fifi

Just for information . . . I first became aware of Cheesemakers when I attended the first Spec's Cheese Tasting in 2004. They had a set up right at the entrance, complete with goats. Since previous links to their site may not work, here is the latest. As you can see, their products are now pretty widely available. Well, at least some are. I am addicted to their Jaimito brand Queso Quesadilla and don't always find it in the usual places. I think Spec's carries the most complete line. While I certainly haven't sampled everything, those that I have tried are really good. I haven't made it for the tour yet, but I intend to. Nice folks.

Alas, my dear gopher has flown the coop. My son was living with me during the renaissance of my cooking. He was also an early adopter of the cell phone revolution. He would often call from the car as he approached the grocery on the way to the house to ask if I needed anything. (I usually got home ahead of him.) Boy, do I miss that. Now, I am on my own.

Without apology, I now proclaim that KD is my go to comfort food when I am emerging from a bad cold or whatever. No, my mum didn't make it. She made most everything from scratch. But, when I was in college, I lived in an off-campus house with a kitchen. Every Friday of the world it seemed was the KD with tuna casserole. Lots of Catholics there. It became somewhat comforting. I have gone "upscale" and keep a blue box of "Deluxe" in the wings for when I need a Teddy Bear.

Um . . . I made the Beef Rendang with pork. And, I think we discussed the substitution of chicken but I don't think any of us thought chicken would work very well. Not enough fat.

That is a good idea. I might eventually go that way. I am just still hoping to find something that is built to stack like the bread trays.

You have the right idea. Plastic is never a good choice for long term storage. And, the aroma migration goes both ways. Just ask my sister about dill flavored ice cream. I am pretty sure that the Penzey's folk expect us to transfer our "stuff" to jars. I find that wide mouth canning jars have infinite uses. One of those is for spice storage. And, they are relatively inexpensive. One thing about a cool place . . . That can be problematic in my climate. I intend to set up my walk-in pantry with a honkin' big air conditioning vent for most of the year but having the facility for cutting off the heat during our brief winters.

We have a restaurant here, Churrasco's, that serves plantain chips when you are first seated. You dip them in various things like the parsley/garlic sauce like they use on the steaks. (I think that it is actually called churrasco and that is what the steak is marinaded in.) The chips are crispy and obviously started with an under ripe, starchy plantain. I have also had "fried" plantains where they started out ripe and sweet and I agree with Marlene. I would rather have Bananas Foster.

Yeah . . . I have wondered about this one as well. Best I can tell from the ad, the cylinder may be polycarbonate plastic that won't lose heat as fast as glass, but still, fast enough. Oh! I forgot! It has this great insulating lid. Yeah, right. That is what small percentage of the surface area for heat loss? Now . . . if the cylinder were a glass thermos type design, it might work ok. But, I do wonder about that "lots of water" thing. I actually don't know about that. I have never cooked pasta in anything but lots of water. At least the one that is in the original link looks cooler than the cheesy thing I saw on TV.

Welcome to the club! If you haven't already, you might want to take some time to read this topic. While the recipes are terrific, we have pretty much found that the temperatures are too high in a lot of cases.

Actually, I keep a few things in the freezer. All of my chile powders go in there. There is something about chile that attracts those loathsome moths from the other side of the galaxy. I also put kaffir lime leaves and fresh bay leaves in there in glass jars when I have raided some trees I know. They eventually "dry," actually the water in the leaves sublimes and forms ice crystals that I knock out of the jar, but keep their flavor wonderfully.

I think I have found my solution. Now all I have to find is the crates. My sister found some bread delivery crates or I guess you could call them trays. They are designed to stack. The ones she found she uses for paperback books. The depth is just right to pack the books in standing up with the spine up so that you can see what you have. I am looking for something similar but a little shallower so that the various jars and bottles can lay on their sides, I can see the original labels (no adding labels needed) and they stack on a shelf in the pantry. I have a bunch of these that I am using for stacking storage in the end of my dining area in this apartment. The smaller spices are a nightmare to dig out. Think something like this but about 4 inches high. (Heh . . . This apartment is getting to be a big storage space with furniture. As it gets worse, I get closer to building the house.)

That prime rib has me wanting to learn how to do that. Oddly enough, I haven't attempted such a baronial hunk of cow in years. All of you bacon freaks (yes, I am one) . . . Do you do your bacon in the oven? I like my bacon very crispy, so that it shatters. I have the heavy aluminum half sheet pans that I got at the restaurant supply. I also have racks that fit the pans. The restaurant supply that I shop at quit carrying the racks. But, Amazon finally started carrying the same racks that I have. I do line the bottom of the pan with foil just to make clean-up easier. I can do a whole pound of bacon per sheet at a time. And I find that having the rack allows for even crisper bacon because the fat drains away as it cooks. I store the cooked bacon in zipper bags in the fridge for adding to salads, sandwiches or baked potatoes. Waddayu mean? Of course I save the bacon fat. Oh, yeah, oven temperature. I most often use 375 F but if I suspect or know that the bacon has a lot of sugar, I will back off to 350 F. My local HEB has a store brand (some of their store brands are very good), I think it is called Black Forest or something, that has maple syrup as part of the cure. It is one of my favorites and I do have to back down the temp on that one. Oddly enough, that store brand of bacon from a rather local Texas chain is made in Canada.

And . . . There it is! My eGulley laugh for the day. That is priceless. I shall probably steal it with no taint of shame in my heart. Brooks . . . Are you a wimp? I used to shop with a gin & tonic. Got to keep the malaria at bay, you know.

Yep. Looked in popcorn. This is really strange.

I am going to try that, scott. Oddly enough, the Morton's site show's the plain popcorn salt. I was talking to my sister and she has been looking for it, too . . . with the same result. We are puzzled.

Since this topic was last active, I visited the amazing Lindey's in Columbus, Ohio and reported on it here. One of the classics at Lindey's is the "Lindey's Wedge." You can see it described in my first post and some later replies. That prompted an iceberg lettuce binge that I am not quite over, yet. edit to add: I did start a topic on the iceberg wedge here.

Bumping this up because I am in the search of very fine salt, almost powdered in texture. Many years ago, it used to be fairly common and was sold as "popcorn salt," sometimes with butter flavor or plain. As I was salting the most gorgeous huge onion rings at my favorite burger joint a couple of weeks ago, I was dismayed that the regular table salt just kind of bounced off. These onion rings were so well done that there wasn't enough grease on them to catch the salt. That is when I remembered the really fine salt that we used to use on fried foods, like shrimp, as they came out of the frier. You actually use a lot less to get the right level of seasoning. Popcorn salt used to be in the grocery stores. Nope. And I have been to the usual places like Penzey's and Chef's Catalog and no dice. Any ideas?

I was there again today. I was in the "lull" after lunch and before the boating crowd hits about 6:00. The gorgeous weather almost guarantees a mob from that crowd. You might know . . . I didn't have my camera and the bean burger was a real beauty. I don't know why but the thing was put together with perfection. The onion rings were some of the best I have had there. They were about as non-greasy as I have ever had. But the real reason I wanted to bump this up is to give you a tip. You can make whatever wager you want with your buddies as to who is in the portrait behind the cashier. I will give you a hint first. As I suspected, it isn't Maribelle. Got your bet figured? It is Evalyn Walsh McLean.

There was a Jason's Deli a few blocks from the office downtown. You are right. High quality sandwiches, soups and whatever. The salad bar was a huge favorite. You could get out of there for less than $6 US for lunch. Does your local place also have the free soft-serve ice cream? There is one not far from me. I feel a need to drop in for lunch.

Well, if some of the clove lingered, you could add a hit of allspice and call it Caribbean Chili.

One of the most visible and most successful such ventures here in Houston is Cafe Express. It was started several years ago by the local chef whiz (and internationally known) Robert del Grande. I linked to the Cafe Express "story" page. It was one of the first, or at least very early, tries at the concept here in the US. I think I read that somewhere. There are now twelve or more locations in the area. I have eaten at two or three of them but not lately. They generally get good reviews but there have been some bumps in the road. Over all, they are still here and still growing. We just recently got a Panera in my area. It is at a difficult intersection so I haven't been yet. But I have reviewed the menu on the web site and I will have to brave the mess and give it a try. Starwich reminds me of Pret a Manger (probably misspelled) that I fell in love with in London. Those walk in take-out pieces of heaven were a must-do before heading to a park.

I thought Texas laws were bizarre. I am beginning to feel better about the whole thing. Still confused, yes. But better because we aren't any weirder than other places. Having spent a good bit of time in New Orleans and surrounding areas it is always culture shock to move from the land of drive-through daquiri shops, open drinking in the streets, and all kinds of alcohol in grocery stores at all times (from what I remember) to the bizarre land that is Texas. You would appreciate my surprise many years ago when the Schwegmann's grocery carts had a cup holder for the highball you could order to enjoy while you were shopping.

I went a-browsing in the Baker's Catalog website yesterday to specifically order the garlic gadget you see in the link. I got the tip from the Garlic Press topic. I need nicely diced garlic for my ojo de ajo and doing it by hand is a pain. I am told that the Garlic Genius works better but with the price, I am going to try the twist thingy first. Some of you may be happy to know that I am working on a "Cult of the Stainless Steel Mushroom" starting here. Scroll up a bit and you will see that snowangel made me do it.

As I think about it, 12 pounds isn't such a stretch. My usual 6 or so big onions for the crock pot is probably about 5 pounds.

I looked at the Garlic Genius and you are probably right. I needed to order some things from Baker's Catalog anyway so I went ahead and ordered the Twist. If it works ok for my purposes that is good. If it doesn't, then I may drop the bucks for the Genius. When using the microplane for the garlic, I just grab it by the root end and sacrifice about an 1/8 inch of the clove to save my fingers. More and more, I am seeing containers of peeled garlic cloves at my grocery. Sometimes they are better than the "fresh" garlic in the bin. We really don't get very good garlic here very often.