BadRabbit

I forgot to mention hot sauce or crushed red pepper. I always add one or the other. I like to use a relatively hot sauce because Tabasco and other milder sauces add too much vinegar to a dish that already has enough acid. I mostly use the red El Yucateco habanero sauce.

Sometimes yes sometimes no. I find when I finish with cream I get all the richness and smooth (and creamy) texture one usually accomplishes with cheese. When I have Marscapone, I'll add a small knob of it and a little parmesan at the end.

There really is no substitute. Coarse ground cornmeal is sometimes the right grind but sometimes not. It's kind of a crap shoot if you are somewhere that you can't find cornmeal produced as grits. That said, the link below is to a mill in the town where I grew up that produces fantastic grits (I prefer white) as well as excellent fresh ground flour. These are the only grits I ever buy. They ship to all of North America. http://www.oakviewfarms.com/Default.aspx

Cook my stone ground grits with half milk and half water. At the end, I finish with a small splash of cream and adjust seasoning. For the shrimp, I start a pan of several slices of bacon cut into cm squares. Once the fat begins to render, I add onions and red bell pepper and then after they are soft I add garlic. I toss in shrimp and tomatoes and saute. When the shrimp are almost ready, a slight bit of flour, brown for 30 seconds and then add stock I made from shrimp shells. Finish with scallions and fresh thyme. I also occasionally make Hastings recipe from Hot & Hot. It's fantastic. This is a recipe that he put in Coastal Living that is very close to the one in the cookbook. http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000451836

Judging by your post, I'd say already suspect what the issue is. Your pot probably holds more residual heat and therefore keeps the water warm longer. This is likely due to the difference in material but could also be affected by the shape of the pots and the quantity of water used.

I am fearless in this regard. Unless the food smells bad or looks unappetizing, I usually will go for it. I've even been known to ignore bad ratings (partially because I know ratings don't really tell an accurate story sometimes) if the food good. I'm of the opinion that the people that are overly worried about such things are the ones that get sick. My body can handle fighting off a few germs or bacteria here and there because I let it get exposed occasionally. I've never been sick from anything I ate.

After seeing so many mention Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, I wonder if they are like Heinz ketchup. Maybe they are just what we expect CCCs to taste like. I've tried over 30 different CCC recipes but none of them are any better to me than the Toll House one. Much like the poster with the meatloaf, I always assumed my Mom used her own cookie recipe for CCCs because she is a great cook and baker. Then I found out that not only has she always used the Toll House recipe but she now just buys the tub of dough and keeps it in the freezer. Homemade my %$@!

Wouldn't weighing water in them work (assuming you're not at very high altitude)? I don't have a lab quality volumetric measure (nor, I would guess, do most others).

Because some are cheaply made and are "copy cat" products, often made with molds of the more expensive originals. The molds take up space so the interior volume is either more or less than the originals. Some knock off of the Nigella Lawson measuring cups showed up in "dollar stores" a couple of years ago and they were extremely inaccurate. What method do you use to check them? Weighing water in them?

Your guess is correct though it isn't the temperature variance between the two; it's just the actual temperature of the tortilla that makes it split. At room temp, they will crack nearly every time. A quick 10 seconds in the microwave or a short time in a hot pan will fix your issue,

Why are there variances in these measuring devices? It would seem there would be no excuse for that in the modern age.

Escoffier seems to be limited on Google Books but an English translation is available on Archive.org. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000610117

I've been looking through a lot of old cookbooks and culinary magazines on Google books and noticed this. Apparently, if you want to avoid getting sick in the winter, you should eat lots of fat. I guess it was most shocking to me because in todays overly cautious world, virtually nobody would suggest to increase you fat intake for nearly any reason. http://books.google.com/books?id=E1kBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA327&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U01NhL6dSdPr4csM9bYjhWd8FDBOw&ci=29%2C156%2C914%2C1248&edge=0 Has anybody else noticed similar items in their old books?

I created an offshoot of the "Backdraft" in order to rid myself of a bottle of Galliano that had been taking up space at my bar for many years. The problem was that the cocktail I created became very popular and thus necessitated me buying another bottle. 1 oz Grand Marnier 1 oz Drambuie 1/2 oz Galliano (topped on the others) Serve in snifter and meant to be drunk warmed like brandy. Some people also lit it on fire, put it out by covering the top of the glass and then inhaled the fumes (like the aforementioned Backdraft). Edit: Clarified directions

I weigh liquids most of the time unless it is something drastically different from water (e.g honey). I have found that with eyeballing the gradients I have to wait for the liquid to settle and then make tiny adjustments. It takes less time to just tare out a scale and weigh it.

You just reminded me how much I enjoyed Two Fat Ladies. They are reshowing Two Fat Ladies on the new Cooking channel.

I thought of one more though I think this one was fairly regional. Sauteed Crab Claws- they were generally sauteed in butter with onions, garlic, SDTs, and roasted red pepper. They were always made with the blue crab claws that people in the south usually batter and fry. Best things ever.

I bet Firefly butts are edible. Not positive of that and I don't really know how you'd find out but I seem to remember reading about a culture that ate them. Edit: Nevermind. This says they are toxic. http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/July99/firefly_lizard.hrs.html

Really? I still see them on bar menus...pubs/sports bars mostly They're pretty rare nowadays where I live. They might still be available at the chain sports bars but I usually go to local places so I wouldn't know. I guess the ubiquitousness of them in the 90s is what I miss.

Ina Garten has what she calls a brownie pudding that I've made before. The top and sides are very brownie-like while the middle is much like pudding. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/brownie-pudding-recipe/index.html

I use it kind of like I use curry pastes. If I'm in a hurry and don't have time to build everything from scratch, I throw curry (or sofrito) in a pan and then start making adjustments.

I'm embarassed to admit this but I miss fried mozz sticks. They used to be available at every bar in the universe. Now, I don't remember the last time I saw them on a bar menu. Edit: I realize that this is probably an 80s thing that bled into the 90s but I think they mostly disappeared in the 90s. On a more serious note, I miss that an appetizer in the 90s was still an appetizer instead of an amuse bouche masquerading as it's bigger cousin.

Even before pressure canning was available to the home cook in the US(the first home pressure canners were introduced in the US in 1917 and it was much later before it was widely used in homes), botulism was a fairly rare food borne illness. CDC numbers show very little change in the number of cases per year from 1899-preset day. The population was less than a third of today's poulation in 1900 but the incidence of home canning was MUCH more prevelant that it is today. I can't find exact numbers on canning prevalence but I would be willing to bet it easily offsets the difference. In 1900 the actual incidence rate was 1.18421053 × 10-7 or roughly 1 in every 8.5 million people would get botulism per year in a time where home canning was being done at many times the rate it is now (1). That doesn't seem to be a big concern to me. Couple that with the fact that more than half of the cases are from the west coast and it doesn't seem a very likely danger to me in Alabama. I am not suggesting that commercial food producers should ignore these guidelines. It would be disastrous if they did and there was a problem because it would possibly infect huge numbers of people. I just think it can be mostly ignored by your typical person at home making an occasional flavored oil or pesto. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/files/botulism.PDF Edit: Added footnote (1) To give an idea of a similarly dangerous activity, an automobile occupant's odds of fatality during a 30-minute drive are 1 in 8.5 million (and most of us engage in this activity 2-3 times a day).

This is actually what got me thinking about this subject. I hate chocolate bars with nuts but love them with Rice Krispies. The "crunch" of nuts always seems to be more muted (and to me much less enjoyable) than what you get from puffed rice or toffee.

I have now tried the Americana dough. It's my least favorite so far and I probably will not make it again. I really think the crust one gets from Dominos is better than this (and I hate Dominos).