Anyone with a good recipe and/or advice for making homemade English muffins?
This lady recommends Alton Brown’s recipe, adding baking soda. I’m usually a fan of King Arthur recipes, but this one seems a bit off (and this one will need to wait til I have starter ready).
I have never gone wrong with an Alton Brown recipe.
Ditto. And for whatever reason, of all the big guys on FoodNetwork, his recipes always seem to turn out the best for me. On the other end of the spectrum would be Bobby Flay, which is a shame, since at the on-set his creations look amazing.
Because SCIENCE. That’s why.
And Bobby Flay’s douchebagness oozes into his recipes.
he is a douche
com-pleat-lee.
So the Royals canned Frank White after last season. Guess who’s going to be their primary television analyst this year.
Not only that…Physioc is on board for 50 games as well.
Jeebus FKing Crust!
Well, fk me running.
I feel like you ask way too much.
I don’t run that fast.
Ugh. Sucks to be a Royals fan.
I’m a Cal basketball fan so I have to put up with that knucklehead Physioc for at least half of our games, along with the occasionally-tolerable Marques “Everybody Who’s Anybody Went To High School In Los Angeles” Johnson. I’ll give Physioc credit where it’s due, as far as his Pac-12 basketball gigs are concerned: he can be obnoxious, but at least he’s obnoxious for both teams.
Physioc is a really bad basketball announcer. I don’t understand why he continues to get work.
Johnson is at least entertaining, in a “what crazy-ass shit is he going to say this time?” sort of way.
Damn but Oliver LOVES Choice.
hmmm… interesting. Well that would have changed my voting a bit.
Do you give Oliver any credence?
The desperate flailings of a doomed franchise.
They’d been trying to move out of that house forever
Now *that’s* a tagline!
Yeah some. Basically, Ive seen Choice in person a couple of times and I just really have concerns about the Ks. I think good pitchers changing speeds will eat him up because of the timing mechanism in his swing. Ive also learned my lesson with players like Corey Brown. That being said the more the numbers suggest that he can overcome that the less I weigh my eyes in that regard.
Not that I put any stock into that defensive rating, but it must be unusual for a young player to rate that poorly defensively, no? Or does it include position?
Honestly, I don’t know Oliver’s inner workings to produce MLE projections but it does have him listed as CF, not OF.
I don’t know anything about Oliver period. Does someone want to post a summary?
Here are THT’s two articles:
Initial launch, 2011 launch
Thanks, so it looks like Oliver is pretty standard for Major League veterans (weighted mean of the last three years, plus aging and regression to the mean), but it’s somewhat novel in how it calculates MLEs for minor leaguers. I didn’t get through the whole article about that feature (see here), but it is definitely bullish on Choice.
I think that it has him in center field.
Thanks. Still, defense peaks really early so it’s kind of too bad (with the caveat that I don’t really trust defensive projections) that he rates so poorly as a young man.
We’ve started to go with America’s test kitchen over AB for a lot of recipes. ATK tends to be more complex and you have to pay for either the cookbooks or Cook Illustrated online subscription.
Alton Brown just annoys the fuck out of me. Gordon Ramsay is my go to celebrity chef.
Not a huge fan of Ramsay, but completely agree on Brown.
Watch the British show the F word. Way better than anything he does for American consumption.
One of our current client is going to be a contestant on the newest Hell’s Kitchen. He is, by all accounts, one of the sweetest, nicest, friendliest, giving people you’ll ever wanna meet.
Oh, the poor guy. Why would he subject himself to that.
girl.
Oooooh. I thought you were referring to the client. Did realize you switched references on the pronouns.
no, I did not. I was referring to Gordon Ramsay.
well maybe you should introduce us then
AB appealed to me about five years ago. His act has since grown tired and pompous. I’m over the notion of celebrity chefs., which is what’s appealing about ATK. It’s not about the chef, it’s about the food.
ATK isn’t sophisticated enough for me tho. I got their 2011 best recipies for christmas and pigs in a blanket is one as is ham. Im not kidding. Why would I make that?
Why does anyone need a recipe for pigs in a blanket?
Agreed also they have three variations of it.
Because they probably get you to actually make ’em right.
I have much respect for a magazine that’ll do a front page spread on the best way to pan-cook pork chops, explaining why you do each thing.
I have no problem with pan seared pork chops and how to do them right. I would read that.
Pigs in a blanket involves wrapping hot dogs in dough. Seriously why should I care or want to do it in three different ways.
Ah, but which dogs and which dough?
Same dogs. Two different kinds of dough. One makes “Bagel” Pigs in a Blanket.
Mostly I would never eat Pigs in a Blanket of my own choosing. I cant remember the last time I had a non sporting event hot dog.
You have obviously never seen me in the kitchen.
Happy Pig is happy.
Happy pig is future bacon.
I has a sad.
Wow. Way to kill the buzz. You know people do keep them as pets. That’s an inside pig. Unlikely to be inside if it’s a future meal.
My mom’s brothers ate her lamb when she was a kid.
Yeah, but your family is a bunch of sick fkers.
(no defense)
If it’s a future meal it’ll be inside at some point
Twss
Awwwwww. That’s the good kind of pigs in a blanket.
I am disturbed by that pig’s hand.
Every cookbook has duds in it. We bought it, too, and used it for several recipes on Xmas day with the in-laws and for New Year’s.
I don’t ever cook from recipes, so I have no opinion there, but I really like Alton Brown as a TV food guy, at least his early Good Eats incarnation if not his more current Iron Chef and other gigs. Good Eats was a revelation of a cooking show.
I don’t really much either, but I mostly read like 4 ways of doing something and then merge them as I will.
exactly! I like that method.
Agreed, but looks like no recipe there, even in premium content
I’m loving my ATK slow cooker book.
Lasagne, meatloaf, and soup were all well received. Next up are beef stew and ribs (!!)
I bugged you about this before, but I would love to get some good (vegetarian) slow cooker recipes. I pulled mine out a few weeks ago and I’m getting back into it but also pretty underwhelmed. Lots of super soft potatoes in the last couple recipes that I’ve tried.
We did a potato leek soup that was pretty good. Potatoes go in raw and you cook on low for 8 hours, so they do get fairly soft. One interesting technique they seem to like is microwaving your chopped veggies (mixed with your spices) for a few minutes before dumping in with broth/non-veggies/whatever you’re making.
The beef stew uses frozen potatoes, so we’ll see how that works.
Microwave foul.
It worked fairly well the last time I did it, though I was surprised they weren’t suggesting a more standard saute.
I just don’t believe in microwaves.
/Rick Santorum
Well Rick Santorum is an unproven theory
Ovens. I don’t believe in microwave ovens. I believe in the waves.
That’s why you need one of these.
You show me something that is well cooked in a microwave and ill change my stance.
The kale we make usually is steamed for a few minutes in the microwave before we finish it off on the stove top – seems to get the toughness out very well. You could do the same thing by boiling, but the microwave is quicker, which is important with two kids.
As I don’t have kids this isn’t a significant concern. I honestly cant remember the last time I used a microwave.
You don’t need one right now.
Other needs may cause you to reassess in future living situations in future years.
I didn’t have one thought the 90s.
I think I got my first one when I was 33 or so.
a man after my own heart.
we don’t have one. no toaster either.
how do you toast bread?
As long as you keep eating healthy and riding your bike to work, yes, I may require your heart at some point. If El Croata Doesn’t have dibs
As I recall from the same period when we didn’t have a toaster, we didn’t
dry skillet for up to 3 pieces. over 3 you gotta go broiler. and we’re not against toasters or anything. it’s just not part of the routine. we’re against nukers though.
Makes sense I always end up burning my toast that way.
Broiler is best, you just gotta keep an on it. It also allows you to pre-butter it which allows it to cook into the bread. Just leave the door ajar and watch it, it doesn’t take long.
@DMOAS
great for winter, terrible for summer
Not even for reheating beverages, for example?
use jalapenos! Jesus dan we have to get you on facebook
What beverage would I want to reheat?
Coffee? Hell, water? You can’t tell me that boiling water on the stove is easier.
I don’t drink coffee at home and have a tea pot for tea.
Its not.
Neither is playing an LP. but I won’t stop doing either
also neither taste that good reheated.
@danbot Reheating coffee is blasphemy — just make a fresh cup. But I don’t know why I’m butting in here, since I use my microwave all the time (just not for coffee).
microwaved milk is awesome.
@colin
Reheated coffee has its’ place… If I forgot to set the pot up on auto, I’ll reheat and drink the last cup from yesterday while I prepare a fresh pot.
Also, I like to use a little bit of day old coffee in homemade sauces and short marinades.
@SPWC Drinking a reheated cup of yesterday’s coffee? That’s brootal.
@colin. Did that yesterday. When I’m only making coffee for myself (I’m generally 1-2 cups/day) and there’s some leftover from the day before, and I have to deal with kidz, reheating yesterday’s coffee is the quickest route to staving off the caffeine headache.
Corn.
But how do you cook it in a milk bath that way?
Or how do you get the nice char on the husk and that roasted flavor?
Microwaves are for regular cookin, not fancy cookin
Changing the goalposts. If I told you steaming was a good way to cook lobster tails, it would be irrelevant for you to say that steaming sucks because lobster tails don’t taste or look the way they would if they’ve been grilled. And vice versa.
You asked for a food that is well cooked in a microwave. I gave you one.
Well do you know that changing your goalposts is one of the absolutely best tactics in debate?
I think steaming things is a poor way to cook things. So yes steamed lobster tails wouldn’t be a well cooked. Microwaves are best at steaming things and doing things rapidly. I don’t steam anything because generally it doesn’t taste that good (unless i do fish in a bag in the oven). Corn that isn’t cooked in the husk over high heat or boiled in a milk bath just doesn’t taste as good as corn that is.
The two effective means are pre cooking your baked potato before it goes in the oven and microwaving frozen peas (though I pretty much always do that stove top in the water my pasta)
And I’m proposing you add “blooming your aromatics before slow cooking” to that list.
That’s all.
I think anyone who’s steamed crab and/or other seafood, or certain veggies (broccoli) would disagree. I also think you’re conflating “personally not liking a method of cooking” with “poor way of cooking”.
@lenscrafters: You’re talking to DFA, for whom personal opinion equals sole and indisputable truth. Are you new here?
@nevermoor I will try this and report back on its failure.
@lensecrafters you throw live crab in a pot of boiling water to kill it. Broccoli should be sauted preferably in bacon/duck fat with shallots. Seafood should be pan seared or fish in a bagged which I already accounted for.
@FSU glad you understand.
@FSU Heh, fair enough.
@DFA Boiling is a vastly inferior method to steaming crab. Boiling adds excess water and greatly dilutes the flavor.
It kills the crab slower and you pull it out quite quickly.
Pizza the next day.
Thanks, and go As.
Cold.
also acceptable, especially for breakfast.
Thanks, and go As.
this or skillet
To be fair, a toaster oven reigns supreme on leftover pizza.
Seriously, this.
Yup. Microwaved pizza (not the fake kind) is nasty. It ruins the greatness of the cold pizza while making it horrifically soggy instead of the need to be crisp. Better to toss it back onto a pizza stone in the oven.
False.
My microwave actually has a pizza setting. It even asks how many slices, and thick or thin crust.
Thanks, and go As.
Snerk. A “pizza” setting.
true
For the most part, I completely agree with you about the overall quality of anything coming out of the microwave. I have and use one frequently, but when I do use it, I’m knowingly/deliberately sacrificing quality for speed/convenience. The microwave has it’s place, but fine dining is not it.
Right this is essentially my point. I just fall on the quality end of the spectrum almost universally. I own a wave. I just literally never use it.
ASVD
Link.
Other people have the right to believe in them. I don’t.
He who takes the position that a cooking method is wrong in all situations bears the burden of disproving exceptions.
Other people do disgusting things with their food, so just saying well someone else thought that was a good idea doesn’t do much for me. That being said I have never in my life seen the application of a microwave be the highest method of cooking. Yes it saves time, but it does so by poorly cooking things compared to other means. I would rather things taste good than be ready quickly.
Oooh. I need this.
I made a slow-cooker beef stew last week that was well-received. We need to use this more.
Yeah. I’ve done three things in two weekends, and would be doing another today except we’ll be traveling for a wedding.
I particularly like the 9-11 hour overnight or all-day stuff.
¿que pasa, barça?
lounger?
apparently they played as if they were seated in them.
nice.
with the leg rest up. grrr.
HAHAHAHAAHA the end of this is great
I see Breitbart found the open bar and a fistful of drink tickets at CPAC pretty easily.
I just love the girl at the end: “I never raped ANYBODY, I don’t know what hes talking about”
He clearly has that on his mind… it’s called projection and I’d bet good American money that somewhere in his past there is some non-consensual sexual activity with him as the aggressor.
And yet CNN continues to put him on its “esteemed panels.”
I have a new “box” to help provide shade to my AC unit in the summer, thanks to some help from my brother:
This is one of the favors he did for me in exchange for letting him keep his ’69 Ford truck in my garage as he works on selling it. I let him know what I wanted, he drew it up, we bought the wood needed, he put it together, and I painted it. There are also 1/4″ feet on the bottom to give a slight lift to it just in case any puddles form, but that’s not usually a problem in that spot.
All in all, the project ran about $70. Not too bad. I probably don’t truly NEED it since I haven’t had any issues with the AC up to this point, but it’s probably as old as the house (15+ years) and I figured especially when it’s the middle of summer pushing 100 degrees, a little less sunlight beating down on the thing couldn’t hurt. I’m happy with it.
More photos of how it came together here, including a cameo of one of his dogs, Brownie.
Christ, what lattice holes.
asvd
indeed
very pretty
So, Whitney Houston.
There might be a pool in the ER guessing cause of death.
Heavy favorite’s gotta be cocaine-induced MI.
Yep. Top 5 answers are on the board.
1. MI
2. OD
3. Suicide
4. Aneurysm
5. Pneumonia
Myocardial Infraction?
Myocardial Infarction – cocaine-induced heart attack
thats what I thought i just wanted to confirm
Casey Jones you better watch your speed!
yeah, that’s what it was. Surely.
how will you know?
They will do an autopsy and release the cause of death.
what if he really loves me?
LOL
well played.
Seems like a subject Bloom would be more eloquent with than I could be.
It’s just really, really sad. She was, and I’m fairly certain I’m not alone in remembering this, just such a sweet, beautiful young woman. sad sad sad.
Drugs are bad, kids, and you shouldn’t do drugs.
the question is: with Whom is she dancing?
Kevin Costner.
Safe to say the children are no longer her future..
The best one I’ve seen on the Stiffs.com forum (glad somebody kept that up and running) would be:
Best Super Bowl national anthem in my memory. Heck, it’s the only one I remember.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
She was lip syncing. *mind blown*
Also, don’t do drugs, kids.
Atti just said she is on her way once her browser trouble subsides
Yay!!
I’m telling you, some of those Cleveland fans are really upset with the manager.
I’ll take him off their hands
So the Speed Killers, huh? That’s fucking creepy.
Fidel Castro has found Jesus.
This sounds like a nightmare.
(Emphasis mine; really?)
Majority of restaurants end up failing anyway, too, right?
She must have really, REALLY wanted an ice cream shop.
Thanks, and go As.
This case has gotten a ton of media; this must be at least the fifth article I’ve read about it (and the Hello City Planner video they reference is indeed hilarious). There’s no doubt this woman had an egregiously bad time of it, and SF’s processes are especially difficult. But ultimately, zoning is hard. A city wants (and needs) to set up rules about what types of businesses can operate where, and under what conditions, and those rules are really hard to navigate. What’s more, even a well-functioning bureaucracy requires money to do the various plan check and permit review processes, and that’s why fees are high (by state law, fees can only cover actual costs of the service they pay for),
You seem surprised that SF doesn’t have a map of existing businesses. I’d venture a guess that almost no large city does…businesses change all the time, and maintaining a current map of them costs money (its obviously not OK that SF would force the business owner tocreate one, and I’m skeptical that’s what happened). Cities ain’t exactly rolling in cash these days. This is exactly the sort of thing, and hundreds more, which even tightly run cities will not be doing for years to come.
Yeah, my “really?” was a combination of incredulous-at-city and indcredulous-at-story.
I understand what you’re saying, but to pick a specific example: if the requirements are so onerous for proper zoning, it seems strange that the entire process does not result in the city having enough knowledge of the local businesses to create a map.
here go you. i’ll invoice you later.
That map shows a grand total of three businesses on Haight between Stanyan and Divisadero — might be a little incomplete.
I wonder why there is an 11k charge to turn on the water. Also 20K to change zoning from a grocery store to a restaurant doesn’t seem that outrageous.
yeah, pro tip, if you want to start a restaurant, buy a restaurant space
exactly.
I dunno, that kinda seems like crap. Grocery stores sell food. Some of em even sell food ready to eat right now and have delis that make sammiches to order and prep stuff, just like restaurants.
Basically I kinda think zoning is a bit of a joke.
Thanks, and go As.
{opens combination shooting range/porn shop/liquor store next door to mikev}
Not enough square footage next door, it’s just a little house.
Thanks, and go As.
Well if it is its not very funny!
If you want a shitty city have shitty planning.
That’s kind of ridiculous. Zoning serves all kinds of purposes. Besides the obvious value of preventing a rendering plant from opening in a residential neighborhood, it allows cities to help craft what kind of city it wants to be. Lots of places don’t want to be Emeryville, full of big box retail. Some places want to prevent an over-saturation of nail salons or Subway chain restaurants (examples of very cheap-to-open businesses that can theoretically function almost anywhere) from crowding a diversity of businesses out their commercial corridors. Maybe a city’s cops are worried that a bunch of nightclubs near the senior center will lead to problems. Other places want to preserve a proven tax base in an area, like an auto mall. Zoning is just about the only mechanism a city has to guide its development by a standard other than “whoever will pay to rent/buy the space.”
Having said that, a lot of the zoning oddities come up when politicians react to oddball individual cases with sweeping permanent regulations. Then those actions get layered upon one another, amking interpretation and enforcement really hard. Without knowing the particulars of the SF ice cream case, it’s likely that at least some of her difficulty derived from that dynamic.
which is why I said “a bit” of a joke. While it certainly makes sense to say “this part of town is residential” and “this part of town is commercial or retail” — but really, what does that 20K cost to change zoning actually get? It’s not exactly a city guiding its development by a standard when you can just pay a bunch of money and get it changed anyway. That just sounds like revenue generation.
Thanks, and go As.
Well cities need to generate revenue. But also, it serves as a barrier to entry for not serious businesses which is good because it prevent super high turnover.
Well, cities need to *provide services*, and generate revenue so that they can provide those services.
OK, so I’m totally out of my element here and basically winging it, but… if I were in charge of a city, and I wanted revenue, the LAST thing I would do was make it *harder* for new businesses to open. The more businesses that come into my city and pay taxes, the better. No?
Thanks, and go As.
That would not be your community’s reaction to a new walmart, for example.
but a 120 store outlet mall is fine with my community
and there’s already a walmart. and a target.
Thanks, and go As.
Again, fees do NOT generate revenue. By state law, fees can only be charged commensurate with the services directly delivered. There’s a whole bunch of case law from cities which tried to disguise taxes as fees, and it’s pretty clear now.
It costs a lot to change zoning, because again per state law, you can’t do so without going through a proscribed public process including community meetings, staff reports, a Planning Commission meeting, and usually at least two public hearings before (in this case) the Board of Supes. Everyone living within a certain radius has to be contacted; ads have to be run in newspapers (legal notices are one of the few reeds daily newspapers cling to, in part just because of this type of deal). It is specifically ILLEGAL to engage in “spot zoning,” where the allowable use of a single site is changed for the benefit of one particular business or individual.
$20K to change the zoning on a parcel most likely understates the amount it actually cost the City of SF to do so.
It’s really easy for people to say “geez, bureaucracy makes things so stupidly difficult and expensive, we should change that!” The reality is something quite different.
well then I stand corrected.
Aside from the meetings and hearings and stuff, what tangible changes actually take place? What is my 20 grand buying me?
Thanks, and go As.
I’m tempted to embed a Schoolhouse rock video here. “Meetings and hearings and stuff” are the way the law gets changed. What her $20K paid for was the cost SF incurred to change its municipal code to allow her to operate her business in a location where it was previously not allowed.
So nothing really changes, then. In the big ass municipal code book it now says that 123 main street can be a restaurant instead of a grocery store.
Sorry, to me it’s just bureaucracy. It’s just ridiculous that you have to pay some big sum of money to have one kind of business instead of another kind of business at a given location.
I’m sure there are eleventy billion reasons why I’m wrong and stupid, though. Just my overly simplistic point of view.
Thanks, and go As.
C’mon — do you know how much monks get paid by the hour, and have you priced gold leaf and lambskin lately?
I don’t think that FSU is claiming that it costs 20 grand to change something in the big ass municipal code book. The stuff that costs money are the reports, meetings, hearings, and advertisements. So the alternative would be to do it without community input. I’m not claiming that would be better or worse (pros: it’s cheap and efficient, cons: nobody has a chance to object).
But I’m not surprised that you have to take things to that level to get genuine community input — if they just threw up a notice on some city website for 90 days and then went ahead with the zoning change, then community input to the process would be zero.
Such is the nature of having due process rights, though.
You’d also complain if all requests were summarily granted after suitable bribes were paid to the right city employees. And if you can find me a system that doesn’t work in one of those two ways…
I agree with you in principle, but what you’re arguing for here is a system where you bribe officials to NOT give you what you ask for.
A commentary on our political elite?
I was waiting for someone to make that joke!
Too obvious. Pathetic I missed it for that long.
You guys will argue about anything, you know that?
Will not.
wi…ah! You!
I wanna be Eric Idle’s sideburns.
Michael Palin, no?
No it isn’t.
yes it is
I want you to be Eric Idol’s sideburns.