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The White Hot with a Loganberry drink makes me a very happy girl. I haven't found another dog outside Ted's in the Phx area, aside from the Costco Polish, that I like. I tried a Chicago style dog place in Mesa, but is was "meh". The hotdogs from Stanley's Sausage on McDowell are soooo good, but I bought a bunch for home cooking. I think they serve them hot as part of their sandwich menu. Maybe that's a contender for a shot at the title. Their brats are the best I've ever had also. (edited to answer my own speculation) Yep, they do have it on the sandwich menu. #13 Double Natural Skin Hot Dogs Mustard, tomato and onions. HEATED $ 3.10

In the refrigerated section: The herb-marinated in olive oil fresh mozzarella. The carnitas and barbacoa. Carnegie Deli pickle spears. The uncooked tortillas. The grape tomatoes. The romaine lettuce. The cheese selection (especially now as the Holidays are approaching, they seem to load up on some great stuff. The last couple years they had the Guinness infused cheese for Ireland! yum!). sliced Salami and sopressata and roast beef. Organic milk. Eggs. Frozen section: Tilapia loins. Grocery section: Columbian Supremo coffee beans. Chicken Broth. Long grain rice. Kirkland Olive oil Kirkland Balsamic vinegar. Dried fruits: apple, pear, blueberry, mango. Bacon Bits Adult Beverages: Kirkland triple distilled French Vodka. ****Rotisserie Chicken of course***** We have a Costco Business store here in Phoenix also. It caters to all kinds of businesses, but restaurants are a huge customer there. Any member can shop there also. Lots of open stock pots and pans (by the piece, not the set). I got a Sitram saucier there for about $30. They had Sitram pressure cookers for around $40 one year. I gave a couple as Christmas presents. My occasional items at the Costco Business (besides kitchenware) are: Quarts of heavy cream. Torani caramel sauce. Elbow macaroni and egg noodles. (the regular Costco does not stock these) Wedge of gorgonzola (another thing the regular Costco stopped carrying) Restaurant rye bread (sold by the loaf). I <heart> all my Costcos. (we even have a Costco Home furniture store here......)

Great blog. I have a question regarding a chain of restaurants in Mexico City. There are called La Parrilla Suiza (The Swiss Grill). We have a few in Arizona and I really enjoy the "Mexico City style" food there. But I've wondered, since I really have no idea what Mexico City style should taste like since I have never been there, how are these restaurants regarded in MX? Is it considered quality food or something akin to real-Italian-food vs. Olive-Garden-Italian-food? I really like the chuletas and their chicken soup is phenomenal. The table salsas are the best in town (by my standards) also.

I had huitlacoche soup in Mexicali once. It was very tasty. Wouldn't hesitate to eat it again. When I was growing up we grew 100 acres of super-sweet corn and always threw the "smut" ears away. Little did I know that "smut" was a delicacy.

I live in Phoenix and do a fair bit of solar cooking. Mostly I roast potatoes and vegetables. I also baked apples with success. I bought a Global knock-off cooker off ebay and have had a great time experimenting. My cooker is a metal box with a glass lid and a parabolic aluminum collar. I have found I need to 'vent' it a bit because of the moisture that comes off what is being cooked. It is not dry like an traditional oven. I need to find one of those black splatterware covered roasters because I think that would enhance the heat gain. I've gotten temps of 325-350 during the hottest parts of the day. You have to keep repostioning it to follow the sun and the temp will vary significantly even on days with just a few clouds drifting around. I've avoided raw meats so far, just used sausages and ham in the dishes I've made.

I like Poche's sausages a whole lot. Especially the alligator sausage. Located in Breaux Bridge LA Poches Market

Wow. Thank you. I didn't even know such a thing as Google Books existed until now. There's some treasures there! I love eGulleters................

Well, I really liked these shrimp. I compared them to the Costco frozen shrimp and the Desert Sweet Shrimp are very superior in texture and flavor. I just did a simple peel and eat serving. The Desert Sweet were called "e-z-peel" with the vein removed. The shells were very easy to remove. Everyone at the dinner preferred the "local" shrimp. They were sweeter and crisper. I will be buying them again. The Costco shrimp, which I had been buying all along and liked just fine, had a mustier flavor and kind of a wateriness to the texture. So, now I have been schooled a bit on shrimp quality.

Yes, it seems Arizona ordering makes it more economical. I ordered the jumbos and it was about $5.80 shipping. I'll post a review when I get them.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/food/188064 I'm going to try these very soon. I'm impressed with the technology and attention to quality. I need to be schooled on shrimp. I didn't realize most shrimp we eat is not from the US. http://www.desertsweetshrimp.com/index.html from the article: "Fry them, boil them, grill them, chop them into salads. Everybody loves shrimp — tasty, succulent and straight from the Arizona desert. Uh, that's right, some of the best-tasting shrimp you can buy, according to its own surveys, comes from a shrimp farm in Gila Bend, which is southwest of Phoenix along Interstate 8. Shrimp in the desert? Sort of takes the sea out of seafood. The farm raises "desert sweet shrimp," a product it shamelessly declares to be "the world's best-tasting shrimp." Gary Wood, whose family owns Desert Sweet Shrimp, said that in taste tests at fairs and exhibits, their shrimp wins 95 percent of the time. It is lower in iodine and contains less salt and no additives, he said. " This is cute! quote: "He said the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago buys his shrimp to feed its exhibit animals because the product is pure. Some animals practically demand the desert shrimp. "Otters are finicky eaters," Wood said." The "green" part described: "Our niche is we're locally grown, and it's sustainable aquaculture," Wood said. "We don't ever discharge the water." The water from the ponds is used to irrigate other crops, alfalfa and olive trees. "We've shown the plants grow twice as fast with this system," Collins said. That led to two new products, a buttery-tasting olive oil, also sold on the Internet, and a thriving nursery trade in landscape olive trees. The smart water system used on the farm was studied at the University of Arizona's Environmental Research Laboratory, where researchers, including Kevin Fitzsimmons, have been developing healthier shrimp stocks and eco-friendly production techniques." (edited for clarity and in case the link goes bye-bye, thanks gfron1!)

When I microwave poach, I slightly pierce the yolk ( I use a steel swizzle stick) and then cook. I've never had a yolk go "pop" on me. I learned the poke method off the net some months ago.

The margarita flavor is very very good. I have been known to "recipe" that with the jalapeno jelly belly for an extra zippy taste. The raspberry and chocolate pudding is my favorite-ist combo. Juicy pear is the flavor that wins solo. and I like the buttered popcorn too. (oh and the chocolate covered ones are called JBz and the Jelly Belly seconds (imperfects) are called Belly Flops)

When I was a kid, a guy named Euell Gibbons came out with a book on how to eat "nature". I was fascinated and I think I found the recipe for sumac lemonade in his book. Edible sumac grew all along our riverbed, as did elderberries. I made sumac lemonade several times. I remember boiling the berries and then adding lots of sugar. The berries are furry, the little furs will float in the water so straining the solution makes it more palatable. IIRC, it was alot like lemonade, we kids liked it.

Oh my gosh, I would be in heaven with that plate in front of me. I love maple flavored everything and anything. Can you share the maple angelfood recipe???? pretty please?????

I tried these a couple weekends back. Garlic & Herb flavor, I think. I also, didn't hate them. They didn't make me do handsprings, but I thought they were sufficient to cure the crunchy, salty, snacky urge.

I grew up on fresh kielbasa soup. A couple of rings of fresh kielbasa, a small handful of dried Polish mushroom, cooked for about an hour, creamed with sour cream, and served with macaroni. A splash of vinegar in the bowl was a popular addition.

I have drunk milk with 'sketti, chinese food, pizza, etc..... never a second thought of it. But I have not been able to rationalize drinking milk while eating a salad. Milk + raw veggies + oil/vinegar = yuck! My version of a Happy Meal is an In-n-Out single animal-style and 2 Milks! Without fail, the counter help always stumble over it "2 Milks? 2? Milks?".

We are very Costco spoiled here in Phoenix. I have 3 regular Costco's within 15 miles of me. We also have a Costco Home (specializing in home furnishings) and a Costco Business. I love the Costco Business because you can buy open stock Sitram cookware, big cartons of heavy cream, and many, many assorted restaurant kitchen gadgets (metal tongs were .99 there last week). Costco Business carries Torani syrups for like $4-5 for the big bottle. oh, and no plastic bags here either. A loooong time ago they used to have small plastic bags to put clothing purchases in so they wouldn't get dirty, but that only happened a couple time.

On a previous ramen thread, someone turned me on to Myoko (sp?) brand ramen. I found the Tom Yum version and duck version. The Tom Yum is great, there are 3 little packets, one with dried spices and shrimp(!) and fishcake(!), one soup base, and one spicy oil. The noodles are the mung bean glass noodles. I honestly couldn't figure out what to add above the included goodies. Man, that was good good good! I prefer the glass noodles over the yellow noodles now, they are so delicate. I think its a Thai brand. I haven't tried the duck version yet.

Powdered sugar (use the spice mill with white sugar) Brown sugar (use molasses with white sugar)

This is a huge hydroponic operation near Willcox, Arizona. I've been waiting for them to start giving tours, I think it would be fascinating to see the growing process. My local Costco occasionally carries the Roma tomatoes too. They are fantastic.

I'm curious. Is the gaminess truely inherent to the meat of wild-living animals, or is it a by-product of the extra hanging/aging used to make the meat tender? ← I've never had venison that tasted game-y, I prefer to call it venison-y. The farmed venison I had in New Zealand was a flavor unto itself also, definately not like beef or elk. Our native deer here travel alot for a meal. There is no fat, it's all muscle and they eat desert and scrub plants. Back in Michigan, the deer on my Dad's farm were corn and soybean fed. Bet they tasted a bit different from the Arizona deer. I think it mostly diet that flavors the meat, age certainly makes a difference. Ours was a young male and he was dressed out quickly and correctly. I still have the loin to cook, that cut will surely determine the true flavor of the meat. I will be soaking it in buttermilk first. As far as gaminess, wild rabbit takes the prize for me. Such a strong flavor, nothing like farmed domestic rabbit.

I made a Vietnamese sausage from my husband's deer (blended with ground pork to add fat and a softer texture). The deer in Arizona are small, 75 lbs, and eat a dry diet mostly. The sausage came out very well and the most popular use I've found for it is potstickers. I just use premade wonton skins. I cook them as traditional potstickers, and lately have been adding them to a wonton soup. The shrimp paste, galangal, lime leaves, ginger, cilantro, etc .... really seemed to cover any gaminess that might have been in the meat. I cannot discern any off flavors.

I've been so happy lately because my local Costco is selling a Belgian sampler case with a six each of Leffe Blond, Hoegaarden, and Stella Artois. $18.99. Recently, a BevMo opened nearby, first one in Az, and they carry the Boont, Pranqster, and the Unibroues we enjoy too. They also have a great daily price on Alaskan Amber, our mainstay brew. Yay for Beer!