johnsmith45678

As I once remarked to my husband the morning after a long night of dancing on New Year's Eve, "Champagne is not an effective means of hydration." ← What about hair of the dog??? I love that Crystal Light is advertising their product in such a way that says "Buy me! I have so little to offer that I do nothing to affect that glass of water you were going to drink anyway!" Obviously that's not the actual goal, just what the marketing made me think of... ← Heh, I wonder how long before beer and other alcoholic beverage companies begin doing the same. ;P They already market their light beers as "low-carb."

That's not the largest of audiences! ;P But I love brussel sprouts, always have. Just about all other vegetables too.

Anybody got a picture of a turned carrot?

Heh, I was thinking about posting fluting mushrooms. And tomato roses. Sure they're just garnishes, but it shows that somebody is interested enough to have spent hours learning how to do it, just for that extra bit of flair. We used to kill slow time by working our way through a garnishi book. BTW, what exactly is turning a carrot? I'm not familiar with that.

So, unintelligent animals are okay? Where's the line, intelligence-wise?

Anybody see the Penn & Teller Bullshit episode about PETA? I really enjoyed it. F#*%ing self-righteous arrogant hypocrites (PETA).

Ugh, that's just asking for trouble...

Banned? Really?

Count me among them! Can anybody explain what those are and for what they're used?

Dry has fewer calories than sweet, at least for wines anyway.

Try this new fangled thing ;P. I looked a bit and found: What alcoholic drinks are lowest in calories? Calories in Alcoholic Drinks Is beer or wine making you fat? Interesting info I learned: - Higher proof drinks have more calories (roughly 10-15 for each 10 proof increase, from 80 to 100 proof anyway). Everclear apparently has 190 calories per 1 oz. - Non-alcoholic beer has about the same calories as regular beer. - Light beer has about 2/3 the calories of regular beer.

Check out Manayunk Brewery & Restaurant. I used to work with their exec chef, before he went to CIA.

I once heard an interview with PETA's head - Ingrid Newkirk - and she basically stated that's it's also inhumane to step on insects, kill spiders, and even swat mosquitos.

Anthony - can you elaborate on how the peanut butter powder was made? Thanks!

← Looks like it's targetted squarely at the sophisticated frat party drinker.

I don't understand why making scrambled eggs or an omelet would be used as a test for a cook. Is it to weed out the completely incompetent (like that shmuck at Bonaparte's in Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares)? I don't find it difficult - scramble eggs, cook in pan until it's not watery but not rubber either. Perhaps it's the finer points - removing the eggs from the pan just before they're done, and whether you scramble the eggs in a bowl or in the pan (what GR recommends, IIRC). I found hollandaise considerably more challenging to make the first few times, and every once in a while it makes you feel like a novice by breaking or otherwise not coming out right.

I think I would say stock, for one. It's a fairly involved and lengthy process, and it is a basic ingredient in so many foods. Gives one a deeper understanding of food and cooking.

What recipes or dishes do you think any cook or chef worth their salt should have been required to make? Coq au vin? Hollandaise? A souffle? Scrambled eggs (the Gordon Ramsay test)? A foam or gel a la Ferran Adria (for modern times)? A clean plate (i.e. wash dishes - heh ;P)? Any and all fields of cooking (baking, pastry, etc.) qualify!

I agree - there's a ton of nasty natural stuff out there. Just check out an edible plants book to see just how many naturally occuring things are inedible at best and deadly poisonous at worst. And many plants need to be processed in some way to remove poisonous elements. I think the argument for "natural" food items is that they've been consumed for ages, and our bodies are probably well adapted to them and any adverse side-effects are known and been addressed. When a new food ingredient is created in a lab, it's almost like coming up with a new drug - it's untested and unknown and there will surely be unforeseen reactions and short- and long-term effects in the body. Same goes for salt. In addition to foods having more calories due to HFCS and what-not, I think the super-sizing of everything is also to blame. A lot of Americans buy the "more and bigger" messages that advertisers and marketers try to cram down our throats. Finally, I also think that exercise is a vitally important part of weight control - I think it improves body efficiency and functionality, and of course burns off some calories. edit - I also want to add that sweets are empty calories. After eating them, our body will still crave other foods for whatever nutrients we're lacking, and thereby bringing additional calories.

Really? Damnit! I've thrown away several bags of brown sugar once they hardened. ← I had to make cookies this weekend in order to use up some old contents in the cupboard...the brown sugar will also soften if nuked in the microwave a few seconds. My only question, is that once it hardens, isn't it actually losing moisture? Couldn't that then effect the measuring and quantity when used in baking? Not that I bake that often, but I know it is more of an exact science than I prefer to wrestle with that often! ← Hmm, I don't think so - I've always either never opened the bag, or resealed it well (bag had a zip-lock), so I don't think moisture is getting out. I once had a bottle on honey crystalize on me - could probably be the same process.

I don't think I'd be interested in joining ;P, but I would be interested in seeing what their past menus were. I know a great many people in other parts of the world eat insects, etc., but being a prudish American I think I'd have as much difficulty eating much of that stuff as some of the contestants on Fear Factor. And, yeah, I think most people would be disturbed to find out what's in a lot of foods - I remember reading that peanut butter has a lot of ant parts.

Link I searched but couldn't find mention of this here! It's a club in NYC? The scorpions are $35 each, the tarantulas $175.

Really? Damnit! I've thrown away several bags of brown sugar once they hardened. I've kept flour around for a long time too. If you keep it sealed well it doesn't appear to get the mealy worms.

I made a cracker recipe from one of Alton Brown's books and thought it'd be a good idea to double it. They took much longer to make than I expected, and I ended up thinking they were gross. They sat around for weeks, while I tried to pawn them off on others and left them out for birds. Ended up throwing most of them out.

I found the NYT article far more informative, compelling, and convincing than what that blogger wrote (which is essentially vacuous). Comparing HFCS - which appears to be nothing more than sugar with a slighty different ratio of fructose and glucose - to cop-killer bullets?