HungryC

I'm curious as to how you arrived at the "tomato rule".....finfish and shrimp are caught year-round. Even blue crab is a year-round fishery along most of the Gulf Coast. Some seasonality does applies to managed species like snapper, stripers, snook, etc, but many other commonly eaten species have no closed seasons at all. I'm thinking of sheepshead, black drum, squid, hake, catfish, swordfish (well, it's only closed 1 month a year), and a whole slew of other species. In other words, fishermen are fishing year-round. They need a market for their catch year round.

I can't speak to commercially frozen fish, but I can assure you that line-caught fish frozen in a home freezer are excellent. Most of the fish I eat is frozen, caught by me or recreational fishing friends & relations. It is not flash frozen; it is usually at least a few hours dead by the time it is cleaned. While frozen fish isn't as sublime as perfectly fresh fish, it's way better than the defrosted & sold as fresh stuff. Gratiutous fish pic follows...from a trip where we were catching two at a time on every cast, both fresh & saltwater species side by side. After suffering from BP's little mess all summer, I'm appreciating such fishing trips more than ever.

King Arthur Flour's type 55 clone is also very nice, esp for baguettes.

Great, now I've got that Wiz Khalifa song stuck in my head! (black & yellow, I mean) How about devilled eggs sprinkled w/black sesame seeds? Easy & good. Bake some chocolate cookies (use the extra-dark dutched cocoa powder like this for nearly black cookies) and make a yellow-tinted frosting or buttercream. Black bean dip w/yellow cheese scattered on top. Or how about the black tortilla chips (like these from Plocky's) with a bright-yellow cheese dip?

Flatbreads are stuffed w/mixture of minced onion, butter, cumin, hot paprika, red pepper flakes, and chopped parsley. A flour/water/yeast dough is kneaded, rested, then stretched thinly, spread w/the filling, and folded & restretched a few times. The onions stayed a bit crisp, but the folding/stretching made nice layers.

Today's cook, on my Mini Egg...moroccan stuffed flatbread (r'ghayef) from Anissa Helou's "Mediterranean Street Food", plus a couple of hanger steaks and some tenderloin tip kebabs dusted with Penzey's turkish seasoning. ETA: I used the MiniWoo ring to raise the cooking grid, and an 8" baking stone, as seen in the flatbread picture. While the smaller cooking surface means you can only cook one bread (or pizza) at a time, I really like the results when using the Mini to cook flatbreads.

Ensure is awful--just the smell is enough to put me off drinking! --Nonfat yogurt, thinned with your favorite fruit juice. --Congee --rice pudding, liquified --Miso soup (instant or homemade) or clear dashi broth --very thin oatmeal porridge, flavored w/maple syrup (pureed if necessary)

Oh, yes indeedy, my mama still has a ToastTite, with a blue wooden handle. I'll have to call her & make sure she didn't stick it in the Goodwill bin already! I liked pimento cheese filling, or sharp cheddar spread w/whole-grain mustard & sliced dill pickles. Or a thin slice of hogshead cheese tucked between white bread--the headcheese goes all melty.

Give me pattern, and color; for most meals at home, no one is scrutinizing presentation or composition on the plate (thank goodness). Let the restaurants do all-white; they can afford to use a huge variety of shapes to keep it interesting. No black, thanks; somehow it is unappetizing. My favorite japanese place has a lovely collection of seasonal ceramics, with colors & motifs chosen to complement the food & time of year. None of their ware is white, and the food always looks glorious.

Maybe you could buy her a small slow cooker (should cost around $20). Small roasts (pork or beef) in a slow cooker will turn out fall-apart fork-tender, easily chewed and swallowed. You could prepare the dish while you're at her place, turn on the cooker, and she'll have another hot meal later in the day or for the next day's lunch. If she's still interested/able to clean up in the kitchen, you can use the plastic slow-cooker liners which make cleanup a snap. I'm a fan of Joe Simmer's slow cooker recipes--stuff with real flavor & seasonings, rather than short-cut heavy 70s home ec style slow cooking. Think creole red beans & rice, ratatouille, chicken mole, etc.

Kudos to you for helping her out. Have you considered poaching some of the chicken? Poached chicken is versatile, tender, and succulent. Whether you do the whole bird and pull it off the bone or poach boneless/skinless cuts, you can use the cooked chicken in so many ways. It can be shredded or finely chopped to accomodate her difficulties.

Grissini, tiny broiled meatballs, chunks of roasted turkey, whole grape or small cherry tomatoes, pickled peppadews or jalapenos....or bacon: cook thick-cut half-strips, threaded onto skewers. Mmm...cheddar & bacon.

Maybe it's the shape of your dough hook? Can't say I've experienced any serious problems with my hook, but it's the newer-style "pigtail" corkscrew shaped hook. I bake 1-lb loaves in my 6 quart Pro all the time; it handles small batches just as well as large ones. I usually knead from speed 1-4, but it's worked a batch of pizza bianca (ultra wet) at higher speeds for quite a long time (15-20 minutes).

Shout-out to Penzey's, the spice company...though I don't like the folksy catalog w/its mostly boring recipes, the spices are fresh, promptly delivered, and every package includes lagniappe (meaning something extra)....sometimes a little, sometimes plenty.

This made me think of turkey necks--perhaps this favorite food of the South's poor will become next year's pork cheeks? Damn, smoked turkey necks make for a mighty fine gumbo. Don't tell anyone, or the price will go up like it did for beef skirt & flank.

Squishy supermarket white bread has lots of sugar in it; simply switching to a non-sugared loaf will yield a savings in calories. Ditto with breads like challah (eggs) and focaccia (oil). But, lean breads have a sturdy, baguette-like texture. So look for (white slicing loaf) recipes using nonfat dry milk (aka DMS or baker's milk) without any added oil/butter or eggs. And slice it thinly, of course.

Pumpkin ravioli are pretty tasty, esp when dressed simply w/butter & fresh nutmeg. Look for Italian recipes--pumpkins are popular all over Italy; you can buy as big a hunk you want, cut off a larger squash, at many markets there.

Chipotles in adobo sauce (various brands), and LeSeur tiny green peas. I know, canned peas: but I grew up on those baby green peas in the can with the silver label.

(I know you're in NYC so my method won't help you.) No brining needed (I don't like the taste or texture of brined turkey, that's why I bother to seek out higher-quality fresh natural turkeys, as the cheaper stuff is already treated with a solution). Smoke-roasting turkey breast in a Big Green Egg is the best way I know to cook turkey breast. Put your favorite dry rub or paste (my standard is herbes de provence, lemon zest, garlic, salt, & black pepper) above & below the skin of a bone-in HALF breast and cook it in a BGE on a raised grid at 350 degrees, using a few fruitwood chips in the first 30 minutes (I like apple best for turkey). It's done when it hits 175 (or slightly lower, if you'd like). Let it rest a good while before slicing. A 5 lb half breast takes about 90 minutes, unattended. I've never tried it in the oven, but I'd put it on a roasting rack and tent it with foil for the first hour, removing the foil for the last 30 mins. No smoke, but it should be perfectly juicy. Doing split breasts rather than whole ones decreases the cooking time a bit, reducing the chance of overcooking. I used to buy the deboned fresh breasts, but then I figured out that carving the split breasts was very easy & the bone-in had better flavor.

For 2010-2011, J&W's tuition & fees is $24K...I think it's pure economics. No one paying $80 grand for an education is looking for a line cook's job or the typical kitchen position w/o benefits. The realities of back-of-the-house hospitality jobs have little to do with private cooking school tuition rates. Heck, all of my undergraduate & graduate education cost way less than $80K, and I wouldn't have worked for kitchen wages right out of school.

Standard-issue coffee service induction boiler multi-pot setup...we brew Community Coffee, three different kinds: coffee & chicory (aka "New Orleans Blend"), a medium roast, and a medium-roast decaf. Sometimes a fourth kind, "Cafe Special", just for the boss. I drink the coffee & chicory with plenty of sugar & half-n-half. For 3 pm coffee break purposes, we stroll over to a gelateria a few hundred yards away that uses locally roasted, custom blended beans and local milk.

You know, some places consistently attract diners despite mediocre food. Think of the countless waterfront restaurants on our coasts loaded with people who just want to sit and watch the sun go down, or the sailboats go by. Those diners don't care much about the food--if it's passable, they're happy. Or restaurants very close to major sports & events venues; for some, convenience makes a lower food standard acceptable when dining isn't the main focus of the evening. So those scenic or location-driven places will make money regardless of food quality or value...they don't "need" to offer better food (from a business standpoint). I'm also thinking of some of the foods served at high school sports concession stands in south Louisiana: good jambalaya with local smoked sausage, shrimp & corn soup, homemade chili, pralines, etc. Tasty scratch cooking--perhaps the epitome of "much better than it needs to be". I mean, we're there to support the players, not to dine: bagged chips and peanut M&Ms would be fine. The food is way better than the typically acceptable standard for the venue and price. Dunno how you've seen the phrase used/misused...perhaps some links to particular reviews would be helpful.

Sorry no photos, but I kicked off the new year with t-bones cooked on the Mini, rubbed with Dizzy Pig's "Cow lick" blend.

Uncle Bud's are tasty at first bite, but if the peanuts are anything but super-fresh, it's like eating a peanut surrounded by greasy cardboard. So open the bag & scarf 'em down, 'cause they're awful two days later.

How To Cook Everything is available as an app, if you're so inclined. So is Michael Ruhlman's Ratio, another good source of info for a novice cook. Beans & rice are your friend....beans freeze beautifully, and they're easy to cook. Just put them on when you have hours of homework, and they'll do just fine with little attention. Portion out into 2-cup freezer containers, and you've got a month of suppers ready to go. Cook a pot of black beans, and you'll be ready to turn them into soup, burritos/soft tacos, bean dip, refried beans, etc. And don't overlook the egg as a tasty, inexpensive, versatile source of protein. Find the local food co-op or natural foods store: these places often sell from bulk bins, allowing you to buy small quantities so you will waste less if cooking for one. On the other hand, large, discount-store bags of rice will keep forever, if stored in an airtight container.