andiesenji

I wanted to add this photo to my previous post. The V-Pro comes in a fitted case, which is large but keeps everything together (except for the long pusher), clean and neat. I keep the case and the long pusher in one of the XXL storage Ziplock bags so I can hang it in the pantry.

Yes. I have the de Buyer Pro-V Mandoline which is not easy to find and is more expensive than others. One vendor has it for 199.00 - I paid significantly more because I bought it when it was first introduced in the U.S. I bought extra blades and the extra-long pusher from this vendor. I have yet to find anything this mandoline will not cut. I routinely use it to slice ginger, daikon(for pickles), yucca root, julienne sweet potatoes (the dense white ones), horseradish - prior to shredding it in my Thermomix - much easier than grating it. Celeriac is a cinch to slice or juilienne, as is the more fibrous fennel and salsify. One reason I got this mandoline (in 2008) was that I had an occasional helper who was left-handed and had problems using my old Bron. This one tilts to either side and was easy for the leftie to use. Sadly, she is no longer in my area.

I buy these! I find them more convenient than measuring out the powder, and I don't have to worry about accidentally overpouring. They're probably more expensive, but I figure they don't go bad, so I tend to stock up when they're on sale. I buy them because I don't have to have two bottles of liquid - the regular one and the "no streak" or whatever that one is. My dishwasher came with a generous sample pack of the combination ones and there are always coupons available that make them cheaper than even the generic dishwasher liquids when you add in the cost of the second liquid that has to be added every 6 washes in my machine.

I drink a lot of seltzer too. I have an old fashioned seltzer bottle but on the recommendation of a friend I have been ordering TalkingRain sparkling water via Amazon's Subscribe & Save as it is so easy to keep in the fridge. I get a case every month.

They all seem to have something to do with life, enjoyment, fertility and the half-round symbol with Horus is the symbol for bread. Looks like a loaf of bread as it was made in ancient Egypt - they did have communal bakeries in the pyramid worker's villages.

You are probably right - I'm an Egyptophile (and I make up my own words!), so I just assumed hieroglyphics. I will search out a reasonably priced Sauternes - I've had other people suggest that to me. The designs on the plate are definitely from Egyptian hieroglyphic sources. I used to do a lot of artwork with Egyptian designs, have a collection of books on Egyptology and Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1927), which has detailed explanations of the pictographs. The parallel wavy lines indicate running water, usually the Nile a single wavy line the sea. The hare is the goddess Unnut or Wenet, "swift" (fertility goddess). The hawk is of course Horus,(rebirth) the filled in X (on its side) with a wavy line under it and an orb in the "v" indicate the setting sun between two mountains. The bull is the god Apis, (strength and fertility). That's just off the top of my head. I may be a bit fuzzy on some of this. The combination of the wavy lines and the hare may indicate swift water but I'd have to look it up in Gardiner to be sure. It's fun to speculate on the message there might be on the plate.

If eggs are still in the shell and kept relatively cool, they can survive longer without too much danger, but only a few hours. On the other hand, you can put shelled hard-boiled eggs in a brine or vinegar (pickling) solution and keep them at room temp for extended periods. When I was in my teens, I lived for a couple of years in a small village in Wisconsin. Every tavern in the area (there were plenty because it was a resort area with lots of lakes) had a big jar of pickled eggs on the bar or back bar. I never partook.

I just learned about this in today's Gear Patrol email. An interesting option for folks who want to entertain with the minimum of fuss - variable cost. Kitchit.

When I was catering I also used the piped meringue technique. I first spread a thin layer of meringue on the pie surface for an adhesion base, right to the edges of the crust to seal it and the base hides any gaps you may leave when piping. I used a large open star tip (mine has a #4 on it) and made a little twist as I drew it up. A favorite pattern was a pinwheel spiral from a center rosette to the edges. A local bakery makes shell patterns on the top of some of their pies - the chocolate cream - then lightly dusts the top with cocoa. This site was featured in an email last month from a favorite blog list.

Good plan, Shel. Anything with eggs, no matter the other ingredients, MUST be refrigerated.

As long as the liquid doesn't smell like furniture polish, you are good to go. I believe someone asked in another thread, "But what if your furniture polish smells like lemon?" Mine smelled lemony but not "off". They were definitely fine. I'm talking about the smell you get with "Pledge" and "Murphy's Oil Soap" - there is a distinct difference.

As long as the liquid doesn't smell like furniture polish, you are good to go.

I make my own pimento cheese but with the addition of a few spicy (preserved) peppers to perk it up a bit.

They look lovely. The Seville oranges I put up more than a month ago are still not where lemons usually are at this stage so I'm going to put them in the back of the fridge and check them again in another month.

I've had that happen a few times. It never seems to have much effect on the lemons themselves, or the part that I use.

Beautiful bird and gorgeous plate. I needed a handful of tissues for all the drool!

Yes! Chill and refrigerate as soon as possible.

The folks I know who make it generally dip it into melted dark chocolate and roll that in either chopped nuts or broken hard candies. At Christmas they had made some and rolled the chocolate-covered "angel sponge" in broken pieces of cinnamon candy. This site has a recipe and the various names the candy is called in different places. So Sea Foam is okay if you are from the Pacific Northwest. Angel food candy.

Every local news station as well as the network affiliates today had this item as a lead in various time segments. http://parklabreanewsbeverlypress.com/news/2012/04/food-trucks-occupy-too-much-%E2%80%98space%E2%80%99/ Apparently people are complaining that there isn't enough parking after these large vehicles park. So they want to move them off the boulevard and onto side streets, many of which are largely residential. A community meeting will be held in the next 30 days and I predict it will be a noisy and interesting gathering.

I get quite a few grocery items via subscribe & save. Most are cheaper than I can buy locally and in some cases of "specialty" items are much fresher than in local stores where it may have been on the shelf for a long time. I use a lot of panko crumbs and the Sushi Chef Panko (Japanese Bread Flakes), 8-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 6) @ $18.56 is a great buy and these are the best of any brand I have tried - I have purchased many brands so have had plenty to compare. I also get the Splenda/Sugar blends, both regular and brown. The brown sugar blend doesn't seem to ever get hard, unlike regular brown sugar.

All the local TV news programs had segments about a Vernon,CA meat plant filing for bankruptcy "because of the pink slime backlash." The company was already in financial trouble. What I don't understand is, we are constantly told that the pet food industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Why can't this company simply go back to supplying the stuff to pet food manufacturers (the ones that aren't in China). And if it is such a "small percentage" of the overall ground meat product, (as industry pundits keep saying) why don't they just continue to process beef without the pink slime? To me, this looks like there must have been a lot more pink slime in the final product that anyone is admitting to, so far.

You say it so well, Jaymes. I forgot to answer Charcuterer's question about the beans - The white and black beans are not Orca, they are Vaquero.

My sister worked at West Bend Aluminum Co. right after she graduated from high school - Campbellsport where my mother's family lived then, was close enough. She started in the office as a clerk but then got a job operating a polishing machine as it paid a lot better but was a dirty job - she said even wearing coveralls, a snood, gloves and face protection she would have black aluminum powder on and in her skin which required scrubbing with a brush.

It's most common use was as an ice bucket. It is double-walled, insulated, so designed to keep cold things cold but could also be used to keep hot things hot. It was a very popular item and was manufactured by the West Bend Aluminum company from the early 1960s and into the '70s. Made in West Bend Wisconsin. Well, dern. Then it wasn't a wedding gift if they were married in 1956. Must have just been something that they had. But I STILL wish I had it! There are a bunch on eBay. I have to revise the information in my earlier post - the "Penguin" products were introduced in the mid-to late 1950s - so it could have been a wedding present. I got my first one in 1963. It was also produced in a (very rare) copper finish. This was not anodized color but copper-clad ceramic over the aluminum base. It did not hold up well and the few I have seen were not in good condition at all. found one here.

I'm not from the deep south. I was born (at home on the farm) in western Kentucky where there is a lot of "bottomland" where corn produces enormous yields (as does sorghum) and wheat does not do as well. In the old days when wheat flour was scarce and expensive, most people made cornbread for every day and saved the flour for making biscuits (on Sunday) and cakes. The corn was sweet enough without the need to add sugar. There are many variations of cornbread and I like several but I really don't like the "Marie Callender" cake type, it falls apart if you try to pick it up and no way could it be dunked in bean soup - and the flavor wouldn't complement the beans anyway, at least to my taste. That's my personal preference and everyone is entitled to make and eat the type they like. Just don't ask me to bake it for them...