PopsicleToze

Yes, there is. Go to the home page and look for technical assistance. It's the category under Regional Cuisine. There is a great detailed tutorial with illustrations. Rhonda

My pet peeve is when something is named "Better than Sex _____". One aunt has a recipe in my cookbook for Better Than Sex Cake and she laughs everytime she says it. Like her nieces and nephews need to think about an aunt and uncle having sex. First, I find it inappropriate. Secondly, the cake couldn't be that good with all of the processed ingredients she uses for it. Rhonda

Just started this year's goodies and I've read this entire thread for inspiration. I have 5-gallons of figs that I'm doing next that the birds were kind enough to let me have, but this week I put up tomatoes and spiced pickled peaches. The peaches have strips of fresh ginger root and cinnamon sticks with sweet onions and red bell pepper strips thrown in for good measure. The one on top is not processed but it stays good for several weeks in the refrigerator; that's the sampling jar to see when they're good to give away. The large jar in back is leftover pickling solution. It will show up somewhere in the next few weeks maybe on pound cake or something. Rhonda

I'm having a hard time getting the image feature to work. Bear with me. It keeps deleting me so I'm trying to manually trick it. We'll see... Anyway, I love the dinner thread. I keep a file folder named "Inspiration" with various folders in it featuring all of the photos that have inspired me pasted in a Power Point file. Then, when I need to plan something, I can see a slide show of various foods you have cooked. For instance, I have "In the Heat of Summer" in use often now, but then I have things like breakfast and brunch, preserving summer -- you know the ones. So, I'm trying to contribute now. I have the pictures but not the knowhow. So, here goes my first dinner contribution... not that it will inspire anyone, but at least I'll be giving back to a thread that I watch daily. Fish fry -- standard fare of fried fish, baked beans (my Mom's recipe which is very hearty with ground beef, onions and other goodies), cole slaw and potato salad. It was really good. Rhonda ETA: Don't forget to note the fine china

The only time I did it I hurt myself. One thing I can offer -- buy yourself a steel mesh glove. Priceless. Oh -- and contact Mayhaw Man. He would know. Rhonda

I did a search to see if we had a topic on this but didn't come up with anything. I would think that's because members here make their own cookie dough. However, with teenagers in the house -- you never know what they'll pick up. This was just received this morning in my email direct from Nestle. It has been confirmed that E. coli was found in their refrigerated cookie dough. I'm posting it because EVEN AFTER I SENT THE NOTICE TO MY 21-YR OLD NIECE, she told me that she was going to keep eating it anyway. I sent it back to her with a picture I googled showing an E. coli victim lying in a hospital bed showing what her flesh looked like. She got the message. So, even if you don't make it, you might want to remind your kids...

I was on a mission this weekend to find Ruston peaches this weekend since there was a family obligation that negated me attending the Peach Festival. I travelled the backwoods areas looking for pickup trucks selling them. The truck near me was only selling Washington Parish watermelons. Finally found a little stand in Gramercy that helped me. Here's the conversation, No, little lady, I don't have any. We have Alabama peaches right now. Don't know why you want Ruston peaches when we have Alabama peaches. Yeah, I've heard that the ones from Chilton are good, but are they as good as Ruston peaches? Oh, yeah! The ones we have are from Chilton, and everybody knows that Chilton peaches are better than Rustons. Really? I have never heard that before. Is that why you sell Chiltons? Nah. We can't get any Ruston peaches right now, but we're trying." But he was a really nice man. He used his cell phone to call a buddy of his in Hammond, and that connection had a 1/2 bushel of Ruston peaches left that he tucked away in back until I could get there. Louisiana has some good ol' boys Rhonda -------- Edited to add: Just found out that Chilton County is in GA. That man!

Jeff and Fengyi -- hope you're feeling much better today. Jeff, I sure hope they don't salt-free diet for you. My aunt can't eat salt and it is a complete PITA to cook for her. Get better soon! Rhonda

It could be machine-crafted. Rhonda P.S. Nice name

Our tradition is the typical family bbq chicken, potato salad, baked beans and garlic bread. Watermelon for dessert is a must. We used to do homemade vanilla ice cream years ago, but that tradition faded away. Lots of little cold behinds sitting on the manual turner keeping the lid on. Rhonda

Anyone who has their backyard "rooted up" by a wild pig understands nose rings. It almost looked like someone had used a tractor cutting rows for a garden. They set out a steel trap for the pig (who all of a sudden stopped coming over) and I wanted to have it butchered because I've never cooked boar leg before. Every single person I asked said that the meat was so nasty that they didn't want to fool with it. I've seen rings in bulls' noses, too, and tags hanging from having their ears pierced. Rhonda

Such a great idea. Definitely starting a new tradition this year at our house. Can't wait!

I thought the same thing. All of the cards seemed stacked in his favor. I'm sure it was just luck, but it was no surprise that he won. The Frenchman left me cold. He just seemed vulgar. Rhonda

If you're really really hungry and left home on an empty stomach late for your flight and know you're only getting peanuts on the 3-hour flight, it can't be worse than the jambalaya they sell in that place in just inside (I think "A") on the left. Recently I had to go through ATL was pleasantly surprised to find a Nathan's hotdog stand. It was really good. They had great sauteed onions with it. Had one on the return flight, too. Rhonda

Great story and beautifully written. I've never seen that much fat on a pig. Guess a more appropriate name would be HOG. Rhonda

It might help to understand that hard to peel is an understatement. When boiled shrimp are overcooked, the meat sticks to the peel. You can't just remove the peel as usual because the peel doesn't come off whole -- you yank and it tears leaving bits on the meat. It's definitely not the same as someone just not familiar with peeling shrimp. It's happened to most of us at least once. Rhonda

So is what you're saying is that they will corrode and get stains and that perhaps AC does contain the nickel, hence less corrosion and stains. ?? Just trying to be clear before I go purchasing any Sitram. FWIW -- I love All Clad but stains don't really bother me. Shows much love and use in the kitchen. Rhonda

You're in luck! Peaches from Ruston, Louisiana are famous in these parts, and they're in season right now. In fact, the Peach Festival is this weekend! http://www.louisianapeachfestival.org/ We're planning to go to the festival Sunday afternoon. If you want -- PM me your address and I'll ship you a case of the little jewels. They're so good they'll make you blush! Rhonda

Just goes to show how your style of cooking & general repertoire of favorite dishes can make a dramatic difference in your perception of utility: I have a LC handled saucepan that's one of the most-used pots in my kitchen. I'm curious: What size is the pan? What do you use it for? And what do you think is so good about it for this use? ← HungryC is a great cook with much experience, and I look forward to hearing what she uses those pots for. Meanwhile, I bought the LC set in the early 2000's as one of my first investments. I like the little LC pot to make rice. It has a little hole in the top, though, so first I have to cover the top with aluminum foil before making the rice. Guess I should use another pot, but that is my rice pot now and that's what I use it for. I also use it to make roux peas. Rhonda

I consider myself a real cook, and I have a couple of non-stick skillets that I use for certain tasks. One of them is the only pan I use for omelets. If I don’t have that pan, I don’t make omelets. Maybe that makes me an unreal cook, but my omelets taste real nonetheless. Rhonda

I was going through the channel guide and saw something about economical cooking with "Sandra". Knowing it could not be Sandra Lee, I clicked on the channel to check it out. Imagine my surprise when there was Ms. Lee staring back at me from tv-land. She was showing people how to cook good-tasting food economically. Huh? It seems that the staff had determined how much everything cost per serving, and then she made the less expensive version. For example, they determined that a premade piecrust was less expensive to make than one made from scratch, so she used the premade crust. Then (and make sure you are sitting down for this), they determined that homemade whipped cream was less expensive than the frozen topping stuff, and (get this) Ms. Lee actually used a mixer and made homemade whipped cream. Granted, it wasn't very pretty -- but hats off to the women -- because she at least had the foresight to toast some coconut to hide the cream. Hell must be freezing over right now, but maybe, just maybe, the woman wants to improve her cooking. I'm thinking this might be a good thing. Rhonda

Raw pork -- raw veal -- just about anything you can put in a meatball can be eaten raw by the cook with no ill side effects. Even after the egg(s) are mixed in! Even before I could cook I would sneak some raw ground meat to eat with s/p. It was a secret shame for years, but I've accepted it. Poor pork still has a lot of bad safety press. The animals we eat today are much different than the piggies of yester-year. Rhonda

That looks delicious -- and you're making one girl very sorry she stooped to a Wendy's crispy chicken sandwich. At least I can make up for it when I get home. Rhonda

I do that, too. They grow for a second time use with good quality. After you snap those -- the 3rd growth is very light colored and the quality is about gone -- just use that for salads. After the 3rd growth, time to put the little things in the compost bin. Rhonda

Seriously?!?!?! This is what this discussion has come to? If you wanted your food to go, you should have asked for it. Nobody's a mnd reader. I've been curiously following this thread, but now I'm done. ← Ditto.