ruthcooks

Reduced cider or reduced boiled cider? Like an apple syrup.

Besides, who cares if they wear, they're going to break eventually, and don't you get tired of the same old dishes? I get sick of the same design (and I don't like pure white) and have sold or given away several sets in my lifetime. I agree that the metallic rims get worn off in the dishwasher, so I don't have those on everyday china, only on the set that my grandfather and his 7 sisters gave to my great-grandparents on their 50th wedding anniversary, back in the 1930s.

I'm with you on crisp over cobbler, but am a purist: peaches, 1/2 cup butter cut into 1 cup each of brown sugar and flour for the crisp. No peels. I use the "dunk in boiling water for 20-30 seconds and transfer into ice water until cool" method, and the layer of peel comes off so thin it even leaves the red coloring on the peach. I hate that fuzzy stuff. No spices, unless it's nutmeg which is the perfect spice for peaches. (And is the only one not mentioned here!) And certainly no oatmeal, which ruins it for me. I made a large pan yesterday and I have to force myself into eating anything else because it's all I want. Oh, and I do pour a little cream over it sometimes.

Sliced green onions, dill, and maybe try small curd cottage cheese which I find much better tasting than large curd.

I don't understand why people are irritated by learning the server's name. I find it quite handy if "Josh" forgot the butter and you don't see him anywhere, to simply snag the next server past the table and ask him to "please send Josh to our table." Always works for me.

How do you make lemon curd without lemon, pray tell?

Aside from tasting someone's cooking and finding it vile, the surest sign for me is finding products in the pantry and refrigerator labeled "low fat" or, even worse, "fat free". This country has bought the "fat is bad for you" concept hook, line and sinker.

Here is a recipe I tried from the package of "gourmet" potatoes I bought. Wish I could remember the potato name, but it seems it had one word having to do with sweetness, like "honey". Wash and boil 12 ounces of small potatoes (about 1 oz each, or 12) in salted water to cover until they test done. Have ready 2 T. butter, and a mixture of 1/2 cup sour cream, zest of 1 lime and juice of 1/2 lime. Drain potatoes well, add butter and cover pan until butter is melted. Add sour cream mixture and salt and pepper to taste. Heavenly! This was enough for 2 servings, but I managed to eat them all before bedtime. Even good cold.

My daughter had some and one exploded. I've heard of other people's doing the same. No thanks, at least not on metal pans.

Turning out large quantities of food, as when I was catering, and finding shortcuts to doing so. Like devising a method of making little sandwiches (think ham on buns) with a minimum of work, so each one has fillings and spreads which go to the very edges of each piece. And making an assortment of tiny desserts for holiday buffets. I would start out with four kinds, then when some started running low, I would make a fifth and sixth and add them to the mix and so on throughout the season, so each party had a different selection of choices. There might be almond paste tarts with apricot glaze, chocolate truffles, jam "strudels" and powdered sugar Mexican wedding cookies to start. Then perhaps lace cookies, fudge tarts and sugar dipped strawberries as replacements.

I feel the same way about people eating standing "over the sink". Would you eat standing over the toilet? I've heard that the kitchen sink is one of the dirtiest/germy-est places in your house.

After I looked it up, I concluded that if someone served me paloise sauce I would say "Who in the hell ruined my hollandaise? ". The concept of hollandaise with mint is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard of, i.e., all paloise sauces are badly made. Just sayin'. I don't like any foods which are too airy, and, for example, let whipped cream sit in the fridge for a few hours until it deflates a little and becomes more solid. It doesn't help that I grew up with a slightly older girl who amused herself by constantly blowing spit bubbles. I can't stand to look at "foam" much less enjoy it.

Sometimes carrying outrageously expensive goods is a marketing ploy. Gets people to talking, doncha know? This would have been MY Wegman's, had I stayed in PA long enough. Sniff, sniff.

I think the skin is the whole point. I used to think that if I were in a situation where I could request my last meal I would request the crisp skin and the tail of a roast turkey. The tail is all skin, fat and the sweetest meat, and there's not much competition for it. The soggy stuff I don't usually eat, unless it has been browned first.

A gracious lady once offered to let me stay at her house in Louisiana while we were both on staff for a children's seminar. She apologized because she was not a cook, and said she could offer for the first night's dinner chicken, baked potatoes and salad. I told her not to worry, that her menu would be fine with me. Unfortunately, I was thinking of MY chicken, MY baked potatoes (with butter, sour cream and perhaps chives or green onions) and MY salad. Reality hit with a dried out chicken breast with no sauce, a baked potato with MARGARINE! and iceberg lettuce with bottled dressing. Will I never learn to curb my expectations?

Thanks, Andie. The model I am looking at is the NNCD989S. I'm going to go ahead with that, now that you have sent me a new and cheaper source. $575 with free shipping is a much better deal than $699 plus shipping! I've only seen two reviews for this product, one glowing and one "would not recommend". The reason for the latter is that the turntable is not easy to clean, but the glowing review says it is easy to clean. Not a good reason for a low rating--plus my housekeeper cleans mine, anyway. That steam model is a really good looking piece of equipment, but I rarely steam anything. Also it is about a third smaller than the Panasonic, and is black, rather than stainless steel. Not that I'm in love with stainless, but I find it difficult to read directions when written on black. Thanks again.

Can't get past his awful, messy hair. Is it not combed? Or does he (or someone else) spend hours getting it to look like that? Watched him cook just once, and something he did turned me "right off".

I'm looking at a Panasonic Microwave/Convection oven which has inverter Technology: that means that the microwave keeps at the level you set, rather than bouncing between High and whatever level you choose. My microwave turntable has quit working, and my toaster oven may have a short in it and I plan to replace both with this one. My purpose for buying this combination is that I like food reheated in a regular oven and the oven in my stove is a POC. (piece of crap) Hardly any insulation, no light in the oven, and only one large burner on top. Anyone have or know about this model? It is $700, so I want to be careful.

Here's one: Battle of the Slobs, winner is the one with the worst table manners. Seriously, about the same time as James Beard came on the scene, local television stations often had a "home" show on which the host(ess) usually demonstrated cooking recipes or featured guests who did.

One night back in the 80s, I was expecting a local food critic who was going to do a review of my small restaurant. It was in my home--and legal!--by reservation only on the weekends, and the menu changed almost every week. The dessert that evening was to be angel food cake with a "tunnel" cut out and filled with whipped cream and strawberries or raspberries, I forget which. The whipped cream mixture had a bit of gelatin to hold it together, but when I cut it, the filling was too soft and it ran out all over, a big mess. I cut up the cake into one inch squares, folded into the filling, and served the dessert in parfait glasses. No one was the wiser.

I am more apt to eat "salad for dinner" than a "dinner salad". Here are the ingredients I use, with the most usual ones listed first in each category: Greens: romaine, leaf/butter/Boston/Bibb lettuce, spinach Fruit: grapes, orange/Clementine sections, pears, apples, strawberries Dried fruit: cranberries, raisins Cheese: feta crumbles, blue cheese crumbles, grated cheddar, Parmesan Nuts/seeds: sunflower kernels, pine nuts, almonds, other nuts Green Onions Dressings: Sweet Lemon Garlic, vinegar and oil A totally different green salad I like combines spinach, romaine, red onion, chopped eggs, bacon, cherry tomatoes and homemade croutons with Blue Cheese Dressing or Parmesan Peppercorn Dressing. Or this one: romaine, celery, green onions, parsley, mandarin oranges, sugar-glazed almonds and a sweet vinegar dressing. Other favorites include Wilted Lettuce with Bacon, Waldorf, Marinated Cukes and Onions, and I could positively live on Panzanella during tomato season. You can probably see that I like sweet salads! I think every combination of food needs something sweet, and my favorite way to include that element is in the salad.

Precooking probably killed that enzyme--that's how it works with pineapple and gelatine: if you use cooked or canned pineapple it will gel but fresh pineapple won't gel.

A couple of weeks ago, I dreamed I was alone in a restaurant kitchen and washing silverware--a huge amount, enough for hundreds or even thousands of people. Along one wall, about 25 or 30 feet long, was a series of stainless steel sinks, not the deep ones but more like a large but shallow home version. Each sink was about 3 feet long and each held a single head of soaking romaine. The heads were huge, about 2 feet long. I knew that my next job was to clean the lettuce for a large party that night,but that was not what worried me. I had no idea what the rest of the menu was to be--either I had forgotten it or had neglected to plan it all, and evidently I was responsible for preparing the entire menu. My restaurant "dreams" are usually more like nightmares.

I have that paperback, too, plus another dozen James Beard cookbooks. I especially like his "Delights and Prejudices", sort of a biography. JB was my go-to cookbook authority, just before Julia Child came on the scene. He was primarily a big meat eater, but my favorites from him include Tuitti Fruitti Ice Cream, and a sort of creme brulee baked in a brioche shell for brunch.

Possibly, I loved all foods in the beginning, so I have to go back to the first food I remember eating. It was about an inch of heavy cream, which my grandmother poured into a coffee cup for me. I must have been a tiny child, for I can see myself sitting on a window sill in her kitchen, dangling my feet in the air and spooning up the thick farm cream. To this day, I love cream and butter: I wouldn't be happy living on a diet without dairy products, and no meal is perfect unless it contains something creamy.