Thanks for the Crepes

rotuts, Your desert looks very good. I also love TJ's nuts. They are the freshest available in my area. The walnut halves available in fall are crispy but creamy. The pistachio's are so crispy, fresh and good. The pecans so crisp and flavorful! I can't get to TJ's often so sometimes wind up buying nuts other places I can get to. It is always with regret, because TJ's are not only superior quality, but cheaper too. I always pop walnuts and pecans into the freezer as soon as I get them home to preserve the freshness. It works well. I have never tried it with pistachios because they don't last very long around me. I'm really sensitive to rancid flavors. I once wasted quite a bit of money on a package of shelled black walnut halves from Harris Teeter, a local mainstream grocery chain. I was so excited for this score. They were well within the expiration date, but quite inedible and rancid right from the get go. Black walnuts are hard to find, but sublime, almost floral, if you find good ones. They are justifiably expensive, because the shells are very thick and hard, the meats are difficult to get out of the shells once you manage to crack them, and you can get black-stained fingers and nails that last a while from shelling them yourself. I wish TJ's would carry them. They would probably be good quality.

I failed to read carefully. Thanks for the info. I agree the two are not related at all. It would be very interesting to taste muscadines and chicken skin fruit side by side, I think, still.

Okay, I can find nothing in English queries about "chicken skin fruit" china except liuzhou's photos and posts that seem to apply, I still have to say that his local market find resembles mine a lot which is muscadines, or vitis rotundifloria. Any idea, liuzhou, what your lovely fruit's Latin handle is? Mine do not have citrus over/undertones, except for their acid to offset the sweetness, but other than that they look very similar.

Did you ever try just lightly coating with flour and frying? Do you like eggplant parm? Parm can be made from broiled or grilled eggplant with no other added fat except the cheese. I also like eggplant just grilled as part of a grilled veggie sub with some cheese. Just throwing out some ideas here, but yes the plant, and especially the short-lived flowers are very beautiful: https://www.google.com/search?q=eggplant+flowers&espv=2&biw=1097&bih=546&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCgQ7AlqFQoTCL3MpL73-McCFQmQDQodDG8Fag#tbm=isch&q=eggplant+growing https://www.google.com/search?q=eggplant+flowers&espv=2&biw=1097&bih=546&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCgQ7AlqFQoTCPKT7-r3-McCFQjRgAodZbMOaQ

So to understand, and place myself vicariously in this small China restaurant, they offer 14 seats total and serve hundreds of office workers and students? Wow! I bet the lines are long for takeout even. Thanks for sharing the insight into China; I always appreciate it, liuzhou.

liuzhou, It sounds like this place is right up my alley, and I wish it was in my backyard. It's not only cheaper than our fast food restaurants, but there are many more healthy and nutritious options, not to mention stuff I've never eaten before like Lizard's Tail. I dare anyone to feed four or five people at KFC or McDonald's for $12.75. One question? What is two x four seating? I hope you don't mean the seats are made of a single two x four, which is, here, a construction wood lumber which is 2" x 4" when rough-sawn from the tree and then planed down to less than that. We have rustic restaurants here where customers perch on wooden benches made from 2" x 4"s. The food has to be pretty excellent to keep customers. Maybe you mean two-tops and four-tops, which would be two-seat tables and four-seat tables with regular chairs of varying comfort? At any rate, I can see myself happily partaking of this restaurant. I certainly didn't mean any disrespect about the 2x4 seating, so please don't take it that way. Many restaurants in New York City do not provide seating at all, and deign to let you stand at their counter to eat their product you just paid for. We even have a few like that in downtown Raleigh. I just prefer a cushy, deeply-padded booth when I can get it. Curiosity, as usual, eats me up.

Thanks liuzhou, Interesting. I will vicariously have: 鱼腥草 Lizard's Tail 5 ($0.75) 车螺芥菜汤 Clam and Leaf Mustard Soup 15 ($2.25) 酸甜排骨饭 Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs Rice 16 ($2.40) 鲜虾煲仔饭 Fresh Shrimp Sandpot Rice 14 ($2.10) 柠檬鸭仔饭 Lemon Duck Rice 15 ($2.25) 炒油菜 Fried Rape 8 ($1.20) 西红柿炒蛋 Scrambled Egg with Tomato 12 ($1.80) So would you be kind enough to indulge me with how many people this virtual meal might be designed to feed? For $12.75, in the US, as I am sure you're aware it would feed one, and that would be at a very cheap restaurant. Okay, non-existent restaurant. Also, if you care to, I would be interested in the ambience, seating arrangements, clientele they attract there etc.

Dinner tonight was Italian hot sausage browned, then braised in a muscadine and mustard sauce. It was very tasty, but was one of those dishes that makes me glad I don't have a camera to post photos. I also made steamed Shanghai bok choy and angel hair pasta in a creamy herb sauce which would have been quite photogenic. I added a few TJ's saffron threads to the pasta dish which gave it a lovely golden color along with the green of the parsley and basil. Shelby's plate of lovely ribs with peeled homegrown tomatoes, baked beans, and scalloped potatoes made me think of my favorite meal with ribs. That's sweet corn on the cob, preferably sugar and butter, along with the smoked ribs, really good bread, and these baked beans: 2-15 oz cans baked beans (I use Van Camps) 1-15 oz can whole peeled roma tomatoes, undrained 9 oz sliced half inch onion rings, separated yellow mustard to taste ketchup to taste 4 slices bacon cut to 1" lengths Stir everything together except the bacon. You can do this in the same heat-proof casserole you cook it in, just wipe the rim afterward. Place bacon pieces on top and bake a couple hours at 350 F or until bacon is browned and liquid has condensed. If you're a fat phobe, or even if you're not, and your bacon is particularly fatty, nuke the bacon a while in paper towels to shed some of the fat. I can't bring myself to make beans any other way. If you like less rustic dishes, you may wish to chop the onions and tomatoes, but you WILL be ruining it.

Thanks bobag87! I'm one who'd never be bored by your chile (chili) roast either, and would love to be an honored cousin on your staff. You put out an amazing array of New Mexican food in a feast I would love to partake of, and I can practically smell the delicious aroma of the preparations. I know it takes extra effort to share your event with us when you are working so hard to put it on, but please know, that there are many more here than the ones that post who are enjoying vicariously. I've never enjoyed a Foster's "oilcan". While I won't seek one out in light of your negative review, if I see it at a party or something, I'd take a sip in honor of your annual chile roast festival and the perpetuation of the memory of your dad.

hummingbirdkiss, Your mystery beans look good, and came with your reccommendation, so I wanted to know more about them. These are the images that IMO most closely match your excellent photo with the pod, their mature beans, flowers and coin for proportion: https://www.google.com/search?q=corona+beans+images&espv=2&biw=1097&bih=546&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCAQsARqFQoTCLnZk5ml-McCFYahgAodFa0FoA#imgrc=naSMeYaf-CluaM%3A https://www.google.com/search?q=bianchi+di+spagna+fagioli+growing+images&espv=2&biw=1097&bih=546&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CB0QsARqFQoTCNus6pOn-McCFUZaGgodhc4LKQ#imgrc=naSMeYaf-CluaM%3A I notice that yours come three to a pod, and the ones in the images are four to the pod. These are even more interesting to me with Franci's endorsement.

Kim, I would love to share your breakfast. Have you thought of putting your black sea salt through a grinder? A regular pepper grinder would work, if you have a spare. If you don't, the cheapest grinder may be the Trader Joe's plastic ones they sell smoked salt, Himalayan pink salt, and some of their other spices in. I was a little skeptical when I saw that the actual grinding mechanism is also plastic, but they defy logic and physics and actually work. They also come filled, and are refillable. You could empty the contents to another container and have a grinder for your black salt for $1.99 (the last time I bought one anyway).

Unfortunately, I seem to be a salt whore, like Nancy on the old "Star Trek" episode: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708469/ I like full salt nuts. I don't care that they say it's not good for me. I just want what tastes good while I'm still here. I have bought reduced salt nuts in ignorance at T.J's, because they're right beside the regular ones. I brought them back unopened, and exchanged for the good stuff. It is impossible in these crowded stores to carefully read labels. You'll find yourself in a line to even get at the products. Start reading labels, and I guarantee, you will start a riot! T.J.'s truly has a lot of great things going for it, including the only source I know of for edible frozen pizza. There's are really, really good, and worth the trip alone, but they also have many other products worthy of a visit. Just go on a weeknight or during a workday if you can.

I'd love the recipe Norm, I have a around seven pounds of seasonal fruit (muscadines) down from nine pounds I bought at our local Asian market today because I made the summer tart from Ann_T's blog. http://www.thibeaultstable.com/2013/07/summer-torte.html I also scarfed quite a few raw, and in my estimation, the recipe would be just as good with early fall fruit, and it was. I was kind of not looking forward to more kitchen tasks after making a stir fry dish of minced pork with scallions, mushrooms, glass noodles and lots of other stuff that needed two hours of prep work, but provided our two-person household with a couple of meals apiece. It certainly doesn't help that since the first time I made it according to the recipe with sliced mushrooms. I like to mince them. They're nearly undectable from the pork once cooked in the dish, and extend the 6 oz. of lean pork into four satisfying portions. We also had a couple leftover popovers with scallions cooked into them. (Clarified to add that the popovers with scallions were cooked and served separately from the stir fry. Even I am not crazy enough to toss popover pieces into a stir fry ) I definitely wont be doing that again. It was worth a try, but just didn't work. Also, another caveat, for which I sadly am becoming infamous: When you read an aside in a recipe that glass noodles are very difficult to cut or separate when they are unsoaked and dry, heed it. While shopping at my beloved Asian market, I decided to save less than a dollar by buying a 7.75 oz package. I need 4 oz. for the one recipe I make. Well months later, I take the noodles out of the pantry to make my dish. I try my razor sharp filet knife I use for everything. I cannot describe to you how ineffective this was. Absolutely no affect at all. Then I pulled out my 10" serrated knife. This was much more effective (at spraying glass noodle fragments in a mostly backward radius around me, because the forward spray was caught by the wall and backsplash and ricocheted back. Finally, stubborn mule that I am, I broke out the sturdy kitchen scissors. These made a bit more headway, and I credit them with helping me to win the battle in the end. It took a lot of twisting and prying, and ignoring bits flying everywhere. At one point, I thought about getting the pruning shears. The last thing I cut with them are holly bushes which overgrow the sidewalk. They are poisonous. To my credit, I kept at it, twisting ripping and snipping with kitchen shears, until the bundle of mung bean noodles gave up the ghost and succumbed to being halved. Only a little was lost the the hinterlands of the floor and surrounding area. Took me a while to clean this up. Hmmm, ya think this may have contributed to my two hour prep time? At any rate, please do not try to divide a bundle of mung bean cellophane noodles larger than you need for your recipe, at home, or anywhere! I did make Ann_T's summer tart or torte? because it was the easiest use of the fruit I found. I was not overwhelmed by the greatness of the recipe as many others have been. I'm sure that is my shortcoming, and not theirs. I'm still intrigued by racheld's tale of muscadine pie under the magnolia's on a Mississippi plantation, and yet may still overcome my aversion to pie crust making.

bobaga87, They look like lovingly handmade creations to share with special folks you care about a lot. I really appreciate your sharing of this fiesta with us here on eG. Thank you! Edit: I also swear by White Lily flour, but it's usually for biscuits or cakes.

I love TJ's nuts! I can't hardly eat nuts sourced from elsewhere, because TJ's are always so much fresher. Their walnut halves which will be available shortly live in my freezer for year-round use. The crisp snap of their undyed pistacios is unparalled. When I succumb and buy pistacios anywhere else, I regret it. They are half rancid and flaccid.

I got my info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitis_rotundifolia Scroll down to the Taxonomy heading for hybrids being sterile. I just have to say again how passionately I love this fruit. I'm going to walk three miles, round trip, and carry back all I can. I have no information that mine are hybrids, otherwise fooled around with and not wild. Mine are just so perfect. If they are wild and natural, all I have to say is: Nature is AMAZING.

I made popovers today because Kim Shook's looked so appealing yesterday. I threw in a chopped scallion because I had some beautiful fresh ones from the Asian market, thinking it would taste sort of like a scallion pancake, and while they weren't bad at all, I'm not sure if I'd do it again. Husband seemed to like them better then me. He ate two, while I only ate one. I have been known to eat as many as three. His dinner was also much more appropriate to the popovers: leftover rib eye steak, baked potato and grilled Vidalia onion. I also steamed some Shanghai bok choy from the Asian market. I had leftovers from the Chinese takeout joint I went to last night to go with my popover and bok choy. Popovers are classic with rib roast or steak, but I eat them for breakfast, snacks or anytime. An amazing little quick breadstuff that leavens itself on the eggs and heat alone. People sometimes disparage English food, but you gotta give 'em Yorkies, shephard's/cottage pie and Sunday roast.

I had a thought occur to me today while enjoying more muscadines, and I recalled where I had read "somewhere" that the grape flavoring in candies, sodas, and so on doesn't taste like our modern mainstream grapes, because that flavor is based on older varieties that are very rarely or just not at all available. Might even have been here where I read it, but I searched today for about five minutes, and couldn't find anything. For goodness sake, if you enjoy this flavor in candy and sodas, DO NOT read the wiki article that pops up. I got halfway through the short piece and clicked off, because I would have to give up my grape Jolly Ranchers. Muscadines are what these scientists were copying when they created the fake chemicals to simulate it. I'm sure of it. I remember eating mainstream California grapes and Michigan bing cherries together and commenting to my husband that the taste was almost alike. No one with a palate would ever mistake a muscadine for a cherry. I adore these things, and have already eaten half of what I bought, but didn't get back for more today. I must go tomorrow before the window of opportunity passes. I have saved some seeds and will try planting them on the edge of my woods. It should be an ideal environment for them. These are so very huge and good though that I fear they may be hybrids, which will make them infertile like mules, but it's worth a try.

KimShook. Your labor day feast looks fantastic, especially Marlene's yorkies. I am a sucker for those. I have a good recipe from Joy of Cooking and Better Homes and Gardens, which I modify to warm the eggs and milk to room temp from Joy, then use Better Homes' proportions. I have three dozen eggs in the fridge, so popovers are on my menu soon even though I'll have to run the oven against the A/C. I'll try to make efficient use of the heat by also baking a dessert. What dessert did you share with your neighbor? Sorry your rib roast was tough. That happens more these days. I also despise making gravy at the last minute, trying to keep the rest of the food hot, and otherwise running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I save drippings and freeze from previous cooks so I can make gravy or soups. It really pacifies my life when I can make a chicken, beef or pork gravy from frozen drippings while the current meat is cooking. Then I freeze the drippings from that cook. There is nothing like homemade gravy from real drippings!

Your lovingly handmade bread looks very appealing to me, cylexa. That little brown, crispy triangle sticking up in the center where it popped at the slash due to great oven spring looks like cook's treat to me. :-) Are those carroway seeds I spy in the photo? To me, they just make a rye bread. I love marble rye, too, Smithy; it's so pretty when sliced. I hope you will favor us with some photos, unless there is a prohibition on that, as I understand there are in some classes.

I'm reviving this delightful thread because I found the rare muscadine today. I only bought a pound and a half, but now I am determined to go back tomorrow after eating some, and get all I can carry. I read that you can freeze them and enjoy delicious treats in the hot summers we have here. That is my plan if I have any left after just eating them in their fresh glory, and possibly trying racheld's muscadine pie from her enchanting tale of lavish luncheons under the magnolias on the lawn of a Mississippi Delta plantation. The ones I just ate were dribble-down-your-chin juicy, glorious, and very fresh. They are dark purple, almost black, and average about 1" diameter, but some approach 1-1/2". I found them at S-Mart, my local Korean-owned, pan-Asian grocery. I was so grateful to find them, but I considered it a very unlikely source for a lovely fruit that is very rarely found outside of the Southeast US. That is until I read lperry's post about finding them at her Super H, which I'm assuming is another Asian market because of the operators' penchant to name their stores with a single letter here. Apparently, Asian's know a very good thing, even when it's not native to their country. Who knew? Usually, you must grow your own or know someone with the vines to get muscadine or scuppernong. Muscadines are much sweeter and not as acidic as scuppernong. I definitely like the skins, and wouldn't dream of discarding them. I pick out the seeds, though. I am so happy to have found these today! I also picked up a Korean melon, a fruit I've never tried before, so I really made out like a bandit today. Google muscadine images: https://www.google.com/search?q=muscadine+images&espv=2&biw=1097&bih=546&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CDIQ7AlqFQoTCMqOoPPm6ccCFcXVgAodfM8PNg Google Korean melon images: https://www.google.com/search?q=korean+melon+images&espv=2&biw=1097&bih=546&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CDIQ7AlqFQoTCLmE7-bm6ccCFYaZgAod4awGuQ

The Duralex dishes are beautiful in their simplicity. I adore glass dishes, and my every day ones are from Bed Bath and Beyond with a petal pattern embossed on the underside, which makes them pretty, but much more functional than if the embossing was on the top surface. I tried to find them, but they are most likely discontinued. I did find them on: http://www.replacements.com/webquote/ACOCAN.htm What floors me is the price of the small fruit/dessert bowl. I paid $1 for each of my pieces, and I give the cats water in the bowls now because I have pink glass bowls (also embossed on the underside with a floral pattern) I prefer. I have found that especially since phosphates were reduced in dishwasher detergent, a severe reduction in the amount you use will extend the life of you dishes, reducing etching and that white film you sometimes get. I'm serious. If you rinse and scrub your dishes as I do before placing in the dishwasher to sterilize, you can reduce the automatic dish detergent to as little as a heaping teaspoon placed in the second cup that springs open on the timer. Your dishes come out sparkling and last years longer.

Tonight's dinner was pedestrian salad with lettuce, tomatoes, green olives and Vidalia onion, thinly sliced. We also had grilled rib eyes and baked potatoes from the nuker. Real baked potatoes from the oven are so much better, but it's still so hot here I'm pretty much refusing to enrich the electric company by running the A/C against the oven. The dinner was okay, but not great due to the steak. Has anyone noticed that while the price of beef has doubled, tripled and quadrupled the quality keeps going down? It's hard to find a rib eye steak without obvious cartilaginous or at least gelatinous connective material between the muscles, at least at mainstream groceries. The worst rib eye I have ever had came from the Fresh market, bought as whole roasts. It was tough, tough, tough. I had purchased two because they were on sale, but wound up cooking the second one for stew and beef tips over rice and similar. It was good that way, but I could have bought chuck. One major contributing factor to the decline in beef steak quality is that your grocers know that when they price the meat so high per pound, if they slice them as thickly as they need to be for a good outcome, the package is so expensive, it's prohibitive to most people. Half inch or even 3/4 inch steaks can't cook up well even over very hot charcoal. I like mine at least an 1-1/2". I hope and pray the Southwest drought will come to a quick end, but even if it does, it will be years before the beef industry recovers fully. Also if there are any butchers/meat cutters/buyers listening, you can easily sell a 1-1/2 or 2" slice of rib eye that feeds two instead of a couple 3/4" slices that only a magician could cook up properly. Edit: We also had a couple 1/2" slices of the Vidalia onion grilled crisp tender along with the steaks.

Kraft Mac and Cheese for many years, when I could buy it 4/$1 used to contain Cheddar cheese. For the past several years it has not, just whey and other cheese by-products. I noticed, and can't eat it now. Back in the day, I made a point of buying only Kraft brand, because it tasted better than competitors products at a lower price. My grocery store brand (Food Lion) contains Cheddar, as does Betty Crocker brand, and both are better than Kraft now. They sold out for profit, and lost my loyal decades-long business. I'm sure they do not notice or care. I'm kind of wedded to Duke's mayo, which has no sugar or water, but I might be willing to try Just Mayo even though it has "less than 2%" organic sugar, and the second ingredient is water. It might very well be a one-time trial, but I still like what they're trying to do, and battery caged eggs are evil and unhealthy for all involved. People who have tried it seem to have very positive things to say about the mayo as well as the cookie products.

I don't have any tried and true recipes for them, but other ideas are pumpkin bread, scones or biscuits. I also make a simple custard in small Pyrex souffle dishes to serve as a side with pork. It's very lightly sweetened and spiced to let the pumpkin shine through. For inspiration, you could also look to the Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer circular available on line. Right now the latest available is August 17, but very soon, they will have pumpkin everything. It actually irritates me because they clear out usually available products to make room for the hundreds of pumpkin products they stock in the fall. I found my Fearless Flyer from last year, and they offered pumpkin (hereafter abbreviated to p) bread mix, p pancake and waffle mix, p ice cream, p rolls with p spice icing, p cream cheese muffins, p yogurt, p croissants, p cream cheese, p bagels, roasted p ravioli, p bread pudding, iced p scone cookies, p macaroons, p ginger ice cream sandwiches, p cranberry crisps, p croutons, pumpkin bars, p cranberry scone mix, p butter, p cornbread, p toaster pastries, p ginger instant oatmeal, p Joe Joes's (a sandwich cookie), and even a Kennebunkport Brewing Co. p ale. These are just the items covered in the sales flyer. There are many more in the store in October. Seriously, someone in TJ's management is obsessed with pumpkin.