[quote="jimswside"]eating wise:

- eat more dead animals than last year
- eat less vegetables
- savor & crave foie gras(Commanders NOLA in January will be the opportunity)
- drink more than last year

That's what I'm talkin about.

dansch wrote:

gastro gnome wrote:

Attrill wrote:I have far too many, and will be happy if I accomplish half of them...

Cooking:
...
- Buy a welder.

I'd like to think he's bucking the molecular trend by eschewing transglutaminase and fusing meat the old-fashioned way.

-Dan

Wow! That looks like great stuff. It makes me want to make a pork centerpiece for my next party, maybe reassemble a pig after cooking all the component parts.

The welder is actually to improve my grill/smoker building techniques. I build a cooker of some sort every year and I'm hoping to get a bit more serious about it. In 2010 I achieved my goal of carving a basic set of cooking tools, so now I've got to find another area of tools to work on.

Attrill wrote:The welder is actually to improve my grill/smoker building techniques. I build a cooker of some sort every year and I'm hoping to get a bit more serious about it. In 2010 I achieved my goal of carving a basic set of cooking tools, so now I've got to find another area of tools to work on.

Not at all what I expected.

Very impressive, but I can only imagine that adds a fair amount of prep time to recipes:

1. Weld your grill.
2. Rest of recipe.

I am curious to see the mis en place for the grill/smoker assembly. I think you should start a thread and make a recipic.

pairs4life wrote:A green smoothie/blended salad a day- today's was a banana, handful of baby spinach, and a smidge of spiced quince poaching liquid

Commit to eating better tasting food

These two goals seem in conflict.

gastro gnome wrote:I am curious to see the mis en place for the grill/smoker assembly. I think you should start a thread and make a recipic.

I definitely will - I'm currently planning out some mods for a barrel grill I made last year. In the next month or so I should be updating this thread with some photos of the mods.

1) Learn how to use/maintain a sourdough starter
2) Eat at as many ballparks as I can get to this year
3) Experiment/research with low/no protein diets for my recently born niece diagnosed with GA-1
4) Make sausage!

G Wiv wrote:

pairs4life wrote:A green smoothie/blended salad a day- today's was a banana, handful of baby spinach, and a smidge of spiced quince poaching liquid

Commit to eating better tasting food

These two goals seem in conflict.

Given your love of savory, I think you will be very surprised at how refreshing and energizing it is. The key is to start with a small handful of greens. I like baby spinach, romaine, or baby mild lettuces. This isn't the place for our lovely arugulas and cress.

It sounds bizarre but I can't get enough of it. Tonight's was a handful of baby spinach, some pineapple juice, and a handful of strawberries.

My goal for this year is to participate more on lthforum.com, and to hopefully make it to some events! Its time to give back to a forum I greatly enjoy! I read lthforum a lot (daily), and I've enjoyed some wonderful food at places mentioned on here. I just get nervous posting because I am in the industry, and I never want to come off as a shill. I also don't want to be put in the position of defending/promoting any particular place where I'm working, because I don't always think its appropriate. I could most likely be of use talking about the industry in general, but I am going to attempt to direct the posts I originate/comment on to places that have nothing to do with my places of employment. That being said, of course I'd be happy to answer a direct question involving any restaurant where I've worked, when appropriate. And if I have an event I'd like to share, I will post it under the professional forum with full disclosure. I will also disclose any personal or professional relationship I have with anyone in the industry relating to any posts I comment on about them, because I see my industry friend's and not-so-friend's names here daily. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but my industry involvement has made my relationship with lthforum very one-sided and I feel lonely just reading everything and not participating

Disclosures: When I started reading lthforum, I was a manager at Mon Ami Gabi (Oak Brook). I have worked in restaurants since I was 16. With a small detour as an economist for the federal gov't, this is my chosen field and my passion. After Mon Ami, I worked at Eivissa as co-GM (left before it opened), did 6 weeks at Charlie Trotter's, then did a year and a half as GM and cooked at Agami, and now I am employed as the GM of the new location of Zapatista at Clark/Fullerton. I'm proud of where I work and very happy there, but I don't want everything I write to be filtered through my job. In Chicago, I've also worked at Fornello, Cafe Bernard and Cafe ba-ba-Reeba!

What I will talk about and I'm so happy to do so is my involvement with Slow Food and also the Chicago Honey Co-op as a long-time volunteer! Beekeeping questions? Bring 'em on!

Thank you for this topic to provide me this opportunity to share my concerns and desire to participate. And see you soon at Zapatista!

Happy New Year and thank you for everything, LTH!

Best,
Jeannine

1. Water-bath canning - especially fruit preserves
2. Pressure canning - especially spaghetti sauce
3. Make fudge
4. New Orleans
5. Oysters every chance I get
6. Shrimp cocktail & sauce for Home Happy Hour
7. Clementines
8. Nut oils
9. Homemade pizza
10. Homemade bread
11. Be more piscivorous
12. Tater tots
13. Garlic press
14. Fondue (use the wedding presents)
15. Grill more
16. Get a smoker and learn to use it
17. Homemade duck confit
18. Cassoulet
ack! I can't stop listing!

I've already made good on a few things I said I wanted to do but have to keep it up. Last night I made some baked pears. Just cut them in half lengthwise, put them in a baking dish face down that has a couple tblsp. of butter and brown sugar in and let them bake. Served them with a honey vanilla greek yogurt sauce and some crushed walnuts. Very good and healthy. Easy peasy. I could see putting a tad of rum or grand marnier on too.

Also I made the vegetable stock and that is in my freezer. I've been inspired to make a completely vegetable soup now without meat. That should be a nice winter dish. I'll add plenty of garlic to the broth, pasta and or potatoes too, and serve with parm. cheese and bread.

I'm also shopping in my kitchen and freezer for things to eat. I am also donating some canned goods to the food pantry that I don't intend to use and am going to go through my freezer and pitch any food that has been there too long.

Eat out less, a lot less.

Make more pies for the dessert exchanges.

Vital Information wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:Cooking -
Clean out every morsel in the house and buy only supplementary food until every last bit is gone...hopefully this will be completed by February. Then I can scrub everything down (and defrost the freezer) before filling it all back up again.

Man, that's a great one. I wish we could do it; I'm gonna try to do some variation. Please let us know how it goes.

I'm not doing too badly. The freezer is still packed, but most of it's ice cream and flour. The grain cabinet is about one third empty, the canned cabinet is still nearly full, the fridge is so empty I can hear crickets, the baking cabinet is full, and everything is dwindling quickly.

Katie wrote: ack! I can't stop listing!

19. Fruits (why shouldn't I buy and eat them just because others here are allergic to them?)
20. Nuts (why shouldn't I ... same comment)
21. Visit several different farmers' markets this summer
22. Herb garden (Aerogarden, possibly?)
23. Master the art of Irish soda bread
24. Try more things I've never bought to cook with before (I'm looking at you, baby bok choy)
25. Work through as many as possible of my personal pushpins of Chicago restaurants and resources to check out
more listing to come ...

Katie wrote:

Katie wrote: ack! I can't stop listing!

24. Try more things I've never bought to cook with before (I'm looking at you, baby bok choy)

You'll like it. It's easy and quick and goes with lots of different things. Try it under miso salmon. http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recip ... 0001940985

My chief culinary goal for 2011 is to eat myself bowlegged in San Francisco/Berkeley in September. Already compiling my list, based on decades of prior experience, and the kind and very sound current input of SFWeekly's Jonathan Kauffman:

1. Incanto
2. Mission Chinese Food
3. Zuni Cafe
4. Burma Kitchen/Mandalay, for Burmese
5. Champa Garden (Laotian in Oakland)
6. Yank Sing/Shanghai Dumpling King, for soup dumplings
7. Ferry Plaza, and its farmers market

Looking forward to the fabulous ballpark food at AT&T park, too - all of Cal's games are being played there this year, and I'll be at the 9/3 tilt against Fresno State, and a Giants/D-Backs game either on the 2nd or the 4th. Traci Desjardins' Public House seems to be right in my proverbial wheelhouse. . . SFWeekly notes that the great beer at Public House is actually cheaper than the pours in the ballpark.

Vital Information wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:Cooking -
Clean out every morsel in the house and buy only supplementary food until every last bit is gone...hopefully this will be completed by February. Then I can scrub everything down (and defrost the freezer) before filling it all back up again.

Man, that's a great one. I wish we could do it; I'm gonna try to do some variation. Please let us know how it goes.

This is resonating with me as well. I think as I continue my cleaning/organizing raze of this home of ours it will happen. I swear the condiments have taken over the fridge.

pairs4life wrote: I swear the condiments have taken over the fridge.

I think we need a condiment exchange --everyone come with their little squeeze bottles and a sharpie--I mean how many mustards and chili sauces do I really need yet I keep buying them-- and I never use them up!!!!!

boudreaulicious wrote:I think we need a condiment exchange --everyone come with their little squeeze bottles and a sharpie--I mean how many mustards and chili sauces do I really need yet I keep buying them-- and I never use them up!!!!!

I organized a shito exchange back in '05. It wasn't really an exchange; I simply gave away little containers of the fishy West African pepper paste to whoever would take them. I wouldn't be surprised if there are still some who have the shito in the back of their refrigerator.



Three West African fish-pepper condiments purchased at African markets on Chicago's south side. I believe the one in the middle was made in Gary IN while the other two were imported from Ghana and Liberia.

Rene G wrote: I wouldn't be surprised if there are still some who have the shito in the back of their refrigerator.

The question is, how many do YOU still have in there ??

boudreaulicious wrote:

Rene G wrote: I wouldn't be surprised if there are still some who have the shito in the back of their refrigerator.

The question is, how many do YOU still have in there ??

None. Mission accomplished.

But now I'm looking for more of that Liberian condiment, made with Scotch bonnets and smoked herring. I might have to try making my own. La Fruteria (8909 S Commercial) has been out of the stuff recently but they always have fresh Scotch bonnets and bulk smoked herring. So that'll be my goal for 2011: find or make some Liberian herring-pepper paste.

Just tell me where to show up with my containers!

Pie Lady wrote:Cooking -
Master stuffed grape leaves, for no other reason than to polish off my jar of leaves.

Done!

Pie Lady wrote:Clean out every morsel in the house and buy only supplementary food until every last bit is gone...hopefully this will be completed by February. Then I can scrub everything down (and defrost the freezer) before filling it all back up again.

The freezer is now stuffed to capacity. But I still plan on having it empty by the end of the year! The pantries are nearly cleaned out; a lot of items were gone, then I needed more lentils, for instance, but only half a bag, so I have new leftovers.

Pie Lady wrote:Restaurants -
Try every GNR (or at least attempt to). I'm already 35% of the way through. Try Filipino and Korean (I only had Korean twice; TTOWA was great but is now gone, and that one around the corner from H-Mart, which was just decent.)

I think I only made it to two or three more GNRs and I still haven't had Filipino or Korean. But there's still time!

Pie Lady wrote:Finally get to the Maxwell Street Market, I think I'm the only person in Chicago that hasn't gone.

Whoo hoo!

Pie Lady wrote:Set up another Plethora of Pie (hopefully with the aid of pairs4life) and a Flan-a-Thon®.

I did do a Plethora of Pie and there will be another in January. Flan-a-Thon...February perhaps. I'm scheming as we speak.

How has everyone else fared so far?

I have fallen short of my goals. I have made homemade pizza so that is accomplished. I have bought the fixings for hummus but have not made it yet. I do have an excuse as I had major surgery this year so that put a dent in my ambitions. I will soldier on. I would love to go to the pie a thons or flan a thons.

How do you guys keep all the year(s) old frozen stuff in your freezers then cook and eat it? At a certain point all my stuff gets freezer burned and it happens in way less than 7 months.

No I don't not own a vacuum sealer.

kenji wrote:How do you guys keep all the year(s) old frozen stuff in your freezers then cook and eat it? At a certain point all my stuff gets freezer burned and it happens in way less than 7 months.

No I don't not own a vacuum sealer.

You can wrap in plastic wrap and then foil and then put in a freezer bag for longer freezer time.

I have bags of soup that got freezer burned almost immediately, so I gave up!

Pie Lady wrote:Clean out every morsel in the house and buy only supplementary food until every last bit is gone...hopefully this will be completed by February. Then I can scrub everything down (and defrost the freezer) before filling it all back up again.

The freezer is still stuffed to capacity, now with ice cream and cookie dough. But now I plan on having it empty by the end winter! The pantries are cleaned out except for a paltry bit of new staples.

Pie Lady wrote:Restaurants -
Try every GNR (or at least attempt to). I'm already 35% of the way through. Try Filipino and Korean (I only had Korean twice; TTOWA was great but is now gone, and that one around the corner from H-Mart, which was just decent.)

I still haven't had Filipino or Korean. I'll finally be getting to Burt's on 1/21.

Pie Lady wrote:Set up another Plethora of Pie (hopefully with the aid of pairs4life) and a Flan-a-Thon®.

The third Plethora will be 1/28. Flan-a-Thon...still scheming.[/quote]

Pie Lady wrote:I plan to polish off all the non-cooking booze in the house. Yes, by myself.

People keep giving me wine, but I'm way on my well.

Pie Lady wrote:I have a file folder with 1,468 recipes in it. I'd like to get it down to at least 1,400, even if I add more.

Down to 1,388! And I even added some.

Pie Lady wrote:Make more pies for the dessert exchanges.

I've made nothing but pies since August, and this will continue until July, when I begin my Year of Cake.

Pie Lady wrote:Make spaghetti sauce from scratch with all fresh ingredients.

I guess I'll have to add this one to 2012.