Toliver

Fry it all up. Save the fat for future frying fun. Put the cooled cooked bacon in a plastic zipper-type bag and toss into the freezer. Take pieces of cooked bacon out out of the bag as you need them and reheat them in your microwave. Keep the rest in the plastic bag in the freezer. Rinse and repeat. Super easy and convenient.

I have oodles of recipes that I keep in a Word document. If I am going to attempt a recipe, I usually copy and paste the recipe into a Notepad document and print that out. Since Notepad doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles to it, it's easy to do. If I had a smart phone or handheld device, I would definitely find an app that would display the recipe (or that I could paste the recipe into). Then I wouldn't have to waste a sheet of paper.

I believe Alton Brown uses his ironing board for his pasta machine that has a counter/table clamp. Would the same trick work for your apple peeler? Regarding your pasta machine, I gave my brother a pasta machine for his birthday and he's in 7th heaven over it. I think we're all getting fresh-made dried pasta for Christmas, which I am looking forward to receiving. His samples/attempts so far have been delicious. Maybe it'll be a project for you in the New Year?

I agree with this point. The produce department at the Walmart Neighborhood Market is noticeably different than a "normal" grocery store. A good example is their green onions/scallions. They stock Dole greens onions that come prepackaged in a plastic bag which cost about a buck. Whereas a "normal" grocery store would have unbagged bunches of green onions with a couple of small rubber bands around them selling for a lot less. This reminds me of when my local Trader Joe's first started selling fresh produce.It was all prepacakged and you couldn't pick out your own produce (just like the now-defunct Fresh and Easy stores). My TJ's actually seems to be reversing direction these days and is selling more "loose" produce. It's been happening at all of the regular and super Walmarts. The problem is that they do have the stock in their backroom/storehouse but have cut back on their staff so much that they don't have employees to bring it from the back and restock the shelves. From what I understand, they're aware of the issue and are supposed to be hiring more staff for stocking. One of the (small) upsides is that this Walmart Neighborhood Market is stocking a lot of brands I've never seen before. I'm assuming they're brands known more familiarly in the Southern US.

You can read a little more about them here: Walmart Neighborhood Markets They built one of the "markets" up the street from where I live. As an aside, the parking lot seems to have been built and striped by someone who failed design school. Newcomers to the store have a terrible time figuring out how to get back out onto the nearby main street since there are only two entrances into the parking lot. What's interesting is that the store is less than a mile from the nearest Von's grocery store which ruled the neighborhood roost, so to speak, as the area's sole grocery store for quite a number of years. Physically, the Walmart store is about the same size as the Von's. The difference between this Walmart and the regular Walmart stores is that it just sells groceries... no TV's, no mens' department, no toy department, etc. Just groceries. This new Walmart store has definitely made an observed impact on business at the Von's. I think the Von's employees have been told to park closer to the store to make it look like the Von's is busy (when you walk into that store now, the aisles are seemingly devoid of customers). The prices at the Walmart Neighborhood Market are a mixed bag. They're generally cheaper than Von's with the exception of the meat department which is priced about the same as Von's. Premium goods like Jarlsberg or Brie or your usual name-brand butter are still a little pricey just like any other store. But deals can be found. I wept...or came close to weeping inside the Walmart Neighborhood Market. There in the Walmart's hot rotisserie chicken racks were these small plastic black boxes with clear lids. I looked closer and saw that they were small individual pork roasts! I swooned. I found out from the deli employee that they have the small cooked pork roasts everyday. This was news to me. The first few times I shopped in the store, I passed by the rotisserie chickens and just saw the chickens, not knowing that the pork roasts had sold out. The cooked, boneless pork roasts have a spice rub on the outside that may be a little spicy to some. The pork is cooked to about a medium (you can see some vague pinkishness here and there, which may scare some people away but the meat is moist and mild and delicious). The small roasts could serve about 3 people generously. They do come in different sizes and are priced pretty low for ready-to-eat pork goodness. For the pork roasts alone, Walmart has my business. Does anyone else have a Walmart Neighborhood Market in your area? What are your impressions?

I use my West Bend slow-cooker (it's not a real crock pot) to make my twice yearly corned beef (for St. Patrick's Day and for New Year's Day). It makes it so easy and the meat is fall apart tender. Plus, the pot can be used on the stovetop to make the potatoes and carrots with the water/broth from the corned beef. That makes my slow-cooker valuable to me though I don't use it as often as I did in years past. The crock pot can also be used for Onion Confit (click).

Gosh, I am so hungry for Chinese food now and I've only seen the trailer! It's a documentary film about Chinese food in America. You can watch the trailer for the film here: "The Search for General Tso" This reminds me so much of the late eGullet co-founder and author Fat Guy (Steven Shaw). I think he would have loved the conversation initiated by this film. Here's a past eGullet discussion about the same subject: "Who was General Tso, why are we eating his chicken"

I've seen it year-round at my local TJ's. I think it used to have a more generic looking label. I agree with your assessment...good bite, etc. It may be our go-to horseradish for our family's Christmas Eve Prime Rib dinner.

You could also start with the eGCI class "Knife Maintenance and Sharpening" (click) The class instructor, eGullet member Chad Ward, went on to write a well-reviewed book about the subject: "An Edge in the Kitchen"

I have a dear friend who's mother despised turkey so they never had it for Thanksgiving. They usually resorted to Cornish game hens. My mom tends to have large gatherings for the holiday so it's not unusual to see a couple of turkeys there (this year one will be smoked...the other will be oven-roasted. We've done fried turkeys in the past)) and there will also be a ham for those who don't like turkey. I wonder if the reason why some people don't like turkey is because they never had it cooked and served properly? My father grew up (on a farm, yet) hating to eat chicken. My mom grew up loving chicken. My dad was eating his mom's (my grandmother's) cooking which was terrible so it's no wonder he never liked to eat chicken. But my mom was raised by her older sister who was a wizard when it came to cooking and baking and my mom loved her chicken dishes. More importantly, she learned to cook from her sister and my brothers and I grew up loving my mom's cooking, including her Thanksgiving turkey. We all really like turkey. To paraphrase the old saying, the old sins of bad cooks in the kitchen cast long shadows over the palates of future diners.

I forgot to mention another gift for my oldest brother and his new pasta machine...cookbooks! Thanks to numerous past eGullet discussions on Pasta Cookbook recommendations, I went a little crazy on Amazon and bought five cookbooks for him. They were all used (some for a penny!) and I did manage to get a couple "like new" hard-back cookbooks for a few dollars more. The shipping costs were invariably higher than the cookbooks themselves. I hope he's not overwhelmed by all of the books!

For his recent birthday, I bought my oldest brother an Atlas Pasta Maker Machine with all of the attachments. It's really a 2-person job...one to crank and feed pasta into the machine and someone to gather the output properly. For Christmas, he'll be getting the motor for the machine so it can become a one-person job.

An ancient sort of similar eGullet discussion: "How we ate growing up"

Monopoly is over at Mickey D's and so the McRib is back. Has anyone had one yet? Just curious if it's the same as always or if they've changed anything.

Did you try the Brita website? Click here. Scroll down for specific model numbers.

I'm not Kim but I found the recipe on her web site here (click). Enjoy!

Thanks for taking 1 (or 10) for the team.

I've come to the decision to boycott any cooking show that is a timed competition. There are far too many of them and now the Food Network has kids competing, too. I think that's pushing it. It certainly teaches the wrong thing. Good food shouldn't be a race to the finish line.

I gave my mom one of those little LED flashlights to keep in her purse. It's insanely bright. The next time she's in a restaurant where the lighting is too low for her to read the menu, she can whip the flashlight out and make a point.

I remember for my 8th birthday my mom made me an angel food cake from scratch. I took a bite and thought it tasted just like the smell of turpentine. I refused to eat anymore of it. My mom doesn't remember the incident but I am adamant that it happened, especially because it was my birthday cake. There's a local bakery that makes a devil's food chocolate cake with a whipped cream frosting that tastes like a Hostess Suzi-Q...only better. If only we'd had that cake when I was a kid!

The Chef's Thumb looks far too cumbersome to use. Why not learn proper knife skills and then you won't have to wear a Dumb Thumb?

She may be a reality celeb now, but she used to be a chef. So to call her a "Pro" could be considered accurate. In the early days of the Food Network (back when they actually had shows on with chefs who taught you how to cook), she was one of the chefs in rotation on "The Melting Pot" which showcased different cultures and cuisines. You may not agree with her, which is your prerogative, but more often than not I'd say she knows what she's talking about when it comes to food.

Brilliant recovery! I applaud your good sense of "recycling"! It looks delicious. I hope you're able to source a cider press soon or you'll be knee-deep in apples before you know it.

A couple of years ago, my mom made the casserole for Thanksgiving. We were all puzzled by it because we never had it before at our holiday dinners. My mom swore she used to make it all of the time when we were younger. Us "kids" guessed she had seen the TV commercial for the casserole one too many times and she thought it was something we had always had. So much for the power of TV commercials. We made her promise to never make it again. There are so many other side dishes that are far better than this casserole.

Apparently Richard Blais has jumped into a PR machine and is starting to be seen in quite a number of shows on the Food Network and elsewhere. This is my preemptive "Gosh I can't stand him now" post.