Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

These comments are great, they only convince me further that for most people the line dynamics have nothing to do with being in a hurry or actually saving any time. People are not concerned with, or even aware of, the total time they spend getting in and out of the store. That is not the issue. They just hate waiting in line in principle because it violates their personal sense of entitlement. Everyone ahead of them in line is automatically their mortal adversary. People are funny. Airports and plane aisles are just as absurd in this way.

A big pot of homemade kielbasa and sauerkraut with new potatoes. Kind of odd as football food goes but it went over well. Home brewed beer and apple cider.

My non-scientific observation is that most people's problem with sugar intake is the over consumption of sweetened drinks, usually from habits formed in childhood. The easiest thing to do is to knock off the soda and bogus energy drinks and switch to water. Learn to like unsweetened coffee or tea. Stay away from chocolate milk. For most people that will solve 80% of the issues. It saves a lot of money too.

The only redeeming thing about IHOP is when they plunk the whole pot of coffee down on your table.

How did you end up with a dead uncooked one? They're not supposed to be sold that way.

Episodes like this are the reason why I never order wine by the glass unless there is a chalkboard or menu with the prices listed. You never know the motivation of the bartender. Are they trying to up-sell you, or get you to order the bottle that's been open a little too long and they're trying to use it up?

Sounds like the sauce "broke". To avoid this, we usually toss the grated cheese with some corn starch before adding it to the pot. About 1 tablespoon per cup of cheese.

The best stuffed rolls I have had omit the tomato sauce on top and instead use stock and white wine as the liquid in the baking dish. Ideally the exposed tops of the rolls will get slightly browned.

Back when I lived in Austria it was our go-to cheap booze. This was in the post cold war years and we would take day trips to Bratislava to stock up on the Slovakian stuff for the equivalent of like $2 a bottle. The most popular brand had three plums on the label, I don't remember the name. I usually didn't remember much after drinking it either.

Salt is for cooking and should remain in the kitchen. Shaking salt on top of cooked food at the table does nothing for it's flavor, it only creates a film of saltiness on the surface.

Cracked pepper is okay at the table as a finishing flourish for certain things, like ceasar salad.

We had some in-laws visit from France, their first time in the US, and the foods they were most impressed with were some of the simplest things. Like frozen orange juice in a can, which they had never seen before, in France they only have pasteurized juice in a tetra-pak. Pancakes with maple syrup. One night we did a shrimp boil and made a quick cocktail sauce, they were amazed and found it very exotic.

And of course most Europeans are fascinated (and a bit frightened) by American supermarkets for their sheer size and variety. And they think our refrigerators are laughably large.

I'm also a bit unclear on the bloom as that would generally indicate mold, and a bad batch of kraut. In my experience this happens when the cabbage is under salted. The liquid has to be briny enough to prevent mold and to allow the proper lactobacillus types to thrive and ferment the cabbage. A bit of clear foam or bubbling at the top is okay but it shouldn't look filmy or shiny. As far as the smell goes, a healthy sauerkraut should not be overly pungent. I do seven pound batches and unless my nose is very close to the bucket, I don't smell it. If it smells really strong then something is probably wrong and your cabbage is likely rotting instead of curing.