Suzanne F

They're also very good with bacon, but I guess that kind of defeats the purpose, huh?

For those who remember it fondly: just got word from Jessica's Biscuit that they've got a facsimile edition of Betty Crocker Boys and Girls, the original 1957 edition.

The best thing you can do is marinate portabello mushroom caps for grilling. Beats the hell out of any TVP product on taste, texture, wholesomeness, and all those other good qualities. ESPECIALLY taste. And you can dress them up in all kinds of great ways without covering up the flavor (as you have to do with veggie burgers )

HWOE sometimes adds hot sauce before taking a single mouthful. Not at home, nor at new places, mind you , but in restaurants where he already knows what the food is like. That's not a problem. Even adding pepper is not really a problem, because it's rare to find any place that uses enough, and pepper is a good flavor to add. (I too am pro-pepper.) I think the trouble I have with the salt thing is that salt is both a flavor on its own and a flavor enhancer. I assume that people who add salt without tasting just like the flavor of salt -- not necessarily a bad thing, but not my favorite flavor. As Tommy points out, folks who do that LIKE SALT. I prefer it as a flavor enhancer -- a distinction I'm still trying to get HWOE to understand.

Maybe tommy should just put in brighter light bulbs? Those grooves look like a real bitch.

i put pepper on my food without tasting it. does that make you mad at me? tommy, you don't count. You smoke. Touché! Seriously though, I don't find peppering before tasting as bad as salting -- although I'm with Rachel on "Let me taste my food first, please!" I do, however, mutter nasty things under my breath before I make that polite statement.

Aaaah. Now I know what to do with the leftover pork rind and still-very-rare pork from the shoulder I cooked yesterday: Dominican cassoulet!

Probably for the same reason they salt their food without tasting it.

Finally cooked the pernil mentioned days ago on the blog. Invited some friends over to help us eat it, 'cuz it started out at 9 pounds, so it turned into a BIG DEAL. Nibbles first: tostones (fried green plantain coins) with homemade salsa verde, bought creamy garlic dressing/sauce, unsalted saltines and table water crackers with sesame, and the marinated olives and MegC's tapenade left from the pot-luck. At the table: - Duck liver/chicken liver/pork terrine from the pot-luck (kept in the freezer, so it was still delicious, but crumbled when I tried to slice it.) Condiments were Dijon mustard and cornichons. - Baked-from-frozen (what used to be called "Brown and Serve") dinner rolls - Mixed red and green leaves with cucumber, dressed with Roasted Tomato/Roasted Garlic/Smoked Paprika vinaigrette. just to try something new. It came out tasting like gazpacho -- not a bad thing at all. - The long-awaited pernil. Boy, was it worth the wait!! Cooked for about 4 hours at 325 to 350, pulled out when the temp was about 155. As it sat to rest, everyone kept picking off pieces of the rind, yum. - Gravy from the marinade, defatted pan juices, and more sour orange juice. It went from lovely green to ugly brown, but it was sooo tasty. - Boiled chunks of ñame (white yam). - Coconut rice with fresh thyme. - Long-cooked kale, done in the slow cooker with lots of onion and other vegetable juices. Well, HWOE and I liked it. - Condiments for the pernil: pico de gallo (out of a bottle, since I used up the tomatoes for the vinaigrette), and home-pickled white onions with oregano and coriander. - Dessert: baklava that jhlurie brought to the pot-luck, and elyse's shortbreads. Copious amounts of Bass Ale, Dr. Frank Dry Riesling, and various other wines. Freshly ground decaf with dessert.

I beg to differ. Gah. This might be TODAY's winner.

I could be way off the mark, but isn't there something called ventrèche, from the belly?

We pass it all the time, but have not stopped in. This is the first incarnation in a long time that seems to be successful since it closed as Hunan Garden. For a while it was a place that supposedly served Chairman Mao's favorite foods; as you can imagine, it was almost empty every time we went by. Then, it looked as though the only people in it were gangsters. I don't know for sure that's what they were, but they were the only ones in there. Now, it's pretty full all the time. It's good to know that it's worth trying.

Coconut "milk" can be made with water, and usually is. So the canned stuff should be fine to use (not "lite" though; but then I dislike "lite" ANYTHING). Just check the label, or if you make your own, use hot water.

Thank you all; it is very interesting to read what constitutes an update to Curries and Bugles, Jennifer Brennan's book from the British point of view. Are you familiar with that book? How much of it still holds true, if I may ask?

So. Is it over now? Can we go back to discussing important topics, like Tommy's band t-shirts?

Fifi is correct regarding rinsing the white onion, at least according to my recent Spanish teacher who is Mexican (who bought and sold antique book; not only in Spanish) and considered running a cooking course. Even white onions vary in strength -- the one I used today was much, much stronger than the others I bought at the same time.

Does it make a difference whether the chicken is French, British, American, Canadian, Chinese, or some other nationality? After all, there are variations in the way everyone butchers. Meat, I mean.

Frangipane is a mixture of almond paste, sugar, butter (or in Bloviatrix's case, parve margarine), flour, and eggs. It is heavenly with pears, or probably any stone fruit. The extra flavor from the almond paste more than makes up for the lack of flavor from the margarine or vegetable shortening. It's a great suggestion. Katherine's suggestion to try your dairy recipes with soy milk is also excellent. Although you'll probably find that you're happier NOT trying to substitute. I once had a "creme brulee" at a kosher steakhouse -- had to see what it was like -- and I regretted it on the first spoonful. You simply cannot substitute for some ingredients, when they contribute such a high proportion of the flavor -- and the fat in dairy is one of the elements that carries the flavors of the other ingredients. My mother used to refer to the "Ice cream" we'd be served at weddings and bar mitzvot as "frozen Spry." True, true. As for beans's question about Almond Breezes: I make an iced almond milk that is just great (not just my opinion). I got the recipe off a carton of Italian almond milk. When I tried making it with AB, it was just not as good: the flavor of roasting was stronger than the flavor of almonds. But that was my taste; you might like it fine. It can work well as an ice milk. It will never have the richness of ice cream, though.

I am very upset that people think it bad that "a busboy" should be entrusted to making the espresso. In places where I've cooked, there was only one who had that responsibility, plus a backup for his day off, and that person WAS well-trained in the cleaning and maintenance of the machine (which are far more important than how to turn a pressure control) and the actual coffee-making. To imply that a busboy cannot be trained to do the task properly, or may not prepare espresso "with the same level of care as anything else the patrons consume" is discriminatory. Who the hell are you to say that a busser doesn't care about the satisfaction of the customers? If anything, bussers care MORE, because if they keep customers happy, they are more likely to move up to more lucrative waiter positions.

Et toi?

Kate, this is kind of counter-intuitive, but your difficulty might come because the curve of the sides of the bowl is too steep. I find the gentler the curve, the easier to flip stuff. That's why I never, ever have a problem with my AllClad "chef's pan" (kind of like a flat-bottomed wok) -- the contents travel up the side, go straight up into the air, and fall right back down into the pan. Even a regular saute pan is a bit steeper, and sometimes the contents scatter a bit. I say this is counter-intuitive, because you'd think a sharper upright edge would send the contents straight up; I don't find that, though. fifi, I hope the rain is loud. The rattle-rattle-rattle sound of the beans will drive you nuts otherwise. Seriously, I hope there's no damage from the storm; I heard on the news that the winds are not bad at all, which is good news indeed.

The only good thing about trussing a bird is that it prevents it from flopping around when you turn it. BFD. Don't bother. Jinmyo, did your kids have jaundice?

Oh yes, yes, Jinmyo! I love those "surveys" which tell you that you have a serious problem if you think about food all the time. What, you mean I should think about the world situation ALL THE TIME?!?!? Then I'd NEVER eat, and wither away to nothing. (Well, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea . . . to almost nothing, anyway.) Thinking about food so much keeps me sane, or what passes for sane around here.

Oh yes, I can taste it!

Woman cannot live by corn dogs alone. Although I tried to live on regular hot dogs, yesterday. Thanks, fifi. Remember you can always give us the scientific analysis of what little you DO eat!