Doodad

Try breading and frying them like okra. It is out of this world good. Like a citrusy green bean. and to the OP, masa, sour orange and nopales.

You need it to make red eye gravy for your grits. and the sweet would counter the coffee nicely. I could see a ham, asparagus and morel risotto being a nice thing.

I finally have a job after a lengthy unemployment. That is great, but as the noob I get the bad shift of 1130-8pm. My wife works early morning to afternoon. Bad enough on our sleep patterns and actually seeing each other, but we are just not eating well anymore. I need some ideas for starting meals that can be finished later and still be varied enough to hold interest and go to work as leftovers. I have been using the crockpot to good effect, but my wife is not an avid cook and needs ease of use in the evening. Easiest are stews and braises of course (did corned beef yesterday), but hot weather is here and it is just too heavy most of the time. So before we break out the deli meats for every meal, help a guy out.

Moon pie and an RC cola.

Vietnamese style egg cake? Usually wood ears, but it could be very good and give you multiple options to garnish with once done.

Remember BBQ is a noun not a verb and you will be on the right track.

The recipe cited is almost exactly how I make mine, but it comes out dry unless I up the amount of stock and it still lacks something. I think I may try some new brands of black bean and chili paste.

I love Ma Po tofu. Love it. I make it all the time and have tried various recipes and they just are not up to snuff. I have had good versions in restaurants and can't replicate them for the life of me. I tend to come out too dry or if the sauce is the right amount and consistency, the flavor is not right. Can someone give me an authentic recipe that ends up with the right proportion of ingredients and flavor? Thanks in advance.

We did hoisin on a chop and a small loin last night. Goes great together. Jerk on pork is another favorite.

Pardon my ignorance, but how is a cheese non kosher? Mixed tools or cookware or something?

Heard Chef! You earned every bit of it. And thanks.

Not sure at a hotel, but we have done this many times. There are quite a few southern places that are famous for this and it really is like Sunday dinner at grandma's. Big table, communal bowls of food and you can talk if you like. Things are a bit more casual and gregarious down here I guess. Look up The Smith House in Dahlonega for a long time standard of this in the mountains of GA.

We are in. It was coming anyway as the garden is producing and we really don't need the winter calories. Lots of dumplings to eat from what I can see and some various sauces and stews. We already depleted a bunch of the fridge to adjust to a new schedule in our lives.

It is more of a glaze towards the last hour of cooking. If you try to braise in it or add it too soon it will burn bad and stick like crazy.

I have been dying for a burger lately. It WILL happen tomorrow. And I mean a real burger. No wimpy horrible fast food type mystery meat sandwich.

Yeah I have done this for years. So much easier and I do my other prep while it is doing its thing. I usually shoot for a brick red roux in my cajun dishes and can get there in less than an hour at 350 so that is plenty of time to shell shrimp, chop trinity, deseed peppers etc. Sweat the vege in the hot roux on stovetop, add the rest and back in the oven while I crack an Abita and wait til done.

For a "new" dish, it would probably be Ma Po. A little ground pork is cheap and tofu is not expensive. Ditto rice. But, sheer frugality and good is the leftover users so nothing goes to waste. Brunswick stew, fried rice, jambalaya, soups. Everything in and empty the fridge.

Thai. I was on a business trip in the Tampa area about 20 years ago and we went to this little mom and pop joint. I could not believe how pale other foods were in comparison. I think I ate there every night on the trip and tried everything.

This thread got me thinking. Could you smoke a lamb shoulder like a pork shoulder and make pulled lamb?

Our favorite local Chinese place has a menu item called Black Pepper {insert protein}. I am not sure it is authentic in any way, but it sure is good. The meat is treated like General Tso's with the batter chock full of pepper. The sauce is less sticky sweet than Tso's and has pepper in it as well. It really is good. Other than that, a good Steak Au Poivre makes me happy.

I got some bacon salt recently and thought it would make an excellent glass rim for the right drink.

I thought it was pretty low down especially since Mike admitted it and gloated. Another twist is that shortly before filming this season, Blais found a burger joint out west making his exact nutella milkshake and there were some heated words exchanged in the blogoshere.

Yes, we did it all the time. The real trick is turning the vacuum way down so powder does not go flying everywhere. More heat seal than cryvac.

What is the shelf life packaged that way? Supposed to be at least a year, I've never kept one unopened that long to find out though. I worked a stint at a local place that uses plenty of modern tools, transglutaminase being one of them. I made a ton of fish patties glued with it. I asked the chef about the life of it and was shocked that he had the bag I was using for well over two years. He just shrugged and said it still works fine. And it did no problem.

Herbs can be some of the easiest plants to grow, especially in your conditions. We have a kitchen garden every year and it is prolific. We cannot consume all the parsley, tarragon, basil and oregano it produces. So we blitz the remainder in the Fall and freeze in ice cube trays. You mentioned rosemary. It can get very large, but is not the fastest grower. Since you typically take whole branches it replaces loss slower than some herbs. But, you can compensate by planting more. It is a very hardy plant. I think you could do this and it would add an attractive feature to the hotel. Not sure on how large a volume you run, but I would bet there are some yield calculators online from some of the ag schools that could help you sway the boss.