Pierogi

Saturday update - No breakie (got up late) and for a brunchie/lunch thing had a PBJ sandwich out of stocked goods. Dinner was a bastardized Mexican stew called Caldillo. Normally made with chunks of stew beef or pork, but I had a pound of ground beef that was due to expire and therefore needed to be used. So I found amazingly enough found a recipe for ground beef caldillo, which had ingredients all from pantry/fridge...onion, canned green chiles, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock (a couple of ice-cube sized homemade from the freezer), garlic, spices and potatoes. It was pretty darn good. Wanted some tortillas to go with it, but didn't buy them. I'd bought some dried masa flour about a month ago with the intention of trying my own homemade corn tortillas. They weren't awesome, but they also weren't horrible, especially considering I don't have a tortilla press, and rolled them out with a rolling pin. Will be working to perfect them. Had a salad too, used half a bag of lettuce from the fridge, mixed with some onion, some cabbage from Friday's slaw and some tomatoes. Topped the caldillo with some week-old, but carefully saved cilantro and a minced jalapeno from the fridge. Will have the leftovers for lunch this week. The "AH-HAAAA" moment was an avocado that had been forgotten in the fridge for about 2 weeks. It was almost ripe when I bought it, and after one day on the counter got pitched into the fridge. I kept forgetting to use it. I pulled it out last night, fully expecting to throw it away. When I cut into it, it was beautiful. A couple of iffy spots I cut out, but I had about 95% of a perfect avocado. Normally...(bad me)....I would have pitched it without even cutting into it, thinking it would be bad after so long in cold storage. I hope that this is a true *lesson learned*. Today's breakie was a couple of coookies and late lunch (after some Christmas decorating) was a quick cheese and lunch meat sandwich. Dinner was a pizza made with a ball of homemade dough from the freezer, topped with sweet onion, quartered grape tomatoes, thinly sliced garlic, cheese, pancetta and coppa. The onion, tomatoes, garlic and cheese were all from the fridge/pantry. The pancetta and coppa were from the freezer. It was honestly probably the best pizza I've ever made. Killed the dough, obviously, and the tomatoes. Have some of the pancetta and coppa left, the coppa is probably destined for a lunch sandwich. There's cheese, garlic and onions left, but they have much life left in them. A small side salad with the last of the bag of romaine and slaw (believe me, I went through that romaine with tweezers to find all the usable parts......), the other half of the sweet onion and dressing from the fridge. A delightful meal. And the prospect of leftover pizza for breakie tomorrow. Yay ! Fresh veggies are looking a little sparse, but not desperate yet. I have some broccolini that's about a week or so old, that I think is still serviceable, and celery and carrots that for sure are good. I also have about 1/2 a bag of mixed frozen veggies, a small bit of frozen peas (maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup) and a huge bag of frozen corn. Also have some hot-house tomatoes, so I'm not desperate yet. I still have a decent amount of protein in the freezer and some canned tuna/salmon/chicken, and several boxes of starchy sides (rice pilafs, etc.). Also have plenty of rice of numerous styles and pasta. I will keep it going through the week, and then we'll see. I do like to keep some stuff in reserve, but I could sure also use the economic benefits of not doing my normal shopping. I can say I am definately not suffering......

Had T-day dinner out as a guest, so (bummer) no leftovers, but also no shopping. Breakie this morning was the last of the sad, sad graham crackers smeared with a bit of peanut butter (pantry). But they tasted OK (a tad soggy but OK) and filled the need. Dinner was some Carolina-style pulled BBQ pork from the freezer. I'd made it over the summer, and it was great then, and really good now. Served on a roll from the freezer, with frozen potatoes (ok, I'll cop...they were 'Tater Tots) and some slaw. Good, quick tasty dinner, and killed one package of rolls (this one was a bolillo) and the pork from the freezer, put a good dent in the 'Tater Tots and used fridge stuff for the slaw. I have a bit of the pork left, which I will use for tacos for brunch/lunch on either Sunday or Monday. As a motivational note for us all....I heard on the NBC evening news tonight (the national broadcast) that 40% of the food produced in America is thrown away. That, to me, is appalling, especially when there are SO many going hungry in this country, which is supposedly the most affluent in the world. That said, I know *I* am certainly guilty of throwing away enough food every week to feed at least one other person, if not more. I have always felt vaugely guilty about that, but needed this push to really examine it. I consistenly over-buy, and this is great way to remind myself to break that habit. And it really is, at least for me, a habit. I see it, I want it, I can afford it, and I buy it. And then it expires/rots/wilts/dies/goes bad in the pantry/fridge/whatever, and I toss it, thinking, "damn, too bad, I'd have liked to have used that". 40% discarded. That is a national tragedy. And I'm a part of it. But I'm working not to be. 40% of the food produced in America is thrown away. Let's keep that as a mantra.

Progress update from the w/end... Friday night's dinner was a small hunk of meat loaf from the freezer, dipped in egg and then panko (both from stock) and pan fried. Made some quick brown gravy from stock items, and had it with home-made biscuits from the freezer that I baked off. Veg was some roasted Brussels sprouts from the fridge. It was entirely satisfying, AND the dogs had some of the meat loaf shards so we were all happy. Saturday, as I'd indicated, I bought some provisions for a pseudo Thanksgiving meal for my surrogate family. However, there was some ground lamb and peas used from the freezer and celery, onions and carrots from the fridge in the main, the salad killed some over-the-hill Savoy cabbage, radishes, half a cuke and croutons I'd made last weekend, and I made the dressing from pantry/fridge stocks. Same for a focaccia I made. The main was a shepherd's/cottage pie, and I have one leftover lunch from it, and some went home with my guests, so I'm feeling fairly virtuous. Sunday was frozen meatballs (killed the bag) and the end of a bag of wide egg noodles from the pantry, made into a sort of Swedish meatball dish. I made another brown gravy, again from pantry stocks, and the veg was the end of the package of Brussels sprouts. Although not as sucessful as the meat loaf, it was still pretty good, and the leftover noodles & meatballs will be another lunch this week. And yeah, the dogs might've had a couple of meatballs..... Tonight was an Asian grilled halibut filet. The halibut was from the freezer, and the sauce was from the pantry (vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic and cilantro). Did the fish on the grill pan, made some rice (from the pantry) and the veg was a bag of snow peas that actually expired yesterday, but which were perfectly serviceable briefly stir fried and then tossed with sesame oil and lime juice (the lime had absolutely seen better days, but it worked). Actually a surprisingly good dinner. Tomorrow is Carolina-style pulled pork (from the freezer) sandwiches (on a roll from the freezer) with slaw (from the fridge). Wednesday I have a late appointment, so I'll probably swing by something fast food-ish. Thursday, I've been invited out for T-day, and we'll continue on with this challenge on Friday. My cupboards and freezer are still plenty full.

In the days I used to do baking marathons for Christmas cookies, I'd never wash measuring cups or spoons used for dry ingredients between uses. I have multiples of both, and luckily the dry cup sets are different colors, and the spoons are different styles. I'd dedicate one set for dry and one set for wet. Well, that and the inherant difference between liquid and dry measuring cups. But heck, flour is flour and sugar is sugar, and sugar for the chocolate chip cookies is no different than sugar for the Polish tea cakes. In the rare instance I used a dry measure for something that I didn't want to carry over to another recipe, I'd wash it then. One measuring cup for dairy and I was good. Goopy stuff like honey or corn syrup, those I'd wash if I needed to reuse. I'd even reuse one bowl to break/beat eggs into without so much as rinsing between uses. At the end of each batch, yes, I'd take the mixer beater and the bowls, and any scrapers I'd used, and wash it before moving onto the next round. But I never washed the dry ingredient measures until I was done for the day.

Oh man, me too. I was like KEVIN, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ! DON'T DO IT. No lie. That is a bad hairdo. I didn't think Padma could look bad, but those things are just wrong on her.

OK, picking up where we left off. Breakfasts this week have been graham crackers and coffee. I have never been a big morning eater, even when I was a kid. Lately, because I take a lot of prescriptions in the morning, I have taken to having some sort of small something to cushion the drugs and absorb the coffee. Sometimes I make biscuits or scones over the weekend. Sometimes I buy something. I haven't felt much like extra baking lately, so I've been buying. This week, however, I remembered I had those graham crackers that I'd bought for another project, and had only used about 1/4 of the box. Normally they'd have lived in the cupboard until they went limp. Now, they're mostly gone. The downside on breakfasts is that I'm out of coffee, used the last this morning. I will be buying that. The good citizens of SoCal do not want me commuting on the freeways in the morning unless I'm caffinated. Dinner last night was breakfast for dinner, and a very good one. I killed the bread I'd bought over last weekend by making French toast. It was the end of a loaf of La Brea Bakery's sourdough, and I got 3 good slices out of it. Normally it would've gotten tossed (most likely) or added to the ever-burgeoning stash of "bread I'll use for something" in the freezer. THEN it would've gotten tossed ! It was too stale to use as fresh, so the French toast was perfect. Bacon from the fridge, and a fried egg (from the fridge) and I was a happy puppy. Oh, and I sliced a tomato that was just this side of sad, and it turned out to actually be pretty tasty. Lunch today was not the planned pasta leftovers, since work decided to replace the flooring in the lunch room starting at 1 this afternoon. I take a late lunch, and that killed my access to the microwaves. I managed to grab a sandwich from the vending machine before they locked the doors and ate the tangerine I'd brought from home. Tonight was the end of my work week so it is Martini Thursday. I don't cook on Martini Days, I usually get some sort of snack foods (egg rolls, taquitos, that ilk). Didn't have anything in the freezer, so I gave in, and grabbed some mini bean & cheese burritos on the way home. That and a delightful Tanquery 10 martini makes for a lovely start to my weekend. If it counts, though, the gin, vermouth and olives were all in-house ! The plans for the coming week are to use a hunk of leftover meatloaf, some ground lamb, some meatballs, some pulled pork and a halibut filet from the freezer for dinners through next Wednesday. The meatloaf, pulled pork and lamb will use all that I have frozen. I will still have one halibut filet and likely some meatballs in the freezer. I am having my surrogate family over for our Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday, and will purchase some supplies for that. The lamb, however, will also be used in that meal. I would guess-timate that about 80% of the the balance of the supplies for the coming week, however, will be from the freezer/pantry. I am out of fresh veg, and am making a salad on Saturday, so will purchase greens and a few other things for that. For me, though, this is a huge step forward. I am very bad about over-buying and then wasting. That is a habit (yes, it is a habit) that I need to break, and soon, if for no other reason than economics. Not to mention ethics and morality.

I usually try to clean all the produce I'll need for the meal as the very first step. I have a very small kitchen, with limited counter space, and a small, double sink. One side has the disposer. Over the other, I have a vinyl-wrapped rack that I use to drain the produce. The rack lives there all the time, I also use it as a small dish drainer. Garbage can lives consistently outside, no room in any cabinets to stash it. All non-disposer trimmings go directly into the trash, or if its something like a lot of potato peels, I'll peel onto a piece of newspaper, or an empty produce bag, and then dump it. Since the side of the sink closest to the prep area has the disposer, and I will sweep stuff off the counter or the board directly into the sink, I don't keep soapy water in it. If something is really scuzzy and has to be washed with soap, and I need to reuse it, I'll dribble a little liquid detergent onto the dishrag and take after it. Otherwise, dirty equipment goes directly into the dishwasher when I'm done with it. Knives get periodically rinsed, especially if I've used them for cutting something gooey or sticky, or even for mincing herbs. I usually don't do a bunch of mise using bowls. I find I get enough natural breaks in the process that I can accomplish one thing while monitoring another. Chop the mire poix while watching the meat browns, for example. When I use bowls for mise, I'll do all the mise at once, before I really get into the process. Then the stuff goes into the sink before being rinsed for the dishwasher. I also, as someone mentioned, pull out ALL the ingredients for all the recipes as one of the first steps. I line them up, grouped together, on the side counter. That way I'm not in the middle of making the roux and discover I haven't gotten the dried thyme that goes in next. Since the kitchen is so small, I make it a point to get all the prep equipment loaded into the dishwasher before anyone sits down to eat. It also irritates me to see a huge mess in the kitchen while I'm relaxing with my meal. The kitchen is open and visible from the dining area. Again, the counter space is so limited, and the sink so small, that there's plenty of mess generated just from the dining plates and utensils after the meal is done. And yeah, a dog or two removes any need whatsoever to buss the floor. As part of the final clean-up before I start the dishwasher, the stove top, the cutting board and the counter get the final, thorough cleaning, and all the knives get washed and dried and returned to the block. Clean as you go has to be the mantra, because otherwise there'd be no place to actually work

Heck, even summer is dicey ! Yeah, we had a nectarine tree in the backyard when I was a kid..*sigh*.

I made this tonight. Fried up some pork chops with a little TexJoy seasoning (my go-to seasoned salt), and then made the sherry/cream/mustard/horseradish sauce. I did shake in some of the Outerbridge Bermuda Sherry Peppers. Served it over egg noodles. Fabulous. Going to be a standard from here on out. Thank you so much. You are VERY welcome, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Those flavors do come together magically, don't they?

DAY-UM. Those are good cookies. Day-um.

Hmmmmmm, I asked about the puff pastry probably 3 months ago, and was told it was a "seasonal" product, and they'd be bringing it back around the holidays. I'd keep checking, your guy may have been mis-informed, or maybe it's regional. If your TJ's carry it, try their frozen roasted corn kernals. They are amazing. Honestly tastes as though you roasted an ear yourself.

I have decided that TJ's sour cream is simply the best available in SoCal, unless you have an in at a dairy. I used to be a huge fan of Daisy.....but TJ's is head and shoulders beyond it. It's TANGY, it actually tastes like something, and doesn't break down into a watery goop. I will go to TJ's solely for the sour cream, although I usually get many, many other things there as well. All of their dairy, actually, is excellent, as are their prices for it. The Greek-style yogurt has been thoroughly discussed in another thread, and is great. Their milk is a steal, as is their own branded butter. The heavy cream in the little plastic bottles is the best I've found. But the sour cream is like the sour cream of my childhood. I could eat it plain, by the spoonful.

Absolutely no doubt it was edited to make it look worse. But as someone else also said up thread, you can't edit in intent, and Mehta's intent was to screw Mullen. Just like when he took all the grape leaves when he knew Garces (?) needed them for his dolmas. Word !

After seeing your post, I happened to have to stop in a store tonight, and looked at the berry boxes they had. The address of the packager was California, but the berries themselves were marked as product of Mexico, so you were right, they weren't local to you. Oh, honey, Mexico ain't South America, it's an annex of SoCal !!! Seriously, by South America, I mean Chile. We even get TV commercials here touting the virtues of Chilean fruit in the winter. What they don't tell you is that you'd get just as much taste chewing on the packing material in the boxes !

Although not participating fully (I did a semi-normal shopping on Sunday), I did go lean on the protein portion of the program this week, in an effort to use down my freezer stash. I've been SO good at freezing leftovers, rather than tossing them, that my freezer inventory has spilled to the 2nd side of an 8&1/2x11 piece of paper. Usually I had lines leftover on the first side..... So...my efforts so far this week, and what went OUT of the freezer/fridge to accomodate them. We'll start with last Thursday 11/12, since that was when I started thinking about playing along. Thurs. - Pasta (from the pantry, killed a package) with sauce from a pot roast I'd made in September that I used as a ragu. I had put away 2 containers of the sauce specifically for this purpose. Small salad with greens from the fridge. Damn tasty pasta. Fri. - Went out for Mexican food. Sat. - Beef Chiang Mai with hamburger from the fridge that was about to expire, wrapped in romaine from the fridge. I *did* pick up cilantro and a bag of frozen potstickers to round out the meal. Unfortunately, the bag of potstickers is the gi-mojo economy size, and the rest went into *sigh* the freezer. Sun. - Navy Bean Soup from 150 Best American Recipes (supposedly the one served in the U.S. Senate's dining hall). Bought the beans and a small smoked pork shank (in lieu of ham hocks.....good choice, way more meat). Had all the other ingredients on hand (celery, potatoes, carrots, onion, spices, chicken broth). Used some bread from the freezer to make croutons to float on top of the soup and a ham bone from May to up the porky goodness of the broth. BTW, great soup. Salad from the produce bin in the fridge. Mon. - Italian sausage and peppers over linguine. Sausages from the freezer from October, used all I had. Linguine from the pantry, which finished an open package. Tomato puree from the freezer from March, again used it all. Bought the peppers. Had everything else for that. Dessert/fruit option was cheese (from the fridge, and about to go) and a getting long in the tooth Honeycrisp apple and longer in the tooth D'Anjou pear. *They* were great. Tonight - Sauteed shrimp (from the freezer, have much left though) glazed with a chile sauce I'd made for some chicken earlier last week (from the fridge), oven-roasted potatoes (from the pantry) and oven-roasted Brussels sprouts (from the fridge). Lunch today was leftover bean soup & croutons. Tomorrow will be a sandwich which used a roll from the freezer, turkey, ham, cheese, tomato, onion and lettuce from the fridge, and Thurs. will be leftover pasta, peppers & sausage. Dinner tomorrow is up in the air at this point. I've got a piece of meatloaf in the freezer that I could use, for something, or I'm really leaning towards breakfast for dinner. I have the end of a fresh loaf of bread that would make killer French toast. We'll see. I'm there in spirit. Many of these things, the apples, pears, cheese, chile sauce and some of the greens, would've been tossed because I would've said.......awwwwwww, they're no good, they're old., I'll just toss them. I'm pretty proud of myself for using them. I'm looking at the freezer inventory, though, and have miles to go. Edit because the last time I lOOked, "looking" had 2 "o"s.

Tap water for most purposes, although sometimes, when I think about it, I do use Brita-filtered water if it's going to be a key ingredient in the finished product, like in soup. When I haven't I don't notice a difference. I keep a Brita pitcher for drinking water solely because I like cold drinking water, and it goes in the fridge. I guess I could just keep a pitcher of tap water....but I don't. I probably buy a total 2 cases of bottled water a year, spaced out usually in purchases of a 6-pak. I keep some for a stash (drinking water for me & the dogs in case of emergency, like The Big One, it is SoCal after all), and use some when I need a portable potable (oh.....I slay me....keep my day job). I never buy anything other than water labeled "spring water" (i.e. Arrowhead or Crystal Geyser) that lists the source. "Purified water" (i.e. Dasani) is just that....tap water that's been run through a filter system, and is the biggest rip-off in the Universe. But really, the Brita's even overkil in my area. My tap water tastes just great, and is ranked very high in quality. The Brita is a psychological crutch, I'll admit it.

I love green beans too......yellow wax beans as well. When I use non-trimmed beans (yes, I'll cop to the truth, I often buy the pre-trimmed, packaged beans, I'm sorry), I usually put a handful down on the board, and use the back of my chef's knife to get all the ends evenly lined up. The I whack off however much I think is appropriate. And do the same on the other end....line up & whack. Sort of like when you're making the cross cuts to dice celery or carrots. I must admit I usually don't cut them into smaller pieces after that. I figure I'll just deal with them in long pieces after cooking. If, *if*, I decide to cut them shorter, then I just whack them up from the even end, and accept the fact that the last pieces of some of the beans will be smaller than others, due to the inherant difference in the lengths of each one. But I don't stress over that, like stripping thyme (see that thread), life's too short.

Turkey enchiladas (use any chicken enchilada recipe and sub the turkey) are always a winner. Turkey and rice. Turkey fried rice. Turkey pot pie. Turkey soup. Turkey and dumplings. Turkey noodle casserole. Basically anything you use leftover chicken for can be adapted to use leftover roasted turkey. Freeze it in "recipe sized" zip bags and use throughout the winter.

Any SHRED of respect for Mehta I had evaporated last night, along with any desire to see him as an Iron Chef when Chef Mullin asked him if he had any sugar and Mehta said no, even though the camera clearly showed him with a hotel pan full of I'd say about 5 pounds of it, of which Mehta was using maybe the top 1/2 inch. OK, I'll give him the top inch. I could understand this attitude if Chef Mullin had said, "hey, can I have some of that truffle/cavier/uni" or some other exotic, hard to source ingredient. BUT SUGAR???? What a pr*ck. Pure and simple, cut and dried. An asshat. Total. I will not watch ICA if he wins. And I liked him in the first couple of rounds. He may be talented (although I also thought his presentation in last night's episode was an affront to the theme of "integrity") but he's a total jerk. Again, as has been stated up-thread, compare his behavior to that shown on "Top Chef Master". No class, whatsoever.

That works for me about 50% of the time.....I think I read somewhere that there are slight variances in thyme plants. Some are considered "zipper thyme" and that trick works. The other varieties not so much. I've noticed that if the sprigs are very fine, and have lots of smaller, finer stems shooting off the main sprout, the reverse zip thing is not going to work. Usually for those, the sprigs are fine enough that I just chop the whole darn thing up, stems and all, and if I see a particularly large one, I pull it out. The only time that doesn't work is when the thyme is going to be more of a garnish or a finish, and not cooked much, if at all. Then I just bite my lip, and pluck I agree with KarenDW that if its a soup, stew or stock, just pitch the whole thing in, and pull the stalk out at the end. I don't even try to "zip" then. Life's too short.

Yes, it generally is not good. In winter, I might be better off buying one of the better brands of frozen berries than what passes for fresh. Part of the problem is that the shops around here only stock berries from one or two producers, who send unripe fruit that tastes like packing material; you see the same packages everywhere. What's really bad is that even in the summer the regular supermarkets often have only the stuff from California, you have to go to a good produce market to get the local fresh stuff. There are no "warmer parts" of New England in winter. Wow, that's just fascinating to me. In winter, when I see berries in the local supers in my part of SoCal (not that far from Shamanjoe), they're all from South America, as are the stone fruits and melons. I won't buy them. They're truly hideous...no fruit flavor whatsoever, no matter how long you let them sit on the counter. They will dissolve into a pool of ooze before they'd ever ripen. I never, ever see berries, stone fruit and melons labeled as being from California out of our growing season in my local stores. Not to say that our so-called "in season" berries, stone fruit and melons are much better than the dreck coming from Chile, but at least 50 to 75% of those purchases do eventually ripen to something edible. That is, if someone at the packing plant or the distribution center or the stock boy at the Mega Mart hasn't played bocce ball with them...... I am blown away to know California is exporting off season berries to the East Coast. I thought we simply stopped growing them out of season, and moved onto Frankentomatoes.....

Slice an onion thinly, core and slice a nice tart-ish (but not too tart, Galas good. Granny Smiths, not so much) apple thinly. Saute them both in butter for about 20 minutes. If you're making a pork roast, do this while it's in the oven. If you're making chops, do it in another saute pan, while the chops are cooking. Mix some heavy (whipping) cream with some cream Sherry (although dry Sherry will work). You want about 3:1 cream to Sherry. Mix in a hint of Dijon mustard, and S&P to taste, along with a whisper of horseradish (about 1/2 teaspoon to 6 tablespoons of cream...do the math if you're scaling up. And the mustard would be about 1 teaspoon for the basic scale. Again, do the math....) I *always* scale up......... If you're making a roast, baste the meat with the Sherry/cream/mustard/horseradish sauce a couple of times while cooking. If it's a tenderloin, it'll only be once or twice. I've never used this for a full loin or other roast, but I'd imagine if you made a larger quantity of baste, and used it closer to when the meat was done, it'd work just fine. Take the remaining Sherry/cream/mustard/horseradish sauce and add it to the apples and onions. Bring to a boil, then simmer for a bit. Serve pork with apple-onion cream, and prepare to swoon. Yeah, it's that good.

And Almond Roca, too, if it comes to that. ___________ OH GOD.......Do NOT get me started on Almond Roca or anything, literally ANYTHING, See's. See's candies are ambrosial. They are manna from the Heavens. They are the epitome of candy-dom. There is absolutely no comparison between the MegaMart Heaths and Skors and See's chocolate covered toffee bits. None. It's like comparing Dom Periginon to Andre. Almond Roca is pretty damn good, and I can eat one of those tins, by myself, in the blink of an eye. And they are head and shoulders above Heath and Skor. But they are not See's. See's is the Holy Grail of confections.

THOROUGHLY agree that Skor is exponentially better than Heath, even though I listed Heath as my #1 favy-fav in that other thread. It's just that Skor is sooooooooooo much harder to find here in suburban LaLaLand than Heath. So for the buttery (sort of) toffee, chocolate-coated nummie bar, Heath wins simply on availability. When I want the buttery, toffee, chocolate coated fix, Heath is usually my only option. But a Skor is well, a SCORE. When I finds 'em, I buys 'em. In quantity. OK. Massive quantity.

I haven't tried the old Chun King ones, but I love these: La Choy rice noodles -- are they similar? They're much better than the regular "chow mein" noodles; ever since I tried them I've never used anything else in my Asian cole slaw. *THAT'S* them, Janet. I spaced through which embarassing grocery store brand of pseudo Chinese food it was, but La Choy is correct. I haven't seen them here in LaLaLand recently, I was thinking maybe they'd been discontinued. Or maybe I'm just shopping at hipper mega marts than I used to.... They're so good. I gotta look more thoroughly for them.