Lisa Shock

#3 -dried long beans? (Chinese restaurants here call the long green beans 'long beans'.)

I have never seen dried cucumber, how is it used?

Is number 3 dried shaved gourd? Japan has kanpyo that looks similar but has wider strands.

I doubt that liquid LN2 would get trapped inside: it really wants to change into a gas. I would not trust a glass container unless it is certified for use with LN2 (lab equipment) -too much can go wrong. In the US, in general, the health department does not permit food preparation in glass containers. If you break one, the whole room has to be scrubbed down and mopped, plus any open containers of food (stockpots, fat in the fryolator, water in the pasta boiler, that tray of garnishes, etc.) must be discarded.

Looks like sugar to me, which I know is a weak assessment online. It happens when a solution is super-saturated with sugar. Heat it up and add a teaspoon of water and everything should be fine. When things are that low on water, growth of evil beasties is extremely unlikely. Honey can last hundreds of years because of its low moisture content.

A few years back, I purchased 15 of the MDH spice blends and put them in glass jars to help keep them fresh while I experimented. Kitchen King is definitely a good all-purpose blend. I will have to try the brand you recommend. My big favorite though was an MDH blend designed for use with kidney beans. That said, I have been mixing my own blends for a while. I went on the spending spree to see how mine compare to real ones from India. The biggest lesson I have learned is to take notes. There's nothing like making a killer masala blend then not being able to replicate it.

THIS is my favorite thread of all time. It was started by @weinoo . Prior to this, I had auditioned for the second season of Food Network Star, and met @gfron1 in person at the audition. It was the first time someone recognized me from eG, which was very cool. Anyway, during my audition, the FN people kept asking about my family and family cooking traditions and I (foolishly) told them that my mom's favorite saying is "There's a reason God made bakeries." I had always felt a bit alone, being the only person in my family who liked to cook, and often being the only person who noticed differences between brands, or recipes, or when something was reformulated. @annabelle's reply was amazing, it expressed exactly how my mom felt -being in the kitchen was a form of unrecognized indentured servitude. -And, how I always felt a bit guilty because I wanted to spend hours in there experimenting, and hours upon hours reading cookbooks from the library. It was really liberating to realize how many people were just like me, somehow winding up with a love of cooking without any support system for it at all. -We were allowed to cook because no one else wanted to step up and do it.

Depends, I guess. I only seal dry goods or things I froze first then popped into bags, so, I have never gotten anything in my drip tray. (I freeze food in rectangular containers, then pop out the frozen bricks and then vacuum seal. They stack nicely.) You might want to fashion one just in case, from a double layer of foil.

Depends on the board. I have seen recommendations to microwave boards, but, even on low, not every board would survive that.

I have tried this in the past and gave up. The spiciness always went away and I wound up with a mild bell pepper flavor. I think the only way to make it work, flavor-wise might be to make jalapeno oil first, like any other chile oil by heating peppers in oil, then use it to make the mayo when cooled. Chipotles canned in adobo always worked just fine, but, fresh and/or pickled jalapenos did not. As for color, it will never be very dark. You can get a nice pale green by adding pureed cilantro or parsley. Spinach also works and is more neutrally flavored.

@robirdstx wins the Wednesday challenge! -Although, I didn't exactly follow instructions... I made a dish that I learned from a friend's grandmother when I lived in Santa Fe, NM in the 1980s. (I think this was 1987.) She called it a tortilla, and said that it was an old spanish dish. That said, it uses a red chile sauce like you use for enchiladas, so, it can't be more than a couple hundred years old, probably much newer. Anyway, it's a series of thin omelettes stacked flat with sauce between each layer. I used my 6" Wagner cast iron pan. 3 XL eggs made 6 crepe-like layers. (this is also good cold, I set some aside for tomorrow's lunch) It topped each layer, except the last, with red chile sauce. (chiles, hot water, oregano, salt, a dab of honey, a dash of masa -all blenderized) The very top gets grated white onion. I realized after I ate that I should have used red onion for the color, oh well, next time... The side is braised celery in the spanish style with tomatoes, olives, olive oil, and garlic. I had a couple of fekkas for dessert!

I looked around and found a lot of blogs promoting peroxide, but, the FDA sites on sanitizing do not list it as an approved method. I did find this article which cites a real study which bloggers apparently ran with and made assumptions about. The takeaway here is that peroxide may sanitize depending on concentration and freshness), as may vinegar, but they often take a 30 minute soak to do so. http://cleaningbusinesstoday.com/blog/hydrogen-peroxide-vinegar-a-disinfecting-duo

I bought some jars on special two months ago, and Ace just sent me a coupon for half price wide mouth lids!

Now, through 8/22, Ace hardware has wide mouth Ball jars on sale. I myself am particularly fond of the 'pint and a half' straight-sided jar.

Feel free to make a suggestion based on a vegetable of your choice, I will be going to the market Wednesday morning and will pick up more vegetables at that time. So, for example, I don't have an eggplant now, but would get one Wednesday morning if a suggested dish seems intriguing enough.

Toss them in with the dry ingredients, and make sure they get coated. When adding the wet mixture, do it quickly with as little stirring as possible. This will prevent clumping and also help keep the color of the batter from turning grey.

I had a co-worker once who could take a cheap chef's knife, the $10 from Restaurant Depot kind, and shave the cutting boards and our plastic cutting counters. I couldn't get it quite right, I need more practice...

One's ability to taste salt is mostly related to the salinity of their saliva -which can change. The other tastes are affected by it as well: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2182682

Will do, Wednesday is a go, still open to suggestions.

Tuesday is no good, I can do Wednesday, though.

Sorry guys, last minute change of plans, I can't do anything until Monday, which is when Elaine is up. I will take a pass for right now.

I could cook tomorrow night. Here's my list: cheese: swiss, Dubliner, mozzerella, parmesan 1pt cream white onions fresh NM green chiles russet potatoes celery cabbage, regular green type firm tofu 18 eggs 8 limes chives 4 cans coconut milk pretty well stocked vegetarian dry pantry including Chinese and Japanese items like noodles, wood ear, dry mushrooms, etc. breadmaking flours, pastry stuff (butter, chocolates, syrups, sugars), semolina flour a variety of dry beans and rices some canned veg: tomatoes, olives, mini corn, bamboo shoots lots of condiments I also plan on going out to Sprouts and Winco tomorrow, so, I could pick up missing items. I definitely need more vegetables, like broccoli. I like cooking Indian food as well as Japanese and Chinese. I like other South Asian cuisines, just haven't made much beyond a vegan pho and some pad thai. I used to live in New Mexico and often cook in Northern style. Don't know much about central/south america. I am pretty familiar with much of Europe, except for the East and Germany -I'd like to know more about them, at least with vegetarian dishes.

Quats are supposed to degrade and dissipate, but, due to their chemical structure and other things in waste water like surfactants and variable oxygen levels, many times they don't break down. This is especially true in small streams and muddy areas where they have been found in high enough concentrations to be toxic to wildlife. They also interfere with fertility and gestation in rats, no one has done a human study, yet. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17302311 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969715002727 http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2014/aug/quats-disinfectants

quaternary ammonia. don't forget to buy test strips for it as well.

Restaurants here are required to use bleach or quaternary ammonia. The ammonia is more expensive, not as eco-friendly, difficult to find (the restaurant supply store does have it, the supermarket doesn't), you need to use test strips to make sure you have the concentration right, and it looses it's effectiveness within about 20 minutes. Bleach, plus regular re-surfacing of the boards, is what most restaurants do. If the bleach is affecting your hands, get some rubber gloves. Also, make sure to air-dry the board, and make sure it is very dry before use.