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jsmith

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Posts posted by jsmith

  1. I use the Sainted Julia's method, which works on burgers as well as steak:

    1. Relax your hand, turn it palm down and poke the meaty area between the base of the thumb and the base of the index finger.  That's rare.

    2. Turn the hand over and poke the meaty area between the base of the thumb and the wrist.  That's medium.

    3. Touch the tip of your nose.  That's well done.

    Thanks, I can tell a steak by feel, but found it harder on a burger for some reason. I'll pay more attention next time.

  2. Not trying to take this off topic, but how do you judge when a medium or medium rare burger is done? I've got steak down fine, I just press it, and look at the juices and I know how far along it's come. I don't find burgers react the same way. Is it just an experience thing? I cook about 5 times the amount of steak as burgers so maybe I just haven't cooked enough?

    I always end up destroying my burger to check the insides and then serve everyone else the nice ones. I want a pretty burger too!

  3. To some, serving a live lobster or fish with half of its body cut up and its flesh being eaten in front of its eyes is a delicacy, a show without any further thought. It can even be a revered cultural practice. To others it is a crime. I'd hate to polarize the issue, but when controversy is added to the mix, the end result is always two extreme sides feuding with one another nonstop.

    I'm still not convinced that the original lobster that started this thread was alive when it was served. All that was stated was that it was twitching.

  4. I'm sure someone will defend the practice by saying the lobster was dead already, and the quivering was just post-mortum muscle spasms. Whatever...

    I don't know about that particular dish, but I've killed crab before and they kept twitching for a long time afterward. I'm 100% sure it was dead as the legs were still moving after they had been removed from the crab.

    Why do you dismiss the post-mortum muscle spasms so quickly?

  5. A lot of Grocery stores in Toronto charge $0.05 per bag which does seem to help reduce usage. In Ireland they charge something like $0.30 per bag and have reduced plastic bag usage by more than 90%.

  6. I can answer the 2nd part: Fish is not considered "meat" for Kosher meals, since it is not a mammel (and doesn't feed it's young with it's own milk).

    So is a fillet-o-fish kosher then, or does the other non kosher food "prepared" there negate that?
  7. I'm actually surprised that so many people don't care for whole wheat pasta here- I really LIKE the Bionatura pastas. I especially adore the ones that are shaped like weird shells, almost a tube that wanted to become a shell. I also like Luigi Vitelli organic whole wheat Linguini, and Mishpacha is my last and least choice, but I do buy a LOT of their macaroni. I actually LIKE the hearty bite and wheaty flavor of these pastas! I prefer whole wheat pasta in a thicker linguine rather than a delicate angel hair or spaghetti, as well. Go figure!

    I make a lot of chunky sauces, fresh tomatoes or other vegetables, lots of herbs, or olive oil and fish- and don't cook many meat or cream sauces, as a rule, so maybe my stronger flavored sauces do better with the whole wheat pastas than a traditional Amer/Italian red sauce or cream based one.

    I've made  sheets in the wind, basically thin sheets torn into pieces, with whole wheat mixed into the semolina. I served it tossed with rabe that had been sauteed in olive oil with garlic, capers and fresh floured and fried anchovies- and lots of Pecorino on the top.  It was hard to work with the dough, but it tasted pretty good, earthy!

    I may as well out myself as well. I prefer whole wheat macaroni and cheese to white pasta. As for other sauces, if I'm taking pasta to lunch or something it's usually jarred sauce and cheap dried pasta. I find most cheap dried pasta is pretty crappy, so I use the whole wheat. It isn't great, but it's a convenient way to get complex carbohydrates if I'm going to the gym later.

    If it's fresh, I generally like white pasta better.

  8. Smooth baby....real smooth!

    I switched to Laura Scudder's Natural with salt to be healthier but I'll always love, and still use on occasion Jiff creamy. 

    psst.... I like my oj with pulp.

    ok, my theory is offically shot to hell. There goes my research grant.

  9. Hope nobody minds me going little off topic, but the above discussions raised a couple questions for me:

    Are Catholics not supposed to eat meat every Friday throughout the year, or just during Lent?

    I know Kosher doesn't allow mixing meat and dairy, but is fish considered meat?

  10. The thermostat controls how hot it gets , so blocking wont let it get any hotter

    Bud

    Small correction, the thermostat controls how hot the oven gets assuming it is possible for the oven to get that hot in the first place. If the oven light is constantly on, and it's still not reaching the proper temperature it's not the thermostats fault. An extreme example would be trying to reach 500 degrees with the door left wide open. In this case it would be due to the venting and not the thermostat.

    Look at the oven light (the one that indicates when it's heating). If it's on the whole time then your oven isn't capable of reaching that tempurature. If it turns off at 400 degrees there is a calibration issue. That said, my oven has a hole as described and can reach 500 degrees no problem (and it's a pretty crappy oven).

  11. If it's not too personal a question for all the one-thing-at-a-time-til-it's-gone people, do you turn your plate, or do you just move to the next thing?

    I used to eat like this, and I rotated the plate. It wasn't a neurosis or anything, I did it subconsciously. Sometimes I would catch myself and try the different foods and I didn't freak out or anything, I just find it more enjoyable to take my time on each item.

    Now, I usually eat about half of one food, go onto the next so I make the round twice. I find it much more satisfying to eat the food this way as opposed to a bite of this, a bite of that. If I just eat chicken for a while, for example, I can really immerse myself in it and enjoy the chicken. I might notice different aspects of the food over time. If the food is really messy I enjoy spending the time on it where it becomes a nuisance if I'm eating other stuff and I go for a single bite of something time consuming.

    I find when I eat everything at once it's like flipping through channels on tv where nothing really sinks in or leaves an impression.

  12. I find it much more difficult to eat broken spaghetti. The pasta doesn't seem to bind into a solid mass nearly as well when twirling it. I usually just end up with spaghetti on my fork that is falling all over the place, and there are double the number of ends sticking out. And isn't the fun of spaghetti the twirling as much as the eating?

    I usually just put the pasta in and then push it down as it becomes flexible after about 30 seconds.

    That said, if you don't have the above difficulties go for it, the pasta will still have the same texture/flavour as the unbroken.

  13. Three things I don't understand that I see reoccuring in the multiple tipping threads:

    1) As MSRadell pointed out, what's up with the inflation of tipping percentages? I don't have an issue with it being 20% or whatever, I just don't understand the logic of it changing as tips rise with the cost of food/living.

    2) I see it frequently implied that one should tip a higher percentage at a more expensive restaurant. as with (1) the tip rises with the cost of food. I tend to do the opposite. 15-20% at a nice place, but if I spend $4 at a diner I will often leave $5-$6. That's a 25-50% tip, but it's only a buck or two out of my pocket.

    3) If one tips 20% in New York, why is it suddenly acceptable to tip 10-15% in Idaho? Things cost more in New York than they do in a small town so the tip will already be bigger.

  14. next time you find yourself in a McDonalds, order a salad. I suggest the southwestern salad (if it's on the menu. That one vanished from the menu at a McDonalds in L.A., but it's still here at my local McDonalds in Dallas).   They aren't a half bad alternative.

    Just came across this article. Apparently the Big Mac is a healthier alternative to the Crispy Bacon Ranch Salad. Not that anyone goes there for health, but I thought it was pretty funny.

    And yes, this thread made me order a fillet o fish as well. My issue with McDonalds is not so much the initial flavour, but the flavour that stays with you four hours later.

  15. I don't mind as much someone carefully grabbing a couple rolls with their hands, it's the rummaging that bothers me.

    Two issues:

    1) I think your much more likely to get a cold from the people rummaging than the maybe sick baker as there are many people rummaging which increases the odds of one of them being ill, compared to one or two bakers.

    2) As someone mentioned in the double dip thread it's an issue of personal space. I could go around the supermarket fondling people's genetalia and no one would get a cold or die. But the type of people do that or fondle the buns are never the people you really want to be doing so.

  16. Totally not getting the "potates and gravy" reference, sorry. I was talking about poutine; which is, after all, a snack food. And "limiting myself to one way of enjoying it"???? Huh?

    Sorry, I should of been more clear, I wasn't referring to your post when I mentioned the fries and gravy, I was mixing two thoughts in one post. I see a lot of fries and gravy bashing on this board, which is fine, it just surprises me as potatoes and gravy are such a great combination. The fact that you are a fan of poutine makes you automatically cool in my book.
  17. Thanks to all for the replies and the advice. I can't swing the EdgePro right now, much as I'd like to, but I found a brand-new (in box, sealed) Spyderco Sharpmaker 204 on eBay for $39. Should be here later this week.

    That's what I use, it works great. I would also suggest going to a camping store and getting an small extra coarse diamond sharpening stone like this:

    http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail....D=1202915086289

    When you get a new knife it usually won't be at the exact angle as the Sharpmaker. Rubberband the diamond stone to the flat side of one of the rods, and then sharpen away. The rods are great for touching up blades, but if you are sharpening a knife for the first time they won't be coarse enough to get down to the proper angle.

  18. Lasagna.

    It needs to be made with noodles that have been boiled. NOT those pasty abominations that 'cook' in the oven. *shudder*.

    I'm not picking on this one person, but I think this post illustrates why I disagree with much of this thread. I would much prefer my pasta to be fresh. I think there is always room for improvement in any food, and if you limit yourself to one way of enjoying it you will be missing out on a lot.

    French fries smothered in gravy is kind of nasty, but dipped in gravy is great. What's so controversial about potatoes and gravy?

  19. In my experience scary sharpening was more suited to chisels than knives. With the knives the sandpaper on the edge of the block wore away quickly, leaving the middle still rough. Then the top of the blade would sharpen much more quickly than the bottom, giving it a weird shape. I did it on a marble block, maybe the mouspad's flexibility alleviates this? I still say go for a real stone or a sharpening system.

  20. Out of curiousity do people who like the peanut butter creamy prefer pulp free orange juice, and vice versa? I've always had this theory that people who like crunchy peanut butter like pulpy orange juice, and people who like creamy peanut butter like pulp free, but I've never tested it.

    For myself crunchy natural style, and (horrors) salt free.

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