andiesenji

I learned to use chopsticks as a practical matter and to be polite to my hosts. When I was stationed at the Presidio, San Francisco, in the late 50s, my roommate was Asian and we spent nearly every weekend at her home and chopsticks were put out as a matter of course and I simply did not want to ask for western type flatware. My friend and her family were very patient with me, teaching me how to use them and I became quite proficient and learned the taboos of what not to do with them. (don't cross them on the plate or you won't have boy babies, don't stab them into your rice bowl and don't use one to stir your tea, although I never did any of these things.) They were like another family to me and when I was discharged at the end of my enlistment, they gave me a beautiful pair of ivory chopsticks inlaid with abalone. I have never used those for eating, but they are something I will treasure always, particularly since ivory can no longer be imported. I think that eating properly with chopsticks is very elegant, showing a real appreciation of the food. However if someone is not comfortable using them I do think they should stick to forks and spoons.

As long as you don't leave the meat in the marinade too long, using yogurt is okay. If you leave meat and especially chicken in yogurt too long, it becomes spongy and almost fluffy - not at all desirable. I speak from experience - having forgotten to remove chicken from a yogurt-based marinade and having to throw it all out, horrible, nasty stuff.......... Buttermilk has a similar effect.

I think that many places put them out but the patrons play with them then ask for forks so they save a little and only provide them for people who ask. I solve the problem by carrying chopsticks with me. I have a case that holds two pair of chopsticks and it lives in the bottom of my purse until I need them. They are the Japanese type and I am fairly proficient with them and there are just some foods that just seem better when conveyed to the mouth via chopsticks. One Chinese place here in town always places chopsticks on the table and they are the real thing, not the short disposable type. They are bamboo and are steamed to sterilize them. (I have been in the kitchen.) Here at my desk, I have a couple of pairs of chopsticks, one pair Japanese type, the other Chinese type in my pencil holder. In the kitchen I have a bunch in a holder and I have several pair of the long cooking chopsticks which I often use for turning deep fried foods. I think they are an extremely efficient method of eating.

Regarding the difference in finishes. For many years I had only regular or hammered copper and only polished it a couple of times a year, mainly to clean up the bottom when it got a bit crusty and I thought it wasn't heating evenly (probably my imagination). I didn't mind that it looked darker, to me the beauty of things that are made to be used, is evidence that they are used and loved. It isn't all that difficult to clean them. There are all kinds of stuff you can buy, but I always used half a lemon dipped in salt with some BarKeeper's friend for stubborn spots and my housekeeper uses the same system . The Falk brushed finish is easier to maintain but it doesn't have that certain look, the deep glow, that I equate with fine copper - however that is just my quirky feeling. Now all my copper gleams because I have a housekeeper who is a fanatic. I have never asked her to clean or polish it but she does because she likes it to look nice and it keeps her away from stuff I want left alone. (I have threatened her with broken fingers if she ever touches my cast iron and that she leaves alone, mainly because it hangs in the pantry instead of the kitchen.)

The Mauviel pro line is heavier than the "tabletop" line - you know the difference because the pro line has cast iron handles, as does the Bourgeat. Most of my old stuff is Bourgeat but since most of it needs retinning, I am using only the newer stuff with stainless steel lining. Mauviel is the company that patented the "Cuprinox process" that bonds stainless steel to the copper.

The pans I use most (besides the skillets) are the 3.7quart sauce pan with straight sides, made by Mauviel, pro line stainless with the cast iron handle and the 3 quart curved splayed sauce pan with the Bourgeat name, apparently now made by Mauviel - it is also the heavier copper with cast iron handle. I don't worry much about polishing, however I now have a housekeeper that likes to polish it so it is okay by me. Before she came to work for me I polished it about twice a year, I like things to look like they have been used, not just decor. I do have the Falk 3 quart Sauciere with lid and use it interchangeably with the two above but if you need something with a lid, this one is a good buy.

There is a California Mission cookbook somewhere in my collection that was published in the 60s, as I recall, and which described California Rancho cooking as being more Spanish influenced than Mexican or Southwestern. I believe it was published by the printers who publish the California Mission guides and sold to support mission restoration. It was a spiral bound book with Mission San Luis Rey on the cover. (One of my favorite missions, which is why I remember that.) It has been a long time since I even opened the book and I will have to see if I can readily find it, however, I do remember recipes for omelettes and "tortilla" which were not at all like the tortillas we buy in the local stores. It had recipes for beef and lamb cooked on spits, chicken cooked in clay pots and fish cooked on rock slabs heated by coals. I have not looked as the book by Ms. MacMahan, but it sounds like something I should add to my collection, thanks for posting the info.

I have used Pomelo, Oro Blanco (Sweeties), Page Mandarin, Limequat, Sweet Limes and Key Limes or Mexican Limes and of course the Etrog citron. Some for candying, either the fruit or the peel. Not all of these are new, and some have been around for a very long time, just not usually seen in markets. I also get the very unusual Buddah's Hand lemons for the peel, which is extremely aromatic, far more than any regular lemon.

I am afraid that I would not have been as diplomatic as some. My usual reaction to Cool Whip is "Good Heavens! why would anyone want that chemical pap on Real Food?"

That is the dammdest looking kitchen I have ever seen. I see what you mean about it being a maze. I can't imagine being able to work in such an area. And it would be an incredible feat for two people to work in the kitchen at the same time, and remain friends......

This is a test to see if my photo will post, the one I tried to post a couple of days ago. My favorite knives! That is a full-sized sheet pan holding the cutting board.

Frosted mini-wheats, spoon sized, half and half with Cheerios. Broguiere's Milk - comes in a glass bottle and tastes the way milk is supposed to taste. Worth every penny of the inflated price and th $1.00 deposit on each bottle.

Regarding Claremont, the only time I go there is during the "Mission Circuit" round of dog shows at the L.A. County Fairplex and generally a bunch of us go to Tutti Mangia for Italian food. It is very good and the servings are extremely generous. We keep going back to the same place as everyone know how to find it and there is something for everyone on the menu. It's on Harvard but that is all I recall. Claremont is a college town and many restaurants are very crowded on weekends.

As I mentioned, the danger would not be to the consumer, who would hopefully have enough sense not to gobble up 30 or 40 chocolates at one sitting..... However the person handling the ingredient needs to be warned to wear gloves with good integrity so as to not be exposed to the material for long periods or repeatedly in a short period of time because it is absorbed through the skin. I grew up on a farm where tobacco was grown and like all the kids, got to help with hanging the bundles in the drying sheds. From personal experience I can attest to the fact that after getting the sap on hands and arms one could taste it for many hours afterward and that was not the refined and concentrated product. (They stopped growing tobacco on the farm in 1967.)

I want to add one more caution. While the amount of nicotine in a single serving of a dish, dessert or drink might be well below the toxic level, anyone handling it as an ingredient is also at risk because it is readily absorbed through the skin. Years ago we used to use it extensively as a garden pesticide and one of the gardeners who worked for me in the early 80s became very ill after spraying the stuff and getting his shoes soaked with it although he was wearing rubber gloves and a mask. He became disoriented, had hallucinations, was wandering out in the street when we found him, and had to be hospitalized for several days to detox. The ER doctor said he might have died if not for prompt attention. It is not something to play around with unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Thanks for this greaet idea. I actually bought a hot tub thermometer and used it in yogurt and cheesemaking, but it didn't float such that I could actually read the temperature without pulling it up out of the liquid and I got tired of cleaning all the milk out of the inside of it. ← The one I have needs to be pulled up to read it but it is glass and I just wipe down the side I want to read. It is just 5 3/4 inches long so fits well in a quart jar. I rinse it in cold water, wipe it with alcohol then rinse again before putting it away in a ziploc bag which I roll up and store in a sleeve of bubble wrap to protect the thing. Laboratory supply places are excellent sources for thermometers and have great pricing. Kodak thermometer. This one just has the best picture so you can see what it looks like.

We have all tried it, so you needn't feel like an idiot. Anything that brings us more knowledge is good. You learned something and progressed as an individual. I just happened to do it a long time ago because I am a lot older than most of the people here. This particular mistake was long in the past for me but I still have new ones coming along.

How could I have forgotten.......... I am making gingerbread and I always butter it lavishly as soon as it comes out of the oven so the butter melts and is absorbed. Then while still warm I cut a thin slice and apply butter to the cut side and eat it immediately while the butter is still partly visible. Oooooohhhhhh. Oh yes, my method of buttering it - I use a cheese plane as it is the quickest way to get a long slice of butter, just the right thickness, ready to drop onto the top of the gingerbread.

Nicotine

It is not true that if people begin drinking junk wines they are doomed forever to continuing down that road. I have known more than a few people in the wine business from the root to the table and except for a very few exceptions, they all comment that they do not care what kind of wine people start out drinking, as long as they do drink wine. Because there is a chance that eventually they will venture out from the familar base to different, more exotic, more expensive and notable wines, however if they never drink wine at all or are discouraged by being put-down for their plebian tastes, they will not make that step into the more rarefied atmosphere. One vintner said that a palate can always be educated but a person with a rigid mind set and not willing to try the mundane along with the supeior, might miss out on something that could be extraordinary. He said that on his travels he had tasted a great many unremarkable wines but these were also inoffensive and probably attractive to an uneducated palate because of the lack of assertive flavor. Some had promise with appropriate aging in the bottle and he was in the habit of buying a bottle or two of the latter and putting them by to see just how they would mature. One of his pet peeves were people who wrote off an entire category or year of wines simply because they had become popular with the "masses," which he said was the worst type of pomposity and arrogance. He had nothing but scorn for the "ivory tower" wine critics who had only bad things to say about the wines from a particular region because they just weren't doing their jobs, too lazy to really get out and do comparison tasting in the field. He has now passed on to the great vineyard in the sky, but he always said that every glass of wine that passed his lips taught him something, whether the wine itself was good, bad, mediocre, extraordinary or sublime.

For chestnut lovers, like me, there is: Girolami Farms Chestnuts I have long been a fan of Swab's foods - the garlic-stuffed olives are the best I have ever tasted. Long known only to those who drove up and down highway 395, on the eastern side of the Sierra (and here in the Antelope Valley), their unique product line is now available online and thankfully so. I have bought and shipped assorted products to friends who once lived or vacationed in the area and fell in love with the various products. Now they can order their own. Swab Farms. Another local producer I favor is Mel's Olives. Again, these are small batch products and if you visit farmers markets in southern California you might have met Mel at one time or another. As he states in his brochures, if you like garlic, you will like his products. I buy these for my Italian boss, who swears these are the absolute best for helping keep one on a diet. One or two pieces from the mixed vegetables is enough to satisfy as a low calorie snack. For the gardeners among us, particularly those needing or wanting unusual citrus trees, here is the place to go. GrowQuest.

Perhaps not illegal, but very unwise!

I love cooking and feel that too much planning, unless I am preparing an elaborate feast with multiple entrees and sides that have to be brought together at a specified time, causes me to lose some spontaneity and flair. This is the reason that I often do not have a specific recipe for a dish and that the dish itself is constantly evolving until it reaches a point that I feel is virtually perfect. Not to say that it couldn't be improved but rather it has reached a point where further changes would take it away from the desired result. I enjoy eating, but it is a far second to the cooking and planning is yet further down the list. You didn't mention shopping, however many of my adventures in the kitchen have begun with the discovery of a new and interesting ingredient in a market and then figuring out how to use it in a recipe or basing a recipe on it. I look up recipes that use it and go from there. Except in baking, where adherence to a formula is critical, I rarely prepare a recipe exactly as written every time. Usually I will prepare it the first time as written, then use it as a platform to put my own stamp on it. This is the part that is fun for me and sometimes just substituting one ingredient for another, or adding an ingredient, can completely change the entire complexion of the recipe and make it more interesting to me. This may sound arrogant but I am not trying to "one-up" the recipe author, I simply want to explore new avenues of flavors, textures and appearance.

I have bought and used every remote probe thermometer on the market (avid gadgeteer) and have not been satisfied with any of them. Some have an alarm that is too faint to hear if one is in another room and the distance from my kitchen is too great to place the base where I can easily hear it when I am in another part of the house. I can't use them in my big oven because it is a steam oven and even the thinnest cable will interrupt the steam seal. I can't use them in my combination oven because the stand revolves and twists the cable. I use instant read thermometers and separate timers and I highly recommend the Thermapen mentioned by esvoboda. If I am cooking a roast or fowl for long periods, I use an Accu-Rite meat thermometer which has a dial that is big enough to read through the oven window and simply stays in the meat. The older, larger types by Taylor are the ones I use in the barbecue because they have a movable marker on the outer rim that you can set for the target temperature and it is easy to see when the needle hits that point, without trying to read the numbers. For liquids, I use thermometers designed for liquids. For low temperature applications, such as the liquids to be used in breads, particularly when dealing with large batches, I use a floating darkroom thermometer made by Kodak, which I have had for 20+ years. It has a range from -10 to +120 F. and is very accurate.

Or you walk in Smart & Final and everyone in the store knows you by your first name and directs you to an unadvertized special on a 50-pound bag of bread flour and on full-sized sheet pans (10 for 79.99, regular price 9.99 each (since have gone up to 10.99 each).