Jaymes

Are you doing this in your home? Do you have plenty of freezer space? Exactly how much work are you willing to do; i.e., are you interested in shortcuts or is this going to be an all-out marathon workfest?

Thanks for posting this. I love Reuben sandwiches and the dip looks great. Have you ever tried to freeze it? It looks as though that might work well and would help me when getting ready for large parties.

I just keep thinking about you... You know, a lot of it depends upon how you like to entertain. I am very fond of sit-down, plated dinners around my dining-room table that I inherited, along with my antique china cabinet, server, dishes, crystal, etc. Although I also like more casual dinner parties - backyard cookouts, girls' movie nights, football viewing, potlucks, and so forth - I absolutely would not want to give up those formal evenings. And for that, I need a nice space and appropriate furniture. I do know that that sort of dinner party is not as popular as it once was, and that there are a great many folks that consider a real dining room to be a waste of space. If you're one of those, Dianabanana, then widening that door between the kitchen and dining room and turning the dining room into a more casual TV/family/gathering room might work well for you. But if, on the other hand, you're the sort of person that, like me, clings stubbornly to her inalienable right to occasionally drag out the good china, silver, crystal and linens and sit everybody down around a gracious table, perhaps you could temporarily convert the current living room into the dining room. I guess if I thought I'd really love living there, in that house, on that block, I'd go ahead and do it. And make it do in the short term while I worked out the long-term solutions in my head. It does sound a bit, though, like you're having pretty serious second thoughts, and even really about ready to talk yourself out of it. I wish you all the best with the decision, though. I'm sure you'll come up with whatever is right for you and the whole Banana family.

Excellent advice. And that's sure what I'd do. Buy it. Move in. And then probably expand the doorway into the dining room a bit, being sure to keep with the character/style of the home - i.e., arches if there are arches, crown molding/wood trim, if there is crown molding/wood trim - etc. And then think in terms of how I'd really like it to be sometime in the future. It would be a shame to miss out on such a wonderful opportunity just because there's one room you'd like to change. And besides, you don't want to disappoint your doggy. After all, you promised. ________________________

It would be really lovely if Miss Banana can figure out a way to enlarge that kitchen in keeping with the character of a lovely and gracious older home - maybe a nice sunporch-style room with windows overlooking what undoubtedly must be a mature landscaped back yard and garden. Even if it were not big, just enough for a breakfast bar, and a TV, and a little extra seating, perhaps in a window box, it would liven up that room and bring in more light and function. But if that's not doable (at least not right away), I think if I were she, I'd start with your suggestion of expanding the door into the dining room, so that the flow and conversation is easier, without subjecting guests to the sort of "sausage making" equipment and noise and grease and smells, etc., that occur in a working kitchen. _____________________

When I was young and growing up, almost all of the kitchens were "cooking-only." The only ones that were not were called "country kitchens" and were big enough for a table in the middle. Nobody had a kitchen that opened into a living room. Or a dining room either, for that matter. My experience was that everybody wound up in the kitchen anyway, standing around, leaning against the cabinets. I am still not a fan (at all) of the "open concept" kitchen that opens into the living room and I actually prefer a separate formal dining room as well. I loathe sitting in a nice living room, or elegant dining room, and looking at dirty dishes and pots and pans and utensils and other bits of assorted cooking debris sitting around on the kitchen countertops and piled up in the sink, all of it fairly shouting out for somebody to come clean it up. But we've had several houses with the kitchen/family room combination and I think that's ideal. To me, the informal aspects of a family room blend well with the working kitchen. Obviously I have no idea as to the floor plan of this house but wonder if the kitchen is on an outside wall, as it most likely is, is there space on the lot to add a bump-out and make a family/hearth/TV room there? Personally, judging from your description of the house, I'd be far more inclined to expand the kitchen into a larger informal area and combine those two instead of knocking out a wall and ruining the historical and gracious ambiance of what sounds like a lovely and elegant home. ________________________

Thank you! I've always wondered about that... You don't hear the expression "salt corns" much anymore, but "pepper corns" is still in quite popular use. As is the less appetizing: "I'm afraid you've got a corn on your big toe."

The color of the corn depends upon the variety. I've seen white field corn but, generally speaking (in my experience anyway), most white corn is one of the sweet varieties. Especially if you bought it in a grocery store, it's extremely unlikely to have been field corn. You used to be able to find field corn fairly often in roadside stands, but it's harder to find now. If you're going to eat field corn, the best thing to do is to pick the ears when they're young, and roast them. When I was a kid, we lived in the country. Right next to our place was an enormous field of field corn. Our neighbor told us we could have all we wanted. As it turned out, we wanted quite a lot. I sometimes wondered if he ever regretting telling us to help ourselves! ___________________

Right, generally speaking. Although I do feel the need to point out that a great many old-timers, I among them, prefer field corn to sweet corn for eating "right off the cob." Many of today's "sweet" varieties are too sweet for me. Sometimes I think they've sacrificed the corn flavor in a continuing effort to satiate the seemingly insatiable American appetite for sweets.

We are very blessed here at eG to have a bonafide knife expert that has, literally, "written the book" on knives, Chad Ward: "An Edge in the Kitchen" There are several threads that explore this subject, including the exact question you've asked about inexpensive ones. You can do a search for threads with "knives" in the title to see all of the threads but, in the meantime, there is excellent information in this one: Searching for good, inexpensive knives And this one: Which knife for Christmas? _______________________________

I went to a party a while back and the hostess, who said she was lactose intolerant, served this: Non-dairy whipped cream It tasted pretty good. Not sure if it's exactly what you've got in mind, but it might give your friend some interesting directions to explore.

The food mill is definitely too labor-intensive for processing large batches, but for single servings, we found it invaluable.

We do the "freeze baby food in ice cube trays" thing, too. It's simplicity itself. You just cook up a big batch of whatever you like - sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, etc. Then put it into the ice cube trays. When it's frozen, you can take the cubes out and put them into ziplock freezer bags, freeing up the trays to make more cubes. You start with perhaps one cube of whatever it is at feeding time, and then as baby ages, work your way up to however many cubes you need to fill him or her up. But the best tip by far that anyone gave me was to buy a baby grinder and use it to grind up whatever we were eating. We did cook our meals with no added salt. That way, we could add our salt at the table, but baby wasn't getting it. After having one grinder and using it constantly, I bought a second one to carry in my purse so that baby could have some of whatever we were ordering at restaurants. It's so handy - you can even feed baby right out of the top of the grinder. In my opinion, no parent should be without one. Baby food mill I notice in the product description that this particular brand no longer comes with a stainless steel grate. I'd suggest you find one that does. _______________________

Are the canned anchovies those typical salty ones we get in the US, or are you talking about those sublime little beauties you get along the Med?

The topic of Mexican cookbooks has spawned some really interesting discussion in these threads: Mexican Cookbooks - Kennedy or Bayless Looking for a 2nd Mexican Cookbook TexMex and Mexican Cookbooks

I think it's really foolish and counterproductive to turn up your nose at almost any ingredient, considering it to be beneath you. The truth of the matter, of course, is that given a certain time, place and circumstance, most everything can be appropriate and useful. For example, the hated "curry powder," while CLEARLY not valued in high-level authentic Indian cookery is, after all, just a blend of spices. It's not the sputum of the devil. And it's terrific in some applications. For example, years ago when I lived in Hong Kong, I came to know one Rolf Heiniger, who was then running what was considered by many to be the finest restaurant in all of Asia - Gaddi's at the Peninsula Hotel - and he continued to preside over this bastion of excellence for some 25 years. I managed to talk him into sharing the recipe for one of his signature dishes: Prawns au Sherry. The first step? Shell and de-vein your prawns and toss them with curry powder and let them marinate in the fridge for 4-6 hours. I did ask him if he was preparing his own curry powder and he said, "Not for this. Any good-quality commercial brand will do." Somehow, I doubt that the disparaging comments made here would have given him so much as even one moment's pause. Nor do they me. _______________________

So I didn't get pineapple but did get a couple of mangoes and you are right, the stuff is addictive! Thank you. I love discovering new ingredients and tastes. When I've stayed with families in Mexico, a little jar of this chile/limon/salt mix is always on the table, just like salt and pepper here. People seem to think most things are improved with a sprinkle of chile, a squeeze of lime, a dash of salt. So don't just limit it to fruit. Try it in unexpected ways. I can tell you that it's a key ingredient in Micheladas. And it's the "secret ingredient" in a great many Bloody Marys.

It looks like you might be heading west on I70 through St. Louis. If that's right, I'll recommend the Blue Springs Cafe, about 50 miles or so east of St. Louis. Blue Springs Cafe

We chop them and toss them into our green salads all the time. And put them into stirfrys, as others have said. They're especially good julienned on a crudites tray. They're very versatile and really nothing to throw away.

So I am guessing you are right! Here is the package with the smudged writing: Thanks everyone! Well, there you go: "Polvo para fruta": Powder for fruit. ______________________

The stuff that's hot and "even lemony" is undoubtedly hot chiles ground with Mexican lemon/limes and is supposed to be sprinkled over fruit: "para fruta." You can buy jars of similar chile blends, usually with salt, with or without limón. Sometimes it's also called "pico de gallo" because you can chop up vegetables like jicama, orange slices, onions, etc., and sprinkle that chile blend over and serve with toothpicks as an appetizer. People prod and poke at it with their toothpicks, reminiscent of chickens in the barnyard, and this is supposedly where it (and other relishes/snacks/appetizers made with large chunks of fresh vegetables) gets the name "beak (or peck) of the rooster." The most famous brand of this is probably "Tajin" (taHEEN). It's even available at mainstream supermarkets in the US. This stuff is particularly wonderful sprinkled over tropical fruits like mangoes, pineapple and papaya, vegetables such as jicama or corn on the cob, and many people like it on avocados and cucumbers. As far as I'm concerned, once you've had tropical fruits with a sprinkle of Tajin (or another similar brand), it's very difficult to have fruit without it. Actually, you can put it over anything: popcorn, potatoes, etc., or even a sprinkle to garnish drinks like horchata. Bartenders sometimes use it (either combined with additional salt or sugar, or just as is) to rim glasses for various exotic drinks. Tajin So, Anna, chop up a fresh pineapple, sprinkle a little of your mystery mixture over, and get back with us and let us know what you think. Okay? _________________________

Make a classic Mexican shrimp cocktail. Either google "coctel de camaron," or pm me for my recipe. These are always garnished with avocados.

Hummm.... Perhaps the boy should be the one posting here.

I love Magic Shell. I know it's crap chocolate. I don't care. Sometimes when I'm in the mood for a chocolate bar, I just go buy a bottle of Magic Shell instead and eat it, head back, plastic bottle aloft, squeeze by squeeze. In private.

Right. And this traditional food-making party even has a name: A "tamalada."