fifi

Can't be done. Veggie Burger is an oxymoron. The vegetarians should just quit trying to make a burger out of veggies. Go do something else. There are a lot of delicious options.

Good morning... I have been up for a while getting ready for a teleconference. I won't be going to the office today so I won't be able to get my etherial sausage and biscuit. I warmed up the leftover cup or so of the hash. I considered frying an egg next to it but snarfed it up before I could get there. I am currently munching on some green seedless grapes. I really do love these things. This last bunch is really terrific. They almost crack when you bite them and they are wonderfully sweet. My coffee is much better this morning. I got a new supply of evaporated milk. I was out the past couple of days and had to use whipping cream. That is good stuff but just not the same. I have this thing for the evaporated milk in my coffee. I am told that it is because that was what I was fed as a bably. I doubt that. I just started using it years ago because I got sick of milk going bad and I hate that powdered stuff. I got used to it then started liking it.

Sheesh... I am disappointed. No one picked up on the sausage and biscuit thing other than Nick.

*tapping steepled fingers together in succession* exxxxxxxxcellent yep... You have touched my soul.

Oh my goodness. I do hope you don't see sarcasm, in this case, in what we have said. I think that your tradition is one of the loveliest things on the planet. Your traditions are respected and revered here. In fact, many of us, somewhat clumsily, try very hard to reproduce those experiences. edit: to correct original clumsy writing

Can you get around the window thing?

My twisted mind needs no tokes. Nick... It occurs to me that everyone reading this blog is exceptionally clean minded. You seem to be the only one that "got it"... you pervert.

My thoughts right now are that if you are only looking at a short term fix (the cabinets) I wouldn't even go there on the formica stuff. That looks to me like a job for the big makeover. Especially the way that it has been integrated into the splashback, and then there is the window complication. That looks like major trouble that I would want to put off. If you go back to some of those threads on counters, sinks, cabinets and such, I think you will find that some of us really don't hate formica. I would think that that is one thing to wait on.

FG's tips on lighting are right on. I have one more tip. If you have minimal ceiling mounted general lighting, condsider painting the ceiling with a gloss or semi-gloss bright white. It may not be the decorators choice but the increase in general lighting is amazing. And that is without doing a thing electrical. I am going to do that in my closets and pantry in the new house. This was demonstrated some years ago when I was head of our condo association and we reduced the wattage of the lights in the parking areas under the buildings. Everyone griped about how it was too dark. Then we had to repaint and they used this gloss white. It was amazing... like someone turned the lights on.

Dan Quayle threw a lot of us into confusion. Don't worry. It's potato and potatoes. Thank you, Nick. I needed that. The hash is wonderful. I pulled the pan to the side and cranked up the heat on the meat, put in about 3 tablespoons of the bitter orange juice. It boiled off and glazed the meat. I then mixed it into the potatoes and onions, reseasoned, YUM. I am actually eating this creation. I have noted that the number of views does not nearly reflect the number of posts on this thread. Are some of you hiding? Avoiding getting tagged? HMMMMMM?

Up date on the hash... Whoever thought up this "half pan" hash technique is effin' brilliant. The onions and potato are cooking off quite nicely. The meat is browning perfectly since it doesn't have steam from the onions and potatoes to deal with. (Is there an "e" in the plural of potato or am I showing my age?) It would be going a little faster but I am working on the demon electric stove and I get a little timid with the setting.

The more I learn about lard, the less I worry about this. one. Truly a lovely story.

My twisted mind needs no tokes.

I am feeling a little creative this evening, but not in the search engine department. I can't find that damn hash recipe. I remember that I wanted to remember it because it was useful for the meat that remained after making stock. "Hash" just gives me more hits than I want to go through so I will try from memory. I do remember something about doing the potatoes and onions in one half of the pan and the meat in the other. We will see. From the pork roast that I did on Sunday, I diced a bit of the meat. Now what to cook it in. I don't have any lard in the fridge. AH-HA! It has that nice fat cap. I took some of that off, left in the inserted garlic slivers and the seasoning on the outside. It is in the pan doing a slow render right now. Then I diced some onion and potato (using my truly excellent knife skills learned here on eGullet). I will add a little more of the Central American seasoning and maybe a splash of the leftover bitter orange juice to deglaze the meat side and cook down to glaze the meat for mixing in with the potatoes and onion. This is under construction. I am having a bite of gouda cheese and a glass of sherry.

stone... I was at the C&B web site for something else. They have the blue band on sale, different configurations on the place settings. The web site also has the open stocke pieces but they don't seem to be on sale.

Breakfast this morning... After 2 cups of coffee, it was time to leave for the long haul to the office for a department meeting. Late, as usual, I decide to make a stop at a drive thru. The new Burger King just opened but that is unknown territory and I am not in the mood for experimentation. Go one block further to McDonalds. I order my usual... sausage and biscuit. I unwrap... Perfection! The sausage is grilled just so. The outer edges are a delectable crispy brown. As it peeks out from under the biscuit, I am tempted to just nibble my way around. However, geometry and the need to drive while I am doing this dictates that I have to munch straight through the middle. The middle is juicy and flavorful, the force of my teeth expelling just the right amount of juice into the biscuit. The sausage is truly a piece of porcine poetry. Ah... The biscuit. This biscuit is a sterling example of biscuitdom. My favorite part is the upper edge. The dough fairly crunches in the mouth, dissolving into that heaven of wheat and salt, dissipating almost instantly on the tongue. The inner portion of the biscuit is a tender wonder, cloud-like, all the more suitable for admitting the sumptuous juices from the sausage. My McDonalds makes a damn fine sausage and biscuit. Lunch... Cafeteria lasagna... Not horrible, not great. Small side salad. Of course, the last bite doesn't make it to my mouth. I now have three spots of tomato sauce on my white blouse. (Oh... That is another thread.) More later. I am looking for that hash recipe that was posted not long ago.

I shopped every source of china available, locally and on the web. I was never able to beat Crate & Barrel for quality/price/choice. I made a spreadsheet on the data for chisakes. Their stuff is also open stock. I hate sets. If I saw something I liked and it was in a set, it always had cups and saucers. I haven't used cups and saucers in years. I drink my tea and coffee out of mugs.

Boy, can onions differ. The white one I used in the salsa was pretty aggressive. I was going to ask you guys if you could smell it through the electrons!

I keep thinking that FTVN is not really that much worse than when it first started, that maybe I have just grown past it or that it is no longer a novelty to me. But one would think that it should get better, not worse. Then they come out with lame stuff like this. And if I see another "unwrapped" I will scream. I can't tell you how many times I click over there to see what is on and there is another damned Unwrapped. Does anyone know what their numbers are like? Up? Down? Flat?

Where is Morning's Kolaches? In your opinion, what makes them so good? I need to find a kolache fix.

I started to get one of those. But it doesn't help you use the grater/slicer/shredder blades so that was when I decided to give up on the Cuisinart.

After this weekend I am sick of messing with food. I really don't want to eat again for a while. I had some more pork roast, bean salsa and am now munching some grapes. Went to friends for a while earlier but I had eaten a second tortilla because the onion was much better after it sat a while in the fridge. It always is. So, I didn't really eat anything. I just had some cheese and crackers with my glass of wine. I am out of merlot. But I do have a glass of grape juice. I have been on a grape juice kick for a while. Tomorrow it is back to work. I can hardly contain myself. I hope that the enthusiasm will be contagious. I will have a chance to critique my drive-thru breakfast and lunch in the company cafeteria. Contain yourselves children. Too much excitement before bed time is not a good thing.

I will echo what has been said about the complicated lid. I inherited my Mother's Cuisinart. Unfortunately, the original lid with the nice and simple feed tube broke. The only replacement I could get was that ultra-complicated multi-piece abomination. It just wasn't worth the trouble and was a bitch to clean. Yes... You had to batch feed the damn thing. I think it was designed by a safety engineer that doesn't cook. I stopped in at Sur-la-Table for some other things and was looking at the KitchenAid. This lady walked up to help me. It turns out that she was one of their main buyers for appliances and was visiting that store. I told her of my frustration with the Cuisinart. She agreed. She said that they sell a LOT of KAs to folks that get aggravated with the Cuisinart, give it to their kids and get a KA. I haven't gotten a replacement yet but I will be getting the KA. I gave the Cuisinart to my sister for her country place.

I agree with you about the white. My favorite place of all time for dishes is Crate & Barrel. The prices are amazing. Click here for white porcelain I have had the "Diner" dinnerware for about 8 years now. No chips. The stuff is amazingly durable. I think I see some embossing in some of the patterns. I'm not sure they are what you are after but it is worth a look.

Lunch time! I sliced some red onion paper thin, squeezed some lime juice on it, added salt and pepper and let it sit for a while. I love this stuff. It is a trick I learned in Mexico. And it lets me count a veggie! Some sliced up brisket, the onion and a dollop of sour cream are wrapped in a warm flour tortilla. Pretty good stuff. I wish I had an avocado. The weather is too gross to go get one. Edit to add: I dribbled meat juice and sour cream all down my front. Oh... That is another thread.