Beebs

Hi DeliGirl I worked in a retail / cafe establishment and we used Microsoft Dynamics RMS. I can't recall how much it cost but I don't think it set us back that much, probably under $5K. I really liked this program, very user-friendly, had all the bells & whistles of what we needed for a simple retail operation, including inventory control, purchase orders, customer profiles, etc. Because it's Microsoft, it integrated with Excel (I don't know about Quickbooks...probably not). Quite a step up from previous POS systems we used. However, it is a retail system, not restaurant, so if your establishment is more restaurant-y than retail (ie, putting food orders into the kitchen, seating, etc), MS Dynamics probably won't work for you. It's been over 6 yrs since I've used that system, so I don't know what has changed. Good luck!

I've usually had them in soups or hot pots. Some type of meat/seafood ball is almost always a "must" in hot pot! The seafood balls are pretty common around here in a curry ("curry fishballs"), but I am not a big fan of this preparation. You could slice them up and throw them in chow mein or lo mein - the seafood balls tend to be pretty bouncy in their ball form, unless you want to go chasing them around the kitchen.... I can't tell from the package whether they're pre-cooked or not. Are there cooking directions on the back? In the Asian supermarkets here, you can get them pre-cooked and raw, frozen and fresh.

Throw them in a tapenade or make a sundried tomato pesto. Sundried tomato pesto is really tasty in a sandwich.

Why I hope it's the next big thing? Or why it's my new favourite? It's my new fave because I never cooked rutabaga till I got a giant one in my fall CSA box - never bought it before, didn't know what to do with it. Did some googling and roasted one half of the thing, save the other for something else (it was really big, had to use a cleaver). Oh Em Gee - it was a revelation, sweet, delicious, flavourful. The other half, mashed it with a potato & cream - yum! I thought of it because I made a curry coconut soup with chunks of rutabaga for last night's dinner. It's so versatile & keeps a long time, too. I hope rutabaga gets its 15 mins in the spotlight, because there seems to be a trend for funny, weird, uncool veg that people normally/traditionally turn up their noses at, to have a moment of coolness. Like brussel sprouts and beets and turnips (none of which I'd turn my nose up at!). Go, Mighty Rutabaga!!

I hope it's rutabaga. Rutabaga is my new favourite vegetable.

^^^BAH!! Weird posting today..... Anyway, along the same tangent...how is "dressing" different from "stuffing"? Or is it just a regional thing? First time I heard "dressing" used, I couldn't figure out what salad dressing had to do with turkey!

Widely available around here is salty fish fried rice. It's so good - fried rice with salty, pungent bits in each mouthful! It's usually yellow (from egg yolks??) and sometimes brownish, with bits of egg and/or diced chicken in it. I don't think I've ever seen white fried rice in the restaurants here, though. At home, I use Maggi sauce in my fried rice instead of soy.

Tea, if I'm at home or the office. Coffee usually, if I'm out and about. It's easier to get a decent cup of coffee in most places than a decent cup of tea.

Maggi tastes sort of like liquid Marmite. We always have Maggi in our kitchen, but I've never really used it for actual cooking, just as a condiment. It's absolutely fabulous on boiled and fried eggs, definately an umami bomb!

Lucky you - SF is one of my favourite cities, wish I was going too! Head over to the Ferry Building in the morning on a farmers market day and check out Roli Roti. It's a rotisserie truck specializing in rotisserie chicken and porchetta sandwiches. Those - with the potatoes roasted in chicken/pork fat - were one of the best breakfasts I've ever had.

I cooked kohlrabi for the first time this year, when I received some in my CSA box. They make fabulous fritters. There's quite a lot of liquid in them, so squeeze the shredded kohlrabi out well.

+1 for Lapsang Souchong. I don't have my own wood-burning fireplace. Lapsang is as close as I can get.

Try Gourmet Warehouse on Hastings or Legacy Liquor at Olympic Village.

Cheetos, the puffy kind. I justify eating the entire bag because Cheetos are mostly air anyway.

I was told they're "cooking pumpkins", so I'll assume they're sugar pumpkins and not jack o' lanterns (I hope). They're bigger than how the kabocha posted above looks. I really suck at estimating weight, but I'm guessing they're about 5-6 lbs each. Ha! The Dorie Greenspan pumpkin recipe was the first one that caught my eye when I searched pumpkin recipes, it sounds so good! I can probably cut the pumpkin in half, even though that won't give it the "wow" appeal. Thanks for the suggestions, folks!

My CSA ended a couple weeks ago and I'm already starting to miss the weekly fresh veggie haul. I've still got left a few carrots, one rutabaga, big handful of sunchokes, two large-ish pumpkins, spaghetti squash, and delicata squash. I can probably figure out what to do with everything but I'm a little daunted by the two pumpkins. Any suggestions on savoury pumpkin applications that's not pie? There's a lot of pumpkin....

Kidney. Ick ick bleechh! I like liver and tripe; other offal I can stomach. But something about the taste & texture of kidney is so off-putting and vile, and I've never been able to enjoy it.

Well, if we're talking about "weird" fish, I'll throw in shark, skate or eel. If you have access to one, hang out at an Asian fishmonger, there's plenty of "weird" stuff there without breaking the bank. If you want "fun" fish - a heaping plate of deep-fried whitebait. Not really an entree type dish, but so much fun to snack on!

+1 for mackerel. So freaking good, mouth waters when I think about it....

Bok choy is so versatile! Usually it's just stir-fried with ginger & garlic, but it's delicious with some fermented bean curd thrown in or a spoonful of XO sauce (dried scallop & chili sauce). Sometimes I'll do a cold salad with a soy & sesame oil vinaigrette dressing. You can use it the same way as chard for non-Asian preparations. My most inspired dishes were a bok choy & italian sausage pasta and a bok choy frittata.

Curry puffs! Mmmmmmm.......

Canola smells a little funky to me and seems to leave a weird sticky film on my pans (unless it's my poor pan-washing technique....). So I use corn oil for everyday cooking. But, canola is cheap and as others have mentioned, high smoke point is a plus. We did a deep-fried turkey last year for Thanksgiving and used canola, since the same amount of corn oil or peanut oil would have cost way more than the turkey itself, especially as most of it was going to be tossed out anyway.

I had a burger with a scoop of peanut butter on it - it was tasty. PB and bacon on toast is also good. Thinly-sliced raw turnip and butter on crusty bread makes a great snack (especially if you can get the little white Japanese ones).

Wow! Great ideas, folks - keep 'em coming! I do have access to a crockpot + electrical outlet, so I've been kicking around the idea of doing a pumpkin/squash soup (in keeping with the Halloween thing) or tortilla soup or chili. Or sign up for dessert duty and bring Nanaimo bars or pumpkin pie. Good points on quiches and savoury tarts keeping well at room temp. How does phyllo pastry do at room temp? Does it get soggy? And of course hearty cold salads of the grain/pasta/potato/bean kind are easy to make the night before and most people like them. Maybe I'll go for my mom's cold sesame noodles. I'd like to put a little effort into this, but not overly much, as I'm not keen on staying up too late cooking on a weeknight.

An upcoming potluck at my office got me thinking about this potluck topic and the Dreaded Office Potluck in general. Many of us on eGullet will probably agree that office potlucks can be scary affairs with even scarier consumables (although some gems can be found amidst the dreadfuls). Here's my problem: I haven't cooked for too many office potlucks (only one other - I brought a mixed green salad with prosciutto & walnuts, simple balsamic vinaigrette). My office is limited to a dinky microwave, fridge/freezer (not a lot of room in there), kettle, and toaster. No toaster oven. We have about a dozen people working here, most of whom will eat most things, and one extremely picky eater who likely won't be eating much of anything contributed. There will probably be a number of dishes of the creamy dip-like nature and store-bought stuff. So....what kinds of dishes do eGulleters contribute? How do you handle cooking for office potlucks? Any tried-and-true items that appeal to most co-workers, but also tasty? Incidentally, our Dreaded Office Potluck is planned for Halloween....scary, indeed!