Toliver

eGullet member Lisa Grossman (Balmagowry) co-wrote a historical recipe book based upon meals/food mentioned in the Patrick O'Brian series of Aubrey/Maturin novels. The setting of the books is in the British Navy in the early 19th century. It's a fun read with some very odd dishes. I gave it as a gift to a friend who actually made a very bland cornmeal dish from the book. "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog "

Susan, As frustrated as I get reading how your crops won't come in I imagine it's no where near how frustrated you must feel. From your past posts I know you're an advocate of do-it-yourself projects from the description of all the home projects you've done. Have you seriously considered building some sort of greenhouse? Or dedicating part of a room or basement to a greenhouse sort of area? If you did have such an area, you could start your plants indoors and get a head start on the season, transplanting them outdoors after the last frost. Maybe something as simple as a sort of jury-rigged "sun" lamp and a series of portable pots would help. I used to see such lamps for sale in the ads in Chile Peppers Magazine for chileheads who wanted to start their plants indoors. I think the lamps are regulated by the government, too, but I'm not sure about that (the lamps are also used to grow "illegal" crops so the gov't wants to know what you're using the lamps for). Just a thought....

I don't think these are all from literature but here are some quotes I found from Googling "quote biscuits": Biscuit quotes #1 Four quotes but two of them are repeats from the link above Some more obscure biscuit quotes Movie quotes with "biscuit" in them (warning - graphic language in some quotes) Many of the quotes in the last link are seemingly out of context. Guess you had to see the movie...

I am looking forward to a beet-free blog.

Don't forget there's a Trader Joe's near Grossmont Shopping Center. They used to be located in the Grossmont Trolley Shopping Center but it was a really bad location with absolutely horrible parking. Their new location is in a small shopping center diagonally opposite the Claim Jumper (southeast of the actual shopping center). There's now lots of parking and it's always doing a brisk business. I read somewhere on eGullet that their nickname is "Whole Paycheck" so it doesn't surprise me they're going where the money is.

If your meat has sugar on it from the start, I don't think you're going to be able to avoid carmelizing/burning it while exposing it to heat for that long of a period of time. lancastermike's suggestion of cooking in foil for a majority of the time will work but you're sacrificing BBQ/smoke flavor. The carmelization issue is why many BBQ joints won't add sauce with sugar in it until the meat is being served. No burnt sugar that way. Perhaps some of the smoke-meisters on the board will weigh in on this. I'm wondering if you could get away with an even lower cooking temperature for a longer period of time or if the sugar will burn no matter what given its chemical make-up.

I attended a Filipino pig pickin' many years ago. They had this marvelous vinegar dipping sauce that I recall had floating pieces of garlic in it. It provided the perfect balance to the richness of the pork. I'm not sure what else may have been in the sauce but it was so good I could have sipped it as a beverage!

My mom's tomatoes are coming in full force. Her yellow cherry tomato plant has fruit that is just now turning. She planted an heirloom this year (she's not sure of the name...my brother gave it to her) and she says the tomatoes on it are the largest she's grown in years. She called them "monsters" since they're so big. The plant is heavy with fruit but they haven't turned yet. She has one tomato plant that's about done and will plant another soon so she will have tomatoes clear through October provided the weather stays nice. My brother's chile pepper plants (he planted about 8 varieties this year) are putting out a lot of pods. His squash and Japanese egg plant are producing quite a bit, too. As for flowers, he also planted tuberose (they have a great fragrance) and they're coming along like gangbusters.

To go off topic again, Costco does the same thing with local products. For example, in San Diego there's a popular chain of casual restaurants called Pat & Oscar's (used to be just "Oscar's" but they got sued by another restaurant called "Oscar's"). They serve a family style greek salad with a nice salad dressing that you can also buy at the restaurant. The San Diego Costco's started selling two-packs of Pat & Oscar's bottled dressing which my family loves. It's a much better deal at Costco, too, since the bottles Costco sells are almost little jugs of dressing where the bottles of dressing you can buy at the restaurants are much smaller and for a higher price. If only Trader Joe's could do the same...

Thanks for taking one for the team, Fred. I was curious as to what the "cooling sensation" would be and you were very precise in the description of the effect. Still, I'll give it a try when and if it appears in this area.

I like them so much, I've been buying up every bag of Dark Chocolate peanut M&M's I can find. That's getting easier to do since the to-do over the film and its companion ad campaign have quietly subsided and they're being marked down every where.

Nestea Ice It's a very...interesting...web site on the new product. I thought about posting this in the Soda Pop section but figured it should go here. There's supposed to be an ingredient in it that creates a cooling sensation in your mouth. Anyone see this product in their area?

Please post about your adventures. The couple of times I've gone to restaurants alone (training personnel at company sites in different cities) the hostess always threw me to the bar though I would have much preferred a table. I chalked it up to tables being reserved for parties where it would be worth a waitstaff's effort...meaning, a tip left from a table of two or more always trumps a tip left from a single diner.

Eat Mores are now a Hershey Canada product so it's no wonder I haven't heard of them before. It's odd that the web site says they are the only Hershey Canada candy bar not coated in chocolate. Doesn't sound like what you ate... And from this page (see the third post) it sounds like they were a "garbage" candy...made from factory leftovers. Again...doesn't sound like your description. The mystery deepens...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I don't care if it's the Queen of England. Nobody but nobody takes it upon themselves to cook something in my kitchen. The guy was obviously looking for some boundaries, didn't find any and proceeded to have his way with your kitchen. You should have told him no, due to a clause in your home insurance no one but the residents of the abode were allowed to cook in the kitchen. Or some such crazy excuse. Anything to get him out of the kitchen. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and the unwanted guest out of the kitchen.

I'm enjoying taking one (or two or ten) for the team! And all my posted images are scanned by me after *burp* consumption. Edited to add: It's odd but I don't really have a sweet tooth. I much prefer savory over sweet anyday. Again, I'm just doing this reporting for the benefit of eGullet. Yeah, that's it.

I'm usually an optimist in Life (at least, I hope I am! ) but regarding restaurant glassware, I'm a pessimist. Having worked in the dish cleaning end of restaurants I almost always use a straw when dining out. Better safe than sorry...

I'm posting this for those who've never had the pleasure of drinking a Slurpee: I present the Slurpee Spoon-Straw (Spraw? Stroon?) When purchasing my last Slurpee (someone has to take one for the team ) I noticed that they make two sizes of spoon straws. The spoon straw pictured above is the longer straw. The smaller spoon straw actually has more of a flair to it providing a slightly larger scoop shape. I also noticed they had a new Slurpee flavor, Crystal Light Strawberry Banana, which I didn't try. This new flavor in addition to the Diet Pepsi flavor means half the Slurpee flavors offered in my local 7-Eleven were calorie-free or very low in calories. A sign of the times?

Were they called Flicks? Gosh, I loved Flicks. They were made by Ghirardelli. Here's a picture: Click Here And some info about the candy: Flicks Memories

I had to bump this back up. Since the POM seems strong-flavored to me so I've started mixing it with Crystal Light Lemonade and, wow, it's a good blend! I've only tried the POM Blueberry so far. I fill the glass with ice, pour in the POM to about 1/4th to a 1/3rd of the glass (not more than that) and then fill the rest of the glass with the lemonade. Surprisingly, the blueberry taste is right up front even though it's the minority pour, so to speak. It's very refreshing in the heat of summer.

Yesterday it was 107° (it'll be in the 100's all week) and I didn't cook and won't the rest of this week, if I can help it. Last night I had microwaved hot dogs, store-bought potato salad and various crudite. Howcha magowcha, it's hot!

Limited edition Hershey's White Chocolate with Almonds: While the almonds were very THERE (a plus, in my book), the white "chocolate" was very mild in flavor. I'd pass on it. Limited edition Dark Chocolate Almond Joy with Chocolate Flavored Coconut: A nice attempt at something different, but not a winner. I didn't think the dark chocolate coating/exterior had a great dark chocolate flavor. There was no familiar dark chocolate bitterness...it tasted like ordinary chocolate. As for the interior, the sweet coconut taste absolutely overpowered any chocolate flavoring. The chocolate flavoring should have been much stronger. This was a winner, in my book - Hershey's Limited Edition Double Chocolate: As you can sort of see by the picture, it's supposed to be four pieces of chocolate with a dark chocolate interior. It looks a little like Cadbury's Caramello...small blocks of chocolate with a caramel filling. The interior was of this candy is supposed to be dark chocolate but it tastes more like a caramel. Again, there wasn't really that dark chocolate bitterness. Having said that, I thought this tasted EXACTLY like the Cadbury Caramel Eggs (younger cousin to the Creme Egg) that appear once a year at Easter time. I like those so it follows I thought this new Hershey candy was a winner, as well.

Depending on where you live, slurpees have a different consistency. In Canada they are somewhere between an icee and a slush puppie. An Icee is airier - sort of like drinking flavoured air - a slush puppy is chunkier, icier. The slurpee is the perfect consistency - frozen but smooth. Any slurpee I've had in the US have been closer to an Icee consistency - I don't know if that's true across the country. edited to add that a good slurpee does not expand when it fills the cup ... that's the crazy airy stuff you californians drink ← Then they must not be making Slurpees properly up there. The Slurpees I've grown up with are just like the pictures I linked to on the web. And, yes, they do expand when properly mixed...it's part of their allure. I have had Icees and they are nothing like a Slurpee. Icees are more like Koolaid with a kabillion tiny floating ice chips in it. Far more "liquidy" than a Slurpee. If your Slurpees come out of the spigot like a liquid, there's something rotten in Denmark (and Canada).

I've never had a Slush Puppie so I can't tell you if the consistencies are the same. Here's a line of Slurpees: A row of brain freeze (See the pic linked below for a better example of the thickness) They "pour" like a sort of soft serve ice cream. You put the domed lid on the cup and then open the spigot to "pour" the Slurpee into the cup through the hole at the top of the lid. The domed lid allows you to get more than a cupful of brain freeze at one time as you can see by the last slurpee cup in the back in the second picture above. Be careful when you pour because the properly mixed Slurpee expands as it fills your cup (which is why adding the domed lid is a good thing). You can see evidence of this expansion in this picture (look at the Slurpee on the left...see how far its risen out of the cup). In the heat of summer, though, it loses it's body and quickly melts which is why you want to keep stirring it with your straw. You use a special well-known Slurpee straw that is nipped at the bottom so it flairs out to form a spoon shape so you can get every last bit of Slurpee. Hmmm...couldn't find a picture of the straw on the web which is odd since the two (Slurpees and the Slurpee Straw) are so closely associated. I will have to rectify that! Who knew they made edible Slurpee Straws??

In the past, I've had unrefrigerated ketchup "ferment" on me. It develops an odd almost yeasty taste. Of course it gets hot here during the summer (107°F all week, folks!) so I don't blame the ketchup for wilting in the cupboard. That's why I refrigerate mine.