Tropicalsenior

I've had craft syndrome for years. my latest episode was a frantic 2 days search for my car keys. I finally decided I needed some ice cream to soothe my nerves and there they were, right on top of the ice cream in the freezer. I'm not worried about it being old age dementia though, because I've had it too long for that.

How much are you willing to bet that you 'will never again'? I speak from experience.

I'm all over the place on this one. Some days, I love trying new things but some days I just want to grab a package of spaghetti sauce from the freezer (the same spaghetti sauce that I've been making for 25 years) and have a quick dinner. When my husband was alive, he liked his tried-and-true favorites and wasn't really interested in trying new things. My housemate and his girlfriend, who is living with us temporarily, are game for just about anything. I do have limitations on what I can make because dinner hours are erratic due to their work schedules, they prefer to have light dinners, and I can't cook with any onions, garlic or green peppers. If I use a new recipe, I can only use it as a guideline and substitute as I go along. I don't think I've ever made a dinner in my life that I could repeat exactly. if I could just put my two cents worth in about the title of this topic, I do agree that it should probably be ‘one off’ but, it hasn't seemed to hurt it a bit that it isn't that way given the response that it has gotten. Our brains are hardwired to fill in the missing parts. As for all of our posts, it would be an absolute crime if we were policed to the point where we all had to sound alike. The idiosyncrasies of the different people give me a glimpse into the personalities of people that I will never meet face to face but I am still proud to call my friends. If we were to demand perfect English think of all the people that don't have English as their first language that we would lose. The diversity of our members is what makes this place so interesting. And, all the typos, bad grammar, abbreviations, arrogance, humility, and such define us as a community of free-thinkers instead of a pack of robots. I love it all, just the way it is.

If dear Google brought up the same recipes for you that it showed me, revolting is an understatement. @liuzhou do you have any ideas as to the origin of the name?

No, this isn't photoshopped. I saw this in Walmart today in Costa Rica and I just had to take a picture of it. It struck me funny the moment that I saw it. Nothing like reviewing your own product.

To what do they rely for their flavor? Is it strictly the aromatics in the rice? It is so prevalent here that even all the little Chinese restaurants do it. My housemate absolutely adores this stuff and sometimes he will pick some up on his way home from work just to do his part so that I don't have to cook every night. I suck it up and eat it, but every time, I feel like I've earned an Academy Award.

Thanks for the memories. I must have read those books 4 or 5 times each.

@liuzhou I'm sorry to hear that you had a blah day but it's good to know that I'm not the only one that feels that way sometimes. Yesterday was one for me, too. We haven't had any rain since November and yesterday was hot, windy and dusty. All I could do all day was sneeze, so dinner last night was also blah and boring. We had pork cutlets sandwiches on homemade rolls and cantaloupe. It was so boring looking that I didn't even take a picture of it. BTY, is it true that they don't ever put soy sauce in fried rice? Almost every recipe that I see calls for soy sauce. @Kim Shook That tonkatsu looks wonderful. Now I'm kicking myself for not picking up the thick boneless pork chops I saw last week. That is a beautiful meal.

Do you steam them or fry them? I've heard that you need a different dough for each method and I can't remember which is which.

Been there, done that!

I'm more inclined to suspect a rather bad cell phone photo.

Hey guys, give @mm84321 a break. Even gourmands like to get out of the kitchen and associate with those of us with more plebeian tastes.

@SmithyBeautiful! I suspect that the reason you didn't get air pockets was because of the double dipping in the flour. Letting them set and dipping them again might have caused too hard a crust. The second dip in the flour really isn't necessary, nor is it necessary to let it set that first time.

Thank you. That is high praise, indeed. And thank you for the recipe. This is something that I will be making regularly. I also make Rou jia mo on a regular basis. They are perfect for a quick meal on a hot summer night.

This is my first attempt at making @liuzhou's WoWoTou Buns, but it won't be my last. I don't know how authentic they are but they were delicious. They turned out larger than I expected but it was probably because all of the flour that I used was gluten flour. I will try it again after I've gone to Chinatown to get some soy flour. I used a filling that I have made before for Korean egg rolls. It has a lot of flavor even without garlic or onions. I fixed some homemade potstickers that I had in the freezer and made a cucumber salad. It's a meal that I will definitely make again.

I wanted to make a Chinese dish that liuzhou had made and I found a similar recipe on this site. The directions were hilarious. liuzhou said that it was just a bad computer translation but you still can't help but laugh when you read through the recipes. This one is particularly funny. It's kind of a shame though, because there are almost a thousand recipes and most, barring a few pig spleens and chicken feet, look really good.

I thought that I would make some of these and I went looking for a little better recipe then I had previously found that gave ingredients but no quantities. I found this one but I find I need a little help with the translation. This is the first time I have been instructed to do plastic surgery on something before I steam it.

My best heat beaters are my IP, freezer and microwave. When I make soups, stews and sauces I always make more than enough for one meal and put it in the freezer. Then when it's hot, I can thaw out the extra meal in the microwave and it's quick and cool. I also have the advantage (?) of getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get breakfast for my housemates before they go to work. I do a lot of cooking and baking then and just reheat it at dinner time. For frying things, I use my electric skillet and I do make a lot of stir frys in my wok. I don't have much luck serving salads. My housemates are from Central America and to them, a salad is a side dish. They would never say anything, but the times that I have served salads I can sense the puzzlement, as if to say “is this all we get”. Soups and casseroles that I can finish up at the last minute as they come home from work seem to be more practical. I do wish that the idea of cooking naked would work for me, it would save me a lot on laundry.

I didn't find that the extra step was necessary, either. I'm so glad to see that someone else likes red dishes, also, even if they don't photograph that well.

Thanks for the memories! Until I was 12, we still had the old wood stove so things were doubly hot.

When I'm cooking, all I wear is loose cotton scrub tops and white shorts about two sizes too big. I do mean, that's ALL I wear. I can't stand anything tight. I keep a big supply in the laundry room and if I get splattered or floured, I can change and keep right on going. It may not be the most attractive, but at my age I'm not trying to look cool, I'm just trying to stay cool.

Love it!

BTY, my grandson has your cookbook in hand and will bring it to me in the spring. I'm very much looking forward to it!

Was the salmon fresh or frozen? And if it was fresh do you think it would have done better frozen?

This probably sounds like a strange subject to bring up when most of you, as @CantCookStillTry would say, are up to your knickers in snow and ice but some of us right now are in a heat wave. Although Costa Rica is in the northern hemisphere, Central America only has two seasons. Wet and dry. Wet season is from sometime in April to sometime in November so that puts us in the dry season right now and our two hottest months are March and April. CCST is in Australia and going through a real hot time. We'd like to know what you do to beat the heat. What are your favorite hot weather recipes? How do you cook in the hot weather to keep from heating up your kitchen? Any and all suggestions and anecdotes are welcome.