On something of an impulse buy, I got a .5l isi cream siphon. I now see that the directions warn not to use it for anything else but cream, which takes all the fun out of it. I am guessing that is marketing for the more expensive version/ butt covering for lawsuit prevention. I also want to believe this because it's too late to return it, and I want to experiment with it.

The cooking for geeks book suggests that as long as you strain your food through a strainer of 500 microns or less, you're not likely to clog the siphon (though they don't specify any differences between what i've got and the "professional grade" one.)

My questions are:
a) how do I determine what strainers are 500 microns or less? I have some possible candidates in my kitchen (tea strainers, cheesecloths, ordinary fabric, etc.), and might be willing to buy something, but most strainers aren't sold indicating the exact size of the mesh. I did see something called a "superbag", but 30 bucks for what looks to be a plastic bag seems just silly.

b) given that I've got the smaller, cheaper siphon, is 500 microns really okay or should I be even more conservative just in case? I've not used the thing yet, and I am intimidated by the possibility of something getting pressurized and stuck. We all know what comes next after "stuck" :).

Thanks for your help,

Dawn

For diet and money reasons I've been taking my lunch to work. But for time reasons the only lunch i can seem to manage is soup, because i can make it over the weekend. I can't even manage a sandwich in the morning--i intend to and after many intentions i've learned it just doesn't happen. Often the soups are just shy of making me full. even the hearty ones--there's only so much of it you can eat in one go. I then always have a piece of whole fruit.

Problem comes around 3-4 when I am STARVING. which leads to raiding the free chocolate bowl which still doesn't do the trick because I'm actually hungry. More fruit doesn't cut it. I need something cliff-bar like, something with substance and a bit of protien. I've seen posts refering to hummus and peanut butter--there's some possibilities in there but i also like the idea of making something over the weekend for this purpose. something easily self-contained. I don't trust myself with an open peanut butter jar in the drawer.

the only AM effort involved has to be remembering to put it in the bag, though i will happily do something that's lots of effort on the weekends, perhaps even weeknights if its good. It has to be reasonably healthy.

Thanks for any ideas!!

I live near the intersect of beaverton/aloha/hillsboro, and often don't want to go to portland for a decent brunch. Longbottom's seems to be the best option thus far. Farmer's market is closed. Are there any options I'm missing here?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Dawn

I lived in Russia some time ago (2000ish) and it was there that I really learned how to cook. I hadn't realised just how much I relied on prepackaged, semi-prepared things like pasta sauces, baking mixes, etc.. and at that time there wasn't that sort of thing there. So I had no choice but to learn how to use actual real ingredients. I definitely adjusted my perception of what was and was not a pain in the butt to cook. I found I had access to better produce, and when I would go to the places rich people would shop the quality went down. I've never found the need for convenience food since, and I've been back for many years. It's not just the quality thing, but now the idea that they are 'convenient' just doesn't hold anymore.

I never really picked up any Russian cooking, though I learned to experiment with things. ALOT.

My biggest regret was that in the autumn there are usually elderly people selling wild mushrooms on the streetcorner. I was being way too stick up my butt to trust them to have picked the non-poisonous ones. I'd buy them up by the bushelful now!

i lived in the UK from 1998-2006 and at at that time (in the south, mind you--it could be a north/south difference) 'muffins' were English muffins and 'american muffins' were the things that could be mistaken for cupcakes. 'fairy cakes' had a particular recipe, involving no blueberries or chocolate chips. Crumpets were the same things americans called crumpets.

It's actually just behind Sabor Salvadoreno, down the side street the tiniest way! We were going to go for pupusas one day but then saw this other place as we went to park and took a chance. THis guy does not do pupusas. I liked this place much better, though I'm not the hugest pupusa gal in general.

Tacos are $1.50. I've had the asada, carnitas and the pastor, all of which were great.

Just found a good taco place that I think is new (could be wrong). Called Chavitas, Just off 185th. If you are driving south on 185th headed towards the TV highway make the last left you can make before you get to the TV highway and you will see it.

The guy makes his own super soft tortillas, the meats are tender and fresh, the tamales are pretty outstanding. Only caveat is it is one guy on his own, and he can be pretty slow (actually my theory is that there might be something about his made to order philosophy that slows things down--he looks like he works pretty hard). If you aren't in a hurry, it is definately worth the wait.

Perfect if you work at one of the Intel or Nike campuses nearby! Am blatantly posting because it doesn't seem that crowded and i worry he might go out of business and then i would lose access to good tacos (no other motive though).

Thanks all...I was confused by the words "rose", and "marc" (not knowing about this stuff assumed it meant something related to brand). thanks... will post if they happen to import.

thanks all...I was confused by the word "rose", and had assumed "marc" meant something related to brand... not used to navigating this stuff. Thank you very much and I will post if they happen to import it.

I haven't seen the one in Feast, but she has a suspiciously similar sounding Ham in Coke in How to Eat, which I bought in the UK, and that definitely used British style ham that was cured but not cooked--think bacon writ large. I haven't been able to find this in the US since. Odd because this is a derivative of a concoction from the american south... gotta love globalization.

Took my aunt to a Provencal restaurant in Paris and had a wonderful desert based on a rum baba using a Provencal brandy. I asked the waiter the name of the brandy, and, having a serious translation problem, managed to ask him to show me the bottle of the brandy. He produced a bottle and I dutifully wrote it down. It was this.... Domaines Ott Chateau de Selle vieux marc de rose.....

Trying to find it on the internet and i keep getting bottles of rose! The glass was dark so I couldn't see the actual liquid inside. Did we get lost in translation? Was the waiter making a cruel joke? In any case if anyone who knows about these things can make a suggestion as to what this otherwise very good restaurant may have served me it would be much appreciated. I would like to buy a bottle for my aunt for Christmas.

I can't describe the taste other than delicious though I can say it was closer to a deep golden color as opposed to a darker brown....

A friend and I were musing about culinary impossibilities and it seemed to us that there was not a single way of making good use of cold leftover fries, either resurrected as fries or incorporated into something else. We fantasized about this being the perfect secret ingredient in Iron Chef America. We wanna see Cat Cora confused :)

Has anyone actually done this with any level of success? Even if you haven't tried, any clues as to what we might start experiementing with, should we take this on as a kind of quest?

Forgive me if this has already been talked about... I did do a search but didn't find anything...
Dawn

do you have ricotta? you could do something that was more in line with a blintz... there's always the classic Nutella.

its good for you because there is so much flavor it is possible to only have one or two bites and still have tasted something. `As dessert, it really finishes off a meal without having to continually go to town.

Shindiganna, would you mind posting the name/location on the SF board? I go to SF frequently and urgently, deeply crave Georgian food.

Your sweet (i think) is Tklapi. The version I've had served by Georgians in Russia is the same setup but the taffy-like substance is an apricot leather. That wouldn't explain your purple, though. According to my Georgian cookbook its likely to be a sour plum. Was it slighlty sour?

I have taken to making a version of your beet and walnut dish, which involves pureeing walnuts with some raw garlic, salt and pepper in greek-style yogurt and mixing that up with diced beets. Go easy on the garlic as it will be consumed raw. The walnut thickens the dressing. Various walnut/garlic/cilantro combinations form the basis of much georgian cooking. Though I don't know the name of this dish.

Many Georgians speak Russian so if I do go I might be able to get you more info.

There is a really fabulous cookbook called the Georgian Feast, which is worth reading both for its food history and recipes.

I really can't believe that Georgian is not more popular in the West.

yes i'm on the healthy bandwagon right now. The concentrated effort pretty much involves making sure that all food intake is a decision, not a default. I find default = "i'm not the sort of girl to deprive herself" and therefore 'bring it on', but if i take a decision about it actively i don't feel deprived because i know over the course of the day i will have some things healthy and some things not so much. So lots of meal planning, lots of trade offs, lots of remembering that 'that was really good' rather than 'i would really like another', and lots of trying to remember that I physically need less calories than I think I need. I seem to have more energy these days so I reckon I've kicked the sugar crack thing (sugar seems to have crack like effects on me).

The discipline is totally tedious but I seem to not feel deprived most of the time. Or at least when i do feel deprived I can understand that its a reasonable level and we just can't have what we want all the time. I am a natural glutton.

agreed. A week in argentina made me crave vegetables and sauce, though I travel everywhere and they were the only people to successfully convince me to eat offal. They talk lots about their italian heritage and then give the poor italians the middle finger by making 'italian' food extra bland. I do love my argentine colleagues though--fantastic lovely people.

Georgian, azerbaijani, etc. highly underrated. I cannot understand why it hasn't been a restaurant fad yet here in the US.

I used to get these when I lived in Britain and they were FANTASTIC. It is not pork roast, it ends up tasting like, well, ham. Except your not reheating it so it's not going to be dry or plastic0-y, which i find to be the case with almost all pre-cooked hams.

I make mine with a mixture of red wine, mustard and honey as a glaze which i add before it goes in the oven and keep basting. If you are lucky enough to have rind do not remove it; it helps keep the juices inside. you might want to score it though.

Nigella lawson has a ham in coke recipe which she says is southern. But I never quite understood this because the ham actually has to be cooked in the coke to get the flavor, and if its hard to get fresh ham in the US....

I happily have some pumlin and amaretti ravioli frozen from the weekend's efforts. the recipe suggests a buerre noisette with sage and a bit of cream. it's perfect except i've had that last time and now i'm feeling chubby and I've had far, far too much butter recently.

any suggestions for some alternative? I would say lighter, but if its not butter alone ,surely it will be by definition lighter...

doesn't seem to have shown up on this board so far. Does anyone have any ideas? Any price point is for the most part okay; we'll need lunches and dinners. We're open minded eaters travelling for business. I'm looking forward to steaks but can't imagine eating them for a week.

Thanks!
Dawn

The things I love about Nigella Lawson's How to Eat is she talks you through the recipes, effectively doing the visualization of the process and outcome through a nice narrative. And also that while some of them are of the extended complex variety many many of them are not. Many of them are about when one just cannot be bothered to fuss in the kitchen. And so she will help her understand about that, and that both varieties are okay. and also (okay third thing), because its a nice read, it won't feel like a mechanical how to. really, i find nigella the most assuring. and i have a crush on her.

I'm no ribs expert, but I can't get enough of Reo's Ribs on the TV Highway. Also fantastic baked beans...

If you plan on actually eating the skin (which they do in Europe) do not brine!!!! `you want it crispy. store with plenty of air circulation. if you can't, then salt and dab to draw out some of the moisture. definately score in 1-inch or so increments.

If you don't plan on eating the skin, do make sure to let the roast come fully to room temperatures before roasting it. Otherwise, the outside will get dry before the inside has the chance to cook. and let rest 10 mins after its out

I find with this sort of pork I don't need it covered at any point in the cooking process. the fat plus skin does the job.

I was in northern China last week and had some FANTASTIC potato dishes. The idea was--pieces of sweet potato or taro piled high with a sugary sauce poured over. You grab a piece and dip it in ice water so the sugar hardens and you have hot and sweet and crispy chewy potato. It was sweet potato or taro and sometimes pumpkin that was used. The potato didn't taste fried, but then again i didn't think it was boiled either--there were brown bits at the corners. But i don't think they use ovens there, though could be wrong. There were no other flavors besides the sugar and potato. A taiwanese friend tells me you can do this with bananas too.

any pointers? When you grabbed the potato the sugar formed strands. Even some direction on how to get a syrup to do that would help.

Thanks!

well, all of what you say is mostly true in my experience. Though the place changes SO much, it could be totally different now. (I've been going on and off for the last 5 years). Unless you are a hipster, or it is a special event, the locals tend to either stay in or grab something quick, one step up from fast food. Places where you order at the counter can actually be quite passable there. The blini stands are good lunch options, as are markets. Definately check out the Georgian food, probably the best restaurant bets. Never went inside the Noble Nest, but it always struck me as one of the places that tries too hard so that the new rich take their arm candy there.

If its still around, the restaurant in the Astoria hotel on St Issac's Square has fantastic food. Straightforward yuppie food but good.

going there in August. Likely Hei He or someplace similar. First time to China. As i don't know the exact town yet, was hoping someone could give me a heads up on regional specialties. Is the food influenced by Russia at all? Is there anything i should be getting excited about?

the other night i made lasagna and had more leftover noodles than i was happy to throw out, but less than i would make some other meal out of. i remembered when i was a kid and my mom had leftover noodles i would take one, slather it in butter, put some cinnammon sugar on it and have a pre-lasagna lasagna dessert. I did this in the end but thought maybe there is something more creative to do here. What would you do?

And another thing-- all those darned fortune cookies that you get from chinese takeaway that never get eaten. Seems silly to just throw out. Do you do anything interesting with those? Crumble them into something?

I have a system for bread down. My freezer is littered with bread scraps for bread puddings and panades. i have even been known to steam back to life rock hard half loaves that dried out before they went moldy.

What are your spare parts in the kitchen and what do you do with them?

What are the scraps that sit in your freezer mocking you, saying 'you'll never find a use for me! Mhwahh ha ha ha!" (well mine do this....)

i know i've posted about these guys before, but the Leaky Roof is a great breakfast spot. 16th and Jefferson, walkable from the max. serves both classics and 'fancy' versions of classics, like savory french toast and pear and blue cheese crepes. run by a very nice irish man. I've never had a bad meal there.

I've been three times now to the Leaky Roof on 16th and SW Jefferson and can honestly say it must be the least buzzy yet high quality place in Portland. THere's never any wait for brunch and i totally can't understand why. Honestly, it makes me swoon. Not pretentious, and refreshingly not one of those uppity places trying really hard to be not pretentious. Just seriously well executed, beautiful food. Also an extensive whisky list if you're into that sort of thing. Looks like nothing from the outside, so i must have walked by it I don't know how many times without thinking twice about it.

THey serve actual British style bacon! Yeah they call it 'Irish' but hey I won't quibble :)

I have no relation to the place whatsoever. other than its made me happy with good food.

was there a couple weeks ago. Consensus was "good food, wouldn't want to have to pay for it ourselves." I don't mind spending money on food, but this just doesn't meet that magical price/quality ratio that makes me feel okay about parting with my cash.

I'm a huge fan of Paley's Place on NW 21st and Northrup.