Mjx

Is it just me, or is 'frozen dairy dessert' right down there in the depressing category with 'processed cheese food'? I took a look at the offerings in the dairy cases at three supermarkets around here today: I don't think any would meet the standards for 'ice cream', but since pretty much all frozen, ice-cream-like desserts are called is ('ice'), the differences among them aren't identified in the name.

This is brilliant: I didn't know that a naked beef patty has a specific name (raised vegetarian, my meat-related ignorance has some shocking depths to it), and although I knew about Kellogg (and have heard some really odd things about him, which I haven't looked up, because I think I prefer to believe them), I'd never heard of Salisbury, so... thanks!

Related to food-name conservatism, I'm conservative about getting Italian culinary terms more or less right, at least if they've been in fairly heavy rotation for a while: What really kills me is the use of a terminal 's' in plural forms, since that doesn't happen in Italian, and most of the time, it is tagged on to the Italian plural form. 'Porcinis', 'paninis', and 'raviolis' is like saying 'footses' or 'mouses' (it's 'porcini', 'panini', 'ravioli'). I can live with 'pizzas', because there's just one plural form involved (if I heard anyone saying 'pizzes', I'd probably start bleeding from the ears).

Before. I trimmed them of all sinew and anything that looked greenish or unpleasant, which rendered some of them about half their original size. But duck livers (these ones, anyway) aren't that huge to begin with. Good luck with the rabbit liver, be sure to report back! Rarerollingobject, thanks for all the information; the livers came out beautifully, but just a quarter of an hour or so before everything was ready to serve, I remembered that my boyfriend does not eat liver, except as pate'. So, I ended up dicing the sauteed livers (and kidneys), and sort of concealing the bits amongst the pinto beans. It tasted lovely anyway, and rabbit is always good; it was accompanied by rice, and sliced red bell peppers. I took two pictures (one of which is only partly out of focus), neither of which seems good enough to post, unfortunately.

The cherry element might have been maraschino (and if it wasn't, it still might be work really well in the reconstruction). Incidentally, I've never understood why so-called 'girly drinks' are problematic, unless they're made with crap ingredients (but anything made with crap ingredients is a waste of time, whether it's a Shirley Temple or a Martini); after all, the whole point of drinking is to enjoy yourself with something you like.

You might want to consider a completely different option, that of a height-adjustable rocking stool (I've seen them at AI Friedman, downtown). This can be adjusted so you are practically standing, but the weight is off your feet. The rocker bottom keeps you from slouching in a problematic position for long periods of time. It's easily stashed in a corner, or carried to another room, for other uses. I don't know about the longevity of gel mats, but this has simply got to outlast the most robust of them. The price on the Varier model is insane, but it seems likely that other companies exist, which make virtually identical units at other price points.

Honestly? I think that when the food manufacturers pulled that crap in cereals years ago in the late 70s early 80s that that was when US food morals went to hell. From then on out, the food companies were able to pull more and more sheet on us. Why did we accept it? Europe wouldnt have accepted it. I just hate to disappoint you, but 'Europe' (or, the 40+ really diverse countries that comprise it) drank the Kool-aid, too; the only difference is in the specifics of what happened.

It was imported from France. The recipe I'm working from uses the pan juices, plus lemon and white wine as a sauce, so I'm planning to incorporate the liver into the side dish of pinto beans that is going to accompany this. As will, I suppose, a whole bunch of other parts that it turns out were also included with the rabbit, and that I didn't notice before, since I got it wrapped and frozen. I'm now wondering how lungs sautee.

The pyramid was rubbish, anyway. The plate concept looks like a riff on the Zone diet, when the author breaks it down into its simplest terms. I see the dairy lobby still has a firm toehold, there... nothing wrong with milk, if you like it, but in terms of human nutrition, it's pretty pointless (unless one is harbouring the hope of morphing into a large ungulate).

Thanks! Did you slice them before cooking, or after? In the image, it looks like before, but..?

That looks delicious; would you mind elaborating a bit on how you handled the liver? I have a rabbit liver I'll be sauteeing or frying this evening, and it's a first for me, so I'm interested in pretty much everything relating to the preparation of small livers, especially when I see results this good!

Thanks, these are some great ideas! I think that this time, I'm going to go with frying or sauteeing, then perhaps cutting the liver into strips, and combining it with either the rice or the pinto beans that will accompanying the rabbit.

Actually, the 'organic evaporated cane juice' is sucrose

Ummm, Lactaid? Just sayin'. Nah, that only helps with lactose intolerance (so, it will cut down on the, well, windiness, caused by dairy), but it won't make any difference to an allergy.

What are your favourite recipes that use rabbit liver? After pretty much giving up on finding rabbit in Denmark, I more or less stumbled over one, in the city's most overpriced supermarket. It was frozen, imported, and frankly, on the small side, but The Splendid Table has a rabbit recipe that I adore ('Giovanna's Wine-Basted Rabbit'), so I coughed up the approximately USD20, and took home my prize (yes, things cost a lot here). Included with the rabbit is its liver (I had no idea rabbits had such wacking great livers!), and I have no idea of what to do with it (it doesn't figure into the recipe I'm making): One of the forum's sages enjoined me to not refreeze it, which makes sense, but does mean I need to figure out what to do with it now. Do rabbit livers have a flavour that lends itself to, say, appetizers of some sort?

I mean, it's probably not a real danger, especially if you're swallowing them whole and not crushing them. I don't balk at using small amounts of cherry pit as a flavouring, but I would personally draw the line at swallowing significant numbers of them whole. Better to look unladylike than to risk a trip to the hospital, IMO. Definitely not even slightly crushed (I have the sort of teeth that crack on gummi bears, so I'm careful). I honestly don't give the ladylike thing a thought (I can't even say I gave up on it, since it was a ludicrous proposition from the word Go), but I really do find gnawed pits and such sitting on the edge of the plate pretty revolting to look at.

Ever since Dom's deli, down on Lafayette Street closed (leading to a two-year search for another place that sold Stramondo marzipan), I've been careful to not get too attached to anyplace.

Maybe not strange, but it is potentially lethal! How so? I remember looking into it once, but nothing suggested that it poses an actual problem. New information out there?

. . . Have you never heard of spitting them out? Yes, but it looks gross! My grandfather usually urged me to be as ladylike/charming as possible. Regrettably, I'm combative, contentious, and surly... not much charm or lady-like-ness going on. So, I just have to settle for being 'not revolting'. In Denmark, there will be no cherries for at least a month, so this isn't huge worry, yet.

I think this is a good point. I also think that it's unlikely to have a serious impact on his kid's behaviour, since in a few years, like most kids, he'll probably regard everything Steve does as wildly uncool, and to be avoided at all costs.

I'm curious: What got you thinking about this? You mentioned that you've done this for a while, now. If you're really questioning the ethics involved, it'd would make things pleasanter for you if you didn't take the bags. But given the diverse ways people use the bags in shops, taking a small, but obvious surplus (as opposed to, say, double bagging each piece of fruit) doesn't seem like it would be an actual violation of any law. I have to admit that I'm more with those who question their usefulness (the only thing I use them for is to bring back to the shop, and reuse them to bag produce; I'm a little morbid about plastic going into the environment). For food, I'd go with reusable containers, and for garbage bags, I'd go with the shopping bags that most US supermarkets seem to dole out with an incredibly lavish hand.

No allergic reaction, but since I don't like taking pits and such out of my mouth, I swallow them (oh please, it's not so strange!), which means that if I eat a lot of cherries, I do have to face certain consequences, down the line. As long as the cherries are firm and have a lot of flavour, I like them, and don't care whether they're sour or sweet; no one favourite.

I add it to all sorts of things all the time. If something tastes like it could use a boost (sauces, soups, whatever), I reach for the brown jar. Incidentally, no matter how experimental you may be feeling, do not try even the tiniest amount in hot chocolate (even if you make it without milk, as I do), regardless of how well you may manage to rationalize the experiment (this may seem like an unnecessary warning, but I like to believe there are others out there who may have at least momentarily considered this). Based on my personal experience, I'd have to say that Danes aren't worried about all that much, nutrition-wise, although they do talk about concerns quite a lot. Essentially, the government seems to have an issue with fortified foods, because (if I understood the conversation correctly, which is open to question, given the iffy quality of my Danish) they want to prevent their being pushed as nutritional supplements in their own right; there was a similar fuss some years back over Red bull. Incidentally, I could almost swear that my usual place for getting Marmite still has it... I'm not going to identify the place, since I don't want to get the owners in trouble, and I want to be able to get my hands on it.

The Museo del Prosciutto is worth a visit; we were there a couple of years back, when we were in Langhirano during the prosciutto festival.

Depending on how you feel about Mexican food, Regalito might be worth a look; the dishes were intelligently and carefully prepared, and it made for a great, relaxed lunch.