Thanks for the Crepes

I can't believe that after all the discussion about beans vs. no beans chili no one has picked up on this recent post by @robirdstx. She's a Texan and seems to be in the beans camp (at least sometimes) with me and a few others. But people should eat chili that makes them happy, beans or not. Hot or not, whateves. Me? I like hot with beans sometimes on top of spaghetti. My dinner was a mushroom pizza at Primo Pizza on an errand run over in the vicinity. This is so good when it's hot! It cools quickly, though, and while still good, I sort of wish I could eat it faster because only the first slice is perfect. It slightly burned my mouth, but weirdly, that's the way I like it ever since a small child. I have been fantasizing about pizza since getting the CSO, but I need to do more research before trying it in there. There isn't a recipe for pizza in the owner's manual. I have half of the mushroom pizza left for dinner tomorrow, which is good, because I have another errand.

I think I found the link to the article @JoNorvelleWalkerrefers to in the above post. Warning, though. If you do not have a subscription, like I don't to the NY Times, you are limited to 10 free articles a month. So you might want to keep that in mind and follow any NYT links judiciously, depending on your interest. This is the recent one I think Jo is referring to. And here is one from January of 2017 where Melissa Clark sets out to find out what all the buzz around the Instant Pot is about. Here is yet another one (undated that I could find) where Melissa tells how to use the pot. I found the last one so useful to this newbie owner of an IP I have bookmarked it, without any idea of whether I will be allowed to access the article twice without a subscription. I'm not familiar with how the NYT paywall works, so if the links don't work for you, just Google "melissa clark instant pot" and they will be the first three things that come back on the search. I'm trying to get a lot of information together before venturing out with my IP. I used to be so scared of the old Presto aluminum stove top pressure cooker I had to cook with as a kid in the '60's. I can't find any pictures of it, but I swear it had a thick (and heavy) circular disk weight that sat on top of a stem valve in the middle of the lid of the pot. There were three pressure positions on the round weight with holes drilled around the circumference to fit the valve. These were the kind that would explode if not closely tended. I believe they were 5, 10 and 15 pounds of pressure, but wouldn't swear to that 50 years later. You had to wait for the weight to start wobbling, and then you knew it was up to pressure. God help you, if you let it get too hot. Food would be on the ceiling. Worrywart that I am, although it never happened to me personally, I haven't owned a PC of any kind since until this IP. I feel like I have catapulted reluctantly into the 21st century! Does anyone remember the manual Presto aluminum pressure cookers I described above? @andiesenji?

I'm glad your stock wasn't compromised @JoNorvelleWalker. It was probably just a power blip. I hope so.

I use the Buddig beef for chipped beef too. It's cheaper and (believe it or not) not as salty as the shelf stable kind in a glass jar. Just cut way down on the salt in your white sauce, and I don't even think it's that horrible for you. I think @Kim Shooksaid that's what she uses too sometimes. I'm excited you're sharing part of your life during hunting season with us again @Shelby. I'll be avidly tagging along. I have had dill pickle roll-ups at a party and they were really good, but these were wrapped in Danish ham. It will be interesting to see how you make yours if you decide to do them during your blog.

I am absolutely sure that somewhere on eG I have read a transcript of an interview with Fieri where he states that all the wild hair and flamboyant embellishment are part of his TV personality and he thinks it's a crazy as the next person. I can't remember where I found it and have been unsuccessful in searching. I don't know why I think this, and I am usually WRONG on these speculations, but I think it was @chromedome's link where I read it somewhere? That is really cool though, that he covers his employees with health care of his own volition, I think. You can't judge everyone on appearance alone.

Well if you ever make the recipe again, you can take comfort in this quote from Marcella Hazan from her recipe for Chick-Pea Soup in "The Classic Italian Cook Book" 1973: "I always peel chick-peas before using them in soup, but it is a chore, and if you'd rather put up with the peels than with the chore, you can omit it." I make an escarole and chick pea soup that is delicious with just a little onion and beef broth that was inspired by Marcella, but I do NOT peel the chick peas. Then shredded parm goes over the top for serving. I guess that makes me a slattern in @Shelby's mom's world, but I am okay with that.

Anna, I bet this tastes amazing! I can almost smell the fragrance in your kitchen. I am curious about the large, lighter disks on your chocolate banana bread. I thought they were less intense chocolate dough cutouts placed on top and seem to be cracking on top like the darker chocolate base. Your link shows a loaf topped with chocolate chips. So, if you don't mind, what are round disks?

Sounds like you had a really fun day, Nicolai, and a great lunch! Hope you got a nice tan. Just for the record though, the "Smarties" are called M & M's over here. They are low quality milk chocolate in a hard, but thin, sugar candy shell with artificial colors. Yum, yum right? Still not as jarring as these super sour, chalky candies we call Smarties as an accompaniment to your otherwise delicious dessert. Smarties may be different in your country. I didn't really think about that because the M&M's are so recognizable. Maybe they call them by a different name?

@Kim Shook, Good question. Unfortunately I can't help. I would be interested in what you wind up doing and your results, though.

I steam baked a big (one pound) chicken leg quarter and a Russet potato that weighed perhaps a bit less in the maiden voyage for my new Cuisinart Steam Oven tonight. It came out pretty okay for a first attempt. On the side was broccoli with cheddar cheese cooked the usual old school way, although I understand you can steam vegetables and even Chinese buns in the CSO. Just not at the same time you're roasting chicken. It will be interesting to try that down the road, though. Leftover roast chicken for tomorrow's dinner. Also a little taco meat with Hatch chili and onion for a taco salad from the day before. Being a single eater is a constant battle with leftovers, but even the leftovers turn out to be tastier than most frozen dinners from the grocer's freezer to me. Probably cheaper too. Well certainly cheaper than the higher end ones. I admit I've tried a few of those, from regular grocery stores and I can't think of a single one I like or would buy again. Trader Joe's is the exception, and they have many frozen offerings that are very good, but so far are a little out of my walking range. I have done 8 miles split evenly between the past two days, and my motivation is high to get to TJ's so I may well wind up going there when it cools down some.

I used my CSO for the first time tonight to cook a big (one pound) chicken leg quarter and a baked potato a little less then a pound. I know there is excellent guidance for chicken and many other things in this thread, but searching for the specific information I want seems to be beyond my capacity. So, I read through the two chicken recipes in the owner's manual. Hmm. One for whole roast 4 pound chicken says steam bake at 450 F for 50 minutes. The other for four thighs says steam bake at 300 F for 60 minutes. Not much guidance, but I decided to go 425 F for 45 minutes. It worked fine, and the chicken and potato were good. The temp registered 180 F when I took the chicken out at the end of the cycle. That was 5 or 10 degrees higher than I wanted to take it. I would have taken it out to check the temp when the skin around the "ankle" joint on the drumstick split and exposed the bone in a conventional oven. I was afraid to open the door lest I mess up the program or get scalded with steam. Can one open the door while a cook program is running? How cautious does one have to be with the hot steam? I know steam will penetrate regular padded fabric oven mitts like they weren't even there. I did manage to run the steam clean function after figuring out it wasn't a one touch button operation as advertised in the manual. It doesn't say so, but I had to press Start/Cancel to get steam clean to start. On one hand Duh, but they could have said so in an instruction manual. It worked very well to help clean up the mess the roast chicken made of my shiny new oven. And best of all, I didn't have to get down on my knees and stick my head into a conventional oven or deal with caustic chemicals. This chicken did not suffer a lot from the slight overcook. The birds these came from are so mature and got some exercise I can tell. I think next time, I'll try maybe steam bake 350 F for 40 minutes and then steam bake at 400 F for another 10 minutes and see what the temp is. Maybe convection bake at the end to get the crispiest skin? I have four more of these giant leg quarters in the freezer. Any advice for a CSO newbie? Has anyone made pizza in it? I've been without an oven for so long , that I am just so happy to have the CSO now you really wouldn't believe it.

Here is a YouTube video where they evaluate 4 different immersion circulators plus the Sous Vide Supreme side by side.

@andiesenji, Thanks for the interesting story about the salt deposits on your family farm. Scary about the arsenic! So do you know anything about these family plates that @gfron1's family owns? Or these ones from @Shelby's family, which seem very similar, but with no provenance? Here gfron1 speculates: A lot of us thought you might know why two different families would have such similar artifacts. If you don't know, that's okay, of course. I just wanted to make sure you had seen them. If you don't know, it will probably remain a great mystery, because you are the expert on old cookware, gadgets, dishes and such. We are all in awe of your knowledge and it's a delight to many of us when you make a new post.

I've had the sugar cookie, cream cheese, fresh fruit version of dessert pizza kayb describes once at a baby shower. It was good and very pretty decorated with multicolored fruits in a sunburst pattern. I think crosswise sliced kiwi fruit is a must here, and I believe the cream cheese "sauce" was slightly sweetened probably with a little honey. I've also had fruit pizza on traditional pizza crust and baked in the pizza oven. The ones around here just dump canned apple or cherry pie filling on the crust and bake. You could make your own fruit pie filling, though. I must admit I kind of like a slice of the cherry pizza pie, but I'm a sucker for sour cherries.

Well, I'm extremely glad to hear that Sebastien Bras found a way to deal with the stress that was much more healthy than this sad tale of Bernard Loiseau and Benoît Violier in "The New Yorker". So, you do not fail in your memory @KennethT. Good Lord! What a brutal business. Amazing, but sort of inhuman (inhumane?). Beautiful dreams can turn into nightmares so quickly, can't they?

HungryChris, Frank Pepe would be proud, and your clam pizza looks so good!

I do like the Chinese takeout-style soup containers for freezing some things. Since I tend to use smaller amounts of stock at a time, though, I save 8 oz. Daisy sour cream containers. These are excellent for freezing the drippings from roasting chicken along with the fat on top. This is enough to make a generous gravy or sauce for two or more. Just be sure to leave a little headroom for expansion upon freezing. I take a Sharpie and write the contents on the lid. I have some pork drippings from ribs in a couple of Daisy containers for ramen broth, single servings of spaghetti or pizza sauce, whatever you have. I have crappy freezers too! but these thick plastic containers keep stuff fine anyway. The containers last for years and can be recycled when they finally give out. Just make sure you don't get impatient and try to pry the lid off straight out of the freezer. I've cracked a few lids that way, because the plastic is too stiff when that cold to have enough give to release without breaking. The sealed containers are waterproof so you can run them under warm water for a little bit to get the lid pliable enough to release to say break some chicken fat off the top layer to start the roux for your gravy. Grapefruit spoon works great to get frozen chix fat off the top of the frozen broth. @blbst36, Sorry about your freezer issues, and welcome to renting in North Carolina. The government and the law are in cahoots, I think, with big property owners and management companies. You need to buy or find a private landlord with a sense of ethics. They exist. I rented from a wonderful individual in Raleigh near NC State for a year or two when I first moved here. Nicest person you could ask for. Unfortunately, I nested 28 years ago in a property owned by Tar Heel Companies.

Could you pick the lemons off? The rest of it looks like it would be very good. Sad about those end of season tomatoes. They are like gold this time of year. Edit: What was I thinking? Good tomatoes are like culinary gold any time you can get your hands on them!

Here's an article about a move of the state line to put South Carolina homes and businesses into North Carolina because some trees fell down years ago. A river did not even have to change course for this to become law. It's not pretty, and in some cases where elderly folks' health care has been put into limbo, heart wrenching. The government response is callous by any standard, I would think. It was wise of you to think of these repercussions, gfron1. I wish we had more wise people making decisions for us. It looks like you're having a lot of fun on your vacation. Thanks for taking us along.

I use garlic powder and onion powder. I like to use it mainly in replicating the commercial product, Pasta Roni Angel Hair Pasta with Herbs. I ditch some of the weird ingredients and it's cheaper and better. I do add fresh Italian flatleaf parsley to this dish if I have it and that takes it to another level. I always keep fresh garlic and onions in the house, but there are some applications where the powders serve better. I've tried it both ways, and the powders work better in the angel hair copycat dish. Garlic powder is also superior in the Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster made at home. Tried that with fresh garlic too, and it wasn't as good. Here is my inventory of these powders and their clump status: Badia garlic powder, expires 7/18 just a few rocks left and a little powder, but shaking them works to make more powder Spice Supreme garlic powder, expires 5/29/19 completely free-flowing Supreme Tradition onion powder, expires 3/26/17 completely clumped and must be broken up with an ice pick to chip out chunks Spice Supreme onion powder, expires 5-17-19 completely free flowing The Spice Supreme brands state on the front of the package that they are "100% Pure". All of the brands list no adulterant ingredients or ingredients at all, except what is stated on the front of the label. Best advice, if you want free flowing, especially with onion powder, is to watch your expiration dates. Also, if you are a thrifty person, or cheapass like me, the flavor does not diminish, it seems, and I still chip out with an ice pick and add the solid onion powder to my dish. The chunks go into liquid and dissolve very quickly. Much easier than grinding it back to powder in a mortar and pestle. All the usual stuff: keep tightly sealed, out of the light, never shake over a steaming pot, blah, blah, blah.

Perhaps bake the ones that spread a bit more? Some people like thin crispy oatmeal cookies and others like the thicker kind that are softer. I like them both, so version 1 and 2 look good to me. Looks like they taste good, so you are probably good to go and can move forward from here, perhaps with another recipe, if you think that would be better? Very hard to go wrong with oatmeal cookies for me, though.

gfron1, If you ever get chiggers again, go and get some clear nail polish and paint it over all the affected areas. It doesn't need to be fancy or expensive. It sounds crazy, but it works. I guess it smothers them, because they need to breathe underneath your skin where they've burrowed and are causing all that trouble. I suffered with them until I went to work the next day and a co-worker clued me in to this tip. Miserable bastards, they are. After the evil tiny bugs die, the polish will flake off on its own, or you can use polish remover to speed up the process if you like. You get almost immediate relief. I'd also love anymore info uncovered on the old family plates your family and Shelby's has. More love for Lexi. Her eyes are still so bright! Her body might have slowed down, but it looks like her mind is still back there working away. What a sweetie. I've read that dogs can be better at finding truffles than the traditional hogs. She certainly has earned her retirement, and she has a lot of well wishers. I love your family's cabin too. Your photo of the sign listing the levels of all the flooding Ste. Gen had suffered over the years, "The second morning Tyler and I were already getting antsy - we're not the sit-around-and-do-nothing types so we decided to take the ferry to Illinois which I had never take before. On the way to the ferry, just outside of Ste Gen proper is this sign showing the numerous floods that the town has endured over the years." reminded me of this painting in the NC Museum of Art. Background to the painting here. The painting always struck a chord in me, and I have been known to admire it for quite some time on every visit. It has been there for decades, and is not one of the ones that rotates out. One of my favorites. I don't like that is has become all about the one-time owner, Harpo Marx, instead of the artist. That doesn't detract from the empathy you feel for the menfolk struggling in the mud to load the mule-drawn wagon with the family's heaviest possessions, including a wood-fired stove. The womenfolk are inside, I assume, hastily putting together comestibles for their arduous journey to higher ground. The ewer in the mud behind the wagon tells of a desperate need to bug out or die. The painting by Thomas Hart Benton, is called "Spring on the Missouri" and he painted it in 1945. I also love the stuff you share about your foraging. It's humid here, and I saw some mushrooms like you picked and called oysters, but they were growing in the ground. As adventurous as I am with some things, I just don't forage mushrooms, because I've never found a mentor. Probably while I still here to make this post.

Yeah, I agree that none of @Chris Hennes's photos seem to depict what I am familiar with as the mustard plants that grow here. We got several loads of otherwise very nice black and loamy topsoil to establish a lawn in Vermont, that was contaminated with mustard seeds. We tried to eliminate them by pulling them by the roots, cooking and eating them. The damned things reseed themselves and winter over a few miles from the Canadian border. My dad liked them, so we kept having to eat them, but I hated them enough, I've never tried them again. @liuzhou's photos (excuse me, I have to go throw a 3" long, 3/8" diameter millipede outside ) show chopped greens that could have come from the mustard plants that grew in our yard. Maybe, after draining, Chris's fourth photo might resemble the mustard greens that grow here. It does not appear to be in its packaging, though.

Yeah, I know what you mean about "interesting" cooking. My husband could not take more than a very mild amount of pepper heat, which I enjoy. That would be really challenging not to cook with onions and garlic, though. They are a staple around here. The Indian culture, at least a segment of them, do not eat onions and garlic. Instead they use asafoetida to replace it. If you can get that in Costa Rica, it might be worth trying? @Lisa Shock, in the wiki link above for asafoetida, they state that is is thought to be in the same genus as sylphium, so it might interest you? I'm pretty sure I have eaten asafoetida in the sambar I like to ladle over the fluffy idly from the Southern Indian vegetarian buffet at Udipi Cafe in Cary. It declares that it's is onion and garlic free on the label above the pot. Pretty sure I could buy it at Patel Brothers, too, but I love onions and garlic, so why would I? Also, perhaps I am being language prejudiced, but what does this sound like to you? (Sounds like "smells like ass" and a fetid one, to me.) Not. Very. Appetizing. Unfortunate name, but if it is in this sambar I've eaten, the name has nothing to do with how it really tastes. I love the sambar with the idly.

Yep, I didn't expect it to be in the German language, but I got it, and it is funny! Probably something I might do with a newfangled product.