fifi

I have read that grapefruit can affect the blood levels of lots of things. The major drug emporiums here issue a rather lengthy fact sheet and have started including known food interactions and instructions to take with food or on an empty stomach. On the rare occasion that I have to get a prescription I have actually started reading the things.

It floors me that restauranteurs still think it is a good idea to keep the noise level so high that you can't hear your server, conversation is impossible, and your ears ring for a week.

I would stick with Rival. Also get the simplest one... low, high, warm... That's it. Skip the fancy stuff. Oh... and check out the Amazon ratings.

Ummm... Wait a minute. One of my favorite recipes from Emeril's Louisiana Real and Rustic is a beef fricasee that starts with a dark roux that is quenched with the beef cubes. Since this book was developed with Marcelle Bienvenu, I have to think that they know what they are talking about. Now I am totally confused.

First let me say that I am a huge fan of your work. I am a science geek. I have had my copy of your first book for several years and it is much dog-eared and post-it noted. I thoroughly enjoy your writing style and have referred to you as "the Jan Morris of food science". All of that pandering being said... What inspired you to embark on a writing career in food science?

I saw a really healthy vine on a fence in an older part of Houston the other day. The flowers were large and red! I think I saw some yellow fruit lurking in there as well. I immediately jumped to wondering how they tasted.

Thanks you guys... Cook's Thesaurus is my favorite, too. I especially appreciate the region specific links. I get really frustrated sometimes because my language skills are so bad. (2 years Latin in HS, 3 years French, multiple Spanish lessons haven't made a dent.) In some of the regional forums (fora? ) it is really hard to understand what is going on when a translation for a term or a dish is not furnished. If folks would do that more, maybe some of us block heads would learn something.

For some reason... that really got me. I am now recovering from a total incapacitation event. One thing that I fiddled with this morning... The tots were really crispy and the insides were creamy/mooshy. You can take a sharp knife point and slice down one side of the little cylinder. Then if you take the ends of the cylinder between your thumb and forefinger and squeeze gently, it opens up a bit. You could put dabs of all kinds of things in there!

Other than rock hard granny smiths I haven't had a decent apple this year. Maybe I need to head for somewhere that they look crappy.

Growing up in the late forties and into the fifties, I was fortunate enough to live within an extended family of grandmothers, aunts, etc. They were all very good cooks but my memory tells me that it was mostly "southern" fare with some Tex-Mex creeping in. I never remember when someone didn't have a garden. There was always a country place, a bay place so veggies and seafood were common. As I got into middle school and high school, I did the latch-key thing and was in charge of starting dinner. By then, my mother had started to branch out. She grew her own herbs and sent off for stuff she was curious about. Then in the late 50s and early 60s we spent some time in southern Louisiana because my grandfather had some construction jobs there. Cajun and Creole started to creep in. My dad was traveling there fairly regularly and would bring back treats from the good Cajun butchers and such. I went to college in south Louisiana and, with my room mates' families, picked up more of that. Then I married and spent more time in New Orleans and environs. That added more creole and a touch of Italian. Some time around then, my mother subscribed to Time-Life Foods of the World when they first came out and things got really crazy. My dad bought mom, my sister and me our first woks. I guess that my overwhelming sense is that it all started from a tradition of good ingredients, attention to detail in technique, the magic touch of a caring cook, and a sense of adventure. Early on, it was good basic southern and expanded from there. I am continuing that tradition and passing it on to my own grown kids. Next stop... Indian and Middle Eastern.

Mix mayo with little soy sauce... dip tots. (Actually, that was a favorite tempura dip years ago.)

And where is this magical back yard? I tought wild fennel was a west coast thing.

And yet another example of inspired genius. That is exactly what I am going to do the next time our HEB has them really cheap. For some reason, I find using a melon baller kinda fun. When I first saw the Mexican style squeezers, I too assumed that you used it cut side up. Then someone told me it was the other way around and it suddenly made sense. I now prepare fresh squeezed limeade on a whim. Those things do a really good job and strain the juice at the same time. I squeeze directly into the glass.

Why anyone would take a nice bunch of ribs and boil the flavor out of them is beyond me. There are some things that shouldn't try to be converted... "low fat ribs" is an oxymoron.

That would be good too. But I don't think it would have quite the same texture. There is something unique about tater tots. It is almost like the potato has been though a grinder. andie... does smashing them make them more like hashbrowns? This was little discrete bits.

Yep... That has been the fate of many a carcass in this house. One year I smoked the turkeys. The gumbo was awesome. A tip on the smoked turkeys... If you remove the skin before making the turkey stock you will have just the right amount of smoke flavor for many uses.

With the occasional exception of the beef ravioli, my kids never liked the stuff. When they were about 10 and 13, I took them on our first trip to Hawaii. We had at least three islands on the itinerary. We arrived in Kauai quite late. Back then, Kauai was a pretty sleepy place and it pretty much went to bed by 9 o'clock. We were tired and starving. The first place we came to was a Zippy's (local fast food place). Inexplicably, they had spaghetti on the menu. My son and I ordered a hamburger or something like that but my daughter said... "Ooooo... spaghetti! That sounds perfect." When we got our food, she looked at the "spaghetti" suspiciously, took a bite, wrinkled her nose. Then she burst out laughing, shrieking "It's Chef Boyardee!" That sparked one of those insane moments when you all collapse into hysterical and helpless laughter over something really stupid. The proprietors must have thought we were on drugs. It was one of those moments that we always remember and chuckle at to this day.

I have just made the most marvelous discovery and I have to share... Early this morning, I put the last of the tater tots into the DeLonghi to have with my scrambled eggs. There were only a few, so I upended the bag onto the cooking tray. Along with the tots, some loose bits from the bottom of the bag spilled out. I left them there. After 20 minutes at 400F, convection on, the bits were a bit browner than the tots, as you would expect. Going back to clean up, I picked up a couple of the bits and they found their way to my mouth... they were well cooled by then. SURPRISE! They were delicious! At room temperature! My mind immediately leapt to the possibilities. How wonderful would these crunchy bits be sprinkled on a salad, atop pasta, vegetables, what else? You could even season them with something. I started studying the bits. It seems that the ideal is a bit under 1/4 inch. Now I am wondering how to reduce a bunch of tots to nothing but bits. Thaw and hand crumble? Try to cut them up? I don't know. I have to go get more tots to try it out. I don't think I would care if the size weren't uniform. Sort of like the roasted cauliflower, the variation is interesting. This... me dears... has possibilities.

And yet another typically eGullet solution to a knotty problem. Gotta love it. I never peeled a garbanzo in my life and I seriously doubt that I will start now.

Good topic... I recently lost a close friend. She was a cooking buddy. We all decided that for the gathering after the services that we would all contribute her favorite dishes that she had always requested when we would get together at our homes or hers for a big do. It made for a lovely gathering with many fond memories of our friendships with her. While I was making the dish that I brought, I somehow went past the tragedy of the situation and was transported to lovely memories of her. I was trying to remember how much cilantro she liked in the dish, how much she enjoyed it the first time she tasted it, all of those gatherings in her home where she would hesitantly ask me to bring it. It all seemed to help. I wonder if that is part of the foundation of the tradition of bringing food to the gathering after a funeral?

As I recall, on the thread that bloviatrix linked to, there was some discussion about possibly needing to soak "old world" beans. When you say that you used the Parson's method, I take that to mean that you didn't soak them and used 1 tsp. salt per pound. Could you please report on how long it took to get them done? For comparison, I have found that Camellia Red Beans and pinto beans take 2 to 2 1/4 hours. I would guess that garbanzos would take longer.

I forgot to add... Whenever we go to Hawaii, the first thing we stock up on at the grocery is POG... Passionfruit Orange Grapefruit juice mix. You might want to experiement with juicing and mixing up your own. It is wonderful.

Judith... Could you ask your neighbor about the variety? In my previous house, I made the mistake of transplanting some of our native passionflower into my yard from the field next door. BIG mistake. They became a real pest, spreading by underground whatevers and I had the things coming up in all kinds of places that I didn't want them. I have to say that they never set fruit either. The only good thing I could say about them is that the flowers were pretty and they were the host plant for a flurry of fritillaries. I have also hunted them in Hawaii, with some success when I was there at the right time. Those were variable in flavor. I have to say, I have never seen the "crown of thorns" thingy. How have I missed that? Gotta go google and see if I can find Judith's plant.

Here is the link to that site. Interestingly enough, AZ CA and FL are the only states that they can't ship to. Cool site, andie. I have my eye on that varigated calamondin. There is lots of information there as well.

Sick? Not sick at all! I saw those at W-S (I think) and went AWWWWWW! Then I immediately tried to think of a way to use them. I haven't thought of a good enough use to spend the money but I still want them.