Thanks for the Crepes

Kim, I had to Google it, and it came up as a nickname for Portland, OR, derived from the code for their international airport. But I too would love to hear from jpebbs for a confirmation and more info about what he likes to cook and eat.

Well maybe because I never reuse frying oil canola works for me. I CAN taste reused frying oil and despise it. The only time I use oil twice is when we do a fish fry on the back deck. I cook the taters first (two steps), then the fish. The oil used to get cooled in situ, then put back into its plastic container and thrown out. One time the raccoons came up after dark and started fishing cornmeal bits that had fallen off the fish. I was afraid they'd be burned, but apparently the oil had cooled enough so they were okay. They scratched the non-stick surface of my fryer with their claws. Now I take it inside to cool as soon as it won't require an ER visit if I trip or slop a little.

Kerry, you made me laugh with delight on the "walking on water" bit. :-) Some of us think you actually do, though. Sad to see y'all leave Manitoulin, but I'll eagerly await your return visit and blog. The English girl's recipe for stem ginger definitely keeps the boiling water. Thanks again for the recipes for ginger biscuits and the rich, rich content you contribute to this site. I wish you and Anna a very safe trip home.

Hey, Kerry, Thanks for the response. I am frankly awed to be conversing with the human dynamo I've admired (oh let's be honest, dang near worshiped) for years. I couldn't accomplish all you do with three or five clones. You're an amazing lady! You save lives, raise a seriously challenged child, take care of a husband, and cook up a storm, seem to have a whole lot of fun with life, yet you still have time to lend a hand to lesser human beings like me. I will never forget your foray into salt-raising bread. It was intriguing and more than a little scary. Gangrene bacterium? Yikes! You are intrepid. The steaming of the ginger, I'd guess is to concentrate more of the the ginger flavor in the actual ginger I guess. I'm also enamored of the idea of a strongly flavored syrup that I can think of several uses for off the top of my head. So I think I'll boil it this time, but I'll definitely keep the steaming idea in mind, especially if too much flavor leaches out of my ginger. I've found from a recipe in the "Joy of Cooking," that simmering ginger and garlic longer than the 15 minutes called for in the recipe destroys flavor. Since you throw out both ginger and garlic, I thought a longer simmer would extract more flavor, but I should've trusted Irma.

Cat Poet, I use canola oil that's labeled "made in USA". I can't taste any fishy, rancid or stale odors to it at all. I have a sensitive palate, and sometimes have to just ignore something on my plate without saying anything while my husband is eating it happily. I speak up when he's finished, and he says he not only found nothing wrong with it but thoroughly enjoyed. I'm careful not to buy too much oil at a time though because we normally don't go through it very fast. On the rare occasions when we fry or deep fry, I'll make a special purchase of oil. I prefer peanut oil for frying, but it's currently not in the budget. I use canola because it has many of the health benefits of olive oil at a much cheaper price, and it withstands heat much better. It's cheaper than butter, too, and while for some baked goods, that lovely butter flavor cannot be replaced with oil satisfactorily, I find that cakes and muffins are moister and keep longer made with oil. I too would love to know if anyone knows the science behind why some perceive canola as "fishy". It seems quite a common complaint. I feel lucky I don't have those receptors or always luck out on fresh oil.

I'm going to try version 1 of Kerry's recipe. First I have to get to the S-Mart for ginger where it's fresh and cheap. I'll have to make my own stem ginger, but I just bookmarked a recipe for it. The recipe just calls for ginger, sugar and water. Kerry, is that how you make your preserved ginger?

Yeah, I actually like the crusts for their caramelly flavor and a bit of tough texture that they introduce on sandwich breads. You go Anna! I have SO followed the Manatoulin excursions between you two friends for SO many years! I'm sad this outing seems to be drawing to a close way too soon for most of us who hang on vicariously. Thanks for the memories and the STUNNING photographs. May the "Ladies Who Lunch" rock on FOREVER! Thank You!

Hey, FrogPrincesse. Your inquiry intrigued me because I'd never heard of "stem" ginger, but I love ginger and shortbread. I Googled both stem ginger and said biscuits, and a Jamie Oliver forum topic came up on the first page when I looked for "stem ginger biscuits". The OP is from Germany and looking for exactly what you are. There are two responses w/recipes: one from England or Scotland for Scottish Ginger Shortbread, and one from Australia with Stem Ginger Biscuits. The OP makes the recipe for the Scottish version, and reports her results. I hope someone from eG who's actually made these will be more helpful than I can, but for now, you can learn more about them, if you like, to get more ideas about a recipe from someone who loves them like you do, and has actually made them.

Hi, maarla! Welcome to eGullet. I've made samosa's from the "Joy of Cooking," 1997 edition. Their recipe calls for phyllo dough filled with spiced mashed potatoes, peas and cilantro. You roll them up like the little spanakopita appetizer triangles, which I usually make at the same time.They are baked in the oven, and are light, crispy and delicious. I have frozen them individually before baking on a baking tray, then put in a zip lock bag. I love being able to take a few out whenever I want an appetizer and bake them up from frozen anytime.

SylviaLovegren, I always desperately wanted one of those Barbie skirt cakes for my birthday when I was a kid. They were like magical fairy princesses to this little girl. Some other kids that I was invited to their parties were getting them, but I wasn't allowed one of the cakes or the dolls. I suspect my mom who was valedictorian of her high school and nursing school classes, may have thought the doll represented the wrong aspirations for young girls. That was the one thing I ever asked for on my birthday that was off limits. I finally got a Barbie (not the coveted cake) as a gift from a friend of the family when I was hospitalized, but I was twelve, and by then, and it was too late. Sigh.

My mom always made all of us siblings an animal cut-up cake of our choosing from the Baker's Angel Flake coconut book before she died. She would have made anything else if we wanted it, but we all chose the cut-up cakes every time. You can find the photos and directions on-line. They are cut from parts of round layers or square or 13 x 9's. The instructions are simple and clear, and you decorate them with frosting, coconut and candies. Children love them. Ours was the one with the lion on the cover from the late 50' or early sixties. The year I was 5 or six, I had "Spot the Fox Terrier", and my baby brother grabbed a fistful of it before it could be cut and served, resulting in a traumatic experience that I remember clearly 5 decades later. Edit: Link didn't take, and post made no sense without it.

NC Masonic Lodge BBQ Sauce 1 c white vinegar 1/4 c catsup 1 t salt 4-1/2 t sugar 1 T crushed red pepper 1/8 t black pepper 2 T water T means tablespoon; t means teaspoon. Pay attention, or you'll go astray! Proportions and balance are everything with this recipe. They are humble, inexpensive ingredients, but create a gestalt a bunch of folks find very appealing. Of course adjust to your own taste after the first endeavor if you want. If you're going to use this as a basting sauce for smoked or grilled raw meat, you need to combine all the ingredients in a pot and simmer very slowly for 30 minutes. In this case, separate your basting sauce from that you're going to use at the table for food safety. When I make ribs or a relatively small piece of pork shoulder in a covered casserole in the oven, I just mix all the ingredients right in the casserole and stir until the salt, sugar and catsup are dissolved. Then add meat, and turn in the sauce til coated, and cook in a very slow oven for several hours until tender. You want the collagen to succumb, but don't overcook; you don't want meat mush. Ribs should be easy to separate from the bone, but not fall off on their own. The oven does the simmering step for the sauce. Turn the meat a few times for even cooking and moisture/sauce distribution. After the sauce has been cooked in the oven, it's safe to use at the table, if you wish. When I do it in the oven I usually cool it in the sauce, then refrigerate still in the sauce overnight. Ribs should be placed in the sauce meat side down in the fridge. The next day I take the meat out and cook it either on the grill or a moderate oven for ribs or a slower one for the small butt, turning several times. Baste every time you turn with your reserved sauce. I include the rendered pork fat in the baste, but if you're a fat phobe you can skim that off when it's cold from the fridge. If the cook is done right, the fat is mostly rendered out and burned off in the last cook to brown. When it's reheated turn the grill or oven up to high, broil for the oven. Watch like a hawk. The sugar from the ketchup and (duh) sugar are meant to balance the salty, sour, hot flavors, but can lead to burning before you can say, "Jack Robinson". I hope you enjoy this.

I tried to edit my post above when I remembered I have a really good recipe for the NC vinegar based sauce SylviaLovegren mentions above in this thread, and was allowed to do the edit, but I guess I took too long to complete the post. Anyway, it went poof, after I'd spent a chunk of my life trying to share it. It's reduced down from the 40-gallon one the Cary chapter of the Masonic Lodge uses for their fundraiser pig pickin's. If anyone wants it, let me know, and I'll try again.

Thanks for the welcome SylviaLovegren! My little sister had a pig pickin' for her wedding feast at her church with no alcohol allowed. A lot of the guests were bummed about the dry stipulation, including my brother and me, but it was a beautiful day, and I respected her wishes enough to have a wonderful time, and create unforgettable memories from so many years ago. I can look up from my computer station at my dining table, and see a matted, I'd guess 8-1/2" x 11" photo (excluding matting) that my sister-in-law had framed for me of my sister in her exquisite wedding gown she made herself, my brother, and I with a dogwood tree in full bloom on the church grounds, under the sun that shone down on everything that day. Good times. I just wish we all looked like we did then in the picture, but still were as wise and experienced as we are now. Pig pickin's for weddings are quite the custom here.

Deryn, Your crepe maker sounds a lot like the devices I saw the "Hell's Kitchen" contestants having epic fails with, but I totally understand the delight in a new kitchen toy and the multipurpose uses you had in mind when you got it. What fun to sit around the table with a small group and cook your own ingredients! I hope you get much enjoyment from it. I hope you didn't take my reflections of 1987 Asheville to be derogatory in any way. I am a simple country girl at heart, even though I'm stuck in the city for my husband's employment. I was raised on a 20-acre hobby farm in Vermont. We had horses, and raised a few calves for slaughter. My dad grew up plowing a mule down in Bossier Parish, Louisiana. He got out of poverty by joining the navy at 17 and going to MIT for an electrical engineering degree on the GI bill, which actually had teeth in those days. I've accompanied his dad, my grandpa to the local schools to pick up waste cafeteria food from lunch service that was separated from other trash. That's what he fed to his hogs. We slaughtered, ate and sold the hogs along with the chickens he also raised. They were free range chickens, as were the hogs, and he sold the eggs, produce from his garden and a tropical houseplants in his older age from his front yard. He used to have a small dairy before regulation drove him out. There was a picture of me my grandma kept next to her bed until the day she died showing me at about three years old milking one of the cows into a 3 pound Maxwell House coffee can. My cousins asked me if I wasn't embarrassed to go to the schools for the hog slop, but I was too young and naive to understand what they were talking about. I was just happy to spend time with my grandpa and give him what help I could. Nowadays the food we ate back then is high dollar fare for sophisticates. I've never had better pork or chicken in my life anywhere. The friends we were visiting in 1987 were our regular companions at the Bass Mountain bluegrass festival in Burlington, NC, for years, and had invited us to their home in Asheville to stay for a long weekend. We camped at the Burlington festival and always cooked and ate our meals at our campsites, collaborating on our meals and sharing them. Your running water remark reminds me of dark nights many moons ago when I would carefully pick my way by flashlight through the cow pasture to the outhouse on my grandparent's property. They got running water later, and that was a very, very good thing! Please believe me when I tell you there's not a snobby bone in my body, and if I had my way I'd get out of this rat race, and start raising all my own food again.

Naftal, Thanks for the welcome. UNC-CH is a very well respected (and expensive school). I'm sure your nephew will go far in life.

We used to live in Jericho and then Essex Junction, Vt. We were lucky enough to live right down the road, a couple miles away from an apple orchard. Us kids picked many bushels of McIntosh and picked up some "drops" off the ground. The drops were a lot cheaper than the ones you picked off the trees. $2 a bushel for drops; I think tree apples were $6 a bushel. Both included the baskets. Not like today when "Pick your own" is a tourist attraction and costs much more than you could buy the item in question at the local grocery. This was a different time, when the Honor System actually worked. We'd immediately process the drops into applesauce, apple butter or apple pies to freeze and cook later through the winter. The ones we picked off the trees were stored in there bushel (8 gal.) baskets in our unheated basement. It wasn't heated per se, but apparently, the ambient heat from the rest of the ranch house kept the basement from freezing. The washer and dryer were down there, and so were the apples. I adore McIntosh picked freshly off the tree. They are seasonal, and you will have a tough time finding them in the south, like I do. They don't keep very well, but in our unheated, but not frozen Vermont basement, these bushel baskets provided me with a lot of pleasure eating these fresh off the tree treasures for most of our desolate winter. Folks say if you refrigerate them they become mealy, and I keep my fridge almost frozen to keep milk and stuff longer. Probably not a good place for my beloved apples. The McIntosh do fine for months in a root cellar-like unheated basement in the Great White North. The season for them is coming up again! I can't wait, my favorite.

Deryn, Please try the technique of swirl a thin crepe batter in a non-stick skillet, which you probably already own for eggs and such. I promise that even crepe-phobes like me can have a successful result. Read this: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/89116-crepes-cook-off-23/ I promise that you will be able to produce lovely crepes without any special equipment. In fact, I think that unscruplous people promote expensive devices to take advantage of people's fear of failure. What I remember from Asheville was a local auction in 1987. It was what to do on a Saturday night. Everyone came because there was not anything else to do; it may be different now. My boyfriend and I went with the local folks we were visiting. They were very aggressive in trying to make me buy a cosmetics collection they had. I declined, but they made me feel very bad. I have enough cosmetics to last long after my death. I did stop on the way out of town and buy a very inexpensive jewelry box that the person selling it on the side of the road had hand-made. I still have it and use it. It's a dark-stained very hard wood with brass pulls and red velvet lining. It seems like most of the folks, except of course the tourists, are quite poor in that area. They also seem to be quite proud and moral, and determined to make their lot better.

Hey Kim, I've only been to Richmond one time for my sister in law's graduation from medical school. I was very impressed by the beautiful architechture and the history of the place. The lovely old buildings, all the statues! I was also taken aback by the horrible neighborhood my SIL lived in. She lived over a hair salon, which smelled really bad. The surrounding area was filled with homeless people, who are really sad to me because most of us are about two, three, or a few more paychecks from being there ourselves. Anyway, they were bumming money, and on our walk to the place SIL lived, we encountered fresh blood on the sidewalk. Not a lethal amount, necessarily, but enough to scare us quite a bit, and remain with me since 1987. So it's not all history and architecture. SIL said she just stayed in after dark and was fine, but she's pretty and quite small, and I worried about her a lot after going for her graduation. She was out of there shortly afterward to an internship, and it eased my mind. I'm sure you know the better sides of the city. I'd love to explore them with you one day. I'm absolutely delighted that you're feeling better! Thank God!

North Carolina sweet potatoes are just beginning to be harvested. My husband and I split almost a two pounder that was so fresh that when I scrubbed it with my vegetable brush, brought with me from Memphis in 1986 and made in USA, the skin began to peel off like new potatoes (the regular kind of potatoes). I've never had a sweet potato before that was quite that fresh before, even though I live in the mecca for them. Delicious! I'm so lucky that my husband likes sweet potatoes like I do: just some butter and a little salt. Not tarted up with sugar, spices, or marshmallows. He even likes brussels sprouts and spinach. I do make a mean sweet potato pie that is not very sweet and just a tad spicy. Pumpkin pie can be kind of cloying to me. I worked in the 70's in Plough, Inc.'s Maybelline cost accounting division, and they had a truly amazing cafeteria for us employees. One thing I picked up is sweet potato pie. I would get that and a salad many days, and one day, I told the old black lady serving up the delicious, fluffy pie, "This is the best pumpkin pie I ever tasted." She told me, "Honey, that's because it's sweet tater pie.". I'm serious, sweet potatoes have more fiber and less water in them, and cook up a bunch fluffier in a pie. One of my favorites. Anyone who wants my recipe, just ask, but try to use NC sweet potatoes if you can. They rock!

chefmd, Good luck! I'm sorry I'm not as creative or brilliant as Kerry Beal or Lisa Shock. Only on egullet could anyone come up with viable ideas that might accidentally work with those incongruous ingredients. I'll keep thinking on though, albeit rather queasily. I hope your son comes up with a winner, but I have to say, this is a Toughie, with a capital T. Is it permissible to have 2 separate components? Maybe one with Jiffy mix and kale, and cheese or other ingredients, and one with Jiffy mix, lemon and crushed peppermints. That seems to have much more chance of success. Any other stipulations or limitations that might allow him to remain in or get out of the box his prof seems to have put him in? (I had to Google B-school too.)

Hey, blue_dolphin! I love T.J.'s too. I know I don't have to scrutinize the ingredients in even processed foods like I would at my mainstream grocery store because apparently T.J.'s still adheres to some old school standards about not feeding their patrons poisonous or at least questionable ingredients. That is a REALLY good thing, but at my local one it is so crowded at even at off hours, I have to give myself a pep talk to be able to withstand it. If you did try to read an ingredient label in situ, I could foresee a lynching or at least a vigorous round of verbal abuse. On weekends here, it's a NOGO. The store hands out samples of their products. I never stood in line for one, but the one time I did go over the weekend, the queues for samples were such that they blocked access to the freezer cases, which you already have to stand in short lines to access when there're no samples on offer. NEVER again. If I go at a non-peak time, I have to say this is my very favorite store for quality and price. Sometimes they are even cheaper than corporate offerings, while maintaining quality standards not seen or heard of in many years. My only beef with the pumpkin croissants is that, at least at my store, they suspend the chocolate ones to make room for them. Did you cross Lake Champlain on the ferry, or another body of water? I lived in Jericho and Essex Jct., VT while my dad worked at IBM in the late 60's and early 70's.

Thank you for the kind welcome, Kim Shook! Yours are always among the posts I look forward to. I'm very sorry to hear of your health problems and wish you a speedy recovery from everything, and it, unfortunately, seems like a daunting lot. I have followed this forum for many years, and you have always been kind and helpful to everyone. It would be a privilege to know you in real life, I am convinced. I love your down home Southern cookin', lady! I hope you continue to delight people with your cuisine for many more years. It is such a pleasure to meet you in virtual space.

I use waxed paper in my kitchen for many of the things that have already been mentioned in this thread, but something I find it indispensable for is nuking already made and assembled breakfast sandwiches. I can't stand nuked leftover pizza, and always spend the money to heat the oven because it comes out crispier. (Yes I'm aware of the covered skillet/griddle method from Serious Eats, too). Ham or sausage or bacon, egg and cheese biscuits seem to reheat and steam beautifully in the micro when wrapped in waxed paper, and I trust it a lot more than I do plastic wrap, even the ones that claim they're microwave safe. It's good for nuking burritos I send in my husband's lunch too. It keeps the bread component from becoming unappealingly tough. I do overwrap in plastic though for transport and storage with instructions to remove plastic before nuking, because it's a lot better at keeping moisture in the food and ambient moisture OUT of it from the condensation effect of the ice packs in his lunch box.

Shel_B- I see what you are saying, but the alternatives: plastic wrap and foil are even more environmentally unfriendly. This comes from a person who has one small bag of trash weekly, mostly styrofoam meat trays, egg cartons, used tissues and other stuff, and yes, waxed paper, that our local recycling program won't accept. The recycle bin, about 70 gallons is full to the brim every other week. I miss the days of cardboard egg cartons. You can still get them at Trader Joe's. I know you are a fan of their franchises, but I can't always get there when I need eggs. ETA: The bit about cardboard egg cartons.