Werdna

I've got some ice-cube-sized containers of purreed, roast duck/duck skin /duck fat for our baby in the fridge, and I cant resist stealing one every once in a while, made some awesome fried rice with one of them mixed in.

As for allergies, these things are at the most common food allergies: milk egg peanut tree nut (walnut, cashew, etc.) fish, shellfish soy wheat so those are the things we have been most cautions about introducing. Most allergies are 'born' when large food particles penetrate the intestinal lining and enter the body undigested, prompting a reaction. This often happens in kids younger than 6 months because their digestive system is more permiable to foods, after 6 months it's harder for this to happen, though when the kid is sick they may once again become more succeptable. Anyway (with the exception of egg yolk since there is so much good stuff in it) we've been pretty cautious about the above foods, giving only small amounts at a time and watching for a reaction. I think the 'dont add salt, fat or sugar' is PC nonsense and is way off base. Salt is required to live and there has never been any evidence that it's harmfull to babys. And breastmilk is extremly high in saturated fat and sugar, so I dont think mother nature pays much attention to the above guideline either.

Yes, I've been making baby food for our daughter since she turned 6 months (she's a year old as of yesterday). She likes a bit of cayenne or pepper with her food, and I make sure to add salt to the things she eats (no reason to fear salt, it's an essential nutrient). She also has no problem with kim-che, though sometimes she makes a face if it's really spicy Basicly, I puree things and taste them, if I like them then chances are that she will too. Yogurt with blueberries and raw egg yolk is one of her favorites, also bannanas and chocolate (not mixed) are hits. And she is crazy for roast duck. Now she eats little scraps of meat that we break up for her, we stick to organic meats and only grass-fed beef.

Close, it's not that we build up a natural immunity, it's that we build up bugs that dont bother us and they out-compete the bad bugs. The chicken producers have seen the research done on various Lactobacillus and Bifedobacterium strains on this and are using it. http://www.bioinfo.com/fbdnewusda.html but it is not generally known by the public. The benefical bacteria (found in fermented products, very notably unpasturized Kim Che and yogurt) are what allow some people to do just fine in an environment that would give others a case of food poisoning, and being overly sanitary (and ingested antibiotics) are a good way of stripping your digestive system of its defenses.

How much do they charge for it, and will they ship it? I've been looking for leaf lard forever...

Tastes like jalapenos to me, but I have not had it for a while.

I got funny looks from the Whole Foods people when I asked for fatback there too. Yet they sell soy oil, go figure. But a local mexican meat market was happy to supply me with 10 lbs of the stuff for 5 bucks after some hand gesturing on my part, now my sausages are coming along and I've got a huge batch of rillettes and pork confit ageing away in my fridge I got the casings for my sausages from this place about 2 weeks ago, fast and free shipping: http://www.makincasing.com/ (yes, I've been drooling over the Charcuterie thread too )

They turn brown almost instantly on contact with the air when you slice them, so I always work with a bowl of lemon-water into which I toss them as I trim them. (acually I use ascorbic-acid and water more, but lemon juice works too) First time I used them I wrapped them in thin slices of some cured pig-product along with a spot of cream cheese, green onion slivers & black pepper which was nice, though overly fancy. I agree with melissah about them being very similar to jicama. Gonna have to try using that as a sub for them next time...

I've got my technique down for this, it really speeds up the black-seed-picking -gently rub the peppercorns in your mortar/pestle until the casings have broken off, but you have not crushed the black seeds. -dump the mixture onto a large platter and swirl it around, the seeds will roll in groups and the casings will not, allowing you to pick em out and toss em. Then I toast the casings, and grind em, what used to take me 1/2 hour now takes a few minutes.

I'm far from an expert, but if its turning into a mushy mess then it stands to reason that your tenticles have too much liquid in them. What about if you salt them down, wrap them in a towel or 2 and press them under a heavy pan for an hour, then air-dry them before cooking? I've been really liking my batters to be 1/4 cornstarch for the crunch recently too. And 360 is probably a good temp, for just long enough to crisp em. (In lard or coconut oil)

Show her some of these articles: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/5/1102#FN2 http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/3/...ournalcode=ajcn Not only is fat-phobia unnecessary, it can be downright dangerous to restrict it too much

Though I have not been there, check out this description of Jai Yun for the most interesting sounding Chinese anywhere: http://forums.craigslist.org/?ID=27632784

I wonder, if you inject ribs under the silver-skin how much liquid you could get in there, I'm gonna have to try. mmm, bacon grease injections

My wife's also allergic to tomatoes, my most sucessfull substitute has been roasted/peeled/purreed red bell pepper + acid (lemon juice or vinegar) + sugar. Quite good in it's own respect, and in the right proportions and blended works great as pizza/marinara sauce. The sugar really fills in the gap too. I used to do this when making BBQ sauces, now I just consider tomato a cheap filler in said sauces which are fine with just molasses/spices/vinegar.

Salsa with roasted sesame oil. I've loved it since before I knew better than to mix the two. But no sour cream anywhere near it.

Steamed rice (if the rice cooker's going),a fried egg and oyster sauce.

That wrapper's edible? Reminds me of when I lived in korea with my parents, and my mom used to eat the plastic-wrapper the hot-dogs came in, until she was told she was not told to... My favorites of the momment (just bought a big bag in SF chinatown) are the sleightly fizzy soda-flavored candies (specially the cola ones, though the lemon-lime are nice). And the candied kumquats, though these come in a variety of qualities.