Doodad

I store them in a glass container by type and use them fairly regularly. You could make mole and freeze that.

Avoid skate wing. It has a shelf life of nothing. I find firm whitefish and shrimp keep the best. If it is really a problem you could go with a smoked product perhaps?

I have seen that used in bbq sauces.

I saw Grill em All and Badass Babes Burgers on Food Wars the other night. It came out that the head of Grill worked for Badass (who was already a success) for all of two weeks to get the swing of the biz and then quit and opened his truck. He all but admitted it and I lost a ton of respect for that guy.

Camping suppliers have had that for years. Any REI would have it and it is damn tasty after a hot day on the trail. It crumbles fine and would make an interesting topping on several things.

Remember the old lady in Tampopo ruining the asian pears in the grocery store?

Puppy pen and food dish. Not much of any other place we can put it. Oh well.

Well, you kids can stay up, but us old farts with new Jack Russell puppies who have to go out at 5 in the morning...... Seriously, that was an evil quickfire. Reminded me a bit of some of the nonsense that happens on Chopped.

I thought, and with a new puppy and later start to the show (booooo Bravo) my tired factor was high, that they had to incorporate all items in each box. And with no idea what was coming it had to be a leftover user type dish like curry, fried rice, soup etc.

That was a pretty wicked quickfire. My first thought was they better be thinking stew or curry or such. I think I would have lost it.

Along some other people's lines, I am fascinated by how a product is used in different places. Noodles for instance. Or tomatoes.

Base for a bbq sauce? Sweet onion relish type item? I quit on using sweet onions. Vidalias do the same thing and I learned my lesson.

Well, that was interesting at least. Some wildly varied food being offered. Not sure about the fine dining truck. What I found curious was that they all had to start from scratch and find a place to park, but the wildly annoying ragin cajun had red beans and rice, gumbo and jambalaya ready to go in short order? How does that work? And the right truck went home. Proper planning prevents poor performance.

NomNomNom

We love mangos (even the dog) so we have gotten pretty skilled at skinning them. I cut the sides whether for cubes, crescents or fruit. The seed is fought over for gnawing. The dog wins sometimes.

We love Ethiopian from back in college when there was a great restaurant down the street. Funny, the service is a kind of benign neglect which is apparently that you never rush a guest. Dinner could take quite a while, but was always worth it. We had a hankering last week so I made this recipe for spice from cyber-kitchen. I seared the beef, put it in a crock pot with wine, added the spice to taste and then sauteed a bunch of onions in ghee (this is important) and put them in the crock as well. It was spot with what we had back then. Injera bread, greens and spiced cheese on the sides. 2 teaspoons cumin seed, or powder 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds (shell off husks), or powder 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice (or ground) 1 teaspoon fenugreek seed (or powder) 1 teaspoon coriander seed (or powder) 8 whole cloves, or ground 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, or freshly ground 5 teaspoons red pepper flakes or crumbled dried red peppers 1 tablespoon grated fresh gingeroot (or 1/2 teaspoon dried) 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons sweet paprika (can use hot) 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1. Toast all the seeds and whole cloves in a small frying pan for 2 minutes, stirring constantly (open window or turn on the stove vent--it can smoke). Grind the spices in a spice grinder. If you are using pre-ground spices, ignore and go on to the next step. 2. Mix all remaining ingredients. Place in a tightly covered container and refrigerate

Bacon

Watermelon is ripe when the little pig tail thing on the end is brown. Unfortunately, this is only seen at pick your own, not retail. The other I have heard is look at the side where it sat on the ground. It should by tan or yellow not white.

Steamer set like an asian steel one where the bottom doubles as a stew pot and you have multiple stacks of steamer levels. Cast iron or other multi purpose skillet for sure. Good cutting board. Good wine glasses. Tupperware. Never enough storage devices in a rental and bags don't always cut it. Wok. Oh and I love Moab. My brother and I went off season and hiked Arches and Canyonlands for two weeks. Stayed at that Days Inn just as you reach town from GJ with the hot tub yes! joined a local "club" so we could get a beer and ate at that pancake place on main street. Camped in Arches out by the Angel monolith.

Mangos. They are best if you can easily push the remaining stem off with your thumb and smell mango.

My Mom has shared a bunch of things from my Grandmother's recipe box and the narration is great. Hand written with embelishments and the recipes are who knows how old going back to the turn of the century when everyone knew how to kill a chicken or bread fried items.

I keep getting mentioned in this thread, but I am residential not commercial and would not fit in a hotel pan at all. For me, it would be a low boy.

I often grill the pieces when I want a more crusty type of surface on the meat. Certainly a tradeoff as you lose the fond, but gain a different texture and flavor.

Only a few more cooks to go until we get to some good cooking. I hope.

I was thrilled to find silicone bouchon molds at the local kitchen store last weekend. I had been improvising with other containers and this solves the problem for weekend desserts. I could not believe the amount of merchandise Keller has now under Ad Hoc and Bouchon names.