Thanks for the Crepes

I love fresh squeezed lemonade and have whole lemons around for when I get in the mood to make it. I like mine with the juice of a fresh whole lemon juiced into a bowl with a spoon after cutting in half and taking out all discernible seeds with the tip of a knife and holding it up to the strong light in my work area to try for the rest. I ream the halves with a large spoon and usually have to fish out more seeds from the bowl and dump this into a pint glass I have kept in the freezer. Add a scant TBSP of sugar and a shot of vodka, chilled water, then stir till sugar dissolves and add ice. Tastes pretty much like the non-alcoholic lemonade I love, and that is great with me.

liuzhou, Your dinner looks delicious! How does one eat a fresh lychee? There were some on offer at the Indian grocer the other day, but they were not as fresh-looking as yours are. Their skins were mostly brown. You do skin them, don't you?

@JoNorvelleWalker, Looks like a great dinner, and I had to look up the Scoville for Espelette. I have hurt myself a few times since my husband moved to a nursing home and I have only myself to please now with too much capsaicin in a few dishes. I have been able to eat all but one prepared shortly after he left, and that one blew my head off with a few bites. The garbage disposal got that one. I'm not cruel enough to feed it to the wildlife. I'm finding my limits and pleasure zone as I go, and it is the first time I've been able to do this in a very long time. It's one of the small compensations for having to eat alone now. Actually there are other compensations like being able to experiment with food and not being afraid of disappointing anyone else and eating whatever the hell you feel like that day. Overall, cooking and eating alone is not what I would choose to do, had I a choice, though. My dinner this evening was the rest of the seven layer salad. Although I thought I did my best to preserve the leftovers for a day, It is best made and eaten the same day. It was still good though, and the separately stored bacon crumbled at the last minute provided a great texture contrast. I would keep the cheddar separate next time as well for planned overs. It absorbs too much moisture from the veggies. I still didn't kick it off the plate and enjoyed it.

Yes, this works fine. The Betty Crocker Cookbook printed in 1976, which I love otherwise, recommends in their Italian Spaghetti recipe to crumble a dried bay leaf into the meat sauce, but I crossed those instructions out after hearing a story from my ex-SIL who is an occupational therapist. These dried leaves are so hard and sharp, impervious to digestion, that they can actually slice the gastro system. I love the flavor, and I'm very glad to hear that I'm not missing much by no access to the fresh leaves. Just please, if you are using the dried, grind them to a powder as andiesenji says or use them whole and remove them so no one ingests them. This poor guy my SIL was caring for got peritonitis. You do not want that. You DON'T. I count my dried bay leaves, and keep searching until every one I used has been retrieved and discarded.

Ai ya ya! Please tell me that isn't tomato ketchup squirted on top of that "steak"? No wonder they think we are barbarians.

I made seven layer salad in a five-cup clear plastic lidded storage container. It was just a layer of iceberg, a layer of frozen thawed petite green peas, a few scallion greens harvested from the deck supplemented with a little finely minced regular onion, small chopped Campari tomatoes, chopped boiled eggs, and shredded Cheddar. At serving, I scooped half of this carefully on a plate so as not to compromise the other leftover half. Then I put a scant tablespoon of Dukes mayo on top salt and black pepper and tossed it all together. I garnished with bacon I'd cooked up crispy and crumbled. I don't make this enough, not in years. This must be remedied. I actually started getting the remnants off the plate with my finger, but then I outright licked the plate. (No one else was here.) Something about the way the mayo dressing comes together with the egg yolks, tomato juice, salt and pepper. I can't explain it, but this is one killer salad, and I love the way the peas burst in your mouth. It is also very pretty made in a trifle dish to show off the layers and take to a potluck. I was tempted to just eat the other half of the container of salad and call it dinner, but I had shredded the remaining opo squash and salted it to drain in a colander, so I reluctantly proceeded with the original plan. Can't wait until tomorrow to polish off the rest of the salad. I ate a small cup of the defrosted split pea soup, hot in both temp and spiciness, with the last of the cornmeal and wheat flour pancakes with peas, carrots, onion and jalapeno cooked into one side. Then I fried up spicy opo pakoras and had dessert of cherries and blueberries.

I am operating on ignorance here. Now that I've identified this flavor I've had before, but never was able to name, I'll find out. Maybe some of the members more conversant with Indian spices and cuisine would be kind enough to enlighten us? @sartoric, @Kerala, I'm lookin' at you. Or anyone who has any knowledge in this area. I'm really interested, but feel like I am crawling around in the dark alone with this ancient and complex cuisine. I feel like I'm trying to learn a language where none of the characters of the alphabet (ingredients) are familiar. I would love to run with it, but that is a long way off. I was delighted to find bunches of fresh methi in the produce department of Patel. It reminded me of the familiar clover plants we have here. I was very surprised to discover the mild taste. I'm used to fresh herbs being much more flavorful than dried. Dried basil, parsley and especially cilantro are not much worth fooling with. I guess fenugreek is more like rosemary which concentrates the flavor with drying. There's also a mention on Wiki about roasting the leaves to reduce bitterness and increase flavor, so maybe that happens in the drying process? I have to say I did not detect bitterness in the one little leaf I ate fresh from the produce dept. It is possible that with that tiny sample, it did not pass over my bitter receptors located in the middle of the back of the tongue, but I chewed it thoroughly trying to scope it out. I didn't want to just take (steal) more. Some of the leaves had fallen off separate, so I just took one of those. I'm also thinking about trying to make homemade fryums with besan flour and some wheat flour, without the sodium sulfate. That last might be the ingredient I found distasteful. There will be Indian spices involved, probably not the right ones at first, but I will learn eventually, I hope.

I just broke open the package of Swad Methi Khari Biscuits I bought at my local Patel Brothers. These are really good and helped me to identify once and for all that unfamiliar, but altogether Indian flavor of the Indian food I've been eating in restaurants. It's fenugreek! Patel had bunches of fresh methi in the produce department, and since I did not know what it was, I tried one small leaf, and it tasted nothing like the dried stuff does. Not really much taste at all, and I cannot explain that, but I will definitely be seeking out some dried, as I love its bittersweet, earthy flavor. There was some in the curry powder I used in the vegetable stew I made the other day, and I knew I tasted something of the elusive ingredient, but there are many ingredients in my curry powder, so it provided no answers. The ingredients in the biscuits are only a few: wheat flour (70%), hydrogenated vegetable oil (although it claims it has 0 grams trans fat 26%), salt and dried fenugreek leaves. These are really good, and the picture in the link does not do justice to what I received in my box. The layers are much more distinct like good puff pastry with that fenugreek flavor I like so much, but wasn't able to identify before today. This picture of Masala Khari Biscuits more accurately reflects the texture of what I bought. They need to invest in a good food photographer. Bonus, I only paid $1.49 for mine at the local Patel.

I know you didn't mean the pan is 214 inches long, since that's over 13 feet. Take some deep breaths. You've done it before, and you'll do it better this time. I would cover this with a lid or foil and heat in the oven at 350 F/ 75 C for 40 or so minutes or until hot. That's a lot of food in one pan. If you have another pan and space in the oven, splitting your chicken dish between the pans would allow it to reheat faster. Good luck with your event, and you are a kind soul to work so hard for a good cause.

Jo, you might consider eating something, anything at all that appeals.

I was playing around with one of the ingredients I thought would be fun that I picked up at the Indian grocer. This one is Swad brand fryums or far far wheat pellet biscuit. Being ignorant, I first Googled far far biscuit and got nothing pertinent, but Google knew about fryums. This video says to take them 1 minute 10 seconds in the microwave. I watched another video for oil-free fryums that put the time at 45 seconds, so my first attempt was a minute. That burnt them and after a couple bites I took them outside for the wildlife to enjoy. I tried again for 25 seconds and they mostly puffed, didn't burn, but some of the edges didn't puff all the way. I will try the non-lazy, less healthful way later, but for now, I don't really like the way these things taste and the wildlife is in for another treat very shortly. The ingredients are wheat flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, water, salt, sodium sulfate, and food colors. There were some on offer that did not sport the colorings, and I usually do forego artificial coloring, but was seduced this time by the pretty colors. These look like dried pasta. I don't think I'm done with this idea, and may try to find some rice flour ones, which seem to be more common.

I like frozen brussels sprouts just fine, and I used to grow my own. I do not like previously frozen broccoli or cauliflower at all, though, so your frozen brassica tastes may vary as well. I made breakfast for dinner tonight. I was craving some of my homemade blueberry pancakes from the freezer, but also was thinking about hashbrowns. I needed to lighten that combo up a little so I made spiced opo squash pakoras with a little besan in place of hashbrowns. I also had fried eggs for protein and a Burro banana and ripe, juicy peach.

I picked up a Burro banana at the Indian grocer the other day and had it tonight as part of dinner. I let it ripen to yellow with black spots and had it raw. I did not taste lemon, but there was a small tart note to it. To me it seems like a stubby plantain, so a bit of a letdown, but I have such fun finding and trying new foods, small disappointments are well worth it. I'm still looking forward to trying the Ataulfo Mango I purchased at the same time. That will be a new one on me too.

To go with my leftover veggie stew and rice I thawed out a piece of spareribs and roasted them in the crockpot with nothing but salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Four hours and fifteen minutes on high was just a little too long, because the bark had become a bit to developed, but the method works even for that small piece of rib. Most of the fat had rendered, there was good softening of the collagen, and surprising browning for the tool I was using. I stood the little rack up meat side to one side of the pot, and after two hours took a pair of tongs and flipped it bone side against the opposite side of the pot. I'll do this again, but for a bit less time.

I was watching a charming YouTube video of a late old lady in her nineties who talks about how her family lived through the Great Depression years and the food they ate to survive. The videos are made by one of her grandson's who was a photography student at the time and calls her "his favorite person". This segment is about foraged wild mushrooms, and although she's using portobellos in the linked reenactment, she says they used to drop a quarter into the pan with the mushrooms, and if it turned colors the shrooms were no good. This lady chops and peels veggies with a paring knife in the air with her hands, doesn't measure, even by volume, you know, an old school grandma cook. Does anyone think there is any merit to her theory that poisonous mushroom turn silver off colors? Quarters would have been silver during the Depression, or no? This reference is 2:13 into the video. They did survive, and she lived 98 years eating foraged mushrooms, just sayin'.

I made a vegetable stew out of onion sauteed in oil, then garlic and potatoes added. Then went in the liquid from a couple of cans of tomatoes that used to be a pound, but are now 14.5 oz in the rip off world we live in today. How small will they get until they actually disappear? Peeled and cubed eggplant went in, as well as zucchini, some cleaned and sliced sweet mini peppers, the orange and yellows. Then the seasoning: two cubes of Knorr Caldo de Pollo, some ground cloves and some nutmeg and black pepper. I always buy Badia brand for black pepper, and go through about a pound of it a year by myself. It says it's packed in USA, and gives an address in Doral, FL, but you can only find this at Mexican grocers or in the Mexican section of mainstream grocers. All other pre-ground peppers disappoint after trying Badia. So fragrant! I chopped the canned tomatoes after cooling the pot with their liquid to keep the garlic from burning. This stew cooked up into something I love to eat. I spiced it with a little ground cloves and nutmeg, which went into the oil to cook with the potatoes, onions and garlic. I thought of ground cinnamon later in the cooking process. I cooked up some basmati rice, as I have been instructed to do here on eG. My basmati used to cook up kind of clumpy and gluey, but members have instructed me to rinse it until the water runs clear and then use a lesser water ratio than for American rice. Tonight I used 1 c rinsed basmati to 1-5/8 c water. I had a little rice stick, but not burn on the bottom of my pot, but the result was separate grained, fluffy and perfect to soak up the savory juices of my veggie stew. I ate a romaine lettuce leaf while waiting for all this to cook, and then after dinner had a small scoop of Breyer's strawberry ice cream, which is way too sweet now, and I won't buy again. It used to have more strawberries and not be so sweet, but you know the stockholders that bought out the company have to tweak the product for more profit. Oh, and before dessert, I cooked up a ground chuck patty for protein. I didn't really want it, but understanding nutrition, it was necessary. That veggie stew over rice was the star, though, and I have three more servings, one of which I froze, along with two portions of rice that went into the freezer with it. That light spicing and the chicken bouillon made it spoon and plate-licking good.

Might be possible but not with my electric broiler. Also freezing cream cheese will alter the texture so it's no longer creamy and very crumbly.

Hostas are edible for humans, so of course it belongs.

@Toliver, I can also testify to the fact that T.J.'s Cinnamon Swirl Bread keeps very well in the freezer. I guess because of the higher fat, moisture and sugar it stays good much longer than leaner bread. I separate out a slice or two and pop into the toaster frozen. I love it toasted with butter. Just watch it closely in the toaster, as the high sugar content will cause it to burn before you know it.

I don't know of anyone growing rhubarb this far south, but it used to be common in Vermont. It grew like a perennial weed up there. I thought it was a cooler climate crop, but certainly may be wrong. I do love it, but we get it very rarely this far south.

Yeah, I almost said something about biscuits, but didn't want to get too off-the-point. Even Bisquick drop biscuits, which only require additional milk are better than whack-a-can ones. I don't like the trans fat in Bisquick, though, and make mine with butter. I even have a respectable version that uses vegetable oil that is better than the canned version. Biscuits are all about proper oven temp, dough consistency and gentle handling of said dough. I am not the Biscuit Queen locally, though. That title would go to Pam's Farmhouse Restaurant in Raleigh. (They probably use shortening with trans fat, but man, they are so good.)

I love my butter warmers! so I'm with Deb. Mine are designed so that the little metal cup for the tea candle is lifted up from the surface it's sitting on, and I consider them quite safe with supervision. They are a favorite with certain seafood service, and I love calling them calentadores de mantequilla. That's their Spanish name, and for some inexplicable reason, makes them seem even more romantic to me. Just listen to the translations in the link, and you might see what I mean or maybe Deb will. Plus, even the most utilitarian eater has gotta hate melted butter congealing in an unheated ramekin halfway through shucking a clam, oyster, crab or lobster dinner, right? I had a very simple dinner of Danish ham with a little yellow mustard on white bread for dinner, because I ate lunch today, and that's usually not my habit. I also had some mystery snacks from Patel Brothers on my outing that I have been munching on and a few of the hot ones accompanied my sandwich. These snacks are bulk and offered in about 28 different barrels with scoops inside and plexiglass lids which are kind of old and opaque, so you have to remove them to see what's inside. I opened each one, and the first one I wanted was what I thought was papri, which is savory, but when I got it home, it was surprisingly lightly sweet. I was disappointed, but it wasn't bad. I'll eat it. The second one I wound up with I almost passed up, and it turned out to be really, really good. I had replaced the lid before the savory, spicy smell hit me. It looked like the squares I thought were papri, but looked redder and flecked with maybe dried fenugreek leaves. When I got this one home, I wished I'd bought more. I have to add a little salt, but it has plenty of savory, spicy flavor. I call them mystery snacks because the only labeling is a single sign that says everything in all of the barrels is $4.99 a pound. I picked up a lot of fun ingredients across the street at the Indian grocer across the street from where I lunched, which will be appearing in future posts. This is a great Indian grocer, but would be more fun with a friend who was conversant in Indian cuisine and ingredients. I'm on a quest to learn though, so anyone how wants to talk about what they know about it will have an avid listener.

Lunch at Esmeralda Grill was the lunch special 3 taco plate for $4.99. My first time trying the tacos so I tried 3 different meats: carne asada de res, carnitas and cachete de res. All were good, but I preferred the beef cheek one. This was served with chips and salsa, and this time I forgot to bring my minced jalapenos to add to the salsa for some heat. I was saved by the salsa verde served on the side with the tacos which had a subtle heat from serranos in a tomatillo base. Housemade tortillas are killer here and served so hot you can't touch without burning yourself at first.

Elsie, the best tomatoes I've gotten at T.J.'s were the Campari and the Kumatoes. The "beefsteak" tomatoes at T.J.'s were nothing like the ones I used to grow in flavor, shape, juiciness or any durn thing; I recommend avoiding these even in the height of summer. Just terrible. I only found the Campari once and it was my first time eating these lovlies, but now they are (oh happy day!) available in the mainstream groceries here. T.J.'s brown Kumatoes are much better than the brown tomatoes I have found in other grocers' offerings, but T.J.'s doesn't have Kumatoes every time I have been. Another great tomato, that I haven't seen at T.J.'s are Scarlet Pearl grape tomatoes grown in the hot houses of your native country. And thanks to the ladies who took one for the team on the Heavenly Villagio Marzanos. I just hate tomato disappointment , so thanks for saving us. I was excited when I saw them in the "Fearless Flyer", but not anymore.

Hi Steve and welcome to eGullet! You might try this version on the Serious Eats site.