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donk79

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Everything posted by donk79

  1. donk79

    Why I Cook

    This is so awesome to read. I spent nine months living in Richmond in 2001-2002. I still am there on a semi-regular basis as I complete seminary studies. One of the disadvantages of being an outsider in any town is that it can be hard to see the local color. This covers it and then some. As I said, I still am in Richmond fairly often. Is there anything anyone would recommend I check out on my next visit?
  2. I'm suprised that this hasn't already been posted but I stongly suspect this thread would be your best resource on the topic of meats smoked. The Great Pastrami/Smoked Meat Experiment
  3. donk79

    Eat at Joes

    Joe's Pizza and Subs back home in Nokesville, Va. The pizza wasn't much but I can't find a steak and cheese (note I did NOT say cheesesteak) sub in Ohio to match that loaded sandwich from back home. Classic low brow Italian restaraunt with carryout being the majority of the business.
  4. My father's best line to date (looking at the food left on my little brother's plate): "Alligator eyes outdone your bird-dog butt?"
  5. I'll wager there are millions of those stories. My grandfather ran a restaraunt and served breakfast for 30 years. Had the same crowd of regulars there every morning, such that even after he retired and sold the restaraunt to his son, he'd still come in some mornings just to visit with his old regulars at their table. No question as to whether any of them would be there. If they weren't present you gave em a call to check on em, because you knew they weren't well.
  6. Deos anyone know anything about harvesting lotus root, or if any particular varieties are commonly used for cooking. The family farm has one particular pond that I grew up fishing in. Unfortunaltey, a number of years ago it was overtaken by lotus, making it nearly impossible to fish. Can I take these lemons and make lemonade?
  7. donk79

    Pomegranate Juice

    THe end of this thread has some conversation that might be helpful. As for me, I would just use juice bought from the store, and hold the fresh Pomegranate for other uses. all those little seeds seem like to much trouble for me, for the amount of juice I would imagine you get. But then, I can't get pomegranates for less than $1.50 a piece, so maybe if I had a good cheap supply of the suckers I might see things otherwise...
  8. donk79

    The Best Butter

    What defines your butter enjoyment? If flavor and health you experience are all you are, worried about, than there is no reason to give preference to dairy products from animals not treated with BST. ON THE OTHER HAND... If you are also concerned about the wellbeing of the animals who produce the food you eat, I would strongly encourage you to boycott the products of BST herds. I have worked/been on a number of different dairy farms both using BST and not. In my judgement, BST can have severe impacts on the health of a diary herd, especially in individual animals. I have definitely seen an increase in the incidents of mastitis when cows are treated with BST. I have also seen healthy young animals waste away to nearly nothing after being treated with BST. BST does increase the overall herd milk production, but I'm not necessarily certain it is worth the additional cost to the farmer. I'm also not certain it is worth whatever small decreased cost there is to the consumer. I'm absolutely certain it isn't worth it for the cow. Don't think that this mean you shouldn't drink mass produced milk, however. Many dairy producers have drawn the same conclusions that I have, and I know that some milk producing cooperatives forbid the use of BST by their members. But if you have the means to do so, it might be worth your while to buy your milk directly from the farm. Its the only way that I could be confident that the animals producing the milk are well treated. That is, I like to be able to see the cows and facilities myself. Not to mention that with most dairy products other than cheese, fresher is better!
  9. This is an awesome report. I was really suprised (though I feel foolish for it) at how similar a modern goat dairy resembles a modern cattle dairy. I've never had goat milk, but I'm looking forward to trying it. I have some friends who are trying to live as self sufficiently as possible, and they have a small herd of dairy goats. I have had ice cream made form the fresh milk, but I've not yet sampled the milk itself. I now recognize this as a tremendous oversight that must be corrected as soon as possible. Thanks for sharing!
  10. In little towns in the midwest rubarb is still reasonable at least. Witnessed tonight in Troy, Ohio, "Rubarb, regular price $2.99/lb. On sale for $1.50/lb." Not that I bought any. What's growing in my backyard has that price beat by a mile.
  11. So how much does a pound of bacon weigh after cooking? Of course, it depends on you bacon sample ultimately, but lets take the picture bacon and make an educated guess from that. Can that much bacon possibly be transformed into something reasonable for a single serving? I doubt it, but mizducky's post makes me wonder. (By the way, I don't consider anything that fits only under the PMS thread or the drunken sncks thread to be reasonable. The hangover breakfast thread has good possibility )
  12. The Ultimate Bacon Sandwich I like bacon as well as the next man, but ugh...
  13. Ok! The gauntlet's out! Who can claim to know of some inspiring boiled ribs?
  14. I have done bread with rendered lamb fat. I didn't feel like waiting long for rise and proof, so i just made a quick flatbread. The lamb flavor came through great, along with herbal and pepper flavors from what the lamb was roasted with. I can't give you a recipe, because I just threw it together by look and feel. But I heavily recommend giving it a go if you haven't already.
  15. I'm fairly familiar with the Beanery's Harrisonburg, VA location and can say that it's pretty decent. It'd probably be better than 98% of the other places that you'd find anywhere in West Virginia. Don't expect to be awestruck, but you can expect to be well satisfied.
  16. empty bottles... and... more empty bottles? hmmph!!! I'll have to listen along with you!
  17. Ok, I'll broach the Bonny Doon bit. This particular wine, in the form of the 1998 vintage, was my first ever introduction to wine. I had just turned 21, and was walking around Costco for a good wine for my introduction. THe Vin de Glaciere, at close to $20 for a half bottle seemed the way to go. After all, it seemed expensive enough for me to escape the plonk range (how little did I know, though I was certainly safe with this choice), figuring that it managed to remain in my price range because it was a half bottle (I was still in college at the time). Being completely unfamilar with alchohol, the fact that there was a sign saying that this wine had received 90 some points from someone (wine specatator maybe?) also led me to believe that I would not fail with this wine. So I took this bottle back to the dorm, and chilled. That afternoon, following my last class of the day, I borrowed a corkscrew from a hallmate, and proceeded to fill a water goblet with half the bottle. I sat in front of my computer, listening to NPR and lifted the glass to take my first sip. Whoah! Frst the alchohol took my breath away! Then the boutique of the wine kept it away. Th wine was so sweet it was like drinking alchoholic syrup. But it was damn good alcholic syrup. My first thought was that this stuff was like fine perfume, made to imbibed rather than be worn. I took a second sip, and wished it wasn't quite so sweet, but decided that taken by small sips, I definitely liked this stuff. I didn't have any developed taste vocabulary through which to recognize flavor profiles in the wine, but in my mind we were talking seriously large fields of flowers condensed into one little bottle. Wishing to share my discovery with someone else, I poured a little into a glass, and took it down the hall to a friend I knew had a much more educated palate than my own. He took the glass, sniffed the wine, sipped, and then declared to my enjoyment, "This is some damned good wine!" I don't recall the rest of the story with that particular bottle, but I do know that it was sufficient to keep me enamored enough with wine that it was a full year before I even sampled beer or liquor. I went out with friends and merely smiled as they poked at me for ordering and slowly savoring a glass of wine while they downed beers and cocktails. Of course I've never had a wine sweeter than the Vin de Glacier, and it took me a while to get adjusted to dryer flavors, But for some time, a nice wine was definitely my drink of choice, all begun by one beautiful little bottle of an amazing dessert. Unfortunately, while tastings of later vintages of Bonny Doon's Vin de Glaciere proved just as sweet as my first, none of them have proved to contain that first mind-boggling complexity and perfume. I can only hope for another bottle like my first to lay in the future. Edited to say that I'm not so certain of the vintage as when I first posted. The wine was purchased Fall 2001.
  18. I once was (very) briefly engaged to a young lady who was a strict vegetarian. That is, no Worchestershire sauce, etc. because of the anchovies etc. I'd guess you'd definitely have to say she was an ethical vegetarian. But somethimes her apetites overode her ethics. We would be sitting there nicely eating our lunch, her salad on bread, my steak and cheese. Then she would suddenly look at me guiltily and tell me how good my sandwich smelled. She would just stare at it, like a cat before a mouse. Then if a scrap of steak were to fall from my sandwich and I were to turn my back, the scrap would disappear. I should have taken a hint. Our relationship was long distance and food was not the only area where appetites overode ethics.
  19. Does this bring back any memories for anyone? edited to mention that the link will only be valid for today.
  20. Hunter S. Thompson? Was she (he?) also tortured by fizzy dimetap tasting stuff as a child?
  21. Ok, I was at the gas station this evening, and decided that I would take on for the team. So I reached for the bottle of black stuff, with horrid flashbacks of grape Dimetap tasting soda flashing through my mind. I put on a brave face as I went through the line at the register, returned to my car, and cracked the seal. I could have sworn I head an evil cackle as a darm mist swept from the bottle an swiftly began to fill the car! I reached for the door handle to try to escape, but it wouldn't open. I tried to roll down the windows, but couldn't find my keys in the deep dark haze. I began to turn purple myself, holding my breath, frantically searching for a way out, when suddenly the air I had been holding in exploded from as though i had been punched in the gut. With a deep feeling of dispair, I began to leave my Clintonesque refusal behind and slowly inhail. And then things began to get pretty. The stars began to dance, and the gas pumps were slowly joining in. The fellow in front of me somehow was managing to revolve slowing around the handle of the gas pump as he poured lucious liquid into his vehicle. Then the most beautiful face I have ever seen came near, and held up a shiny badge. I was examining the badge closely, marveling at how it caught and refracted the neon lights in the stores window. It was positively amazing! first they twisted one way, then the next. Then with a flash and a jump they were gone as if they'd never been there before. Then there was the beautiful face again, and it looked like it was trying to say something. Unfortunately nothing but gibberish was coming out. I afraid the person wearing that beautiful face must have been either a raving lunatic or fresh out of their mind. Anyhow, they were nice enough. They helped me out of my car, and into another one. It must have been some kind of a limosine, because there was a barrier between the front and back seats. THey took me to somekind of high-scale hotel that even provided me with a change of clothes, when they realized I had none with me. They gave me a quiet room, which was rather unfortunate, because I rather felt like some excitement at this point. So instead I just laid back on the cushioned floor to rest... Ok it wasn't that bad. But it wasn't that good either. It was just kind of there, in the same way that soda from a fountain is just kiind of there when the syrup tank needs to be changed. I wouldn't refuse one if I was thirsty, but I wouldn't go paying for one either.
  22. donk79

    Opening a wine bottle

    Yes - Drama and Tradition pretty much covers it. It covers a lot of other macho chest beating displays as well. It's just a silly fatuous display of some "specialized" skills. Like tossing a cabre. Hmmm... Caber... That'd be an interesting way to try to open a bottle!
  23. donk79

    Opening a wine bottle

    The internal pressure of sparkling wine is also what keeps various crumbs and shards of glass from falling back into the wine. I wouldn't risk it with anything not under pressure.
  24. Mayhaw, can't give any advice, there are few less qualified to give it than myself, but here's a cheer of support! Go for it brother! Amen!!
  25. http://www.uga.edu/fruit/peach.htm
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