highchef

We picked up 10 lbs fri. Night, just to get a taste...early yet...and it got me thinking about how they pack them up fpr you to go. Around here, it's a plastic grocery bag inside a paper grocery bag. It works ok to get them home, but I wonder about the hot crawfish and those (as far as i can tell, not bare food safe) bags interacting while they're in there...kind of like I worry about my 16 yr old and his girl friend. It's not the crawfish so much as it's the potatoes and corn.This has never crossed my mind before, and it's probably because of a lot of incidental reading about plastics breaking down under heat in the microwave and the question of how am I suppossed to know when plastic IS 'food safe' or not? So, does anyone know if plastic grocery bags can be considered foodsafe?

And i've used it in the batter for choc chip muffins. I thought it took away from the final product, instead of enhancing it, but i used it equal to the vanilla and I think it was too much bitterness....not smooth at all. Better perhaps in whipped creams, icecreams etc. Coffee?

i add it as a part of the flour when I add any wholegrains to muffins, etc. .I have used it in choclate cake and if anything I think it helped with texture and moistness. It was the best chocolate cake I've ever had that was butter based. The recipe on the box is almost identical to the one i used, and does have a little oil in it.I use really good coco, and good organic butter. I don't think it will make a really white cake, but i get a good tender product as long as i don't overmix!

The cheese packets you get (if you ask for them when you order) from dominos pizza. If you camp, they're great on scrambled eggs and beat hauling a piece of parm around....but at home I hoard them to sprinkle on stale buttered french bread (you know, the extra loaf bought at the supermarket cause it smelled so good coming out of the oven?) halved, and browned. No need to add anything but i might put a little more garlic powder with it if we're having spagetti.

How was it made? I'm curious, I've run into the same thing with a lavender syrup I wanted to make ice-cream with and those recipes called for the flowers as well...either simmered and strained or left as is for color etc. I ended up trying it in a white cake which required tweaking the sugar called for, it became more about smell than taste. I have lavender essential oil but am leery of using it in food. It is distilled from the flowers and isn't alcohol based which I think would use more for same effect. All the applications I've considered for lavender are sweet, so I should be able to make the syrup work, but an extract would be so much easier. Did she Grow the flowers? By extract, do you mean left down in ever clear for a few months, like vanilla?

Deer back is backstrap, no? the best part! Brown and braise, I treat it to a good red and some veal stock! excellent choice for a holiday meal! You guys have me feeling bad for bitchin...I'm feeling lots better now. Except for my feet, they're still wanting a soak and massage. Right on bout the turkey, Christmas Has to be something else. I'm leaning to lamb, with a salad with any leftovers the next day. I really,really cannot do another turkey that soon, even if I've finally got the thing down perfectly... School starts back on Monday, I'll worry about it later, after I've had a few days off, and no teenagers to feed all day.

Anyone else in my position? parents are gone so we are The grandparents! Wow! That came on like a ton of bricks! 4 pies, turkey and six sides, doing the whole thing as fresh as possible and making sure everyone gets their favorites. Salads,2 potatoes,organic as i can get,......and I'm frickin tired! Man, if I lived near a whole foods, well, there'd be a lot more salads!

I'm probably alone in this, but I like my chocolate to be fine on it's own, and not competing?.. I'd do a butter mint interior, literally. Butter mints are basically that..butter,mint,and con. Sugar.

Thanks,I should have thought of that! That's where I found the rice flour last year for my shortbread!

There is a blueberry pie recipe I want to try (Alton brown) that calls for tapioca flour. I cannot find it in this town, even in the Bob's Red Mill section, and I know they make it. There are 2 results from google, one is a white flour, cornstarch,tapioca pearl mix and the other just grinds the tapioca in a grinder. That's a big difference,and I suspect the results would differ in taste and texture. Could someone help me out? What does your tapioca flour have in it? Thanks so much!

I have been on a crazy brown butter obsession, this is so welcome! With the (rare) low humidity we're expecting, I am going to make marshmallows today and have them ready to make treats tomorrow! this opens another dimension to my heady immersion into playing with butter....just smelling it brown is obscene.

Mine has 6oz semisweet choc 1/2 cup lt cream 1cup butter 2 1/2 cups confection. Sugar No corn syrup 1teaspoon vanilla, or heat cream with a spline bean Directions are the same. I'm pretty sure you could sub out the cream for the corn syrup, at least it's a good place to start!

I'm asked all the time to do special cakes, and I seriously hope none of mine end up here. Enjoy!

I have to say, I'm not a fan of boiled crawfish with seasoning crusted on the outside. That dry seasoning on the outside is a SW-LA style thing...I want the seasoning inside my crawfish, not on the outside burning my cuticles as I peel. I prefer to heavily season the boiling water with a triple-threat: powdered crawfish boil, the sachets of whole spices, and liquid boil. (Plus heads of garlic cut crosswise, quartered lemons, and whole yellow onions.) To me, the liquid boil is essential--it's made from spice oils in an alcohol base. I do the boil-soak method, but don't do the steaming at the end. For really big boils, I like to boil a few pounds to "season" the water with crawfish flavor, then boil the corn (I don't like it to be too spicy or too mushy or waterlogged), then boil more crawfish & potatoes. Fussy, I know. I'm not so sure that's a S.W. LA thing, exactly. We never did it that way before, but a few years ago were at a boil where a transplant from somewhere had 'heard' that was the way to do it (spice on the outside, mostly a ton of Tony's) and it does have some followers. That said, we go with onions, liquid and bag boil, lemons and a few boxes of salt to start, but that depends on the size pot. do a load, then the veggies (corn, potatoes) then the rest of the crawfish in shifts...one's boiling, while one's purging. I don't understand the controversy of NOT purging, it seems to me that a great lot of dirt is removed this way and you can see it as you empty and refill the water. We feed the little ones from the first batch, as with each consecutive batch the water gets hotter and hotter...the spices are really in your face by the last batch. No one I know does the spice at the end thing, I think we've all had it once and liked our way better. I don't need to tell you not to touch your eyes, nose etc. when eating them do I? I once 'got' my eye so badly that I couldn't wear my contacts for a week. The eye dr. thought I had pink eye until I told him I just needed cayanne relief drops. I'd wait to order them though, they are still way to small here, maybe the basin ones are bigger, but the farmed ones didn't like the last couple of cold snaps.

In South Louisiana, there's an old saying "the rice is on, now what do you want for dinner?" Pork: sweet potatoes, rosemaried'd potatoes, mango salsa, or any sweet sauce. plum sauce. Ham: cheese and potatoes. spinach. small bisquits, grits. steak: baked potato. sauteed' mushrooms and/or onions. pilaf. chicken: anything. my theory is they don't say it taste like chicken for nothing..you can do/add/put anything with it and it's still, well, chicken. lamb: mint, rosemary, cheese and potatoes, mashed potatoes, rice and peas, couscous, polenta especially..really just about anything is great with a nice piece of lamb. most seafood really likes tarragon, and rice and pasta go with everything. regards!

I was going to start a topic like this, but you've beat me to it.... What to cook for a superbowl like no other. If you don't live in Louisiana, you may not have a grip on the hysteria that's been going on the last weeks, and will be ape-s..t nuts by the Superbowl. They say it's snowing in hell. Now, I have to really, really get a grip on the cooking. It could be pouring rain, freezing, or hot as the above mentioned hell. so, I've decided (maybe) on just finger foods, and a gumbo in reserve. The crawfish are still too small, and the fricking backyard looks like we have horses instead of just the old hunting labs. I can do the base for the gumbo, and reserve the shrimp and crab etc. for last minute. I'm putting black olives on top of deviled eggs, that I need to figure out how to make more gold than yellow. I have some Dufour's puff in the freezer that I'll do 'something' with...and a ton of their small pastry cups. The small pastries will probably end up being quiche, with panchetta and? suggestions welcome. The puff will be rolled out and sprinkled with sauted' trinity, venison sausage, maybe some cheese. I really want to do some sort of new take on manchego and quince, but can't figure out how to get that into a pastry. Maybe precook a tart shell, put shredded manchego in it, melt a minute and then dart with quince paste? I don't know, but we have a little time to figure it out. The Saint's are in the Super Bowl, and all is right tonight in Loouisian.. WHOSE DAT???

I too have been after the ultimate gingerbread recipe. I've tried the stout, and it is very good, but I don't use it when there are teens, tweens, or kids...or for that matter when there is a crowd of less sophisticated taste buds. Soo, my go to this year has been from the King Arthur cookbook. the basic recipe is light and has enough ginger to warrant the name, but if you add the chopped ginger option, and use the ginger syrup (if you've been candying ginger slices, here's your chance to use that, otherwise you can make it pretty easily) option, it gives a really cool/hot kick that is awesome. It is not on the site, but if you say pretty please, I'll go grab the book and send it along before I start cooking. btw, I love lemon curd with gingerbread, some people prefer whipped cream. usually i just fold some whipped cream into the curd and please everyone. Merry Christmas

I may be being stupid about this, but is there anyway to use egg whites?

John, what is quince paste made of? I don't know the texture etc. of your pulp, but if you strained and added pectin? Wow, homemade membrillo would be an awsome christmas gift...especially paired with a good manchego. Or a more curd like substance..for tarts? What a great day to play in the kitchen (rain..lots and lots of it), I wish I could get my hands on some, I'd love to experiment.

Better homes and Gardens has an issue out "Holiday Baking" On page 65 they have a recipe for "honey crumch chocolate pecan pie:" Question? What the hell is '2 envelopes (1 ounce each) premelted unsweetened chocolate product?

sticky toffee pudding. bring sauce and unbaked pudding, heat and serve the next day. Lots of receipes out there, Gayle Gand has one from when she worked in the lakes region of England. It's such a cool holiday dessert, I love that stuff!

I've had a couple of hour waits at sonic here, but on the whole they can be pdq. I have to really be craving a footlong to sit an hour these days, although it is a good time to catch up. Which brings up my afternoon suggestion: forgo the fries and hit sonic for some of those cheese stuffed tater tots. I think I'll experiment with the tater tot idea, and try to stuff my own. That would be cool. I really just want the guys to be able to eat fast, but shake it up a little so everyone feels satisfied. Other wise I cook a lot and it's way to hot and busy right now to put filling square meals out 7 days a week!

Trying to Feed a bunch of football players after practice, we had to have a vote on what drive thru. We ended up having a great discussion (4 16 yr.old boys, and 1 mom) about what drive thru was going to get our(mine) dollars. When you're feeding big guys you have to consider cost too. We had cokes and cheese @ home, so I ruled out adding cheese to burgers, or making it a meal with a drink. We put taste over cost if it was really worth it. We ended up with Wendy's burgers, Checker's fries and a local joint's milkshakes. Of course, we got the burgers first, then the fries so we could dip them in the milkshakes...that part of the meal was gone before we hit my drive. tomorrow we're going for chicken...I'm pretty sure it'll be Raisin Cain's, but again with Checker's fries and maybe I'll some redbeans and rice from Popeye's. I have one who's holding out for McD's fries, but so far none want a burger from there. Then there's the burritto's from the taqueria with the (shoot me now) nachos from taco bell....that's a vote I'm gonna have to veto. It's good to be queen. I'd go with the Burger Chef (super chef?) if I could pick anything out of time, but for now, the agreed burger is Wendy's 'baconater'. Do any of you do this? drive from drive thru to drive thru, picking and choosing? what's your favorite combo?

I used to have the same fear, now I just temper it a bit. As far as magazines are concerned, I wouln't EVER give them any access to any account anywhere. There are no published numbers to call when you see the bill, nowhere to call to do any one on one. You have to be direct and to the point and just cut them off when necessary. once they have your credit/debit card, they just keep billing. My advice is to find a good book store, and pay retail. God forbid, you should move, die or something! I have heard that there is a list of magazine pub. phone #'s, but I'll let you do the walking. If you google those, then all you have to do is call w/the number (I notice the Canadian rates are a bit higher) and get your mags, then keep the # and cancel it when you want to. When my mom died I literally had to get a lawyer involved to get reimbursed for 12 months of Reader's digest. Those guys want a serious commitment from you to give you the big discount. jmho

I have a brown butter cookie recipe from Cooks's mag. around here somewhere. I made ice cream cookies w/them and I thought they were great. The kids didn't like them as much, they want a softer cookie like they get when they buy them at the store, but I loved the combo w/vanilla icecream. great affinity for each other.. I'll dig out the old cook's if you want the recipe. I've been meaning to make them again and crush some for a cheesecake crust. Why not? people use vanilla wafers, etc...the brown butter flavor should be awsome. seems like I saw a recipe using brown butter and pecans somewhere as well. Maybe an icecream recipe. I'll check my file.