andiesenji

No question that seeks enlightenment is ever dumb! I actually use a double boiler (better control of the temp) and bring the water in the upper container up to 142 degrees and keep it steady at that temp for a few minutes, then lower the eggs into the water (I have a small wire colander with a handle which holds 6 eggs easily) making sure the water temp does not drop and will hold. Set the timer and as soon as the timer chimes, I lift them out of the water and briefly put into cold tap water. No need to chill in ice water, just cool enough to arrest the heating. I dry the eggs, mark them with a pencil and either place in a container with a tight fitting lid or return to the egg carton. (I use a lot of eggs so usually buy 2 - 4 dozen at a time.

I have had no problems. The only reason I sealed it was to keep the fibers from sticking out. I use a nail scissors with very sharp point to clip the fibers back inside the the silicone.

Eggs are also one of my great favorites. I like them in any type of setting and pasteurize my own so I can use them raw. (I mentioned this proces in the Out of Style foods thread) One of the first things I learned to cook in my first class on French cooking was a puffy omelette, with the eggs still a bit runny. Love them that way.

I know two Peruvian families. (They raise horses.) None of them cares much about seeking out restaurants that serve Peruvian food. Mostly they like Red Lobster, Appleby's and pizza. I have tried to pry some recipes out of the women and they keep promising to translate some for me but they are enamored with American frozen foods and "instant" stuff. I keep running into them at Trader Joe's - they can't be bothered with doing traditional Peruvian foods. Their kids seem to exist on a diet of pizza, Thai food, Fatburger, KFC and Sonic. I mentioned the possibility of visiting a Peruvian restaurant in Canoga Park but was told they all grew up on that stuff and are widening their horizons now. Frankly they are amazed that I am interested in learning how to cook foods from their homeland because America has such diversity and, according to them, Peruvian food isn't all that interesting.

By the way, I happened to think of something else that has seemingly gone by the wayside. Anyone remember "Swiss" steak. This used to be a "blue-plate" dinner special in many family restaurants and diners. Round steak was the meat of choice, beaten until some of the fibers had been tenderized, dredged in seasoned flour and browned, then add onions and chopped tomatoes (or a can of stewed tomatoes) and served with mashed potatoes and gravy. Also a popular home-cooked meal. When young, I always wondered where the gravy came from since there were tomatoes with the meat. Later I learned about the generic gravy mixes that were made up in batches, chicken, beef or turkey and held in warming pans in restaurants. The other thing was "cube" steak. This also was something that puzzled me because it wasn't shaped like a cube. (My very early education, mostly from my grandpa, gave me a literal outlook on things, he believed in precise language and we never had cube steak on the farm!)

And the sad thing is that this doesn't make sense. It is so easy to pasteurize eggs. I have been doing it at home for a long time. For a while we had pasteurized eggs in some markets and I believe some markets down in the LA/OC areas still carry them but I can't buy them up here. I just pasteurize all my eggs immediatley after I bring them home from the market, then refrigerate them. The recommended time to hold them at 142 degrees is 3 1/2 minutes - I make it 5 minutes, just to be sure and because I use mostly jumbo eggs. This is not hot enough to cook them but is hot enough to kill the salmonella bacteria. I love eggnog, syllabub and the above-mentioned zabaglione as well as very soft "French" style omelettes and very soft scrambled eggs, coddled and soft-boiled eggs, eggs sunny-side-up and so on. I can't even remember how many years ago I got the information from either U.C. Davis or Cal Poly Pomona about pasteurizing eggs but it has been close to 30 as I have been using them since the 70s.

Sex???? Not even on my radar. However when it comes to food.............!

I wear gloves for certain tasks. For one instance, when kneading dough. Invariably the phone rings and either I have to grap the phone with a doughy hand or take the time to clean my hands and by that time the phone stops ringing. However, when wearing gloves, I just strip one off, toss it in the trash and pick up the phone. Same with tossing stuff in oil, much neater. I wash my hands often too and I am certainly not squeamish, but after getting a really bad infection in a finger several years ago, from a little hangnail which came in contact with a piece of pork from which I was stripping skin and fat, I learned to be prudent in what I handle with my bare hands. Particularly if I have even a minimal "wound". That finger was so painful it awakened me at night if I bumped it against something. Wearing gloves is a small price to pay for safety, MINE!

These photos were in a post I put in the "You know you are a foodie when........" thread. I make them in big batches as they make a great base for "instant" stew, all alone as a hot or cold side dish and pureed a little or a lot to make a soup. Even though this has no meat in it, it has a "meaty" flavor. Carrots, parsnips, potatoes, celery, onions, sweet peppers, garlic and seasonings.

Here is all you need to know about making ricotta. These recipes are easy and turn out perfect every time.

Now that's REALLY impressive! Who delivered the brats, the supplier or friends of yours? How did they get through airport security? (My mind working... who do I know in which cities?) ← This was in 1999, security was not quite as tight then. I have basenji friends in Chicago who gave me the name of a butcher near the airport. I called them gave them my credit card and told them to charge the cost of the brats and the cost of delivery, airport parking and etc. to it and gave them my schedule and departure gate number and that I would be in a wheelchair in the first class lounge. The guy did not have any trouble finding the gate and checked with the attendent with whom I had left the information about the delivery. All they did was open the styro container and look at the clear package containing the brats. There was some discussion about how difficult it was to get "real" fresh brats anywhere outside the region but that was it. I had it on my lap as my porter wheeled me into the plane and at that point the flight attendant took the box away to put it in the fridge. No bribes were passed.

I have several food mills (I collect) there are two I use most, for tomato sauce, removing the skins and seeds, I have one of these. It works great. I have an ancient Foley mill made in the 30s that still works and a much newer one that I use. I gave one of these to my neighbor last year when she had a new baby and wanted to learn to make her own baby food. She had never used one before and has become a champ with this one. She makes garlic smashed potatoes using this and they come out perfect with no mashing, just going through the mill. Last fall she made her first batch of grape preserves using this to remove the skins and seeds.

I had forgotten until this post jogged my memory, but as a young child, I loved chicken croquettes. I believe I haven't had one since the 1970s! ← I like them all. We have a local restaurant that makes salmon croquettes occasionally, complete with the obligatory cream sauce (gravy). I still make ham croquettes, chicken or turkey croquettes and crab croquettes.

Or you call ahead and get a delivery at the airport, of a particular foodstuff to carry along as you continue your flight. I flew from L.A. to Rhode Island with an hour stopover to change planes in Chicago. I had an order of fresh brats, packed in ice, delivered to me as I was waiting to board the flight on to Providence. The flight attendant was kind enough to find room in a fridge for me. My friends met me at the airport and were thrilled to get the brats as they are originally from Wawatosa, WI.

When the day is wet and miserable and the streets are flooded and you stay home because the drive to work is going to be horrible and instead of kicking back with a good book (and I have lots to read), you pull out a large roasting pan and cut up a bunch of vegetables, pull out your big jar of oil-roasted garlic and make roasted vegetables, not for any particular recipe, JUST BECAUSE. And here it is just before going in the oven 3 hours at 275 degrees later: All done and ready to be incorporated into "instant stew" or pureed into soup or simply dished up as a side dish. Even though this has no meat in it, it has a "meaty" flavor. Carrots, parsnips, potatoes, celery, onions, sweet peppers, garlic and seasonings.

My nursemaid used to tell me that blowing bubbles in my milk would make my nose turn up on the end. Talk about scarred! However I never needed a nose job either.............

I found the recipe for the chicken dish with barberries (zereshk) It is very good. Zereshk Polow

I forgot to mention any of the out of style foods I love. Croquettes come to mind. I love them, whatever they are made of.

Hey! Fondue is coming back. You can tell by the proliferation of fondue pots popping up in catalogs, W-S and Sur La Table, etc., and on line, anything from candle power to electric. Think of all the years that the only time you saw a fondue pot was at yard sales or swap meets and young people born after the mid-70s, wondered what they were. Everything comes and goes like the tides - I am waiting for beehive hairdos, ironed hair is happening again, they just use a different kind of iron. Sadly most schools no longer offer much in the way of home economics. However I happened to come across an instruction book in a thrift store that had a picture of "Candle Salad" on the back cover. I put it down but should have bought it, just for laughs.

Thanks, Andiesenji. That looks like what I am looking for. I want a permanent installation that will be attractive as well as functional. ← Emil (the neighbor) built his to look like a little Swiss chalet. I think a lot of people who saw it casually thought it was a playhouse for children. One of the farmers about a mile from me built his out near his hay shelter (big, big roof, no sides). If it ever stops raining, I will drive over and take a picture of it. It looks like the outhouse from Lil' Abner (the movie), complete with a stovepipe that has a couple of bends in it and a conical shield on top. The inner structure is sound but he used warped planks on the outside, strictly for decoration. He used to work in the movie industry, building sets, and I think he got the idea to make it look sort of cartoonish. Then again he may have made it look like this to make sure thieves wouldn't break into it, although he has some big rottweilers that patrol his place at will. When I go over there I don't get out of my van until he or his wife comes out and calls the dogs back. In any event. They do not have to look unattractive or even utilitarian.

Barberries are zereshk. I make tea with them - good for the eyes. They should be stored in the fridge. Here the price varies with the season. I just bought some last week $10.99 a pound. I make a chicken and rice dish with barberries which is very good. I will try to find the web site and post it later. It is on one of the Persian/Iranian sites that one of our patients told me about.

Several people around here have used these plans to build regular smokehouses which are big enough for smoking hams, sides of bacon, turkeys, etc. (This is a rural areas.) This place has plans for make a smoker out of an old refrigerator. One of my ex neighbors made one out of an old upright freezer (single large chamber unlike most fridges). It worked fine but he wanted more room so built a separate structure. They sold their home about two years ago and the new owners wanted to put in a pool so tore the smokehouse down. Actually I think they sold it and it was taken apart and trucked away in pieces. It was made with some heavy timbers.

One of my friends is a "natural" soap maker and also makes vegetable dyes for several weavers. She uses safflower petals in her soaps. It actually turns out as a crimson color rather than orange, which you would expect. Vegetable fibers will not pick up the yellow or orange in the safflower, it tints cotton pink and linen red. Silk will pick up the yellow/orange as will wool but a particular mordant needs to be used. The safflower is also used in ayurvedic and chinese medicine. It has been used in the past to color margarine and cheeses in the place of annato. It has also been used, and still is, in cosmetics. The stuff is easy to grow, in fact in some areas becomes a persistent and invasive weed.

The asfar is safflower petals and is indeed used in place of saffron but also has its own uses. I don't know what flavor the orange ones are. I haven't tried them. The local store has several types of melon seeds, from white to black and several colors in between. One type is pinkish, flavored with "black" salt, which is very strong. The local store's supplies change with the seasons and they don't always have every type. There are quite a few middle eastern as well as Indian people who live up here but nothing like down in the Valley (San Fernando Valley). I will ask Mike the next time I go to the store, however we do have a bit of communication problem. If his wife is in the store she can translate for me, she is US born.

The "bananas" look like plantains to me. The flesh of plantains can range from white to orange and remains firm even when the skin is totally black - only when it begins to shrink and wrinkle do they soften a bit. Many varieties are not very sweet and can be used as a vegetable side dish.