dcarch

Yes, add just a little more oil, it makes it very soft in the freezer. The peeled garlic comes in a squarish container with a mouth big enough for the blender, and the shape is very compact for the freezer. No clean up, no work. Garlic paste also maximizes garlic flavor, and shortens cooking time. With chopped garlic for many recipes, I often have to caramelize the garlic first. Great for making quick garlic bread. dcarch

I do my garlic the following way: Open one container of peeled garlic, and stick a stick blender in it with salt and olive oil. A minute of blending and I will end up with a nice garlic paste. I store the paste in the freezer. Olive oil does not get frozen solid. Each time I need some I just spoon out as much as I need. What can be more convenient? dcarch

Quite an interesting question. Some initial thoughts: I think it will have to be spun at a MUCH higher rate to separate the components with various densities because dough is much much more viscous. If I do get the chance to try it out, I'll have to buy centrifuge vials rated for higher RPM. The ones I have are rated for 10,000 rpm max, and cost $120 for 6 vials. Yeah, not cheap!!!! The idea is not to separate the components. Once you mix the yeast and dough, the microbes will be digesting the starch and make CO2. 1. Under a great deal of centripetal force, will the microbes work better or not at all. 2. If CO2 is generated, it will be highly compressed, and the dough will not rise. So when the pressure is released, what will happen to the dough? dcarch

I wonder what would happen? Put some dough and yeast and spin it. Will the dough still rise? What will happen to the yeasted dough after spinning? Will it rise much more ? or not at all. dcarch

Those are extremely quiet generators. If you have a 1,000 watt generator, you can get a few old 12v car batteries hooked up in parallel. Old car batteries have a lot of power left in them. (free) Get a 2,000 watt inverter (4,000watts peak) about $150.00 Have the generator charge the batteries. You may have enough power to handle 3,000 watts for a while. dcarch

Crazy! gas engine blender! I suppose it kind of works. Electric motor operates at over 20,000 RPM, gas engine runs a around 5,000 RPM. You can run a refrigerator with an inverter off a car battery. A refrigerator once gets going actually uses very little power. You can also get a refrigerator which can run on propane, 12VDC and 110VAC. A small power generator can run many things, a 2,000 watt generator can run a toaster oven, hair dryer, microwave, etc. dcarch

For get about electrical appliances. Get propane. dcarch

Fish fat is not good. dcarch

Canned crab meat has become very good. There are many brands. They taste like freash crab meat. They are not cheap. dcarch

Due to weather and human error, recently, millions of people were cut off from electric power for a long time. There are many advices you can find on-line as to what to do with your food in the refrigerator and freezer. Basically, they advise you not to open the refrigerator door or the freezer door to keep the food cold longer. I am not so sure. Refrigerator: Air has very low specific heat, only 0.018 BTU for one degree F per cubic foot. Let’s assume there are 5 cubic feet of air in your loaded 40 F refrigerator, and your room temperature is 85 F, each time you open the door and the entire 5 cu. Ft. of air is replaced by room air, you are only loosing 4.5 BTUs. Not counting all the thermal mass of the metals, glass, food, plastic, beer, ---, if you have one gallon of water, for it to go from 40 F to 41 F, you will need 8.34 BTUs. Freezer: Not counting all the thermal mass of the metals, glass, food, plastic, -----. Assuming your freezer is 0 F. In a fully loaded freezer, let's assume you have one cu. Ft. of air in it. If you open the freezer door and that one cu. Ft. of 0 F air is replaced by 85 F air, you will be loosing 0.81 BTU, and OTOH, if you have one gallon of ice cubes, for it to go from 0 F ice to 32 F water, you will need 1,709.7 BTUs, or, open the freezer door 2,110 times. dcarch

Interesting thought... I wonder if there's evidence to support that. I feel like the US has pretty diverse eating habits. We're a wealthy nation with much available in our markets and representation in our country from other cultures all over the world. Do other cultures have considerably fewer allergy issues? The first thought that came to my mind when I read that was that most of the Asians I know have lactose intolerance. Many Asians are ideed lactose intolerant as well as alcohol intolerant. I my spending time in the Far East, I had not come across allergy issue like here in the US. I have many Asian friends, none of them has allergies, except one is allergic to shellfish. To me, the US has terrible eating habits when it comes to varieties. We are much better now. Meats, vegetibles, fish, fruits ----- there are so many things we don't have and don't eat. dcarch

Some what off-topic: It seems that cultures which have diverse eating habits have much less allergy issues. I seem to have seen a report that even children with severe peanut allergies can be treated by exposing them to progressively increasing amounts of peanuts ( Warning: Don’t try this at home!!!! Disclaimer:I am not a doctor!!!!). dcarch

It seems to me that gluten is an important part in Asian cooking/diet. I enjoy mock chicken made of gluten in Chinese shops. dcarch

There are those who really go for a polished edge that can literally split a hair (really, check youtube). Do you need that for the kitchen? Here are a few magnified views of a brand new blade for a surgeon’s scalpel. dcarch

Use a torch. You can get a lot of "outdoor" flavor using a torch. dcarch

dcarch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSQNVO3STF4

There are many pre-rubbed, pre-seasoned ribs in plastic. dcarch

Stupid idea to keep your veggies green: In supermarkets veggie department, and meat department, they use special fluorescent bulbs which have special spectrums to enhance the green color and the red color. ------------ BTW, Kevin Liu has a very good point. dcarch

There must be something else you can do. I seem to think that veggies in frozen TV dinners stay green, even you cook them a long time. What have they done to the veggies? dcarch

Percyn – Interesting meal combination, Burrito with Ramen. Looks good and sounds good to me. Paul Bacino – nice presentation od Caprese Salad. mgaretz – the sous vide shrimp looks beautiful with home made fettucini. Genkinaonna – your Corn soup with bacon and cheddar fritters is so professional looking. ScottyBoy – your Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho is so artistic looking. So is the salmon. OK, you convinced me. I went out and got two pounds of squid. C. sapidus – I can’t even pronounce the names of your dishes, but I can pronunce that they look fabulous. weinoo – the roasted quails look wonderful. Two would not be enough for me. Kim – incredible array of fine dishes, again showing the wide spectrum of your cooking ability. heidih – I can see the grape leaves indeed can work very well with pork. Prawncrackers – My two thumbs up for your Squabs. SobaAddict70 – very fine-looking Ratatouille. OMG! Heirloom tomato salad, with watermelon and white peaches, that is what summer is all about ! --------------- - - - - - - - - - - -- - I am happy to see Pollock in the fish market. I don’t know why they don’t have it more often here. It is a very nice fish. dcarch

We all have different body immunological responses. It’s up to you. I grew up in an area with no refrigeration, eating smelly food all the time. (Lots of powerful seasoning to cover up the smell) Now, for myself, if the meat kind of stinky and kind of slimy, I just wash the meat, cook and enjoy. The only time I insist on 100% fresh meat is when I am making sushi. :-) dcarch

Now you will need a high vaccum pump. With the interesting clear liquids that you are getting from various foods. Use the high vaccum to boil down the clear liquid at very low temperature to super concentrate the flavor. You may even be able to crystalize many liquids. Imagine chicken broth crystals, clearly interesting substance. dcarch

How about a beef-tini? Yes, add a shot of Beefeater, centrifuge, not shaken. :-) dcarch

How about a clear carbonated beef stock? It would be lovely to sip beef "soda" thru a straw with a few ice cubes. Disgusting? How would you know? :-) dcarch

I had to laugh a little." Buffet ---- food is not too good?" LoL. I am very surprised!!! Sorry :-) That altar in many Chinese restaurants, as I understand, is not any kind of organized religion. It is more of a superstition. Supposedly, it will bring good luck and lots of money. dcarch