blue_dolphin

Wait 'til you guys do my Marry Me Veggie Sando, Cowboy-style! You'll all want to make it over and over!

Very much so! You can always purchase just one can or bottle from a six-pack or any multi-pack of drinks (alcoholic or non) and, as you said, return anything without question.

I like the book as well and need to pull it out more often. Some of her other books seem to assume you have a staff of prep cooks on retainer and this one is somewhat more restrained. Still, as you noted, it’s not exactly opening jars and poof - dinner!

I can’t say they’d be worth a special trip, but if it’s on your way or a short detour at the right time of day…worse things could happen!

My 2 cents is that TJ's is more of a niche market rather than a supermarket. They don’t carry everything one might want in their weekly shopping, though they keep getting closer. They never carried any fresh produce at all (maybe bananas and apples?) until a big grocery union strike here in SoCal (Oct 2003) shut down the chain supermarkets and TJ's picked up the slack. Costco, Target and other retailers also jumped into the fray but TJ's was the most nimble and it was a big turning point for them. Still no name brands. Lots of their own private label stuff. There are similarities to Aldi, though I find them quite different. Most of Aldi's private label stuff is packaged to be almost indistinguishable from the big name brands while TJ's tends to go for more trendy items than copycats though both sell at lower price points than their competitors.

Uh oh. Stay clear of the breakfast topic. Maybe lunch, too. Or maybe just avert your eyes from my posts as I’ve been known to use sando, and not just when referring to the Rancho Gordo founder!

Today’s bacon egg and cheese breakfast sandwich was purchased from the local outpost of Rise Southern Biscuits and Rightous Chicken. They are a chain with a whopping 2 locations here in California, one handily located about 2 miles from my house and their breakfast sandwiches are my guilty pleasure. I confess to stealing the photo from their website as I always get a runny egg which was especially messy looking today.🙃. The bacon is always nicely cooked, not flabby, with good smoke flavor, and covers the whole biscuit so you get some in every bite and the cheese is always melty. You can see the menu at the link above but won’t actually see all the options unless you pretend to place an order. You can get all the sandwiches on a regular buttermilk biscuit, cheddar biscuit, blueberry biscuit or a potato roll. The egg can be fried, scrambled, ❤️runny❤️, or egg white only. Cheese can be American, cheddar or pimento cheese. The same options apply to sandwiches with sausage, country ham, fried green tomatoes, or chicken with sauces and more additions for the chicken plus sides like mac & cheese, cheese grits, tots, fried okra, etc. I order online, leave the house and it’s usually ready when I get there. Kinda dangerous. Good thing they are only open until 2 PM as late night munchies could be deadly. They also have ordering kiosks and a few tables for dining in. As fast food breakfast sandwiches go, I think they’re excellent so give them a try if you see one around. My only complaint pertains to the sausage which needs a harder sear. And the biscuits don’t hold up to wet toppings like fresh tomatoes, avocado, extra sauces, etc so go with the roll if you load your sando up with that stuff.

Welcome, @BaxterBaker! There's a Buying a Half Cow topic in the Cooking form that might be a good spot for you to get started with your questions

This is rather a different situation than described in the original post. If it had been repackaged and frozen at the 3.5 hr time point, that’s one thing but 5 days later? Five days in the fridge for cooked meats is where I draw the line, even with properly handled foods. Lots of people, including our ancestors, have paid no attention to food safety guidelines and survived just fine. Others haven’t been so lucky. You do you!

5 days or 5 hours?

The bacterial growth temp “danger zone” is generally 40° - 140°F or 5° - 60°C. At 4°C and below, the bacteria are chilling. Once the temp starts to increase, the bugs rouse themselves and start getting ready to multiply. Once this “lag phase” of getting ready is over and everything is warm and toasty, they take off like a shot. So you have a little time to play with. Food held in the danger zone for less than 2 hours can generally be used or put back in the refrigerator to use later. Food held in that range for 2-4 hours is generally safe to be eaten immediately but shouldn’t be put back in the fridge for continued storage. Food held in that range for 4 hours or more should be discarded. With your sliced meat, I’d happily eat a sandwich now. I probably wouldn’t put it back in the fridge and serve it later, especially to anyone with health concerns. It may be fine, but you’ve allowed for a certain amount of bacterial growth while it was warm. Those bugs won’t multiply as quickly in the fridge but can still produce toxins while they’re chilling out and there will be more of them ready to take off and multiply once it’s warm again.

I have no good excuse for my inability to eat rice elegantly with my fingers except that it’s a skill I never learned. I mastered chopsticks as an adult and there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do the same with my own fingers! I need to use the surfaces of my fingertips with greater precision and may need to ask my Indian friends to correct me like a child!

I need an avocado toast flight in my life!

Are short-handled, often flat-bottomed spoons of this general type never used for soup in China? If it’s not a soup spoon, does it have a different name? I’ve been served soup in both Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the US with chopsticks only or with both chopsticks and one of these spoons. I’m pretty sure I saw them in restaurants in China as well but it’s been a while and I don’t remember exactly. Some of my Chinese colleagues often used this style of spoon, usually metal instead of porcelain, along with chopsticks for soups they'd brought for lunch.

My favorite sort of dining out - excellent choices, too!