Culinary Conversations

[JRinPA]

$15 a day in junk food? He is well on his way to being a "good consumer" for the modern day. Bonus if he uses credit card instead of cash, to kick that extra 3% up to his betters.

[worth1]

$15 a day in junk food? He is well on his way to being a "good consumer" for the modern day. Bonus if he uses credit card instead of cash, to kick that extra 3% up to his betters.

It's official the grand total is 75 dollars for lunch in one week.
4 days Panda Express and 1 day Chicken Express.
I think my grand total is about 7 dollars.

[worth1]

I had someone at the store try to force feed me a free sample of chili.
I have never in my life ever tried samples of anything at the store.
I would olive oil but they didn't give out samples.
I declined the sample very politely but the guy wouldn't give up.
He is not a store employee.
He starts getting in my face asking me if I remember the campfire boy scout chili I had.
One how would he know if I was in the boy scouts and how would he know if we made chili?
Next I told him again I made my own chili gallons of it a year and no thanks again politely.
Oh that isn't good enough he blocks my path and sticks it in my face again.
I finally said I don't want any of that crap leave me alone.
I guess that did it and he backed off.
Some goof ball dressed up like a cowboy.

[worth1]

The date recipe sounds delicious and I'm gonna make it.

[worth1]

More information on soy sauce than you ever asked for and more.

[MissS]

@worth1 I saw this or one much like it years ago. Nice information. Bought a few. These days I have to keep my sodium down so I just use Bragg Liquid Aminos. Very similar flavor without the sodium.

[Old chef]

More information on soy sauce than you ever asked for and more.

Worth,
Thank you for this video. Very informative!

Be well,
Old Chef

[worth1]

Somebody needs to fact check Wikipedia.
I looked at dirty rice and found several mistakes and it is rife with other subjects not actually related to the dish.
It proclaimes that peanuts sweet potatoes Lima beans and kidney beans came from Africa.

"The earliest versions of this dish trace back to the Antebellum era of southern Louisiana in the late 1700s, and fall under the category of soul food. During this period, the individuals working the slave trade brought crops from Africa, and captives with the knowledge to cultivate them in the colonies. These crops included sweet potatoes, okra, peanuts, kidney beans, lima beans, watermelon, and rice."

[MissS]

The peanuts did in fact arrive with the slaves from Africa. While they are native to South America, they were then imported into Spain and then made their way to Africa where they are widely grown. What has you caught up here is the wording. They came from Africa. Yes they did, however they originated in Brazil.

The lima bean is known to be one of the three sisters. Corn, beans and squash. So I assume that they were in the US prior to the Africans.

[worth1]

I've read the corn brought to Africa caused a growth in population resulting in an excess amount of people the west Africans could sell into slavery.
Brazil was part of Portugal at the time of the slave trade but they've supposedly found peanut pods in Peru as old as 7600years.

[karstopography]

Choice Corned Beef Point Cut $2.99/# at Aldi. Seems like a great price for choice corned beef. Choice Flat cut are $4.99/# .

I picked up one point cut for now. Seems like it will be perfect for the sauerkraut I’m making.

[worth1]

Bastrop needs an Aldi in the worst way.
They would be packed with all the surrounding towns and subdivisions going in including far east Austin out by the airport.
25 minutes to Bastrop vs fighting Austin traffic.

[worth1]

Great fun at the grocery store yesterday.
I laughed all the way out the door.

First my cart ran into the scales in the vegetable section blasting them apart.
The yoke holding the pan came crashing to the floor.
Then the stainless pan came down making a loud noise and started spinning making even more noise.
By now everyone stopped to watch.
The pan sounded like a symbol and I was pointing at it like a conductor on an orchestra.
At the moment it stopped I pointed at it in a manner a conductor would to stop the music.
Everyone had a big laugh including the two young girls that worked for HEB.

Next a woman and her husband had two boys with them shorter than the grocery cart.
They decided to climb up the back of the cart at the same time and it flipped over on them sending hot peppers and other items all over the place.
One kid was trapped under the cart but not hurt.
The other one sprawled out on the floor but not hurt.
The look on the two kids faces as the cart flipped backwards was priceless.

Then at the meat counter two younger women were together.
One said she was freezing her butt off and I said no honey it's still there.
The look of shock I was given was priceless.
Not mad but I can't believe you said that look.
What these gals did earlier was shove my cart up about 40 feet to make room for their cart.

While they weren't looking I took their cart and went off behind some stuff at the bakery and hung out to watch the action.

They turned to put something in their cart and it was gone.
Eventually they left to get another cart and came back with more stuff in it.
As they did I put their cart back in the same spot.
Then got my cart and went away the see things play out when they got back.
That look of what the devil was on their faces as they realized that their cart had been there all along.
Or at least thought it was.
That'll teach them to move someone's cart way down the isle.

[worth1]

I'm positive a bottle of 100 year old balsamic vinegar was a little over 100 dollars in the early 80's when I first heard about it.
Now it goes for 1000 dollars.
It's not aged balsamic vinegar but the stuff I made goes really well on steak.
I tried it with a piece of my beef I'm cooking in a goulash today while I was browning it.
Now that I've practically perfected the technique I'll have to make a bigger batch.
My sights are set on the Alessi brand that is made with grape Musk first and wine second.
Supposedly aged in a barrel but probably only a couple of years.
Another option is the 20 year old aged balsamic vinegar at 8 ounces for a little over 10 dollars and cut out all the work.

I just compared my 8 year old balsamic vinegar with the stuff I made and it's pretty darn close.
Mine is a little thicker.

[worth1]

For what it's worth Im pretty sure some of the HEB exclusive cast iron cookware called Cocinaware is made by Victoria.
The stuff I have is identical to Victoria.
Both are made in Columbia.
Victoria makes budget friendly cast iron as well as high end cast iron skillets costing in the hundreds.
Those are called the signature series.
My tortilla press is an exact copy of the Victoria but has the Cocinaware logo on it.

[worth1]

I had my hands on this thing today at a hardware store next to my job.
$325. Smithey Farm house skillet.
Hand forged.
I read an article that if you were really serious about cooking you needed something like this.

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[karstopography]

What is that some sort of bronze or copper, or what exactly is the metal or alloy? @worth1

Copper, I know conducts heat (and electricity) very well. Aluminum is a great conductor also. Iron is inferior as a conductor to both or am I wrong, but then cast iron cookware is pretty popular. Is that because it holds onto the heat better and doesn’t have these rapid and wild swings like some other more efficient conductive material might have?

I watch enough cooking shows to know what an amateur I am in the kitchen. That skillet would be a waste of money in my hands, but it is pretty.

[worth1]

What is that some sort of bronze or copper, or what exactly is the metal or alloy? @worth1

Copper, I know conducts heat (and electricity) very well. Aluminum is a great conductor also. Iron is inferior as a conductor to both or am I wrong, but then cast iron cookware is pretty popular. Is that because it holds onto the heat better and doesn’t have these rapid and wild swings like some other more efficient conductive material might have?

I watch enough cooking shows to know what an amateur I am in the kitchen. That skillet would be a waste of money in my hands, but it is pretty.

You had me going for a minute.
The pan is carbon steel and the color is the baked on oil seasoning.
When I polished my cast iron the color was like that after the first oiling.
I want one bad but not 300 dollars bad.
It's a work of art.
If I had a forge or a good torch I can guarantee you I could make one.

I've done a lot of hammering in my day.

[worth1]

@karstopography
The cast iron holds heat very well.
Like last night I made French fries in my cast iron sauce pan and once heated up the rascal just kept on kicking.
No pan heats as even as people want it but that's just the way it is.
These are the two complaints about Lodge cast iron.
It's heavy.
And it takes a long time to heat up.
Does that sound familiar with today's society?
Everyone wants things easy and they want it now.
So what they've done is cast skillets thinner to make them lighter.
Changed handles and so on.
Hand made not mass production like Lodge.
You can not buy your way into being a good cook.
No more than you can pick up a guitar and start off any good at all.
It takes experience and determination.
I normally know what I'm going to cook before I get home.
If it's involving cast iron I put it on to slowly heat up when I get home.
As God is my witness I started driving a cast iron skillet when I was around 9 or 10 years old standing on a stool.
I started driving on the farm at that age too.

So anyway the thin carbon steel came along because cast iron that thin is easy to break.
But it is light weight.
It heats fast but the drawback is it cools off fast too.
I was in the Breed and company store and I was looking for carbon steel skillets and found the Smithey carbon steel skillet.
Every thing in that place is high end
They had le creuset too and some other brand like star gazer or something.
Also high end German cutlery costing hundreds of dollars.
I had to get outta there before I bought something.

[peebee]

What a beautiful pan. Handmade with care & pride you can tell, & if taken care of properly it can be handed down to the next generation.