I usually use red skins.

I also like shaggy manes. But you have to get those young, like in the left one in the pic. Tho edible when they look like the right one, they get a very strong flavor and black juice. Even if you pick them young you have to cook the right away or they will "ripen."

That's all there is to it. Using real butter is best.

By far and away, chanterelles. On the rare occasion I can get them fresh, just sauteed in butter. I reconstitute the dry ones and mix the mushrooms in rice or gravy.

I used to forage for these with my Dad when in was a kid. Can't seem to find them around here.

Not Chinese, but it will still melt your teeth:
http://www.igourmet.com/shoppe/Ridley...

You can do a search for "cooking tweezers" or "kitchen tweezers" to get an idea what's out there and then check out restaurant supply stores. I have two pairs of 10 inch and two pairs of 12 inch cooking tweezers that I've had for years. Unfortunately neither one of them have a brand name on them, but I wouldn't want to be without them. Since I bought both sets online I can't tell you where to begin to look for them in a store.

AG Russell makes a set that Alton Brown likes. I wish I could be more help.

I learned about high bulk index garlic powder (HBI) from Alton Brown a few years back when he used it on Good Eats. I first started buying it from The Spice House (www.thespicehouse.com). Suddenly, it was a became unavailable from them. Searching the Internet, I discovered I could get it from The Savory Spice Shop (www.savoryspiceshop.com). About a month ago, as my supply started to run low, I went to order some more from them, only to find it gone from their website. So I called their store and was told that they can no longer get HBI garlic powder.

I've since searched the Internet again only to come up empty this time. Does anyone know of another source of HBI garlic powder? Or am I destined using pedestrian granulated garlic the powder from now on?

Note: Garlic Snobs who are poised to tell me that it will be condemned to eternal damnation for using garlic powder in the first place are invited to keep their comments to themselves.

Santa brought me a package of these Mushroom Chips:
http://www.nuts.com/snacks/fruit-vegg...

These are even more addicting than the veggie chips they sell. Whooda thunk you could make mushrooms into a crispy, crunchy snack. The only problem is they evaporate once the package is opened.

Add me to that list. I'm also a chronic over stuffer. Just last night...with steak fajitas.

I don't know about the garlic, but my great grandmother swore by blackberry brandy whenever she had a cold. I don't know if it helped the cold or just made it so she didn't notice so much, but it always helped her to get through one.

I like a BLOT: A bacon, lettuce, onion, and tomato sandwich. Leaf lettuce only, please, preferably red leaf. At red onions of course. On toasted rye bread, preferably, with Cain's real mayonnaise. Yes, store-bought tomatoes in the winter. If possible, to the on the vine variety.

I have a Fagor U Cook set with a four and a 6 quart pot which is dual pressure. In the four years that I've had it I have used the 4 quart pot far more than the six. One of the more common things I use it for is to cook potatoes for potato salad or mashed potatoes. I have used the small pot and the low-pressure setting to hard cook eggs and they came out perfect.

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If they're grinding 10 pounds of meat, they'll want to end up with about 8.5 pounds of meat, and 1.5 pounds of fat to get 15% fat.
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Funny how the most obvious answer never floats to the top of one's brain and they create a thread like this. Thanks, sunshine.

I have a well seasoned 10 inch cast iron skillet that I have had for years, okay decades. I'm not sure of the brand, as on the bottom it only says, "Made in USA, 10 inch." I suspected a problem for a while, but the other day I was able to "prove it." The problem is food cooks unevenly in this pan.

I was cooking some eggplant the other day and noticed the slices in the center of the pan browned nicely, the ones near the edge of the flame circle only browned on the parts over the flame, and the slices around the edge of the pan did not brown at all. Yes, some of the slices were half browned and half not on each side.

Before I started I preheated the pan properly and brought the oil up to temperature before putting any the food in. After several batches like this I switch to my Nordic Ware Pro Cast aluminum fry pan. After heating the pan and the oil, I fried up the remaining slices and they fried up evenly browned no matter where I placed them in the pan.

So does cast-iron inherently heat unevenly, or do I have a bum pan? Is it time to buy a new one? If it's the latter, is Lodge the only quality choice?

I was sitting here at my desk sipping on a mug of room temperature Polar lemon flavored seltzer and got to wondering, how many others out there don't mind, or even prefer, their soda not to be cold.

Yes, most soda is really nasty when drunk warm, but there a couple of flavors that hold up when warm. More often than not I drink the aforementioned seltzer at room temperature, and it's not too bad. Likewise, Mountain Dew is good cold but also is still quite palatable when it gets warm.

A few years back I had a girlfriend who not only kept her opened bottle of Dr. Pepper on the pantry shelf, but would warm it up in a saucepan on the stove, and drink it with a slice of lemon. It wasn't too bad.

So what soda do you drink warm? Does it matter what brand? (Say, for example, warm Pepsi is fine, but warm Coke is vile.) And are there any brands or flavors you prefer warm rather than cold?

I wasn't questioning the honesty of this place, but just the question in general.

I'm not sure what you mean by, "They weigh the meat and the weigh the fat." A pound of meat weighs a pound and a pound of fat weighs a pound. And some of the meat they grind already has fat in it. Is there a certain volume they use to determine the fat to meat ratio?

There are good portion of us here who buys their beef already ground rather than grinding it ourselves. I have been buying mine lately from a small family owned grocery store with a very good butcher. They proudly proclaim they grind their own ground beef fresh several times a day. Just like all stores, they label their ground beef by the percentage of fat it contains.

My question is, how do they determine the beef is 80%, 85%, etc.? More importantly, how do I know if it's if it's accurate? Is there any way for me to check at home if my 85% ground beef is really 85% beef? Can you take a certain amount of raw beef and weigh it? Or should I just trust them?

I think I would be inclined to not serve it at this function, but save it for family eating. I'm sure it's okay to eat, but I don't think I would serve it to my guests. You never know if one of the guests saw the dog with it, but just didn't say anything. But if it turned up on the table it might be a bit awkward to explain.

Wrap at up in foil, and put it back in the refrigerator, and enjoy the rest of your get together. If anyone asked where the ham is, just say, "It wasn't fit to serve."

DW is from the Philadelphia area and as such grew up eating Tastee Kakes and had never had a Twinkie before we got married. For her second birthday of our marriage I bought a box of Twinkies, arranged them into the shape of a pyramid, drizzled them with raspberry sauce, and topped them with a birthday candle. They were served with squirt type whipped cream. While the result wasn't too bad, we both agreed that that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I really loved Drake's Funny Bones (I believe that's what the peanut butter ones were called) when I was growing up. Even these days, when stopping by the minimart for munchies I would often grab Hostess or a Drake's fruit pie. Other than that, the loss of Twinkies, Wonder Bread, and all the other products won't have any impact on our household.

Kind of like the "List Price" on Amazon. They frequently inflate the "List Price" to make it seem like a bargain. I have seen many times where you could buy the same item from manufacturer's web site for the same or less than Amazon's selling price, but Amazon's "List Price" was a lot higher.

I've had two of these (an 8" and a 10") for almost six months and I love them. It is not as non stick as Teflon, more like "low stick" but a great pan.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BIH5QG/ref=oh_details_o08_s01_i00

See this discussion: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/857705

With just the two of us, I tend to use the smaller one more often, but some things just don't fit into the smaller one.

We have this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-PSC-650-Stainless-2-Quart-Programmable/dp/B000VA48PM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1352178992&sr=8-3&keywords=cuisinart+slow+cooker

and this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000...

Love them both.

It is "stuffing" if it is cooked inside the bird.
It is "dressing" if it is cooked outside the bird.

There. I'm glad we cleared that up.

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expecting them to make a 30 minute one way delivery? Ya that isn't going to happen.
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This is one place where I agree with the OP. She said he had to "hike 30 minutes" home and later stated he had no car, so I am assuming that means he lives no more than a couple of miles or so from the joint. I, too, would is expected them not only to replace the order but to deliver it for free.

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It also irks me to no end that this is a "if i was allergic...." well you aren't and how you would choose to live your lives with an allergy that you had to deal with every single time you ate something, i'm very sure you would take measured precautions of when you warn someone and not say it every single time you were consuming food you didn't make.
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WRONG!

Mrs. abd once had a mild reaction to something she ate a couple of years before we got married. She felt the reaction was caused from eating peanut butter, and had suddenly developed an allergy to peanuts. While the allergy tests were "inconclusive" (one test said she was allergic to peanuts, and another said she was not) she decided to err on the side of caution and refrain from peanut products. Since that day she religiously reads ingredients and any time we go out to eat she, in fact, does say to the server, "I'm allergic to peanuts. Please ask the chef to make sure there is no peanuts or peanut products in my order." Not sometimes, but Every. Single. Time.

And we've lived happily ever after.

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do you seriously think he bit into a piece of shrimp without noticing?
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Are you saying he knew it was shrimp and bit into it anyways? I was saying shrimp looks like shrimp and beef looks like beef. I was asking how he could not distinguish between the two… even in Asian food.

The title of your post suggested you were concerned about the allergic reaction your boyfriend had to the offending shrimp.That,and in the last line of your OP where you wrote, "i'm rather upset that he essentially paid for a near visit to the hospital." That seems not to be the case, and your real gripe is you were not treated like royalty when a minor mistake was made.

I conceded to your argument they should have delivered the replacement meal.

If you are really that concerned, why don't you hike your fanny down to Noodle Box and ask to speak to the manager. In polite tones explain to him or her that you were shocked and horrified that you received SHRIMP when you did not order it. Then, again in polite tones, ask how it is possible that you received SHRIMP when you did not order it and ask what steps would be taken to ensure you never received SHRIMP again unless it was specifically asked for. If the answer you receive this is unsatisfactory simply vote with your boyfriend's wallet and take your business elsewhere.

There is a small pizzeria chain near us with decent food that made numerous similar small errors. Though each error was politely compensated for, we got to the point where we decided there were enough other take-out joints in our area who did not make mistakes, and we ceased doing business with them. When we made that decision, I called the restaurant and politely explained to the manager why we were taking our business elsewhere. She again apologized for the poor service and thanked me for my comments.

Though it has been difficult, we have since gotten on with our lives.

In my home office, I have an L-shaped built-in desk with a tw0-drawer filing cabinet at one end. Next to that, is mrs. al b. darned's desk.

Queen Tutt is old, arthritic, and mostly deaf, and spends most of her day sleeping on one desk or the other. Though I have had one or more cats for the better part of the last 30 years with varying tastes, this is the first one I've ever had who doesn't like milk products or cat food containing tuna or other fish products.

Though she has a bowl of water and Kitty Crunchies on the floor, she also gets one can of Kitty Crack per day which is served (in a small bowl on the desk) one spoonful at a time throughout the day. She only (sometimes) likes turkey, chicken, liver, or some combination of the of the three. Though pate is sometimes acceptable, bits in gravy is usually the preferred form. Even then, the gravy is licked off in the bits eaten later, if they don't dry out first. I usually open the can around 9 in the morning and, depending on her mood, is usually gone by 9 or 10 at night. It is never refrigerated and she has never shown any ill effects from it being left out all day. Anything left over by then is given to Webster, who also (gladly) eats it with no ill effects.

Webster also gets a can of Kitty Crack a day, half a can at a time. The half not served in the morning is capped and put in the refrigerator. It is served in the evening straight from the refrigerator and promptly gobbled up.

While I've never done a lot of "business lunches," when I have gone to lunch with business associates I try to order something "less messy" lest I end up wearing some of it back to the job site. That was primarily things like spaghetti or other pasta with red sauce or things of that nature.

My only hard and fast rule has always been never, ever, any alcoholic beverages during working hours. It doesn't matter whether I'm alone, with co-workers, or with business associates, I do not drink during working hours. Period. When the wine list is passed or the server asks, "Something for you, sir?" I simply say, "No, thank you."

It helps, I guess, that with the tougher drunk-driving regulations and is become more acceptable to not drink or reduce one's alcoholic consumption. Simply saying, "No thanks, I'm driving." Is usually enough to get a pass.

If it's a solid hardwood door I would sand it down and put several coats of spar urethane on it.

I did something similar when I needed more counter space. I went to the local home center, and purchased two plain 1-inch thick solid oak thresholds, 3 feet long. They were already rounded off on one edge. I glued them together on the flat edge making a panel three-foot wide and 2 foot deep. I sanded the top smooth and cut off approximately 2 inches of one rounded edge, turned it 90°, and attached it to the back edge of the counter as sort of a backsplash. I then built a cabinet base and attached the top to it. Everything, including the top, received at least two coats of urethane. It moved with me to a second apartment, and then into my house where it is in daily use. The finish I put on more than 25 years ago still holding up well. The only precaution I take is to use a cutting board or cutting mat and never to cut directly on it. I clean it with a sponge and warm soapy water, and sometimes even a Scotch Brite pad.