jeniac42

We used the flimsy whisk to do the job. The potatoes are a bit gluey from being overworked, but otherwise OK.

So in my misguided attempt to create a surrogate Thanksgiving dinner on a Monday night, when I get home from work at 11pm and have to be back in school tomorrow at 9am, I have run into a snag. I lent both my potato masher AND my KitchenAid (and all attachments therefor) to my friend last week, and forgot about it until now, when the potatoes are mere minutes away from being mashed. It may be too late to save me, but how else could they be mashed? With a fork? Seems impractical and devastating for my tendonitis, but maybe it could be done. Help!

I would, in most cases, say no. My family and friends don't seem to understand the desire for specific and/or just generally NICE pieces of cookware, because they are happy with their disposable sets that don't get much use. Even my foodier friends don't understand my quest for the best of any given ingredient. I have an ongoing disagreement with one of them over buying cheese that has been precut and wrapped in plastic Maybe it's ME that's OCD....

Well, I'm finally home, after lugging ten pounds of potatoes back from the grocery store. Right now the plan is to roast the chicken at a lower temperature and I may not put the stuffing in until 1/4 of the way through or so. I will let you all know how it turns out. Thanks for the advice!

Hmm. I do not have a microwave*, so maybe I could try roasting the butterflied chicken at a lower temperature to accomodate the stuffing? I don't really have the cookware to set up a bain marie for it. I have to make this tonight when I get home from work so I've got about five hours to figure out the plan * And, really? I'm making PEPPERIDGE FARM stuffing from a BAG, so the microwave suggestion is not so outlandish, right?

Since I am still trying to learn to read and write Japanese at a reasonable speed, I have decided to practice by writing out my meals as much as possible. I figure this will let me say that cooking and eating are part of my homework... If torakris doesn't mind, I would like to post them here - I don't expect anyone to look at them and correct them but if there is time that would be great. If this is not an OK use for the forum just let me know! (As of right now I really don't know many kanji so I will not be using them much, even though I can look most of them up on the WWWJDIC - I am afraid I would use them incorrectly and I don't know the stroke order.) Today for lunch I had: Soba with tempura sauce (is there a name for this?) / そばとてんつゆ Broccoli / ブロッコリ Grilled salmon / さけ Pickled daikon / たくあん For the tentsuyu / てんつゆ I used: 2c dashi / だし 4T mirin / みりん 4T sake / おさけ 1/3c soy sauce / しょうゆ

Without getting into any of the is it right/is it wrong debate: I have been witness to several dumpster-diving excursions for food, and I've eaten many of the items found therein, mostly when I didn't have the money to eat much else. One store threw everything away at the same time each evening, and actually put it all in clear trash bags, categorized it even - dairy products in one bag, raw meat (which I WOULD NOT touch) in another, bread and bakery in another, etc. The products being thrown away were often those with sell-by dates of the next day, so these things were not spoiled. It does seem to be a shame that due to liability concerns stores and restaurants are unable to donate all of this unused food to food banks (or that is the reason most often given when I have asked).

I will be trying it as soon as the rice cooker arrives (on Tuesday - I've already got dinner planned for the next two nights because of ingredients that are going to spoil) and I will be sure to report back. I'm afraid I really don't know much about rice, beyond whether or not I think it tastes good!

I haven't had any experience with these, but Vosges offers a chocolate of the month club and I really like some of their exotic flavors: Vosges web page

The temp is 500F and usually with chickens I put the top of my broiler pan atop my All-Clad saute pan, which I think is the 3qt with straight sides. I'll probably give it a go tonight or tomorrow night, then.

I apologize if this has been addressed; I spent an hour with the search engine and couldn't find an answer, but I'm really bad at the eG search! I like to think I can roast chickens, but in fact I always just use the high-temperature method outlined in a Cook's Illustrated magazine a while back. It calls for butterflying the chicken and then roasting it over a pan of potatoes. Long story short, I missed out on my family's Thanksgiving dinner and need to get a fix, and figured roasting a chicken would be easier and more practical than doing an entire turkey for two people. But I want to make (SHUDDER GASP) the Pepperidge Farm stuffing, as this is an integral part of the dinner for me. Since I don't own a roasting pan, would it be possible to put the stuffing under the chicken, instead of the potatoes? Or would it dry out instead of being nice and moist? I've used the stuffing under a turkey but the chicken cooks much faster, so I'm not sure it would work. Otherwise, are there any tried-and-true recipes that DON'T involve a roasting pan (because I don't own one, and I already have the chicken!)?

Is this a California rice? If so, who is the producer? We usually buy Hitomebore (California) rice. They've startet to sell imported Japanese rice up here in Vancouver, but I haven't tried it yet. ← Hmm. I think it is a Japanese rice, but I'm not sure. I'm at work now so I don't have the bag with me. It looks like the picture on this webpage, though.

Yesterday I went to the Japanese grocery store and bought some rice... unfortunately I couldn't remember the recommendations from this thread! I ended up buying some "New Crop" Akita-Otome (it says あきたおとめ on the bag). Any opinions or advice about this particular type? How is it different from the Akita Komachi?

In this situation, we say (Douzo, douka) yoroshiku onegai shimasu (どうぞ、どうか）宜しくお願いします rather than Arigatoo gozaimasu. After your request is granted, you will say (Doumo) arigatou gozaimasu (or gozaimashita) (どうも）ありがとうございます（ございました）. ← Ah! We hadn't learned that yet. Thank you very much for the information. Or should I say, doumo arigatou gozaimashita? どうもありがとうございました

I think the midterm went OK, but no grade yet, so.... I am sorry to have so many questions, but I wondered, can someone tell me what this means: 日記 I think it must mean "blog" or something similar; I saw it on the delicious.ne.jp site and it's also on my LiveJournal.

Eek! Tell me more about these ham-mites. Is it OK to eat uncooked country ham? If you cook the ham, will it kill the mites?

I'll let you know tomorrow... I've got some curry in the freezer and I'm planning to eat it for lunch!

This is not strictly food-related, but... I hope nobody minds the question. I have my Japanese midterm tomorrow (it's an oral interview) and I have promised myself that if I do well on it, I will buy myself either a Japanese dictionary or a book (maybe a cookbook) in Japanese that I can use. I already asked about food magazines in another thread; I was hoping that since there are other Japanese-language learners here that maybe someone could recommend something that might be good. Arigatoo gozaimasu! (And wish me luck... )

I had, at one point, an entire system set up based on having a device from Palm called an Audrey in my kitchen. This was basically just a small internet PC that used a stylus and some simple buttons for navigation. I wrote up a database for the backend and some PHP interfaces and basically dumped a bunch of recipes into said database; I could then use the Audrey to view them. Alas, the Audrey was sold some time ago, before I ever got it working with anything besides dial-up. At this point I'm not sure what sort of solution I'd use.

I was about twelve years old and had somehow contrived to get a subscription to Gourmet magazine. One month, they featured a recipe for maple-glazed chicken breasts. This sounded great and the photo looked delicious, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I grabbed four chicken breasts out of the freezer and defrosted them, figuring I'd surprise my mom by making dinner for the whole family. Let's just say there's a world of difference between real maple syrup and Hungry Jack. And I had to eat all of the chicken.

Funny, I was just about to start this thread myself. I look forward to the replies. I've been wanting to buy a country ham, specifically a Smithfield ham, for myself since I was in seventh grade. We took a field trip to Williamsburg and ate at some restaurant near there; I don't remember the name of it. It may not even have actually been that good, but I had three biscuits with Smithfield ham and a bowl of peanut soup. I still dream about that particular meal. I am almost totally clueless, however, about which brands I might want to try.

These pictorials are so amazing. Thank you, hzrt8w! I have yet to try any of the dishes, but with the weather what it is now, it should be a good weekend to stay home and cook. I'll have to give this one a try.

Oh, wow. I've never eaten duck confit and I've definitely never made it, but after reading this thread I really think I'll have to give it a go. Right now I don't have an appropriate pot to cook it in (was going to go with the, uh, non-sous-vide method) but that should be fixed soon.... Edited to add: I would also love, love, love the recipe for seven-hour onion jam as mentioned by someone upthread.

I really like the soft-chewy chunks in drinks but I think I'd be a little upset by something as choke-inducing as nuts in coffee. Milkshakes, sure (like Blizzards) but you can't drink those too fast anyway.

Wow, and I thought my boyfriend's cats were huge. There's no way they're three feet tall, though! Great blog. I look forward to reading the rest of it!