HungryC

I can't get enought of the dark chocolate/sea salt almonds, or the puffed potato crisps....especially the potato crisps. Sadly, no TJs anywhere near me, so I'm without the potato crisps, and I can't find another version of this not-fried, not-baked potato crunchy.

No allergy stories, just a suggestion to check out asian cuisines. Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese: all are flavor packed, with minimal use of dairy and eggs. Maybe you could buy her a first-rate wok and a couple of cookbooks as a "cheer up" gift, or take her on a shopping spree at a local asian supermarket? Either would workd as a reminder that a world of delicious, dairy- and egg-free food exists for her to discover. I'm not a fan of imitation, replacement products (soy cheese is downright disgusting), but I am a fan of cooking, rather than relying on processed, packaged, "replacement" foods.

Does he like chips-n-dip? A nice simple salsa, enhanced nutritionally by corn & black beans, is tasty straight out of the fridge (skip the raw onions). Serve with whatever crispy-crunchy chip you deem nutritionally appropriate (or bake wholewheat tortilla triangles brushed with a little oil, to work in some whole grains). It's essentially a cold bean salad, but what kid ever got excited about bean salad? Having a chip delivery device makes it fun. This same approach can be applied to a homemade spinach dip, onion dip, etc. Salad-filled wraps are pretty good cold, and they hold up overnight in the fridge, wrapped well in waxed paper or plastic.

Haven't tried it in a hot beverage, but I did try the (newish) Odwalla juices sweetened with stevia. Verdict: quite bitter and slightly metallic, to me. I'd imagine that the bitterness would be overwhelming if you added it to (already kinda bitter) coffee.

I, too, am mystified by this. I've never had a roux "stop" browning, or refuse to brown, especially if using high heat. I don't think it has anything to do with using chicken drippings or frying the chicken first....browning skin-on chix in oil (or browning sliced smoked sausage or tasso or andouille in oil) prior to making the roux is SOP for many cooks, and I can't say I've ever encountered anyone who talked about a browning problem.

Dunno anything about induction, but I know from personal experience that 15 gals of 75-degree water will take at least 45 minutes to full boil (in an alumnium pot) on a jet-type, outdoor propane burner, using a 3/8" thick round of sheet steel as a heat deflector. (I've cooked gumbo in 60-quart pots, outside over propane, for years and years at a festival.) Propane burners come in a variety of configurations; a low-pressure jet won't do the trick. You need a high-pressure jet or a banjo burner.

← Sorry, but there's nothing "new paradigm" about Cochon. It's traditional cajun/south LA cooking, albeit in a location & with presentations that aren't traditional. 90% of his food could come out of a grandmother's kitchen anywhere in Acadiana (this is highest praise, mind you). Boudin, cracklins, headcheese, roasted fish, roasted oysters, yeast rolls a la facon du LA Public School cafeterias, cornbread, ....what's new to some is perfectly familiar to others.

Veering slightly off topic into pizza bianca: I've never had the pleasure of eating Lahey's p.b., so I don't know how his compares to the roman stuff I hold as the gold standard (a sublime balance of crust & slightly bready interior, but still thin enough to be a flatbread). The non-kneaded, long-rise p.b. was too pizza-like and not sufficiently breadlike; it was all crust and no inside. Damn, now I'm craving pizza rosso from the Antico Forno on the pza Costaguti.

It depends on what you mean by "relatively short" rising times. Roman-style pizza bianca, a really wet, slack dough, requires long (15-20 minutes) machine/mixer kneading, as well as a 4-6 hour rise. I've tried to do an overnight rise without kneading, but the resulting texture is all wrong for pizza bianca.

As it so happens, I made Lahey's no-knead crust this weekend. It's wet, but not impossibly so. Still, I wouldn't bother with constructing the pizza on the screamin' hot stone--if you find the dough to wet to transfer by peel, just make the pizza on a piece of parchment. The crust will set very quickly on the preheated stone, and you can slide the parchment out to get all the benefits of the hot, moisture-absorbing stone. If I tried to top the pizza on the stone, I'd probably burn myself!

Toad (or frog) in the hole (south Louisiana).

I just downloaded Kitchen Calculator Pro--seems like a great app! I found "Around Me" very useful when traveling: use it to quickly find the nearest coffeeshop, restaurant, bar, etc. It lists distances in yards, then can provide a walking or driving map to the place. Nice to have when you're in an unfamiliar urban environment.

A whole grilled tenderloin has been my family's Christmas or Thanksgiving entree off and on for a few years. It's easy as hell, requires very little prep, holds well, and the leftovers are just as good as the first go-round. Plus, the tapering shape means you can satisfy a wide range of preferences: overdone ends for some, medium to medium rare through most of the roast, then a bloody middle. Thyme is a good choice, but I wouldn't use branches--I'd pick off the leaves, and pound them with your favorite prepared mustard, some garlic, a whole bunch of cracked pepper, and a little coarse salt. Let it come to room temp before grilling; I'd do a direct sear, then an indirect roast 'til the center hits your preferred temp.

I'd imagine that uncooked bacon in the vac-sealed, factory packaging is more compact/space efficient than cooked, repackaged in foil bacon; a pound of center-cut bacon is maybe 1/2" thick by 7" by 8". I'd probably focus on packing the bulky foods I really want to cook & eat in a bag (or two) suitable for someone's lap--you can rotate who gets to hold the bag every 1/2 hour or so. Put the delicate things like bread, cookies, fresh fruit/veggies into this bag. Think of square or compressable foods--they pack more efficiently than round. Shredded cabbage for coleslaw compacts nicely in a zipper bag (squish all the air out) and it is sturdy enough to take some rough handling. A soft-sided cold bag or cooler bag might be a better choice than (or in addition to) a rigid cooler, as you can fit it into the odd spaces where nothing else seems to fit.

Yes, indeed. Glad to know that LA peaches made it to FLA: the Ruston varieties don't ship well, so they're hard to find outside our immediate area. I have a Ruston peach in my lunch bag today! Lookign forward to it.

My goodness, I hope McWilliams never visits a sheep farm where castration is achieved by banding...simply squeeze an elastic around the superfluous parts, cutting off the blood flow. Eventually, they'll dry up and drop off. We vaccinate animals without anesthesia, just like we vaccinate our kids without anesthesia (and they're not mentally developed enough to give informed consent, same as the hogs or my neighbor's declawed cat). The relative benefits outweight the short-term pain. Is the definition of humane a pain-free existence? Please, that's not a realistic goal for meat-eaters.

I feel your pain, I really do. My blood sugar bottoms out if I don't manage it carefully, and I have a long commute & migrane headaches. --identify some healthy, shelf-stable foods you like. Unsalted nuts, granola or trail mix bars, soynuts, wholegrain crackers with some added protein: whatever it is, buy a stash and keep some in your purse, glovebox, desk drawer, or briefcase; this squirrel-like habit can save you at critical points. I keep Kashi's TLC bars and a supply of dry-roasted almonds on hand--once my blood sugar hits a certain low, I'm easily confused & distracted, so I try not to let it get that way (especially when traveling & super-busy). I try to choose something with decent amount of protein. --realize that healthier options exist, even at fast food places. McD's sells a yogurt parfait, convenience stores & gas stations usually sell nuts, beef jerky, popcorn, and (sometimes even unsweetened) yogurt. If you're near a bodega or supermarket, waltz inside and buy some fruit to go with your stash of nuts. --don't fall into the "after-work" trap: cook one or two days a month, with an eye toward freezing meals. Red beans or black beans, lasagne, lentils, chickpeas, etc will satisfy you, defrost in the microwave, and are endlessly adaptable. If you don't cook at all, keep a supply of canned beans on hand--the bean burrito is your friend, and the homemade version is far better than the fast-food alternative.

Your peeve is second cousin to my peeve: packing fruit or other ready-to-eat, minimally packaged items in the same back with uncooked meat or poultry. Gross; yes, I can wash the fruit before I eat it, but the burger buns in their flimsy bag are hard to disinfect. Same goes for the outside of the milk carton--I'm gonna touch it with bare hands, please don't put it next to the raw chicken. I now swipe plastic produce baggies and use them to pre-package everything I get from the meat counter.

I'm a Magnalite user, and I cook acidic foods in it with no (discernable to me) problems. Aluminum heats evenly (I can make a roux with 3 pounds of flour in a giant Magnalite roaster with no sticking or burning), cleans easily using abrasives, and it's cheap-cheap-cheap. I also have bare alumnium 60-quart pots; they work great for boiling crawfish, crabs, and making huge pots of gumbo. I choose aluminum when I need a quick temp response--take an alum. pot off the heat, and it cools quickly. As for longevity--I made headcheese while at my parents' house a couple of weeks ago, and I boiled some of the pork parts in an ancient pot with a serious patina. My mother pointed out that it was one of my grandparents' "wedding" pots, purchased as a set when they married around 1931 or 1932. Still going strong, it is ugly as hell, but just the right size and shape for the task at hand.

Low-moisture, skim-milk mozz freezes fine (I use it in made-for-the-freezer lasagne). I wouldn't try it with a fattier/wetter mozz; the texture would certainly suffer.

New Orleans/MSY still has a lousy hot dog cart, if you're feeling nostalgic. I always pass the Lucky Dog cart in concourse A thinking, "how sad--who'd eat an airport hot dog in NOLA?"

I haven't tried freezing an assembled pizza, but I do have recs on decent-tasting frozen pizza: try the Amy's spinach, the California Pizza Kitchen margherita, and the American Flatbread cheese version....Amy's and Cali PK are sold by mainstream supermarkets & WalMart/Sams, the American Flatbread is available at Whole Foods. I freeze dough; it defrosts overnight in the fridge or at room temp in 2 hours. A quick press-out by hand onto parchment takes 3-5 minutes, if you're slow. Preshredded cheese, Muir Glen or Newman's Own marinara straight out of the jar, and turkey pepperoni take less than a minute to apply. Buy unfrozen dough blanks (like Boboli or Kabuli) and you don't even have to press out the dough. Never tried to freeze an assembled pizza...seems like you'd need flash-freezing to do this properly (without a great loss of quality).

I really like triscuits. Wait, that's not quite true: I developed a nasty triscuit habit in graduate school...I could eat a box in one sitting, and frequently did. I still like them, but I haven't had one in years. Buying a box is the equivalent of social drinking for some friends of Bill W: it's a slippery slope with a bad ending. I prefer the plain ones; the flavored (veggie, garlic/herb) are pretty bad.

Dirt/clay eating (geophagy) is a ritual practice in some cultures; in central America, tierra del santo (shaped like crosses or other religious objects) are consumed as part of devotion to the blessed mother, or to the Black Christ of Guatemala....so maybe you can find a Latin American source for edible clay?

Rhonda beat me to it: Ruston, LA peaches are delicious, no doubt....the season is fleeting. I'm also getting excellent Chilton County (GA) peaches at the farmers' market right now. I had a peach for breakfast every day last week; movin' on to blueberries next.