Shel_B

Thanks. I tried a second batch late last night with some additional stirring, and the result does seem a little smoother. Will try some of weinoo's suggestions as well, in addition to more stirring. I'm pretty close on this one. It just needs a little more tweaking.

What does more sugar do, besides making the dessert sweeter? What does the alcohol do?

Here's a little recipe I've been playing with: 1 cup low fat Greek yogurt 3 cups frozen mixed berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries) 3 Tbs granulated sugar 1/8 tsp vanilla extract Put yogurt, sugar, and extract into blender. Let berries defrost a bit so they are somewhat soft. Blend by pulsing until almost smooth. Freeze, covered, for a couple-three hours. Now, I'm satisfied with the flavor, but the mixture is a scosh icy. How might I get a somewhat less icy and smoother texture? Would a finer sugar be of any help, like superfine or castor sugar? Also, the small seeds from the berries are a bit of a bother. What's the best way to get rid of them? Food mill? Run softened berries through a sieve or strainer? Thanks for any suggestions.

I want to get an 8-inch chef knife for Toots, and one for me as well, and was thinking of the Victorinox as I like the price-value ratio and have been happy with the Victorinox knives I do have. While cruising a few sites to see what's available, I came across a model with a Granton edge, which is supposed to offer better slicing. Anyone have experience with this edge on a chef's knife? Does it make chopping and dicing easier? Is the knife more difficult to sharpen?

I have seen many suggestions on how to sauté and fry garlic. Some say long and slow over low to moderate heat, others over medium or high heat, and quickly stir the garlic around, others suggest adding it last, or after other ingredients when sautéing vegetable and meats, and still others suggest adding the garlic early. Generally, I add the garlic to the oil in a cold pan, sometimes adding a bit of water to help keep the temp down, and sauté long and slow, but that's mostly when adding garlic and few other ingredients. So, what's the best way to coax the most flavor from a clove or two of garlic under various situations? When's long and slow cooking ideal, when faster at higher temps, and when should the garlic be added early and when late?

Reading another thread here this morning, I got an idea to use frizzled ham as a garnish and ingredient for a couple of dishes, mostly salads and soups. I never heard of the term "frizzled" before, although I know what I want to do. I want thin, julienned slices of ham (maybe at some point another meat) fried until crispy. A Google search returns a few techniques for doing this, but I also wanted to ask here. Any suggestions for making this ingredient? Best type of ham to use? Best method of crisping it? I'd like to minimize oil and fat, if possible. That's not to say I want to eliminate oil and fat, just minimize it. Thanks!

I'd be very careful with pine nuts. Know your source, and know just what nuts you're getting. Many of the nuts on the market can cause a bitter aftertaste that's very unpleasant. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/07/02/128273771/pinenuts-may-be-to-blame-for-that-bitter-atertaste If you want nuts, go with good Marcona almonds.

I like many of Eden's products, including their brown rice vinegar. I'll definitely try their red wine vinegar. Thanks for the tip!

There's a BIG difference between what one earns and what one's worth.

When I saw that item promoted somewhere I laughed enough to wet my pants. I use whatever bowl is handy and of the appropriate size, then dump the stuff in the compost bin.

Found this interesting ... here's the ranking of the top chefs: 1: Gordon Ramsay, $38 million 2: Rachael Ray, $25 million 3: Wolfgang Puck, $20 million 4: Paula Deen, $17 million 5: Mario Batali, $13 million 6: Alain Ducasse, $12 million 7: Todd English, $11 million 8: Nobu Matsuhisa, $10 million 9: Bobby Flay, $9 million 10: Guy Fieri, $8 million Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/07/19/highest-paid-celebrity-chef/#ixzz2YH3mabjo

The shelves in my local markets are groaning under the weight of a variety of red wine vinegars. Which to buy? Here's what I'm looking for: flavorful, not too acidic, possibly organic (but not critical), and not loaded up with preservatives and other junk. Any suggestions? I used to get a great one made in Italy from the local Italian deli, but the new owner no longer carries it <sigh>

When I buy green, or other, tea, I usually loose teal from a few local tea shops, such as http://www.teance.com , that import directly from growers and small businesses in China and Japan, althoughI sometimes buy loose green tea from Peets.

Thanks! Just what I was looking for. Answers many questions.

I've come a little late to using panko, although I find that I like it quite a bit. However, I've only used two brands of the product, one bought in a Japanese shop and the other the Trader Joe's brand. Are all panko brands pretty much alike, or are there differences between them? What makes a great panko breadcrumb vs an average or below average crumb?

It's been a while since this thread was started, and that's given me some time to check out a few suggestions. I decided on the Messermeister swivel peeler after trying an OXO peeler ... it just seemed to work better for me. I never would have thought there'd be such differences in so simple an item. Thanks to all for your suggestions and info.

A friend, who enjoys cooking and who is a pretty decent cook, has recommended this book: http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Free-Vegetarian-Delicious-Easy---Make/dp/1572155310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372555751&sr=1-1&keywords=fat+free+vegetarian I wonder if anyone is familiar with the book and the recipes it contains, and what comments you may have. Thanks!

Lately I've been very spare with using onions in a lot of dishes, sometimes using a milder form, such as leeks or shallots, and playing around with the amounts. I thought I'd do something like that with the corn soup/chowder I'll be making. Getting good, or great, corn around here is not very difficult. It's just a matter of choosing a farmers market or going to one of a couple of great produce stores.

Having made a lot of corn soup in my life, I would still suggest that you simmer/steep those broken, de-kerneled cobs in that "1 quart of water" before you add it to the kernels and onions and finish the soup. Yes, that has been said several times and I have also said that it's something I'd do.

Yes, that's much more in line with what I'm seeking. Thanks!

make your chowder using grilled corn on the cob (strip the husks off, and put the unadorned corn directly on the grill until it is well toasted (speckled char all over). cut the corn off the cob, and make corn stock out of the cobs! corn cob stock is amazing. Neither Toots nor I are particularly fond of charred and grilled corn in chowder, soups, and salads, although we do enjoy eating it on the cob. What I want is the taste of fresh, minimally processed, corn in the chowder. For our preferences, milking the cobs after the kernels have been removed is a better, or at least more interesting, option. I would scrape any remaining pulp on cobs into a bowl and then transfer the pulp to a clean kitchen towel which I'd wrap tightly around the pulp, and then squeeze out the juice from the pulp which would be added back into the chowder towards the end of the cooking time, enhancing the fresh corn taste. Adding some corn cob stock might also be a good idea. Thanks!

Some interesting ideas, but not what I want. I'm looking for simple, flavorful corn chowder that's rich with fresh corn flavor, somewhat creamy, but nonetheless, light. None of the ideas posted in this thread do it for me either, even though there are some good ideas. Based on what I've seen thus far, both here and on various web sites, the ATK recipe, and a somewhat similar one that I've had for a while, are the closest to what I want. The ATK recipe uses more water, no chicken stock, very little cream or dairy, and promises lots of fresh corn flavor, and that's based on my own experience with one of their techniques in another recipe. And while it uses some bacon, I can reduce the amount to maintain that "lighter" result I'm looking for. Thanks to all who've jumped in with their ideas.

This weekend or next I'd like to make Toots some corn chowder. After looking through my recipes, I discovered I have but three for this dish, and none of them really push my buttons except one from America's Test Kitchen which, coincidentally, is a lighter version of the dish. I may make that one, but before doing so I was hoping to get some more ideas for a light version of corn chowder. Since the ATK recipe may be under some copywrite laws, I won't post it here, but I'm certainly willing to send it to anyone who'd like to take a look at it. Thanks!

I've been eating brown rice for years, and enjoy the texture and nutty flavor. Recently, I've been eating more brown rice (I never ate much rice, to begin with). I tried the Massa Organics brown rice http://www.massaorganics.com/ and found it to be delicious, but there are other excellent choices available. I don't have a rice cooker, and have always made the brown rice on the stovetop. Recently I was introduced to baking brown rice - my, oh my. Easy and very nice, consistent results. Highly recommended - however, it's important to get the rice/liquid proportions right as well as oven time-temp. 1 1/2 cups of rice and 21/3 cups of liquid seems to work very well and a 375-degree oven for one hour gives me pretty good results. Still fine tuning, though. My latest adventure into using brown rice is baking a mixture of wild rice and brown rice - still working on the cooking times for the wild rice as it is different from the brown. Right now I'm using cultivated wild rice, but have ordered real, native-American-gathered wild rice and am anxiously waiting for its arrival. I highly recommend brown rice in a lot of dishes, or mixed with other grains as a tasty, healthy alternative to white rice. Yes, it's somewhat of an aquired taste, but using good quality brown rice and mastering the cooking techniques will result in a more satisfying dish than using insipid supermarket rice and careless, back-of-the-box cooking directions. The Cook's Illustrated recipe for Brown Rice, Parmesan, Lemon and Herbs is, as noted in an earlier post, terrific, although I changed the amounts of some of the ingredients to suit my taste and the fact that I made it with some wild rice added. I'd be happy to shoot it out to anyone who's interested.

I've only been to JITB a couple of times, and the last time I visited, it was to get an iced tea with which to take some medication. Looking at their menu, I decided to grab another item as well. Lo and behold, I received a senior discount! Now, I don't know about other fast food joints and their discount policy, but I sure appreciate Jack's policy. So, if you're a senior and decide to visit JITB, check for a discount.