jgarner53

I just packed away the green tea ice cream for ripening. Wow! So yummy! I can't wait to dig into it and even bought some kinako powder for later experiments and sprinkling on top. I should have made the candied azuki beans, but haven't had time. Anyone have good recommendations on macha powder? The Japanese grocery had several, all labeled in Japanese; I couldn't tell which ones were more "ingredient grade" (like cooking wine) and which were fancy, other than just a strict price basis. I bought a pretty little black tin with glossy black kanji on it (the label itself was matte black), in part because I was rushing to make a movie and had about 20 seconds to decide.

Long-simmered collard greens Macaroni & cheese Fried chicken Most dessert pies Hard cider (which was very popular during colonial times, and while not perhaps originally American, did we not have Johnny Appleseed?) Kentucky Bourbon things like Tex-Mex dishes, tamale pie, the infamous tuna noodle casserole - not haute cuisine, but definitely true American creations (okay, bastardizations) of imported favorites by some accounts, the burrito While we do have some definitely native things others have already mentioned, isn't American food really a microcosm for what we are as a country - a nation of immigrants? You could even call pizza an American food, because even though it has an Italian cousin, the pies that most of us savor (especially those thick crust deep dish pies) are nothing but American. No Italian would even consider putting on the pounds of cheese or buffalo wings or whatever else we happily throw onto our pies. Let us also not forget ice cream! Again, perhaps not an American invention, but Thomas Jefferson enjoyed the stuff, and we created things like the ice cream sundae, the cone, and all those lovely things like milkshakes and fizzes and egg creams and sodas and floats. Who would put gelato in a root beer float? Oh wait, add root beer, Coke, Dr. Pepper and all the other big soft drinks to that list, along with fast food (sadly).

Amen to that! If we had cones around at home when I was a kid, they were of the cake variety (with Scoopy the clown on the label), but if we went out, like say to 31 Flavors, it was a sugar cone, all the way. I still prefer sugar and usually think that a fresh waffle cone (burned my fingers on more than a few during a summer job in a scoop shop, rolling them fresh off the griddle) is, dare I say it, too big, albeit rather tasty. I'm now on a hard-core make it yerself kick, and use a bowl. Some part of me has real trouble paying $3.50 for a top-notch cone somewhere (though am dying to splurge on a cone from bi-rite creamery), when I can make a whole damn quart of ice cream for less than that.

Oooh, how exciting! How long do you think the remodel will last? Can you show us plans or layout? What style are you going for? Will your cabinets be stained or painted? Countertops? Floors? Are you doing any structural rejiggering (moving or removing walls to reconfigure the space)? we want to know!

Even though people aren't putting up veggies for the winter or buying 50 lb. bags of flour, people ARE shopping at warehouse stores like Costco and buying huge packs of chips, cases of things like soup or other family favorites, giant boxes of cereal and dog food and the like. Where do most people store these things without pantries? I designed a small pantry into our new kitchen, with rollout shelves above and drawers below. The kitchen's too small for a walk-in, and I couldn't increase the size of the space. Luckily for us, it's just the two of us, so we don't need the sheer quantity that you'd need for a large (or even small) family. My grandmother's early 60's ranch house (admittedly custom designed) had a great walk-in pantry that I loved. She was tiny, and had one of those kik-step stools that wheeled around until you put your weight on it, then stayed put, and she had all manner of fantastic things in there!

Price shop around the plumbing/fixtures websites: efaucet, qualitybath, etc. I got great prices on my sink and faucet through sites like this.

After an article in the SF Chronicle a week or so ago, and finding this thread, I knew I had to run out and get this book as soon as humanly possible. Upon coming home, I started reading through it and tagging recipes that sounded good. About halfway in, I had to stop because there were post-it flags on nearly every page! Really, I wanted to make every recipe RIGHT NOW. I found some mango puree in my freezer, from a time when an abundance of super-ripe mangos forced me to puree them or lose them, I made the mango sorbet. Damn, it's good! I think I have to try the green tea next, or else the kinako. I have to admit I'm intrigued by the idea of the flavor. Since I have to go to the Japanese market anyway for the matcha, I might as well pick up the kinako at the same time.

Northern, all the way. I love the recipe in Baking Illustrated, by the Cook's Illustrated people. I (gasp) make mine in a cake pan. So there. And while I don't mind bits of corn or cheese in my cornbread, that's it as far as mix-ins go for me. Usually, I like it just as it is, hot out of the oven and slathered with butter, occasionally honey.

Add me to the list of owners of the AB salt cellar. Mine's even signed! (under the lid)

In my husband's family, hamburger was "hangamer" and (later) the broccoli chicken casserole was dubbed "brock&chickoli shit." Husband and I usually refer to mustard (as on the grocery list) as "moo-tard." (usually cuz it's dijon).

In a night market/food court in Chiang Rai, Thailand, I saw a sign offering "fried dork." Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me that night.

Because many people serve hummus as a dip (in fact, I would consider it a dip more from my personal use/experience with it than a spread). Thinking about dip vs. spread, in my own mind, I tend to see anything you can readily scoop with a spoon or that would be awkward to put on a knife falls into the dip category: french onion, guacamole, spinach dip, artichoke dip, clam dip, salsa. Spreads: butter, cream cheese, mayo, soft cheeses like chevre.

Probably my all-out worst day was having to make three batches of cheesecake one day as the first round burned, then the second! After mixing the batter the second time and burning them (by now I was about at hour 12 of my work day), I had to go to the grocery store around the corner because we were out of graham cracker crumbs, then whiz 5 boxes of grahams in the Robot Coupe before mixing a third batch of batter. So help me, the third batch came out. Problems of having two kitchens, a stairway apart, and getting sucked into conversations in the lower one while your cheesecake burns in the upper one! Not really baking related per se, but dropping a (full) 8-qt. container of yolks isn't much fun to clean up either.

I got my grandmother's popcorn popper. Sundays after church she and my grandfather would have a typical "Sunday dinner" mid-day meal, then just have popcorn in the evening. He liked to have milk with his, something I started doing as a child when I spent weekends with them, and still occasionally do today when I make popcorn at home. It's a long rectangular metal box, with vent holes in the top and a (rusty) raised spot with holes where you'd put a pat of butter to melt and flavor the corn. The top slides back and forth via a long rod threaded through the (long) handle. I think it was originally meant to use in a fireplace, but I only ever remember her using it on the stove. Count me as one of those who's never liked microwave popcorn and always prefer to pop my own (though I have and use one of those whirlybird poppers).

I've been dissed! I sent husband off to work with a few of the oatmeal peanut butter chip cookies to share with his co-workers, who normally go nuts when I send in baked goods, and not a one tasted them! He got the usual, "Oh, I'm trying to cut back on sweets" types of responses (which to my ear sounds more like "I'm not sure about this combination but don't want to say it sounds icky"). I'm so over-sensitive! I mean, who could resist this?? (even if the photo is a bit blurry - my camera didn't know quite what to focus on) I mean, I'm not a pb cookie lover in general, but I am really digging these cookies. The oats seem to cut down on the greasy mouthfeel and overly peanutty taste of most pb cookies. So if I like 'em...what's wrong with husband's co-workers?

I just got the cookbook myself after reading through much of this thread (and wiping drool off my keyboard). These are the first thing I'm going to make (tomorrow). I told my husband about them, and he said they sounded, "busy." I'm sure he'll love them, though!

Yes, we picked her just for that reason!

Ok, one kitten picture:

Tyler, I love the character of your kitchen! Nothing anybody can build can ever quite match an original like that. I love your tile and the open shelves.

You don't even know! Now if I could just stop reaching in the wrong places for things! Years of repetition have me reaching for things where they used to be, rather than where they are now.

At last, I have finished photos to post! Between GC's footdragging and grazing approach to finishing all the little details, and our getting a new kitten, it's taken me a while. The sink wall: The stove wall: The baking center: The fridge wall: The pendants over the sink wall: The center ceiling fixture: Storage for some of my cookbooks: My vintage phone and pushbutton switches: The sink cabinet & wall-mounted faucet: Whew!

I sometimes do, like if I'm going to be working with chocolate, which somehow I always manage to get everywhere. My aprons are all pretty utilitarian, though I do have a pretty waist apron a friend gave me one year for my bday. I keep meaning to pull it out when we have company and I'm finishing something up on the stove, but I always forget! One thing I do like about wearing an apron is that it gives me a place for a side towel, something I'm never without at work, but never seem to manage to have handy when cooking at home.

This is very true. A few years ago I was hunting around for my favorite brownie recipe and doing lots of testing. I went to my grandmother's 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook (great cookies in there) and really didn't like the brownie recipe in there at all because of the quantity of chocolate. Ultimately, I made three batches: that one, a batch from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet, and my favorite, Alton Brown's cocoa brownies and sent them off to my husband's work with input forms. Surprisingly, results came back almost evenly split among the three! So I decided to stick with my personal favorite and haven't looked back (it uses all cocoa powder and no solid chocolate, but I use good Cacao Berry cocoa powder, and they're very dark and rich). Then you also have the cakey/fudgey dichotomy. Some people prefer their brownies more cakey. And, imo, simply underbaking to achieve a fudgey center does not count.

You want to fill the cupcakes about 2/3 full and you'll have to adjust the baking time. The cupcakes we do at work take about 20 minutes, but you'll have to do some testing to find just the right time for your recipe.

I think the organic junk food thing seems to go hand to mouth with the trend of putting whole grains (or veggies) in things, presumably as a way of sneaking them past pickier eaters. Perhaps it works for kids? I have friends with a very picky 7-year old who loves the brightly colored soy & flaxseed tortilla chips she buys. Does he know they have soy & flaxseed in them? Of course not. Same goes for those veggie puffs - to me they look like packing peanuts and taste about the same. How much spinach could there really be in something like that? I don't eat a lot of junk foods, personally, but I do find those soy/flaxseed chips mighty tasty!