jsmeeker

At whole foods on Sunday, I bought some cheese because I had a sample of it. Pretty tasty.

Have not seen it. But just set the TiVo to record it. I'll report back later.

Just got around to drinking this earlier tonight. It was interesting. Didn't taste like coconut as I expected. really, it tasted kinda "salty" Sorta kinda "of the sea". I've never had real FRESH coconut water directly out of a coconut, so I don't know what this stuff really tastes like.

Since maraschino has made it's long awaited return to my liquor stash, I am now having The Last Word.

I would assume that "Modernist Cuisine" talks extensively about hydrocolloids. I was reading something about them on "Cooking Issues" blog and started to wonder about something. With the right hydrocolloid, can you gel just about any liquid?

In that case, I think the consistency is right on the money.

I've got a thai green curry question. Made some tonight. pretty western, I guess. The green curry paste I used was a common standard US grocery store brand. I used a lot more than was called for in the recipe. Added some brown sugar, fish sauce. Flavor was fine and all. But my question isn't about flavor. Its about thickness. I thinned out the sauce too much. I want to make it thicker. Can I reduce this down? Or would I use a pure starch like a corn starch slurry?

They showed taco guy. He has a new name, too. But it uses the same logo. They made comments about the taco not being well executed. I think they were eating what was supposed to be a crisp taco shell, but it turned all soggy. Chipotle really isn't a a taqueria. It's more of a mission style burrito place. Is it "expensive"? Well, it's more expensive "hole in the wall" taqueria. But then again, it's targetting a different audience.

What is the starch doing to the sauce? Keeping smoother? Adding flavor? For making a block of cheese first, isn't that because the recipe for the cheese block make a lot more than you really need for a batch of mac and cheeese? It would seem the point here is that you make the cheese block. Now, you can use part of that as an ingrendient in a finished dish.

Kim There is a good topic discussing kitchen scale recommendations in the Kitchen Consumer forum. Check it out right here.

Just saw NathanM do a segment on the "Today" show. Nice work! Cool to see how that mushroom omelette comes together. Did Matt ever get to eat it?

Another concept gets the axe. Bye bye to the Wok girl. In other news, many concepts changed their names. Added slogans. Tweaked their menus. But issues remain. Hick's/Grill Billies have NO CLUE what they want. BBQ? no.. we'll grill now! And we'll have pulled pork. I come in there and want to know what I can get. Oh, cole slaw! <sigh> I think I am liking "Chicken and Waffles" guy even more now that he changed his name to Soul Daddy's to reflect the place being a soul food place. And very nice name change for the Indian place. It's great. Has a good direct connection to his life in India.

In't that the whole point of making your own? Well, yes and no. But there are times when you want the crumb/texture to be a little lighter and fluffier. Also, the bread baker in me wonders what exactly they are doing different. On the surface, our ingredients seem to be pretty much the same. Flour, water, milk in some form, maybe more fat in some form, sugar in some form, salt, yeast. But we come up with different end results.

I wasn't in South Florida or the Caribbean today, but I was in Whole Foods in suburban Dallas, and I bought this They had tons of this stuff. Big packages. Small ones like this. In bottles with different flavors. Then there were other brands. But this Zico brand seems the most common around here. I have not tried it yet. It's chilling in the fridge. Maybe I will try it when I get home from work tomorrow.

I'm going to bake a loaf of white sandwich bread shortly. Right now, the dough is going through the initial rise. The recipe I always use is from bag of King Arthur All-Purpose flour. I make it as follows 3 cups flour (I weigh out 15 ounces of King-Arthur AP) 1/2 cup milk (I always have whole milk on hand) 1/2 cup hot water 3 tablespoons butter, melted 1 tablespoon sugar 1 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoon instant yeast I mix it up a bit by hand, then but on the Kitchen Aid mixed with the dough hook to knead. Goes through a first rise, then shaped, into a pan, second rise, then baked at 350 for about 35 minutes. I'll have to read through this topic more to understand how different types of fat affect the texture of the crumb. Also, what about protein content? This bread doesn't come out like the typical grocery store white bread (to use a brand name, I'll say "Mrs Baird's" ) That stuff is much lighter and fluffier. What are they doing to get that?

Interesting. We have lots of hot sweaty weather in Texas. Maybe it will be a big hit here!

I saw this for the fist time earlier this week at Central Market in Plano, TX. (Central Market is a chain of "fancy" grocery stores in Texas). I wasn't sure what it was all about. Is this water just for drinking? Like you carry around this instead of your Fiji or Evian or whatever? Or does it have some specific culinary use?

I went to the liquor store tonight. Different store from where I went earlier today. Why? I thought I had sweet vermouth. I did not. So, I bought a bottle of that. And a bottle of Plymouth Gin because I was also almost out of gin.

Sweet vermouth.. because I was sure I had it. But I didn't. So.... Back to the topic I started earlier!!!

absolutely. I've done it before. For someone that dines solo, it can be a great alternative to the bar.

I dunno.. I think Top Chef came out well after Food Network started to air the original Japanese version of "Iron Chef" The idea of food on television was also well established. And so what reality competition shows.

Wine and beer certainly count, especially if you are buying it with some spirits at the same time.

What did you buy in the liquor store today? Was it just restocking your standard stuff? Trying something new? Let us know. You can even use photos to show us all the pretty bottles. Here is what I bought today (3/19/2011) at Pogos Wine and Spirits in Dallas I went to this store to get Maraschino. It's the only place I know of that carries it in Dallas. I've been without it for sometime. I spied a single bottle of Luxardo (the brand I had previously) but then saw the Marasca. So, I bought that. I also spotted the Rittenhouse 100 proof. Had not seen that before in other stores, so I bought that. I was out of Campari, so I got some of that. Same with the dry vermouth. Of course, when I got home, I discovered I did NOT have sweet vermouth on hand. I thought I had some.. grrrrr......

In-n-Out's move into the Dallas area is HUGE news here. It was rumored for a long, long time. IT finally came true. Since the initial announcement long ago, the buzz has only gotten stronger as they announced locations. It grows stronger as construction has begun on some of the locations. People taking pictures of the sites and posting to Facebook and Twitter and what not. At first, all of the locations listed where kinda far from me. I don't normally get to those areas anyway, but I vowed to stay far away from those areas right when they open. I suspect there will be HUGE lines I've seen the kinds of drive thru lines the locations in So Cal can generate. And those places have been around for years! But in the most recent new stories, I learned of a location planed just a couple of miles away. It's still not in an area I traverse through regularly, but it's close enough to be somewhat dangerous.

has it surpassed Dr. Pepper in Texas?