Toliver

Thanks for pointing this out, Jason, as I never realized until now that different parts of the country get different versions of the magazine. Since I am on the left coast, we get the "Western Insider" section so there was no mention of Monica in my issue.

This has been asked before in a previous discussion, but is there a simple/easy way of peeling shallots? Sometimes they are a royal pain to peel, especially when you get those nested cloves/bulbs and there's suddenly more peel to peel in the middle of them.

Where the filet of sole takes on a new meaning.

The D70 also got a great review on megapixel.net. I wish I could afford a camera like that! It looks awesome. fifi, as for regular Photoshop, I'd bypass it for now. It'd be overkill for you anyways. It does have a scan & crop feature that's cool, but you won't need it if you go straight from the camera to the hard drive and don't need to scan photos. There's also a "stitch" feature where you can take three photos from left to right and then Photoshop will "stitch" the three photos into one panorama photo. But how often do you need to do that? There is a cool feature called "Shadow/Highlight" that will brighten foreground subjects in front of a bright background. It can rescue some photos. But it's not worth buying the entire program just to get that. I am looking forward to seeing your pictures!

A high school friend once showed me how to make homemade hash browns. She started by frying up bacon in a cast iron skillet. While the bacon was frying she shredded a raw potato (no need to peel). She removed the bacon to drain, left the bacon fat in the pan and cranked the heat under the pan up to high. When the bacon fat was hot enough she dumped in the shredded potatoes. She flattened them out with a spatula and added salt & pepper. When the bottom of the potatoes was brown and crispy, she easily flipped them over as one giant hash brown patty and fried the other side. They were crisp and crunchy on the outside and steamed potato-ey (from the high heat) on the inside. It's fast and I've since learned there's a fine line between brown and crispy versus brown and burnt. I also add some diced onion, like fifi, to my own hash browns. The bacon fat adds a layer of flavor that Crisco (or what have you) doesn't provide. As for "home fries" (didn't we have this discussion before?), leftover baked potatoes make the best. Just cube them up, peel and all, and brown them to your hearts desire. They're more "potato-ey" than hash browns and certainly have their place at the breakfast, lunch or dinner table.

Two things: 1) Adding bacon would take care of the salt problem while adding great flavor but would also present a moral dilemma in regards to a vegetarian soup. 2) Where in the world are you getting Vidalias in January?!?!?! I would kill for a bag of Vidalias but we don't see them around here until at least the end of March. I am so jealous...

Store them in a netting-type bag (so the air can circulate around the shallots) in a cool, dry place. The netting-type bag is needed because if you keep them in a plastic bag, for example, they may develope mold and then there goes your great purchase. As for uses, you can use them in many recipes in place of an onion. They offer a more subtle onion flavor. Use them in any savory dish that starts out with a saute pan & butter....a little garlic tossed in would be great, too. Let your imagination take you from there...

A quasi-"Scallops Fettucine Alfredo". It's often requested by my brothers for their birthday dinners. I have no idea how I came up with the recipe. I think I had been inspired by my oldest brother (aka to my family as the Black Sheep Gourmet) who has the uncanny talent of making gourmet meals out of whatever he finds in the cupboards or refrigerator. So I just experimented and came up with a winner.

I second that suggestion! I was hoping that when eGCI was back up and running that andiesenji would do a condiments class. andiesenji, thanks for taking the time to document and post this!

And it's nothing more than a fancy-schmancy version of the original Vegomatic.

I had a similar experience with Monk Fish. My brother used to work at a seafood restaurant and swore that the broiled Monk Fish on the menu tasted just like lobster but was a heckuva llot cheaper. So I bought some and I broiled it at home. It came out smelling like dog poo and tasting even worse (where is that green sick smilie when you need it?). I had invited a good friend over for dinner and he was an unfortunate witness to the entire travesty. It ticked me off royally and I've never bought Monk Fish since nor have I ordered it in a restaurant. I'd still like to know what went wrong....

There are retractable screen doors (they add a guide track on the floor). My mom has one on her mobile home's breezeway door that had no room for a normal swinging screen-type door and it works great. I haven't found anything similar for non-screen doors, though. There are, of course, folding doors (check out the image library on the web site) but they aren't good for much other than hiding something visually (sound still goes through). edited to clarify

Take a look at Malawry's post (#4) earlier in this discussion. As long as the soup is no hotter than 170 degrees, the cheese shouldn't split/break. Too cool and it won't integrate into the soup, as you found out. Thinking optimistically, let's say it's not a mistake...you just invented an new kind of soup. You know how French Onion soup has the melted cheese on top? Yours was just inverted. Sell the idea to Ferran Adria as deconstructed cheese and broccoli soup and make a buck or two. Procedurally, I wonder if you could make a sort of white sauce with the cream, add the cheese to that to melt it, then put that into the soup. It's an extra step but would guarantee success.

Yes, it should melt. Sounds like it either didn't get hot enough to melt (so it dissolves into the soup) or perhaps it got too hot and broke and that's what settled to the bottom. Hmmm.... edited to trim verbosity

I haven't read the other linked-to thread but this down-sizing screws up recipes, as well. Good ole Aunt Fanny's dessert recipe that used a small box of instant pudding doesn't taste quite the same since the pudding maker quietly downsized the amount of pudding in the box. Can you imagine how many hand-me-down recipes are impacted by this under-handed downright sneaky down-sizing?

You can always put a new front plate on it to match the rest of the kitchen.

I look forward to voyueristically (is that even a word?) following your trials and tribulations. Thanks for starting this follow-up discussion. And the Magic Corner rocks!

Don't go to Corvette Diner in San Diego. It's kind of like Ed Debevik's (sp?). Sometimes the waiters or waitresses will sit down with the customers as part of their "in-character schtick": "Haul it over, honey, my dogs are barkin' and Mama needs to sit." Or something like that...

Until this gets merged with the Gardening thread, I'll add a suggestion here to grow your herbs in pots instead of in your garden. Some herbs spread like weeds and can takeover a garden if you're not vigilant. Pots work better at containing them.

I remember the commercial where the Dad talked his son into eating Malt-o-Meal by convincing the boy's invisible friend, Maynard, that "It's some good stuff, Maynard." A phrase that has slipped ever so quietly into my own daily vernacular. My mom couldn't make lumpless Cream of Wheat to save her life so I never became a fan of the stuff. Oatmeal became the favorite amongst us kids. I still eat it during the Winter months. I was shocked to find out that if I want to lower my cholesterol, though, I need to eat one & a half servings of it! From the Quaker Oats FAQ web page: [sHAGGY] Zoinks! [/sHAGGY] edited to add hot link

With the remnants, you could make tortilla soup or cut them up and fry them into tortilla chips to eat with salsa...

I second fifi's bean soup for a winter meal. My mom sends frozen jars of home-made navy bean soup back with me after my visits with her. It's always better the next day, too...don't know if it's something about the starches thickening and the flavors co-mingling or what, but it's great. I top mine with fresh diced onion (adds a subtle crunch) and a splash of cider vinegar (or balsamic or whatever if you're feeling adventurous). Of course, you'll need to make a pan of corn bread to go with it, as if you need the excuse. And that in itself can lead to loads of variations. Three military pushups? You're a far better man than I!

Barq's Root Beer contains caffeine" ← Wait a minute, are you saying that caffeine gives Barq its bite? ← You are correct, sir.

I use the "Zeroll Ice Cream Spade" instead of a scoop. But then I'm not plating it for anyone other than myself so I don't need the pretty curls/balls of ice cream you get with a scoop. The spade also seems to be easier on the hand & wrist when dishing out ice cream.

This link should take you directly to Russ Parson's quote where he detailed and honed his method of oven-baking beans: Click Here for post #59 You should really read the entire extraordinary discussion for "dried bean cooking 101a". Rancho Gordo weighs in with some additional ingredients that added to the overall dish and on the last page, fifi (SSB that she is) experimented enough to come up with an actual recipe. One of eGullet's finest hours....