LizD518

I made this recipe the other night and it was delicious. Served it over polenta, but mashed potatoes or risotto would also be good. I also add fresh oregano to my pasta sauce. I just like the flavor, so I often use it where I would use basil, for a change of pace.

Frozen grapes mini carrots ( the kind that you put in kid's lunches) fruit juice cut with club soda ice cream sandwiches crackers and cheese and pepperoni slices This is what got me through the current heat wave. I had a bottle of rose I was working through too, but the alcohol wasn't really refreshing me as much as the juice / club soda mix.

The Perfect Scoop has recipes for cookies that are suitable for ice cream sandwiches. The one time I have made them I found that making them and wrapping them in plastic and the putting them back int he freezer for a day or two actually resulted in a softer cookie once some of the moisture from the ice cream sunk into the cookie. But sometimes your freezer can be so cold as to freeze the entire thing solid too.

Milk Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Banana (my favorite all-together combo), could sub the peanut butter for hazelnut ice cream to be a little more mellow and grown-up. Ginger, Dark Chocolate, Macadamia Brittle

I think the moment in college when I realized that my spice rack already had all the ingredients that were in the taco seasoning packet and that I didn't need to buy another mix, was one of the turning points in my cooking development. Then, the day I mixed the taco beef into my blue box macaroni & cheese and used sour cream instead of butter and milk to moisten the whole thing was another! Amazing - I don't have to follow the box, and things will still come out delicious?!

I have no idea whether this is possible, just wanted to chime in and say that it sounds delicious! Hopefully someone can shed some light on the possibility of it working!

Pizza and ice cream. Good, crispy-chewy neapolitan crust and lots umami-salty cheese countered with pure, sweet tomato sauce. And coffee-heath bar crunch ice cream.

Last night I made roasted broccoli with shrimp, but I did not roast the broccoli long enough. I was hungry, so I ate it, and I have enough for leftovers tonight. Since I have to heat it up anyway, can I re-roast the broccoli? I was going to just separate out the shrimp - easy enough since it is a dry dish and the pieces of broccoli are large. Then, I guess I would toss the broccoli on an oiled sheet pan and roast until tender, then add the shrimp again to heat up. Should I cover it instead, so it doesn't get too dry?

I like to take my own homemade salad dressing to work so I save the jars from Cento capers - they hold about a quarter cup, I think, and are (relatively) tall and narrow. I just put all the ingredients in for one serving of dressing (oil, vinegar, wet or dry mustard, a bit of honey, salt & pepper & freeze-dried shallots) and I'm good for 1-2 salads. And I trust a screw-on lid in my purse much more than I trust a plastic to-go container.

This is one area where I know my farm beats the grocery store. The farm sells all their herbs for $1.00 per package, for roughly the same amount as you get in those mini clamshell packages at the grocery store. The clamshells usually go for $2.50 ea. Other items vary more, so I'll have to check, but I think per pound cost may be key, as most of the stuff at my farm is portioned and bought by the portion, rather than loose and by the pound.

I shop year round at a local farm that provides a CSA, grows its own produce, as well as selling produce from nearby farmers, and a limited amount of out of state stuff that is clearly marked (citrus, winter tomatoes, etc). They produce their own preserved goods (jams, jellies, salsas, pickles, etc), and baked goods. They also sell an assortment of dry goods similar to what you'll find in the "health food" or "natural food" aisle of your grocery store. Basically, I could do 90% of my grocery shopping there if I wanted to. Produce is definitely cheaper there, especially if I am buying only seasonal items. The dry goods are probably on par - 25% more expensive than the grocery store. But, this isn't the kind of place where people set up a booth once a week and truck everything in - this is a permanent store that's been set up in a store room under their main barn - not really the stuff of photo shoots. I've got to think that that has something to do with it as well.

As a girl scout we would make out own cookers out of a box and foil, designed to reflect the heat from a campfire and cook our dinner. I think we mainly used them to make english muffin pizzas.

I prep a modified mise when I'm making dishes (mostly Indian), that have a lot of different ingredients. I'll go through the recipe first and figure out all the spices I need, when they go in, and if any can be grouped. Then, measure them, toast and grind any that need it (mostly cumin) and divide and line them up according to when they go in. I also include minced ginger and garlic and other small quantities in this process. The bigger items that are added as the dish progresses are usually prepped as I go along. If I'm baking, I usually only pull out all the ingredients, but I don't measure them until I need them.

Great thread Darienne! I have a question for the experts about canned or jarred tomatillos. I can get fresh tomatillos pretty regularly here, and have made salsa with them before, but I confess to being lazy and curious as to whether I can used canned since I am cooking them for my salsa. I have been making the tomatillo salsa out of Rick Bayless's "Salsas that Cook" and I'd like to do a "pantry version" with canned tomatillos and jalepenos. Good idea or don't even bother?

I have a 18x24 cutting board, but I still like a lot of room for my knife, even though I only have an 8" chef's knife. If I have a lot of veggies I put them on a plate and then push them into the pan from there.

I just made a batch of homemade granola a few days ago based on thisrecipe. I won't even bother to tell you all the ways I adjusted it to suit what I had on hand and my tastes, but the basic proportions were there, as well as the use of olive oil. Anyway, I have a bunch of vanilla beans on hand and since I am not baking very much, and I already have vanilla extract going, I was thinking of using one in my next batch of granola. Has anyone done this? Did you just scrape out the bean and mix the seeds in when adding the wet ingredients? I think a vanilla-almond granola is calling my name...

My new apartment has three smoke detectors in a total of 500 square feet. I found this out about a week after I moved in when I was searing a pork tenderloin on the stovetop with the plan of finishing it in the oven. Here I am, running around trying to open windows (except the kitchen window, which was stuck!), turn on overhead fans (which probably made it worse), and generally cursing up a storm, and every two minutes a different smoke detector was going off. Oh, and I'm trying to simultaneously finish the side dishes as well. But at least I know that I'll be informed if I ever have a real fire.

I talked to the Chef and Sous Chef yesterday and gave them a list of the suggestions mentioned here as well as a few other ideas I had. This is what I came up with: • Shrimp Cocktail with dehydrated cocktail sauce leather – wraps around shrimp to look like bacon or prosciutto • Compressed watermelon “tuna sashimi” with “wasabi” (mint mousse?) , coconut sticky rice & “pickled ginger” (shaved papaya?) • Something using a faux egg pana cotta – sized like quail egg, served in Chinese soup spoon • Sweet & savory “bruschetta”: traditional with chunky tomato sauce, chiffonade of basil on crostini and sweet version with chopped strawberries, chiffonade of mint on brioche • Savory cheesecake: looks like a mini cheese cake, is a tortilla crust, has layer of salsa on bottom, cheesecake, sour cream top • Meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato topping • Something with chocolate “soil”… • Faux sushi of all types • Micro Salad: Large crouton with microgreen salad, and fried quail egg on top. The issues we have are price (approx $15-$17 per person, including kitchen labor), skill (for a few items), and facility space for production. They are going to look over what I have and come up with a final menu for me. The event isn't until May, but I'll definitely follow up with the menu and pictures. Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I love doing custom menus for my facility, even though I know it drives the Chef crazy!

So true. In my small neighborhood there are several places within walking distance, each with their own strengths & weaknesses Place A: Good coffee (I'm no connoisseur, but they are a local chain, sell their own beans, offer French press service, etc). Good bagels, mediocre baked goods and a loud, busy, kind of cold atmosphere. Place B: Mediocre coffee, average, but more encompassing menu (can get full breakfast or breakfast sandwiches), Quieter, more cozy atmosphere. Place C: Was the closest to my old apartment. Now there is no reason to go there. I really want the coffee from place A and the atmosphere from place B with a menu closer to place B, but done better...

We have a combi where I work but as we do very little (aka none) serious cooking on-site and only finish catering events and bake cookies on-site, it pretty much doesn't get used at all. Couple that with the fact that everyone who was here when it was installed has moved on, and the controls are not instinctive, and there is even less incentive to use it. We have a regular convection oven that gets 95% of the use. Oh yeah, and it isn't vented properly either!

Or maybe a salad of microgreens topped with a quail egg on a crouton. Kind of an Alice in Wonderland sort of thing. I like this too - and more in our normal wheelhouse too.

I'm also thinking mini savory cheesecakes with tortilla crust, salsa layered on the bottom, and a sour cream topping like a regular cheesecake. Also meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato topping, sprinkled with bacon bits or chives.

Love this!

We don't do sous vide so I'm not sue what we have access to in terms of equipment. Are there low-tech ways to do this? I have seen the concept before and it would be a cool thing to do.

The Delaware Art Museum