Twyst

Scallops and polenta with gremolata

Sweet potato and andouille hash with a farm fresh egg. pales in comparison to most of the dishes here, but it was still pretty good!

Ive been eating ro-tel tomato and velveeta dip since I was a kid, so probably 25-30 years. Im not sure if it was even actually on the velveeta box way back then, but it is now so thats my answer :lol:

Nothing. We ate out 4-5 times a week and got food delivered or got take out the rest of the time. Im from a pretty small town originally so the restaurants weren't particularly good either.

Nope, but when they are directly quoting the cdc and are the first thing to pop up on google I don't see the harm. Do you have any sources that dispute these figures or anything useful to add to the conversation? Here is more confirmation of those figures. http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/foodborne-illnesses.html http://www.cureresearch.com/s/salmonella_food_poisoning/stats_printer.htm http://www.pcrm.org/health/prevmed/foodborne_illness.html Any more questions?

Start by using a little dishwashing detergent in a pot of water and simmering it for about 45 minutes. That usually makes it pretty easy to scrub out.

I do the same. I usually also use a little bleach to clean my sink once a week and microwave my kitchen sponge every few days because those things are rife with bacteria. I was spouting off salmonella stats as a rebuttal to the statement that salmonella is very rare, not to the practice described in the OP, I think washing veggies in the sink is fine as long as you do it intelligently.

40,000 cases of salmonella are serious enough to be reported in the US every year, and we average 600 deaths per year from it. Id prefer to practice safe food handling techniques than to just "relax" and raise the risk of making someone ill needlessly through carelessness. http://www.christianpost.com/news/cdc-says-no-progress-in-salmonella-research-51031/

It's actually not that rare here in the US at all. Between 5% and 15% (depending on who you listen to) of all chicken tested in the US contains salmonella.

Beautiful tomatoes at the farmers market this morning so made a really simple spaghetti using Scott Conant's Scarpetta recipe. Very simple but delicious!

I'm going to make my first attempt at cooking short ribs sous vide for 72 hours this weekend. Looking on the web Ive seen the recommended temperature anywhere from 132 to 140. I'm sure lots of people here have experience with it, what temperature did you guys have the most success with?

My favorite strange soup to make is "Cream of X boil". Originally being from south louisiana we are always boiling some kind of seafood, and making a soup out of the onions, garlic, leftover corn and potatoes, usually some kind of sausage, and shrimp/crab/crawfish that were all in the boiling pot with all that seasoning makes an absolutely unbelievable soup. You can simulate it without the giant seafood boil by boiling all the aforementioned ingredients minus the seafood with a little liquid crab boil and some salt, then making a standard cream soup with the stuff you boiled. is what you need. DO NOT ADD IT DIRECTLY TO YOUR SOUP.

Ive been throwing them into Vacuum bags with soy sauce, fresh ginger, fish sauce, and a little oyster sauce and cooking them sous vide. I throw them under a broiler for a couple of minutes right before serving and I find they turn out delicious!

Definitely clears the sinuses doesn't it!

I know you said you had the ice cream covered, but I want to add that I find mint chocolate chip ice cream is the best at cooling you down. Something about Ice cold mint is a godsend when its hot!

My CSA is overloading me with mint and basil as well. Im going the mojito route with most of it I made the lamb meatballs from Keller's Ad Hoc last night and they were delicious, so if you have that book give them a try, they are easy and fantastic and will help you get rid of a little more mint.

It really is awful. I've been a huge fan of regular top chef since season 1 and even enjoyed masters seasons 1 and 2 (the talent pool was much better). This season is absolutely ridiculous, they arent even really getting a chance to cook. I think the final challenge on top chef masters for the first 2 seasons (cook a meal that tells the story of your culinary career) is the best challenge on any cooking show, so if they screw that up I'm going to RAGE.

After about a week with my books I have to say Im completely blown away. My expectations were high but this set has exceeded every one of them. I will be recommending this set to everyone I know who cooks!

You're right, I didnt really mean to lump weight watchers in with the fad diets. I was just mentioning it saying I tried it and it didn't work for me and worded my statement poorly by not distinguishing it from the others. I found weight watchers too restrictive and structured for myself, although I know several people who dropped a lot of weight successfully with it.

My sous-vide setup

I tried low-carb diets, low fat diets, weight watchers and countless others to no avail. A little over a year ago I joined a CSA, started cooking lots of vegetables, cut out almost all processed food, and started exercising. I dropped 85 pounds in 8 months and am now just maintaining my weight. None of the fad diets worked for me, I had to get back to basics with calories in/calories out to show any real permanent results. Good luck to everyone on whatever route they choose!

Im a sloppy roast beef and gravy Po-boy guy myself. The more napkins it takes to eat it, the better. As a native New Orleanian who now lives elsewhere I have to disagree that the hardest part is frying/cooking up the fixins. The hardest part is finding good bread!

Thanks to this thread I cancelled my amazon order and ordered from Barnes and Noble on monday. Books are already here and they are beautiful

From my experience it doesn't really matter. I don't really care for using olive oil but any other source of fat is fair game. I use duck fat for my duck and oyster gumbo, peanut oil for chicken and sausage and either peanut oil or butter for seafood gumbo.

Indeed, ive never been to a crawfish boil where the crawfish weren't purged TBH even though science says it doesn't really do anything.