Tropicalsenior

I hate it when I see that you have posted. Each time the envy and the longing for whatever you made gets worse.

If you're not a bread baker, this is also a quick, delicious meal over rice or noodles. Just make a little more gravy.

@rotuts this is the recipe that I use. Pork Bao Gravy 1/4 C. water 1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry 2 tablespoons oyster sauce 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon sugar 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour I use about 10 oz of ground pork and a half a cup of finely diced celery. Saute that in a skillet until it is completely cooked. I mixed the gravy ingredients in a small bowl, separately, and then mix that into the pork to let it thicken. I've also used this with leftover pork roast, finally diced. I would love to add a little bit of onion but as most of you know, that can't be done in my house.

These are my usual Sunday stuffed bun offering. The filling is ground pork flavored with the gravy for Char Siu bao. Because my hands no longer work the way they used to, I have given up on making the traditional round bao and just make them empanadas Style. They are the same great taste and texture and so far no complaints.

I have this one that A friend gave me several years ago. It is Cuisinart stainless steel. I love it because it has an extra heavy bottom and things don't burn. It also cleans like a dream. Things just never stick to it and it looks brand new even though she used it for 30 years and I've used it for 10.

How expensive are pineapples there? For some time, our local grocery store has been running a sale on pineapple. Two for 1,000 ($2.75) Colones or one for 1300 ($3.00) Colones. They've had this price several times in the past. I'm still trying to figure this one out.

I don't know if it has anything to do with the breed of chicken down here, but we do see it quite often.

I came to the conclusion that it wasn't flank steak because of the apparent size of the cut. This one that I had in the freezer seems to be the same size but only weighs a pound. This one is, at the thickest, about an inch. That's why I asked how thick the other one is.

Yeah, at 2 lb I can see that. It would be interesting to see a cross section of it.

Definitely looks like flank steak. How thick is it?

We went through a butter shortage in Costa Rica. For about 2 months we had to go from store to store and could maybe only find two or three sticks of butter on the shelves. When it did come back, they didn't have any butter in boxes, they were only selling it by the stick. We all asked the same thing. What are they doing with the cream? There was no shortage of milk or any other milk product.

No, I apologize. I tend to forget I'm not the only one reading the post. It's a great suggestion and perfectly logical for everyone else. Thank you.

Personally, I don't see all the hype about sous vide for pork. Granted, the pork that we get down here is excellent and is usually pretty tender. But if I have any question at all, I brine it in one cup of water to one tablespoon of salt. Moreover, if I'm paying the price that they are getting for these pork chops, they darn sure better be tender. My method for breaded pork chops is this. One, brine the pork chops for about 6 hours, rinse, drain, and pat dry. Two, dredge the pork chops in all purpose flour. Three, dip the pork chops in a mixture of egg and mayonnaise. Four, dredge the pork chops in course, dry bread crumbs. Panko is fine but unavailable here. Leave to set in the refrigerator for 1 hour at least. Five, season and fry quickly in a combination of oil and butter until golden on each side. Six, finish in a 250° oven for 10 to 15 minutes depending on thickness. This gives me time to make a sauce or a gravy in the skillet that they were cooked in. This method has never failed me and the chops are always tender and moist.

Sounds good but in our household peppers or anything spicy are just not an option. Too many serious food allergies.

An excellent recipe. It's the only way that I've ever seen Pork Chops Milanese prepared. I have seen recipes where the pork chops were pounded out but I don't think that it would be necessary with these.

I too would leave out the sweet potatoes. I like them but they tend to turn to mush quickly in soup. One of my favorite flavorings with white beans is Herbs de Provence. With that I would add some tomatoes. Please let us know what you choose and how it turns out.

I totally understand where you're coming from and I just hope that the good experience with good relatives outweighs the bad. As far as your mother-in-law being 82 years old, age is no excuse for bad manners. I'm 84 and I sincerely hope that if I were that much of a b**** that somebody would slap me in the head and put me in my place. My mother always said that if you took a long look at nasty old men that you would find out that they were just as nasty when they were young.

Reading this just makes my blood boil. I can just imagine how miserable it must be the entire day having to go there and be treated like this. If I were you, I would not go. I would tell my husband that she was his problem and I would take Jessica and go to a great restaurant or to a movie or do something that you really enjoy and have a great time without them. "I recall writing in a thread about Thanksgiving that what that holiday -- and, really, all holidays -- are really about is being thankful to have the chance to spend another special day with loved ones. Celebratory food is part of that, but what's most important is sharing." A member named @Pan wrote that back in 2005 and it is so true. If you don't enjoy the company of these people, be with someone that you do enjoy and ignore them. Some years back when we still lived in Seattle, I was tired of being the one that fixed Thanksgiving dinner for everyone so we told his family that we were spending it with my family and we told my family that we were spending it with his family and we sneaked off and had Thanksgiving dinner at a French restaurant that we had always wanted to try. One of the best Thanksgiving I've ever had in my life. Down here we didn't have to deal with relatives during the holidays but we always had about 30 people for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Someone remarked once that everybody got along so well and had such a good time. I told him that that was because I only invited people that I liked. That is such good advice and it should bring your blood pressure down 20 points. Just so you know, you and Jessica are invited to my house for Thanksgiving always.

And all of Kraft products 16 oz packages are now 14 oz.

I'm not surprised at that. You are the absolute queen of salads and make gorgeous salads that no one else would even think of. Damn, another thing I can't get here. I can suggest, though, that you try them in muffins. My mother's muffins were one of my favorite food memories.

Food and wine has an interesting article on sorghum. I'm not sure about their suggested use for using it in salad dressings but it would make an interesting addition to barbecue sauce. My mother used to make sorghum muffins that were delicious but she used the sorghum flour.

At first I did, too, and I thought that that might be interesting. Then I realized what @Ann_T had done and as usual I just sat there and drooled into my phone.

I just finished reading all nine pages of this topic. I don't know how I missed it before but it should be required reading for anyone with any questions about English food and food in the UK. I had several more arguments to present on this topic but within the first two pages I found out that they had been completely and thoroughly covered and presented in a way that I could never hope to do. That topic makes this one completely redundant and as far as I'm concerned, discussion closed.

Interesting. Sounds almost like a Greek quiche. It does look delicious.

Sorry I haven't answered before. I've been debating whether to admit my dirty little secret or not. When I want to make chicken gravy (I'm assuming that this would be a 15 oz can) I take two cups of chicken broth and two to three tablespoons of flour and mix it thoroughly with a whisk. I then heat it in the microwave at one minute increments until it is thick. Since it is chicken broth it usually looks a little anemic so I put in just a very small dash of soy sauce to give it a rich color. I don't have any recipes in my repertoire that call for cream of chicken or cream of mushroom. I've never liked them and although they are available down here in some of the high-end grocery stores, they cost between $8 and $10 a can and I am not about to buy them. If I see a good looking recipe on the internet and it calls for cream of anything soup I just say scratch that and look for another one.