Kouign Aman

Ah fooey. I hate it when such people die. Fif aka Linda always showed such humor and I especially loved her posts on dealing with cooking & shopping for 1. I never met her, but this news darkens my day. If nothing else, the internet serves to hold the memory of Linda, her smarts, her humor and her sass. (and her steel mushroom).

A recent Italian study concluded aspartame is unsafe, however the FDA says the preponderance of data shows it is safe for consumption. Do you consume foods containing it? Do the benefits outweigh the risks, if any? (unless you have PKU). Aspartame article Since I dont drink soda, I dont get much exposure to this stuff, but I can see it playing a large role in weight loss, which is usually a good thing.

Tainted Chinese Honey exported to US I wonder 1) why did it take so long to respond to this ? Is it now national beat-on-China year? and 2) how in all creation did antibiotics get into honey, and why? The melamine in the petfood material was to give high nitrogen levels, making it seem the protein content was higher than it really was. But whats the thing with antibiotics and honey? Can anyone shed light on this?

Thats the one, little cabbage!

Keep us posted on how it goes - both as a plant and as a source of decent tea.

As often as possible. Random as to whether its a linear or roundabout approach for any two consecutive bites. With butter. Or with butter, mayo, parmesan cheese and hot sauce ala Tijuana street fair. Or completely plain. Roasted. Boiled. Steamed. Corn is the thing I most want to plant next year.

Annecros, that photo would getcha married, if you werent already. Holy criminey! How about adopting? I'm familiar with that neighborhood, there's work not too far away, my mom would probably share me (tho not her grandchild), and I do windows....(and greasy dishes). Now, about that sausage gravy... what sausage do you use? What fat? My husband's tried making it with bacon fat and farmerjohn sausage. Its terrible - no sausage flavor. M'aidez s'il vous plait!

Aside from seeing it for my own pleasure, what age group is it targeted to? I was completely excited til we saw a poster showing many knives being thrown at the rat. Might have to go see this one sans the munchkin.

We go thru dairy so fast, it doesnt matter if its the newest or oldest product on the shelf. I'll buy the fruit/veg from anywhere in the stack, depending on whether its for use today or next Saturday.

When we make pizza sauce, my kid eats huge spoonfuls of the tomato paste straight as it comes from the can. I 'paint' toast with one or two bites worth of jelly / honey / whathaveyou at a time.

Cool - gargle with milk. I'm thinking yogurt would be more socially acceptable. Raita, anyone?

Have fun.

A gift plum tree - what a treat! Plum jam/jelly is lovely stuff. The housesitters got the first two tomatoes (including the giant) but we picked one last night to have with our burgers. It was delicious. Classic Early Girl - excellent flavor and body texture, with the skin being a bit more resilient and thick than optimal. We're gonna overwater those babies the next two days and try to stretch the skin tight before we pick a small pile for the first B&Ts of the summer. Fortunately, the bacon texture overrides the skin texture. For burgers, we can always blanche and peel before slicing.

I'm pretty careful with everything except pizza. I've been known to buy a pizza at work Monday night and store it at my desk, finishing it for lunch on Friday. So far, no ill effects. Of course, the building is chilled to meat locker temperature (its June & I'm wearing polar fleece indoors here). Stock - I've grown bacteria in that stuff on purpose. Stock and soups get into the fridge, ditto braises. Tho if the lid is on tight, they can sit at room temp awhile, because they are essentially sterile when made (all that time at 212F), so if the lid fits tightly, the inoculum concentration is low. Still, I have a family that includes a smallfry and an immune compromised member so I'm being more careful than I would for just myself. fuzzy cheese - cut off the fuzz eat the cheese fuzzy bread - trash. FWIW - there's a mold that grows on Ryebread which can cause hallucinations & spasms. Food poisoning = 2x: airline hamburger (nasty nasty nasty) and milder from shellfish in Ensenada (i'd a thought this was seasickness but it got all of us who had the mussel soup and spared those who didnt).

All of the above and It also might help to answer their questions seriously. Why are the portions so small? There is a reason, so tell em. One of my friends put it this way: the best part of a cinnamon roll is first 3 bites. Then its just food to fill him up. In a multi-course meal, it would be a shame to fill up too soon! and so forth. Whatever you believe the correct answers are to their questions, answer them. It makes you into an expert in their eyes, and thats a good thing.

Butter works to ease the burning. Let it sit and melt in thoroughly. Milk might work for the carbs (below) and fat reasons both. Never heard that casein had anything to do with it. In the mouth - carbs. Sugar, bread, rice, coca cola - whatever. There's a reason most hot food comes with nice bland carbs on the side.

"A Dandelion!"

Correct.

Oh.my. How do you pit the cherries? & how long does it take to pit enough for that clafoutis? (Im happy to learn what one is - I've read the word often enough but it wasnt clear in context if it were a cobbler or a tart or ....). Can you post the recipe? I may have to try this with rhubarb, since I dont have a cherry pitter.

Andie, thanks for that post. I have a couple jars of black current juice from TJ's - too tart to drink as is, and I dont like stirring all that sugar in every time. Its been on the 'to make jelly' list for a while, but I've been dithering about whether to add apples or use commercial pectin, which I've never done before.

One gambles when using "zip" and "10" in the same sentence.

I had one friend who had about a 75% error rate when we were together- what was in the bag was not what was ordered. This was true in all chains visited. I rarely have errors in my orders. However, there is one outlet of one chain that is stunning in their ability to get it wrong in new and different ways. We almost go for the humor of it now. They have a sister outlet we get to once in a while, that has the highest rate of "we;re out of that" I've ever heard of. We hear it about 1/2 of the time. Usually its related to special offers and I've tentatively concluded that its not lack of inventory, but that its too much trouble for the staff of that location to deal with. And then there are two examples (same chain) that never get it wrong, and somehow manage to make the same chain sandwich, standard ingredients, and make it much better than the other places. How can one get store to store variation in a franchise burger?

Thank you! I shall get started on the redirection. Turns out its a favorite place of a Bronx-inhabitant who's part of the piano-addict group. So he'll survive missing it this one time (yes, we have LOTS of Vietnamese options out here!). Besides, we'll have to track down gelato - thanks for all the good info on that too. We've only found one decent source here, that my husband will return to. Nothing lives up to Italy, but the search remains fun. Right now, it looks like Saturday may be a free day for self-guided activities. That means food! I've been asked to bring something back from Zabar's. While we are getting that, should we eat? Buy _____ to bring home? Save the money for other options?

Whatever it is in that tart on your fridge shelf, that's what I want for dinner! :drool:

Many thanks, once again. I have my fingers crossed for a splurge lunch. I was just sent the info that we've been invited to lunch here. Pho Viet Huong in Chinatown I am now headed to search, but would like feedback on this place. It looks like mostly out of towners. Should I be pleased, or carefully directing the party elsewhere? (ok, Im not thrilled - its for Friday, our best chance for Jean-Georges. Sigh.)