Kathleen, Food Talk as in Arthur Schwartz and now Mike Colameco on WOR radio :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Food Talk

RE: skinny caper jars

I buy my capers from Trader Joe's mostly because they package them in short squat jars. Otherwise, a 1/2 tsp. measuring spoon will fish them out of the skinny-mouthed jars... albeit slowly.

No problem here with skinny caper jars, I use my olive spoon. Also, salted capers (my favorite) don't have liquid so you can shake them out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Olive Spoon

Woodie, I live too far out in the sticks to get that sta. I can get CT stations easier. I just listen to the local yokel one!
But carry on....I have nothing to say about capers or olives..

Maureen, it is my understanding the entire strip center in West Annapolis is being destroyed to build another mixed use, multi level modern business bldg
The area is fighting it - that leaves no grocery stores in the city. Sad, I have been a Graul's shopper for many years.

Dang Kathy! I thought I could invent a "caper spoon" and become a millionairess! I use the little 1/2 tsp. spoon, but the jar is so LONG that when it gets more than halfway empty, the spoon gets less and less effective. Plus, I like a LOT of capers, and chipping away at the contents 1/2 tsp. at a time gets tedious. Anyway, I figured the kitchen gadget goddesses would dash my "caper spoon" get rich hopes!

Bannanas have gone the way with most supermarket fruit, large in size, flawless in appearance, and tasteless. I like the little ones but can't afford them. The organics are also somewhat smaller, I like those too, but can't afford them either.

Pink Laurie, I can't believe you mentioned tasteless bananas! I was thinking exactly the same thing tonight. I got home, too tired to cook, so I had a bowl of Special K with a banana. Yuck! The banana was hard and tasteless. I guess bananas come from the same place as winter tomatoes. Blech. I'll try the small ones and see if they are any better.

There is a checker in my grocery who really can't stand the recent changes made by the chain, such as turning one third of the store into a bakery. He said all the cakes come frozen and the icing comes in big buckets like spackle. I look at those cakes decorated in colors that do not exist in nature and wonder who buys them.

Since my grocery remodeled sales have dropped off and now they plan to remodel to get it back like it used to be. It's only a block away, so I still go there.

I am keeping my eye out for Honeybelles and would not mind shipping some to CA in a plain paper wrapper!

Oooh, Pam, you'd smuggle fruit? Clearly a hardened criminal, LOL.

Geez, this thread reminded me that I meant to buy chicken before I came home tonight. Whole fryers are on sale for 69 cents a pound at my local grocery. The rotisserie chickens go into the cold case as soon as they are cooked, so I never buy them, they aren't even hot!

Boy, I'm glad I don't like olives or capers, I don't need to fight with my food! LOL

Annie

Pam, really, would you, could you??? If you see them let me know! We'd probably have to ship them in styrofoam to protect them from all the frozen tundra between us! LOL!

QVC is selling honeybelles. I saw them on today. They will ship them to you.

Ellen, Plain brown wrapper...didn't think about that. I was going to send some, when I gave the shipper the address they said NO. I didn't think about contraband.

I've always used a fork to get the capers out of the jar. Seems to work okay, but I do lose one or two in the process.

I watched SNL years and years ago, back when it was funny. (When Dan Ackroyd, the late John Belushi, Jane Curtin, and the late, great Gilda Radner were on the show. Of course, maybe it wasn't any funnier than it is now, I just was, say, more easily amused back then. No, it was funnier then. Sorry, I got off track. Oh, well, to bring this back to food, I could bring up the Fish-o-matic skit that Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi did!) Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child, now that's funny.

All this talk about Honeybelles, I've never heard of them before. They're a cross between tangerines and grapefruit? Hmmm. Sounds like they could be interesting. I've just finished eating half a Texas ruby grapefruit. There's not a better grapefruit available. My brother sends me a package every Christmas. I look forward to them every year.

Sally

The old SNL show WAS funnier!!
And I believe it was someone else who was "verklempt"...2 women sitting on a sofa...the church lady said "isn't that Special?"
During the glory years of TV...we ate dinner in front of the TV watching Laugh In or Batman. My son learned to read by reading the words in the balloon on Batman...not exactly gracious dining...but, when you have toddlers....that's impossible any way.
It's minus 8 this morning....and I need eggs, milk and dog food.....and bird seed. I can make most things I eat....but I do need the raw material...like milk, flour and eggs!
Linda C

I'd be happy to smuggle fruit. I love beating the system. If I don't see them in the stores, I'll order from QVC, re-wrap and mail to CA. Hee hee. QVC won't ship to CA -- but I will.

I loved the old original SNL. Recently my friend and I almost died laughing when we were at a presentation (required by work) of someone from the United Way. She sounded exactly like Roseanne Roseannadanna. I leaned over to my friend and whispered "Roseanne Roseannadanna" and we both had to stifle laughs until we cried.

To keep the subject on food -- cheeburger cheeburger. Sorry, no Coke, Pepsi.

Speaking of Costco, our's gives out so many samples you can have lunch especially on Saturday.

Compumom - aaaww, drat! I can't believe we have so little left! I have been handing them out and eating 2 a day. The box is perfect for shipping BUT has oranges all over it and says "Do not ship to CA, LA, TX, AZ, HI, PR, VI, Guam" - I wasn't even paying attention to that when I got them! I feel bad.

Dedtired - your too funny and you rock you little rebel!

Pepsi, no Coke! LOL

My favorite host of all time is Alec Baldwin - he will do anything!

Do you want to try my hot Schweddy balls? Your balls are so tender...

Texasredhead you reminded me of an old Sally Jessy Raphael show where the topic was Dads who embarrassed their children while they were growing up (who are now adults) and it was SO very funny! There was one widower who was taking a lady out on a first date and told her to dress for a formal event and then he took her to the supermarket on the night they were giving out all the free samples! He was a corker and the funniest of all the embarrassing Dads! I still have the video tape recording of that show.

This thread is hysterical, (I didn't realize verklempt was a real word! I see I spelled it wrong!!) like a real conversation with everyone blurting out what is on their mind and no one listening....
And I know it wasn't the church chat lady who said verklempt...but food talk..church chat..lol And eating in front of the TV, a no no,,never..tv off during dinner always!
And yes SNL used to be funnier, but that is just an opinion, some guy on Letterman last night did a very funny bit on BACON...now that was funny and about FOOD, so it is Food Talk...and I don't have an olive spoon, will a pickle fork do or an old infant spoon.
Yes, I have had honeybells..
And Woodie, a "corker", that was a word my mom used...What ever happened to Sally Jessy..those glasses, remember??
Roseanne ..she was great, God rest her soul...
Some people do go to Costco for lunch of free samples , the demo people need a whip to keep them back...
Annie, they run out of rotisserie chickens here at Costco, people wait for them to come off the spit...I prefer to roast my own, but if they had that when I worked full time I would have bought it, I am sure.
And how do you feel about cloned meat??

I'm wondering what everyone is doing regarding bagged salad mix...are you still using? I've been buying heads of iceberg, romaine, Boston...do you think the bagged stuff is safe?

Nancy

I hope so, we eat a bag a day. I'll never go back to washing greens.

I never did like bagged "salad mix"...or worse yet a "kit"...I do buy bagged baby spinach and bagged spring mix...but never bagged cut up lettuce. Not that I worry about safety....but I don't like it.
Linda C

I buy the triple washed baby spinach and mesclum mix from Costco, but I still give it a spin for a 4th wash. I do worry about where it came from, and if they really wash it!

I don't buy the bagged lettuce salads if I can help it, I think it has an odor. The baby spinach bags don't seem to smell though. I still wash it.

I think it was Mike Myers in his Linda Richman sketch that was always verklempt, especially when she saw Streisand! My bubbe said it sounding like Fahrklempt.

LOL, Maggie, balls!

Jojoco, I used that pampered chef thing years ago when my son was a toddler, it was great, he didn't like crusts!

I like Arthur Schwartz, Woodie, and Colameco, too! Can't listen to the radio on the bus, the little beasts drown him outloud! Schwartz has a new book coming out soon, something Jewish cooking! I loved the New York one!

Texasred, LOL, lunch at Costco! true!

I haven't seen Honeybell's at all around, have you Maggie or Kathleen? and we usually can get them no problem! Meyer Lemons have been easier to find lately.

I'm with you Dishes, other than spring mix and spinach, the others have a sour smell. And I always rummage though looking for the longest Sell By Date.

I actually think there is a strange taste to the bagged lettuce, like the chemical they use to preserve so they don't turn brown. I don't like those peeled carrots for that reason, they put something on them..

Carol, so my beklept isn't too bad from an Irish gal??LOL
and i think you are right, Mike Meyers..

I actually knew someone who said he was going to Costco for lunch of samples...hope they only had vitamin chews that day..

LOL, not bad, Kathleen, not bad!

yes, Mustangs, the long sell by helps, then you don't find those gross decayed pieces, then the whole bag goes out. What a waste!

The peeled carrots sometimes have like a dried out whitish thing on them, ever notice that? Is that because they are getting old, dried out? Lot of waste with already prepared stuff, at least in my house, by the time we get to some things. I finally found that rutabaga I planned on making, never did get to that!

Yes, the white coating...don't like it..
I would never get to making a rutabaga..is it like a turnip..oh I know I could google it...

I went to look for the rutabaga that I had bought "a while back" and it was all shriveled up, it didn't seem like it was that long ago.... :)) I had to have Kim stop on the way home from work yesterday and buy a new one...we are making pasties today and it's a necessary ingredient. Seemed like a good idea with a foot of snow predicted and very cold temps. It's 7F here now.

Nancy

Pasties, I know what they are!! You make them with rutabagas? Now I will goodle it..

Pasties, I thought they were something totally different until I started reading the CF :)

Pasties...now I'm getting verklempt! But I bet they are like buttah...

Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Discuss.

Rutabagas with Pasties, now there's an image.....

One of these days I'm going to have to make the trek over to Costco. Y'all keep talking about it. I used to shop at Sams, years ago, and I do remember dining on all the samples they offered. I gave up Sams because it was too expensive, I could get stuff cheaper shopping loss leaders, and not have to mess with a membership fee. Is Costco better than Sams?

Kathleen, I'm listening - I even checked out this thread while I was at work today, but didn't post then. I didn't want to deal with logging in on the work computer, since I was doing it on the sly. But I know what you mean. My DS used to have his friends over, geeks all, and they'd all talk at the same time the whole time they were together. I have no idea how they understood each other, but they seemed to.

I've never noticed the white coating on the carrots, but then, I don't buy the spinach with the carrots, nor the salad mixes with carrots, either. (They DO stink) I do buy the basic bagged spinach, and I'll buy the organic spring mixes from time to time, mainly in the summer when I can't go out into the garden and pick them. At Christmas time I needed a lot of spinach, and I thought I'd save $$$ and buy the bunch spinach. Well, I may have saved some money, but by the time I washed the copious amounts of dirt off, and removed the leaves from the stems, I remembered why I spend the extra $$$ on the pre-washed stuff. I do wash it if DS #2 is watching (the one in culinary school and fresh out of sanitation practices class) or I have the extra time but otherwise I take my chances.

Which reminds me, speaking of rutabagas, I need to start a thread about turnips. I have a bunch of turnips in my garden that have all the sudden reached melon size. I need to do something with them, and I'm running out of ideas.

Sally

Claudia, I don't like the avocados from Chile either, but when I was in Texas last month, I bought avocados from Mexico, and they were every bit as good as what I was used to here in California. I think by next year we'll be getting California avocados again, but I won't buy the ones from Chile. I wish we could get Mexican avocados here.

I also buy capers from TJ's in the wide mouth jar - never had a problem with the small mouth ones. I do buy anchovies in jars with tiny mouths, and I bought one today at Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica, after a trip to the SM Seafood Market. I think I like this deli better than Sorrento Italian Market in Culver City, but they are very different and worth visiting for different reasons. Bay Cities deli has Greek, Argentine, Middle Eastern, and SE Asian items - Sorrento is pretty much just Italian - and much larger. Bay Cities seems to have a higher turnover in merchandise, and so it seems fresher - also it was much more crowded than Sorrento. I bought some sushi grade Ahi tuna at the seafood market for $21 a pound, which seemed like the best deal they had. I'll grill it rare and make a wasabi sauce for it. They don't have any wild caught salmon at this time of year - I guess it is major winter now where salmon are normally caught, and I tend to forget about that living here.

The only rotisserie chickens I've ever bought were in Mexico City. Some of my friends in Col. Condesa live right across the street from {{gwi:1479107}} that makes rotisserie chickens all day. You can stand in line outside at a window to get a chicken, and they have always been extremely good. I don't remember how much they cost, but as a visitor, it was a good deal. I generally took the chicken back across the street to my friends' apartment, along with some fresh bread, and they cooked some vegetables to have with it. When you only have to cross a street to buy a rotisserie chicken, it is really a convenience not to be passed up.

I bought some new items at Bay Cities - some Malaysian Satay sauce, Malaysian green curry paste, Argentine chimichurra, and Madras mild curry powder. I also bought a few other condiments that I needed, and a new lime reamer, to replace the one that American Airlines lost for me during my last trip, when they destroyed one of my luggage.

Lars

Sally, I'm with you..if I get sand in my teeth from the spinach..ugh. I buy the clamshell pkg/ in Costco or Sams. I belong to both, and they are both over 50 min away. But for holidays or parties, that's where I go. We only have one supermarket here, and it's not too good. 1 bunch of sad scallions for a dollar!

Which is better, Sams or Costco???...OMG, that would be some debate..I like each one for certain things....I also belong to BJ's which I like the least, but it is 35 min away and in an area where I freq find myself, ie Pottery Barn/Wm Sonoma outlets etc.

And I am listening too..it's very funny! And I know it's mesclun mix before I get corrected!

Maggie, I emailed you..do I dare ask Rocky Mountain Oysters. I am afraid to know!!

So no takers on the cloned meat ques??

Why would you be afraid to eat meat from a cloned animal??
But it's not gonna happen...because cloning is an expensive process and that cloned animal is not to be slaughtered for meat....but rather used to produce more surperior animals just like it....to use as herd sires...for milk production....but not as feed lot animals.
As for Rocky mountain oysters....
Nah!!....I'll take Atlantic or Pacific oysters!! LOL!
Linda C

Kathleen, you don't need to work on your virility girlfriend, so I'd pass on those oysters. My friend saw a string of them hanging dried in Greece...she thought it was garlic till she got closer and had it translated.

I know farmers and ranchers waste not but...

. OY, Maggie, bull or buffalo testicles are Rocky Mountain Oysters?? No thanks..
Who's afraid of eating cloned meat??? I dunno... I was just asking opinions, saw a show about it today.

Kathleen, I'm opposed to eating cloned animals. I think if I'm going to eat them they should at least have had the fun of reproducing naturally. LOL That's right before the bulls become steers and we have Rocky Mountain Oysters for lunch.....

Actually, LindaC is right, cloning is too expensive, it's not a process by which to produce meat animals. At least not yet.

I never buy bagged green, I can taste those preservatives and I don't like them. They taste metallic, somehow. I'd rather wash the stuff.

Mmmmm. Pasties. You gotta have rutabaga or it's not really pasties, and I love 'em.

Annie

What does a rutabaga look like? I thought pasties had meat in them.

A rutabaga looks like a huge turnip, except more yellowish with the purple. They are sometimes called "sweedes." They taste like a mellow turnip, and they are the traditional pastie starch. I like them just steamed with salt, butter and pepper.

Pasties do have meat in them, but they also have rutabaga and potato. Some heretics add carrot, LOL. I like onion.

Anyway, it's a meat and vegetable filling inside pastry. The miners had them as an easily portable meal and something that could be warmed up over a fire by placing them on a shovel. It's definitely an Upper Peninsula Michigan tradition, with all those copper miners.

Annie

That's interesting, Annie. I just assumed that pasties were British. I hear the word in a British accent. lol

If I were to eat meat, it would be from a farmer like Annie, that raises them on pasture. I don't know if it makes any difference if the animal was cloned, or the offspring of a clone, other than I imagine the life of the cattle being cloned, or being used for the experimentation going on right now, is not a pleasant life. That's just a guess, though. This thread is really too fun to be talking about animal cruelty, so I better stop. (Thank you, Annie, by the way, for doing what you do.)

Sally

Not all bagged greens are equal...some don't have preservatives, some do and stink. There is an organic brand in a square tub I won't buy because the greens smell and there are bags of spring greens while not stinky, never seem fresh. I'll go to three grocery stores to find what I want: fresh and natural.

Can't wait till summer so I can get it at the farm..fresh and close!
And that's no bull! (Maureen, I had NO idea about those RMO's!)

I would pay an extra 25 cents (maybe more) per jar of natural peanut butter if it came prestirred and refrigerated.

Denise, there's a gadget for that...

Here is a link that might be useful: Peanut Butter Stirrer

OMG! I don't have one of those!

Oh! Dishes! You're the best. I thought I was just whining, little did I know there was a solution. Thank you!

I am SO ordering that.

No more oil all over the kitchen counter at 6am.

LOL Cathy!!

I can't wait for fresh local produce to start showing up around here. Cauliflower was $3.99 at the store yesterday, I passed. Even though it has been a cool spring here I'm thinking in a couple of weeks we should have some good stuff available.

David

News about the peanut butter stirrer.

Good news: I found it at a local store and bought it!
Bad news: The clerk asked me if I qualified for the senior citizen discount! (I do NOT, thank you very much)

Thank you again, dishes.