The Ranger's Profile
Milk on a Grease Fire?
> Most liquids (including water and milk) are lighter in weight than
> grease -- it's going to fall to the bottom of the burning grease
> where the high temperatures will cause it to boil.
Did you mean "most liquids are heavier in weight than grease" than the "lighter in weight you typed? That would make more sense to the remaining text.
Best and Worst Recipes You Made From a Cooking Show
:) My wife was not at all understanding of the water hose. Something about "lawsuit" and too much force being applied. To me, it got my point across. Until recently, my trees were left alone after the incident, which is what I wanted in the first place... Go figure. Human memory, unless triggered with a negative, doesn't keep information long.
As far as being tolerant, the trees produce more fruit than I can eat or share-out. As long as somone doesn't tear either apart, I am willing to let them take a few home so the squirrels and possums don't. It's the lack of caring that is exhibited that irks me, almost like, "It isn't mine so what do I care if I kill it?"
SFBA but I have friends in TX and Pa that experience similar issues so it's not just a Left Coast thing.
I showed my daughter-units the pictures of the chocolate persimmons you provided. Two want me to plant one, the other was... Uhm. Unimpressed. "It's rotten on the inside. I wouldn't eat it." This is the same one that couldn't get enough Jackfruit (that giant Asian pod-fruit with the sap that doubles as a Crazy Glue stand-in.) Go figure. ;)
Best and Worst Recipes You Made From a Cooking Show
We're beset by fruit thieves around my municipalities. I posted my experience from a few years ago dealing with a couple such "walkers." Here's the post to ba.food. I'm the second poster.
http://groups.google.com/group/ba.food/browse_frm/thread/2c13eace1f99c695#
Best and Worst Recipes You Made From a Cooking Show
The chocolate persimmon sounds interesting! I _just_ finished planting a hachiya and hope to have it producing as prodigiously as my fuyu within three years. Lessons learned from the fuyu; keep it in the backyard away from The Walkers, leave it the heck alone<!!>, ambush the neighbors so you can continue giving the produce away throughout the season.
Best and Worst Recipes You Made From a Cooking Show
:)
PRC laws prohibit transportation of fruit across our borders upon pain of death, or something like that...
http://www.tonytantillo.com/fruits/persimmons.html
Cash only eateries
I'll ditto Naco's advice. Look for the 4-Icon stickers (Visa/MC/DC/Amex) posted on the windows by the front door and host/ess' (cashier) station. More than once, after quickly asking because I didn't see the stickers, I've turned and left because I didn't have any cash or wasn't willing to find an ATM and get some. There are just too many other restaurants about that willingly accommodate my credit usage.
There are two local restaurants that I've become a regular that have now have signs all over the place stating "No Credit Cards Accepted; Cash Only" as a result of catching new customers unaware after-the-fact.
Best (Funniest? Wittiest?) Food Quotes
Here's one from alt.food.barbeque, "Our butcher was so good at reducing waste from animals, the only thing he couldn't recycle was the squeal from a pig and the moo from cows."
Best and Worst Recipes You Made From a Cooking Show
Can't help you there. It's just not worth putting myself through it again to find out the whys and wheres. :)
Best and Worst Recipes You Made From a Cooking Show
I wonder if that would work as well with my fuyu persimmons...
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
I found this very funny when you posted it.
Today, 12 hours after one of my twin daughters did it, I'm not finding the humor quite as... enjoyable?
There's nothing like seeing a column of smoke running up the stairs of your home from the kitchen at 9pm.
Seafood filled loaf of bread
Alas, yes, with Pernod. My taste buds and -- hence -- my wallet did not appreciate it.
There have only been two bottles of liquor that I have ever tried to give away (and still failed); Laophraig SMS and Pernod. Even "free" wasn't incentive enough for either with my circle of friends.
Seafood filled loaf of bread
My Yahoo search yield no hits on "kalliakukko." Bummer on me; I was hoping to find something on it. Do you have a recipe?
Seafood filled loaf of bread
This was the recipe I made also from memory after reading one of the links posted above (Parentitis Flare-up occurring; I think it was BigSal).
Having said that, someone was kind enough to review the episode and send me the details. Here's the results below. The dinner turned out MAHR-vehhluss (although a little greasy from the butter).
The Ranger
--
INGREDIENTS:
1 large, round country-bread loaf
GARLIC-HERB BUTTER
½ cup parsley
½ cup herbs (basil, chives, and chervil)
6 large cloves garlic
3 TBS nuts (Pignoli or Almond, roasted)
1-½ sticks butter, softened
½ teaspoon salt* (If using unsalted butter be sure to add this)
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 TBS dry white wine
2 shallots, finely chopped
½ lb cod, cubed (Atlantic, Alaskan, Ling, or Haddock)
½ lb tuna, cubed
½ lb salmon, cubed
½ lb calamari steaks, sliced into strips
½ pound wild or white cultivated mushrooms
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut off the top of the loaf of bread and remove. Set the lid aside as a cook's snack while enjoying a glass of wine. Then remove interior of bread for bread crumb mixture. Do not tear bottom or sides of loaf in removing interior. Leave approx 3/4 inch of "siding" to help with leak-prevention. Once the interior bread has been hollowed-out, you'll have a large "bowl."
Process interior of bread in a food processor to make 2-1/2 to 3 cups of moist bread crumbs. Set aside.
For the garlic-herb butter: Put the all herbs, garlic, and a pinch of salt atop in the food-processor and chopped ingredients fine. Add in pignolis or almonds, softened butter, salt, pepper, and white wine; process until blended. Add the shallots. Process until whipped. Using a spatula, coat the inside of the hollow loaf with about a third of the garlic-herb butter.
Cut fish fillets into 1-inch pieces, squid into strips, and slice the mushrooms. Sprinkle half the mushrooms and half the seafood into the bread bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Add a layer of the garlic-herb butter and about half of the breadcrumbs. Add the remainder of the seafood and mushrooms. Again season lightly with salt and pepper.
Top with remaining butter and cover with the rest of the bread crumbs. Lightly moisten the breadcrumbs with the a little of the wine you plan on serving with the meal.
Place entire loaf on a ridged* cookie sheet (the butter will not "absorb" completely so you'll need to contain it) and bake for about 1 hour.
Let the dish rest for 5 minutes after you take it out of the oven and cut it into large chunks.
Serve with a Santa Cruz chardonnay or Lake County sauvignon blanc.
Olive Garden: Undeserved Reputation?
"Location, location, location."
Many OGs are along major traffic routes, near large hotels/motels, etc. where choices to quality mom-and-pop places are severely limited. When I worked for a large corporate steak chain, our development department was very good and running numbers (min/max, parking, etc.) and making decisions on where new restaurants would be opened. I would bet OG's parent company has a similar program.
Then you market to the masses. These are sheeple that don't care about things like 2-hr waits, food that isn't authentic, using specific (special) ingredients beyond salt and fats to enhance taste, and think volume equates to quality, which ties into what they think value (bang for the buck) for the experience represents.
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
> And of course forgetting to turn off the stove or oven
My wife, bless her subtlety and humor, is fond of asking when I leave the oven going, "Were you prepping it for tomorrow's meal as well?" A friend taught me to sign the cross, "Oven, Stove, Fridge, Water" before leaving our kitchen. It's reduced the necessity for her commentary at me. :)
Vodka for a picky vodka-lover
Just tried a Polish vodka last night that, if I can find a reasonably priced 1.75 liter will replace the Ketel One. Gvori Vodka. Was very good neat but also made a mean screwdriver.
Does one's gender affect food preferences?
I guess I'm one of the outliers to your observations. I enjoy chicken in a predominant number of dishes, eat salads more often than not, don't enjoy super-spiced dishes (although there was a time in my life when machismo was more important than enjoyment of said food), and would take fish over beef because I don't enjoy beef as much. I enjoy SMS but can't stand a lot of gins, enjoy wine over beer, and am turning myself into a pear due to the significant drop in recent physical activity.
Likewise, the females in Clan Ranger are all true carnivores (could easily enjoy beef at every meal but I force the issue of variety by offering fish, chicken, duck, etc.), consider salads (and most green vegetables) similar to a cat nibbling on grass ends, and aren't into super-sweet drinks.
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
> [..] went to make toast in the oven
I didn't call the fire dept this morning but the blackened Melba Toast that survived was inedible. I also set the smoke alarm off (which is what triggered the "Oh NO!!" adrenaline rush)... My fitting "punishment" was waving a magazine under the smoke alarm until it went off and then "listening" to two hornet-stung teenangsters buzz me about waking them before they were ready to get up.
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
Thank you. My short-attention span and a natural ability to heal quickly have always provided for better turns throughout the day. ;) Today was no different.
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
Uhm... This morning after the paper filter collapsed and I walked out at 5:30 am to a pool of coffee all over my counter top. Cleaned up the counter, base of the machine, and proceeded to remove the glue-affixed carafe. Without thinking, I continued using the then soaking-wet towel to wipe down the hotplate. I remembered too late about heat-transfer and steam... I didn't need my morning cup of coffee after all.
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
/smile
Skooch over a skoshe and we'll commiserate together.
I can often be found attempting to catch one of the knives I'm using that has accidentally started falling towards the floor. It's completely unintentional and I've often traded the ER nurses and doctors stitches for laughter. My MIL observed my cat does similar things with feathers that get dragged in front of him, only those he doesn't get hurt by. Go figure.
Seafood filled loaf of bread
I always thought the croque madame was dipped in egg wash prior which would make it a Monte Cristo but can appreciate the simplified version.
Seafood filled loaf of bread
Jacque Pepin's and Julia Child's, "Cook together" series, _Our Favorite Sandwiches (episode #104), made several sandwiches that looked delicious. One of them was a Seafood mix (cod, tuna, squid, and something else) baked sandwich that I, of course, would like to try but didn't catch any of the details, including the name that Jacque called it.
He hollowed out a day-old loaf of sour dough, used the interior of the bread for the breadcrumb topping, cut up the four different fillets of fish, he lavishly slathered a butter mix inside and atop the hollowed-out loaf and baked it.
As you can tell, the above is woefully short on details.
Does anyone have the recipe or a name that I can search on? I just got back from my local library and this book has been checked out.
Many thanks!
Do you use coupons at restaurants?
> A coupon does not attract new business.
Hm. I guess all those new restaurants I try via coupons, cards, and web discounts aren't aware of this gem of knowledge...
Yuck...I'm being waited on by a sick server!
Money. The rest of the bad managers are in retail.
Original Pancake House [Moved from the Manhattan Board]
Yes, the very one.
I once again gave them [the De Anza OPH branch] another shot and regretted my choice. How can one place drop so badly?
As far as Holder's Country Inn, I have one more convenient to me on Saratoga Avenue. Daughter-units Alpha & Beta, Spawn, and I all enjoy it. The waitresses work to make us feel comfortable and the foods hearty for a good price. SWMBO just doesn't enjoy it so it's not a regular on our restaurant rotations.
Cooking and tasting . . . do you use the cooking spoon?
It's completely dependent on the presence of one SIL. If she's present I'll go out of my way to let her see me "double-dip" a tasting spoon. Otherwise I use clean spoons because I have a dishwasher.
Yuck...I'm being waited on by a sick server!
> We should be pressing our own bosses and teachers to enforce
> isolation of sick people [..]
All well-and-good in theory but as someone that works in the public sector, it's unenforceable. Unless you have an administrator (boss) willing to draw the line and hold people to it, it's just not going to happen. I cannot tell you how many parents dope their children up on Tylenol/Advil/Motrin and send them to school. Unless the kid blows in the car right before drop-off, they just don't see an issue with it.
