Thanks for the Crepes

Tonight we got together as an extended family for my nephew's brief visit with us. I can tell you about the food part here. My brother had a pretty fruit platter, a cracker basket and a cheese plate decorated with strawberries when we arrived at his house. When we walked through the kitchen to the dining room, one of the three dogs there was stretched up on the bar between kitchen and dining room eating from the artfully and meticulously arranged cheese platter. The nephew threw out the strawberries in the center and about half the cheese where the dog had been in it. Then he carefully rearranged the remaining cheese slices on the same plate. Needless to say, I did not partake. We proceeded to the Mexican restaurant where my brother wanted to go. All the front of house knows him on sight, and he knows their names. Alberto was our waiter for the evening and my brother took time to introduce all of us by first name and relationship to him. He paused awkwardly when introducing my sister's ex-husband, and then just introduced him by his first name only. I know he still considers him BIL, like I do, but with my sister sitting there... Well you know how it is. My brother's the only one who got good service. It's usual to get bad service with a large party. I've seen much worse. The food I ordered was pretty bad, and I left most of it on the plate. It's highly unusual for my cheapass self to not get a to go box. The cheese enchilada was really excellent, however, and I would go back for a plate of them. I knew the cake would probably be ignored when brother asked me to make one. That's why I wanted to make cookies the nephew could take with him. That is exactly what happened. No one went back to the brother's house for cake and ice cream. Many had long drives out of town, and my husband had to work, as did many others. We went home directly from the restaurant. So I really don't know if the nephew enjoyed or even got to see my humble creation. He has to drive to Vermont and be there by 5:30 PM tomorrow. He'll be getting up at 2:00 AM. As I write this, he will have been on the road three hours already. So the food part kinda sucked, but the company was priceless!

Is the point that the "sleeping giant awakening" is going to make avocados more expensive for the rest of us poor slobs? Otherwise, I don't get it either. Please enlighten us. And you all that don't like kale have not had home grown young, tender kale. It is a different animal/vegetable?. I can't stand supermarket overgrown kale unless it's made into roasted chips either.

I love diet Dr. Pepper but hardly ever buy any. I'm sure the coffee is good too, as you have spoken about roasting your own beans. Is it finally time to maybe turn the A/C on rotuts? I would be dying!

I was planning on baking tonight, but I was going to make cookies. My nephew and his girlfriend, wife-to-be next month, will make one of their rare and much anticipated visits tomorrow. Since my brother wants to go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant with everyone who is coming, I knew I'd have time on my hands tonight and planned to make cookies the "kids" (they are both in their mid-twenties) could take with them. I figured we'd all be too full from the restaurant experience to eat dessert, but cookies are easily transportable and people their age burn calories like a furnace. Especially when they're in the military like they both are. They are always having fitness tests they have to pass and have to stay in great shape for them. Well my brother called, after dinner tonight and finally told me where he wanted to eat tomorrow and asked me to make a birthday cake for his son. I was a bit annoyed at the late notice, because the nephew's birthday was last month, and I wasn't anticipating it. I agreed to shift gears and bake a birthday cake without saying a word about the late notice. My brother is well aware I have no car and can't just run out anytime and shop for ingredients, so he offered to bring me ingredients tomorrow. This would be too late, as the only time I had to bake was tonight. I used what I had on hand on hand. I made a yellow cake with a cocoa marble made with part of the batter swirled through it. I made it in this Nordic Ware Christmas Wreath bundt pan, which would be totally inappropriate for a belated birthday cake except for one thing. My nephew gave the pan to me for Christmas a few years ago on one of his rare visits, and I have never made him a cake in it. Don't know when I'll get another chance either, as he has a lot going on in his life, and I have no way to travel. He hasn't visited at Christmas since he gave the pan to me. I was afraid the sort of intricate design would stick in the pan, but I had no trouble at all releasing it intact after cooling in a bit in the pan. This was the first cake I have cooked in my 1970's GE electric oven in years after it finally got a working thermostat. Edited to clarify: I have made other cakes in the broken oven without a thermostat, but it is beyond challenging. It requires an oven thermometer, a timer and much diligence. God, I love my working thermostat! This cake came out very well, I think. I glazed it with a dark chocolate glaze made from 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, a cup confectioners sugar, a t. vanilla, salt that the recipe did not call for (but I think makes the taste of the glaze) and enough boiling water for consistency. Second edit: there were also 3 T butter melted with the chocolate for the glaze. I stuck a plastic pick I had that says "Happy Birthday" in it and put five birthday candles in it for the five of his 25 years. I thought about some multi-colored non-pareils I had in the pantry, which always says birthday to me, but I do not appreciate their hard crunchiness disrupting the texture of a cake. I keep them for sugar cookies which are already a bit hard and crunchy. Sorry I have no picture, but like the car, and a cell phone, or any sort of camera, I just don't have a lot of things. I do have a lot of love for my nephew, though, and I hope my homemade, and homely cake conveys that.

@Chris Ward, I recognize most of the things in your photo, although I have never seen pure creamy white eggplant before. Is that an orangish tomato at about 12:05 on the clock with a few brownish crack looking things, and what are the variety of your peppers. Yes, If you have onions in the pantry this beautiful veggie box calls out for a ratatouille.

I like snacking on raw green beans during prep, so I would probably love your method. Do you blanch them in boiling, salted water?

Mmm, mmm, mmm! Everything you all made looks so good! I am trying to work through a tray of oven fried chicken I cooked off a few days ago because under a heat advisory, even with good A/C, which we thankfully have, it's too hot to run the oven much. It takes a while for two older folks like us to get through 10 largish thighs, but I have whittled them down to two left without much heat in the house. I have even managed to keep them from getting too boring pretty well, I hope. So tonight, I made my husband a cold chicken, cheese, lettuce and tomato wrap in a flour tortilla with ranch dressing. I can't stand ranch unless it's homemade with buttermilk and fresh herbs, but he loves the commercial stuff, so that's what he got. Both of us had canned La Costena refried pinto beans with cheddar melted on top (microwaved). Mine was drowned in Taco Bell hot sauce, because that's the way I like them. I thought I'd either have a plain thigh or make myself a wrap (no ranch) or tacos, but I was full after eating the frioles with some white corn tortilla chips which were very briefly heated in the oven in a stainless bowl. I just love having a working thermostat in the oven after years without one! I also made my husband's lunch: a chicken sandwich from the sliced meat of one of the thighs on a length of purchased French bread from the deli with good white American cheese also from the deli, mayo and lettuce. He'll also have Thompson and a few of my coveted muscadine grapes. He loves them too. I am so glad to see @Kim Shook, back in the forums I am beside myself. Yah! I made her coconut cake for my husband's birthday dinner back at the end of May, gave her a shout out, but never heard a peep until today. The cake was the best coconut cake I have ever put in my mouth, and if you want to make it, you can find the recipe here.

That Aussie bacon looks a lot like what I can get here in the supermarket under the Hormel Black Label Brand. That brand seems to be a mite leaner than other brands, and is a favorite of mine. It's smoked, like almost all pork products called "bacon" here in the US. The Brits would call it "streaky bacon", I believe, from my newfound knowledge. I knew we would all be learning a lot from this thread! Thanks for starting it sartoric. BTW the cost is pretty equivalent here, if USD convert straightly to Aussie dollars. I try to find it on sale, for about $3.50 USD a pound or $7.70 USD a kilo.

I really enjoy Vivian Howard on "A Chef's Life". Here's a link to a video on PBS about an episode that is currently rerunning locally (originally aired Oct. 6, 2015). It's all about beets! She loves the greens, like me.

I read this article, and have a much better understanding of what British bacon rashers are. There is even a recipe to make it, and it sounds very doable in a home kitchen. I would just have to search out pink curing salt and persuade a butcher to cut me a piece of loin with fat cap and belly attached. It probably won't happen, but it's certainly not impossible to make it yourself in America. It seems perfectly clear to me. They are adding to their family and you are wishing them all the joy that comes with a new baby. I like it.

We were under the usual heat advisory until 8 PM today with heat indices in the 105 to 110 F (40.5 to 43 C). Today I felt like making a no-cook, mostly cold dinner, so that's what happened. Cold oven-fried chicken thighs, Healthy Multi-Grains toast with butter, little cherry tomatoes picked 30 minutes earlier, Thompson and black muscadine grapes and this Avocado Cumcumber Salad. Thanks @cyalexa! I had everything for the salad except fresh cilantro, parsley or tarragon, but it was excellent without it. The tomatoes came from my kind neighbor 2 houses down, and the cucumber was another portion of the monster my brother brought me from his garden. It's 9:25 PM here and still 86 F/30 C. But on the upside, I had so few dishes tonight I was able to pop the grease trap screen thingie from the ventilator hood over the top of the stove into the dishwasher.

Here are some links to some areas of your interests. Just remember that some of the links on the older posts may no longer work, but there are some recipes and lots of information in the bodies of the topics. The Soup Topic, Ramen Recipes, eG Cook-Off: Ramen, Perfect Pho Broth, Bibimbap!, Spiralized Vegetables and Rices

I thought ricotta was made from whey, not whole milk and cream, as a way to scavenge the whey after making other cheeses? Thoughts? I also thought paneer was made from whole milk. Maybe @IndyRob's comment has some merit?: "I get about 22oz of ricotta (okay, paneer) for a gallon of milk." I am not being judgmental or argumentative on a subject I know very little about, just seeking enlightenment.

I just had some black muscadine grapes. So rare, so good.

Rope making?

I like this topic too! It's a lot of fun. Can't offer any information as to sourcing British bacon rashers, because I'm not sure what they are even after visiting gfweb's link. I can tell you what's next. The OP, sartoric, is up next, and she's going to do a shop on Tuesday and post her list of ingredients after she does. As to @gfweb's suggestion to just jump in and post your own list of ingredients, I did make a suggestion about that upthread, and the OP did "Like" my post but never gave a specific green light on it, so I am not sure that is within her rules. It would be great with me if it was, because I saw it as a way to move the thread forward at a faster pace and allow more people with interesting ingredients on hand and a willingness to cook soon to participate. I also think it might work better with the creative spirits who populate the forum. It's @sartoric's thread, though, so she will have to be the one who makes the call.

Because there has been interest in the thread by @TicTacand @kayb on other ways to sprout mung beans, here's a link to the Sprouting Mung Beans discussion from this site. I don't seem to have described the jar I use on that thread. It's glass, a little larger than a quart, has a plastic collar that screws on to the jar and holds a stainless steel fine mesh screen embedded in the collar instead of a solid top so the beans can breath and not get moldy while sprouting. It cost US $5.00 or less and is all the equipment you need. In the long run, it's cheaper than cheesecloth which I have a hard time finding, and when I do, it is expensive. Here's a link to a site that provides more advice on sprouting and pictures a jar like the one I use. (Note: the link they provide to the Now sprouting jar is not like theirs or mine and ridiculously overpriced.) This jar is a little better, looks more like what we use, but is still overpriced. It has a plastic instead of stainless screen, but would certainly work. Like kayb, I do enjoy a Southern all vegetable meal, but do not get to eat one very often. I made eggplant parm, speckled butter beans and another veg side I can't remember about a week ago, and as usual my husband commented, "No meat?". With the cheeses and the beans, the meal was loaded with protein and flavor, but he's never satisfied unless there's meat. I get kinda sick of it. I will note that a veggie plate in an American Southeastern restaurant often includes vegetables like green beans or collards that are cooked with a little pork for flavoring, or mashed potatoes with meat based gravy. It can be hard for a strict vegetarian to find a veggie plate they can eat in those sort of restaurants, although they are known for their fabulous vegetable dishes. @Bhukhhad, butternut is my favorite squash! It is so dense and flavorful, especially when roasted, it's very easy to forget how low in calories and high in nutrition it is. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Shelby, Please get your mind out of the gutter. My first thought was Groucho Marx. Damn, I am getting old!

@Franci, I use this site. Nutrition Data. When searching "chicken breast" 43 results are returned, but you can easily whittle it down to 14 by selecting Poultry Products from the categories. Those offerings are for just chix breast raw, and cooked in various ways. They cover a lot of fast food offerings and popular processed products, but you can weed them out easily. I also like the Nutrient Search tool if you are looking for foods high in B12, Vitamin D, protein, whatever. Serving sizes can be selected from a set drop down menu. Almost always there's a 100 gram selection. I haven't explored any of the other tools and options on ND, but you might look around and see if it can serve some of your other needs. There's a tab called MY ND that has options of My Foods, My Recipes, My Tracking, My Preferences and My Profile. I can't tell you more about them though. Oh, there's a Daily Needs Calculator option on the Tools menu too. I also keep a link the USDA Nutition site as well, but I usually do not find it as helpful as ND for my personal needs. Sorry you have a need in the first place for this. I know it is no fun for food lovers such as ourselves.

It is indeed a beautiful plate, and now that it's no longer cheating I asked Mr. Google what he thought liuzhou's image was. It did not pick up on the seemingly identical photo from his blog, so was good for another laugh. Yeah, a LOT more time at the drawing board. I do love the ability to look up unfamiliar ingredients or plants by name and being able to peruse hundreds of images of them. That aspect has been so helpful to me.

Thanks for your reply @Bhukhhad, I do like "The Joy of Cooking" quite a bit, but even by their own admission, they are far from experts on the subject of Indian cuisine. I was actually expecting a more harsh critique. I'm just glad you did not think it was terrible. I am sure there are many better guides for learning to cook dishes from India. Joy is a mostly American cookbook, but I like it partly because it does branch a bit into other cuisines of the world and provides interesting history for many of its dishes. You have to start somewhere. It's interesting that coriander seeds are not used, but the leaf of the same plant, cilantro, also sometimes called coriander, is. I am not arguing or questioning tradition, just trying to learn. I appreciate your help.

Except NC. I make do with the little cans from Trader Joe's. Wish I could still find Anaheims here too. Hatch would be my go to for chili rellenos, but I've never had access to fresh. Anaheims make a good substitute, if you can find them.

Okay. The specimen in the foreground, especially has the texture of a pickling cucumber. Smoked, dried, aged?

Sausages?

Rats! I was looking for another laugh, but if you have posted about it before, it would be cheating, because it might accidentally work. That is the only area where the image identification software seems to work, when it has an identical image to locate. I believe a plagiarizer was was outed here with the software. So I won't even try it, even though, again, I have no clue. Smoked sausages, dried peppers or thousand year old cucumbers?