lsmutko's Profile
HELP!!!
I didn't detect negativity, either. To me, "touristy" implies places like Hard Rock, Bubba Gump, things that pop up like mushrooms in any heavily visited spot. In many cities, especially New Orleans, there are definitely destination restaurants that a traveler SHOULD go to -- Galatiore's, Commander's and others frequently mentioned on this board -- because it enhances the experience and gives insight into the city. If you hang around here a little, you get the feel for who's local and for the frequent travelers and you learn an awful lot before and after visiting.
I haven't been able to get back this year, but just checking in here gives me a little mini-vacation from my laptop. I have a feeling it's like that for many.
Fair & carnival food
That was most certainly my mom -- the benefit(?) of having an unusual last name is there aren't many of us! And to bring back to topic, peach pop from the Kiwanis tent. I grew up there and am old enough to remember sneaking into the beer tent (when they had it). With a drinking age of 18, if you could see over the table, you could get served.
Fair & carnival food
The fair food from my western NY childhood was chicken marinated in Chiavetta's and grilled over big fires, vats of chicken chowder at the local volunteer fireman's field days, peach shortcake at the local peach festival, grilled sausage and pepper sandwiches and sugar waffles. Since moving away to SE PA decades ago, I've tried to make my peace with funnel cake, but still really want a sugar waffle instead.
How are meals served in your home?
Puppy is all about food -- there's discipline, but it's constant! A relaxing dinner is just now, since January when we picked her up, sometimes possible. I've recently broken her of her counter-surfing habits in the kitchen and thought we were doing OK, but then over the weekend she snagged my sandwich right off the table while I was three feet away. Bad puppy, and bad owner -- I should've seen it coming!
Pioneer Woman
I will watch Alone in the Wilderness any time it's on. It just sucks me in. It's like when Apollo 13 comes on for my husband ... everything else, no matter how many times you see it, just can wait.
How are meals served in your home?
I think the tiny dog having his own chair is fantastic. Our beloved shepherd who died last year would often clamber up and snooze on one end of the bench during dinner. New puppy is just now getting to the point where she'll relax on the floor during dinner rather than having to be contained in her crate. No begging allowed. But if they behave, I love having dogs around, mine or anyone's.
How are meals served in your home?
It's just me and husband, he works long hours and mine are erratic (work from home but must go out on appointments, sometimes evening into night). I do the cooking, from scratch. He is in charge of the grill, however, so he gets more of a workout in the good weather. On a typical night, I'll be home and have something prepared that might need a bit of finishing, generally involving a protein, starch, cooked greens or salad or a loaded soup or stew with all the elements within. We'll have a cocktail, set the table, and then I'll finish and plate in the kitchen and take to the dining room. It's not a formal dining room -- the kitchen is too small for eating in, and there's an open doorway and pass-thru to the dining room, which is also the room we generally just hang out it (It's a very old house -- a colonial farmhouse, in that it was built by real colonists before the Revolution, in Bucks County, PA). The table is about 8-ft long, with a bench on one side (drawers beneath add desperately needed storage) and chairs on the other. There's a huge fireplace, the room encloses the old summer kitchen and has an open ceiling, and we've got a TV in there as well as a couple armchairs. So we'll watch news or something and just relax. No dessert, except maybe a cookie.
On the weekends, we have people over at least one night, the apps are on the center kitchen island, which holds the stove, too, and typically include hummus, olives, meats and cheeses. Noshing and cocktails are imbibed here, visiting kids take over the living room and wander back in for snacks, while whatever is being finished. Again, usually a roasted something, a braised something, starch, greens, or could be a pasta. Whatever it is is rounded out by good bread or a toast with cheese or maybe an artichoke first if they look good and work with the rest. Evenly divided between plating in the kitchen or serving family style on the table, depending on what suits that evening's fare. If it's family style, serving pieces are used. TV off, music on, wine abundant. With people over, there's always a dessert and espresso or coffee or both. After-dinner drinks may be a sipping rum, whatever's left in the wine bottle or port. The liquor cabinet and the wine fridge are right there, so it's all pretty casual. But the napkins are cloth and the half-and-half for coffee decanted into a vessel. It's a little more to wash, but it's nice.
Vegetarian invited to a BBQ - Should I offer to bring something for my entree?
Yup. If I'm hosting I really appreciate knowing what guests may or may not eat. If I know, then it's not extra work, it's just being able to prepare something everyone can eat (and with any luck enjoy) with some guidelines in place.
Eeek! Mouse-proofing my pantry?
We also live in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere that dates to the mid-1700s with a shallow cellar. Metal and glass containers pretty much keep the temptation away.
Hercules (unless you've seen him) sounds like more than a mouse to me -- and I've battled squirrels and yes, once, rats that must have migrated from the hay pile in the field across the road when it was dismantled. That called for the professional help. And a lot of drinking until they were gone.
Excellent restaurant in Doylestown?
+ 4 for ... Honey. It's great.
We also had a great experience at M.O.Ms, Maxwells on Main, which has little to do with the old Maxwells as far as I can tell. Southern-accented American cooking, not fine dining, but tweaked pubby classics made quite well. The fried pickles were very tasty, the collards smokey and spicy and the fried chicken was excellent.
The Best of Bryn Mawr
I haven't been in a couple years since moving further away, but we always like Lourdas for Greek food. BYO.
DIPS WITH THOSE CHIPS
Bison sour cream and onion dip, made in Buffalo, NY, available through Amazon.
It's delicious.
Simple Recipes that are Incredibly Delicious!
I'm currently obsessed with the perfect baked potato. I cook a lot, of everything, yet realized I'd never baked a potato.
So I found a recipe on chowhound that called for oiling the spud, sprinkling with salt and baking at 400F for about an hour. Tried it, the house smelled great -- like a lovely delicious potato! It tasted fantastic; the skin was nice and crispy, the inside fluffy and delicious. I've now gone baked potato crazy -- leftover chili? Put it on a potato! Leftover stroganoff? Put it on a potato! Steak tonight? Yep, it's potato time. Home at lunch? Just a potato.
That Crockpot Meatball Recipe that Has Grape Jelly In It
This actually answers a question for me. Went to a party a couple of years ago thrown by close friends. She barely eats meat or much else, just doesn't care about food. He doesn't cook. We got there a little early to help out and she thrusts meatballs, grape jelly and steak sauce at me. She says, "[Other Friend] said to do half and half steak sauce and grape jelly and put the meatballs in the crockpot, she says people love it." Other Friend is a great cook who had to work that night, so away I went, skeptical but game.
The jelly melted into the sauce as it heated. I tasted. Even worse than I ever expected. Sooooooo sweet. I added mustard, I added worcestershire, lemon juice, hot sauce, anything to make it taste less like a candied tomato. I dumped the meatballs in and hoped for the best. They all went, but I'd tasted so much of the sauce as I doctored that I never really tasted the final product. I never spoke of it again, either.
Now I think the problem was that Friend Who Cooks meant Heinz 57 or Heinz Chili or even A1, but the friend who purchased the sauce bought Peter Luger, which has always struck me as much sweeter.
What is one tip you learned about cooking that was simple but made a huge difference: Part 2
To avoid burning crushed garlic, add it to the oil in a cold pan and heat both together. Burned garlic bedeviled me before a lovely restaurant owner in Florence clued me in. You can still burn it this way if you're not paying attention, but it takes longer.
It's a Chowhound potluck or dinner party.. two dishes (with a caveat) and a wine, beer or cocktail if you wish
My presence: My chicken and dumplings. Yes, it sounds like a prosaic dish, but I can't make enough of it when I serve it and it's probably my most requested dish. I leaven the dumplings a bit with club soda (I have no idea why that works), chive and a little bit of locatelli -- a scant bit. You almost can't taste it, but it makes a big difference.
The dirty secret: Kapusta -- at least that was the family name for it, though I think that only means "cabbage." Start with salt pork or bacon or fatback or whatever cheap fatty meat you got. Even saved bacon grease is fine. Brown an onion, then just wilt the cabbage in the fat/onion. Add canned tomatoes and juice, a toss of carraway and let it sit and stew on low flame for as long as you need. It's a dirty secret because it took almost 20 years of cooking for people other than family to bust that out -- I guess because, to me, it's just one of those things we ONLY served to family.
How do you define trashy?
#8. I have a friend who presents the little hot dogs wrapped in Pillsbury crescent dough as an old family recipe without a side of irony.
They are pretty damn tasty, though.
How many kitchen designers does it take . . .
Yeah, I think the Main Line's still a little more tradition-bound, but the whole metro area still sticks with the formal dining thing. I was just showing to a young couple in the Media area. Her mother came with the wife on a couple of second showings and she insisted on the mandatory nature of both the formal living and dining spaces for them. Personally, I much prefer their elimination for my lifestyle. And also personally, I really love your space and your ideas for it. I've got a fireplace in my decidedly informal dining room (which has a built-in bench for seating and storage, on one side of the table, a couple of chairs and ottoman for just hanging out and currently, a dog crate for puppy training) and I love it. It's the old 1760s outdoor kitchen fireplace for the farmhouse. Over the centuries, a couple of additions made it an indoor fireplace. It's just off the current kitchen (which is too small for an eat-in option) and is where we spend almost all of our time, either alone during the week or with guests on weekends.
Thinking of resale is always important, but thinking about how you really want to live is, too. And if the kitchen is designed well, it probably won't matter where it is. In time, I think even the Philly area will catch up with the rest of the world.
How many kitchen designers does it take . . .
Especially where you are -- Main Line? I sold a fantastic 1950s ranch in Willistown, it was basically two big public rooms under a cathedral ceiling with a wall of windows along the back overlooking woods. There was a dining "nook" adjacent to the living room, but the owners had the large kitchen set up with the dining table for formal and informal dining and seating for up to 10. Four more if you included the stools at the island counter. The nook held two leather club chairs and some bookshelves. I can't tell you how many people looking at the house just couldn't get past the lack of the formal dining room, while the way the house was set up made perfect sense to me in terms of the way people really live.
When it sold, the new owners put a table and chairs in the nook under a (hideous) chandelier, and moved a futon and exercise bike in the large kitchen space that had held the dining table. So people will do things that I just don't understand ...
How many kitchen designers does it take . . .
When I think of someday selling the house, I wonder whether having a kitchen in that location might seem too unconventional for potential buyers. I know, I know -- I should make changes based on what works for us NOW, and what OUR needs and desires are, and that's what we'll do -- but we'll do it in moderation.
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Definitely talk to a couple of real estate agents in your area. Whether it will be a problem on resale or not depends on a couple things, including your local area, the fit and finish of the kitchen and how old it is when you sell. If you feel comfortable that you're going to stay in that house for 15-20 more years, it's less important to your resale -- the kitchen will be due for a remodel anyway, and most buyers would probably accept that fact.
Local tastes do vary -- I work in the greater Philadelphia market, and we are among the very last market areas where buyers INSIST on having a formal dining room. So many other markets have gone to the integrated kitchen/great room/dining open floor plan. While we do have that here, especially in remodels and new construction, there's still the desire for the additional formal dining room that gets used two or three times a year.
Where to eat in Niagara Falls/Buffalo area
Just downriver is Lewiston, and a restaurant I've never seen mentioned is definitely worth some more love. Carmelo's on Center St, upscale modern Italian, really excellent food, the dining room used to be the village jail in the 1800s, so it's old but not draped in Ye Olde-ness.
http://www.carmelos-restaurant.com/
The village itself is worth a stroll and they've really updated the waterfront. Stop in at DiCamillo's Bakery, try their "pizza bread," really focaccia or their sweet baked goods.
http://www.dicamillobakery.com/
If you're there when in the spring/summer/fall, get a cone of frozen custard at Hibbard's. It's quite delicious. No website.
If you venture south to Buffalo, I highly recommend a hot dog stop at a Ted's. Local chain, flame-broiled dogs and burgers, and for a truly local flavor, a loganberry pop (not soda in WNY).
http://www.tedsonline.com/
Costco worth it for a couple?
This is why I've been tempted, but ultimately don't go for it. We have a farmhouse built in 1740. Charming on the good days, a big pile of rocks on the bad. The cellar is dirt-floored and gets water coming UP after a good rain -- low water table, I guess. It does dry and air out quickly, but there's no way to store anything. Closets and storage weren't big priorities when the house was built, so until we move somewhere else (soon, I hope), it is not to be. Half of the attic is now a bedroom suite, with bath and that's where I built the only usable closets we have. Between clothes, shoes, every box from every piece of electronic equipment my husband has and just general stuff like Christmas decorations, we're full up.
What do you do in a restaurant that you never do..... [moved from General Chowhounding board]
Wear shoes.
Dining-In vs Take-Out
We live in the literal middle of nowhere, so no delivery option available for us. When we do take-out, it's usually because we've both gotten home late from work and long commutes, between 8-9 pm, I just want to take my shoes off and eat something good to great that I didn't have to cook. For example, I can pick up our favorite Chinese 15 min from work, but then I have to drive about an hour. A quick run through the microwave works for it. Pizza's about 20 min away, but it's a great thin crust that reheats and crisps wonderfully in a 400F oven.
BBQ Shrimp question
Thank you, I'll definitely be trying this.
Although I did just wing it with my original plan -- made the sauce at home, let cool, transported and reheated.
The emulsion actually held up pretty well -- a couple of whips with a whisk as the sauce reheated on the one free burner kept it from separating. A couple dashes of worcestershire and adding lemon slices once it was hot freshened it up. All that remained was to not overcook the shrimp, which was accomplished.
Turned out 4 doz. jumbo shrimp this way and all was happily consumed and sauced mopped. But I'll definitely try the oven method. It looks a lot easier and efficient for large quantities. Which, it turns out, will probably be necessary given the reviews. Only a couple of people at the gathering had sampled the BBQ shrimp in New Orleans, so it was a novel and eye-opening preparation for the rest of the Philadelphia-area folks.
BBQ Shrimp question
I've made the New Orleans' BBQ shrimp before, using the Mr. B's recipe. But I'm on the hook for a large batch for a party tomorrow at a friend's. The recipe calls for cutting in the butter while the shrimp are cooking. I don't know how much time on a burner I'll have there, and the kitchen is really small for prep and actual cooking for more than one cook.
To me, it makes sense that I could assemble the sauce, with the butter, here. Rewarm the sauce and cook the shrimp in minutes there, as the app, while the rest of the dinner is close to done.
Do you think there'll be any discernable drop in flavor as a result?
What's the best way to grocery shop cheaply?
"When in the store, stay away from the inside aisles & just shop on the outside perimeters. The outside walls will generally have all your essentials there, like dairy, toilet paper & meats, & veggies."
This is great advice; it also works for health reasons. This was the exact advice my grandmother gave me -- it was how she shopped when she went on a strict heart-healthy diet (this was the 70s, when her only heart medication available was nitro). It served me well for cost and health when I got out on my own making very little. I would veer off into the pasta aisle, though. But the outside of the supermarket plan worked very well to keep me away from relying on the frozen/prepared/canned things and I learned to cook tasty cheap food.
Tell Me About Your Favorite "Square Meal?"
The favorite would be the Sunday supper standby when I was a kid.
Salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and onion, all home-grown, dressed simply with olive oil and vinegar.
A really good NY strip sourced from the local steakhouse that my dad frequented that was owned by a guy "from the neighborhood" he'd known all his life. He had his own cattle.
My grandmother's potato salad -- basic mayo/mustard style, but she always made a separate batch without the the hard-boiled eggs for me and dad (not hard-boiled egg people, and she couldn't imagine the horror of having her sainted and only son pick through to remove the egg).
For dessert? Fresh corn on the cob. Eaten out on the back porch, screened to protect from skeeters.
I was in high school before I realized not everyone (read NO ONE) ate corn as dessert.
We lived pretty far north, so summer twilight seemed to go on forever.
Adults that have been "sheltered" from cooking?
Dad's 80, Mom's 76. He worked more than full-time when we were kids, Mom did the stay-at-home thing once kid#2 came along (she was a teacher before that and went back to work after kid#1). After #3 was in school, she taught violin privately after school. She did most of the cooking, except for the grilling on the weekends. She wasn't particularly good, didn't enjoy it, and will admit to both now. Dad took to hobby cooking in the 70s, when he got into good food and wine, but it was always special occasion stuff.
After he retired in his early 70s, he slowly took over more of the cooking and now they're at the point where he does all the cooking for both and the shopping. It gives him something to do, along with many other hobbies, and Mom is happier to never have to set foot in the kitchen except to clean it up. The one bone of contention is that sometimes she'll clean a pan or bowl before he thinks he's done with it. Much good-natured sniping ensues about what constitutes "dirty" and it keeps them occupied and is, admittedly, rather entertaining to we now-adult children.
