deltadoc

I'm concerned here. Natural gas has no odor. That is why the gas company adds another component that has a characteristic smell. Why does the gas company want the gas to have a smell? So you can recognize if you have a gas leak and prevent your house from blowing up. Secondly, gas furnaces are vented to the outside. Why? Mostly to prevent the carbon monoxide and other noxious components of combustion from harming you. Thirdly, if you have a gas stove/cooktop, it should have a vent to the outside over it. And the vent should be of adequate size for the amount of gas cooking you are able to do (# of BTUs). The gas company is so concerned about potential gas leaks, that most, if not all of them, will gladly come over and test for gas leaks for free. I strongly urge you to have them over to assure yourself that you really don't have a gas leak in your stove. Everyone should have a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide sensor in their homes. Leaving the gas stove on overnight, unattended, carries with it a risk. Life is full of risks, they're unavoidable. This is one risk that I personally would not take and is entirely avoidable. I favor the previous suggestion to have your mise en place, and start early on a Saturday morning to make your stock. doc

That "goo" is Glace de Viande. It is approximately a 90% reduction of brown stock. Demi-glace means "half glaze" and is not such a drastic reduction. Glace is basically a "full glaze". I heartily recommend "ye olde demi" as I make it all the time at home, and it is a labor of pure love. It is the technique taught in Wayne Gisslen's Professional Cooking, which is the text book for the French Culinary Institute, among others. I read where his text is the most widely used in culinary schools of any text book. The CIA's text, Professional Cook, has a similar method for demi-glace. doc

Those are some of the modern ways of making demi-glace. There is also the classic technique of making the stock first. Then browning a roux and mirepoix to which you add the stock you just made and create the Espagnole (or brown) Sauce. From there you could follow Escoffier's recipe of 1 Qt of Brown Stock + 1 Qt of Espagnole, reduced down to .9 QT to which you add .1 QT of sherry. My wife found these little stainless steel bowls with nice tight fitting lids. We cool off the demi-glace in a cold water basin, and then fill these little bowls and freeze them. Leftover stock could be: 1. Canned for later use 2. Reduced down 90% to a glace de viande. GDV can be frozen or kept tightly covered in the refrigerator for quite a long time. 3. Make some soup. I use veal neck bones and beef neck bones. They sell for exactly the same price at Byerly's in St. Paul. The St Paul stockyard also has veal neck bones cheaper than Byerly's, and their beef neck bones are really cheaper than Byerly's. doc

I too have been thinking about the later-in-life career change. Questions that have arisen include: 1. Can I stand on my feet for 14 hours a day? 2. Can I stand taking an 80% pay cut? 3. Is this just another of life's "the grass is always greener..." scenarios? 4. Is being a cook or a chef all that much fun or, like most any job, does one tire of the rat-race after a while? So, I've been trying to scrounge up a part time restaurant job to answer those questions, while hopefully still keeping my day job. And I don't mind cutting vegetables to start out with either. Just being around the team, in an environment where the exec chef is top notch, gives one the chance to learn new technique, experience new taste sensations, to contribute, and to become current with the industry of today, as compared to the industry when I was in it in the '60's! doc

I don't bake very much, but was intrigued by Nancy Silverton when I saw her on Julia's show. So, the next day, someone I work with gave me a whole bunch of red grapes from their backyard vine. So I decided to try her starter recipe. It didn't work out very well. I found out later that my wife had rinsed the grapes and I had used bleached white flour. It worked enough that I got one small loaf of sourdough. Then another friend at work gave me a bunch of concord grapes. This time I didn't rinse them at all, and I specifically went to the whole foods store and got unbleached flour. I'm sitting here looking at the big glass jar that has been sitting on my kitchen island for 3 weeks now. It does not appear to be doing anything! I actually got lots of bubbles and such with the first try. I got nothing this time around. I'm wondering what I did wrong? Should I leave this jar (covered loosely with saran wrap) sit longer? I have fed it a couple or three times in the last week, and have stirred it everyday since beginning over 3 weeks ago. I tried following her recipe strictly as I could. Temperature has hovered between 74 - 80 degrees, with an average closer to 75. doc

If it were me, I'd just love to go to Pearl Beach Resort, in Bora Bora. doc

Your oven, is a tool, just like your knife. You must know it, learn from using it, and develop your expertise with each tool you have in your kitchen. I have a gas cooktop, and an electric convection/conventional wall oven. I've found that for pizza, the conventional combined with the pizza stone works best at first, but then 3/4's of the way through, I switch to convection to brown the top of the pizza. If I use convection from the start, the bottom of the pizza will not be done, it will remain soggy. But fire up the conventional to 550 F, make sure the stone is hot all the way through, slide the pizza off the peel, bake for 9-10 minutes, and then fire up the convection and turn the temp control to about 510. Pizza comes out crisp, and just right. But everything is different and one must learn by experience using it. What works with one dish, won't work with another. BTW: I'm hoping to replace the gas cooktop with a gas range with two ovens (large and small), and an identical cooktop with grill, griddle and 4 burners, and get a new electric wall oven which has two convection fans! I'll have to start from scratch and re-learn how to bake all over again!~ doc

I made a nice moussaka yesterday late afternoon. Got up this morning, and the thought of those fried potatoes resting under the eggplants, red wine meat mixture, and the nicely carmelized bechamel was too much to resist! I no more than finished, and the wife who slept late got up and went straight for the fridge and heated up a dish for her too! A special breakfast on a very special day, our 36th anniversary! doc

Your points are well taken, and I'm sure there are some really decent hot dogs out there as you've talked about. As far as my uncle, he was very graphic, and it was the '50's when I am supposing there weren't as many labeling laws in effect, and at least one of the things he told me I found out later might have been absolutely correct. He said at the end of the day, they are standing in blood, and they throw out a bunch of sawdust to soak it up, then shovel it into the hot dog machine. He said the stuff when ground up was an awful gray color, so they dump in mass quantities of Red Dye. I thought the saw dust part was a bit much at the time, but have since read that during WWII, the government allowed cellulose, in the form of saw dust, to be added as a filler in bread and other items, and did not have to be labeled. I don't know if the law exists anymore, but that seemed consistent with what he told me about adding saw dust into the hot dogs. With that said, I think its time for a mail order hot dog of quality! Put some of my home made pickle relish, home made mustard, and I suppose it is heresy to put some home made catsup on them too!? :) doc

When I was younger, I used recipes 'cause I had no idea what I was doing. Now, I use recipes so's I won't forget what I am doing. doc

My uncle, who worked for Oscar Mayer in Davenport, Iowa, saw me eating a hot dog when I was a kid. He said "Do you know what they make those from?" And I said, "No!" He then proceeded to tell me. I never ate another hot dog ever. doc

When I was growing up in Iowa, my uncle in Lost Nation raised cows. Every year when the pastures turned green and the cows, which had been eating hay during the winter months, were let out to pasture, every once in a while, a cow would bloat. I saw him take a knife and stab the cow to let out the air. Cow did fine. He even showed me in the Farmer's book, an illustration of how to do this. What was more gross, was what he had to do when a cow got constipated. Now I know what those really long rubber gloves were for. It is my understanding that MCD comes from the brain and possibly the spinal column, and the many outbreaks in England were primarily people who ate cow brains. Apparently it is more popular a dish in Europe than America. Using bone scraper machines to extract the last bits of meat is one way that processed beef products could pose some danger, since they throw in the spinal column I think I read. I also read that the cow has to be something like at least 6 years old to catch it. Veal should be safe, even if not totally politically correct in America. I'm carniverous, so I eat beef. I think Alzheimer's is one of the worst ways to die. And I think my chances of getting that are far greater than this cow disease. doc

I have the Tilia Pro II. When I grind hamburger, I weigh it out in 1-lb portions and put it into a foodsaver bag that is only sealed on the bottom. I then stick it in the freezer for a while, so that when I vacuum seal it, the juices don't flow. It is important though, to pack the raw meat tightly, as when it is partially frozen, it doesn't compress as well when putting the vacuum on it. Its a tradeoff. As far as individual portions, I would seal each individual portion with the Tilia, then pack them all into a big ziplock freezer bag to keep them together, without having to break the vacuum seal each time to remove 1 portion. doc

We love to steam the fresh green snap beans, shock them in ice water. Then saute some thick sliced mushrooms in sweet butter, not turning them over or stirring them until they're nice and carmelized on one side. S&P them generously. Then mix them up and continue saute-ing, and then add the juice and zest of one lemon, and add back the drained shocked green beans heat to just the right serving temperature. doc

That was weird. The first time I read your first posts, I only got a little box with a red "x" in it. Then the link didn't work either. So I pasted the web link into the browser and saw your butt. Then when I went back to the posts, your butt showed up everywhere that it didn't show before! All the pictures showed up this time. doc

I met the love of my life when I was 19 and she was 17. I had moved into a rented room in this woman's house, and Deanna lived in the room next door. There was a communal kitchen in the basement for the renter's to use. I was really a gourmet at an early age. I took me a 1/2 lb of hamburger, fried it up loosely with some onions and a little oregano, salt and pepper, whilst at the same time I heated up a fresh can of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti and meatballs. I combined the two, and that was our first meal. Deanna reciprocated the next evening by bringing out her little cook set. It was exactly between the size of my sister's doll house cookware, and regular adult cookware. I'd never seen any in-between size cookware like that before, and since Deanna was 5' 1/2" tall, I started wondering if maybe I'd run into a new race of in-between size people or something! :) She proceeded to melt about 2 cups of Crisco in the little fry pan, and floated hamburger patties in it until they were cooked. I said Wow! I'd never seen hamburgers made that way before, and she told me that's the way Mom has always made them! We never parted after that night, Oct. 10, 1969. And we are still together, and still cooking together. And her favorite meal now is green beans with sauteed mushrooms with lemon zest and lemon juice, Potatoes Deanna (I named it after her, of course!), and grilled dry marinated tenderloin with homemade Demi-glace with a little Maytag Iowa blue cheese incorporated in. doc

Here is my list: 1. Found a beetle cooked right into the air pocket on the bottom of a McDonald's hamburger bun. (I always look the bun over both sides now since 20 years ago). 2. Pulled out a huge piece of white vein about 1" x 2" cooked into the center of a Burger King whopper. (I won't eat at BK anymore). 3. Found a bleached white whole cockroach in the Tabouli at Adul's Afandy (since closed). 4. Found a piece of black rubber gasket in my personal milk container. 5. Found a black hair long hair in my wife's Greek gravy dish. 6. Found a pubic hair on a Greek combination plate from a different restaurant than #5 above. 7. Found a green booger (it couldn't have been anything else) on the outside of the wax paper wrapper for a roast beef sandwich from a drive-in. (I had complained two days earlier about the old cole slaw). Was there a connection? I don't eat there anymore. I don't want to remember anymore incidents. Maybe that is why I eat in most days now! doc

I am sitting here with tears in my eyes. Tears from the hilarity of reading of the many adventures you egulleter's were kind enough to share, and tears of a different nature, for the gone-by days that may never return. I loved those days. Back in the mid to late '60's and early 70's. When I watch "It was 20 years ago today", i cannot help but cry. My paranoid nature tells me "Don't put anything in writing, especially on the internet". But I'm old enough now, maybe much like the inhabitants of Roswell, NM, that I just don't give a crap anymore. First, from a purely scientific perspective: Hashish and weed have Delta 6-tetrahydrocannibinol in them. It is with the addition of heat, that it turns into that rigthgeous delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol. So, the whole point of eating raw hashish or raw weed (how do you swallow raw weed...yuck) is that you're wasting it, because of the relative greater psychotropic properties of delta 9 vs. delta 6. My cousin, who was a spy in Iran for the Air Force before the overthrow of the Shah, used to send me back little gram-size packets of hashish hidden within audio cassettes. Only the ones with screws so you could undo them! He told me once on a plane ride back, he met a girl with whom he shared a couple gram chunks of hashish and it took hours for it to come on. Now delta 6 is not without psychotropic functionality. But, the delta 9, as I said before, is much more immediate and powerful in comparison. Another fool that I once knew, Fred, once cooked up a bunch of righteous Columbian high land weed in some spaghetti sauce and had a couple of guys from India for dinner. He thought it a lark to feed them this stuff. They got really paranoid and thought they were having a heart attack and he had to drive them to the hospital emergency ward. They came down enough, with injections of diazepam (Valium), that he took them back to his house to finish the meal. They immediately started having the heart attack feelings again, and, yup, back to the emergency ward. A room-mate of mine once thought it fun to lace my root beer bottle of pop in the refrigerator with diethylamide lysergic acid 25. I didn't appreciate it anymore than those guys from India did. One should never mess with the mind of another without their knowledge. There is some really bad uckin' Karma involved in doing that. I used to have a pamphet/booklet type of publication which was called "The Synthesis and Extraction of Organic Psychedelics". It was put out by the Good Karma Trading Company. I loaned a friend this booklet during one of my really paranoid periods, and the fool lost it. I would give anything to have a copy of that again. I performed the extraction of Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seeds (you could also use Flying Saucer Morning Glory seeds and I couldn't find any, but I thought the thought of "Flying Saucers" was just too far out to miss, but alas I couldn't find any and settled for the Heavenly Blue), and I am here to tell ya, that there really is an LSD type analogue in those seeds. The problem was finding seeds that had not been "treated" by poison to keep the rodents from eating the seeds. I, however, was successful in finding untreated seeds. An experience I will never forget. So, where is this all leading? I don't know. I'm drinking Orange Juice screwdrivers because our society has become so politically anal that I darse not enjoy that condiment that I so much enjoyed so many years ago, due to the dreaded "drug test". Yet here I am drinking one of the most addictive drugs ever, because our government thinks that THC is not good for me. Do you realize that Mr. Diesel, who invented the Diesel engine, designed it to run on hemp-seed oil? When asked why, he was quoted "Well, hemp-seed oil is only the most abundant and cheap oil on the planet". Because anyone could grow hemp and press the seeds which are somewhere about 96% oil by weight, there was no money in it!~!!!! So, the 1937 Harrison Tax Stamp act was passed to insure that nobody could deal or grow hemp. This led the way for the oil barons who were able to build oil derricks, which most 99.99% of the population could not afford, to maintain a virtual monopoly over the source of energy. Yet, rural America, which was not hooked up to the electrical grid, used hemp-seed oil to light their oil lamps. Because they couldn't get hemp-seed oil anymore, the next best thing to use was Whale oil This led to the virtual extincition of whales, as the demand for whale oil rose dramatically because of the illegality of hemp-seed oil. Great country we live in isn't it?!? Yet, 10000 acres of hemp will produce 2000 times as much paper, and of finer quality, than 10000 acres of trees. And hey, next year, you can do it all over again. Cloth made from hemp is far more comfortable than cotton, and last forever. Oh, am I seeing an agenda here, planned obsolescence. You can't sell stuff that actually lasts, not in America, you need to sell stuff that wears out, so you can sell some more stuff. Oh wow! So you see, we laugh and joke about the '60's, but there is a much more menacing and hidden agenda in this situation than most people are aware. Sorry, I am so in need of some brownies, but so paranoid to indulge. What a moral dilemma, and predictament to be in! Anyway, the whole point was to point out why cooking with hemp works, because the addition of heat cause the delta 6 to morph into the delta 9. doc

After reading all these posts, I am holding my breath and taking a big chance here to render my humble contribution regarding one of my favorite Middle Eastern foods, stuffed Grape Leaves. The best I ever had was at Abdul's Afandy in Minneapolis. Abdul took a liking to me and took me back in the kitchen after several years of being "his best customer", and showed me how he does stuffed grape leaves (and everything else on his menu, except the Shawirma!). I was surprised how simple it was. He includes whole cardomon pods with the rice as it cooks. Fishes out the pods when the rice is done, rolls the grape leaves, puts them in a covered pan, with lemon juice and water. Bake covered until done. They're still the best I've eaten, although I must say the recipes rendered on this thread seem awfully inviting! doc

Best falafel I ever had was at Abdul's Afandy on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Alas, they are no longer. Next best is a tie between the Holyland Lebanese Bakery and Delicatessen on Central Avenue in Minneapolis, and Jerusalem's on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. The Holyland is more consistent, and has a bin full of them as part of the buffet. Most places around here serve them as part of combination plates, or as a substitute for the Shawirma in a Shawirma pita sandwich. Always there is ice berg lettuce, tomato bits, onions, and your choice of Tahini or Tzasiki sauce. I prefer the Tahini. Too much sometimes and the bottom falls out of the Pita! The Holyland bakes their own Pita and it is always fresh, never toasted. doc

Thank you both for the invite. I am afraid I will be unable to attend this event, but am wondering if you guys get together often for similar gatherings at various venues? If so, I would be pleased if I could join you in a future event! doc

Well, I live in Shoreview. The best two restaurants I ever ate in were Chouette in Wayzata, and Abdul's Afandy on Nicollet and 26th. Alas, neither is operating anymore. But Abdul (Mohammed Ahmed) took me back in the kitchen and taught me how to make virtually everything on his menu. Thanks Abdul. China Taste on University and 81st was my most favorite Chinese restaurant for the Kung Pao beef dish. I am still suffering withdrawal symptoms for Chock Huie's wonderful dish. Alas, they retired and he never got around to showing me how to re-create it! I loved 128 the first time I ate there. The 2nd and 3rd times was enough for me never ever to go back again. 20 years ago, 510 was OK, a bit haughty. Right now, let's see, I like the Holyland buffet on Central. Majdi does a pretty good job at keeping the quality up. Haven't been to the Lowell Inn since they revamped it a bit ago. Yup, guess I just kind of got tired of eating out. Now we pretty much eat in all the time. I just love to cook it myself. So youse guys still getting together, I know this thread was a year old or so? doc