Toliver

Once again, the McRib has returned to my local McD's. I just wish they had more seasoning on them. They're kind of blah.

How about that? I never thought to compare the weight of two boxes. I assumed the difference was more likely due to cost-of-ingredients. Never assume...

I don't get it. If you buy the Trader Joe's Pork Shu Mai, you get 9 pieces. Box after box...just 9 pieces in each box. However, if you buy the Trader Joe's Chicken Shu Mai, when you open the box it's like opening a circus clown car...they just keep pouring out. The last box of Trader Joe's Chicken Shu Mai I bought contained 19 pieces. Sure, they were a little smaller than the Pork Shu Mai, but why the huge discrepancy in piece count? Color me perplexed.

"Ketchup changeup: McDonald's dropping Heinz after CEO change" I wonder who makes McD's "Fancy Ketchup"?

They have a similar promotion in my area. You can mix and match different burgers that they offer, 2 for $5.

Just an FYI... The Santee City Council, in its infinite wisdom, has approved a new condo development on the land where two restaurants currently stand; One is the original Omelette Factory and the other is Pinnacle Peak (who knew it was part of a small chain?). My mom, who lives just up the street from these restaurants, is furious. She thinks the council wanted to collect more property tax on the land by jamming condos onto it, than what is currently being generated by the two restaurants. With the eventual closing of these two restaurants, the south/west side of Santee will have slim pickings when it comes to restaurants to choose from. I spoke with the owner of the Omelette Factory and he isn't too happy, either. But he says any closings will be be a year or more away. He said no one has done any of the major paperwork (like Environmental Impact Reports) yet, which take time to have done. In the long run he's not sure whether they'll reopen in another part of Santee or just stick with their La Mesa restaurant.

The last time I had to clean greens, I couldn't find my sink stopper. I ended up putting a plastic Cool Whip container lid over the drain opening. I ran enough water into the sink that the weight of the water prevented the lid from moving. It worked well in a pinch...

So KFC has a breakthrough with their newest product: "KFC's new Go Cup is a brilliant idea" The article reads more like an opinion piece, but the new KFC Go Cup does sound innovative. There's nothing else out there that's really like this already. Has the Go Cup made it to your neighborhood, yet?

If you go to the web site, there's a video of the inventor (Mary) talking about how she uses the sticks. The sticks shown in the video seem quite huge to me. I imagine the hole they leave behind in the roast/bird will be quite large. So if you don't mind holes in your meat...then you're good to go.

Yes, this. My TJ's is not a very large store and yet there seems to be a good turnover rate with most of their products. Be the squeaky wheel and let Corporate/Management know about your experience.

Broasting doesn't really involve "roasting". It's actually a combination of pressure cooking and deep frying. At least that's the method Harlan Sanders used to launch his KFC empire. Legally, it's not supposed to be called broasting unless an actual Broaster® is used. It's not for the home cook, to say the least. My mom drools like a Pavlovian dog if we mention the broasted chicken at the Jimmy's restaurant in Santee, CA. It's her favorite place to get broasted chicken.

Did you get a chance to taste the pound cake made with duck eggs?

A valiant attempt! Next time try pulverizing/crushing the onion rings in a blender/Cuisinart until they are more like crumbs. That should make for better breading/coating. You should still get the onion flavor but not so much chunkiness.

Thanks for posting about your trip. They make for a good read. My question is, so how do duck eggs taste compared to chicken eggs? And do they lend themselves better towards certain dishes than regular chicken eggs?

A lot of skillets that say they are safe for oven use come with an asterisk(*). When you follow the asterisk, it'll say something like " *Safe for oven use up to 350°F" or some such temperature. Which means high temperature roasting in them is out. Better safe than sorry!

My brother plants his tomatoes in small barrels. He's gotten into growing heirlooms these past couple of years. He said his crop flourished this year and he can't give them away fast enough. I don't live near him so I haven't been a lucky recipient of the excess bounty. My mother's tomato plants (she's in the same city as my brother but living in a different area) haven't done well at all. Early in the season she had a plant that was starting to bear fruit. One morning she went out to find some critter had not only eaten all the fruit but almost all of the plant, as well (she guessed it was deer noshing on the plant).

I love my Magnum but concur with your observation about the lack of a fine grind. When I want a fine grind, I usually twist the bottom screw/knob until it's completely closed and then back it off a bit. I can get a somewhat fine grind but have discovered that the screw/knob must turn during use as the grind gets less fine the more I use the Magnum. But, for the most part, I'm okay with that.

But have you tried a taste of it, though? Just asking. A local deli makes a cream of tomato basil soup. I'm sure it's Campbell's but tarted up with half & half, lemon pepper and basil. It has a nice creamy thickness to it and is very much a comfort soup. I like just a regular grilled cheese (Velveeta when I was a kid, American as a teen and cheddar as an adult) but I add sliced dill pickle after grilling and just before eating. The vinegary tartness of the pickle balances the buttery bread and "goozey" cheese.

All that your post is missing is a "Bah, Humbug!" So when I season my meal with salt and pepper at the table, I'm "out of spec"? I should know better and toast my salt and pepper before use? It's just salt and pepper. What's the big deal? "Hot Sauce That Packs More Than Heat" Maybe I will get lucky like the entire nation of China, according to you, that doesn't seem to be doing too badly what with their exposure to lead and gosh, I'll be just fine, too. It's not just about hot sauce or the contaminated spices, either. It's a domino effect. There are the thousands of canned and bottled sauces and other food items that are made with the contaminated spices. But hey, what's a little bit of learning difficulties (a symptom of lead poisoning) between foodies and friends?

Mickey D's will be introducing a new menu item soon (Sept. 9th): wings! " 'Mighty Wings' landing at McDonald's " Is anyone in the test markets and have you tried them?

It's more "liquid-y" than yogurt, though it still has a thickness to it. I am lactose intolerant have used kefir with my morning cereal instead of milk. Kefir is something like 98 to 99% lactose free (check the labels of your local brand for more info). My TJ also sells a strawberry version and a pomegranate version, both of which taste quite good. Kefir contains much more live/active bacteria cultures than regular yogurt. Where yogurt may have one strain of bacteria, kefir can have 10 or more different cultures depending on the maker.

If that bothers you I suggest you never eat in a restaurant again.The pretense of the employees putting on gloves and then dirtying the gloves in plain view while making my sandwich just ticked me off. If you're going to bother to pretend to be sanitary, then keep up the charade completely until I'm gone or why bother?

So we're talking nuance, then. You can put just about any mustard on a ballpark frank and it's still a ballpark frank. But if you sub in a Bill Klapp sausage, then it's not really a ballpark frank any longer. When do the better ingredients change the essence of the dish so it's no longer the original/classic? When does "Gilding the Lily" cross the line and change the dish or experience?

I was at my local TJ's yesterday and saw both burgers and thought about grabbing them. Thank you for taking (an expensive hit) for the team! I look forward to hearing how they taste. I was disappointed to find out that their Beef Steak Frozen Burritos were missing in action. This was the second month I couldn't find them in the frozen food case. An employee told me they were being "reformulated" and would eventually return. I'm scared of what "reformulated" could mean. They were good as they were, so why change them? It reminds me of Costco where a perfectly good name-brand item is discontinued only to be replaced by a Kirkland version (sometimes at a higher price! ). They've seemed to stop carrying their Frozen Stir Fry Vegetables, as well. On the plus side, TJ's did have oodles of Cookie Butter on display, as well as a chunky version. Sometimes Life is good. edited for spelling

The easiest example is a hamburger. I thought why not buy the leanest, most expensive ground hamburger meat for my homemade burgers? It turns out that the fat helps act like a binder to keep the burger together and to keep it juicy. My expensive burger ended up tasting as dry and crumbly as ground up corkboard. Lesson learned.