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BeeZee

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Posts posted by BeeZee

  1. Aside from rising food costs, I've noticed a lot of packaging being changed to thinner/cheaper materials. Today, I pulled a plastic tub of whipped cream cheese out of the fridge, it was purchased this past weekend. Upon opening, I saw that the top of the plastic tub was cracked, apparently at some point it had been dropped. The plastic was very thin/brittle...and I've noticed bit by bit that other packaging materials have been downgraded (not talking about shrinkflation, another issue altogether). Obviously the packaging manufacturers are looking for ways to keep cost down/maintain profit levels.

    • Like 6
  2. Fundamentally, those pieces of salmon get mushed when they are vacuum-packed, so most of them won't peel apart cleanly. I think I usually look for the cleanest/driest edge and try to slide a thin blade under to work a slice free. I think slightly tempered from fridge temp, since that lets the oil/fat be less congealed/sticky (sounds appetizing, huh? but IDK how else to describe). If the fish is too warm, it gets softer, so it's a fine line.

    • Like 3
  3. Shoprite had some Icelandic Haddock on special, they said "never frozen", but regardless it was very good (unlike some of the very sad/not fresh fish I saw there) - sweet and moist. I roasted it with some Panko crumbs on top to add a little crispy texture.

    • Like 7
  4. I was cleaning out a cabinet a while back, and found that a tube of chipotle paste had sprung a leak. The surprising thing was it happened so long ago, the goo had completely solidified and I was able to just chip it off the shelf and just had to clean a little residue with hot water. During the pandemic “lockdown” I got better at rotating things so the cabinets didn’t become like archeological digs.

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    • Haha 5
  5. Early lunch since I was near a pretty good local deli, the Kibitz Room. Bagel with whitefish salad, half sour pickle. I take the two halves apart and eat them open faced.

     

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    • Like 6
    • Delicious 3
  6. This is not, strictly speaking, about cooking...but rather about storage of an ingredient. I was given a gift of homemade herb vinegar. It is in a really large glass bottle, fresh (now pickled) herbs suspended in the vinegar. The bottle has a cork with some wax sealing it. I want to decant it into smaller containers. I plan to strain out those herbs. Additionally, as the vinegar had vegetation in it, is it better to store in the fridge once opened (as it isn't unadulterated vinegar)?

  7. No photo, because beige sludge isn't too visually appealing...but I had some really tasty overnight oats made with Bob's Red Mill 5 grain hot cereal, chia seeds, peanut butter powder, milk, cinnamon, and a few dried goji berries. Bob's cereal is great for keeping it's chew, I had been buying TJ's multigrain hot cereal but they either discontinued it or it has been out of stock for months.

    • Like 1
  8. Bought white chocolate gingerbread bark (clearance rack at Whole Foods). I like white chocolate (as a confection) but the fail on these was they had a dusting of the gingerbread crumbs. Literally crumbs...it could have been really good if they had little pieces of cookies mixed into the bark, the gingerbread dust was nicely spiced. I missed out on a lot of holiday treats this year so I was hoping this would fill a niche.

    • Sad 2
  9. My husband requested roast beef, cooked it today and have two more dinners leftover for him. He prefers his beef not too rare, he was happy with this. We had baked yams and steamed broccolini (I had some vegan meatballs). 

     

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    • Like 14
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  10. We had friends over for dinner last night, endive salad with pomelo segments, olives, and mustard viniagrette, vegetable lasagne (Barilla no-boil noodles, spinach, mushrooms, zucchini) and locally baked semolina bread. They brought dessert, cheesecake from Termini Brothers in Philadelphia, which was outstanding.

     

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    • Like 14
    • Delicious 2
  11. 6 hours ago, weinoo said:

    All the tomatoes (and some of the other produce I buy) have a packed on date.  And they're really not too great at rotating stock, so I generally dig through stuff - if the packing date is more than 6 or 7 days prior, just don't buy. I might be lucky, but have never had anything moldy; I've had stuff that doesn't ripen properly, that's for sure.

    I know I checked the date on the bagged baby spinach before buying (nothing like a bag of green slime) but the tomatoes had no date, unfortunately. The culprits are some split/mashed/otherwise damaged ones at the bottom of the box. No big loss, they were tasteless, anyhow (despite looking suitably red). The remainder will probably go into soup.

  12. Too much meat the past couple of days, I needed something lighter. Quick soup with pantry ingredients - boxed stock with asian flavors, baked tofu, rice noodles, seaweed, carrots, roasted broccoli florets. DH enjoyed it also.

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    • Delicious 1
  13. I have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Mastodon accounts. LinkedIn for work. I use each one for different info, and so far I have found Mastodon hard to get used to, but the hosts have been working on it and posting a lot of suggestions on how to navigate it.

  14. 33 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

    @BeeZee  sounds dreadful.   But you made it thru and hopefully all family relationships unscathed 

    To put things in perspective, I am glad we could get together. That is always most important. That no blows were thrown or tears were shed is a bonus😉

    • Like 2
    • Haha 3
  15. Predictably, my sister didn’t follow my timeline for meal prep (this was her first time hosting Thanksgiving) and at 3pm I opened the fridge to put something away and the turkey was still in there😵. It was a bone-in breast around 6 lbs, so I took it out to come to room temp, prepped it for her, and in the oven around 3:30. It was done at 6:15. The lasagne she made primarily for her husband wound up getting served as a first course while turkey rested, it wasn’t quite warm enough in the center, but by then we’d had it with his whining. My cousin gleefully boasted how she doesn’t follow recipes and her 2 pies were evidence, but they were OK. I was exhausted because I more or less wound up cooking most of the dinner, sans the clean up.

    • Confused 1
    • Sad 13
  16. Roasted turkey wings for make ahead gravy, you can see where I pulled off my cook’s treat. I picked most of the meat to use for another meal (got 6.8 oz from 4 wings, less my snacking).

     

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    • Like 6
  17. Tried this today for lunch, on some Wasa, a sprinkle of lemon juice. I like cracked black pepper and thought they could have had even more. Fish was mild, meaty texture, light smoke. They were pretty fused together in the tin so I found it hard to pull out whole fillets (4 in the tin). Fish was from Latvia.

     

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    • Like 4
    • Sad 1
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