shortribsfordinner's Profile
Poutine in Seattle - Where did I just see it?
I saw poutine on a menu outside a Seattle-area restaurant within the last two weeks. For the life of me, I can't remember where it was. I'm pretty sure it was downtown. It was the real thing, with cheese curds and gravy, and I think it was around $7 - $9. It wasn't Beechers, the place where the curds came from, it was a regular restaurant. Does anyone have any idea where it was?
Recipes You've Never Heard of Outside Your Family
Even better with brown sugar, and best with strawberries sliced in half to allow more juice to come out. After the juice comes out, stir in the sour cream for a great sauce. Strawberries Romanoff - do the brown sugar over the sliced strawberries, but add a little Grand Marnier, Triple Sec, or other orange liqueur. Serve over ice cream or cake.
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
"I ONCE burned myself after taking a cast iron fry pan..." ? I do that weekly.
Seriously, if I'm cooking on the stovetop and the pan handle is burning hot, I wrap it in crumpled aluminum foil. It shields the heat and won't burn.
Idiotic things you do in the kitchen
Not me, but I know someone who threw flour on a pan fire, thinking since it looked like baking soda, it would smother the flames. Instead, the fire roared up and caused a lot of damage.
In cooking school, a student measured out a cupful of rum extract for rumballs instead of a capful.
I've several times added salt instead of sugar. As in 1/4 cup or more. I don't know why I have that mental block. My daughter stopped me just as I was about to dump it in. She thinks I'm developing early senility now.
Hiding flammables in the oven when company comes over and forgetting it's there when preheating the oven. (not me, a friend, really).
Help me improve my pork chops
When I marinate pork chops, I use one of the hand-held mechanical tenderizers that pierces the meat all over. It makes a big difference in the flavor penetrating inside the chop.
Recipes You've Never Heard of Outside Your Family
That sounds great! And I just got a fresh box of Cream of Wheat yesterday! We would slice up cold corn meal mush and fry it up and eat it with maple syrup, but that's not exclusive to my family; it's quite a traditional recipe. At Dominick's stores in Chicago they used to sell bricks of cold corn meal mush for slicing and frying. I dearly miss it.
Looking for Seattle restaurant to accommodate 85 (mostly 5th/6th grade)
If you were willing to travel North on Aurora, I'd bet that Super China Buffet (15323 Westminster Way N, Shoreline, WA 98133 (206) 417-9908) could accommodate that many people. The food is fine (about as good as you're going to get with an all-you-can-eat buffet, with enough dishes to please every kid and adult palate), and it's very large. Our kids' sports teams often head there.
Stew Hen or Old Chicken : Where to Buy in SEA
My Louisiana friend gets them from Pike Place Market, but I don't know which vendor. I'd also ask at Univ. Seafood & Poultry, but I'd be surprised if they had it or else my friend would be going there instead.
Now, if you could only get Louisiana white boudin here...
Truffle Oil! [Moved from Pacific Northwest board]
Try it in any cream sauce, such a a mushroom cream sauce on pasta or scallops with cream sauce.
Sea - Any Ethiopian restaurants on the Eastside?
I'm looking for any Ethioean/Eritrean restaurants on the Eastside. Any such place?
Inexpensive catering in Seattle
Husky Deli is as inexpensive as can be; check out their website. The quality is good. The choices are fairly run-of-the-mill, which means it will please the largest numbers of people.
I had a more inexpensive meal at a wedding catered by Renton Vocational food program. It was even more run-of-the-mill but still very acceptable, and unbelievably low-priced.
"Cool" restaurant for preteens/teens (Seattle)
I asked my pre-teen and teen for recommendations, and they said Buca de Beppo is the coolest, possibly tied by Blue C Sushi in University Village.
Your favorite "everyday" recipes
Some fast, brainless meals:
Quesadillas/Burritos - Using canned refried beans, Costco guacamole (frozen in bags) and the Costco packages of pre-cooked pork in verde sauce (it is excellent, and keeps for a month or more in the fridge and forever in the freezer).
Costco also carries similar packages of pre-cooked pot roast which is also delicious. Great with mashed potatoes, or again in tortillas for great burritos.
I save all ends of bread, dry them out, and keep them in plastic bags. Then when I cook tilapia filets, I throw some dried bread in the food processor with salt, pepper, whole cloves of garlic and any spices I feel like, and process into crumbs. You have to overseason the bread crumbs for the flavor to come through. Sometimes I add a lot of curry powder or garam masala to it for an Indian flavor. I just make sure the tilapia is wet with water, dip it into the crumbs, and saute it up in a big pan in butter or olive oil until golden browned. If there are any leftover crumbs, I use them to top whatever vegetable I have going.
My family loves Whole Foods' or Cost Plus' packaged dried tortellini or raviolini filled with squash or pesto, with whatever sauce looks good and easy, whether homemade or jarred. Also the packaged somewhat dried out gnocchi keeps forever on the shelf, and cooks up in a breeze for a fancy pasta dish. I usually make a gorgonzola sauce with white sauce with added gorgonzola stirred in at the end.
A similar sausage skillet meal to the one above, using sliced cabbage, chunked sausage, chopped onion, and diced raw bacon, sauteed all together until browned, is very easy. Can add chopped apple to it.
Clam Chowder with bread.
Safeway Deli has very good pre-baked meat loaf for not much more than it would cost me to make it myself. Good meat loaf sandwiches.
Can't go wrong with grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup - add a little chili powder (the mixed seasoning) to the soup, and a dab of sour cream on top. I like sliced tomatoes in the grilled cheese sandwich.
Don't forget about hamburgers. Also frozen meatballs make great meatball sandwiches, with spaghetti sauce and mozzerella cheese.
Recipes You've Never Heard of Outside Your Family
I forgot to mention popcorn in tomato soup, and our tomato soup always was garnished with sour cream.
Recipes You've Never Heard of Outside Your Family
From my family, my husband's, and some others:
*Sherbet cocktail - a scoop of lime or orange sherbet in a glass tumbler, with pineapple juice poured over it. Eat/drink with spoon. It's delicious! Served as a first course, or a non-alcoholic cocktail.
*Cream cheese-chopped olive sandwich spread or filling, best on Pepperidge Farm bread, because spreading it ripped Wonder bread into shreds - this was also served at luncheonette counters like Woolworth's. Chopped walnuts were often added, too.
*Brownie Stew - 1 lb ground beef, browned, stir in 1 can Campbell's alphabet soup. We learned to make it in Brownies and my mother added it to her repertoire. It was intended to be a camping dish.
*Bologna rolled up around a sweet pickle stick - no cream cheese - stuck closed with a toothpick. My lunch most days growing up
*Fried Spam served with "gravy" of heated canned cream corn poured on top
*Chocolate eggnog - Milk, chocolate syrup and a raw egg whipped in a blender. Precursor to Carnation Instant Breakfast.
*White bread, crusts removed, flattened with a rolling pin, spread with cream cheese, rolled up around pickled okra, sliced and served with toothpicks - addictive hors d'oeuvres!
*Welch's Grape jelly omelet
*Graham crackers spread with canned frosting
*Bananas in a bowl with milk and sugar, like cereal
*Chocolate sodas - Vanilla ice cream, choclate syrup, and club soda, eaten kind of like a root beer float (Brown Cow). I think I need to make one now.
Only the fried spam seems unique. The other dishes were '50s and '60s standards. I hope no one else ever had to eat the fried spam/creamed corn dinner!
Recipes You've Never Heard of Outside Your Family
My mother (Jewish) also made the pork chops. It didn't taste anything like the Italian version. She didn't brown them first. She put them in a glass baking pan with sliced potatoes, salt and pepper, and milk poured over the whole thing. She baked it in the overn covered with foil for about an hour or so. The pork chops were always overdone and tough, but the potatoes were okay.
