jeniac42

Grocery store PB is gross, although my dog seems to like it. I have occasionally made peanut butter with the help of my Cuisinart, and have plans to repeat the experiment and add different flavors and whatnot. Has anyone mailordered from Peanut Butter & Co? How's the service? I've heard good things about Krema but, unbelievably, have not actually made it into their store yet. Maybe I'll try to get there today and report back.

Yeah, I don't think a chocolate and cheese sandwich would be very good. I actually like *shame* colby and chocolate together pretty well. There's also cheddar, gruyere/comte (if you get a really fruity one this is great). I don't know about chocolate with blue cheese, goat cheese, or any soft cheeses. I'm not entirely sure it would go. I rarely make fondue at home because I get pretty tired of seeing it at work, so I usually just eat it in the form of dark chocolate (Valrhona 70%) and chunks of cheese. Of course, this is coming from a person who has occasionally been known to consume, as a "meal" - all separate on the plate, mind - tomato juice, orange juice, Goldfish cheddar crackers, colby cheese, dill pickles, olives, and dark chocolate. Edited to say, if I also have a baguette, the above is ideal. It's all about the balance of flavors, I'm telling you.

I knew I liked you. This is one of the best. Nobody believes me, though. Chocolate and raspberries Chocolate and hazelnuts Chocolate-covered strawberries Flourless chocolate cakes Chocolate and almond nougat But I do think that my favorite chocolate-based dessert is the warm chocolate cake with hot fudge center, with vanilla ice cream, which I allow to melt and soak into the cake before eating it. Alternatively I have been known to pour cream over my chocolate cake.

I thought the mint-vanilla Oreos were gross. They were too sweet, throwing off the delicate balance of Oreo flavors. The peanut butter-chocolate ones are OK, and you even get that phlegmy feeling in the back of your throat like you do with Real peanut butter. I haven't tried the coffee ones because I hate coffee. Note: the content filter at my work blocks oreo.com. Huh.

Ah, but you had the satisfaction of knowing you'd pitted them yourself, and that, my friend, is priceless. I forgot the salad spinner. I use mine a lot. Do Cambro buckets count as gadgets? I've got a bunch of them (yes, at home) and find them to be hugely useful. Especially for Thanksgiving - brining big turkeys, mixing large batches of stuffing, etc. Oh, and they're also great for storing flour, sugar, prep work for tomorrow's dinner, potato salad; thawing stuff under running water; etc etc etc.

I'd be happy to take it off your hands, but I suspect the Post Office frowns upon sending opened bottles of alcohol through the mail.

Suzanne, can you buy Skyline brand chili in your area? It's got spices in it (although it's been a while since I had any, I seem to remember something like nutmeg) and is definitely different from most other chilis. Not being from Cincinnati, I don't have an intimate understanding of their chilis, but I heartily endorse eating Coneys and five-ways. Hmm, I might have to get some Skyline for dinner. Scary. Edit: Chili dogs for me should have the soft hot dog and puffy white bun, along with mustard, cheese, and onions. I don't know if the cheese is strictly allowable but I love cheese, even, and I've admitted this, the cheap and horrible kind.

How do you use the hairpin - do you just push it straight through the cherry? I love cherries. I would wish them to be less seasonal but I know that would take much of their goodness away. Much like tomatoes - being that good ones are now difficult to find even in season because apparently nobody cares if they taste like pink styrofoam.

Amarula is good. I've been meaning to pick up a bottle of Cynar from the store (they carry it - of all the weird things...) and probably will sometime soon. I'm fascinated by the number of available liqueurs but haven't tried many of them beyond the standard American repertoire. What about Fruja? I was supposed to go to a tasting for it but didn't have my driver's license and they wouldn't let me in.

Frequently used: KitchenAid, Benriner slicer, Quick Chop™ (just seeing if you were paying attention ), digital scale, probe thermometer and oven/refrigerator/freezer thermometers. Less so: Cuisinart (mostly I use it for making things like hummus, pesto, cilantro chutneys, etc, and for that I find it indispensible), Oxo peeler for when I don't feel like peeling with a knife. Almost never: Ice cream maker (but again, indispensible when I do use it), immersion blender. Never, ever: Foreman grill (gift - I tried to use it but would rather just, you know, grill outside). I really want a Microplane and one of those measuring cups Alton Brown has for semi-solid ingredients like honey, peanut butter, sour cream, that type of thing. Also a waffle iron and a commercial-power blender for making frozen drinks, and otherwise I'm happy with my tongs, knives, and whisks. Edit: I have a friend who got a Quick Chop for her wedding, so I actually tried using it once. Oh, man. Does anyone else hate the TV ads for this type of product, where they have someone exhibit obviously incompetent behavior to try to convince you that oh, using a knife/flipping pancakes/draining pasta is SO DIFFICULT? "You flip, but they flop. You flip, but they flop!" Using a turner isn't that difficult, and actually neither is flipping without one for omelets and the like - just takes a tiny bit of practice.

I am in the bizarre raisin lover/hater camp. I think putting raisins in cereal is horrible. The textures don't go at all, and the milk doesn't plump up the overdried raisins. But right now I am eating Raisinets, and I enjoy raisins in savory dishes and in cakes. No, I don't get it, either.

I find beer or margaritas to be an excellent partner for nachos as well. I usually just eat nachos alone, in terms of food accompaniment.

Damnation. Due to financial circumstances somewhat beyond my control, I can't afford to get the smoker this weekend. Sometime soon, though... sometime soon.

It looks like the plan to buy the Brinkmann tonight is still a go. I think the directions say you have to burn some charcoal in it before use to get rid of paint fumes or something, but assuming I have time to do that tonight/tomorrow before work, Sunday will be pork shoulder smokin' time. In terms of thermometers, I've got a Pyrex probe (I know, but I couldn't find a damn Polder and I needed something for the turkey), an oven thermometer, and a couple of cheapo meat therms. I want to buy as little equipment as possible since I've got to get the smoker and a chimney starter both, not to mention some beer, so can I operate with these? This first time, I'm mostly concerned with turning out something edible to convince the husband that this purchase is a good idea. I thought I might just monitor the temp of the pork and make sure it's not cooking too fast. Stupid? My butcher has bone-in and boneless Boston butts. Generally I go for bone-in - any reason not to? It's $2.69/lb; is that wholly unreasonable (considering it's locally/naturally raised meat)? I don't often buy large cuts.

I'm not entirely sure I could eat horse meat but it would probably be easier for me than dog or cat. That letter hollywood linked seems kind of funny to me as the practices of antibiotics and slaughter methods are similar to what happens to most commercial livestock (although admittedly the FDA approval of the antibiotics, etc, is different) and therefore hardly a convincing reason not to eat horse meat.

Yeah, I know. It's just that I have to occupy the barbeque brain cells somehow until I actually manage to purchase and use the darn thing.

OK, so assuming I actually acquire this smoker tomorrow, and I decide to barbeque on Sunday despite the fact that we're supposed to get light snow, is there anything I should know about cold-weather barbequeing? I assume it's harder to get the smoker up to temperature because of the cold, right? And from what I can tell the Brinkmann I'm thinking of buying doesn't have intake vents. Will it just take more charcoal? Is this something I should try at all on a first go? eGullet's so inspiring - I probably wouldn't have thought to do this without all the threads here. I may've gotten to it eventually but who knows how long it would've taken?

To be clear, I haven't actually seen the cheaper one in any of the Lowe's stores here (went to about four of them last Sunday to look at grills and shelving). The Gourmet one is 44.97 here and that's the one I'll probably end up getting. Then I can start referring to it as my ECB, right?

OK, I went and looked at Lowe's and it seems they just have a helluva deal. Here is a link to the one I was thinking of getting, which I believe is the same one Klink linked: Brinkmann Deluxe Gourmet Charcoal Smoker And here's the one I think sladeums just linked, for $13.47 (jeez): Brinkmann Smoke'n'Grill

Oh, no. I like pimiento-stuffed olives. Cheez Whiz is a miraculous thing if only for the reason Holly mentioned (if you've never had a cheesesteak made with Whiz, oh, man...). And canned green beans make the best... green bean casserole. Yes, I admit it. I eat crap food and enjoy it. I also like pimiento cheese, individually-wrapped cheese slices (though these should be labelled "for use in grilled cheese ONLY"), french fries covered in gravy, cheez whiz, seasoning salt, and ketchup, and this: Velveeta Bread Toast a slice of puffy white bread. Slice Velveeta about 1/4" thick. Make a single layer of Velveeta on the toast. Sprinkle with onion salt and broil until the "cheese" is melted and the corners of it are brown. However, I wholeheartedly endorse a ban on margarine. I lived in front of a margarine factory for two years and if I hadn't already been avoiding it, I certainly would have started. It reeked. Also, I wish oregano would become rare and expensive so they'd quit putting it on every damned steamed vegetable in the cafeteria.

Oh, and Williams-Sonoma: I am convinced they are a bastion of evil because they sell a Kitchen Aid stand mixer in a beautiful robin's egg blue, specifically to torment me because they know I already have a cobalt blue one that will probably last me the rest of my life.

Really? I could swear it's the one they have at Lowe's for $45. Maybe I'll stop in there and copy down the details tomorrow. Still, I think as long as it's functional it might be a good way for me to go for this year... and if I get two years of use out of it, all the better. I'd love to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving (I almost always do at least 2 birds for, what, six people? heh). Although I've heard smoking doesn't do great things for poultry skin, so I guess the other one would have to be another high-roast bird. Mmm. (It's almost dinner time, so my normally food-oriented thoughts are targeted and locked.) Another question, =Mark talks about the fire control. I can imagine what you might do if it's not hot enough, but what do you do when you fear it's going to get TOO hot?

See, the main problem I have with green is this: I went to a private high school; our colors were green and white; therefore, I was forced to wear hideous green wool jumpers (the US version) in the winter and hideous green-and-white-striped seersucker jumpers in the spring and fall. Then we got green kilts, and we could have green sweaters, and green socks, and.... I'll take a look at that page in the FAQ. I've read about half of it so far, but I must've missed that thar part.

That's the one, Klink. Thanks for looking up a picture of it. I'm not too convinced about the green color, but hey, I guess I'm not buying a smoker for style, eh? I might just get that one, having thought along the same lines as what =Mark said. Of course, it's supposed to be snowing here on Sunday so the chances of my smoking anything this weekend (aside from cigarettes) (I know, you CAN bbq when it's cold but I don't want to start out that way) are pretty slim. We shall see. *rubs hands together*

OK, so, in order to avoid conversation about grilling: I was at Lowe's yesterday and saw a Brinkmann smoker for $45 (I think it's called the Gourmet, although the tag at Lowe's read "gourment"). From reading through threads here, I understand these are not the best of smokers. What I'm wondering is, would one of these be adequate to get a beginner started for a year or two, or are they so difficult to use as to just be frustrating and discouraging? I would like to get something a little better but since a) the finances aren't great and b) I haven't bbq'ed before and cannot therefore be 100% certain I'll love it, I was wondering if starting cheap might be an option.