andiesenji

I don't understand why people pay so much for cars when they spend only a small fraction of their time in them and begrudge the few dollars they have to spend on kitchen equipment, where they spend more time than in the car. (At least most people - I know some who don't even know where their kitchen is located or need a map to find it!!!) I haven't made a car payment for thirty years because I pay cash when I buy a new vehicle and drive it until it begins to cost too much in upkeep/repairs, then replace it. I get my money's worth out of them. I do spend a lot on my kitchen because I enjoy it, live in it and it gives me great pleasure and is not sitting in a parking lot getting dented by idiots who don't know how to drive or park. Some people have accused me of being fixated on kitchen "stuff" - so what! I don't spend the money on drugs, booze or gambling and everything that isn't consumable gains in value over the years and the consumables give me pleasure and at my age that is quite enough. A couple of years ago I figured that if I ever fell on hard times, I could live comfortably for 20 years or so, simply selling off the kitchen "stuff" I have collected.

This site has an explanation of how and when to add various ingredients. My experience during the many years I have been preparing mustard - and I also grow my own - is that boiling water will produce a chalky, less flavorful result. The enzymes that produce the "bite" are affected by heating. When I prepare mustard for canning, I temper the bite by heating it for very short periods in the microwave - I used to use a double boiler prior to the advent of microwave appliances. In the eGCI basic condiments course I demonstrated the process of preparing mustard from seed. Basic Condiments course

One way to get a consistent product is to use "bread" flour. However you can also find "Vital Wheat Gluten" at any health food store and if you add a little of this to all purpose flour you will have what is essentially a bread flour. Store it in the freezer in an airtight container or doubled ziploc bags and it will keep a very long time because you do not need to use very much. Bob's Red Mill brand Arrowhead Mills brand

one of the reasons I had a super-duty exhaust system installed when I remodeled - the smoke alarms kept sounding off.

My snack addiction is the Snapea Crisps. On my last visit I bought 10 bags because the time before there were none on the shelf. Another customer saw me and mentioned to his lady companion that they must be good if I was buying so many. I advised him to try one packaged and I would give odds that he would be back for more. I originally "discovered" them when they were giving out samples. A couple of weeks ago they were sampling the frozen Chicken Verde - (not exact name but similar) - a new offering. I bought some and it is as good as my homemade stuff and much quicker to prepare. Some of their pizzas are also very nice. The burritos are excellent. As someone else has mentioned, as did I, the frozen fruits are excellent. If nothing else, try the organic blueberries. They are tiny but have a wonderful flavor.

It works best with smaller birds - the largest I do this way are 4 pounds or less. I also tried it with duck, when I had a couple of small ones and wanted the bones and "remainders" for duck stock. I just wanted the meat cooked enough to pull off the carcass easily. It was very good.

You could set up a booby-trap just for him. I have been known to do something similar for refrigerator raiders who would take food without asking. Get some habanero hot sauce, carefully paint some on the outside of a package(the green variety drys almost transparent) and allow it to dry cover it with plastic wrap until you know he is coming around(so you don't get it on your own hands, then uncover it and pretend to have your attention elsewhere. (The stuff does not have to be wet for the capsaicin to transfer to the fingers.) That should teach him not to touch things that belong to other people. He is just plain rude. One should never, ever do this. It is insulting and demeaning.

Sounds terrific. I love the crust. Sometimes I make it thinner and when it is 3/4 done, place a second skillet (which has been heating in the oven) on top of it. I began doing this after I dropped on on the floor when trying to flip it over.

That makes sense. I often prepare it when baking bread. I have a commercial (Blodgett) oven and crank it up to a high temp for baking sourdough, rustic type loaves or pizza, etc., and put the chickens in after the bread is done. I always allow anything roasted in the oven to coast for thirty minutes, I learned that a long, long time ago. I grew up in the south and roast chicken was a Sunday regular but it was roasted in a covered pan and the cover removed part way through for browning. It always seemed to produce a lot of liquid but these were older and larger birds and it took much longer. The higher temp, shorter time produces a better result, in my opinion.

Freshly ground corn meal has a higher moisture content and your cornmeal probably absorbed more of the liquid. The batter should be pourable but not runny. I am sure yours will turn out just fine. As fifi said, do removed it from the skillet as soon as possible. Put it on a cooling rack so the crust will remain crisp.

Just reading back in this thread is enough to convince anyone that harissa can vary considerably from country to country, town to town and even from kitchen to kitchen in small villages. In the late '70s a young woman from Morocco stayed with me for a few weeks while attending a workshop for artists at the "Women's Village" in the San Fernando Valley. I had long been interested in various ethnic foods but having someone stay in my house and show me how certain things were prepared was a terrific lesson which I have treasured ever since. She told me that while her mother was the primary cook in the family, her uncle was the one who prepared the spice mixtures and the one who visited the markets to find just the perfect ingredients. She and her brothers had tagged along when they were young and would hang around when their uncle would stop for coffee or tea with his friends. She had many funny stories about the arguments about the various ingredients that constituted the "perfect" harissa or other spice mixtures. Earlier in this thread sambals were mentioned and I am sure similar "discussions" go on in Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries where these are the favorite spice mixtures/pastes. Similar arguments abound in Mexico where molés are prepared and the contests at the festivals in San Pedro Actopan or Oaxaca in October each year or in Vera Cruz, in Puebla. And if you think this may be outside this topic, consider that in the 17th century, the first recorded use of a spice mixture incorporating the native chiles/herbs and chocolate of Mexico with spices and herbs of the Old World, was a state banquet prepared by Spanish nuns from the convent of Santa Rosa, using recipes of Spanish and Moorish origin.

Chiles or chile peppers are native to South America - however once they made it to the Old World they spread like wildfire (or like the plague, as one food writer complained, in the early 20th century). Read the story here.

I do not believe TJs is out to bury other markets, greengrocers or whatever. Late last spring I was in the TJs in Palmdale and mentioned I wished I could find fresh cherries (sour cherries, not the Bing variety) and the clerk told me that a couple of the orchards on Lake Hughes road (west of Palmdale) were open for U-pick and also had roadside stands selling picked cherries. The store "Captain" was bagging for her and he asked if I knew the area. I assured him I was familiar with the area but didn't know there were stands with already picked fruit. I am somewhat handicapped and can't go the U-pick route. Another time when I asked about a locally-made fresh salsa that they had discontinued, they directed me to another store that carried it. (It did not sell well at TJs, probably because they have so many varieties of fresh salsa.) Over the many years that I have shopped at TJs I have had similar experiences, as have other people I know.

I have long wanted to know how you discovered this method for cooking chicken. It seems to go against the traditional "rules" for cooking chicken, however it turns out perfect every time. I think it is brilliant! Here is the link to the directions. So simple it is virtually foolproof. Sara's Classic Blasted Chicken I was skeptical at first but once I tried it I was a convert. In spite of the residual mess in the oven! Having a stainless steel oven interior is decidedly an asset now. My old oven was difficult to clean but the results were worth it. I discovered that if I use a broiler pan with a slotted insert, potato wedges placed in the pan under the slotted insert, become nicely baked, browned and flavored with chicken fat. (High calorie but delicious.)

I wasn't suggesting airbrush for cocoa butter or chocolate. I simply suggested the type of plastic box I use for airbrush color to prevent overspray getting on other surfaces should work for your purposes also.

The people in my office have gotten used to me doing stuff that may seem a bit odd. Making applesauce in the microwave because I don't like the canned stuff (except my own). Buying milk in glass bottles because it tastes better. Making my own cream cheese - sour cream, etc. because it tastes better. Many more activities, too many to list. They accept my quirkyness and are happy to eat anything I am willing to share.

I never had any problem with changing colors - I have a Paasche AB Turbine which has an open chamber that is easy to clean, which I used for drawing fine lines, filling small areas. For large areas, coating the entire top of a cake or a pan full of cupcakes, cookies, etc., I have an Iwata trigger action with several "tanks" which hold different colors. I have one tank filled with grain alcohol(Everclear) which quickly cleans the inner workings in between colors. Iwata 400 If you are not familiar with the Iwata, you might check them out. This particular one uses very low air pressure - although I have a multi-unit high volume compressor, the Iwata will run on tank pressure alone for well over 30 minutes before the compressor comes back on to build up the pressure in the tank.

You can also use one of the large translucent storage boxes - the shallow ones that are made to go under a bed -( the largest I have will take a full size sheet pan flat on the bottom) and it is easy to clean and to keep clean, just store it turned upside-down so stuff doesn't fall into it. I used to use one when I airbrushed color onto large cakes or onto a sheet pan full of cupcakes or cookies. I had two low plastic step stools on which I set the box so it was at a level where I didn't have to bend too far.

If you are using imported rice of any kind you will have to rinse it well. Measure the rice and dump it into a bowl or large Pyrex measure and fill with water, swish the rice around with your hand, the water will turn milky. Then dump the wet rice in a colander and run water over it. Toss it in the colander to get as much water out as possible then put it in the cooker pan. Now add the water to slightly below the correct level for the number of measures you used originally. It will be less than you would add to the dry rice because it compacts when it is wet. This should give you rice that is fluffy instead of clumpy.

Reading this thread reminded me of a product that used to be marketed by Herdez. I don't remember the Spanish name on that side of the can but on the side printed in English, it simply said Hominy - Mexican Style. It was unlike any hominy I had ever seen, was yellow instead of white, very large, chewy and still had the skin and germ attached. Tremendous flavor. I believe that was prior to the time Hormel bought the company. I used to buy the Herdez diced green chiles in the large can. They were spicer than the other brands but not as spicy as jalapeños. Vallarta supermarkets here in California carry frozen pozole but I haven't noticed the particular product named above. I will look the next time I am in the store.

That's the one I have. Someone gave it to me in a basket with other "odd" gadgets. The only one I have used is the one that unseals jar tops. The bright red thingy at top left. The friend was trying to give me some gadgets that would put less stress on my arthritic right hand.

Coleman's mixed with cold water to which a couple of drops of vinegar have been added will substitute nicely, it has plenty of "bite" - be sure to tell them to use only cold water or other liquid. Heat will destroy the spiciness.

For dicing large amounts of carrots or similar vegetables, I do use the mandoline. I use the 3/8 inch cutter which gives julienne strips this size, then simply gather them into bundles and cross cut with a knife to approximately the same width. With the bron I can put three carrots side by side to cut them lengthwise, using the carrier/guard. If I am using just a couple of carrots, I dice them with a knife. I have a dicer similar to the Alligator that someone gave me a year or so ago. I have never used it as I simply forgot about it. I think the cutting area is a little smaller than on the Alligator. It is in a drawer somewhere in the kitchen - I don't remember the name on it.

I received a flyer in the mail with this and a couple of other things, a bottle cap remover and wall-mount dispensers for beans, rice and similar stuff, as well as the zero gravity spice containers. No prices were listed, only that they were available at Target and online at Amazon and Cooking.com. Frankly, I didn't give it much thought, I am in the "lots of water" for cooking pasta corner, I hate pasta that sticks together, which usually happens when insufficient water is used.

Let me explain that I am a BIG fan of TJs. In fact, I have been shopping at their markets since they were known as PRONTO markets and even then they carried a quirky bunch of stuff that could be found at no other market, "Gourmet foods" before that was seen in othr markets. That was the first store in which I saw a bottle of key lime juice. Then the owner got the idea of setting up the markets sort of like an inter-island trading ship and so the sort of nautical theme. The items that carry the Trader Joe's name or the variations thereof, are good. They will not put their name on stuff they haven't tried. The TJs organic frozen blueberries are tiny but much more flavorful than others I have tried. The "World's Largest Cashews" are huge and delicious. check the prices, look at the stuff you can find there that is fresh because of the rapid turnover. almond flour or ground hazelnuts - cheaper than I can find anywhere else. And a great selection of preserves and jams. I would go if the only thing I needed was the Total Greek Yogurt but I like their TJ brand cheese type yogurts too. I don't drink wine myself but I use it in cooking and have friends that love it. Sometimes you can get really good deals on wines that would cost much more in wine or liquor stores.