use cast iron!
Cooking tips
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Use unsalted butter.
Use unsalted butter.
This is so true. Many times, I've gotten halfway through a recipe only to realize something was worded incorrectly.
Something like, add eggs after you mix A,B, and C. I'll read it as add eggs then ....
I end up scrapping the dish or having it end up with less than stellar results.
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- #64
Use day old rice to make fried rice. The dry rice picks up the sauce better than fresh rice, and its a good use for left overs. Never waste in the kitchen.
To prevent yogurt from curdling when adding to a hot pan (ala Indian cuisine) -
For starters, non-fat and low-fat yogurts are very difficult to begin with. Even with your best efforts, some minimal curdling may occur. You can minimize this by:
- Adding a small amount of oil to the yogurt prior to adding it.
- Make sure that you turn the heat down to no more than medium. If this isn't much of an option, try to add it as late as possible.
- Take whatever quantity of yogurt you're going to use and place it in a bowl. Slowly start incorporating hot curry/hot oil/hot gravy from whatever dish you're cooking into the yogurt. The reason it curdles is because there's such a dramatic difference in heat; hot pan + cold yogurt = curdling. Add enough hot whatever to the yogurt to increase it's temperature, then slowly start adding it to your pan.
If all else fails, just use coconut milk instead
For starters, non-fat and low-fat yogurts are very difficult to begin with. Even with your best efforts, some minimal curdling may occur. You can minimize this by:
- Adding a small amount of oil to the yogurt prior to adding it.
- Make sure that you turn the heat down to no more than medium. If this isn't much of an option, try to add it as late as possible.
- Take whatever quantity of yogurt you're going to use and place it in a bowl. Slowly start incorporating hot curry/hot oil/hot gravy from whatever dish you're cooking into the yogurt. The reason it curdles is because there's such a dramatic difference in heat; hot pan + cold yogurt = curdling. Add enough hot whatever to the yogurt to increase it's temperature, then slowly start adding it to your pan.
If all else fails, just use coconut milk instead
In many Indonesian households, breakfast is almost always fried rice made from last night's dinner left overs. Perfect hangover food!
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- #67
Score the fat on a duck breast and place fat side down in a cold pan. Then place on the stove just above medium heat. The fat will render making the skin nice and crispy and create the fat you need to cook. Flip cook to medium depending on preference. I like mine with reduced stock and jelly sauce maybe a little orange juice too.
Use your nose and pay little attention to use/sell by dates.
+1 ... I had a running argument with my last landlord on this. He insisted that food had to be FRESH, in fact, he would go to the supermarket every single and day and cook up whatever he purchased immediately. Any leftovers went down the garbage disposal.
I, on the other hand, use my 5 senses, along with common sense, and check everything in the fridge before I eat it. He pissed me off constantly by throwing out my foods that were only a few days old, even though I would have eaten them. He even threw out stuff I hadn't even opened yet!
I'm glad I'm not living there anymore ... but this issue was the least of my worries during my tenancy there.
Sounds like he was a pretty cool dude. Probably wanted to grab some beers with him in your free-time, huh!?!?
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
The pressure cooker is your second best friend, after your cast iron skillet.
Neither he nor I are beer drinkers ... Yeah, he's so cool I want to see him iced.
In the 7 months I lived under his roof:
He misstated the size of the room in his Craigslist ad. It was less than half the size he quoted.
This forced me to go out and rent another storage locker (for an extra $100 a month) to keep all my other stuff.
He overcharged me by $100 a month. He claimed this was for a "maid service," something I didn't need or want.
And the whole time I was there, I never saw a maid come in to do any cleaning.
The room was filthy when I moved in. He had promised to get the "maid service" to come in and clean up, but I had to do four days of cleaning myself before it was even remotely liveable.
I had no privacy or security. Many times, I would come home to find my room wide open, both inside and outside doors ajar, so that anyone from the outside, or animals, could come in and out without restrictions.
A week or so after I moved in, he demanded a "Security Deposit." I refused to pay it. We had discussed this when I interviewed for the room, and I asked him if one was needed, and he said "No." He wanted to change the terms of my rental, saying my rent was due on the 15th rather than the 1st of each month, so I was supposed to pay him for another 2 "phantom weeks." I said "No."
He assaulted me twice. Second time, he beat me up so bad I couldn't work for more than a month.
After I moved in, he told me that he had done time in both mental institutions and Federal prison. And his body language and the tone in his voice made it sound like he was proud of it.
He was Mr. Nice Guy one day, and Mr. Monster the next. Of course, you don't find out these things when you first interview for a room.
I'm trying to get a restraining order against him and one of his workers. He continues to harass me with phone calls and text messages even though I'm long gone from there. And I'm putting together a law-suit against the corporation that owns the building to get my rent money back, in addition to other damages.
This sites have lots of good knifes http://www.chefknivestogo.com/ and http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/ . You can do most things with a good Chef knife/Gyuoto. Just have to decide what kind of steel and handle you prefer.
For sharpening I recomend the, "Spyderco Sharpmaker" easy to use. Never use those thingies with wheels in. And if you have a straight razor you're probably good with stones.
For sharpening I recomend the, "Spyderco Sharpmaker" easy to use. Never use those thingies with wheels in. And if you have a straight razor you're probably good with stones.
Wow!
Yeah, it was a nightmare living there from Day 1. The stuff I listed was just the tip of the iceberg. Luckily, I had Renter's Insurance. The first time in my life I've ever had to do this, but I could tell early on that I would be needing extra protection.
Every tenant that has ever lived there has had problems similar to mine, especially upon moving out. When I gave him my 2-weeks notice and paid him for 2 more weeks rent, he flew into a rage and chased me out into the yard. I was too afraid to go back in the house, so I spent the rest of the night driving around in my car. He texted me the next morning to say that all of my stuff was out in the backyard next to the trash cans. I had to call the police to escort me back on to the property, since I was so afraid of him.
He never returned the 2 weeks rent I had paid him at the end. And some computer parts I had ordered from online (a printer and a memory stick) that arrived after I departed, he kept them for his own use. He denies that they were ever delivered, even though UPS and FedEx shipping both declare they were delivered. Another roommate tells me that she saw both these items, unpacked and set up in the upstairs living room.
I'm hoping that this other roommate will help me as a witness when I take this to court. Even better, I'd like to join with her and other former tenants and make a Class-Action suit out of it. This should give it more clout when it can be shown that the problems I had with him were not isolated incidents, but were examples of a long-running pattern of anti-social and illegal behavior on his part.
I've met some bad-*** people in my time, but this guy takes the cake. Everybody in the house hates and fears him, but like women that have abusive husbands, its tough to do anything about it until you have a safe place to live. I wish I knew how to warn prospective tenants about what living there is going to be like for them.
I can't imagine. If I were you, and you really wanted to warn people, I'd take some gas over late at night and write in the lawn "this guy is an *** don't live here"! I wish you luck in your lawsuit, sounds to me like you have a strong case!
I have a very strong case. Pictures, receipts and witnesses to the 2nd time he assaulted me.
He has been doing this type of stuff for several years, and nobody has been able to convince him that he's wrong or acting illegaly. Previous tenants have been low-life gamblers, addicts or young students that either didn't know how to get justice, or had issues of their own that precluded them calling the police.
Hopefully, if I bring a succesful suit against him, it will put him out of the landlord business. He doesn't own the house, it is in the name of an LLC that is owned by his family. His role in the picture is to act as the building's superintendant. He himself has no assets to speak of, but his family is loaded. So I am targeting their deep pockets.
I can't even conceive how the situation has gotten as bad as it is. He's been arrested numerous times for assault on previous tenants, he pays a fine, and goes right back to doing what he's always done. Nobody before has had the balls to stand up to him, and until he is put in his place, the problem(s) will continue.
The gasoline on the lawn is a good idea, I just don't know how to pull it off and remain anonymous. I've also considered hiring a gang of thugs to trash the place (his rooms only) and break a few of his bones in the process. I've had plenty of volunteers. A case of beer up front and a few pizzas afterward is all it would take, and most of the volunteers would be willing to do it just for fun.
But that's not how I do things. I know that winning a case like this involves a lot of documentation and prep-steps. I'm working on that right now, and expect to have the building's owner(s) served with papers within the next month or two. I have a 1-year statute of limitations and there is plenty of time left, but I'm not waiting for the last minute to give this jerk what he deserves.
Always keep your knives sharp
lest they may cut you.
"A [dull] knife cuts one's finger instead of the [food]". Portuguese Proverb
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That's the landlord from hell. Move to Ohio, rent is cheap. Our apartment is only $500 a month with free utilities and is brand new and nice. And there's space to move around. Large cities are too hectic.
Cooking tips:
Play music or podcasts whilst cooking. It takes the drudgery out of cooking especially the slicing and dicing. It will make you want to prepare more meals instead of just popping a frozen pizza open and slapping it into the oven.
Take your trash can out from under your sink, so you can throw crap away easier. Then put it back after dinner is eaten and the dishes are done. There's a bare wall near our stove, so that's where I put ours.
Plan meals at least a week ahead, so you know what ingredients to buy. That way you can plan healthy meals ahead of time.
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