slo_ted

I agree with more acid in the dressing. We go closer to1:1in this household as well. Personally like more bite to the dressing . Some friends say it is too strong.

I guess I've never had a wrap. I've eaten lots of food wrapped in a tortilla and will continue with this habit. I love it. I'm not sure what you're talking about FG. If you mean bad food wrapped in a tortilla, I agree. But if you're dissin' the whole idea of wrapping good stuffing in a flat bread count me out

Judiu, you got it. Lived all of those places

Got to disagree. I love wraps or burritos or what ever you call food enshrouded with a tortilla. Breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs bacon and green chillis are wonderful.

In my usual grocery, the gizzards are packed with some hearts. I love them both. I like to braise them with onions and garlic and serve over rice. It is very simple and lean protein. How can it be so cheap?

Count me in, Steve. I'll be watching with interest. Love good Chinese food which is distressingly hard to find in my town.

Animal style?

I agree with Snowangel about the salt. I make lots of stock of all kinds and prefer the no salt method. I stay away from seasoning the stock as well, though I'll admit to dropping in a little black pepper from time to time. Since you're going to use the stock as a cooking liquid for soups, stews, beans, or what have you, I prefer to do the salting and seasoning at that time. Plus you can reduce the stock as much as you want without concentrating the salt or any other ingredient. Stock making is really fun, isn't it!

I just returned from Texas with some wonderful beef and pork jerkey from Whitington's in Johnson City, TX. They recommend storing it in a paper bag or freezing it in a freezer bag, but never refrigerating it. There might be more information at their web site www.whitingtonsjerky.com.

Like Monavano, I too find it easier and safer to do the horizontal cuts first and then do the verticals. I'll sure try the no horizontal cut method this evening, though.

Boy. this one takes me back. When I was a kid we went fishing alot. We had a cabin on Lake Woodrow near the town of Caldwell in central Texas. A 75 acre private lake it was and it was just for fishing and swimming--heaven for a kid. I remember one particular fall night as extended family arrived for a big fishing event the next day. It was cool and you could hear the sound of geese honking overhead as they made their way to the rice fields west of Houston. The next day we paddled around the lake catching bass, crappie and blue gills with the occasional catfish. We cleaned them by cutting off their heads and then slitting their bellies with shears, taking care not to rupture their internal organs. Then we cleaned out their belly cavity with the sweep of a finger. Next we scaled them, which is a very messy task especially with a lot of fish. They were breaded with milk and cornmeal and shallow fried. It was a very fine kettle of fish. The memory has stuck to my brain for over 50 years.

Taco Temple in Morro Bay also Chapalla in MB, Dorn's in MB especially for breakfast or lunch to enjoy the view. Novo in SLO. Big Sky, SLO. Taco de Mexico in MB or SLO. GoldenGong SLO. Ian McPhee's, Templeton. Los Olivos Cafe and wine shop in Los Olivos and around the corner from them is Patrick's Side Street Cafe where lunch is great and not too expensive. Hope this helps. I don't know for sure, but there are a LOT of wineries around here and we surely do a lot of pre-employment medical evals. Best of luck with your quest. This is a very nice place to live. The only down side is housing cost.

Planning a trip to Ft. Worth this month. Any current suggestions for restaurants in Cow Town. BBQ, Mexican, Tapas, casual dining or maybe something unusual? I mean to avoid the usual traps e.g. Joe T's. Thanks.

I couldn't agree more with Barbara. Thickness is vital to these things. The first time I tasted a good thick chop properly cooked it made me forget those thin, dry, tastless, way overdone (trichinosis fears) pieces of shoe leather from my childhood.

We don't eat turtles. Frogs if farmed, maybe. Definitely not free range frogs, they have enough environmental baggage to deal with.

My favorite was sausage patties my father left from breakfast.

My latest complaint has to do with the appetizer. In my last to restaurant experiences here on the central coast of CA the app came with the main or in one case after the main dish. Dessert?? What's up with that?

soy based marinade for a day or two then stir-fry. It works for me.

The two veggies that fit the bill here are okra and brussel sprouts. I love okra any way you want to cook it. It's so hard to find okra here on the central CA coast that I grew a couple of plantsa few years ago and not a single pod made it to the kitchen. I ate the whole crop straight off the bush. Not one single person I know can stand the texture of okra. Brussel sprouts are maybe even more offensive. I like 'em boiled or steamed and salted, but no one in my world can even stand the aroma. When I eat this veggie, I dine alone.

Love it at night. Corn flakes or raisin bran -- night time is the ONLY time to eat it.

I would find a substitute for Joe T. Garcia's. The outside dining area is nice, but the inside is noisy and obnoxious and the food is bland and tasteless. It's not Tex and it's definitely not Mex. You could do better at Taco Bell.

I have several Japanese "no name" knives--santoku, nakiri, honesuki styles and I love them. What exactly is "powdered steel." I keep bumping into this term.

I've noticed several of our local and regional chains offer organic produce consistently and organic or free-range meat products inconsistently--somedays its available and some days it's not there. Organic fruit is also sometimes available, which is a nice change. In my usual shopping destination, more and more of the meat counter is being devoted to those "fully cooked" entrees and side dishes which I suppose are microwavable. These things are packaged in large plastic tubs which look like they would be too large to keep more than one or two items in my fridge and definitely take up too much space in the meat counter which no longer provides space for offal at all.

I like'em both with a preference for the flats. I love to suck those babies. And yeah, the broken cookies do need love, Rebecca. Besides, they are much less fattening due to caloric leakage.

I've always cooked beans on the stove top. I've tried soaking overnight, "quick soaking" (bring to a boil, cover, let stand about one hour), and cooking straight up without any soak. They all taste good to me, but the no-soak ones seem to have a slight edge in flavor. I will try this oven cooking method asap, and it does sould as thought it would lend itself to crock pottery if the oven had other plans. Thanks for the tip