CaliPoutine

I cook again tomorrow. I got Bone-In Skinless chicken breasts on sale for 1.99lb. That is INCREDIBLY cheap for this area. I could have boned them, but didnt want to give myself extra work. I'm going to dip them in mayo and then coat them with a mixture cornflake crumbs/seasoning/parmesean cheese. Do you think I need to flour them before I use the mayo? So, the menu is Parmesean oven baked chicken mashed( of course) cucumber onion salad( using the recipe in the latest Penzey's catalog) not sure of the veg purchased choc. angel food cakes with fresh berries and real whipped cream. A 3 pack of English cuckes is 2.69. ( I'll use 6 in total) I bought 2 Honey Sweet onions for .98lb. I got the angel cakes on the reduced rack for 1.49 each. I threw them in the freezer the day I got them. Raspberries( US), Blackberries( Mexico) and Blueberries( NJ) are on sale for 1.67 each. I ordered 3 of each kind. I also ordered 2 pints of whipping cream also on sale for 1.99 each. I dont have much help tomorrow which is why I went with a premade dessert. I'll post the pics tomorrow.

Cuisine @ Home Salted Nut Roll bars. Super easy and according to my spouse very yummy( I'm not a big peanut fan).

Old Florida Seafood House in Wilton Manors( Broward) Huge Portions, fresh fish, good prices.

Toad in the Hole.

Even though I am quite fond of Kitchen Aid (mixers) -- I have 2 --, they are not well suited to yeast bread doughs. The mixers themselves are not a small investment; let alone the KA attachments (the ones I've tried haven't been worth their cost). Perfectly good bread can be made with only human power, using a dough whisk or wooden spoon. Perfectly good bread can also be made in other ways, using a bread maker or other tools. ← Why arent your KA mixers suited to yeast doughs? Before I had a bread machine( which I use a lot in the summer), I did all my yeast dough in my KA. I still make my bagel dough a few times a month in the KA. I wouldnt agree with that. You still need to check the hydration, of most recipes ( unless you're using a mix).

Deeply Chilled. Aka as frozen cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. Said to a customer who wanted to buy a whole cheesecake( not me btw), " all of our cheesecakes our deeply chilled and can't be served right away". That really gave me a good laugh.

Oh, you mean the Toscani pasta from Pizza hut isnt really from Tuscany?? LOL

Yeah but this is Portland, and they seem to need to protest about something - because you know this is such a important issue. ← Just because its not important to you, doesnt mean it isnt important to someone else.

I thought the passion fruit flavor had a strange aftertaste. Almost medicinal. Also the texture is oddly smooth. You'll see what I mean. ← I noticed no odd after taste in the coffee flavor. It was smooth. Not sure if it was odd, though. Really, I thought the ice cream was pretty tasty. I should by a container of the standard coffee and compare it side by side. ← Had a one serving cup of standard coffee. It has 5 ingredients! Cream may have come before milk. It was nice. Hope the "5 Ingredient" labelled stuff isn't premium priced! ← I got them on sale for 2.37 each, which I thought was an excellent price. This was @ Kroger in Michigan. I havent seen it( nor I doubt we will) in Ontario. The majority of ice cream here is made with modified milk ingredients or isnt even ice cream, rather Frozen Dessert. I really wanted to try the "Limited Edition" Hagan- Daz flavors, but didnt want to shell out 5.99 for less than a pint.

I thought the texture was weird too. Kinda grainy.

It was rainy and overcast here all day( and most of the week so far). We jumped the border and had lunch in MI!! Not very patriotic, but the border was jammed, so we werent the only ones who had that idea. Thank God for Nexus.

Thanks for all your support. On an unrelated note, we went to a party on Saturday and everyone was supposed to bring either an appetizer or dessert. Robin wanted me to make summer rolls, which I thought about for about 2 seconds and then decided " no, they wouldnt be appreciated". I'd say about 95% of the food that was there were, shrimp rings, packaged dips, ready made veggie/fruit trays, frozen chicken wings and the like. I saw one taco salad from scratch. I dont understand why the majority of people in this area can't make anything from scratch anymore. ( assuming they ever did). Thursday's meal was Mixed green salad w/ Olive Garden's copy cat dressing Chicken, mushroom, pepper, onion pie buns ice cream with raspberry coulis and fresh fruit( and packaged belgium cookies) I used 2 heads of iceburg, 2 romaine hearts, 2 cucumbers, 1 package of organic cherry tomatoes, 1 can of extra large black olives, 1 red onion and 1 red pepper. I used a bag of croutons and some parmesean cheese. I've made this chicken pie before at another program. I used the Pillsbury Just unroll crusts. The filling is ground chicken( I got it for 99cents a lb), onions, mushrooms, peppers, spices, eggs and sour cream. It went over well, but one of our ovens wasnt working so they came out of the oven with only a few minutes to spare. They really needed to set up longer before I cut them. Some of them didnt stay together so not too nice of a presentation. I wanted a no-bake dessert( thankfully, I must have had some foreshadowing about the oven breaking) as it was hot as hell in the kitchen. I got a bunch of nice fruit on sale. Local strawberries( 2.49qrt), blueberries( 2.99pint), 1 pineapple ( 1.99), organic nectarines( 1.99lb). I served bowls of fruit on the table, along with vanilla ice cream and rasberry coulis( I had frozen rasberries left over from another meal so I just pureed them with some sugar) No complaints!!

Do all the wegman's have a sub shop? I go to the Wegman's in Buffalo and area and the subs shops are great. The bread is fresh, the dressing they use is great( and they sell it separately). I'm not too impressed with the turkey they use on the subs though, next time I'll just get a cheese sub. But, everyone raves about the meat subs.

I have psoriatic arthritis and I LOVE my electric peppermill. I dont think anyone who has ever seen it would call it a waste of money( although they might think the tellicherry pepper was). So many of the gadgets that I do have, are so much more helpful to me because of my arthritis.

Every single person on the "waste of money" thread who has all-clad has said it never warped. Where are you getting this info from?

I've always used the carnation( vanilla) that I pick up in MI. I guess its sweet, but I grew up with it, so its a familar taste to me.

Were we the only ones who used a papertowel as a placemat( when we were kids of course)? Now, its tablecloths for fancy dinners and placemats for everyday( our pine wood table leaves white rings if any water touches it). Currently, we have wood placemats. They're kinda cool!!

On behalf of the U.S., I'd like to apologize for exporting "Big Daddy's House" and "Guy's Big Bite" to your shores. At least we haven't inflicted "Down Home with the Neeley's" on you. Yet.... Lots to choose from but very few that I look for. Truer words, as they say...... ← Down Home with the Neeley's( Hey Big Daddy) was on last year. I had to turn it every, single time. But, thankfully we dont have Sandra Lee here!!

This has happened to me a couple of times, but not enough to justify all the other wastes of money taking up space. I'm willing to gamble wrong on 2 items for the sake of clearing out 100. ← Before you "dispose" of your unwanted items, please check ebay. I can't even tell you how much money we've made selling vintage kitchen items( picked up for a song at yard sales). If only their owners would have checked ebay first. I've sold more than my share of LC saucepans. Those are still very much wanted items.

I gotta tell you, I actually like this show. Americans know how to do down and dirty diner food real good, y'all! Too bad we can't get more stuff like that in Canada (can't believe I'm saying that..) I loathe Restaurant Makeover, which always seems to be on as I settle into bed.... ← I like triple D, always have cravings for greasy food afterwards I like Jamie's Ministry of Food and Anna Olsen's Fresh. I can't stand Chef at Home. Is or me, or do they play it constantly??? The Main bugs me too. Do we get Top Chef Masters? I wish, I havent seen it yet. There doesnt seem to be much thats too new.

It might have taken longer( than the time specified in the recipe) for your pearl tapioca to break down. I suggest whizzing that in a coffee grinder the next time you want to use it.

Excellent price for All-Clad. But anyone who says that A-C (regardless of which line) doesn't warp is either inexperienced or lying. ← And thats why I chose to buy at Williams Sonoma. If anything happens to the pan, I just bring it back. They have excellent customer service.

This was the first thing that I thought of. Not because it's a waste of money, it's just not my taste. I like a warm, farmhouse kind of kitchen and 'shabby' defines my taste and my pocketbook! I don't like anything to be too shiny! ← I love my granite( yep, its expensive), but I looked at it like an investment( if we ever want to sell the house). I think our kitchen looks pretty warm and inviting. here is an older picture, prior to the glass tile backsplash( another thing I love) installation.

Hi Robert. Thanks for the feedback. I guess you really need to understand the area I live in to understand the clientele. This is a total farming area. If I mentioned the word sous vide, I might as well be talking about ailens. I asked for a braising pot awhile back and they didnt know what that was( and I wasnt allowed to buy a new one). I've done pork shoulder in a slow cooker, they liked that well enough, but didnt understand the fact that its served on a bun. I had a meeting today( my request) to discuss why I didnt get the position in my town. I still dont understand their answer, but basically my personality wasnt a fit with the volunteers at that position. The person they hired has also been a volunteer( at a different program) with the agency for 10yrs, seems as though they were rewarding her for being unpaid all these years. There was a lot more said( mostly on my part). I didnt walk out of there feeling great!! Btw, I've been baking for the coffee hours at the agency. This is something separate from the dining programs. I'm allowed to do this at home and I'm paid at a different rate( per dozen items). They're very pleased with my baking( everyhing is from scratch and uses butter). I guess thats my consolation prize.

Ya know what? I just bought a 6 piece set of all-clad MC2 and I paid some low price of about 303.00(no tax, no shipping). I freaking LOVE IT. Totally worth it to me, I'm just sorry I waited so long to get it. In March I bought the 12" non-stick covered frying pan from WS for 89.99( got 10% off from my chef business card). I love that too. I doubt I'll be throwing that pan away ( because I doubt the non-stick surface will warp, fade, scratch, etc). Whats your aversion?