robin_d - Do you remember when McDonald's french fries were so good? They formerly used a small amount of beef fat in the shortening. I try to avoid junk food, but I would make an exception for those fries! I can only imagine how good they would be in all beef fat. We did get our half cow last year, and have enjoyed the meat very much. Unfortunately, my request for the fat and all the bones for stock was passed from me to DH to the butcher. The result was that I got the usual soup bones, but all the long bones and fat were disposed of. The butcher did tell DH that we could have all the bones we wanted any time, because most people don't want them. One of these days I'll take him up on the offer, and I'll ask for all that connective tissue as well. Since the butchers normally pay to get rid of these, I imagine other butchers would be glad to get rid of them as well. Fat is one thing that I don't like to store in plastic, as it absorbs molecules of plastic quite easily. I imagine this absorption no longer occurs once frozen, but would be even faster than normal when the fat is warm. I realize that this isn't a concern for most people! ".........When you buy beef to be butchered, you pay for the hanging weight of the side/whole/quarter on the hook after the obvious parts are disposed of. Hooves, head, etc., and it's sectioned. That's how our local butchers do it, anyway. It's your call within bounds what you want off it and how you want it since you have paid for it by the weight........" calliope - that's the system used around here as well. We also paid a slight fee for the wrapping, that was either based on the pound or the number of pieces wrapped - I forget which. One reason I didn't go back and get some fat from another cow was that I particularly wanted the healthier fat from a grass-fed animal. It occurs to me now that I can call up the farmer who sold us the cow and ask when they are taking another animal in to be butchered. Of course the 100 mile drive was also a factor! Fortunately there are some great German restaurants in the town where our butcher is located, so it makes a nice outing.

We use whole and 2%, both organic. I use whole in my coffee and tea and 2% on my cereal. I use both in cooking and baking. When eating cookies or cakes, it's whole for me. I grew up drinking raw milk and loved it. It's probably one of the reasons I still drink whole milk.

It depends on what I have on hand. If I have leftover baked potatoes, I'll just cube them up, toss them into a pan with some bacon grease and let them cook until they are brown on the bottom, flip them, cook until brown and ready, and eat them. I do like onions with my fried potatoes, but I usually only add onions when I'm starting with raw potatoes. I don't peel, I scrub and slice thinly, add to some hot bacon grease or butter or oil, whatever is convenient. Add the onions, cook until nicely browned and crispy on the bottom, flip 'em, add a lid and lete cook until tender, take the lid off for the last bit until they are crunchy enough. Watch the onions so they don't burn. And don't put too many in the pan at once or the ones in the miccle won't get done while lthe ones on the outside get too done. Truthfully, I like them best cut into small cubes or diced and roasted on a baking pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 400F and sstir periodically until they are all nice and golden and crunchy. Annie

I've lived in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Fried rice in those places don't any sauce - oyster, fish or soy sauce. Most of the time there is pork and onion. Cook your rice al dente, and spread it out on a cookie sheet to cool and dry a bit. Day-old rice is great. Get a wok with vegetable or peanut oil screaming hot, add minced onion until translucent, add chopped leftover pork or Chinese pork sausage (my fave for fried rice is cha-siu style pork), add the rice and stir, stir, stir until all is mixed and hot. The amount of soy sauce is up to your taste -- or skip it and add at the table. If you skip it, add salt to the wok ingredients. Add black pepper. I like it fried until just about to get crisp. I also like chopped scrambled egg in mine. Add any vegetables you would like. Leftovers are great for this. Koreans and Japanese have a fusion dish called "Om-rice" short for omelette rice. Spread beaten egg in a large skillet as if you were making a plain omelet. When cooked, slide it out in one round piece on a plate. Put one portion of fried rice in the middle of the egg and roll the egg around the rice until covered (put the edges on the bottom so what you see is just the omelette part). Served with ketchup! They also put ketchup on French toast! Your mileage may vary!