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Thanks for the Crepes

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Everything posted by Thanks for the Crepes

  1. I recently found out that my sister who abhors coffee and eggs, eats black-eyed peas every morning for breakfast, and has for years. It's probably healthy, but how she got there is a mystery to me?
  2. I finally got my hands on a rib eye and cooked it on my Phillips grill last night along with mushrooms, an onion slice and a jalapeno pepper. All came out delicious, and it was nice to be able to grill indoors with no smoke and very little splattering. There was a very small amount of splattering around the top of the grill, but no where near the amount you would get pan-grilling a steak. The non-stick grill and drip pan cleaned up easily, but there was some spattering on the interior sides above the drip pan that caramelized and did not come off with a wipe. This will eventually build up and become a problem. Two of the affected sides are glass, I think, covering the light elements. My biggest problem was it's impossible to see if your food is browning/done with sun glasses on. I eventually resorted to bending over at the control knob end of the grill to check the food at eye level. This blocks your line of sight to the lighting elements, but it sure is awkward, and I think I will have a hard time getting used to this. @JoNorvelleWalkersaid she quit donning the sunglasses after the first couple times. Anyone else finding it a problem seeing your grilling food? Anyone finding ways to get around it? I wonder if switching off the grill while you check and turn the food and then switching it back on would work. I thought about using tongs, but all I have are metal tipped. What worked well for me was a bamboo spatula and shallow-bowled spoon that I use for everything from stir frying to fried potatoes. They work together as two-handed tongs and won't scratch the non-stick grid. I would be afraid to use plastic tools for fear they would melt. Also the instructions say for the model I have, the grill is hot and ready to use immediately. The other two models require 5-6 minutes preheat time. I dutifully put my food on right away, but I think the 5-6 minute preheat time will be the way forward, as the steak did not sizzle when I placed it on the grill. @ElsieDmentioned covering the drip pan with foil. This sounds like a great idea, and would be my inclination. My instructions said not to cover any part of the grill with foil or use metal scrubbers because metal pieces could break off and cause a fire hazard. They also said putting the drip pan or the non-stick grid on wet could cause a fire hazard. Shoot, by the time I got through reading the lengthy safety precautions, I was convinced I would be simultaneously blinded, immolated and electrocuted the instant I switched on the device. Seriously, though, it says not to operate unattended, and I believe that's good advice. The cord was quite warm when I unplugged it after use. Also probably not a bad idea to know where your circuit breaker for the appliance is. I'm not getting close enough to unplug it, like they instruct, if it does burst into flames. Also, I will agree with others that the smoky grilled flavor like you get with charcoal or even gas is not present, and my fat was not crispy, like I like it. But, and it's a big but; for indoor grilling with minimal mess, this grill is great. I loved the grilled veggies, and the ability to have those more often adds a lot to the grill's value in my kitchen.
  3. That is magic talk! You are the second credible source, the other being @JoNorvelleWalker, that has proclaimed this contraption, not only smoke-free, but splatter-free. I have harangued at length about my real disdain for cleaning grease spatters in this forum. I also love freshly prepared and perfectly cooked grilled meat, but it's a lot of work with a charcoal grill. So many vegetables, like the one you all have been showing are also enhanced by grilling. I would also add mushrooms that can be enhanced a lot by grilling. This grill sounds like a miracle, too good to be true. Who am I to argue with success, though? One might be showing up on my doorstep soon. We can call it a PAG, like the marketing name, or maybe call it a PIG (Phillips Infrared Grill), since it seems to be very good at cooking pig meat and I just think PIG sounds better than PAG. Plus it bucks the marketing shtick!
  4. Erm, the fact these apples do not turn brown and their outlandish keeping qualities scream genetic engineering to me. Have fun with them, though. For me, I love a freshly farvested macintosh apple. To me that fresh macintosh, so crisp, so tart and so juicy is the very epitome of apples.
  5. I knew we have something we call ginseng that grows wild here, and after looking it up, it turns out we export it to China, including from my state, North Carolina. We also cultivate it, and have strict rules for harvesting the wild stuff, so as to perpetuate it. liuzhou, do you have any idea if what is still growing wild in our mountains is the same plant that is extinct in the Chinese wild? There is a latin name in the link above.
  6. My sister and niece came from out in the rural area past Pittsboro to come take me out to lunch. It was so good to see them, as always. Sis wanted to go to Longhorn Steakhouse in Apex. I, of course, ordered a rib eye rare with a salad. Sis and niece went for the crispy buttermilk fried chicken sandwich that they only serve at lunch. Niece, who is a very good cook, in her own right swore she'd rather have that chicken sandwich than the steak. If There's a next time, I might try that sandwich. My steak was surprisingly really, really good, flavorful and tender. So delicious! I had heard Longhorn was sort of downscale, but there was nothing wrong with my steak at all. There were original oils of Western scenes on the walls. I've seen "better" artists, including in my own home, but I've also seen a lot worse. I always love to see original art, so that counts for something with me. They have wagon wheel lighting fixtures, sort of chandeliers. Western sculpture and relief. Navaho blankets. It doesn't come off as tacky and that theme has a tendency to veer that way fast. I would go again. I was pleasantly surprised. We talked about the wedding of one of my other nieces they are both shortly going to. We talked about the care and maintenance of horses and the merits of white hooves versus the sturdier black ones. The various desirable qualities of saddle pads came up, and we all agreed that they should be able to go through the washer and dryer. I got a definite laugh when I expressed my opinion that the thick pressed felt pads that can't be washed and wind up smelling like polecats should be kept away from me or better yet , burnt. I rode around next to 50 pounds of senior horse chow they had picked up at Tractor Supply. I felt connected again, if only for a short while. And I got invited for Thanksgiving day, so Woo Hoo! I have something really good to look forward to. I hope it doesn't rain so we have time to go see the horses. They were excited to show me a battery operated mouse toy they'd bought for the cats at Tractor Supply. Before they left, I dug out a Weasel Ball, battery operated toy for cats and dogs. Me and my husband bought a couple of these toys for the cats one Christmas, wrapped them up and I think we had more fun with these two pet toys than anything else that Christmas. I'm gonna look around for the other one. Maybe it's upstairs? I'll bring it to them on Thanksgiving if I can find it. It's really nutty when you have a couple Weasel Balls going with multiple cats. So much fun! I did find a nice blue frisbee I could send with them Saturday for the dogs to chase. 🙂 Sis will tell me what she wants me to bring for Thanksgiving dinner later. Maybe it'll be salad again. I brought a killer one last time with lots of optional toppings and lots of nice greens and ingredients. We both love salad. I also brought scalloped potatoes, so we'll see what she wants to do this time. It will be a highlight for me.
  7. I just made a big pot of popcorn with the crimson popping corn that came in my Bean Club shipment. The package described it as having a "denser and moister" kernel than regular popcorn. Uh oh, I thought. Neither one of those adjectives sounds appealing to me in popcorn. I made some anyway, because I'd used up all my supply and had it on the list to buy next grocery shop. It turned out to be just fine. I didn't notice that the majority of the kernels were either moister or denser. I always flap the lid open and closed quickly while popping to let off steam while popping, and it came out fine. I did notice a higher percentage of small, not fully popped kernels, but I think some folks like those. I'm not one of those folks, so this heirloom popcorn had nothing to recommend it over regular popcorn. It certainly appeared at an opportune time for me, though, and it is tasty and crunchy. I have the Pinto beans that also came in the shipment soaking in anticipation of cooking them tomorrow. I have a couple of pork back ribs thawing out to throw into the pot, and will make a pan of cornbread and slather it with butter. Mmmm .... I cleaned out a big plastic file box I used to use to store cat food to store all my Bean Club stuff in. When it's thoroughly dry tomorrow, I need to put all the Rancho Gordo stuff in there. This shipment included Cassoulet Beans. These look like dried limas a little. The first Bean Club shipment included Flageolet Beans which look almost like dried green bean seeds. I got the idea that flageolet beans were the bean to use for cassoulet from the "Joy of Cooking". It also said you could use Great Northerns. Does anyone know if there is a traditional "correct" bean used in cassoulet?
  8. Good. I was getting ready to order delivery and now I won't. I like Taco Bell, but delivery is expensive. I'll make my own, but it won't be like Taco Bell. Yeah, they're called fricos. Nothing new at all and easy to make at home with a nonstick pan. I mean dead easy.
  9. @Dave the Cook, Although this information on Lisa saddens me greatly, I still thank you for letting us all know what happened to our valued member. Like others have said, I always found her to be so experienced and knowledgeable and always willing to help. She'll be missed greatly by a lot of people on this forum. I asked her just the other day, after being away for a while with no online access, for her granola recipe. Now I know why she did not spring to help as was her usual modus operandi. It was in reaction to a post of hers from November 2018. I replied and asked for her recipe only last Thursday. Linda seemed always to have boundless energy and a very positive can-do attitude. She made many contributions and had a lot of friends here, so as painful as the news is, we are grateful to know the sadness that she is no longer with us.
  10. @liuzhou, I think the one's my mom was buying are these ones from French's company. I'll never like them, but you know what else that company makes? French fried onions. The harmless and nutritious onion is transformed into a fat-laden, carbohydrate-packed and sodium-packed delivery vehicle for deliciousness. These onions are critical for our culture's classic green bean casserole with Campbell's mushroom soup that appears at fall and winter holidays. They are EXCELLENT salad toppers or secret guilty snack items.
  11. Are these potato snacks dry and crunchy? I remember my mom buying us "shoesting potatoes" that came in a round cardboard can in California in the 60's. I haven't seen anything like it since. Full disclosure, though, I never sought such a thing out because I didn't really like it that much. The ones we had as kids were really, really dry. Mom loved them, though.
  12. Lisa, Would you care to share your recipe for the granola? I tried to make some while my computer was dead, so I couldn't search online. I searched my cookbooks, and though I have about three dozen, none could really help. So I tried baking some old-fashioned oats with brown sugar and a little salt and spices. Low temps toasted the oats nicely, and anything high enough to melt the sugar to the oats also burnt the oats. My next step was going to be melting sugar and a little corn syrup stovetop and lightly coating oven toasted oats with that syrup. I have faith that your tried and true recipe will save time, ingredients and frustration, though. 🙂
  13. Hi Jo, Those look a lot like puffy tortillas, which are most excellent as well. The pretty big Latino community around here brings tostadas into our grocery stores and their bodegas. My understanding, and apparently their understanding too, is mostly of commercially-packed thin and very crispy yellow corn tortillas that are mostly bought in big stacks in plastic sleeves. They are as crispy and dry as tortilla chips and I sometimes substitute them for that after breaking them up. A puffy tortilla, like you show is a superior homemade product, but can certainly be substituted for the inferior commercial tostada to great effect. You can also fold your fluffy tortillas to make wonderful tacos, and that can't happen with tostadas from the store. I want to say that puffy tortillas (homemade) are native to Arizona and New Mexico. I think there are restaurants famous for them there. That is where I know them from, but they may be doing them in Mexico as well. Anyone who has good information, please correct me/educate us all. I made Vivian Howard's "Grandma Hill's Hoecakes" the other day and still have 3 in the freezer. They are quite tasty and much like tortillas. The recipe is from her book, "Deep Run Roots". The recipe doesn't contain eggs and I had buttermilk frozen, so Bob's your uncle. 🙂
  14. I'd prefer softer bristles for cleaning fingernails. Tater Dude's bristles are pretty stiff, but perfect for cleaning taters. I thought he was too small at first, but I've changed my mind. He's very comfortable to use and quite effective, plus as @kayb said, cute as a button.
  15. I got Mr. Potato Dude for Christmas along with three other vegetable brushes. I love Mr. Potato Dude the best out of all of them. He seems too little to do the job, but since he's so little, I'm not abrading my old and sensitive fingers like happens with some of the larger ones. Plus he is cute as button and I keep him on my counter to bring a smile to my face when I'm in the kitchen every day, whether potatoes are on the menu or not. He is cheap and very effective, and I highly recommend him for those that want to have a little fun in their kitchen. 🙂
  16. I of course, have plenty of my own health problems now at 60, but I'm really glad that eating fruit isn't even close to causing any of them. Eating MSG isn't either, but again, that's just my take on it. So you all do what you want to do, but let's not demonize an essentially natural ingredient that many, many people enjoy and eat without any problems at all. We're talking billions of people, mostly Asians. And little, insignificant me. 🙂
  17. I love spaghetti squash. So much that mine was bought out of season. It came from Honduras and it was the toughest squash I ever tried to split! It was relatively small, but so tough, I had to attack it with multiple knives, and really risk my safety to split the danged thing. I finally split off a piece of it; not a half as I had intended. This was the most effort I had ever put into splitting a squash in my life and by far the most dangerous, and I have dealt with mammoth Hubbard squash in VT. I came out of it without a wound, but your know what? It wasn't worth it. I did save the other piece of the squash raw for another day. It was not worth the high risk, and if I had it to do over, I'd puncture it, nuke it, cut it easily and safely just like has been recommended here. American spaghetti squash can be split raw safely, and I've done that many times. I'm convinced the Honduran one is crossed with a tougher squash, and also tastes different. I am done with spaghetti squash til fall. If you make a different choice, for the love of God, nuke that Honduran squash first. You might not be so lucky.
  18. Mmm kay. I see that there are divergent opinions on this topic, and I respect those, especially coming from long time members who have contributed so many valuables posts here. All I have to say on the matter is that when I would buy a pound of MSG at the Korean grocer for less than what it now costs me to buy a little 4.5 oz. container of Accent, that pound of MSG would last me at least a couple of years when I was feeding two. So I don't use a ton of it. I do like it, though, both as an ingredient, and I have been known to taste it on its own, as I would almost any ingredient that did not threaten food poisoning, like raw meat or eggs. I like it, I have never, nor has anyone I've ever fed with MSG as an ingredient been negatively impacted by MSG. So this is my anecdotal story to add. It IS made from seaweed, so I just fail to find the harm. Anyone who is familiar with my postings knows I am a huge Monsanto/Roundup foe, and not a big fan of genetic engineering so that we can dump more poisons on our food crops so Monsanto can continue to profit from poisoning the population. Roundup now has a class action suit against it, fairly recent, although Monsanto ducked out and sold its liability. Hate Roundup/Monsanto. I'm still fine with MSG. It's made from seaweed. If someone would like to change my mind, you know I'm always completely open to that.
  19. I love MSG and used to buy it by the pound when the Korean-owned grocer was still in business near me. Now I must be content with Accent at much higher prices from the regular grocer. Never had a headache or otherwise ill effect due to this delicious ingredient. It is made from seaweed, so please get over yourselves. 🙂
  20. I haven't seen many fans of Monsanto's product in this particular thread, although I have had debates with some fans of Roundup on other threads. Monsanto, I think in self-preservation mode sold this product to the German company Bayer for $66 billion last year. You may know that I am not a fan of Monsanto or Roundup. My first exposure or knowledge of their existence was on a neighboring dairy farm that also grew field corn to feed their herd when I was a teen. This was the same Matthews farm where my brother would work later and meet his only wife, and also meet Mr. Matthews, who was the grandfather of his bride. They were our neighbors, but I had to walk or ride a horse a couple miles to get to this farm from my family's little 20 acre hobby farm. Mr. Matthews (I never knew his first name, because back then, that is how kids addressed their elders) always seemed to enjoy me hanging around and my intense interest in his farming operation. He especially enjoyed my appetite for food, and I remember him saying to me one time after offering me several different foods, including popcorn cooked in a paper bag in one of the first microwaves, that he "appreciated females who would eat". I don't know if he had an anorexic daughter or something, but this statement has always stuck in my mind. It made me feel very welcome there. I kept coming back. One day I was in an equipment barn at the Matthews farm in Essex Junction, VT with one of the sons who was much older than me, an adult. There was a tractor in there that had outriggers (not sure if that is what they are called, but the things that stick out out the sides to spray the crops with Roundup). There was also a big drum of Roundup mounted behind the tractor. When I started to casually move toward the tractor, the son became quite alarmed and told me not to touch it and keep my distance, that they were spraying poison chemicals with it. Even back then, smart people knew Roundup was poison. It was being marketed at the time as being as safe as table salt. Now they have lost a lawsuit where a jury awarded the plaintiff $259,000,000. When I tried to search for results to find egullet.org posts about Monsanto and Roundup I was greeted at the top of the search by ads for lawyers to help victims of glyphosate. I have never liked Monsanto, just knowing what I knew, but I also learned from this video that they are the benevolent entity behind DDT and agent orange. Now they have skated, leaving Bayer holding the bag.
  21. I love cottage cheese! I always but it in my monthly grocery order. I have to have things delivered now since I can't walk that far anymore and carry stuff back. To keep costs down, I buy strategically so that I have enough highly perishable things that I can consume before they go bad and then some stuff that will last out the month. My sealed cottage cheese from this last order has an expiration date of April 27, almost a month out. It is always in the rotation, and I highly anticipate it as one of the healthy proteins with plenty of calcium to boot that will be there for me at the end of the month. Some folks here talked about the Trader Joe's brand, but I have bought that and actually prefer the Food Lion brand. Above all, I prefer the Daisy brand, which I used to be able to find, but not now. Thankfully, I still can get Daisy sour cream, which is pure and preferred over any other brand. I like cottage cheese plain along with a mixed salad or with fresh or canned pineapple or canned peaches or strawberries. I also love it more savory with oregano and crushed red pepper sprinkled over and served cold. Sorry, but my preferred soft cheese for lasagna is also cottage cheese. I'll concede that it might be that I've never had access to really good ricotta, which has seemed watery and grainy to me. On the diet food aversion thing: I remember reading many decades ago that Marilyn Monroe said that she often swapped French fries for cottage cheese when she needed to drop some pounds. She probably had a lot of influence on the diet food sort of stigma back then that has persisted, but I still like cottage cheese for a bunch of reasons. I do prefer the full fat version.
  22. If I am understanding this correctly, these products in question are dried tea leaves to be brewed with hot water, and not canned or bottled already brewed beverages? That is quite unusual and scary, if that is indeed the case. It's one of the very last places one would expect to encounter salmonella bacteria.
  23. I agree BeeZee, as a person who is disabled and has to pay a lot of money for grocery deliveries. So I tend to hoard ingredients. Avo's do keep in the fridge for weeks and will ripen from green and hard much slower than they do on the windowsill when you're trying to speed up the ripening process.
  24. Yes, glass, ceramic or stoneware can retain heat from sitting on top of a hot stove, or being warmed even in an empty dishwasher on the dry cycle. This requires a non-digital dishwasher with a dial you can control. Not only does this lower tech machine allow you to control it to warm plates, it also allows you, the human controller to actually dry the dishes, which is one of the functions of a dishwasher. I have to turn the dial back to DRY two times after the initial cycle, but at least I can get my dishes dried. I warm my glass plate by pouring boiling pasta water over it in the sink in several increments. This makes it almost too hot to handle. Sometimes it takes me too long to eat it anyway, and I have to nuke it midway through. I really do not like cold pasta that is supposed to be served hot. I am firmly in the camp of your darling, on hot plates. I do realize why you chose melamine to take on the bumpy, windy roads, though. Stuff breaks in rough environments, for sure. My preference for really hot food served fresh makes it difficult for me to eat in many restaurants. I'm lookin' at you Perkins and IHOP. There is probably not much worse than over easy eggs served on a cold thick china platter! That is a heat sink. It can be used either way. Back in the day, they used to heat them to keep the food warm and now, while the thick china platters persist in these restaurants, they're not heated and IMMEDIATELY sap all the heat from the food served to the customers. At least that happens around here. You can tell your darling that salmon is one of the best proteins in the world. Good for the heart, good for the brain. It is just an excellent food and one of the best. Plus, most people (and bears) think it tastes really good when cooked well. Maybe the bears not so much. 🙂
  25. Whole smoked turkeys are definitely a thing. A very, very good thing. I had already bought a twenty pound ham one Christmas in Memphis, when my then boyfriend's employer gave us a twenty pound turkey for Christmas bonus on Christmas Eve with no warning. No problem. I already had a whole tribe coming over for Christmas dinner. I did forty pounds of meat over charcoal fire with a water pan over the fire to keep the meat moist in this poor man's little smoker. It was something like this one, not really, and it was half the price. I had to set my alarm clock for 3 hours while I was trying to sleep to tend the charcoal and water on this beast, and it took almost 24 hours to cook this much meat in cold winter conditions. My smoker was a Brinkman. Everyone loved the meal, including me, and I can be really picky. Smoked turkey is the bomb. However, even with fourteen people pigging out for Christmas dinner, I had tons of leftovers from forty pounds of meat. I froze most, but let's just face it. Some went to waste. Moral of the story? Employers! If your cheap ass bonus is going to be a twenty pound turkey, how about letting your employees know so they can plan accordingly? Thanks, though. It was better than nothing.
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