Toliver

Yes, they sound like "lace" cookies to me, too.

From that eBay auction: My mom used to have an "open" indoor grill. It had a heating element and grill and had a rotisserie attachment. Kind of like this one but deeper (so the fat that dripped down wouldn't smoke). I'd think an enclosed rotisserie would be more efficient.

When it comes to smokin' I don't think there's such as thing as overkill. Better to have too much than not enough. And if you do cook too much turkey, think of all the great leftovers you can make with it. Plus, it freezes well, too.

As much as I enjoy your salt cellar avatar, you realize you're going to have to change it to something knife-related now. [MARTHA]Self-promotion is a good thing[/MARTHA]

Perhaps this thread could get merged... What Coolio described and what the show looks like it's going to be based upon the promos I've seen seem to be two different things. It looks like just a ripoff of the Iron Chef series, et al, except with "celebrities" helping the chef (let's keep the quote marks for now). Interesting to note that the show debuts in less than two weeks and the web page on NBC's site promoting the show isn't even finished yet. edited to change punctuation!

"Celebs don aprons for NBC cookout" A train wreck waiting to happen if ever I've seen one. I think the shark has been jumped on this concept...jumped, filleted and cut into sushi.

My mom was talking about planting herbs this year and I wanted to warn her about some of the herbs that spread like wildfire if planted in the ground. Are thyme and mint the only culprits, or are there more?

If the show Fear Factor is any indication, the answer appears literally to be 'nothing.' ← It may be just a rumor, but I'd heard that the things the contestants eat on that show have to be actual food consumed by people, cultures, tribes, etc. Somewhere someone in the world eats it as part of their diet. So they just don't make it up, supposedly. To go back on topic, I'd recently posted about a fascinating documentary I'd seen on PBS about "The Cheese Nun". The point being that she published a scientific paper on molds that create a lot of cheeses and how, in France, depending on which cave you stored the cheese in for aging, you would get a completely different mold and hence a different flavored cheese. That's why there can be more than 350 different kinds of ripening cheeses in France thanks to the varied mold spores. Amazing little buggers, eh?

Not at all. You could even start now (or when it's warm enough). Put some large pots on your back porch or front stoop and plant tomatoes or whatever you like. Then when you do move in, you hopefully will have the beginnings of a good crop. My brother has a decent backyard at his house but still prefers to use large pots for his tomatoes and chile peppers. He likes the control he has over the soil and is able to move the pots to follow the sun over the course of the seasons.

My example actually occurred. Having been in line behind the office worker buying sandwiches for her entire office staff at a Subway Sandwich shop with each sandwich having its own list of ingredients, it's easy to see why I'm not a fan of these kind of places. I'll go to such places during off-hours, but never during their busy times since getting served will take longer than I think it really should meaning longer than my patience can endure. That's also why I've got a pat answer in these places when asked what I want on my sandwich: "Everything" or "Whatever it comes with". It's the answer that gets me and my to-go order out of there the quickest. Of course it's easier and faster for a worker to assemble the food item looking at the order printout than having to schlep through the assembly line while the customer picks this but not that, and that but not this. I guess it's a trade-off of efficiency (in my opinion) versus letting the customer have the control of creating their own product and you know on which side I land with this issue.

Have you been to Jake's Tex-Mex on Oak Street in Bakersfield? It's a similar assembly line concept except their base ingredient is shredded deep pit beef or shredded chicken. You'd be amazed at the different combinations they've come up with using a set of limited ingredients. It ranges from salads to sandwiches to Frito boats to nachos and on & on. All with either shredded beef or shredded chicken. If I recall correctly, it's an "L"-shaped set up with usually two employees on each side of the "L". The first employee will start putting your order together and pass it to the next employee to finish it. The other side of the "L" has the salads & fixin's along with desserts and beverages and the cashier (the 4th employee). While not the same cuisine, it's an idea similar to yours. Also, Subway sandwiches uses the assembly line method and usually has the very long lines to show for it. I think the more ingredients you offer, the more specialized the orders will be ("yes on the tomatoes, no on the onions, yes on the sour cream, no to the cheese") and if they're ordering for their entire office it really sucks to be in line behind them as they special order each sandwich. edited for punctuation! edited again to say now that I've read my post again, Jake's usually has long lines and so does Chipotle (and Subway). There is nothing quick about using an assembly line where the customer has to pick out the ingredients as the item is being put together. Go with eje's suggestion and have a cashier take the order. I think it would be faster by far.

Time to bump this back up for us California folks. My mom is prepping her planter pots for tomatoes. It's still a little too cool at night to plant but it'll happen soon enough.

I thought I would bump this back up since it's that time of year again up here in the Northern Hemisphere. So what are you planting for eating and cooking purposes this growing season?

A past discussion on this cook-it-yourself trend: "Grill Your Own Steak Restaurants, Have it your way 'cause you're making it" The first link in my post in that discussion redirects, so here is the new link to the Gaslamp Strip Club. The second link in my post is completely dead but the third link works.

Bleu cheese and all ripening cheeses go through a similar symbiotic process thanks to a living fungus or mold.

Do NOT give them crappy knives! You will regret it. I gave a gift of a "Henckels" knife set/block for a friend (while not a "foodie", he does most of the cooking) who was getting married. Even though the knife set had the Henckels name on it, the set was quite bad and I hear about it every once in a while from my friend. Follow Fat Guy's advice and you'll all be happier for it. edited for spellling

I saw on Amazon's Friday Sale that the Lodge Logic 5-Quart Pre-Seasoned Dutch Oven was on sale. The lid isn't flat so it's not a camping oven but my question is is there any reason why I couldn't use this as a fryer as well? The Lodge Logic Pre-Seasoned 5-Quart Chicken Fryer with Iron Cover is 2 inches larger in diameter but has a depth of 3 & 1/4 inches. The Dutch Oven has a depth of 4 inches. If I get the Dutch Oven and use it as a fryer, too, am I losing anything by not having that extra 2 inches in diameter? Overcrowding could become an issue, but is that really an issue in this case?

Thanks for the great blog. I would have enjoyed hearing about the food/dining scene of Johannesburg.

Regarding the Cotton Country Collection, the Chocolate Peppermint Cookies on page 444 were a huge hit with my friends. I made them during the height of summer last year and the chocolate topping melted a little, but there were no leftovers. Recently added to my collection: Chinese Homestyle Cooking by Wang Jinhuai and Xue Yuan A Cook's Tour of Shreveport by the Junior league of Shreveport The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock

I found a PDF from Cooking Illustrated that looks like a gadget review with an illustration showing how the Heartwatch Gourmet Fat Skimmer works. But that's the only reference I could find. How odd that I could access a PDF from that site since I think you have to pay to be a member... I found this skimmer on eBay which looks like the skimmer you're looking for. It's located in Hong Kong, though.

Slate rated the two-slice version of the same DeLonghi toaster highest. Ironic, isn't it? Frankly, I think I would go with andie's recommendations before I would consider Slate's!

Use what you can, freeze what you can then donate the rest to a local shelter or food pantry before they go bad.

Hershey's Limited Edition Cookies 'n' Chocolate This gets a thumbs up from me. Take the nice textural crunch you get from either a Nestle's Crunch Bar or a Hershey's Krackle Bar and add the subtle taste of chocolate cookie crumbs. It's a win-win combination, provided you like Hershey's chocolate in the first place. Limited Edition Triple Chocolate Extra Crunchy Kit Kat Bar Yes, this does taste different than the regular Kit Kat bar. Even a skosh better, perhaps. I think the chocolate wafer/cream (hard to tell where the taste of the chocolate wafer leaves off and the taste of the "chocolate cream" takes over) does make a difference. And yes, it IS extra crispy so there is truth in advertising. The extra crispiness comes from the taller stack of crispy wafers. As pictured on the wrapper, it's one large bar instead of the standard 4 thin bars that you break apart. Thumbs up.

Okay, this is really, really basic but how do you properly use a turkey baster? Last Thanksgiving, we'd taken the turkey out of the oven and my brother said he needed some of the juices for his Cajun Gravy that he makes every year. Using potholders, I tipped the roasting pan slightly to one side so the juices would accumulate and he stuck a turkey baster in and sucked some into it. Because he wasn't close enough to his gravy pot (okay, okay, he should have moved his gravy pot right next to the roasting pan holding the turkey but the pot was only about two feet away so he figured he was close enough ), he sucked up enough juice and then tilted the baster, tip up, so nothing would drip out during the couple of steps that would take him to the gravy pot. Instead, as he tipped it sucking end up, the air whooshed into the baster and out squirted hot turkey juice on to my arm holding the roasting pan. He said he was using the baster properly, tilting the sucking end upward so nothing would drip out. I said he should have trusted the baster (and his squeezing grip on the bulb end) to hold the liquid safely inside the tube. Granted, it was one of those cheap plastic basters with the rubber bulb at the top, but, assuming the seal of the bulb to the tube was working properly, I say as long as his grip maintained the partial vacuum on the bulb, it wouldn't have dripped if he kept the baster in its sucking position (sucking tip pointed downward). So what is the proper use of a turkey baster? Trust the vacuum, or tilt the sucking point upward as you move the juice to another pot? (Maybe I should have posted this in the "I will never again..." thread )

Thought I would bump this back up since Wendy's is offering salads again. The bacon bits in the Spinach Chicken Salad are a lot better than in my previous post. What's nice is that, if you ask for it, my local Wendy's will give you an extra packet of salad dressing without charging you for it. I don't use the entire second package but it's nice not to run out of dressing (McDonald's, on the other hand, charges for everything extra). edited to add: wow, the bacon dressing is still very sweet. It makes me wish I had a cruet of vinegar at work to cut it with.