andiesenji

I found the FDA article on star anise FDA warning about Japanese star anise

Here is some detailed information about the spice. Be sure that you use only Chinese star anise for culinary purposes. The Japanese variety has been known to produce toxic reactions. There was an FDA warning about teas containing star anise a couple of years ago and all the incidents were traced to Japanese star anise which is not supposed to be used for culinary purposes. I will see if I can find the reference and will post it. There are several commercial tea mixtures that include star anise. As the spice is left whole in these mixtures, it is not overpowering, as it would be if crushed or ground. Good news about star anise. and some more recipe/suggestions.

The friends I have in the area usually refer to it as "Paso" which Huell remarked on in the show. My friends live in Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, Atascadero, Salinas and Hollister and we get together in Cambria or Paso Robles as that is not too long a drive for any of them. For me, however, it is a long, long trek so since I moved to Lancaster in '88, we only make it every couple of years. Since I don't drink, I have always been the designated driver for visits to the local wineries. At our last visit, we stayed at Creekside Inn in Cambria because they accept pets. I don't think anyplace we visited was more than 45-50 minutes away.

Bread pudding, warm, with cold spiced and sweetened cream. Or cornbread with lots of butter and a glass of cold buttermilk.

Here is a recipe for Tea-Smoked Duck Breast Which is nice when cooking for only one or two. This recipe from BBC gives you directions for using a covered roasting pan. smoked duck I use my extra large cast iron pot and sometimes do the smoking on the stovetop because it has a very tight-fitting lid.

You can smoke the duck (or chicken or turkey) in any pot that is deep enough to hold an inner container such as an inexpensive pie pan to hold the tea, and a wire platform to hold the pan in which you place the duck or whatever (I have done tea-smoked pork chops which are also lovely). Check my previous post. I added another link to a site with recipes. Try the black bean soup with tea, especially the smoky lapsang souchong. It is fantastic.

I have the book Eat Tea by Joanne Preuss and John Harney. I have prepared a number of the recipes and have been very pleased with all of them. I had prepared tea-smoked duck previously but find the recipe in this book is much easier and much tastier. One of my favorites is a sweet dumpling simmered in tea, simply delicious. Also, check through this list of recipes at The Cat-Tea Corner home of Teamail, the email Tea Discussion List.

I have the Salter Aquatronic (glass top) also. I needed the 11 pound top limit as many of my bread recipes go well beyond the 4 or 5 pound limit of the other scales.Salter scale I had the older "Baker's Dream" scale but the window was difficult to see if I put something large on the platform. I just ordered one of the newer "Plus" scales with an elevated readout. Salter Aquatronic Plus I also have one at the office for mail as we mail a lot of packages of medical records. You can order any of these scales through Amazon

Huell Howser on PBS (KCET in L.A.) did a one hour show on Paso Robles and the surrounding area, which has already sparked interest in the central coast as a vacation/weekend destination, according to several people I spoke to earlier this morning in the hospital cafeteria. His first visit to a restaurant was for breakfast at Hoover's Beef Palace in Templeton, just south of Paso Robles. He also visited one of the family farms open to visitors, Jack Creek Farms and posted the web site for local agricultural businesses - a map can be ordered that shows the various places that encourage and welcome visitors. Central Coast Ag business Later he visited Pipestone winery and intimated that he was planning on doing further visiting on his own time. Much of the show was spent in Paso Robles itself, noting the history of the hotel, the hot springs around which it was built and the renewal of the town following the 2003 earthquake. Apparently quite a few people tuned in to the show last evening because when I mentioned it, several in the group responded that they found it very interesting and really hadn't considered it as a destination. Like most people, they have driven through the area but rarely did anything but stop briefly.

I can understand the lure of copper pots from France. I have never visited but for some of my friends it is the Holy Grail. A friend who lives in Tehachapi and describes herself as a "ranch-gal", detoured to Paris during a trip to London just to buy one of the big, round-bottom jam pans and saved over a hundred bucks, even with shipping it home via DHL. She said she was watching a tape of an old PBS cooking show where the star visited a shop in Paris that had a huge selection of copper pots and pans. She made a note of the name of the store, got the phone number and called them only to be told they did not ship out of the country. When she planned her trip to London she allowed three days for shopping in Paris.

That's a bit too much, not what I was describing. This might be a type of fungus. You might try this, I have used it on the one little bay bush I bring inside. First cut off as much of the affected stems that you can. You can use it, just wash it well then dry it in a very low oven Now for the plant itself. Cover the dirt in the pot completely with a plastic bag, tape it tightly around the base stem and stuff some paper towels in there to catch any liquid that drips down. Make a very weak solution of bleach - 1/2 tablespoon to a quart of water - put it in a spray bottle and carefully spray the foliage, being careful to cover all of it, wait 10 or 15 minutes then wash it well with clear water. You can turn it on its side, keeping pressure on the plastic covering the dirt, to make sure it doesn't get too much water into the roots. I do this to my bay bush in a bathroom tub, using a sprayer. There are fungicides available but most are specific for certain organisims and I am always leery about using them on food plants, particularly herbs. I know the bleach treatment is safe and it usually works on mild infestations. In this area, at certain times of the year, the rosemary is attakced by spittle bugs, which are a pest, but really don't do much harm to the plants. My rosemary bushes are extremely vigorous - the "dwarf" varieties are twice the size they are supposed to be and the Tuscan Blue was 10 feet tall before my gardener trimmed it back to 6. It looked more like an Italian cypress than a rosemary bush.

I prefer the Bourgeat professional and have a lot of it, some I have owned and used for many years, the oldest have tin linings but since stainless became available I began buying them. Perhaps it isn't as easy to maintain as the brushed finish of the Falk, but I like the warmth of it. However that is simply personal preference. Another vendor here. And yet another. has the best price I have been able to find. And Chef Ron Askew also offers a very useful set (all including lids!) at a significant discount. Ron's copper set scroll down a bit more than half-way on the page. I like the fact that the lids for these pans fit them perfectly. I have been disappointed with another maker who sells the lids separately and when I ordered one piece and a few weeks later ordered the lid (I didn't realize the lids were sold separately when I ordered because the lid was pictured with the pot) I found the lid did not fit well, returned it and got another that had the same problem.

You can use the rice in soup, just don't add any salt, just the other seasonings. I often use it for "Spanish" or "Mexican" rice, just stir some salsa into it and toss some less salty cheese, like the queso fresca the Mexican market sells in chunks in the meat dept. It is very bland, with little salt but melts nicely.

I make yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese all the time. I have a couple of yogurt "makers" but do not always use them, yogurt does its own thing, if you have everything scrupulously clean when you start and add a culture. If left at room temp it takes longer than when it is heated in one of the little appliances made for the purpose. If you have an older gas oven with a standing pilot light, that will be plenty warm enough for the yogurt to develop nicely. When you buy yogurt to use as a culture - make sure it says "live" culture and it has no additives other than the milk products, salt and pectin. NO preservatives. And it should say Cultured after pasteurization. This site has a good explanation and excellent recipes for cow, goat, soy and etc., yogurt. Her directions for soy milk yogurt (using agar agar for thickening) also work with rice milk.

The rice does not remove much of the salt - it does absorb a lot of liquid, so that when water is added to the stew or soup, you do not have a huge amount of liquid that needs to be reduced for a long time. I leave the rice in the soup for an hour or more. The rice should expand at least double in volume. On one occasion, when I was fixing a large pot of soup at the office and had no rice, I used a box of instant couscous in a wire colander that I suspended in the hot soup, using a (carefully cleaned) bindery clamp to hold it to the side of the pot.

For a while, a few years back, Corelle produced divided plates like this. I have a set I used to have in my motorhome, somewhere in the storeroom. This discussion has reminded me about them and I think I will get them out. They are great for kids - you know the kind - absolutely nothing on the plate must touch anything else!!!! Some friends who come to visit faily often have one child with this trait. I have at times resorted to serving her in separate small dishes, rather than have her sit, staring at her plate because the peas rolled against the potatoes. These plates may save the problem. I don't want to use my very old plates!

If it is sitting where it is exposed to higher temps with little air circulation, the essential oils in the leaves will be exuded onto the surface. The oil will then dry into a very fine opaque dust. (Windows do concentrate heat from the sun.) If you have a very fine brush, try picking some up on the tips of the bristles and see if it has the scent of rosemary. This is the easiest way to see if that is the case. Outside, the air moving over the plants carries this dust away as soon as it dries, however if there is little or no air circulation where you placed it, then it will simply remain on the leaves. Similar plants, with a high content of volatile oils, will do the same. Sage, for instance, however it usually is found on the underside of the leaves, where most of the oil cells are concentrated.

I visit Deming often, well to the west, talk about a culinary wasteland!!!!!!!!

I feel the only way to eat couscous is with the fingers and when I serve it I also set out finger bowls and provide large, cloth napkins (more of a towel than a true napkin). Long, skinny pasta requires a fork with longer tines and depending on the gravy (or sauce, if you will) a spoon for the really slippery varities of fresh pasta. And the pasta is served in a wider shallower bowl that has greater volume than a regular soup bowl. I have special bowls for chili because it simply doesn't taste the same in just any old bowl and there is room for "additions". I have different mugs and cups for tea and coffee or other hot drinks. I have special plates for breakfast when I have certain foods. These are the old-fashioned "chop" plates that are divided into three sections. There are certain times I do not want flavors mixed on the plate and these are ideal to keep syrup away from my potatoes, eggs, etc.

I learned it from my grandfather's cook, when I was a child. One of the kitchen helpers had a very heavy hand with the salt, perhaps diminished taste buds or something, and I would watch as the cook would measure rice into one of the muslin bags used for steaming puddings, or straining jelly, and suspend it in the pot of soup or stew, tied to a handle, so it could be easily retrieved. In particular I remember her doing it with a huge batch of she-crab soup, since one of my uncles had driven to Maryland and back, bringing a big tub full of live crabs for my grandpa's birthday and she didn't want the soup ruined. With just adding water you have to add so much to dilute the salt, that you then have to spend many hours reducing it to have it correct. This solves that problem. Also one has to leave plenty of room for the rice to expand

A really old-fashioned way to "cure" a too salty soup or stock, before adding water to dilute it, is to suspend a muslin bag filled with raw rice in the liquid. The rice will take up quite a bit of the liquid but leave most of the flavor behind and then water can be added to reduce the concentration of salt. The ratio of rice to total liquid is 1/2 cup of rice for each quart of liquid. I have used this method successfully several times - I do use the rice - I generally freeze it and use it in vegetable and meat/poultry recipes that require cooked rice but am careful not to use any seasoning until the end of the cooking process.

Not exactly a "gadget" but this version of the Crock Pot has a couple of new twists. Note it can be used on the stovetop, in the oven, microwave and freezer. A more versatile item for those with small kitchens, a truly multi-use appliance/utensil. It looks pretty cool too! New type Crock Pot My housekeeper says it reminds her of a witch's kettle!

I think it is a sensational idea, and particularly for PBS where the focus of so many programs is on history. The history of traditional foods as different ethnic groups migrated to the US and how it influenced regional differences is very important. Certainly Maryann Esposito's Ciao Italia has had a number of "seasoned" cooks over the many years PBS has been presenting that show, (at least 15 years). I believe there is more interest now in traditional cooking as more and more people learn to value their ethnic/regional heritage in all facets of life and often they no longer have mothers, grandmothers or other elder relatives from whom to learn the traditional recipes and cooking techniques.

I can't consume alcohol myself, but I have made them with Midori melon liquer and lime jello and blackberry brandy with black cherry jello for parties. Jello used to have white grape "champagne" flavor which was great for these mixes but it was discontinued a few years ago.

Lovingly stained, like the big, big wooden spoon I "inherited" when I made a trip back to Kentucky in the '70s and loaded up my van and a trailer with crocks, cast iron and assorted kitchen "junk" because my family never throws anything away and I had the collecting bug by then. The big spoon is purple because it was always used for stirring jam and jelly made from(among other things) Concord grapes, wild blackberries and etc. One of my great uncles whittled it sometime in the '30s, from a piece of maple. The huge tree had fallen after being struck by lightning and was cut into lumber and chunks and smaller pieces for carving.