OliverB

it's probably "premium", "all natural", and "uncured" too, right?

I started to stay away from the bagged salads, I've had too much bad luck (compost smell, slimy leaves, brown cut areas) with them lately, and of course they're way overpriced and waste a lot of plastic. My favorites are fresh arugula from the farmer's market, baby spinach from the same source, nappa cabbage with red cabbage (or white instead of nappa), sliced with a mandolin, add some salt, seasoned rice vinegar, white pepper - yumm! Or salt and sugar, red or sherry vinegar, some pepper and oil. A new favorite is fresh raw kale (only the crinkly parts, not the stems) and broccoli crowns, add your favorite dressing. (mine being some 1000 island (yes, I know...), some red wine vinegar and olive oil, but works with any hearty dressing). Crunchy , fresh, keeps a long time in the fridge too. Arugula dressed with red wine v. olive oile s&p is great under sliced steak!

I just got a sunbeam air popper and tried it for the first time with Rancho Gordo red pop corn, works great! Watching a movie with the kids requires popcorn, and I got tired of the fake flavors of all the microwave stuff, and I've tried them all over the years. (still wondering what the difference between "real butter" and "theater butter" is by the way). I'll have to dig for my old bag or regular popcorn and then get some new kernels if I continue liking the machine. It's a bit larger than I expected, my inlaws have a similar machine (30 or 40 years old) that's a bit smaller, but I'll just move the never used orange juicer machine to the back of the closet :-) I never tried the paper bag in microwave way, not sure I'd trust those bags to be microwave food safe, same goes for plastic containers. Oh, and the air popper is fun to watch, an added benefit finishing up my bowl right now :-)

I haven't eaten these in for ever, I found them too soft and sticky to my teeth. I'm all for Haribo gold bears from Germany (though they're made in Hungary or who knows where for the US market). They now even have Saftbären, the same bears but made only with natural juices and colors, and they are delicious! I always bring several bags back from Germany. Love most of their other offerings as well. I guess I'll have to try the swedish fish once more some day.

I like the Mojo bars better than Clif, but I think they are made by the same company. I like a bit more crunch than what clif delivers I guess. But I also hardly ever eat these things.

all I really have to add, I've been considering getting one of those dorm room size refrigerators for my hot sauces and condiments, as they're slowly taking over my little fridge! Frank's, Sriracha, Cholula (all flavors), tabasco (3 flavors), tiger, pickapeppa, several mexican ones, and more, all the way up to a maybe decade old Dave's Insanity sauce that I just keep for fun's sake, as it's really useless, it's way to hot to do anything with. Never made my own, but it's one of my "have to do this year" projects. With habaneros.

have nothing to contribute, but love this topic! I've been curious about using grape leaves fresh, and any other kind of leaves one can use. Well, aside from dolmas (not a big fan) and German cabbage rolls (like them but would not make them). I'd have to roam the neighborhood at night for banana leaves, but might just plant a tree for that purpose, already have a laurel and a kaffir lime tree for that same reason :-) hopefully there'll be lots of input here, as I really love the look of something cooked on/in leaves. And the taste.

we'll have snacks, drinks, and a store bought (unless I feel inspired and get around to it) chocolate cake, as Monday is my girls 4th birthday and we're having a lot of kids over for fun and games :-) (side note, memorial day is also when my wife and I got together, 20 years ago, and I ended up being a resident alien from Germany)

these are absolutely gorgeous! I'm sure they'd get all the Bavarian Approval they need, they sure have mine! Can't walk away from a Weisswurst, haha! Congratulations! Try to find some good sweet Bavarian mustard for them and bake some real Brezeln (way easier than it sounds, though you have to be careful with the lye) and you have heaven on a plate One of the best mustards is Händlmaier but there's also a good one sold at Cost Plus, comes in a white glass jar with Bavarian decoration. It's made in a "different country" (Northern Germany I think ) but it's quite good.

for cooking I only use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt, a kitchen standard and I love it's texture and "feel", I salt a lot by pinch. I never use "table salt". "finishing salts" are to me all the fancy salts you can get, from fleur de sel over pink Hawaiian to black salt (in all it's varieties) and rock salt mined from some mountains. I like black salt for the looks of it, but all of these are great. And yes, I can taste a difference between my Kosher salt and these. I doubt I could tell them apart individually all that well, but they do provide more texture and/or color, which is fun. I'm pretty sure I could tell fleur de sel from some rock salt in a blind tasting but have never tried it. A fun project I'll have to try soon! I never cook with these though, would be a waste I think, since you're going for salty in initial seasoning, not for some subtle flavor difference. Or I do at least. But fire roasted potatoes with a bit of black salt on them look a lot nicer than the same dish with just some table salt on it IMO. I like large crunchy salt crystals for finishing, something that doesn't just melt away immediately, but provides a crunchy salty taste sensation. Of course, I also think that many of these are a bit of salt snobbery, but hey, so are many other fancy things in the kitchen, and it's all part of the fun

I don't keep any of them. These, as well as my photography, music, and art magazines, I read, mark what I want to read again (or keep) by writing the page number on the cover with a sharpie. Once read a checkmark goes through the bar code so I know I'm done with it. Once in a while I go through these read again or tear out what I want to keep, the rest goes into recycling. The torn out articles get piled up or put in a binder (for cooking) where I promptly forget about them while I am busy with new issues. I don't think I've made any recipe twice (counting cookbooks too), there are too many to try and play with. Mostly I don't even use recipes though. I do keep some magazines about my favorite movie genre, everything else goes out the door. Wait, one new photo magazine, Advanced Photographer, might be kept as well, at least until I tried all the things they mention.

I like the show, lots of silly fun with great information, though I haven't watched it in a while, I've long lost faith in the Fool Network and it's "stars", and since I never tune in I don't happen to stumble across his show anymore. Just an other worthless channel in the swamps of TV land Alton is a fun person, though it almost seems like some lame twin is doing an impersonation on that Iron Chef nonsense. I'd love to see him do something interesting again, but if he stays on Fool TV I don't have much hope - unfortunately.

Ah, I guess that can make sense :-) Still like the new issue though, lots of good stuff I'll have to try out soon!

I actually must say that I love the current Paltrow issue! I actually find it refreshing to see a (delicious) person on the cover instead of a dish, but I'm biased, I really like Mrs Paltrow as an actress and am sad I missed her show with Batali. Still, a fun choice for a "serious" non celebrity based magazine (like Rachet Ray and others). But that aside, the fonts gone crazy seems to have calmed down quite a bit, and there are literally (of course) pages upon pages of things I want to make! From wonderful chicken recipes (I have to make those lettuce wraps!) to the most delicious looking popsicles, and to top it off, a good dose of Fergus Henderson, one of my personal kitchen heroes, this is probably my most favorite cooking magazine issue to come along in quite a while! And while I've never had a mint julep, the recipe offered has me craving one! I just don't have the booze to make it in the house (yet). My interests tend to shift every couple of months, currently my coffee table is largely occupied by photography magazines (which in due time will be replaced by music, art and movie magazines, in random order) and I haven't been to ecstatic about other recent food magazines I subscribe to, but this issue makes me want to hit the kitchen immediately! It appears to me that they are hitting the road running, making some good changes and the photography is top notch! I'd say check it out! And gfweb, why does a guy as editor make you barf? That seems an odd statement. Or is it his prior magazine? Shallow entertainment for the wannabe hot guys, yes, somewhat entertaining (to this guy) as low calorie fun feed while sitting in the sun with a drink, though I can't recall the last time I bought it. But it is a trendy magazine, and a good food magazine has to be trendy too I think, I doubt you could publish a "Famous Traditional French Dishes" or some such magazine without going under. Anyway, just my 2ct, I'm really excited about this issue and am looking forward to what they offer in the future. And if they do NOT show a roasted turkey come txgiving on the cover, I'll subscribe for life!

This looks great to me! If Vom Fass needs a German foodie with a marketing degree to run a store in Walnut Creek (high income area I'd say, with Neiman Marcus moving in across from Tiffany's and the Apple store, give me a call! Can I add pickles as well? I could never run a shoe store or carpet store but this I really could get behind! I love every thing they seem to be selling

cut deli meats that are sealed all the way to the meat, making it impossible to open w/o getting scissors dirty and impossible to close. Anything one uses small quantities of, that then requires "refrigerate after opening". Sometimes it seems half my fridge is full of half empty bottle and jars of this and that. Beer in cans and wine in tetra bricks are an abomination. Cans that don't stack on top of each other. Chips bags that you can't tear open unless you're Arnold strong, in which case they'll rip and tear completely, creating an interesting special effect of flying chips and a big mess. Glass or plastic jars that are built in a way that makes it impossible to get all of the stuff out. Oh, and resealable! deli meat and cheese packages that are anything but resealable, in particular the kind that was somehow glued shut but when you open it the top inadvertently gets stretched out so much that you can't glue it back down, no matter how sticky the glue might be. And in general, all the damn plastic packaging of everything, that creates millions of tons of trash every year.

My recipes (Bavarian and German cook books) actually use mace, not nutmeg (also for brats, including the Nürnberger) As for issues with veal, how come? Does he think it's more humane to keep a cow in captivity longer? To live a full and rich life in a cage? I'd actually think an early slaughter is much nicer for the animal. Well, nicer might not be the right word, but still. I can hardly ever find veal except at one butcher store the next town over, I'm really not sure why. In Germany you find it in even the most mediocre butcher shop (which still blows away anything I've come across in Cali). People eat lamb all the time. The best is milk fed veal, which is close to impossible to find here, but if you can find it, make weisswurst and Wiener Schnitzel! Doesn't get much better than that :-) Using chicken makes a chicken sausage. Might be good, but if you call it a Weisswurts make sure to never ever travel to Bavaria or at least travel incognito :-) And Dittmer's Wursthaus is awesome, I manage to get there way too rarely! But that's where I buy my Weisswurst and Brezeln (the real preztel, not that weird spongy thing from the mall) for our Christmas Eve dinner every year :-) Add a bottle of Schneider Weisse and I'm all set! Or two bottles. Or three, it's xmas and I'm not driving anywhere tonight!

I stick to 140, I cooked some SV to 130 and that was just too - uh - alive (?) - for my taste. I don't want rubber, but cooked to 140 is just about right for my taste, no longer pink, but nice and juicy. I shoot for the same on the bbq, might take it off a bit earlier if I cue on high heat, if smoking at ~200F I go to 140, not much rise after taking it off. Not so much a safety issue, more a personal preference, at 130 I find it "tastes" undercooked.

Never saw it in a store here (Bay Area) but grew up on it in Germany, it's the way you buy milk pretty much. By the case. I'd love to buy it, I can't count the times I had to go to some store just for milk, luckily gas stations and liquor stores have it on hand. I HATE having to go to the store for one thing....

I'd start that disaster steak a day before, I cook my steaks usually for about 4hrs plus minus two, all come out good. But with your time restrictions I think doing the chill and reheat is the way to go. I have not made veggies SV yet, but maybe that's an other good example? If you have two or three machines going that could be interesting. Serve some steak with SV asparagus and SV poached eggs?

We were in Vegas to see Rammstein last weekend, ate at Nobu on Fri night, outstanding dinner! Awesome educated and attentive service, fantastic playful food - a lot of it with instructions to put a bit of this on top and then that and roll it up etc. We could not decide on Fri night what to choose and went with their option of a chef's selection, which was a great idea. All but one dish were top class high quality and so tasty! The only looser of the bunch was the sous vide beef tenderloin, which was actually a bit overcooked and as bland as that cut is. Was on a bed of mashed sweet potato with a blue cheese crusting on top which was very good, but considering that this dish alone cost $48.- not worth the money. I make better steaks at home (by far I might say) and never would Sous Vide a tenderloin to begin with. The place is very pretty, but also very loud, more like a sports bar than fine dining. Probably because of it's location (Hard Rock Hotel) we were surrounded by tables full of former frat boys trying to outcool and outyell each other, competing for the loudest monkey laugh. But we did not let that distract us from the amazing food, we loved it so much, we went back the next day for a sushi only dinner. Definitely one of my most favorite restaurants, despite the noise. LOL, we spent more on those two dinners than on the two nights at the hotel plus concert tickets, and it's NOT a cheap hotel.... The gorgeous pools with the gorgeous people make up for it though. We also had brunch at Bouchon on the strip, which was very good, but nothing spectacular. Short menu, I had the boudin blanc, good quality in a nice setting, but just that, good food in a good restaurant. For lunch on Sunday we sat on the patio of the Pink Tacco in the HRH, had a nice view of a bridge in the pool area with all the pretty girls and guys parading around, I could spend a day there. Food was pretty good there, hand made taccos with tasty filling, though the rice tasted somewhat odd and the beans were nothing spectacular, but all in all good quality mexican food in a big place, basically exactly as you'd expect. Rumors are that Rammstein might come back next year, that would definitely be a good excuse to come back! In the mean time I'll have to search out one of the other 20+ Nobu restaurants, it was THAT good!

I never rinse dishes, I scrape off big parts, but that's it. If I had to rinse, I might as well wash the damn plate right then and there And yes, it's true, they work better with some stuff on the dishes, somehow the soap (which I guess is pretty aggressive) needs that to work properly. I love that fact As for the not dry plastic moats, I doubt any dishwasher dries those. If I catch it, I open it right after it's done with it's cycle, leave it open until the next day, that helps :-) Otherwise those tubs dry just fine in the drawer they live in I've never been seen, nor will I ever be seen with a dish towel next to the machine. A jerk, a smack on the rack, that's dry enough for me

I don't make my own, but I love all of the Dizzy Pig rubs. All kinds of different ones, from sweet to spicy, haven't found one yet that I don't like. Which is why I don't make my own. I sure have enough spices to do so, but these are really good so I don't bother.

I see it as relevant in a historic sense, and think every serious foodie should have it just for fun. That being said, I haven't made a single thing from that book, but it's not alone in that regard...

not easy to compare, but I can't imagine there's more juice coming out when using a press. (like a giant garlic press). There doesn't seem to be any juice left once I remove the halves from my press, certainly not enough to add an other step to the game, it's not like we're talking about something expensive here. I do like those screw in juicer things though, I have to get one of those, even if they're not expensive (off my tree, so free) I hate throwing a half juiced lemon out.