andiesenji

It doesn't sound like a healthy person should worry, but I'm going to stop drinking caffeine before I run. I'm also wondering what sort of insight the track coach from my friends' high school had when he told all the kids to stop drinking soda during track season. I'm curious to see what they find in the follow up studies. -Linda ← It is possible the caffeine might be the reason, however there are other reasons to avoid carbonated beverages before and during vigorous exercise. There is a delicate balance that has to be maintained in the circulating blood so it can pick up the fatigue acids (lactic acid) produced when muscles work and which, if they build up in muscles, can cause cramping or a charley horse. Carbonated beverages of any kind in particular lower the serum calcium which has to be at a certain level to pick up the lactic acid, as does excessive water. This is the reason for the electrolyte replacement liquids which replace electrolytes, potassium, sodium and calcium, lost during exercise. There have been many detailed studies going back 30 years or more that document these effects. Because it is believed carbonated beverages can also influence bone formation in infants, many nutritionists advise giving infants and small children only limited amounts of carbonated beverages. I have worked for an orthopedic surgeon for 38 years and we used to see a lot of fractures in young children and invariably, they drank large amounts of carbonated beverages and very little milk. My boss always advised them to cut way back on the Coke, Pepsi and etc and encourage them to drink milk and eat the right kind of veggies. Since ideas about the effects of caffeine have yo-yoed back and forth over many years, I wait for the other shoe to drop - or another study to appear. One of the women in my office has terrible migraine headaches, relieved only by caffeine (tablets) and the change is immediate and profound. As far as espresso is concerned, I believe that there is much less caffeine in the dark roast coffees than in the lightly roasted beans. Someone explained to me how caffeine is reduced by heating for long periods but I don't recall the specifics.

This is a set I inherited. I have a few pieces of the Spode orange/rust but do not care for it, I much prepare the multiple colors.

I love apples with pork. A mixture of dried apples and prunes, chopped and mixed with some sweet spices, a dash of dry mustard, a very little rosemary, bread crumbs and finely chopped pecans, spread over the flattened meat, sprinkled with a little balsamic vinegar then rolled and tied and roasted long and slow or braised, etc.

I love that also. I have several pieces, mostly serving bowls and platters, but did pick up a set of the mugs when Gottschalk's dept store did a close-out sale about three years ago. I think I also bought pieces that depicted culinary herbs. I am glad you reminded me of them. I used to bring them out for spring but forgot last year. I set them out with the large "Provence" platter I bought at Williams-Sonoma the first year they carried it. The cost of that has certainly increased since I got mine.

YES!!! Get thee behind me, Satan. ← I do think that china is lovely and the proportions of the palms is just perfect. I even have some flatware with pattern that would mate nicely with this china. Colliseum, made by Wedgwood. Colliseum I have never used it, it is still in the original box simply because I have so much other flatware. I think I hear my housekeeper gritting her teeth - ooops.

Too bad you don't live near me. I have cardoons "volunteering" in my yard. I started out with a single plant several years ago but unless you keep the seed stalks cut back, they self seed all over the place - the neighbors have some also but their goats keep them trimmed. If you are ever interested, you can grow them in a large pot. One plant is plenty! Note the warnings! One of my friends, who lives on a boat in the Oxnard marina, has one on her dock in a half barrel - It keeps kids from skateboarding down her slip! Those spiky leaves can be sharp.

Here is a recipe that should be close to the ones I tried at a restaurant. Here is another recipe that is just a bit different. I tried both beef and chicken - I think they also had lamb. There was a similar one with fish but as I recall the name was slightly different. On the menu the item was listed as Roti Murtabak and came with a couple of dipping sauces. The person who took us to the restaurant had lived in Malasia for many years doing research on old rubber plantations, and was then teaching at one of the Claremont Colleges. The dish probably was adapted from Indian Muslim foods sometime in the past but the spice mixtures are somewhat different, at least according to some of the recipes and restaurant critiques online, so it seems the Malay people have made it their own.

This Coalport Indian Tree is one of my favorites.

Specific instructions are available at this site. And, as is mentioned in the text you can get a kit from New England cheesemaking supply. There are several links to sites here and some more here. I use manufacturer's cream which is not ultra-pasteurized and I generally mix it with whole milk that is NOT homogenized, that is, the kind where the cream floats to the top. For cream cheese I use 1/3 whole milk and 2/3 cream. I find that I get a better end product this way - I have never used straight - cream and I then make ricotta from the whey that is left after the curds have been strained out. I have not used tartaric acid, I use rennet and often a culture for a particular type of cheese, usually a mesophyllic culture. Once the curds have formed and the whey strained off, I knead the curds into a solid mass in the cheesecloth (the fine stuff also known as butter muslin, not the gauze-like stuff found in most stores) wrap tightly and place in a plastic colander set in a pan to catch drips in the fridge I reserve for cheese and produce, which is not as cold as a regular refrigerator, and let it drain for 24 hours. For mascarpone, I make a small batch using only vinegar. I use a double boiler and bring the temperature of the milk up to 190 degrees then add the vinegar and stir carefully, not too vigorously, as the milk curdles and the curds form and clump up. I remove the top pan from the heat, cover it with a cloth so steam won't form and drip into the pan and allow it to cool for about 30 minutes or so. By this time the surface should be fairly solid. I personally do not care for the flavor of this by itself so mix this batch with an equal amount of the plain cream cheese after they both have set for 24 hours. I simply put both batches in a mixer and beat with the flat paddle until the consistency is the way I like it. My cream cheese is not as stiff as the commercial variety but it certainly is not thin. I can turn the mixer bowl upside-down and it won't fall out. I divide it into smaller amounts and add herbs to one, sometimes fruit to another, etc.

The only reason I know about it is because of my two visits to that particular restaurant and when I asked about the "turnovers" the server told me she and her siblings would carry them to school and at the time I was interested in "portable" foods. She showed me a little set of three stacking bamboo containers which would be lined with banana leaves and one would contain rice, one the roti or similar item and the third would be a sweet of some kind. They were sort of like the bamboo steamers except the bottom one had a solid bottom and they were held together with cords. I wanted to buy a set but they were for display only. There were seven or eight in our party and the person who was familiar with the place ordered a selection of several items, sort of like a sampler platter. I had long been familiar with Indonesian food but that was my first visit to a Malay restaurant. Some of the foods were similar but some were quite different and interesting.

No, they are called (I think) roti murtabak and are made with roti dough, filled with spicy beef or chicken and fried on a griddle, however sometimes they are deep fried. There is a Malay restaurant in the San Gabriel valley either in Covina or West Covina, where I have had them. This is a Malaysian staple according to the folks at the restaurant.

I often use a recipe from Nick Malgieri's How to Bake. However, I often decide to prepare quiche at the last minute and find it is easier to use filo/phyllo sheets, I use 8 to 10 sheets, brushing each with melted butter before adding the next layer, and after fitting it in the pie plate, simply trim the edges with scissors. I love the crisp, flaky crust this produces.

And regarding the air travel with "fun finds", back in the early 90s I did a large collection of one-of-a-kind engraved glass trophies for a national specialty dog show and transported them to Illinois myself because I didn't trust shipping. I had a few extra days on the way back and detoured to southern Ohio and the Hall China outlet and then across the river to West Virginia to visit a few small local potteries and loaded the cases in which I had transported the trophies with interesting pieces. I don't recall the exact amount but the charges for the extra luggage weight was more than $100.00 and I had to tip the skycap extremely well after he loaded it all into my van. He asked if I was a weight-lifter and carrying my weights in the cases.

Regarding the "chick thing" - I think it depends on the guys. I have some gay guy friends(partners for at least 25 years) who could make us all look like pikers. They have a lovely home in Malibu, overlooking the sea, and one entire wall of the kitchen/breakfast room is glass with glass shelves, displaying many of their collected depression glass. You must have seen some of Martha Stewart's collections - - - they have many more, including entire sets of single patterns in every color. On one visit, I got to look through their storage room and counted more than 30 complete sets of dinnerware. They rotate the different ones out for display, changing the colors with the seasons. They have extras for daily use. When I still lived down in the Valley, we used to go to estate auctions together, with the agreement that we wouldn't bid on each other's interests. Lots of fun.

One can never have too many sets of tableware, as long as there is a place to store them. I have inherited several sets and choosing to part with one instead of another would be like choosing between children.

There are several unusual varieties of bay that do not usually show up in the literature unless you can find a reference to it. The California native bay or mountain laurel, has longer, narrower leaves and should not be used in food because of the high levels of safrole. Some people tell you it is okay in foods and many Mexican people use it but it really is not. Safrole is a carcinogen. The aroma from the crushed leaves can cause severe headaches when inhaled,. It works great as an insect repellant when you are out in the woods but not in the house and one should never inhale the smoke from burning leaves. The Greek bay or laurus nobilis is also known as sweet bay and you can tell the difference immediately. The scent of the crushed leaves is sweet and spicy with none of the chemical/kerosene scent of the California native. Laurus nobilis has been known by a number of names, depending on the country in which it is gathered. There is a Persian or red bay that is also used in cooking. The very rare Canary island bay is also a sweet bay and grows alongside the common sweet bay. They are a protected plant and are no longer exported. There is one in the Huntington Gardens. In the latter half of the 19th century a number were imported into the U.S. and can be found in botanical gardens, sometimes mis-labeled, according to the arborist at the Huntington. They are larger than laurus nobilis and have a distinctive natural umbrella shape. Laurus azoricus Purdue University has details of the chemicals involved. I have several bay "bushes" which have to be protected when the temperature dips below 25 degrees. I keep them small so they can easily be covered with burlap blankets. They used to overwinter in the greenhouse but about 8 years ago I experimented with one and when it survived with minimal protection I moved the others outside except for one which was trained and trimmed as a standard (round "lollipop" top on a single stem) which I gave away last year. The leaves are easy to dry, just pick and leave in a wire collander and toss them every few days so they all dry evenly.

I have always been nervous about other people slicing bagels and getting hurt in my kitchen, which is why I purchased the bagel biter which in my opinion is the safest of any thing I could find up to that time.

Andie, have you received your apple slicer yet, and if so, is it indeed perfect? ← I haven't got it yet. It is back ordered, supposed to be shipped 1/26. I will post when it arrives.

Safety oyster knife.

Calzone are the Italian version made with pizza dough instead of a short crust. There is a Malay version. There are also a few Phillipino items that depend on dough formed around meat or fish or cheese. The Greeks have pitta me kima which is a mixture of meat, usually lamb, tomatoes, cheese and spices wrapped in phyllo dough. There is also a very spicy version which I think is a Cypriot recipe. Syria has a version wrapped in unleavened dough that is sort of like lavosh, I don't remember the name. I had a terrific meat pie when I visited Quebec many years ago and was told it was a local specialty. I shouldn't forget the crispy meat pies from south China that are steamed then deep fried. Yum!

Not me, however I have prepared meals for and with people who wanted to pretend they did the whole thing. It paid very, very well and most of those people did become fine cooks in their own right.

Marinara sauce, all types of pasta or pizza sauce, many types of condiments, mustard, ketchup, chile sauce as well as salsas, sour cream, cream cheese.

wonderful idea too! i hadn't thought of it, must email it in. i'm a total empanada hound. i have a cousin who lived in argentina and uraguay and bolivia, and made such good empanadas. i must remember to ask her to make some for us next visit. i love the aniseed in the dough, and the crisp/sweet quality too. Marlena ← It came to mind because I just mentioned on another thread that I had received an old cookbook about early California cookery, from the Spanish colonial period, and it has a recipe for empanada dough with a list of different fillings. I love empanadas of all types. The first time I visited Mexico, in the late 50s, I tried some from a street vendor. (He had a little charcoal brazier with a metal box on top and they were so hot I was sure I didn't have to worry about germs.) He had three varieties, including one with finely chopped beef tongue, raisins and spices that was sort of like mincemeat.

what about making empanadas or empanaditas, the "little turnovers" which are filled with pumpkin, mashed beans or meats - these can be fried but more often are baked as they keep better without the dough becoming soggy. Unlike most pie dough, traditionally this dough is made with sugar, an egg, and includes baking powder and sometimes aniseed or other spice.

I am bumping up this topic because for Christmas I received a gift of a rare cookbook on this subject. "Early California Hospitality" by Ana Bégué Packman "The first and only authentic record of Spanish California cookery, revealing many secret recipes and menus of the period handed down through five generations by the author's illustrious Spanish ancestors who first trod the soil of California with Padre Junipero Serra." The jacket states the author is the secretary of the Historical Society of Southern California and custodian of Casa Figueroa and a direct descendent of Juan Francisco Reyes, an early alcalde of Los Angeles and Maximo Alaniz, the founder of Rancho San Jose de Buenos Aires, now Westwood Hills. She is also the author of "Leather Dollars." This book was published by the Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale, California in 1938. One thing I find interesting in this book are the number of daily meals: Desayuno (Breaking the fast) Almuerzo (Mid-morning meal) Comida de Medio Dia (Noon dinner) Merienda (Afternoon collation) Cena (Supper) One recipe name that is different from the present-day meaning is "Cajeta" (Glazed Fruit Pulp) It states that Cajeta is a concentrated fruit jam. Equal parts of fruit and sugar are cooked until all the water is cooked away with constant stirring with a wooden paddle. This is then spread in a wooden tray 1 1/2 inches thick then put in the sun and air for further drying. The traditional fruits were tunas (prickly pears, mission grapes, figs, and quinces. Many of the recipes include pumpkin, green pumpkin or summer squash, sweet potatoes, beans, string beans, as well as chiles, tomatoes, onions and olives. There is a very short chapter on making fresh cheese (using rennet tables) as well as describing saving the stomach of a freshly killed calf for the rennet. There is also a recipe for preparing ripe black olives that does not require lye, only water and salt. (A strong brine that will float an egg.) One Lenten dish is Ojos de Buey (Oxeyes - Eggs in chile) to remind people of the patient oxen I have yet to prepare any of the recipes, however the book is very interesting to read. Apparently a reprint was published in 1953 by a Library Guild in Fresno but I have no information about it.