Toliver

I think the La Torta in La Mesa is still open. The salsa bar at Mama Testa's rocks. They make their salsas daily and from scratch. The Escalera is my favorite; it would have been the bright, orangish looking, smooth salsa. The bistec tacos are how tacos are served in Mexico. They aren't, however, the best thing Mama Testa does. The Mojados de Carne are one of the best things on the menu and are very good. Your brother chose well. Some of the other things on the menu that are outstanding are the - Empapados (hard shell mashed potatoe tacos, the Asi Yasado (grilled chicken tacos), Tacos de Cochinita Pibil and the tacos with chorizo. Both the pibil and the chorizo are made in house and are not commercially purchased items. There are also some interesting vegetarian options using rajas and nopales. Cesar Gonzalez the owner of MT beat Bobby Flay on Throwdown earlier this year with fish tacos. I'm not a fan of fish tacos in general, but I do know people who like the fish tacos at MT really well. We had played with the idea of getting a round of the steamed tacos (where you can get one of each kind) but thought it would be too much food. Yes, the Escalera salsa rocked. It was an odd color (I'm used to either green or red salsa). My horizons have been broadened!

A longtime friend of mine traveled to Egypt for her 25th wedding anniversary. She made the mistake of visiting a spice market and saying "Give me some of this, this and that" and nearly fainted when she got the bill. It turns out that "some of this" was saffron and she ended up getting a lot of it not knowing what it was. She gifted me a small fortune of it so now I have to figure out how best to use it.

Steven, I agree with your assessment of the hamburgers. One of our Las Vegas highlights was always stopping for a Fatburger on the Strip. They serve quite a good hamburger. That Fatburger offers onion rings and chili fries (even though they're not the best out there) was always a plus for me. The anemic french fries served at In-N-Out are a huge detraction for me. I've never tried them "well done" (one of their secret sodes) which might make them taste better. edited to add: That can't be PJ. He was just a baby! It's funny how kids get older but we don't.

Would you mind explaining the above sentences a bit? How could 4 small packets be used with multi-dozens of cookies? And how could two packets be enough? Two packets used how and where? Thanks. The gel packets were each about the size of a deck of cards (perhaps a shade smaller). I think the sugar cokies were far too crisp this year thanks to the gel packs. So I assume using less of the gel packs will lessen their crispness. I could be wrong but it's worth an experiment next year. The storage container my mom used held about 10 dozen (flat) cookies.

Some sad news...The San Diego La Torta chain seems to have closed. My brother said he drove past the College area location just before Christmas and couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that location was closed. I asked him if perhaps they were just closed for time off during the holiday season but he said they looked permanently closed. He was visiting friends in the Pacific Beach area and drove past the Cass Street location and saw that it was closed, as well. Has anyone heard anything about the chain closing? I recently had lunch with two of my brothers at Mama Testa (web page) on University and enjoyed the food. They have a wonderful little salsa bar with varying degrees of spiciness, as well. One of my brothers thought the portions were a little skimpy. He had ordered the Bistec soft tacos which was beef steak on three small open faced tortillas . My other brother thought the opposite. He ordered the Mojados de Carne and enjoyed it immensely. The serving was quite large and had chopped pieces of 4 rolled beef tacos floating in it. I ordered the Del Muñeco which was two crunchy beef tacos and thought they were great. They used queso fresco to top the tacos and everything was indeed fresh and crunchy. One slight drawback was that the bright vivid interior smelled slightly of new paint but it wasn't overwhelming. I also had lunch at Amerin Thai Food (www.amarinthaisandiego.com - can't get the link to work) just down the block from Mama Testa's. The place was packed and the lunch specials were satisfying. I only wish I had tried something spicy! Has anyone else been to either Mama Testa or Amerin Thai?

I wanted to report back on the complete success we had using the food-safe silica gel packs with our Christmas cookies. It worked almost too well. The sugar cookies, which were topped with a buttercream frosting and various gel-like decorating pens, ended up being the crispiest sugar cookies we'd ever made. We have a family friend who has always enjoyed our leftover Christmas cookies and he was dispapointed to find that the cookies weren't soft and stale, if you can believe that. Even the Jamborees (a butter cookie topped with apricot jam and sprinkled with chopped walnuts) started to crisp up around the edges and they were a soft cookie to begin with. Next year we may use less packets. I ordered 4 small packets this year and like I said, it worked almost too well. So we may try just 2 packets next year to see if we can't find a more suitable balance. Thank you all for the suggestion!

Psst. This is incorrect. Check the link:"Do microwaves cook food from the inside out?"

Welcome to my world. Growing up, my mom would make Jell-O at every opportunity. It was the thing to bring to potlucks, too. To this day, I'd rather not meet it face-to-face. I am Jell-O'd out (thanks, Ma! ). As for the food scientists (more likely to be former home economic teachers)...it was their job to come up with ways to use the Jell-O creatively. That they came up with a book of recipes is a shining tribute to their ingenuity. For more Jell-O creations, see this eGullet discussion: "Showstopper Jello Desserts"

Lisa, I was logging back on to make the same suggestion. I'd try a library or bookstore, if available, to check out the index to see if the recipe is even in the cookbook. I was surprised Amazon didn't provide a "Look Inside!" link for the cookbook which usually includes the index.

I thought you could use the Internet Wayback Machine but I didn't have much luck accessing the recipes from that time period. Trying to follow archived old links, even on my fast internet connection, tested my patience. Perhaps someone else will have better luck. I did find that the original hosts were listed as Lynne Koplitz and Frederic Van Coppernolle (March 2003).

Sounds like Grandma is going to pull a Todd Wilbur and try to figure out your recipe.

Sorry to get back so late with the name of the company. The brand is Harry's. I am always thrilled to see their broad selection of different cheeses from different countries. They must have a buyer who gives a darn about the food they put out for them to offer so many varieties.

On the spur of the moment I purchased the double pack of pre-made turkey gravy (comes in plastic containers) found in the refrigerated cases (I can't recall the brand name...will post it tomorrow). It was terrible. Bad. Anemic. It had no oomph to it at all. I had to do some major doctoring to it to make it taste halfway decent. I won't be buying that mistake again.

The article: Pumpkin shortage could mean empty shelves after Thanksgiving Have you noticed short supplies of canned pumpkin/pumpkin pie filling on grocery shelves in your area?

DAY-UM. Those are good cookies. Day-um. Welcome to the fan club!

Make the applesauce. Add red & blue food coloring to make it purple. Done.

Not to go too far off topic, but diet sodas may not be that good for you, if you believe this article: "Diet Sodas May Be Hard on the Kidneys" A supposed 30% decline in kidney function is alarming, if true. I would hope the next test would be to see if the decline in kidney function can be attributed to all sodas or just diet sodas which could determine it's not the artificial sweetner causing the kidney function decline but can be attributed to some other ingredient in the sodas. Getting back on topic, I wonder if other fast food chain franchises (McD's, Wendy's, etc) are facing the same financial dilemma with their $1 double cheeseburgers.

Burger King is being sued by its franchise owners for forcing them to sell the double cheeseburger for $1. The franchises are losing money on the burger: Burger King campaign leads to lawsuit

McDonald's has introduced a sweet tea. I found it to be pretty good. It had a nice brewed undertone to it and was, of course, very sweet. It made me wonder if the brewed flavor was real or if it was artificially added. I'd also recommend they don't go too heavy on the ice when ordering. By the time I finished the tea, it seemed like I still had a full cup of ice. I just did a web search on their sweet tea and discovered that some McDonald's will charge you extra if you request anything less than a full cup of ice with your sweet tea: McDonald's Charges More For Sweet Tea With Anything Less Than A "Full" Cup Of Ice Wazzup wit dat? I imagine they're going to be doing some quick backpedeling on that issue given the bad PR they could get for doing that. I have a feeling it's a franchise issue and not a corporate issue.

Time to bump this thread back up for the safety precautions.

I've posted about this before but my mom makes her chicken fried steak using corn flake crumbs as the coating (and actual round steak as the meat...no minute steak for us!). The corn flake coating has just the slightest sweet note. As for finding them, it really depends on the grocery store. The low end "discount" grocery stores aren't likely to carry them as lack of brand variety seems to be their forté. You're more likely to find them in a higher end grocery store carrying lots of different brands in the flour/baking supplies aisle. Edited to add that technically this product isn't a true cereal in the spirit of the OP's original question. Corn Flake Crumbs are sold as crumbs/crushed corn flakes in a box. You wouldn't open the box and pour a bowl to eat them like you would other actual cereals.

Yes, it's that time of year...the McRib is back and now appearing (if you're lucky) at a Mickey D's near you. Get 'em while you can.

There's a Frito Lay plant on the outskirts of the town where I live. That may be the reason why we get all the different varieties of Doritos in the local stores. I'm not complaining.

Thank you for the reply.

This is a non-professional question but... Every Christmas my mom makes huge batches of different kinds of cookies and stores them all in a large Tupperware container on layers of wax paper. She likes to make up "goody" plates for friends and neighbors using the cookies but they tend to go stale within a week. I think a big part of the problem is that she stores some cookies that have icing and jellies on them along with the other cookies and I think these cookies are providing the moisture that is making them all go stale. The obvious answer is to store them separately but she's a creature of habit and that's not going to happen. If she put some of these silica gel packets inside the conatiner, would it help to keep the cookies crisp for a longer period of time? And how many packets would it take? TIA...