Toliver

I disagree. From the article: That's a good number of arrests/citations. NBC's Today show covered this subject this morning. They said DUI arrests in Texas are on par with those of California, which has 20 million more people living there than in Texas. So there is obviously a problem. In the story it showed the police entering a hotel bar and arresting three people AND the bartender. One of the arrested patrons was an out-of-state visitor who said she was going to go from the bar straight up to her room. The police arrested her anyways. This is going to kill the bar business in Texas and may impact tourism, as well.

More California Olive info As for California Olive Oil, the grade is certified by the California Olive Oil Council. (from the California Olive Oil Council website FAQ)Is this the "Foxes guarding the hen house" or are they really following the European standards?

Dry them. Then you can reconstitute them whenever you need them.

Tim, it looks like a cube of butter is added after the liquid is introduced. Is this accurate? =R= ← Ronnie, that's what I assumed it was and that's what I used. I added about a tablespoon to the boiling water before I added the cut potatoes. I'd be interested to hear if this works for anyone else.

I tried the "How to cook the potatoes to hold their shape" when I boiled my cut red potatoes for my corned beef & cabbage dinner last Friday. Worked great...the potatoes kept their shape (as opposed to crumbling around the edges and falling apart...like they show in the video).

I put my corned beef (whatever brand Albertson's had on sale) in a slow cooker with the pickling spices that came with it, covered it with lots of water and left it on all day while I was at work. It turned out to be fork tender and not at all dry. After skimming the water, I used some of it (plus some fatty shreds I cut off the corned beef) to steam my quartered and cored cabbage. Topped that with some balsamic vinegar and it was great. Used the rest of the beef water to boil red potatoes & "baby" carrots...what could be easier? It helps that the pot of the slow cooker I have can be used on the stove. I used the tip found in this Japanese video to help the cut boiled potatoes keep their shape and it worked like a charm.

You also have to understand Alton's perspective (or mantra, actually). He doesn't recommend purchasing good-for-only-one-function gadgets for the kitchen since they take up precious room and are used for only one thing. He prefers gadgets that have more versatility.

To go slightly off topic, I became a big fan of Pornchai Mittongtare's fabulous food photos when I used to do the Bon Appétit Magazine digests for eGullet. His work is incredible. You can see more of his portfolio on his web site (warning - it's Flash-heavy): Mittongtare Studio

Eating a slice of just-out-of-the-oven brownies is an experience you shouldn't deny yourself. I vote nay on cooling the brownies. Sucrose=sucrose. The difference is believing the marketing trying to make you think one is better than the other.

The pessimist in me says it's three cases that we know of...how many were not reported and quietly buried or ground into some homemade cattle feed? If my math is correct, that works out to be about .07 percent being tested, which is frightening small. What's the statistical minimum of tested animals needed to make testing a valid representation of the whole? Somehow I think it would be a lot more than 20,000 cattle. Any SSB's in the room?

That's the exact same pan my mom has used all these years. She makes her pork roast and sauerkraut in it. It's also held the Thanksgiving turkey more than once. Thanks, andie for posting this link! ← Toliver, I have been thinking that for a long time (more since this thread appeared). My mom also did all of her turkeys (T-Giving and Christmas) in one of those. I have similar ones in my camping gear. Whay do I discount them for kitchen use ??? I have Kitchen Aid and Calphalon roasters..... Why ??? ← Because it doesn't have a fancy designer name attached. After about 40 years of use, my mom's roaster is finally showing its age (rust spots). It's good knowing where I can get a replacement.

On MSNBC: "Alabama cow tests positive for mad cow disease" If you live in the U.S., is beef still on your menu?

That's the exact same pan my mom has used all these years. She makes her pork roast and sauerkraut in it. It's also held the Thanksgiving turkey more than once. Thanks, andie for posting this link!

Wayne Harley Brachman has written a couple of retro/All-American dessert cookbooks. You can look at each index to get more inspiration: "American Desserts : The Greatest Sweets on Earth " "Retro Desserts: Totally Hip, Updated Classic Desserts from the '40S, '50S, 60s and '70s"

Are we sure this concoction didn't originate with Paula Deen?

I have a simple timer (made by Barclay Geneve...I can't find a duplicate anywhere) that has only a minute button and an hour button, plus Start and Stop/Cancel. The nice feature about it is that it beeps at the "10 minutes left" mark and again at the "5 minutes left" mark. I wish all my timers did that. It's spoiled me rotten. And when I need to time something for 50 minutes. I just hit the hour button once and when the first beep sounds, I know it's been 50 minutes. I also have a Pampered Chef timer with a keypad so you can enter the exact time you need. The only problem with it is that it doesn't take "normal" batteries and it's a pain to have to make a special stop to try and find the replacement battery.

The first thing I always do with a photo in Photoshop is to run the Auto Color, Auto Contrast and Auto Levels features to see whether the results look better or worse. Sometimes it ends up a lot worse and you can always use Undo or the History palette to return the image to its original state. You can also use the EDIT>FADE function to soften the changes as you make them so, for example, any shift in color won't be drastic. The change in saturation was a result of the Auto filters. When I increase the contrast in a photo, it usually makes whatever is light lighter and whatever is dark darker. This is why the background seems like it got softened. It's just darker. If it looks softer to you that's an optical illusion. The sharpening (I used the Unsharp Mask...why it's called that, I have no idea) was to make the texture "pop" a little more which, to me, was one of the points of the picture in the first place. Sharpening didn't impact the background in this photo...it was the Contrast adjustment that changed it.

Those cookies and your photos totally rock! Your recipe box is wonderful. What a great treasure to have inherited.

I didn't mind the wood background so much. The human eye performs unconscious selective editing, meaning when we say "what a great sunset!", we're not talking about the freeway in the foreground and the billboards flanking the scene on either side but are just focusing on the sunset itself. Everything else gets relegated to the "background" because it's not the subject of our focus. That's where cropping of the photo (constraining how the subject is seen) and plating or posing of the original subject can take a so-so picture and give it visual impact as the others have posted. Here's the same marshmallow picture, but cropped: This was cropped in Photoshop but just about any photo post-processing program (Picasa, etc) should be able to do the same. I also adjusted the contrast and color and sharpened the photo a little which brought out the texture in the image. So now, the wood wall in the background is just a dark backdrop and the tightness of the image constrains the viewer's eye to just the marshmallows, which was the intent of the original photo. I think a slightly stronger filler/kicker/reflector (see previous posts) on the right side would have lit the foreground faces a little better but it's still some nice marshmallows! As for cropping, some do it when taking the actual photo, others do it after the fact like I did in this example. Keep taking oodles of photos and eventually your ratio of good photos to so-so photos will change to the better.

Is it possible that the smokey flavor could have been from the "wok hay" (sp?)?

Oh yeah ... I have been informed by long-time San Diegans that the original sorta-kinda-legendary local taco shop chain was called Roberto's, and that it got popular enough that a small cadre of copycat chains sprang up, all of whose names end in "-berto" (I've spotted Alberto's and Aliberto's so far). I didn't realize they'd spread as far north as Pomona (assuming, of course, that this is part of the same "-berto" phenomenon ... ) ← We now have an Alberto's here in Bakersfield so they are making their way north! Tejon, That recipe card is wonderful. Reminds me of a lot of my mom's recipes from over the years. Is it just the one card that looks its age or do you have more? Since Cusina's food blog here on eGullet, I've been intrigued by "Grandma's Recipe Box" or similar recipes that have survived the years.

This tube squeezer might be easier on the hands.

Green Tea does have caffeine: Caffeine content of tea I buy it decaffeinated but it still has all the other good-for-you stuff in it. I think the headache could definitely be a withdrawal symptom. It's a matter of waiting it out. It should go away over time. If not, see a doctor.

Invest in a tall skinny spatula and every jar should come clean with ease. So yes, (raises hand) I'm guilty, too!

During my college days, I worked at one of those shopping mall cheese & sausage stores so I learned a little bit about cheese. Freezing cheese (or freezing anything) will dehydrate it. The moisture will leach out which will lead to a changed texture when thawed. Normally this means that a cheddar, for example, that has been frozen and then thawed will tend to crumble when you attempt to grate it on a normal kitchen grater. That's why cheeses that have been frozen are more suited for cooking and baking rather than just setting them out for a cheese course. As for leaving them at room temperature, sure it will make the cheese taste better. I'd be concerned about mold, though. I'm more of a "refrigerate it, slice off what you need and let that slice come to room temperature" kind of guy anyway. Cheese should always be served at room temperature. We used to give samples of a Colby Longhorn Cheddar to our customers that tasted incredible at room temperature...almost silky and most definitely buttery. It was a revelation. A tip for cutting the cheese (no snickering from you there in the back of the class!), it helps to have the cheese at room temperature. We'd use a large sturdy wire with handles on both ends to slice through the largest cheese wax-encased wheels. We also had a cutting board with a wire cutter (home versions are usually small...our version was quite large). To cut portions off the wheel pieces, we'd take these huge, insanely sharp knives and run them under very hot water, carefully wipe the blades dry and easily slice through any cheese. Repeat the knife heating as needed.