MelissaH

Hudson Cream is a brand of flour I've never seen before. Can you tell us more about it, please? MelissaH I'm glad you noticed that, Melissa! We also have farm ground in other areas and one is near Stafford County Flour Mills . The wheat that we harvest up there is used to make Hudson Cream flour...so that's what I buy. It's a little more expensive, but it's a good flour and I like to support our wheat. This reminds me of something we saw while cycling in Zeeland: fields of barley, with signs stuck in them that said (in Dutch), "Here grows your Emmelise," referring to a brand of beer. You actually grow your own flour. I like that. MelissaH

Maybe you could do what we do with pork shoulders, since this is basically the beef equivalent: season however you wish, then put in a fairly low oven to roast for many hours until it's tender. Let it rest for a while, then pull it apart and serve in buns with BBQ sauce and cole slaw. MelissaH

Hudson Cream is a brand of flour I've never seen before. Can you tell us more about it, please? MelissaH

Sounds like you get sent to many of the same places I do. Don't forget the power of the supermarket. Hotel concierges can generally tell you where to find one, although it's easier if you're in a city where people actually live (as opposed to one where people live outside the city and commute in to work). Even a mediocre supermarket (used in combination with ziplock bags, the hotel ice bucket or an insulated lunchbag, and ice from your hotel) can at least get you some decent food with which to propel yourself through the day. I second Chris Hennes's comment about finding colleagues to eat a real meal with. Not to mention, it's always more pleasant to eat with good company. MelissaH

Maple syrup contains a significant amount of calcium, IIRC. I suspect you might need to do a reverse spherification because of this. MelissaH

Such as this: Admittedly, it's been a long time since high school chemistry, but that doesn't sound quite right to me. There are two different ways of making salts in the two sentences quoted above. The first refers to a neutralization reaction, such as would happen if you mixed solutions of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to make a (warm) solution of sodium chloride (NaCl). Intro chem classes often do this. The second is the part I have more of a problem with, because you can't just swap out an anion (one that's negatively charged) for a catanion (one that's positively charged), as is implied in the above sentence. If you tried to write a reaction doing that on a test in one of my intro chem classes, I'd mark you wrong. You'd wind up with an unbalanced, and unbalanceable, reaction (not to mention a physical impossibility). You can, however, make sodium chloride via a redox reaction, one where electrons move: mix sodium metal (neutral) and chlorine gas (Cl2, also neutral), and you'll get electrons moving, flames, and sodium chloride (NaCl). You might see this as a in a chemistry class, but it's not something students would typically do themselves. The atoms in the sodium metal will each lose an electron and become sodium cations (Na+). Each of the atoms in the chlorine molecules will gain an electron and become a chloride anion (Cl-). The balanced chemical reaction would be:2 Na + Cl2 —> 2NaCl I don't have my copy of the book handy to see if the context clarifies what's quoted above. MelissaH

Time to revive this thread as, in about a week, we'll be doing it again. We're again anticipating about 30 people coming over. Nobody's running with the torch this year, I don't know about intersession classes, but we invited another professor friend who's a big women's hockey fan and has been to most of the games but doesn't yet know many of the team or the coaches. Based on what happened last year, I'm going to put the following on my list, in no particular order: Pork: 20-24 lbs of raw shoulder, to be cooked and shredded in advance Black beans: 2-3 lbs dry, to be cooked ahead of time Double batch of =Mark's sauce Mole, to be made by Casey in a large batch Sour cream, once again in a squirt bottle Guacamole: was on sale this week, with an expiration date after the team dinner. Got two pouches; will adulterate with fresh avocado and cilantro Dip, variety to be determined; possibly the spinach/artichoke dip this year Veg to go with dip, probably heavy on the carrots Tortillas: 6-inchers, 64-72 Shredded cheese, already purchased, leftovers will easily find a good use Rice, probably 1.5 or 2 cookers worth (15-20 rice cooker cups) Lettuce, shredded, one head should be sufficient Cole slaw is up for debate because it didn't go well last year but I feel like we need some sort of vegetable or salad to go with BBQ or mole pork wrapped up in tortillas. Maybe a corn salsa or salad instead, made with frozen corn? Mangoes, if they're reasonably priced, which would make the girls very happy Other fruit, which we'll try to remember to put out this year! Rice krispy treats, probably three batches because they flew off the table last year Chocolate chip cookies, one batch Once again, we've told the girls that anyone who is interested can come over early, and help with the prep or just relax somewhere that isn't on campus. We're also thinking of getting a batch of hummus ingredients, to show the girls how to make that, and serve it as a dip. I know that the available food on campus, especially the Late Night (post-dinner) offerings, is heavily tilted towards things that can come out of a fryer, and it can sometimes be tough to find on-the-go foods that are decent sources of protein. We thought hummus might fit the bill, especially since it can easily be made in a blender. One thing that's changed since last year is the opening of the campus townhomes, meaning that some of the team live with access to their own kitchen. I'll be near a Wegmans on Friday, and plan to do most of the shopping then. We'll be near another Wegmans on Sunday, to fill in any gaps and get whatever we forgot. Dinner's Tuesday. MelissaH

Even before I moved to upstate New York, my culinary favorite of the Little House books was always Farmer Boy. I've actually been through Malone several times (it's about a three hour drive from where I live) but we've never stopped as we've driven through. But I loved the description of the Christmas dinner at which Almanzo ate and ate and ate and ate and ate, and finally put his second slice of fruitcake in his pocket for later. I'm looking forward to this foodblog! MelissaH

It's really simple, but I made it for a between-hockey-games potluck and had smashing success with it: sugar snap peas, washed, dried, and strung if needed; drizzled with dark sesame oil; and sprinkled with sesame seeds (either white or black) and kosher or coarse sea salt. That's it. I stole it from my next-door neighbor, who got it from the Barefoot Contessa. It's great for parties and potlucks because it's good at room temp. I can't stop eating them. MelissaH

I've had the best luck using essentially Marion Cunningham's ingredients with the CI overnight-in-the-fridge technique. MelissaH

About English muffins: we noticed that when Thomas's started to trumpet the lack of high-fructose corn syrup, the muffins no longer browned nicely in the toaster. In fact, without the browning, the muffins lacked severely in the taste department. Chris, did you have any trouble getting your muffins to brown? MelissaH

With raisins, and sleeping pills? <ducking and running> MelissaH

I'm very excited, as a week from today, I'll have a new lunch partner! Dear friends will be visiting us, and while the two men are off judging beer for the NY State Fair competition, us two ladies will have a whole day to ourselves! No clue what we'll do or where we'll wind up, as it'll be at least somewhat weather dependent, but I'll try to remember to bring a camera! MelissaH

My solution to the no-cookbook-stand problem goes hand-in-hand with the fact that I really don't like to bring my cookbooks into the kitchen and work from them directly. I grab a sheet of paper, and rewrite the recipe. I don't necessarily keep all the detail, if I don't think I need it, and I put things into a form that makes sense to me. And just the act of writing out what I will be doing helps get it into my brain, sort of like a "pre-lab" assignment from my student days. I'm lucky enough to have magnetic strips in my current kitchen, but I've also used some of the post-it note tape or blue painter's tape to fasten my scribblings where I can see them. MelissaH

blanching, shelling and peeling chestnuts is definitely up there for me as well I'd include water chestnuts in this category. I did 'em once, and after all that pain, was struck by how similar they were to jicama in both taste and texture. Guess what I use now. MelissaH

The only problem with this would be if he's not 21, the age at which one can legally consume alcohol across the U.S. He'll need to declare any alcohol at customs, and if he's younger than 21 and declaring alcohol, it could be taken. MelissaH

Vanilla syrup AND wedge of lime. MelissaH

At our farmer's market: nothing. Ours doesn't start till the last week in May. MelissaH

I, too, love my pullout spray. I'm not overly fond of laminate, but remember that countertops are relatively easy to replace after the fact, and laminate is significantly less expensive than any other option. That said, if someone told me I needed to replace my laminate tomorrow, I'd be looking at one of the composite quartz materials. When you look at sinks, bring your big pots and pans along. Try them out and see if they fit before you buy. MelissaH

Last night, I discovered that dulce de leche is almost as good as nutella for a pretzel dip. MelissaH

I remember Alton Brown doing an avocado buttercream frosting several years ago, to take advantage of both the color and the fat content. MelissaH

We refer to heat with terms like front-of-the-mouth vs. back-of-the-throat, and slow burn vs. quick. MelissaH

Do you have an oven (or grill/BBQ)? Lots of flat breads can be made at home. Or on a stovetop with a griddle, for that matter. MelissaH

And there's the dip I made when I fed a bunch of hungry ice hockey players, re a suggestion from Okanagancook: half sour cream and half salsa with lots of fresh cilantro. Great with chips or vegetables, or even on some sandwiches. MelissaH

We just replaced the lamp over the sink. A couple of months ago, we noticed that the UFO on the left was slipping. Upon closer examination, we realized that the problem was in the mechanism that holds the UFOs onto the lamp base. There's a light bulb socket housed inside a porcelain housing, which has screw threads on the outside. The lampshade (in our case, the UFO) slips over the housing, and then there's a metal ring that screws onto the threads to secure the shade in place. We still aren't sure whether it's the threads or the ring that got stripped, but something did. As a result, the UFO was hanging (literally) by a thread. We wound up buying a new fixture. It looks about the same as the old fixture, but in a brushed nickel finish rather than the black, and with transparent wire housing on the danglers. We like the way the nickel matches the hardware on the cabinets, and the clear housing adds to the more modern look. The mounting hardware also looks about the same as the mounting hardware in the old fixture, but we discovered that appearances are deceiving in that case. My arms can tell you that one also. When we went out to replace the fixture, we also found some compact fluorescent bulbs with candelabra bases to fit into this fixture. We hadn't gone that route before, because at the time we put the lamp in, the only CF bulbs with candelabra bases had a sort of elongated shape, and didn't look good inside the UFOs. The bulbs we found have a normal round shape, and look proper, like the rounded bottom of a cartoon flying saucer. Since this is a light that often gets left on for hours at a time, we liked the idea of using CF bulbs in this location. And, oh yeah! The yucky off-white carpeting is no more. We ripped it out and replaced the flooring throughout the dining room, living room, and hallway with bamboo. Major major improvement! MelissaH