andiesenji

I always have it on hand. I add it to stews and some soups. Many years ago a group of my husband's friends mixed it with stout to make what they called a "Larry Findlay" cocktail, in honor of a friend who had passed away in an auto racing accident.

There are several interesting things about free range chickens. First, the meat has more color, they are more active and develop increased circulation and capillary formation and even when fully cooked the meat will retain a rosy quality that may make one think it is underdone. This is the way farm raised chickens always looked but if you have never seen one it doesn't look quite right. There is also more flavor in the meat because of a more diversified diet which includes greens and other foods not fed to battery-raised chickens. The meat mass on the wings, thighs and legs is larger because of greater muscle mass developed from being allowed to roam free. Conversely the breast mass is slightly smaller. The heart and gizzard are also larger but the liver is slightly smaller. However, not all "free-range" chickens are actually free range. You have to know the supplier. True free-range chickens are not confined during the day but are allowed to roam free in an area planted with greens for them to feed on along with whole grains and commercial feeds specifically developed for birds for meat production or for egg-laying production. They are confined at night where they are safe from predators. Some so called free-range chickens are confined most of the time and allowed to "range" in a small area where only commercial feed is available. Tricky semantics. The breeds differ also. Some breeds thrive better as free ranging and some just have better flavor. I buy from a local farmer his "old" hens that have been egg producers for stewing hens. These are very large birds, Wyandotte and Buff Orpingtons, and, as is desirable in a stewing hen, have a much larger amount of fat than any battery raised bird. They are also good for slow roasting. The meat may be a little tougher than in a grocery store chicken but the flavor is far superior. The birds that are bred for rapid growth and meat production do not have the best flavor. If you can find a local supplier of real free range chickens call them and ask what breed they raise and where you can find their product for sale.

------------------------------------------------- More and more animal "assistants" are being added to the list of helpers. A very dear friend who has Parkinson's and has the typical hesitation gait, where his left foot seems to become stuck to the ground while he is walking and he simply cannot proceed. He now has an assist dog that puts his paw on Dean's foot when it gets "stuck" and that pressure interrupts the effect and he can resume walking. He also alerts if Dean has an episode of "freezing" while eating or just sitting and puts his paws on Dean's chest and pushes against him and again, this enables him to resume his activities. One of our patient's, who is an epileptic, now has her second "warning" dog who senses when she is going to have a seizure so she can get into a safe position with her mouthpiece in place. She got her first one when she was twelve and she is now 21 and her old dog is living with her mom. I recently saw a segment on one of the cable shows that showed a monkey helping a wheelchair-bound girl as she attended school, did her homework and fixed a snack in the kitchen. Just amazing.

The funny thing is all this does is make me want to eat foie gras more! ←

I don't blind bake the top crust, only the bottom. The bottom crust, pre-baked, is insulated by the fruit in the pie itself. The top crust bakes very rapidly so that when the filling is done, so is the top crust. If you bake it long enough to cook a non-pre-baked bottom, the top will be charred. When I bake an egg custard pie, it does not have a top crust. However I do want a fancy edge around the circumference. I cut little rounds, leaves or rosettes from dough, pull the pie (which is on a sheet pan) from the oven when it is about half done and the edges have thickened enough to support the dough, then add the "trim" overlapping the pieces around the entire outside edge, but not actually resting on the rim of the pie pan or plate. Again, this takes a little practice but it looks nice and gives a "finished" look to the pie. You can brush it with egg wash or a little simple syrup then sprinkle it with non-melting sugar to make it sparkle. The remaining baking time should be just enought to finish setting the custard and browing the added dough trim without causing it to scorch. You can practice by making a batch of dough, rolling it to different thicknesses and baking it on a sheet pan to see just how long it takes to bake to just showing color, to light brown, with and without an egg wash or whatever. If you have the times recorded on a little card it can help the next time you want to make a pie with a terrific presentation appearance. And you can always eat the practic pieces as a snack.

I try recipes often and if it is a specialty or ethnic dish I do follow the recipe at least the first time around. I have hundreds of cookbooks and often go on a search for something "different" or old, or famous or otherwise not the usual application and I do follow the recipe exactly as written. Otherwise I seldom use recipes. I have an idea of the result I want to achieve and I have been cooking for so many years that I know to reach that point I can do any number of things to get that particular flavor and will do one or the other. I like the adventure of adding a bit of this and a bit of that and tasting as I go. Baking is an entirely different matter. Baking is chemistry. One must follow a formula that has been developed over a period of thousands of years. There has to be the perfect balance of ingredients to get the expected results. I follow recipes to the letter. There are rules for alterations and substitutions and one must adhere to these or suffer a disappointing result. Learn the basics and commit them to memory and you can recognize an error in a recipe before you use it and have a poor result. Not every recipe is 100% correct. There are typos and drop outs but once you know the basics you can spot these prior to wasting your time.

I haven't read through all the posts so someone else may have mentioned this. A chewy cookie depends on moisture being retained in the dry ingredients and sugar definitely retains moisture in the product. However if you are cutting back on sugar you can use some other "tricks" to help retain moisture and tenderness but still have a chewy texture in quick breads, scones, cookies and similar baked goods. In your recipe, substitute 1 cup of oat flour for one of the cups of regular flour. If you can't find oat flour, it is easy to make your own by simply putting some rolled oats in a blender and pulsing the blender until the oatmeal is fairly well ground to a coarse to fine meal. You can try it in a food processor but I have found that does not work as well as a blender but you have to do a little bit at a time because it does not circulate the way a liquid does. (Unless you have a Vita-Mix blender which is designed for dry grinding wheat, oats, etc.) You know from experience that oats take up a lot of moisture and expand when moistened. The cells also hold onto this moisture for a long time, releasing it slowly into the surrounding material, which is why oatmeal bread stays fresh and moist much longer than pure wheat bread. Scones made with oat flour will stay fresh for two or three days(sometimes longer) while a regular scone is stale and hard in one day(or less). I have been doing a lot of baking with Splenda and now the makers have come out with a Splenda/sugar mixture especially for baking. You might give it a try also, but do experiment with the oatmeal or oat flour. I think you will be pleased with the outcome.

I have a fairly extensive garden so many meals can come from that but for wild foraging in the area it would take some work as this is a true desert except in the areas where water is available. When the Yucca blooms the blooms themselves are edible and are okay but I wouldn't want to have to depend on them a great deal. This is not the plant that has edible roots. The roots of this yucca can be harvested and used like soap. The mesquite beans are fairly well developed and they are good to eat. In another month or so the piñon pines up in the hills will be dropping their cones and the people who gather them will be out with their rakes and snake sticks. (The Mojave green, a rattlesnake with venom more powerful than the other varieties of rattler, just love to snuggle down under the piñon trees where the branches lay on the ground.) I used to do this when I was still able to get around and it was a lot of fun, trekking around with a big group of people. If you want to try eating rattlesnake you have to treat it just as you would calamari. Either cook it quick or for a long, long time, otherwise it is like rubber. The wild sage is very flavorful and just brushing against a bush will release the scent. You have to clean it carefully before you take it home, take only the leaves, no stems, because it is susceptible to scale insect infestation and you don't want to introduce these critters to your garden. You can't even tell an insect is there, it just looks like a flattish bump (scale) on the stem. There are many more. Years ago I went on a nature hike in the San Gabriel canyon, led by an Indian who collected enough for a decent lunch for the ten of us in an area that looked like there was nothing edible. You have to know for sure though, there are many similar looking plants that can make one very, very sick. We don't have it out here, but where I grew up in western Kentucky all of us kids were warned about picking a plant my grandma called "false parsley". It looked like curly parsley but could be deadly. Now I know that it was "lesser hemlock". I know a fair amount about edible wild plants but unless I am absolutely sure of one, I will not eat it. Sometimes even the experts can be fooled. Same with wild mushrooms.

I blind-bake pie shells on the OUTSIDE of an inverted Pyrex pie plate, cutting the dough off at the point where the side meets the lip of the top. When the shell is placed into the pie plate in which the pie will be baked, there is a free space between the top of the shell and the lip of the pie plate and when I add the top, I fold the edges under and tuck into this space then flute the edge of the now doubled dough. I don't worry about sealing the edges because I line the pie plate in which the pie will be baked with parchment paper. I buy the pre-cut rounds and just cut into the edge all the way around so when it is pushed down into the place, the cuts will overlap. If juices leak out it doesn't mar the look of the pie and the paper keeps it from sticking to the plate. (I usually cut several at a time, I put a saucer over the center of the paper rounds and using a mat knife, make the cuts from the edge of the sauce out to the edge) I learned the trick of blind-baking pie shells on the outside of a pie pan about 40 years ago. I dock the dough with a rolling docker before I place it over the pie pan but you can also prick it with a fork after you have placed it on the pan. This technique means you do not need to use pie weights or liners to keep the sides from slumping. It takes a little practice to get it right but you can try it with smaller things. I blind-bake little shells over the outside bottoms of either the regular or the jumbo muffin pans. Much easier than dealing with a bunch of little individual pans.

I would also add a note of caution. The endocrinologist who is managing my type II diabetes has cautioned me about using fructose and glucose and has given me a list of fruits to use only in limited amounts. Sucrose and sucrolose, are allowed in small amounts, otherwise I must use Splenda. Aspartame causes cardiac arrythmia in me and nearly caused me to have a pacemaker implanted about 14 years ago until the problem was identified.

I have never been satisfied with any of the "Thai" specific salad dressings. What I use is a recipe for the Indonesian salad dressing for Gado gado vegetable salad, my all time favorite. This recipe was given to me by the owner of J.B's Little Bali, a little Indonesian restaurant once located in Inglewood, California. The restaurant is long gone, but the memory lingers on. Peanut Sauce or Dressing for Gado Gado vegetable salad 2 tablespoons light oil, canola, etc. 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter, fresh home made is better and doesn't take long to make. 3/4 cup coconut milk (thicker or thinner depending on your own preference) 1 teaspoon chili paste (I usually use sweet chile sauce, 3 tablespoons instead) 1 1/2 tablespoons palm sugar (substitute light brown sugar) 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ginger, finely minced 1 large clove garlic, finely minced 1/3 cup onion, fine dice 1 tablespoon fish sauce (or substitute light soy sauce if desired) Heat oil in a large skillet (use a wok if you wish), add ginger, garlic and onion and cook till garlic is just beginning to show color. Add the rest of the ingredients. Reduce heat to low and stir constantly for about two or three minutes until sauce is well blended. If it is too thick, add a little more coconut milk and stir to blend. Pour over the warm vegetables and toss well. Serve immediately. The sauce can be made ahead and kept warm over a tealight. Or if serving large parties keep warm in a small crockpot.

Well, I have eaten a fair number of odd things but to me the strangest was the dish of baby eels served to me at a potluck party. They are cooked quickly just prior to serving and tasted okay but I had to close my eyes. It was all the little eyes in the dish. Fortunately there were no a lot so my portion was only about 1/4 cup. Deanna mentioned the "rats" in Nigeria several posts back. Those are reed rats and they can get pretty big. Friends who went to Haute Zaire in 1987 and 1988 to bring back some native Basenji dogs, got to try it and said it was not at all bad. One said it tasted a lot like possum. Basenjis hunt reed rats which weigh as much as they do but basenjis are very quick. One of the interpreters who comes to my office is from Brazil and his family raises capybara for meat. He keeps promising to bring me some on his return after his next trip home. world's largest rodent They are bigger that reed rats by a considerable margin, can weigh up to 100 pounds while a reed rat tops out at about 20 pounds. Importation of the meat requires a permit but is obtainable with some jumping through hoops.

The best dolma I have tasted are the ones served at the Greek food festival here in Lancaster which is going on today at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds and which I plan on attending in a couple of hours. They make them with rice and spices, plus some vegetables, another variety with lamb and yet another with beef. They are all good. I have tried my hand at them and they are okay but not as good as those at the festival. Since I have sorrel growing all over my yard like a weed, in addition to the two large containers in which it grown on purpose, I often use sorrel leaves to wrap rice and meat mixtures, bulgur wheat and meat or vegetable mixtures, couscous and whatever mixtures, etc. The lemony flavor of the sorrel is a very nice compliment to the flavors of the filling and the spices.

On Ebay, another type of cold-brewing system Cold-brew set, non Toddy Smaller more compact and better looking.

My local egg man has Wyandotte and Buff Orpingtons and both lay very large/jumbo eggs, most of which have double yolks. His chickens are all free range and very healthy. They are also very friendly birds. As soon as one walks up the driveway they run to the fence and say hello. The eggs are mostly brown of various shades from a dark beige to very dark, almost mahogany brown. The yolks are very dark yellow, almost orange and stand up high in a very tightly contained white. The flavor is very rich. When he doesn't have enough eggs to fill his orders and sell the extras to me, I buy the jumbo eggs at Smart & Final. They have a rapid turnover and the eggs are always fresh. About 1 in 3 is a double yolk at certain times of the year.

Whenever I have to go to downtown L.A. for something at the convention center or similar location I always make a point of visiting, for at least one meal, Clifton's Cafeteria I have been making at least a yearly pilgramage to Cliftons since I moved permanently to So.Cal. in 1959. I have never been disappointed and always walk out feeling much as I would have after dinner at my granny's. It is not "trendy" but there are a lot of celebs who favor the place because they can have a quiet meal and not be bothered by anyone. It is also comfortable for a woman dining alone. It is not your typical cafeteria, I think you willl be pleasantly surprised by how well they do what they do..... The apple pie with vanilla sauce is wonderful and I am always torn between that and the pecan pie.

We have a multi-family block or neighborhood party on Halloween night as this is a fairly rural area and the kids would have to trek a long way to do trick or treat so we gather on this street and everyone contributes something to the food offerings. I make one vat of potato soup and one of carrot/ginger soup, which can be served in mugs and sipped or spooned as the person desires. I can't say I have a recipe per se, I have been making this for so many years that I just chop so much celery and onions, cook them in butter until translucent then pour them into a bowl, put the potatoes, cut into cubes into the pot, cover with water, add "enough" salt, (I figure 1 heaping teaspoon of salt to 2 pounds of potatoes.) Turn the heat up and let the potatoes cook till tender. Meanwhile I puree the cooked onions and celery. When the potatoes are done, I get out my big stick blender and work it around in the pot but leave some chunks. I stir the onions and celery puree back into the potatoes and taste. Now I add (for each gallon of soup) a pint of half & half. Taste and add salt and pepper until it tastes correct to me. Generally at this point the soup is still a bit on the thin side because I have not pureed all the potatoes as we like it with some chunks. Now, (GASP) my secret thickening "trick". I add some potato flakes or potato buds or whatever the heck I happen to have on hand. (Right now I have some that I bought at Smart & Final. I never use them to make mashed potatoes, but they have their uses in thickening things without getting a floury taste, they help meatloaf and croquettes to hold together and they are good for breading some things and to use in certain breads.) No one has ever guessed my secret. You are the first to know. Even my best friend does not know. All I can say is that everyone loves the soup, even people who don't like potato soup will come back for seconds... Me, the do-everything-from-scratch mavin, uses an instant product when it makes the final result better.

Actually there is a cheap set that is pretty decent for someone who isn't interested in quality and wants sharp knives and probably won't treat them as they should be treated, i.e. keep them out of the dishwasher, etc., etc., etc. Check in your local mall, which whould have a shop that has the "As seen on TV" stores. They have a set of knives, some with odd shapes but they work, Knives One of my friends got a set for their motorhome before they left on a 6-week trip. They returned a couple of weeks ago and she said the knives worked like a charm, she lost one somewhere along the way - probably tossed out with the trash - but who cares, they are so cheap. She has many very fine knives in her kitchen, like me is a "collector" of such, but did not want to take any along and have them lost or ruined. She said she bought a second set for the house so when their children come to visit she can lock up her good knives and let them use the cheap ones..... A good idea!

This reminds me of a dear friend who passed away many years ago and who made the best cranberry sauce. She always added 1/2 a cup of ketchup to her cranberry sauce. (1 package of fresh berries, 1 naval orange, finely chopped whole, skin and all, 1 1/2 cups sugar in a sauce pan with 1 cup of water, cook till berries pop then stir in the ketchup). It was very good. I haven't thought about this for years. Thanks so much, it brought back a fond memory.

Achieving the light and fluffy pancake can be extremely difficult. I have been trying for years to duplicate the wonderful creations served at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. They are almost a half-inch thick, but so light and fluffy they melt in the mouth. Four arrive on a plate, rolled around a "filling" of whipped butter and fanned out on the place with strawberries placed between the ends and a couple of orange wedges at the base of the fan. They are accompanied by an array of preserves and several varieties of syrups, or a fresh fruit compote as an alternative with whipped cream on the side. My closest approximation has been with folding beaten egg whites into the batter just before baking and using pastry flour instead of all purpose. When I can't find a good pastry flour I use all purpose half and half with cake flour. Andie's basic pancake recipe 1 1/2 cups pastry flour 2 teaspoons baking powder (I recommend Rumford, and it must be fresh)*** 1 teaspoon salt 1 Tablespoon sugar or Splenda Sift dry ingredients together and set aside melt 3 tablespoons butter and set aside (or use a light oil such as canola, do not use margarine) In a large bowl beat together 1 1/2 cups milk 1 whole egg 2 egg yolks, reserve the whites in another bowl in the fridge to keep cold. When completely blended add the dry ingredients and stir (do not beat) until smooth and stir in the melted butter until well blended. set aside to rest in refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Beat the eggwhites until soft to medium peaks form. Fold beaten egg whites into the batter and immediately ladle by 1/4 cup measure onto hot griddle. When bubbles begin breaking near the center of pancake, turn and finish baking. They should puff as soon as they hit the hot griddle. *** Old, inactive baking powder is the most common reason people get poor results with quick breads, pancakes, etc. When you open a tin or jar, stick a piece of tape with the date on it and after 6 months get a new one. You will have much better results, I guarantee it! You can test your baking powder by putting a teaspoonful in a glass and adding water. It should foam vigorously, if not, toss it out.

Regarding peeling the chestnuts. That chestnut knife, in addition to being ideal for cutting the X in the chestnuts prior to cooking, is also very handy for removing the shell and the skin. The little curved point gets into the crevices where the skin clings, and drags it right out. I have one of these, a Lamson. And one of thesewith no name. I wear a latex glove inside one of the exfoliating gloves which I mentioned several weeks back that I use for removing the skins on dry roasted hazel nuts. They have enough texture to make it easier to hold onto the sometimes slippery chestnuts and the latex keeps my fingers from scalding. Williams-Sonoma also has chestnut knives as does Sur La Table and others. Once you get used to using one you will find it is very handy. One of the guys on the Chile-Heads list mentioned a few years back that he found a chestnut knife perfect for sliting the small peppers he was going to stuff to make "poppers" -- He could make a slit in the side of the pepper, extract the seed and membrane without cutting all the way through the pepper. He said he came across it while poking around in W-S while his wife was buying some fancy linens. I recall that he said it was the only thing he had ever purchased at W-S.

I have a couple of deaf friends and they both have "Hearing-Ear" dogs that let them know when timers sound.

There have been several brands of fish sauce tossed around and I would like to mention my favorite. It is a Phillipine product but it moves off the shelf more rapidly than any of the other brands and the best Thai restaurant in town uses it. It is called: NeliCom PATIS 100% Pure Fish Sauce Export Quality, Carefully Aged. Ingredients: Fish Extract, Salt and 0.1% Sodium Benzoate added as preservative. Manufactured by Southeast Asia Food, Inc. 559 Paso de Blas Valenzuela, Metro Manila

------------------------------------------------- They might get rather soggy in the center and it may compress some causing a dip in the middle. Have you considered still making two but "integrating" them. For instance think of the MasterCard logo. Cut an arc out of one cake so the other cake will fit into it and stack the now boat-shaped cut out piece on top of the center so it is two layers in the center of the composition, however the weight of the second layer would be at the edge of the uncut cake and less likely to compress the bottom layer. Decorate the sides of the layers with slices of kiwi, strawberries, etc., fruit that will not discolor.