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LuckyGirl

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Everything posted by LuckyGirl

  1. I'm curious as to why you would order a fresh bird from Amazon. Is it hard to find fresh turkey where you live? (Don't mean to sound like a S.A. I just don't understand when one might want to order a turkey vs. buying one locally)
  2. I can't say that I notice a difference in taste either. I didn't quit buying then because I noticed a taste change but because I prefer not to use/eat products with hydrogenated oils. There are other products that I believe the switch to HO's changed the taste of but that's a whole other topic. Whether those flavor changes are from the HO itself or other recipe changes when HO was added, maybe yet another thread I do notice a difference in how Oreos taste now compared to how they used to taste but I'm not sure what accounts for that difference.
  3. Another cookie came to mind. I used to really like the Nabisco chocolate wafer cookies but no longer buy them since the are now made with hydrogenated oil.
  4. I agree with JAZ who mentioned LU Petit Ecolier cookies (dark or extra dark chocolate). That is the only commercially produced cookie I can think of that I would eat. Oh, I like Trader Joe's triple ginger cookies too but I don't think either may be what Steve was looking for. Certainly, you can't get either from a vending machine. I was thinking he meant more commonly available? I used to like Oreo cookies but it has been a long time since I enjoyed them. I'm guessing it has to do both with their recipe change and my tastes changing. For commercial candy the only thing I'm really down with are Mounds or Almond Joys (though the almonds are always stale). I still occasionally buy a Hershey's chocolate bar (plain or with almonds) and when I finish it I always wonder why I keep doing that.
  5. The only time I eat Subway is when we're on the road travelling (car trips) and we need something fast in a pinch. In those situations I will get a Subway sandwhich- wheat bread with spinach, peppers (green and pickled), olives, cheese, salt, pepper, vinegar and oil. That's it. I don't do deli meat. If you're in a pinch, ss far as fast food options go, Subway is the least egregious to me.
  6. LuckyGirl

    Cilantro

    I too have always found the cilantro thing interesting. It used to be that I could not stand cilantro. The soapy taste of it was so strong it could make my toes curl. Even the smell of it was offensive. This made eating the food of many of the cuisines that I really enjoy difficult. Cilantro was not palatable raw or cooked though cooking somewhat diminished the offensiveness. Like Ronnie's experience mine was one where one day, all of the sudden I had a taste for it. How weird is it that one would actually crave something that had once been so hugely offensive? I now adore cilantro and actually crave dishes where it is used. I understand the genetic thing (somewhat) but what really perplexes me is how people's tolerance for it can change (in either direction). It seems to me that for some reason, some folks have palates that are super sensitive to some tastes. I can not stand anything made with goat's milk. I love the stinkiest blue cheeses, the runniest and or ripe cow's milk cheeses and the sharpest sheep's milk cheeses but anything goat is revolting to me. I can taste the tiniest amount of it no matter how buried it is in a dish. My sister once serves a pre-made, frozen quiche and I could not eat it for the taste of goat cheese. Everyone else at the table thought I was nuts as they didn't taste the goat's cheese (these are all people who eat goat cheese regularly and have pretty developed palates). My sister fished the box the quiche had came in out of the trash and of course, the ingredients listed goat's cheese. I was astonished that while it tasted so pronounced to me none of the other folks at the table could even taste it. That is when it occurred to me that some people just have palates that are super sensitive to some things. The same is true for me with escargot. I can not stand the taste of them. To me, escargot taste intensely, intensely, like dirt. I would actually rather eat dirt than escargot. I love bulots but ground snails, no way jose.
  7. This morning I decided to return to sampling some of the Dragonwells that I ordered from Ten Ren. I am drinking their "First Flush Organic Dragonwell". After drinking Oolongs for the past week the Dragonwell's veggieness was a little intense at first (maybe intense is too strong, more like notable or striking)but I quickly settled into enjoying this tea. It does have vegetal tastes but not sharp, green ones like asparagus but rather like a light, roasted veggie flavor. Does that make sense? This tea offers lightly nutty and toasty qualities in addition to the mild vegetal qualities. It is lightly sweet with a mellow sweet finish. I was struck by something like mango or apricot in the first steeping but that is gone with the second brew. It doesn't seem this is a tea that would offer more than two steeps when brewed Western Style even though I was a little generous on the leaf to water ratio. I guess I wasn't expecting many steeps for a green tea but rather was hoping that I might be able enjoy more than the first cup. I'm learning, I'm learning. I think I have settled into enjoying Oolongs more than I initially enjoyed greens, specifically Dragonwells, but as I taste and learn I'm guessing I will find that I move back and forth between the two. I like this tea but I'm wondering where it will fit into my tea drinking i.e. when I will want the more mellow cup of green vs. the more robust oolongs.
  8. I got 3 nice cups and 1 so-so cup out of it today. I must have used more tea and less water when I first tried it.
  9. King's Dark Superfine brewed western style, about 3 grams to 12 oz. water. I love this tea. It is roasted, toasty, nutty, slightly sweet goodness. It is deep and rich, round on the tongue. I am still using my samples from Ten Ren. When I checked their website to see the price of this tea I discovered that yet again it is one of the pricier teas. However, like some of the other more expensive teas that I have liked, if I can steep this tea many times then the cost per cup is not so out of line. I'm on my third infusion with no loss of goodness. I think that the last time I tried this tea I got 6 or 7 steeps.
  10. I received my sample Thursday. It is one whole piece of compressed leaves and stems. My husband joked that I shouldn't carry teas like this when travelling as on first sight they could easily be mistaken for *something* else. The clump of tea has a delicious sweet, green smell too it. I don't mean green in a young green way but rather it has a deep, luscious, developed green aroma. Is that depth of the green notes from the fermenting? In the cup the tea is deep golden-honey. The nose or aroma of the brewed tea doesn't give me the greenness that the cake did. I don't get the vegetal notes that the Norbu Tea site mentioned. I get an earthiness, not a mustiness but a sweet earthiness. I also get something that I struggled to know what to call and I think it is best described as a sweet tobacco taste (enjoyable). I get no bitterness from this tea and nary any astringency save for an ever so slight bit of tannin on the end which gives an enjoyable *little* touch of counterpoint to the sweetness and roundness of this rich tea. I brewed today's tea western style with the leaves floating in the pot not stuck in the strainer basket. I used about a third of the sample, roughly 3 grams, to 10-12 ounces of water just at the boil. The first steep was 4 minutes. I felt I the tea would have been better served with a wee bit less water but it was a wonderful cup of tea nonetheless. The second steep was 10 ounces of water for 5 minutes and it was equally as enjoyable as the first cup. In on my third cup which I let steep for 6 minutes. It is loosing it's depth and body. I wonder if I had let it go longer whether or not it would have achieved the same depth and body as the first two cups had. The second cup of this tea I had along side a lightly buttered piece of toast with elderberry jam. Oh my goodness was this a pairing to sing about. I have never had tea with food that paired the way this did. The toast was a slightly yeasty white bread made from a local bread bakery that makes home-style breads. The yeasty, toasty goodness of the toast with the little bit of richness from the butter and the light sweetness and perfume of the jam combined with this tea to make something magical. It's the kind of pairing that is so striking I wish I could share it! I really, really liked this tea and am looking forward to trying it gong fu style next time. Well, I steeped it a fourth time, 10 ounces of water for 7 minutes, better than the third steep not as nice as the second.
  11. I am on the 5th or 6th infusion of Ten Ren's "Superfine Pouchong". Wow, am I enjoying this tea. It has a greenness to it without being vegetal. It has a balance between earthy, floral and fruity notes. By fruity I mean it puts me in the mind of golden raisins, dried dates or something along those lines. It has an soft sweetness to it and the finish gave me an almost jasmine like flavor lingering in my mouth. The leaves of this tea are the same shape and size as the Alishan Oolong that I had at Ching Ching Cha in D.C. The amount and size of stem is the same too. In fact, other than these leaves not being as brown as that Alishan Oolong thy look the same. Fortunately this lovely tea didn't have the same harsh astringency that the Alishan had for the first several steepings. This is one of the more expensivee teas that I ordered but considering the number of enjoyable steeps thus far I am eager to try it again.
  12. Exactly. Put your yogurt in a cheesecloth and hang it until it is about half the original volume, and you've got Greek yogurt. Let it hang until it is about a quarter of the original volume, and you can spread it like cream cheese. Hmmmmm. Recently I've been lamenting the fact that there is no decent cream cheese available here in Cleveland. I am going to try straining Fage and see if what I get is something that I could use in place of cream cheese for baking and spreading on bagels, toast etc.
  13. Oriental Beauty (Bai Hao Oolong or Champagne Formosa Oolong)from Ten Ren. Sorry to sound like a broken record about Ten Ren but I am working my way through the many samples that I ordered from them. This is the first tea I've tried that I really dislike. It is very perfumey and floral, too much so for my enjoyment.
  14. Well, I took the advice and didn't worry about getting all the innards of the seeds. The bad news is I didn't much enjoy the fat seeds from the "eating" pumpkins. The good news is since I didn't much enjoy these seeds I don't feel compelled to bother with the rest of the seeds from my bushel of pumpkins. That would have been a lot of seeds to do.
  15. Fun times last night at the Velvet Tango Room. Paulius of VTR and Brad of Bar Deville came up with the great idea to do a bartender swap. Last night Brad and Eric from Bar Deville were mixing up their sublime drinks at VTR here in the CLE and will be doing so again tonight. Carol and Julie from the VTR will be in Chicago mixing up VTR specialties at Bar Deville 9 & 10 November. Fun times and GREAT cocktails!
  16. That's the theft-deterrent chemical. Oh my, that gave me such a chuckle!
  17. Just don't touch your fingers to your lips after handling those purple, super strength, rubberbands. I don't know what it is but they leave a trace of something on one's fingers and it has a horrible bitterness to it.
  18. My house is the opposite; we never have enough pumpkin seeds. Even growing up, when my Mom would roast the seeds every year, we kids always wanted more. I will say that the seeds we got from our jack-o-lanterns as kids were better than the seeds from the nicer eating pumpkins. The JOL seeds were thinner while the seeds from these pumpkins are thicker. I have roasted pumpkin seeds before where the seeds were so thick that they weren't that enjoyable to eat. I think you're right that a garden hose would probably go a good job getting the fiber from the seeds but I think that's a little more trouble than I'm interested in taking. I will hope that as Chris said the remaining fiber will sort of cook off. I don't remember my Mom's pumpkin seeds having as much fiber stuck to them as I always seem to have. I wonder if it is a case of poor memory.
  19. I had a Pouchong today (Ten Ren's First) and I think that is a very fitting way to describe the tea I had, undemanding and pleasing.
  20. I've always winged it with tea. Now that I am getting more into it I have ordered a small scale. I think this will especially help with getting the most from all the sample portions I ordered.
  21. What exactly is Western Style brewing? I gather from the posts in this thread that it refers to brewing tea in a typical "English" style teapot but beyond that what are the specifics? Is only as much water used as will fill the cup of the person or persons who will be drinking it or is a whole pot brewed and the tea left to sit in the pot with the leaves or is the tea poured into a second pot after steeping to hold it? TIA, Diane
  22. I have about a bushel of pumpkins to roast over the next week. I have been cleaning the seeds that I scrape out before roasting the pumpkin as I would like to roast the seeds later. It is a real PITA to clean the sting and flesh from the seeds. Any suggestions for making it easier? I have read about splitting the pumpkins and leaving the seeds it while roasting. Does anyone have any experience with that? I'm thinking the string and flesh would peel away from the seeds easier. I have so much pumpkin to process that I will try the above with the next batch but I'm wondering if there are any other tricks.
  23. Right now I am enjoying the Alishan, Jin Xuan Oolong from Ten Ren. I am really liking this tea, far more than the Alishan I had at Ching Ching Cha in D.C. This one has very little astringincy compared to the on I had at CCC. I love the light roasting. I still get the green tea elements but with a little more depth and just a hint of toastiness. It is very mellow without being weak. The first infusion was with the tea in the basket of my pot but the leaves needed more room so the second infusion I emptied them from the basket into the pot.
  24. In that case I found that the method above is fastest, 4-5 inch length, slice lebgthwise to get thin sticks and chop across. I just got a new global chef's knife so I've been having a blast chopping-sorry we're not neighbors or I'd do the celery for ya! My husband and I took a knife skills class recently. It was pretty elementary and I didn't leard as much as I was hoping to but I did have the opportunity to try the instructor's Global chef;s knife. I LOVED it. Loved the weight of it, the way it felt in my hand and how it worked. My standard knife is a MAC chef's knife (don't know which off the top of my head) and I love it. I had never held or used another knife that I like nearly as much as my MAC until I used that global. I have wanted another good knife for a while and it's going to be that Global, for Christmas I hope.
  25. Thanks for the Nilgiri thread link. I am drinking the third steeping of Ten Ren's first grade jasmine. I first brewed it yesterday evening while having pho for dinner with a friend. I used about 5 grams of tea to about 20 oz. of just under the boil water. I let it steep for about 4 minutes (maybe closer to three, not exactly sure). My first cup was a fairly deep chestnut color with a bit of a reddish hue, not at all the yellow-greenish hue the site's description said it would have. My first thoughts upon my first sip were: very little, barely noticeable astringency and lovely balance between the flavors of the green tea and the jasmine scent. This tea has a fuller medium body (7.5 on a scale of 10) and a nice round mouthfeel. My next few sips revealed the sweetness of the tea and an enjoyable sweet, floral finish. The tea seems a little toastier than what I would think of for a green tea. What I mean is that if one could take away the jasmine scent it seems to me like it would drink like a dark oolong not a green tea. Not saying that is good or bad, just an observation. I saved the leaves to re-steep this morning as I felt they still had goodness to give. I was right, the second infusion was just as enjoyable as the first with no marked difference in the body or depth of flavors. If anything, the tea's sweetness was a little more apparent. I am now drinking the third infusion of this tea and it is starting to suffer. I get more astringency and less body. The flavors toastiness of the green tea is still there as is the scent of the jasmine though that is noticeable lighter. Over all it is not as nicely balances as the first two infusions were. This one is thrown off by the new level of astringency. I rarely have a cup of jasmine tea rather I make it in the summer to keep in the fridge for iced tea, a few quarts at a time, with a little lime juice, zest and honey. I think this tea will be lovely for my summer iced tea. At $16.00 for 4 ounces it is slightly more spendy than I would want for my summer iced tea but I suspect it is what I will use unless I happen accross one that I like as much that saves a little coin. I am eager to get back to my oolong and green samples. I have another jasmine to try but, not today.
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