andiesenji

The previous recipe can be altered to fit any flavor you want. barbecue sauce - teriyaki sauce and a half cup of crushed pineapple and some sweet chile sauce plus another third of a cup of bread crumbs for the extra moisture makes these a "Hawaiian" meatball. Mexican seasonings, hot peppers, toasted cumin and etc. makes them Mexican. Masala seasonings (or if you must, some curry paste,never, never, never curry powder) gives a sort of Indian flavor. Omit the tomato sauce and add sour cream and dill for a northern Europe flavor, And so on.....

I have found that just abouty anything works as long as there is enough fat in the mix to make sure they are juicy. I make all kinds of meatballs (and I portion them with a disher which is faster and requires less handling which also makes them more tender) This is the basic recipe: 1 lb ground beef, 72/27 is the best for this recipe 1 lb. ground pork 1 lb. ground lamb or veal 2 medium yellow onions, finely minced 8 cloves of garlic, mashed and minced 1 TBS red pepper flakes 2 TBS Worchestershire sauce 1 cup or 8 ounces seeded and pureed tomato (or a can of tomato sauce if you must) Salt and pepper for seasoning 3 large whole eggs, lightly beaten 2/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs 1/2 cup milk, poured into the breadcrumbs and allowed to soak in before adding to the mixture. I brown them well in fat, then add two cups of beef or veal stock and simmer them, moving them about fairly often so they don't stick Oooops. I forgot to add that if the meats are very lean, I add 4 to 6 ounces of ground pork fat or beef suet, depending on what I have on hand, or in a pinch butter. It works too.

vinegar will often turn garlic blue. The way to avoid this is to slightly roast or blanch the garlic before it goes into the vinegar or brine. You can read the explanation here. Other than being a bit unattractive, it is not a problem. Because of the danger of botulism in cold-infused oils, it is considered safer to soak the garlic in vinegar for a day prior to putting it into the oil. Naturally this often turns it blue so the garlic has to be removed prior to bottling it. I get around this by roasting a lot of garlic cloves in a pot of oil then jarring the oil and adding a dipper-full of cloves to each jar. Looks good and tastes wonderful. For pickles I blanch the cloves in boiling water for about a minute or so (depending on the size of the cloves, larger ones need a bit more time), then plunge into ice water, I never have a problem with them turning blue.

Do not ever buy any of the vanilla extract that is made in Mexico. Much of it is adulterated and can be quite toxic. By all means buy the Mexican vanilla beans, they are perfectly good, but not anything that has been processed into extract. There are probably some fine producers in Mexico of vanilla products but without knowing who they are it is a crapshoot as to what you are buying. I make my own extract. I have never used the artificial stuff. Chemicals are not the most stable of substances and can change. I have tasted foods that have a strange metallic after-taste and invariably they have been made with an artificial vanilla flavoring. Unless you are using gallons of the stuff, get the real thing. It makes a world of difference.

It has been many decades since I was a renter and back then I kept a pretty low profile. Now I doubt I would be an ideal tenant because I am much more opinionated than I used to be and while I am law-abiding, I will not put up with any crap from anyone. A few years back we had an "undesirable element" move into a rental home in the neighborhood and this nitwit came by my house when I was out in the yard and told me he was going to "take over" all the gardening duties in the neighborhood so I could get rid of my gardener. While he stood there flexing his tattoos, I walked into my shed, picked up my chain saw, walked out to the gate, started it, reved it up, then turned it off and asked him if he knew how much damage one of these could do to a leg, an arm or a neck...... That was the last I saw of him although I used to hear him roaring down the next street in his truck with the oversized tires at all hours of the night. Then we had a spate of very cold weather. One of the other residents on that street ran a hose into the street very late that night and when the genius came roaring home he hit the icy patch,skidded about 100 feet and slammed into a light pole. Someone called 911 and the sheriffs found that not only had he been drinking, he had a trash bag full of marajuana. Goodbye nitwit. Meanwhile several of us had gotten together and formed a homeowners association for mutual assistance. We had discussions with absentee landlords and have had no more problems with bad apples. We have a very diversified group in this area, many nationalities and ethnic groups, we even have two families of little people (they work in the wings of airplanes doing tricky technical stuff is spaces where big people find it difficult to work), dog, horse, bird and reptile fanciers. People here can paint their homes any color they wish, can have flags, wind toys, wind chimes, bells, whatever hanging in their yards. The only thing we do not want are human predators.

Some of the prices at the supermarkets are downright obscene! Particularly when considering the wholesale prices.... I shop for produce (that I don't grow myself) at the Mexican supermarkets that are proliferating and moving into areas formerly strictly white bread..... My boss (on my recommendation) began shopping at one that opened near his home (Calabasas, CA) and loves their produce. The prices are very good, the quality is excellent and they have a rapid turnover. They also have some items that are not commonly seen at Anglo markets. On my last visit to the store cilantro 5 bunches for a dollar. Same with Italian parsley. Lovely big heads of lettuce, two for 59 cents. Huge ripe red peppers 99 cents a pound, green ones 69 cents a pound as were pasilla chiles and Anaheims. Limes, big and juicy, 3 pounds for a dollar, fresh ginger root 1.99 a pound, large, plump pieces, cantaloupes, 6 pounds for a dollar......... and so on. Oh yes, they also had large, lovely mangoes 5 for a dollar.

I do the scalloped thing, using celeriac instead of potatoes, sometimes adding cheese, but usually just plain. Occasionally layering it with medallions of pork tenderloin, searing the pork on each side briefly just before layering it in the casserole. Very tasty.

I have purchased vanilla beans from many sources over the years and have been most pleased with the ones from The Vanilla Company Their prices, like all vanilla vendors, have gone up in recent weeks but their quality is very good, nice fat, moist beans. I use all three types, the Tahitian for ice cream, custards and etc. The Mexican for less delicate recipes and for combining with chocolate and the Bourbon for making vanilla extract (I use Everclear grain alcohol). Check their "chefs in residence" page.

Hmm... my mother always maintained that chewing gum made one look like a cow. She must have known my great grandmother. She said the same thing. She was very strict about manners, life, according to her, being so much more pleasant if one behaved with decorum. As I was the only girl amoung a herd of nine boys, it was often an uphill battle for her and my grandmother but they fought the good fight and much of it stuck! We were not allowed gum. That was an absolute....

I do not get acne from chocolate, in fact I never had acne as a teen either. What I do get is a blinding headache, not a migraine as it is on both sides of my head, visual disturbances such as double vistion and slurred speech because my tongue seems to be partially paralysed and I have difficulty swallowing. Needless to say I do not consume chocolate. Oddly, I have no problem with cocoa, it seems to be something in the cocoa butter that causes the problem.

Harold McGee debunked this years ago.

I have this scale also and it is a good one, holds a larger container than some of the others. I also use a balance beam baker's scale for repeated weighing of the same amount as when I am scaling bread dough. This has the advantage of not turning itself off as the digital scale does after a short time. Also it is now like second nature as I have been using this scale for 50 years.

I will never eat sea urchin. I have a couple of acquaintances who are on a "call list" from some restaurant and get a notice when a shipment of these creatures is due so they can make a reservation. They rave about them but I can't even look at the plate.

Ah, but the question is not whether these people are seriously misguided. That is a topic for another thread. The question is, are they pleasant and sociable?

That review mirrors what I said in my post. If you have an espresso machine (I have the Saeco Royal Digital Plus) this is not going to replace that. However for people who live in tiny apartments where space (and money) is at a premium, this makes a very acceptable cup with no difficulty, no special training and with excellent safety features (automatically turns off after an hour, signals when water is low, etc.) Virtually foolproof, the directions are very simple. I am going to get one for a friend's daughter who is going away to university at the end of next month, leaving on her birthday, and must drink 20 cups a day. She has baby sat my dogs many times when I have been away from home and will never take any money so this way I can give her a birthday gift and pay her back. I may also buy one for the office. One of the "girls" has a coffee maker in the kitchen next to my office that gurgles and spits and makes too much noise for far too long and she is the only one who can stand to drink the output, no one else will touch it. My boss likes coffee too but has taken to drinking instant because it is safer than the stuff in the coffee maker. I think this will work out fine because he has to have decaf and this way everyone can have the kind they want in their own mugs. Since it brews so rapidly there will be little delay in everyone getting a cup.

I make a peach pie which is quite different from the usual. I do the bottom crust and partially blind-bake it, just enough to "set" the dough then allow it to cool completely. Meanwhile I skin and cut up enough peaches to fill the pie about 3/4 full, this varies depending on the size of the pie plate or tin. Then I cook the peaches with 1/2 cup sugar (or Splenda) and 1/4 cup lemon juice, stirring often if they are done on the stovetop or occasionally if done in the microwave, until they are the consistance of preserves. I allow this to cool until it is barely warm, then pour it into the pie shell. Next I beat together 1 cup of sour cream and 8 ounces of cream cheese, add 1/4 cup sugar (or Splenda) continue beathing until it is smooth. Set aside. I then skin and halve enough peaches to cover the top of the pie, cut side down and pour the sour cream/cream cheese mixture over the top. I cover the edge of the pie crust with a pie crust ring to keep it from burning. (These things are so great. pie crust ring ) This then goes into a 325 degree oven for 25 to 35 minutes which should be enough to set the sour cream mixture. This is very pretty with the domes of the peach halves surrounded by the creamy mixture.

Some vegans take it way too far. And many of the PETA people are totally off the beam. They had some big rally at the shopping center in Northridge back in February and one of them was being really nasty to people walking out of the mall who were wearing leather jackets. I sat in my van and watched while she went to her car to get a bottle of water. She was driving a Mercedes with leather upholstery. Now how committed is that? I don't know if it made the national news, but a couple of years ago we had a family here in Lancaster who had their children taken from them because they were strict vegans and their children were found to be dangerously malnourished. The court found that it was fine for them to choose what and how much they consumed but their children had to be fed according to generally accepted standards. The simple truth is that incomplete amino acid chains cannot fuel a rapidly growing body or something will suffer. The brain in particular. All these children were very small, looking at least 3 years younger than their contemporaries and were found to be a bit slow mentally. An older sibling, from an earlier marriage, who had been living with the grandparents from age 4, was normal in size and mental development. I see a lot of vegans at the health food store where I buy a lot of my baking ingredients and many of them do not look all that healthy to me. It is my personal belief that we evolved as omnivores and our bodies and brains develop the greatest potential with a completely balanced diet and that includes some protein from an animal source, eggs, milk, etc. If we were meant to eat grass directly, instead of after it has been processed and turned into meat, we would have multiple stomachs as ruminants do. But that is just my opinion and my personal preference. I don't think anyone should be discriminated against by what they eat, wear, speak, believe, sing, grow, read, draw, paint, drive or fly and also what color, height, weight, shape, they might be or how many children, pets and etc., they might have.

I tried Diet Rite cola with a squeeze of lemon juice and another with a squeeze of lime juice. It helped a lot. The Raspberry is okay as is.

I order it direct from White Lily. White Lily

No, there is no date, at least I have not found one.

I don't eat a lot of seafood, I have an allergy to some types (shrimp and others that concentrate iodine). However I do cook it for friends and can eat limited amounts of lobster and crab, scallops. One of the friends who turned me on to the coconut oil lives in Rhode Island and cooks a lot of seafood. She said that the scallops she has made with the coconut oil are extraordinary, it seems to be a fortunate paring.

I gave up on KitchenAid mixers after burning out the third motor on one of the 525 w, supposedly pro/heavy duty. I have a larger very old Hobart but it stands so high that it is really a pain to add ingredients and always having to stop it to scrape down the sides, also bread dough constantly will crawl up the dough hook. I bought an AEG made by Electrolux of Sweden. It is now marketed in the U.S. as either the Electrolux Assistant or the DLX-2000 DLX-/AEG I have mentioned it on another thread. It does all I ask of it, including mixing and kneading Struan bread dough which is very dense, similar to rye, and the KA stalled every time I tried to use it. I have arthritis in my hands and can't knead by hand the way I used to. It comes with a dough hook but I have found that the roller/scraper action kneads the dough much as it would be kneaded by hand. The open bowl, with no overhead machine, makes it very easy to add ingredients and the lower bowl is much easier to use. I read many descriptions of this machine on the Bread-Bakers list and how much those owners liked the way it worked prior to my making the purchase. It has a separate poly bowl with whisk-type beaters that does a beautifuly job on egg whites, whipped cream, etc. It also cleans up easily.

The Brown Camel (UPS) arrived at my door today with a large box sent by one of my gadgeteer buddies. He tests small appliances for some publication and often sends me the "extras" he gets because the company doesn't want them back and he has only a finite amount of room. I opened the box and found one of the new Senseo pressure brewing coffee machines made by Phillips/Douwe Egberts. He said he had tried it with all three of the coffee types (Dark Roast, Medium Roast and Light Roast) and found it made a pretty decent cup of coffee and came very close to making a very fair substitute for espresso with the Dark Roast. I am not a coffee person per se, usually preferring tea, but I decided to give it a try and by golly, he is right. I have an espresso machine, one of the superautomatic monsters, mainly because I have a lot of friends who like it and when I entertain it is very popular. For many years I had an ancient (and huge) Gaggia that was kind of a running joke, it sounded like it was going to explode every time I operated it, and people who were not familiar with it would run outside. Jerry had forgotten that I had replaced the Gaggia earlier this year and thought he would do me a favor and give me something that was a little easier to operate and had a much smaller footprint. This certainly seems to be a foolproof machine. No complicated tamping of the grounds as in the cheaper espresso machines, no diffculty with cleaning the thing. The pods are pre-measured, use one for one 4 oz cup, two for 2 cups or one larger mug. The crema that forms on top is as perfect as any produced in any of the espresso machines I have used. The flavor of the coffee is very nice, however, as I mentioned earlier, I am not a coffee aficionado but I do like good coffee at certain times and this is just about as good as I have had. There is of course, no steam frothing with this machine, but nowadays you can get all kinds of little gadgets to froth milk, heating it in the microwave takes less than a minute so that should not be a deterrent . I have no relationship with this company so do not stand to gain by promoting this appliance but I thought that some of you who are coffee/espresso addicts might be interested. I checked on a couple of web sites and apparently it retails for somewhere around $70.00 Gadget madness has a review here and they mention the cost of a cup using the pods works out to 22 cents a cup. This place sell them at a bit of a discount: coffee pods Jerry sent me 6 packages of the pods so I doubt that I will be making any purchases any time soon but I seem to recall seeing them at Target and will probably shop there as they often have the best prices on such items. In any event, this might be just the ticket for people with little space and a great desire for a special cup. Oh yes, there were two small cups included in the box, slightly larger than regular espresso cups, these are 6 ounce cups.

What about Fishland on Olympic in Bev. Hills? It has been a while since I was there but since the other place in Bev. Hills closed, (can't recall the name) this one has been frequented by quite a few people I know. Were you thinking of one of the guys from Berth 55 in Long Beach? Before they opened the restaurant didn't they used to sell at the Farmer's Market?

I am lining up with the butter contingent. My absolute favorite. I have never intentionally eaten margarine by choice. I never, ever trusted those chemical formulas. When I lived in Wisconsin (briefly, in the 50s) you still could not buy colored margarine in the state. People had to drive across state lines to buy it. They did sell the white stuff with the color bubble in it but we never had it in the house. At the bakery we got butter in 30 pound tins, both salted and unsalted. I was not quite to the point where I would eat it with a spoon, but many a loaf of bread, fresh from the oven, was split lengthways and slathered with the stuff. I never did believe that hogwash that you shouldn't eat bread fresh out of the oven. As soon as it was cool enough to not burn my hands it was okay to eat, as far as I was concerned. Next in order is very good, very frest extra virgin olive oil. For medium heat cooking I like a combination of butter and avocado oil. Probably easier to get in California than anywhere else. Grapeseed oil also. I buy it at the middle eastern market where it is much cheaper and comes in big bottles. I was buying and using rapeseed oil long before it converted to canola. I don't use peanut oil very much because I have friends who have severe allergies. I just checked in the pantry and I have, besides the ones listed above, flaxseed oil, walnut oil, corn oil, coconut oil, safflower oil, palm kernel oil and sesame oil. There is also some regular palm oil which is going to be dumped because it has gone off - changed color and I am not even going to open the jar. This stuff does not keep well and has a horrible smell when it gets past a certain point. Rancid does not even begin to describe the smell....... I am so glad you started this thread which prompted me to look at the oil supply. I just recently got the coconut oil. A friend mentioned it and referred me to this site. I am usually somewhat skeptical about "miracle" claims for things such as this but I decided to give it a try. My friend is every enthusiastic about it. It is expensive but the few things for which I have used it have turned out very nice. I used it to saute veal medallions, which can go from lovely to awful in a matter of seconds, and they were just perfect. I also paired it with butter to saute some lobster chunks and it was delicious. I have yet to use it as an ingredient in a smoothie (something my friend swears by) but am thinking of trying it soon. I do want to try it in some of the quick bread recipes I have that call for liquid oil instead of butter. I will report my results. By the way, I am unabashadely fat (or morbidly obese as my doctor terms it). However my cholesterol has never been over 140 and my HDL (the good one) is very high compared to the LDL(bad one) a ratio of 84:16. In spite of my eating a lot of high cholesterol foods. It has to be genetic, probably the reason that so many in my family live to a very great age.