Tri2Cook

Scaling this down to a 5 lb batch is pretty easy until I get to the cream of tartar. That's going to require weighing the 3 tsp before I can do the math but it's going to be less than a gram to go along with the 1.42 grams of tartaric acid solution (50%?). I'm starting to see why a 100 lb batch is easier.

Not being Catholic, lapsed or otherwise, nope, I don't. But I am considering making gumbo z'herbes for Maundy Thursday basically for the same reason I make corned beef on St. Patrick's day... because it's a focus point to encourage me to actually get it done.

I can't speak for all of the various brands but the Paasche airbrushes I bought came with all 3 nozzle sizes. They came with a 6 foot hose as well but I'm seriously considering grabbing a 15 or 20 foot so I can mount the compressor somewhere out of the way and just run the hose to my work table. I'm using a Paasche compressor so there was no issue with connections to deal with but they sell specific hoses designed for using different combinations of other airbrushes and compressors with their airbrushes and compressors so I'm assuming there is no universal standard.

The lime juice in the Mai Tai should help with the vitamin C... so have another!

And that's probably part of the reason you're running a successful cafe and preparing to open your dream restaurant while Judge Smails tells me the world needs ditch diggers too.

No wonder not many things are interested in eating us.

That's supposed to be the basic premise but it ends up tasting not even remotely similar to even the worst hams I've experienced. Not sure what they do during the process to completely remove all traces of it's hammy beginnings but whatever they do, it works. Anything even casually resembling ham in flavor is done away with.

To be honest, I don't even know if it's a thing outside of the small, fairly remote and isolated town I live in. It was more a stab at humor than any attempt at actual helpful information. And sometimes those attempted stabs at humor bite you on the bum...

Nope, not a bad thing at all... but only slightly in jest. I've often said if we could figure out a way to offer gravy on our salads at work without wilting the salads, we'd have a hit on our hands.

I thought Canadian seasoning was gravy. I'd be hard-pressed to name many things Canadians don't put gravy on.

Marketer's gotta market, I suppose...

Those are really nice. I don't think I'm going to invest in a Dremel right now but I'm considering channeling Red Green and Tim The Tool Man Taylor and seeing what I can do with my drill and a few brushes.

I've left cookie doughs in the fridge for a full week before baking with very little to no noticeable difference in the final product compared to those I baked the same day I made the dough. I'm not saying there's no falloff in the baking powder's strength during that time but I'm wondering if the amount actually required to do the job is less than most recipes call for since it's still strong enough to do the job after that much time.

I had some extra filling from the mini Jamaican beef patties I made as part of tonight's Super Bowl food. Dumping it on some tortilla chips, topping it with cheese and chopped green onions, baking it and eating with the habanero salsa I had in the fridge seemed like a good lunch plan. Jamaican nachos! Unfortunately, while not actually bad, it wasn't as tasty as it sounded in my head for some reason. Maybe my brain is in slow motion today and was expecting more conventional flavors. Anyway, it got rid of leftovers... that's always a good thing.

I rarely go to Walmart. Not out of any sort of prejudice, just a matter of convenience... the closest one is over an hour away. But I did make a mental note of those meatballs. It's a long way off after tomorrow's game but it's never too soon to collect football season snack ideas.

I'm at four different items now and debating at least one more... and I'm watching the game alone.

Thought I was done with the advance prep part for this year but I decided to add some mini Jamaican beef patties. I'll hopefully get those done tonight or tomorrow night. I wanted egg rolls on this years menu but I was getting a bit disenchanted with wrapping things by the time I finished the pork dumplings and the rangoons so those probably won't happen. If I can convince myself to tackle them anyway, I'll most likely drop the pork I was planning to do in the crockpot.

Not sure what came over me but I actually started early this year and spent the weekend doing some prepping. In the freezer now, ready to be cooked, are pork potstickers, crab rangoons and my own variation on sausage balls. I tweaked the usual sausage, cheddar cheese and bisquick recipe a bit by using a mixture of ground pork, finely diced ham, finely diced pineapple and sliced green onions, replaced the cheddar with swiss and used a mixture of flour, baking powder and salt instead of buying a box of bisquick. I baked a couple and adjusted the seasoning, scooped it into balls and tossed them in the freezer. That's pretty much it for the make-ahead stuff. I'm going to make dipping sauces on Saturday: a pineapple-habanero sauce, a ginger-soy sauce and a personal favorite for this type of munching (and I'm not going to apologize for it )... a mixture of plum sauce, chile oil and a little rice vinegar. On game day morning, I'm going to coat cubes of pork in cornstarch, brown them in the deep fryer and toss them in the crockpot with a pineapple based sauce. If anybody is getting a tiki bar feel from this menu, that's exactly the plan. Tiki bar type food, tiki drinks, try to bring a little feel of places warm to this really long cold streak we're having this winter. And if anybody noticed a distinct lack of vegetables on the menu, that was unintentional (or maybe subconsciously intentional) and I'm deciding if/what I want to add to remedy that situation.

I wanted so badly for that to be the case... and in truth, I'm sure it is. I'd heard the words "smoky" and "briny" mentioned in regards to Scotch and thought both things sounded like something really nice. But for me, what Scotch people refer to as "smoky" is more reminiscent of "emergency room-y". Like somebody decided infusing the spirit with bandages and iodine would be a good idea. And I still haven't encountered, in my admittedly narrow field of experience, anything I thought of as "briny". There's no way the large number of people who appreciate those qualities in Scotch can all be wrong so I've accepted that I just don't have the proper palate to appreciate it. I've had Scotches that I enjoyed very much but I've never encountered the above mentioned qualities in a manner that my mind associates with those words.

All you had to say is "I want to hear exactly what I want to hear and nothing else" and I would have been happy to comply by saying nothing at all. Nothing blew up or went off on a tangent. We just expressed our opinions on what was said and, as tends to be a trend with you, when people disagreed with something you said, you wanted the conversation to end. But we agree completely on one thing, let's let this get back on the conversational track it's supposed to be on.

Sure we can. I'd have to back up through the posts to be sure but I thought it was you that asked for opinions and posited the arguments regarding said opinions that spawned the discussion. I don't think we took it off track, we just didn't all agree on all of your viewpoints on the matter. Funny how that happens sometimes when people ask for opinions...

With no insult or disrespect to your mother intended, I completely disagree. While I don't see a reason to go with over-the-top expensive (which is a relative term based on the buyers point of view and bank account) spirits for most cocktails, I don't particularly see any reason not to either. I definitely think it's worth using something you actually like even if it's in the more expensive range. I don't drink anything neat and I've never once felt I was defeating any purpose by using the more expensive stuff in my cabinet in a cocktail. That's the main reason for it being in my cabinet.

With the price of groceries where I live, I might be tempted to riot over 70% off.

It does sound tasty but if I'm going to use that amount of chiles and not want to eat them, I'd probably pass on making it.

Me too... but I like bourbon more than I like rye anyway.