emilyr

I'm curious; where do you all grocery shop?

Yesterday was my dad's b'day, so I made a big dinner for family and friends (and then it sleets/rains/freezes/snows, so it turns out we made lots of leftovers!). 2 briskets - one with a sweet, brown sugar and orange peel dry rub and one with a spicy, herby rub - creamed peas, slow braised green beans and bacon, my aunt made a TON of mashed potatoes to which we added cheese and sour cream and garlic, and I baked a Guiness chocolate cake with a ganache icing. I ate so much, I was still WAY too full when I went to bed 4 hours after dinner and then couldn't sleep! (but it was worth it - soooo good!)

They're not super hot, but I love wasabi peas.

I use my deepest pasta pot and don't make very big batches so that I can stir the whole time. All the kettle corn makers at fairs around here stir the corn in big cast iron pots with long-handled, wooden instruments that look like skinny pizza peels. The stirring will keep the sugar from burning if you let it <i>just</i> melt into the oil before you add the corn.

My brother is a produce manager at our grocery store and I work in the flower shop there, which is right next to the produce section, and we were bombarded with requests for fresh cranberries in the last couple of months. Apparently this was a bad year for the fruit, or so says our supplier. Our store only got them fresh in the couple of shipments before Thanksgiving, and we didn't get any after. I usually buy several bags and freeze them but didn't have the time to do it this year, so I missed out. It didn't help that the food sections in papers around here all had articles on how great cranberries are AFTER Thanksgiving causing a mad rush. I do have a request in to our frozen food section to get some in soon, and most groceries are more than happy to do order for you.

This is just sad. I think that man may have been a genius! When I was little, my mom would make a stir-fry, usually beef with broccoli, and then cook a few of the bricks of noodles in the juices of the meat and veggies. It's a good quick meal and I still make it when I need something fast, you can do it with anything in the fridge or pantry. And now since I eat dinner mostly at work, I like the spicy ramen bowls. I can't remember the brands, but they come with freeze dried veggies, but most importantly a spicy sesame oil. It's really good. In college, my friends would make ramen versions of other dishes. One was a restaurant-style fried rice ramen. Add some frozen peas and carrots just before the noodles, cook, strain, scramble an egg in the still hot pan and stir with bottled terriyaki or stir fry sauce. Or ramen alfredo, cook noodles without the spice pack, drain and add butter, cream and parmesan cheese with pepper and nutmeg. My roomie would make "Spaghetti" with ramen and ketchup, but that was too much, even for me. Now I like mixing a little peanut butter with the hot noodles, adding scallions and cabbage, then mixing in some chili oil or sesame oil and red chilies. Then you kind of have to let it sit in the hot pan till everything is slightly softened and all gooey! Yum!

Completely disregarding the legal issues and what SHOULD be done, I was most hit by the attitude of the diner who was refused. Maybe it does have to do with class and area. I grew up middle class and in the midwest, but I still was offered or ordered wine or beer with meals before I was 21, a few times in the presence of my parents and with other friends, and never in restaurants of the same caliber, but fairly high for my small-town area. Sometimes I was allowed it, and sometimes I was carded and refused. I don't think any time I was refused I was ever "schocked or disturbed." If anything at all, I was the opposite - greatful and happy that I was allowed to drink the wine, beer, etc. But I don't know if I can blame him...maybe. He's been used to it, but for me it was more of 40-60 shot of getting allowed; when you don't get what you're used to getting, it can suck. Is this New York issue? I'd say no. I'm sure I could find cases of people talking the same in Chicago, LA, San Francisco, etc. I just find it a little sad (??but I don't know if that's the right word either???) that anyone of any class, location, age, race would feel "Shocked and disturbed" in this situation. Assuming the waiter/manager/bartender was just trying to cover his ass, how could you be upset unless they were really rude about it? (And even then, only really be pissed at the rudeness.) I think, if anything, the situation should be just considered a wash - you got a good dinner, but the waiter bobbled the timing of when to ask for ID. (If that's the main problem with the story. If he'd asked for the ID first and then taken the mom's order but refused Bryan, would this even be an issue?) I hope this is coherent enough. And, yes, before you ask, I read the whole thread!

I thought of a one more - Uprise Bakery is good both for their baked goods, and their brunch menu.

I live in Moberly and work in Columbia, so most of my eating here is done either as delivery to work or with my friends going out. We're still pretty young and broke most of the time, so I haven't been to many of these place more than once or twice, but here's what I think: Les Bourgeois - I've only been to the bistro once, and I agree with the trying too hard comment, but their food is always good according to friends and family who've dined there more than once. The view is the best in the area and the service is good. My friends and I usually go to the A-Frame, an outdoor seating area on the blufftops, also on the winery property. You can get a basket lunch (suasage, cheese, bread, mustard, apple, I think) and a bottle of wine and just enjoy the view. They used to allow carried in other snacks too, but I'm not sure if you can anymore. Jack's Gourmet - I have only eaten here for a wedding rehearsal dinner, but it was pretty fabulous. This was just over 2 years ago and the chef was new at the time. I keep meaning to go back; the atmosphere is really cool and old school. I feel like ordering a martini everytime I go by! Village Wine and Cheese - I haven't been in since they started offering dinner, but got lunch here with friends a few times (unfortch in my pre-21 years). It was good, and usually offers different tastes than what you usually see around here. The radio stations I work for run their ads and they always tempt me. I went to Grand Cru and CC's each once for prom parties, but even at that age I could tell that they were overpriced and not very good for what they charge. They're both old school Columbia, and will probably stay open forever. Felini's - I drove by the other day and it still said Felini, so I don't think it's switched names yet. I haven't eaten here since the belly dancing stage, but my dad works with the brother of the new owners (the third or fourth since it opened) and has eaten lunch there a few times. He really likes it, but I can't speak to authenticity; as far as I know, the owners are from Kosovo but of Greek descent (or just Greek enthusiasts? Now I'm not sure.). The menu outside looks really good. I like the coffe shop on 9th street next to the Blue Note (The Coffee Zone??) for the occassional Mediterranean dish. They make pretty good spanakopita and have good lunch specials. Some of my other picks: Boone Tavern - They're pretty consistent. Not fantastic, but good. This is a good place to bring a group and do really exvellent catering. I like their barbeque pork sandwiches (they bring them for office meetings every once in awhile). Booches - If you're in Columbia, you MUST eat a Booches Burger at least once. 'Nuff Said. Flat Branch - A good brewery with pretty standard brewpub foods. I like their hearth baked pizzas and their heffeweisse (sp?). This is just a fun place to hang out, but on the weekend it can be hard to get a table (esp. if there's a Tiger game). SkyHI Bar and Grill - This place is pretty new, and I haven't been in there yet, but I've ordered their brick oven pizzas from work a few times. I think it's cool the varieties you can get. The thai curry with shimp is fun! Okii Mama - Thisis a pan-Asian place over in the Peachtree area. The first few times I ate there, I was under the impression it was a chain - it's sandwiched between a Panera and a Sherwin-Williams paint store - but it's apparently not. I am totally addicted to their wasabi chicken and haven't had ANYTHING bad here yet. I eat here a lot - sometimes going WAY out of my way to pick up dinner. Grill 1Five is good for drinks and not bad for dinner, we go there for for birthdays fairly often, especially heading down to the Penguin for a party. Sushi at Sake downtown is good, but my friends and I like Osaka better. Sophia and Addison's really impress me every time I go in. I've only been to each twice, but like them all the time. I heard Addison's is hiring a chef if anyone is interested. On date night hit Ragtag theater for the hummus dip, a good beer, and their really good popcorn (oh, yeah, and cool indie flicks). Ummm...That's all I can think of right now. I admit, I eat a lot at chain places around town, but it's kinda my New Year's Resolution to eat more around me. Local foods and businesses, so we'll see. I'm pretty interested in Taqueria El Rodeo, as I like Jalisco style Mexican. From most of what I've heard about Sycamore and its service, I'll probably skip it unless we want to go somewhere nice just for dessert. (geez - this is WAY longer than I meant it to be! )

For Raspberry Truffles, I'd volunteer!

I don't have any idea about whether or not it's from St. Louis, but it wouldn't necessarily be weird to have a rum drink from St. Louis. Lots of products came up the Mississippi from the Caribbean.

I like Burger's Smokehouse's Cooked City Cured Ham.

I haven't been to Sycamore yet, but I love Les Bourgeois. And the view is awesome. I'd pick it just on ambience alone. Also, if she likes Sophia's, she might try its sister restaurant Addisons.

A few months ago, I single-handedly cleared out our office vending machine of all 4 packets of these in a 3 day period. Bad. Very bad. But oh, so good.

I was recently reading a recipe for brittle from Kate Zuckerman of Chanterelle, and she describes making a caramel that you let harden, then crushing it, mixing it with the ground peanuts and then re-baking it til its a brittle consistency. I'm wondering what this does to the consistency. Would you still get the light frothy texture you get from any of the other techniques. Does the cream of tartar take the place of the baking soda? I kinda like the idea of this because the peanuts are incorporated and not a separate part of the brittle. Here's the link to the article I was reading. It's a review for her "the Sweet Life" cookbook, and from what I read, that book may explain what I'm looking for. I'll look there too.

My very wonderful aunt Robin writes a fabulous food column for the Columbia [MO]Daily Tribune, and this week, after trying a recipe I made for Thanksgiving, she decided to dumb the whole thing down and run an interview with me. Just kidding - I'm just really self-conscious about it. It's not a bad interview, and not a bad recipe, if I do say so myself. Plus, I gave eG a shout out! You guys rock! You can see it here.

Deconstructed Green Bean Casserole Serves 6 as Side. I wanted to do something for our Thanksgiving dinner as a play on the traditional GBC. Here's the results of my experimenting. You can also do these as individually plated appetizers with beans on top of a whole mushroom cap or as appetizers with the beans and onion cream sauce stuffed into creminis (baby bellas). salt and pepper 6 T unsalted butter 1 16 oz. bag of frozen green beans 3 sprigs of thyme 6 Portabella mushroom caps, cut into 1" strips 1 pt heavy cream 1-1/2 c low sodium chicken broth 2 T flour 1 small sweet onion, thinly sliced Sautee onion over medium heat in 3 Tb of the butter until a light golden brown. Stir in flour until it absorbs the butter, and cook for about 2 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth until the lumps disappear, stir in the heavy cream, and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season mushrooms with the thyme leaves and salt and pepper, place in a baking dish with the rest of the butter cut into small pieces, and bake at 400 for about 10 minutes, just until softened and the juices are released. Season the green beans with salt and pepper and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Stir the beans and heat until warmed through, about 5 more minutes. Layer the mushrooms into the serving dish, reserving juices to stir into onion cream sauce. Strain any excess liquid from the green beans and layer on top of the mushrooms. Top with the onion cream sauce (you won't use it all - just add enough to coat). Keywords: Side, Vegetables, Easy, Dinner ( RG1875 )

Missouri has some really great wineries. Here's a great site for all things Missouri wine, and my friends and I like to go to Les Bourgeois' A-Frame cafe overlooking the Missouri River for a fun Saturday, I've been to a couple really nice dinners at their Blufftop Bistro, and buy most of my wine from them via our local grocery store. I really like their La Belle and Solay wines.

I'm so stealing this for my brother! Awesome!

Once the eggs are cool, if you crack them all over or gently roll them on your countertop, they peel off in mostly one piece. Just don't crack too hard, or you break the white. Also, peeling under running water helps get all the little bits off.

I've only used this for quick breads, but it works well for them. I sold PC for 6 months, and used this to demonstrate the different graters to make zucchini or pumpkin bread, but I never used it to make a "regular" bread. I know that some of my customers had the same complaints - bread too dense.

We do this all the time too, but just be sure to not add any fat to the bag (and make sure there's not a blob of melted cheese touching the bag ), or you'll start a fire. And the only time I've tasted anything chemically is when we've used the white small lunch bags. I think they're slightly waxy or something, but even then, whatever the substance was was on the outside of the bag, and didn't really bother the popcorn much - just a slightly plastic-y taste to it (which is what I think other microwaveable popcorn tastes like only worse).

Here's the CNN story on this topic. Which explains the Rayhoo bent. I was interested to see that one of the main movers behind this was Deanna Brown, founder of Epicurious who is now the general manager of Yahoo Lifestyles. My dad said when he saw Robin Meade read the story about this this morning, she nearly lost in on the line about "food pornography" like she had never heard of it. She had to repeat it 2 or 3 times before she got it and almost lost it laughing. (My dad has a huge crush on Robin, so he thought it was So Cute, which, I in turn thought was So Cute! ) Also, a fact in the story as to why this site was built was that between 4 and 4:30 pm, Yahoo's activity would drastically increase and most of the searches were food or recipe related. He couldn't remember the numbers exactly, but it impressed him. I haven't tried any of the Google groups, yet, but at my last check there were 308 related to food and cooking. You can find that list here.

I work part time at a grocery store florist, and we and the deli and bakery departments usually just use whatever cute cotton print we find that matches our display. You can find these for fairly cheap at craft/fabric stores like JoAnne's. We also often raid the $1 a yard bin at our WalMart (You can find some cute designs for next Halloween now, for instance). You can use any kind of fabric that's not going to show grease marks if the icing gets on it - so I'd say satin is out, but linen, muslin, corduroy, velvet, etc. would all be good. Solids might work better visually for your display - and they'll work the same - but prints really hide the spills well. I think the key is to wash the fabric the right way. We use a really mild detergent and give it an extra rinse cycle to make sure the soap is all out before the first time we use it. Sometimes, wash it twice if the colors look like they're bleeding in the first wash. Also, we don't put any food directly on the fabric, but since you're serving cupcakes, I assume they will be in paper cups.

What is in the soup? What are its flavors? Herby? Salty? Fishy? Meaty?