MomOfLittleFoodies

I've been craving beef stew lately, but couldn't find a recipe that I fell in love with, so I made one up on my own. Beef, potato, parsnip, carrot, onion, garlic, bay leaves, smoked paprika, rosemary, oregano, beef broth, about half a bottle of 7 year old pinot noir and salt and pepper, simmered for about an hour yielded this. The bread is pane rustico from Trader Joe's, cut in half with brie in there, I wrapped the bread and brie in foil and warmed it in the oven. Yummy. Not a great picture... but on a whole I'm happy with the result.

FYI, you can use manioc flour as a 1:1 subtitution for corn starch or potato starch. Manioc flour = tapioca starch/flour. Fairly popular alternative flour for gluten free baking. edited to add... my canned good cabinets aren't too bad (I go through them every 3 months), but my spice cabinet is nuts.

You have just made my day ← I can't claim that as an original... originally saw that term applied to SL over at televisionwithoutpity

I've been to Johnny Rockets once, a location in CA, and if that burger is representative of the entire chain, I'm not impressed. Those Kua'aina burgers look like they're worth the money, keeping in mind that theses days a combo meal at McD's here in CA is over $5.

My lists, keep in mind that I'm a suburban housewife who likes to cook, but that I'm not professionally trained in culinary arts, so I'm not hardcore foodie. Likes, in no particular order Ellie Krieger Lidia Bastianich Julia Child Jacques Pepin Mario Batali Jacques Torres Jaime Oliver Anthony Bourdain Alton Brown Martin Yan Sam Choy Tyler Florence Ina Garten Giada Mollie Katzen TFL Ming Tsai Dislikes Michael Chiarello the Semi Ho and her wannabe, Robin Miller Christina Pirello Christopher Kimball

Last night I bought a big pack of boneless pork loin chops (1" thick) at Costco, and as I was prepping some for the freezer, I decided that I wanted shogayaki tonight. I found an easy looking recipe on about.com (3 tbsp shoyu, 2 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp sake, 3 tbsp freshly grated ginger to 1 lb of pork). The kids ate it all before I had a chance to take a picture... I guess they liked it.

Just a general comment regarding legume allergies and plane flights. I recall that Singapore Airlines actually provides a nut free flight (for all passengers) should they be advised of a passenger with severe allergies. Perhaps other airlines do the same? ← The airlines in the US are kind of hit or miss in that regard. A handful of airlines don't serve peanuts at all, some that will accommodate by not serving peanuts to a "zone" around the allergic passenger, and some that will make accommodations sometimes. There is at least one domestic US airline which will remain nameless that refuses to make accommodations and have actually kicked peanut allergic passengers off of flights.

I was in my early twenties.. my mom used those packet gravy mixes or gravy from a jar/can. My 10 year old knows how to make gravy from scratch though... he helps his grandmother (obviously not my mom) make the gravy when she makes roast chicken.

The funny thing is that I didn't initially buy this umeboshi brine as a shoyu substitute, I bought it because I thought it would be tasty sprinkled over fresh cucumber (and it is). It was after doing that, that it occurred to me that it would make a good substitute for small amounts of shoyu. When I was about 10, my mom brought home a small jar of umeboshi for the first time, and I think I ate half the jar in one sitting. I love the stuff. It never occurred to me to try fish sauce as a substitute.

You're braver than I am... I stopped flying with the kids after Jason's allergies were diagnosed because the thought of being up in a flying tin can full of recycled air after 100 people open their peanut bags was just too much for my nerves. Jason has outgrown roughly half of his food allergies, but we're treating the remainder as lifelong. He has had 2 anaphylactic reactions, but they were to things that we didn't know that he was allergic to at the time... an antibiotic and squid.

It's not that much different in the US when it comes to the use of soy oil... it's by and large one of the cheapest oils here too. That said, according to experts, most (but not all) soy allergic individuals can tolerate soy lecithin and heat pressed soy oil, as they are practically devoid of protein. The only decent substitute that I ever found for soy sauce here in the US is something a health food company calls Ume Plum Vinegar... yup, it's the brine from umeboshi. Salt content is the same as the Kikkoman shoyu that is made here in the US.

I can't help with you stuff in Japan, but I can commiserate with you. My 10 year old is peanut, tree nut, sesame, shellfish, squid and coconut allergic, and he fairly recently outgrew soy and egg allergies. We're Japanese-American (I'm half, DH is full), and trying to find imported Japanese products that were safe for my son was something of a crap shoot. What I would do in your shoes is to find someone who can write in Japanese, and translate one of those food allergy dining cards.

I'm not a hardcore foodie, but I think it's important not to "write off" people who don't seem to care about food just because they don't appreciate the difference between mediocre processed crap and food prepared from scratch. Our tastes are formed by the way we ate as children, and sometimes it takes a while for those tastes to evolve from "Hey, I love Kraft Mac and Cheese" to "That boxed Mac and Cheese stuff tastes like crap!". I'm of the opinion that a gracious host should serve nice things to guests. Maybe not the best stuff, but nice stuff. Sure, I may not bust my butt to serve organic beef burgers with artisan buns and some spendy cheddar, fancy bacon, homemade mayo and organic veggies for people who won't appreciate it, but I'd still use fresh beef, decent store bought buns, a decent cheddar cheese and condiments and veggies. I wouldn't go and serve the cheapest possible unless I didn't want those guest to return. Now, with pre-teens and teenagers, where quantity trumps quality, that's a different story. I have a 10 year old, rail thin son who is an eating machine. When he is really hungry, I don't think he actually tastes his food.

Something to keep in mind, re: the wasabi with sushi thing in the US, is that average "Joe American" has the following misconceptions about sushi... A) that all sushi is raw fish and B) don't understand that sushi and sashimi are not the same thing If I had a dime for every time I've told someone one of the above points, I'd have enough money to buy enough sushi to feed an army. That said, I know a lot of third and fourth generation Japanese-Americans that gob wasabi into their shoyu when they eat sushi. I don't even like the fakey wasabi stuff, so I don't bother.

I love pizza crusts, and nice chewy bagel crusts, but when it comes to a loaf of bread, I don't like a hard crust because it tears up the roof of my mouth. I love the taste of that kind of crust, but not the soft tissue injuries involved with it.

I wasn't aware that foodie = food snob... You know you're a foodie when you find yourself in an ethnic market, for an ethnicity you're not a member of, trying to find authentic ingredients.

I'm not a restauranteur, I just got drawn in by the title. Have you considered using crock pots rather than an electric chafing dish? You could use crock pots to keep hot dogs warm, or you could offer something like nachos or chili instead... a crock pot is a bit more versatile.

My mom makes beef nikujaga, but in her defense, her family is from Kyoto, Hiroshima and Kagoshima. I didn't know it could be made from pork until I started reading Japanese cookbooks. Speaking of home cooking... Hiroyuki, I made your foolproof takikomi gohan recipe tonight, and it's very good. I used white buna shimeji mushrooms instead of oyster mushroom. 3 of my 4 kids cleaned their bowls entirely.

I have fond memories of a deep fried calamari sandwich I had once. I'll eat most anything except organ meat if it's breaded.

I do something similar at Starbucks and Peets, only I just dump out 1/4 of the coffee. At Starbucks it's to get enough milk and sugar in it to kill the "burnt" flavor. At Peets, it's to dilute it a bit because their brew is too strong for me.

Ew. Ew. Ew. That's hideous!

I've had to pull pantry moth cocoons off of the "cottage cheese" textured stuff on my ceiling. Talk about a pain in the butt.

I like a good sear on my steaks, but not charred. I'm in the medium rare camp these days.

I'm in the same position as c. sapidus... my husband and I don't necessarily like the same knives. My knives are a Chicago Cutlery chefs knife, a cheap utility knife that I picked up at Ross, and an OXO good grips bread knife. My husband prefers Japanese style knives, and he has a collection that he's picked up at the local Asian markets. The only "shared" knife is a Calphalon Santoku... We also have a set of Miracle Blades (okay, I like the steak and filet knives) and a set from Shaper Image that were both gifts from my father in law. We haven't even used the latter yet.

I was running short on time this evening, and wanted biscuits, an whipped up a batch using bisquik. They got a kick out of the fact that I cut them out using a pumpkin cookie cutter because I couldn't find my round one. Yeah, I know, it's bisquik, but my kids loved them and it's still better than the "whack a biscuits". For some reason, baking biscuits from scratch intimidates me.