fifi

I don't see jackal10 around and my curiosity was killing me. After looking at several dictionary sites all I could find was: Uh... I am still curious.

I found this interesting site.

So glad you could join us. I want to thank you for all of your entertaining and informative work. Piggybacking on the gadget question... I often find myself wondering, while looking at those late nite cooking gadget ads, "What would Alton Brown do with this?" Have you ever considered doing anything with that? There is a whole formula thing going on... making flipping a pancake look impossibly difficult... then the magic gadget saves the day. I find those things hilarious and keep wanting you to take off on that. (But then, the lawyers might take off after you. )

I had forgotten about the fiddlehead problem. Seems like the great "they" don't know what the problem is.

Do you mean the little bulblets? Mother used to cook the bottoms. They were about an inch in diameter. I don't recall that she ever cooked the little bulblets, or used in them in cooking for that matter. For some reason, I am finding that really odd. She would normally try just about anything at least once. I learned the white onion trick some years ago from a cook in Mexico. Rinsing chopped white onion in cold water results in what I call a bright clean taste. It makes quite a difference in salsas and guacamole.

My mother used to grow these and called them Egyptians. From her garden they were quite a bit bigger than a typical "green onion" and boy were they strong. Stewed slowly in butter, they lost their bite and cooked down into wonderful sweetness. They would make a helluva confit.

I would do it the day before so you are not pressured to pull it off too soon. IMHO, this stuff reheats really well since you aren't concerned with "overcooking". I would just wrap it in foil, put it away after it cools, and throw it in a low oven (300?) for a while.

Welcome KAB. That sounds really good. Cashews are probably my favorite nut. (Well, macadamias are gaining on 'em.) However, the few times I have purchased cashew butter, I was disappointed. It just didn't really taste like cashews. Is it the brand? (Don't remember what I tried.) Would making it from AB's recipe make a difference? Can I assume he is using just roasted nuts and not dry roasted?

What you need to know is how many cubic feet per minute that the thing sucks. I found this sizing guide based on hood dimensions. However, when I was specifying my appliances I recall that the guideline was based on collective BTUs of the range. That meant that this range and hood set up (click on "view installed product") calls for 1200 cfm. Actually, I think the sizing approach on the first link makes more sense. Maybe we will get an HVAC expert in here on this.

Yep... Oxalic acid. It complexes with the calcium and iron in the spinach to form an oxalate that is not absorbable. It will also tie up calcium and iron that you are getting from the other foods in your meal. Don't go eating too much raw spinach. Here is one that will probably come as a shock to some folks: White flour is more nutritious than whole grain. All of this talk about white flour being the evil product of the industrial age is just not true. (Well, I will conceed that bleaching seems to be an unnecessary process. I just buy unbleached.) Mankind has been processing flour for, oh... about 9000 years, maybe more. It is just in recent years (19th century?) that our "evil industrial" processing has been able to accomplish quickly and efficiently, what used to take a lot of labor. In the later 19th century, two gentlemen named Graham and Kellogg were bleating about the benefits of fiber. (Can you guess why? Do those names look familiar? Can we make a buck off of a by-product?) The mania for emptying the bowls to prevent "intestinal toxemia" took over in a wave of enthusiasm that makes the current Atkins phenomenon look like a passing notion that bell bottom pants are cool. This carried over into the 20th century in susbsequent waves of enthusiasm where I think we are now. We have turned our perception of the staff of life on its head. What used to be the nutritional privilege of the upper classes for millenia has now reversed. The privileged now turn up their collective noses at that nutritious loaf of white bread and hie ourselves off to that artisnal baker for those lovely brown breads with enough rough grain to rip our gums to shreds. The accumulated peasants from the first civilizations in Mesopotamia to the 18th century are probably looking down on us and laughing their collective asses off. The good news is that in this day and age, our diets are incredibly varied compared to the situation for most of the population for most of our history so the nutritional deficit doesn't hurt us. We can indulge in those brown breads because they taste good. Here is the science from McGee: Sorry for the long post but the sociological aspects of food choice is one of my favorite subjects. The whole grain versus refined flour issue over the millenia is something I find fascinating.

I talked to my daughter who has a GE Profile dishwasher. She says that it is very quiet. Having looked at the specs on dishwashers, the one thing that I find aggravating is that they don't give noise ratings in something like decibels. I can't fit wall ovens into the new place either. On reflection, since I have had both wall ovens and a range, I really think I prefer the ovens in the range. I am short. I find that the lower down position of the oven in a range works better for me. My sister has double wall ovens, stacked. The upper one is a bitch for me to deal with. I have also had butcher block on a small area as you describe. Don't worry about upkeep. I don't recall that I ever did anything to it other than clean it once in a while. When it was first installed, it was sealed with food grade mineral oil (like you get at the drug store) and that was it. You don't want to use vegetable oil as it polymerizes and gets sticky. Of course, I used it primarily for bread, not carving greasy roasts. I am planting a subliminal thought here that you need good ventilation. I have had kitchens with it and without. I consider without close to unacceptable. (And, codes may require it for gas.)

Here is one for the deep south of the US... Lima beans. In the olden days, they contained enough cyanogens (cyanide) to kill you if you didn't cook and "process" them correctly. The current day lima beans in the US have been bred to reduce the amount of cyanogens in limas. In some other countries, this is not so and if the beans are not cooked so that the cyanide is cooked off, there can be problems.

Oh thank you for reminding me of that! I had forgotten about doing that. Steens was the sweetener of choice when my kids were little. We always mixed it with Steens. Sublime. Damn. I don't have Steens or peanut butter in the pantry. I see a trip to the store tomorrow morning before I make my breakfast toast.

I have tried to like "natural" peanut butters but I just can't. I have tried every brand known to man (well almost) and just can't stand it. I have even tried the kind that they grind the stuff while you wait. The texture is pasty, gritty, sticks to the roof of my mouth and it just sucks. Gimme Jif every time. When I was a kid, Skippy was the brand of choice. Mother always blended in a little honey from dad's bees. That was really good.

Bravo Chad! I can't tell you how many times I have pulled pork butt or brisket off before I really wanted to because waiting any longer would have resulted in the troops taking up torches and getting the dogs. What I do now is plan for 2 hours later than I think it might be. After all, If it does get to the magic 200 earlier, I can wrap it in foil and put it in a cooler. Of course, that sometimes results in my getting up at two in the morning to crank the thing up. I am cancelling any thoughts of slashing and saucing routines. Thank you for "taking one" for the team.

Wowser. That looks wonderful. How does the taste compare to domestic pork? Last year, my nephew got a feral hog at his deer lease. I don't know what exactly he did with it on the smoker but it really just tasted like pork to me. Which is an ok thing because the ranch owner will practically pay the hunters to shoot the damn things. They are very destructive and breed like fleas. A supply of "free" pork sounds good to me. We have bunches of them tearing up neighborhoods here in the Clear Lake City suburbs in Houston. I think they are going to get the bow hunters after them.

I also plead guilty. There are a few things that I just cannot stand. One of them is raw tomatoes. I am not talking a subjective dislike that I should really try to get over. I am talking about gagging. There are some things that I know are going to have tomatoes in there and it isn't practical to order without. Guacamole and tabouli salad come to mind. I also run into tomato slices on premade sandwiches that are in box lunches that are sometimes ordered for business meetings. I just discretely work around them or gently slide them off the sandwhich.

I would grab a hunk of that bad boy and see if it pulls. Glad to hear that the leakage doesn't seem to be detrimental. Will wait to hear if you think the slashing and saucing was worth it. And, thanks for the update on the Minion method. I will report back to my WSM-less friend.

Below is some of my experience in designing a kitchen for a new house. Also, some of it may be specific to my area so take that into consideration. I would suggest that you look at the GE line of appliances. Their top is Monogram which might be a bit pricey for the budget. The dishwasher in that line is "European style" and is supposed to be quiet. (That is also a major consideration for me in the new house.) Here is the monogram home page. The next line down is Profile. That DW is supposed to be quiet, too. I will ask my daughter. She just bought a condo in the DC area and it has Profile appliances. Here is the Profile home page. No, I don't work for GE. I just found that, for the Houston area, they had about the best combination of cost and features. They also have the best service here. That was a big part of my decision. I researched the hell out of this for the new house. There are a lot of options out there and a lot of other brands. I started at the big upper end home stores (Expo) and some builder supply places. I am a bit confused about you being able to take the appliances with you when you sell. How would you do that? That might influence of your decision on how much to invest. (Here, if I ripped out a cooktop, for instance, it would have to be replaced with something in order to sell the house.) The ventilation issue is certainly intriguing. I can imagine that what you describe is pretty much useless. At least you have the ductwork to the outside. You really can't get by without a hood. Yes, they are less conspicuous on a wall as opposed to an island. Island cooktops can be a problem for that reason. Gas is certainly the way to go for the burners, electric for the oven. In some jurisdictions, building codes do not allow gas cooktops in an island. In some places, you can do it but the ventilation requirements can get complicated. And, running a gas line to the island could be a big problem unless you have access to the space under the kitchen. (Basement? We don't have those here.) Don't discount the possibility of moving the range to an outside wall. That may be a reasonable solution and less trouble than you think. (But then maybe not. That depends on a lot of the details of the existing construction and utilities.) A warning about countertops... The Silestone and granite countertops are certainly beautiful but I... Just... Can't... make myself spend that kind of money. I would be wary of putting that kind of investment in a starter home. When you investigate those options and get a price, be sure that you are sitting down. For my house, pretty big kitchen (16x16?) with an island, I could buy a pretty decent car for the cost of that. My designer is looking at tile and laminate, leaning toward laminate because it fits the look of the place. I have had laminate in most every house I have had and have never found it wanting. I have also had tile in my sister's and mother's kitchen and it was fine. You can do some beautiful things with tile and it can be surprisingly cheap. Best of luck. I am sure you will get a lot of advice here. If you can do pictures, that would be a big help. Oh... edit to add: Before you get too excited about the cost of the 30" range, don't forget to add installation. Again, building codes rear their ugly head. Any electrical or gas work will likely require a licensed plumber and electrician and those guys are not cheap. That is not a DIY proposition. And you need to keep permit records and installation records on that type of renovation work or your insurance could be void. If you are in an area where there are no codes, be sure to check with your insurance to be sure that DIY doesn't void the policy anyway.

Hmmm... The amount of juice "leakage" is troubling. I am not at all sure that the internal temperature when you do that would make any difference, either. We will anxiously await your verdict.

Oh dear... Have you read the posts about the tin hats? I do get a craving for a hot dog about twice a year. I don't consider that one strange. Those latest ones do sound pretty strange. andiesenji... You have fallen into KK's well constructed trap.

Ooopsie... Didn't realize that Elie is off on an adventure. I will catch ya'll up on the W&D dosage. May 5, 2004 W&D Only one that wants me to run screaming into the night: May 12, 2004 W&D The residents are surprisingly benign this week. May 19, 2004 W&D Some notable whining that some diners have to be reminded to tip.

Leave us not forget Toast Dope. Funny story. My sister made pretty little jars of this stuff to give away at Christmas. Her son, the lawyer, changed the name. He didn't think it was the thing to do to have a lawyer handing out something with "Dope" on the label.

I have read a bit on that and have seen conflicting information. I have not read nearly enough but what I have seen so far indicates to me that there is still some disagreement in the scientific community. There is also the pesky bother (for the scientists) that all human beings are not alike. That makes for a devil of a time doing research. You need to do all of that research on huge numbers of human beings and then fiddle the results with statistical methods. Then you may have what looks like a perfectly reasonable hypothesis that doesn't apply to me. You get into the same mess with how individuals react to salt intake. The same can be said for how diet affects cholesterol levels. The only thing that I can see to do with this sort of information is to determine if you are one of those individuals that process carbohydrates, salt, fats, whatever in a particular way that you should limit some things or just don't worry about it. That being said, I try to hit moderation in everything. Of course... I never succeed.

Well, I am not above arguing with Villas. I happen to agree with you.