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I've actually used my rice cooker with V8 and one time pea soup.

I just wanted to comment that I love the "in no way barnyardy".

I am definitely going to have to get some Texas Weiners soon and sauce on the side so I can do a blind taste test on my Grandmother.

By the way, tomato sauce was a great addition to my Texas Weiner sauce. Lately I've been using beef hearts, which I like, but not totally. They smell "funky" compared to regular beef. Plus the texture when coming out of the food processor is a bit different.

But anyway, tomato sauce was great. In fact, it was so great I think I don't need a food science lab any more! I added a little at a time, and finally figured out how much I think was right.

The sauce texture was really good. It was so good that a few days later I made another batch and doubled the size this time. My only regret with the second batch is I didn't have enough tomato sauce, but it was still good.

When it comes out of the pot it's nice and warm, but very spicy.

Yeah, Trenton New Jersey is pretty ghetto. Camden is worse. I go to Trenton because that's where the Aldi supermarket is and where some place I buy name brand jeans for $9.99. Some of the areas are extremely rundown and burned out houses and beat up houses.

So, yes I'd consider it ghetto. That's not totally a bad thing, though. As stated above there's the cheap stores, there's another place I get more than jeans.. shirts, shoes, etc, very cheap.. and this one place had the cheapest price on tires I've ever seen. All they do is sell tires and put them on your car. A bunch of thirft stores too. I like to look for weird antiques and video games.

Anyway, I wonder if I can use beef hearts to make like a corned beef? I see Alton Brown's recipe says to leave in fridge for 10 days.

This is not food related, but good info so let me tell everyone here know for next time. I've been to "The Big Island" on Hawaii twice so far.

The first time we went my Mom and her Husband and his Sister were looking for a house. We stayed in a hotel.

The second time I took my Girlfriend. You can goto vrbo.com (Vacation Rental By Owner) and get a 1 or 2 bedroom condo with laundry, full kitchen, private pool, walking distance to town, etc for LESS than a hotel and this included the cleaning fee!

Some of the hotels really get bad reviews, so be careful. One of them in Kona the reviews talk about bugs and towels so thin you can see through.

We rented a 1 bedroom condo with a fold out couch, and everything else I mentioned above for around $500 for 6 nights. The lady I rented it off of lives in California and is going to retire there some day.

If you want to spend a little bit of money for a day or two, you can stay right on a Cliff overlooking the ocean. It's fantastic! I've stayed there twice. http://www.cliffhousehawaii.com/ -- There's two houses.. make sure you rent the one right on the cliff. See those pictures on his website? That porch overlooks the cliff/ocean.. that living room does too.. so nice to sit there at night. So dark, peaceful. See the picture of the mountain? That's Wai'pio Valley. They have horseback riding down there. The road is very curvy and drops down about 1500 feet in less than a mile. When you go up the hill you're not supposed to stop it's so steep. You can drive all the way around to that picture in the mountain and walk down. It's a zig zag trail. Down below is a black sand beach.. the sand is actually black. You can't swim there the current is so strong, but neat to see.

The only negative thing I can say about this house.. you will most likely NOT have cell phone reception.. but go down the street a bit and you will. There's ants there, so just make sure to close/put away food.

One last thing, you should try and go to.. um I forget the name, but there's an observatory a top a mountain. It's so high you actually DRIVE a freakin car through the clouds! That was the coolest thing ever. Once above the clouds you can see everything so clear.. tons of stars like I've never seen before.. tons of satellites moving around... and it's freakin cold like winter even though it's warm down below.

Some other good things to do? There's a tour you can take where they try to sell you a timeshare.. I tell you what.. I know people would be leary of wasting their time.. it took about 2 hours of my time, but they were really no pressure people.. gave me some free food and $150 cash! all I did was say no thanks, took the money and left. Submarine in Kona is nice. Seats like 75 people, fully air conditioned. On your way to the other side of the island you can go through Waimea. It always seems to rain there, but it's a light mist and I love it. On the Hilo side they have a flea market type thing where they sell crafts and food and a bunch of shopping. Kona has a fleamarket thing too on the weekends I believe and tons of little shops. Hawaii has no rabies, so you probably don't have to worry so much about animals. People are very laid back and don't honk their horn.

My Mom likes Huggo's on the beach.. you can sit right in the sand next to the ocean and eat. I've been there before and they have some nice drinks.

My Mom lives on the other side of the island near Hilo if you want me to find some recommendations.

I've also got tips on cheap places to stay if you haven't already booked.

@meatntaters: You're serving this "at the Super Bowl"? To the crowd, a team, or setting up a cart outside? 'Cause if you're planning on serving it to one of the teams let me know so I can place a bet on the other team to win!

Yes, ginger, Coolio is ghetto. He made Ghetalian Bread for cryin out loud. Even he says he's ghetto. I listen to better rap/hip hop than Coolio. Underground stuff.

I'm glad I posted this here and glad you find it funny as well. I've not been feeling well all day. It's like I invited Coolio over for a slumber party last night and he kept me up all until 2AM. He kept wanting to have a pillow fight with me. Only later do I find out he filled his pillow with mayo.

did see the video of Coolio with some dude's head ducktaped up. My first thought is how does Food Network let such a gangsta thug on there? The closest thing they get to being "edgy" is having that guy on the show "Crave".. he's pretty funny and says some comments I wouldn't expect on such a squeeky clean show. I might have also nominated Bitchin Kitchen as edgy too, but I can't stand her. Her accent is totally fake and she can't act. All I can think of is Count from Sesame street going "One teaspoon of sugar, blah, two teaspoons of sugar, blah blah".

Anyone here have any contacts at Food Network I can suggest an idea? Has anyone seen the TV show Dinner With The Band? It was brilliant if you ask me. They had a loft, had a space upstairs to play music, downstairs to cook. Each week they had a band over who discussed what kind of food they liked. Chef Sam Mason would cook them a meal and they would play for a bunch of people upstairs. It's off the air now. I'd love to see such a thing on Food Network as long as they keep it similar.. don't bring in Coolio or Kelly Clarkson or stuff like that to perform. Keep it like it was.

My Uncle uses Penzey's all the time. Many years now. I bought a few things from them as gifts, but find their prices expensive, so nothing for myself.

I also ordered from here a few times: http://importfood.com/ -- I spoke with the owner before. He lived in Thailand for awhile and when he came back to the states couldn't find a lot of that stuff, so he started importing it. I get Thai Iced Tea leaves from there as well as the strainer. http://importfood.com/thaiicetea.html -- I do that because I can't always afford to go out and buy one. I also feel bad just getting a thai iced tea and not ordering food from a restaurant.

Thai Iced tea leaves have pandan in them. Nowadays I find ONE store about 25 minute drive from me that sometimes has thai iced tea bags and a few days ago I found another place a lot closer, but those are flavored with vanilla. They're not bad, but if you get real thai tea you'll taste the difference.

As for Amazon or eBay or a lot of online stores, I don't like to order from just anywhere. How do I know I can trust expiration dates and food safety?

I love extra sauce.

Tonight I mixed some tahini with lemon juice, water, salt, pepper, parsley, garlic in my food processor.. no matter what I seem to do with it, it always still comes out thick and paste like no matter what I do.

I had some pocket less pita bread that I brushed with olive oil and kosher salt. Broiled in oven for a bit. Took out and added my sauce, heated gyro meat, some tomato, some onions, and parmesan cheese.

I wasn't sure how the cheese would be, but I thought it was a better choice than the only other cheese I had, cheddar. It was actually pretty good.

Girlfriend didn't care for it. I still have about 1/3 to 1/4 of a jar left of tahini.

While I am here, can someone recommend a reasonably priced electric knife sharpener?

I'm told the one that comes with the knife set is good, but you have to hold that at a 20% degree angle or you can damage the knives?