Jaymes

And the other difference is that the government is not ordering you to send your child to school at Harvard. The government does not order anyone to send their children to public school. A parent may opt for home-school or private schools. Really? Oh golly, you're so right. Why didn't I think of that? It's so obvious to me now. And you didn't mention the other obvious solution - just buy a new house in a better school district! Somehow I'm reminded of the story about Marie Antoinette who supposedly, upon being told that the French people were starving and didn't even have any bread to eat, said, "I don't understand. No bread? Why don't they just eat cake." I don't know you at all, so perhaps in your world it's an easy matter to send your children to private school, or have one parent quit his or her job and stay home and teach the kids (and beyond not needing that parent's income, that's assuming the parent has the knowledge, temperament, skill-set, aptitude, ability and desire to do it). But in the real world, for most families anyway, those options are not a reasonable possibility. If the government says you're in that district, and that's where you will send your children, under penalty of law, of course you do have options but, basically, that's what the average family is going to have to do. Your suggestions, while as obvious as the sky above, are not really practical or helpful for the average family's situation if they don't like something about the school to which they've been assigned. A better solution is to wait for the next school board election and vote the bastards out. And try to install a school board that will figure out a way to stop whatever policies you don't like. But until and unless that happens, the average family is pretty-much at the mercy of the whims of (in this case) this one particular principal.

And the other difference is that the government is not ordering you to send your child to school at Harvard.

Boy is that the truth. People say that as a compliment, like it's something difficult to accomplish: "The ribs fell off the bone!" How is that difficult? Any fool can overcook meat into a mushy, textureless mess. Even I can accomplish that regularly. ___________

For me, I object "for the sake of the rule." I might think what other folks choose to feed their children is horrid. And in fact, every time I see a kid sitting there sucking down a sugar-laden soda, I do think that's horrid. Or stir some sort of sweet chocolate or strawberry powder into a perfectly good glass of milk. Or fill up on Cheetos and candy bars. And I certainly didn't let my three kiddos do any of that. But I don't think it's my business to order others to do it my way, no matter how strongly I feel that my way is better. Even though, of course, it clearly is. If this were a private school, that would be one thing. You can choose to send your child or not. You can sit in the office when you're enrolling them and be told that "our school policy is that everyone must participate in the lunchroom program, so I'm sorry, but little Atticus and Scout cannot bring their lunch." If you don't like it, you don't have to go there. But to have the government mandate you, by law, to send your children to a public school where they also do all the deciding as to what you can and cannot send in with your children to eat, and your only recourse is something as difficult, expensive and, for many families, completely unworkable, as relocating your home, sending your child to a private school, or homeschooling is, to me anyway, utterly reprehensible. Do you think, if I lived next door to you, and I saw you feeding your children things I deem to be harmful and unhealthy, causing all these dire consequences some of you are pointing to, like obesity, diabetes, etc., that should give me the right to go into your pantry and toss out everything I believe is contributing to these problems? Would any reason I might give you, no matter how true, how valid or how justified and rational make that okay with you? Because that's exactly what this is. Only instead of me, or some other members of the food police coming to your home, we're using the awesome power of the government to accomplish the same thing. ______________

Wow, really interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post it. After all, when you think about it, folks were smoking meat long before Mr. Weber or Mr. Big Green Egg ever came along.

I have a beef tongue in my freezer that I'd love to try this out with, but I'm sure it's bigger than 1 lb. Should I just cook it longer? Weigh it and see how much larger it is, then adjust time and ingredients accordingly. And be sure it's completely thawed before you put it into your crockpot. If it's really large, you might even want to cut it into halves.

(And just as a side note, to all of you that have welder's gloves... They're great for rearranging hot logs in your fireplace, too.)

Probably right. But in Texas, if you're invited to a "barbecue," it's going to involve smoke, and "real" barbecue and you'd best not promise it unless you're planning to provide it, if you know what's good for you. If you want folks to come over to your backyard, not expecting actual barbecue, you invite them to a "cookout." As in, "We're having a neighborhood cookout tomorrow night. We'll have the grills going, and are going to provide weiners and hamburgers and fixin's for the kids, but the grownups should bring one 'covered dish' side to share and whatever meat they want to eat for themselves - ribs, chicken, sausage, steaks, salmon, etc. - to cook." I've been in neighborhoods where they have these sorts of outdoor cookout potluck bring-your-own-meat-and-a-side-and-an-alcoholic-beverage-if-you-want-it get-togethers at least once a month in the summertime. And nobody down here ever confuses that with a "barbecue."

Well, I don't recall potato aficionados ever discussing their beloved chips with the same passion that routinely accompanies barbecue discussions. There's really something about barbecue, isn't there? Maybe it's national/regional/cultural pride? Maybe it's partly because good barbecue isn't all that easy to produce, and it's galling when you've sat up all night tending your brisket, and then the guy with a bottle of barbecue sauce, a pork butt, and a crockpot says, "Oh, I made some barbecue last night, too." What my daddy used to call, "That ol' Yankee boiled barbecue."

In Texas, where brisket is king, you do need to smoke it a very long time. The standard piece of equipment is an "offset smoker." It's called that because you put the fuel (hardwood - usually pecan, oak or hickory; sometimes mesquite, but it's not as popular among competition cookers) in the small box that hangs off of one end of the smoker. With this method, the smoke is pulled through the barrel, and the meat is never subjected to direct heat. You prepare the brisket with a dry rub. Oftentimes, it's just salt and pepper, maybe lemon pepper. The point is for the flavor of the meat to come through, so the idea is just to enhance it; not hide it. Some folks do get fancier, adding garlic or onion powder, some dried ground chiles, etc. Many of the famous barbecue joints sell their prepackaged rub. One that is particularly well-known in Texas is Cooper's. Their restaurant is in Llano, and they sell a lot of their rub via mail order. I realize it might not be practical for you to order it down in OZ, but here's a link to a Texas BBQ website where they discuss what's in Cooper's rub: What's in Cooper's Rub? The stuff that you undoubtedly call "sauce," we call "mop." Along toward the end of cooking, some folks do apply the mop, using (what else) a small mop (How to make a barbecue mop). This is never done at the beginning of cooking. One reason is that (although Texas barbecue sauces and mops are never as sickeningly sweet at many of those elsewhere, like Kansas, Missouri and the Deep South) they sometimes do contain a little sugar, and that burns pretty rapidly. Some folks don't add the mop at all, preferring to serve a small bowl of sauce alongside the meat, a sauce that many Texas barbecue "purists" prefer not to use, believing that a strongly-flavored sauce masks the perfect flavor of the smoked meat that they've just sat up all night long working painstakingly to achieve. Another difference between Central and West Texas barbecue, and that elsewhere (including East Texas as you get over toward Louisiana and the Deep South), is that Texans by and large serve Cowboy-style, Mexican-influenced, soupy pinto beans, and not the sweet, thick, baked beans that some folks think of as a ubiquitous barbecue side dish. These soupy pintos are never sweet. They're usually cooked with nothing much added initially but garlic. Then, after they're soft, more seasonings can be added, like chiles, bits of pork, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, etc. If you're interested, google "charro beans" or "borracho beans" or "frijoles de olla" or "pot beans" for exact recipes. These offset smokers are not cheap. You can get an inexpensive one for about $300, but they don't work all that well. My son got one for Christmas several years back, but it just doesn't hold the heat well, and it's hard to keep a constant temperature, which is crucial. So he started checking around to get a better one and discovered that they are upwards of $1,000. That wasn't workable for him and his young family, so he decided to seek out a used one, figuring that expensive equipment for a hobby is often pretty easy to find at a reasonable price in the secondary market. But no such luck. He discovered that once a family gets a big, expensive offset smoker, it stays in the family. So he's got a friend that's a welder, and he contacted him. They spent some time going over various options and plans, most of which they found online, and the buddy is building him one for about $300 in materials. I think the buddy is doing the labor free, partly because they're friends, of course, and partly because the buddy had already decided to try his hand at building these things in order to earn a little side income. The smoker that my son's buddy is building is about the size of a typical oil barrel, with the smaller box hanging off one end. Here's a photo of a really big, fancy, expensive one: Large offset smoker On the large one, you can notice wheels. Folks pull these things behind their vehicle and that way they can set up anywhere. If your interests run to Texas-style smoked brisket, you're pretty much gonna need an offset smoker sooner or later. Although I don't know for sure, I'd guess they're not widely available in Australia. You might contact a welder to see if he's interested in building you one.

Our favorite (by far) summertime salad is Watermelon Salad. We make it at least once a week, and often more. Everyone in the family, most certainly including the children, eats bucketloads of the stuff. And we think this is one of the best salads you'll ever find. There are a lot of recipes floating around with lists of exact amounts of ingredients, etc., but basically: Get a good, sweet watermelon, and chill it. At dinnertime, seed and cube however much of it you think your family can eat, and put it into a big bowl. Then add: thinly-sliced sweet onions, like Vidalia, or Spanish reds, or Texas 1015's, or Maui some Kalamata olives, seeded & halved a handful of fresh mint leaves a handful of crumbled best-quality feta cheese (we like the cheese imported from Israel or Bulgaria or Greece) drizzle with a little good olive oil splash with a little vinegar - wine vinegar, or balsamic, or sherry vinegar Toss together and eat. Yum.

Two questions... Does that garlic taste like fresh garlic, or do they pack it in something that affects the taste, like vinegar? And, if it's true that you have to smash the garlic to release the oils, how do you do that by grating it with a microplane?

This sounds really interesting. I'm going to try it. The secret to getting the oil out is the smashing, not the chopping. That's why some folks like the garlic press. But I have given away every garlic press ever given to me, and that's quite a few. Like you, I'm also in the "more trouble than they're worth" camp. When you give the clove a good whack with the flat blade of a chef's knife, you are smashing it and pressing the oils out and that's the approach I very much prefer for myriad reasons, including that I don't want to have to deal with another "gadget" to move around the kitchen, take care of, keep track of, maintain, replace when it breaks, clean, etc. But if I can master this double-fork technique and if it does indeed release the oils as well as the "good smack" technique, I might switch. Thanks for telling us about it.

Actually, I was going to say a potato, too. Or, thin it out with some chicken broth or milk or cream, and turn it into more of a soup base. To which you will then add some things to make a sort of vegetable soup - potatoes, carrots, etc. Corn - maybe a can of creamed corn. Perhaps chicken. A dollop of sour cream on top? I raised three kids and often found myself heading for the table with food that had turned out too spicy. When that happened, I usually wound up turning it into a slightly different dish from what I had originally intended.

Seems to me that no matter how mediocre these big chains are, there are at least one or two items on the menu that some people absolutely love. And when you've got your heart set on whatever it is, it's hard to talk you out of it. A case in point... I recently lived in a small city where there was only one Cheddar's. My father and I often took out to dinner the elderly couple that lived next door. This couple had been particularly helpful to us as my father and I dealt with the unpleasantness of the last stages of my mother's Alzheimer's. The husband really loved Cheddar's ribs. I found them mushy, but that man said in his opinion, they were "the best in town." So off we would go to Cheddar's, where there was often at least a half-hour wait. I don't think any of the rest of us would have waited that long for Cheddar's, and I don't believe that man would, either, if they ever did away with that one thing that he always ordered. In fact, we talked about it once, as we were sitting around the restaurant lobby waiting with all the other poor souls. He said "I don't think the rest of the stuff is all that good, but I really love the ribs." The first few times we went there, we'd ask how long is the wait. Once or twice, upon being told that the wait was "at least 45 minutes," I would suggest that we go elsewhere. But the husband's face drooped with obvious disappointment. "I don't mind waiting," he said. "After all, we don't have anything else to do. I've been thinking about those ribs all day long and if we leave now and go somewhere else, we'll probably still have to wait at least a while. And I won't get my ribs."

Love this tip. But I'm wondering... I don't note much discussion in this thread about the tuna itself. What kind of tuna do you nice folks prefer? Chunk? Light? Dark? Packed in oil? Water? A name brand? Whatever's on sale? Does it matter? My son-in-law (who shall go nameless) always buys whatever tuna is on sale, packed in water. I've never said anything, but I think his tuna salad turns out watery, with a pretty bland flavor. They have a big family, and I know it's too expensive to fill up those kids with tuna sandwiches made with imported Italian tuna packed in good olive oil, which is what I buy when I'm making tuna salad just for myself, but I'm wondering... What are y'all's thoughts about types, brands, oil vs water, etc.?

With praise like that, I can't help but wonder which recipe it is. Is it one in the book you have, or is it online? It is this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/old-fashioned-apple-crisp-recipe/index.html I haven't tried the filling but have used that topping on a apple rhubarb crumble. It's so good! Thanks for that link. I must say, that whole thing looks really good and really easy. Not only am I going to try it post haste, I also ordered the book that it comes from.

With praise like that, I can't help but wonder which recipe it is. Is it one in the book you have, or is it online?

Here's our family's favorite. Not for the faint of heart. This was my grandmother's recipe. And granny never did like a lot of fruit in her punch. Bourbon Punch 1 fifth good-quality bourbon 2 6-oz cans frozen lemonade (in the way-olden days, she made up a lemon syrup for this part, but as soon as frozen lemonade became available, she ditched the syrup for the convenience of the frozen product) 2 quarts club soda Night before, put bourbon in freezer and club soda in fridge. At serving time, combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve with garnishes (cherries, lemon or orange slices, mint leaves) and bucket of ice alongside.

I must say that following the links for the current flap, I came across a video wherein she demonstrates a really quick and easy recipe for cinnamon sticky buns - something that you could get up at 8am, think to yourself "sticky buns would sure be nice this morning," and have them on the table by 8:30 or so. You use frozen puff pastry dough. She recommended Pepperidge Farm. I'm laying in a supply for the freezer this very afternoon.

That is brilliant!!!! Golly, thanks. I was very lucky in that I had a grocery store with a great salad bar on my way home from work. A quick stop at that store for a package of chicken breasts and a zip through that salad bar and I was all set.

If you've got a grocery store with a good salad bar, that's a great place to pick up prepped veggies - onions, carrots, celery, peppers, etc. - to take home and toss into the skillet for a quick frittata, or into the wok for a stir-fry.

You know, on the one hand, although I do use soda pop in cooking from time to time (as per the carrots in ginger ale mentioned above), I always have found something extremely unappealing about the thought of it. For me, it's not the taste - the taste is great - caramel, citrus, ginger, fruits, etc. - it's more about all those chemical additives and artificial flavors. I hate thinking about unnecessarily putting those into, for example, my ham. I think there's something unhealthy and distasteful about it. That's a big reason (along with all that sugar) that I never drink colas myself, and didn't even allow them in the house when I was raising my three kids. But when I think about the millions and millions of folks that willingly, even happily, suck this stuff down every single day, paying pretty dearly for it when you consider the cost per year, there's got to be nothing wrong with occasionally cooking up a couple of pork chops in it. Still, it's a kinda hard thing for me to wrap my head around. _______________

I think that's it in a nutshell. When it comes time to break the long night's fast, nobody is in much of a mood to experiment. Just waking up and starting the day requires physical and mental energy enough.

My "go to" recipe for carrots is to slice them, and then simmer in ginger ale. Quick, easy, delicious.