radtek

I am not batting 1000 here. Went to make Roman style chicken (chicken breast, garlic, roasted red bell pepper, capers, white wine and tomatoes) for dinner. Everything prepared and mise en place except chicken. Pull chicken breasts out to wash, and as I slit the package open a foul odor hit my nostrils... Purchased the day before and kept in my very cold fridge so that wasn't the reason. I suspect poor handling at the store. Chicken goes into the trash. What to do? My dinner is ruined! Ah there's some pressed extra-firm tofu in the fridge. Treat that as the chicken with some stock after crisping it up in a saute. Then the sauce. The tofu was the least part of the dish and would have been better served in some Pad Thai. The sauce was really nice. Served with mushroom gemelli. Dinner saved.

Aesthetically they are quite attractive and unique looking. The ergonomic functionality might not suit me as an individual, and I'd need to handle one of these before a purchase. I'll add that these are obviously not hand forged by the artist. The rasp was cut with a torch into the desired dimensions and then worked with a grinder to create a knife shape and edge. Then finished and polished.

Bullies can't stand it when you are unfazed by their sh!t. I got an egotistical waiter fired at my last bartending job. He confided in me that "he wished he could break my arm" which I then asked him to repeat several more times. Next day I told the restaurant manager and went on a three day Memorial weekend. When I came back he was gone and the chef and his cooks were thanking me for getting that dude shitcanned. In my industry we call the phenomena "horizontal violence" and unfortunately it's rampant.

You may remember some instant pho packets I had in a pic on another thread... Anyway I was cleaning house and realized it was 1:30pm and hadn't eaten in six hours. In a hurry compounded by hunger pains and thinking it'll be sixish minutes before being ready an executive decision was made. Nuke 400ml water for three minutes. Meanwhile dump the rice noodles and seasoning packets into the bowl. In a fit of pique I added the oil which is unusual for me. As I squeezed it onto the noodles and seasoning the realization dawned that the soup packets were about 5 years old and that the oil was probably gonna be real nasty! That oil was so rancid the noodles were inedible with the first skeptical bite. There was nothing in me to hurl... Can't believe I even wasted my time! I made the second old packet after quickly dumping the first down the disposal. Left the oil out. Not good but kept me until the evening and that stuff is out of my pantry for good.

That's a fairly decent breakfast. Hope the business goes well.

Now I'm looking at my kitchen wanting to change some stuff...

Well if you have a sink along the same wall it may indeed work well for you. The drainpipe needs venting out the top of your roof to keep sewer gas from bubbling out of your drains.

That's terrible. My recognition was from perhaps "The Layover?" Chicago episode... It's far too easy to get in over one's head.

I believe andiesenji meant into the waste water vents that are open to the atmosphere. Edit to correct- sorry wrong name...

I actually looked for them today at Hung Phong. Their "big day" is on thursdays so missed out- thought it would be today. They had good looking asian vegetables like chinese broccoli and such but just regular green onions/scallions. I bet on thursday... Otherwise I found frozen duckling with head and feet on for $2.49/lb so I got a 4.5 lb bird. And some Nem!

Well there's always the option of building a little cook-house. I usually have the toaster oven and several induction burners in the garage which is great for keeping cooking smells out of the house. Especially in seasons where it isn't practical to open windows up.

No way to go through the wall? That's assuming you don't have the kitchen in the middle of the house. Some stoves have vents built in by the burners but still doesn't vent to the outside. If you have a window perhaps an exhaust fan you can put in when needed. First thing I looked at when buying my house. Had to have a good vent to the outside.

It hasn't been mentioned that cider was once the prefered beverage of our country- pre-statehood, before beer and corn whiskey. Most of the American ciders have tasted overly sweet and slightly to very synthetic and are quite pricy to boot. The last couple of years everyone seems to have jumped on the cider bandwagon. I highly doubt it is from any sort of nostalgia. A good cider is hard to beat. I make my own on occasion from either cold-pasteurized or frozen concentrate. Just add yeast. It will completely ferment out leaving a dry sparkling product. However it can be "backsweetened" with more juice and the fermentation halted/slowed by use pf potassium sorbate. Because commercial juice is actually really poor for making fermented cider oftentimes malic or even lactic acid is added to enhance body/mouthfeel and taste perception. Generally, the best cider is made from apples that are considered inedible when compared to the table apples at the market.

Dry yeast lasts a really long time. I buy mine in 500g packs. Store in jar in fridge. I've used it 5 years past the expire by date with no issue. I've also found that with dry yeast rehydration is often called for in recipes. Best results are to skip that and add dry yeast with dry ingredients.

My brother declared recently that he actually prefers the trimmings off the sparerib to the ribs themselves. I just say they're useful. I lightly cure (#1) the trimmings overnight and then smoke with a spicy rub to make some Tasso-esque product that can be used as called for in various recipes. This also works especially well with the piece of scapula trimmed out of a pork-butt. Perfect in a pot of red beans.

A few months ago I bought some lentils labeled as "black caviar" for $3/lb at Central Market in the bulk aisle. From France but these are tiny tiny lentils and fairly sure they are not Lentilles de Puy... The smallest I've ever seen and indeed about the size of small black roe. Tasty but you gotta be extra careful cooking as they are even more delicate than your regular lentil. Supposedly make a fine addition to soup.

I use Julia Child's french bread master recipe as a basis but use a loaf pan. I put a little non hoppy beer into the liquid component. I think it is important to use 100% bread flour and allow the dough to rise three times. I have a stand mixer. Follow her folding technique. This won't be crumbly at all and will make a great classic sandwich. And only gets better as it stales toast-wise. Grilled cheese too.

How to cook everything (I totally agree about the tweaking) Both volumes of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Red, White and Greens by Faith Willinger Chinese- Cooking for Everyone edited by Emma Calley Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook

"Bing Bong Bang" restaurant? I love it.

Nice potatoes! Especially good if you haven't had them for a while. About the pizza from the market- I discovered a discounted 12" five-cheese pizza while foraging at walmart yesterday. It was marked down to $3 so the thought was "what tha hey...?" Doctored it up with basil, thyme, ripe roma tomatoes, onion, kalamata olives and extra parmesan. Ate half of it on top of a couple martinis. Not bad for an easy dinner.

Julia Child's cream of onion soup has a bit of curry powder to it. Really nice touch- everyone likes that simple recipe.

I'm drinking a North Coast Brewing Brother Thelonious. Belgian style abbey ale weighing in at 9.4% which is a little too strong for my tastes. I'm getting an annoying bubblegum in the ashtray finish from it.

Been looking at ducks and I can't find one for less than $20. Wait till next time at the Asian Mart... IIRC they weren't really any cheaper.

Looking forward to your input!

I grew up eating American-style lasagna. Seems to me that my grandmother and mother never bothered to soak or par-boil the dry noodles. I continued the practice. Primarily, in the "casserole-style" what bothers me is when the sheets of dry noodle expand they tend to bunch up at each end of the pan creating unsightly folded noodle strata. SInce I've had real lasagna in Italy and throughout Europe my preference is for the cheesy and saucy baked to order single serving bubbling in a screaming hot dish. Wonton or eggroll wrappers work great for this approach as previously mentioned by Kim Shook. Barrilla is mostly what's available here. Sometimes Ronzoni. The Central Market&HEB organics brand is pretty good.