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S. Cornell

Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine

I fell in love with German crusty rolls way back when, and finally was able to find a similar kind of roll in Lancaster County... god only knows which market it was in, but it was worth it! Since then I've been tempted over and over again to make do with crusty rolls from supermarkets, but they're never exactly what I remember from Germany.

So I'd say go ahead and grab a few rolls from an Amish market, because they're almost definitely not the parbaked kind they sell at Kroger. :)

How much stock should I get out of one chicken carcass?

Thanks for the proportions, Lou. None of my reference cookbooks phrased it quite that way, so this will help. I'll experiment with weighing the bones and judging by that how much stock it should produce.

Thanks to Calichef too - if the number of steps is directly proportional to the quality of the results, I'm willing to give your method a try!

Question of the Day: How did you get your first cooking-related burn?

This is certainly not my first burn, merely my most creative. I was cooking something on our electric stove and needed to put the food on a plate, but didn't have room anywhere but on one of the other burners. My mother pointed out that she'd rather I not put a corelle plate down on a hot burner (they explode!) and that I should test that burner to make sure it wasn't on. I was so confident that the burner wasn't on that I put my flat palm down on the burner... and felt my skin singe and bubble for a split second before my reflexes kicked in. I had concentric circular burns! It was bizarre, but I don't have any scars.

The kicker on this one is that I was in tenth grade, and had chemistry class the next day. My hand was bandaged, but somehow I was still the one who handled the bunsen burner... My lab partner was afraid of fire, but clearly I was not!

Are you an Alpha Cook?

For a very brief time I shared a kitchen with a woman who said "oh, honey, it's your kitchen too, just put the food back wherever you think it goes" and then got all huffy on me when she discovered where I put things. that was NOT a pleasant feeling. and needless to say, I let her be the alpha!

Now I think I've got alpha tendencies, so I really enjoy dividing the kitchen according to dish - my partner has certain dishes she makes, and I don't even enter the kitchen. the rest of the time, I'm the crazy lady making dinner for two hours and then prepping for something later in the week. for fun. oy vey.

Favorite Trader Joe's items?

packets of miso soup!

What was your worst instance of culinary hubris or misjudgement?

I made a batch of salt and pepper calamari a la Nigella Lawson, and saw that there was far too much breading for the amount of calamari I had on hand. I put about half of the mixture in the freezer (don't worry, I didn't take my life in my hands - none of the stuff I saved had been in the bowl with the first batch of calamari!). When I made the second batch a few weeks later, it was SO SALTY it was inedible! It never occurred to me that the two halves of the batch of breading would get different amounts of salt! I tried to "soak" off some of the salt by tossing it with pasta...it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure I also tried just washing it off and starting over. My partner salts everything I've already seasoned, and even she couldn't eat it. That was a few years ago, and I still crave salt and pepper calamari, but I'm scared to death of making it just in case I screw it up again. :(

Question of the Day: What's your guilty pleasure?

In the same vein as ro-tel dip ... regular doritos with cheese melted on them. any orange cheese will do. :)

I've also started to suspect that those enormous tri-flavored popcorn tins don't ever really get emptied except by people who work in offices. And, of course, me.

How much stock should I get out of one chicken carcass?

I think I make a passably good chicken stock most of the time, but sometimes it seems like all I've made is chicken water. I'm sure it could be inconsistent because I just use whatever vegetables and aromatics I've got around at the moment, but sometimes I think I'm just impatient or expect to get too much stock out of one poor bird.

So I ask you: if I roast a 5-pound chicken and only use the bones to make stock, how much stock should I expect to end up with? I'm willing to simmer for hours and hours and hours, but should I keep adding water or what?

I know your answers would change if I were using a bunch of chicken feet or even simmering the whole bird and not just the bones, but what about those of us who've already eaten the good stuff off the bones? :)

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