Allura

I have PCOS (and lyme...), which gives me the "insulin resistance" problem. I'm on oral meds and watching my diet. I'm very slowly getting the hang of it, and probably taking longer since I don't measure my glucose. The lyme tends to mean that when the blood sugar drops, so too does the energy to go get anything. However, I've learned to LOVE milk; it's got carbs and protein in it, and for me, it does a good job at bringing my blood sugar back up quickly without me going overboard and eating everything in sight. Sometimes, though, I do that too, all the carbs I can find. I pay for it later with a massive headache when the spike hits.

Since you're looking around Cranford, what about The Chippery (South Ave in Fanwood)? I haven't actually eaten there, but I know there's good reports on egullet and from friends of mine. It's more fast food than restaurant, but it might fit for the fish & chips part.

My father is the only Jew in a family of Italian Catholics, so I've been trying to make something kosher for dessert for Easter for him each year. Last year I made almond jam thumbprint cookies, which I think he liked a lot, and the year before I made an apple sponge cake. That was bit more lemony than I prefer, but I still think it went over well. I'm not sure what this year will be. Not chocolate, likely, simply because he's not the chocoholic the rest of the family is, and I defer to his tastes. I haven't even started looking, though.

Actually, I would guess that McDonald's is going to be scrupulous in hiring only legal workers. There's too much money to be made in fines against them otherwise, especially since so many groups love to hate them. I'd guess a lot of the corporate chains (all?) are going to use only legal employees. Of course, this is why they use so many prepared, etc foods - they have to cut costs somewhere, and they don't have as much room to cut in salaries. I get the impression it's not that illegal BoH workers aren't being paid minimum+ wages, but rather that most legal workers could do something else for more money, so there's not as much economic pressure to raise the salaries. What if the BoH suddenly had to be paid a decent wage? With or without the FoH being paid a salary as well (as opposed to mostly tips). What would it do to the industry? I suspect we'd lose a LOT of restaurants, particularly low to mid level places. Alternately, there might suddenly be a lot more automation, although I'm not sure exactly where that would come in. I could see, say, a fast food place going to automatic ordering, and maybe even more automatic cooking, etc, but I don't know what form that could take, if any, in a sit down restaurant.

Actually, the IHOP on Rt 22 in Plainfield, NJ DOES serve grits, iirc. They have a separate menu of "specialties" which are mostly southern - fried chicken & waffles, grits, eggs & fried fish, etc. DH gets the chorizo omelette from that menu fairly often. I've never seen a specials menu at any other IHOP, though.

What's a DD? ← DD = Dear Daughter, usually

This reminded me of something. I have a friend whose family owns one of the fudge stores in Cape May, NJ (Laura's ). Apparently the inspector ALWAYS came on delivery day and would cite them for the pallet of ingredients sitting on the floor. Sounds like this inspector might be that type, so that's something you might want to be aware of.

Not sure if there's a newer Blue Smoke thread, but...friends of ours just went there Friday night for the first time, and the one thing she was raving about was their mac & cheese. She said she's actually thinking of writing to Bon Appetit's "Can you get the recipe for me?" department. I told her I'd ask here if anyone had any ideas what made it so good. She said she thought they might have actually smoked it.

My father's 68 and Jewish, and eggs are one of the few things I've seen him cook. He grills, too, though, and used to make a mean milkshake when I was a kid. Mom won't let him cook, though, bc "He uses every utensil in the house, and doesn't clean up when he's done." Now I have a craving for salami & eggs. Oddly, I used to only get Jewish salami when I stole some from a friend in elementary school; in my family, "salami" means genoa (Mom's Italian).

I had a Korean roommate one summer semester at college. She asked me at one point what American food was. I told her it depended where your family was fun. For instance, I grew up on both spaghetti & meatballs and brisket, as well as more "American" fare such as hamburgers and simple meats w/ veggies. Maybe that's what we do best? The bounty and variety from such a large land simply prepared. Steaks, roast chicken, pies (just fruit in a crust).

The end result for us was gorgeous. There was no way I was going to get Mom to even try a low heat method, nor would she sear on the stove (she uses a disposable pan for goodness sake). Anyway, it was 3 ribs, 5.5 pounds or so, 450 for 30 min, then 350 till it hit 120. We let it rest for 15 minutes (it could have gone longer, I think). The final cooking time was about 2 hours total. Cooked just right, and an excellent piece of meat, particularly since it came from plain ol' Acme.

EDIT: Crisis averted. One of her cookbooks says to pull at 120 *rolls eye*. I personally think it's times are too long for the 5lb roast she has, but I'm loaning her my thermometer so we'll know when to pull it. I don't know why she even asks my advice on things; she never listens to me anyway. The curse of being the daughter instead of the mother. Help! My mother is making a "prime" rib tomorrow (choice, likely, but she was very insistent on getting first cut), and I'm trying to convince her to pull it at 120. She's insisting on 140!!!! Part of the problem is she's very much a time oriented cook; using a thermometer is new, and all of her cookbooks are old ones with the old overdone numbers in them. Can someone give me an approximate time per pound to cook it? The current plan is 450 for 15 min, turn it down to 350, and then...what? I'm leaning towards 15 minutes/pound, leaning more towards medium-rare than rare. Oh, and the longest she'll leave it out on the counter is the length of time it takes for the oven to heat up. She went crazy trying to even find a decent rib roast yesterday; I want it to taste good!

I was looking at the website for the restaurant, and noticed they had a forum. This post from the chef can be found there:

I've tried another from that line, an "extra dark" (no percentage) with toffee bits in it. Not bad. Definetly darker than special dark. And I thought it was a bit creamier? I needed chocolate for a chocolate pecan pie and poked at the baking and candy sections in Shoprite for the first time in ages. A LOT of new chocolate in there, from folks like Hershey. I ended up with good ol' Ghiradelli semisweet chips, but I was a bit surprised at the varity. That Hershey with the fruit sounds like something I might like; I frequently like a texture contrast.

Can you make a dessert risotto ala rice pudding? What do you use for the "broth," and would you sweetne the broth or the risotto itself, etc? I make a very simple but time consuming rice pudding that is just rice simmered with milk & water, and sugar added at the end. It takes forever, and I'm thinking risotto would be faster!

You might find some hints to how the pomegranate relates to Christmas here. Looks like it evolved from Greek mythology about Perephone eating pomegranate seeds while trapped in the underworld with Hades. My husband has introduced me to an orange in the stocking, but my family traditionally has a course of fruits & nuts on Christmas Eve, before dessert is served. Christmas dinner usually involves pasta & a roast, but the specifics vary according to what we feel like doing and how many people are coming.

Going to the in-laws in northern VA. I'm bringing a chocolate pecan pie. There's going to be a dozen of us, but FIL's oven is busted! So who knows what we're actually eating; I think he's planning to cook the turkey at BIL's house and drive it over; as long as the gravy is hot (and the stovetop IS working), I guess it should come out ok. Eh, family's what's important, right? Unfortunately, us heading to VA leaves my parents & sister by themselves this year, so they're going out to Duo Amici in, crap, down 36? Crud, I'm lousy about my directions. It's an Italian place, fairly traditional, but the food is good; we just went there for my sister's birthday. They're supposed to have two traditional choices, turkey or lamb (?), and a short version of their Italian menu. So Mom can have her pasta to start AND her turkey. I hope it works out ok for them; they were having a hard time finding a reasonable sit down place.

The chocolatee pecan pie was a big hit last year, so I'm making it again this year. Not sure if I'm making anything else; I really need to call the in-laws and ask them about details. All we've been told so far is, "Get there for 5pm." I'd say that was the easy part, but I-95 on Thanksgiving day - blech.

Let's see. Ours was at the same little Italian place that we went to for a lot of birthdays, my college graduation party, etc. My husband's father and step-mother had it at her condo, with takeout from Dixie Bones (bbq). Friends all had it at restaurants near the reception place, one at the restaurant attached to the catering hall. So, mostly restaurants.

FYI, importing Vegemite to the US has been banned. Article here from the Courier Mail.

DH uses the oven mitts, but I use pot holders. OTOH, the pot holders I have have a little slot in them to slide your hand in. It gets me the grip of pot holders without burning my hand on the edge of the oven (tiny apartment oven here). I have nails under all my cabinets for tools and such, so I can always find my pot holders/mitts. They're what counts as decoration in my kitchen.

Well...as the bbq fiends will no doubt tell you, the crock pot can't do bbq. However, if you like the NC vinegar style, this isn't a bad approximation. Originally it used a 5 lb turkey breast, but I think a pork roast would work just fine: 1 pint cider vinegar 1 stick margarine (old recipe; no reason you can't use butter afaik) 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon of salt 1 tablespoon of black pepper 1 tablespoon of garlic powder 3 tablespoons of ketchup 2 medium, onions, diced 1/3 bottle of barbeque sauce Boil together in a pot, pour over the meat in the crockpot, cook till done (standard 8 hours on low). Shred & put on rolls, possibly with coleslaw. Not real bbq, but tasty & easy, esp for a crowd.

First, I'm sad that Vineland is too far from me, because your stuff looks & sounds great. Two things that I thought of while reading the thread, though. For the iced coffee: Please note someplace that you're using honey in it, as it's an allergen but not one usually encountered in coffee (chai, I'd expect it, not so much in coffee). I'm not allergic, but I think honey can be one of the bad allergies. For the tent: If you're going to be doing a lot of events, I'd recommend an EZ-Up tent. I've done events in a completely different market, and they're great. They have sidewalls that you can add/remove as needed as well (I think they're an option). Sometimes you can get a good price for one on ebay.

Thanks! I couldn't find it when I searched earlier, but I just haven't been having a lot of luck today.

So I guess this is the place for it... My produce share includes 2 beets. I've never eaten them except the canned pickled ones (blech). What do I do with them? Can I roast them like any other root veggie? I'm planning a pork roast with some of the other roots they gave me this weekend (yams, yukons, etc). Alternately, should I try them raw? I found a recipe on gourmet.com for a beet & parsley (and I now have THREE bunches of fresh parsley....), but since I don't know the flavor of the beets, I'm not sure what to do with them. Well, the point of the share was to increase my veggie eating...