Mottmott

I just borrowed a Krups freezer bowl and did a quick trial run with some juice. Alas, it didn't come with instructions. I looked simple enough, though, so I decided to give it a go just with apple juice - no labor lost, eh? It froze the juice very quickly and the texture seems ok and it could be used without a stint in the freezer even though it is a bit loose. But the bowl and paddle don't seem to seat well. The paddle didn't seem to scrape everything off the walls unless I held it in place amd a very icy film was left on the floor and walls when I scraped out the apple ice (which actually has a decent texture). Was I doing something wrong? Or is it just the nature of the beast? I assume that my result might have been different if I'd actually made an ice cream base with a lot of butterfat, but my first concern was to figure out how the machine works absent mfgr instructions. I may I'll give it a try with waternelon tomorrow.

Yes and more versatile than some of the others. But don't call it dull! rather, call it neutral. It mixes unobtrusively with its neighbors whether sweet or savory, taking on whatever tone they set.

Hmm, never thought of panko, I'll have to try it. I'll add a few more to move the list along: mayo, mustard, gelatin, chicken fat (as in chicken livers), and on the sweet side, caramel.

How do you keep your food together? When you chop it up? Add all sorts of bits together? What do you use to keep together your meat, fish, vegetable cakes, loaves, terrines, pates, stuffings, dumplings, etc? I need to move past eggs and cheese which both add cholesterol. Let us count the ways. For example, today on TV I saw Chairman Mao's chef (boy, that must have been an old one!) make fried pork balls by simply adding cornstarch to lightly marinated hand chopped pork and slapping/kneading it about to make it bind together. On another show I saw a mousseline made by emulsifying chicken with ice cubes and cream. Can we count using water (or egg) to "bind" two pieces of dough together? Or when we smear mustard on meat before adding a coating of nuts, crumbs, etc.

Truth be told, you're budget is pretty close to mine ... I'm maybe just over $500 if I include coffee and the occaisional Mars Bar. Don't assume that because I'm writing about a lot of meals that I eat out all the time. I probably eat out for lunch 3-4 days out of 5 during the work week. That's the nature of my job. I'm on the road a lot, so taking leftovers isn't possible, and I really really hate doing sandwiches every day. Dinners out? Maybe 1-2 a month, not including vacations (when you have to dine out.) For my wife & I, dining out is a hobby. It's a chance to try something new and experience the service and personality of a given restaurant, and often a chance to get together with friends. Personally, I prefer cooking at home, but with both of us working and wanting to spend time with my kids, the convenience of it also factors in. As far as the "Outstanding in the Field" dinner goes ... we splurged. Plain and simple. This dinner would not normally be on our radar. But it's my 40th birthday today and the chance to dine al fresco on food prepared by David Hawksworth was too good to pass up. For some, questions pertaining to money are personal and frankly, nobody's business but their own. A. ← Have a Happy Birthday. And many more good dinners. Yes, you're right money is funny. How many of us are amazed (perhaps envious) when we see others (it's always others, eh?) who spend a hundreds per person for dinner out? And yet, we hardly notice that our daily Starbuck latte runs more than $1000. per year. And let's not count what many of us spend on take out and order in dinners and lunches. If we all annualized what we spend on low end take out, from the latte to pizza or hoagie for dinner and lunch out instead of brown bagging it, most of us could splurge on a few high end meals a year and still have money left over. The money I spend on occasional "expensive" meals costs me far less than the "cheap" ones.

Mariana, "The fam" is kinda passive aggressive, don't you think? Too much trouble to come to the table when you've cooked a nice meal? Eat your dinner while it's hot and stop worrying about keeping it hot for them. If that doesn't work, I'd stop cooking for them and turn to cold cuts til they develop a little respect for what you do for them. It sounds like they've a serious case of entitlementitis which seldom cures itself. Yes, I've grown old and cyncial.

I vote for variety, too, though I do not use plastic anymore. One thing that drives me crazy is seeing people trying to mix food in too small a bowl. They do it on the cooking shows all the time. And if you use a nice big bowl, some food can be mixed by flipping instead of pushing it about with a spoon. I have ss bowls from about 5-24" across. I use them all and often. They're real work horses and don't break. I also have a nested set of enameled steel that I prefer to use for refigerator storage or acidic things as they're deep and don't hog shelf space. They even have plastic lids, which, alas, are beginning to crack. I use a bunch of different sized ceramic bowls that can be used for mixing or popped into the oven. They're nice enough to use at an informal family meal. I don't use them quite as often for just mixing unless I need the weight. They have an exterior lip you can anchor a string on, which makes them good for steamed puddings, too. For some reason I prefer to use these when I'm making bread. I also have a bunch of 1 cup to 2 quart pyrex measuring cups and a few in that lab glass (never can remember the name) that I use for mixing as well as measuring.

I went to Famous today for the first time since the management changed -- and the last time. Yes, it's cleaner and brighter looking. But the service was just as slow, maybe slower. The food, definitely worse. To begin with, I don't remember when I had a weaker, more tasteless cup of coffee. Yes, I drink decaf, but I'm comparing it with decaf I've had there and elsewhere. I always get a whitefish sandwich, so it's easy to compare exactly with what I ordered at the old Famous. First, they don't have kaiser rolls! A deli without kaiser rolls? And then, the "onion roll" I settled for fell apart on me. It also made a smaller sandwich to go along with the higher price. I admit that the sanwiches was taller so that I probably had the same amount of fish, tomato, etc. But i find it more pleasant to have a wider, shorter sandwich that doesn't dislocate my jaw to take a bite. And as for their supersized sandwiches? I don't get it. To my eye a 6-7 inch high sandwich at a nearby table kinda took my appetite away. How can anyone possibly eat it? Fortunately, she had her back turned to me so I didn't actually have to watch it. And even some of the regular sandwiches are just unappetizing looking big blobs of meat on bits of bread. And while I'm on a bit of a rant, I don't get why everyone thinks those chocolate chip cookies are so great? Greasy and salty at the old Famous, still greasy and salty.

Totally. And what really puzzles me? Why anyone wants to dine out with their own misbehavin' kids. Isn't the point of going out to have a good time? Or why anyone wants others to hear one's private conversations. I take my cell calls away from others' ears to protect my privacy as much as to spare them.

I grew up in a family that paid NO attention to our own religious "dietary laws." They were simply a non-issue. We lived in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood and I can remember while we ignored our own customs, we usuually had fish on Friday. I suspect it was because mother could count on it being fresh.

When I make galettes I do them on a pizza stone. Then the only thing you need to worry about is over browning the bottome.

I like to make a fresh sweet/sour pickle of julienned carrot, dailkon, jicama, and red/yellow/orange sweet peppers (any combo). Some recipes also call for cauliflower florets, but I don't care for the texture in pickles. It's simple, roughly 1 pt sugar dissolved in 2 pts. Cool and pour nover the julienned root vegetable.It's quick and can be done just before making the rest of the meal.

Yes, it seems that no remedy works for everyone. This is OT as it does not involve food, but pain trumps correctness. When I have a migraine, I find it relieves the pain temporarily to run my hands and (if possible) feet under hottest water possible short of scalding. When at home, I'll sit on the side of the tub and let the water pool around my feet while the water cascades over my hands. Some people find relief from pressing the pressure point in the web between thumb and index finger - hard. Others suggest the same with the ear lobe. I find longer relief from the hot water, but sometimes that's not available. Still another suggestion which I've not used successfully is to breath in a bag so that you rebreathe your own breath. Of course, a doctor who knows you well enough to trust you may prescribe pain killers. I've used them with mixed success. Often they will make me throw up, after which the headaches lifts. Why? who knows?

What foods do you use to cure or relieve diseases or their symptoms? It's pretty well established that some foods inflame or even cause symptoms of some diseases (diabetes, gout, heartburn, gall stones, for example). Without getting into purely herbal remedies, what foods can be used to help? My question is stimulated by this recipe I just found here which claims yucca relieves arthritis. But through the years, I've confirmed the lore that cheese "binds" and caffeine "loosens." I have not found that caffeine helps migraines even though it was suggested by doctors. Nor did it help my headache when a friend tried to rid me of one by rubbing an egg on my forehead.

You've had so many good suggestions, I'll try to not duplicate. I've learned that grapeseed oil is a good neutral tasting monounsaturated fat with similar benefits to olive oil. I've stopped using canola (most of which is GM, anyway), and only use olive oil and grapeseed. Grapeseed, unlike the olive oil, can take high temperatures. I find some vegetables are great when steamed. It brings out the best in some vegetables. I use the microwave for cabbage which becomes very sweet). Roasting rocks. I also find a squeeze of lemon juice often adds a lot to vegetables as well as fish. Make friends with gremalata (chopped parsley & garlic) which can be added to everything from pasta, soup, stews to some vegetables. Similarly, a little vinaigrette over vegetables gives them zip. Capers, anchovies, olives can be added to all sorts of foods to give the dish more depth. Keep a few pots of herbs around (chives, mint, parsley, basil, sage, rosemary) for a few snips to perk your food up.

What a tangled web: food, taste, morality, class, politics, economics, education, ethnicity, snobbery, environment, health, and that's just for starts. Can we untangle it to everyone's satisfaction? Probably not. What's clear? We all gotta eat something. All will make choices based on what tastes appeal to them, on their cooking skills, on time and price, on the symbolic value of the foods they eat, on proximity of the markets they use, on political/moral issues and, usually, some combination of the above which varies from person to person. I found the article offensive in that it set up straw(wo)men by stereotyping us by what's in our market baskets and where we shop and its blatant and somewhat indiscriminant classism. Aside from that I would like to address something not discussed either in the article or on eG: food coops. Of course they vary, so what I say about the one I use may not apply to all. First, the food is as good quality (or better) and cheaper than the supermarkets (including WF), whether you buy organic or conventional produce. It carries a mixture of organic and other foods, including locally grown foods in season. We've even added a small FM stand across the street one day a week. Some food is purchased directly from farmers and local bakeries, including our now delicious daily corn. All our food is marked by its place of origin. (You can skip the Mexican organic strawberries if you have some doubts about how strict their organic controls are.) It attempts to respond to members' wishes about what foods to carry, based on issues of price, organic/non-o, environment or politics. Oddly, though, I would say most people who shop there are mostly middle/professional class, even though we're within easy shopping distance of poor people. Perhaps the membership requirement is off-putting. (It's like a neighborhood grocery store. People tend to know each other, their kids go to school together, etc.) With the exception of the temporarily poor (students, artists, those just starting out, etc.), saving money is less the reason people join than the sense of control over what the store carries, the ability to consider environmental, ethical, and political issues, the gesture of somewhat stepping out of the mainstream commercial foodstream, and the ability to know where our food comes from. There's even a coop garden patch for those who want to put their fingers in the dirt. In Philadelphia, the numerous farmers' and ethnic markets attract people of all economic classes. Between the coop and farmers' and ethnic markets, I'm able to limit mainstream supermarket visits to the 3-4 times a year when I stock up on clorox and such. The exception is WF (for meats which are hormone and anti-biotic free and the King Arthur bread flour my coop inexplicably does not carry) and TJ for odds and ends. I'm sure my food bill would be more if I shopped in mainstream supermarkets, especially as the way I shop nearly eliminates factory foods in boxes.

May I add that when cooking for a single person, freezing 1-2 cup portions flat in ziplock bags allows for fast defrost. I have a couple plastic tubs in my freezer where I store these vertically for easy access (and to keep them from sliding out and landing on my feet). Edited to add: for seafood, think mussels. Really easy, really cheap for seafood, and there are a gazillion interesting recipes round the world.

I thought to try it, too. It might leave good speckles, but not a good taste.

Perhaps you could give us an idea of your cooking skills. You speak of frozen dinners, soda, and processed cereals instead of home cooked meals, tea, and cooked grain cereals. All of the latter would be cheaper and more nutritious.

The Processor RULES. Since I began using it my crusts are the best. (No modesty here). But I think if you use the processor it is necessary to use frozen butter. Also, I don't cut it into uniform sized chunks which helps promote the flakiness.

Pearl's Paint has a big selection in the catalog and NY store. The Polish and Chinese linen tends to be cheaper. Note that there are different thicknesses. If you call the canvas/linen department of the NYC store directly, they will help you select [(212) 965-9962], and maybe even send you samples. Oh, and in paint talk, prime means paint, not quality. Pearl Paint

Home cook here. Towel drawer? Yup. But I've added a few non-kitchen additions. I always have a few terry handtowels and washcloths (especially useful when my grandkids lived here). The trick is to find the cheap thin ones you might not buy for the bathroom as they seem to be easiest to handle and most absorbent. I've had some luck finding them at Value city. Also, I recently bought one of those bags of "rags" for painters at Home Depot that turned out to be thin white terry 18" squares. Perfect for kitchen duty. I'll just tear up some old T's for painting.

Final report on Lamb with Garlic and Beans. Everyone enjoyed this dish. That said, because I decided to make the recipe as written, I don’t feel the result justified the time. It required running about the city to an ethnic butcher in one neighborhood and specialty shop for dried cepes in another. Nor was this an inexpensive dish. As I try to use organic foods and grass fed meats as far as possible, the dish was nearly as expensive as a nice lamb roast or chops and a lot more work. Of course if you can find the ingredients in your neighborhood and don’t care about using organic materials, my remarks don’t apply, particularly if you use ready-made sausage. I would add a note to the recipe. Given the effect of the salt pork in both the braised lamb and the sausage, I would probably not add most of the additional salt in the dish. And I might use even more garlic, perhaps adding some when browning the salt pork and onions. On the plus side, I'm glad I've learned to make sausage which I will do again. Especially since I now have hog casings on hand without a trip across the city. I even have a few extra Toulouse sausages tucked away in the freezer for a future meal. I thought this way of making the beans was very successful (even without the final baking) and the leftover bean juice was a wonderful base for a couple bowls of soup with some fridgy bits and a handful of orrechette.

Another related query: I have a bunch of leftover casings. If I pack them in salt, how long can I keep them in the fridge - or should I freeze them? Oh, and, yeah, my lamb stew is simmering nicely....

Final report. I wish I had a digi-cam so I could post the result. They're beautiful. In fact, they look just like sausages. Thanks for the help.