tejon

I went to University of California at Irvine back in the 80s. Lived off campus the whole time, so my college food was whatever I managed to make in the tiny galley kitchen in my apartment. I often shared meals with the unfortunates who lived in the dorms - they always seemed so appreciative of anything that didn't come out of a can. My husband stayed in the dorms around the same time (we didn't meet until years later). His stories of the cafeteria food there are frightening. During his Sophomore year, the service contracted to provide cafeteria food was fired mid-year because the food was so far below standard. Instead of gaining the Freshman 15, many of the dorm residents lost weight. There were very few choices at any one meal, the dishes prepared were overcooked and tasteless, and the little produce available for salads was usually limp and/or canned. Most of the dorm residents took to eating off campus if they could afford it.

My boys love stuffing the inari as well. They usually end up with a motley assortment of half filled, split, football shapes, and oddly shaped rice balls, all of which are gobbled up quickly. Food and entertainment at the same time.

Are you planning on making the inari-zushi later this week? Do you usually serve them as a snack, or as part of a meal? Tonight we had pork belly and daikon, the recipe you shared in your last foodblog. It was wonderful with some roasted asparagus and rice.

Congratulations to both of you! Much excellent advice above. Freeze in smaller containers and label well so you can pick and choose whatever actually sounds appealing at the time. The biggest problem I had during both of my pregnancies was a complete lack of interest in food, but having several things to choose from often helped. I also relied a lot on Luna bars (Zone bars are also pretty tasty) when nothing sounded good but I needed some protein or *something* nutritious without any effort. In a few months, freezing ahead so neither of you will have to cook is wise - you'll both want to spend all possible time with the new Klink.

Oh, yes. Such a simple combination, but they are perfect together.

Didn't get a chance to get pictures as I was cooking (small persons got in the way), but here is the end result: I added green onion, shredded daikon, and pork belly. Topped it with tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise, and some benishoga. Five minutes later and it's all gone.

No Jewish heritage here, but I've always found something very comforting about the dishes I have encountered. Besides, what's not to love about a well made knish? Mmmmmm

Thanks! That's my three year old, Arden, slurping up some miso soup. There's nothing wrong with tinkering - all recipes come from someone messing with ingredients in some way or another. The trick is to find out enough about how all the ingredients work together so the final result is what you hoped for in the first place. Baking is far closer to pure chemistry than any other type of cooking, so more knowledge really helps.

Mine's white, sort of shaped like an odd flower. Strange looking, but it does the job well. Though I use the run-it-under-hot-water trick more often than not. Even with tiny hands, I can open pretty much any jar.

Halving the sugar could certainly change texture that much. Sugar isn't only there to add sweetness - it also helps make a cookie chewy as well. I'm not well versed enough in chemistry to suggest how to fix your cookies, but the easy fix would be to start with recipes that aren't as sweet to begin with so you don't need to change them so drastically.

Wine is considered a sophisticated drink, something for the highly educated, something for the elite. Most people have little understanding of how to choose a wine or what to look for, even where to find this information. So the idea that dry=good wine is taken as gospel. The cheapest, basest alcoholic beverages available are all highly sweetened (think of Night Train and the like), so it would seem natural to try to get as far away from the bottom of the heap as possible. Sweet is seen as childish, the sort of thing young people drink before they have really tasted the good stuff.

I love pear clafouti, though it isn't something you'd want to store for long. How about pear and/or apple butter? I don't have a recipe handy, but it cooks down quite a bit and requires a lot of fruit at the outset.

Is Langer's open on the weekend as well? I keep meaning to get out there, but doing so without the small fry would make things much, much easier all around. Besides, this is one I'd like to share with Mr. tejon if I can.

I have driven past the one in Brea more times than I can count, but never actually went in and tried anything. Might be time to change that if they truly do have good pastrami.

I'll vote for a Chunking outing in December. Though perhaps I'll leave the hot chopped chicken to the more iron stomached Mr. tejon .

I'd also love to see a cross section of one of the loaves, if possible. They look delicious.

The sense of smell makes such a difference in the way things taste. Back when I was in college I needed surgery to remove my tonsils. Prior to surgery, the ENT doctor poked around my nose, gasped, and asked, "how do you breathe?" Well, I had been breathing through my mouth my whole life. I then learned this was due to my extensive allergies, and that it could be fixed. When I finally had the surgery, I couldn't eat much of anything for weeks. Everything tasted so incredibly wrong. Even favorites that I made exactly the same way I always had was terrible. Took me a while to figure out that I was finally smelling the food, and so fully tasting it for the first time. It took a while for me to get used to the new flavors and scents, but once I did I realized what I had been missing all those years. I am so glad now for the ability to smell, and therefore to really taste the things I eat.

I was also curious about bubble sugar. Googled it and found this. Better picture here. Wendy, is it pretty brittle once cooled? How much heat needs to be applied in order to bend it into the desired shape?

I use one of the rubber circles, too - almost always works. When that fails, I run the lid under hot water for a few seconds and try again. That usually works like a charm.

This is a bit out in the middle of nowhere, but the food is quite good: Peacock Garden 23347 Golden Springs Dr. Diamond Bar, CA (909) 860-2606

I can address this. The problem is that there *are* people who are sensitive to sodium in foods, and for them it will raise blood pressure levels. This applies to about one in every twelve people. Therein lies the rub. How to distinguish those who must lower their dietary sodium from those who can consume salt with abandon? More importantly, how to make sure the public knows that some people should be careful with salt in foods? If we were all warned, "sodium in foods may lead to increased blood pressure in some people", who would heed that warning? Most people would assume it didn't apply to them and carry on eating whatever they liked. So in the interest of protecting the health of those who need to be careful, a blanket warning is used. This information also comes from a doctor, who told me it's pretty well known that the warning doesn't apply to most people. I'm also in the opposite camp - my blood pressure runs very low so I actually need a good amout of sodium in the foods I eat. It's important in general to know how your body reacts to the things you ingest, and plan accordingly.

This is my favorite sauerkraut dish. It's supposed to be an Amish custom to eat pork and sauerkraut together on New Year's day, and this recipe came from a friend's Amish grandma. Take a 3-4 pound pork roast - sprinkle with salt and pepper, roast in a 325 oven for several hours. Toss into a crockpot with drained sauerkraut and around 1/2 cup chicken broth. Add in some brown sugar and caraway seeds, or skip. Both ways are wonderful. Cook on low for 24 hours (yep, you read that right - 24 hours!), adding additional broth if needed. The pork ends up completely falling apart into shreds and the saurkraut and meat meld together in a wonderful way. This is incredible served over mashed potatoes with some caramelized onions along side.

Also: meringues (perhaps some Lost Cookies?) angelfood Cake lemon (or other citrus) curd rolled omelette chawan Mushi

Now I am really jealous! My husband and I used to set up pyrotechnic shows, but I've never even touched a 12 inch shell before. Though we did hand light 5 and 6 inch shells one Fourth of Jully.....that was fun . Beautiful blog. I especially enjoy the pictures of your garden and acerage, something quite scarce here in my neck of the woods. My vote is for anything sourdough and some fruit tarts, please.

As I remember, Abra is limited to cooking in her client's kitchen with no prep at home. Local laws prohibits preparation at home unless her kitchen were to adhere to an exhausting list of requirements, and I applaud her for operating within the law. Wonderful topic. I think most of us would benefit from a list of desserts that could be pulled out of a hat at a moment's notice if needed. The suggestions so far have been very helpful.