[Mike Nolan]

I don't know if the cookbook includes a recipe for Italian Beef or if it has you pick it up from a place that specializes in it. (She is in Chicago, after all.)

I've made the Jeff Mauro Italian Beef recipe (without the garlic), I thought it was OK but not quite up to Chicago standards.

My son has been making Italian Beef (not sure what recipe he's using), he says the real secret is having an electric slicer that can get uniformly thin slices so they soak up the gravy properly. There was an ex-Chicagoan running a restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh that did a pretty fair Italian Beef (I had it once, I agree.) Before David got his slicer, he was taking his cooked meat downtown to have the guy slice it for him, and the guy said his Italian Beef was pretty good, though I haven't had it yet. The restaurant closed a while back but I think the guy is running a food truck now.

IMHO, the real secret is the right kind of bread, something that won't fall apart when it gets soggy. The Pittsburgh guy was bringing bread in from Chicago, but I think he was making the beef himself.

There's a place in downtown Lincoln that advertises Italian Beef, but IMHO it's just a French Dip, it lacks that Chicago aftertaste. There was a Chicago Hot Dog place at a mall that had Italian Beef that was reasonable, but it closed. They had supply issues, half the time they were out of the beef or the rolls, one time they were out of Vienna hot dogs.

Portillo's is looking to expand (Tony sold out for about 950 $million a few years back, but kept the real estate the restaurants are in), but I don't think Nebraska's on their target list. The WSJ had an article on Portillo's a while back, their AVERAGE location does about $7 million a year, about twice what a typical McDonalds does.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't find a Dutch apple pie recipe that is crustless, but I do find Swedish apple pie recipes that are crustless, though I didn't see one with raisins in it.

[Mike Nolan]

We had leftover soup, I also had a salad with salad greens I picked yesterday from the Aerogarden.

[Mike Nolan]

I agree that eggplant is better as a supporting ingredient than as the main ingredient in a dish. There are few eggplant Mediterranean dishes I'll order but won't make myself.

The zucchini tomato bake recipe that I made several times this summer is similar to ratatouille, but with cheese and no eggplant. If I grow zucchini again next year, I'll certainly make it again.

[Mike Nolan]

Tonight we had tomato soup and fried cheese sandwiches, and I had a piece of apple pie with some ice cream. (Diane had pie at lunchtime.)

[Mike Nolan]

I think next time I won't brush it on the edge of the pie crust, though, it got a little darker than the rest of the top.

[Mike Nolan]

When we were at the wine class dinner last week, the professor, who also taught the fruits course at UNL for many years, said that his favorite pie apple is Cortland, which he calls a triple-threat apple, good for eating, good for cider/sauce, good for baking.

I'm not sure I've ever had one, I'll have to see if there are any available this late in the season.

[Mike Nolan]

Lettuce wraps always seem to be missing something over a bun or slices of bread. I think it's the texture as much as the flavor. Flour tortillas are a little better than lettuce wraps, but I suspect that mushroom mixture would be really good on rye bread. I'll have to work that into the menu plan at some point.

Tonight's souffle came out nearly perfect, I should have taken a picture of it. We packaged the leftover souffle up for lunches for Diane. (Contrary to popular belief, you can microwave a souffle and it will fluff up nearly back to its original state.)

[Mike Nolan]

Air fryers are supposed to be good at that, but I don't want to devote counter space to one.

[Mike Nolan]

We're having cheese souffle tonight to go with the apple pie I baked.

BTW, my wife says my apple pie filling mixed with cottage cheese is delicious.

[Mike Nolan]

Today's apple pie:

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[Mike Nolan]

Does MSG improve MPG performance?

[Mike Nolan]

I'm baking another apple pie today.

I have been experimenting with using a little milk and honey (heated in the microwave for about 20 seconds) on the top of the pie instead of egg wash, I think it improves the color and the sugar crystals stick just as well.

[Mike Nolan]

My mother just kept the oil in her deep fat fryer in between usages, but she'd use it fairly frequently, at least once a week in the winter. If the oil got too gross, she'd put it in a can, freeze it, and toss it in the trash. We do pretty much the same thing with the oils from cooking meats.

We don't even pan fry chicken, too messy and not as good as restaurants that specialize in fried chicken. The last few times we got chicken from Popeyes, though, the legs and thighs were tiny, less meat on a drumstick than on a wing it seemed! We tried Lee's Chicken recently (the oldest restaurant in Lincoln) but it had kind of an odd taste the next day so we probably won't be getting their chicken very often.

Restaurants can use services that will recycle fry oil--it can be turned into biofuel--but I don't think those services will accept home cooking oils, probably because they're often not just fry oil.

I've wondered what the people who deep fry turkeys do with all that oil afterwards. I've had deep fat fried turkey once, I'll stick to doing it in the oven or on the rotisserie.

[Mike Nolan]

Is the cornmeal pumpernickel waffle recipe in the recipe category here?

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