Lexica

Hand my husband a ziploc freezer bag containing a chicken's back (from that night's spatchcocked chicken) and giblets package and expect that he will understand it's supposed to go in the freezer, not the trash can. He says he thought I'd put them in the bag to keep the cats away from them. Sure thing - once they've figured out how to get past the child-proof latches on the trash can cupboard, that freezer bag should stop them in their tracks.

We haven't tried making flour tortillas yet, but my husband and I do make corn tortillas sometimes (dried masa - despite living in an area with a high proportion of Spanish-as-first-language people, I haven't been able to find fresh masa; I need to expand my hunting grounds from the Asian groceries to include more of the mercados in the neighborhood). They're quite tasty, and not a whole lot of work. And you know what? Sometimes even that is more work than I'm up for. Sometimes all I want is to grab a tortilla from the package and continue with whatever I'm making. Part-time culinary heathen, part-time purist, that's me.

How did I miss seeing this the first time I read the thread? What a great idea - especially since I almost never have cream in the house, but evaporated milk is easy. Hmm... more cupcakes tonight, I think! [edited to add:] Did you whip the ganache or leave it smooth and glossy? When I tasted my ganache to decide whether to whip it, I realized that for cupcake frosting my tastebuds demand whipped frosting. The smooth & glossy version was pretty, but not right for cupcakes.

That's the problem I had the few times I tried the $2Chuck. The first bottle was okay - nothing special, but drinkable. The next one was just bad! Instead I copy down recommendations for good budget wines whenever I find a reviewer who seems to know what they're talking about.

Yes yes yes! If you're any kind of wire-fu fan, God of Cookery is a lot of fun. Here's an online review of the movie, which gives an idea of the plot. Personally, I disagree with the reviewer's comment about how "Non-Chinese audiences will have to suffer the additional onus of sitting through some really bad subtitling" - but then, I find the awkward English of subtitles to be an enjoyable part of the experience.

Poor Miss Jess! When I was about 10, I accidentally swallowed a "chewable" vitamin C tablet that was so big it lodged partway down my throat & partly obstructed my breathing until it dissolved. Very scary. Glad she seems to be coming through it unscathed. Anna, your blog has been very inspirational to me this week. I think I have to go find a recipe for pita now. Is there such a thing as chicken tikka masala with no tomatoes? Or is it something where removing or substituting the tomatoes would change it to a different dish entirely? (For example, "That may be a meat sauce for pasta, but without tomatoes, it's not bolognese, no way, no how.") I love chicken tikka masala, unauthentic as it may be, but tomatoes don't agree with me.

A method I've seen recommended is to bring the liquid up to a full boil, remove it from the heat, then add the chicken (or whatever's being poached). Is there an advantage to adding the chicken and then raising it to a boil before turning it off? I think I'm a bit paranoid about making the meat tough. Any time the word "boil" comes into a recipe involving meat, I get a mite nervous.

You're in San Francisco, right? There are a number of stone dealers in the East Bay which might be worth looking at. I disagree that the per-square-foot price for a small piece will be the same as for a countertop-sized piece, for reasons of supply and demand, if nothing else. (Any stonecutting shop that's been in business for a while will create lots more smallish scrap pieces than huge ones. It's like sewing - fabric that costs $18/yard if the salesperson cuts it off the bolt may cost $9/yard if you get it from the remnants bin. Of course, it may only be 3/4 of a yard long, but if all you need is 3/4 of a yard, you're golden!) Architectural salvage yards can be a good place to look. I seem to remember seeing a number of marble slabs in different forms (most were countertops or vanity tops) the last time I was looking around the yard at Ohmega Salvage in Berkeley. [edited to correct spelling error]

Oh, my. I'm experiencing a serious case of renter's envy. It sounds lovely. Any chance of seeing photos?

Ooh, that sounds good. I love sour things (as a child, I would peel lemons and eat them segment by segment). Since we don't have an ice cream freezer, it'll have to be Monkey's sorbet in a sack technique. (Hey now - I just realized that I actually have all these ingredients on hand.) I'd love to know more about the cauliflower casserole, too.

Yep, one right here. Sometimes I make "crustless pumpkin pie" - skip making a crust, just pour the filling into an appropriate baking dish and bake. Yum.

To me, this is one of the most important aspects of it. (It's also at the heart of one of the fundamental differences between my husband and me, which is why I've spent a fair bit of time thinking about it.) My husband grew up in an intact nuclear family (mom, dad, 2 kids - 1 boy, 1 girl) that was part of a very large extended family (he has 21 first cousins on his mother's side alone). His parents have always been busy with their medical practice, and my husband and his sister both had a lot of extracurricular activities (sports, music lessons, etc.). Plus my mother-in-law doesn't cook, she defrosts. The result is that even on the rare occasions when they did sit down at the same time, nobody was eating the same thing - everybody would have defrosted whatever they felt like eating that night. On the other hand, I am an only child in a micro-family (I have 2 first cousins, total) and my parents divorced when I was 7. My parents lived 3+ hours apart after the divorce, so although it was technically joint custody, whichever parent I was living with at the time effectively functioned as a single parent with no co-parent to help. Despite that, we shopped together, cooked together, and ate dinner together almost every night. The long-term result is that to me, food is about much more than its nutritional value - it's about sharing time and affection, about exploring new things with loved ones, about doing or making something because you know somebody else will enjoy it and their enjoyment increases your own. To him, food is fuel - large servings, eat quickly, get on with the important stuff of life. I feel very frustrated and sad about this sometimes.

If I may ask, why? Dissatisfied with their spices, the service, or something else?

There's another variation - the one where bringing a new package of whatever into the household suddenly renders the existing, half-used package invisible. Me: "The old bottle of dish detergent is still a quarter full! Why did you open the new one?" Him: "I didn't see the old one." [Which, needless to say, is in the same spot next to the sink that it has been since we moved into this apartment.] Arrrgh. Anyway, back to the list. For things we purchase repeatedly, I have a printed list that gets put into a sheet protector and posted on the fridge. A dry-erase marker works nicely to highlight things as we run low or out. Once an item gets replaced, the highlighting gets erased, at least in theory. The list is sorted into general categories, based on what kind of item it is (produce, dairy, cleaning products, etc.). There's a white board next to the list, where non-list things can be added. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out the automagic feature where simply saying "we're almost out of [x]" results in [x] being highlighted on the list without manual intervention - despite what a certain other member of the household seems to think.

I fourth (fifth?) the recommendation of an oven thermometer. The oven in my current apartment runs at least 25 degrees hot for temperatures above about 300F, but runs a little cold for temperatures around 200F (as I discovered when making onion confit). This is a picture of the thermometer I use. It should be available in any hardware store with a housewares section. One of the things I like is that it's cheap - around $7, if I remember correctly. A tip for thawing frozen things more quickly that I learned from Alton Brown: put the frozen food in a zipper-lock plastic bag and seal it, removing as much air as possible. Submerge in a large bowl of cold water and set the faucet to running a small trickle of cold water into the bowl. (I set it as low as it will go and still be a trickle instead of separate drips, if that makes any sense.) It works much faster than any other method, according to AB. There's a hidden advantage to it as well - we bought some frozen shrimp a while ago that were inedibly salty in my opinion. While wondering if there was any way to salvage them, I decided to try thawing some without using a plastic bag. I figured it might act as a reverse brine: since the concentration of salt inside the cells would be so much higher than in the water, it would osmose out. It seemed to work reasonably well.

Disappointing indeed, and not nearly as interesting as the mental picture I had of somebody figuring out a way to deep-fry a portion of banana pudding.

Lately I've noticed golden beets at our local farmers' markets and at the... hm, "upscale" isn't quite the right word... at the markets that put a high priority on produce. Around here, this ranges from places like Andronico's (aka Astronomico's, for their prices) to the Berkeley Bowl or Piedmont Grocery, where the prices are not that far out of line with the supermarkets. Whole Foods seems like another likely place. There was a sign in the Berkeley Bowl produce department the other day: "baby chioggia beets". (Excellent for roasting, as it preserves the striped pattern.) Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any actual beets to go with the sign.

Heh. I used to subscribe to The Craft Report, and one of the recurring topics they dealt with was how to deal with people coming into one's booth at a show and saying "I could make this myself for a tenth of the price!" One artisan responded by posting a sign in their booth: "Of course you could make one at home... but will you?"

Since reading all the praise for Goya products on eGullet, I've been wanting to try them myself. No luck finding them so far at the supermarket. I think I'm looking in the wrong place, though - forget the supermarket, we need to be shopping at the supermercado! Luckily, we live near the Fruitvale/International District in Oakland. Finding a market where the first language isn't English is pretty easy. The shopping list so far includes the Mojo Criollo, the adobo seasoning, the guava paste... and I'm poised to copy down further recommendations from this thread.

Builders of rental & multi-unit housing should be forced to live (with emphasis on cooking and cleaning) in their own buildings for at least the first year after a building is completed. Signed, Been Living In Rental Housing For The Past 16 Years And See No Signs Of That Changing Any Time Soon aka Who Decided Black Was A Good Color For Wall-To-Wall Carpet Anyway? aka I Hate The Off-Beige Grout On My Pepto-Bismol-Pink Tile Counter Because It's Impossible To Clean

I find I prefer having the pieces of more uniform size, as they brown more evenly. If I leave the big lacy pieces whole, they don't get the same depth of flavor as the smaller bits. I use plain (heavy-duty) foil, as the roll of non-stick we have isn't large enough to cover a half-sheet pan in one piece. The oven is right around 400, maybe a bit on the low side, and it takes about 40 to 50 minutes to get it as brown as we like it. And the result - savory, slightly sweet, tender, crispy.... Last night I roasted a head of cauliflower with a red onion (sliced into narrow vertical wedges), then tossed it with rotini and some chèvre. The verdict? "You'll make a bigger batch next time, RIGHT?" And oh, I must get some purple cauliflower. Food should be purple, whenever possible.

Interesting - Cointreau is one of the liqueurs my husband and I consider essential to have on hand (can't make a proper Sidecar without it), and we're both quite fond of Drambuie. It's a bit pricy, though, so I've been thinking about trying a "faux Drambuie" recipe I found online. (I blame the infused vodka thread for getting me thinking about making liqueurs at home. )

Soft-boiled eggs over strips of buttered sourdough toast with crumbled bacon sprinkled over the top (plus salt and freshly-ground pepper, of course). Still working on getting the timing on the eggs just right.

I knowingly and willfully overcook chicken. Not entirely my fault, though - my husband's the one who dislikes juicy, tender meat. He's the only person I've encountered who prefers that his poultry not be brined - it makes it too juicy! I got tired of choosing between having him leave it uneaten on his plate or having him put his piece back on the stove to cook longer, and decided that household harmony would be improved by overcooking it a little in the first place.

Not necessarily - if it's lambic, it can be quite nice. Which is not to say that I think the AB product will be (at all) nice...