Thanks for the Crepes

rotuts, I agree with both of your points above. Food Babe must be the victim of a hyperactive metabolism to have to worry about being satiated before consuming adequate calories. I wish. I'm not that lucky and frequently buy Nature's Own White Wheat brand when I want a soft white sandwich bread or hot dog/hamburger rolls. It contains cellulose. It also has only 110 calories for 2 slices of bread, and has more calcium and less calories than an 8 oz. glass of 2% milk. Plus 14% daily recommended fiber allowance, 6g protein and 15% of iron. Tastes better than many supermarket breads too, with great texture for a high fiber bread. Until I get different information, cellulose is the perfect food additive, at least for me. I do want to be informed truthfully when it is in something I'm buying.

So what was your first impression of the canned corned beef Vlcatko? Your treatment of it looks crispy and good to me. It's a pantry staple for me because we're subject to prolonged power outages from hurricanes and ice storms. It's always good to have non-perishable proteins around in case of emergency. I usually don't have to eat it cold out of the can, thankfully. I have a favorite recipe from a can of Libby's brand from years ago with sauteed cabbage, celery, onion, Swiss cheese, milk, caraway seeds and noodles or macaroni. Tastes sort of like a Reuben if you use your imagination.

I frequently use Kraft grated Parm, and it contains, and has contained cellulose for many years that I know of. I grew up with it. For goodness sake, you got a little green can of it in the Chef Boyardee pizza kit boxes my mother used to doctor up for us. So it's a comfort food for me. I don't buy store brands because they don't taste the same. I also don't buy the Kraft shredded in the can, because I can usually buy something cheaper in a solid piece and shred it myself and it tastes better. I like the pale straw-colored, not too strong smelling, not too crumbly or dry ones when I buy good parm for shredding myself, but Kraft grated will always live in my fridge, just as it did my mom's. The cellulose anti-caking component hasn't had any ill effects yet. I can certainly see limiting the amount of cellulose by law, and maybe that's why I don't like the store brands I've tried to save money with.

@liuzhouStuff happens, and it was obviously the toaster's fault. My 1970's oven is sent by Satan (the evil landlord), but somehow I wrest good stuff out of it mostly. When stuff happens, I have an out. The oven did it! My husband buys it. We don't eat breakfast per se, but I love this thread because we frequently have breakfast foods for dinner, and I get a lot of inspiration from all the wonderful meals posted here.

Gorgeous breads, Elaina! There is a section in my humble low-end grocery chain store that sells either mixed bottles of more premium beers that you select and load into convenient six-pack cartons in a rack near the beers, or you can buy a single bottle. I never noticed it for years, and if you don't buy beer, you may have one in your own grocery that you've not noticed before. Someone with more beer and yeast bread experience needs to answer your question about whether the type of beer matters. I know when I do drink beer that some of the hoppier, more bitter ones are to my liking, and I can imagine them giving a lot of flavor to a bread, but that's a matter of personal taste. I can say this from my experience with King Arthur's Quick Beer Crust Pizza Dough: I just use one of the cheap beers from my husband's ever-present stash. It still makes a great pizza crust. It calls for the beer at room temp, and that makes sense unless you're trying to retard the yeast, so I always take the beer out of the fridge the night before I make the dough.

Very enticing pizza @Shelby. I'd certainly eat a slice or three! If I'm going to put black olives on a pizza, I prefer to buy whole pitted ones and slice them myself. Canned are about all that is available to me, and I find for some inexplicable reason, that I can get better quality from whole than the convenient small cans of pre-sliced ones. It means in my small household, that I have leftover olives, and have to plan to use them in salads or Tex-Mex dishes for subsequent meals. That's okay with me to get the less "dusty" tasting quality from the larger cans of whole ones. I like bell pepper on a pizza, but if I make it, that goes on the husband's side, and sliced jalapenos on mine. I actually prefer if a restaurant uses canned mushrooms, if they are going to put fresh ones on raw. They just dry out to mushroom paper if they're thin sliced. When I make at home, I slice fresh ones about 1/8" thick and saute in a little butter and crushed garlic first. It's one of my favorite pizza toppings. Last night I caught my husband scarfing down a couple of loaded leftover from a previous dinner slices of pizza at 4:30PM, so I used that as an excuse to have a rare meatless dinner. I did get the "No meat?" comment, but he enjoyed his dinner too, and it really happens very rarely. I made hash browns with planned cooked and refrigerated Russets, peeled, coarsely grated and mixed with a couple Tbsp finely diced raw white onion, and about the same of flatleaf parsley. Added salt, black pepper, just a sprinkling of flour and tossed everything together. Cooked in a non-stick skillet with canola oil and butter until crispy and golden on both sides. I had found some good-looking off-season corn on the cob, and had to have it. It was sugar and butter, the kind with white and yellow kernels on the same cob. I've had worse corn in peak season, and this was tender, sweet and very good. Just cucumber sticks and sliced Roma tomato to accompany, and then we had a slice of TJ's cinnamon roll bread with raisins from the freezer for dessert. I toasted it and slathered with butter. That was my kind of meal! Tonight was dinner out at Torerro's Mexican Restaurant. Dinner starts off with a basket of warm chips and flavorful salsa with tomato, onion and cilantro. I always bring a baggie with minced jalapeno to add for some heat. They will bring it out no charge, but it's coarse 1/2" chopped, and at this point you have silverware but no plate to chop it further. I've also had pickled brought out when I asked for fresh by a waitress who probably wasn't all the way up to speed on English. I'm not being cheap, because they don't even charge you. It's just easier to bring what I want. It's the perfect salsa. I just like mine hotter, and any feedback from staff has always been positive on my eccentric practice. It doesn't hurt that I always run down my wait person and press a generous cash tip into their hand while my husband is paying the bill. We've had some local Latin restos in the news for bad practices with their staff, but not this one to my knowledge. I just feel better when I know that the server gets the money as I intended. I had a hard time passing up my usual carne asada dish, which from them is made with luscious skirt steak, but had such an insatiable craving for good cheese enchiladas, that I got a combo plate with two of them on it. I also ordered what they call a chalupa, which is a fried crispy and flaky large flour tortilla folded like a giant taco. They fill it will chicken, picadillo (shredded beef and pork), or ground beef. I went for the ground beef this time. Then they pile it with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and shredded cheddar. All this food comes out on a giant 14" ceramic heavy plate that is so hot, you have to take your silverware and shift it on the table if your waitperson doesn't place it close enough. It's too hot to touch. This keeps your delicious dinner hot throughout the meal. Then, you also get scrumptious refried beans and Mexican red rice on the plate too! The husband got a combo too with a burrito, enchilada and chimichanga, all filled with the picadillo, which is what I typically select. To top all this off, it was Monday night, so margaritas are on special for only $1.50 for on the rocks or $2.00 for frozen, like I got two of! We each packed up about half the food from these oversized plates into boxes and have dinner for tomorrow.

You and me both, Deryn! I actually enjoy knife work, finding it sort of zen-like. The cleaning up part, not at all. It's an integral part of maintaining a happy and productive kitchen, but that does not mitigate my dislike much. The only thing that makes me clean my kitchen spotless after every meal is my greater dislike of returning to a gross kitchen later and having to clean before I can cook anything. If they ever come out with an affordable product like Rosie, the robot maid from "The Jetsons", I'm all over that.

Sausage, over easy eggs and white American cheese on homemade cat head biscuits. Sausage was Jimmy Dean hot, and spiced up with extra sage, red and black pepper. Blood orange segments with the last of the delicious blueberries to go with. There was supposed to be hash browns too, and I had even nuked potatoes expressly for the purpose and refrigerated overnight, but I was running late with dinner, so hash browns will be served tomorrow. Because I was running late, the husband asked if I wanted McDonald's for dinner while i was busily stowing a big grocery haul. After dinner, he said, "I'm sorry I insulted you by asking if you you wanted McDonald's." I guess he enjoyed his biscuits.

Very nice, HungryChris. There is nothing like Atlantic oysters, and fortunately, I can get them in the R months. I know we are killing the inland folks who can't. :sorry: I'm going to get another half-peck soon. It costs about $13 from the fish monger in walking distance. That's just for me, because husband prefers their fried fish. Larger quantities of oysters are even cheaper if one wants to have an oyster roast for company.

I have a favorite tuna noodle casserole which I think would translate well into a lasagna. It actually contains minimal tuna, which can be very strong-tasting when baked. It also has Campbells cream of mushroom soup, thinned with milk. Other ingredients are frozen peas, celery, onion, and grated parmesan cheese on top. If you want the recipe, which you could convert to a lasagna, and which could then be frozen and doled out to avoid monotony, let me know. I once tried a recipe for another tuna casserole that won an award from a contest. Pretty sure that was on the Food52 site, and it was based on Amy's organic shells and white cheddar. Not horrible, but both my husband and I agreed that my old-fashioned recipe was much better. Edit: forgot the jarred pimento ingredient. That makes this recipe, and I don't bother making it unless I have it on hand.

@SmithyI'd love to hear about your working hypotheses on pita-making. It's a dish I have not made, but have interest in, and yours look very much like something I would love to make and eat.

Stunning dinners everyone! I've been watching the Spiralizer topic/thread, and was feeling left out. The linked post covers an idea I had to make zucchini "pasta" that I gave a go tonight. My idea of using a veg peeler didn't work out, and neither did my lengthwise scoring with knife, really. The old peeler, which is useless for peeling, because it takes off too much, so I use it for carrot curls or veg ribbons. It made "zoodles" (Shelby's coined word, I think) that were still too thin. I immediately switched to my trusty boning/fillet knife to slice down the length of the zucchini standing on end. The core was softer than the outer edges, so this wasn't a good idea either. I made it work with the knife alone, and ended up with zoodles that were about 1/8" square, and the length of my squash for the most part. Next time, I'll just take off thin slices and then cut the slices into noodles, all with the knife. No scoring first. Also, next time, even though my squash had very small seeds, the interior cooked more quickly the the exterior, so I will set that aside until sauteing the harder parts for a while. I used one large zucchini, a little less than a tablespoon of butter, one crushed garlic clove and salt. Melted butter, sauteed the garlic just a bit over low heat, added the zucchini strips, salted lightly and let them go over med-high heat for a bit, tossing occasionally. Plated when it was crisp-tender in the thickest pieces. Finished with grated parm after plating on pre-heated plates. This turned out great! Husband didn't recognize what he was eating, and is always skeptical when that happens, but ended up loving it too after the first bite. I licked my plate on the way from the dining table to the sink for clean up. No one saw me. Sshh. It made a great starter, and will happen again with the two other zucchini I have in the crisper. This was followed by a frozen pizza fix-up. I know. I'm not eG worthy. BUT this was a pizza born in Italy, par-baked in a wood-fired oven, with a short ingredient list including Grana Padano Cheese, y'all! Then it was shipped over here for my enjoyment. It was very good too, and for those of us who may not possess the skills, energy and specialty ovens of the pizza gods and goddesses, a good alternative. The sauce on this pizza was more flavorful than many restaurants. You can get yours at your neighborhood Trader Joe's.

I would welcome written descriptions without photos, too. After all, one cannot capture one of the most compelling aspects of a good barbecue joint with a camera. That, of course, is the wood smoke twining enticingly around the slowly cooking meat perfume. *drool* Have fun, y'all!

@OkanagancookI have to diet too, at times. It's sort of a lifestyle for me, so that I don't let my love of (obsession with?) food turn me into a behemoth. I venture to say that others would be interested in what a fellow eGulleter eats when cutting calories. I know I sure would.

@liamsauntVery nice meals and beautiful photos, as usual. Sorry about your transportation issues, but happy you have vacation time to get away from them. You might want to keep in mind all'arrabbiata sauce if you get stranded and home late again. The linked version is ultra- quick to prepare, and the name means "in the angry way". There are so many great and inspiring meals in this thread, mine comes off as pretty pedestrian, but we enjoyed it a lot, and bonus, it was pretty healthy. I broiled a pork sirloin steak with only seasoned meat tenderizer and black pepper. I split one of my out-of-season, not so great red plums, and broiled it alongside the pork. This really gave the plum some much needed help, so thanks for that idea @Smithy. Finished the plum with a touch of good balsamic, that I tend to hoard. This was served with applesauce, microwaved sweet potatoes with just butter and salt, and brussel sprouts. We raise so much pork and so many sweet potatoes in this state, that it tends to be an inexpensive staple. Even the supermarket offerings of fresh pork seem to be very acceptable, as long as you avoid the adulterated versions.

@johnnyd I'm glad you got some. Very jealous, but glad for you.

@Okanagancook Thank you for sharing your fascinating wine-making process. It's so cool to get an intimate peek inside what's esoteric to most of us. I have a question about your 4-bottle filling machine. The bottles all seem to be filling at different rates in your photo. I looked, but I can't discern any manual cutoff valves or a recirculation system for overflow. What keeps the faster-filling bottles from spilling precious vino on the floor before the slower-filling bottles get full?

Kim, Your cake came out looking beautiful! Also I don't know why I never thought to use cocoa for dusting the pan instead of flour for a chocolate cake. Thanks for the tip. It gives me more confidence to use the Nordic Ware holiday bundt pan my nephew gave me for Christmas. I think your pattern is much more nervousness-inducing than mine, but if yours worked, mine should be a cakewalk.

Very nice campfire meals, Smithy. Food always tastes better to me cooked outdoors, especially over a campfire. The chicken thighs look especially tasty, and the brussels sprout dish too. Thanks too, for the local flora photos. I'm sure I'm not the only member stuck in the deep freeze that appreciates them. I wonder if the evening perfume could be night-blooming jasmine? I still remember that fragrance from Southern CA as a kid. It has very humble flowers, but some gardeners grow it for the intoxicatingly beautiful aroma. It is quite invasive, and the scent is amazingly pervasive. I like it a lot. Here's a quote from the linked Wikipedia article: "Night-blooming jasmine has become widely naturalised in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, southern China and the southernmost United States, and is difficult to eradicate. It is classed as a weed in some countries. In Auckland, New Zealand, it has been reported as a seriously invasive weed to the Auckland Regional Council and is under investigation." Happy sun chasing!

Me too. @Tere. So exciting! I would love to go, but such a trip is not to be, and I'll be looking forward to any reports members are gracious enough to share.

I made a pannukakkun recipe for Finnish oven baked pancakes that Deryn shared over on the All Delicious Thing Finnish topic. Details are over there. I served it with sliced strawberries and bananas on the side. Delicious.

I made the pannukakku recipe for dinner tonight. I used Darienne's tips, like the Pyrex dish and sprinkling all the blueberries on top of the batter. I also used maple instead of birch syrup. It was very good. My husband particularly loved it. I think I may have messed up though by using huge fresh blueberries, which are full of juice that they release into the already thin batter. I also went blueberry-crazy, and at least doubled the amount called for, so all errors are mine. This resulted in a very moist custard center that didn't rise. The edges puffed and rose high above the pan and were crispy, and I loved the textural contrast with the softer, moister center. The flavor is delicious, and it smells so good while it's baking. Next time, I won't use such large fresh blueberries or so many frozen ones. Bigger and fresher is not always better.

I completely forgot about potato salad, which can be completely made the night before, and refrigerated overnight. It's an excellent side dish for many grilled meats. I like mine chunky with some firmness left in the potato with eggs, celery with leaves, white onion, parsley, mustard and mayo. Paprika on top is pretty. There are a gazillion recipes, and a lot of them are good. Talk about no-fuss last minute plating for a hot summer day's party! Pasta salad is good too, but maybe not as popular as potato, with again, myriad recipes.

Really? They haven't changed the website yet. We still have not been tempted to take advantage of the McPick2 offer again. Edit: Don't those cheese sticks on McD's website look different than all the internet posts with photos about them being hollow with no cheese inside? At one point that is what came up first on a Google of McDonalds: an article concerning complaints about hollow cheese sticks, with McD's own website second. Talk about bad PR. Try TJ's Mozz Sticks. Probably the best I ever had, and $3.99 a pound, conveniently in your freezer. I like Hunt's tomato sauce with basil, garlic and oregano out of the 8 oz, can for convenience when I don't have frozen marinara on hand. I put it in small glass prep dishes on top of the oven while preheating and the cheese sticks are baking, along with serving plates. The sauce is hot when the sticks are piping hot from your oven. You can freeze unused portion of sauce for later in a small container. I always save and wash 8 oz. plastic sour cream containers for storing small portions. Very useful in small households.

My go to for minimal last-minute work for a small summer dinner party is outdoor grilled beef steaks, fish or shrimp with twice baked potatoes and salad with a ready-to-serve dessert. In summer the dessert would be a refrigerated one. Ice cream is great too. Homemade popsicles, like the ones some of our members make with natural juices, fruit and sometimes booze, would be divine and impressive. Before the guests arrive, I make the salad and refrigerate. It's dressed at the last minute. Baked potatoes are super easy, but twice-baked are more festive. If I make those, I do the first bake and scoop out the insides, mash and stuff the night before, then refrigerate overnight. For me, some good cheese slices (not grated bits) is a must in them, preferably hoop. All the meats I mentioned cook quickly on the grill, and at least my crowd likes to hang out at the grill with me quaffing an ice-cold personal beverage. Ribs can work here too. If you precook them low and slow beforehand, they don't take long to crisp up and brown on the grill. Before anyone can get too hot or bored, the meat is done, and we head inside to the A/C for dinner. Oyster roasts on the grill can be a lot of fun too, but I like to do that in weather cool enough to keep the dining outdoors because it's so messy. Everyone shucks their own, and it's ultra casual, so not for everyone. Grilled corn on the cob, red peppers, zucchini and onion are great sides for this, along with some nice bread, which you might like to grill as well. I might take a boom box out on the deck, but other than that, the entertainment is the conversation and interaction of the diners, and the cooking of the food. A similar outdoor casual and fun summer dinner is the Carolina Low Country Boil. That's peel-and-eat shrimp, corn on the cob, smoked sausage, potatoes, onions and crab if you got it, all boiled together in the same pot. This can be done on the side burner of your gas grill or on your turkey fryer, if you have one outdoors. If not, you can do it on a smaller scale indoors on the stove top in a big pot, and then bring the food outside. Again good bread is a nice accompaniment. If you're lucky enough to source crayfish, it can be turned into a Cajun crawdad boil. Some pour the entire pot without draining onto newspaper on the picnic table. I prefer to scoop out the food onto large tray/s or bowl/s and place that on the table. A roll of paper towels is the centerpiece of the picnic table for both an oyster roast and a low country or crayfish boil. Winter is lasagna with the trusty salad and garlic bread. I usually like garlic bread made on the grill or stove top, but when minimizing last-minute work, it's very tasty from the oven, and can be assembled and foil-wrapped the night before, then refrigerated. I like a hot dessert in winter, and I'm especially fond of baking a pie while we eat the main meal. Pre-assembled, of course.