fondue

Reads cookbook, " A quarter teaspoon black pepper." Gets out quarter teaspoon. What was that ingredient again? Reads, "Black pepper". Takes mill to cutting board, grinds, wonders, "How much was needed?" Oh, a quarter teaspoon. Etc.... And this was why I gave up drinking: It interfered with good, orderly cookery!

...when all your linen tea towels are soft.

Heck, I could do that as a beginner!! Also, see original post re: wine. 🙄

* When starting dinner means first finding your glasses. * When you remove all throw rugs in the kitchen, worrying about twisting something. * When you can eyeball a cup, identify all spices by smell, and remember 100+ recipes. * When you no longer use a timer for baking, but sense of smell. * When Julia Child's maxim about wine, "One for the soup, one for the chef" means prepping dinner takes three times longer!

Yes, that's it exactly, but I think Hobbs may have closed: I don't find a store under this name.

Hello everyone, good news! I have a nice problem to have: We're coming back to the States in a few weeks, and buying our first home together. Austin, TX area looks like the destination. I'm looking for multiple sets of tableware. I'm looking for special occasion formal dinners, family breakfasts, and everyday use ecclectic/vintage. I vaguely remember this topic about Tableware Lust, in 2005 (I've been a longtime lurker), but. researching the Refrigerator, I was unable to find a reference to a vaguely-remembered place in the Midwest. They sold tableware from restaurants that had closed? I have time and inclination to do a road trip. If anyone knows this place, I'm going - and I'll post pictures!

The secret to Madagascar food is a tiny, explosively hot pepper called "pili-pili", and tomatoes and lime juice. Very acidic and spicy. The stews are boiled for a long time before they are eaten. Most people still do not have refrigerators here.

Our family has a new favorite: Sub a large can of thinly-sliced pears for pineapple rings, sub almond flavoring for vanilla, and add a pinch of nutmeg for the loss of marashino cherries - and this is a damn fine upside-down cake. Single serving size, now matter how big or small your family! 😏

After making pineapple upside-down cake multiple times this week (I tell myself it's for my son, but who am I kidding?), I'm adding it to the list.

Welcome! There's a recipe section; there's a thread where people post pictures on breakfast, lunch and dinner for inspiration. Just poke around!

Here's where the rubber hits the road: Going outside is prohibited unless absolutely neccessary. What foods do you absolutely need to stay sane? For me: Bleu d'Avergne or Papillion or Roquefort smeared on a baguette. Eggs. Basmati rice. You?

Here's where the rubber hits the road: Going outside is prohibited unless absolutely neccessary. What foods do you absolutely need to stay sane? For me: Bleu d'Avergne or Papillion or Roquefort smeared on a baguette. Eggs. Basmati rice. You?

In Florida, most of the IHOP customers were *profoundly* elderly: Wide spaces between booths were handy for canes, large print on menus, a 24-hour availability (for those who arose at 04:00) and lots of overhead lighting for dim eyesight made it a safe place to take my 90-year old MIL to. She would have been completely annoyed by having to stand while placing her order. I wonder if the soundtrack for the restaurant will reach beyong 2010?

The dinner went really well: The invited family had never heard of jambalaya or gumbo before, but liked them both, but the donuts were the real hit of the evening: My son supervised the two oldest of the guests' children, to shake hot donuts in a bag with cinnamon sugar. I remember how happy Fastnacht kuchen used to make me as a child. With half the donut dough remaining, I mixed in dried candied fruit peel, and let it do its third rise in the refrigerator. After the guests left, I put the loaf into the oven (with a milk bath). 30 minutes later: Success!!

It was in French to advertise to their *African* customers that it was red pepper. My back still aches from the adrenalin dump! The take home lesson? Don't start cooking without a cup of coffee in you!

Aarrgh, this is starting to be more appropriate to the, "I will never again" thread. The doughnut dough is on its second rising, but for a while there it was like something out of, "Batholomew Cubbins and the Ooblek" The diections say to, "add another cup of flour, or as much as needed to make a stiff dough." Subjective, much? I guessed as long as dough was still sticking to the mixing spoon, it wasn't stiff. Dump In more flour, mix, evaluate, frown, repeat. Now it's covered by a towel on top of the gas stove. In the spirit of, "More is more" I called off work today to stay home cooking. I think part of me is just plain giddy about having a paycheck after a year - which means having enough food to share. I started making Cajun seasoning after looking up the ingrediants. I will never again "taste test" a box labeled "piment rouge" to see if it's paprika. No I will not.

If I had a punk band I'd name it, "Tad Gloppy". 😄

South of the equator = Summer = rainy season. Cyclone Francisco smacked us last weekend.

So I started the fastnach kuchen batter last night for the first rising, and it looks like waffle batter this morning (sigh). I'll punch it down, add lots more flour, and hope this self-corrects on the second rising.

Oh, my goodness, this expat is drooling. I've been craving a good hot dog, and they were served at lunch at the workplace Friday. No condiment but ketchup, rolls were sweetish potato variety. Didn't quite scratch the itch. For sauerkraut, I can only buy it in giant cans of charcouterie - and those are some rubbery weenies, man. My favorite variety is "with the works" in NYC, but at home it's with with kraut simmered in chicken broth and caraway seeds, with a slather of whole grain mustard.

Grocery shopping here in Africa means always having bills in your pocket: You never know when the crab man is going to knock on your door with a dozen kilos of hard-plated racers. Or when someone squatting on the side of the street will have Asian apple-pears (score!!) The man with the zebu herd sells me unpasteurized milk 1.5 liters for 80 cents: He comes by my desk at work every Monday morning. At church on Sunday I get two dozen freshly-laid eggs from another congregant, who uses the money towards his school fees. My neighbors are always curious what I bring home in my basket: Baguettes at 05:45? I'm a good Malagasy housewife. Did you really mean to buy a kilo of mustard greens, Madame? It's much more than transactional, it's relational here......

Thanks for the encouragement to keep it simple!

As one of the few American families in our congregation, and with a social debt outstanding, I invited the pastor his wife and household for an American-style Mardi Gras! (OK, maybe no mention of how one earns beaded necklaces!) They're from the RSA, and as Evangelicals, completely unaware of the tradition of Lent or it's "id" forerunner, Fasching/Carnivale/Mardi Gras. No alcohol, right? So already a little different. No file powder, paprika only in the Indian grocery stores, and small children under five, so no King cake. Scrounging, I can do jambalaya, corn bread, gumbo z'herbes, and fastnacht kuchen for dessert. I explained it's got a birthday party vibe - nothing formal - and I'll find party hats and noisemakers. I hope to find zydeco music to play during dinner!!

A half kilo of Cheerios in this context means?