196

Food / Re: BBQ Sauce

« on: March 30, 2016, 04:29:08 AM »

What may be being missed here is the sugar in this recipe serves a purpose beyond just being sweet. It is responsible for the BBQ clinging to the meat. Without the sugar in the recipe, the BBQ sauce falls off the meat. As the sugar is heated, it becomes a liquid. It is this liquid that serves as the binder to make it all stay together.

197

Food / Vegetable Soup

« on: March 30, 2016, 01:37:08 AM »

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

2 tbs of oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 leek, thinly sliced
2 cabbage leaves, shredded or finely chopped
1 courgette, finely chopped
1 carrot, scraped and sliced
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 bay leaf
2 pints (1 litre) of vegetable stock
Salt
Pepper

Directions

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, then fry the onions for about 5 minutes or until they have softened. Add the other vegetables and fry for a further 10 minutes. Add the stock and herbs then season. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf before serving. If you want a smoother textured soup then liquidize before serving.

198

Food / Re: Crab Casserole

« on: March 29, 2016, 06:46:54 AM »

Yes, we will cook it again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Nothing like finding something you want to try again. Guess that speaks for itself.

199

Food / Re: BBQ Sauce

« on: March 29, 2016, 06:44:04 AM »

Liquid smoke is something very common here. You can buy it in most grocery stores, even the smaller ones. For those who don't cook out side it still gives the flavor of if it had been. Nothing replaces the real deal but this is as close as you come without cooking outside. It's never to be used as a condiment but rather as a cooking ingredient or as part of a marinade.

On the molasses, again the recipe is what you want to make, not what is written down as a recipe. Your wallet, your time, your taste buds. Whatever you believe suits your tastes is always the standard.

200

Food / BBQ Sauce

« on: March 28, 2016, 10:27:59 PM »

BBQ Sauce

Ingredients

2 c water
3/4 c corn syrup
1/2 c tomato paste
3 tbs molasses
3 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs liquid smoke
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp garlic

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over high heat and whisk until smooth. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 45 to 60 minutes or until mixture is thick. Cool then store in a covered container in the refrigerator overnight so that flavors can develop.


Note:

There are tons of BBQ recipes. All different or with slight variations on the same themes. So one size doesn't always fit all. It's more to your taste buds and what you like. For me, I always make my own and never do the store bought.

201

Other topics / Re: What are you doing right now?

« on: March 28, 2016, 10:16:00 PM »

I learn more about ASCII table

Know the feeling, refer to it from time to time myself. The original ASCII has been replaced with ISO/IEC 646. ASCII was developed back in the 60s for teletype machines but it had no characters for other languages than English. The updated ISO/IEC 646 contains many of those other characters and is fully backwardly compatible with ASCII.

202

Other topics / Re: Art

« on: March 28, 2016, 09:57:01 PM »

The idea is to suggest they are thin. Notice that not all of them are transparent. Only one, because it gives you the impression for all without actually doing all. Because you see one, you accept that all are that way.

Fooling the eye into believing is hard.

203

Other topics / Re: Art

« on: March 28, 2016, 01:06:41 PM »

204

Internet / Re: ASCII art

« on: March 28, 2016, 01:00:39 PM »

Now-a-days they do the emoticons slightly different.   

205

Internet / Re: ASCII art

« on: March 28, 2016, 12:56:39 PM »

I used to have a ton of these things. It was the popular thing back in the late 80's and early 90's. Somewhere if the discs are still good, I have tons of this stuff but even if they are good, they no longer make the readers here. You can't buy a computer with a floppy disc reader. You can buy one (if you can find one) and put it in yourself but they no longer come with them. That would be what they are stored on if I still have any that are still good.

206

Internet / Re: Strange pictures

« on: March 28, 2016, 12:53:08 PM »

Here the predominate language is English. The stupidity of the sign is you have to be literate enough to be able to read it to understand the message. English in the sense of the characters is limited. Unlike the Asian languages, where there are ton of different ideograms. If you can read the sign, chances are you don't need it's service.

207

Food / Re: Tex-Mex Chicken For The Microwave

« on: March 28, 2016, 12:47:38 PM »

Thank you all for the responses. You learn a little each day.

During the summer here, I often grill or smoke foods as the kitchen just gets too hot with the local temperatures. We eat a lot of cold foods such as the potato salad I posted as well as a macaroni salad I'll post some time in the future.

I'll also cover some smoking and grilling stuff. I don't know that it's suited for your particular tastes but I'll put a few up anyway.

208

Internet / Re: Strange pictures

« on: March 28, 2016, 03:13:13 AM »

209

Food / Cold Potato Salad

« on: March 28, 2016, 01:37:54 AM »

Cold Potato Salad

Ingredients

6 med Potatoes
1/4 tsp Pepper
1 1/2 c Mayonnaise
2 med Stalks Celery, Chopped
1 tbs Vinegar
1 med Onion, Chopped
1 tsp Mustard
Prepared 4 Eggs, Chopped, Hard Cooked
1 tsp Salt

Directions

Prepare and cook potatoes. Cool slightly. Cut into roughly 1 inch cubes. Mix mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper in large glass or plastic bowl. Add potatoes, celery and onion; toss. Stir in eggs. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Note:

Made some of this night before last. Still a bowl sitting in the fridge. Good hot weather food, used often here for picnics, fried chicken, family reunions, cookouts, and the like.
With mine I usually add about 4 tbs of sweet relish and many use ground paprika sprinkled on the top for visual appeal.

There's a trick to it of getting the potatoes just right. Peel your spuds, I usually chopped them up before cooking, not after, and the trick is do not over cook. You want them cooked but with a slight firmness to the potato. It is crumbly it's over cooked.

210

Food / Re: Tex-Mex Chicken For The Microwave

« on: March 27, 2016, 01:49:16 PM »

I've got quite a few of all sorts. Only thing is, when I come to what we know as Chinese, it's probably no where close to what the actual Chinese is that you folks know. Much of it depends on the local ingredients and what's available. Most likely in Hawaii, that means pineapple as an example. Somewhere in all this mess I have for source there probably is a Hawaiian attempt at Chinese food. 

TexMex is pretty much just a mixture of cultures, resulting in food that is slightly different than either, being a mix. But not far enough off to be unfamiliar to either. 

I don't know if you guys use a lot of microwave. I know MSL says he doesn't. Often finding Microwave dishes is a bit harder than a stove top or oven recipe. We do a bit here because it doesn't heat up the kitchen in the summer. Microwave meals are also a bit iffy. Wattage of the microwave, altitude where it's at, even the local ingredients don't always cook the same. It's more experiment sometimes to get it right.

What about grilling and smoking foods? Ya'll into that?