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annabelle

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Posts posted by annabelle

  1. If you're going to quickly pan-fry a piece of meat, heat the pan and sprinkle it with coarse salt before putting in the meat. It won't stick and develops a lovely crust.

    Cookie doughs should be made ahead and refrigerated overnight or for up to two days before baking. They hold their shape better and have a deeper flavor.

    Add gluten flour to bagel, pizza, and pretzel doughs to give them a chewier bite.

  2. There's a reason its called liquid gold.

    Are you sure they aren't just selling something they think might taste like breastmilk? I can't imagine any lactating woman parting with something so hard won on something as trivial as dessert. But maybe I'm just naive.

    And the health questions... :wacko:

    Seems like something to look up in Snopes.

    I don't know why you doubt the health concerns. It has been common knowledge that HIV is transmitted in bodily fluids since the early 90's. Breast milk is a bodily fluid, after all.

  3. You know, Taco Bell is just not the same to me sinced I watched "The Wonderful Whites of West Virginia." If you haven't seen it, you must. "What do ya mean ya don't have fajitas? WTF? I want me some macaroni and cheese, then."

    Seriously, though. I usually only eat there when my son is done with a wrestling match. He's on a chipotle kick lately and likes the volcano stuff. I've given up on getting anything there that doesn't have the flavor wrung out of it. I got a taco salad there last fall and doctored it with at least ten packets of hot sauce and it still tasted bland. That said, it's not any better or worse than the local Tex-Mex restaurants that I can't stand either. I grew up with real mexican food and it's tough to take a poor imitation.

  4. Guacamole has to be made to order, or covered carefully, or destroyed with lemon juice, to keep it from going grey. There's a price associated with that.

    Avocados have a short shelf life. There's a price associated with that.

    There's a base price associated with getting a plate dirty, regardless if its with lobster tail or cheerios. It has to be plated and brought to you.It has to be bused and washed.

    Still, I am intrigued at the cost of the 'wedge' salad. Iceberg has a long shelf life, and bleu cheese even longer. I wonder how much of it is balancing low margin items, and how much is marketing (if it costs more it must be better) and how much is overhead, and how much is something I havent guessed at.

    I've often thought the same thing about escarole, the darling of chefs everywhere for its zombie-like lifespan. It can sit in the walk-in for ten days and still be springy. Same deal with arugula. While its lifespan is considerable shorter, it isn't called Rocket in the UK for nothing. It literally grows like a weed and doesn't need pampering. I find the whole trend toward "peasant" food to be amusing. Oxtails, grits, dandelion greens, et al, are all items we ate when I was a kid because we were poor and they were cheap.

  5. The only time I have ever seen anyone eat pizza dunked in ranch dressing was a few years ago when I was on jury duty. We were deliberating when we ordered lunch and one woman was adamant that she "needed" ranch dressing. She pretty much drowned her pizza in ranch. I can see eating the crusts like breadsticks dunked in ranch, okay, not really, but using ranch like a condiment was just weird to me.

  6. Her blog is kind of a modern spin on the Little House books. The Ingalls family wasn't particularly remarkable or interesting in their way of living or cooking. Rereading the Little House books as an adult, I am struck by the impetuousness and lack of planning of the adults. That said, my own family were also pioneers, so I have a soft spot for Laura and, in a different way, for Ree. Much of both their stories are poetic license, but it makes for a better story. It's all just entertainment, after all.

  7. I had a coupon to get one Oikos yogurt free, so I did. I got one with blueberries and shared it with my son who said it was too thick. (He hates Greek yogurt, so you're not alone GlorifiedRice.) I thought it was very good and like my homemade yogurt. It is much too expensive, however.

  8. I never did say sweatshop, and it;s sad to think we should be comparing Hershey to third world manufacuters.

    The program lacks oversight and saves employers millions. I have read it;s been a problem for years.

    I applaud these kid's protest in pointing out that perhaps Hershey should just pay up the extra 8% in taxes and "give good jobs to local workers".

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/06/j1-student-visa-abuse-for_n_792354.html

    You didn't say sweatshop, but it was said upthread. I agree that it is absurd to make such a comparison. As for what the guestworkers are getting paid, they are getting better than minimum wage. That's a whole lot more than the big fat zero dollars I got with every internship that I did as an undergrad and a grad student which added up to thousands of hours of free labor. I certainly hope the guestworkers never decide to pursue a career in medicine as they would surely flame out during residency, if they managed to get that far.

    As far as hiring the townspeople, I don't think that is the issue. Hershey has offered the guestworkers an experience, not a career path.

  9. There are many factors that, well, factor into the statet of the economy at this present time. They did not happen in a vacuum or overnight but have been steadily percolating for over twenty years and are come to fruition. Job security has been non-existant since I was a teen and that was in the '70's. Anyway, this article doesn't sound like "sweatshop" conditions. Hershey is a very large company with a large philanthropic arm, indeed that is how the town of Hershey came to be, as an orphans home where the boys were employed at the chocolate factory. If these guest workers were being exploited, I'd wager that there would be at least one reply to the posted article that has a dateline of 28 August. These guest workers seem to have gotten wind of our litigious ways and perhaps try to exploit them.

    For a closer look at true sweatshop conditions, not long hours in an OSHA approved warehouse/factory, there is a series on the BBC (I have forgotten its name) where a bunch of college students from the UK are taken to India and other countries that produce clothing items and sporting gear and are put to work there for a week. They are given lodging, food and expected to keep pace with the local workers, and yes, there is a language barrier. Everyone of the kids spends the better part of the show whining and bitching and not working...much.

  10. At least they left, Katie. I used to tend bar at a pub in San Diego that was owned by yuppies who decided to cater to the professional soccer crowd. The players were great guys. Their fans, not so much. I had a drunken idiot lighting matches and tossing them at me while I was trying to serve. After I told him to get out and he threw another match at me, a huge NZ soccer player picked him up by the scruff of the neck and threw him out on the street. Everyone cheered.

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