jsolomon

I went to the Chicago Winter Biking Association's Santa Rampage last year, and the bar that we started everything off at had Hazed and Infused as their special for that day. I tried a bottle of it, and I must say, it didn't live up to my expectations. It didn't taste skunky, but it was definitely not like any other dry-hopped ale I've had. What flavors in it do you feel yourself drawn to?

Hmm, to blow the uptight schoolteacher's socks off? I think I would have to go with a cremant. But, the uptight schoolteachers in Nebraska are as likely to be tea-totalers as not. The times I have gone on a date and pulled out all of the stops on the wine and food, I've had many dates say that I sounded gay or looked gay because I was actually tasting the wine and food. I was letting my palate discern and letting the food and wine speak to me. Right now? My fiance prefers Bud Light. *sigh* She's coming along, though.

I think the culprit may be overcooking the potatoes slightly, too. I generally use a starchy instead of a waxy potato for my mashers, which also has some affect. Experiment. Besides, gluey potatoes aren't that bad. You can always use them as ingredients for things like breads...

Usually when you're doing this, you are either starting a new starter, or reviving a lagging starter. With a starter you have colonies of generally two creatures, a yeast and a bacterium. If either of the populations aren't in proportion to the other you will have two problems: it won't grow right, and it won't taste right. This is when you go through a few generations of the starter and discard part of it. It won't quite taste like the starter did, and it won't quite perform like the starter ought until going through all of those growth cycles gets all of the population hale and hearty.

I was doing this a couple of hours before you posted this topic due to being a couple of hours ahead of California. I was working on some coursework and had a glass of boxed Cabernet sauvignon. This particular method of wine delivery I've never sampled before, but decided it was time. It was a very industrial-flavored wine. It had big fruit and big flavor, but was similar to a synthetic fruit punch. There just weren't many flavors that I could pick out to make a profile of the wine. On the other hand, when I'm doing some heavy scholarly thinking, I don't want a wine to challenge my attention, so this one was doing it for me. Wine has got me through a good many papers, though. I'm especially fond of Pino gris when I read or edit. Something about the slate and mineral flavors make me focus better.

I hope that the future holds greater outreach from the current (and coming) culinary academies to the general population. To my estimation, there are generally 3 things that keep second-tier fine-dining establishments from having a non-interchangeable menu. 1: Diners aren't willing enough to be challenged 2: Chefs aren't willing/capable of challenging diners 3: All of the above If 2 is solved, then the possible height of the bar is pushed by many new things being invented. If 1 is solved, the expectation of bar height is raised, which adjusts the norm. But, going to a previous thread in which there was discussion of access to items, I think that generally the American populace is gaining a more open palate, and we've already started to see some of those changes come home to roost. I don't think that 15 years ago things like Applebee's Orange Chicken dish would have been as popular a dish for them. So, what I think the future will hold in America is that there will be a greater base repertoire on 6 main meats (beef, chicken, pork, halibut, tuna, and salmon), and a greater acceptance of more vegetable dishes. But I don't see goose, lamb, duck, or goat making much headway in the next 10 years. Additional things I hope to see: more light in fine dining restaurants, better noise cancellation/absorption in most sit-down restaurants, and etiquette crib sheets in the menus (for the backward hay-seeds like myself).

My (mostly male) running club has an annual red dress run. If it makes it to Nebraska, I'm sure it will have a great reception on our red dress runs!

If the beer you buy does not say to keep refrigerated, it is shelf stable at room temperature and you ought not worry.

True, but they aren't as satisfying as one you pull start.

No comments about my drinking habits, but I was driving in pastures, fields, and gravel farm roads at 3, and driving on public highways at 6. Even beyond that, I was driving a couple of hundred-thousand dollars of farm equipment several highway miles with no supervision by the time I was 11. My bottom line with those statements is that children will generally perform up to your expectations of them given proper supervision and leeway. Good expectations or bad expectations.

Set the sheet on 4 cell phones set to vibrate mode and call all 4? Alternatively, if you paint them in slightly, that should be enough--even though that's not your favorite method.

If you use froogle.google.com or a local homebrewing supply shop, you should be able to get reasonable prices on vitamin C.

Same thing with overnight pancakes (or waffles)

Leave it to Weird Al Yankovic to make something like Silly Choice Dinners. It's a little old for the "gilded turd", but it's classic.

Traditional-ish Indian curries, and then let her eat with her hands!

There are a lot of things in this question to sink our wine-stained teeth into. Does Daddy know why he swirls his wine? Does Daddy really taste his wine and talk about it during the meal? Does Daddy ask Junior or Junioretta about the flavors and textures that the children can find? Personally, I would love to do that to my meals. But, my fiance` doesn't look at food as I do, and does not experience food in my way (lo', she doesn't even have a user name here!). I would assume that if I had children, I would expect something of that. I would also expect them to assist in the meal planning and making. But, at what age do I think kids are capable of this? 12-ish years old. About the time they are getting old enough for the adults to transfer the truly mature ones to the adult table.

Does that coloring book still exist?

Jake, I support you for the most part. However, I am going to state that even in Broken Bow, Nebraska, a town of 4000 in the state's 2nd largest county (land-wise) having only 10,000 residents, we can find things like sriracha and artichokes. This is something that we wouldn't have found there even 15 years ago, IMO.

How tender did you cook the meat? I would tend to think you would want it just cooked, so it's still pretty tough...

Thanks for all of your replies! For those interested, the gumbo had all manner of wonderful stuff. Homegrown peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Collard greens. Butternut squash... all manner of goodness. Thanks for letting me not feel like I was letting eG down. The best part is, I still have 6 pints for lunches in the coming week!

Usually when steaming, you will want to pierce holes in the skin of the sausage. That will help abate the sausages from splitting. For the grinding question, did you use a motorized grinder? If so, you may want to make sure that you are icing the meat before you grind it to help keep heating down, and also lower the speed on your grinder.

Hmm... I think I might make gumbo with it. Greens and ham were on sale at the grocery store.

With the passing of the Autumnal Equinox, it is time to make soups again, which means, I need to make stock. I have been bad, and didn't have enough poultry bones to make a poultry stock. I didn't have enough beef bones to make a beef stock. Instead, I roasted off the poultry, and I roasted off the beef and made a mixed beef-poultry stock. It tastes okay, but I'm not quite sure what to do with it. Is there anything really interesting to do with this kind of stock? Or am I simply in culinary purgatory (with trying to figure out what to do with it) or in Culinary Hell (having committed a horrible sin)?

There are other cuisines that use lye or similar alkaline solutions. The nixtamalization process that maize goes through to become hominy. Usually, in this process lime is used instead of lye, though.

1: Yes, that is a standard, military issue, brown spoon 2: Yes we do get uncomfortable. That is why the Army standard, at least, is 1 MRE a day with either 2 cold, 2 hot, or a combination of hot and cold meals (unless you ask my hospital command who would rather be Rangers and can't pass their PT test) But, I have to ask Brooks, have you tried this one?