Toliver

I think I have. The quick browned onions have more of a charred, sometimes slightly bitter taste to them whereas with caramelized onions, it's mainly the sweetness I taste.

I once omitted the panade from a meatloaf I was making, thinking, "I don't need an extender. I've got a combination of quality meat here and don't need to worry about making the meal stretch to feed more mouths...so no panade." The resulting meatloaf could have been used as a doorstop! It was quite dense, to say the least, and difficult to slice. I had to use my Forschner chef's knife to slice it where with a "normal" meatloaf, I could slice it with a regular spatula. I'll never omit the panade again. Live and learn.

See if your local library has a copy of The Cake Mix Doctor. She starts with a box mix and adds different ingredients. My mom has this recipe book and loves it.

I'd seen the store aisles filled with early Halloween candy and started hankering for Payday candy bars of all things. I finally found some and I am now in salty peanut heaven. It's interesting to compare Baby Ruth bars to Paydays. They're similar in make-up...a nougat-y log center covered with peanuts. But I think Baby Ruth's must have some sort of caramel, too, as they seem far sweeter than the Paydays. Since I tend to favor the savory, I prefer the Paydays over the Baby Ruths. What candy are you jonesing for as Halloween skulks onto the calendar?

Taco Bell is test marketing a new item in my area. It's called the Locos Taco and is being promoted in conjunction with Frito-Lay's Dorito's Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chip brand. Here's a picture of part of the wrapper for the taco: It's a regular Taco Bell taco except that instead of the normal corn tortilla shell, it's a Dorito's Nacho Cheese corn tortilla shell. The shell is orange-ish in color and is dusted with the Dorito's Nacho Cheese powder. I was questioning the addition of the paper holder/sleeve for the taco (not very eco-friendly to add yet more wrapping to throw away) but it turns out that it's needed for a couple of reasons. First there's the Nacho Cheese orange powder to contend with. The paper holder/sleeve prevents you from ending up with orange-dusted fingers while eating the taco. And, sadly, the other reason is that the Nacho Cheese taco shell doesn't hold up for very long with the moist contents of the taco filling. The taco quickly splits into a soggy mess if not consumed quickly. The paper holder/sleeve helps contain the contents of the split taco. Have your "spork" ready to eat what's left inside the paper holder/sleeve. How does it taste? It tastes okay, actually. It's Nacho Cheese Doritos with Taco Bell taco filling. What's not to like? I think it will be a hit with the teen male market that Taco Bell targets as well as with the "It's 3am and I need something to eat" crowd.

Perhaps a charge for chips & salsa for takeout is to cover packaging/handling expense. I'm sure such packaging costs them very little if they buy it in bulk, but it could be gross mark-up.

Or how about the latest rage for kids: Spaghetti Tacos (thanks to the TV show "iCarly"). I can see the butter on leftover pizza crust thing. Garlic butter (a la Papa John's) sounds tastier. The crust is just a carb-delivery system for whatever you heap on top of it anyway. If someone wants to dip their crust in Ranch Dressing, they can get down with their bad selves.

Pizza sauce usually comes already seasoned...it's a short-cut in a jar/can. Tomato sauce is just that.

Another culinary sign of the Apocalypse 2011: Spam Lip Glaze

The short article: Anthony Bourdain's Celebrity Chef Smackdown! Tony Bourdain minces no words about his dislike of some of the stars of the Food Network. See the article for the complete quotes. Chef Bourdain has tweeted in response to the firestorm of criticism he's received over his comments “Maybe I’ll just shut up.” So was this unfair criticism? Is there any truth to his remarks? Or is this just a case of Tony being Tony?

So now it makes me wonder if the grounds acted like an abrasive cleaner or if there's something in the grounds (mild acid?) that made it such a good cleaner. Intriguing!

And don't forget to add the cost of homemade chocolate milkshakes to go with the homemade pizza. That's how we rolled in my house when I was a kid.

I believe there's also a Flaming Hot Cheetos with Limon (lime). But you're right...they still don't have much flavor to them...just heat. I tried these new Fiery Fusion Crunchy Cheetos over the weekend. Here's a bag that I purchased but just couldn't bring myself to finish. It was a bag full of meh-ness. They were soul-suckingly blah. In no way shape or form can I recommend them.

This. You may as well pour sand down your disposal. Coffee grounds should go in the trash, not down the pipes. Regarding the coffee cleaning the stainless steel, it sounds counter-intuitive. As much as coffee stains a coffee cup, for example, that it should clean stainless steel is interesting. Does Soft Scrub® know about this?

Tradition for one thing. My mom uses a mixture of Miracle Whip , prepared mustard and cider vinegar in her filling mixture. The trick is finding the right balance between a "skosh" of this and a "dab" of that. It's the same mixture she uses in her potato salad recipe. Your mileage mary vary.

Burger King has announced they're dethroning their King mascot. He'll no longer be seen in their advertising. A good thing? Or bad thing?

Well, if you do the math, they're quite expensive compared to the pint of Ben & Jerry's. The pint was on sale for $2.99 and the dinky cup was about $1.25. I've seen them on sale for something like 5 for $5.00, which is still pricey for the amount you get. Pricing a half-gallon (or whatever size it's been down-sized to these days) it's a far better deal per ounce for the larger size. That being said, being able to grab five dinky cups of five different flavors is a bonus in my book. Plus, as others have mentioned, the portion is just about right...satisfying without the guilt of demolishing an entire pint in one sitting.

There's a new size in ice cream cartons...the miniature. See the picture above. I consumed the contents of both containers (someone has to take one for the team ) and took this picture of the two containers side by side. On the left is a pint container from Ben & Jerry's (proudly announcing on the lid that it's still a pint-sized container where some other brands are not). On the right is the newest size of ice cream containers coming in at 3.6 fluid ounces. I lifted up the lid on the small container to show you that it comes with a tiny spoon inside (at least the Häagen-Dazs version does). I noticed most major brands were selling this new small size of ice cream (including Ben & Jerry's). I have to say that I think it offers just enough ice cream for a snack/dessert. It's a shade smaller than the size of a scoop of ice cream you'd get when buying a Thrifty's ice cream cone scooped fresh in the store. So what do you think? Has anyone else tried them? It could be a great way to sample a lot of different flavors since you're not investing in a half-gallon size (or whatever size it has been downgraded to these days). Plus, it could add a new twist to making desserts like a banana split with the different flavors of these mini-ice creams instead of the usual suspects (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry).

How about stacking plates vertically? I've seen some kitchen designs where they have vertical slotted spaces for the plates. I think it was a Martha-type thing. Not very efficient use of space, though. Of course, this means redesigning the kitchen you just finished redesigning. Or perhaps someone sells slotted racks that can fit in cupbards. Not sure... edited to add: Here's a link to a picture on a web page that shows the vertical slots: click

Ice cream first, then root beer. Doing it in this order helps to make that special "tween" elixir of the root beer and melted ice cream coming together into creamy root beer-y goodness.

That's it in a nutshell. Putting something warm in the refrigerator increases the overall temperature of the refrigerator. The longer food stays above 45°F, the more likely it is that "bad" bacteria will grow and thrive. Hopefully, as SSB will weigh in on this...

It's there. Under "Natural Flavor". They don't have to call it MSG.

Thanks. I think posting a pic of the (usually) new flavor might help others to spot the bags of chips in their local stores.

Lawry's The Prime Rib has a few locations, including the one in Las Vegas (it's an art deco treasure and the food is very good). I can taste the celery salt in the Seasoned Salt, which is one of the reasons why I like it. And it must have some sort of MSG in it because it's always so umami-yummy.

If you like hot & spicy, these chips have a good slow-building burn. Taste-wise, they were meh, blah, etc. I keep wondering why they don't start with something proven to taste good (like their Nacho cheese flavor) and then just make it hot & spicy, too.