Jump to content

chezcherie

participating member
  • Posts

    1,289
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by chezcherie

  1. just finished a jewel of a book by deborah madison (who has written many vegetarian cookbooks). what we eat when we eat alone

    parts of this reminded me of the current "hall of shame" thread where folks are confessing their shameful secret food loves. there are great little snippets of overhead conversations, tales of various folks' eating habits when family/spouses are away, and some recipes. i just really enjoyed this book, and appreciated that in this age of publishing cutbacks, it seemed like a lovely idea that might never have found its niche. but it did.

    another one i recently enjoyed was My linkin late winter we ate pears. read it on the plane enroute to italy, and just realized that i lent it to a fellow traveler on that trip, and i need to get it back. that's a good indicator, as with lots of books, after i've read them, i'll happily give them away or donate them. but this one i'll re-read.

  2. i know. sadly, it's true. doubly sad for me, as i just wrote the "I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook"which uses it multiple times. Before the book went to print, I checked and double-checked, and the TJ computer (accessed by a manager at both stores) read: Seasonal. Returning in Q4". With that assurance, I left the recipes in my book (along with caveats to hoard ingredients such as this). Imagine my dismay when, once Q4 arrived, the computer "fortune cookie" changed to "Discontinued. Refer customer to pie crust." Pie crust? Well, the TJ pie crust IS good, and they have recently reformulated it to be butterier and flakier than its previous incarnation, as well as rolled it out (as the puff was) rather than folding it. But pie crust ain't puff.

    Sometimes a protest campaign is effective with TJ's.

  3. even easier than the foil trick (tho that is also a good idea). since i should have an "all clad" brand on my palm from doing the same thing about once a year for years...as SOON as i take the hot pan out of the oven, using side towels or hot pads (cuz i KNOW it's hot when i take it out of the oven...doh!), i leave those side towels or hot pads on the handle, when i set the pan on the counter or stove top...serves as a visual cue to me, and anyone else who might be working around me, that the pan is HOT! (with some of the folks in my kitchen from time to time, i'm not sure even the foil method would be effective---"hmmm. what's that goofy foil thing doing on that handle? OUCH!")

    havent burned myself since i started doing this.

  4. Bummer. Our home girl chef from Philly is out of the running. I was sad to see Jennifer go. I guess that spoiler wasn't quite right. I think she still ought to throw a party. She made it pretty far in the competition and Philly is proud of her. You go Jennifer! Hold your head high. I think any one of the other chefs could have gotten the boot tonight. I think a slightly salty goat cheese salad is a far lesser transgression than serving slimy egg whites, but maybe that's just me. Sending out anything less than a perfectly cooked egg at this stage of the competition should be axe worthy...

    ya know, i have to agree with your point--a little too much salt on the goat cheese--especially when chiarello said "i wrestle with this too, with flaked salt. once it dissolves, it's saltier than when you first add it". i didnt hear him mention that he also sometimes serves raw-ish eggs to pregnant women...

  5. another laurie colwin fan here. i have lost track of the number of copies of both books i've given as gifts, and while it always pains me a little to see them on the "bargain shelf" at a bookstore, i never fail to pick them up. there's always someone new to introduce to her. i recall reading in gourmet some time back that her daughter is a writer, too. (in fact, i believe i had a letter to the editor published in the following issue, applauding and thanking gourmet for republishing the article.) i think i'll pour a nice glass of syrah, and snuggle in with "more home cooking" tonight. cheers, laurie and laurie lovers.

  6. every year, in december, i teach a tamale class at my cooking school. i know my tamales are good, and we teach a lot of little tricks and lore--how to get the masa to float, etc. i'm always gratified to see the number of hispanic students who enroll. (i'm not a latina.) it seems as though lots of folks didnt pay attention when abeulita was making the tamales, and they dont know the steps in the process. i have a wonderful kitchen helper who is mexican, and the finest food compliment i've received was a few years back, when, after making tamales with her family since she was born, she announced that "this year, the delgado family is using the chez cherie chicken filling in our tamales." that still give me chills. she could not have given me a finer compliment.

  7. i cannot believe mike had never heard of eggs florintine. how is that possible? reminded me o his arrogance in the face of the french challenge... get out of your kitchen once in a while man.

    There was a little out take of a couple of them discussing where "Florentine" might be. I was really boggled that chefs, at least, wouldn't know the names of basic Italian regions. Ok, so it's not Tuscany, but jeez louis!

    actually, it IS tuscany. (i agree about the geez louis(e)!)

  8. ok--recap time. i hope i didn't miss any.

    toad in the hole

    pig in a blanket

    egg(s) in a nest

    egg(s)or (y) in the hole

    egg in a basket

    bunny in a hole

    rocky mountain toast

    a piece of bread with an egg in the middle

    hobo eggs

    nest eggs

    bird in a nest

    bulls eye (or bulls eye eggs)

    egg in toast

    texas toast

    spit in the eye

    huevo en pan

    huevos al nido

    gas house eggs (or gasthaus)

    egg in a hat

    one eyed sailor

    eggs in a (picture) frame (or frame eggs)

    eggy cheese

    egg with a hole in the middle

    window eggs

    pond eggs

    devil's sandwich

    snake eyes

    camp eggs

    firehouse egg

    one eyed jacks

    cowboy toast (or cowboy egg)

    popeye

    submarine egg

    frog in a log

    guy kibbee egg

    hen in a nest (hen's nest)(birdie in a nest)

    moon egg

    one eyed monster breakfast

    egg with hat and coat

    okie french toast

    belly button egg

    one eyed egyptian sandwich

    hollywood eggs

    spit in the ocean

    goldmine sandwich

    vulcanized eggs

    salmonella surprise

    sesame egg

    angels on horseback

    american fried eggs

    mary jane eggs

    ox eye eggs

    toad in the hole had the most references, with one eyed jacks, eggs in the hole and egg in a basket tying for second. i'm hungry now...

  9. my brother-in-law was a bartender for years. my fav story of his involves a japanese gentleman who sat at the bar and ordered a brown liquor drink

    ( i don't drink brown liquor, so i can't recall what the beverage of choice was). after ordering his drink, he added "and make it right." my b-i-l thought to himself "well, alrighty then" and noticed the fellow's eyes widen a bit as he gave an extra generous pour. as the man raised the hefty drink to his lips, my b-i-l realized that what the customer had actually said was "make it LIGHT"...which that drink certainly was not!

  10. not another person's results, but my own. i am ridiculously lax when i caramelize sugar--not to the safety aspects, but as far as sloshing sugar crystals willy-nilly up the side of the pan, not using lemon juice or corn syrup, etc. my sugar has never once crystallized (although i realize that posting this may invoke the wrath of the caramelizing gods). other people in my kitchen just shake their heads, and say i have the best caramel karma.

  11. annecroc--CONGRATULATIONS on your first eggs. it's so ridiculously exciting (considering you did NOT, in fact, lay them yourself!). i've had chickens for about 10 yrs, and i still find it so cool to pull a warm egg out of the box.

    i would caution you against feeding the storebought eggs to your girls. sometimes they'll develop a taste (and habit) of eating eggs, and then you're sunk!

  12. Hi,

    Mom called them"Hollywood eggs", don't know why.

    I now cook bacon in a French black steel pan before adding the bread to toast on one side in the bacon fat, flip and add the egg.  Had them yesterday.

    Good bacon is really a hard find these days.  Farmland thick hickory smoked bacon is pretty good for reasonable money.

    Tim

    oooh. i have some gorgeous peppered bacon in my fridge, and my hens are laying. i'm so trying this tomorrow. (and to bring the "hollywood" into the mix, i'm attending a fancy-schmancy premiere for a movie my bro-in-law wrote and directed in hwd tomorrow night, so the shoe fits!)

    i love the baconfat idea!!!

  13. The challenges are often ridiculous on this series, and last night's episode was a great example of it. I realize that they were trying to add some sort of Iron Chef twist to things, but, these people were trying to make something to get on Red Lobster's menu, and they had plans. (not that it's such a great honor, really)

    Aside from showing demeanor, what was this really about? Do FN shows start taping on-script about one topic and suddenly lose a bunch of ingredients and the host has to make a new menu up on the spot? Does the network change the star's recipes in the middle of taping? Is this really how Bobby Flay's shows are taped? I suspect that Bobby would explode in a violent fit of anger if someone strolled by his set and took half of the spices for a dish. (I remember how ticked he was that the cameras showed his girlfriend during the Iron Chef rematch in Japan.)

    i seriously felt this last night, especially as they kept cutting to the FN execs and flay, who all seemed to be openly laughing at the contestants' struggling to regroup after the rug had been pulled out (yet again). i get that this is a "sink or swim" sort of thing, but really? would you want to portray yourself as so overtly mean-spirited if you were on the panel? also, they hammer on "what's your culinary point of view???" and then they remove any vestige of that pov from the ingredients available to the contestants...and they want them to teach something, too? i don't get it. and why anyone would sign on for this now, after 5 seasons of this, and only mr. fieri to show for it? (oh, i guess the guy from last season has a show---never seen it.)

  14. just thinkin' here...could ya pit them the normal (easier) way, and then "re-stick" the stems in with the chocolate? i mean, the stems are just "for pretty", right? i'd think this could be accomplished in a rather convincing way...and muuuuuch more easily than pitting with a paper-clip. (tho i have also heard of this technique, and am off to view the video!)

    edited to add--having watched the video, it looks pretty easy, if time-consuming. i'd hire my neighbor's kid to do an hour's worth of them---wearing a raincoat, n'es pas? to preserve his clothing. he's looking for chores to do for hire, and i'm fresh out of that age kid. otherwise, i'd put my own to work on those babies!

  15. i sometimes flip and sometimes don't. when i don't, i toast one side of the bread in the butter, then flip and add the egg. i then cover the pan for a little bit of the cooking time, to help the egg cook through. works great.

    This is what I was referring to when I asked if covering promotes sogginess.

    i only cover it for about a minute, to set the egg a bit more, and the bread doesn't get soggy in that time. for some reason, i use a glass lid for this (and nothing else--it's the toad in the hole lid!) while it steams up, i can still kinda see what's goin' on in there, and a minute usually sets the yolk enough for the princess daughter's finicky preference.

    this was my reply. not sure if you missed seeing this, fat guy, or if i misunderstand your post. :unsure:

  16. For those who don't flip, I have a question: how do you avoid making the bread soggy? In other words, if you griddle one side of the bread, flip it, add the egg and cover to finish, doesn't it get all steamy in there?

    i only cover it for about a minute, to set the egg a bit more, and the bread doesn't get soggy in that time. for some reason, i use a glass lid for this (and nothing else--it's the toad in the hole lid!) while it steams up, i can still kinda see what's goin' on in there, and a minute usually sets the yolk enough for the princess daughter's finicky preference.

×
×
  • Create New...