Marlene

Most of my appliances are KitchenAid including the two separate wall ovens I have. The ovens rock. Seriously. The side by side fridge is actually large enough to put things in, including the freezer. Kitchen aid is great!

Other than pricing, unfortunately, all Ruth's Chris are not created equal. I've been to several Ruth's in various parts of the states as well as the one here in Toronto. The food ranges from excellent to very substandard. The Toronto location has significantly improved over the last couple of years, although they continue to have trouble with their porterhouse, don't ask me why. It will be interesting to try their new location in Mississauga when it opens. The New Orleans location is wonderful and has some local cusine built into the menu as well. Orlando - Not great New York, again, has improved. It was terrible the time we went there. Dallas was outstanding Houston was fair Hartford was great! There are others we've been to, but these are the ones that stand out in my mind.

So Tommy, how did your ribs turn out?

They were awesome! I slow cooked them for 4 hours at 250 and I could have left them for another hour I think. 1 rack was basted on the grill with =mark's spicy mustard bbq sauce, which had been marinaded in a beer marinade first, 2 racks were Jamyes' recipe which I bbq'd and basted with some of the marinade after I had brought it to a boil and thickened it slightly, and the other rack that had been marinaded in beer, was basted with a honey garlic bbq sauce. Myhusband's favourite was =Mark's, mine was Jayme's although I really liked =mark's as well, and my son liked the honey garlic. Everyone was happy!

Nope, Bon Echo. It's in no man's land I swear! We have a little campstove, a portable gas bbq and of course the fire! - No we're not backpacking. I don't mind rustic, but let's not get carried away here . I'm already not taking my hair dryer which is a major sacrifice for me All of these suggestions are great! Last year, when my friend was cleaning up, she forgot to put some of the food away. Those racoons were awfully noisy.

So next week, I'm going camping for three days in one of our beautiful provincial parks. I'm going with a friend of mine who doesn't cook. We did this last year and the deal was I'd cook, she'd clean up. Last year I took some rib eye steaks that I marinaded, some of my famous (or infamous) peanut burgers, and of course bacon and eggs for breakfast. Marshmallows for toasting were requisite. We ate out the third night. What are your favourite foods to take camping?

Actually the Weber's Big Book of Grilling refers to it as membrane or silverskin.

If you took off the membrane, they're not country style ribs, they're either spare ribs or back ribs. Country style ribs aren't actually ribs at all, it's a pork shoulder cut into 1" square strips and look like ribs. Often times they're better. Good luck! you are correct. They are spareribs. My mistake. At Costco, they had two types of ribs side by side. Country style and side ribs. I thought I was grabbing the country ribs, but actually grabbed the spareribs. Which is fine. These are nice and meaty. Costco does a pretty good job with their meats.

Relax Kate. It's a learning curve. And your learning curver is just more exposed than some other people's might be. Hang in there. In a couple more weeks, you're going to be acting like a pro!

Me too. And I try to label stuff that I stick in the 'fridge - like leftovers - and mark them with a best-before date. I even insist that my daughter label and date her leftovers that go in the 'fridge as I often babysit my granddaughter at her house and if I am not sure how long something has been hanging about I'm not about to feed it to my granddaughter! So I stuck some masking tape and a marker on top of her fridge! Sometimes she remembers - sometimes not - but if it's not labelled then I don't use it. Anna N I label everything. For ziploc freezer bags, I just write on the bag. Date, product etc. For all my Tupperware, I use my Brother labeling machine. It has such pretty fonts

So when I opened the rib package there were 4 racks of ribs! Soooooo, for the first two, I've made a beer marinade and I will use +Mark's mustard sauce for basting, and for the other two, I've made Jaymes' cider marinade. Both are now marinading merrily away (in my Tupperware marinade containers ). Since I did not want to anger the Rib Gods, I removed the membrane for the very first time. Remind me to get my butcher to do that from now on! Tomorrow, into the oven they go for 4 hours. I shall report back.

Tupperware loves me. After my kitchen was re-done, I put everything (everything) into various modular tupperware containers. I had so much room left over in the panty after doing this, I had to go buy more stuff and more tupperware of course! My floor to ceiling double sided pull out spice rack is all tupperware as well. I have tupperware sandwich containers for my son's lunch. I have the rolling pin and the ice cream scoop. My husband swears by their potato peeler. My flours, sugar and tea are in the Tupperware cannisters. I'm surrounded by Tupperware.

Tommy - I've hesitated to enter into any of the "BBQ cooking" discussions because I know there are much finer smokemasters on eGullet than I. And, because I live in a city where where BBQ restaurants are on literally every corner, I have no desire to buy a big, wood-fire smoker. So, I've got a little gas grill out on the back deck of my bachelorette condo. But, everyone brags on the BBQ ribs I make, so - here's what I do. I do start them in the oven -- especially in the summer when it's 100 degrees, I don't like standing out there sweating over the ribs. Sometimes I even cook them in the oven a day or two before, so I have more time to sit around swilling Sangria with my guests. And, I don't have a hot oven heating up my kitchen during the party. Night before: remove membrane from ribs (very important and many people - often even restaurants - skip this step). For one rack of ribs, marinate overnight in mixture of: 2 C apple cider 1/2 C bottled Teriyaki sauce 1/4 C brown sugar Bake ribs slowly in 250 degree oven, basting frequently. Pretty darn good that way but for BBQ ribs, finish off on outdoor grill. (Can add flavorful woodchips of some kind to coals if using gas grill.) Can baste with some sort of traditional BBQ sauce last few minutes of grilling to caramelize sauce, or just serve as is with sauce on side. Ok, Jaymes, help me out here. I just bought a ton of country style pork ribs from Costco today, and the next few days are perfect BBQing weather. So, I shall attempt your recipe here. When you say cook em in the oven slowly, - how long please? Two hours? More? lLess? I'm a relative newbie when it comes to ribs and I've never brined either

From Washington State??? That'd put you in the lead for greatest distance travelled!!! I want special mention for coming from another country

Yes! Especially if you are entertaining (or sitting around the pool drinking way too many frozen margaritas

We promise not to ignore you . We are working on a full program that will be unique to egullet. We will certainly dervive some inspiration from WW and other programs. We do not seek to turn people away from whatever program works for them, but rather, to provide a starting point for those who are not doing anything at the moment. WW members and all others will be welcome. It will be a place to share tips and successes and problems, provide a base meal plan from which to start, provide a way to track what you eat etc. We hope to have a rough draft to FG next week. Even once it goes up, it will continue to evolve of course!

Wha??? I've been going to WW for a while now (34+ lbs) and my leader could easily be a stand up comedian! She's an absolute hoot! Sometimes we're all laughing so much that we forget about the weight part. It's a very closely knit, supportive group. That's wonderful! However, based on what I've experienced and heard from other members, your leader is the exception, rather than the rule.

I think I hate you. Seriously, I have to add something (ok, maybe a couple of things) to my previous comments. First of all, the "obsession" to be thin. That is societial pressure. We've been inundated with magazine articles on how to lose weight. We see pictures of thin models every day. We see commercials that advertise "healthy" foods. I belong to a gym whose philosophy is "good enough is good enough". It is also the basic philosphy we will build our "egullet weight loss plan" on. I am never going to be thin. It just isn't going to happen. So, I've stopped beating myself up over the fact that I'm likely several pounds over with the BMI index says I should be for my height/weight. I'm at a weight that I can comfortably maintain, (although I do still have to think about the choices I make when eating), and I consider myself to be reasonably healthy. My blood pressure is great, my cholesteral is non existent, my dress size is satisfactory (10-12 depending on the cut) and I have reasonable muscle tone. Forget the fast food restaurants. Go into any grocery store, and at the front of most of the aisles are the boxes of food that proclaim they are "healthy, low in fat, no cholesterol". Marketing people know people will buy these because they are "easy". After all, if the box says so, it must be ok - right? I stand by my original premise that all things are right in moderation. What is needed is a little more education on how to make choices. Going out for that gourmet dinner? Great! Have a party, a pig out. Just know that the next day, choose to eat lighter, salads etc. Get some exercise. One of the major factors attributed to obesity or being "plump" is overeating. No one ever mentions the undereating factor or starvation mode This is so true. And is the cause for much of "dieting" failure. One of my biggest problems was never eating breakfast or lunch. Thus, my metabolism never "woke up". Instinctively, it hoarded any calories I took in, not knowing when it would get more. Deprivation of any kind is wrong. Dieting is wrong. Eat, enjoy, exercise, choose. In fact, just say Choices -make them wisely Hhappiness-be happy with yourself E eat- what you want in moderation E enjoy-what you eat - don't guilt yourself S select- what works for you - don't try to be something you never will E exercise- even if it's walking up the stairs instead of the elevator Ok, so it's not the greatest acronym, but it more or less gets the point across

In order to substantiate that statement you'd have to show that, among similarly situated people, the ones with more knowledge of nutrition weigh less. The only information I've seen on this point indicates that many people are obese despite the fact that they understand they're eating unhealthy food and too much of it. And the jury is still very much out on trans-fats. As an obese person who eats virtually no junk food and probably knows more about nutrition than 99% of the population and more about how food is produced and prepared than 99.99%, I find the notion that ignorance and disconnectedness from production are the root causes of obesity to be absurd. There is only one universal cause of obesity, and I stated it above. Beyond that, any attempt at a one-size-fits-all (so to speak) explanation is bound to be misguided and, if it forms the basis of policy, harmful to those who don't conform to averages (and in my life, I've met very few average people). I haven't read all the way through this thread, so forgive me if I repeat anything. First of all, I agree with FG, that apart from those with glandular problems and those requiring drugs to sustain life, that have side effects of retaining water etc, the basic problem is consuming more calories than the body burns. With regards to nutrition, trans fat, high cholesteral foods etc, the circle goes around and around. A few years ago, we were told of the evils of red meat. Now, Atkins has more or less proved that red meat is not the evil it was made out to be. Eggs were maligned as the source of high cholesteral and were to be avoided. Margarine instead of butter. Etc. When each of those industries began to founder because people belived these "quick fix" solutions, all of a sudden, new research appeared, "disproving" all the evils that had been previously stated. People discovered that not eating red meat, or using margarine instead of butter did not miraculously make them lose weight. Diets generally do not work, because they are short term solutions. Go off any diet, and return to your old eating habits, and volia, you put on the weight you lost, plus usually a few more pounds and thus the cycle begins again. Fast food alone, is not the problem. I detest fast food and I still have to be very careful about what I eat, because I have a tendency to put on weight. The problem is, people want quick fixes and something easy and tangible to "blame" for their obesity. We are a sedintary society. Lack of exercise, combined with portion control, tends to be the problem. You can eat anything you want, but you can't do it every day, and you can't have Hulk Hogan size portions. All things in moderation. Exercise. Portion control. Water. These are the basic tenets of losing weight or maintaining a weight you want to be at. Taxing the fast food industry? Right. Will that stop people from deep frying at home, making rich creamy sauces, and calorie filled desserts? Not likely. And that is where a lot of the problem lies.

I know. I'm a radical, what can I say

Congrats Bill! That was a great first week back on the program.

The executive committee is coming along just fine FG. Everyone is off working on specific items and will report back this week. By next week, I should have a first draft to you that we can then work on refining. I'd rather take the extra time and do it right than rush through it. Stay tuned!

I will occassionally buy prepackaged coleslaw mix, but not the bagged salads. Whenever I did, they always seem to have a weird smell to them.

The Maverick ET-72 looks identical to the William Sonoma remote thermometer. I wonder if Maverick makes it for them?