BadRabbit

I'm really interested in whether Timothy can be used since I always have small bales of it around the house (my daughter has a pet Cavy).

I disagree. If I don't fertilize from the beginning, I end up with plants whose foliage is insufficient to prevent cracking. Especially in hot climates, heavy foliage prevents large temperature changes in the tomatoes which is one factor in splitting. This has never caused issues for me with fruit setting.

Tomatoes: Homesteads are doing well and producing like mad despite > 90F temps since mid-May. Pink Brandywine is already 8 ft tall and producing well. Black Cherry, Green Zebra, Dagma's Perfection and Flamme all doing well and just starting to fruit. Squash: Crookneck is overrun with squash bugs and they are very difficult to control. I hate them and wish they had never existed on this earth. Chiles: Cayennes producing well. Jalapenos are just now starting to fruit.

Those BMI calcs are ridiculous. I am 6'2 and it says I could be normal at 144 lbs. I would look like a yogi on a 40 day fast if I got down to 160 much less 144. It gives me an upper range of 194 which is fairly reasonable but the lower end of the range makes me question the whole affair. Not to mention that it takes absolutely no notice of frame size.

I just use a large expandable colander that sits across the top of my sink like the one below. I get to use my sink to wash my vegetables without worrying about the bad stuff contained therein. In addition, I can just leave them in there to drain afterwards. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Progressive-Collapsible-Over-the-Sink-Colander/9606033?sourceid=1500000000000003260370&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=9606033

I made the Whiskey Glazed Chicken from page 81 and it produced the most beautiful looking smoked bird I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best tasting smoked bird I've ever made. First, the meat was insanely salty and I had a slightly bigger bird than was called for and I brined it for 4 hours less. I can't imagine how it would have been had I used a smaller bird or more time. I like my food more salty than most people so if I thought it was salty, it would likely be inedible to others. Second, the glaze does nothing to solve the issue with smoked chicken skin. Namely, that it turns to rubber. The glaze is delicious but since the only skin you can eat is that covering the breast (because it's thinner than the leg\thigh skin) the delicious glaze is mostly wasted. Finally, the addition of the pink salt to the brine means the legs and thighs maintain a very raw pink look and I had considerable difficulty convincing my wife it was safe to eat.

Right-o. You don't think today's financial wizards are going to let a little thing like supply and demand stop them? Sure, there's been instability in the middle east--triggered in part by rising food costs. I read that article when it came out and it is packed full of misconceptions and inaccuracies. It's fairly obvious that Kaufman is a journalist with little or no training in economics as evidenced by the fact that he doesn't even know what the word arbitrage means.

I've also noticed that Mayo has gone up dramatically. The big jar of Hellman's was over $7 at my grocery the other day. Just 1 month ago it was $4.99.

Speculators are not perpetual motion machines. They cannot drive up costs of goods (whether food or oil) for any considerable period of time unless the fundamentals of the underlying assets are also pushing towards increasing prices. That's why pump and dump scams are strictly short term cons. This is even more true in the case of food since the ultimate underlying asset is perishable and can not be driven up in price to the point where sale of the goods takes a long time. Speculators are merely reacting to the fact that fundamental uncertainty is causing the prices in the markets to rise. The fact that half the middle east is on fire or exploding is causing the rise in oil costs because it has increased the risk that supply could be interrupted in the near future. The blame on the speculators is misplaced.

Speculators are an easy target because most people don't understand their function in the marketplace but they are not driving costs. Transportation costs, distortion of the corn (read feed) market through government subsidies for ethanol, inflation of the money supply (and it's devaluing of the dollar) and natural disasters have all played a much bigger part in the rise of grocery costs than speculation. Edited to add: You also are not taking into account the fact that most large companies are expecting a 20-30% increase in healthcare costs due to the implementation of the healthcare law. Govt. does not need to directly tax a good to significantly increase the costs involved in producing. Additional edit: I removed my appeal from authority.

It would be easier to list the things that haven't gone up ridiculously. My grocery bill is nearly 30% higher a month over last year.

I don't see how the thing is an improvement at all. The information on the website may be updated and informative but the graphic makes it very difficult to even determine group size in relation to the others. They would have been far better off using a pie type chart in the plate as it would be much easier to decipher than 4 irregular shaped blobs.

I also think a Cuban is another near perfect sandwich if you have a good press at home (which I do).

Count me on the Rueben bandwagon as well. It's the perfect sandwich. I also like mustard instead of Russian dressing on mine.

I just realized that my instructions above weren't completely clear and it's too late to edit. Step 3 is unwrapped.

For spare or St louis ribs I use 3-2-1 and for baby backs I use 2.5-1-1 The first number is hours in the smoker at 220 The second number is wrapped in foil with about 1/2 cup of apple juice or beer and smoked at 190. The third number is back at 220 with smoke to firm them back up after what is basically a braise in step 2 (this time is varied by rib sometimes they're ready in half the time; sometimes it takes twice as long). I have found that ribs are better judged by feel than with a thermometer (and I'm a fanatic about using a meat thermometer in other instances). Ribs are just too thin and have very different thicknesses from one end to the other. I usually just use a toothpick and put it in between bones towards the thick end. When it goes through without resistance, they are done. If you don't care about presenting them as whole slabs, I've found I get better results cutting the slabs in half so that I can pull the smaller end first. It enables you to get more even cooking. When I pull my ribs, I wrap them and stick them in a cooler for at least 30 minutes. This allows them to rest and evens out the cooking. Edited to add: I also rub yellow mustard on my ribs several hours before putting them on to smoke and apply the rub on top of that. Don't worry if you're not a fan of yellow mustard. You can't really taste it in the final product.

This is the regulator's fault? No but it's the reality of how little people pay attention to this stuff and that says something about whether we really need to waste resources on these types of regs (both governmentally and on the producers side). As I said in my post, actually noticing that it says something different is just the first step in the regulations actually being informative. A consumer still has to find the relevant reg and then work to comprehend it. Your average person would not only be unlikely to know where to look for this information; they would also be unlikely to understand it even once they found it.

Do you have any evidence to support this hypothesis? No evidence of a reg actually doing so but there is evidence that it's their stated purpose.

Just goes to show you how utterly useless the regs are. I buy Edy's once a week and have never noticed and I'm somebody who pays a lot of attention to my food. Most people never notice and even if they did the transaction costs (i.e. spending time to look up and decipher the FDA regs) are too high to be worth researching the difference. FDA regs like this are supposed to better inform the consumer but in fact they're just arcane rules that nobody except the FDA and the producers understand.

I agree with a lot of what you said but I do want PDF menus. I often download a bunch of menus and email them to my wife in one bundle so she can help pick our destination. I agree that it would be nice to have both but if given the choice for just one, I'd pick PDF.

I have a bunch of cilantro I'm about to pull up because it is about to bolt. I'm just going to replant the pot. I'm not going to be cooking at home for the next week (I'll be out of town). Can I take the root and make it into a paste that will last for a while? For example, could I just add water and thai green curry powder and keep it in the fridge?

I know it appears nearly everywhere around the world but I don't know of any culture where people use black pepper to season everything (often without even tasting the food first). My father peppers everything on his plate as soon as it hits the table in front of him. I've actually seen him pepper steak au poivre!

Add it to a mushroom risotto.

Thanks. I had not thought of that. That's an excellent idea.

I use all the fat and have never had problems. The fat from one duck will do both legs and thighs if you are very diligent about harvesting as much fat as you can but if you want to confit the wings too (I always do) you'll have to come up with some additional fat. I've found that just using a neutral oil or commercial lard makes little or no difference in the final product as long as most of the fat is duck. I personally use the Chris's food processor method for rendering and it will both speed up and increase yield regardless of heating method. I've not used the slow cooker.