Thanks for the Crepes

Interesting, @AlaMoi, I would be a fan of anything that would make a cut of round good to eat. It goes on sale here sometimes, but I usually pass. I will remember your slow 2-day braise with onion the next time they run a sale.

@lmarshal1, I find bunches of watercress cheap at my S-Mart (Korean owned, pan-Asian grocer). If you have an Asian grocery store near you, I'd check there for it. It has that peppery taste you describe.

I made a cottage pie for dinner. I cooked minced onion and grated carrot with the ground chuck, then stirred in some thawed frozen tiny green peas. The meat layer was topped with a layer of corn and then mashed potatoes. Served it with sliced cucumber, grape tomatoes, black plums, pluots, and some cherries.

@liuzhou, Few would seriously dispute the superiority of French cheese makers, although cheddar happens to be my very favorite cheese of all. I like mine medium sharp, though, and I realize that makes me a rube in some eyes. My elementary palate just cannot appreciate things that smell like unwashed feet. I know many do though, and again, viva la difference! And I am so thankful for the sharing among cultures all over the world of ingredients, cooking techniques and recipes. I believe it has enriched all of our lives. Many of the more ancient food cultures would be nothing like they are today without our pesky American ingredients. And of course, we have benefited immensely from other cultures too. I think it's all a very good thing. I still hold firm in my stance that processed American cheese holds a valid place in the culinary repertoire. Quality varies here, as I am sure it does everywhere. I am lucky to have access to good stuff that's even cheaper than the best Kraft on offer. It makes a mean mac n' cheese or a Southwestern cheese dip for tortilla chips. "Real cheeses" just don't melt down as creamy and smooth. I suspect that is why the Modernist Cuisine folks spend so much time trying to duplicate it from "real cheese".

We split a roasted Cornish game hen tonight. I poured Kraft original BBQ sauce into little glass bowls and let that heat up on my poorly insulated metal stove top while the chicken roasted. Sometimes I crave this, I guess from childhood renditions of oven BBQ chicken. I served it with long grain rice cooked in chicken broth with saffron. For the spinach side, I sauteed about 1/3 c minced white onion in butter, added 12 oz frozen spinach, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, dill, garlic powder, and a little nutmeg. When that was thawed and hot, I cracked in a couple eggs and scrambled them in, and when they were getting set, I sprinkled with grated parm and a couple slices of muenster torn into bits. I stirred it just a bit to help the heat distribution and plated. I put a few cherries on the plates for added color.

American cheese is definitely distinct to USA, I think. Some people look down on it. The folks over on the Modernist Cuisine thread spend a lot of time and energy to duplicate the creamy meltability of this ubiquitous product of our culture. It is almost essential to macaroni and cheese. I prefer what I can get in my grocery deli sliced to order either white or yellow based on what I will be doing with it. Even Kraft and the sometimes derided Velveeta use annatto as the yellow coloring. It's plant based, and a lot less scary to me than some of the food colorings legally in use here. I have a jar of Badia ground Annatto (achiote molido) in one of my pantry cupboards for use in Latin American dishes. Other things I can think of that developed here are nachos, jambalaya, our unique and delicious country cured hams, Frito pie, Chicago deep dish pizza, the Philly cheese steak sandwich, spiedies, corn on the cob, clam/lobster bakes, NY bagels, crunchy breakfast cereal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, po boy sandwiches, corn dogs, beef/bison jerky, popcorn, Thanksgiving turkey dinner, the Kentucky Hot Brown sandwich, key lime pie, tater tots, club sandwich, pumpkin or sweet potato pie, pulled pork BBQ sandwich, deviled eggs, loosemeat or sloppy joe sandwiches, cobblers, buckles and bettys, red velvet cake, key lime pie, buffalo chicken wings, reuben sandwich, fried cheese curds, biscuits and gravy, s'mores. We may be a young culture, but we have definitely developed a singular food culture, although far from in a vacuum. Let's face it, we have so many different styles of regional pizza here, even I can't keep up, and I am a pizza fanatic. Some people luckier than I make a hobby of traveling around the country in their leisure time sampling regional food specialties, sometimes before they disappear for good. Viva la difference, say I! Oh, I forgot sopapillas! These are a Southwest specialty and can be served sweet with honey or powdered sugar or with green or red chilli con carne. I've tried the linked recipe, and it is excellent. Came out fluffy and puffy, just like those pictured.

If I didn't have a lot of time to cook, I'd put the country style ribs in my slow cooker with barbecue sauce and let them go on low all day. I don't know how this would work with a thick sweet sauce like most of the commercial ones, but it works great with Eastern NC style light vinegar based sauce. Then all they need is a quick run under a hot broiler or on a grill to crisp up and brown. You could make a nice salad with your leaf lettuce, a little sliced green onion top, raspberries, and any of the other fruits you wanted. I like to dress this kind of salad with a light vinaigrette that's slightly sweet with sugar, honey or pomegranate molasses. I don't put herbs in a dressing intended for fruit. Toasted and lightly salted pecans would make a fine garnish. Buttered new potatoes, which I hear are very good cooked in the steam oven, and sauteed sugar snap peas to round out the meal. Edited to add a link to my recipe for Eastern style NC BBQ sauce.

That looks good, FauxPas, but no cheese?! Oh, wait a minute... wait just a minute. I think I see some cheese on there. What kind?

I had cooked and eaten every single meal at home for over two weeks and needed a break, so Taco Bell was on my radar. I had a couple Spicy Tostadas, hold the chipotle sauce, add white onion. I stopped at the grocery store on the way to the restaurant food outlet to grab a few items and picked up a bunch of fresh cilantro. I also picked up a golden honeydew melon, which I haven't seen before, just so's you know I don't eat junk food all the time. I washed and chopped up some of the cilantro when I got home and snowed it over the tostadas after dousing each one with about eight little packets of Taco Bell hot sauce. Weirdly, to me, the Hot is hotter and more flavorful than their Fire sauce. I also had a crunchy taco (unadulterated, at least by me) and a Beefy Mini Quesadilla. Unfortunately, the $1.00 quesadilla comes with the soy/mayo based chipotle sauce, so I had them hold it. You can add onions or (very mild) red sauce to any item at Taco Bell for free, so this is what I had them do for my quesadilla. I also doused it with many packets of hot sauce after nuking it for about 40 seconds and added some iceberg lettuce and cilantro to it. So it was a very satisfying meal that hit my craving spot. It rang in at 800 calories, 29 grams of protein and $4.19 plus tax. My version may have been less calories because I had them ditch the soy oil chipotle sauce, and everything I added did not have many calories. That's all I will eat today, except for three Corona Lites with lime wedges, and it's plenty for me. The husband had the Smothered Burrito, Burrito Supreme and Steak Quesadilla. His was $10.17 plus tax, but he's got over half the Smothered Burrito and part of the quesadilla left for lunch tomorrow. Just for laughs, here's a quote from the Taco Bell website on the ingredients in their steak: "Marinated Grilled Steak: Beef, water, seasoning (modified potato starch, natural flavors, salt, brown sugar, dextrose, carrageenan, dried beef stock, cocoa powder, onion powder, disodium inosinate & guanylate, tomato powder, corn syrup solids, maltodextrin, garlic powder, spice, citric acid, lemon juice powder), sodium phosphates. Sauce: Water, seasoning (natural flavors, dextrose, brown sugar, salt, dried beef stock, onion powder, tomato powder, corn syrup solids, maltodextrin, disodium inosinate & guanylate, garlic powder, spices, cocoa powder, citric acid, lemon juice powder)." So it's definitely not a place for people with food allergies or an aversion to unpronounceable ingredients. Sadly, my franchise does not carry the Salsa Verde green sauce, but I remember seeing it in one in Raleigh many years ago near where I used to work. That's fine, though, because I'm such a fan of their red Hot Sauce I buy it by the bottle in my grocery store.

Monochrome? I think, you are officially jaded by the spectacular "first courses" you've been enjoying. Nice breakfast too, and I am going to try Sarah's zucchini recipe. I learned to swim on the VT side of Lake Champlain at my stepmom's parents' 6 bedroom "cottage". I hope it is as gorgeous and clean as it used to be when I was there for you to enjoy now.

@JoNorvelleWalker, Congrats on the one good tomato! Condolences on the blossom end rot and the unmentionable.

Pizza with mushrooms, caramelized onions and mozzarella. Served with quick pickled cucumbers and white onion. Or omelet filled with sauteed mushrooms, leeks and swiss cheese. Served with a broiled nectarine and popovers or muffins. Or pinto beans cooked up with white onion, carrot, and cabbage, if you want. Maybe cumin or whatever spices you like. Cornbread and butter to accompany.

@Shelby, It's so great to see your garden bouncing back from the pounding it took. I'm sending best wishes for optimum growing conditions in your corner of Kansas for the rest of the season.

Oven broiled pork chops seasoned with Adobo, cayenne, another milder chili powder, cumin, sage and black pepper and allowed to hang out in the fridge for an hour before cooking. Boiled baby lima beans, maduros and buttered slices of cinnamon raisin swirl bread from Pepperidge Farm. The maduros were my first attempt, though I've made tostones before. The maduros came out just as well as the restaurants' where I've had them and were easy and quick to make once the plantains had come to the proper stage of ripeness. I have added a new to me, tasty and easy side dish to my repertoire.

I believe if I spent that much time on a sculpture, I would prefer to work in a more permanent medium. There's no denying that her work is amazing, though. I hope she's making money at it, but I suspect it may be more a labor of love.

I reheated the leftover Shake 'N Bake chicken with a couple biscuits that I made the other day. I made mashed potatoes and chicken cream gravy from chicken drippings and fat I always save in the freezer. I had gravy on my crumbled biscuit as well as the potatoes. My husband only wanted gravy on the potatoes, but what does he know, being from Pittsburgh and all.

@KennethT, Thanks for this utterly awesome report about your trip to Beijing! I could almost smell some of the delicious food, and in at least one picture, I could see people sort of melting in the oppressive heat. You were so articulate and your images so good, it felt like I was there with you. I'm so glad your wife got to see her friends again, and you got to get to know them and share insights into their food, language and culture. You are so right about folks having more similarities than differences. Good food seems to be an excellent way to lure even more xenophobic people into exploring that idea.

@kayb, Did you shoot the mistletoe down? That is what we did. I planted some muscadine seeds on the edge of the woods, but they have a lot of competition. We shall see next year what happens.

@Deryn, I don't know what kind of wok you have, but I have a one that needs an outside heat source and isn't very heavy. It's stored upstairs in my spacious linen closet along with my heavy V-rack for roasting whole poultry or prime rib, long-handled fish grilling basket, grills for the barbecue, stash of disposable dinner ware for power outages, 18" perforated pizza pan, and a bunch of other stuff that one would never think of storing in a linen closet. I have kitchen stuff stored in every room of the house including the bedrooms. That doesn't help much with your heavy appliances, except maybe the wok. They take up a lot of space. There is a free-standing pantry cabinet that doesn't look out of place in the foyer which leads into the living room. I keep kitchen linens, spices, novelty serving dishes and stuff in there. I put shelves from the floor almost to the ceiling in the laundry room for canned goods, pasta, and other pantry items. I am like Lisa Shock. I can't stand cleaning that greasy, dusty film off appliances so my blender, toaster, electric can opener, coffee maker and everything else are stored either in cabinets or another room. I don't have any really heavy stuff like you do, though. Something that might add flexibility is a rolling kitchen island. You could move it where you needed it. Some are quite attractive.

We had another ice cold fruit salad for a starter tonight. I had strawberries, cherries, a banana and a nectarine that had been sitting on the plate on the counter with the tomatoes for several days. The nectarine had really gotten soft and sweet and almost as fragrant as tree-ripened stone fruit. I just about cannot get a peach around here that will even ripen on the counter. I tried a bamboo chopstick to pit the cherries that I read about on one of the kitchen tips threads here. I found the best way was to ream a starter hole on the bottom of the cherry with the pointed end of the chopstick, and push out the pit with the blunt of end the chopstick from the stem end of the cherry. I lost a bit of juice, but it was quicker and better than trying to dig out the pit with a knife. I always end up with a bunch of cherry bits with a knife. The chopstick treatment resulted in whole, if a little cracked cherries and surprisingly clean pits. So, it's a definite improvement. It's so hot and humid here many of our counties are under heat advisories in the afternoons. The chilly fruit salad was perfect for the day. I had a craving for Shake 'N Bake oven-fried chicken. I bought the store brand because it was almost a dollar cheaper, and as with the name brand, you have to use both packets for a whole chicken, and even when you do, it doesn't look like the picture on the front of the box. I always add a little flour and chicken seasoning salt, ground cayenne, and black pepper. This was good and satisfied a craving for it for another year or so. It always kills me to pay that much for a coating mix that probably costs them less than a nickel to produce. We also had sugar and butter corn, the first I have found this year and my favorite.

Eggplant parm over thin spaghetti. I was going to have a salad, but the green beans in the grocery today were just so fresh and inviting, they made it to our table instead. I love really fresh ones where you don't even have to tail them. I just lopped off the stem end. Garlic bread toasted on a griddle pan with the last of the French loaf.

@KennethT, I'm so glad your trip was such a success for the most part. Sorry about you airline experience. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with some of us who can only go there vicariously. @liuzhou, That is sad that your favorite local donkey noodle shop closed. I just hate it when my favorite spots either close or go to the devil. @Deryn, I don't think you are losing your mind about the donkey sandwich shop photo. I also has a sense of deja vu when I saw it, and my first suspect was @liuzhou. I can't find it after a pretty extensive search, and even went through Kenneth's thread were he was preparing for this trip, thinking someone recommended it. I cannot find it either, but either we're both losing it, or we saw it somewhere. The chances that I would run across it anywhere but right here are practically nil. Of course, it might be a similar sign in Chinese neither of us can read, I suspect, that made it pop into our minds.

Pan grilled burgers and yucca oven fries from the leftover parboiled root I stashed in the fridge the other day. I found no deterioration in quality at all in the yucca from its cold storage visit. Definitely will boil less time next time, probably after revisiting the Serious Eats article on them. Burgers were topped with grilled onion, iceberg lettuce and tomato. I toasted buns cut from a loaf of French bread, and I would have called them a bit too toasty at first, but it made the bread plenty sturdy to hold up to the 5 ounce ground chuck burgers and toppings. No other condiments because it just didn't need it. The juices were dripping down my arm trying to reach my elbow. I had a pickled peperoncini on on the side.

@HungryChris, When you snack, you do not mess around! Oh man, that sounds and looks so good!

Thanks, Jacksoup. You are killing me, though, just so's you know.