sunshinedrop's Profile
Cincinnati--Vito's Cafe in Ft. Thomas
Have you tried Ban Thai in Eastgate? They just added sushi to their menu, but for a long time they didn't have it. I don't know a lot about Thai food, but I know I really like their food, so I hope it helps.
Aramark office cafeteria food
Our soups were the same way, but if I got to lunch late, the tomato soup was ALWAYS burned. They had a huge kettle of it and it just sat in the warmer for 3 hours instead of having smaller kettles that got rotated more often. That could be why tomato was so rare for you all.
Rather shocking restaurant safety PSA from Canada
AMEN! This crap is all about shock value. If they really wanted to impact people in various industries, it would be distributed as industry training videos, not public service announcements. All stuff like this will do is desensitize people to it, especially if it is repeated over and over.
Christmas dinner help!
No, we go to FIL family on Christmas eve. It is an appetizer only event because too much alcohol is consumed to have any room for a sit down dinner. She brings a store bought cheese ball to that!
Christmas dinner help!
I'm going to use the stove and microwave to reheat whether she likes it or not. We are not going to have all cold food. :)
Christmas dinner help!
I need some advice on Christmas dinner at my in-laws and I'm sure I'll find some help and sympathy amongst other CH'ers.
Here is the situation: my incredibly lazy mother-in-law (yes, she has a history of being incredibly lazy) has decided that she doesn't want to have a traditional sit down Christmas dinner, just a Honey Baked Ham served cold and some lunch meat, cheese and bread (aka Wonder White Bread) and anyone can eat whenever they are hungry as our family Christmas dinner. The real kicker in all of this is "she doesn't want to be rushed to cook anything on Christmas" even though every year, it has been a pot luck Christmas dinner, with my husband and I providing most of the food! Now, I know some of you will think that she is being nice and trying to save us the trouble, and I wish that was the case with her, but it really boils down to she doesn't want to have to take 10 minutes to cook stove top stuffing as her contribution to a real sit down dinner, so instead of looking like she is being outdone, she would rather avoid a traditional dinner.
As a response, my husband suggested that he could bring a standing rib roast and then brought up with me later that I could make all the side dishes and then there is no excuse for her to not have the sit down dinner. I agreed since we want a traditional sit down dinner on Christmas for our family and if we can't get one there, we will have one alone with our kids at our house (we had to do that for Thanksgiving--we butted heads on that one, too). Apparently, my sister-in-law and father-in-law both suggested to her that she should ask me to cook the meal so that we can have a traditional dinner, but her ego got in the way and she went ahead with this idea of the lunch meat trays. This time, knowing that when she refused to have a sit down Thanksgiving dinner, we had our own Thanksgiving alone, she agreed to the idea that my husband and I can cook the whole meal, but we are not allowed to use her kitchen--even if we clean up the mess!
So I need some ideas for good side dishes that reheat well. It looks like the main course will be Honey Baked Ham and a rib roast. The only thing that is completely out is asparagus (I got the stomach flu last year and asparagus came up the same as it went down and I still don't think I could stand cooking it). Bonus points for dishes that I can make a day ahead and get better the next day! My husband and I feel that the family bonding experience over a big holiday meal is so important, we don't want his mom to mess it up for us or anyone else in the family!
Rather shocking restaurant safety PSA from Canada
I'm generally not a censorship supporter, but if I turned on my TV and saw that commercial, especially with two little toddlers in the house, I would be EXTREMELY upset. It was aired during a hockey game? We watch football on Sunday as a family. If that came on during a football game, I'd be letter writing fool complaining to anyone I could think of associated with it. It is one thing to have something like that on a TV show that you can easily choose not to watch, it is another thing to air it as a commercial with no announcement that it is coming on. I hope they only air this late at night. Really, that isn't even safe anymore with DVR and Tivo being so common. It is already so hard to monitor what my kids see on TV without purposefully airing commercials like this. That kind of thing is appropriate for industry distribution only! I would invite anyone connected to this to come to my house at 3am and explain to my 2 year old why she shouldn't be scared about her nightmares about people's faces burning off.
Next Iron Chef Episode 4
What did you all think about the issue with the cameras being in the way? At first, I was like--goofy camera man, get out of that poor mans way and let him cook! But then I got to thinking about it, this is a cooking competition for a spot on a TV show, part of it should have to do with being able to cook with the cameras around. I was surprised that it wasn't mentioned at the judges table.
The Next Iron Chef
I've read a number of places that the Chairman Kaga and the new chairman are NOT uncle/nephew in real life. The new chairman is from the Philippines or of that ancestry, I believe. I lost interest in the new chairman after I read that.
The Next Iron Chef
I'm not sure the he's "conning" anyone. He is pretty straight forward with the fact that he doesn't consider himself a chef. He is a guy who is interested in the mechanics, finds it out and shares it with us. I'm not sure "actor" is the right word for him either. You offer a lot of accusations without any resources to back it up. That, and I believe somewhere I read that he doesn't use a teleprompter...it most likely was from an article about him posted on chowhound. Why does he have to be a chef to have a good, informative show and know what he is talking about?
Pressure (moved from Home Cooking)
I've only ever used a "Pressure Canner". I do a lot of canning, so that was the route I wanted to go, but I have also cooked some big pieces of meat in there too. I love to cook pork shoulders in there and make pulled pork and it makes the fastest, best tasting sauerbraten I've ever had. I thought that I might need to adjust some recipes for the size of the cooker and thus far, I haven't found that to be the case, but then again, I've never done soups which it sounds like that is what you are most interested in.
I've got the cheapy presto cooker. I think it is 18 qt and it has the weight top on it. Sometimes I wish I had the dial top, but with a little practice and experience, the rocking weight version is pretty easy.
Need seasonal appetizer ideas
I feel weird posting this seeing as how someone else is posting asking for seasonal main courses, but....
My birthday is this weekend and my husband is throwing a fall themed party for me. Being the CH that I am, he's letting me pick the appetizer/snacks that will be served (he's doing hamburgers and hot dogs for the meal). I want to do some seasonal food, for the theme and since it is in season, but I'm at a loss for appetizers/snacks. Does anyone have any suggestions, sweet or savory?
Scared to can.....
If you have a garden, are concerned about obtaining food locally, or just want reduce your dependence on the grocery store (as scary as it is, the grocery store may not always be there), canning and other food preservation methods are good skills to develop. I've always thought it was somewhat silly to buy a bunch of marginal quality grocery store produce to can, but if you have a garden or a local farmers market with great produce at great prices, canning makes sense. How often can you find 6 different varieties of canned green beans at your local Walmart (most of us rural people have to rely on mass merchants for our groceries)?
As for the rest of you who do can...thank you for all you help! Most of what I want to do is low acid stuff, since I don't have a good source of most fruits and I grow a wide variety of tomatoes, some of which are less acidic than others. Has anyone canned eggplant? I'm having trouble finding a canning recipe for eggplant and I was wondering if there was some reason that might make it a bad candidate for canning.
Scared to can.....
Okay...I've been playing around with canning for about two years. This year I bought my first pressure canner so I could do up green beans. I've done a few dozen quarts of tomatoes in a boiling water canner. My problem is that the more I read about it, the more scared I become to can anything or to eat what I can. Everything has these terrible warnings on them that say deviating at all from the recipe can cause serious food spoilage, which is hard, because when I make stuff like tomato sauce, sometimes I taste the recipe as written and I think it needs more garlic or more basil or less salt. Then they say not to use any recipes written before 1989 because that is when the government updated the safety regulations...how am I supposed to know the age of a recipe that I come across...especially ones on the internet. Lastly, all the directions are so exact that it is impossible to get those exact conditions in my kitchen...like keeping a huge pot of water at exactly 180 degrees for 10 minutes on an electric stove.
So, I'm in need of some moral support. If you have canned extensively, please tell me whether these warnings I read all over the place are justified or if it is just a legal thing to protect whomever. I know there are specific things that need to happen to make the food safe, but does it have to be as exact as they make it out to be? I get so stressed out canning food that sometimes if the littlest thing goes wrong, I just burst into tears. This is something I want to enjoy in the worst way, but the fear of messing it up and killing my family with botulism is killing me!
If someone can offer up some practical insight, I would appreciate it!
Kitchen aide stand mixers on sale
Amazon.com has kitchen aide stand mixers on sale. My husband and i have been looking at them for a while but after I read all the reviews on there, I can't decide whether or not to get one. There are lots of glowing reviews, but the bad ones say things like they broke in a week and aren't good for anything but cake batters, etc. I thought before we splurged and got one, I'd ask on here what chowhounds thought of them. Some of the complaints I was concerned about were:
-not good for kneading bread dough (we make all our own bread and this is one of the primary things we would use it for
-not lefty friendly--I'm a southpaw and if it is going to be a pain in the butt for me to use, I'll pass
-the motors don't last on them more than 18 months
I think I decided I want at least a 5qt bowl, does anyone else have any advice on them? Also what is a good price. With a rebate, you can get the 5qt ones for $169.99 with the sale.
Thanks!
Cooked Radishes?
I realized the other day that I have never seen a recipe with cooked radishes in it. Honestly, I have never seen them anywhere but salads and veggie trays. Someone mentioned that we should grow them in our garden next year to help us see where we plant our rows of carrots, but I have no idea what we would do with all of them (we aren't big salad eaters). Has anyone ever cooked with radishes?
Apple pie with squash instead of apples
Yeah, I had seen several recipes that called for zucchini instead of squash (I'm not sure if my father in law meant summer squash or winter squash, but he meant one of the two). I didn't know if the taste with zucchini would be drastically different.
Apple pie with squash instead of apples
My father in law raves about an apple pie recipe that his mom used to make that used squash instead of apples. He said it tasted just like apple pie and you couldn't tell the difference. I've asked around and no one in the family seems to have the recipe so I thought I would ask here to see if anyone had a recipe like that of their own. I'm going to have a bumper crop of squash this year from the garden and I would love to make this recipe!!!
Hell's Kitchen -- June 25 show
They always have such problems with Beef Wellington...can't they just take an internal temperature and know if its done? I've never cooked it, so I'm not really sure, but that is generally how I test meat when I cook it in the oven and don't want to cut it open to check. Also, is anyone else totally impressed with the Waffle House lady...she may have the chops to run the kitchen if she can learn enough quick enough. Is the prize this year different...they used to say they would become "executive chef", this year they are saying "head chef"...I don't know enough about how a restaurant runs to know the difference...can someone enlighten me?
Camping Recipes
Amen! A big fish fry over an open fire is great! I will say though, I don't recommend cooking a squirrel on a stick. My BIL got the great idea to take a squirrel, gut it, remove the head and then skin it and put it on a stick and roast it over the fire. It came out like a charred piece of shoe leather. The only way I'll eat squirrel is butchered in quarters, soaked in buttermilk and fried like chicken--which makes it a little hard to do (though not impossible) over a camp fire.
The Next Food Network Star
Are you referring to Sandra Lee--I thought Colombe was a hippie dippy version of Sandra Lee from the first thing she cooked! Kudos to the judges for not going that route!
Grocery Warning
I read the website you gave and if I were you, I would save your money. I have a feeling they are going to tell you the following:
-trans fat is bad
-corn syrup is bad
-artificial colors are bad and cause ADHD
-sulfides are bad and cause asthma
-nitrates and nitrites cause birth defects
-msg cause GI problems
-reading the nutrition labels will tell you what is healthy
I have a feeling that you won't find out anything you shouldn't already know.
Favorite Food Network Chef
Funny, funny, funny! I enjoyed reading that. I have to agree with you on all of the above. I think it is funny that the food network is giving the fluff shows to people who actually can cook, like Giada, and giving cooking shows to people who are all fluff, like Sandra Lee.
Hell's Kitchen - Very Disappointing
Is the general format starting to wear on anyone? I always liked HK, if not for the food, but to see the people grow and see how the react under stress--I guess more for the psychological point of view. Unfortunately, I'm starting to grow tired of some of the "meaness". Such as...how much do you want to bet that the signature dishes weren't that bad, but Ramsey went over the top on how bad they were to break the contestants down. Or how little instruction they received before the service...doesn't seem like he is exactly setting them up for success! I like how the episodes continue and you can see that Ramsey is human when his help is competent, but this first episode just made me sick and seemed fake!
Editied to add: Anyone else get annoyed by Ramsey's palate....especially when it comes to hot and spicy foods? He definitely has his preferences...and I'm not always sure his preferences and mine would line up and I don't think it is fair how he judges some based on his personal preference.
What do you make with your food dehydrator?
I've had a food dehydrator for a few months and I've tried dried apples, zucchini chips, jerky, pineapple, bananas, fruit rollups and other traditional food dehydrator staples. Now I want to branch out and try other snacks. Does anyone have any good recipes for dehydrated snacks? I've tried a few corn chip recipes and they haven't turned out so well.
Food Network Awards (sic)
Hahaha....I turned the channel at the same time. I Tivo'ed it in case there would be something of substance later on and after watching it this morning....no, their wasn't. Even Alton came off as unlikeable in this mishmosh of crap.
What's with Starbucks..... mild rant
Free market economy is not a trendy libertarian ideal. Our country was economically founded on it long before there were libertarians. There are people in this world who take responsibility for their actions and there are the "sheeple" who do whatever someone else tells them to because they insist on being children instead of responsible adults. If you don't want to be influenced by advertising, turn off your TV, turn off your radio and inform yourself. Word of mouth is still the most effective advertising one can get...and it is FREE. There have been a number of restaurants I have tried because I saw people talk about them on here. Corporations had nothing to do with that. I will direct you to episode #217 of South Park for some interesting commentary on the coffee shop issue......
As far as the Starbucks issue...I think they are going to end up killing themselves by becoming too large. People will eventually get bored with them and will go for the better coffee. But then again, I believe in the free market economy. One thing they have going for them, is the bigger locations serve like public meeting rooms. I know my moms group meets at Starbucks once a month. Its not because we like coffee, it is because it is the only place like that where we can get something to eat and drink and have a meeting. There are always a few other groups having meetings there too. Until someone else comes along, we'll go with Starbucks.
How well do the food network personalities know each other?
I was watching Ina Garten today and she said something about being annoyed by anyone who talks about "tablescapes" (I wish I would have written down the exact quote). I laughed out loud....could she be referring to Sandra Lee?
So I thought I would ask, does anyone know how well the personalities (I'm hesitant to call some of them chefs) know each other? It seems like Alton Brown's show is based in Georgia and Ina Garten's show seems to be based right around her home also. Many of the shows appear to be taped in someone's home, but I don't know if that is a TV world illusion. I would think they would be spread out across the country, so I wonder if they meet each other. I guess it's not terribly important, but I'm just curious.
Pizza Stone Corn Meal Question
Your pizza stone shouldn't break from that. I have a lot of stoneware and use it in a lot of recipes where you have to preheat the oven first. I have never heard of a problem from that. Usually, the cracking comes from the stone being hot and putting something cold on it or running it under cold water while it is still hot (my husband's aunt did that, I don't know what she was thinking!). The temperature change has to be more drastic than just room temperature to heat or room temperature to cold.
Pizza Stone Corn Meal Question
There is no sudden temperature change. The dough is at room temperature and the stone is at room temperature. You only have to worry about the temperature change thing if you heat the stone to 400 and then try to put a frozen pizza on it, and if you have a good stone, even that won't crack it.
