mrsadm

How funny! I like "PITZ" for the RITZ crackers!

I didn't know I could give myself a reward?!! WOW!! I will start this practice on Saturday!

I have an uncle who, years ago, was a waiter. He loves to send food back to the kitchen and correct the wait staff.

I got this for Christmas too. Of course I looked at all the cartoons first! I'm just at the section about beefsteaks in New York city, how wierd!

There is a new cookbook out now for low carb, "Carb Wars" (I have to figure out how to create a link that benefits egullet) that has a good synopsis of the major low carb diets out there today. If you're not sure, check out that book. Or research online, of course. In my own experience, the more carbs you eliminate the faster/more weight you will lose. So if you want a teaspoon of sugar go ahead but it will slow you down or stall your weight loss. On Atkins it is very strict in the beginning, then less so, then when you reach your weight loss goal you can gradually add in higher carbs, so long as you don't start gaining again. You could try a teaspoon of Splenda in your coffee. I use it every day in my morning tea.

While I am thinking now about this topic, I'll just make another comment. There are many low carb types of plans out there besides Atkins; South Beach and Protein Power being two of the more famous. Just a bit of a warning to all the good folks here at egullet, if you are thinking of trying the Kimkins diet, please google it and read as much as you can, to make an informed decision. A lot of folks consider it very unhealthy (and I leave my comments at that!)

Dreamfields has a unique process of making most of the carbs in the product just pass through your digestive system without being absorbed. Here is their FAQ: http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com/pasta-nutrition.html#sec1q2 A few years ago, one of the ladies on the forum lowcarbfriends.com experimented with dreamfields by testing her blood sugar after eating it to see if it spiked the same way as after eating regular pasta. As long as she ate a little protein with the pasta her blood sugar remained normal. This is of course anecdotal evidence but in addition to her, lots of other folks on the forum have eaten it for years, just as I have with no bad results at all. And it tastes so much like real pasta your high carb friends and family will never know the difference! P.S. I am not connected to this product in any way, I just really like it. You'll be tempted to each too much, I would eat it only once a week while in ongoing weight loss phase. YMMV (Your mileage may vary). They offer lasagne noodles, spaghetti, elbows, penne and linguine. I cook up batches of recipes and with the other ingredients it freezes quite well (tomato sauce, alfredo, etc.)

Dreamfields pasta is amazingly good and about 5 digestible carbs per 2 oz. serving. I am making ham and mushroom alfredo tonight with Dreamfields spaghetti (leftover ham from Christmas). Personally I avoid bread altogether no matter what type it is. Glad to see this thread revived. I think I am like many folks who lost a lot of weight doing low carb a couple of years ago when it was really popular. Now we've gained back some or all of that weight and want to turn back to an eating plan that worked. Just purchased the new cookbook "Carb Wars: Sugar is the new Fat" and will report here on any recipe successes from it. I also just bought "Good calories Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes and have just starting reading it. If you are interested there is a chapter by chapter discussion forum about it here: http://www.lowcarbdiscussion.com/index.php?act=SF&f=71&

I will have to add Jan. 12 to my calendar! I never liked Jamie Oliver in his very early cooking shows. He made things like fried bread with bacon sandwiches and stuff I just was not interested in eating. But I think he's come a long way since those days and has more of an international taste and a deeper understanding of food. I just bought his latest cookbook "Cook with Jamie" and it has some great looking side dishes. Somehow I missed the Italy series, was that shown in the US? Glad to see Food Network is bringing in a REAL chef!

I've seen diamond knife sharpeners before and wondered what they were for. This was in the U.S. If you can't find any online, call the "Kitchen Drawer" shop in Hyde Park NY (Google for their phone number). I believe that is where I saw one. (Kitchen Drawer is a great shop, right next to the Culinary Institute and chock full of goodies). They can probably advise you on using it, too.

- Granite mortar and pestle - been wanting this for years - Deep fat fryer - One of those pans with an inset to make perfectly round poached eggs

That is truly scary. At least at my grocer's, Wegmans, they do post the origin of the seafood in the counters. I will indeed avoid eating all seafood from China.

OK I've answered my own question; google is indeed the most valuable tool on earth. The answer from Harold McGee: http://news.curiouscook.com/2006/08/green-...s-toxic-as.html

Good points Linda. I suspect there's more than aging of taste buds involved but I don't know of anything scientific that has been done to examine the subject. I remember from the Bourdain DVD, during his visit to Ferran Adria's lab, they tasted something that some people perceived as bitter, and others could not taste anything. It made me wonder what other, perhaps hundreds, of flavors people perceive differently. Then again, some people are just picky eaters!

Why did my potatoes turn green and can I still eat them? I just read in a cookbook that if they are green, they are mildly poisonous and will cause a tummy ache. Anyone know?

This is such a Scrooge story it baffles the mind. Quote from the story: " Three private equity firms — Bain Capital, the Texas Pacific Group and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners — control most of Burger King’s stock. Last year, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd C. Blankfein, earned the largest annual bonus in Wall Street history, and this year he stands to receive an even larger one. Goldman Sachs has served its investors well lately, avoiding the subprime mortgage meltdown and, according to Business Week, doubling the value of its Burger King investment within three years. Telling Burger King to pay an extra penny for tomatoes and provide a decent wage to migrant workers would hardly bankrupt the company. Indeed, it would cost Burger King only $250,000 a year. At Goldman Sachs, that sort of money shouldn’t be too hard to find. In 2006, the bonuses of the top 12 Goldman Sachs executives exceeded $200 million — more than twice as much money as all of the roughly 10,000 tomato pickers in southern Florida earned that year. Now Mr. Blankfein should find a way to share some of his company’s good fortune with the workers at the bottom of the food chain. ' I'm going to tell everyone I know about this and ask them to avoid Burger King

What is ICA?

HEY! I resemble that remark! Seriously you've gotten me interested now in trying a few knives that I have no experience with so far. My knife collection (which is in my profile at knifeforums) needs some new friends! I'm glad you are enjoying the Japanese knives.

Seriouseats web site just published a retraction of this news. Seems Food TV said Emeril will continue to work with them, although Emeril appears to be free to do other things. Emeril still alive at Food Network

I buy these to make "fake cheezits". I cut them into little squares and microwave them. Nice crispy treat.

Mass market cookbooks have taught me very little about real cooking, except how to waste ingredients on blah meals. Recipes only tell you how to throw things together. I remember my first cooking "relevation": it was when I was making Coq au Vin from a Julia Child recipe. She said to make sure the mushrooms were dry, and to not crowd them in the saute pan, so they would not steam. Eureka, that made all the difference in their taste! I think I am the "home cook" that is the target audience of this book. I have never been in a professional kitchen. I have taken about five 1-day cooking classes and learned the rest of what I know from books and TV. Tyler Florence's fried chicken is nice but I want to move beyond that. I am also not into Asian cooking or other cuisines (maybe someday, when I get this western Euro cooking thing right). So I ran out on Saturday and bought this book. I think it's perfect for me! It seems like a great bunch of snapshots into a real chef's world. Insight into a professional cook's views. Usable hints and tips and advice that can be applied even using a dumbed-down recipe.

I had a forlorn and uneaten pumpkin pie..... I never bake so thought I'd get a pumpkin pie from Wegman's, during my big shopping trip. But they looked kind of watery and undercooked. So I thought I would make one, using canned pumpkin I was sure was in my pantry. Got home. Ready to bake. Looked through the entire house, basement and garage in all storage nooks, and no canned pumpkin. Made another trip to the grocery store just for that item. Baked the pie. At dinner on T-Day everyone was stuffed and didn't want any pie! Oh well!

Fat Guy/Steven, In your review you stated, "Most cookbooks are part of a big con designed to keep amateur cooks in the dark. The high priesthood of cookbook editors has been sending a loud and clear message to homemakers for a century: “You can’t handle the truth!”" Can you explain that a bit further? Do you mean that good cooking requires hard work and that to sell cookbooks, that fact is hidden? Or that there really are *special secrets* that only the privileged few know? It seems Ruhlman's book tends toward the latter.

My microwave does this today. I love kitchen gadgets but I also think there are too many on the market today. Who needs a separate Magarita making machine?

Here here! Knives are fun. I spent so many years with dull average knives; I now enjoy cooking with super sharp japanese knives. Plus I have to have at least one of everything as Bob said, to try them out. The performance if a knife can vary quite a bit from one style and one steel to another. As for the knife block problem, I wish the manufacturers would make something to hold more larger knives and fewer small/steak knife slots. I am considering custom at this time.