nibor

My thinking is more like: the top of the can, which sometimes falls partially into the contents of the can, is filthy, as is the rim, which the contents pass over when you pour them out.Look, I don't touch the poles on the subway either. I'm not saying it's normal. ← Oh, I clean the tops of cans. This thread just made me think about how pointless that effort is considering the yukky state of my can opener. You sound normal to me! I avoid touching most hard surfaces in public places, but not because of germs. I am allergic to some colognes and also some of those cleaning fluids that people spray on, smear around, and let dry in place. If I put my elbows on a table or counter where they clean like that (restaurants that don't use tablecloths, banks, etc) the skin on my elbows blisters up and later cracks off in chunks. This method of cleaning is ubiquitous; I had to quit wearing short sleeves years ago. Now that I think about it, my elbows are good indicators of another source of food contamination. If your silverware is laid on a bare table, it is probably sitting on dried-up residue from a spray-on chemical cleanser. Those who are so inclined can start dwelling on this....

Cleaning off the top of a can... Huh. That implies that the hard-to-clean cutting blade gear-thing area on your can opener is cleaner than the top of a can. Mine isn't. How are you all accomplishing this?

I have noticed a lot of regional variation in the cleanliness of food in grocery stores. When I live in Germany I am not surprised to find feathers and chicken crap inside cartons of eggs. Or bags of potatoes with so much dirt in the bottom of the bag that I could almost start growing a new crop. And the pork chops are typically covered with grit from the bone saws. On the other extreme, the produce guys in my grocery here in southern California trim each brussels sprout individually before putting it on display. But washing off bone chips is a small price to pay for a tasty pork chop. I really hated moving back to the US and our water-infused, low-fat, dry, tasteless meat.

My KA is a couple of years old. I don't know it's horsepower, or whatever. But it doesn't strain a bit when I use the meat grinder, even if the meat is frozen. I am afraid of it!

I built up my kitchen in little bits, based on what I was cooking. When I started working on stews I realized my lack of a dutch oven was a problem. Until that point, I got along fine without one. So you could try just taking it as it comes..

But FG, weren't you just wondering why anyone would wash off meat?

I love any pancake as long as it is a banana walnut pancake.

I use the meat grinder to make duck pate. Works great. I don't find the size of the input opening a problem - the duck parts are pretty small to begin with.

Oh come on Kathryn, give in to temptation. I want to see to a New Years Blog starring BryanZ emanating from your apartment. Don't be a sissy! If BryanZ can run a restaurant out of his dorm room, think what he could in your flat!

Why not take Kathryn up on this - throw an eGullet party in her apartment! That would be a fun New Year. I would come but I live 2500 miles away.

i want to live where you live. ← That's easy - turn off the TV!

I don't care which one it is - it is time for a new photo please!

I compared this to the Julia Child recipe. Julia uses bread crumbs where Grandma M uses potatoes. Julia uses "bitter" orange marmalade, Grandma M uses carrots. Interesting substitutions in terms of sweetness, texture and color. It is also interesting to see Crisco here, where Julia called for melted butter. I was the one who said "yuk" in the thread on using shortening instead of butter in cookies. I do think Crisco is gross. Taste some, and taste butter, and tell me I am wrong... But my mom and her family (midwestern farm types, all dead now) used Crisco, a lot, and in all sorts things, without a second thought. Someone should write a thesis on the sociology of Crisco usage. I wonder how it was introduced to the average home cook via advertising. My mom thought butter-flavored Crisco was the ultimate solution for pie crusts. And hers were to die for. I do not have an opinion on that yet. After 50+ years of not caring what went down the hatch, I am a novice cook, and still working on the concept of a steamed pudding.

This is my first baking venture after being away for a year. I came home to an empty house and pantry, and thought, Great!, who needed all that stuff anyway. Well, I did. So off to the store to get cornstarch for my paste, and confectioners sugar for my soap. The names are great. Bkeith and Terrasanct, thanks for the differing notes on why a pudding would be called plum. I was afraid that my first steamed pudding attempt was going to go "plum" into the garbage, but it turned out really well. I don't celebrate Christmas personally, but was invited to a Christmas dinner this year, and wanted to do something traditional. It would have helped to have had some idea of where I was headed with this, but as usual Julia is a great place to start.

That new expensive AeroGarden hydroponic gadget seems built to solve this problem. Have any of you tried it? It looks suspiciously like a mold factory - which is what my terrariums and ant farms always morphed into when I was a kid.

I freeze leftover fresh herbs in ice cubes. For many uses the thawed herbs work just fine.

Those are great ideas. I will try them all. Thanks much!

I am working on Julia Child’s “A Glorious Plum Pudding For Christmas” from The Way to Cook. I think I have the steamed pudding part down pat now. I snuck some plums into this no-plum plum pudding by substituting them for black raisins (she calls for 1 cup each of black raisins, yellow raisins and currants). Otherwise I did as told, well almost. I used Panko crumbs instead of homemade white bread crumbs. And I added some cardamom. Yum. But I am not happy with her Zabaione sauce. It seems awfully harsh and alcoholic (it has 1/3 cup each of rum and dry Vermouth). Does anyone have an idea for a more elegant sauce for plum pudding?

Must be great not to care if you are poor. Guess I am older than you, or lack your trust fund!

I see that in my grandma-era recipes too. No idea why. Yuk. My mom is dead so I can't ask her.

One of the best deserts I ever had was ginger ice cream paired with hunks of pink grapefruit. The sum was a million times the parts. I don't even like grapefruit. This was at Eugene Kang's in Pasadena.

I keep thinking about this party and in particular the group photo where Alex and Aki, for all the cooking they do, are so slim. Oh to be young again!

Thanks much jackal10!

I still wonder if it is too late to make Xmas pudding this year. Another question: can you make steamed puddings in little individual sized molds or do you have to make one big one?

Not true! I had it for dinner the other night when I wasn't feeling well. Yummmm