bakeman's Profile
Awful Holiday Food Slam Book
My mom's aunt who had married well, twice, had never learned to cook, she had a cook on staff to do it, and staff to serve it.
She came home after her last divorce and decided to host thanksgiving, she got a recipe for the turkey from a magazine that cooked the turkey in a paper shopping bag! Well when trying to slice the turkey the breast meat literally shredded like saw dust, and of course there was nothing to make gravy from because the paper bag absorbed most of the drippings. There was truly nothing edible on that table!
My partner's mother cannot cook worth a darn. She cooks the turkey early in the morning and it is cold by the time she serves it. She only serves canned or jarred gravy. the sides consist of heated canned or frozen vegetables and stove top stuffing (which my partner cannot eat on account of an MSG sensitivity, along with the gravy). The only thing that was tasty was this praline yam recipe that his dad made with canned yams. When his father took ill she tried making it, but cut down on the sugar and butter so it was basically tasteless. She also will not use salt in any of her recipes, and will serve those terrible brown and serve rolls.
I would always make an alternate thanksgiving meal for my partner on the saturday after, he told me that he never knew thanksgiving could taste so good. She now eats her meal at a nursing home with grandma, and we make a meal for our friends at home. At first I felt bad for blowing her off, but having a thanksgiving meal without the guilt and comments about our weight is well worth it.
Semolina flour in Charlotte?
Look in the natural foods sections of better grocery stores. I have often used Bob's Red Mill brand, it is merchandised in a clear bag.
Earthfare should have it along with a larger Harris teeter, and Lowes Foods.
recommendations for best value electric stove
I believe that consumer reports rates the very inexpensive Hotpoint RB757WH quite well, for very even oven heating and overall performance. Hotpoint is a budget priced GE product, and the GE products seemed to have performed similarly. The hotpoint is around $450
I went from an apartment GE electric coil range that had seen better days (but still worked acceptably well) to a beautiful Samsung stainless electric flat top with convection and what a wonderful range. I am still getting a feel for the cooktop, but overall it is working great and the oven is pure heaven to bake in, I got crispy brown skin on my roast chicken for the first time with this oven. It has a regular bake feature, convect bake, convect roast, proofing, keep warm and many other features, I this stove is $998 at lowes and I got it for 10% off with a sale.
Hope this helps. The oven was the most important feature for me since I bake all the time.
Grocery Store Ambiance......
I for one will not pay extra to shop in a store for the "ambiance", just not my thing. Harris Teeter runs some nice stores, they are always very clean and well stocked, but their prices keep me away most of the time. Lowes Foods is a Harris Teeter wannabe, They will build a nice store and not maintain it, or update it for more than a decade, really sad (I worked for them), terrible corporate management, inconsistent quality from store to store. Too bad because their in store staff works their tails off but with bad corporate direction.
Give me food lion any day (especially the one in Morrisville @ Park Place), very clean, well stocked (although very basic), and affordable.
Ice cream makers
I have one of these types of ice cream makers, and to be honest, I find them to be a pain, so I hardly ever use it, I also rarely have the room in my freezer to store it.
I bought an old fashioned one with an electric motor, and wow did it produce a wonderful ice cream, and more than a quart or quart and a half. 24 hours planning for a quart of ice cream, is just not for me. This machine wasn't nearly the hassle that people describe, just layer ice and salt and let it go, in a little over 20 minutes I had 3 quarts of nicely soft frozen ice cream (french vanilla w/ vanilla bean). I made the base and cooled it over a water bath and poured right in to the canister, no hours of chilling needed.
On The Border is Back
Here in Raleigh, NC we have dozens of awesome mexican places, and 1 On The Border, I am not sure why they stay in business, they are just not nearly as good as the places run by Mexicans.
THIS IS WHY CHAINS ARE GREAT
I agree with your post completely, there are just some comments on this board that come across so pretentious, it makes me ill.
As far as BBQ places here in NC, maybe I was a little harsh, I have just never been able to warm up to this stuff, but many of these places make killer fried chicken and hush puppies, so I am a happy camper. I have never had a chain make chicken like these places, well Smithfields chicken and BBQ is a local chain and their chicken is first rate, but no national chain can touch it.
Korean Steakhouse,,,Raleigh nc
If you are talking about Korean Garden on Chatham St. in cary being owned by the same company as Crazy Fire, you are incorrect. This is a local place owned by a Korean family, I have been there and a friend of mine knows this family well.
They do now have the grill tables.
THIS IS WHY CHAINS ARE GREAT
There are certain parts of the country that chains are the best option. I moved to NC 11 years ago and let me tell you, "eating local" is still tricky to this day. The local cuisine in many small towns is NC's version of BBQ, something that I have never been able to warm up to. These local BBQ places are adored by the locals, but if you don't like your vegetables cooked to mush, and hot dog relish in your potato salad and coleslaw (these are the common options for sides in these places) than these places are not for you.
In downtown areas of Raleigh and Durham, there are some rays of light, some locally run ethnic choices that are actually pretty good, the only problem is often parking, driving around for 10 minutes and end up walking blocks often make these places less desirable for many.
When growing up in Maine, local places were always better than chains for American fare, but with the lack of ethnic diversity chains were the only option to fill the gap.
I will never be so pretentious to say "no chains ever", because there are times when they are the best option out there, there are some pretty decent ones.
If chains were always as bad as some people on here think, than the local places would have no problem competing, take for instance Red Lobster in Bangor Maine, it lasted a few years, but with so many better seafood options, building one there was just silly.
8-piece tri-ply set, $120. Too good to be true?
That's my review over on that forum! I still love the cookware and am so glad to have bought it. Keep checking sears.com I will probably show up again, it disappeared for a while shortly after I ordered it.
8-piece tri-ply set, $120. Too good to be true?
That is not the same set, it is a much cheaper construction, with only the aluminum disk on the bottom.
Anyone use Costco vs BJ's for Deli Platter or Birthday Cake?
When I worked @ BJ's as a bakery manager, their full sheet was only offered with their traditional buttercream icing, I like buttercream, but this stuff was awful. Their smaller 1/2 sheet was only offered with whipped topping (in my opinion belongs on a pie, not a cake) but had raspberry or chocolate mousse offered as a filling, but often cakes were returned because their was hardly any filling in some cakes (filled and frosted by machine in a factory somewhere, not in store).
I was very unimpressed by the quality of cakes at BJ's, taste was OK, but quality was very inconsistant, but we sold a ton of them because they were cheap, and included pictures or toy decorations at no extra charge.
C.I. likes Cuisinart 5.5 stand mixer best now.
The cuisinart looked like a nice mixer, but isn't the case made entirely out of plastic? This would be a problem for me as I use my KA pretty hard, and would have broken the case of the cuisinart by now.
I have been making bread dough for over 13 years with mine, I let it knead for 20 minutes and have never had a problem with it.
Reynolds Handi-Vac?
I don't think that vacuum sealing is a gimmick at all. I used to use freezer bags with all the air squeezed out, and that didn't work nearly as well as the Handi Vac, my chicken and pork chops taste as if they had never been frozen, far better than the freezer bags alone. My cheeses also last a lot longer before molding in a vacuum sealed bags.
Carrabba's Italian Grill
Tried it for the first time last week, and was pleasantly surprised, had the chicken gratella, and it was very flavorful and cooked perfectly, the bread was very good as well. Is it authentic, I dunno and I don't care, it was just darned tasty.
The Fresh Market?
It is great for specialty items or for entertaining, but extremely expensive for many items, they make Harris Teeter look affordable.
They are great for those who can't/don't want to cook, and are willing to pay very inflated prices for prepared foods ($8 for 2 skinny wedges of quiche, come on!).
They do know where to build stores, the ones located here in Raleigh/Cary area are very strategically placed, and are usually very buzy.
I can guarantee you that many of their prepared foods are not as "fresh" as you would think, many are brought in and just packaged in store, I know our local ones don't decorate any of their cakes in store, there is a higher than average number of items prepared in store compared to a regular grocery store, just not as many as you would think.
Trader Joe's Low Sodium Soup
I'll have to try those.
Have you tried the low sodium "garden patch" think V8 juice, I can't believe that it is low sodium, I hate low sodium products usually, but this is good, I would eat it as a soup, as a matter of fact, I think that it would make a good veg soup base.
Ruby Tuesday's: So Very So-So
For me, it seems that since they remodeled our local one and introduced their new "Simple fresh American Dining" things have gone down hill, yes the restaurant looks less tacky, but the food seems to have lost something, they used to be my quick place for a decent burger since they are only 2 miles away but I have no desire to go back.
I think that Ruby's is having an identity crisis.
I already hated McDonald's...
I hate so many ad campaigns, most do their best to insult most people's intelligence, come on "kitchen fresh chicken" what the heck does that mean? unless it is prepared in the restroom or a closet of course it is kitchen fresh!
Outback On A Whim
I like outback as well for what it is. The last time I went there it was absolutely outstanding, perfectly cooked tender steak, great potatoes and the broccoli was perfect. The time before in a location out of town, it wasn't all that, actually disappointing.
Admit it... There's Some Dishes at Chain Restaurants You Like
I have friends that are totally pretentious about food, and I don't understand it, it seems that they are more concerned about how people perceive their culinary tastes than the actual food that they are eating.
I love food from all sources, but if your area has an ethnic cuisine well represented I don't see the appeal of a chain, where I live it is Mexican food, wayyyy better than any chain, but in this area chains do better Itailan for the most part.
I love
Panera-bacon turkey bravo, cinnamon crunch bagels
Olive garden Zuppa Tuscana
Bojangles chicken supremes, biscuits and sweet tea
Cheesecake factory- thai lettuce wraps, and avacado egg rolls
Bojangles Chicken
Bo's is pretty awesome chicken, and the biscuits are the best that I have found in a fast food place, not chemical tasting like KFC. I love their chicken supremes (chicken tenders).
Their sweet tea is legendary as well.
MAC
Jimmie Johns - are you serious?
The Subways here in NC all have the round meat, all the same size and shape, nothing like what I have seen in a deli....ever. There are pictures on the wall of their breads and other ingredients, and when you get to the meats, all tube shaped, like salami, really quite comical to look at. I have not been to a subway in recent years and witnessed anything that even resembled real roast beef. This is a pic that I found on Flickr with the same poster we have here locally.
No I don't think any of these palces are real deli, but at least JJ's uses midrange meats, not bottom of the barrel pressed meats that are comparable to oscar mayer prepackaged stuff found on the aisle in the grocery store.
Coldstone Creamery
I don't care for cold stone, the ice cream is not great as others have said. I do like Marble Slab a little better, my favorite is honey ice cream with walnuts. I think that Marble Slab has more of the traditional ice cream mouth feel. I grew up with my mom making ice cream the old fashioned way, we even got the cream from a local farmer, so I am spoiled, and have never been able to duplicate that flavor.
Am I the only one who thinks Cheesecake Factory is overrated?
I go there for the avacado egg rolls and the thai lettuce wraps, both are excellent. I do enjoy their desserts but they are too darned big. We usually go to share appetizers and have dessert, I feel that they do what they do well.
They have hit their target demographic very well, definitely a place for the desperate housewives to gather and drink foo foo martinis.
Jimmie Johns - are you serious?
While i can make a better sandwich than any of these places, JJ's is head and shoulders above Subway. Have you really looked at the meat in a Subway sandwich? I have worked in delis and I know good quality meat, and everything that Subway uses is chopped and formed into TUBE shapes, they even have pictures of this meat on the walls of my local place, who has ever gone to a deli and seen roast beef in a tube shape, it is the same with their ham and turkey, come on turkey roll at subway prices? Come on!
At least JJ's uses real deli meat, roast beef that is really roasted beef and turkey that isn't full of ground up skin and modified food starch.
The bread is decent at JJ's not great, but better than most chains.
Thoughts on 'Sweet Tomatoes'
The one in Cary NC, is always very clean. I have never had anything but great fresh salad fixings there. I enjoy their soups very much. I always go for the broccoli madness, it is really tasty. I agree about their pastas they are really bland and dreadful, but i can find plenty of other things to my liking.
Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day - Review
I am not sure if it has been mentioned but..... An easy way to transfer from a peel or cookie sheet is to form loaf and place on parchment, it will slide right off the peel. After about 3 minutes the parchment will slide right out from under the loaf so you will get the great crispy crust on the bottom, leaving it there will not allow the stone to do its job of getting a good bottom crust. Works well for pizza too.
MAC
What is your useless kitchen gadget?
You haven't used the right garlic press then. The Zyliss Suzi is awesome, no garlic left behind, just the peel, I am not sure how it accomplishes this but it does. Cleanup involves just a quick rinse, if there is any garlic in the holes a quick brush with a dish brush solves that.
I was also anti-garlic press after my previous two, I figured that they were all useless until someone recommended this one.
Good quality cookie/baking sheets
If you have a restaurant supply store near you, go there. My 1/2 sheet pans were around $5 each, these are the same ones that I use in professional kitchens, they will last a home cook forever, and are nearly indestructible
You can get the same quality at William Sonoma, for upwards to 5X the price, but some of us know better.
