Toliver

Tacos are still on the JITB menu here in central California. Two for 99 cents. They had Frings return to the menu here a couple years ago but they're gone again. I liked them because JITB fries really aren't the best and sometimes you like a little bit of something different. It's not like their onion rings are anything to write home about either. But it's nice to be able to switch things up once in awhile.

The last time I was in the grocery store I was surprised to see that Ritz Crackers now come in Cinnamon and Sugar flavor. Then I started looking at the other flavors they offered and realized there has been a quiet revolution in snack crackers going on. Ritz Crackers have six varieties listed on their web site (odd how they don't list the Cinnamon & Sugar flavor). Plus they have some new crackers called "Crackerfuls" that come in four different flavors including Cheddar & Bacon. Then I looked at the Triscuits and saw they had even more flavors (15 listed on the web site). Wheat Thins has about 15 different flavors/kinds shown on their web site (click on "Our Varieties"). Cheez-Its now have about 10 flavors (the Duoz sound good...two flavors in one box). And then there's the Keebler line of crackers. To paraphrase the Oldsmobile commercial tagline,"These aren't my father's snack crackers." Has anyone tried any of the new flavors of snack crackers? Any winners? Any losers?

What's the rationale behind not "overbeating" the eggs? It feels like lore grounded more in gluten than in protein, but perhaps I'm missing something. Honestly, I don't know. I'm sure she gave a reason somewhere, but I basically just took her word for it. St. Jacques is, reportedly, the same way. There's an anecdote about him berating a sous chef once for beating the eggs to death. And if you're anal retentive, America's Test Kitchen has determined beating the eggs with 80 strokes of a fork/whisk is just right. I think it's odd to add water to the eggs when milk/cream seems more, well, natural. I think there's something about the proteins in the milk and the eggs that make the scrambled eggs softer to the palate.

Success! Well, about 90%-95% success. I had a lot of leftover roasted cauliflower to experiment with but I think I may have stumbled across a winning method the first time out. When you think about it, oven roasted cauliflower is really oven-frying. You can roast the cauliflower without the oil but I don't think you'd get the lovely browned bits without it (it'll turn golden in color but it won't have the browned bits). So I got out my trusty Calphalon non-stick 12" skillet. The goals were to 1) thoroughly reheat the cauliflower and 2) try to revive it back to its initial glory/flavor like when it was roasted for the first time. The leftovers always seem to have a little bit of oil at the bottom of the storage dish so I didn't add any oil to the skillet. I stirred up the leftovers in the storage bowl and then I filled most of the skillet with the leftover cauliflower. If you fill the skillet too much, you'll end up steaming it, not frying it. I set the stove burner to somewhere from med-high to high. I reasoned that the high heat would help recrisp the cauliflower. While the end result wasn't exactly like the original roasting, it was pretty darn close. If you don't have enough oil coating the pieces for the reheat, you could always add some to the skillet before putting the leftover cauliflower in it. Another tip for the reheat is to make sure you don't have large florets. Slice them in half if you have to. This will help them heat through better. The reheat kind of reminded me of wok cooking, where it's over a high heat and you stir the food alot. I was afraid of just leaving it sit on the high heat so I kept flipping the pieces over with a large spatula. Next time, I think I'll let them sit a little bit before flipping. I would hope someone else will try this and see if you get similar results.

You're right...once reheated it's nothing like the original but it's good enough for lil o' me. Once it's roasted it seems to shrink down a bit so you can use that as an excuse to eat more the first time. Have anyone tried reheating it in a skillet or on a griddle? Nuking it just seems to soften it. I'll have to experiment tonight. I was pondering why roasted cauliflower is so good. There's the browning, of course. Since I first started making it, I've always used olive oil and I've decided that's part of it for me. The olive oil does add a little extra level of flavor to the roasted cauliflower (I also use fresh ground pepper and garlic salt/powder).

This past weekend I was wandering through the produce section of my local grocery store and saw the largest head of cauliflower I'd ever encountered in my life. It was as big as a bowling ball if not bigger. Huge! And the price was good...a buck and a half per head. By the time I was done cutting it up I had enough cauliflower for three full sheet pans. I roasted up two pans worth last night and will be eating it for days and I don't care. I put the rest in the refrigerator and will roast it up when the current batch is gone. Life is good.

Twix Java This is the wrapper from a Twix Java candy bar I consumed and then scanned. This was a limited edition candy that, I guess, is now part of the Twix family of products. It's actually pretty good. The coffee flavoring is in the caramel. It's a mild coffee flavor so coffee lovers may be disappointed in it. Because the flavoring is in the caramel, it lingers longer on the tastebuds and so becomes more noticeable as an aftertaste. The chocolate cookie is good, too, and is different than the usual shortbread-type cookie in the regular Twix. Two thumbs up from me.

One little thing that bugs me is often I'll stumble across a restaurant web site but I will have no idea where the restaurant is located...meaning what state the restaurant is located in. Even the maps they provide will show just a microcosm of a city map with not enough detail to let you know what city it is. Or they'll list their phone number but no area code.

You could try writing to Ramona/the show and see if you get a reply. I subscribe to Entertainment Weekly and they often have a short column featuring letters from viewers asking where so-and-so got the blouse (necklace, whatever) they were wearing on their repsective show. EW usually provides a vendor, phone number or a web site where the item can be found. I didn't have much like finding a link on the EW web site for that column. You may have better luck.

The microwave has a clock and there's an OXO timer/clock on the stove hood that I keep forgetting is there. But I also have a clock in the shape of a coffee pot that looks just like this (except facing the other way) that I got at Target. I thought it looked "kitchen-y".

specifically, I'm assuming, stuff that's prepared ahead of service and put in its place ready for service.So I'm wondering; when I cut stuff up that's ready to be cooked, is that really mise en place? And do you refer to it as such? You've (sort of) answered your own question. A true mise en place would include not just ingredients that need to be prepped and cut up but also other ingredients like soy sauce, pepper, butter, etc. You could pre-measure those latter ingredients and have them in their own little bowls like you would if you were on the PBS show "America's Test Kitchen" where everything is pre-measured. Mise en place is a key to successful chinese wok cooking since everything is cooked so quickly there's no time to cut and chop and measure. Ideally, it all should be done in advance.

There's supposed to be an unwritten rule that you never use cheese with/on fish. Who says? I've had a number of seafood gratins in my day that say otherwise. When we were kids, my mom would get us to eat regular fish (as opposed to fish sticks or deep fried breaded shrimp) by baking the fish filets (usually turbot, later on red snapper) and then topping the filets with salsa and shredded cheese and then quickly broiling them to melt the cheese. Think of it as fish nachos. We ate it up. So what's with the rule of no cheese with fish?

My mom has also used them in her potato salad along with diced celery. At Thanksgiving, she uses the leaves (along with diced onion and celery) when simmering the broth to be used for her stuffing and her giblets & rice dish (she will simmer the turkey neck in the broth, too, and then pick the meat off for the rice dish). I suppose you could use them anytime you use broth in a recipe. Heat up the broth with the leaves before using it.

A friend was redoing her kitchen and bought a microwave that has a lot of width & depth. She can place a 13x9 Pyrex dish on the turntable without worrying that it will hit any of the interior sides as it rotates. I can't recall the brand name, though. My microwave is 1000 watts and works great. Another friend bought a 600 watt microwave and she was shocked and upset to find out that it couldn't pop a bag of microwave popcorn.

I like buying the larger bags of whole coffee beans at Costco. I've gotten to the point where I won't buy a 1-lb. bag anymore because the 2-lb. bags at Costco cost as much as a 1-lb. bag anywhere else.

Because of breaking news, the show was bumped in my time zone (and will be repeated later on an NBC cable channel) so I didn't get to see the finale. Do all indian regions/cuisines have curry? He said his was southern indian food and perhaps they don't serve curry. Just guessin' as to why he didn't have any... And again, I don't blame him for being confused thanks to the conflicting and inconsistant advice from the judges from week to week. Someone asked where the curry was and yet they kept harping on how it had to be hand-held food that could be eaten on the go. How does one eat curry on the go? Oh, that's right...make it like a taco and eveything will be fine. No fried chicken at SoulDaddy's? WTF? No thanks. I'll go to Roscoe's instead.

If I recall correctly, they did. The public (when used) would vote using stars and then the judges offered their stars and everything was totaled for the contestants.

As an aside, we did have great martini's at the RC but I was surprised by the plastic pirate sword spearing my olives in the glass. Regarding high end steakhouses (even though my high end isn't as high as the ends of others in this discussion ), I did have a very good meal at the Lawry's Prime Rib off the strip in Las Vegas. Like RC's, et al, it was a la carte but whatta cart! I speak of the art deco metallic serving cart, of course. The entire restaurant is art deco and the serving cart looks like a silver art deco dirigible. Your meat is carved table side from the cart and the sides are served up from there, as well. The prime rib is wonderfully seasoned and is fork tender. They even do a salad making schtick/routine tableside. I just felt bad for the waitresses who had to wear the dowdiest looking uniforms. I would return for another (relatively expensive) meal there before going back to RC.

I am. I have a Mr. Coffee 3-quart Iced Tea maker and use it frequently. I use Celestial Seasonings Decaf Green Tea and will either add a bag or two of their Mandarin Orange Herbal or a decaf Orange Pekoe for strength. I feel ya! After switching to decaf (see above), no more caffeine-induced panic attacks for me. My mom always made sun tea during the summer. The problem with it is sometimes it gets an odd "fermented" taste to it. Does anyone know why and how to prevent it? Of course, using the Mr. Coffee Iced Tea maker solved the off-taste issue but then it's not sun tea anymore. Heidi...I'm sooo jealous of your fruit trees and am thoroughly enjoying your blog! I'm hoping the price of cucumbers come down now that your pics have me jonesin' for a pickled batch.

I was put on "hold" in a Wendy's drive-thru. I stopped at their drive-thru last week to get a salad and was frustrated at how long it took. When I drove up to the speaker to place my order, the first thing I heard was someone saying "I'll be right with you." What? I looked down at my dashboard clock and when someone finally came back on the speaker to take my order, 4 minutes had passed. Is it just this Wendy's or all Wendy's that are so slow?

To cut down (no pun intended) on their unweildiness, slice one side of the carrot so it's flat. It'll be easier to handle and slice once it's stable.

I was surprised to discover that Montreal Steak seasoning (I think it's a McCormick brand) is quite good as a pork rub.

Your yardstick and my yardstick for what is or isn't expensive seem to be quite different. RC is quite expensive in my world of finances. The first time I ever ate at an RC (as someone else's guest), I was floored to see everything was a la carte, something I had never encountered before in a restaurant. It was certainly an education for me ("I'll take a glass of water with the chicken, please" ). The next tier down from an RC (financially speaking for me, at least) would be an Outback, Claim Jumper or Stuart Anderson's/Black Angus. The bottom tier below them all would be a Sizzler or Bonanza, of course. And that there's some steak place yet even more expensive than RC's is astounding to me and my wallet.

I don't think she did either. At one point she confused veal and lamb. She didn't know if her beef was antibiotic free. And she's serving healthy food? Really? The indian food is a long shot at this point.

I would also ask what kind of cookware you're using on your electric stove. If you're using cast iron or something like Calphalon, you shouldn't have to worry about the cycling of the electric burner. Such a pan would provide a pretty stable and consistent heat to the food you're cooking. Just a thought...