jsolomon

Hyponatremia is virtually unheard of in the non-athletic world. If you have a diet that is normal in salt levels but don't do things like sweating it out for several hours a day, you will almost never see it (unless you're in a hospital being attended to by a dunderhead resident).

The Baton Rouge Advocate ← Apparently the people at The Advocate haven't heard of Kopi Luwak coffee. And, I won't even get started on my typical organic food rant. Edit to add: Thank God! I truly dislike having to take a crowbar, det-cord, back-hoe, and sledge hammer just to dismantle my meal before I do horrible things to its aesthetic appeal by applying teeth and digestive tools. Edit again to add: Never heard of IR-NMR... and I've taken a lot of graduate level NMR and IR courses... but, I'm not a food-writer, so I might be missing out on some cutting-edge spectroscopy techniques. Okay... this stuff is 20 Kelvin (-423F) vs 77 Kelvin (-321F) for liquid nitrogen... and about 200 times the cost. I don't want to pay for that meal...

When I was 7, I learned how to bake bread--immensely powerful attractor for the opposite sex. My suggestions are in two parts. 1: teach easy, but fundamental dishes 2: teach related fundamental dishes together, and as related. For instance: potatoes au gratin, macaroni and cheese, shepherd's pie (with white sauce to hold together) Refrigerator pie, bread pudding, french toast, creme brulee Dumplings are always something that I love, so I would suggest dumplings, too.

Soylent pink. It's the Registered Dietician's Best Friend . Now with reduced Trans Fats©.

Gazpacho topped with boiled eggs Ice cream, especially good quality ice cream is always a complete food--it's by definition. Do you have example foods in the soft food category that the oral surgeon gave you. You might be in luck where brie and ripe pears are soft foods!

On an entirely different note for homebrewing, does anyone keg their homebrew in soda kegs? Do you have information on where to get the supplies?

sounds like most every war I know.

Those same middle-classers cut coupons for Hamburger Helper so they can get it cheaper on double-coupon blue mondays. Most of the chain food is better than Hamburger Helper, so it doesn't surprise me too much. In my area, a lot of them also still think that the horrid liquid nacho cheese sauce makes qweezeen hote.

Considering the only bar I know that serves sparkling wine (they call it champagne) by the pitcher is called "Homey's", I think we should call it something similarly ebonic. Or maybe something l33t. Sh4mP4gN3?

I agree. America needs a better name for its sparkling wine than, well, sparkling wine.

You say that, but what if Flay has R. Lee Ermey as a sous chef? I'm not a Flay fan, but I'm just sayin'... Oh, yeah, ooh-rah! That's what I'm sayin'.

I've really had no problems getting both crispy and juicy, tender at the same time. The 300F oven in the first recipe works well, but 350 is not high enough for the second part of the cooking. I tend to do 300F for 3 hours and 450 or 500 til the skin is lovely. What I like better is the Alton Brown method. Steam the duck in a stovetop steamer, and then finish in a skillet in the oven. Alton Brown method. Honestly, why are people afraid to take their ovens beyond 375?

At most hardware stores (Ace or True Value, not so much Maynard's or Home Deposit) you should be able to find a window fan that just snugs up into the window (different than a box fan). They work remarkably well as exhaust fans, and are only about $20.

Truer words have never been written.

I used to, but then I doubled my daily water intake. If you keep your blood pressure more under control by having a larger reservoir of for your body to work with, you will have a less marked post-prandial depression, as well as a less marked depression from other things (including alcohol consumption). At least, that is my personal, anecdotal experience. Stay hydrated, stay awake.

Since I personally think there isn't any physiologic difference between drinking alcohol in the morning, or drinking at night (or, more correctly, drinking shortly after one wakes vs shortly before one goes to sleep), I don't find I have any trouble drinking in the morning. Drinks of choice: light wines (whites and rose`s), lighter beers (IPA's, American FCW beers), and fruit juice cocktails with said drinks (mimosas, red beer, orange beer), and of course, the occasional bloody mary. I don't do it on days that I'm working, and when I'm not working, I don't do it often. But, I do it a couple times a year. That kind of social deviancy keeps the mind young and the soul flexible.

Try baking some chicken with just salt and smoked paprika. Delicious! I just finished reading the article, and I was very disappointed that they didn't offer much guidance with pomegranate. I'd certainly try to use it, but I'm not very certain how it would fit into my cooking. Most everything else on the list, I already use. It's funny how learning to cook curry from some Indians and Malaysians helps out your spice usage.

When cooking with wine or beer, as much always goes into the cook as goes into the food. Bakers chocolate for brownies always ends up christening my lips, too.

The first batch, Vintner's Reserve Pinot Grigiot has been in the fermentor 6 days as of this post. It survived the furnace dying twice (which dropped the house to 50F) so, we'll see how everything turns out. I plan on the first rack at 10 days. Then 3 weeks til daily gravity checks. I was joking with the fiance that to make bottling easy, I ought to bottle it in mason jars. Unfortunately, that went over like a fart at a funeral. So, the load of bottles on top of the fridge will need cleaned and sanitized. I wonder where the hell we're going to store 25 bottles of wine...

So, is all of this going down the drain, or is someone going to make vinegar out of it? Y'know, lemons and lemonade and all.

That does bring up an interesting question. Why are hospitals investing in pets to bring to rooms to help keep people's spirits up when they could invest in a better food program. I know that if I were given a good chunk of fresh baguette, my spirits would be lifted to healing levels. Ditto with even something so simple as a bottle of Tabasco sauce in my "welcome to the ward" packet would help to some extent.

A good chef's knife and a small mallet would be my tools of choice. Set the blade on the joint you want to cut and then whack through with a blow from the mallet. Be careful not to do this simply on a bone, or you'll create bone fragments.

Cranky cooks? I'm going to second the sponge method. You may have something in your water that the yeast don't like. I do. The sponge method sometimes works to get around that. Sometimes it doesn't. Did you try changing from water to milk or buttermilk?

And Goya brand gas?

Popcorn and blanched kale suppers. 5 mile recovery runs High fiber, highly nutritious vegetables Fruit. Lots of raw or barely blanched stuff. Incidentally, left-over Christmas cranberry relish (the raw stuff) fits excellently into that mold.