This Month: Raclette! - a fun way to share good food, drinks and conversation with friends and family; also an unusual dump cake; and a little something restful and beautiful to help restore us after an infuriating week.
(If you would like to be on or off of this cooking thread ping list, please send a private message.)
-JT
After having it on my wish list forever, I broke down and ordered “America’s Test Kitchen” cookbook and it arrived yesterday. Sadly, after a quick perusal, I’m not very impressed. The recipes aren’t arranged well. Example - the pork chops are in a different section from pork roasts. I buy pork loins on sale and cut them up any which way so it could be stew pieces or chops or roasts or shredded. I want a PORK section with every cut rather than having to hunt something down in this and that and the other section. The brunch section is a mishmash of everything so you’d never find what you’re looking for if it’s even in there.
Half or so is devoted to desserts and breads so not low carb. Too many breaded meats. Too many pastas and rice. Very few vegetable recipes.
Cheese. I’m just happy to finally learn that that white Mexican melting cheese the Food Network is always talking about is basically the same thing as mozzarella. That’s as fancy as my store gets.
I wonder if there are enough of us birders/birdwatchers to have a thread on here ;-). There used to be an occasional picture thread, but been awhile since I’ve been pinged to that.
As part of an ongoing home remodel I now have a liquor “cart”, Nespresso coffee station, new charcoal Kamado grill and soon to have a nice new convection stove. Need to get back to making more of my own healthy meals. I think the liquor cart make get some cheese accouterments.
Was able to use a discount to purchase some Wagyu streaks. Greatest steaks ever, but I think the taste was actually too rich for me.
The bird videos are beautiful. Thank you, for the links.
Nothing to contribute but this fact:
Thinking of you/your thread today and hoping to see you post soon. :-) a thank you for this.
Had raclette one night, all you could eat, for ~5 Swiss francs. Obscenely great exchange rate at the time, so it came out to about $1.50.
Your picture shows the fancier, modern version, with updated veggies.
IIRC, raclette was originally a shepherd's meal of fire-melted and scraped cheese, baby potatoes, gherkins, pickled onions, and I think some trockenfleisch.
I’ve discovered queso frenco for my salad (picked it up in Aldi’s which has good cold items like Spanish bacon and Lebanon salami) and ricotta salata for Pasta Alla Norma.
My southern real estate agent just gave me a recipe for a Butterfinger Cake which, like most southern recipes, is very sweet. But I had never heard of it before. If he sells me a house, I’ll be making him the best banana pudding. I have gotten tired of eating bad ones on the road.
Can I ask a stupid question? Did the way Dill pickles are made change? I used to really like the vinegary taste of dill pickles but when I buy a jar now they seem like they a brined in salt. I miss the vinegary taste.
One of the biggest things I miss now that we are in a high-rise condo in Florida from our house and half-acre property near Charlotte, NC is the birds. In the nine years we lived there, we had entire families of bluebirds, cardinals, tufted titmice, black and brown headed nuthatches, bluejays, goldfinches, wrens, sparrows, four or five kinds of woodpeckers, mockingbirds and the seasonal cedar waxwings and hummingbirds. I loved them all! They cost a fortune to feed but they were worth it. I even loved the squirrels!
Ok, so I’ve had time to look through my new “Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show 2019 Cookbook” and it’s worse than what I posted earlier. I was watching the show last night and tried to find the recipe for the avgolemono lemon and rice soup. It’s not there. Not in the index under chicken, or rice, or lemon, or soup, or Greek. It isn’t in the topic section of chicken or soups. So, they lied about it being a COMPLETE book of all their recipes.
The sections are a total mess. I look for recipes with what I have on hand. If I have a beef roast, then I expect to quickly look through the beef section and find a recipe. Not with this book. You have to look through the soup section, the Italian section, the what’s for dinner section, the brunch section, the pasta section, etc., etc., etc. Oh, yeah, and don’t forget to look in the back past all the advertising for tools and such for the 2019 season section. Then, you have to look in the index and flip back and forth through 14 dozen beef recipes to see if each recipe might be good.
ENOUGH ALREADY! It’s too much trouble to find anything in it and it’s false advertising not to have all their recipes in it.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!
Ping for later...
I have made a variation of the fruit cocktail cake by mixing a yellow cake mix with a 16 oz can of fruit cocktail, and baking it. It makes a very heavy, dense, moist cake, with a pleasant, but different flavor. I didn’t put eggs in it, but that would probably make it a little fluffier.
I’ve mixed a 20 oz can of crushed pineapple into an angel food cake mix, and that turns out awesome! I didn’t see the instruction that said not to overmix it, and I mixed it with my kitchen aid for a couple of minutes. It made a huge amount of batter, which I baked in my 10x7x3” pan. Don’t grease the pan. It’s supposed to be baked in a bundt pan, but there was way too much batter. It was AWESOME and addictive. Tasted like a very rich white fruit cake. Of course, except for my occasional cheat days, I’m doing a low carb diet, so I haven’t made anything like this, lately. If anyone is interested, there’s a great recipe for low carb eclairs, which are, of course, high in calories, but very low in carbs.