scubadoo97

Rebecca, so glad to see you posting. Prayers and best wishes to you and your family. Tonights menu will be Asian BBQ chicken Napa cabbage salad with, ramen noodles, almonds and sesame seeds topping string beans and garlic

My dad would be 81 if he were still alive but he did very little if any cooking that I can remember. He did like salami and eggs but my mom cook it. I do remember him making his own breakfast on occasion. Toast with cheese in the toaster oven. I think that's as far as it got.

We had this in our cabinet at home as well. I guess that dates me too. As a kid the name always brought to mind some gross cherry fish drink. Actually taste quite nice. You could always order it online Cherry Heering I froogled it and got a few hits. The one above is in NJ.

I do this with chili powders. Make my own from dried ancho or pasilla, guajellos, cumin and oregano. For a hotter version I'll add moritas a small smoked and dried red jalapeno. In Mexico these are sometimes called chipotle but the real chipotle is a dried smoked green jalapeno. By making my own chili powder I don't have to go searching for all the ingredients when I just want a tsp or so. Way fresher and tastier than anything preground in the stores.

Octaveman knows his knives and his post is excellent advise. You might want to throw in a serrated knife for things like bread

Great blog so far Bruce. Your food photos are always fantastic and get me in the mood for more Thai and Vietnamese food. Wonderful to see your kids are involved in the kitchen.

I have a bunch of knives some that I found on the cheap on sale as open stock that needed some clean up and sharpening/re-profiling. I have many in a drawer since I didn't want to put up a magnetic strip in my tile back splash and my wife always feels there is too much stuff on the counters. I use plastic page binders. Very inexpensive solution that has worked very well. You can get these at the office supply store They can be cut to size up to 11 inches and offer a low tech inexpensive way to protect knives that are in a drawer

Yes I love them as well. I used 4 pounds of onions and caramelized them to serve on top. 1/3 of them went into the rice during cooking. I actually used the oil that I drained off the onions to fry my rice prior to adding the lentils and their liquid to make the rice. The onion oil is full of the caramelized flavor and a pitty to not use it.

Tonight the crowd will be over and I have planned a Greek/Mediteranian meal Menu to included, Moussaka, homemade gyros, spinach pie, lentils and rice with carmelized onions and Greek salad. and Ouzo for the brave ones. Still need to get the place cleaned up and get the food in the ovens to warm up. Shabbat Shalom everyone.

Here is a thread on electric meat grinders. I have used the attachment to my KA and it works well but was looking for something more substantial that would produce less heat. I opted for the Tasin TS 108. Works very well. I just used it to grind beef and lamb for moussaka and home made gyros. edited due to link already posted above.

While making stove top popcorn, toss some sugar into the hot oil and corn before covering. Salt when done and toss.

Here is the new website http://www.greencoffee.coop/ and a spin off of the original coop http://www.greencoffeebuyingclub.com/index.php

I also recommend you read and re-read this primer. I got an EdgePro sharpening system and have no regrets. It's great.

Well I got my first taste of FAGE today. Publix grocery store still doesn't stock it but I found it at Fresh Market. This stuff is great. Party due to the fact that it is strained it has a wonderful fluffy texture and not very sour. I ended up snagging a couple of large containers of 0% and 2 small containers of 2%, which was all they had left. Only a 10 calorie difference between the two, per serving. I will make the trek weekly to pick this up until it shows up at my local grocery. It's that good.

Like greens, just don't make them often enough. I did collards recently for new years day. Cooked them with onion, celery and garlic. We don't eat pork so I used a few pieces of smoked turkey wing to bump up the flavor. Fresh greens are great. If I can find beets with the tops they always get cooked. Kale in soups is a nice way to use a green.

I did a dinner with a southern soul food theme a few weeks back. I was doing back eye peas and collards for new years and wanted to throw a few more dishes in the mix. On researching soul foods I was amazed to see the salmon croquettes show up time and time again. I opted not to make them since several of my guests were not fish eaters but I have to imagine it's a very cheap source of protein. The cans of salmon with the bones and skin are dirt cheap. I like to use it for a quick and cheap fish spread. Just takes too much time to clean it up but does taste good.

In response to Kiliki's original request for personal experiences with ranges vs cooktops I would add. I have always used a range but in our remodel project I opted for a rangetop and double wall ovens. I do miss the convenience of going from cook top to oven in one quick swoop but it's not so inconvenient to walk a few feet to place a hot pan in the oven. The oven height is better in the wall oven than in range oven so that is a positive for the wall oven. I have a 36" Viking rangetop. I never use all six burners at once but the added space just makes it easier to move things around when I have three pots all going at the same time. I think the most I've had was 4 burners going at any one time. The rangetop is the pro stainless look but with it you loose a drawer compared to a similar cooktop. As far as brands go I searched here and at gardenweb as well as asking anyone who had any experience. You will hear good and bad with all brands. I liked the Viking rangetop because all burners are equal in performance with no simmer plate needed. Thermador's simmer uses an on/off mode that clicks every minute and that would drive me up a wall. In retrospect I wish I had a Blue Star rangetop after hearing about how much more heat it produces compared to the Viking. So in the end you try to get the best you think will work for you and just know there are always trade offs.

One I've always had a problem with was Passover cakes. Not only do they rise but they taste nasty.

Outside of the overcast sky and little rain the weather has just been great. 84 degrees today. Glad you had a good meal there. It's been too long since I was there. They really do a good job. The food is excellent.

I've walked through the Fausto's on White street. It is close to some of the restauants we like to go to. Only wished I had a kitchen to cook in when in KW. We often stay in condos in the Key Colony Beach area near Marathon and go to KW for a day. Fausto's does have some very nice produce, meats and cheeses. The fish in Publix is going to be similar to fish at any Publix in the state. For seafood I would try to search out a real fish market that is getting it's fish from the local fisherman. I would expect Fausto's to have a good source of local fresh fish.

A Doctor was addressing a large audience. "The material we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed most of us sitting here years ago. Red meat is awful. Soft drinks corrode your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. High fat diets can be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long-term harm caused by the germs in our drinking water. But there is one thing that is the most dangerous of all and we all have, or will, eat it. Can anyone here tell me what food it is that causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?" After several seconds of quiet, a 75-year-old man in the front row raised his hand, and softly said, "Wedding cake"

I bought this Innova 5 qt in the apple color. Innova dutch oven I get a little drip of condensed water that will trickle down the side if I'm steaming so it's not absolutely a tight seal. I guess there has to be some escape of steam, it's not a pressure cooker. I have never owned a LC dutch oven so have nothing to comare it to. So far it has been a pleasure to use. It is heavy and my wife hates it for that reason but in preparing soups I can sweat out vegetables with little worry about browning since it has such good heat retention and I can cook on a lower heat. It also cleans up very well. A little Bar Keepers Friend will get rid of most stains. I think the first thing I made in it was black beans. The BKF got rid of the black stains really quickly. Now it does have a brownish patina to the enamel that BKF will not get rid of but I have had it for at least 6 months. I have braised roast in the oven, soups, stews, fried in it and just about everything except bread in that pot. It was a deal at ~$35 shipped.

There was a recent case in the news where twin brother and sister were celebrating their 21 birthday and had several drinks in an establishment. It was the evening before their birthday so they were technically not 21. They were killed or harmed, I can't remember, in an auto accident that evening and the establishment that served them drinks was lambasted and sued for ignoring the law. The parents were outraged that they were served alcohol. I tend to think these same parents would think differently if the tragedy had not occurred. I can't blame the restaurant for following the letter of the law. They have too much at stake to do otherwise.

I did my first gratin dish to accompany my first standing rib roast during the holidays. I used about 6 medium russet potatoes sliced thin on a Japanese madoline. I heated 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream and infused garlic and thyme and nutmeg in to the cream. I overlapped the potatoes to form one layer and then poured on some of the cream mixture and grated parmesan cheese. I did this in about 3 layers and then topped with more parmesan. It was baked uncovered in a 375 oven for 60 mins. The cream was mostly absorbed and the top was golden brown. No under cooked potatoes but the taste was too close to Fettuccine Alfredo. I think a good Gruyere would be spectacular.

My wife was reading an article that listed foods to think twice about. Cheese, red meat, coffee, alcohol..... The list went on and on. I was like shoot me now and get it over with. How about, eat less and exercise oh, that would make too much sense