Thanks for the Crepes

Oops! Jo, I hope you weren't seriously hurt on your quest for limes. I have none in the house at the moment so will be on my own quest shortly. The prices are pretty reasonable around here at the moment: 5/$1.00.

Merry Christmas, CatPoet! Thank you so much for generously taking the time and effort to share this with us. I found it fascinating, and I really appreciate it.

Or an indian theme, maybe. Southern indian is mostly vegetarian. Maybe because it's had so much time to develop, they have come up with so many flavorful meatless dishes. To me, that's where most of the really delectable veggie options are, although I'd never turn down a good spanakopita or meatless moussaka, or hummus, or ...

Hi, Chris. Although I associate pea sprouts with Asian cuisine mostly, they're one of my favorite vegetables. I can't see one single reason why they wouldn't work smashingly in your dish! Sugar snap peas fresh from your garden seem complementary, but I'd probably cook them as a side dish. They're quite sweet and crispy when cooked the way I prefer, and I'd worry they might intrude on and overshadow what sounds like an exquisite salad. Also, pray tell, how did you come by enough duck tongues? Seems like a very exotic ingredient like ortolans to me, and my limited experience from the U.S. I grew up with ducks we raised, and their eggs. They were really fun on Easter egg hunts for us kids. I'm sadly certain the tongues all went to waste. So I'd be very interested in any information you have on them as a culinary ingredient.

In my experience, by the time oysters are open an inch, they're overcooked, and the liquid has mostly evaporated. Put them on the grill rounded shell down and don't flip. I watch them closely, and just when the shells begin to open, pull them off. They are much easier to shuck than raw, but still juicy. Let them go too long, and they get rubbery and dried out. No matter how much they're overcooked, they don't just shuck themselves. I actually like this method better than steaming for lots of oysters because the heating is more even. I like a casual oyster roast. Just serve them in their shells lightly grilled, and let everyone open their own. Get someone to open yours for you. I'd gladly do that for an invite. Have oyster knives, sturdy plates, napkins, cocktail sauce, lemon herb butter, ramekins and crackers available. Just don't go ultra casual like my ex-neighbor did one time and not scrub the oysters before grilling. That was the last time we ate at her house. After that, oyster roasts with her happened at my house. She was a good friend, and used to give us superlative striped bass she caught on Kerr Lake and venison her hunting friends harvested. We were actually boating buddies as well as neighbors, but her idea of hygiene just could't be reconciled with my own. I hope you have as much fun as we've had over the years roasting oysters on the grill.

JoNorvelleWalker, Thanks for the response. I'm a bit taken aback, however, since I've never perceived the slightest difference between carbonated and non as far as alcholic absorption. Perhaps I wasn't the best observer? Glug, glug, glug? Anyways, had to Google your latin term "quondam". It just means former, so now I grok. Now, unless you are a fan of Heinlein, you may have to Google.

Please, JoNorvelleWalker, You're leaving us hanging. As a fan of vodka and seltzer, I'd love to know this hypothesis. Vodka and plain water doesn't taste very good to me, and I've tried to jazz it up with lemon or other citrus and something sweet, but it doesn't work for me, except as an occasional dessert.

I cannot second enough (third?) andie's and Norm's suggestions to use an ice cream scoop for drop biscuits. I packed the scoop with dough with a silicone spatula, dropped them on the baking sheet and flattened slightly with the spatula and my fingers. Then baked as usual. The resulting biscuits are much more like cut out biscuits and rise higher from the same recipe.

I made biscuits for dinner tonight, so I thought I'd follow up on the results I got from tips in this thread. First I turned the suggestions for using melon ballers, and then mini scoops from JAZ in post 13 to scoop out drop cookie dough into using my ice cream scoop for drop biscuits. This worked smashingly! I packed the scoop with the dough with a silcone spatula, and dropped them onto the baking sheet in mounds. It was still a little fiddly, having to use the release lever a couple or three times on occasion, but much faster than using a silicone spatula and knife as I had been. Then i flattened and spread the mounds slightly with the spatula and my fingers. And BONUS, the biscuits came out looking a lot more like cut out biscuits and rose higher. Yay, this is my goto method from now on. Second, please don't follow Mex Chef's suggestion in post 13 to seed hot peppers with a melon baller if you don't wear glasses for close work. The dull edge of the melon baller causes a lot more pepper juice to spray up from the work surface than a sharp knife. Believe me folks, when I say, fiery finger is preferable to fiery EYE!

Hi, Simon. Their have been some very good thoughts and suggestions in your thread. I just thought I would add one about processed cheese, like a good quality American. I usually add some to my mac and cheese, and always, if it will be frozen. The resulting sauce is smother and creamier, initially, and especially after it's frozen and reheated, as opposed to a sauce of 100% natural cheese(s). I believe whatever they do to "process" the cheese accounts for this in the same way as the addition of sodium citrate to the Modernist version. I second the suggestions to test your recipe ahead of time to see what freezing does to it. If your worried about getting burned out on cauliflower so close to the date, you could use broccoli or some other vegetable. A critical step for success of your dish will be draining your cauliflower very well before combining with the sauce. I find that just draining hot broccoli in a colander results in watered down cheese sauce every time. It holds a lot of liquid in the interstices of the florets. I drain it well, then return it to the still hot pot it was cooked in over the turned off burner it was cooked on for a few minutes. I found it eliminates that problem by evaporating excess water.

liuzhou and Ttogull, That's very interesting information about the word 'entrée' and its current application in the the U.S. Thank you. The use of this term is so ubiquitous in our culture to mean the main course, that I had never questioned it, and I took four years of French. I'm not going to buck it at this point because it would be pointless for something so ingrained into the mainstream. It also has an alternate American English meaning of gaining entry to something which is more in line with the modern French translation. JoNorvelleWalker: I can definitely understand Ttogull's interpretation of the linked text as tedious. It was still interesting to me too, but I slogged through it because I was hungry for the information. It's poorly written. I hope the rest of the book is better, and I reckon it must be to keep him reading.

Thank you, paulraphael, for the best laughs I've had in a long time. I tend to be very serious, maybe even a little dour, with a dry, wry sense of humor. Once it gets going though..., well I was laughing so hard I had to explain my bizarre behavior to my husband. I came back from the bathroom, still chuckling, and then read this comment from "Burner613": "Six years ago my then 3 year old son saw the Santa version of the snowman pan in the catalog and asked me to get it. I did because I was 7 months pregnant and felt guilty about this being his last Christmas without a sibling. WORST DECISION. First, the fancy ass decorations in the catalog were done with fruit leather and fondant. Yeah, that wasn't happening. Second, you have to glue the sides together and let them "set" before frosting your monstrosity so the cake dries out beautifully. And, finally, I ended up full on pregnancy fueled crying at 2 AM because Santa looks like a lawn jockey in white face after a bender. It scared the crap out of the kid (here have a slice of face and arm!) and tasted like sand. I tried it again a few years later with one of their expensive mixes and less frosting - still nasty and creepy." I had to wipe tears after that, being primed by Drew's mockery on W & S! "Santa looks like a lawn jockey in white face after a bender." "Here have a slice of face and arm!" To a toddler! Those are the two lines that most got me. I am laughing insanely again hours later, thinking about it again and typing this. Seriously, Thanks.

Weinoo, No I don't like dried out, burned, "crispy" cheese at all, but love a little browning on top of gooey cheese. Everybody Else, and Weinoo, too! Anyone ever thought about using a cast iron enameled reversible grill, like I got with my Charbroil gas grill? One side has grill ridges, the other's a flat griddle, perfect for pizza, on the grill or in the oven. A really good heat sink. They're much cheaper than plate stainless, and much easier to access for most of us. It's what I use, and so far, after four years, seems pretty indestructible.

Hey, Lady BonBon, I was also a longtime lurker and learner. I'm also very, very happy to be a member of this enriching place. It's so great to be able to occasionally be able to contribute something small to the site that's given me so much, and widened my culinary horizons so significantly. Welcome.

Oh, CatPoet! This topic is so interesting to me! I have a recipe from a 1970's Betty Crocker (mainstream American Caucasian) cookbook about a St. Lucia Crown. It provides nothing at all on the provenance, but it's a bready yeast concoction with saffron, citron, and candied fruit. If you have any knowledge of where this culinary creation originates, and anything else at all, I would be most appreciative. I also LOVE cats, and desire to know why this is traditional in Sweden. Thank you so much for this thread!

We have no neighborhood Walmart grocery markets in our neck of the woods that I'm aware of yet. I did go to the Walmart super store for a grocery shop when my husband suggested they were cheaper. I'm always up for that, even though one of our local news stations periodically does a market basket shop for common staples, and Walmart never wins. I was still willing to give it a shot for economy. I started in the produce department, and loaded up my cart with the usual suspects. We don't buy many processed foods. Then we proceeded to the meats, and when I started looking at ground beef that admitted on its label it'd been gassed with carbon monoxide in the telltale deep styrofoam containers with expiration dates an alarming week in the future. I went and found my husband, and he agreed with me we'd be better off shopping at our usual place which still has a butcher (just primals, no whole animals). They grind "beef" which I don't buy anymore after the pink slime mess, sirloin, round, and, my preference, chuck, fresh everyday. The price is no different for now, but I fear that less discerning customers in huge masses will support these neighborhood Walmarts and drive the very few independents out of business. This is SO NOT good news to me.

I roasted off the last of my oversized cauliflower for dinner, and it was very, very fine. We enjoyed some of it in salad raw earlier, and it was fine there too, so no degradation of quality for its large size. Probably part of the "It" status it currently enjoys is because of the low carb factor, and the popularity of recipes that make it much more delicious than plain boiled. I'm not a fan of it boiled, especially if overcooked, but I absolutely love it properly roasted, thanks to eGullet!

I'm not trying to convince Anna of anyone else to eat something they don't enjoy, but I thought I'd share a way to make commercial kale quite edible to anyone who's interested. Years ago, in Memphis, in the fall, when the flowers along a sunny wall of the house were spent in fall, I'd plant kale from seed in the beds. Harvested when small, it's quite tender, and boils up very quickly, mild and tender as spinach. Also, the more frequently you harvest the leaves from the outer plant, the more it encourages new growth in the middle. We had kale all fall, and sometimes quite far into the winter. Then in early spring, the roots were still viable, and we'd get another crop. When the weather warms, the plants want to flower and bolt, and it's time for another flower bed. I tried the same thing with supermarket kale harvested at over a foot long, and I think you'd have to cook it like southern collards, as huiray suggests, to make it edible. BUT, you can take the overgrown supermarket kale, tear it into pieces off the stems, toss it in a plastic bag or bowl with olive oil, less salt and pepper than you'd think it needs and bake. It's easy to oversalt because you're dehydrating it. Spread on baking sheet(s) in a single layer. It only takes a few minutes at 350F to crisp and brown into something that tastes like potato chips. Watch closely to prevent burning, and turn the pieces when the tops are brown, but the bottom isn't dehydrated yet.This treatment destroys the toughness for a reason I can't explain. The kale chips shatter on your tongue. It's similar to roasted cauliflower, but it's all crispy bits. It's the only way I can eat overgrown kale, but I really like it this way.

Yes, rotuts, it looks like Kim Shook's gravy may have neck meat in it. I love it made like that.

I like both linen and cotton, but a good polyester cotton blend is not only perma-press and more stain resistant, but lasts years longer. I have some clothes from the 70's I still wear that are poly-cotton. Granted, I've had to park them in the closet for over a decade at times due to weight gain, but all the cottons from that era are tattered rags or dust under the same conditions. I even have 20-year-old towels made with this blend. The way I understand it, the core of the weave is poly, and the outer layer is the cotton. The good ones feel and absorb like cotton but last two or three times longer, don't need ironing, and don't take stains nearly as badly. Bleach may remove stains, but if you use it very often or in strong concentration, you will give up longevity of your fabrics. I have red napkins I use whenever we have ribs, pasta with red sauce or anything else that would stain a lighter color.

Anna, That has to be the best and most tender-looking round I've seen. I try not to cultivate interest in yet more expensive cooking equipment I have no room to store, but this photo of your dinner is a very powerful supportive argument for SV.

I have a lot of hearsay evidence from credible witnesses (my ex-SIL, and her then husband, my brother, as well as random friends/co-workers of theirs at the time) with this issue, but not direct experience. They all worked at a country club. SIL front of house, and my brother was Food and Beverage Manager in the 80's. The chef apparently had deity status, and could do no wrong in upper management's eyes. From all I heard he was a true psychopath with many issues. The sexual harassment directed toward front and back of house female employees is surreal to me when I think back on their stories. Apparently one attractive young "salad girl" or prep cook took the brunt of it. Even back then, that level of insanity would have called for a lawsuit in any office setting I ever worked in. I sincerely hope the restaurant business culture has and can continue to move on from this ugly underside that not everyone knows about. And I agree with liuzhou, most people in abusive relationships are in them because they are relatively powerless, many times for economic reasons. People don't actively choose to be abused. Money as it pertains to survival can be a powerful motivator and trap.

I bought today the largest cauliflower I've ever seen. It's 9-1/2" radius in one direction, and 8-1/2 " rad. in the other. The lateral circumference is 21-1/8", (bigger by a little than Scarlet O'hara's waist) and it measures 8" rad. from top to bottom. Should have weighed it on the scale in the produce department, but didn't because it was being sold by the piece for only $2.99. I estimate this monster weighs between 4 and 5 pounds. It's snow white, and destined to be roasted, probably only half at the go though since it's easily twice as big a a normal specimen, which takes two baking trays. I wish I had a camera and a way to download the pic, because I know you can't believe me without evidence. This guy is branded FOXY out of Salinas, CA. They have a website: www.foxy.com, which I haven't had time to explore. I showed my husband what I got, and he hadn't ever seen one that big either, and he's ten years older than I. I wonder what's going on with the growing conditions that is allowing this aberration? Some veggies are definitely degraded by growing overlarge, but this appears at least to the eye to not come under that fold. I'll check back later, after roasting, and give a more informed opinion. Maybe some others are getting these double big cauliflowers? Please communicate if you get or even see one.

Hello, Tiny! That's interesting about the rosemary with sweets. I use it to what I think is very good effect in my very slightly sweet cornbread with olive oil, but had not considered it for desserts and such. It's one of my favorite herbs, and luckily, I have a neighbor with a six-foot diameter bush she generously gave me permission to harvest at will. It's so nice to have that source of super fresh organic rosemary. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you. Welcome to eGullet.

Shel, FWIW Rancho Gordo's website recommends them for baked beans. "They have a thin skin but still manage to hold their shape." The acid in most baked bean recipes also keeps the beans from becoming mush. I had a disaster thirty or more years ago when I tried to cook kidney beans in a crock pot for chili, and added tomatoes too early. At this late date I couldn't swear that I presoaked the beans, but it is my normal practice. Because we were poor I cooked those beans for two days. They never became soft or edible. Acid is critical for successful baked beans, but shouldn't be added too early.