andiesenji

I feel your pain, Jason. I have to deal with some dastardly person in my office who cuts the bagles in half CROSSWISE, then slices them because she is afraid of cutting her hand. I bought a bagle holder, specifically for slicing but she won't use it because, as she says, she doesn't want her cinnamon/raisin bagel touching something that has been touched by a bagle that might be flavored with onion or garlic. I wouldn't mind except for the fact that she can't seem to identify her own bagle without cutting several in half which really angers me since I am the one spending the money on them.

Nothing to do with radiation in this situation. ALL shipments from middle eastern ports to the US are gone over with extra care, particularly ones containing large furinture items, rugs and various vessels that might be used to transport contraband. They even test the packing material to make sure it wasn't soaked in a liquid containing contraband then dried so it could be rinsed out and reconstituted here.

I add a little salt near the end of cooking because as the total reduces, the salt will concentrate and the end result will be far too salty. This is the same as not salting stock until near the end.

I just read this and suffered the coffee-spraying-through-the-nose syndrome so ofted described on various threads. Thank goodness I have a "KeySkin" keyboard cover, otherwise my keyboard might be in sad shape at this time. For some reason, as I was reading the above, the scene in the movie Li'l Abner where the "Senator Phogbound" (or whatever he was) is orating and is followed by the song "The Country's in the Very Best of Hands." Sometimes accidents happen in shipping. One vendor of tagines (not tagines.com) had several boxes shipped in a container and when customs finished investigating the shipment, pulling everything out of the container, they set a couch on top of the boxes of tagines, breaking almost every one. They have insurance (because US customs takes no responsibility for their blunder) but it means they can't fill orders for a while.

I wasn't around when the previous post was put up. I have mentioned several times how much I enjoy my steam juicer. In fact I have a bunch of cranberries that need to be processed pretty soon. Perhaps a task for tomorrow.

You can always make strawberry syrup, you can freeze it and use it later for flavoring, ices, even with ice cream and seltzer water for a great soda. I make a sort of thin cream Anglaise, crush the strawberries and fold into the mixture and freeze in an ice cream freezer. It has a different texture and mouth feel than sorbet or ice cream, rather rich. I also may add toasted and salted pecans as I like the flavor combination.

I love shallots too. I just brought in a bunch from the garden. The onions and shallots have been growing right through the winter, in spite of quite a few nights of well-below freezing temps. If it stops raining for a few minutes I will go out and take a picture... Lots of green showing in the kitchen/herb garden. Even the strawberries are blooming. One sad note, no apricots this year. We had a hard freeze just as the tree was covered with blooms, much too early, because of an unseasonal few days of high temps. All blooms dropped, no fruit set.

Welcome Tim Z Your breakfast sounds great. Was fried bread a part of the meal?

That's my problem also. This is also making me want to visit the area again. The last time I was in the area it was so cold and wet the entire time that I huddled in my hotel, only venturing out for the specific event I was there to attend. My arthritis flared up and I was miserable for the entire six days. The only time I ever visited Pike Place Market, I was knocked down by a guy pushing a dolly stacked high with a bunch of crates and not looking where he was going. Needless to say, I have not been anxious to return to the Pacific northwest but this blog has given me a reason to change my mind.

I often use duck fat in my onion confit. A few months ago I made a batch of onion confit and included a preserved lemon. The lemon flavor was not overwhelming but contributed a sweet/tart/salty tang to the complex flavor of the onions. I have made marmalade from onion confit with various jams and jellies, processed them as I would any canned item and note that they seem to improve with age (several months). I don't make homemade apple jelly very often but buy it in half-gallon containers because I use it in making large batches of homemade mustard. (I use the apple or other jelly or marmalade in the mustard because I have friends who are allergic to certain things in honey and since they are usual recipients of the mustard, I don't want to make them ill.) Last December I made a batch of onion confit with red onions and included shallots, for about 1/4 of the entire volume, and made it up into marmalade for Christmas gifts. For some reason, I failed to keep a jar for myself but the friends who got it have all raved about it and a few have returned the jars, just in case I make another batch soon. I made a large batch of orange/grapefruit/lemon jelly last fall, from the fruit that remained after making candied peel. I plan on using that to make onion/garlic marmalade next week. I want to add that I had a rather lengthy conversation with a local chef, who makes an onion confit for his restaurant service. He takes all the onion trimmings, skin, etc., and simmers them in just enough water to cover until it is a beautiful amber color. He reduces this and adds it to the confit about half-way through the cooking and swears it adds something to the final product. I have intended to try this but am usually making stock at the same time that I do the confit and, of course, the onion trimmings go into the stock. I thought I would mention it just in case anyone else wants to try this.

I mentioned this subject to a friend who is from France. She and her husband have lived here for many years but still return home every couple of years. They are not from Paris but manage to spend a couple of days shopping there every visit. She gave me this web address for a place in Paris that often has unusual cooking vessels from North Africa. She doesn't know if they will ship to the U.S. but said they might have some suggestions. I don't speak French so it wouldn't be much use for me to call, but I thought someone might be interested. Paris cafe.

The hospital next door to my office has two of these in the cafeteria self-serve line and one of these in the kitchen where they prepare trays for the inpatients. I have used them when I have been involved in special events and we had the use of the kitchen and cafeteria for the evening. I don't remember what the old machines were but these are much easier to load and clean and produce an excellent product. The hospital cafeteria serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and is open to the public and serves a great many local seniors who are given a discount. It is also open to staff and any doctor at any time from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The ice cream machines are started at 10 a.m. and run continuously until 8 p.m. The larger machine turns out a batch much more rapidly than the older machine. Most of the kitchen and cafeteria equipment was replaced in 2003 when the hospital received a large bequest for that specific purpose from the family of a patient.

It works okay. Lawry's uses this method. I have tried it and gotten pretty good results but it still slips and occasionally you have less than optimal coverage because it slumps early in the roasting period. I like the wrap the way I do it because it works, especially on a large prime rib. It is difficult to keep the salt covering on the bones, even with the egg whites.

This Australian website Food Down Under has a lot of recipes for chickpeas and other pulse. Is one of my favorite places to search for new recipes to try. If you go to home page, you will see that they have quite a few categories from all over the world. I have found quite a few interesting and unusual recipes in several different categories, especiall the pastries. I learned many years ago, when I had a visitor from Australia, that in Oz there is a tremendous love of desserts, especially pastries.

I have made this chickpea cake several times. I came across the recipe when searching for a recipe for bean pie a few years ago. I have made a couple of minor modifications to the recipe on a couple of occasions, trying some different flavorings, spices, etc., but the basic recipe is very good.

This is commercial carpeting designed for heavy traffic areas, restaurants, casinos, airports and etc. I want padding for me, in case I fall and an absolutely non-slip surface. It actually is designed to arrest the growth of molds and spores, is hypoallerginic.

My housekeeper, who had never tasted cornbread until she came to live with me, likes to split it, slather it lavishly with butter then run it under the broiler until the surface is actually bubbling. On top of this goes a slather of sour cream and she daintly eats it with a fork. She says the flavor combination and the cold sour cream on top of the hot, buttery cornbread is a wonderful taste treat.

With your dogs' love of cornbread maybe there's some truth to one of the 'hushpuppy' stories then... that is, that the name come from throwing a piece of corn pone to the dogs to keep them quiet, saying, "hush puppy"! ← Since we began letting the dogs into the kitchen again (I didn't renew my certification at the end of January), they park themselves in front of the oven waiting for the cornbread to come out. I always bake a small pan for them anyway. I have to separate them when they get their treat because it is the one food item over which they will fight. Well, fight isn't exactly the word. Poor Player is a very laid back dog and his daughter Teafer bullies him terribly. She will actually snatch his treat right out of his mouth if I don't keep them apart. I don't know what it is about the cornbread (maybe the lard or bacon drippings) but they really go nuts over it.

It has been almost 44 years since my daughter was born, nearly two weeks late. I had been putting off doing much housework but finally one evening got disgusted and scrubbed the floor, on my hands and knees, then waxed it and polished it by "skating" around the floor on a couple of old T-shirts. I sat down for a cup of tea and realized the pressure I felt in my back was from labor. Four hours and 12 minutes later she was born.

I rarely have leftover cornbread because whatever we don't eat goes to my dogs who demand it. They love cornbread too. I also like cornbread crumbled in milk, sweet as well as buttermilk. Sometimes I do make it ahead and simply cool it completely then store in a ziploc bag in the fridge. When ready to eat, I simply open the bag and heat the cornbread right in the bag, to retain moisture. It only takes a few seconds to heat. Cornbread is used as a base for stewed pork in verde sauce, sliced pork in spicy gravy and this evening is going to be placed on a plate and covered with creamed asparagus and some crispy bacon crumbled over the top. Great combination of flavors.

You can substitute anise hyssop, which is a less intense flavor. This is often known as the "root beer plant" because of its flavor. It makes a very pleasant tea which is good for the digestion. It is also extremly easy to grow in pots or in the garden. It self-seeds but doesn't spread or become a pest plant like some.

Another warning. Do not set any pots like this on a highly polished surface, glass for instance, and scoot it around. You will find scratches in the glass or ??? I have ruined a lot of glass (and other) tabletops over the years with the many pottery pieces I have. I have glass polishing equipment because of my glass artwork but if you don't, this can be expensive. Now for the wood ash substitute. If you have any dried corn cobs, such as the ones used for decor around harvest time, or simply buy an ear of corn (or more than one), cut the kernels off the cob and roast the cob in the oven or on the barbecue grill, if you happen to be using it, until the cob chars. You can even cut it into chunks to roast it in the oven until it chars. Indian potters in the southwest use charred corn cobs when they fire pottery directly in coals, setting the cured "green" pottery on a bed of corn cobs then heaping more around and inside the pottery so the heat is even around and inside the pot. For your purposes you can crumble the charred cobs in a mixture of oil and salt to rub onto the unglazed pot.

This is the carpet I have chosen for the kitchen. The top one will be the main carpeting. The bottom one will be edging and cut-in design elements.

You might have better luck with a larger strainer like this miso strainer. I have seen larger ones also. I have isolated things in my deep strainer by clamping it to the side of the pot with a spring clamp, (looks like a large closepin, just made out of metal, found in any hardware store.) similar to these. I have several sizes as they really come in handy in the kitchen. Mine are not as fancy as these as they are older and simpler but you get the ideat........

Wonderful blog, Daddy-A. I have to type rapidly or the drool will be on my keyboard. Waiting with bated breath for the gingerbread - - - whatever its age. And the sordid tale of the kolachy has fascinated my housekeeper. She is from Hungary and they have something similar. We have strawberries from Oxnard - every morning a truck drops off a man with a stack of strawberry half-flats, bags of oranges, boxes of mangoes, sometimes some pineapples, at the crossroads a mile away and there he stays all day or until he sells out. Right now the half-flats are selling for 8.00 but if one buys two it is 14.00. They are not yet at peak but aren't bad. At least they are red almost all the way through.