andiesenji

I am with you on the White Lily flour, Trappey's golden sweet potatoes, also Trappey's butter beans and sausage, mild banana peppers, Zatarain's Remoulade sauce, Bootsie's Cajun Creole roux, Louisiana Brand original hot sauce, Crystal hot sauce and Bruce's hot sauce. There there are the canned Blue Runner red beans and also Navy beans.

Yes, someone sent me a PM with a hint on how to do it. The bread pudding/French toast is great when feeding a crowd. I have made it many times for fund raiser breakfasts when people began to get a little bored with pancakes. We could also ask for a larger donation for the "fancier" item.

I am going to try again to post the photos of my bread pudding/mock French toast.

I made a lovely bread pudding in a loaf pan yesterday afternoon, chilled it overnight. This morning I sliced it and put the slices in a fry pan in melted butter, sprinkled granulated maple sugar on the top side, then turned it over so the sugar would carmlize. I posted the photos to imagegullet but I can't get them into a message. My album The individual photos will not open so I can pick up the URL. How are you folks getting your photos into messages with imagegullet not working correctly?

I picked up a copy of Fine Cooking's annual edition of "Great Finds" which has a great and detailed article on selecting extra virgin olive oil. There is also an article on cookware including some of the new non-stick skillets - "Not You Everyday Nonstick," they liked NordicWare's new Pro-Cast Gol which is non-stick but sears nicely and the color is light enough so one can see what is going on in the bottom of the pan. They also liked the Calphalon One Infused Anodized which is not non-stick but released foods such as salmon easily and cleaned up nicely. There is an article on building a custom knife set and how to store knives, includng some of the suggestions mentioned in the knife thread here. Also an article on 100 kitchen essentials. One ad caught my eye. Blum has a new design for corner base cabinets that is rather interesting. Blum Space Corner

Empanadas, chicken fingers, French toast sticks, criss cut fries extra well done, taquitos, pizza bites. I have a 140 mile commute - 70 miles each way - 1 1/2 hours when the traffic is good. Much, much longer when it has jelled because of an accident, rain, idiots, car chases or lookie-loos slowing down to look at something happening at the side of the road. I am not alone. There are obviously a lot of munchers on the road at the same time as there is always a line of cars in the drive-thru lanes at McDs and Jack's at Crown Valley Road off the 14, especially in the morning. I don't speed because it wastes gas and the CHP has really been cracking down on speeders and about time too.

I am adding the link to this thread on Pork Cake because it is a type of fruitcake. Check out Viva's photos of the process. It is technically a fruitcake but is different enough to be interesting. It does require more preparation but it is tasty and it does not have to be "aged" to develop the complex flavors one expects in a fruitcake.

Carmel, Mogen David, Manishevitz are all brands of Passover or "Sacramental" wine. White, red, concord grape, and come others all available at many stores. Wal-Mart local to me has it in white and red.

There are camp toasters that go over a burner, but they don't flip the toast over as do the electric ones. You have to turn the toast with tongs and I have to confess that I dropped as many slices as I successfully toasted. Camp toaster I have a few of the vintage ones. Some of the ways people invented to make toast automatically have been really weird. The early ones all centered around a centrally located electric coil and mechanically turned the toast in various ways. Finally some genius figured out that putting the coils on either side would be quicker but would only do one slice at a time. Finally someone got around to the idea that multiple slots would be more efficient. I guess the bread itself is different. Toast doesn't seem the same to me either and I have tried all kinds of bread. I have been trying to find a particular flavor that I remember from many years ago, without success. I have tried hundreds of recipes for plain, white bread, different types of flour, with or without potato, different yeasts, milk, filtered water, hard water, soft water, etc., I have never been able to duplicate that particular flavor that dwells in my memory.

This is one place And here is the toaster in which to use them!

Just a quick note. Consumer Reports new issue has a section titled "Best Gifts" and evaluates cookware. They tested Le Cruset against the "Country Cottage" stuff from China, sold on HSN, and couldn't find any difference in performance. The one thing they did say was that there was no very large round or oval Dutch oven in the sets offered. However, the stuff is non-stick which, in my opinion, would mean it would not produce fond when browning meats. However if cost is important, one might make concessions. I found it on line at this vendor.

I have my magnetic strips mounted vertically and the knives are horizontal with the bigger ones with flatter blades at the bottom and smaller at the top. Even the narrow, thin bladed cheese knives stick well. I don't put small bladed paring knives or bird-beak knives on the mag strips, they stand in a small container with some marbles covered by a sponge in the bottom. It is acutally a wire mesh pencil cup I got at Staples that is very handy. The marbles are to put enough weight in the bottom to keep it from tipping over. You can mount a mag strip under a cabinet. You just measure the longest handle and mount the strip so that the handle doesn't protrude. Even with cabinets with fancy scrolled woodwork at the bottom, the mag strips are thick enough to make the knife handles easy to grab. The "industrial strength" magnetic strips made by Mundial come in 12", 18" and 24" lengths. Prices are from 12.80 to 20.80 at Star Restaurant supply in Van Nuys, CA. They are more expensive everywhere else.

Last year I put one batch into some colorful xmas mugs I found at Pier One, cheap. Glad had just introduced Press 'N Seal and I covered the mugs with that and then held the edges down with some bright colored, shiny pony-tail bands (look like crinkly foil) I also found at Pier One up by the check-out counter.

Check out this list of Composed Butters lots of ideas here. I like Asiago cheese with sage and carmelized onion beaten into sweet butter - the cheese is salty enough. I mix butter half and half with cream cheese and add Thai sweet chile sauce to taste. This is good with anything but it is absolutely fantastic on hot gingerbread!

I have one, an old one from the 50s. I saw one (new) in a catalog a few months back. Apparently someone decided to bring back this handy stove-top baker. Potato baker.

I have most of my knives on magnetic strips, except for the non-magnetic ones that hang in a flat knife block at one end of a counter or rest in a knife holder in a drawer. However, I do have some very old carbon steel knives that develop rust if the humidity goes above 40%, which is not too often here in the desert but during the rainy season............. For storing just those knives, I took the advice of the man who made a couple of my knives several years ago. In my pantry there is a plastic container, about 8 inches in diameter, 12 inches deep, filled with fine "sharp" sand. Into this has been poured about 2 quarts of mineral oil. I do have to rinse and wipe the knives before I use them and they have to be washed and dried well before they go back into the oily sand, but they don't rust, which is my main concern and the blades are protected, which is my other concern.

There are several photos in my album (public) but ImageGullet doesn't seem to be working at the moment. I can see the group on each page but can't open individual pictures. I think someone else complained about this a couple of days ago.

In the kitchen microwave convection/microwave combination(Sharp) convection oven(Cadco) induction hot plate DLX Electrolux mixer Vita-Mix blender toaster (Dualit) toaster oven (old GE automatic) Teamate Senseo coffee machine electric tea kettle panini grill deep fryer Cuisinarts (3 - 11 cup,14 cup, 20 cup) plus a "Mini-Prep" Rice cooker Bread machine Froth Au Lait juicer Nutrimill grain mill Hamilton Beach malt machine - 3 head electric Dutch oven 8 qt Cuisinart slow cooker 6 qt immersion blender electric jar opener 3 spice/coffee grinders

I have one kicking around somewhere in one of the junk drawers. It was sharp only on one side. The military also had something similar back in the dark ages when I was in the Army. We had to use them with our mess kits when we were out in the field with a MASH unit (1958). Unfortunately they were not very strong and were soundly defeated by the various types of meats we were served. (Sometimes even the scrambled eggs were too tough!)

Does anyone here remember PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines). They had a combination spoon/fork/knife that was just the thing. Imagine being served a meal for the short hop from L.A. to Phoenix, or to San Francisco. Them were the days!

Check ebay. There are a lot of Vita-Mix units listed and you can find them with a "Buy it Now" price, no waiting for an auction to end. A couple of the vendors offer free shipping which is a good deal at the V-M is heavy. I can't praise it enough. The only "fault", if one would consider it such, is that after grinding really hard stuff for many years, the inside of the bottom of the container is a little scratched and no longer crystal clear. Compared to the problems other people have had with the glass containers breaking, I am happy with that little flaw.

Since this thread came up, I have been thinking about organizing my cookbooks a little better and bringing the catalog of my collection up to date (last done in 1999) as I have acquired quite a few books since then. I did have some new bookshelves built a few months back but they were filled almost as soon as they went up with the books that had been living in stacks around the house. My housekeeper suggested that I should just buy a bookstore and be done with it. Wholesale instead of retail, so to speak. Funny thing, that. Years ago I thought that when I "retired" I would like to own a used book store and spend my days dealing with books.

60 kilos. This post maybe belongs in the what to feed a sumo thread. What forks do sumos use when dining in your home.(yes I know they use chopsticks) ← Often they use their fingers. I met a sumo wrestler from Hawaii a few years back, while he was visiting in SoCalif and he went through an entire platter of ribs in a fraction of the time it took me to get half-way through one pork chop. I don't recall him using any utensils but he did use reams of napkins. That restaurant served "broasted" potatoes and for him they were simply finger food and he consumed at least 4 servings. I should add that he was extremely charming and the servers (all young ladies) were competing to bring him "seconds" - - -

This is one that is rather pretty and tastes delicious. Note that this is a rather elegant variation of a bread pudding. The marzipan filling inside the little buns elevates it to a higher plane. It is made ahead and served chilled. You can serve it with a small pitcher of warmed, sweetened and spiced heavy cream for each person to add if they wish.

Me too! It would be like losing a limb, or giving up a beloved pet. Occasionally I will donate one to the library if I find I have a duplicate. However, with some special ones that are signed or otherwise are collectible, or were gifts from dear friends and family, I keep a duplicate to use. I love books, always have, always will. Some are old friends, all are precious. This may be a genetic thing. My grandfather loved books and so does my daughter.