[Dinner 2020]

Favorite Chinese restaurant for pick up dinner for Jessica and me.  This is the place where the owner announces that the "Pupu Ladies" are here when we walk in (he's known us since 36 year old Jessica was 10).  We had the Pupu platter:

😊  And shared Shrimp fried rice and Orange Beef:

 

Mr. Kim went down the block for Thai.  Thai spicy Red Curry with chicken and rice:

It was so overfull that it sloshed all over the place trying to get it open.  I nicknamed it the Hot Mess. 

[KFC 2012–]

1 hour ago, Toliver said:

"KFC Is Releasing A New Sauce Called ‘KFC Sauce’ And Revamping Its Other Sauces Like Ranch"

Truth be told I haven't been to a KFC in a couple of years. Six KFC's here in town shut down all at once about 2 years ago (guess the franchisee/owner left the business). Fortunately many of them became Popeye's so I was a happy camper with the change, so to speak.

And of course the new KFC sauce has a sweet note to it...what isn't made with added sugar these days?

If anyone tries the new sauce, please report back on how it tastes.

A KFC has been the closest (by a lot) fast food place to us since we moved into our current house (about 25 years ago) and I have never been there.  We have nearby Bojangles (biscuits and dirty rice), Popeye's (chicken and sandwiches), plus various grocery stores (surprisingly good chicken).  It is about 1.5 miles away.  The only time I've been to a KFC in the past 20 years is the ones that are joint KFC and Long John Silver's, which supplies my occasional greasy fish and chips craving.  Having said all that, before Covid we would have potlucks at our church, which is another mile and a half past the KFC.  People who forgot to bring something to the potluck would dash out and get a bucket.  Those chickens were the only KFC I've tasted in probably 30 years (since grocery store chicken started being so good).  And it is still so bland and dry and soggy at the same time (how do you manage that?).  I might go to KFC and get potatoes and gravy and some slaw and ask for a packet of KFC sauce for my Popeye's sandwich, though.  😁

[What Are You Cooking Sous Vide Today? (Part 3)]

@kayb - I'm not sure about that.  I know to save the juices after cooking, but not sure about before.  I think I've tended to dump those, too.  I'd like to hear the answers, too.

 

Now I have another question.  I'd like to give this recipe a try.  It says "Place each yolk in its own small zipper lock bag. Carefully seal the bag, being careful not to break the yolk. Place the bags in the water bath and clip to the sides of the pot."  How do I clip a small baggie to the sides of a pot that is big enough to hold the Anova without wasting a HUGE amount of water making the level high enough for those tiny little bags clipped to the edge?  Am I being dense?

[Lunch 2020]

20 minutes ago, robirdstx said:

Credit for the egg rolls goes to @Shelby for sharing the recipe and method she uses.

 

Thank you to you and to @Shelby, then!  

[Lunch 2020]

1 hour ago, robirdstx said:

 

Homemade Pork Egg Rolls with Mae Ploy Sweet Chilli Sauce

I would LOVE to have your recipe for those.  It's been years since I've tried to make egg rolls and I remember that my problem was getting them full enough or tightly wrapped enough.  But I wasn't a terribly experienced cook in those days.  

[Hello from a newbie]

Hi, Roy!  Welcome to eGullet.  I think you'll find what you're looking for here!  

[McDonald's 2013–]

33 minutes ago, Toliver said:

"McDonald's adds new bakery items for the first time in almost a decade"

Please take one for the team and report back when you get the chance.

 

 

I doubt they can be any worse than the plastic wrapped ones Wawa is selling now.  ☹️

[Confessions of a Novelty Ice Cream Fiend]

I understand, but will miss the old brands.  They are like childhood friends when you're a little fatty.  😁

[Snacking while eGulleting... (Part 3)]

4 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

Looks lovely, Kim. Just add a couple of tablespoons cocoa to regular banana bread?

She was kind enough to send along the recipe.

[Lunch 2020]

Big breakfast, small lunch:

[Breakfast 2020!]

@blue_dolphin – I know!  They were enormous.  But the texture was spot on despite that. 

 

Enjoying the love for the Kouign Amann!  We had a member with that name for years and I had no idea it was a pastry for a very long time.  My first taste of one was in Paris! 

 

This morning:

[Dinner 2020]

 

@Captain – Mr. Kim was in Cologne, Germany for work many years ago.  They had Schweinshaxe for dinner one night.  He’s dreamed of it ever since.  Now I see why.  I would be happy peeling off all of that crackling and selfishly running away.

 

@robirdstx – I really want to try that SV method for fried chicken.  I feel like I’d make it more often if I did it that way.  Could I SV it one day, refrigerate, and fry it the next?

 (I have no idea why the words above are in bold and the ones below are not - or why the spacing is so different.)

Last night I SV’d some really cheap steaks I found at Kroger a couple of weeks ago.  Cooked at 120F for 4 hours (they were frozen) and then seared:

Seared in an old cast aluminum pan – I get as good a sear in it as in cast iron, but it is SO much easier to clean and lift.  We each got our favorites – I got the ribeye and Mr. Kim got the strip.  Served with salad, broccoli, and baked potato:

 

 

 

The strip was thicker than the ribeye, so it was fine, but the ribeye was slightly overdone from the sear:

 

[Twelve years with eGullet]

I followed Steven and Jason over to eG from Chowhound.  I’m not sure how I figured out where they were going because it seemed like things were kept kind of hush hush (I think Leff resented eG).  Honestly, I think the reason I came here was that I found eG more interesting than CH.  I lurked for a long time and finally joined on July 30, 2005 – almost exactly 15 years ago. 

 

I’ve had so much help over the years with questions and advice about the kitchen, food prep/serving, etc.  Our trip to England and Paris in 2011 would have less delicious and fun and interesting without the flood of advice I got here.  The blogs and the breakfast, lunch, and dinner threads were and are my most visited.  I wish the blogs were active again (I know that I could be a part of that revival, but I lack focus these days), but I still go back and read. 

 

I’ve met a few folks including @robirdstx, @Zeemanb, @meredith h., @caroled, and the incomparable storyteller @racheld.  When we met, we talked about food, of course, but also about so much more.  There are so many more that I’d love to meet – folks that I’d love to sit across a kitchen table from.  Some who have lives so different from mine and some who have similar lives.  Some I’d like to have at my elbow teaching me how to properly make bread or pasta.  There are so many folks that I miss – the ones that have just drifted away and the ones gone for good. 

 

Mr. Kim would say that the strongest impact eG has had was to our finances😄!  I might have ended up with an IP without eG, but I never would have gotten the CSO and Anova without the influence of egulleteers.  And I certainly wouldn’t have a spare CSO in the attic. 

 

Someone else mentioned the armchair traveling eG has enabled. I get very excited when I see that someone outside of the US has joined us.  I immediately want them to tell us all about their food and homes, with photos! 

 

Mark Twain famously said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…” and I have found eG to be the same.  I can “experience” a fabulous, exotic feast in China or Europe, thanks to our members in one topic and in a minute be enjoying a post about ordinary, everyday, but delicious food from the US. 

[Favorite Cookie That's Not Homemade?]

13 hours ago, heidih said:

A friend gives these out at work. Thin, crisp, very gingery, perfection with a cup of tea or coffee. They stay surprisingly crisp even after tin is opened. For months. She gets them at Cost Plus World Market.  https://www.vermontcountrystore.com/nyakers-gingersnap-gift-tin/product/68063?

The are incredible.  We find them at World Market at Christmas time.  

[Waffles!]

3 hours ago, curls said:

A friend of mine who knows that I like báhn xèo told me that his family tried a new recipe this weekend and made báhn xèo waffles. I’m planning to make these soon. Anyone else want to try them? Link to recipe/video https://youtu.be/Gs6skNyIABE

 

 

I've bookmarked this video -  báhn xèo is a favorite of ours.  I also bookmarked the website that the video references.  Lots of good looking stuff. 

[Packaged gravy mixes. What are your experiences?]

I have a question for long-time Bisto users.  My mother swore that she could tell the difference between the granules and the old powdered kind and she much preferred the powdered.  We used to find it in a store in a town an hour or so away that we attended college football games in and we'd buy her a couple of boxes every so often.  I could never tell the difference between the two and like how the granules dissolve so easily - plus they are easy to get.  Do any of you long-time users notice a difference?  Just curious.  

[Breakfast 2020!]

Jessica treated me to breakfast from a favorite bakery downtown yesterday: 

 

Croissant:

I brought this one home and heated it in the CSO and slathered it with butter.

 

Kouign Amann:

 

 

Apple tart:

 

And two macaron:

Strawberry coconut and French Toast.  They were insanely large:

[Absurdly, stupidly basic cooking questions (Part 2)]

14 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Can I chop the vegetables for a mirepost and freeze them without blanching them first?

Yes.  But your celery will be really soft.  If you cook until it basically dissolves anyway, it's fine.  

[Packaged gravy mixes. What are your experiences?]

16 hours ago, kayb said:

 

I had managed to grow up in the South without knowing there was chocolate gravy. It's a big thing in Arkansas. And damn, it's good.

 

Glad I'm not the only one.  I thought it must be from growing up in NOVA (considered "false South" by some  😁), but you are from the Deep South.  

 

Between Amazon and the Bisto Fairy, I received a surprise package of Three Different Bistos: regular, chicken, and onion ❤️❤️❤️.    I've had a BBC recipe for Sage & Onion Yorkies for some time and think the onion version will be really good with that!

[Favorite Cookie That's Not Homemade?]

On 10/4/2020 at 1:15 AM, dtremit said:

I've never had an Almondina but they're reminding me of a few old favorites I haven't had in a while.

 

One are those almond windmill cookies -- I think the ones we had when I was a kid were generally Archway, but lately I've gotten the Voortman version. Kind of dull on their own but really nice dunked in a mug of hot tea.

 

The same company also makes a shortbread cookie with almond icing called Almonette — sort of a guilty / nostalgic pleasure. It definitely tastes more like almond extract than real almond, but I find it weirdly comforting — I think because it reminds me of almond flavored Spritz cookies.

I don't know where you are, but if you are near a Lidl you should check around the holidays for their Windmill cookies.  They are loaded with almonds (oddly, on the back of the cookies) and have a pronounced speculoos flavor.  

[Dinner 2020]

@shain – would you possibly share the recipe for those cornmeal sour cream biscuits?  They look delectable. 

 

@Shelby – sorry about that bun fail – at least it wasn’t YOUR fail.  And if I am killing you with the gyros, you are retaliating with fried chicken!  It looks so good and I could eat it twice a week and be happy.

 

Dinner Thursday night was frozen Chicken Kiev and rice:

This is a frozen Kiev that we like a lot.  The chicken is raw when you put it in the oven, so the texture is good.  Chicken Kiev used to be my go-to company meal, but I haven’t made it in years.  Chicken Kiev, egg noodles (rice was too temperamental), broccoli and strawberry Napoleons for dessert.  That might be a fun topic – “What was something you used to make often that you never make anymore – and Why?”  It was served with gazpacho and sourdough (no picture).  

 

Last night I made @weinoo’s (eG) Spaghetti with Clams, shared with Jessica.  My meez:

 

Sautéing shaved garlic, parsley, crushed red pepper in olive oil:

 

Finished dish:

This was absolutely excellent.  Jessica, who had never had it before loved it.  I grew up on linguini with clam sauce made with straight Progresso white clam sauce.  That’s what my friends’ moms made, too.  I always liked it just fine, but this is a whole other thing.  Since it calls for really concentrating the sauce and finishing the pasta in it, the flavor is so much more intense than any I’ve had before except in restaurants. 

 

Salads:

 

Sourdough and extra virgin olive oil:

Thanks so much, @weinoo!

 

[Irish court rules Subway bread is not bread]

Mr. Kim brought me lunch yesterday:

 

 

#13 with lettuce, pickles (no good tomatoes in October), mayo, mustard, and “all the shakies” (oil, vinegar, oregano, salt, pepper). 😁

[Gotten any fun stuff lately?]

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

with butter AND their house-made liptauer.

Liptauer is the perfect accompaniment for pretzels!   

[Gotten any fun stuff lately?]

45 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Thank you but the ingredient list is missing.

Ingredients: liquid whole eggs, sugar, water, mustard flour, vinegar, < 2% cornstarch and turmeric.  

 

It is definitely not terribly sweet.  It's actually very eggy.  It would be great in potato salad.

[Breakfast 2020!]

 

Almost the last of @Shelby’s bread, Jones sausage, and scrambled eggs with catsup.