Marlene

I'll be interested in replies since we keep seeing those tagines and wonder whether we should get one too!

Parsley as a garnish does NOT count. ← hmph. I had green beans last night and will have brocoli tonight. So there. Jack, I love hot cross buns. I wonder why you only see them at Easter? I'll pass on the fish pie though. Sorry.

Mel, I don't hide food, I hide new kitchen toys.

Good question. Besides alchohol, potato chips. Or any salty snack.

I'lll have you know, I had greens last night and will again tonight too. Green beans sound really good though.

Ah well, that explains it then. jake, alcohol is right up there but not everyday. Really.

EVERY day?

Right. I'll have a pot of coffee in the morning and usually make another one around one. My ex used to get headaches from caffiene withdrawal, until he swtiched to a blend of decaf and caffinated. Me, I'll take the straight hit. But foodwise, there is not food I have to have everyday. Just coffee.

ham and scalloped potatoes were traditional when we were growing up. (yes chocolate too!), but I detest scalloped potatoes really.

Coffee. It's really the only thing I HAVE to have everyday. I can make everyone's life pretty miserable until I get it. So those nearest and dearest to me always make sure there's coffee in the morning.

Our cabinet maker makes solid hardwood cabinets, including shelves. In general, I've found my kitchen guys to be several thousand dollars lower than the average kitchen deisgn place here. The other words to look out for are "filler strips". Many contstructors of cabinets use these to "fill in" spaces between cabinets etc. A really good cabinet maker can do this without any filler strips at all.

Kent I do this all the time now with chicken and beef fat from stock. I do re render it to make sure all the water is out and I keep it in the fridge. The beef fat has been really good for roasting potatoes and making yorkshire puddings. A discussion onbeef fat from stock

Let's not. They actually have a national conference for this?

I promise I'm not looking to pick on your new found love , but for that quantity of ground pepper wouldn't you use one of those $20 coffee grinder doo-hickeys? Or can this peppermill produce the same quantity over the same period of time? ← I suppose, if I was grinding that much pepper every day, but I can't see me buying a coffee grinder to grind pepper like that when I only use that much at one time occassionally. That's another appliance I have to find storage space for, drag it out, plug it in and clean it up after I'm done grinding. This peppermill was darn near as fast and I will use it all the time by the stove for seasoning other dishes etc.

Yes, I think that's where mine will live, by the stove. There are lots of applications that the peppermill is wonderful for though. Large batches of ground pepper, salting potatoes and pasta quickly at the stove. I can see me using mine a lot, but probably not for dinner table application.

Here's what I started out with: Rubbed: After being wrapped in foil, in a 250 degree oven and then grilled for 5 minutes: These were way too smokey for my taste. Ronnie's ribs look like I wanted mine to be like, but that didn't happen. I have no idea what went wrong, but so far, it may be a while before I attempt to smoke ribs again.

Yes there were three racks. Next time I'll invest in rib racks. I honestly think that must have been the problemm, not enough space on the grill. While I didn't expect them to be done in 5 hours, I expected them to be hotter to the touch than they were and to show at least a few signs of browning. The ribs are in the oven and I can smell the smoke so they must have got some. Maybe we'll get dinner in the next half hour or so!

Um, Andie, goddess of all things kitchen and gadget related, I must disagree on the VillaWare. I have one, (albeit a belgian one) and I've never had a problem with uneven heating.

I'll be smoking a turkey this Easter. Not sure about sides yet other than traditional mashed potatoes. Help?

By the way, just as an aside, our next smoking project will be turkeys on Easter Sunday.

The ribs were brined. They were on the smoker from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. They were on the bottom rack. Lots of water in the pan. The only thing I can think of is that there were too many ribs on the grill and not enough room for circulation. I don't get it.

What about using pressure cookers for fried chicken? Anyone?

Something has gone horribly wrong. We've just pulled the ribs and put them foil wrapped into a 250 oven. The ribs, when I pulled them off the smoker were barely warm, I could take them off with my bare hands. Yet, below, the coals were giving off a lot of heat, and the smoker probe read 280-300. The ribs are definately nowhere near done. We'll try the oven for an hour then crisp them up on the grill.

They've been working on one of their cars for a while now. Here's a question. The ribs have been on for 3 hours now, but they don't seem to be browning up at all, yet the smoker temp insists it's at 300. How come?

We've got a ways to go yet. My remote thermometer says 300, but I honestly don't think it's that hot. One minute it reads 290 and the next minute, 305. Go figure. Still pretty windy here and cold. Susan has not been heard from since she left to teach Sunday school. I wonder if the children kidnapped her? Either that, or she was unsucessful in her hunt for ribs!