Thanks for the Crepes

I was feeling frisky the other day and made my first ever cheese souffle. It was okay, but not worth the faffing around and dirty dishes. I used Betty Crocker's recipe, but I'm not going to quit until I try maybe "Joy of Cooking" recipe for the spinach version, since @JoNorvelleWalkersaid she has had good results with JoC for souffles. I could not believe how danged thick the bechamel and melted cheese combination was before adding the yolks which loosened it up a little and then the whipped egg whites, which loosened it up more. I was fantasizing about ethereal, but got nowhere near that. I think I will try a spinach version, but if that falls flat too, I might be done with souffles, unless I rope myself into a chocolate version. I served my less than fantastic cheese souffle with steamed asparagus, which was fantastic with a lemon wedge. Ice cream bar for dessert. It's just the Food Lion brand of vanilla ice cream dipped in dark chocolate. You get twelve of these for 3 bucks. So these suckers cost a quarter, and are so danged good! 140 calories each and you get calcium and protein too.

S-Mart that went out of business a couple years ago used to have thin shaved rib eye steak it was wonderful for cheesesteaks or Asian stir fries like pepper steak. I really miss that place. They were in trouble with the IRS, according to signs on the locked doors. Also Steak-Ums, are horrible! Just gross.

Yes! Perfectly cooked fresh lobster with butter kept melted with candle warmers cannot be beat, I think. Now, if you ate it every day and got bored, then you might need to branch out, but here, we do not get bored with the few lobsters we find.

If all you have ever had for fresh tomatoes is the grocery store kind that are engineered by Big Ag to be practically indestructible for long-distance shipping, then I understand completely. I call these substitutes for real tomatoes "styromates". They look fine, but they taste like styrofoam and water. Having grown up on garden grown tomatoes, I know there is a better way. The reason the canned ones taste better is that they are harvested at ripeness and not designed to be bashed around in shipping. There is nothing like a home grown tomato. If there are Gods and They eat food, they would eat home grown tomatoes. I am stuck with 3 pounds of hothouse "styromates" due to a grocery delivery order. I'm not at all sure that I will be able to eat them, despite having to be very thrifty. Perhaps I can reduce them by roasting or something to make them at least edible?

HaHa! That would probably work if my only phone were not a Princess-style hard wired land line. I'm just going to be more careful ordering tomatoes. There are some Nature Sweet Cherub grape tomatoes that come in a clamshell available through the software that I almost ordered, and those should be easy to get right. I know they are good, but not quite as good as the Cottle Farms ones I wanted.

Yes, having someone at the service desk call my cab was the plan, but then I'd have to stress about it taking a really long time to checkout and the cab having to wait or possibly leaving. The last thing I want to do is get on the cab company's difficult customer or banned list. Yes, with Instacart you can mark items "No substitutions" or suggest your own substitutions. It would take a really long time to do this for every item in a large order, and it's impossible to predict which items may need substituting. They are not so good in the note department. I guess they don't want their employees distracted by long essays. 🙂 I love grocery shopping, but hassling with a cab is stressful for me, not to mention expensive. I had gotten into a routine where I walked the four-mile round trip to either Food Lion or Harris Teeter every week or so and loaded up my backpack with goodies. I allowed several hours so I could take my time in the store, and I found it very relaxing. Just have to watch out not to get caught in a thunderstorm. Someday I hope to be able to get back to that, but right now I am hobbling around the house some without orthopedic aids, and need crutches to get to the mailbox, a cab or roll the garbage and recycling buckets out to the curb. I am working my way back up, though, slowly but surely. For now, I'm glad grocery delivery is an option for me.

I tried grocery delivery from Food Lion today via Instacart. Given my situation, I'm very happy with it. It is comforting to know that I can now get same or next day delivery of fresh items whenever I need them despite not having a car or being able to walk to the store anymore. I was wrestling with whether I could pull off a grocery shop in a taxi. I have been to Food Lion to pick up cigarettes that they have at a front counter for me while a cab waits, but I would have to let the cab go to make a full grocery shop. Then I would be waiting with frozen foods melting for a second ride home. It costs about $16 including tip for the four mile ride to FL and back home. I have taken to having them order me 5 cartons at once so I can maximize my cab dollars. I call to make sure they have arrived and tell them I'm coming before calling for a cab. This holds me for almost two months. I have to do this because you cannot get cigarettes or alcohol delivered in NC. It may be federal law, but I don't know. I realize they need to keep these things out of the hands of kids, but it sure sucks for us old crippled farts. Seems like they could ask for ID at delivery, but no. Anyways, the grocery delivery is a godsend to me. There were green tomatoes and rhubarb single stalks on offer on the online order site. Now I have been shopping at Food Lion since 1986 and have never seen a green tomato there, and I knew it isn't rhubarb season, and when FL occasionally offers rhubarb, you have to buy it buy the bunch, not the single stalk. But I would have liked to have both of these things, so I ordered them, and as predicted, did not get them. I wonder why they are listed on the website? There were also 3 substitutions, one of which cost me double what I asked for and now I have 3 pounds of expensive, flavorless hot house tomatoes instead of the local Cottle Farms good-tasting ones. The actual order came to about $7.00 more than the estimate before it was filled, and most of this was the tomato substitution. This sort of irks me because I just finished a basket of Cottle Farms lovely field grown tomatoes that were full of flavor and much cheaper. I think the problem is that the software calls it a 3 pound package instead of a 2 qt basket and does not mention the Cottle Farms brand. So there will be problems like this with someone else doing your shopping, but in my situation, I am lucky to have fresh food at all, so I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The other substitutions didn't bother me, but I have never known them to run out of their own brand of whole milk cottage cheese in the 24 oz. tub. I got a 16 oz. tub instead, but it's more expensive per ounce. I started with the bad stuff, but it was mostly good stuff! I got 36 other items that were all perfectly correct, and some of them were hard to get right like sugar free syrup and Del Monte No sugar added canned peaches. You really have to read the packaging to get the correct item, because the labels, at a glance, look the same as the regular. I've picked up wrong items myself by getting in too big a hurry. All of the produce except the tomatoes looked like what I'd have picked out myself, and my order was mostly produce. When my order filler came with the delivery, I could see she was being careful with the loaf of bread I'd ordered so as not to squish it. She pointed out the bags the ice cream bars I'd ordered were in and the eggs. People think that grocery shopping is easy, like waitressing. Well having done both, I can tell you they are not. My husband, before he had to go to the nursing home, could come home with a list of six items I'd given him. He would only have four of them; two of them would be wrong, and if there was bread, it'd be squished to death. So overall, I am very, very happy with my experience. I hope they don't just send their best employee on the first order and then give you less capable people, though. We shall see, because I'll be using this service again. So the cost is the same as in store for your grocery items, and if you have entered your MVP discount card number, you get the weekly discount specials. I also received $10 off my first order. You then have sales tax, which you would pay in store, anyway. Then there is a $5.99 delivery fee, a $3.98 tip and a $3.98 service? fee, for a total of $13.95 charges you would not be paying in store. I also gave my delivery person a $5.00 cash tip, although I had to tell her to hang on a sec while I got it for her, so I'm not sure how common that is. This beats cabbing it to the store for me, especially since I have no cell phone to call the cab back after I get done shopping, and would hate to be waiting around with thawing frozen foods. Oh, and I forgot to mention, you can specify a convenient delivery time within an hour range, and mine was right on time! Also you can track your order online and they allow you to add items or adjust it up until the time it's been filled, although I would not do that too close to time, though, after having dealt with diners who want to alter their order after it had already been sent to the kitchen. All my groceries were delivered inside to my kitchen table and the vast majority were just what I wanted, so *Happy Dance*!

Very interesting, but I think I'd agree with your "wag". I was nibbling the pulp off the pith where I had peeled a little too thickly and the pith is bitter. VERY bitter.

Recent dinners were pork ribs with only salt and pepper. I like the rub, sauce and Asian treatments for ribs, but a simpler approach really lets the good flavor of my favorite cut of pig shine through. This was served with baked beans (Van Camps from a can) with whole peeled canned tomatoes and their juice added along with white onion rings, ketchup and mustard. The beans get baked for about 3-1/2 hours at 325 F. These came out sort of watery in the CSO because of the tight seal, but they thickened up the next day. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part of these beans. You cut bacon into 1" lengths and lay it all over the top of the beans before baking. I love these beans! Also I had a half of a cute little spaghetti squash that made a perfect serving for one shredded in its shell and topped with butter and salt. Then I made cheddar biscuits and fried up some country ham for them. Served one night with buttered grits and cherries and the next night with home fried potatoes with a little chopped onion added after the taters were mostly crispy and a red grapefruit. I took the time to cut out the supremes from this fruit, and was really dismayed at how much waste there is to a grapefruit. It's not as bad a a pomelo, but I seem to remember thinner-skinned grapefruits than what I can currently buy. Tonight was a big salad with green leaf lettuce, shredded carrot, chickpeas, tomato, a little onion, olives, pepperoncinis, and sliced white mushrooms with homemade mustard vinaigrette. I took some meat and veggie sauce out of the freezer and cooked up some angel hair along with some crispy grilled garlic bread.

I don't know. I enjoy fresh young white button mushrooms sliced raw into a salad very much. They have to be fresh, though. Once they get some age on them, which is usually the case in the grocery store, they begin to turn brown and the flavor changes so they are only good for cooking, and even then would have been better fresh. Many salad bars offer raw sliced buttons as an option, and that is where I first encountered them. That is a shame about the recall, and it must be SO embarrassing for the author. I feel sorry for her. Safety first, though, for sure.

Aren't they talking about doing a single strand at a time with special equipment? If I want to break long pasta in two, I take a manageable amount for my hand strength, usually a single serving, and grasp it firmly in both fists that are touching each other. Snap in two, many strands at a time. Easy, and no special equipment required. Sheesh! I know it's funny, but I'm sure this project came at a cost. Seems like they should be curing cancer, developing an ultra-cheap energy source or coming up with calorie and cholesterol-free butter or something to me.

I don't remember them, but was curious because I love Sun Chips; they are just so pricey. People who do remember Wampum Chips talk about them here.

Okay, I've already admitted on here that I am a fan of Taco Bell's sleazy comfort food. I can't get there anymore, but you know what? I would love a Spicy Tostada, a few Crispy Tacos and a Bean and Cheese Burrito RIGHT NOW! Here's an article from our local TV station about a Taco Bell Cantina that offers alcohol right across Hillsborough St. from the NC state campus. They say there are only 40 like this nationwide.

Have fun, son! I won't tell you about how much expensive dehydrated meals suck because you asked for us not to. Since you didn't proscribe this though, I gotta tell you that a whole lotta canned veggies suck. Carrots, potatoes, spinach, peas, and most of them are survival mode only. I like canned mushrooms, tomatoes, and corn can go either way. Mostly I avoid canned veggies. Sending good thoughts for you to have a drench free and enjoyable trip!

Yes, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, or Kraft Dinner, as our Canadian friends call it has become vile. It used to have actual cheese in the powder, but now the main ingredient is whey, a waste product. Some boxed mac and cheese products still contain actual cheese, but not Kraft for many years. Here is a link to the ingredients of Kraft, and you will have to scroll down a bit. I love baked mac and cheese with a light bechamel sauce and good cheese, but a good stovetop one that the kids will like can be made by boiling elbows, returning to the pot, adding butter, milk and torn up American cheese, either white or "yellow" (actually orange). I kinda like it myself, and my husband loved it.

I know, Heidi, and the third and later video actually acknowledges that in the intro. However I grew up with these commercials and I can't unhear the catchy song or get it out of my head 50 years later. It IS historically correct and part of my childhood. Still can't make me like Fritos, though.

I do not know if these have been posted elsewhere, because eG and Google searches weren't particularly helpful. The Fritos TV commercials from when I was growing up in San Diego popped into my head for some reason, so here they are. Dad loved Fritos. I did not. I do love tortilla chips. The difference isn't subtle to me. Frito Bandito 1 Frito Bandito 2 Frito Bandito 3 Ai yi yi yi, I am the Frito Bandito! I love Fritos corn chips I get them from you.

Thanks for posting, John. Very interesting. Your quote above led me to search for whether sailfish was edible or not, or why you might have said what you did. It turns out that this it quite controversial, and it led me to this forum where it is discussed at some length in 2010 and 2011. Tetchy, it seems. As interested as I am for my history in the boating arena, I'm also interested now, like Anna, because my trips to the grocery store are very limited due to disability. Carrots last a very long time and provide crunch and Vitamin A. Celery also is long lasting, but I have found not universally popular. And yes, I have part of a two-month-old cabbage (the regular, not Napa kind) in my fridge now, and it is still quite edible. The Napa kind does not last this long, in my experience, and if you want a regular cabbage to last that long, you have to carefully peel off the outer leaves, cutting them loose from the base core carefully and then peeling up. The cabbage will even try to develop roots off the base over this amount of time, and those should be cut off. Lettuces will last a lot longer when you treat them like I just said for cabbage. I have the inner core of green leaf and iceberg that have had the outer leaves carefully peeled off in this manner. These are just over two weeks old, but I will be happily eating them up in the next few days. Other than that, I can't think of other tricks for keeping things except country ham. Slices keep in the fridge even beyond the long expiration date when it's at room temp.

Okay, obviously, it's taken me more than a minute. I get "sweet dreams are made of these" (cheese), "who am I to disagree" (dis a brie) and possibly "everyone's looking for something" (stilton), but what is the translation of "I cheddar the world" and "the feta cheese"? Sorry to be so thick. My best guess at the two I do not get after going and listening to the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" song, is that they are "I travel the world and the seven seas". If that is the case those two are kinda lame, but, the others are very clever plays. The good part is that I went back and listened to the song again, which I have always liked. Here's ChocoMom's original post: @liuzhou, Thanks for posting about Billy Connolly. I'd never heard of him before you brought him onto my radar, and I often go down a rabbit hole with the YouTube links after you do, as I am fixing to get back to just now. He's hilarious!

I can't find the funny part in a pet wolfing down multiple shotgun shells! Was she okay after that, @kayb? That is carrying pica to the out extremes. And I'm glad @heidih's pit bull was okay from the raw rice. That can swell in the stomach and cause a lot of problems.

That is me too! People are so afraid of their cheesecake cracking. Well, I like the drier texture with a little browning so never use a water bath. Sheesh people, if your cheesecake cracks, or otherwise has doesn't come out perfect, just eat it. It will be delicious. If you have uppity food snobs coming for dinner, slap a fruit coulis on it to fill the cracks. @RobertM, Your Basque cheesecake looks delicious to me, and the way you describe it just make me want it more. Maybe heat was a weench high and it looks especially like too much bottom heat. I have recipes I like for cheesecake that call for high heat for the first 15 minutes and then reduce for the rest of the baking time. It it weren't for the obnoxious, but useful timer on my 1970's GE stove, I would have burnt up many, many things that turned out well with its insistent braying that goes on (as far as I know) forever until you turn it off.

Your meal looks great, Mark. I have a rib eye in the freezer and it's part of my motivation to keep improving until I can get up and down the half flight of stairs from the deck down to the grill in the yard enough times to carry out charcoal, lighter, grill grates and steak, cook it, and then carry them all back into the house. I am determined grill a steak in the backyard this summer. What is the seed? on your sirloin? It's not one I think I've ever seen anyone use with steak, and unless it's aniseed, I don't think I'm familiar with it.

My results with the CSO have been that even with only convection (no steam) recipes I've used for years do not lose as much moisture like they do in the pure dry heat of the big oven. The gaskets on this little oven are very tight, so barely any moisture in the food can escape. Also, I do not see the browning I expect from years of results in the big oven and stuff can overcook without browning. I'm still finding my CSO mojo, but am slowly getting there. In many cases the moisture retention is very desirable, and in others not so much. Overall, I love this little oven, although it certainly comes with a learning curve.

Thanks for taking us all along ladies. I'm sad you're being evicted, and hope that other arrangements can be made so you can continue to return to Manitoulin Island. I really enjoy your adventures up there.

Yes! I've eaten something similar before. A close friend that I used to go visit in the neighboring county made a similar dip without the sweet mango/pineapple component. There were black beans and good black olives involved in this one and also many beers. I love the curliness of your grated cheese. What do you use to do that?