jsolomon

From here the Lincoln Journal Star it appears the people have spoken on how they prefer their beer to be bottled. Which do you prefer? Bottle? Keg? Can? Barrel? Personally, I enjoy a good brown glass returnable, but I would like to know other people's thoughts (and advertise a story about a good guy and my old boss)

Great coffee does it every time. As does (surprisingly) toast with cinnamon sugar on melted butter. Rhubarb upside-down cake.

I'll have to give my vote to the most creative use of ice cream and Nutella (within the confines of the foodblog, mind you)

How finely did you grind the sausage? Having finely ground sausage can also cause a drier texture. Aside from that, I usually ask my butcher what the fat percentage is, and then figure he's low-balling it.

It depends somewhat. For instance, last night, I tossed in some mushrooms and a fine chiffonade of mint into my and my girlfriend's carbonara last night. It was lovely. Becky asked me if I put anything "weird" into it, and I said no. Well, naturally mint isn't weird. But, it was just enough to perfume the bite but not affect the flavor. Quite lovely. When I told her, she just shrugged her shoulders and continued to tuck in. But, I've had people get pissed at me for serving them heart. Beef heart. Honestly, once you remove the skeleton and muscles, the steer doesn't have much use for his heart, so why not? Americans spend an inordinate amount of energy anthropomorphizing their foodstuffs. And Momma Nature has rarely won a Miss Congeniality contest.

Yes, but can he hold a candle to y'all cooking? Truth be told, though, my favorite low tea snack is a pint of IPA or a proper sweet stout. Edit: grammar police

Dilbert was remarkably on topic for this thread.... Clickety

I've got it! Nutella!

Heh. The chemistry department I used to be in would just as soon invite everyone for tea, toss in a grenade, and lock the door. Those cats cannot get along whatsoever... and to think, they wanted me to look up to them as role models. Over my cold dead ice cream covered body! But, it would have been nice if they would have had low tea. Not that there weren't plenty of Mountain Dews being cracked open about that time of day...

Gazpacho is definitely awesome. Peanut butter is good, too. Even though it's got some calorie punch, it has good nutrition to go with it. And berkerka, you oughtn't be intimidated. My lifestyle has its own unique pathologies which will probably see me drop dead at 40 in some embarassing state at an underground sports event. Live hard, die young, leave a handsome corpse... but I'll join you in some ice cream!

Well, I'm not a calorie-counter... as you can see. But, my suggestion would be: eat something to get your blood sugar up, e.g. some fruit or yogurt (my personal faves are prunes and grapefruit), and then something with caffeine, e.g. tea or coffee to help reduce your appetite. Edit to add: I also have to sing the restorative praises of a simple pickle. A couple of kosher dills always restores my flagging resources.

Actually, that would be "disinfecting". Sterilization is a higher level of bacterial death which alcohol does not attain.

Well... beat eggs in her favorite coffee cup and tell her that's exactly why you need a BGE or the like. You can't do certain things with the Bullet. You need the proper tool.

On the particular Grill Dome I pictured, it would be a stretch to get that much meat in it, you're right. But, you must admit, it looks sharp. However, having a Smokey Mountain and a ceramic cooker would allow you certain amounts of greater flexibility in how you cooked what you were cooking. Different tools, different uses.

Oh, I certainly agree with you. There are differences between "clean" "antiseptic" "disinfected" and "sterile". And, bacteria and fungi have been around much longer than we and have many many tricks up their sleeves to survive quite harsh environments. However, handwashing will get rid of the vast majority of vegetative (actively living, eating, and growing) microbes on your skin. All bets are off when you ask about spores and the like. Also, keep in mind the culturing process will turn most spores into vegetative cells...

Hello, I have a smoker very similar to the Char-Grill that is pictured upthread. I also have some lovely pecan firewood... but I can't get the @#$%#&%^# wood to actually light and stay lit. Am I simply too destined for a group home to try to smoke a butt or brisket? Is it kosher to put some lit charcoal underneath your wood to keep it lit until you've built up some heat equity? What am I doing wrong!!!???

Here are a couple of snaps of my uncle's Grill Dome for comparison.

Well, when you have one of those lovely (think T-bone or ribeye) steaks that you can find in Nebraska at room temperature and seasoned with some salt, 700F for 45-120 seconds on a side depending on the thickness and you will have this lovely Maillard caramelization and sweetness that you'll swear is out of this world. But, BGE's and the rest also hold their temperature very well, to my understanding, even at low temperatures. 225F for 18 hours isn't a problem once you know how to use them. edit to add: pure iron melts at 2780 F

There are several manufactures of cookers similar to BGE. Kamado, Primo, and Grill Dome are the main four competitors. All have their unique bits that set them apart from the rest. However, I don't think they're a "status" item, per se. I dont' know of many people who get their Weber Smokey Mountain nearly as screeching hot (700+ F) as my uncle has routinely got his Grill Dome to reach. The downside primarily is that the ceramic charcoal cookers do have a larger learning curve as their higher tolerances, greater thermal mass, and larger insulative values do affect their performance remarkably compared to a chunk of iron or steel. Also, I believe FG has posted in topics I've read that Kamado and the like are really the thing for the money. However, if you're wanting to shell out fewer bones, either a side-box smoker, or a Weber Smokey Mountain will certainly do nearly everything you want your grill to do. Pair them with a chimney (for starting charcoal, and to get that afterburner-hot sear) and you've got a paired cookery set that should serve you well for many years.

Right now, I just have two tomatoes. Soon, I'll be putting in the herb part of the garden. Garlic, chives, parsley, basil, mint, dill, and horseradish

Actually, it doesn't quite work that way. The mechanism by which antibacterial soap is antibacterial is much different than the mechanism by which antibiotics work, so it is very difficult to gain resistance. The funny thing is, the antibacterial chemicals added to soap, unless it's something like chlorhexidine gluconate (like surgeons scrub with), really don't do much better than soap and water alone. But, make sure you're using adequate soap, and scrubbing the whole surface of the hand.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned mountain oysters yet. From my experience, you essentially have to be a part of the "harvest" to appreciate their taste and texture... which is really interesting given the extreme chauvinistic bent of most of the "harvesters".

Yep. The dining hall is cavernous. Watch out for the muffins. The firsties have a nasty habit of cutting the top off, taking the crumb out, and filling it with travesties, then replacing the top.

I really do disagree with your second sentence. There is no reason why there shouldn't be a consideration toward the producers' intents or raisons d`etre. One thing that gets swept under the rug is the concept of "voting with your dollars." When you simply distill it down to the level which you state (and I hope I'm misconstruing what you wrote) you validate things like the trade in illegal migrant workers, resident illegal workers, food factory maltreatment of workers a la "Fast Food Nation". And, beyond my responsibilities as a consumer, as a producer, I have [had] similar responsibilities. Along with those responsibilities was a hell of a lot of pride. With that pride came a lot of interesting opinions about producers who grew other crops. It's exactly the same as in the military where the Army has rivalries with the Marines and Navy. Or, in research where you have the theoreticians versus the experimentalists. In programming where you have the application guys versus the database guys. Even in medicine, where you have the ED people versus The Great Unwashed of the Rest of the Hospital. The simple fact is corn farmers from Nebraska have found the path to truth light and happiness, and everyone else in agricultural production is envious Oh, wait, there's a different moral. With the amount of work our producers put in, we can't, as consumers label them ourselves. We've got to hear what the producers want to be called and use their labels because they are their own culture, and we're in a world of hurt if we severely piss them off.

Hmm, I must be a social pariah. I don't entertain much for a couple of reasons: People with my food tastes generally exclude people with my social tastes, and People with my social tastes generally exclude people with my food tastes. But, if someone invites me over to their house, I try to bring something that is going to be genuinely appreciated by them. Usually (given that most of my friends are young, just starting out professionals) it tends to be some form of labor. I come over and help them with gardening, tree-trimming, bicycle-maintenance, etc. One of my friends, I give swimming training to, as well.