tamiam

WW question for the crowd: How do Vietnamese fast foods like pho and rice paper rolls fare on the points system? I could eat those every day and be completely happy.

All this talk about weight and attractiveness is interesting. Like most of us, I harbor totally conflicting views about the whole thing. In the end, I enjoy my food more than I hate my poochy tummy (except during swimsuit season). Tell you one thing though, I'd much rather hug a person with some meat on their bones than someone super-thin. Does anyone else have a strange (I mean negative) reaction to hugging a really skinny person?

Any other non-Asians ever go into an Asian supermarket and select unidentifiable foods just because the cartoon characters and brightly colored packages are totally cool? I love Japanese graphic package design most of all.

Any other non-Asians ever go into an Asian supermarket and select unidentifiable foods just because the cartoon characters and brightly colored packages are totally cool? I love Japanese graphic package design most of all.

MizDucky, congrats on making a happy meal for Mr E and yourself! Perhaps you told us, though I did not catch it. Are you living in the home with Mr. E? Whether you are or not, it must be very challenging to provide so many personal needs for somebody you dont really know. Do you find that you enjoy each other's company, or do you keep the relationship strictly professional? I used to prepare food that my grandpa could heat up in the oven. This is a man who had literally never turned on a stove or run a load of wash in his life, so when grandma passed, he had a lot of new challenges to deal with. He'd been proudly telling me that he was learning to cook, but one day when I arrived, he had poured a can of plain drained green beans into a pot and turned it on high. The smell was gawd-awful and the pot was a total loss. To help avoid the seemingly inevitable deadly house fire, I started making casseroles and other freezable foods in single serving portions for him to heat and eat. The only rule was that he hated onions. But not knowing that until a few weeks into the program, I'd actually fed him tons of them, and he loved my food anyways. Moral: Sometimes silence is OK. Perhaps stir-fries will be a good way to go for Mr E. He will manage to eat some vegetables, and you can always spice up your portion. Maybe roast chicken followed by chicken soup from the leftovers would work as well. Good luck working it out.

Sandy--I am lactose-intolerant as well, and, it took me a while, but after some serious research and study, I learned something both useful, and welcome (in a culinary sense). Dairy is largely made up of a sugar (lactose), fat, and protein. OK--enough background. Here is the good part: The more fat there is in the dairy product, the less lactose there is. In other words, a person with mild lactose-intolerance will be happier drinking cream than drinking (regular) lowfat milk. With cheeses, a good general rule is to stay away from whey products and the really fresh un-aged cheeses like ricotta. But lots of us can tolerate hi-fat triple cremes and hard aged cheeses just fine. If you are going to be stuck with a food issue, it might as well be one that lets you eat cheese and whipped cream

This new word "klepping" is perfect. I've witnessed the behavior that you talk about, but never in someone not of the white hair age group. I always blamed gramma's sugar packet collection on coming up through the Depression. If you ever tried to discuss her klepping, she would say that they wouldn't put the sugar, Sweet N' Low, jelly, etc. on the table if they didn't want you to have it. As she was taking the packs that the other folks had left behind on the neighboring table mind you.

So far I can report success on my mission to try some new cheese most every week. It wont be difficult because my definition of "new" includes ones I may have eaten in the past, but without really paying attention. On that note, I picked up a Point Reyes Blue, to eat on its own and toss into a beet and toasted almond salad and to munch on by itself. When I get back into the big city this coming week, I can pick up some comparison blues like this Roaring 40s and real Roquefort.

Guess what? My sweeetie got me Cheese Essentials too!! It looks like a great book. My new plan is to try all the "notables" in each style--and just as soon as my taste buds return (getting over a fever-flu thing) thats what I'm gonna do. I went to my cheese market today without my reminder list and got overwhelmed by all the cheesiness in front of me. I picked up a Fromage de Meaux (French Brie that is pasteurized so it can be sold here) and a Caerphilly from Wales. They are warming up right now, and the Caerphilly looks so pretty.

Too bad you are having trouble with an All Clad and not a Calphalon. In my personal experience, Calphalon honors their lifetime warranties, no questions asked. Meanwhile, All Clad makes it difficult, if not impossible, to even get one of the required mailing lables so you can send your pan in for "evaluation". If you can get them to respond at all, they may send you some literature describing how if there is anything wrong with your pan, it must be your fault, and directing you to ask (again) for the required mailing label. Good luck. All Clad will never see another one of my dollars though.

I like the smaller 8" knives mainly for the sense of control. It is fine for a pile of onions, but it really doesnt work well if you are cutting something that nears the length of the blade, like shredding a head of cabbage or cubing a hunk of meat. I think it really depends on what you are going to use the knife for, something that you know best for your own cooking style. In my case, I started out with a shorter one, but later on, I bought myself a longer 10" or 12" one too. IMHO think a 6" is probably too short to be your main blade. (edited to indicate that my short is 8")

That is great to hear. The best thing of all would be to go to one of Gariotin's awesome cheese parties. Laura Werlin talked about her new book on The Splendid Table a few weeks ago. The way she communciates and teaches is really great. And in the December 22 podcast, Steve Jenkins tells a wonderful and evocative story about the making of Roquefort. Its fascinating. I'd share, but he tells it better than I ever could.

Suzi....I feel your pain. That is actually my situation as well. In addition to not having any cheese counters in town, there is not much in the way of jobs either. So now I commute to the city. Access to good cheese and a wonderful market is the silver lining. Upthread, some folks mentioned igourmet and zingerman's as good mail order sources. Great selection, but it does bring you back to large quantity purchases.

The perfect shape of them just begs for stuffing. If you have any ground pork or ground turkey, you can make up a nice stuffing by cooking it with some garlic, raisins, and almonds.....Stuff, top with a touch of cheese adn run them under the broiler to make them pretty.

Thanks for the encouragement Pennylane and LindsayAnn. Combining my love of the side-by-side taste test comparison with my hatred of wasting food makes for some silly self-induced dilemmas. Luckily my guy is the opposite of picky, and is always there to help finish things off but the kids are still kind of tentative. They grew up in a small town without a lot of choices, though as they get exposed to more and more good food, they are coming around. My plan is to taste thru some basic styles of cheese just to get familiar, so I started with some fresh ricotta, chevre, ricotta salata, sheep feta, and caviocavallo (sp?). All kind of plain-ish, but fresh and milky and subtle in a nice way. Still in real life, I'm drawn to stronger flavors--love Rogue Smoky Blue. I've had lots of wonderful cheeses before, but never in any kind of organized way. I tend to find one I like then keep on repeating it instead of branching out. So its time to jump on in and play. Love LindsayAnn's energetic way of talking about what I am talking about. This will be fun.

What a great thread...the thread has been around, but it is new to me. I am kind of new to the world of cheese, and decided that now is the time to take the plunge. I had great fun at the cheese counter the other day purchasing several fresh cheeses to taste and compare and play with. I've always been a bit intimidated by how expensive good cheese can be (Not that I begrudge the prices (please don't jump me), but the cost does make me feel like choosing carefully and i never really try enough to learn my way around). Anyhow I found out that buying small quantities lets me try and compare several varieties and buy an amount that will get eaten before it is too late. And the cheese guy didn't seem to mind making small packages. So now I am curious about cheese buying etiquette---is it OK to buy small , i.e. 3-4 oz.? For all kinds of cheeses, or are there some where cutting is verboten? Sorry for the dopey sounding question, but I really do want to know.

I've been away from this thread for a while, so it is nice to catch up and see all this happy baking. I recently made the Thanksgiving Twofer--very good and very popular. And this morning I made the Almond Scones, but substituted pecans and vanilla for the almonds and almond essence. I have to say that these are the lightest most melt-in-your mouth scones I have ever made. Love them. Might add 1-2 t more sugar next time, but love love love them.

As for vegetable or vegetarian croquettes, I had some excellent bean croqs, and sweet potato croqs at at Brazilian restaurant. Lighter than air, with a thin and crisp exterior. I dont recall the proper name for them, but I'm sure somebody out there can enlighten us.

Guanciale

Hi Lori The ferry between Bainbridge and downtown is an easy twenty minute ride. They do charge passengers one-way, and car-drivers both ways, but by the time you are here it will be the less spendy off-season rate. Here is a link to everything about the ferries..Ferries. Seattle also has a decent bus system which is free downtown. BusBusBus If you enjoy walking, the boat puts you a short walk from the south end of downtown at Marion. Flora and Fauna is in Pioneer Square nearby. You are close to Pike Place Market, Seattle Art Museum, the new Olympic Sculpture Park (a long walk), and the Aquarium. As for Halloween, I was in Belfair (south of Bainbridge) today and saw a flyer for the craziest Halloween ever--a haunted junkyard. Yikes. There is also a fun haunted house in Silverdale, where I live, and I'm sure there are some on the island or nearby. There is lots and lots of good food in and around town. There are some great ideas in the forum here. And let us know what kind of food you hope to find.

Just back from a wonderful heat wave week in NO. On your advice, we joined Frank Brigsten's class at New Orleans Cooking Experience. It is spendy, but was great fun. It is held in a former indigo plantation turned B&B, a bit hard to locate. It is a spacious gracious kind of place I would never expect to find right in the city. It is located on a slight ridge, so the high water did not last long and they did not suffer damage, although there is a lot of sadness just blocks away. Chef Frank is a charming and informative teacher. The recipes were simple and good, and included a really fine pecan pie (a great dessert, often ruined, IMHO). His approach is not to break new ground, yet he changes tradition by doing things his own way too, and tells you why, which made things nice. I have some photos along with Frank's permission to post here, but my camera is misbehaving, so maybe later. When Frank started to tell us about all of the amazing and unheralded great acts and contributions to the recovery from folks in the food industry and elsewhere, it really brought tears to our eyes. He has the southerner's gift and tells a moving story. So much news is all about the things that don't work right (and there is plenty to tell), but as an optimist, he told us about companies and individuals, most without any personal or business connection to the area, who stepped up and helped out in really big ways. Who still do. And who never looked for publicity, just people taking care of people. It was a beautiful thing. P.S. There is another school in the French Quarter, New Orleans School of Cooking, which is open, though running on a reduced schedule. We joined a class just to see. It is a lunch demo, with refreshements, including Abita beer and rootbeer. This one is geared to an inexperienced cook, with less focus on fresh ingredients or techique, but for what they do, it is fun, well done, and was a good way to get out of the heat on a day when we were mostly waiting for a flight out.

Thanks for the good advice. Both sound good.

I am gearing up for a visit in June and, just to do something other than eat and drink to our hearts content, thought cooking would be fun. I am hoping to find a recommendation for a full or half day cooking class. There is a link to a list in Mayhaw's DIGEST above, but it is pre-storm, and besides, it comes up blank on my browser screen. Can any of you who know your way around chime in with recommendations? Thanks.

I've seen it in use, and it does look great. I wouldn't use it for a countertop, where it would get scratched and marred, but a backsplash mainly gets wiped off. I would wonder about whether the high gloss finish shows fingerprints and rag marks from frequent wipedowns more than worry about scratches. Backsplashes don't get heavy use, but they do have to be wiped a lot--'specially behind the stove and the sink.

Mmmmm. Did the Braised Shortribs with Porcini and Rosemary, using pork rib end cuts instead of beef, and it was easy (like all these recipes) and delish. I saw that some folks were less than excited about this, but we loved it. Tender, intriguing, would easily serve to a guest, especially over creamy polenta. I wonder if people's varying reactions have much to do with the kind of wine they chose, or with the quality of their mushrooms.