Target chit chat

WOW!!! I did not know that!!!! So if you have a rusty cast iron pan and put it in the oven on the cleaning cycle it cleans the rust off?????? I don't have any --- but I have toyed with the idea of getting some.

Do they work well on flat top cooking tops? How do you clean them? How do you season them? Any disadvantage to them?

I've been thinking some homemade chips with seasalt sound yummy to go with lunch.

The main disadvantage is that they are heavy. Be careful not to drop them; they can break your food or dent a sink.

Anyone ever get one of those shiny metal (I am guessing stainless) pots that have the built in pasta strainer that you just lift up to drain the pasta? Those look cool - do they work as well as they suggest?

I love my hubby... I love my hubby... I love my hubby...
even though he took my 34000 to work to share with his co-workers...

Not necessarily...google oral allergy syndrome. Here is a good link:

http://www.foodallergy.org/page/o...-syndrome1

Also, sometimes people also have allergies to particular food raw but then when they are cooked they are no longer a problem because the proteins cook out. Not always the case.

As dd has gotten older I make sure she is ALWAYS in the cart when we go shopping, no getting out to walk....because at that age they want to touch everything and out of sheer curiousity she is particularly interested in bananas since we have never had them in our home. She almost lost her mommy to this when she was 6 mos. old so we don't take any chances!

Oh a time machine would be good...And as for a hobby, how abt Kmart

DH had something similar with carrots when he eats them raw. He says his mouth and throat get itchy and he said it feels like his throat is swelling. The Dr said that he does not have a allergy to carrots but he does have seasonal allergies. The protiens (IIRC could have been enzymes or something) in carrots are very similar to the 'protiens' in what he is allergic too so his body reacts in a similar way. Crazy, but it sounded right and don't know what else it could be. There is actually a medical term for it but I can not remember for the life of me... something with sensitivity at the end, I think. Oh kick in frappuccino, get my brain out of the fog. I need to get my T run organized!

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. I thought I was weird.

I can tolerate a few shreds of raw carrots in salads just fine. I can eat cooked carrots, no problem at all.

But if I eat a raw carrot or too many shreds- ummm, not sure exactly how to describe it, but I guess it's my nasal passages that swell up and I can't breathe. It gives me a very uncomfortable strangling sensation.

I am so excited - I am now all set with 2 free tickets to Hershey Park for me and hubby!! Our grocery store had a promo and it was based on regular prices, not sale prices. My freezer is full of hot dogs, lunch meat and bacon. I've already let my sisters know they can pick a weekend to watch the kids so hubby and I can get away for a day.

Dia, hubby didn't like the taste of the mix in general. Not sure what exactly, but he said they were nowhere near as good as my "regular" pancakes. I have a yummy oatmeal buttermilk recipe I use ordinarily, so I guess the boxed version falls a very distant second. Oh well. The shelter appreciates all those boxes of pancake mix! So they are definitely not going to waste.

could be you can drink the juice b/c it's been processed and/or pasteurized.

or maybe they don't use a certain chemical for juice grapes that they do for table grapes. i cannot eat apples from the supermarket. i can eat u-pick apples from the local farms and no problems w/ juice and products w/ apples in them like pies, etc.

when i was in elementary school grapes used to give me nose-bleeds. from about 1st till 7th or 8th.

I always keep an eye out for cast iron at thrift shops, problem is we hardly ever go and I rarely see it. It is usually snatched up pretty quickly from what I hear.

*snip*
Yeah on the sugar - I wouldn't want to add any unless necessary - I try and limit the sugar intake. I am sorry about the blueberries - I would be so sad without blueberries! Bananas I could live without & mangos I don't like at all!!!! I can't stand sweet fruit - I like fruit with tartness to it. I hope that the allergies diminish!!!!!

I have a question - if I cooked the strawberries longer would they get thicker? Less liquidy?
*snip*

It is a good idea to keep her in the cart then - when she gets older she will know what to watch out for.

That is interesting about the cooked part - I hate the swelling I get from eating grapes --- I get all wheezy and it feels hard to breathe when my throat swells up. I used to eat grapes all the time. There are foods I can't eat because I tested allergic to them at the allergist like avacado, coconut, pineapple ... and of course the traditional stuff sends me into an asthmatic wheezing sneezing tears pouring frenzy - mold, mildew, (these two are KILLERS at triggering attacks,) dust, pollens, CATS, BIRDS, horses (to a lesser extent,) hay, alfalfa .... BAH ... allergies are LAME!

There is a weird thing that I learned ... but obviously does not apply to everyone ... many folks who are allergic to avacado are also allergic to latex & the sticky on bandaids ... so far I am only having a prob with avacado and do not have the latex or bandaid probs. My Mum has all three and the allergist told us that is common. Strange!

I also tested positive with a HUGE reaction to milk ... but I am fine with that in small quantitites ... so who knows about how accurate those things are??????

*snip*

I have never had one of those expensive fancy pan sets so I don't know how cast iron compares to those. The only pan that has lasted with me is the cast iron. I have tossed many peeling nonstick piece of crap mishapen pans.

I love my hubby... I love my hubby... I love my hubby...

Adding sugar will thicken it a bit - or maybe a little corn starch or unflavored gelatin. You may need to experiment with quantity.

The main disadvantage of cast iron is the weight. I have very weak wrists (active child/adult who's broken each wrist 4 times... *sigh*) and it can be a challenge lifting the pans. I *love* my cast iron though. I often will brown my chicken in it, then pop the whole pan in the oven to finish cooking. I love the dual purposeness of it. Plus, there's just something about cornbread cooked in cast iron. For cleaning, I generally wipe with a paper towel and leave it. Occasionally, I'll "wash" it - but little to no soap and use a scrubby pad. You have to re-season it though, and that is a longish process. Basically, you oil and bake it - cool down, and oil and bake it at least once more. You can also do some deep frying in it to help season it (i.e. frying green tomatoes, home made french fries, etc...)

Bananas will freeze and look normal if you freeze them in the peel. The peel will get dark brown/black though - but it doesn't affect the actual banana. However, if the banana defrosts and sits for a little bit, the color will change. Also, it's very mushy when defrosted - especially if it was really ripe when you threw it in the freezer.

You should see when I buy bananas... lol.

We have a glass top stove and it has never scratched it. In 5 yrs still not a scratch on the glass top. I do rinse my skillet out with water and then dry it (a few times a week if something like eggs gets stuck or soemthing sticks a little bit). I wipe olive oil around inside it and then put it back on the hot burner to heat it through. Never had a problem. If just cooking stuff like grilled cheese or pancakes and no food is stuck I just wipe out with paper towells. Sometimes I still put a clean swipe of olive oil in it and heat it up just a bit so that I know any germies get died.

If you are gonna freeze the banana, for say, choc covered bananas, the recipe I've seen is to drop them in OJ before freezing, and the citric acid won't allow the banana to brown.

Oh man.. and I have both reg. potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots...

Dh just emailed me to say they are having a weight loss challenge at work and he wants to do a strict Atkins diet. Oy... I'm not a fan of no-carbs. It makes me nervous to think of that - but I guess we'll be doing a ton of veggie dishes (which isn't bad). Well, I think *he* will, I should say. I don't think with the pregnancy and breast feeding that I'll be able to do no-carbs at all. I just think there's room in a diet for *some* carbs - i.e. the whole grain kind. *shrug*

or chip tile...

i have the old costco version of this pot .... i'm happy that it's stainless steel even though we have somewhat hard water ... i'm gradually switching from hard-anodized to stainless steel. the newer mirror-finish are easier to clean than the old stainless steel. more maintenance but last longer that i even want

You need to him and tell him to take the 31604 to work instead

But had to share my good news!

I finally have a functioning air conditioner at work as of 5 minutes ago and I can already feel the difference

Way OFF TOPIC

But had to share my good news!

I finally have a functioning air conditioner at work as of 5 minutes ago

I'm a bookkeeper at a sandblasting outfit and my office is just a metal box inside a larger metal warehouse. It had a small portable floor standing air conditioner that just couldn't keep up with the demand in my office. I'd come in and it would be around 76 in the am and no joking it would be up OVER 97 in my office by the time I'd leave. It was miserable! Those last few hours each day were so unproductive I could barely think with all the heat. But I barely got any sympathy from the rest of the company as they all work out in the warehouse where there is never any air.


I think I might just leave the thermostat at 70 for the next day or two

We have SUPER hard water ---- lime deposits everywhere ... the lovely white flakes in water & ice cubes! LOL A little lime never hurt anyone When you say more maintenance do you mean the drying by hand? Or something else? I didn't know that cooking acidic things can wreck the teflon stuff. Hmmm - I might look into finding one of those stainless steel pots with the strainer for Christmas ... who knows.

Ok - here is another question - can one freeze corn on the cob like the fruit? Or would you cook it first? Could one cut the kernels off the cob & then freeze it and then cook it later? Hmmm -

I froze corn on the cob as is. Just took the husk off and rolled it up in tin foil. Tasted like it was fresh picked!

hmmm, i have to try that instead of giving away stuff i didn't eat when i'm going away. my bff/neighbor always gets a present b4 i go away instead of a souvenir after i get back.