Thanks for the Crepes

@kbjesq, yes, I've had these in the past, and remembered having a box stashed somewhere. I send them for lunches with my husband, but have to keep them hidden or he'll scarf them all. I tried the frozen TJ's mac and cheese the other day. My husband, who is a mac 'n' cheese freak, said not to buy it again, and I couldn't finish my portion. I remembered we had previously come to this conclusion, forgot about it, and bought a package again anyway. Stouffer's still makes better frozen mac and cheese than I can. We also tried TJ's meat lasagna and it was better than the current version of Stouffer's. Quite solid, and probably the best frozen rendition available now that I'm aware of. If Stouffer's still made it's old lasagna version, though, I'd never have a reason to make my own.

I can really stretch a chicken if necessary. I always save the bones, fat and drippings for stock and gravy. I make soups, gravies, chicken tetrazzini, sandwiches, salads, tacos, enchiladas, burritos, nachos, arroz con pollo, stir fries, fried rice, chicken divan, chicken pot pie, chicken with fluffy herb dumplings, and many other dishes. It's very versatile, and if need be, can be used as an accent and make many meals. Seventeen or 23 might be an exaggeration, but the husband and I have eaten dinner on one (almost 7 pound supermarket) chicken for about a week at times. I love free-range chicken too. It's like chicken perfume compared to the bland mainstream variety, but when I'm worried about stretching it for many meals, it's just not in the budget. It helps that I don't like a lot of meat anyway. I actually pick out excess (to me) chicken from chicken noodle soup and other dishes and put it in his serving. I just love homemade stocks and gravies, and have spoiled myself to the point I'd rather do without than get by with commercial gravies. Whenever I roast a chicken, I always freeze the drippings after loosening any fond in the pan with a little boiling water so I have small containers I can make real gravy from in the freezer if I'm not going to use it right away. I serve the chicken deboned so I can freeze the bones for stock because I don't like the idea of anyone gnawing on them first. I'm sure it would be safe after all the simmering, but it still grosses me out.

Been there, done that @Darienne. Usually with these new-fangled tops that have flip-up flaps built into the screw on lid. I just blithely unscrew the whole lid, and attempt to shake through a non-existent sifter, and wind up dumping. Doh! Glad your moussakas came out well.

Congratulations on yet another win @chappie! Sounds like your traditional approach was the right one again. When you're competing, (or trying to please your guests) you have to cook to the tastes of your judges. Thanks for letting us know what happened. *Doing a happy dance for you*

@boilsover, I have a couple of lidded Club aluminum pieces, apparently the "housewife" version, which is appropriate, cuz that's exactly what I am. They are indeed thick. I have the Dutch oven and 3 qt. saucepan. Either piece is quite even heating all the way to the top, and used to be a favorite in my kitchen until I got triple ply bottom stainless pieces. I mostly use the smaller piece now to reheat biscuits, rolls or cornbread for two on the stovetop as a mini Dutch oven now. I still love them though, and dedicate precious storage space to them. I have joked about using the Dutch oven as a jackstand for a car. It is that sturdy and substantial. They came with a lifetime warranty. Overseas junk versions or in the few renditions left here, they are now specialty pieces for the affluent. I bought a Bromwell grater back in the 70's, and I'd be real surprised if I paid over $1.99 US for it. It has seen a lot of use in my home kitchen, it's still sharp, and I use it all the time. Here it is now. Who's going to pay $75 to $125 for a simple cheese grater, even if they can pass it on to their kids? Hang on to any classic stuff you're lucky enough to acquire.

Thanks, helenjp, for confirming what I always do, especially with high heat stir-fries. Soy sauce can really get scorched in those. I didn't say anything, because I'm far from an expert in Asian cooking of any kind, but love learning about it, because it's just plain delicious. I certainly concur with your thoughts on high or prolonged heat with soy sauce from my personal experience and palate.

@Chris Hennes Thank you for starting this thread. I don't think it was silly at all. I learned a lot here. I knew there were currant berries, and even had the red ones once at a nice Christmas luncheon for the employees where I worked. Anytime I ran across a recipe asking for currants, I just assumed, "Oh, we can't get those here," and moved on. Now I know much more, so thanks, everyone. I even think @Teresaid something about planting some white currants in her English garden over in the Gardening thread. So I eG, because I always learn a whack of stuff here everyday about a subject I love. I have never found shame or silliness in ignorance. To me the shame is in not being willing to learn or help others out with knowledge you may have that they are interested in.

@sartoric That was a gorgeous, inviting luncheon table you laid for some very lucky guests.

Welcome to eGullet, @xetaprime, and lucky you. I had to Google to see if my cast iron Wagner Ware skillet was made by the same company as your pan, and sure enough, it was! I hope your piece will prove to be as useful and durable as mine has. Too bad they don't make stuff like this anymore, at least not that us average janes and joes can afford.

@Deryn, I have been following along on your thread, but I have been silent only because I can't think of anything to solve your problem. I wanted you to know I feel for you, even though I'm not smart enough to come up with any magical fixes. I know it can be tough trying to move to a new small community, but when I have done so, I was always a kid. That is an entirely different animal than what you are facing. As one gets older, it gets harder and harder to meet new people and make friends. I think ElainaA's thoughts about looking for places where you can make potential friends first and then working slowly toward focusing on food and cooking are good ones. Is there a 4-H program active in your area? I remember taking cooking classes at a classmate's mom's house through 4-H in VT. You would be perfect as an instructor for something like that, if you could convince the folks in charge, and this could lead to social contacts with parents interested enough in food to send their kids to your class. They also focus on raising produce and livestock, and even if you're not expert, or even interested in those areas, again it could lead to contacts whereby you might score local produce and meat products. If 4-H isn't active, maybe there's another civic organization there. Small towns tend to have these sorts of things. Grange seems to be American, but I think the Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star organizations are pretty widespread. They both have dinners all the time, and many of the Eastern Stars I knew when I worked for them in their head office in NC were phenomenal cooks. I'm just going to briefly mention that churches often focus as the heart of rural social life, and provide a pathway to the newcomer to meet many others, and potentially develop contacts. Many churches are also known for potluck dinners or fundraiser dinners. The quality varies, but it would be a way to quickly meet the good cooks in your community, if their are any. eGullet will lull you into thinking that it's easy to find people like us anywhere. If you consider that there are only 29 online as I write this, out of all the 300 million Americans, and probably many more than that millions of English-speaking people worldwide, it begins to register that the odds of finding anyone like us in a community as small as yours are not very good. The only other thing I might offer is that I would give serious thought to whether hunkering down in the A/C during our brutal summers in NC, but being able to enjoy a better food and social life is really worse to you than a future in Nova Scotia. I'm sure you already have, but it sounds like you may be having serious misgivings, and your decision is not completely written in stone yet. Whatever you decide, I hope it makes you happy. *Hugs*

I decided to make skillet biscuit bread for the fist time to go with leftover broccoli cheese soup for dinner tonight. I was worried about it, and wondered if I should just make savory flour pancakes or corn pancakes, which I already knew how to do successfully. Finally, my sense of adventure and craving for "Cheddar Bay" Red Lobster biscuits won out, and I gave it a whirl. As I anticipated, it's easy to burn the area that contacts the cast iron skillet. I learned a lot, they were edible for the most part, and rose so high they contacted the lid I used on the skillet. This was another thing I was worried about from reading online stuff about skillet biscuits, and that turned out to be a non-issue. I'm glad I did it, because with the ambient 79 degree F temp, preheating the oven and baking biscuits would have made for an uncomfortable evening without A/C. Next time I think I will use my triple-ply bottom stainless chicken fryer, and not cook them so long. I was afraid the middle wouldn't cook all the way through, but I managed to dry them out somewhat by overcompensating. I also may try to steam some biscuit dough. I love my fluffy dumplings cooked on top of a stew or gravy. I just need to figure out a way to do it without the gravy element. I know just putting the dough on top of my stainless steamer basket will cause it to expand down through the holes of the basket. Maybe oiled parchment in the basket? I'm determined to learn how to cook fluffy biscuits well without my oven.

Oops!

Well, at least they identified it as a blend, I'm assuming, on the label. I don't mind blended oils as long as they are honest about it. The way to do that IMO is to state it in easily readable print on the front of the package. Interesting tidbit about the "Godfather". There are some really engaging food and cooking scenes in that series of movies, but I had never noticed the Genco brand. I particularly remember the scene in prison where they are slicing garlic cloves paper thin. Those characters loved their food enough to qualify as eG'ers.

I love crab apples, and you used to be able to find them in every grocery store as spiced, artificially dyed red, and preserved in glass jars in any grocery store here in the US. I love them as a side dish to pork. Unfortunately, they have fallen out of favor here. I've looked, and they are available online, but I very rarely risk my credit card that way.

I respect what you say here, Deryn, as always, but I have to disagree with you in this instance. If these were rich vacationing tourists, what you say is extremely appropriate. These refugees are ravaged folks driven out of their homes, and on a long and precarious journey. Any comfort foods from home might mean a lot to them, even if not rendered perfectly. It would be my inclination to try to offer something as best as I could that might approximate what they are used to with the humble admission that I knew it could never equal their authentic dishes. Unfortunately, I'm not up on Syrian foods per se, although I love Mediterranean foods like baklava, hummus, pita, spanakopita, and so on, and have made my share of them. A quick Google turns up falafel, kibbeh, mahshi, and halvah. A mix of Canadian foods that @Okanagancookfeels competent and comfortable preparing is great too. I just think in this case that any attempt to make their native dishes that they have been missing would be perceived as especially welcoming. I think offering tea will be comforting as well.

Kim, I don't like sliced celery in a mixed tossed salad either usually, but it's a must in Waldorf salad. One time, when we were broke and my usually brimming produce drawers were down to the last dregs, I made a salad of mainly thinly sliced celery. Celery is very long-lasting, and I guess that's why they use its natural nitrate extracts in "uncured" processed meats. I just added some thinly sliced onion (also long- lasting) and vinaigrette from ingredients in the pantry and maybe dried oregano, I think. I mixed everything up and let it marinate while I prepared the rest of the dinner. It was really surprisingly good for a desperation dish. (Sorry rotuts.) Lovely meals all, and @scubadoo97your coleslaw looks especially interesting. Coleslaw can be dismal or just boring, depending on who makes it. Not yours. I have not thought of using red pepper in it, but it's a good idea I shall keep in mind. Tonight's dinner was the leftover charcoal-grilled salmon from last night and broccoli cheese soup. The soup was made with the giant leek (I used the green parts too), a couple stalks of celery chopped , and a small carrot grated and sauteed in butter, then removed from the pot. I made a roux with flour, butter, black pepper and a touch of nutmeg, then added chicken broth and added the trinity back in and stirred until it simmered and thickened. Added the finely chopped broccoli and simmered for four minutes while still stirring. Then I added milk, the grated cheddar, a little Chardonnay and brought back to a bare simmer. Finished with quite a few drops of Tabasco sauce. Very good, and so was the salmon even cold. The instant I had trimmed the root end off the leek, I thought of my scallions on the deck which have wintered over and were raised from the root ends of purchased scallions last spring. I should have not trimmed it so closely, but I planted it anyway. How cool would it be to have leek shoots on the deck to harvest?

Peanut oil for frying turkeys is popular in this neck of the woods. The first time I did this with our friend's borrowed outdoor fryer, I sprang for pure peanut oil. It takes gallons, and can run into more money than the turkey if you're buying it on a seasonal loss leader sale. They began offering a peanut/canola blend in gallon containers, at least seasonally, so I opted for that for subsequent turkey fries. It worked well, and I saved money. I appreciated the fact that it is clearly labeled on the front of the jugs as a blended oil, so one is aware of what they are selecting. I kind of like the flavor of peanut oil for stir-frying, even if it's not authentic for Chinese cooking, like I thought it was. I also use toasted sesame oil only as a finishing oil, because everything I have read supports what @liuzhou said about its flavor being destroyed by heat. I love it, but it little goes a long way. I buy it in a cute little 6 oz. bottle, keep it in the fridge, and it lasts me years. Very interesting point that @cakewalkbrings up about using it in baked goods. I can definitely see it in a shortbread cookie, yellow cake or popovers.

It got up to 77 degrees Fahrenheit today, so it was time to fire up the grill! I built a smaller charcoal fire than I would for steaks, and had barely thawed out the big salmon steaks. They still had ice crystals in them and were slightly stuck together, but that was okay. I don't like to have thawed fish hanging around in the fridge. I gently separated the steaks under running cold water, and rubbed them with olive oil. I just used salt and pepper. I thought about dill or rosemary or thyme, but decided to let the fresh fish stand on it own, and this turned out to be a fine option. I kept thinking they were done, but I was only getting a 120 F reading on my meat thermometer. I pulled them anyway, and they were cooked perfectly. They were almost a pound a piece, so we have leftovers for tomorrow's dinner, which will be served cold. I don't want to risk overcooking it. Salmon is such a rich and delicious fish. It must be cooked on its bones with its skin to please me. I served North Carolina sweet potatoes baked in the microwave, and spinach with a little garlic, whole milk and cheddar cheese melted in. Afterward I roasted a few marshmallows over the dregs of the coals. I managed to get them puffed and melted, but perhaps not as toasty brown as I would have liked since I built such a small fire. This was a most satisfying first cookout of the year. I am so glad to say goodbye to another winter.

Most yellow cheeses in the US are colored with annato, a natural dye from the seeds of achiote tree. This includes processed cheeses all the down to the arguably lowly Velveeta. If I want orange mac, I use orange cheese without artificial dyes. I have ground Badia annato in the pantry if I want to turn white American cheese orange. I would not be at all surprised if that is what Kraft is using as the coloring agent in their recipe now. The dry powder is quite shelf stable. I say good on Kraft for trying to improve their product. I just hope they put the cheese back in while they were at it. I will check this out next time I'm in the store, even if I end up not buying any. There is nothing ugly about my homemade mac n' cheese, sir or madam. And yes, to my palate, macaroni and cheese just tastes a hell of lot better than macaroni and whey and "stuff".

For 600g of good artisan chocolate with a beautiful finish, I thought it was a bargain.

My husband loves mac and cheese so much that I make it often. Usually with good white or yellow American cheese from the deli, butter, milk, and elbows. It really doesn't take a lot longer than the boxed stuff, and it doesn't even create any more dishes to wash, as you just tear the cheese slices into the milk and butter. Sometimes I will run out of fresh American cheese, and unprocessed cheeses are just too grainy in stove top mac and cheese. I do use the boxed stuff that lives a long time on a pantry shelf at times. For years, I was loyal to the blue box Kraft brand because it tasted better than the generic or store brands that I attempted to save money with. Then several years ago, they dropped dried cheddar cheese, which was an ingredient for many, many years, and began relying on whey and other "stuff" for flavor, and that is what I thought the OP was talking about, when he said no one noticed. Well I did notice, and stopped buying it in favor of the Food Lion store brand which does contain dried cheddar cheese and tastes better than the cheeseless Kraft. Bonus: the store brand is also cheaper. If they have indeed changed their recipe, I might give Kraft mac and cheese another whirl, but only if it contains actual cheese. I'm just peculiar that way. Edited to Add: I just had another thought that perhaps the lack of cheese is why it is called Kraft Dinner in Canada instead if Mac and Cheese. Our government stewards are not well known for the protection of us hapless consumers from our corporate benefactors.

Oh, the happy dance I did years ago upon discovering that eG "Cook-Offs" were not competitions as the name suggests, but rather a think tank with skilled and experienced cooks and interested newbies alike participating! The fact that we have members who grew up with and live or lived in the cultures some of these dishes came from is such sweet, sweet icing on this delectable cake. Just had to add that the crepe Cook-Off is what got me over my fear of crepe making and prompted me to finally join.

Paul, lovely rendition of this popular and ubiquitous soup! Are the noodles you used shiratake or mung bean starch? The camera shows them quite translucent compared to regular wheat ramen noodles.

Had to hit up Torerro's again for a great Mexican dinner on $2.00 frozen margarita special night again. I had the carne asada skirt steak with rice, beans and a cheese enchilada. Husband had the fajitas sampler, which comes with shrimp, beef, and chicken with rice, beans and lettuce, pico, guacamole and sour cream. The shrimp, as I have read in reviews, was the star of his plate, with the chicken being tender, moist, and perfectly spiced. The beef was not so much. I insisted that he eat a bite of my skirt steak after I had sampled his shrimp, chicken and beef. He was like, "Why, I already have beef?" I told him to just taste it anyway, and that would be the end of the questions. After he got done moaning, there were no more questions. Afterward, it was warm enough to enjoy a couple drinks on the patio out front after we settled the bill and tip. Then I persuaded him to go next door to the small, but excellent Today Asia Market for a few minutes. He took our leftover takeout boxes to the truck and met me in the produce department, and immediately started in with the "I wanna go home!" toddler rant. Then he spied the fresh seafood department, perked up, and we left with two 2" thick bone-in salmon steaks, four whole croaker, a huge leek, a large head of green leaf lettuce, a white onion, and huge broccoli crown for only a bit over $22, which I could very easily have spent on the salmon alone almost anywhere else. We are so lucky to have so many ethnic restaurants and markets right here in our neighborhood. These ingredients will be featuring in subsequent dinners, and I'm especially looking forward to the salmon steaks grilled over charcoal in the nice weather forecast for us next week. As we were checking out, my husband said to me, "You're expensive." I shot right back, "Yeah, but I'm worth it, and I'm gonna cook all this stuff up so good, you're gonna be so glad we came in here." The lady checking us out, who wasn't too happy to see us non-Asian customers when we walked in, was cracking a smile despite herself as we left.

@Deryn, I kept my tongue (fingers?) in check when I read what rotuts wrote about the 3/4 person, but had thoughts very similar to yours. It looks like a product I would enjoy way too much.