Beebs

Does anyone have a good recipe recommendation for soft, chewy vanilla sugar cookies? Not the crunchy kinds for cookie cutters & decorating. A quick google search brought up lots of chewy sugar cookie recipes, but there's so much variation - some call for buttermilk, others cream of tartar, or cornstarch..... TIA!

I bought a box of Stash Chai teabags yesterday, just to do this! I usually do a whole bottle with whole spices, but this would be when I want it instant gratification.

Our Thanksgiving is over & done with, but we have had in past Thanksgivings & Christmases turkey meatball stew, prime rib roast, roast pork, roast chicken, cheese fondue and Chinese hotpot. My family doesn't dislike turkey, we just like other stuff better.

Oh dear, Mjx....your photo of that blobby mess of frozen fat rearing up out of your stock pot made me laugh so hard! Looking forward to seeing what you'll do with 3kg of rendered fat!

Cassoulet! I've never made it myself, but I'm going to fix that. Anyone recommend a good, fairly simple recipe? Can I replace duck confit with another meat?

This one wasn't on a stick, just piled in a paper container. It was super crispy, but wasn't particularly stinky, definitely not as stinky as the stewed ones. You can tell you're eating stinky tofu, but it was very mildly pungent. I don't believe the particular stuff we had was the norm for deep-fried stinky tofu, it was shatteringly crunchy - as in, I had tofu crumbs all over my front. The cousins we were visiting actually picked it up, but they told us the vendor is really popular and this stinky tofu is the best, it's their favourite. The stewed stuff is stinkier than natto, but I'd say it's got a similar taste to natto - you'd probably like stinky tofu!

I had my very first taste of authentic stinky tofu in Taiwan this year and it was a revelation. We went to a popular eatery in Shenkeng Old Street, an area famous for stinky tofu - the whole area had this amazing pungency that hit us in the face as soon as we hopped off the bus. We had two kinds - a spicy stew with pork blood cubes, and another stir-fried in sweet soy sauce. They were both absolutely delicious, smelled much stinkier than it tasted. Kind of earthy, mushroomy, slightly cheesy, a bit of tangyness. The next day we had a deep-fried version with spicy sweet sauce and pickles - really crispy, almost a flaky-fluffy texture. I also ate durian on the same trip. Tasted great, but digesting it the next day wasn't the highlight of the trip.

Check out this website: http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html Navigating it is a little wonky, but might provide some ideas for your dinner party.

I don't do camping - but how would you reconstitute it? Just add water? And is the turkey dinner in small bits mixed together, or would you have actual freeze dried slices of turkey and scoop of mashed potatoes? (Turkey dinners on the brain, because Canadian Thanksgiving coming up - and I'll bet freeze dried pumpkin pie would be seriously awesome! )

Is it possible to freeze-dry an entire meal - say, a turkey dinner or serving of lasagna? Not sure what the purpose would be, besides rampant curiosity!

One of my favourite tomato-based sauces is arrabbiata - tomatoes, garlic, crushed red chilis. I put lots of anchovy in mine, because, well, I love anchovies.

This is so cool! I'm just catching up on your freeze drying adventures now. I'm curious about freeze dried condiments (if you finally run out of things to freeze dry) - mayo, mustard, sriracha, fish sauce, worcestershire.... Actually, mustard might be pointless (powdered mustard?), but mayo could be interesting. Oooh! Freeze dried Bloody Caesar ingredients - Clamato, worcestershire, horseradish!

I am less bothered by asymmetrical plating with a completely blank part of the plate, than if it is occupied by a smear of something. I have an overwhelming urge to wipe up the smear with my napkin.

A locally-made chocolate recently won a "Top Chocolate Bar" title at the 2014 International Chocolate Salon - link. Not being much of a chocolate lover, I'm not familiar with neither Mink Chocolates nor the International Chocolate Salon. The chocolate bar does sound intriguing though - it's a 70% cacao, with burnt caramel, fleur de sel, and rosemary - will have to give it a try. Don't know how it'll rate as best chocolate I've ever had, but then again my standards are pretty low (Cadbury's Nut & Fruit Bar, FTW!).

Cinnamon Bun is tasty - I like it! I like things that are sweet-salty. Jalapeno Mac & Cheese is boring.

I really like the Philly cream cheese recipe too. When DH & I were dating, he made it for me using the recipe off the box. I remember one time he made it, but didn't do a good job on foil-wrapping the springform, and water from the water bath got in during the baking. We poured it off, and it was still perfectly fine (crust was a little moister than usual, though). I can't recall the exact recipe, but this one from their website looks about right Philadelphia New York Cheesecake

Oooh, I love savoury baked things! And I think I can easily eat that entire tart of yours by myself, it looks so good! I'm inspired to make curry puffs, maybe this weekend. I had sort of planned on it with the leftover half-pound of ground beef. But I used it up for something else, so no curry puffs.

The Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker! http://www.amazon.com/J11000EDI-Jamie-Oliver-Flavour-Shaker/dp/B000AGQ7YM This was from my cousin, but I think it was supposed to be a joke.... It's completely useless and a PITA to clean.

Link. Here's a link to an update on a local restaurant that had a no-tipping/higher-wages concept but had to revert back to the traditional model due to customer demand. In order for the no-tip concept to be viable, they had to price their menu about 18% above the norm for the area. Customers didn't go for this, didn't like that they didn't have a say on tipping. At some point, the restaurant would have priced themselves out of the market. The owner and a hospitality expert mentioned in the article both suggested that this no-tip model is way ahead of it's time.

I wonder if the noodle/dumpling thing is just a matter of being lost in translation. The Mandarin pronunciation for both flour dough and noodles sound the same, "mian" (I am completely illiterate in the language, so someone else can confirm if the written character is the same). Or specifically "mian fen" and "mian tiao" - but whenever anyone in my family said "mian", we all know which one is being referred to, from the context. So I suppose one could understandably lump dumplings, noodles, and anything made of flour in the same category, and I think it makes sense to put them all in the same chapter in a cookbook ("Stuff Made From Dough"). Although I have yet to see a Chinese style filled dumpling that looks remotely like a noodle, much less buns made of yeasted dough.... Except for flour dumplings in soup, "mian ge da", made of a thickish sticky batter of flour+water, thumb-sized blobs of which are dropped into simmering soup to cook, a bit like spatzle. Or like cutting noodles. One of my favourite comfort foods! And I'm going to contribute spatzle as another iconic noodle dish!

I snack on the crumbs from the bottom of the packet while waiting for the rest of the noodles to cook.

Chinese 5-spice might be interesting too. I think I'll try that next time. I've used chai masala spice and it worked out really nicely.

Caramel apple pie! And shocking for some folk, I also like raisins in my apple pie.

Taiwanese beef noodles Won ton mein Yakisoba Dan dan noodles Char kway teow Stir-fried beef ho fun (flat rice noodles) Packaged instant ramen (Nissin brand!)

When we were growing up, my mom would sometimes cook chicken broth noodles with a poached egg in it. The broth was usually the leftover liquid from a steamed or poached chicken. Other times, we'd get noodles in leftover Chinese-style broth soups, or instant ramen. With a poached egg. The poached egg is the best part.