Foam Pants

Some fair food not on a stick: Elephant ears kettle corn roast pork sammich Personally, I think food is on a stick becuase it is novel and it is easy to eat while you walk around. Being a veteran of many fairs I know that seating is at a premium. I also think that people eat crazy fried foods at the fair becuase they wouldn't eat them outside of the fair. After all, it is BAD but doing crazy things is OK there, what else is a fair for? My favorite is to get a corndog and a honey-maid and go watch the draft horse pull at the grand stand. Also, church groups often offer decent sammiches and a nice shady tent to sit in. Good for grandmas. Speaking from experience, it is not a good idea to bring a funnel cake into Ye Old Mill. They get really pissed when you drop it in the water. As a note: the food competitions at the fair are really cool. They often offer big prizes, too. While it isn't a oasis of good taste, it is a great example of cooking Americana.

For someone who has type II diabetes, it really isn't a question of sugar verses complex carbs, it is a question of carbs altogether. Fruit sugar is still carbs as is an apple. One benefit of non-artificial white sugar alternatives is that they do have some nutritional value and they aren't as sugary, if that makes any sense, and so they don't mess with your blood glucose levels as much. A diabetic needs carbs but has to be very careful about the amount and the timing. Eating a small, steady amount is usually best. And, yes, most dietitians recommend lowering fat for those with type II diabetes. I am unfamiliar with the no/low carb diet aside from how it pertains to diabetes. I'll have to find these books everyone has talked about and I have visited the Low Carb Luxury site. Very informative. I'm thankful this thread has come up. It has given me plenty of avenues to take this eGCI Diabetes topic to give people valuable info. I also have a lot of new questions to ask and research. I'm going to pose the baking question to a c-worker who is a diabetes specialist nurse. I am sure she has info aplenty on artificial sweeteners and options.

I would think that a liquid artificial sweetener wouldn't be a good choice for cookies. Isn't the creaming of the sugar and fat important? In what ratio would you combine Splenda with erythritol? Don't these nut flours add a lot of fat? For diabetics, it isn't that you can't have carbs, it is that you need to be highly aware of the amount of carbs you eat and you need to eat them in smaller amounts over time. Also another question about nut flours: When you make them at home, how do you process them? I would be very worried about my nut flour turning into nut butter. *Takes notes* By the way, I am giving a schpeel on diabetes for the upcoming eGCI. I am mostly giving general information about diabetes and how to manage it but I am very interested in this thread. Maybe I will do some home experimentation and come up with a really tasty sugar-free cookie recipe if people are interested.

I drink carbonated fresh mountain spring water straight from the tap! The water here in Juneau is quite nice but we have very fizzy water these days due to mineral deposits on the city's filter screens. It aerates the water so it comes out like Alka Seltzer. The worst was at Camp Sackajewea. It was like drinking liquid liver.

Do what my neighbor always did and put a god awful amount of them at the base of your driveway, put chicken wire over them, and run over them all fall. Leaves interesting skid marks in your garage. I say it is worth it, I love the taste of them. You can always chuck the damn things at the authorities when they try to arrest you for cutting the thing down. Walnut makes lovely cheese boards. Why, you could eat Stilton with the walnuts you ran over on the board made from the flesh of their mother. Sick and twisted!

Making low carb, sugar-free cookies is going to be tricky. You could look up some information on Splenda's website, a brand-name artificial sweetener that is very popular. They give some baking tips and they also give some recipes. Adding bulk with fiber is a good idea to flesh out cookies without adding too much carb. You should have info on hand about how many carb exchanges each cookie is worth.

Alaska eats a lot of ice cream per person but the numbers are all wacky due to the number of tourists per person that visit, eat some fudge, down some ice cream, buys a native nic-nac from China, and gets back on the cruise ship. Some of the best milk shakes I have ever had were made with Hershey's syrup and a tiny bit of mint extract.

I would take homemade over store bought anyday. I have this preference for this crazy ice milk recipe that my grandma makes. It is a bit.... well, it's weird. It features Jello pudding and Dream Whip. It comes out a lovely mushy texture that I just love. Then it freezes to this rock hard stuff that is also fun. I also enjoy real ice cream done at home but my grandma's recipe shows up at every fambly reunion so you know it's popular! It also has raw eggs in it which some folks don't like but it hasn't killed anyone yet. I really don't like the super-sweet and extremely fluffy texture of most store bought ice creams. If I do get store bought, I stir it until it gets soupy.

Well, the technical help I need most is good knife skills but I could also use a lesson in handling the really wet bread dough that makes such good bread. The smoking also sounds great.

I completely agree. The more I learn about the ingredients I use, the better I am at understanding the effect of quality.

I have one of the largest cabinets in my kitchen devoted to spices. I had to eat a lot of pickles and jam to acquite that many empty glass jars. Unfortunately, the guy who remodeled this kitchen was very tall and I need a step stool to reach anything. My anal-retentive alphabatical order is a disaster as the things I use the most are in the very front. Some things I keep in the fridge although I am not sure I should.

I wear an apron. I have too many shirts with avocado and berry stains on the chest. Breasts are sort of a stop-all for falling, stain enducing ingredients.

Thanks, everyone, for some great advice. This has gotten me so fired up about waffles that I think I am going to go to the used bookstore and purchase this book I saw there the other day that's all about waffles. Just what I need, another cookbook. I think I will try some yeast waffles and some with pecans. I think maybe mashed banana might also work, sort of along the line of the pumpkin waffles.

I have to admit, I would make enough german potato salad to feed the clan at a down-on-the-farm family reunion. I have a favorite potato recipe that is basic American cooking with an Indian twist. A twice baked potato with veggies and Indian spices. I mostly use peppers, onion, carrot, and whatever with a bit of cream and butter. I got the idea from the cookbook "Sundays at Moosewood." Not really Indian but very easy and a favorite with my mom and dad who don't normally get into heavily spiced food.

This thread is the answer to my prayers. I purchased a waffle iron two days ago. I tried a recipe where I folded the beaten egg whites in. The next morning I wake up to the boyfriend making waffles. In typical style, he just threw all the wet stuff together. To me they tasted pretty similar. Am I an idiot? Don't answer that one. I am very interested in these yeasted waffles... do they pack a bigger taste than the soda raised ones or is the texture the only difference? Is there any way possible to make the waffles with fruit in them or is the only sensible solution to use fruit as a topping? I would like to be able to make some blueberry ones to freeze for quick breakfasts.

. I will have to do some swamp stomping. Summer "hikes" in SE Alaska are so good, you can go into sugar shock. Now THAT is seasonal produce at it's best. I forgot to add morels. We used to pull them up from our backyard. I also really enjoy sea asparagus season.

MY grandpa is an "antique" dealer. This means he goes to country auctions and buys total crap. He is a great source for kitchen stuff, though. I have purchased old pyrex by the trunkful, pie plates, glasses, silverware, potato mashers, mixing bowls, butter molds, on and on and on. He usually gives it to me for free so he can make room for boxes of headless GI Joe dolls and crying kittens on velvet. Some of the best items I get are linens. Really cool tableclothes from the 40's and dishtowels with sassy dancing oranges embroidered on them. The most useful item I ever got is an ancient glass batter bowl. Wonderful heft, comfortable handle, and an elegant pour. For free, baby.

I grew up near Muscatine, Iowa. Along Muscatine's Mississippi river valley they grow some really great watermelons and musk melons. They are so good they call Muscatine Melon City. It's no wonder watermelon is my favorite food. Seedless watermelon is horrible! I buy big ruby red, seeded watermelons and cut them up. I have earned the title of melon surgeon, when I get finished cutting up watermelon it is guaranteed 90% seed free.

I do believe that cloudberries do grow in Southeast Alaska but, despite all the wonderful berries to be found here, you never see them in the stores. I completely agree with transported corn. Fresh picked is the only way. My favorite short season items are clementines, asparagus, garden patch strawberries, and tomatos so fresh they are still warm from the field. I find it ironic that I would long for tomatos all year and, when they finally arrived, I would have too damn many.

If only they would put one in Juneau, I might actually be able to purchase something as exotic as fresh dill. *sigh*

I have often wondered the same thing. I tried to get a basic oatmeal cookie recipe to plump up so I placed the finished dough in the fridge. It spread even more than usual! The recipe calls for both baking soda and baking powder so I don't think it was a case of the gas gassing out. I dunno. I am going to try out the hints above and read the literature.

Any unglazed pottery will draw water out of what it is holding so you are probably right in that it makes the sweet creamier. The rougher the clay the more water it will draw.

Bringing a point up that I was wondering about, do these ovens heat your kitchen up significantly more than a regular oven? Also, what do these types of ovens do really well and what do they do really badly? As in, I think I would hesitate to bake bread in it but I could be very off-base. I have also been thinking about a countertop convection oven. My current oven had severe hot and cold spots.

Hot waffles with nutella and a big glass of milk. They are sitting in the pit of my stomach right now getting very heavy and trying to make me go back to sleep.

Holy moly in a chicken basket, I am practically caveman in my camping choices! I always go with the protein packed packpacker's favorite, peanut butter and jelly. Kayak camping mean very little room for anything so I try to keep it light. I absolutely love what my dad used to call hobo dinners... hamburger, potatos, cabbage, onion, etc. cut up and baked in foil in the coals. The pre-made, whole loaf, sammich idea is a great one! I'll have to try that. I often go totally vegetarian on camping trips since keeping things cool can be impossible. If you are going to be near water and you have a fishing license, try your hand at some fresh stuff. I've been on a few trips where we chowed on freshly caught salmon which, as you probably know, tastes heavenly with woodsmoke. Of course, you can't rely on mother nature quite so well as a Safeway. I guess, after all that useless blabber, I only have some advice. Keep it simple since it will be harder to prepare away from your kitchen. I find that I am hungry enough on camping trips after all that activity that I think just about anything is tasty, even stale crackers and cheese whiz.