memesuze

I looked out into my yard and spied a half-eaten yellow thingie - turns out the squirrels had taken the two ripening Meyer lemons right off my short tree-inna-pot and ate half of one before deciding to save the second one for later - they've been digging up pecans previously stored, wonder if the lemon is underground?

what location? refrigerated foods in the big wall coolers, or in one of the floor coolers? near what type of food? brand name? I'm drooling already

see here for a previous thread on the basic Indian pantry - I keep the list loaded into my PDA

I've trotted on down to San Marcos for their July and December sales, but never thought of January - wonder if there would be any little gratins wanting a new home....

As I may never get my wish of having a sub-forum on kitchen renovations, would it be possible to get an index of such threads pinned to the top of the Cooking forum? There are so many great ideas in so many renovation threads that I don't want to miss one when I go back to reread them all for inspiration.

Isn't Kyela teas in Canada principally devoted to Darjeelings? I've heard terrific word of mouth about Kevin and his teas.

One of the things I like most about the Metro work bench I created was that I could place the top section at whatever height I wanted. My 60-year-old kitchen cabinets/counters are at more than 37 inches, so that with a thick Boos cutting board, my shoulders were hunched up too often as I cut and chopped, even though I'm over 5'7". Now the cutting board is a comfortable three inches lower because I have the stainless steel work surface at 34 inches. And I turned the plastic-covered wire shelves in my pantry so that the ridge on front creates a lip to keep ornery cans from denting my toes. Edited to add that I'm familiar with this particular critter hiding place....

For additional workspace, after I moved a refrigerator to a newly-created open pantry and had six feet of room, I went to my local restaurant supply and bought a six by two-foot piece of Metro shelving, with two shelves, and one stainless work surface with a lip that slipped down over two support poles that I had cut in half to create four - but it set me back over $400 and I think that's too much for Dave's budget. I love it, though, open shelving to stash all the bowls and stuff I use all the time, and a solid work surface that cleans up in a snap.

You may think you'll be low-volume, but if you do a good tea service, you might be surprised at the patrons you bring in. To start with, I'd order some of the restaurant-quality Steelite Chatsford 2 & 4 cup [really 12 and 24 ounces] infuser pots from Upton Teas. They'll permit you to use loose tea or bags. If you go with bags, order the ones from Harney & Sons -definitely not just fannings - used by many ritzy hotels and restaurants. Other vendors if you decide to go the loose tea route might be SpecialTeas [i think they do quite a lot of business with restaurants, and could give you further advice on tea service], Uptons, Capital Tea, In Pursuit of Tea, Rishi Tea.... Then instruct your staff on how to prepare a decent pot of tea - by warming the pot with boiling or near-boiling water, using the proper temperature water for brewing - for blacks and black-based blends, use water that comes out of the espresso machine [i'm assuming one will be in your kitchen] - or water that has been brought to a boil and let to sit for a minute or less to drop to 205 degrees. Black tea responds to this temperature, just as your fine coffee should be brewed at 205 degrees. Oolongs are done with 180-195 degree water, and greens generally can handle 150-165. Then get the brewing times down, generally, 1-2 minutes for greens [no longer or they'll taste too astringent or cigarette ashy], oolongs for 4-5, most blacks for 3.5 -5, and Darjeelings for 2-3. Give your patrons a small timer if your staff doesn't take the time to complete the brewing before serving. I'm sure I and others will think of more to add to this - but thanks for thinking of giving us tea lovers a decent option to the generic tea bag steeped in lukewarm water that makes us want to go Bleeehhhh.

now that I'm replying this will no longer be effective, but did anyone notice the juxtaposition of this thread with the one just before, entitled: When the Curse is Reversed.......what will you feast upon?

toasted pine nuts, goat cheese, fresh oregano in a pocket cut with the knife, not breaded

Which local mega Asian store in Houston - can I make a run there from Spec's? Probably don't need to right now, since I had a shipment from CMC recently, but I need it for future reference....

I've experienced Panang curry as listed differently from the red curries in Thai restaurants - a good one has multiple layers of flavor I don't note in the reds....but I defer to those more expert in Thai cuisine

thanks for dropping in, you can always trust Jaymes for food and tourism advice, come again, and do be sure to visit Central Market for a grocery experience - there's even live music there on the deck at least Fridays through Sundays, and perhaps other evenings as well

I tried it again tonight - keeping the same ratio of ingredients, but adding a half-cup water as snowangel reported using in her blog and as directed by the can - guess next time I'll read the instructions - or as a friend of mine says, "the corrections"! It turned out fine - I will drop the fish sauce amount next time, though, to tweak. Next up, Panang curry....

I'm heading to Houston next month for two hearings - now I know where to hit on the way back to Hobby - Thanks, fifi....

I'm trying to add more quick Thai dishes to my after-work repertoire, and thought of this, as it's one of my faves. I used Colonel Ian Khuntilanont-Philpott's wife's recipe [her recipes] that calls for cooking 3 TBS curry paste briefly in oil before adding a little bit over a cup of chicken and then a little bit over a cup of green beans [i didn't have long beans, as might be more proper], along with 4 TBS fish sauce and 1 TBS sugar, garnished with kaffir and basil leaves. I didn't prepare the curry paste from scratch - used the Maesri brand, as I do for many other quick curries. However, I found the final dish to be a bit salty, and am unsure whether it comes solely from the canned curry paste or if the 4 TBS fish sauce might have put it over the edge. Short of making my own prik khing curry paste from scratch, how would you revise it?

I'm a swim goggles and very sharp knife woman myself - the bread [or cracker] in the mouth never worked for me - I think the theory is that breathing through the mouth minimizes tears

If you can catch AB's show, that played again this week, it's got some good tips. Here's the recipes from the show: Herbal Preservation

He did it this week: Baker, baker

Last week I popped my larb cherry with thigh meat I had taken from some Buddy's Natural Chicken thighs on sale for 89 cents a pound. I bought three pounds, pulled off the skin and then deboned them, saving the bones in the freezer for stock. I flattened all the thigh pieces out and froze them individually on a cookie sheet, pulling out a couple to pulse in the food processor for my first larbing. I used a combination of snowangel's recipe and Kasma Loha-unchit's recipe. Wow - now I'm looking forward to pulling a few of those already frozen thighs for future larbs. The only problem I encountered was that only that day I had ripped the inside skin of my lower lip off when it stuck to a produce sticker I had inadvertently and stupidly placed between my lips as I plunged veggies into a plastic bag - the acid in the lime juice and the chilis made me do a bit of dancing.

Can you give us a price range for these - I don't usually go over $10 a bottle and wouldn't want to get my hopes up after your notes.

dexygus, looks wonderful, but I'm not clear on the approximate cooking time for the individual ramekins or the 2.5 quart baking dish....

Torakris: For those of us who might not have access to Japanese cucumbers, could you convert the 3 Japanese cukes into inches of seedless cukes - or are they roughly the same size? And do we remove the "seeds" that are present even in the "seedless" ones?

A friend and her husband are traveling to Switzerland this weekend for a couple of weeks that might include side trips to Italy - she's asked if I have any shopping requests. Since my last Swiss treat consisted of chocolate [lightweight and easy to pack], I thought to ask for something else. But have come up blank - I'm not sure she's willing to schlep a bottle of local wine, which I have heard is not to be sneezed at - any little cooking tool or foodstuff that is particularly local? Foodie52?