fifi

And all is right with the world. To me, that is the best thing about real onion rings.

Heh heh. You could maybe add some baking soda to the sauce and it might turn blue like my chicken and dumplings did.

russ parsons has graciously put his gratin recipe into RecipeGullet here.

I think back fin is what we call lump crabmeat here. It is the same blue crab we have here in the Gulf Coast area. I like claw meat myself, particularly for gumbo and other stew like preparations. I agree on the flavor. If I want to gild the lily, I will serve some of the lump on the side to be added to the gumbo at the table. The delicate flavor seems to be preserved better that way.

I want a butler/chef. Think Fritz in the Nero Wolfe books. And he has to be able to argue with me like Fritz does with Wolfe.

Marlene . . . You might want to rethink the All-Clad roasting pan. About 3 years or more ago I gave one to my nephew. Williams-Sonoma had them on sale for $99. I was going to get one for myself this year and I have been informed that they are no longer the triclad but just single layer stainless and not all that heavy. Plus . . . They now want an outrageous $200 for the thing. A better choice is the Sur-la-Table brand that is triply and is only $100. On my list is this beauty from Falk. I want the big one. That will probably be my present to myself after the holidays.

They are pretty famous for the onion rings. Once in a while the fry cook is on vacation or something and they come out a bit greasy but most of the time they are superb. They were superb last weekend. Mizducky . . . You can hang out in Texas any ole time.

The apartment I am in now and the house before has a high bar between the kitchen and living/dining area. I have a couple of a shorter version of these folding shelves that fit under the bar. That location for my cook books seems to work for me. I probably have a couple of hundred including my food history and essay collections. The new house will have built in shelves in a similar situation and the area just over the bar will be a sitting area with a big coffee table for comparing recipes. I do the same thing as some of you. When I am thinking of how to cook something, I look up all I can find and then make up my own. Therefore, I need room to have several books open at one time. The rest of the house will have about 500 feet of shelves in the office and passageway. I hope that is enough. I have this thing about books. But I do like to keep my cook books in an area handy to the kitchen.

Beef ribs are so hard to find. Those look wonderful. When I was a little girl back in the early 50s, my grandfather used to go to Otto's in Houston on Saturday and bring BBQ home for lunch. He always brought me at least one beef rib. He told me they were brontosaur ribs. (I was into dinosaurs. Now they don't even call it a brontosaur anymore. ) I have looked for good beef ribs to put in my smoker and I can't seem to find any with meat on them like in that picture. I wonder where they find those.

Tookie's is a tradition. That being said, I really like their burgers. But then, I am a fan of the hand shaped, thin style patty cooked on a griddle. You really should try it. Even the ambience of the place is a step back in time. It really hasn't changed since the 70s. I may have to check but I will bet that the whole menu hasn't changed. I think if they changed anything there would be a mob with the torches and dogs in the street. The last couple of times I was in Barnaby's I was dissappointed. The patty was dry, really dry. We didn't go to the original location, though. I haven't been to Fuddruckers in a long time. I do suspect that one of the reasons I used to go there was because of the unlimited supply of jalapeno cheese to pump onto my fries.

little ms foodie . . . Your use of bacon is truly inspired. I have never thought of that, either. God, I love eGullet!

Jason . . . That is a mighty fine version of spaghetti squash. It looks like a "recipe" that I make. I will say that I don't try to hack the thing open before cooking. I poke some holes in it with an ice pick and nuke it for a few minutes. Then it has softened enough so that cutting it in half doesn't risk removing various appendages. I then scoop out the seeds and proceed to roast until done. I didn't poke the holes before nuking only once. A rather big exploding squash in your microwave is a life changing event. Pasta it ain't. A pretty bland vegetable (like a lot of squash, after all) but amenable to cheese, butter and other goodies. Tomato sauce? Bleh!

I am conflicted on this issue. I was trained to do the old switcheroo. Then, in the past few years spending time in Europe, I started picking up the no-switch protocol. It makes much more sense. But I would find myself trying not to switch when in Europe and the old switching habit would pop back up. I have to really think about it to not switch. Then there is that upside down fork thing.

Yes, the crushed chips cook up to a wonderful texture in the old tamale pie. I think it would do very well in a "Chili Cassoulet." Talk about fusion cuisine. If Wolfert ever hears of this she will probably go into apoplexy. (Just kidding. She is a very adventurous lady.) Oh, I dunno . . . I have run into some pretty bad chorizo here. You have to really read the label to get something other than lips and lymph nodes. (I am NOT kidding.) The Mexican style here is basically the meat, paprika, garlic and vinegar. It is fresh, not smoked. I am learning that Spanish chorizo may be a very different thing. (BTW, I use smoked kielbasa in my gumbo all the time if I can't get my hands on andouille. Works great. )

That is a fascinating concept. A common use of your basic chili here is as a chili pie. This favorite of the pot luck circuit is normally assembled using masa or crushed tortilla chips or corn chips, cheese, onion maybe. You could switch the balance to more beans, maybe use crushed chips in place of the bread crumbs, vary the meat mix . . . HMMMMM!!! Yeah . . . pinto beans. How about some chorizo sausage? This has possibilities.

Susan . . . The final method for cooking the beans in the oven is credited to Russ Parson's. He put a copy of his article on the subject in the Dried Beans thread. Somewhere in there he declares that someone is going to put "Didn't Soak His Beans" on his headstone. Why don't I ever think to garnish with avocado? That is a natural.

Shhh . . . I was tired and being out of buttermilk was a good excuse.

Oh please please please tell me you have a picture! ← No such luck. That was pre-digital camera days. It was so weird that I have threatened to duplicate it, partly to get that amazing picture, and partly to play a practical joke on my kids or nephew. The idea is to just serve it up without comment that there is anything strange and see how they react.

This past Sunday, Whacked Out Chili was the project for the day. Here we go with the long list of ingredients: I got this particularly beautiful chuck roast at my local HEB. It was their Natural Angus brand. The marbeling was wonderful. Here we are starting to brown it in the big gumbo pot standing in as a chili pot. I cut it into about a 1/2 inch dice. You can see that there is enough vegetation in this recipe that I consider this a one dish meal so I can get out of making a salad. Notice that the veggies are cut fairly large. You only cook them until they just begin to wilt before adding all of the other ingredients. After simmering for about an hour and a half, the meat is succulent and tender and you are ready to eat. Notice that the "gravy" is fairly liquid but nicely thickened. We wimped out on making cornbread and served it with buttered saltines. I had forgotten how much I like saltines with chili.

Bumping this back up because we hit the jackpot last weekend. I also need to correct some inaccuracies in my Foraging the Texas Gulf Coast foodblog from back in May. It seems that some of what we have been lumping into the term Samphire, really isn't. Just to recalibrate, this is where we are, on the bay side of Galveston Island at San Luis Pass in the salt flats. Back in the blog, what I was calling Samphire is really Saltwort, Vidrillos, or Turtleweed, scientific name Batis maritima. Here it is growing: And a close-up: What wasn't obvious back in May was the "real" Samphire, Glasswort or scientific name Salicornia biglovei or maybe virginicus. And, in this season it turns a lovely red. And a close-up: We snacked on both of these the whole trip. Then, while we were preparing dinner, some of it on cocktail crackers with Marscapone cheese was a delight. This was a nice prelude to a simple saute of shrimp and fennel on rice. We put quite a lot of our find in a favorite salad of mixed greens, red onion and mandarin orange sections. The mix of red, yellow and light green was beautiful and I am kicking myself for not getting a picture but we were pretty hungry by then. We also found some Sea Purslane, Sesuvium sessile, on the beach side in the dunes. Like a dummy, I forgot to get a picture of it growing. It is so pretty with its little magenta flowers and red stems. A favorite way to use this is to lightly saute some of the leaves in butter and put in an omelet. The leaves are similar in taste to the above, salty with a pleasant tartness, and maybe a bit tarter in a clean sort of way. Here is a close-up of the Purslane: Sadly, we were too late for Coquinas. Probably, the last cool front, or maybe Rita caused them to skeedaddle back offshore. Oh well, there is always next year.

When I arrived back in the Houston area in 1977, my Bay Area friends had already settled on Tookie's for their hamburger fix . . . since 1975. They made what we called "really weird" burgers way back then. And they still do. It was a tradition that, after a day on the water, a coin would be flipped to decide if we went to Tookie's or Frank's Shrimp Hut (now sadly long gone). Tookie's even made Robb Walsh's Texas Burger Binge, a feature article in the Houston Press back in August that will tell you more than you want to know about Texas burgers. I really, really, really have to go there at least once a month. For the past decade, I have been stuck on the Bean Burger. This is the one with refried beans, picante sauce, onion, melted cheddar and . . . Fritos®! The darn thing is a culinary masterpiece. (Too bad my picture isn't a masterpiece. ) One of my companions ordered The Squealer. This is also a favorite that has stood the test of time. It has bacon in the patty. Melted cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles and mayonaise complete the picture. And where would we be without the onion rings? Another favorite is the 99. This is the one where the meat is marinaded in red wine, cheddar, onions and a special spice mix. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture because my other companion also succumbed to the Bean Burger. But keep the 99 in mind because it is probably the most popular. The draft beer is served in mugs so cold that ice crystals form to make a beer slushy. If any of you old timers have any Tookie's stories to share, please do. I keep forgetting to ask if that portrait behind the cashier is really a portrait of Maribelle. (Maribelle's is a whole 'nother story.) If you haven't tried it, stop in the next time you are in the Bay Area and get a taste of local tradition. Tookie's is on 146 in Seabrook between Nasa Road 1 and the bridge.

I'll play . . . This probably isn't my worst but Smurf blue chicken and dumplings were pretty funny. (Go to the last paragraph.) This one isn't mine but from a gumbo "pupil" that I was coaching over the phone. He was trying to achieve a really dark roux and kept me on the phone as it progressed. He kept saying that it didn't smell as good as mine. As it got darker he proclaimed that it smelled absolutely vile. After some discussion, he finally fessed up that he had used extra virgin olive oil and whole wheat flour to make it "healthier." Do not try this at home. Yes Alinka . . . I have also seen a long simmered pot of stock go right down the drain.

Definitely all of the above suggestions. I made the Whacked Out Chili on Sunday (coming soon to a cook off near you ) and we were too tired to do the cornbread since that would have required a trup to the store for buttermilk so we had buttered saltines. I had forgotten how good that is. I love the ice cream ideas. We had bought some pumpkin ice cream and topped it with some of the last of my dulce de leche and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I don't have any experience with electric fryers. I would check the BTUs and see if they compare to a propane burner. And, I don't see any reason to spring for a SS pot unless you have other uses for it that would make the expense sensible. Aluminum works fine for frying turkeys and boiling shrimp and crawfish. I saw two things in the recipe that I question. The first is that the injection material contains water (vinegar and sherry) and I avoid that. It sounds like they are counting on the overnight sojourn to cause the injected liquid to be absorbed into the meat. What you need to avoid are pockets of water based material in the turkey anywhere. Can you spell steam explosion? That is why most injection marinades for frying turkey are butter or oil based. The second one is that they didn't pay enough attention to establishing the oil level properly. Read on that up-thread. Oil spilling over from displacement by the turkey and foaming of the oil is the most dangerous part of the operation. Establishing a safe oil level is crucial and the recipe only "mentions" foaming.

Yes . . . That recipe sounds pretty nuts. I would not do it. I can't even imagine what they are trying to achieve. What magazine did that come out of? Actually, I have found that adding a bunch of flavoring ingredients to the brine doesn't really do much. That seems to be especially true with turkey. For some reason, turkey seems to be particularly impermeable to anything with flavor. Drying the turkey before roasting will make for a crisper skin. BTW . . . Bringing up old threads is one of the truly great features of this medium. Thanks! They always bring back memories for us old folks.