andiesenji

This all sounds like a Jeff Foxworthy routine: [Cue the Southern twang] If you have a matching set of eight salad bowls and they all say "Cool Whip" on the side...You Might Be a Redneck!" [/twang] Maybe the whipped topping-wielding hostess was from a region where they ladle Cool-Whip on top of everything. Personally, I can think of better things to do with Cool-Whip. ← Let us not get into the X-rated stuff just yet.

I think the recipe that will be the type of corn muffins that you like will be found here. These are the light, sweet and very tasty corn muffins similar to the ones you described. They are totally different from the denser, and less sweet (no sugar) corn muffins known in the south.

Our second labrador had a serious jones for butter - and did this more than once. Is it bad to admit we picked the lint off the butter & then cooked with whatever was left? ← The only way I can get pills down my dogs is to encase the pill or capsule in butter and they gobble it down without tasting. Anything else, meat, cheese, whatever, they will take in their mouths, sort out the pill or capsule, spit it out and swallow the rest. (Basenjis are clever little devils!)

Chufi, I have followed your blog with great delight. I have never visited Amsterdam but now I feel that my life will not be complete unless I see your lovely city and taste some of the amazing foods that you have shown in your photos. You are truly a wonderful ambassador for your city and country. Thank you so much for letting us visit with you for the week, it has been absolutely inspiring. Andie

If I don't have any jars of home-canned tomato and pepper(jals and hotter, depending on what comes ripe at the same time as the toms), I use Ro-Tel. I layer it in my tamale pie, also use it in lasagna, and in the "Frito" layered casserole which was so popular back in the 60s and occasionally is requested by friends who are feeling nostalgia for the "good old days" or some such idea. You can also use Ro-Tel in a cold tomato "pudding" with chunks of crusty bread, for a spicier version of this summer dish. "Mexican Pizza" made with Ro-Tel and pepper jack cheese on top of flour or corn tortillas is also very tasty. Oh yes, the other thing is hot Italian sausage cut into bite size bits and simmered in Ro-Tel and ladled into a hollowed out round Italian bread or any crusty boule.

Don't use Velveeta, get Campbell's Cheddar Cheese soup, or one of the newer offshoots and use that instead. Doesn't get gummy, ever!

No question is ever stupid! It is the people who "assume" they know the answer to something like this, without having seen it, who are truly stupid. Never, ever, hesitate to ask questions. It is the mark of a person who delights in learning and there are a great many people who take great pleasure in sharing their knowledge so you please both yourself and others. It is an admirable characteristic.

Exactly what I was saying. When I lived down below in the Valley and had the Garland, when it was installed, all of the upper cabinets had to be removed and the floor, back wall and ceiling were lined with firebrick and stainless steel - my husband at the time was a plasterer so he could do all the work, and a friend did the metal work and ducting, as we had to have a larger flue for the exhaust hood - the old one was only 6 inch, which was fine when the house was built in 1957, but codes had changed and for the Garland we had to have the larger one and also had to have a new gas meter and bigger gas line and THAT required a permit and certification by the fire marshall as well as building and safety. When it came time to sell the house, having the records of the various permits of the work that was done, showing that the changes were legal, made it much easier. And here is something that many people do not consider. Your homeowner's insurance only covers a finite amount of "personal property" which includes your appliances and TV, etc. When you add something new, inform your agent, send him a copy of the sales contract and a photo of the new appliance and add it on to your policy. It will only add a few dollars onto the cost of your policy but in case of fire, or catastrophic damage, you will get full value for a new one and prorated value if it is a few years old, instead of having it lumped in with the rest of your personal property. Add it up and see how much you will have to come up with out of your own pocket if you don't do it this way, particularly if you have a large TV, or any particularly valuable piece of furniture. With photos in his files and records of individual items, you won't have to prove that you had something in the house in case of total loss. This is especially important if you have multiple refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers and etc., because the policies that do have an option for appliances in addition to other personal property only figure on one of each.

Several years ago Bristol Farms opened a new market in Woodland Hills, which was not too far from my office. They had a great "cut to order" cheese section with many imported cheeses, some very expensive. I asked them about carrying brick cheese and the cheese manager (very knowledgeable about cheese) had never heard of it. I asked if he could order it for me and a couple of weeks later I got a call at work that said they had it in. At noon I went in and bought a couple of pounds - it was the aged brick - I used that up over the weekend and when I stopped in the next week there was none left. It had all sold to store employees after the cheese guy gave them samples to taste. They carried it and it sold very well, especially to transplanted Wisconsonites, until the store closed. (The store did well but it was in the same parking lot with Toys R Us and a bank and the parking was horrible, not enough for the market, so they were able to break their lease.) It was a terrible blow to me as I am a huge fan of Bristol Farms. I drive all the way to South Pasadena, at least once a month, to shop there. They have a pretty good cheese selection but it is a much smaller store and the cheese is mostly pre-cut and packaged and I like to sample cheeses that are unfamilar to me before I buy. I keep hoping that a real cheese shop will open up here in the Antelope Valley, we now have over half a million residents, so the customer base is here (Trader Joes is doing very well since opening a bit over a year ago), but so far it hasn't happened.

I used to have one of the old ones and the base plate could be lifted and rotated 90 degrees to make the cross cut after the first linear cut had been made. Mine only had the one cutter. The newer ones come with the wires in different configurations to make the different shapes. I sold mine to a friend who was starting a business and needed one and I was no longer using it. Check with some of the auction places that specialize in used commercial equipment - that is how I got the one I had and several other pieces of equipment I used to use when I was working professionally. This is one of the places that always had an ad in the L.A. Times for upcoming auctions. Another was Isidore Plotnick and Sons but I couldn't find them on the web under this name. I bought my old Garland range from them back in the 70s for a fantastic price.

I buy a lot of cheese online. Ideal Cheese Shop in New York is my favorite - they also carry the delectable peppadews. Ideal Cheese I order Wisconsin brick cheese - a cheese that seems to be one that is not exported to retailers outside the state - from cheese mart for the aged loaf of brick. I also get their butterkase and the 7-year-old cheddar which is fantastic. I have mentioned in earlier threads that I have tried my hand at cheesemaking, both fresh and aged cheese, nothing spectacular, just homey stuff that gives me pleasure. If you can get the correct ingredients cheesemaking is relatively easy and doesn't take a lot of equipment, even a small cheese press is not very expensive. It does take time and a place to store the cheeses - I used to use an old wine cooler but bought a regular refrigerator and simply set it to 50 degrees, which seems to be the ideal temperature for most cheeses. Here is one website for cheesemaking supplies. and this one Fias farm has some great recipes that are very easy and well worth the effort.

Sounds like I might be a candidate - my current fascination are the Nilgiri teas.

If you have the superfine cheesecloth, also known as "butter muslin" you can wash and reuse it as long as it holds together. I generaly stretch it across the top section of the dishwasher and clip it to the pegs with bindery clips to keep it from being sucked into the disposal. I prefer not to wash it with my other things as I like it to be sterilized as it will be in direct contact with foods that readily accept mold spores and bacteria. As soon as they come out of the dishwasher dry, I fold them and put them in a ziploc bag to store. Fifi, you can buy butter muslin at some of the places that sell supplies for cheesemaking, or you can get a small package from Williams-Sonoma if you want to know how it is. I could even send you some, PM me! Some yardage stores will order it for you but you have to buy an entire bolt but it is very cheap that way.

Part of my house is on a slab and part on raised foundation. The gas lines in the new part, on the slab, are overhead, not under the floor. There are all kinds of ways to bring the gas piping in to a center island, it does not necessarily have to be in a wall. In the laundry room behind the kitchen, the gas line for the dryer comes down through a column that is 6 feet from another matching column that has a bank of power outlets. Both columns have been fitted with brackets that hold shelves above the washer and dryer. The columns are steel and can hold lots of weight. I have seen similar applications where a range hood was attached to a column that also contained the service to the range, including gas and electric. In that case the range hood and its exhaust sleeve were finished on all sides.

During the years I lived alone, I always had lots of leftovers and there were many times that they went into the freezer and never saw the light of day until it was time to clean it out. Now that I have a live-in housekeeper, the leftover problem has largely resolved itself. Anka is tall, very thin and apparently has the metabolism of a soccer player. She eats enormous amounts and never gains an ounce. Plus, she takes large lunches to school (she is attending design school) and generously shares with her buddies. Since I love to cook and always cook in generous amounts, we both are happy. Even though it is a long drive up here from the Valley, her friends like to hang out here on the weekends and are often very helpful when there are things to be done that would be difficult for Anka alone. (I don't do heavy lifting since fracturing my spine last April.) They seem perfectly contented with a meal in return for their efforts. One of the most gratifying things for a person who loves to cook is an appreciative group of diners. They also enjoy leftovers when I am busy with another project and I have no more problems with things languishing in the freezer until they need to be trashed. Sometimes some odd combinations have resulted but as long as they enjoy it, who am I to tell them that pork stewed in green sauce does not necessarily pair well with chicken a la orange with a side of sweet potatoes and apples. Youth, I envy the digestion, but not much else.............

Check this bit from America's Test Kitchen from Cook's Illustrated.

I have several Rival Crockpots and other "slow cookers" including the Cuisinart. I use them for cooking syrups, candying fruit, making preserves and other things that usually require standing over a stove to monitor them fairly constantly. with these appliances I can just look in now and again. The smallest is a 2 quart and the largest is an 8 quart made by Magic Mill. I have a West Bend but not the one she mentioned. I also have Hamilton Beach, Proctor-Silex, Farberware and Toastmaster. I had a Russell Hobbs but gave it to a friend and neighbor who had broken the insert in her big crockpot and needed one instantly, early on a holiday morning, - the one I had was a gift and I had never used it. Some of them do "dribble" a bit but I always place them on trays so they don't mess up the counters if they should happen to boil over. I only plug them into outlets that have integral circuit breakers - fire safety is first with me! They do the job I want them to do and are relatively easy to clean, except for one old round one, soon to be retired, that does not have a removable insert. Oh yes, I also have something called a "Chef's Pot" made by Dazey, that doubles as a deep fryer and which has a ceramic insert that "sings" - I think it has a crack in it that doesn't show but it makes a funny innnnnnnnnnggggg noise when it is cooking. We don't use it much, except for keeping stuff such as chili warm out by the barbecue, becaue if it breaks I won't care. It heats up very rapidly and the heating coils are only in the bottom, not on the sides. I use one crockpot for melting chocolate when I am going to need a lot, since my old chocolate temperer is no longer reliable - - and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one. ( I ordered one but when it came I didn't like the looks of it and sent it back.) I simply took the crockpot to my appliance repair man and had him set the rheostat to a lower setting so it will only get so warm and no warmer. I think he charged me $20.00 for this bit of technical work.... I also have three of the giant, original "slow" cookers known as electric roasters which serve the same purpose and which is where the idea of the slow cookers actually began, before West Bend produced the hot plate with a bean pot atop it in 1959 (I have one of these in my collection of "vintage" appliances) known as The Beanery and occasionally seen at yard sales and on ebay. The electric roasters have come back into fashion and are again seen in many stores after a lapse of many years. The newer ones do not come with the inner cooking containers that were an integral part of the olds ones, along with a rack to hold them. In the Westinghouse they actually offered a set of 5, one large one and 4 smaller ones. The 4 smaller ones could be stacked 2 and 2 so that an entire meal could be cooked at one time, theorectically. Rather than just high and low settings, the electric roasters have variable temp thermostats that can be set to any temperature and they are very good at keeping the temperature even. I cook large batches of candied ginger in these big cookers. It makes it very easy.

I have a couple of friends who bought a home about 6 or 7 years ago, both are well over 6 feet tall, and while the kitchen had recently been beautifully redone, with a nice high ceiling with skylights, naturally the counters (a beautiful moss green granite) were the standard height. They solved the problem by having the upper cabinets moved well up on the walls, hung on special brackets that will hold a huge amount of weight, but will allow the cabinets to be repositioned if they ever move. The base cabinets were raised 5 inches which allowed drawers in what would ordinarily be the kick space. Clever drawers, set back in the kick space by 2 inches, it only takes toe pressure to release the spring latches and the drawers extend out fully so everything is in reach. They actually don't need them for kitchen items, but use them to store things they don't want stolen in case of a break-in. Unless you know about the drawers, you would never guess they are there. They have several low stools for those of us who find the counters too high, when we visit and are cooking.

What is monkey bread? Do you have a recipe you're willing to share? We're planning a bake sale as part of a fundraiser in my synagogue this summer, so I've been avidly reading this thread for ideas. Many thanks. ← Monkey bread is simply made from a light bread dough, I usually use a brioche dough, that is separated after the initial rise, into small pieces, (I squeeze it between my palm and base of my thumb in my left hand so a golf-ball-sized bit oozes out) twist or pinch the place where they pull away from the dough mass. Then each piece is dipped into melted butter and packed into a loaf or ring pan until the pan is 2/3 full. Then the top is brushed with more melted butter and it is baked. If I want is a little sweet, after dipping in the melted butter, each piece is rolled in a mixture of cinnamon/sugar and then packed in the pan. This comes out like a pull-apart loaf, with each, very rich morsel separating from the main part of the loaf and is usually eaten this way instead of being sliced. Any type of bread dough can be used and is vastly improved by the application of melted butter. Here is a recipe on the web: Monkey bread

This is the giant canner I use:pressure canner It takes two people to lift it but it has more capacity than any other thing I own, except for the stock tank out back where we wash the stuff that comes out of the big garden.

I do a lot of canning and freezing and need to blanch large quantities of vegetables at the same time. I use a 34 quart stockpot on the high temp turkey fryer burner out on the deck, with an ice water bath in a cooler next to it. If I need more than one vessel at the same time, I have two of these immersion heaters which I drop into another large stockpot or this giant pressure canner and get the water as hot as it will go with the electrics, then transfer it to the gas burner long enough to get a rolling boil. I have large wire baskets to hold the vegetables to dip them into the boiling water, bought at Smart & Final. They had a side handle but I bent it up so it is vertical and added another one on the opposite side to make it easier to dip them. The turkey fryer burners are a great help. They are low enough so that you can use them safely, without having to chin yourself on the edge of a deep stockpot and I find all kinds of uses for it without necessarily deep frying a turkey. I have one huge stockpot with a spigot at the bottom and I only use it on the turkey fryer. Off season you can often find them as cheap as $40.00, and even regular prices are rarely over 60.00. Not bad for such a versatile piece of equipment. P.S. I do about 10 quarts of green beans in a batch. Just to give you an ideat. You can use smaller vessels and the water will come to a boil a lot faster, this way your kitchen does not get all steamy, not a problem where I live, in the desert, but if you live in a humid area, this is a very good thing. big canner

If the crepe maker is the electric kind that is dipped into the batter, then turned upright to allow the crepes to bake, the trick with the batter is make it the evening before and put it in the fridge overnight. I have one of these and this is what I do when I use it for smaller crepes, 7 inch diameter. I also have a larger electric crepe maker and I have use the flat edge of one of the nylon or silicone dough scrapers to drag the batter around the top. It came with a thing that set in a groove on the outside edge but it was a little too unwielldy for me to use so I use the scraper instead.

I posted the following on the "I Want to be a Brasin Hussy" thread. We were discussion the lack of flavor in eye of round. However sirloin works well also. You still need to do some pounding, which is quite cathartic, and the final dish is greater than the parts. I don't think you will be disappointed. Braciola is something people don't think of doing but it can take a so-so cut of meat and turn it into something sublime. "If you can find a half of an eye of round there is one thing you can do that works quite well. You have to cut it on the diagonal to make long oval slices about an inch + thick, then pound it out to half that thickness, so it is also much wider and longer, with a tenderizer or the edge of a heavy saucer (the old fashioned restaurant ware is great for this). You then roll it up and treat it almost like a pot roast. You can see a recipe here. braciola or beef rolls Wonderful flavor and can be stretched greatly by serving with pasta. I have Italian friends who make these as individual servings by cuttin the eye of round crossways, the way I did for my braise, then serving the braciola on a bed of pasta with the sauce over all. I don't use jarred or canned spagetti sauce and neither do my friends, but other than that, this recipe is the easiest to do."easy recipe for braciola

I love most herbs and grow them in abundance. I have rosemary hedges and trees, not just plants and one, at least, is threatening to take over the entire corner of the garden as it is breaking out of its concrete and brick planter. However, I prefer to have them in moderation in my food, they should never overpower the dish but should enhance the flavor or be a counterpoint. The one thing that really gets to me is when too many juniper berries have been used in a dish or infused into a sauce. It takes on a turpentine taste that I can't get rid of and afterward, everthing that goes into my mouth takes on the taste, even milk. I think liking or disliking cilantro is a genetic thing, however I also beleive that one can develop a taste for it, IF you have it in the right context. Not in salsa, to get the best of it, you should combine it with a fatty substance. A little piece of carnitas or even just a bit of roast pork, cut thin and put a tiny bit of cilantro and some onion on it, roll up the piece of pork and taste. I have introduced a lot of people to cilantro this way and usually they find that it tastes a lot different than it does on its own. You have to use it sparingly, however. And never, never, never pair it with fish. I can't eat it with fish and I love cilantro any other way.

For future reference: As a veteran of hundreds of bake sales for the kid's schools, raising money for band uniforms, game trips and everything else you can imagine, I can tell you that the #1 biggest seller was chocolate chip cookies, the Toll House variety, no nuts! Because of the problem with peanut allergies, the instructions specified nothing with peanuts. Other nuts were okay as long as the things were labeled. Since so many people made the choc chip cookies, I always made something different. The #2 biggest sellers were Banana Walnut or Banana Pecan muffins and I usually made 6 dozen, wrapped them individually and they always sold out early. The #3 sellers were cinnamon rolls, without icing, usually with a cinnamon/sugar sprinkle on top and again, individually wrapped, except some people baked them in round cake pans and those were sold entire as pull-aparts. The slowest things to go were the whole cakes, especially those with icing so you couldn't see what was in them. Slices of Bundt cakes, individually wrapped, sold well, particularly the dark chocolate ones. The small square tea cakes with strusel topping also were good sellers. I made them in regular cupcake liners, just reshaped to fit the square tins. The things have to be readily identifiable and recognizable to the buyers. Anything that looks unusual or too covered, was ignored. However there are exceptions and you can create customers by offering samples. One year I made 10 loaves of "Monkey Bread" in regular disposable aluminum loaf pans. I took one apart and cut it into bite size pieces and offered them as samples. One lady bought 1 loaf, then came back half an hour later and bought the last 2. The next bake sale I made 20 and people were buying them 2 at a time. (I did not pay for all the ingredients myself, some of the moms who did not bake or had jobs that prevented them from doing so, bought the ingredients and I did the baking, lest you think that I was being super generous - this simply insured that we had enough stuff to make the sales worthwhile.)