Toliver

The mention of American cheese reminded me of the boxes and boxes of Velveeta we ate as kids. "Cheese" comes in boxes?

The times they are a-changing at Burger King. This isn't your father's Burger King... The company was recently purchased by a private equity firm. They've introduced brunches at some locations: "Burger King Banks on Brunch"...Faux mimosas, anyone? They've introduced Whopper Bars at some locations: "Burger King (BKC) Continues Premium Push With Whopper Bars" (silly me...I thought they were introducing a new Whopper ice cream treat ) The Whopper Bars sound a little like a Fuddruckers. They're revamping their breakfast menu: "Burger King adds 9 breakfast items" BK Joe is getting an overhaul, too. I believe they're going to start selling Starbucks coffee this month. Will these changes help gain your business? edited for clarification

Can you explain more about this? I would think if I have multiple objects in my refrigerator they would act as "cold sinks" (the opposite of "heat sinks" in a BBQ). They would help stabilize the cold temp inside the fridge and this would mean the refrigerator wouldn't have to work so hard to maintain a certain temp inside. So the more objects I have inside my refrigerator (while still allowing proper air circulation), the easier it would be to maintain the constant cold temp. edited to add: If I have a near empty refrigerator, I would put large bottles/jugs of water inside (to act as "cold sinks") thinking this would improve the efficiency of keeping the inside cold.

If they post prices on their web site then when prices change, they have to go through the expense of changing the web site graphics/prices as well as their in-house menus. It's doesn't necessarily reflect poshne$$ but, perhaps, cheapskate-ness...to make up a word.

Uh, yep. It's quite the success, too. It doesn't mean you have to buy it. Here's a post I made linking to an article on the money the pancake batter-in-a-can is making (click here).

Perhaps then it should be a discussion not of the authentic but of the traditional. Authenticity is more difficult to come by. It can veer off into terrior territory which makes "authenticity" more difficult to attain.

Last night the weather was cool enough I could finally cook something in the oven. So it was a hickory smoked spiral sliced ham from Costco with that clove-cinammon glaze added at the end. Heaven! I can still smell the spice the next morning. Thanks to the eGullet Dinner! discussion, I discovered I really enjoy the aroma of roasting carrots with cumin in the oven. Funny how the aroma smells so much stronger than the actual taste of the cumin-roasted carrots.

Here's a previous eGullet discussion about them: Replacement Beaters for Stand Mixers Merged topics - Beater Blade, etc.

I completely agree. It's very "Costco-like" of them. Both store franchises will get something in and then when it's gone, it's gone for good. I still mourn the loss of Tamari Cashews at Trader Joe's.

It's not really a ready-to-eat item so I thought I would post this in the Cooking-Ingredient forum. Uncle Ben's brand rice has introduced a new whole grain white rice. I'm a little confused as to how it has ended up as white rice. The ingredient list begins with: I assumed any whole grain rice would be a brown rice. So is this a bleached brown rice then? Or am I just misunderstanding the concept of whole grain rice? I am curious as to the flavor. I'm not a fan of brown rice (it tastes a little too much like oatmeal to me) but I do like white rice. And if this product tastes like white rice but has fiber then it sounds like a better product than just regular white rice. And has anyone tried it?

I doubt it would be a meringue only because they're usually hard and I don't think that would go very well on a cupcake. It does look like it could be a decadent and well-piped butter cream.

Growing up, we always got the knock-offs/store brands...my mother's attempt to save a few pennies. I like my Oreos with my morning coffee (with milk and sugar). A mocha chocolate treat.

I finally got around to trying the Meyer Lemon Cookie Thins and found I prefer the Triple Ginger flavor. With the Meyer Lemon cookies, at first bite they reminded me of a sugar cookie with lemon peel. It was only after a couple of cookies that the flavor was more "there". I figured (and confirmed it by reading the ingredient list) that they were using some sort of oil for the flavoring which is why it took a couple of cookies for the flavor became more pronounced. Whereas with the Triple Ginger, the flavor was there right from the start. I thought this ingredient listed on the Meyer Lemon Cookie Thins label was odd: "natural lemon oil - Meyer type" If you use lemons that aren't Meyer Lemons but are Meyer-type lemons, can you still call it "Meyer Lemon" flavor? It's a good cookie. It's quite lemony but I think the Triple Ginger are better overall.

I performed a search and couldn't find another discussion about Wendy's. In the most recent Zagat survey, Wendy's fared quite well. In the "Top Rated Among Mega Chains (more than 5,000 U.S. locations)", they were voted: #1 "Top Food" category #2 "Top Facilities" category #2 "Top Service" category #2 "Best Salads" category #2 "Best Value Menu" category #3 "Top Burger" catagory #4 "Best French Fries" category They recently revamped their salads and so far, having tried the BLT Cobb and the Spicy Chicken Caesar, I am impressed. Of course, I don't like paying more for them (as compared to their previous salads and their respective prices), but what can you do? If you choose their fat free dressing you can just about cut half the fat calories from the salad. I think their fries deserve the 4th place ranking. I have yet to get a crisp french fry from them. They're thicker ("meatier", if you will) than most other fast food fries so they have more of a potato presence than other fast food fries. So does Wendy's deserve it's Zagat rankings? What do you like about them? What don't you like?

A name, not for me, but for my oldest brother who is known within our family as the "Mother Hubbard Gourmet". He has the uncanny knack of being able to open a cupboard, pantry or refrigerator and whip up a gourmet meal using whatever he finds in there. He also invented potato skins and BBQ chicken pizza years before they showed up in any restaurant. He needs to work on his marketing.

I think calling many of the current hosts of cooking shows "chef" is being generous. I'm completely over the "Next Food Network Star" concept. Don't give me just another "Joe". Give me someone who's been in the trenches and will teach me something.

It was either Sara Moulton or St. Julia who recommended buying asparagus with tight tops (which would mean stay away from curled tops). If you're supposed to stay away from thin spears what about "pencil aparagus" which is intentionally thin? Cantaloupes have been a dilemma these past couple of years. My mom swears that 30 years ago you used to be able to pick one up and shake it so you could hear the inside seed "goop" sloshing around. Sloshing was good because it meant full innards which meant ripeness. Now cantaloupes are bred so the innards are dry and no longer goopy. Today she just presses on the stem end to find whether it's soft there (soft means ripe to her). I know the skin (under the netting pattern) should look tannish, not green. Plus it should also have a nice smell to it. No smell, not ripe. She couldn't select a ripe watermelon if her life depended on it. I think she said it's been at least five years since she found a good one. So how do you tell if a watermelon is ripe?

I have a friend who cooks up a pound of bacon and then, once it cools to room temperature, she puts it in a plastic (ziploc-ish) bag and freezes it. Then whenever she needs some bacon for a sandwich or whatever, just takes out what she needs and puts it in the microwave to heat it up (mere seconds). I mentioned this to my mom and she does it now, too. I think there is a textural difference but I don't know if that can be blamed on the entire process or the microwave reheat. It's definitely not crisp. But in a sandwich or cut up in a dish that's going to be cooked anyway (baked beans, etc), that doesn't matter.

My father, who passed away a couple decades ago, grew tomato plants that always grew as tall as the eaves on our single story home. They were huge. To this day, none of us knew how he did it. I have an older brother who seems to have inherited my father's green thumb but his tomato plants don't reach the heights that my father's plants did. Pass that info along!

Word. I buy the huge industrial sized box of aluminum foil at Costco. It's a bit pricey right off the bat but it seems to last forever. As an aside, I stumbled across a double-sized box of Glad Press and Seal in the grocery store and just about wept for joy. I use that stuff just about everyday. You should PM andiesenji. I recall she previously posted in another discussion that she has purchased a box of pre-cut parchment sheets (bought online I believe). That would be one way to get past curling parchment.

The combination of bread crumbs and milk is called a panade (I learned that from Cooks Illustrated). When the two are combined and then added to a ground meat mixture, it will soften the final cooked product. My mom always added milk-soaked shredded bread to her meatloaf. I always thought the bread was a filler to make the meat loaf feed more people but there's an actual chain reaction that goes on with the milk and bread starch that causes the end product to be less dense.

I'm don't recall that being the case in San Diego. The multiplex I worked at during college was in a strip mall next door to a greek fast food joint. The inspector who inspected us had pre-designated restaurants on their list to visit so their inspection route didn't usually include the place next door. It wasn't efficient but they always had the element of surprise on their side.

I was going to mention San Diego's grading system. I used to work at a movie theater in San Diego while I was a college student and we had to pass health dept. inspections. If there were problems/violations, we always passed the re-test. When dining out with friends, there were a couple of times we did pass on some restaurants after seeing a "C" posted in their front windows. So the grade system worked for us as consumers. The caveat is, of course, that the grade is a one-day reflection of the cleanliness of a restaurant on the day of the test (as are all health department inspections). It could have been a good day for them, or a bad one. As a restuarant patron, you just have to hope the grade reflects their overall cleanliness.

If convenience is a factor, then cooking them before freezing would make more sense. Then all you would have to do is thaw them and they're ready to heat and eat.

Thanks for the idea! Ah, yes, that is the other flavor I couldn't recall. Thanks.