Thanks for the Crepes

@Bhukhhad, I am SO ignorant when it comes to Indian food. I have nothing at all to add, except that I am very happy to see you sharing your knowledge of Indian cuisine. I have access to a vegetarian Indian restaurant and an Indian grocer that only carries vegetarian products, and am eager to learn more and begin cooking more dishes in this area. I would be interested in your opinion of the only masala recipe I have, which is from my copy of "The Joy of Cooking". I found it online here, to save me from transcribing it. Scroll down a little.

Tonight I made a pork stir fry with onions, carrot, shredded green cabbage, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, MSG, with a beef broth/soy sauce thickened with cornstarch. Crispy snow peas and slices of green bell pepper stirred in at the last moment, brought back to boil and served over jasmine rice with more of the sweet and fragrant cantaloupe my brother brought over. It was probably not authentic, but it was definitely tasty.

Heads up muscadine lovers with access to Food Lion grocery stores across the SouthEast! Food Lion has recently taken a marketing initiative to bring in and promote fresh and local foods. Today they had Cottle Strawberry Nursery in Faison, NC black muscadines in quart clam shell containers for $2.99. In my store, they were with the stawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries refrigerated produce section. This nursery is less than 90 miles SSE of me, and I don't know how widely they are distributing them, but I wish you luck finding them, because they are heavenly. And very good on Food Lion for picking up their quality in this area by buying more local items for us all to enjoy.

Welcome @grumblebee, Good to see you here! I'm a home cook too, and I'm looking forward to your participation in this great site where we all learn so much from one another.

We are seeing a lot of cucumber and tomato salad lately on eG. Since my brother brought me a giant cucumber and my neighbor brought over some of his garden tomatoes, that was what for dinner here too. I was surprised that the cucumber was still good, because it was as long as my forearm. I tasted it, and it wasn't even necessary to peel or deseed it. I had forgotten how good home grown cukes and tomatoes can be. I dressed it with lemon tahini dressing. We also had a broiled pork butt steak with rosemary, maduros, microwave baked sweet potato, and angel hair pasta with a creamy herb sauce.

I thought this was such a great idea, I just tried it on my meat and veggie boards. At first I thought the peroxide may have gone inactive, but it's in date. It also reacted when in touched it with my fingers that had recently been washed with soap and water. Then I poured some on the sponge, and it went crazy and the sponge got warm. So, apparently my current sterilization procedures are working fine for the cutting boards, but I gotta work on the sponge procedures. The one that reacted so strongly has been rotated down for wiping up floor spills, and replaced with a new one. ETA: When I exposed the new sponge to the peroxide on the boards, it did not react, so it wasn't reacting with the cellulose in the old one, but something more sinister. Well, good to know, and a good test to see how clean your sponge is too. I always wash out the sinks with a sponge and hot soapy water as the last step of cleaning the kitchen and rinse everything well in hot water. Then I prop up the sponge against the backsplash so it'll dry out thoroughly. Clearly, this isn't enough. I guess I have been lucky, but I need to do better here.

Cool story about the Aldi guy wanting to learn how to make kraut! Just a word of caution about cleaning around the heating element in the bottom of your Aldi dehydrator with a wet rag. I would make double damned sure it's unplugged first. I recently got a new dishwasher and quickly read the installation instructions when the installer made a run to his truck for some wire nuts. It said that the heating element and some other components were deliberately not grounded. It gave no explanation, and I'm no electrical engineer like my dad was, but this seems to me. I've no wish to derail this fine thread, but if anyone knows why it would be a good idea not to ground electrical components that will be in frequent direct contact with water, I'd appreciate your thoughts via PM. I cut off the circuit breaker now before retrieving an item that has fallen into the bottom of the dishwasher or cleaning around the heating elements of the electric oven or range top, then double check that it has no power supply.

@huiray, It sounds like the place was mostly a waste of time and money. I have to say, from the looks of your photo of it, I could have happily eaten the veggie tempura without dipping sauce, IF the oil it was fried in was not too old. The images for zaru from your link did nothing for me, as a person ignorant of what a zaru is, to explain why you were dissatisfied. After looking at this link, it became apparent that the zaru is an attractive bamboo draining basket also used to serve the soba noodles on. Yes, they named their dish inappropriately for the way it was served to you. Pitiful that in an expensive place like that the shrimp was inedible, and that the cook was unresponsive to your comments. It sounds like the kind of place that makes one even more thankful for their own cooking skills and access to quality fresh ingredients.

There's some images of the 2015 Yakima Valley hop harvest on the Lagunitas site, including some of the plants growing in the field.

For Meatless Monday I made eggplant parm topped for the last five minutes with plenty of whole milk mozzarella. Speckled butter beans cooked from frozen and very nice white corn on the cob to accompany.

Marcella is very respected and admired by me as well, and she does not offer this wisdom in the one book I own, "The Classic Italian Cookbook" (copyright 1973). Your book was published in 2016, post humously. That explains the different advice, I think. I also like my dried pasta cooked al dente, and to me that means as soon as the white core disappears when bitten. I find Barilla, which I use a lot because it's available everywhere (even at Dollar General) here, needs to be cooked past its recommended time, but usually only by a minute or two. I start testing early, and to me there's no substitute for the bite test. In my Marcella book, she does say to "ignore" the cooking times on the box because they are "invariably excessive". She goes on to say "(it is impossible to make good pasta above 4,500 feet above sea level)". Man, I'd be hatin' that a lot if I lived in the mountains! She also emphasizes the importance of the tasting/bite test, but does not mention the white core. I still think that is critical for it to only just disappear, especially in thicker dried pasta, which I find myself cooking less and less of these days. I might leave a tiny core in angel hair, which will disappear during plating with hot sauce into preheated plates/bowl.

Duck bacon... Please give us some details on this, and end the merciless teasing! *drool icon* Beautiful spread, and I'm so glad to see eGers and friends living it up in the Heartland again!

I don't think anyone has mentioned grilling or pan-grilling stone fruits yet. It's a simple technique, but I'm a pretty simple cook. We've been enjoying nectarines, peaches, plums and pluots grilled over charcoal if I have a fire going or indoors in a pan with a little butter. Just lightly oil the fruit so it won't stick to the grill or melt a little butter in your pan on the stovetop. Either way, they do not take much time. Just enough to soften a little, and it really brings out the flavor and natural sweetness. @Norm Matthewsadded brown sugar to his pan grilled peaches in the dinner thread, but I usually don't add sugar. Either way, it can improve less than perfect grocery store fruit by a lot, and not add a ton of extra calories. I can easily get my husband to eat them this way, and he won't eat a lot of raw fruits and veggies. We had blueberry pancakes as part of a breakfast for dinner tonight. The berries came from Cottle Strawberry Nursery, in Faison, NC. It's less than 90 miles SSE of here. I just love summer for the fruits and veggies! Not so much for the heat and humidity here.

Me too! Only I was thinking bachelor's buttons. Stunning work, @rarerollingobject!

Blueberry pancakes, Jimmy Dean hot sausage with added sage, black pepper, and red pepper flakes (for my portion only). Over easy eggs and very nice cantaloupe my brother brought over already cut into chunks. Tobasco sauce for my eggs. I had a 6 leftover pancakes that I wrapped well and froze. These can be reheated from frozen in the toaster, just like the ones from the grocer's freezer. Unlike the commercial ones, these were made with lots of real blueberries.

Well, @liuzhou, that depends on how used your GI system is to digesting beans. People who don't eat them often or at all are quite susceptible to the "musical fruit" syndrome. I think the presence of the indigestible sugars they contain feeds a certain beneficial bacterial colonization in the gut that eases or eliminates the excess gasses eventually. It is supposed to be very healthy for us humans. Sorry it's graphic and gross, but you did ask for information. We, here in the southern US, love our bean "liquor", and use cornbread to sop it up, and wouldn't dream of throwing it out. I haven't seen you depicting or describing much bean eating, so if I were you, I would be cautious. I even soak dried beans in several changes of water, and I find that helps to dissolve some of the complex sugars in them we are not designed to digest. I just bought some really nice looking speckled butter beans in a frozen form, so I may be joining the musical community soon, who knows?

I was beginning to doubt my memory, but I'm pretty sure the Filet-O-Fish used to come with shredded iceberg lettuce here years ago, but it has never had a tomato slice on it. Now it is just fish patty (smaller, than years ago), lots of tartar, depending on who makes it, and a partial slice of yellow American that gets smaller and smaller over time. I still like it every once in a while too. You can get them to add an extra fish patty for an upcharge, and that fills the bun a lot better than the current patty alone. A few years ago, I tried the fish sandwich at Dairy Queen, Burger King, Wendy's, a local mom and pop called Circus, and McDonald's. It wasn't side by side, but all about a week apart. The McDonald's was both my and my husband's favorite by a lot.

Elaina, Since you asked for more suggestions, I will offer my simple ones. I would thaw, salt and pepper chicken thighs and roast them with lots of chopped basil near the end of cooking. If you have rosemary I would add dried at the start, or fresh later, but not as late as the basil. I'd slice the zukes into lengthwise planks, shake with a little flour to coat in a clean produce bag and shallow fry them in oil in a skillet, drain, blot on paper towels, and all they need is a little kosher salt coming out. About five minutes per side for 1/4" (.635 cm) to 3/8" (.95 cm) planks. (We had this tonight as a side to leftovers.) Just sliced garden tomatoes with more kosher salt is always great for me. (ditto) Peach and plum split in half and destoned and pan grilled in a little butter. (also ditto) But I know my tastes are simpler than many of the other members here.

Thanks, @huiray, I bookmarked your links, will do further research, and perhaps walk up to one of the places I can get this dish in a restaurant to see what is like when my husband isn't home. I always like to eat a dish cooked by someone who knows what they are doing so I have a place to start from. It sounds incredible that shrimp shells can be made edible, but I've happily crunched on many a tail.

Dave, Your salad looks lovely, and doesn't appear to be drowned in olive oil. I use a scant Tablespoon for a generous serving of salad for two. I know this is for a class, and may serve many, but I was taken aback by the 3/4 c olive oil. How much fruit and other ingredients are you using, or if you would rather not say, how many is it supposed to serve? Also, you and I will have to agree to disagree on the oil, acid ratio. Sorry.

Some of this isn't helpful to Shel, but may be to others interested. My most important cutting board procedures are to keep veggies and meats completely separate. I have a special board for meats that can go into the dishwasher. The one for veggies has little non-slip feet on it, and these will eventually loosen and fall off in the dishwasher. They can be glued back on with waterproof fabric glue designed to go through a washing machine multiple times, if you can find the little feet, and they don't get burned up by the heating element in the bottom. I always just hand wash the the veggie board with hot soapy water, and it's enough, in my world. I use the board without the non-skid feet mostly to thin slice cooked meats for sandwiches, and this can safely and without any detriment go into the dishwasher. For all raw meat handling I use my just cleaned with hot soapy water stainless steel double sinks. I remove everything I usually keep around the sink area: drain stoppers, sponges, scrubbers, cutting boards. I wash chickens in there, scoop out the kidneys and dismember them. I treat them like the salmonella contaminated nuclear waste that they are. (I am very proud of myself that I didn't say a word about an amusing picture of a raw chicken with its wing tip on a whisky glass posted tonight. It took a lot of restraint.) I like being able to stab a boning knife down through the breast bone from the inside of the body cavity and get some leverage to split it by placing the carcass breast side down over the garbage disposal opening. It is much easier to me to get a clean cut on the breast skin so that it stays where it belongs. I can often do a better job this way than the butchers with their saws who sometimes end up with small scraps of skin on a breast. A sure way to dry one out. The knife never contacts the steel of the sink, the kidneys go down the disposal, and I clean the sink and the surrounding area very thoroughly, again with hot soapy water after the operation. I also slice racks of ribs between the bones in the sink when they won't be cooked in one piece. I have little need for other raw meat butchering, but once I sliced a couple whole prime ribs into steaks, and they were done in the sink too. I am chemically averse, but I do use bleach in the toilets. I have never had, nor ever given anyone food poisoning. Knock on wood!

Erm, uh, one step at a time.

huiray, The salt and pepper shrimp sounds very interesting, and I've heard of shrimp fried in their shells that are intended to be eaten shell and all. I actually have eaten deep fried shrimp with tail on, which is common here, and the tail is crunchy and will crumble under you teeth. Stir fried shrimp like I cooked last night do not get the shell to that state, as I found when I discovered a small piece of shell I missed and had to pick out. It is very tough and inedible. "Get out of the kitchen!", I can hear G. Ramsey screaming. So I would infer that you are talking about a deep or shallow fried dish. I would appreciate your instruction as to how to achieve this edible crisp shell without making the flesh of the shrimp overcooked and rubbery. You and liuzhou and RRO have definitely swayed me to try head on shrimp. Also I am not averse to it, but I almost always have to consider at least one other person I am cooking for who is. This is also the reason I rarely get to venture into Indian food and other interesting to me, areas I would love to explore more of. I'm just taking advantage of a rare opportunity to cook something to please only myself while my hubby chows down on his boring and greasy fried fish order from the seafood monger. They do not blot the oil on towels, like I do, and occasionally the oil could be fresher, but he's oblivious. This presents the opportunity for me to bring some fresh seafood home and only have to worry about myself for once.

Oh no! I would never serve shrimp in a dish like that without peeling them. I admire the dishes from China and elsewhere that do something like that, but it really won't fly with most people in America. Also I have found one of the most effective ways to offer your party guests shrimp on a budget is to serve peel and eat with no sauce on the shrimp, but cocktail sauce and lemon wedges on the side. If you peel them for them, they will scarf down two, three or more times as many, and only the most adventurous eaters here (In USA) are interested in peeling sauced shrimp. I believe it's the only step in this simple recipe I left out. Come to think of it, I can get head on shrimp at my seafood shop, and I have never sucked a shrimp head. Some say it is great, and I'm certainly willing to try it. I often cook a shellfish dish for only myself while my husband sticks to the shop-fried fin fish. This is starting to sound like a perfect opportunity to cook some shrimp in the shell with heads on in a sauced dish. It would be something I enjoy, but my husband would be completely turned off. I'm always up for a visceral eating experience, and find it weird that people pick up bone in chicken or sauced ribs and have such a hard time with the concept of sauced shrimp in the shell.

We had the wild NC shrimp tonight sauteed in garlic butter. There were twenty in the headless pound. I decided not to halve them because they were so beautiful, and because I was afraid of overcooking. I also washed and sliced 2/3 pound white button mushrooms, and sauteed them in two batches with butter and garlic. Cooked up 8 oz. thin spaghetti, and mixed with the shrimp and mushrooms. Top with parmesan cheese, serve on preheated plates and eat! We'll get four servings out of this. The only side we had was sliced fresh, ripe black plum and peach.