Well, no vampires at your house! I would think she would have noticed the smell.

I went to buy the DH for cannolis for Valentine's Day. We have a great Italian bakery across the street from work. I forgot its closed on Mondays! I think I have to run over there today.

I agree, Becky, I can't imgine opening a jar of garlic and not smelling it. Of course, maybe she doesn't know what yeast smells like.

Now that's what I call garlic bread!

Annie

Next time store the yeast in the freezer!

Lars

The garlic powder looks almost identical to yeast. It only smell faintly garlicky when you put you nose right up close. I should have labeled things better.

Lars, I have one pound of yeast in the freezer. I put some out in a small bottle in the egg compartment for convenience.

--------------------------------------------
in the next few days, I will be posting many Valentine dishes that I had to make. It was real stressful trying to get everything done. But I still like Valentine's Day.

This is a low budget version. Sous vide drumsticks on home-made pasta.

dcarch

Your photos are always such wonderful compositions.

But you must stop having this baby bok choy fetish. Yes - I know it's good for you. So just eat it and stop posing it is such strange positions in your photos!

That heart shaped pasta looks like a lot of work. I hope she is worth it! :-)

Teresa

I thoguht they looked like palm trees. Hm.

Please remember this is a family-friendly forum. I'm not sure posting pictures of what you had to do for VD is entirely appropriate ;-P

I agree with Teresa, love the heart shaped pasta!

LOL, Colleen, my girls always snickered when they said "VD" instead of Valentine's Day....

and I know I'm not patient enough to cut pasta into little hearts...

Annie

Thanks everyone. In addition to another one I posted on WFD, here is one more. Just for lpink.

lpink, one day you and I will have VD together.(Vegetarian Dinner) LOL!

dcarch

Tofu, red bean, truffle flavored in black bean sauce.

Salad: Rose petals, palm hearts, napa hearts, romane hearts and artichoke hearts

Now THAT is a Valentine's Day dinner!

You food presentations always looks so healthy. That purple/periwinkle plate you have really makes the colors of the food pop!

Wowzo Dcharch!!!
I haven't been here much lately, but that should soon change.
I'm sure glad I popped in here today!!!!

She is one lucky lady. Your patience and imagination is unrivaled.

Thanks all. These dishes were not for any special lady. I was invted to a few parties.

Still more for the longest Valentine celebration:

dcarch

I have one question......were the shrimp dead or alive when you cooked them?

T

Nice theme food, dcarch! I almost made hearts with the shrimp in my paella, but in the end didn't bother.

Right now I'm most interested in the one dish that's not themed as far as I can tell. Could you talk about your drumsticks a bit? I'm overdue for giving sous vide another shot, and they sure look good. (And seem like they'd make for a good bite while watching the Daytona 500 on Sunday!)

FOAS,
That's also themed. You didn't notice the heart shaped pasta?

The drum sticks were sous vided at 147.2 degrees F for one hour. Just the way I like them cooked.

It is getting to be boring to be able to dupicate perfect meat every time. No mystery, no brainer. :-)

When you do chicken at low temperature, you have to get use to seeing some pink.

dcarch

dcarch, I really like the heart shaped shrimp but it's those nice fresh berries that really call to me...

Annie

LOL, I'm fighting the need for reading glasses as doggedly as my mom is fighting the need for a hearing aid. I hope my handicap is less annoying to others than hers is. Ok, I see the pasta hearts now. But beyond that, the lovely browned exterior wasn't a result of sous vide. What was?

Posted by annie1992 "dcarch, I really like the heart shaped shrimp but it's those nice fresh berries that really call to me... Annie"

I can't take credit for that. Shrimps come shaped that way. I just laid them out in pairs. As I remember, some shrimps mate for life. Now that's Valentine!

FOAS, after the drumsticks were done in the sous vide cooker, they were BBQed with a propane torch.

BTW, sous vide cookinmg can be habit forming. The drumsticks were put in the cooker frozen solid and not thawed. Also, after food has been cooked and refrigerated, you can re-cook at the same temperature and not overcook the food.

dcarch

Okay, Dcarch, I want to crash your VD dinner with Lpink! Nice plates!

Are you a caterer?

Sally

Posted by sally2 "Okay, Dcarch, I want to crash your VD dinner with Lpink! Nice plates!
Are you a caterer?
Sally"

No need to crash. You both are invited, and we will do what the Romans did. LOL!

No, I am not a caterer. Nothing related to the food business. I only cater to my own oral gratification [as defined by Freud :-) ]

dcarch

Posted by teresa_mn "I have one question......were the shrimp dead or alive when you cooked them? "

Indeed a very good question. I will go off-topic in my own thread.

A lot of confusion regarding seafood dead or alive, when the answer is very clear; It depends.

1. Most seafood is processed dead and is generally considered "fresh".

2. Lobsters, crabs, etc. deteriorate quickly once they die if they are not processed immediately and properly. If you can't tell by looking and examining, don't take a chance. Even there are "Lemon Laws", but if you don't know cars, don't buy used cars.

3. Live lobsters and crabs are what I mostly buy. I take chances once in a while in some stores because I know Chinese seafood stores have a huge turnover in what they sell. Everything is very fresh and I am not too bad in judging freshness.

4. To a great extend live lobsters and crabs are very much just an aesthetic requirement. If people are more acceptable as with frozen lobster tails, frozen king crab legs, frozen stone crab claws, etc. the costs of lobsters and crabs will be drastically lower because the maintenance and transportation of live seafood is extremely expensive. There is also the consideration that agricultural chemicals are used in keeping live lobsters in tanks.

5. Shrimps! It is very bad that the general public now has very low standards. Most of the shrimps, scallops you buy today in stores are chemically treated to look and taste "fresh". I only buy those shrimps which are flash frozen in 5-lb bricks.

6. There is a big big difference in taste and texture between live shrimps and the freshest frozen shrimps. I often go to a Chinese restaurant where they have live shrimps in a tank and order live shrimps. They are so good that the only way they serve them is just plain steaming. No other seasoning in cooking preparations whatsoever.

dcarch

On the topic of shrimp--

DH asked me how the Japanese cook their prawns for sushi. He reasons that it's a specific procedure since normally they're perfect. Not tough and not mushy like so many that I can find. What are your thoughts? Are they buying a special type or is it the preparation method?

Posted by compumom "On the topic of shrimp-- DH asked me how the Japanese cook their prawns for sushi. He reasons that it's a specific procedure since normally they're perfect. Not tough and not mushy like so many that I can find. What are your thoughts? Are they buying a special type or is it the preparation method?"

First, for sashimi raw shrimp, like the one I posted recently "It�s All About The Heart" thread, I used sweet shrimps from a Japanese store. I don�t think you should use any other shrimp from any other place for raw use. It�s a treat, a nice delicacy.

For cooked shrimps sushi (nigirizushi) you can use other kinds of shrimp. I prefer to buy the live ones from Chinatown. To cook them basically you remove the shells except the tail then cut open from underside and de-vein from underside. Using a skewer to prevent the shrimp from curling up when cooking, you either boil them or steam them. You should avoid overcooking them, they will become too chewy.

I usually heat up a big pot of water to 170 degrees and dip the shrimps in the water to cook.

dcarch

Dc:
I buy steamed frozen Shrimp at Walmart.

When I make a meal with Stir Fry Veggies,
I put some water , in a saucepan,
Put in my spices, Garlic and Onion Powder,
some Old Bay, etc.

Bring the water to a boil, turn it off and add the Shrimp,
for about 5 minutes.
I think this puts some Spice flavor into the Shrimp.

Then I add them to the Stir Fries, that are almost done.

Do you use Steamed, frozen Shrimp ???
LOU

Thanks!