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Kajikit

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Everything posted by Kajikit

  1. It never would have occurred to me to ask for a boiled egg for breakfast... but then they're not something I eat often. I do usually ask if they can do poached eggs, and the answer is usually yes. Of course, how WELL they're poached is the luck of the draw, but they're usually edible.
  2. Given the choice between a gilded or transferred chocolate and a plainer one on the same plate, I'd take the simpler one. I know that that decorative stuff is 'non-toxic' but that doesn't mean that it's really any good for you to eat it...
  3. Last year I was able to buy golden syrup in the supermarket in Florida - it was in a squeeze bottle with the pancake toppings. I haven't looked lately - a bottle lasts me several years because I only use it in two 'family' recipes. Another source is one of the 'English shops' scattered around the US.
  4. I haven't peeled pumpkin or squash in years... I stopped after I figured out that the toughest pumpkin will get very soft when it's cooked, and then you can scoop the flesh off the skin without risking life and limb trying to carve it. The skin is easy to peel off if you don't want to eat it. Most of them have skins that get soft when you roast them anyway, so I generally eat the whole thing.
  5. The Savory bars sound good, but they're not sold in Florida.
  6. Unless it's vitally important to maintain the correct oven temperature for the entire period of baking (eg. for cookies and cakes), I never pre-heat the oven. Savoury foods go in when the oven gets turned on, and they can heat up at the same time as the oven does. That goes for frozen foods too.
  7. Fresh lemon juice cuts the cloying sweetness of cream cheese frosting and doesn't overtly change the colour or texture.
  8. Kajikit

    Apple Crisp

    I used to use a regular streusal, just flour, sugar, butter, oats, but apple crumble (crisp) turns out beautifully with an oatmeal cookie topping. It's got more substance to it, and it seals in the juices below.
  9. Well, he *IS* the guy who was able to write his own cookbook in just 3-1/2 weeks, you know. He obviously does everything faster. As soon as he opened his mouth, you just KNEW he was going home... it was a relief that they didn't make him cook! I felt so sorry for the girl he screwed over by mangling her pork, but that'll teach her not to rely on totally untried chefs to do anything for her!
  10. If you don't take it home, they're going to throw it out. What good is it to anyone in the garbage? You paid good money for it, so why be wasteful? A good steward of their resources don't waste them. (But there's no point in taking it home if it's not enough to at least be lunch for one - otherwise, THAT becomes wasteful because you're not going to eat it either way.) I'll happily take stuff home and I usually eat it the next day, heated up appropriately.
  11. Isn't that a danger to your teeth? The unpopped part of the corn is hard as a ROCK.
  12. My shopping list consists of a)basic staples that we've run out of (or nearly run out of) and they stay on the grocery list until I actually remember to buy them. and b)things that are on sale that week. I occasionally also add c)special items I need for something particular I want to make (like split-peas and ham-hocks if I feel like making soup, or a particular baking ingredient that an interesting recipe needs). But mostly I wing it. A lot of the time I don't even remember to take a grocery list with me - when I get home I look at the list that was on the fridge, cross out the things that I remembered to buy, and rewrite the ones that I didn't for next time. I NEVER plan everything out to the last detail. My brain just doesn't work that way - and my shopping is largely determined by what's on sale, or what catches my eye in the store. (we haven't had roast pork for awhile, let's get one, and that means we need something to roast with it... or 'whole chickens are only 50c/lb, we have to get a couple!')
  13. As a customer, it's only fair to expect to pay more to sit down in a coffee shop and eat a nicely-plated dessert than it is to pick it up from a farmer's market stall in a cardboard box. There are all sorts of extra costs for you to make it happen.
  14. If you make it from scratch, put ham or bacon into it and bake it with extra cheese on top, then it's a main dish (especially if you have salad to have with it.) If it's plain or out of a box, it's a side...
  15. I will not eat in a noisy restaurant. I hate loud noise in general, and I seem to have a lot more trouble with 'ambient' noise than most people - if there's too much noise in the background, I won't be able to hear my tablemate/s speaking to me, and I certainly won't enjoy my meal.
  16. Glad you could fix it! Mama always had a fruit bowl in the middle of the table... it was useful and decorative at the same time. I put a lazy susan on mine.
  17. Watched the wine episode. Wasn't impressed. Won't be bothering with any more. Way too much 'Marcel squabbling with the people he's supposed to be making happy'. Hasn't he ever heard that the customer is always right? It was pretty boring really.
  18. Actually in that instance you were plain wrong. Didn't the vest and the 'well-behaved' young animal give you a clue? Seeing eye dogs are far from the only service animals in existence, they were just the first in common use, and disabilities can be far from obvious. If somebody walked in with a guide dog puppy, would you throw them out because they weren't blind? If you see an animal with a service vest on, and the person says it's a service animal, it's a service animal unless proven otherwise. AFAIK it's illegal to demand proof unless the animal creates an actual problem.
  19. Doesn't it have something to do with the way the food is cooked? You can't ask for a casserole with the sauce on the side and expect to get it because it's cooked IN the sauce. If you make a stir-fry, the sauce is added into the pan during cooking - you can't exactly take it out again. But if you're having something grilled or broiled or roasted it's generally cooked dry and sauced after it's done, so it's no real loss to put the sauce on the table seperately - what else is a gravy boat for?
  20. What are we doing without? Nuts, beef (except the very cheapest cuts), eating out/fast food/takeout. Less fruit and more rice. Storebrand paper products instead of name brands. Less dessert/baking unless it's to share with someone else. Homemade iced tea instead of bought sodas and juice. More leftovers and less waste.
  21. I stick a knife into my potatoes and cut a slit about an inch long... it's a lot less hassle than poking them with a fork, and an awful lot faster! If I'm microwaving them and I don't need them to be whole, I'll cut the whole potato in half and lay them face-down on the plate so that they cook more evenly (and faster) and with zero chance of a potato explosion.
  22. Seriously? The same thing you do any other evening... if you really don't know what to do with yourself without a drink in your hand, that suggests that it was MORE than time for you to do this, and you should consider extending your abstinence period until you figure out how to manage life without it. Alcohol is like anything else - great in moderation, but hardly the be-all-and-end-all of existence.
  23. As a consumer, you see restaurants come and go... and come and go... and come and go - generally in the same location! There's got to be a reason why six businesses failed in the same spot, and the odds of a seventh succeeding where everyone else failed isn't very high. Be careful you're not buying a pig in a poke. Find out as much as you can about the history of any site you're considering - restaurants fail for all sorts of reasons, but not all of them are something that YOU can avoid.
  24. I assume that by now you found a solution - but as a cardmaker if you have a lot of call for specialty mats, I'd suggest that you look into a diecutting machine called a Cricut and a software program called 'Make the Cut'. If you load up the software and connect the Cricut to a computer, you can cut any shape you like as long as it will fit into the machine, and you can duplicate it perfectly as many times as you need to. They also sell a special Cricut 'cake' for cake decorating...
  25. In my experience condensed milk never dies. It just caramelises in the tin. The longer you keep it, the darker brown and thicker it gets. But it's otherwise unaffected. I haven't kept any for 13 years though - the oldest I've used it is about five! After 13 years I'd expect it to be a solid mass of caramel.
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