Toliver

Take a look in some of the "Thanksgiving" threads. I think some of them had corn puddings and other similar recipes. Creamed corn.

It was Misgabi I was thinking of. DOH! Cusina, how could I forget your Grandmother's recipe box? I apologize for the mix up and hope you are surviving the winter weather! Al/Mike, I am looking forward to your pizza. And if you're not on medication for your back, then I'm hoping there will be beer with that pizza. Or at least a sassy red...

TrishCT, Now that's a great spread! It looks like you're serving a lot of items that may be do-ahead-able ( ) which will make things go easier for you on Game Day. What about nuts? I tried making some almonds for last year's Super Bowl party but the spices tended to burn. Anyone have any savory nut snack recipes (not a big fan of the sweet recipes)? I've heard rumor about some walnuts that eGullet poster Basildog once made but there's no recipe in the recipe archive.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I used to eat Spam in my younger days. Ignorance sometimes IS bliss. As much as Spam is disparaged, though, it was the saving grace of many a dinner table throughout the world during and shortly after World War II when there was a shortage of basically every kind of food item and meat, especially, was hard to come by.

[JEWISH MOTHER] Eat something. Would it hurt you to post about it? [/JEWISH MOTHER] And, yes, Cusina just blogged from down under, I believe.

The tubes are an import item (from Italy, I believe). Out here in California we have a chain of stores called World Market (they used to be called Cost Plus World Market but have now dropped the "Cost Plus" part). They carry a lot of imported items, usually have a large wine selection and have branched out into coffee now. They're a great place to go if you need to whip up a quick gift basket of wine & food stuff. Anyway, in addition to the tomato paste in a tube (looks like a toothpaste tube), they also carry anchovy paste in a tube, which is another great item to have on hand. If you don't have any World Market stores near you, try a similar store that would carry import items. I've seen the tomato paste tubes in my local Italian deli/store, too.

It's a flat lid, traditionally made of wood, that is a bit smaller than the circumference of a pot. It is used when simmering and is directly dropped on top of the food being simmered. It keeps the food from moving around and breaking up, and allows the food to suck up maximum flavour from the simmering liquid. A must-have item for the Japanese kitchen! I thought that's what pot lids are for, just use the next smaller size. I've seen Sara Moulton on FoodTV use a circle of wax paper (or was it parchment paper?) for this purpose. I never understood the intention behind it. Thanks, Rachel, for explaining it.

From the article: That just bums me out. I get a hankering for a Slim Jim now and then (see the "Strange Cravings" thread). Guess I should switch to Slurpees now. Unless they come out with a new Slupree flavor, "Downer Cow Cola". And what frick is "potted meat"?

I have one of those slicers, too. But since taking a knife instruction class last summer, I can do it quickly without benefit of a slicer. I even taught my 73 year old mom how to do it. She was thrilled with the "trick" and ended up serving sliced avocado with everything in the ensuing weeks.

Looks like Al Dente has started a blog. Rest easy, Pan!

Of course, it's about choice. How many cable channels do you have and yet how many suck? So what if there's 20,000 items in the grocery store? If they don't carry more than two brands of pasta, what kind of choice is that for me? The FoodMaxx in my low income neighborhood carries only one brand of non-dairy creamer. What about root beer? I hope you like Mug Root Beer because that's the only name brand of root beer they carry. Are you looking for Pickapeppa Hot Sauce? You're not going to find it in FoodMaxx. Butter lettuce? Not at FoodMaxx. Eggland brand eggs? Not at FoodMaxx. What about something simple like jumbo sized eggs? Nope. The only eggs they carry are the dozen large sized and the eighteen pack of large sized. You want Brie? "I'm sorry sir, she only works on the weekends." Quantity does not necessarily equal choice. But this is beside the point. Quantity, given this subject matter, does imply that there's a heckuva lot of more slotting happening at stores that offer more brands or styles of a product to their customers when compared to stores that offer less. But what about when a company owns both kinds of stores, an upscale store and a bargain store (like Ralph's/Food4Less, SaveMart/FoodMaxx, etc)? How do they determine slotting fees for one store but not the other, or does the slotting fee guarantee placement in both chains? Do slotting fees also help to explain why prices are higher in the upscale store but not in the bargain store since there must be slotting fees in the upscale store but not in the bargain store? Why does Stove Stuffing cost twenty-five cents more in SaveMart than it does in FoodMaxx? Slotting fees could explain the difference.

For Christmas, a friend gave me this set of Forschner knives. I'd never heard of them before. They're made by the same company that makes Swiss Army Knives. They're sharp as heck but very ordinary looking, kind of like the Ford Taurus of knives. And the longest knife scares the heck outta me. It looks like something out of "The Lizzie Borden Story". I'm not sure what to do with it. Now I need to buy knife guards so I can store them safely. Has anyone dealt with Forschners before? Will they keep their edge for a while?

Well, it's not good for the consumer in that it limits our choices. And then I'm also sure the cost of the slotting fee is passed onto the consumer, too (the companies aren't going to just eat the cost, are they? no pun intended). So that's lose-lose for the consumer. It's also interesting to note that bargain grocery stores (FoodMaxx, Food4Less, etc) seem to offer less product choices when compared to mid-to-upscale grocery stores (Albertson's, Save Mart, etc). Does this mean slotting fees tend to be more prevalent in middle to upper class grocery stores?

Oh God, yes! Tortas are awesome. If you ever go to San Diego, find the nearest La Torta. The Cass Street location (in Pacific Beach) is the best. Check out the Tortas menu (35 kinds!). They also have this chipotle mayo that rocks, especially when you dip their beer batter onion rings in it. Great. Now I'm hungry.

You are very correct in that not everything works for everybody. In responding to Marlene's query, I offered a cheap simple solution that works for me. She may find out she doesn't like it or may find out it's perfect for her needs. I am looking forward to hearing the results of her quest. This makes me wish I had one of those new fangled digital cameras. My cheapo (sheet metal) wok is of the Big-Ass variety (okay, it didn't say that on the shelf in the Asian market where I bought it, but it's an appropriate description ). Because of its size, I usually make too much food for one sitting which I don't mind since I love leftover chinese food. How do I know the wok is hot enough? I put a drop of water in the empty heated wok. If the water drop immediately starts dancing around like a whirling dervish, I know it's ready. I'll wipe up the drop (if it doesn't evaporate from the heat), add my oil and "wok on". I'm also beginning to think that the real key to making homemade chinese food taste like what we get in a chinese restaurant is mostly in the sauce. The pot sticker dipping sauce I found in one of my chinese cookbooks tastes exactly like what you get in the restaurant so that's one little victory.

I dislike non-stick for another reason; I like being able to push what I'm cooking up the sides of the wok to isolate certain ingredients that may not be cooking as fast as others or to let something brown or, if there's too much lliquid, to let some liquid evaporate quickly. Can't do that with non-stick without everything falling back down. Excellent point! You're also supposed to push the food up the sides and be able to use the exposed center to add your sauce and then thicken it. Once thickened then your bring your food back down and incorporate it all. This can't be done as easily with a non-stick wok.

I first did a double take when I read "pineapple". Now it all sounds interesting and I'm beginning to salivate thinking of the taste combinations in that dish. As for the anchovies, how much?

Great! Follow Mudbug's advice (see the post above) and treat it like a cast iron skillet. Get the wok home, wash it, then dry it and season it on the stove. And like Mudbug stated, when cleaning it after cooking make sure you put it back on the still-warm burner to dry out any residual moisture. Rust is a bad thing! In addition to the above-mentioned brush, make sure you have a good wok spatula, too (like the one pictured in the middle here). Over time, the more you use your wok, the better seasoned it will become. I could have sworn when I just did a stirfry in my wok a couple nights ago that is was like cooking in a non-stick pan. But that's also the nature of wok cooking: stirring ingredients quickly enough that they won't have time to stick. That's where mis en place comes in so very handily, as you know. Over time, if used enough, the wok should also develop a blackness starting in the bottom middle (again, as Mudbug pointed out). This is just evidence of the seasoning of your wok and should be left alone. Let us know how your wok shopping went. As for those who have non-stick woks, given the recent eGullet threads on the toxicity of non-stick coatings when exposed to high heat (like in wok cooking), personally speaking, I wouldn't recommend using a non-stick wok for cooking.

That article states that the pronunciation of "Po' Boys" is "poo-boys" which I would think is incorrect. Being a derivative of "poor boys", I would think the " Po' " would be more like "poh", which sounds more like a southern affectation. As for their description of a submarine sandwich, that may be how a submarine sandwich started out but today it has evolved into something much more generic. Today a submarine sandwich is a long roll with any type of deli meat/lunch meat & cheeses in it, along with lettuce, tomato and onion topped with an Italian dressing or just vinegar and oil. It's a cold sandwich meaning the bread isn't toasted nor is the meat heated. As a kid growing up in a town with a submarine base, I didn't think twice about the sandwich of the same name. I always figured it was named so because the roll is usually long and round like a submarine. Who knew?

Head cheese gone really, really, really bad?

Last night, a quick stirfry using scallops (from Trader Joe's) and veggies from the Farmer's Market this weekend: Baby bok choy, young carrots (not baby but not full grown), spring onions and garlic. I added some sliced water chestnuts and used a soy-oyster-sherry sauce over everything. It turned out quite well.

I am a little confused as to why there seems to be a "if you can't do it 'right' at home, why bother" theme going on here. So what if the burner on my stove doesn't put out the high heat like they use in a "real" chinese restaurant? I imagine most of the homes throughout Asia don't have stoves that do either. And yet these foolish people continue to use a wok at home. Go figure. Last night I made a stirfry (scallops and baby bok choy) on my horrid electric stove using my $10 sheet metal wok that turned out great. Sometimes cheap is good.

Such a silly question:

All this AND you're in training to be an astronaut, too?!

Organic cauliflower Organic broccoli Organic bermuda (red) onion Organic beets Organic navel oranges (Turns out that everything this one farmer sells is organic. I feel like I hit the jackpot!) baby bok choy carrots spring onions Two pieces of spiced Linzer Tort, 1 piece of Orange Cake (with walnuts, I believe)and 1 piece of Persimmon Cake from the German woman who sells canned and baked goods.