andiesenji

It looks like I may have to do this. I'm smoking a 2-3lb pork loin. It's been in the smoker for 5 hours or so, but the temperature gauge on the smoker reads "warm" instead of "ideal." Which leads me to suspect that the sub-freezing temperatures outside are taking their toll. I've never had to finish a smoked pork loin (or, for that matter, anything else) in the oven before. Anyone have suggestions on the best way to go about this to preserve flavor, juicyness, etc? ← This is too late to help you now, but in the future, get some of the insulating material that is used to wrap water heaters, line furnace closets, furnace outlet vents, etc., and wrap the sides and part of the hood of your smoker when the temps are below freezing. The stuff I found is rate for temps up to 600 degrees if not in direct contact with flames and works very well to insulate the smoker. I have heavy wires cut to fit and fasten them with leash snaps so the "jacket" can be placed and removed easily.

The food over at West Hills Hospital is sometimes pretty good. Their meatloaf is wonderful, as good as any I have made. Occasionally they have ham and serve it by the slab, which is enough for at least two people or for lunch and dinner. The scalloped pototoes are great and made from real potatoes and not from a can (occasionally there are a few slices with the skin still attached, also their garlic mashed potatoes made from boiled red potatoes with the skins. And their enchiladas are great. The head cook is from Guatemala and makes them fairly spicy and the servings are generous. Chicken is generally inedible, pot roast is so-so, strogonoff is mystery meat and I won't touch it but the noodles are good so I just get them and butter them generously. And it is cheap, for anyone who works for any of the doctors on staff the cost of lunch including a drink is $3.00 and the servings are so generous that some people make two meals from it. Then there is the fish problem - my boss loves fish and keeps trying the various offerings but they fail time after time. Even catfish, which is not difficult to prepare, is pretty bad. I often pity the patients, they have fewer choices than we do.

I also have friends who like to bake and often bring me gifts of their efforts and often they are quite good but not always to my taste. I don't critique their efforts but what I do is tell them that their pie, cake, pastry, is very tempting and that I am going to take a small portion for myself but have to limit myself because I have diabetes but would hate to have it go to waste because of my limited diet so I ask if they would mind if I pass it on to my neighbors, who have a huge family and love any kind of baked goods and would appreciate it immensly. They are always flattered to hear that I like their offering so much I will pass it along to my neighbors because they know how often we get together for communal meals. Sometimes I just take the things to the office where it disappears, no matter what it is....After all, the folks in the office also eat at the hospital cafeteria several times a week.

And how about the difference between a guitar and a "guitar". (for pasta). I would post a picture of my antique guitar but ImageGullet is still not operational for me.

I am not a wine drinker but I know the owners of Maloy O'Neill and how dedicated they are to producing a superior product. Their wines are winning awards against tough competition and are reasonably priced.

I had a hotdogger when my kids were at home because at that time I had a Garland range and I didn't want them using it when I wasn't around until they got old enough to understand how to use it safely. I had several electric appliances that the kids could use safely without burning the house down and while it may have appeared stupid, it worked and they thought it was fun to use and even cleaned up after themselves! Even better, they all became interested in preparing food and became excellent cooks in their own right (as well as a few of their friends from the neighborhood whose mothers were not very handy in the kitchen). Sometimes it takes just a little nudge to get a young person interested in cooking and in my opinion, anything that keeps kids occupied and out of trouble, is worth every penny spent on it.

Having been in the dog show world for many, many years, I have had a great many gay friends, who excel at showing dogs with great style. However not all were great cooks, not all were fashion plates and few fell into the sterotypical frame that many people assume. A few were great cooks and some were professionals. Some couldn't find their way around a kitchen with a map and they weren't all decorators either. One was a high steel worker! For a couple of years one young man rented a room in my house and had kitchen privaleges but never stepped foot in the kitchen. His successor, who stayed for 5 years, loved cooking and baking and had plans to attend culinary school but caught a break and has been very successful in the entertainment business. We keep in touch and he still loves cooking but just as a hobby now - he has been able to afford the most amazing kitchen that even makes me envious. He is definitely a foodie - now even has an interest in a vineyard and an olive grove. However his partner, an artist, often doesn't even remember to eat unless prompted and will eat anything and everything without caring whether it is gourmet or the crappiest fast food. And ladyyoung, I didn't see anything in market's post to imply you were not intelligent. It was a joke about the series on TV, not about you. I haven't watched the show either, but there has been so much about it on other shows, it would have been difficult not to know it existed.

I wish I could find the bit I copied from Bizarre News a couple of years ago. Some weird artist in Florida was making sculptures out of palmetto bugs, dipping them in a type of clear epoxy or similar resin and sticking them onto wire armatures formed into varius shapes. One sculputre was a grove of palm trees about 8 feet tall and from a distance looked like a real tree. Apparently he lived in a place that was heavily infested by the "state mascot" and decided to make use of them. He had already sold one piece to a hotel for display near their outdoor dining area. (Shudder!)

There are few areas in southern California where you would want to use seawater from near the shore, or even 10 miles offshore. If, however you live along the central coast, (away from the power plant) or along the Mendocino coast (assuming you could get down to the beach from the top of the cliffs, the highest point along the Pacific coast), then you should be able to use the water safely. I used to do a lot of fishing and our boats always went out quite far to get away from the effulvia from the shore. There is also always a lot of muck in the water, just from being stirred up by the breakers. One of my stepsons was an avid surfer and you wouldn't believe the amount of sand that came out of his baggies when I washed them. Compared to the water up around Big Sur and points north, our water down here is very dirty, particularly at this time of the year. Having flown over it, out to sea, then back again, it is very obvious how far out the stuff from run-off goes. (Years ago I got a ride on the Goodyear blimp, a run out to Catalina and back, a high point in my life!)

I love to grate sweet potatoes with this and deep fry them. I have been doing this for years, ever since I had them at a restaurant in Pasadena and was so impressed with the flavor.

You know for sure when your mailbox is full (large rural mailbox) and it includes only one bill plus 9 catalogs, food or kitchen related only, a package from the Mustard Museum and one from Salsa Express.

In addition to culinary bear's #3 suggestion, I smooth the surface of the guacamole and spray it with one of the culinary oils, plain, garlic or lemon, then apply the plastic wrap to the entire surface. Using this method I have held guacamole in the fridge for 8 hours with no browning whatsoever. The bit about the seed is not true. The guacamole in contact with the seed will not brown because it keeps air away from the surface but the rest of it will brown.

Get the pods at Smart & Final, they are only $3.99 a bag there. I buy it by the box (6 bags to the box) and get a slight discount and also use my Smart Advantage card (apply free online)Smart & Final. I prefer the Dark Roast - it has way more flavor than the medium. Be sure and get the Senseo with the extra large water container. I got the ones I bought for gifts at Sam's Club and they came with the extra large container for the same price as the regular, $67.00. They did have the Senseo at Costco for 67.00 with a $20. rebate, however it was the one with the regular water tank and to buy the thing separately is $19.95. They may now have the ones with the larger tank, I haven't been in Costco for a while, but that is my advice. (I bought 6 to give as gifts).

I agree, the Thai restaurant here in Lancaster that is my favorite, got a B rating because they don't have a new code grease trap. The thing is that their main parking is behind the restaurant and most of the customers can walk through the kitchen (on one side, against a wall) and see everything that goes on in there, insures that the regulars know the place is clean, the cooks ditto and there is no pathogen that could live at the temps where the food is cooked. Sometimes the place is so foggy with steam that you practically need a guide to get through to the dining room. I have been in the place early in the morning (I did a portrait of their grandmother) and they were steam-cleaning the floor and walls. Good enough for me!

Discovering how to make a particular condiment is a creative adventure. I have had a lot of fun over the years experimenting with various combinations of ingredients to get just that perfect blend of sweet, hot, sour, salt and pungency that titillates the tongue and nose. Mostly I have been successful but am still trying to figure out what gave one particular firey-hot mustard its interesting flavors. A friend (chef), who moved to South Africa several years ago,sent me a little jar of mustard (along with some other oddities) with the name of "Mother-In-Law's Tongue", as he thought the name would amuse me. It did, but I was more taken with the flavors that gave the mustard its complex heat and pungency. The printing on the label, except for the name, was not in English so the true ingredients remain a mystery to me. I saved the jar but it was misplaced some time ago. I have probably made upwards of thirty tries to duplicate the flavor, using various types of mustard, African peppers, spices and herbs but still that particular flavor eludes me. It is one of those things that, I can't describe exactly, but would know it if I tasted it. I would love to try it again but have never found it on any website and Lee has since moved on and is no longer in Capetown. It is still fun to try, along with the various other mustard combinations I make. Most recent is a combination of my homemade seedy mustard with Crosse & Blackwell's Branston Pickle, mixed half and half and served with a roasted leg of pork. My God! that was good........tangy, a great complement to the pork without overwhelming it.

Any older version of Joy of Cooking. doc ← Home Made in the Kitchen Barry Bluestein, Kevin Morrissey, Jeanne Troxell Munson Better Than Store Bought and Fancy Pantry by Helen Witty and also her Good Stuff cookbook. These are the ones I turn to whenever I want to make something and don't have a clue where to begin. Helen Witty has the best recipes for wine jellies I have yet discovered and her recipe for cream crackers in Fancy Pantry is absolutely the best, I depend on it.

I make my own vanilla extract and use only the Bourbon for this purpose. The flavor is stronger and "cleaner" or rather has only the vanilla without the floral overtones fo the Tahitian, which I do not care for in the extract. It does have its place, particularly when the bean is infused in milk or cream. I have tried the Hawaiian vanilla, a friend who lives there send me a couple of beans. It was quite good but in my estimation, did not warrant the increased price over the other types.

Anyway, the picture is in my public album so anyone can look at it. Rather than mess around with another system, I will wait until imagegullet is working correctly again. When I get my other knives back I will post a photo of an old chef's knife, the same size as the Forschner, that was made for me many years ago. The guy who made it took a high carbon saw blade and cut the knife with full tang from it. It was a huge round saw blade from a saw mill so was much thicker than what we ordinarily think of as a saw blade. It takes and holds an exceptionally keen edge and until I got the Forschner, it was my "go-to" knife for cutting stuff that resisted everything else, acorn or butternut squash, no problem whatsoever. The blade looks stained but it has always been that way, dark and light spots that are part of the metal.

I was going to post a picture but apparently the photo I uploaded to my album can't be posted. When I click on it, instead of getting the window that allows me to copy the URL, I get a new message window. I don't have all one brand of knives. Some makers have certain knives that work better for me than other makers. I handle a knife and see how it feels in my hand before I buy. I have some very old knives that I still use and some newer ones that have become favorites. These are the ones I use all the time, perhaps not every day, but at least several times a week. The oldest is the smaller boning knife, made by Case, which I have had for about 40 years. The middle sized boning knife is a Dexter and I have had it for at least 30 years. I have several big chef's knives like the one at the top but this Forschner feels the best in my hand, has the best balance for me. The narrow bladed F. Dick utility knife and the custom made one 2nd to the left of it are the knives I use constantly, several times a day, along with the paring knives. The white handled boning knive is one of the super flexible ones sold at Smart & Final and it is amazing how much the blade can be bent and it is fantastic for boning out a ham or a leg of lamb or similar cut, the blade slides right around a bone with ease. The Wusthof slicer at the far right and the Robinson slicer at the top are the best of several long-bladed slicers I use and the Robinson is my favorite bread knife. I have had the three Global knives (plus a long filleting knife which I can't find) for at least three years and find they are wonderful for slicing larger fruits and vegetables. I like the way the blades that are beveled only on one side behave when cutting firm vegetables. Getting these out, I discovered some of my knives are missing and I realized that I took them to my neighbor's and left them there in my knife safe the last time we had a joint cooking venture. Obviously they are not ones that I use all the time. I have many more knives, I have not pulled out any of my butchering knives which I use only occasionally, or the specialty knives, such as the cake knive with the 14 inch blade or the real Chinese cleavers and knives that I also use rarely. I love knives, and am always searching for a new "perfect" knife but have been more than satisfied with these.

When you first start the machine, you have to "prime" it which pulls water into the inner chamber and heats it and pours out the first water which is much more than a regular cup, which is why the instructions say to use a container of a particular size. After that a certain amount of water remains inside the machine and that is what is heated in the 60 second heating period, then as the hot water is forced through the pods into the cup, fresh water is drawn in from the supply chamber and in turn is heated very rapidly which is how the machine can make individual cups in a fairly rapid sequence. I have been using the Senseo since the end of July last year and am very impressed with it. At Christmas I gave several as gifts. I gave one to a young lady who is in college and it is ideal for her. Her dorm rules state that they can not have any appliance in their rooms that has an exposed heat source so a regular coffeemaker with its hot plate is verboten. This machine, with no exposed heat source is ideal and since college kids often survive on coffee, it is becoming very popular. Nina mentioned that several of her dorm mates asked their parents for the machines and there are now at least a dozen just on her floor. I like the coffee it produces because I have always had a problem with coffee tasting stale to me shortly after being brewed, no matter how it is contained or kept warm. This machine, brewing one cup at a time, is ideal. It is something new for me because I have always been a major tea drinker, mainly because coffee, made the traditional ways, simply did not appeal to me. I happen to like my coffee with cream and sugar (Splenda now for my diabetes) and my routine is to put the milk or cream in a large mug with the sweetener, nuke it for 30 seconds to heat it and then use an Aerolatte to foam the hot milk. I use two pods and draw the two-cup serving straight into the foamy milk and at times it is almost as good as a meal. This is not a substitute for an espresso machine, it is a totally different end product, however, it is one of the best cups of coffee I have ever tasted and after six months the novelty has not worn off and I use it every day. I also bought one for the office and one for my boss. Other people in the office also enjoy it.

There are some links in the original post that didn't copy over. I also make polenta regularly (like last night) in the microwave. You may commence with the culinary ass-whipping now.... Jim ps.....I'm going to start reducing stuff, too..thanks andiesenji ← I do polenta and risotto in the microwave also - also the "instant" couscous when I don't have all the time needed for steaming it. Try this. Cut an apple into bite-size pieces, put it in a pyrex bowl, sprinkle with a little sugar(I use splenda) and cinnamon and a pat of butter. cover loosley with a saucer or ?? and cook for 3-4 minutes at full power.

I love hard-boiled eggs, split in half and with a small dollop of butter on the yolk. Often for lunch I will cut up an apple in a small dish, dot with butter and sprinkle with a little cinnamon (no sugar). I also love a bowl of tomato soup with a pat of butter melting in the center of the bowl.

No cornbread. Anka found some hominy in the small fridge so that went into the pot and I "refreshed" a loaf of asiago cheese bread baked Sunday evening. The soup is delicious, just enough spice to drive the cold away and very hearty.

No, it is the sound the pig makes. The old joke is that every part of a pig can be put to use, as food or other uses, except the squeal. Hog snout is a delicacy favored by many in the south and in Mexico.

Cooking on my stove at present is a "use up some stuff in the fridge" soup. It includes some extra small bacon pieces I cooked day before yesterday for a salad, some cooked fresh bratwurst from Sunday, some fresh black-eyed peas I had been planning to use for something else but this is their "use-by" date and of course, some chopped onion, shallots and green chile pepper with 1 1/2 quarts of chicken stock which I thawed and then couldn't remember what I had intended to do with it. (?"Old-timer's disease?) In any event it is progressing - I took photos and when finished will take another and if they look interesting will post same. It is cold and rainy today, our lovely warm weather a distant memory. At least the weekend was nice. This is a perfect day for soup. Maybe cornbread too.