones could wish, desserts, large pitchers of beer, sangria, plus non-alcoholic horchata, lemonade, hibiscus drinks. It was $655. for 48 people, including tax and gratuity (although several of the guests tipped the servers and busboy themselves, because the service was excellent and because some orderd bar drinks which weren't included.) I thought it was extremely reasonable and asked the owner if he was sure he had not made a mistake, but he insisted on that amount. He also insisted on giving me the "leftovers" in three of the large foil steam-table containers. I took them along to the dog show the following day and several of us had the leftovers for lunch - heating the stuff in the oven and microwave in the motorhome.

It occurred to me that this might be ideal for handicapped individuals. With one of the powered chairs, that has an elevating seat, it would make everything very accessible. And it would also work well for blind people, particularly since they could stand in one place and rotate the ring to bring the appliance they need into reach. I am forwarding the link to a friend who works in rehabilitation, I think she will be interested too.

I just had a little phone chat with my aunt who reminded me that, indeed yes, as a child I was given chores in the kitchen fairly often, obstensibly to keep me entertained, however, she also said that I had to be either peeled off my pony or forcibly separated from my grandpa so the poor man (her words) could conduct necessary business. (My grandpa and I had our own mutual admiraton society, apparently, according to my dad, my aunts and my older cousins, that began shortly after my birth. In fact, my dad has often said that on the day I was born, he was pretty much relagated to a corner while my grandfather was the recipient of congratulations from the gathering of family and friends. I was the first girl born into the family in a generation and the only one for nearly 10 more years, so much was made of it.) My nickname for a time was "Little Burrdock" because I was always stuck to grandpa. Growing up in a large family with many well-traveled members who brought back recipes and food stories from far away, I learned to appreciate all kinds of foods that were unknown in that area. We also had lots of visitors who also brought new ideas about different foods. It also helped that my great-grandmother was a "collector" of receipts with a great interest in foods. I met my first avocado when I was about eight and immediately fell in love. One of the relatives, who lived in Florida, brought some "Alligator pears" when he came to visit for the Christmas holidays. My grandpa's cook, a Gullah woman from the Carolina lowcountry, knew how to handle them and made a salad with chunks of avocado, tomato and sliced onions dressed with the same "dressing" she made for "wilted" lettuce, that is, just hot bacon drippings, sugar and a tiny bit of flour cooked in the drippings then adding a measure of vinegar and water. Delicious!

I have several Global knives and store them on mag. strips. I have a lot of knives and have mag. strips for each type where I will be using them, however I have a fairly good-sized kitchen. I mount the strips vertically so the blades are held horizontally, except for the veg prep area where the strip is at a 45 degree angle with the smaller blades at the top and the largest at the bottom. (I will get a photo later and post it.) I bought my mag strips at The Knife Merchant I have 2 18-inch and 3 24-inch. (I have 2 of the 24 inch mounted parallel to each other in the pantry to hold the very large (and heavy) butchering knives, pizza knife, large mezzalunas and a big cleaver, because a single strip won't hold some of these heavier things.) Chef Depot has a bunch of magnetic strips and some nice optional storage solutions. They are very reasonably priced.

I think Chop-Rite is the only US company still in production. I had one years ago - built like a tank.... I gave it to a friend who moved onto his boat after a divorce. He did a lot of fishing....... I don't know who makes coffee mills now. I do know that Lehman's carries this one from England and a couple of others. They cater to the Amish and others that do not use electric appliances so usually have a good selection of hand-powered things. They also have a great collection of grain mills. Lehman's grain mills

How about fried "pies" made with dried apples. These keep beautifully, wrap in wax paper or brown paper or even foil or baking parchment, but not with plastic wrap. Fried apple pies and here is one with fresh apples fried pies (apple) some people add raisins, which I don't care for, but if you like them..... I got these in my lunch when I was a child and I made them for my kids lunches. I think the Amish and the Pennsylvania Dutch really perfected these - farmers carried them out to the fields for their lunches because they hold up well in transport. And I bet no one else will make them.

Scandia wasn't a chain restaurant. I was just talking about some of the great places of the past where you got exceptional quality for amazing prices. Chasen's chili for instance, which you could have while watching real Hollywood "stars", was extremely reasonable and you got one of those neat little individual bread loaves on its own little wood cutting board with it. I'm very familiar with the Cock and Bull, we used to take guests there for dinner before a film at the Egyptian. I don't remember if I ever had a meal at Le Petite Jean In the 60s, when I lived in Glendale and Burbank my husband and I had house accounts at The Smoke House, Sportsmen's Lodge, the Tam'O Shanter and Sorrentino's in Toluca Lake, Trader Vic's and the Dresden Room in Hollywood. We used to see Bob Hope in Sorrentino's quite often as it was just 4 blocks from his house. We had to do a lot of entertaining and this was before credit cards - I don't recall exactly when Carte Blanche came out but having a house account was much easier than carrying a lot of cash. We also trekked down to the beach cities to Tony's On The Pier (the old one with the rickety outside stairs), the Warehouse and Latitude 20. And of course we had to make one visit every month to Kelbo's, just for the ribs. I can't remember that any of those places were so expensive they were out of reach of ordinary folks. A far cry from today when all of the high end places are totally out of reach unless one is willing to take out a loan. Even the Coconut Grove wasn't a bank breaker in the early 60s.

I have the Northern Tool grinder and I also have the band saw so I am pretty confident that the machines will do just about anything you ask of them. I think the grinder is about 9 years old now and it has gone through tons of meat, or rather tons of meat, poultry, wild game, etc., has gone through it. My neighbors use it. I live in a somewhat rural area, a lot of my neighbors are hunters and I have former clients who are hunters for whom I used to do dressing or butchering and preparing game meat for cooking. This grinder has run for 5 or 6 hours straight without overheating, stalling or giving any problem whatsoever. It's a lot heavier than any of the others I have used or owned at one time or another.

I made a fluffy omelet, started on stovetop, finished in oven. Filled with a little minced ham, a tablespoon each of duxelles and onion confit. A couple of dashes of tobasco were beaten into the egg yolks before folding them into the whites.

I was pretty young. My earliest memory (about age 3) is riding my tricycle around the huge round kitchen table and having my grandpa stick a piece of biscuit with sorghum molasses mashed with butter into my mouth every time I went past him, occasionally alternating it with a piece of ham, bacon or sausage. I have been told I began talking at 9 months (haven't shut up yet) and my first word was biscuit and my second word was ham! I remember standing on a stool next to the big rectangular kitchen work table and the cook showing me how to pat out biscuit dough and cut the rounds out. (Have you guessed this was in the south?) I also remember sitting on the back porch next to one of the girls who worked in the kitchen, with a dishpan full of peas and shelling them into a big bowl. I was the only girl in a herd of boys and while I got plenty of play time, some times the boys could do things I wasn't allowed to do and I was easily bored, unless I had something to read. The philosophy at that time was "idle hands are the Devil's playthings" so I was kept busy doing things and I was always begging to be allowed to help in the kitchen. Fortunately my grandpa's cook and the rest of the kitchen help made a pet of me and let me hang out and do things. It probably made a lot more work for them but it was a lot of fun for me. It also gave me a life-long appreciation of what goes into preparing a meal.

I agree with most of what you say, chow guy. However there are some "overpriced" chains that do have certain "stores" that do a better job than others. In recent years, I have been to five Ruth's Chris steak houses in soCal. Two, the one in Woodland Hills, and the one in Irvine, have served exceptional meals. The others were, in my opinion, just so-so, however at one time the Beverly Hills location served a fine meal. Some places are great for special occasions and some places are just plain fun, especially for families. Some of the great places of the past, now long gone, served truly great food and weren't really all that expensive. Scandia, once a Hollywood fixture, where the waiters (and they were serious about being waiters, all male, all older than the norm) wore long white aprons high on their chests as one used to see French waiters in old movies, served wonderful food and at very reasonable prices. They served some lobster dishes that I have never found equaled elsewhere. The first time I went there for dinner was after seeing How The West Was Won at the Cinerama dome in 1962. I don't mind the occasional "experimental" food as an appetiser or whatever they call it now, but I do like real food for my meal. I like funky places too. There used to be a place in Las Vegas called the Green Shack and it was really a shack. I think it had been there since the '30s when Boulder/Hoover dam was being built. It closed several years ago but whenever I went there for a dog show, my friends and I always made a point of having at least one meal there. The fried chicken was extraordinary. They also served wonderful biscuits and a bread pudding that was out of this world. The floor was uneven, the walls had interesting cracks and there were historical photos stuck everywhere. The mayor and most of the city council as well as a lot of police officers were regular customers as were some of the older Las Vegas characters, all now long gone. I remember when El Pollo Loco was one walk-up stand on Alvarado in L.A. and whenever I had to drive into L.A. from the valley, where I lived at the time, I would go and stand in line for a bag of the chicken and a stack of the tortillas an a cup of the coarsly chopped fresh salsa. (I don't like the salsa they have now, it is nothing like the original. It was cheap and very, very good.) I think it has lost something in the mass merchandising but still turns out a fairly tasty chicken. I also loved a barbecue stand that I think is still on Victory Blvd., in Glendale, just south of the Burbank/Glendale city limits and has been there for many, many years. People are drawn into the place by the aroma drifting into the street and many times I saw someone make a U-turn after driving by and getting a noseful of the wonderful smells. I haven't been over that way for years but when I lived on Riverside Drive, back in the 60s, it was a frequent stop. Again, the stuff was inexpensive but terrific.

I practiced on a piece of a wide, flat shoelace - - - Sadly, I don't think they make them any longer. Back in those days we wore "saddle" shoes, with wide flat shoelaces - nothing else was considered "stylish" unless you wore white bucks (Spaulding, with red rubber soles) and they had the round, braided laces. Gads, what one went through for fashion......

You can use rendered beef fat (from suet) but it has to be rendered and strained first and it does break down faster than vegetable or nut oils. If you are frying only potatoes, you cool the fat part way, strain it and store it in the fridge for no more than a month and use it three times total. After that it breaks down, burns before it gets to the preferred frying temp and simply doesn't do a good job. Peanut oil or canola oil (rapeseed oil), as mentioned above are excellent choices for deep frying. I do use duck fat for frying but I generally use a deep cast iron skillet (known as a chicken-fryer) or a deep electric "Dutch oven" which is really just a very large, deep skillet. I prefer the electric because it is easier to control the temperature and I also use the cast iron on an induction "range" or hob, sort of like a large hotplate, not a built-in cooktop.

BSK, Depending on where you live, you might be able to find a kiln-drying operation that will know exactly how to best preserve the wood for your purpose. Some of these operations are quite small, they produce blocks for sculptors, carving blanks and etc. And their fees are usually reasonable. I know several sculptors who deal with this type of business. The following sites might have more information for you. DH kiln drying wood info

Andie, your link brings up the homepage of a tea company! ← Thanks Suzy, I have fixed it. It should open to the Danish Pastry page now.

Back in the early '60s, you could buy a sort of diffuser that made baking on a charcoal barbecue fairly easy. That is, baking biscuits, bread and even cakes. The thing was a metal plate about 14 inches square, (it could have been stainless but I think it was aluminum) that was welded to several (at least 6, as I recall) metal pipes, open at each end, that were at least 1 inch in diameter. The theory was that as the pipes heated up, air inside of them would circulate out and around the baking pan that was placed on top of the plate. My dad had a Big Boy charcoal grill that was the barrel type, bright orange (made in Burbank) and got the grill and the baker accessory at the factory outlet store on San Fernando road. We baked biscuits, "light" rolls and cornbread using it and it worked great. I think it would be fairly easy to have one made. I think the concept is similar to the convection idea. In fact, I think I will take my idea to the metal shop down the road and see if they can make one for me. I haven't thought of this thing for many years. I am glad you mentioned baking the pie as that reminded me of it.

The Danish pinwheels are made by cutting strips from a flattened sheet of Danish dough that is made similar to puff pastry, in that it is buttered and folded. Holding one end of the strip or "ribbon" on the bench with the fingers of one hand, you put your index and middle fingers on the free end and roll it toward you which causes the strip to twist on itself - you then either make a "bow" or pretzel or coil it and pinch the end into the side of the coil to keep it from unwinding. It takes a little practice to get this technique correct, but once you get the feel of it, it goes very quickly and you find you can do it automatically. Cut the strips with a pizza cutter (wheel)- an inch or less in width. True Danish dough is certainly a lot different from any of the stuff I see in markets here in California. This recipe is pretty close to the one I make, however I also spread the first layer with additional softened butter before folding. You don't need a lot, perhaps half a stick, but it makes a great deal of difference. I also use one whole egg plus one egg yolk instead of just one egg. Regular "sweet-roll" dough does not include egg. It is a necessary ingredient in Danish.

Well, you know me, Melissa..... I am certainly a foodie but can't say that I fall into any of the listed categories. The word fanatic might come to mind, particularly in the case of food-related gadgets and appliances. I have had terrific meals at top of the line eateries and at hole-in-the-wall joints, mom & pop country stores that cook food on the side and at outdoor, walk-up barbecue, chicken, Mexican and other ethnic food stands. I really don't care where I eat, as long as the food is exceptional and one can discover gems in the oddest places if one has an adventuresome spirit. I love to cook and bake and try my hand at doing things the way they were done in the past, before we had everything prepared for us. I believe I do a pretty good job on some things, particularly fresh cheeses, sour cream, egg custards - especially bread puddings. And, as you have seen, I like to make my own condiments. (However, there are some ready-made condiments that work so well in certain applications that nothing else quite fits the bill.) I don't drink alcohol myself but I have spent major bucks on special occasion wine for gifts for people whom I know appreciate it. I buy fresh truffles in season but probably the most extravagant consumable I have ever purchased was a rare tea, $60.00 for 4 ounces. I could have spent considerably more but managed to restrain myself. And most of all, I love to share what I do and what I know. I get a great deal of pleasure from serving food I have lovingly prepared to people who appreciate it. Fortunately I have a great many friends who love to eat and know the value of good food and good company.

I love sandwiches with avocado but get rather frustrated with slices slithering out from between the other bits in between the bread or toast. So, I mash an avocado, season it, mix in crisp fried bacon pieces and spread a thick layer on one piece of lightly toasted sourdough and cover this with a layer of shredded lettuce. On the other slice of toast I spread a thin layer of Miracle Whip (I buy it in the tiny jars because the only time I use it is on with tomato and avocado) then add some finely chopped red onion and slices of peeled tomato. I know the MW is anathema to many, but it really seems to have a great affinity for avocado and for tomatoes.

For an avocado cheesecake recipe go to This Link from the California Avocado Commission that I posted yesterday evening. There are four cheesecakes made with avocado on that page which is just desserts. if you go to the main page for "Brouse all recipes" Here. You will see there are hundreds. Or you can go to this page and search by Categories. These people are the experts when it comes to avocados. They have a list of Fun Facts on this page. And a fact that is still a mystery to many. Avocados do not ripen on the tree. They only ripen after they are picked or fall off and if they are blown off the trees in a windstorm, as long as they don't land on something hard, they won't be damaged and can be gathered and used. This is the reason you see grass growing in many avocado groves.

chefmarc, you got it in one! I grew up on a farm in Kentucky and we had geese, ducks, guinea fowl as well as chickens plus swans, "game" birds, pheasant, quail, partridge and three varieties of turkeys. If ostrich had been available back then we would probably have had those also. Geese and ducks, as well as the wild turkeys, will gorge in preparation for migration. It is a natural, instinctive process. It is interesting that when the feeder goes to the pens, the geese or ducks run to meet him or her. If they were being abused, they would run away. However the idiots who want to stop the business, are totally ignorant of the facts and don't want to hear them. As I mentioned in my earlier post, they don't do anything about truly horrible conditions, the dog auctions where animals (often stolen pets) are sold in job lots to people who breed them on puppy "farms" or to breeders of fighting dogs who need "bait" to train their dogs. Like the eco-terrorists who set SUVs on fire and did more damage to the enviornment than running the vehicles for ten years would ever have done, they are not rational people. The last time I had a discussion (argument) with one of the PETA demonstrators at the L.A. zoos. I asked her why they weren't going after the puppy mills that keep dogs in horrible conditions and the answer I got was that it wasn't NEWS! They seem to want to make headlines rather than actually get out and work for real animal welfare. The sad thing is that there are so many ignorant people, particularly in the entertainment industry, who believe their line of BS, all the time driving around in their cars with leather upholstry and in one case I witnessed, a blond "celebrity" tripping along in her alligator cowboy boots after announcing on camera she had given 10 grand to PETA.

Avocado soup is spectacular and delicious. It can be mild, spicy, lemony, curried and numerous other flavor enhancements. Here is one for avocado guacamole soup. one from West Africa\ Cucumber Avocado soup fantastic on a hot day. one with spinach and you can also use sorrel. One that is good hot or cold. And for desserts, check the blender avocado cheesecake I have made this several times and it gets rave reviews every time. The avocado lime pudding and the avocado margarita chiffon pie are also winners.

Electric roasters are indeed coming back. In fact there are so many small appliances that sub for stoves and ovens that really work well to keep the heat down in the summer. The countertop convection ovens bake rapidly and do not radiate a lot of heat. The induction "ranges" are extremely useful because they heat just the cooking vessel and not the air around it. I use a Vita-Mix blender to make soups in the summer - the speed of the blades will heat any soup but will also "cook" pureed carrots, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and etc., within 5 minutes. And one great advantage in making cream soups is that the cream will not "break" when added to the soup in the blender. The newer "open" indoor electric barbecue grills do a great job much faster than earlier models and the "press" type grills that also do great panini, are a terrific solution for keeping kitchen heat down. I grew up in a house that had a summer kitchen, actually a separate building, built of brick, where most of the midday cooking and all of the canning, preserving, baking, and etc., was done when the summer temps rose. When the house was first built, in 1830, that was the only kitchen. Kitchen fires were a particular hazard and keeping it contained in an area separate from the main house was considered more important than having the kitchen inside the house.

They presume that shearing is inhumane? Are they also against haircuts? I don't get it. ← Here is a link to one article about the OZ problem.

In my opinion the fanatics that move PETA have virtually become economic terrorists in that they seek to destroy the livelihood of a great many people. In Australia they promoted a boycott of wool, attempting to destroy an entire economy. I do wish that someone with a media voice would stand up and get the message across that if PETA has its way, it will mean the extinction of hundreds, if not thousands, of species. If farmers are not allowed to raise and sell animals, fowl, etc., for slaughter, for dairy, for eggs or whatever else they produce, who do they think is going to pay to maintain those animals. They aren't pets. You can't keep domestic cows without milking them, once they have been bred, they now produce far too much milk for a single calf. It is painful for them to be left with full udders. The original purpose of PETA was to be a watchdog against truly cruel treatment of animals. However, in the years I served with the California Humane council, I never saw a PETA member accompany us when we raided places where dog fighting was done and I am pretty sure none every helped rescue fowl at one of the cock-fighting farms. Likewise, a friend who works at LAX says they could use volunteers for inspecting for smuggled birds, snakes, and any endangered species coming in from overseas but PETA is not interested. They could also help stop the horrible smuggling of very young and often sick puppies from Mexico. Perhaps if a few headlines got the message across that PETA seems to be advocating the extinction of all domestic animals, they would have far less support, particularly with the Hollywood set who seem to be a bit dense when it comes to seeing through the smoke-screens PETA uses to obscure their real objectives.