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Kris

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Posts posted by Kris

  1. I ran into this last night.  I made pasta and I usually make 1 box of pasta with 1 jar of sauce.  I mixed both of them together and was thinking that there was less sauce than normal.  I went ahead and mixed them and ended up adding more sauce to make it look right.

    Yes, because some jars of spaghetti sauce are actually down to 24 ounces.

    They started with a full 32 oz. jar. Then they sneakily downsized to 28 oz. Then 26 oz. and now some are actually down to 24.

    It's going to get to the point where they won't be able to downsize anymore. It would be ridiculous to have a 10 ounce jar on the shelves. But maybe some corporate genius would actually try it. :rolleyes:

  2. Oh yeah. This one bugs me too.

    Not only does this downsizing business throw off recipes and stuff as you all have pointed out ... the odd-sized packages make doing price comparisons that one little bit more tedious. It's annoying enough when the store puts the unit pricing in the wrong units, like unit pricing per ounce on items usually bought by the pint, but then the danged item isin't even a full pint any more...

    Thanks for pointing this out since it is another annoying aspect of sneaky product downsizing. Within the last week, I noticed two more products that have been downsized:

    Skippy Peanut Butter 18 ounce is now 16.3 ounces.

    Tropicana Orange Juice 3 liter container is now 89 ounces.

  3. This is one of my biggest pet peeves in life. Seriously.

    I've been railing against downsizing for years. And these companies have become so sneaky at doing it - most customers don't even realize when it's been done.

    Paper towels, tissues, tomato products (canned & jarred), breakfast cereals, yogurt, ready made pudding, orange juice (in the carafe), mayonnaise, etc.

    It's just ridiculous already. I've written and called many a company to complain once I see that they've downsized a product. But all you get are platitudes and corporate speak (e.g. "we've now conformed to industry standard" or "surveys have shown that consumers prefer a 6 oz. size rather than an 8 oz. size"). In some cases they'll send you a coupon for a discount off the downsized product. Whoopee.

    I think it's a deceptive and sneaky practice. I would prefer to pay a few cents more for the same amount of product. Especially when the size of the product affects my recipes, like so many of you have stated above.

  4. Ooh- I love pasteles. My aunt used to bring them around, but only when her church group would make a gigantic batch of 'em. Somehow they seemed all the more special because they weren't something you could all the time.

    ...

    This is what makes it special for me too - the fact that you can't get them all the time, only during the holiday season.

    Although I have to admit that I usually save two pasteles in my freezer for summertime eating. Then after those two are gone, I only have a few more months left until it's pasteles time again. :smile:

  5. Pasteles are a Puerto Rican version of a tamale, typically made with banana leaves, roast pork (pernil) seasoned with annatto, adobo, olives and other seasonings, and a "masa" (dough) made with green bananas and yautia (a root vegetable).

    Pasteles are popular during the Christmas season and are a very labor intensive item to make. In many families, they set aside a day where scores, if not a few hundred of them are made to be frozen and given away/sold - assembly line with numerous members of the family contributing to the activity.

    My mom and I love pasteles and I always buy a dozen or two from a Puerto Rican co-worker (whose family engages in the pasteles making marathon every year). My mom had a Puerto Rican father, but she never learned or participated in this tradition. It's something I wish we had a connection to though.

  6. I love to entertain for my friends and family, but I don't do so as often as I would like. Mr. Kris and I live in a medium sized NYC apartment, so we don't have THAT much room. But it's not shoebox sized either.

    Our most recent party was during the Christmas season. I have a few policies when it comes to entertaining:

    1. I want my guests to feel welcome, relaxed and have fun.

    2. I generally entertain buffet style because I don't have the room for a sit down dinner for more than 8 people. Plus, buffet style encourages more mingling.

    3. I don't worry about clean up until the guests leave.

    4. There must be an overabundance of food and drink.

    Mr. Kris and I have hardwood floors in the apartment, so we don't worry about guests wearing shoes.

    If you focus on being a gracious host for your guests and keep them well fed (with a combination of home cooked foods and some bought items), that should make entertaining more entertaining.

  7. I don't know if I'd ever actually had creamed spinach before, or just read about it, but I made it for the first time the other night and it was fantastic. What a wonderful comfort food.

    This is another one of my favorites. Served with a broiled porterhouse steak and mashed potatoes, it just doesn't get much better than that.

  8. I think it's a loving thing if anyone, irrespective of age or gender, cooks for me.

    Of course it's great if it's a man. But here's the thing: all my best male friends, ex-lovers and  husband are real cooks, not simply slap a steak on the Q guys. Heck, even my only brother is a caterer! The men in my life who cook outnumber the women, and I take it for granted: this is the world as I know it. It's delightful, but, well normal.

    In the spirit of role reversal, some men might find a woman staring at his undercarriage draining his oil sexy. (I think  a Boston Cream Pie might get even better results.)

    I agree with your sentiments wholeheartedly.

    When you cook for someone, it's a gesture that displays love, affection, comfort, caring and consideration. It does seem that men get more credit & praise when they cook (and particularly if the meal is tasty and/or intricate) and a lot of women may find that sexy. I suppose this is because home cooking has primarily been the domain of women, so it's not as special or sexy when a woman prepares a meal vs. when a man prepares it.

    Conversely speaking, I get lots of praise from men because of my knowledge of football. When I wear my football jerseys, men come up to me in the supermarket and the deli and start talking to me about various football games, players, etc. My uncles and brother-in-law were surprised, then pleased as hell about my knowledge of the game when we watched the big game together at my uncle's Superbowl party. You see, most of the women in my family have little to no sports knowledge or interest at all. So (at least according to my male relatives), a woman who knows about sports is a sexy woman indeed.

    I said all that to say that it's my thought that when a person of one gender displays knowledge, talent or interest in a domain that is primarily associated with the other gender, it's deemed more special or praiseworthy.

  9. Sometime around the Christmas/Yule season of 2007, I ran across him on the Home Shopping Network selling a bunch of cheap junk called "ROYAL TITANIUM" cookware and nonsensical kitchen accessories.

    I just did a search for both Robert Irvine and Royal Titanium cookware at HSN, and absolutely nothing comes up now. Not sure why, however. Could be HSN found out?

    The word jackass comes to mind. Can I say that word here?

    Jackass?  :angry:

    HSN stopped selling his cookware/kitchen accessories line once they found out about all of his lies:

    http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/2/21/326532.html

  10. This year I made 11 varieties of cookies:

    Cocoa rum balls

    Pecan tassies

    Rainbow cookies

    Gingerbread boys and girls

    Chocolate cherry spritz

    Lemon spritz (shaped like Christmas trees)

    Italian Fig Cookies

    Peanut Blossoms

    Chocolate florentine sandwiches

    Raspberry jam thumbprints

    Cranberry pistaschio biscotti (with one end dipped in white chocolate)

    I packed them up in personalized window boxes I had printed up.  Then I gave them out as party favors (along with personalized packets of hot cocoa mix) to my Christmas party guests this past weekend.  They were well received. 

    Next year I'm looking forward to trying a few new favorites, such as Ling's chocolate toffee cookies.

    Since I ran out of a few varieties, I made some more Lemon spritz, chocolate florentine sandwiches, peanut blossoms (my favorite this year) and rainbows. I also added a spritz butter cookie sandwiched with preserves, one end dipped in chocolate. I currently have the dough for Ling's Chocolate Toffee cookies chilling in the fridge too. Once my oven is free (I have a ham in there right now), I'll bake those.

    I've just been on a cookie baking spurt lately. :laugh: And I'm making two sweet potato cheesecakes - one I'll give to my sister and one I'll keep.

  11. I'm going to be the lone dissenter here...I prefer KFC's original recipe over Popeye's chicken. I find Popeye's breading to be too hard and crunchy and the seasoning too salty & spicy.

    *ducking to avoid a KFC biscuit from hitting my head* :)

  12. This year I made 11 varieties of cookies:

    Cocoa rum balls

    Pecan tassies

    Rainbow cookies

    Gingerbread boys and girls

    Chocolate cherry spritz

    Lemon spritz (shaped like Christmas trees)

    Italian Fig Cookies

    Peanut Blossoms

    Chocolate florentine sandwiches

    Raspberry jam thumbprints

    Cranberry pistaschio biscotti (with one end dipped in white chocolate)

    I packed them up in personalized window boxes I had printed up. Then I gave them out as party favors (along with personalized packets of hot cocoa mix) to my Christmas party guests this past weekend. They were well received.

    Next year I'm looking forward to trying a few new favorites, such as Ling's chocolate toffee cookies.

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