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Everything posted by birder53
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I want to know how much bourbon vs saltwater to use in the brine! Would this really work? I might just have to find Star Hollow andorder it myself.
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I prefer to choose the wines myself. Unless you have a guest with excellent taste in wine who asks to bring something to compliment the meal, I would just say thank you for the wine and consider it a gift to drink at another time. Why take chances when you have already put such time and effort into your meal. ← This is what I do. I always bring something I like to drink when invited to someone's house for dinner. I never expect that they will open the wine on the evening, but I simply cannot show up empty handed! I also think it is impossible for guests to know what type of wine to match with the meal before they get there, so it is better to plan the meal and wine as the host. ← I usually bring wine that is expected to be a part of the meal when dining with family. They do not like to choose the wine so I try to work with their menu. Last year I picked a wine to take to a friend's for dinner. I had asked about the meal in advance and chose a wine I was really hoping to drink. She put my wine aside and served a wine which, in my opinion, did not compliment the meal at all. I guess it was my own fault and a bit nervy on my part to expect her to serve my wine. I didn't ask if I could bring the wine and she obviously had selected what she wanted to serve. We also brought a cheese course and she opened a wonderful port which was perfect with the cheese. Happy ending! And I bought another bottle of the wine I wanted to try and enjoyed it at home. Live and learn.
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eG Foodblog: little ms foodie - Sauteing in Seattle
birder53 replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
LMF, thank you for your great blog! Loved the pics of Seattle - and we actually did have lots of sun when we were there in October. Great city, great food. I think I need to make reservations to eat at your house the next time I get out there. -
We've had lunch twice at Panera's. It wasn't bad, it was certainly better than McDonalds. It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. I actually prefer Subway!
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I prefer to choose the wines myself. Unless you have a guest with excellent taste in wine who asks to bring something to compliment the meal, I would just say thank you for the wine and consider it a gift to drink at another time. Why take chances when you have already put such time and effort into your meal.
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I have posted here before about something I make every year for my office's pre-Thanksgiving lunch -- chocolate pudding with softly whipped cream. Every year there is at least one new employee who won't believe that you can make pudding. And are several who each year stand slack-jawed as I apply a whisk to a quart of cream. ← I remember my mother making fresh whipped cream to serve with her freshly made Duncan Hines angel food cake. She would add a bit of instant coffee to both the cake mix and the whipped cream. Good stuff!
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I was very bad in my college days. I routinely walked out with some of the oversized glassware they used for specialty drinks at a restaurant/disco in NYC. I made sure to carry my oversized tote on those expeditions. We also used to take home the cute little silver pitchers they served the sour cream in at the "Steak & Brew". I thnk they switched to paper cups. We also (me and other members of my college fencing team) decided to help a teammate get started on her dowry by taking five sets of used place settings from the restaurant in the Ramada Inn in Ithaca when we stayed there during a competition at Cornell. I was actually a bit wary to return there when I had reservations for a business trip in Ithaca many, many years later. Guilty as charged! My friend's mother dined out regularly with a group of women who would clean out the sugar and sweet'n'low on the table. She was mortified, told them it was wrong, but they insisted that the restaurant expected them to use it, that's why they put it there.
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Ketchup, lots of salt and pepper. I also dip them one by one.
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In his PBS show this weekend, even Jacques Pepin used a bit of store-bought ketchup in his "quick" salsa. birder53, tell your brother you'd like a batch of his homemade ketchup as a gift for Christmas in case you eventually want to make more cocktail sauce. ←
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I confess! While I love to cook, I keep a cake and brownie mix on hand. I'm not much of a baker and those Duncan Hines brownies are pretty good. I always try to use fresh lemons and limes for juice, but I keep a bottle of each in case I run out, which has happened. It's very possible the folks that used the packaged mixes on regular basis grew up eating it that way and don't even know you can make them without the mix! I was bragging to my brother, who is an excellent cook, about a cocktail sauce I had made. He asked me if I had made my own catsup. I thought that by combining the store bought catsup, jar of horseradish, bottle of tabasco sauce and my very own freshly squeezed lemon juice that it qualified as homemade. After all - I did have to follow a recipe! This isn't a level playing field, and we will all pick the levels we are comfortable playing on. Maybe those folks who live on pre-packaged mixes just haven't had a chance to broaden their horizens - or they need a little convenience sometimes, like me.
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This is on Mountain Boulevard, about a quarter mile east of Mt. Bethel Road. It is in a small shopping center that has all the stores facing each other instead of the main road, making it hard to know what businesses are in there as you drive by.
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Thanks for the info on the Yellow Chartreuse. Now - you state that the choice of gin is important for the San Martin. I have the Noilly Prat, which gin do you like? Plymouth?
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How does the green chartreuse differ from the yellow? I'm running out of storage space for all this liquor and need to be selective!
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I'm planning to spend a weekend in NYC just to be able to visit Audrey! I don't want to worry about making my way back to NJ after enjoying the cocktails, and I know I will enjoy them. We'll be sure to make sure Audrey is working before we make our plans. That was the great thing about drinking at Zig Zag in Seattle, we could walk back to our hotel and not worry about who was in any condition to drive. There isn't anything close enough to home to accomplish that in NJ.
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Thanks for the review! That's about four miles from home, a lot closer than Pamir. We'll have to get over there soon.
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Finally made the Tantris Sidecar this evening. Wow! There is a lot going on in this drink. Thank you to slkinsey for providing Audrey's recipe. I titled this thread "Chartreuse" because I'm guessing that is the ingredient that puts this drink over the top. It's one of those drinks that makes you stop and think and wonder - what's going on here??? Whatever it is, it's all good, very good. I truly enjoy a traditional Sidecar but this is beyond Sidecars! What a nice way to end a lovely weekend.
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I grew up in Brooklyn, NY. Other than having corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day, there was nothing particularly ethnic about what we ate. The neighborhood was most Irish and Scandanavian and the food was pretty boring. When Mom got a job as the guidance counselor at a small highschool, our food horizons expanded. She was working in an Italian neighborhood where a lot of the students' parents owned local Italian bakeries, pork stores and a pasta shop. She got lots of good recipes from co-workers and students and we started to enjoy the good life at home. The parents were always ready to recommend a new dish to her when she went shopping at their stores. My husband grew up with wonderful Italian home cooking. While his parents were alive we never went to an Italian restaurant becuase there was just nothing that could compare with his mother's cooking. He considered meals eaten at my parent's house as strange. Now, living in the exotic state of NJ, we cook and eat a variety of cuisines. The large number of local ethnic restaurants has been a stronger influence on my current eating habits rather than the food I grew up with. This may actually be a revolt against home! We enjoy trying all sorts of new cuisines, dining in and out. We tend to use lots of Asian ingredients during the summer and a lot of southwestern during the cooler months. My favoite foods to eat out are Thai and Italian. I don't know if that is a reflection of what is available locally or our currents preferences. All I know for sure is that I have come a long way from home.
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I don't like beets. I will try them if they are served just to see if my taste has changed. However, those golden beets are so beautiful in the produce section that I am tempted to try them. I have several recipes for braised/roasted winter veggies that I would like to try and they invariably include parsnips, which I have never had, turnips, which I hate , and sometimes these beautiful golden beets. I never thought beets tasted like dirt, they always just made me gag. The ones served at home were sliced red beets from a can - sometimes hot and sometimes cold. Nasty either way! So, what can I expect taste wise from winter root vegetables? I'm ready to try them again.
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Wise's Cheez Waffies? PMS 'must' food. ← I love Cheez Waffies! I secretly buy one bag a year and eat them all by myself.
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salt pepper garlic cinnamon cumin
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That's cruel! There is a little room for "lifestlye" in everyone's life - but just little.
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rainy days, cold and wet through and through
birder53 replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
Barley Mushroom soup and oystercrackers. My favorite rainy day lunch many years ago was a grilled cheese sandwich with tomatos, a big steaming cup of tea with milk and a package of Hostess' Twinkies to finish it off. The last time I tried the Twinkies they were not what I remembered. They've changed - or did I change? -
Liquour is beginning to take over the house! We have three kitchen cabinets holding various bottles of booze. We recently decided that the Kitchenaid mixer could move to the garage as it was taking up the space needed for that on sale, very big bottle of Makers Mark we bought last weekend. We even emptied out a kitchen drawer to consolidate our barware - muddlers, strainers and the like. There is a full 36 bottle wine rack in the dining room, which is not really a great place for the wine. Another box of wine bottles is in the basement, around six bottles are in the kitchen fridge and all the bubbly is in the extra fridge in the garage( this fridge came with the house and must be from the 60s!) We've been adding to our booze collection and neglecting the wine - a situation which requires attention. Oh, the freezer has a bottle of limoncello. I need a much bigger kitchen.
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It was interesting to see the comparisons between the French attitude towards food vs America. I spent a week in France at a management training session several years ago. The classes were composed of Americans, Canadians, French, Japanese, Austrialians, Brits, Scots and Belgiums. The advance word from my American co-workers who had already attended was that they didn't get enough to eat. I even brought some food along with me in case I found myself starving. Breakfast was a big shock for the Americans! We were there in August, the height of wonderful fresh produce. The breakfast spread was a buffet of wonderful breads, fresh fruits, cereals, yogurt, cheeses, coffee and juice. The Americans were looking for their eggs and bacon. I doled out my contraband food to my new found friends from Canada and the US. Even at the morning breaks, the offerings were coffee, juice and water. No "snacks" as we usually see here. I thought the meals were fabulous and the quality outstanding. It was nice to get away from all the junk food we have available here. I ate well, was not hungry at all and actually lost some weight in the process. We really do have a sick relationship with food over here. My mother and grandmother tried Weight Watchers when I was in grammer school. My mother is still overweight now at 82! I'm surrounded by co-workers who are on a low carb diet. People deny themselves food and then gorge themselves to make up for the denial. Moderation would allow everyone to enjoy what they want and not worry about gaining weight. A bit of exercise wouldn't hurt either. Our culture, advertising and American dream says bigger is better. How do you stop a runaway train?
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We bought the chartreuse (and calvados) and made The Last Word last night. Amazing! I couldn't really appreciate the complexity of the flavors when it was the second or third drink of the night. The chartreuse adds a spice flavor - nutmeg?- to the maraschino and lime. Incredible combination of flavors!