Thanks for the Crepes

@liuzhou, I'm well aware you were born a Westerner, but you are very well assimilated where you are now, and as usual, a font of valuable information about the food and customs in China. Thank you for the information. I may never make these eggs, because the ingredients for the cure are not accessible to me either for the olden or modern version. I might not even buy the preserved chix eggs I can buy at S-Mart after hearing they are not a lot different from regular boiled eggs, but it is somehow inexplicably comforting that people are not eating hundred year old eggs. One further question from pesky me: Is the quicklime in your recipe for the traditional eggs the same stuff one would use on a lawn or in the stables? The cure depends on a base? Are the eggs cured in the shell from a raw state? Okay, three questions, sorry. How long will these eggs remain good to eat after the preservation treatment? FOUR

Hate to be the harbinger of bad news, Toliver, but last time I bought the maple leaves (if you mean the white leaf-shaped embossed cookies with white maple cream between two of them) they weren't very good either. Very little maple flavour, and they seemed unpleasantly sweeter to me, perhaps to compensate. Thanks for the heads up on the Salted Caramel Coconut Cookies. They would not be for me. Have you ever tried the big tubs of Chocolatey Cat Cookies? They are low fat, and pretty low cal, unless you go crazy on the tub. They are crispy, and remain that way for the months it takes us to finish them, and not too sweet for my palate. Also, you can tell yourself it's a virtuous indulgence because of the antioxidants and fiber in the cocoa, right?

So liuzhou, Are you able to enlighten us as to how these preserved eggs are actually made? I have seen "century" eggs at S-Mart, but been afraid of them. If you've tried them, how do they taste? I'm sure it's possible to preserve eggs. After all, it's common here to pickle them in vinegar. They won't keep for a hundred years, though. The "century" name is off-putting to us Westerners.

... or to feed to the dogs/coons after fishing the jalapenos out. I like crispy nachos, but if one doesn't, I can't think of a better way to treat them than to cram layers of crispy chips into a can (of course breaking the chips up with this action) adding hot ingredients and letting it all sit in the can on the pass for a while until a server picks it up. It gets extra steam time on the way to the table to be disgorged.

Here's one of my favorite recipes for braised chicken, and it can be made with young supermarket chickens with reduced cooking time. The recipe was designed for stewing birds, however. This is from my Betty Crocker Cookbook, published 1976, copyright 1969. I found a link on the Betty Crocker website with a recipe for Chicken Fricassee. The copy of the book in the image looks new. Mine is yellowed and beaten up, but still much loved. I have not served this to anyone who has not loved it. There is always Chicken Cacciatore. You would have to increase the simmering time for a tougher bird, because this recipe calls for a fryer. I think this recipe would be delicious, but I'm sticking to my original one in the 1976 book. It calls for 2 crushed cloves of garlic and a 1 pound can of whole tomatoes instead of the 14-1/2 oz can of diced ones. (Won't be long, and our kids will be working with 3.9 oz cans with clever false bottoms. ) It also calls for the onions sliced into rings, and I'd like them better than the chunks the new one calls for. The old recipe says to dice the bell pepper, but many years ago, I started slicing them into rings, and adding at the top to steam just until crisp tender at the end of cooking time. That's the way I like them, and they really make a pretty garnish for the dish. Some like it over rice, but I like it over spaghetti. With a nice salad and some crusty or garlic bread, I am in heaven with this dish. There's also a Greek braised chicken dish I make when I don't have bell pepper in the house. It's similar to cacciatore, but no bell pepper, no mushrooms, and it's simmered with a cinnamon stick. I also really like this over spaghetti.

I will submit another couple clues for No. 11, as no one has gotten it in 24 hours: It's not really well known, but it had a $70 million dollar budget back when that was very serious money for a movie, and Morgan Freeman is in it. Google away on mine, because I don't want people to loose interest because of frustration.

So we are down to only two mystery movies today. Resolved: 5, 8, and 10 were taken out of play by Wayne, the OP, just offering up the answers after none of us could solve them. Still in Play: 11. Submitted by Thanks for the Crepes: This one features donuts in an armored car in an already flooded town that is downstream from an old dam that's questionable under the circumstances, and eventually bursts during the movie, further flooding the town. 12. Submitted by liuzhou: "chicken sandwiches and cornets of caviar" No Googling!

When I was eating the best chicken I've ever had, it was raised on my grandparent's farm. We got eggs and meat from them. The chix all had a hen house with nest boxes they could leave at will and forage in the very large yard for bugs and worms during the daytime. The yard was enclosed by a tall chainlink fence to keep out wildlife and their dogs. The chickens' diet was supplemented by grain. There was enough room that you would observe a pecking order, but no really destructive abuse like happens when creatures are confined in too small a space. With hundreds of chickens in there, grass still thrived. The meat chix were harvested young. Grandpa would quickly wring their heads off by picking them up by the neck, once one of us young uns caught one for him. We started processing the carcasses immediately, but there was no ice water bath, and some of them laid around quite a while, because we put up sometimes 200 at the time. The extended family helped in the processing, got some of the meat, and returned the favor with beef or rabbit, or whatever. I never remember a tough bird from the meat chix, harvested at the right time. We fried a bunch of it, as we are wont to do in the South. We also roasted some, and they were fine too, but probably helped along by their grain supplement, as it puts on fat. Now, the egg-layers. When the grandfolks decided one of the hens was too old and wasn't laying anymore, she was destined for the dinner plates. That became a braised dish like chicken and dumplings or soup. These were delicious too, but I'd not try to fry or roast one. Wonder if Melissa's was maybe an older one, like AnnaN said?

Wow! That is a LOT of eggs! Souffles will use a lot of eggs and you can make plain cheese, spinach, broccoli, mushroom, chocolate ... Spanish tortillas use a bunch of eggs too, and recycle well from dinner to breakfast and lunch. The advice from @Soupcon to sell the eggs for baking is very good, but more for your farmers than for what you can do with your bounty. Our government, unfortunately, frowns very hard on cottage industries that involve any processing of food, even that minimal. Even the producers will probably have to find a commercial egg processor who can use these pullet eggs too small for marketing in the shell. It would be easier for the the farmers, probably, than trying to locate enough individual bakeries or restaurants willing to buy the small eggs still in the shell. This 10,000 egg per day thing is not going to resolve itself overnight. At least they might be able to recoup some of their investment now, and it would be very hard to even give away that kind of surplus of eggs which will just keep coming every single day. Disposing of them in that quantity is a stinky and unsanitary proposition too. Sheesh! They need to look into finding a licensed processor ASAP, or get set up to do it themselves. You do not want half a ton or more of egg waste per day disposed of on your land. Such a shame, too, pullet eggs are great! They might find a way to sell some of them to farmers markets and give some to food banks, but you are not exactly in a high density population area, and I'm not even sure unwashed eggs are legal to give to food banks. Our benevolent and all-wise government hates that centuries-old practice as well, and insists eggs be washed and then need refrigeration. And Shelby, you really do not need to refrigerate eggs that have not been washed. There is a protective barrier deposited, that if you leave it alone, you can store them for weeks at room temp. I'm writing to you tonight after having consumed thousands of these eggs produced and stored this way on my grandparents' small free range farm. This was way before free range was a "thing" or cool. Grandfolks also ate these eggs all of their long lives and died of old age, and nothing related to eggs. Grandpa would often eat half a dozen pullet eggs for breakfast, and he lived to 78.

On a very rare occasion when the husband was not here for dinner, I made an apple crisp with McIntosh and a Granny Smith thrown in for tartness. I must have old-fashioned rolled oats in my apple crisp. That's all, and it wasn't a very balanced dinner, but it sure was good.

Hi @Islay! I would love to hear about your fresh produce and cooking adventures in Brittany. Welcome to the forum.

I will submit a new movie. This one features donuts in an armored car in an already flooded town that is downstream from an old dam that's questionable under the circumstances, and eventually bursts during the movie, further flooding the town.

Today's update Resolved: 7. submitted by Wayne: "so how do you want your squirrel? Fried or stewed?" Another clue for this one from the frustrating Wayne: "Lesson given for making venison stew" This was solved by yours truly after two attempts and additional clues. So still in play: 5. submitted by Wayne: Knocked head over heels by milk. Further clue to this one added yesterday by Wayne: "MRE's tossed from a retreating HUMVEE" Clue 3: Beef jerky opened but not eaten. 8. submitted by Wayne: "you're the apple of my eye" Clue 2. "Small game roasted over an open fire" Clue 3: "Foraging can be fatal with too little knowledge." 10. submitted by Wayne: New one: Fritos in the prologue and epilogue and many times throughout film. Clue 2: Dialogue in a restaurant scene: "...there is no rule that says I can't come over here and fart on your entrée. But I don't do it. Why? Because it's not good manners..."

"Winter's Bone"? This is a favorite of mine.

I will make a stab @Wayne's No. 7. "The Hunger Games"? I can shoot the eye out of a squirrel as well as Katniss Everdeen, but I use a .22 rifle instead of her bow and arrow. Great, great movie!

You know I am. The song you linked to sounds really familiar, and I have had the album "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" since I was a young whippersnapper. I think it's on that album, but I'm tired of searching Google to see if it's correct. I have hundreds of vinyls (not real well organized) so I'm not even going there right now. I also own the DVD with him in it of "The Man Who Fell to Earth". RIP Mr. David Jones "Bowie". There's gin in this movie, so it's food and drink related, right? Odyssey, odyssey, oddessy ...

Very nice rustic knife @rarerollingobject. I am in love with the bamboo spatulas, spoons and other bamboo cooking tools from China. My first one came free inside a purchase of an electric Dutch oven that could be used off the generator during extended power outages. In just a little time of use, I started to realize how much more durable bamboo was in the kitchen than even some of the more expensive hardwood tools I had. Even the better wood tools start to crack and split much more quickly than bamboo. Then they start to collect old food in the crevices, impart off flavors, and who knows what else? to your food, and need to be discarded. I don't seem to be able to put even a dent in my bamboo tools, and I don't baby them at all. I will never buy another wooden one.

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember when Arby's had real roasted meat, sliced to order. It was really good back then.

The hugest pine nuts I have ever seen. Someone is a lucky ducky. Very, very interesting and nice looking food! Thanks @Nicolai.

Yeah, I was real surprised when I stumbled across articles years ago about how many bacteria we are actually host to even when we're fit and healthy. This was such an alien and gross idea when it first crossed my radar, but I've pretty much resolved myself to it. So I was less surprised when I poured hydrogen peroxide on my meat and veg cutting boards, and they didn't react, but when I touched it with my recently washed fingers there was a mild reaction, and a fierce one when I poured some on my kitchen sponge. Most of these organisms are supposed to be essential to our survival. There's a lot of varying opinions on the matter, but I try not to let the idea paralyze me to the point where I won't be able to eat anything touched by human hands. I'd starve anyway, and we've survived as a species for a long time in our symbiotic state with the little critters.

Lovely meals everyone, and happy anniversary to @robirdstx! Here at chez TftC we started with a huge Caesar salad and I followed it up with baked mussels. I mostly followed Marcella Hazan's recipe, and had planned on thawing my frozen Green Lips on the half shell in cold water and then broiling as Marcella directs because she was working with fresh mussels. Then I read the recipe on the back of the frozen mussels box and it was kinda similar to the seasoned garlic/herb/bread crumb topping I'd already prepared. Both recipes called for olive oil, but I prefer melted butter with shellfish, so that's what went into my topping. The mussels box recipe said to bake them from frozen for 15 minutes, so that's what I did. Unfortunately, they failed to state what temp. I started out at 450 F/232 C on the top rack, and then reduced to 350 F/177 C and moved them to the bottom rack after I checked and the topping was browning too quickly. I pulled them a couple or so minutes before the prescribed time when I could see juices oozing into the shells. These were delectable, and we like them even better than the other half of this batch that I had steamed in wine. I served deseeded lemon wedges with these. Frozen New Zealand mussels cook up to perfect deliciousness, so thanks for the recommendations I got here. As usual, I have eG to thank for expanding my culinary horizons. I will definitely purchase frozen NZ Green Lip mussels again.

Thanks for the correction, @Alex. I actually looked this movie up on IMDB to ascertain the placement of a colon I thought was supposed to be in the title. Apparently, I skipped over the correct spelling of "Odyssey". You think I would learn one of these days, or not.

I just watched "The Last One" on broadcast PBS, but unfortunately, they aren't offering it for streaming, nor could I find it elsewhere for free. There's a trailer on YouTube, and Amazon is offering it for streaming for 99 cents. It's about an old guy, "Popcorn Sutton" who followed the ways of his forebears and distilled moonshine in the Appalachian mountains in North Carolina, so it's not for everyone. I sure like it though.

@Alex, liuzhou has attempted to solve your clue for No. 9 with the answer: "2001: A Space Oddessy". Is this correct?