Toliver

Perhaps "Dr." Alton Brown can. Here (click) is the transcript for his "Good Eats" show on three ways to make a chocolate chip cookie: Thin, Chewy or Puffy. He also explains why the cookies are the way they are, how changing ingredients and ratios changes the type of cookie you get. I have tried the "Chewy" recipe to great success. Click here for the recipe. At the bottom of the recipe are links to the recipes for the other 2 types of cookies. Also note that the type of cookie sheet you use will also impact how your cookies turn out. Dark brown cookie sheets are great for baking crisp cookies and the "silverish/grayish" air-cushion kind of cookie sheets are great for baking chewy or puffy cookies. I say as long as you have an office full of people who will eat anything (or is that my work place?) try your hand at Alton's recipes and take the disasters (if any) in to work.

A well-stocked pantry happens over time. You try a new recipe and buy a new ingredient and after a period of time of trying new recipes, you have a well-stocked pantry. Sarah Moulton from the FoodNetwork did a segment on her new show about recommendations on what to have on hand in your pantry. I am sure the list is incomplete but it's a good start. Here is her list for a well-stocked pantry.

I can't make Milk Gravy. Mine tastes like...nothing. And who wants to eat chicken fried steak without a good milk gravy? Still waiting for this to come up in the eGCI....

Lisa, thank you for taking the time to post this! It sounds delicious. I appreciate it.

What a great blog & pictures! You can hold your head up high after your blog is done. I feel like I should be sipping bourbon or sweet tea and snacking on either some shrimp or a barbecued pork product while perusing these pages. While okra and I have never seen eye to eye, I still look forward to your "Gumbo Manana" (which would make a great old Satchmo song title if ever I heard one).

Not sure if this has been mentioned but two classic lines from "Young Frankenstein": (Paraphrasing) [At the dinner table] Inga: "What's wrong, Doctor? You haven't even touched your food." Doctor Frankenstein excitedly slaps his hands into the food on his dinner plate and says: "There. I've touched my food. Happy?" Then later in the meal: Hearing the Monster growling off camera: "Was that you making those yummy noises?" Of course, there's the classic scene where the blindman (Gene Hackman) tries to serve hot soup to the Monster (Peter Boyle).

Instead of calling it "The Donald", they should call it "The Comb-Over". I just realized I must have a mild form of dyslexia. I coulda swore I was reading "You're Fried" instead of "You're Fired". "You're Fried" sounds more eGulletlicious! Quick, someone tell FG & Jason to trademark it!

Here are some past threads on San Diego restaurants & entertainment: Discussion 1 Discussion 2 Discussion 3 Entertainment: Humphrey's by the Bay has summer concerts. They sell dinner/concert packages. The food is good-to-okay but there's nothing like listening to great jazz outdoors at night right next to the marina. It's quite beautiful. 45 to 60 minutes North of San Diego up Interstate 15 is the town of Temecula. Lots of wineries there. Some limo companies in San Diego sell winery tours to Temecula...they do the driving and you do the wine tasting! Frankly, I can't really recall any large produce markets in San Diego, which is odd. For some low brow entertainment, the county fair starts mid June and usually continues until July 4th or so. It's held at the Del Mar Racetrack & Fairgrounds. It's the 7th largest county fair in the US. Hopefully, you will get more responses to your query.

Hmmm. Coke or Pepsi? It depends on my mood. Normally it's Diet Pepsi. Diet Pepsi tastes like Pepsi. Diet Coke does NOT taste like Coke. It's bilge water! Unfortunately most fast food places serve Coke and Diet Coke which means I'm ordering Iced Tea. Once in awhile I do get a hankering for an ice cold Coke and the drive thru at Mickey D's scratches that itch quite well. On a long drive, I'll take Mountain Dew to keep me wired...uhm, I mean, alert. But if you really get right down to basics, I'd rather have a Nehi (nostalgia raises it's ugly head). Anyone out west notice that 7-Elevens & AM/PM's (competing convenience stores) have both changed their soda dispensers? 7-Eleven now offers flavor shots (lemon, cherry and another flavor that I can't remember) built right into the dispenser (flavor shots used to be in a separate dispenser). Plus now the dipenser fills the cups toot sweet. Zip! and your cup is filled. AM/PM's, on the other hand, now offer up to 16 different kinds of drinks (not just sodas) from their dispensers. Plus, you have your choice of either ice cubes or crushed ice.

Ooh! Ooh! Do you remember how the fried cauliflower was prepared? This sounds intriguing and a natural segue from the wonderful Roasted Cauliflower. Was it breaded? Was there a sauce to go with it? And thank you for posting such a moving post on your Sunday dinners!

Jinmyo, thanks for posting that gorgeous pictorial homage to meatloaf sandwiches! Include me in with the crowd who likes meatloaf sandwiches with mayo and horseradish.

If you will be going to Mission Beach in San Diego, there's a famous restored wooden roller coaster right next to the Boardwalk. The group that restored the coaster also put lights on it so it looks great at night. Here is website for the roller coaster. Just north of the roller coaster (just across the street) is Hamel's Action Sports Center. They rent out sports equipment, from roller blades to bikes to boogey boards. The Boardwalk is very long (and sometimes crowded, depending on the weather). It stretches from just south of Mission Beach all the way to the north past Pacific Beach to the cliffs separating La Jolla from the rest of the hoi polloi. You can skate or bike on the Boardwalk (obey the flow-of-traffic signs). The ocean is close by so depending on the water temp, that could be fun, too. If you have money to spend, there's always Sea World which is east of Mission Beach on Mission Bay. There's also the world famous San Diego Zoo (near Downtown) & in the very far north county is the Wild Animal Park (run by the Zoo). Depending on the time of year, you can also go whale watching. Some of the tour boats are based east of Mission Beach along West Mission Bay Drive. Grey Whales migrate up from Mexico heading north past the San Diego coastline. The whale watching tour boats are prohibited from get right up next to the whales but you're close enough for some good pictures. Technically, it is a crap-shoot, though. The couple times I went, there were always whales to see. Not sure what they do when there aren't any going by. Here is a website listing some Mission Beach Restaurants. I noticed when trying to do a Google search for Mission Beach restaurants that a lot of Pacific Beach restaurants kept popping up as is evident with the list I found. For example, Da Kine's Plate Lunches is actually a Pacific Beach restaurant (a very casual place that serves Hawai'ian food...my sister-in-law likes their Lau Lau which is pork with fish wrapped in taro leaves and slow roasted in the oven...they're closed Monday's). If you can get up to Pacific Beach (take a car because it's a looooong walk from Mission Beach) there are oodles of great restaurants up there. If you want cheap, casual mexican food with no atmosphere, keep an eye out for Roberto's, Alberto's, Roybierto's, Hilbierto's (you get the idea...they're all over San Diego and they all serve about the same level of food quality). Note that most of the burritos do NOT contain beans & rice unless you want it that way. For example, if you order a carne asada burrito you will get carne asada, salsa & guacamole in the tortilla and that's it. It makes for a meaty burrito. Kids seem to like the rolled tacos (taquitos). I grew up eating at Boll Weevils (our family treat) so I agree with Stupid-American's recommendation. Before there was a Big Mac, before there was a Whopper, there was the Boll Weevil burger. Again, not too expensive and very casual. I hope you have a good time!

Wow, 200 pages of dinner!! Is there a longer discussion thread on eGullet? Last night: Rib Eye steak (bone-in) medium rare Oven roasted yellow carrots with a dash of dill, evoo, salt & pepper Roasted garlic mashed potatoes Gordon Biersch Marzen beer

Purchased this last Saturday: Yellow Carrots (which turned out to be sweet and tasty) Sugar Snap Peas One large jar of locally harvested Orange Blossom honey Strawberries A bunch of Baby Bok Choy Two pieces of Linzer Torte, one piece of Carrot Cake and a fresh peach Danish that was to die for, all from the German woman who sells baked & home-canned goods.

You should try posting this on the "Pastry & Baking" board. You may get more responses over there from all the Pastry Chefs on that board.

I have no idea why but I love KFC's mashed potatoes and gravy. It's gotta be a comfort thing from when I was a kid. Maybe they remind me of the mashed potatoes I used to get at Sir George's Smorgesboard . If I was served them in a real sit-down restuarant I'd probably fling them at the waitstaff. But when accompanied by the KFC chicken, I love the stuff. Go figure...

I thought I would bump this discussion back up to ask if anyone has tried Morton's Hot Salt? In its ingredients, it lists "spices" like "Chipotle Chili [sic] Pepper and Red Pepper". It doesn't sound like it would have too much of a kick to it, but it's an interesting idea.

My recipe's a little like Stone's...borderline Sandra Lee-ish, even. I will brush a little Liquid Smoke on the brisket and then put it in one of those Reynolds Foil Oven Bags. I put a packet of onion soup mix on top of it (or you could caramelize your own onions and add beef stock and a ton of salt, instead ). I also add a good slathering of my favorite BBQ sauce on top of the brisket. Add a cup or two of a good red wine, seal the bag, put the bag in a roasting pan and roast it in a slow oven until the next election (meaning a long time). If I could bottle the gravy that comes out of this recipe, I'd be a gazillionaire, it tastes so good. [HOMER] Mmmm...brisket gravy. [/HOMER]

Crunchy? Or the big puffy ones that are like eating orange air?

I'm assuming Shepeard's Bread (hollowed out and used for that spinach dip) is too large for the bread bowls you're talking about.

Ginger Altoids

Okay, before I sidetrack this thread, I'll say KFC original. That being said, now did anyone else see on FoodTV Tyler Florence's "Ultimate" show on fried chicken? (okay, it's sort of related to the thread title) He visited a restaurant's kitchen in the Southern US somewhere and the cooks were deep frying chicken in the largest cast iron skillet I have ever seen in my life. It was mammoth. Anyway, their "trick" was to fry a lot of cut up onions in the oil and leave the onion in there. Then they added the chicken. The pan was deep enough so that the chicken pieces were covered in oil (so it couldn't be called "pan-fried") and oil literally came up to the rim of the pan. Why they didn't get a grease fire from it, I have no idea. But it was an interesting idea, to flavor the oil with the onions and then to leave the onion in there. The cooks said they just throw out the, by then, burnt onion when they're through cooking the chicken. Why they didn't end up with burnt-onion tasting chicken is beyond me. But Tyler said it was great. It's a mystery....

Oh, that just rocks! I am sooo jealous that I now have Farmers' Market envy. What a great idea to have area chefs come and prepare dishes! Now if only my local Farmers' Market could get their sh*t together like Austin's.

Now, someone could take that the wrong way...

I got four of his cookbooks on eBay but haven't made anything from them yet. The thing I enjoyed most about his cooking series was his enthusiasm for the different cuisines and the history behind them. He communicated that very well.