Jaymes

In the wintertime, if you want to make a cooked tomato salsa (think Salsa Ranchera) in the style of Pace that is about a hundred times better, and all you've got is fifteen minutes or so, try mine: Salsas & other things. Next time, instead of picking up that jar of Pace, put a bowl of this on the table to go with those chips and see what happens. There are many recipes/methods in that Diana Kennedy thread that produce various excellent salsas. Including non-tomato-based. Really, salsas are so easy to make, and such fun to experiment with. You can try out almost anything and if you don't like what you wind up with, you can toss it out with very little invested in time or money. And you very often will stumble onto something brilliant. ______________________________

Well, I'd agree with you if we're talking about pies and cakes and duck confit. They certainly do require some knowledge and effort and time in the kitchen. But salsa? Com'on.

Sign me up with the crowd that doesn't understand who on earth is buying the salsa that is displayed on shelf after shelf after shelf at the grocery store. Salsas are one of the easiest things on the planet to make. Whether you start with dried chiles, or fresh, or roasted and no matter how many ingredients you like to add, it can't possibly take you more than, what, five to maybe 30 (on the outside) minutes to turn out a myriad of styles, flavors, etc? And that store-bought stuff is so awful. I guess Herdez works okay in a pinch, but Pace? Who on earth can be buying that crap?

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the US and has a spectacular array of ethnicities. And a resultingly spectacular food scene.

After posting this, a name suddenly popped into mind: Bourbon Slush. And a quick google produced many recipes. Including this one - Bourbon Slush Although I note I had it a little bit wrong. You freeze the tea with the bourbon, put that into a glass, and pour a carbonated beverage over. __________________________

I recall a concoction that was very popular a couple of decades back. You mix up some stuff, including tea and sugar, and freeze it. Then at serving time, you spoon a couple dollops of the frozen tea mix into a glass and pour bourbon over. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? I'd love to find that recipe again. ______________________

I like In-N-Out burgers better than Fatburger. Maybe it's a guy thing to want a lot of meat, I dunno, but personally I don't care who has the biggest patties, the most meat, etc. I like one hot ordinary-sized patty, no cheese, plenty of cool veggies (I often order extra) - lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions - good flavor. I also don't eat fries, so don't care about that, either. In fact, I never get any sides, so for me, it's all about the burger. And I just very much prefer the taste of In-N-Out burgers to Fatburgers. They always seem fresher - the bun better, the veggies crunchier. Yum. So in my personal burger smackdown, In-N-Out wins. ______________________

What is your "part of the country"? It's becoming more and more available as the Mexican populace increases, so you might try liquor stores in that area of town, assuming you have a "that area of town." But if not, I've always managed to find a liquor store that will order it for me. All of the major suppliers seem to have access to it. It's also an ingredient in Bayless's Tres Leches Cake, so it's something I always have on hand. _________________________

Yes, but I'll bet they didn't get the small fluted ramekin with the clarified butter. That really brought it up a notch, eh?

Tomatoes would kill you. They've certainly enjoyed a reversal in status from deadly to divine. And for foods that are unappreciated, I nominate buckwheat. When I was a kid, buckwheat was a staple in every pantry. Now it's getting harder and harder to find. I fear that as demand for it drops, farmers will grow less and less and, as the population that once enjoyed buckwheat pancakes every Sunday morning gradually disappears, so will buckwheat. We're all about ease of preparation these days. And making buckwheat pancakes from scratch doesn't seem to fit. __________________________

The potato pretty obviously does absorb some of the other flavors. Peppers, herbs, spices, but I don't think it absorbs as much of them as it does the salt. And it doesn't seem to grab up as much in the way of juices. If I am making a chicken soup, for example, and I get it too salty and put in a potato or two, you can definitely taste in the potato some of the other seasonings I've put into the soup, but the broth after I take the potatoes out still seems plenty "chickeny" for want of a better word. I can add a pinch more oregano and paprika, etc., if the broth seems to need it. But the overall flavor of the soup doesn't seem diluted to me like it would be if I had added more water. The broth is still as thick and rich as it was when I put in the potato. It wouldn't be had I added water.

Well, in my experience, adding water dilutes the soup of all of its flavor. It makes it, um, 'watery.' That's nothing like adding a potato or two which doesn't, by my definition anyway, "dilute" the soup at all. It just sucks up the salt. I agree that anything that requires a lot of salt would probably do the same thing. But I think pulling out two or four potato halves is a lot easier than pulling out, for example, 50 pasta noodles, noodle by noodle.

I've never made them, but Pierogi's Butterscotch Pretzels from the "Holiday Gifts" thread sound like they might fit the bill:

We always had caramel corn. And for the adults, eggnog. Made with bourbon, rum, and a little brandy for the kick (see eggnog thread). And also for the adults, a bottle of Tuaca sitting alongside the spiced cider. The grownups can add a splash of Tuaca and a dollop of whipped cream to their mug of cider. That makes the most delightful winter drink - a Hot Apple Pie.

I realize that y'all whippersnappers are in the middle of a scientific exploration here, but I can't help but offer some empirical evidence gathered from five+ decades of cooking. Adding potatoes to an over-salted liquid has rescued various soups and stews and pasta sauces, etc., for my family many times. And I'm talking about everything from minor flubs such as my own inattention and lapses in concentration, to catastrophes on the order of "Mommy, I helped put in more salt" and the time that the top flew off of the salt shaker and into the soup only a few hours before dinner guests arrived. It absolutely works. And as for "wasting potatoes"... No, you don't have to "waste" those potatoes. There are lots of things you can do with them. Cook them the next day. As a vegetable, or an addition to another soup, or sliced and fried up in your skillet. It's not magic. It's just that potatoes do require a lot of salt - as anyone can tell you that's ever "corrected the seasonings" (as Julia used to say) but then notices, right before serving, that after the potatoes were added, the dish is now nowhere nearly salty enough. ______________

You're right that Goode Co sets the standard for mediocrity. And most of the 'cue I've had in Dallas easily lives down to that standard. I don't understand why Dallas and Houston have such mediocre barbecue. It can't be just because they are large metropolitan areas. I've spent a lot of time in Kansas City and, while even the best of the legendary Kansas City bbq joints do not match the best of the iconic Central Texas smoked-meat markets, they are much better than what I've found in Dallas. The sad fact is that the average Kansas City barbecue lover is eating much better 'cue on a regular basis than the average Dallasite. _________________

I'd definitely avoid mixing it with cheese or any other strong flavor. I'd tend to rehydrate dried chiles, mix with a little water, and make a plain salsa with nothing but the chiles and water. For fresh chiles, I'd roast them and then make the salsa. To taste it, I'd just put a small amount of the salsa into my mouth. Or, if it's really 'picante,' smear it onto a tortilla. ________________

Butterscotch pretzels !!! These are one of the favorite things I make for Christmas cookie plates, it's that marvelous mix of sweet and salty. Take a bag (or 2) of butterscotch morsels, and add in about 1T of neutral cooking oil (corn is what I usually use) per bag. Melt in the top of a double boiler. Take the mini-pretzel twists, and dip them into the melted butterscotch. I usually use a roasting fork to flip them over and fish them out. Plop them down on wax paper, and if you're feeling really frisky, sprinkle them with red & green Christmas sprinkly things for a seasonal twist. PURELY decorative, the pretzels taste just swell without them. But they do look nice, you can even find the sprinkly things that look like holly leaves and berries. Let them dry on the wax paper, then peel them off, put them in tins, cartons or baggies and watch your guests turn into drooling fools over them. Don't know about Snowangel, but these sound terrific to me. I'm making some this afternoon.

Leftover bread stuffing is terrific in stuffed pork chops. If you don't want to do that right away, then freeze the stuffing. A few weeks later, thaw out that stuffing and put it into some of those extra-thick pork chops that are slit for just that purpose. Other things we enjoy: "Turkey a la King" ladled over hot biscuits. Turkey in curry sauce over rice. And "barbecue" turkey sloppy joes. A 'never fail' with a house full of kids. ____________________

The first things that came to my mind were the avocado/grapefruit/thinly-sliced red onions salad... And avocado sandwiches. Nothing but sliced avocados and mayo and lots of S&P on a good-quality bread. I use one avocado per sandwich, so can go through them pretty quickly. They do ripen much more slowly in the fridge. When we lived in Panama, we had five avocado trees in our yard. To this day, what I do when I have a lot of avocados is to leave two or three out to eat promptly, and put the remainder into the fridge. I take them out one or two at a time, to stretch out the time I've got to prepare and eat them. Depending upon how ripe they are when I put them into the fridge, they can last several weeks this way.

Thanks to that wonderful book, Steve is getting lots of good mentions. Tonight, he's going to be on "Emeril Green" on the Planet Green/Discovery network. I think it's going to be broadcast twice. The first time, I believe, is at 7pm Central. "Best of Beans"

That's a great idea. I might try this myself this year. Thanks.

Went to a Christmas dinner a while back for which the host had prepared individually-stuffed Rock Cornish Game Hens. Made a pretty impressive display on a large platter surrounded with baked apples and pears and an orange sauce. And it was delicious. But tricky to eat. So all in all, I don't know if I'm actually recommending it... __________________

"Mom's Kitchen." And sounds like "Mom's Table," too.

Well, that's certainly typical of the best Central Texas meat markets. They smoke the meat overnight and then the next day, when it's gone, it's gone. You have to get there pretty early - at least no later than 1pm, and preferably closer to noon, if you want to be absolutely positive to get your favorite cuts.