Fri. Apr 3rd, 2026

Mike Nolan

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Viewing 15 posts - 5,866 through 5,880 (of 7,912 total)
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  • in reply to: $75 for a cup of coffee #16093
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      Sams Club has a bottle of scotch for $1200, which works out to $48-$75 a shot (depending on whether you pour a one ounce shot or a 1.5 ounce shot.)

      But I'm neither a coffee drinker nor a scotch drinker, so the subtleties of either would be totally lost on me. I can appreciate a good cup of tea but I wouldn't pay the crazy prices that the high end teas get, either.

      in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 15, 2019 #16092
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        Tomorrow's question is a hard one, but I learned a lot researching the answer, which has multiple references.

        in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of May 12, 2019? #16091
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          We had take-out last night and again tonight. I'm planning to make some buns for burgers tomorrow, I don't know if I'll make them tonight or in the morning, it's supposed to be in the 90's here tomorrow. I gave up and turned on the A/C last night, it was in the mid-80's in the bedroom.

          in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 15, 2019 #16078
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            When we were in Portland Oregon two years ago for the International Master Gardener's Conference, the hotel restaurant had an excellent soup made from Jerusalem artichokes. I can't say I noticed any gastric distress from it, and I had it at least 3 times.

            Based on the research I did, this is not a plant I'd want to try to grow, though.

            in reply to: Blood Oranges and Regular Oranges #16071
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              According to the web, one of the varieties of blood oranges is available through May but the other variety (which I think is the more common one) only goes through March.

              Aside from tasting them in the grocery store a few times, we've never bought them. I have no idea what difference they would make in an icing aside possibly from color.

              My wife is a big fan of the cara cara orange, which also has a short season.

              in reply to: SNL satire of Chopped #16070
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                Chopped is about the only thing I still watch on the Guy Fieri AKA Food Network these days. I watch it in part for the strange ingredients they keep coming up with (which SNL nailed!) and to see what the chefs do with things that are every day ingredients for many home cooks but which many of them wouldn't normally touch on a bet.

                How many of us would know what a durian was without Chopped? (BTW, there was a story recently about a college library in Australia that was evacuated because someone left a durian in a trash bin.)

                I agree with the lament that I'd like to see a bit more of the actual cooking, like how they make their sauces. (Having read several books on stocks and sauces, I think I can connect the dots a bit, though.)

                in reply to: SNL satire of Chopped #16068
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  I seldom watch SNL any more, most of the time it just isn't funny, this was one of the best skits I've seen in years, though.

                  in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 13, 2019 #16056
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    The water in a dishwasher is hot enough that it helps melt grease and dissolve food. The studies referred to by the quiz answer didn't deal with removing dirt or grease, just bacteria.

                    I've had my doubts about just how good the 'sanitizing' cycle is in a dishwasher.

                    According to various reviewing organizations, any home dishwasher made in roughly the last 5 years is going to be less efficient at cleaning dishes, in large part because of governmental restrictions placed on the amount of water that a dishwasher is allowed to use. The cycles are longer, too, probably in the hopes of compensating for the water restrictions.

                    I'm glad I haven't had to replace a dishwasher lately. As I understand it, commercial dish washers have not been affected by these regulations, because there are requirements placed on them as to how well they have to clean, so they're allowed to use more and hotter water.

                    in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 13, 2019 #16052
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      Newsweek used to have a regular column called 'Conventional Wisdom' in which a recurring theme was that the CW was wrong more often than it was right.

                      If you're trying to clean things with grooves in them, hot water will usually make the material expand, making the grooves smaller and harder to clean.

                      in reply to: Pizza-Making ? #16051
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        I've got a number of silicone brushes, the one I like best is a small one I got at a Le Creuset shop. I use them mostly for applying butter to pans and breads and the bigger ones hold too much butter and/or release it too quickly, so things get too much butter on them.

                        in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 13, 2019 #16044
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          As opposed to air dryers, paper towels are much healthier. (Whether they're better for the environment is another matter.)

                          in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 13, 2019 #16039
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            I agree with you on the comfort factor. My wife thinks grease comes off easier in warm water, but that really depends on the type of grease, because some of them have pretty high melting points. I keep a dispenser of Lava liquid soap by the kitchen sink, because it works better on greasy hands than anything else I've found. A friend of ours works as a diesel mechanic, I bought him a case of Lava dispensers as a Christmas present a few years back.

                            in reply to: ? When to Glaze? #16037
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              If it's a light glaze, you can probably do it before you freeze it. My concern about doing it afterwards is whether it would stick properly.

                              in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of May 12, 2019? #16036
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                Many car batteries only have a 3 year warranty and even then it's pro-rated. And when they fail, they're usually goners. My wife's Honda Fit, purchased in 2014, had the battery fail over the winter.

                                My car is a Toyota Avalon Hybrid, so it's got multiple batteries.

                                in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 12, 2019 #16027
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  I think people use more of the mother sauces than they realize.

                                  Thickening a roux with milk (béchamel) is a pretty common practice, to make macaroni and cheese, potatoes au gratin, creamed tuna, etc.

                                  Most of us use tomato sauce frequently, though we may not make it from scratch. It wouldn't be out of line to suggest that ketchup is similar to a tomato sauce these days, though ketchup has an interesting lineage--it actually started out as a fish sauce, tomatoes weren't included until around 1800.

                                  And as I wrote some months ago, using a roux to thicken a stock (velouté) is basically the same process as making gravy.

                                  Hollandaise and mayonnaise are similar, both are an egg and oil suspension (and both can be easily broken.)

                                  Brown sauce (espagnole) is probably the least commonly used mother sauce at home, and not all that common in commercial kitchens, though demi-glace concentrate shows up in many high end restaurants. Demi-glace is a secondary sauce that starts with Espagnole. I've made Sauce Robert a couple of times (demi-glace, mustard, onions and white wine), it's excellent with pork dishes.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 5,866 through 5,880 (of 7,912 total)