stagis

OK - a little confusion here: The recipes I've seen for pizza dough ALL add some oil into the mix. I've taught my 14-year-old to make Italian bread, and said to him,"OK - now if you want pizza, just add 1/4 cup of oil to the dough before you start kneading..." I saw no oil in the recipes early in this thread.....why not? Thanks - Rob

heading into the corn chowder sphere: We've had a standard corn chowder recipe (fry bacon bits, remove, fry onion, add cream of mushroom soup, milk, corn, etc.....) for years, but I got a recipe out of Yankee Magazine last year for corn, scallop and red bell pepper chowder that was outstanding... no bacon, wonder of wonders, and it flavorful fand sweet. The recipe's worth looking up since, alas, I can't remember it.....

I got it!!! I figgered it out!!! EVOO is extra-virgin olive oil.....I feel better about myself now........... Dips? Beau Monde, of course!!! (When the in-laws are coming). I personally like the Asian habit of a few bowls of this-n-that, and if translated over to Western cooking, hmmm... (this is a new line of thought for me)... Salt, maybe some olive oil, a little hot sauce? Separate containers... (I've gone into cheapskate mode here...all this stuff comes in packs at fast-food places)...some veggies and you have a snack that'll make your mouth in suspense for the next bite.... Soy? Mirin? wasabi? Inner Beauty hot sauce? This brings up memories of a memorable Mongolian Hot Pot dinner - 8 of us, about a million dipping things, and I was the only one who enjoyed it..... ah, well...

I got it out of Reader's Digest years ago - therefore, it has to be good... (and is!) A bunch of popcorn In some sort of container, melt 1/2 stick of butter Add 2 Tbsp parmesan (I'm not snooty...use the Kraft's) Add 2 tsp of tabasco Pour it over. It stinks to high heaven and will drive my wife out of the room.....is there something Freudian here? Or: Cajun blackening mix...you know - salt/pepper/red pepper/cumin, etc., etc... Or: Packaged sushi-rice seasoning (nori, salt, sugar and seeds of some sort) What else?

I've got 3 teens in the house..... 190 pounds, 170 pounds and 140 pounds. They didn't get that way (by the way, they're all over 6 feet - even the daughter) by missing meals. With that said, and when, just once in a while, I have the couch and TV to myself, I'll mosey out to the kitchen and realize, once again, that the cupboards are bare. Things I've resorted to: Crackers and: peanut butter (the remains of a jar in the back of the shelf, including reduced-fat *shudder*), jelly of all kinds, marmalade, lemon curd, old salsa, cottage cheese (hopefully not old yogurt), sliced American cheese, whittled-off chunks of that yellow brick in the back of the deli drawer which is/was probably cheese. Olives Pickles A tomato with salt Eureka!!! A microwave popcorn package! (I'm a Scoutmaster - Trail's End, while expensive, is awesome...the low-fat microwave is grrrreat!!!) Shrimp scampi (getting desperate here, finding a bag of frozen uncooked shrimp, some garlic and the ReaLemon bottle) Grilled cheese (which, prior opinions to the contrary, is great - with mustard!!!) Poptarts (few and far between) Leftover whatever... nuking a chunk of steak and walking into the living room with it stuck on the end of a fork - man-popsicle)

I do 'em 2 ways, and, also, attribute tough ones to too much handling. Both use self-rising flour, with the first one being lard-based. However - when I have leftover heavy cream, I use that...simplest thing in the world: Verify it before ruining some recipe and cursing me, but I think it was 2 parts self-rising flour to 1 part heavy cream. That's it. Awesome biscuits.

5 days to vacation, and I see that eGullet has exceeded my expectations (again). Thanks, everybody, and I'll post family-style reviews: How handsome the waiters are (from the daughter) Was there enough all-you-can-eat pasta? (from the youngest) Were there enough babes? (from the middle boy) Was there enough butter? (from the wife) And: Did they keep the drinks flowing? (yours truly). Argggh: family vacation with 3 teens..........

Tabbouleh Mint Juleps

From what I understand it, tomato ketchup is an American staple in its many-manufacturer form. But witness the rest of the world - catsup, kitchap, etc..... and they have a LOT more variety... Personally, I use more Sri Racha then ketchup, but that's personal... And I've just discovered the joys of relish on a dog... And threw out the jars of Cain's 'Green' and Cain's 'Yellow' relishes........

The only ones I feel I need after a housefire wiped out my old collection of things-I-never-looked-at: Good Housekeeping red-checkered looseleaf Southern Living Raichlen's BBQ one.... The ones I need to re-buy: Clearly Delicious (preserving and so-forth) Um - that's about it. The Web is thee place now. The only issue I have is finding that perfect pecan-topped sweet potato baked casserole year after year (and always forget to save to disk).

I'm agreeing with Soba Addict.....all food is good food :) However - one recipe lives on in memory: It was a '50 Best Sushi Rolls' or something like that. A little 5x5 book, with most of the rolls being accessible and good, if a little off the beaten track, like the Steak and Onion Roll, or the Sauted Scallops Roll (both excellent, by the way). This recipe called for NUTELLA!!!!! *squirm* *shudder* It just didn't work - and I like Nutella!!!

I'm a bizerko on the subject of fresh corn, so this is sort of an odd request. At breaktime, one of the ladies was bemoaning the change in canned cream corn. I know, I know, in this day and age of fresh herbs and sushi-quality fish I'm being a throwback, but somehow there's nothing like a heap of mashed potatos with a lake of creamed corn on 'em. So (and I've never made it at home) how DO you make creamed corn? I'll bet it would knock your socks off with fresh corn, which will be one way to use my excess. At this time of year, I buy 2 dozen ears of corn and whatever's left gets cut off the cob and frozen. Thanks - Rob

OK, this is complicated. Fambly vacation in August will be in Brewster, MA on the 'elbow' of Cape Cod. The wife doesn't care what she eats, as long is it's steamed/boiled lobster or baked, stuffed shrimp. The daughter (18) is the world's pickiest eater - she'd rather flirt with a waiter. The middle boy will eat anything once, while the youngest (14) will eat all-you-can-eat pasta until you physically remove him from the table. Mois? I like anything and everything - literally. If I had my druthers, I'd put a sushi bar in at Abbott's Lobster-in-the-Rough with a Dairy Queen at the exit and a BBQ joint while you wait. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....... Anybody have favorite eateries out there? If the food's awful, good drinks will compensate. F'rinstance, one of my favorites is Bill's in Clinton, CT. Fried-food heaven, but with reggae on the jukebox, a good outside bar... Abbott's is pure pleasure in Noank, CT.... The there's no bar, the food HAS to be good, though gourmet fare won't cut it with the family..... I await your input anxiously.....tummy rumbling.

I'm on the other side of the coin - I love 'em. I'm thrilled that our local supermarket chain (Stop 'n' Shop) has a set of trays, usually near the cheese section, containing both adulterated (spiced, herbed, etc.) olives and unadulterated, both in brine and oil..... I usually grab 1/4 pound for munching, but they have a pretty good selection, even for recipes...

My favorite is pretty simple: marinate peeled shrimp in lime juice (maybe half lime juice and half takillya is I've got it) for 15 minutes or so, skewer them on twin skewers for ease of handling, salt and pepper pretty heavily, then grill with a watchful eye......

2 things - 1 gettable, 1 not. Gettable: 'Mini Gel Snacks' in Asian markets. They're (roughly) one ounce plastic cups (little things) sealed with foil. It's like a jello thing which I suspect was jelled with some sort of seaweed extract - when thawed (the way they were intended to be eaten) they've got a non-jello consistency, with a chunk of coconut heart or something in the middle. Freeze and enjoy! They're better, to my taste, frozen... Non-gettable except on the Asian rim: MELONA BARS!!! These things have become my personal quest. We had them on a Hawaiian vacation l- a little pricey but worth every penny...sort of like a perfectly ripe melon frozen on a stick. I'm currently working on Costco (where we got them out there) to stock them - if I can get 'em at one Costco, I should be able to get 'em at any Costco. There's a language barrier at my local (and wonderful) Asian market, A Dong in W. Hartford, CT, and we're just not connecting.

Watermelon with salt Apples with salt Apples dipped in peanut butter Cheese dipped in BBQ sauce Cottage cheese with horseradish (stuffed into a toasted pita) Grilled cheese with mustard? Pepper on anything sweet...

I don't have an exact recipe either, but: 1/3 lime juice (bottled or fresh - doesn't matter to me...) 1/3 tequila The remaining third: diced onion smashed garlic salt/pepper hot sauce

You guys talked about brining ribs - try it with a pork loin (the big one). The recipe I remember used cider vinegar, orange slices, fennel..... 1-2 days in the fridge, then out to the grill. I've NEVER had leftovers. Container? For turkey, I've used garbage bags.....

Chuck's Steak House gets my vote for a low-key meal. Excellent steaks, but stay away from, in my experience, the 'prepared' ones - those with sauces/spices, etc...go for the plain meat and you won't be disppointed. Excellent drinks/good bar. Downtown Farmington. Italian family dining - Pagliacci's in Plainville, though there's no place to relax while you wait to be seated...right on Rte. 10.

When talking dogs, most central CT guys will mention Blackie's in Waterbury. I'm not impressed with Blackie's - it must be an 'insider' thing, but it's a steamed dog with generic (to my taste) meat sauce. Hot-dog-stand ambience... Saint's, on the Plainville/Southington town line on Rte. 10 makes a good dog. The only way to eat one is with the works - meat sauce, onions, cheese, and what-have-you. My last meal as a single man lo, these many years ago, was at Capitol Lunch in downtown New Britain. Good, greasy, dog, and I got married with massive heartburn :)