mrsadm

Kristin, I'm sure you will enjoy your MAC knives. My husband and I love ours, and I have tried a lot of other Japanese knives - and I love many of those too. I'm probably odd one out here because the Tojiro DP Chef's knife is not a favorite, not that it is a bad knife, I just don't like the feel of it in my hand. Let us know how you like them when you start using them!

I don't watch food shows on TV any more, although I miss the PBS shows like Lidia and Rick Bayless. Our TV antenna fell off the roof this winter. So all we get now is cable, and the food network looks like endless rounds of Rachel, Paula Deen and Giada, over and over. However, I just purchased the "Boot Camp" DVD from the Culinary institute and it is great! CKatCook, I just love your photo!!!

Is Gordon Ramsay in this one, or just the British version?

I've been perusing the online menu of a restaurant where a group of people and I will be dining in a couple of weeks. The place offers steaks (5 kinds) and chef's specials. The chef specials are things like Crab Cakes, Blackened Salmon, Fettucine Alfredo, Vegetable Primavera, Cheese Tortellini, Roasted Port Medalions, etc. - a "something for everyone" menu. In small restaurants, are most of these dishes frozen and then thawed to order? I figure I'll go with a steak. Now they have Flat Iron steak grilled, but not marinated. What is your experience with this type of steak, is it tough and should be marinated (it is from the shoulder section)? Or is it tender enough to withstand plain old grilling? How would you cook this yourself at home? Thanks

I have a recipe that calls for this type of cabbage. My grocery store has green, red, savoy cabbage in the produce section. Is this stuff frozen or dried or what? Thanks Oh by the way, the recipe is for mu shu pork.

If I book ANYTHING online, hotel, car, restaurant, I always take a printed copy with me.

What foods do you dislike that are supposed to be delicious and "everyone" likes them? For me it is bone marrow. Tastes like snot to me! What's yours?

"Boneless Beef Chuck Pot Roast (Braise) USDA Choice" purchased at Wegman's. 3 1/2 pounds. Thanks Smithy for the link to that other thread, that is indeed the book I am using. It's going back in the oven shortly. I'll report back whether it improves!

Have you ever found a cut of beef chuck that just won't get tender? Or is it my cooking? Yesterday I braised beef chuck in liquid and aromatics (recipe based on one from Molly Stevens) in the oven for about 3 hours. It's still tough. Should I put it back in the oven today for more slow cooking? will that improve it or is it hopeless? I browned the meat on the stovetop and then put it in a 300 degree oven. I used an enamled cast iron pot, and put parchment paper on top. The liquid was bubbling kinda fast so I turned the oven down to 280 degrees. Then it seemed to stop cooking. So back up to 300 degrees. Took it out after 3 hours, stuck it in the fridge, and made hamburgers for dinner. Did the fast bubbling overcook and toughen the meat? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Lifting my Staub and LC cookware is part of my daily workout routine. No need to go out and buy weights or a bowflex or anything like that.

My cookbooks are a sign of HOPE and Confidence. Hope that someday I will use them. Confident that I will learn something from most of them. Until then - perhaps in retirement, someday - I must beat my husband off with a stick so he won't sell them on e-bay!

I keep my old Henkels Chef knife around for hacking through a large melon. And I have a very nice heavy duty Wusthoff boning knife. I have a Japanese boning knife but it's so delicate I only use it for slicing. Good luck with your new Japanese knives, I'm sure you'll love them.

Just like Fat Guy I have kitchen shears and poultry shears. The poultry shears are great for cutting king crab claws and other shellfish as they are "pointier" than general shears. Recommend both!

I still think commercial foods are too sweet. Ketchup tastes like candy to me! I've often used sugar, albeit in small amounts to balance flavors in a soup or stew. Too much acidity can be corrected with it. Also honey in southwestern dishes adds something nice.

You write so well, why not try to become a food writer? I'm sure that's not an easy field either but you'd get yelled at less! Someone mentioned cubicle farms ... they are mind-numbingly dull. And you get fat from just sitting there all day. And there's the politics....

I've suffered through several mandatory corporate bonding events and loathed them all but none were of the cooking variety. I do think cooking together is a better idea than many of these schemes. My neighbor came back from one of these events with several broken ribs after falling from some sort of vehicle-pulling-together fiasco. At least with cooking, the worst that could happen is severe burns and a cut off finger.

My husband keeps threatening to throw out my large copper pot which I love. He says it is way too heavy and I never use it. But I do use it! That's why it's out on the stove! Then there are my Japanese knives. He says I never use those, either and he'll sell them on ebay. What he doesn't notice is that I wash them right after I use them, hone them and put them back in the knife block. Just because they don't sit around in the dirty dishes pile doesn't mean they aren't used! I think he is actually jealous of my favorite things ......

Tyler endorsed a Sandra Lee cookbook??????????????? EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW how could he do that? His cooking skills are way too good for that! Creeps me out.........

I have taken several 1-day classes at the Culinary Institute of America. Each class is 6 hours, in their professional kitchens, and costs $190 for each class.

I know your point is serious but I have a friend who is known by many for his love of sweets and will even order a desert instead of an appetizer when going out to dinner. He was always fond of saying, no one ever died from a donut.

I like to make 1-dish meals so all we need to do is microwave after work, and maybe make a salad to accompany the meal. Old fashioned dishes like Chicken Divan, spaghetti and meatballs, and any other casserole that has meat and veggies and freezes well. I often put them into 1-person serving dishes so my husband and I don't have to eat the same thing if we don't want to.

Hydrogenated ANYTHING is really bad for you. The health risks have prompted Denmark to ban all products containing it. The US government recently began requiring food products to be labeled for trans-fats. You would be amazed how many products use it. I've become a food label detective lately!

It's an Oster 10-speed with ice crushing feature. Have to admit I have not tried frozen fruit in it.

I own a cheapie immersion blender, a Bamix, and a cheapie blender. But of course I also love kitchen gadgets. The Bamix is much more powerful than the cheap immersion blender, but it is over $100. The blender I have was very inexpensive and has a powerful motor, enough to crush ice cubes. You might be happier with that for smoothies. I'll check the brand and post back here later today.

Here I am shopping online for more kitchen gadgets and special appliances and I started thinking about what I've purchased that seemed like it would be really useful, and yet I've never used it. Here's a start of my list: mini-slow cooker mezzaluna tea ball springform pan (never did get around to making a cheesecake) tortilla press Do you also have items that you never used? Perhaps we all need to meet in the center of the country and have a big swap meet!