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Maison Rustique

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Posts posted by Maison Rustique

    Liquid Smoke Help

    in Cooking

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

    I bought a bottle for a smoked salmon spread recipe a friend gave me. As everyone has said, it can be quite effective in small quantities. 
     

    My first bottle fell out of the cabinet in the Northridge earthquake, broke and leaked all over the place. Everyone who came over for ages afterwards thought something must be burning! 

    I used to make a smoked salmon spread with this--everyone loved it and always asked me to bring it to parties. I want to say it was from the BH&G cookbook. Been a few decades since I made it.

     

    That earthquake was a doozy. A friend who lived in Toluca Lake lost much of his extensive wine collection.

     

    • Like 1

    Trader Joe's Products (2017–)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    They did not have taquitos. They also did not have the cultured butter from Brittany that I have gotten addicted to. I saw no place on the shelf for it, so it has probably been discontinued. Harumph.

     

    I picked up a jar of this tomato soup with dumplings to try but I see now it got mixed reviews. I'll taste and doctor accordingly.

     

    I also got pre-mixed Negroni on a whim.  I tasted it last night. It is a little sweeter than most Negronis are when I order them out. I almost never drink cocktails at home, so I will likely end up tossing most of this at some point, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

     

    Got a new bag of the dark russet potato chips. Also was happy to see that they had dukkah again. I got hooked on it a few years back, then they discontinued it.

     

    Now, if only they would bring back the fennel, propylis and myrrh toothpaste...

    • Like 2

    Trader Joe's Products (2017–)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, Annie_H said:

    ^Yes, newspaper and cardboard are great insulators. Foil bags with re-freezable ice packs---I keep mine in zip-locks in case of leaks. Frozen foods in the bottom of your cooler with ice packs and top with a couple layers of cardboard. Then any cheeses, veg...not frozen stuff but needing fridge temps above the layers of cardboard. Ice packs just under a layer of cardboard will keep all that fridge cold. 

     

    I can travel three days with frozen and fridge foods in a cooler. (a bit more planning but can be done).

    I keep insulated bags in my car for my shopping bags. If I have multiple errands I toss in a few ice packs. 

     

    *Walden local meat share are recycling their canvas insulated bags again but all 2020 they did not want them back. Before covid I purchased a couple similar on Amazon. 

    I save the foil pack bags from Misfits and deliveries that use them. We have had whole chickens, a turkey, and various meats arrive solid frozen delivered fed-x. Sometimes two days in transit. 

    The last pastured raised chicken from Misfits took three more days to thaw in the fridge after delivery. 

    We have been off our homemade bread game for about a year now. I'm not a TJ shopper for many reasons but really want the scallion pancakes!. I have a good recipe but at that price, yum. 

     

     

     

     

    IMG_2349.jpeg

    That is amazing. One of the reasons I cancelled Misfits and Imperfect was that the meat/fish were defrosted by the time I got them and I had to throw them out. I use ice packs in my cooler, but things just don't stay frozen if it is in the 90s. Maybe I need a new cooler. 

    • Like 1

    Trader Joe's Products (2017–)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    I got the Hatch chili flakes last time, too. We aren't super-spicy food eaters, so I seldom buy fresh peppers because I end up wasting 95% of them. I put the chili flakes in the last batch of chili I made and it was really good.

     

    Butter--have I mentioned before the TJ's cultured butter from Brittany? OMG! It is so good. I am really hooked on it.

     

    I wish they would open a store closer to us. It is just far enough that I can't but frozen foods unless it is really cold weather. Even though I rake a cooler, the frozen stuff just doesn't stay frozen in warm weather months. I need to make a trip next week and get some of those scallion pancakes.

     

    I always enjoy using my ancient TJ's bags when I go. Since they only opened stores here a few years ago, my bags from 30-40 years ago are like collectibles. The cashiers often say, "Oh! Where did you get that TJ bag? I've never seen that one!" 😄

    • Like 5

    Trader Joe's Products (2017–)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    12 hours ago, cyalexa said:

    I just tried the TJ dark russet potato chips and thought they were amazing. Made me think of my mother who loved Wise potato chips. 

     

    I love extra brown foods. These chips are great. If you haven't tried them, try Extra Toasted Cheez-its--either the real brand or the Aldi knock off. Both are good.

     

     

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    Costco

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    15 hours ago, lemniscate said:

    Another run to Costco to get milk, butter, cheese, veg, eggs....staples.   There's a "hot buy" on pork shoulder that I brought, I picked one of the smaller packages, but its still 13ish lbs of meat.   I will do the Chefsteps pork shoulder 24 hour version and portion for the freezer this weekend.  

     

    I did have 1 impulse buy.  I have a 'meh' relationship with pancakes.  I never order them at restaurants.  Making them at home is useless because more batter is made than desire for pancakes in our house.  Crepes are a different matter and there's a couple great creperies not too far away to scratch that itch.

     

    However, I found these La Marie Patissier (origin France) mini pancakes, pre-packaged.  Each small package has 2 soft and slightly sweet pancakes, maybe 3".  So far I just ate them right out of the package, but I'm sure heating them is no issues.  I think $9USD for 25 packs of 2 at my Costco.

     

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    I got those pancakes a year or so ago at my Costco. They were tasty, but I didn't use them as quickly as necessary. I took the rest and used them to make a maple-bacon pancake bread pudding. Waste not, want not!

    • Like 3

    Imperfect, Misfit, Etc. (The Food Delivery Services)

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    10 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

     

    Looks interesting.  I can't quite see how Market Wagon works.  Can anyone explain in simple words?

     

     

    I'm not sure how they manage it but the foods all come from local producers. And they seem to deliver nearly everywhere. I have no idea. It has to be a logistical nightmare. Or maybe it is set up like a franchise where each region has someone who pulls it all together for that area. If anyone knows, please share.

     

    Commercial spice mixes

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    57 minutes ago, TdeV said:

    @Maison Rustique, sounds delicious. And that recipe would be?

    This is for a huge quantity. I cut it down considerably when I made it and it still made a lot because there are so many ingredients. I found all the flowers on Amazon because I don't think there is a good source locally.

     

    This is from blog post (I think, but I have no idea what blog it was now.) The narrative in this is not mine:

     

    Quote

    Like many of the things that I find at Trader Joes, Flower Pepper was one that was short-lived. Shortly after discovering it (and subsequently falling in LOVE with it), they discontinued it. I was not about to live without my new-found pantry staple...so I set out to make my own.

    I no longer even have plain peppercorns in my kitchen. My pepper mill is constantly full of flower pepper. Between that and sea salt, there's not much else I season with (well, maybe fish sauce).

    This was my second Christmas making "Uncle Daisy's Organic Flower Pepper" as gifts for friends and family. (The story about "Uncle Daisy" will have to wait for another time, but let's just say, like the nickname Food Sheriff, it's another childhood story.) This year I had to make even more than last year, as the word has spread and I've got friends asking for larger bulk quantities this time around!

    While pretty simple to actually make, there are a few pointers I would suggest for you making at home:

    1. Go organic. Flowers are known to have some pretty nasty chemicals sprayed on them. Take the time to search and find all organic ingredients. I've had good success using sources like Frontier Natural Products Co-Op and even found a lot of items on Amazon. C'mon people, just use google. 
    2. Sort through the ingredients. Though the roses are the worst (I have not been able to find organic petals, only buds - and the buds won't run through the grinder), you may have twigs in the lavender or even small stones in the peppercorns.
    3. Think small...but not too small. Another lesson from last year, I found that large pieces of some of the petals (calendula in particular) will tend to get caught in the mill. Using either a food processor or one of those super-duper high speed blenders, give your ingredients a quick pulse to make the pieces smaller. But DO NOT grind them into dust. You may even want to sift out the smallest pieces prior to mixing it all together.
    4. Pepper burns. That's right, it burns! My first time around making flower pepper was a painful lesson. I rolled up my sleeves and mixed it by hand. Not only did it start burning and itching my skin, but I was sneezing like crazy! So be careful when mixing it up.

    Here's my recipe - it yields a total of about 24 cups

    • 5 pounds organic black peppercorns
    • 4 cups organic lavender flowers
    • 8 ounces organic rose buds (that weight is before sorting - it yields about 3 cups after sorting and pulverizing into smaller pieces)
    • 1 ounce organic cornflower petals (about 1 cup after pulsing in the food processor)
    • 1 ounce organic calendula petals (about 1 cup after pulsing in the food processor)

    Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy!

    Quote

     

     

     

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

    Commercial spice mixes

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    I love Penzey's blends. Fox Point, Sunny Paris, Garden Salad (I've never used on a salad. I use it on garlic bread.), Mural of Flavor and probably others. Occasionally, Trader Joe's has a blend I really like. A number of years ago they had Flower Pepper--black peppercorns with various flower petals. Like many things I love, it was promptly discontinued. My sister and I moaned about it for years and years. I finally found a recipe online and made my own a couple of years ago. 

     

    • Like 3

    Experimenting with my Bread Machine

    in Pastry & Baking

    Posted

    8 hours ago, ElsieD said:

    Has anyone ever made brioche dough in their bread  machine?  If you have, would you mind listing the ingredient list for me?  I would like to make the dough but shape it into buns.  

    I haven't made it but I'm sure there are recipes in my bread machine cookbooks. If you'd like them, I can post.

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