Bonnie Ruth

I can't say I have any ideas, as I am way behind you (no spreadsheet!), but I am looking forward to seeing what other people say. I too simply forget about dishes I really like, and I feel completely haphazard in how I plan my menus. I end up using a lot of recipes from the newspapers just because they are in front of me.

I read the article and thought Chang sounded very arrogant. The article didn't even talk about reasons for the customer's requests, which of course could be health-related. But even aside from that, it is becoming pretty well-known that tastes are extremely individual, and genetic. So, come on, there is no one "right" way of preparing anything. If a customer request is easily accommodated, it seems to me it is sheer inhospitality, and unworthy of any fine restaurant, not to accommodate it. Shouldn't such a restaurant be courteous enough to do what most of us would do for a guest in our own home? I wonder how the wait staff in Chang's restaurant is instructed to respond to such requests.

I have made stock using just chicken feet and do not recommend it: IT BOUNCED. Seriously, it was so gelatinous, I couldn't use it.

I would like to know why beans don't seeme to taste quite as flavorful when I cook them in the pressure cooker. Am I perhaps cooking them too long, or is there nothing that I can do?

I have definitely had fish sauce go bad. I had to throw out a whole dish because of it. Now if I have had some open for a while, I smell it before using.

Nevertheless, I will brine for 4 hours, season under the skin, air dry over night, roast breast down, use caul fat, and love the bird. Sounds convincing, but can you tell me what caul fat is and how you use it?

So how much salt do you use in your brine for a heritage turkey?

and I know I've eaten lots of pine nuts -- plain and in things. Never had them go rancid, and never experienced that taste disorder. ← Can someone explain how a pine nut gets oxydized?

Can you tell us where to find such a coupon site?

And what is meant by sea level saltiness? Is there a certain ratio of salt to water?

Same here, I don't buy much prepared food and use sea salt in cooking, but I do put iodized in the salt shaker for the sake of the iodine.

Than how would we know if we were getting Yukon River runs? I really love Copper River salmon and will pay the price for it given its season is so short, but I'd like to know more about this Yukon River. I only buy king at those prices, thought, have always found sockeye disappointing.

I get wonderful grass fed, dry aged beef from Aldersprings Ranch in Idaho. They give some suggestions for cooking it, maybe even on their web site. The one I particularly note is that it usually requires less cooking time than feedlot beef. I have not cooked one of their roasts yet but have cooked rib eyes several times and short ribs a couple of times. With the steaks, I brown in a pan on the stove and finish in the oven, checking about every minute to make sure I don't overcook. The short ribs of course were cooked in liquid, so no problem there. Now that my husband and I have grown accustomed to the grass fed flavor, we like it better.

I wish I would somehow learn to like olives, but it has not happened yet. I cannot eat anything with olives in it, no matter what kind. Well, the exception is a martini, but I don't eat the olives. But what nauseates me to the point I have to get away from it is even the scent of canned or frozen green peas. YUCK! Airlines used to put peas on breakfast trays once in a while (back when they served breakfast), and I would get instantly ill and not be able to eat anything on the tray. Most things I hated as a kid, such as squash and eggplant, I like now, but not peas. I love mayonnaise, milk and eggs in any form.

Funny, our burners spend most of their time on very high or very low, only occasionally stopping in the middle. High heat for searing, stir-frying, dry-roasting, boiling water, etc. Low heat for simmering, braising, cooking rice. Medium heat? Hmm, I’d have to think about that. ← Many recipes say to use medium or medium high heat. And my All Clad pan came with instructions recommending not going above medium high heat. I do have a stove with a lot of btu's, but I seldom use the highest setting except for boiling water or searing steak.