KateW

I love stinky cheese too! I went to a restaurant once and got the cheese plate and was cautioned by the waiter that one of the cheeses was not for the faint of heart. I loved it! Don't remember what it was though.

I've got my stock and I'm going to try reducing it now. It came out to about 2 quarts. Seems surprisingly little now that I think about it.

I love cheese, but I found one I actually don't like. Cabrales. I got it at the Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge and I'd been wanting to try it for a while. It doesn't do anything for me. It's like spreadable soap. If I hated cheese I probably wouldn't have gained 30 lbs. after high school... I'm not a big fan of Swiss either but I can't say I hate it.

Oh yeah, I saw the frozen sheets thing too. That's a great idea. Right now I'm making two batches of turkey stock, one in the gallon pot and one in a pot that holds about 2 quarts...I still couldn't fit one of the wings in though, so I have a lone wing for next time, lol. I'm going to try reducing this time, so we'll see... not sure what I'm going to use turkey stock for because I really don't have much meat left, but it gives me something to do today. (snow day!)

Ok out of sheer curiosity I found out my pot holds about a gallon. The ice cube thing sounds like a great idea, but brings back a memory of when I made margarita ice cubes and my fiance unknowingly used them and said, "Hey my coke tastes funny..." Water isn't normally green either... I found out my fiance reads this page once in a while so I have to be careful now and be nice!

I wouldn't make that much stock because space is an issue--I have one of those tiny freezer-on-top-of-the-fridge deals in my little apartment. Usually when I make stock I make soup out of a couple quarts and put the remaining 3 cups or so in a ziplock bowl and shove it in the freezer. Just estimating--I'm too lazy to get up and see how much that pot actually holds. Thanks so much for the help. I skimmed through the egullet class. I love it! I've never simmered overnight. 3 hours or so go by and it seems flavorful enough but I probably have no idea just how good it can be if simmered longer.

Oh, another question. If I make consomme, do I need a pot with a spigot, or do you all have any ideas for getting the stock out of a normal pot without damaging the raft?

I've never actually reduced my stock. How much do you reduce it? Edit--guess I could figure it out, since you give me the numbers right there....

The search option was all screwed up just now, so let me know if there's a topic going on this one... Every time I stop by a kitchen store or even the cooking section of sears I see stock pots for like $160. Amazon has them for about $30. Hmmm...wonder where I'm getting mine. Or should I wait and register for one for September? :) All I have right now is what's basically a really big sauce pot I guess; it can barely hold a whole chicken carcass and mirepoix and then to cover it all with water is like asking for disaster. Thing is I want to make consomme at some point also. I never got to in school and I have been dying to. I hear that a consomme pot has to have straight sides. Here's another thing; it has to be short enough for me to peer over the side, and I am only five feet tall :) Names and links welcome :) It doesn't have to be cheap, but are the really expensive ones worth it?

When I made a roast chicken for the two of us on new year's eve I took the leftovers the next night and made chicken chili. It lasted a couple days. One-pot meals are my favorite thing to make so I love buying a roast or a lot of beef and making a soup or stew.

In cooking school we would make a beef consomme every day and then on the last day we'd use the leftover consomme to make the french onion soup. I got to make it, and it came out pretty well but you gotta sweat/caramelize the onions a lot to make them soft enough.

At college before I went to JWU, I went through 3 room mates in a year in a half. My first room mate was a psycho, and I know a lot of people say that, but this one really was. She thought I poisoned her juice. (Hey, this is a food site, right?) I wasn't even there on the night she got sick from said juice, but the whole thing got out of hand and practically ruined that college for me. I wasn't one to give up though, even though the allegations had ruined my social life. She was a sophomore and I was a freshman so even though nobody really loved her, they were still inclined to believe her and not me. I was very shy, didn't have any friends in the first place, and this did not help. She also accused me of other food crimes such as leaving a Dinty Moore stew can in the sink (I did no such thing because I don't even eat the stuff). So anyway I stayed on, and she ended up moving out because the policy was that if a room mate accuses the other of something she is not happy with (understatement of the year, eh?) the accusor has to be the one to move out if it comes to that. So then another room mate came, and she was alright, although a little conservative. No food issues there. That year ended and I returned for my second year, boyfriend in tow. He lived off campus while I technically lived on campus, but I was never there. My room mate that time was deaf, blind and mentally retarded. She used to sing at the top of her lungs all the time and scream at me if I was unable to help her with something, like once she asked me to fix her walkman and I couldn't, and she threw it at me. Thank heaven I could escape to my boyfriend's place. No real food issues there. We had a kitchen that the whole dorm shared, which I really miss. It also had a fridge which I used sometimes. I ate odd things compared to most, so my food never got stolen. I have a room at JWU, and two very nice room mates, but I'm rarely there either. They offer each other and me food from care packages and stuff. I had some really good fudge not long ago.

My nutrition teacher says she uses evoo in everything, even baking.

These new ones with the strawberry jelly and frosting are called pinatas. They aren't so good.. They're sort of oatmealy cookies with two lines of jelly on top, and all drizzled with frosting, but then the bottoms are coated with a whole layer of frosting so it drowns out any jelly taste. Too sweet and too dry. Not bad for tiding me over until lunch though

I walked out of the grocery store, already having bought two kinds of cookies, and got suckered into buying girl scout cookies. Thin mints for me, peanut butter sandwiches for the fiance and a new kind that has like strawberry jelly and frosting on them. Haven't tried any yet.

Chicken quesadillas. They're pretty dumbed down, just a real easy throw together thing but my fiance loves them.

I just wish I could eat all the food I want with no bad side effects such as weight gain, getting sick, feeling full, etc. I want good health benefits in everything, no empty calories.

That's too funny--I made my first risotto last night. It was extremely simple though, because I was working with what I already had in the house. I took my risotto milanese recipe from my JWU cookbook and halfed it so it would be 5 servings instead of 10. I was going to add some linguica and shredded chicken breast to the risotto, so I thought it might be nice to sear the linguica first and use the oil to coat the rice. (10 oz. arborio) So I did that, and then added I think a quart of chicken stock, which I had simmered a raw chicken breast in until it was cooked through. I cooked that on med. low heat until the stock was absorbed, then I added about another quart of stock, a splash at a time, stirring until it was absorbed and the rice was al dente. Then I added about 4 oz. stock and stirred quickly. Then I stirred in like 3T butter, 3T parm cheese, and stirred in the linguica and chicken shreds and heated them through. It came out pretty well but I think it would have been better had I sauteed some onions first, and had some fresh parsley. I don't think the linguica-flavored oil made a noticeable difference.

The French term for "to skim the scum" is depouillier. Yeah, impurities is also a good word.

Not really a gift, but my mom gave me her bread machine because she never uses it anymore. I thought I'd have fun using it. That was a few months ago, and I haven't used it yet. The directions are daunting enough. I used to use the crock pot my mom gave me (also a hand me down), but I find it easier to just make stews on the stove. It feels more like cooking that way

I roasted a chicken recently for only the second time in my life. The first time was pre-cooking school, I had no idea what I was doing and it did not come out well. This time, I wanted to try searing it first, so I put it in the oven at 500 and let it go for a while. It didn't really brown like I wanted to after a little while and I was getting impatient. So I turned it down to 350 or so and cooked it until the little thermometer popped. I also double checked it with a "real" thermometer in the leg. It came out well but it took longer than I hoped; about two hours. We ate less than half of it and I used the bones to make chicken stock and the meat in some chili.

I love Schlotzsky's and agree with the comparison. But I don't consider it fast food because it took us up to 10 minutes or even more sometimes to get your sandwich, even in drive through. My fiance ended up hating going there because he didn't like it that much to begin with and the wait just made it worse. Then a Quiznos opened nearby (this was in Tennessee). And the Schlotzsky's was replaced by a Starbucks with a drive through. We're still waiting for a Quiznos to open closer to New Bedford than Providence. The one in Prov. told us about a year ago they were going to open one in NB but it hasn't happened yet.

Hardee's had a burger called the 6 Dollar Burger, because it was like a burger you'd get in a real restaurant--thick, with everything on it. Is that like the Thick Burgers you're talking about? I don't live near a Hardee's anymore so I don't know. I also go for Wendy's chicken sandwich with cheese, and I usually like their specialty sandwiches, like the current one with the spicy sauce, bacon and cheese. I always get the chicken though, not the burger.

Well shoot, I hope my fiance walked in first! <---Redhead My fiance is dark haired... Does anyone cook on new year's day? My fiance commented that his family always cooked the big meal on new year's day.

My mom got me a soups and stews collection of recipes from Cooking Light and I have been going nuts. Since Christmas I have made white chicken chili, red chicken chili, and beef and potato stew. They all came out really well, except I prefer my beef chili to the red chicken chili. They are very similar except the chicken chili calls for 3 cups of chicken stock and a lot more chili powder and is more soupy than stewy. It gave me an excuse to make chicken stock out of the roast chicken carcass from new year's eve though and I also got to use up the leftover chicken.