Torrilin

The German grapes tend to be a good bet. The syrahs also tend to be good (especially in blends). If you find Chardonnay-Semillon Blanc blends, they're likely to be good bets, straight Chardonnay (or anything else fashionable from California) is likely to be fairly bland. Oh and anything fizzy I've tried has been amusing enough to be worth what I paid for it. If the average Californian who thinks they "know about wine" would ignore it, chances are it'll be worth the trouble. If they're advertising the wine in their flyers, it's worth trying a bottle. About half the time, it's drinkable, and the other half it hits the repeat buy list til they run out. The two-buck chuck makes ok cooking wine if you're cooking for a crowd.

I try to keep a reasonable sized stock of pantry staples on hand. Family of two. We typically go through a 10 lb bag of flour in a month or two. I stock the kind we use most, and don't worry about special flours because it is perishable, I've seen weevils before and they're Not Fun. Rice is properly stocked in 20 lb bags, which last a month or two. I also keep a pasta stash, usually in the 5 lb range. Pasta is Food Of Last Resort for when we are brain fried and can't do "real" cooking, so I try to keep the stock small. Condiments (soy sauce, dark sesame oil, olive oil, butter, neutral veggie oil, pepper, salt, dried peppers, cumin, ketchup, 2 kinds of mustard and mustard powder, 2-3 sorts of vinegar, sage, rosemary, thyme, and chile powder) usually last somewhere in the 2 month to a year range. I tend to aim for fast turnover, since fresh tastes better. The remainder of my pantry stock never actually lasts long enough to get called pantry stock.

I always ask on the rare occasions I have to pay with a credit or debit card. I *hate* the idea of stiffing a favorite butcher shop or grocery store with a fee they don't need.

He's having you do a pilaf like a risotto. This works, is very tasty... and is probably more stress than you need for this meal. (For the future, if the guest list expands like this, fall back on a roast... they're traditional for big dinners because they're a low stress way to feed a crowd) Prepare the rice according to the package directions, subbing chicken broth (or bullion cubes, I'm not proud) for the water. You can add the veggies when you start cooking the rice. Bay leaf can go in then too. The orange zest and saffron I'd tend to add at the end. If you want peas in the pilaf, add frozen peas a few minutes before it's supposed to be done. They'll thaw while the rice does it's last bit of cooking. Most regular rice wants to start cooking around 20-40 minutes before you eat, and will hold decently on a turned off burner for around 20 minutes. That help?

I prefer walnuts with dark chocolate. Pecans I like in milkier/lighter formulations. The household nut is pecan, since my partner likes them better, and most of the chocolatey baking is tilted towards my preference for milk chocolate. If I could just get the darn double chocolate brownie recipe to be consistent, I'd have an excuse for walnuts...

And back on topic... I don't consume aspartame because I get a nasty aftertaste from it. It's a genetic trait, nothing special. Same for sucralose and saccherine (also genetic traits, but the sucralose is likely a recessive... my sister and I can taste it, parents can't, brother can't). I've never tried stevia, so I don't know if that gives me trouble or not. I'm also sensitive to the taste of several other chemicals that mark genetic tasting traits. I'm not a supertaster, but I do have a pretty impressive collection of genetic taste sensitivities. They hold even in double-blind tests too, which I find amusing. My father has a similar but less broad package of taste sensitivities, my sister's is about the same as mine. My brother's is about on par with Dad's, and mom has the fewest. She seems to have at least one recessive gene for all the ones I do have tho. And well, given my avoidance of aspartame, I don't think it's very likely my ADD was caused by it. Parental consumption prior to my birth *can't* have caused it, since it wasn't available for sale until I was 6. It seems far more likely to me that my ADD is a genetic tendency, since my mother has been diagnosed with it, and my father shows many ADD traits. It also seems quite unlikely that aspartame taste sensitivity would be a linked trait with ADD. I've lost track of the number of other people diagnosed as ADD I've met who can't taste the stuff (including mom). And barring family members, few of the people I've met who experience the aspartame aftertaste have ADD. Not data, but the timing and diagnosis pattern in my family better supports the increased diagnosis hypothesis.

Ideal: Locally grown never been frozen What I get stuck with these days: locally grown, frozen Last choice: supermarket meat, never been frozen Of the readily available meats, beef seems to suffer least from freezing, pork suffers some, and chicken suffers most. I'd still rather buy locally grown chickens, but it does mean I'm getting a less than stellar bird. The stewing hens seem to handle it better than roasters, so I may just swap to those.

Chocolate mass is bitter... and tasty! That really was what convinced me to try a bottle of bitters.

As I mentioned in Pan's thread, my mother is seriously overweight and diabetic. At some point before I was born, she formed a Clever Plan with my dad's help and active assistance. Dad's a food scientist, and they both read and study about nutrition. Their goal was to end up with children who weren't fat, and who stayed Not Fat past age 25. Part one of the plan was no or minimal prepared baby food. I don't know how much they used for me, but I don't really recall them feeding either my sister or brother much bottled baby food. We all were breast fed, then gradually weaned onto the family's regular food that had been run through a food mill. Formula was a pretty much never thing, because we'd use bottles as squirt guns... Part two was to feed us minimally processed foods. Frozen food with no additives was ok. Boxed cereal could have up to 5g of sugar. Generally the snack foods were sliced carrots, celery, green peppers with no dips. Cheese, yoghurt, dill pickles and other traditional processed foods were ok, if they met dad's labelling requirements. They stuck with mostly unsaturated oils or butter, probably because they're both real suspicious of anything processed. For part three, we were allowed as much milk (no skim milk, as we wouldn't drink it but we went through 2% by the gallon), water and orange juice as we wanted, but soda and most other juices weren't allowed at home. Until we were nearly full grown, we weren't allowed coffee or black tea except as emergency asthma treatment. Herbal teas like chamomile and mint were ok, and we could have chocolate milk or cocoa as treats. The last major part was treats. No treats unless they were *treats*. Homemade cookies, yes but rarely. Homemade cake with homemade icing. Ice cream if it met dad's regs, and he's a lot stricter than the FDA is. We were allowed more of reasonably healthy treats like ice cream, nuts and fruit, and not much of less healthy treats like cookies, cakes and chocolate. If they bought a treat, it was because it was better than they could do at home. By the time we were 8 or so, we refused to eat grocery store cakes because the icing was "too sweet". We'd grab fresh veggies for a snack over crackers or potato chips. My parents didn't think they'd "won" at that point tho. They just continued on with the Plan because it was a healthy way to eat. We also regularly got chased outside to play, ride bikes, swim, or walk the dog. I don't think a government program would have the same effect as Mom's Clever Plan. She (and Dad) figured that the only way to have us be stay healthy was for eating well to be an all the time thing. And they both knew that we wouldn't learn to handle treats appropriately unless they modeled the behavior they wanted.

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. I'm even sorrier that her doctors tried to help and she wouldn't listen. I fear someday ending up like my mother, and her mother. My grandmother died of type II diabetes. My mother has type II diabetes and had to fight her doctors for nearly 10 years to get real treatment. Her healthy eating plan made it hard for her to get diagnosed. She would gain and gain and gain, be unable to lose weight no matter how much she controlled her diet or exercised, and rarely have a fasting blood test that looked bad... but once she got an A1C it was obvious she was diabetic. Both mom and I are terrified of amputations and the other side effects of the disease. I'm trying to go one step further than mom, and incorporate more exercise into my lifestyle. Very frustrating since I have a bicycle, love it and am very obviously gaining strength... and not losing inches. All this fat can't be good for me (35 lbs over my previous healthy weight, and until the last month or so it was all fat). So a scale and a food diary are going to be the next additions to my plan to avoid diabetes. Not very fun, nor very glamorous, but I do not want insulin shots to be a part of my life, ever. My mother habitually brings at least one other family member to her doctor visits, because ordinarily even the best doctor will not listen as well without a 3rd party present. Despite this, she's suffered through some extraordinarily bad medical treatment, because doctors assume that she's fat because she can't control her eating. And if she can't control her eating, she certainly won't do rehab for injuries, or exercise... That attitude left her without the use of her right arm for over a year, and insured that she'd never get full use back after she shattered her shoulder joint and the original repair left a pocket of infection buried in the bone. She now is on her second shoulder joint reconstruction, and she may someday be able to drive again. She'll never get full use of the arm back. The joint was damaged for too long.

Plenty of Pennsylvanians like simple sandwiches. Just a sub isn't meant to be simple. Turkey, cranberry jelly and good bread. Or ham and mustard and good bread. Or roast beast, mustard and good bread. All are divine. (if you detect a mustardy theme here, you'd be right. I like mustard.) Most of the frou-frou sandwiches I've run into have structural problems because the designer didn't think about how the ingredients fit together. Veggie heavy sandwiches can be delicious *if* you plan for how it will fit together, and get the proportions right. Otherwise they just fall apart and then you are sad and sticky.

Look at how much the unit currently earns, and see if you can find out how much a kitchen update would increase the unit's earning power. That will give you a clearer idea of how long it's worth keeping the unit out of commission for. If the unit is rent controlled, upgrades may not be worth it to you financially (much tho I hate to say it, speaking as a tenant). Acquire all materials for the renovation *before* starting work. This will cut down on delays. Are the black cabinets damaged, or just ugly and dark? If they're damaged, replacing them with working cabinets may be a better option. If they're just ugly and dark and the base cabinetry is solid wood, refinishing should be fine. If the base cabinetry is particle board, you're kind of stuck. For the floor, it's probably more cost effective to replace the tile. Ceramic tile might not be the most appropriate sort of tile for a rental. Check with some flooring stores and see if there are products with similar cleaning properties and better breakage resistance. The black and white tile idea is a good one. A rental often feels very sterile, and having interesting tile or a unique built in can make it feel more like home. I wouldn't go with peel and stick flooring, because it can be difficult to remove and difficult to install. It also isn't as durable as you'd want in a rental unit. The last thing you want is for the flooring to come apart if the tenant has plumbing trouble in the kitchen. If you're willing to deal with replacing the flooring after every tenant, vinyl may be a reasonable solution. It will handle spills and dropped knives fairly well for about 1-5 years. If you are covering utilities, be proactive about replacing appliances. In that situation, old and energy inefficient appliances are money down the drain for you, and your tenants have no motivation to be careful in how they use them. Evaluate the upgrades based on how they reduce your expenses long term. If you are not covering utilities, make changes based on safety and effectiveness. My last apartment had a cheap, poorly designed dishwasher. It died under normal usage, and I ended up living with it holding a pool of stagnant water for months. A better quality dishwasher would have held up to the use it got, and would have saved my landlord the money for the replacement. My current apartment also has an inexpensive dishwasher, but it's a much better design. The interior is easy to clean, and the drain is well protected against clogs. For the fridge, make sure the interior shelving is wire or pyrex. If it's plastic, you'll constantly have issues over the life of the unit. A mix of black and white appliances is not a good enough reason to switch them out. The combo is classic and neutral, and won't have tenants running in horror the way an avocado green stove, harvest gold fridge and colonial blue sink would.

It took me less time to learn to sharpen a knife with a whetstone than it took to learn to knit. It's a pretty simple manual skill, about on par with learning to dice veggies efficiently. So don't let the time investment scare you. As far as danger goes, I'd far rather have a sharp knife than a dull one. I've given myself an awful lot of minor cuts with dull knives. I've noticed that cooks who use plastic cutting surfaces tend to favor duller knives than I do. I work on wood cutting boards, and food stays where I put it. The force I have to use with a dull knife is more likely to cause movement than anything else. On plastic, it seems to slide around with minimal force and make a sharp knife feel less safe.

They've also got rather scary labels, speaking as a chemist. The first blue/purple lists only "Concord grape juice concentrate". That covers a lot of ground, and plain concentrated grape juice would not make a good food coloring. Too sweet! The dietary information makes it clear that they've removed some of the sugar and all the vitamin C, but it's not clear what else they've done to alter the juice. The others seem to have similar labels. At least one includes glycerin, which is technically food safe, but I wouldn't want it in my food. Natural does not always mean healthy or safe. Arsenic is very natural, and lethal. You wouldn't go eating nightshade either. Concentrating a natural product can change it from safe to dangerous. Look at ethanol. I would be a lot more comfortable with these products if each label gave a summary of the major chemicals contained in the altered concentrate, so the consumer can make a more informed decision.

I like leek and potato soup cold, chunky and with no milk or cream. The idea of having it pureed *bothers* me when I think of eating it cold. Avgolemono is also good cold. Chicken soup with dumplings that is somewhat overseasoned and carefully defatted is good cool, but if it's *cold* it's not a pleasant texture. Most bean soups are too thick when cold to eat as soup, but they make great taco and burrito fillings. Probably good in pita bread too, if the flavor leans in that direction. I really hate gazpacho and most other meant to be served cold soups I've had. I'd usually rather have the ingredients in a salad or a taco shell.

The guacamole and bacon idea struck my fancy for this week. Didn't transport it, since I remembered to eat lunch *before* I left the house. I'd probably try a waxed paper wrap for this, since that works well for Mexican restaurants. (Hrm I may do that today come to think of it, I'm still a bit nibbly and I need to get to the farmer's market) Smear a tortilla with guacamole. Sprinkle with diced fresh tomato. Add a strip of bacon and some plain salad greens. Wrap as for a burrito. Devour! It's basically a BLT with guacamole instead of mayo, and a tortilla for bread. Just my speed. I like guacamole fairly heavy on the lime juice, so I used half of a large and juicy lime for 2 tiny avocados. Added a pinch of salt, and a generous shake of dried hot pepper flakes (clean burn like Thai peppers, not bitter like jalapeno). Mash with fork until you have a smooth paste, and check for enough lime juice. It should have a mild burn. Since all of the ingredients are ones that can store at room temp for a while, this is a definite winner.

I tested the frozen water bottle idea today. There are certain... issues. A single water bottle will thaw completely within 1 to 1.5 hours under these conditions. A 10 minute bike ride allowed a roughly 3" diameter water bottle to thaw about 1/2" of ice. I am boggled. The specific heat of water is not that low! I knew I was dealing with high heat, but I didn't realize quite how high. If I want to use this idea, I'll probably need to use 2 frozen bottles at once. On the up side, the water stayed cold very well, and made it a lot easier to function. I've also tried the peppers and hummus idea. Very tasty, and I'll repeat it. I'll report back as I try some of the other ideas.

It's more that I know 80F is a nice happy temperature for bacterial growth. So if I contaminate something, it may have lots of time to grow at a very comfy temperature with lots of tasty food. My body's giving me enough grief with adding all this new exercise (the "not hungry now, wanna ride" and 15 minutes later "OMG STARVING" trick is particularly cute). Don't want to give it any more reasons to be cranky with me. A cold pack is definitely on the list of "useful". Problem is there's a lot of other stuff on the useful list, and it won't all fit in the budget at once. (A familiar problem I'm sure) I figure if I start with food that can take heat ok, I'll turn into a more flexible cook... and those ideas will still work with the cold pack later. Some of these are sounding *really* good . *scribbles notes for the grocery list*

I am out of practice with sandwiches. I'm also running out of the house around lunchtime to do errands on my bike. This is leading to me skipping lunch (really bad plan) or buying a sandwich while I'm out. So... lend me your sandwich ideas. They need to stick together fairly well and survive a bike ride in 80+ F heat, for 2-4 hours (I'm giving myself a window here for food safety purposes). Plain bread, pita bread, and tortillas are all available. If your idea is purposefully low salt, low carb, or low fat, warn a gal. I'm pretty regularly ending up with days where I crave salt, carbs or fat and feel sick until I get that day's craving. I suspect my diet and exercise levels aren't quite matched up the way they ought to be yet. Please don't suggest peanut butter and jelly. It screams "dessert" to me, not "food", so I'm less likely to eat it when hungry for "food". All I've come up with so far is a bean burrito might work. So any other ideas will be good, or I can foresee getting *really* sick of burritos.

That's... odd. MN historically has had beer and wine in grocery stores. Seems strange that a state would go for stricter regulation. I do remember running into some serious weird with MN's liquor laws last time I was there, so it may be they've gone stricter in the name of protecting minors. The no sales on Sunday rule is relatively common. I know PA and OH have it. And one of either DE or MD, but I can't remember which one.

It's not a big lie if you don't have a stand mixer. You can get short of soft peaks with a well designed whisk, a metal bowl and contaminated whites, but you can't actually get to soft peaks. Same equipment and clean whites whip up to stiff peaks in about the same time a stand mixer would take. Yes, I've tried. No, I don't have a stand mixer. Yes, I was ticked.

For the last year, I was feeding a family of two on $75 a week (few economies of scale. 4 would have been easier) in Los Angeles, California. $75 was the average, and we needed to stay in that range because my partner was unemployed and I was underemployed. The months when the Culver City or Santa Monica farmer's market had a good variety of produce, we usually could come in under budget and afford meat easily. The winter was rough. Lots of beans, and even if we made good use of frozen produce, we'd often go over budget. Even at the fanciest farmer's market, there are good buys. At the height of summer, we were running around $10-20 under budget, because seasonal produce is so much cheaper. And well, even California has seasons. It may not look like it when you hit a farmer's market, but they're there. If all you see is the variety, you might think it's all expensive shipped in produce. Nope. CA has long and strange seasons for a lot of vegetables and fruits, and the best ones come in at times you wouldn't expect. And state law forbids selling anything at a CA farmer's market except food grown in CA. I suspect Mr. Petrini found the market confusing. The markets in LA tend to have lots of very well dressed women, with strollers or Louis Vuitton bags. They also tend to have college kids and unemployed or flat out poor people. You'll notice (and be annoyed by) the rich lady blocking the entire path a lot more than you'll notice the poorer lady herding her 4 kids through the market at blitzkreig pace. And the rich lady will leave you trapped at the most expensive market stalls while she "samples" a generous snack of fruit. The poorer lady will not block traffic as much, and understands the phrase "excuse me". He probably also missed that the market takes food stamps and WIC. Add in that in the back of his brain he was probably seeing a $4 peach as a 4 euro peach, and his shock gets very understandable.

If your tea drinking friends love green tea, definitely. If they're like me and adore black tea, don't bother. White tea is like the lightest green teas I've tried... not worth the trouble it took to brew it. If they like both dark and light teas, try it. They may love it. *hopes fervently that no one thinks to give her green or white tea as a present*

Snowangel, that's how I make mine . I don't use so many lemons (our pitcher is too small and our lemons are usually very juicy), but the hot water to get the flavor from the zest works well. We just moved from CA to WI, so I'm trying to get used to the concept of no more giant lemons. The corner grocery where I usually got mine would have lemons the size of both my fists held together, with a strong lemony fragrance if they were in season (Decemberish to March). They always were very heavy with juice, and a single one would sometimes produce too much juice for 2 quarts of lemonade. I use a wooden citrus reamer for juicing. I use a microplane for zesting. I don't use simple syrup. I have fun stirring, so I've never seen the need. Most people don't bother to make fresh squeezed lemonade, and they drink it so fast when I do I've never thought to dress it up.

Probably you got lamb. There are sheep breeds where a mutton chop would be close in size to a lamb chop, but they're not common in the US (Shetland and Soay are the only 2 I can think of). Most meat sheep breeds are pretty large animals - solidly over 100 lbs, and about hip high on an adult human. I'd expect a mutton chop to be around the size of a pork chop.