LizD518

Tomatoes. I only needed one item - one tomato - for a dish I wanted to make last week. All the local grocery stores advertise that they are selling local tomatoes this time of year, so I figured I could find one decent tomato, since the farm I go to was closed. It was HORRIBLE. The texture was like styrofoam, the taste was non-existent. I tried to force down a little of the salad I made but it was awful. I ended up throwing it out a few days later. It was a waste of good corn and avocado too!

I don't think anyone in this thread has mentioned just simply slicing it thinly and tossing in some good olive oil, a squeeze of lemon & salt & pepper to taste. I find it really refreshing and delicious in the summer heat.

Fish Sauce. The first bottle I ever bought was a really thick variety, and really, really strong smelling (even for fish sauce - maybe I got a bad batch?) I was dubious, but I figured that so many other people rave about, it can't be as bad as I think, right? I made a recipe for some sort of dipping sauce that was almost pure fish sauce, with a bit of garlic & ginger, lime & cilantro I believe. Dipped my summer rolls into it...and spit them right back out!! It was horrible. Since then I have switched to a different brand witch is clear and not so strong-smelling. I like to make fried rice and pad thai with it, but I still prefer a soy sauce base for something like dipping sauces. The fish sauce is a bit too overwhelming. I definitely started to develop a love for bitter flavors when I was in college. I started drinking coffee and because I had to be "cool" it had to be black coffee. That helped push my acceptance of bitter flavors. Now, I actually prefer cafe au lait when drinking coffee, or a bit of half & half if I have no choice. No sugar though. And I love bitter beers - IPA styles are my favorite. Any brown ale or scotch ales are waaaay too sweet for me. Most stouts, except for Guinness are too sweet for me too, although it is also a "textural" thing with Guinness since I only like it if is on tap - no bottles or cans.

Made DL's Coffee Frozen Yogurt the other day and added dark chocolate that I chopped up into chunks. Really good - the tang of the yogurt played nicely with the coffee. I used Trader Joe's 2% Greek Yogurt. Not scoopaply soft, but softened up enough after 10 minutes out of the freezer.

A v-slicer with a half-dozen interchangeable blades to juliennes, different thicknesses, etc... Either the blade isn't nearly as sharp as most mandolins, or I am a total chicken, but it only worked if you use a certain amount of speed and pressure and I like my fingertips too much to be that careless. As with most mandolins, the guard is next to useless because you waste a lot of product in the guard. I'll use my knife, thanks. I rarely want to get that uniform or super thin slices anyway.

I can't think of any cookbook to recommend that is only about chiles, but perhaps somebody else can. I suggest that you cook those spicy dishes that you've wanted to try for a long time, and adjust the chiles and other hot spices downward until you get used to them. One of my friends loves to grill in the summer, and she puts chopped fresh chile (jalapeno or serrano) in the marinade for meat or chicken. That's one way to put some chile in your cooking. Are you interested in Thai food? Quick and Easy Thai by Nancie McDermott might be a good place to start. The author lived for years in Thailand, and when she returned to the U.S. and taught cooking classes, she realized her students couldn't find many ingredients and didn't have hours to prep dinner. So she streamlined her recipes. She's careful to say her recipes are Thai-style, rather than authentic Thai. McDermott's recipes use various ingredients for heat: fresh chiles (Thai, jalapeno, serrano, nothing esoteric), dried chiles, red chili flakes, curry paste (storebought or homemade), curry powder, sriracha. The heat level of her food is moderate, like a Thai restaurant in the U.S. I like her food, and I've cooked a bunch of recipes from the book. Googlebooks has a preview here: http://books.google.com/books?id=RAP42dIAumoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Quick+and+Easy+Thai&source=bl&ots=Htv52Z9Hi_&sig=HYP14SJHZDgXtujXtS5Um4vNkwQ&hl=en&ei=1Ek5TPyxHcP2nAfZx4GABA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false I second the "Quick & Easy Thai Cooking" recommendation. She may have modified the recipes, but not so much that you feel like a total fraud (ie, Pad Thai isn't made with ketchup). And as for siracha - scrambled eggs is a great place to start. You can start with some on the side, then start mixing it into the raw eggs when you scramble them up before cooking. I usually have trouble detecting flavors other than heat (although I like heat) when tasting chilis, and siracha really has other flavors since it is actually a chili paste.

Darienne, after the first over-night it was rock hard, but I put it in the refridgerator and it thawed nicely after a half hour or so. I think the water content of the coconut milk is a bit too high, and there are no eggs or cornstarch or other stabilizer. I haven't really looked at cornstarch-based ice cream, although I know you have been getting into them lately, I wonder if that would help the texture if I were to make this again. Still yummy though!

Darienne, it seems to be freezing fairly hard - after just two hours in the freezer it was pretty solid - usually it is still soft-serve at that point. But the flavor is really good - very coconutty, not too sweet, and the saffron is prominent, but not over-whelming. Definitely delicious.

I mixed up David Lebovitz'z Coconut-Saffron ice cream yesterday, and am going to churn it this evening. I had to alter the recipe a bit, so I'm wondering how hard it will freeze - instead of 1 cup coconut milk and 2/3 cup cream I used 2/3 cup half & half & one full can coconut milk (adjusted sugar and saffron to this volume). The base tastes delicious and should be a nice end to my planned dinner of salmon curry and gingered peas. Quick Coconut Saffron Ice Cream

I came to ask the same question. The ones they show in the commercial look suspect too me - like they were individually formed, rather than cut off of a rack. I'm really curious as to what people think...

I've been cutting back on sugars lately so I made DL's Agave-sweetened chocolate ice cream from his website. I didn't have super-dark chocolate, only 72%, so I cut back on the agave to a half cup, and added a dash of vanilla extract, both for extra depth of flavor, and for the alcohol to help balance the texture. It came out beautifully! I don't notice a difference in flavor with the agave, and the texture is lovely. I am going to have to try it in other flavors as well to see if it works will all flavors.

You can change the policy to share tips, but in that case, you will probably lose the bartender. Where does the largest percentage of your revenue come from? Which employee would you rather keep / which is easier to replace? How does the work really break down? Does the pizza guy stay strictly in the kitchen, or does he sometimes take orders and/or run food out to the tables, which might justify sharing tips with him? What will be better in the long=term?

I know it has been a couple of years since the message above was posted. Does anyone know how agave will affect the texture of ice cream, and what the ratio of agave to sugar will be for substitution? I really want to make some ice cream soon, but I am trying to cut back on sugar, and thought agave would be good since it is low on the glycemic index.

I'm enjoying this season, although I really liked Adams and Feniger and would have loved to see one of them in the finale. I also like Jonathan Waxman, his vibe is pretty mellow and his food looks delicious. Rick Moonan is entertaining me, but I think he'd be a little intense to be competing next to. Susur seemed to blow away the competition for some of the challenges, but his food isn't necessarily grabbing me, personally. But he'll be in the finale. Samualsson is getting this season's "villian" edit so I think he will be in the finale, for sure. I don't mind all the weird challenges - just giving them carte blanche to cook what they like can get boring because some people can get trapped in a rut, or it just doesn't seem like much of a challenge if they can just do whatever they like. Plus, I like seeing the differences / similarities between the more experienced chefs and the less-experienced cheftestants on TC. However, I did love the format of the final challenge last season, and I hope it is the same this season.

I've tried a few of David Lebovits' recipes with mix-ins, as well as other recipes, and the only thing I think that has stayed crunchy is the chocolate-covered spanish peanuts. Heath bits tended to dissolve on me, mostly because they were too small I think. I also wonder if anyone knows whether freezing the mix-ins first helps or not. I think Ben & Jerry mention that in their ice cream book, in reference to the heath bars, but I'm not at home so I can't look it up. I've never tried it though.

A stick of celery, or some radishes, smeared with a wedge of laughing cow cheese is a great low-carb snack. I also adore pistachios - I have to refrain from eating half a bag in a sitting.

I haven't moved for food, but I use it as a part of the research when I am determining where to live. I check where the good restaurants in town are, and what kind of options there are. Welcome SpaghettiWestern - now I'm curious, where have you moved to for food, and where are you moving to now?

I never seed & skin - except for making roasted tomato soup, using the CI recipe. But them I am roasting the canned tomatoes, so no skinning is involved, just breaking them up to get the seeds out. If I am doing something like a quick tomato sauce, I take the juice into account as part of the cooking. I like quick-cooked tomato sauces, but not so quick-cooked that the tomatoes are raw. The cooking down the juices is just the right amount of cooking time.

I've substituted pea shoots for lettuce on sandwiches. I like sprouts on general so they work for me. Not very creative, but it works.

I'll definitely have to do that Katie. I actually was at the University Place location of Capogiro today and tried the Dark & Stormy flavor. Pretty good, even though they make it with lemon instead of lime. I paired it with champagne mango for ginger/lemon/mango goodness.

I snagged a few things from my Grandmother's kitchen after she passed, as well as from her brother's kitchen when he went. Most things probably date from the 1950's or more recently so the oldest is probably the copy of Joy of Cooking from the mid-forties, complete with a few old grocery lists and hand-written notes by my Grandmother.

As annoying as I find Rachael Ray, I'd love to see her "use her powers for good" and attempt a similar type of program. She's obviously a more recognizable persona in America than Jamie, and she's already going after the title of the next Oprah/Martha so it would fit right in with her "brand". I don't think she could deal with the negative pushback though - she is all about the non-controversy.

Thanks to everyone for responses. I ended up slicing off enough for one meal (about 1/4 of the block) and putting the rest in a container of water in the fridge. I might freeze it tonight because I don't know that I want to eat tofu every night for dinner this week! As far as cooking it - I cubed it and sprayed them lightly with oil and baked at 500*. I was going for a crispy outer crust and creamy center, without frying in too much oil. It sort of worked, but a lot of the pieces stuck to the sheet pan, leaving the crispy bits behind. Tossed the pieces into a stirfry and overall it was pretty good. The sauce I used was tasty and the tofu soaked it up, so that was nice. I'll keep experimenting to see what I like though. Its a nice change from chicken, and a lot cheaper than shrimp for stirfrys!

I have never cooked tofu before, but I picked up a block a few days ago and I am ready to try it out. My questions is how long can it keep once opened? I assume I should store it in some sort of closed container or plastic bag, but I didn't keep the liquid that was in the package (I am pressing it to get the extra liquid out) - what is that? Also, can I fry it and then keep it to put in stirfrys? Can it be frozen after frying? I've seen lots of recipes and have ideas of my own, but have no clue what to do with the extra if I don't cook it all! Help!

I was perusing the Philly boards and came upon this thread, so I decided to check out the Capogiro site for today's flavors... 13th Street has a "Dark & Stormy" flavor! This is my all-time favorite cocktail. For those not familiar with it, is is Black Seal dark rum, Ginger Beer, and Lime (I like a couple large wedges). Soooo good. I live in Wilmington, DE, but I may have to head into Philly this evening just or a gelato fix!