Thanks for the Crepes

Hi Tere, and welcome to eGullet! I agree that you will fit right in here, and I too am looking forward to learning about your life and culinary adventures across the pond. Do you keep any animals on your farm, aside from perhaps your adorable avatar?

We made it to the seafood market tonight even though it was still raining, but at least not pouring like last night, and more importantly, it's not freezing on electric wires or trees. We both got fried fish and chips. Red snapper for me and tilapia for the husband. There were hushpuppies involved, and lemon wedges. We picked up some fried catfish for a neighbor. I am not a fan of fried snapper, but I will try it again roasted whole at home before giving up on this expensive fish. Best of all, I found a frozen duckling in their freezer case which will be enjoyed in a future dinner in a few days when it has thawed out in the refrigerator. I can't wait. I love duck, but it's hard to find here outside of the holidays. So major score!

@huirayI'm sure Deryn (who is a very nice lady) didn't mean to offend you. As she said at the end of her post, she appreciates the posts with photos of your bounty. I do too, and I'm pretty sure that I am far from alone. Please keep them coming. I can't get everything that you can either, but that doesn't stop me from vicariously enjoying it, and learning a whole lot. Sometimes, I find that I actually can get some of the stuff you post about in this thread, and was just too ignorant to know about it or recognize it. At the end of January, you had a post here with no photos with some very intriguing ingredients, and I thought to myself, "Boy, I sure wish huiray had photos of his haul." I also thought about asking for some. I also thought it would be extremely bad form to ask someone who had obviously already stowed their groceries to haul them back out again for my entertainment and education, especially as a person who has no means to post photos here, so I was silent. There is interest here, believe me, and Deryn was just pining for spring. That will happen in the Great Frozen North. I know, I used to live in VT for years, and Toronto briefly, and then Windsor also briefly. I'm pining for spring down here in NC in the nasty cold rain, but at least it's not freezing. I scored a frozen duckling for $2.25 a pound at, of all places, my fresh fish monger. One of the sons had to call his dad to find out the price, and they spoke in English. The family that owns the store is Asian, and stocks a few of those ingredients in addition to the seafood. And I don't lump all Asians into one category. I'm simply ignorant if these nice folks are from somewhere in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea or elsewhere. I do know enough to say they aren't from India or Russia. I don't know them well enough to quiz them about it in their busy store. One of the sons recently married a Latin American lady (again, Mexican, Honduran, Salvadoran, Chilean?). She has influenced some recent stocking of a few Latin ingredients. This is a fascinating little local store to me, with many treasures, including all of the helpful folks who run it. My prize duckling is thawing in the fridge, but I suspect the almost 6 pound lovely ducky will take a couple or three days to thaw properly, so it will be prepared when it is ready. You can find duck here around the holidays easily, but this is a real out-of-season treat for me. I am anticipating it greatly. P.S.: In case my ramblings did not make it clear, huiray, your posts here are entertaining, educational, and have enriched my culinary life by a lot. Thank you.

I once made nachos with pork loin for a special visit from my nephew, that I rarely have the privilege of seeing because he's active military, along with his also active military girlfriend. They weren't tacos per se, but the meat treatment could be used very effectively for tacos. I took enough pork loin for six, which is the number of people I was serving, sliced it into half inch or so boneless chops, and froze the rest of the whole loin. Then I sprinkled it with Goya adobo (which contains salt), cumin, oregano, ground chipotle, just a touch of ground cayenne, some thyme, and refrigerated these seasoned slices overnight wrapped up well. On the day of, I took a recycled produce bag, tossed the seasoned slices with plain flour to coat and fried in a little vegetable oil until golden. When done, and it doesn't take long, I removed from skillet, drained and blotted on cheap paper towels. Then I took the chops and quickly sliced into thin strips for use on the nachos. I had already prepped all my other ingredients: Shredded iceberg and romaine, chopped Roma tomato, sliced black olives, Daisy sour cream, little slices of avocado, shredded cheddar, and crumbled queso fresco. I set these all out with a stainless bowl of heated tortilla chips and warmed plates and the sliced meat to let the guests assemble their own nachos, with the guests of honor first in line, of course. It was a huge hit, and I was very glad I remembered how much I used to eat when I was their age and as active as they are when estimating portions for the nephew and his girlfriend. With pork loin, it can be very good, but it needs some help. It hasn't much flavor on it's own, and it needs to be pretty quickly cooked so it doesn't dry out or get tough. There's not a whole lot of collagen or fat so trying to treat it like shoulder will result in epic fail. ETA: I just remembered I also used some fragrant ground sage to season the loin chops overnight before frying.

Tonight's dinner was based on a frozen entree I tried for the first time. It's always a crap shoot nowadays trying something new, so I thought I'd share a rare success. I found frozen stuffed flounder at my local Food Lion grocery and had it stashed in the freezer. My husband asked if I wanted to go to our local fresh seafood monger to get dinner, but I didn't want to get out in pouring down rain. These stuffed flounder fillets are wrapped around a very nice stuffing. I read the ingredient list before leaving the store, and found good stuff and nothing really objectionable. My husband was rolling his eyes at me the whole time, but I had just picked up a package of beautiful frozen stuffed "clams". So pretty in their natural clam shells, and dusted with parsley and paprika! I had to return them to the freezer case after discovering from the legally required ingredients list that they contained NO actual clam at all, and very little protein. Quality Foods says on the front of the package of stuffed flounder the stuffing is shrimp, artichoke, seafood and spinach. If you read the ingredients listed by weight, it's more like surimi (which I like), spinach, milk, cream, artificial creamer, artichoke hearts, crab and shrimp. Despite the fact that they lie shamelessly on the package front, my husband and I found the cooked up product to be quite good, and I have put it on the list to buy again. I added only pats of real butter to the top and popped them in their "ovenable" tray in a 350F preheated oven for about 35 minutes. I also added smoked paprika for color and flavor a few minutes from end of cooking. They picture three large whole shrimp in the stuffing on the cover art, but this ain't happenin' unless you add them yourself. Still, for a convenient frozen entree for two with 20g protein per serving, I would recommend Quality Foods (From the Sea, Inc.) out of Elizabeth City, NC. I'm not sure how widely available this product is. I lost patience with their Facebook page quickly, but not before reading that they are offered in Publix as well as Food Lion. I served it with a lightly dressed green salad and thin spaghetti with marinara and parmesan. It made a very satisfying rainy night meal. The plan for tomorrow is to see what the seafood shop has to offer. Crabs, oysters, snapper, shrimp, catfish? You never know. I'm looking forward to it, but I hope it isn't pouring again.

@sartoricThat's a lovely hot weather meal. Marcella Hazan has a recipe for stove top croutons for soup or salad. She uses olive oil, and a lot more of it than I would, but it can be done with less fat of your choice. It's hot and very humid in my local climate in summer, which of course, is the opposite of yours, so now I'm enjoying using my oven, which helps heat my house. Even when it's cold, I actually prefer garlic bread made with raw pressed garlic and minced parsley mixed into some good butter, spread on bread and grilled one side at a time on a stove top griddle. It's crunchier. In summer instead of cornbread baked in the oven I make corn pancakes on the griddle, grilling outdoors, and many other strategies to work around our sauna-like summer climate. There are so many wonderful dinners on here lately, as always. King crab with spaghetti? Oh yeah! The first time I saw seafood with pasta, I thought, "This chef is an absolute genius!" I haven't had much to say lately about dinner because I fear I may be gripped by a Latin American food kick that borders on mental illness. My husband made a (perhaps unPC) comment after the third time I served tacos/burritos with different accompaniments every time (not in a row). I think my psychosis was triggered by two really bad Mexican meals a few weeks apart. I'm sure I'll get over it, but you know what? I could eat another good taco right now, and I'm going to make enchiladas with beef and cheese soon with homemade corn tortillas. @cyalexaYour stacked version was beautiful, and the inspiration for my determination to make some enchiladas. Anyone else ever get obsessed to satisfy a craving after having it frustrated? The husband will have to get over it, because I did make his beloved polska kielbasa with cabbage, carrots and egg noodles, and some American chicken and pork dinners in between. He loves Mexican food too, and the comment did come after I made a not too great black bean/toasted fideo soup starter that was admittedly not up to my usual standards.

@SmithyI don't have a julienne peeler, but I don't think it would be anymore challenging to do this with a knife and peeler than my usual treatment of zucchini. I usually slice it in slabs, lengthwise, dredge in flour and fry in shallow oil. It's very good, but involves cleaning up the stove after frying, which is one of my most hated kitchen chores. Then I have to deal with the used oil, which isn't reusable because of the flour that came loose in it, and scorches if you try to use is again. For some reason, I don't mind knife work at all and even find it sort of zen-like. I just put zucchini and parsley on the shopping list. I think I'll give it a try with a little garlic butter and flatleaf parsley. Maybe some parmesan to finish. @ShelbyThanks for the tips about tossing the zoodles with the hot sauce. I'll add them with the parsley.

I don't have a spiralizer, but do covet one. I like the raw carrot and daikon garnish that has been given that treatment at one of our better Asian restaurants here. It's very pretty, and tasty too. It's cool to actually eat garnishes now, right? I'll be doing it anyway. I would also like to try zucchini spaghetti as a low-carb alternative, but I expect it would stand very brief cooking before going mushy. You know, I just thought, I do have some veggie peelers, and one of them takes off a pretty thick piece. So I may try zucchini fettuccine with the equipment I have. OR? Wonder how it would work to score a zuke in parallel lines lengthwise, and then use the peeler perpendicularly to them? I have no budget for kitchen gadgets (or much of anything else) right now, but I'm very much enjoying this topic and everyone else's experiences with spiralizers.

Cabbage is one of those vegetables that keeps well in the fridge for a surprising time. Also, although, McIntosh apples are my very favorite to eat raw, they will get soft very quickly with cooking and disintegrate pretty completely in twenty minutes of cooking. Your Granny Smith will hold more integrity for longer, if that is what you're after.

Have the board members been smoking something, or possibly tripping?

The beautiful food photography and writing on this site is enough to whet the appetite of anyone! I just had two pieces of TJ's cinnamon swirl raisin bread, each toasted separately and eaten hot and crunchy with real butter. This was unbelievably good. I'm having to restrain myself from toasting up and eating more, but I've already consumed 500 delicious calories in just the two slices, generously buttered. BTW, this rich bread freezes very well, and my snack was pulled from the freezer with a November 17, 2015 expiration date on the loaf. Still very, very delicious!

I like to be able to use it immediately (after washing, of course) and the polymerized oil really extends the life of the piece over time. I like steel for baking for the browning. I have some aluminum pans, but they just don't brown like the steel ones, and steel rusts, so it needs a coating to help it last in harsh conditions of the oven. I bought one of those insulated pans one time and threw it out after it prevented my cookies from browning on the bottom. I realize people bake some things where this would be a desirable quality, but it's not for me or for the stuff I personally bake. I like my homely aluminum 10" x 14" roaster pan, and use it over my two steel and two glass pan of the same size for roasting meat on a V-rack. It's spattered with polymerized oil, but that's just the random stuff that comes off the meat and burns to it. It is really a no-fuss pan. The glass pan are pretty, but I only use them for baking brownies or cakes. They are too hard to clean after roasting something without scratching them. That old aluminum pan is easy to clean up after roasting. I can scrub it after soaking without worrying about any coating or scratching. It's light too. The steel pans are fine, but higher maintenance for roasting. They can't be put in the dishwasher, and I have to worry about marring a rustproof finish when cleaning. Just my personal preferences.

That is a very appealing meal to me. I make my own corn tortillas from dry Maseca instant corn masa flour, and the commercial tortillas I find here only come as large as taco size too, even though we have a strong Hispanic community here, and I have no problem finding ingredients for the cuisine. It's tough to lay the raw tortilla dough on your griddle or comal without getting creases that are hard to straighten out without tearing the tortilla up. This difficulty increases with the diameter of the tortilla. The nature of the dough may be self-limiting as to the size? Also since you support the tortilla on you spread hand before laying on the cooking surface, folks with larger hands may have an advantage. I am sure there are Latino grandmas who have whipped these things out every day for decades who are capable of larger ones, but I am lucky to get good results up to 7 or 8 inches, and the larger I try to make them, the more I manage to botch. Six inch are easy, and that's probably why they are so common. Your shredded chuck, if you have any left, would also be great in enchiladas, which you could make with your locally available corn tortillas.

The regional variations for McDonald's all day breakfast are explained here on their website. I haven't had a Hardee's biscuit in over ten years, but good to hear they are still excellent. My husband thinks I make the best biscuits, but I better keep him away from Hardee's. Theirs are better. Probably because they are much higher in fat.

I like non-stick finish on metal baking pans. I start with good quality, heavy gauge pans, and eventually build up a polymerized oil finish over that. It's hard at first, because oil tends to bead on non-stick, but it is possible over time with very thin, wiped coats of oil. The pans needn't be expensive. My WearEver cookie sheets are heavy, but cheaply purchased, and now have a very durable polymerized oil finish built up over the original non-stick. They scratch on the bottom where they contact the oven racks, but it doesn't affect performance, and the rustproofing can be easily restored with a little wipe of oil and heat. I like the WearEver brand for their affordability, durability, and the cookie sheets don't warp due to themal expansion/contraction like some while heating or cooling. I bought a large cookie sheet by Marcus Samuelsson (did not know who he was at the time) about 11" x 16-1/2" cooking surface. I never use it, although it's the largest I own by a little, and heavy guage. The problem? It violently warps under heat, and then again on cooling. You can hear it go sproing! in the oven and again on the glass trivet, throwing your lovingly prepared food every which way. If I weren't such a pack rat, I'd throw it out. Still a tray that size could be useful, just not for baking. It's the only piece with his name I have, so smaller ones may be fine.

She can hang out on my corner anytime! I too, love the flavor of a well cared for and cooked simple chicken. Tonight, as on many nights in my small household, it was repurposed leftovers. Friday, during the worst part of our ice/sleet/snow storm, I cooked off a rack of spare ribs in the crockpot, and had featured them in their original form in two meals already. I decided to go Latin with my dinner tonight. I didn't want to run them under the broiler again for fear of drying them out, so I took the meat off the bone and shredded it, then nuked them in a bit of the mostly defatted gelatinous stock they had been refrigerated in. I made a fresh pico de gallo with Roma tomatoes and onion for the husband. I added roasted jalapeno for me. I wanted cilantro on my last grocery shop, but what was offered was dying, so alas, no cilantro. I shredded up some iceberg, shredded the last of the pepper jack along with some cheddar. I heated canned La Costena refried beans and topped with the cheese blend to serve separately. Plenty of Taco Bell hot taco sauce to top my beans. Then, what really set this meal into the memorable category for both of us was frying the flour tortillas. A now defunct Mexican resto used to offer one dish that was served on a crisp fried flour tortilla, and by the time their's arrived at the table, most of it was soggy. From the still crispy edges, I remembered the potential of this dish, and decided to adopt the idea. I used Guerrero brand large burrito tortillas from Texas, and fried them in 1-1/2 cups hot oil in a large 12" skillet for a few minutes until they were puffed, golden brown and flaky/crispy as good phyllo. They are more expensive than others on offer, but are more flexible, moist and soft. A hard, stale tortilla won't puff and flake like these did. I drained and blotted on thicknesses of cheap paper towels. After dinner, I poured the cooled oil into a spouted glass measuring cup and then into an empty oil bottle so it can be reused. Almost all of the oil came back. The husband wanted me to pile the meat, lettuce, pico and cheese on his to serve. I whisked his to the table hot from the fryer, having drained the rib meat well, so it was still hot, fresh and crispy. He asked me why mine was so much better than the restaurant's version. I wanted mine just as crispy as possible, so I broke off pieces of the tortilla, keeping all the toppings separate, and topped a bite at a time with the various components. Meanwhile, the rest of my crispy tortilla was kept hot on the stovetop nestled in its paper towel robe. Husband's dish was a prettier presentation, but I have no doubt that the contrasting textures of mine were superior.

Thanks for this tip, Anna N. I hardly ever use the tiny rear burner on one side of my old GE electric stove. I keep all the electric coils covered with matching white enameled burner covers when not in use. Many more times than one, after more than twenty years, I have turned on the wrong burner. It's so easy, because the pattern is weird to me. Left to right it goes: Left Front, Left Rear, Oven On/Off/Broil, Clock/Timer, Oven Temp, Right Rear, Right Front. Somehow, I have never gotten used to this configuration. I don't do it as often as when I first moved here, but it was still happening occasionally. So, many thanks to Anna, I can now confidently say that I will never again scorch and crack the enamel on my good quality burner covers by turning on the left rear burner inadvertently. I took the control knob, gently popped it off with a spoon handle, and stashed it in the drawer with the oven thermometer and mitts. I can always slide it back on for Thanksgiving or whenever I need it.

Oh, Arey! You are indeed funny. Had me literally laughing out loud and slapping the table in front of my keyboard. Could it be... self-recognition? @rotuts Thanks for the link to the magic lantern on Amazon. Seriously, this $30 device is a lantern/emergency beacon/flashlight/radio/mobile device charger that doesn't require batteries! In hurricane and ice storm country, why did I not know about this before? Last night after the power fluctuation scare, I had a thought, a very dumb one. "Well if the power goes out tonight, I can just use one of the electric fireplaces until the husband wakes up to get the generator going." Riiigghht. I will build a dynamo with no knowledge and no materials to do so. Doh! Typical, though. During the Hurricane Fran 9-day outage, I can't tell you how many times I flicked the dead light switches when entering a room. Habit. Obviously I lucked out and never lost power, thank goodness. They have already restored over a quarter million homes in NC, but about 100,000 are still without. Almost half of those are in my county. I feel so sorry for them, but am rejoicing that for once, it's not us. Maybe that tree coming down recently with the power lines a week or so ago was a blessing in disguise. It only took a few hours for restoration because it wasn't part of a widespread disaster. The threat is mostly over for us here for a while. *crosses fingers and knocks wood* I merrily roasted cauliflower ($3.99/head) in the oven. I reheated a couple fried chicken wings in there too, and cooked up some baby limas until nearly done and then added mixed veggies with corn, carrots, peas and green beans on the electric stove top, then drained and finished with butter. The leftover spareribs made another appearance as well. Texas Pete on my wing. I am so thankful and feel so blessed to be warm and comfortable, and I wish all those without power the very soonest possible restoration.

I use a cheap classic bundt pan very similar to the one curls linked to as the "Anniversary" model from Nordic ware, and have never had problems with sticking. It's coated inside and out with black non-stick, which has a few nicks and scratches through the years on the bottom where it contacts the metal oven rack. The inside is pristine as the day I bought it somewhere like Big Lot's over a decade ago. It only gets used 3 or 4 times a year though. There are no identifying markings anywhere, and I can't recall brand or coating type. It's heavy-gauge, but light, and I'd be surprised if I paid over $5 for it. Fun fact: almost all North Carolina recipes for pound cake, at least from living people, call for a bundt pan instead of a loaf pan. I was quite surprised by that when I moved here. Several Christmases back, my adored nephew bought me a fairly elaborate bundt pan with an X-mas wreath design. I promptly stashed it in the upstairs linen closet, thinking the design would be too intricate to release intact, and loving the nephew even more for the thought. I just pulled it out from the bottom of said linen closet. I didn't know what I had. On the bottom is stamped USA and Nordic Ware. I didn't find my pan on the Nordic Ware site per se, but here it is in this Amazon link. The majority of reviews are positive, but some complain of sticking. Anyone have experience with this particular mold? Now I'm determined to make this cake the next time my nephew visits, Christmas or not, because he's in the navy, and I so rarely get to see him. That boy is a keeper!

Yes, Lisa. Paper and plastic plates/bowls and plastic utensils are always on hand upstairs in the linen closet sealed in a big clear zipper bag that came with a comforter I bought. They are an essential part of any outage survival kit, when every drop of water must be hauled and heated if you have the means, and even more necessary when you don't. I actually try to avoid plastic or paper dinner ware most of the time, but in an emergency, you gotta do what you gotta do to get through it. I also always keep an embarrassing amount of paper supplies of all kinds, not only because I like to get the best price by buying on sale and in bulk, but to make sure I have them if the need arises. It's kind of funny, though, to see the picnic ware aisle fully stocked and the bread and milk all gone sometimes. People forget about washing dishes. I sure would like to. Other things that come in handy are a battery powered radio, and of course batteries for it, books and old-fashioned board games, so you can amuse yourselves without the usual electronics. It takes a lot of candles to produce enough light to read by. A deck of cards is nice. Most electronics won't run on the power from our little generator. Every time, my husband will unplug the fridges and try to plug in the TV over my strident protests. It makes the generator engine surge up and down like it is having death throes, and the TV will not work. By some miracle, he hasn't fried either the TV or the gennie... yet. I hope he has learned his lesson, but I doubt it.

Welcome to eG, love&flour! Mmmmm, Greek food.

Although I used to eat maple snow ice in Vermont, it was a very rural area, and I was too young to know better. After seeing how black the large snowbanks get when they melt in spring, I no longer consume snow. We sure had fun with our maple snow ice back in the day, though. If you are bent on the idea, maybe something overly sweet and strong-flavored like Kahlua or Grand Marnier would make a nice snow ice.

I just thought of another recipe made without salt that is just as good as the salted version, and it comes from The American Heart Association cookbook published in 1989. I cannot speak to any edition other than that one or even say they still publish, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. The recipe is for Herbed Baby Potatoes. It calls for: 1-1/2 pounds small red or new potatoes (works well with small fingerlings, also works with larger potatoes cut into chunks) 2 T olive oil 2 T minced fresh parsley 1 T chopped fresh oregano OR 1 t dried oregano 1/2 t paprika (smoked is good) 1/2 t garlic powder Freshly ground black pepper to taste Oven 350F. Toss potatoes with oil in 2 qt. casserole. Add everything else and toss again. Bake 30-40 minutes until lightly browned and potatoes are cooked through. Larger potatoes will take longer, of course. Garnish with 2 T minced fresh parsley.

I was in the middle of reading the Oatmeal thread/topic earlier when the power began flickering. Oh no! So I shut down my computer, the modem and router, and the TV. Then I lit a candle. I had the last load of laundry in the dryer and the last load of dishes was still running, so nothing I could do about that. The dryer was almost finished, so I put all the clothes away, flashlight nearby, and by that time the power had stabilized. I dread power outages. We live on a quiet cul de sac, which is very nice in many ways except that it puts our little residential area right at the bottom of the power restoration list. During Hurricane Fran, my sister who lives in the Middle of Nowhere, NC on twenty acres at the end of the power lines got power in 2 days. There are a couple of commercial chicken barns on her line. I got it in 9, after every last person in the state was restored I believe. At least it was warm then. I used to do the water in the bathtub, but luckily, we have never lost water here. We live practically in the shadow of a water tower, and they must have generators to get water to the top of them. I also have an analog phone that works because it has its own underground power supply. AT&T wants to take it away, and I think the government is going to let them, but I'm keeping it until they pry it from me. It's critical for locating ice, propane and batteries during extended outages when stores have power and I don't, and shortages are rampant. More than once I have stood on line for ice deliveries, where they just pile the bags on pallets and people queue up to carry them out, to be too late to actually get any. For now the power has stabilized or, of course, I couldn't be posting this. The dishwasher has completed its cycle too. The power blips weren't even enough to stupify the electronic clocks or the dishwasher which will reset and flash midcycle at the drop of a hat. We have a small generator where we can run a few things like the two fridges and electric fireplaces on drop cords. We can also run a few lamps, and I have an electric Dutch oven that I use for everything from cooking to heating water for dish washing. I would give anything for a gas stove, but as long as the generator cranks, we won't freeze or starve or lose any food. The generator is enough to run the electric coffee maker too, and the essential water bed heater gets a precious slot. Power is not likely to stay on here, though I fervently hope it does. Our temps are fluctuating right around the freezing point with constant precipitation ranging through snow and sleet to (mostly) destructive freezing rain. Storing food on the deck is out because the temps aren't low enough to keep anything solidly frozen, and even though I have two big coolers, the raccoons would pillage them. Hmm, if the chain we use to secure the generator with a padlock were long enough, I might be able to thread it through the handles and keep them out that way. They would just chew through rope or simply untie it. Sure hope that generator cranks if we need it and that we don't need it. I already had my shopping done by Thursday, and everything seemed normal in our stores, except maybe the line at the liquor store was three deep at two registers instead of no waiting at one register for a Thursday. I also boiled up some eggs, and bought some organic sourdough and and an olive oil/rosemary boule. I cooked spare ribs low and slow in the crockpot today, hoping the power would stay on at least long enough to cook them, and I even got to run them under the electric broiler to crisp them up. I also made a very nice chef salad with some of those boiled eggs, sliced cheddar, seedless green grapes, a medly of cherry and grape tomatoes including green, orange, yellow, brown and red ones, some cucumber, and just a little thinly sliced red cabbage. I put it all over a bed of extra fresh and frilly green leaf lettuce. My husband commented, "You know this salad would cost about $20 in a restaurant." Completed the meal with toasted olive oil rosemary bread and butter. I have enough charcoal to fire up the grill about twice, maybe three times. The only way I'm crunch/sliding my way out to the grill for that though is if we lose power, the gennie won't run, and the rib eyes start to thaw.

I also had too much hot cereal growing up in VT, and don't like any of them much except grits, which I adore. Both quick-cook and regular rolled oats are just too gluey for my taste when cooked into a porridge, although I use them in baking. After trying Bob's Red Mill steel cut oats in a porridge, I found something I actually like. YMMV