Toliver

Has anyone tried the new Opal apples? Their exterior skin is a very bright yellow, almost luminescent (like the jewel they are named after). I despise Golden Delicious apples because they're usually soft and/or mealy. These Opals are not. They are crisp and sweet and here's the very weird thing...they don't oxidize. That's where my photo doesn't do them justice. What looks like browning on the apple isn't. This apple has been cut and sitting out at room temperature for 15 minutes. Most apples would have turned brown in that time. Not the Opal. Funny, but on Rachael Ray's syndicated show last week, she used some Opals in whatever dish she was cooking and said hers had been cut an hour before and they were still picture perfect sitting in her mise en place bowl. Would love to hear if anyone else has tried them...

"Lay’s Is Releasing Chili-Flavored Chips That Taste Like A Bowl Of The Real Thing" It's a limited edition flavor, of course. Get it while you can.

Southern cooking found this afternoon... From world-renowned opera singer Alexander Smalls "Meals, Music, and Muses: Recipes from My African American Kitchen" Kindle Edition $2.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and scroll down to see some recipes. I am a US Prime member and the price you see may vary.

He lives in another city so if I tell him to put it in his freezer, I can pick it up sometimes later when the Pandemic is over. I think you're right...the cheese is way above his paygrade, so to speak.

Pecorino Romano My brother bought some shredded Pecorino Romano and has no idea what to use it in/with. He said the cheese is "assertive" (he actually used the words "Stinky Cheese" ). Now he needs help in what kind of dishes or recipes to use it on or in. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Some finds from this afternoon: James Beard Award-winning Food & Dining editor of The Washington Post, Joe Yonan asked 100 American chefs, writers, etc., "What do you love to cook for the people that you love?" and compiled the answers in "America: The Great Cookbook" Kindle Edition $1.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and scroll down to see recipes. Recipes are Metric and Imperial. From the Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen "The Dutch Oven Cookbook" Kindle Edition $2.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) There's a recipe for "Shrimp & Grits" on this cookbook's Amazon info page. Use the "Look Inside" feature and then click on "Print Book" up at the top then scroll down to see some recipes. There are more cookbooks on sale from the William Sonoma Test Kitchen. Click on their name under the cookbook's title on the Amazon page for this cookbook to be taken to a page showing the rest of their cookbooks. Slightly more expensive... The cookbook tie-in to PBS's Emmy Award-winning series A Taste of History, "A Taste of History Cookbook: The Flavors, Places, and People That Shaped American Cuisine" Kindle Edition $3.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and scroll down to see the first chapter's recipe listings. Scroll further down to see some recipes. I am a US Prime member and the price you see may vary.

December is a month of gift-giving holidays but you wouldn't know that by Amazon's cookbook offerings..just a lot of cookbooks that have been offered in the past. You'd think they would pack it full of new sale titles, but alas, no... Here are some cookbooks that haven't been posted before: Diana Henry's "From the Oven to the Table: Simple dishes that look after themselves" Kindle Edition $1.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and scroll down to see a few recipes. Named by Garden & Gun as one of the best books of 2018,"For the Love of the South: Recipes and Stories from My Southern Kitchen" Kindle Edition $1.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature to see the list of recipes. "The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors, and History" Kindle Edition $2.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and scroll down to see recipes. "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods" Kindle Edition $1.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and scroll down to see recipes. Slightly more expensive... From the writer of the Repertoire column for the San Francisco Chronicle, Jessica Battilana's "Repertoire: All the Recipes You Need" Kindle Edition $3.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature to see the list of recipes. The "Look Inside" feature kind of ends so I am not sure what the recipes might look like. I am a US Prime member and the price you see may vary.

Found a couple more this afternoon: Definitely not the normal bargain-price...a little higher. But it was just over $20 last week so this price is better. Daniel Boulud's "Daniel: My French Cuisine" Kindle Edition $5.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and scroll down to see some recipes. Each recipe involves multiple recipes for elements in the final dish. Seems complicated. I guess even if you didn't want to make an entire recipe, you could always just make the recipe of an element used in the main recipe. "The French Cook: Soups & Stews" Kindle Edition $1.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and to the list of recipes. I am a US Prime member and the price you see may vary.

My Thanksgiving dinner (purchased from a local restaurant) was mediocre at best. But there's always next year when we've had the vaccines and can gather with the usual family and friends. One great thing I did was to buy a Patti La Belle Sweet Potato Pie from Walmart (they sell them year round). They cost about $4.00US. It tastes exactly like a regular pumpkin pie (same texture...which can't be said about all sweet potato pies) except...that they've doubled the spices. It's like a pumpkin pie on steroids. It's a mouthful of O.M.G. I told my brother his wife can't eat it because she takes a sip of coffee and gets heartburn. This pie would cause her to keel over.

I noticed that the Walmart Neighborhood Grocery Store I shop at seems to have given up on charcuterie, for the rest of the Pandemic and beyond. The section they had with the finer meats and cheeses has completely disappeared to be replaced with the usual string cheeses and shredded cheeses. Perhaps the clientele just didn't "get it" or buy it, I guess (which makes me wonder why I shop there ).

Or pork fat. I'm just saying....

A very familiar name this afternoon: Shirley O. Corriher's "BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes" Kindle Edition $2.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature to see the list of recipes and scroll down to see some recipes. Uses Metric and Imperial measurements. I am a US Prime member and the price you see may vary.

My mom's cookie press that she used to make her Spritz cookies and Jams had a crank at the top (imagine the old car door handles you used to roll the window up or down). So it was the same cranking action as the Mirro, just a different brand cookie press. I would recommend not using a piping bag. Go with what you know.

I was going to suggest duct tape to keep the lid on as you press the cookies out. I did a Google search for your cookie press and got lots of hits from eBay. Getting another one might be your best solution (if the duct tape doesn't work ).

I just remembered this... When I shopped at the local Walmart Neighborhood Grocery store this past weekend, they had lots and lots of yeast. They even had these large 16oz vacuumed-pack blocks of instant yeast on an aisle end cap. In the sugar/flour aisle, they had a lot of single packages of yeast, the regular kind and the instant kind. The hoarders haven't bought all of the yeast...yet!

As you already know, mold on a hard cheese can be cut/sliced off and the rest of the cheese should be okay to consume. However, mold on a soft cheese means the cheese can't be saved and it all needs to be thrown out. Sad but safe!

Another interesting CBS Sunday Morning report...someone on the staff at CBS is definitely a "foodie". Kind of ends on a sad note regarding all of the famous restaurants that closed this year due to COVID. Will this Chinese restaurant also become a victim of COVID? For those who can't view the video, here is the URL/link: https://youtu.be/Hwf-7We_kls

Two well known names stumbled upon this afternoon: Nigella Lawson's "How to Eat" Kindle Edition $1.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature and scroll down to see some recipes. Surprisingly, the recipes use Imperial measurements. Rose Levy Beranbaum's "Rose's Heavenly Cakes" Kindle Edition $2.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature to see the list of recipes then scroll down to see some recipes. I am a US Prime member and the price you see may vary.

I live in California. What is this thing you call "snow"?

Not kidding on the "tasty" mold When my mom was a kid, one of her jobs in the kitchen (helping her older sister who raised her) was to mix the yellow food coloring into the margarine. She was a margarine maven from then on. I eventually introduced butter into her original recipe Chex Mix and her Christmas cookies. My siblings were floored by the flavor difference between margarine and butter. Today, I have both butter and margarine in my kitchen and it depends on what I am cooking or eating as to which one I use.

Sunny Anderson of the Food Network was a guest (via Zoom) on today's Rachael Ray show and she suggested if you are looking for a place to keep side dishes warm on Thanksgiving, use your BBQ. Turn the BBQ heat on only on one side and put cookie sheets on the not-heated side to hold your side dishes. Some BBQ's let you set a temp. I think she suggested 250°F.

Yep. During college I worked at a Hickory Farms store in a nearby mall. I learned quite bit about white & orange cheeses working there. Still don't understand how people can eat blue cheese (IT'S MOLD, PEOPLE! ).

Yep. Orange cheese on tacos, on enchiladas, on pizza (when Mom didn't have any mozzarella), on burgers, etc. The only white cheese my Mom knew about was either Monterey Jack or the afore-mentioned mozzarella. You can't miss what you don't know you're missing.

According to the CBS Sunday Morning story that they did on Steve, there are 11,000 people who are members of the Rancho Gordo Bean Club. And there are 11,000 people on the waiting list to join the Rancho Gordo Bean Club. Consider yourselves lucky if you are a member!

Apps or "appys". "Apps" is short for "applications" and you will find those on your smart phone. Appetizers are what you eat/serve before dinner. and another: "Sammies" instead of sandwiches. Are we children who can't say big words anymore? Please. Just, no.