HungryC

For rural and peri-urban shoppers in the Deep South, Wal Mart grocery shopping is a fact of life. In so many cases, those stores didn't kill any mom & pop stores--they appeared in response to population shifts in the SunBelt and in brand-new bedroom exurbs. It's less than a mile to WallyWorld from my house; three miles to Winn Dixie (terrible produce), four to a local independent (also with terrible produce), and 18 miles to the nearest Whole Foods. I often joke with a friend who lives on a farm in rural southwestern Louisiana--she's exactly 45 minutes in opposite directions from two different WalMarts, which might be the 21st century definition of the middle of nowhere. Sure I buy produce at WalMart--my store carries thin haricots verts (albeit in a cellophane bag), bok choy, Napa cabbage, multiple kinds of lettuce, mangoes, mung bean sprouts, locally grown strawberries & citrus in season, sugar snap & snow peas, fresh ginger, whole pineapples, and other items not stocked at my local independent or at the "Dixie". Just tonight, I grilled two pizzas, topped with (homegrown) tomatoes & basil, (WalMart) Belgioso fresh mozzarella, (WalMart) Polly-O ricotta, and a little bit of (WalMart) Locatelli pecorino romano cheese. Prior to WalMart opening around 9 years ago, I can assure you that no source for fresh mozarella or Locatelli existed in my town of ~5,000. On the other hand, I DO NOT buy Wal Mart's meat, under any circumstances. No thanks; I'll eat beans for supper every night before I buy the "solution-enhanced" factory farmed blech sold in those foam trays. But hey, I live within shouting distance of a Monsanto plant that cranks out RoundUp by the trainload, so maybe y'all would consider me an irredeemable soul anyway, even if I didn't shop at WalMart.

SIX crawfish? Somebody bothered to freeze SIX lousy crawfish? This is the funniest thing I've heard all day. Peel, saute in butter & onions, and add a few eggs to make yourself the tiniest crawfish omelet ever eaten. Went with my brother to check his crawfish traps on Saturday--we didn't bother opening the traps b/c each one only contained six or eight crawfish.

RE: indirect w/o a "plate setter": all you need is something with a good bit of thermal mass to act as a shield between the coals and your cooking surface. A 18" baking stone (round pizza stone) would work just fine. You can put it atop your grill, then use a couple of firebricks (or split firebricks), copper pipe rounds set on end, or any other heatproof material atop it, and put another grill grate on top. (Or pony up for a raised grid system like those sold through ceramicgrillstore.com ) Your repurposed cast iron smoker box probably blocked too much airflow, thus choking off the fire. Or if you don't have a baking stone, then try a layer of firebricks atop the grill/grate surface. Get creative; the materials simply need to be heatproof and foodsafe, and allow for good airflow around the sides.

Dunno about prices in NYC, but WF is definitely more expensive on many identical products here in the New Orleans market. Individual Fage 0% yogurt w/fruit on the side is $1.99/ea at WF; my local Winn Dixie carries the same thing for $1.79, and WalMart sells it for $1.49/ea. A similar pricing spread exists for Chobani. A can of Amy's Chili is $2.49 at Whole Foods; it sells for at least 30 cents less at Rouses, a local grocery chain--ditto for the plastic clamshells of Organic Girl lettuces. That's just three off the top of my head, familiar because I routinely purchase said items at various stores in my area. Oh, and King Arthur Flour: 75 cents to a dollar more for 5-lb bags. WF does have a few loss-leader items in this market, namely Clif bars & other food-replacement bars (and a huge selection of them, too). WF's seafood case is so horribly, ridiculously overpriced for this region that I avoid walking next to it on principle. $9.99/lb for "local, wild-caught" Gulf shrimp when I can get them three steps closer to the fisherman for $5/lb less? Pluh-leese.

My favorite use for ricotta: spread on my morning toast, drizzled w/honey. (especially if I have the quality of ricotta you probably have)

Another thing about a ceramic cooker (at least a BGE ceramic cooker, size large)--fill the firebox all the way up and use the vents to adjust the temp. You should be able to cook for hours and hours and hours without a refill. Mine will run 12+ hours at 250 on a full load of lump. Higher temps burn through charcoal at a faster rate, of course, but if you start with plenty of charcoal, you won't need to add any mid-cook.

I'm a fan of MagnaLite. It's ugly, workhorse aluminum cookware, but I have a few pieces that have been going strong since college. Not pretty, but sturdy, thick-walled, and affordable.

Torakis, you need the Ceramic BBQ sub-forum at the BBQ Forum site. It covers all sorts of ceramic cookers. The Big Green Egg forum might also be helpful, though participants are cooking specifically on BGEs. With regard to temperature control, it's much easier to increase the temp of a ceramic cooker than to decrease it. So do your low temp cooks first. Last night, I did a hunk of sirloin flap steak (briefly marinated in soy, pineapple, & garlic), on my Mini BGE along with some peppers & onions for soft tacos. Also grilled pineapple to use in a salsa seen on the tacos pictured below. (ETA photos}

Restaurant Depot carries dozens of different counter stools, including the classic tubular chrome topped by a rotating vinyl seat (quite inexpensive, too: http://www.therdstore.com/page/IFSES/CTGY/BSMETAL). If price didn't matter, I'd buy these: http://www.thosmoser.com/category/stools/product/218/high_stool/

This method works great for regularly sliced bacon but I find it makes shoe leather out of the thicker stuff. No way! This is a huge waste - no drippings for use in various applications, such as cornbread and flavoring green beans &etc. I will stick to my old fashioned method which gives me both the bacon and the drippings. Microwave bacon produces perfectly nice drippings. I've used microwaved bacon drippings for years--always have a container of it in my fridge. No different than skillet-collected drippings, frankly. I have a microwave bacon tray that's angled with a trough at one end, which makes it so easy to pour off the collected fat.

Knock on wood, I haven't experienced a phenolic knob failure. I use the hell out of my LC--it goes on the grill, bakes no-knead bread, and I use it on the stovetop all the time. That said, if the knob cracks, you can write to them and they'll send another one: 1.877.CREUSET (273.8738) x6

I'm clear on how to measure the eggs; I was wondering more about their properties. Do the whites & yolks behave in an identical fashion as chicken eggs?

Gentlemen, I submit to you the bestest-bacon-ever: grilled bacon. Start with thick-cut, substantial bacon (like Benton's or Nueske's or from your favorite local smokehouse) and grill it over hardwood lump charcoal. See here...finished bacon piled atop cornbread, and bacon cooking in a Big Green Egg atop a raised grid. RE: oven-cooked pan bacon; a method as old as food-service kitchens, I'd imagine. Pretty much standard bacon cooking practice in hotels, cafeterias, etc. It's still the best way to cook bacon for a crowd, especially if you sprinkle the bacon with brown sugar & chopped pecans.

When I moved into my present (old, raised, wooden) house, it had no kitchen exhaust...so I promptly bought a downdraft Amana stove and cut a hole in the floor & ran the duct out to the edge of the house. Boy, is it useless. It does remove a minimal amount of air from the kitchen, but it also draws every burner's flame sideways. Mostly, it removes heat. So I generally use it only when I'm done cooking. Opening the front & side doors works way better than this dinky exhaust fan.

Does anyone have experience using goose eggs in baking or pastry? Yesterday, a friend gave me two newly-laid African goose eggs. I'm thinking of making a lemon icebox pie, and I'm wondering if the these eggs will behave like chicken eggs. TIA.

I use tasso (sometimes even turkey tasso) in my beans, or hot smoked sausage, seasoned with plenty of thyme, bay leaf, a little celery, and onions. If the beans aren't creamy enough, toss in a knob of butter just before serving.

OMG, me too. Why can't the cubes be tapering trapezoids? Those curved cubes stick to the sides of the glass. I hate my icemaker b/c about 2/3 of the cubes are currently coming out hollow. This means I have to clean it out/adjust the inflow. What a pain.

In my area, four different dealers within a 50-mi radius carry the Egg, and their prices differ by as much as $250. I saved quite a bit of cash & got delivery by shopping around. Not all dealers are created equal.

About two years ago, I paid around $800 for my large, which included a plate setter, baking stone, bag of hardwood lump, grill grabber, box of fire starters, and assembly/delivery to my house. Do a search at theEgghead Forumand I'm sure you'll find the MSRP price list posted somewhere on that message board.

Did a lil' baby brisket (flat cut) today, just about 3 lbs. Indirect cook w/applewood smoke for 3 hours @ 250, then foiled it & added a half bottle Mexican coke, cooked another 2.5 hrs @275. Delicious way to cook a pretty small, lean cut.

Sage is funny--it grows okay in cooler, drier weather, but as soon as it gets too much water, poof, it's gone. Even in a raised bed or a pot--it just *does not like* wet feet. This year, I let my parsley crop (planted in the fall to use all winter long) go to seed, and it's now 5' tall with great big seedheads. I'll try planting a bit of the seed for an early summer patch, but it usually bolts before 5 leaves appear. My zucchini are hitting their stride; a few fruits and plenty of flowers. Looking forward to stuffed blossoms this weekend.

The "Joe Simmer" series of slow-cooker booksare full of tasty recipes; the Creole Slow Cookin' book is probably the best of the series. Simmer's recipes aren't plagued by the blandness of so many "quick-n-easy" slow cooker books. The chicken mole recipe from the website is pretty good.

I think the defrosting is the culprit...why not bake it straight from the freezer?

I had the same thoughts about inaccuracies: a burger with a no-sugar-added sourdough bun vs. a brioche bun, a bowl of whole-milk yogurt & fruit vs. fat free yogurt (ditto for ice cream), deep-fat french fries vs baked, and so on.

Hmm, the cafeteria needs a minimum level of participation in order to be economically viable. If half the school opts out, the whole endeavor may become unworkable. I can't see how making all kids buy a school lunch is horrifically authoritarian...if you can't afford a school lunch in the US, you'll get a free or reduced-price lunch. Kids sit together, everyone eating the same thing: if you don't like it, you trade parts of it away for the stuff you do like. You don't like nuggets? Fine, then eat the banana. You want two desserts? Hey, if you do my math homework, the dessert is yours. Don't want the milk? Then don't drink it, or learn to dump it into the pudding to make the whole mess more palatable. If the cafeteria food truly borders on the inedible, then get involved in improving it. That's what PTOs are for, isn't it? What's controlling and authoritarian, to me, is a set of parents who can't stand the idea that SOMEONE ELSE might violate their precisely structured nutritional/food rules. Get over it, people: as soon as your kid is old enough to leave the house with more than 50 cents in pocket money, he's gonna eat whatever he damn well pleases, regardless of your nutritional counsel and/or food rules. If inferior school food once a day is a threat to your parenting and/or ability to impart values to your children, you'd better get a Canadian prescription for Valium to take you through the teen years.