Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Let’s finish the job.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Food / Who’s Hungry? A Hearty New Year’s Day Meal

Who’s Hungry? A Hearty New Year’s Day Meal

by | 187 Comments

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I was inspired by all the discussion in the pressure cooker thread and made beef stew for dinner. I don’t have a pressure cooker, so I did this in my stockpot on the stove top.

Ingredients

3 lbs of stew meat cut into 1/2 inch chunks

2 sweet onions cut in half and sliced thin

1 whole head of garlic cloves, peeled

5 turnips (I used these instead of potatoes, if you’re a potato person, use potatoes) chopped into cubes

1 bag of carrots chopped

2 bay leaves

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Concentrated beef jus to taste

Worcestershire Sauce or A1 to taste

1/2 a bottle of your favorite dark beer (or if you prefer red wine)

12 cups of water

Roux (melted butter and flour) or cornstarch as a thickening agent – cook’s preference

(stew meat and veggies cooking down)

Directions

Take a large stockpot, place over medium high heat, and once hot coat the bottom with extra virgin olive oil and 1/3 of a stick of unsalted butter. Once they are hot add the meat with salt and pepper, mix, and sauté until the meat is browned. While the meat is browning, chop, slice, and peel your vegetables. Add the sliced onions and the hole cloves of garlic to the meat, stir, and sweat off the onions and garlic. Add the concentrated beef jus (I used the better than bullion brand) and the Worcestershire or A1 and combine. Deglaze the beef, onions, and garlic with 6 to 8 ounces of the dark beer (I used Guinness stout today because they were out of Chimay Blue at the store) Add the chopped root vegetables, combine, and cook down. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Once the veggies have begun to soften add 12 cups of water, bring to a boil, and then cook until the meat and the root veggies are fork tender. Check to see if you need to adjust seasoning and do so if necessary. Then add your thickening agent of choice to bring the stew broth to your desired thickness. Serve and enjoy.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

187Comments

  5. 5.

    Mary G

    Wha happened to AL’s open thread on the NYT? I’d think I was going crazy but it is still open in another tab.

  12. 12.

    Mary G

    @Anne Laurie: Good, I pecked out a comment I can put up then.

    Adam:

    Currently monitoring reports from multiple sources in South Korea regarding the buildup of Chinese troops & military hardware along the DPRK border. Supposedly, Chinese citizens told that "Trump to hit North Korea in the New Year, we are preparing for war on the peninsula." 1/2— DEFCONWarningSystem (@DEFCONWSALERTS) January 2, 2018

    Should we be worried about this?

  14. 14.

    No One You Know

    Broke with tradition and made sandwiches: 1″ thick, with smoked cheese, turkey, ham, and a horseradish-maple-bourbon syrup. Soaked the bread in eggs and fried it first, then built the layers and baked for five minutes at 450°F.

    Washed it all down with beer. Dessert was pineapple chunks with ground cloves.

    Improved my outlook wonderfully. (I’m following y’all on the cooker thing. I’m stuck in the dark ages with a plain 6-qt pot for my soups.)

  15. 15.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’d honestly like to see you peel and cube 5 turnips and a bag of carrots, slice two onions and peel and chop a head of garlic in the time it takes to brown the meat.

  16. 16.

    Anne Laurie

    @Amir Khalid:

    What do you use instead of beer, if consuming alcohol gets you struck by lightning?

    I am not a cook, but I’ve known cooks who couldn’t consume alcohol who just used more Worcester sauce.

    And one who swore by red wine vinegar instead, if such would be acceptable under your religious rules (she was a teetotaler but not Muslim).

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel

    @Amir Khalid:
    I don’t know of anything that releases the flavors that alcohol does, sorry. Water dissolves many flavors but only alcohol gets the rest. The best I can suggest is vinegar, it puts some of acid in like wine does. Use it to deglaze the pan after browning the parts.

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    @Magda in Black:
    I live in a country where trying to buy beer at the supermarket while Muslim means a criminal charge. Plus, I hear that alcohol doesn’t cook out as quickly as all the fancy chefs assert.

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: I think she pulled it and rescheduled it for later when she realized she’d just posted on top of my post.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    I came across this recipe a few years ago that was created by an observant Muslim chef. Basically, red grape juice and red vinegar in the right proportions made a tasty beef stew without wine.

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Never heard of that source. I do know that the DPRK is interested in sending a delegation of athletes to the Winter Games and that the ROK has agreed to talks to see if it can be negotiated. I did read the article the other day at Axios that the President is really pushing to attack the DPRK, but that his senior advisors keeps steering him away from military options. At this point there’s no real way to know. I will say that based on what would be necessary from a US military point of view, none of the normal signs of troop movements, equipment movements, etc seem to be happening.

  33. 33.

    J R in WV

    @Anne Laurie:

    You guys don’t need to worry about “big-footing” one another. I usually have at least 2 or 3 threads open at any given time. There’s too much good commenting going on to only read one thread!

    I made Chicken and Dumplngs, much the same, but celery more than carrots, because I had a bunch of celery and a tiny bag of carrots. A few potatoes, one large chicken breast, diced; brown the onions, pour into a bowl, brown the chicken (with herbs pounded in the mortar on the raw chicken) add the celery, browned onions, carrots, potatoes, broth, white wine to scour the good crust off the bottom of the pot. There’s more than that, soy sauce, fish sauce, Worchester sauce, etc, bay leaves…

    Let all that simmer, make a batch of soft dough, put teaspoons into the barely simmering soup, let simmer 20 more minutes. Big round soft dumplings, which we put butter on, and slurp up with the soup. Ummm good hot stew on a winter night.

    Four degrees here tonight. Clear sky, big full moon, so cold. Glad the equipment is working. I would hate to have to start a fire. Starting a fire because you want one is all better different than HAVING to start one at 3 am.

    Year ago I had to start a fire and drag the generator into the house by the woodstove to thaw the engine oil enough to be able to start the gen set. I put kerosene lamps against the other side of the engine, sat down with my feet on the generator, read a book by lamplight at 2 or 3 am. Long time ago! Couldn’t turn the engine over the lube oil was so stiff…

    DEFCON bullshit..!!

  34. 34.

    Jay S

    I am having a hard time imagining turnips in place of potatoes in stew. That strikes me as a substituting strident for bland flavors.@Amir Khalid: One online suggestions for dark beer include strong beef broth. The flavor profile wouldn’t be quite the same, but if you used some cubed bread as a thickener you might get closer.

  36. 36.

    Yutsano

    5 turnips (I used these instead of potatoes

    As always, ¿Porque no los dos?

    Also: if you don’t trust the heat control on your stove stop, a stew will cook nicely in a low 250°F/150°C oven for 2-3 hours. And if you don’t trust your oven…get a new range.

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    With a little more Googling around, it looks like if your local authorities are so strict that they won’t allow you to buy wine-based vinegars, you can use lemon juice or a similar acidic juice instead.

  39. 39.

    Schlemazel

    @Amir Khalid:
    Yeah, some alcohol hangs around longer than people assume. None of that matters when it is illegal and/or immoral. I grew up where hemp grew wild. The fire department burned the fields off every fall because hemp= marijuana despite it not being at all the same. They can beat their head against the wall all they want but it is still illegal where you live.

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @J R in WV:

    You guys don’t need to worry about “big-footing” one another. I usually have at least 2 or 3 threads open at any given time. There’s too much good commenting going on to only read one thread!

    This is true. It actually gets kind of dull if there aren’t at least two active threads.

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: I did read the article the other day at Axios that the President is really pushing to attack the DPRK, but that his senior advisors keeps steering him away from military options.

    I wonder if Lindsey Graham is phone buddies with trump now

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Yep. As much as I want the alcohol to deglaze, I’m using the flavors in the dark beer to add body. Coffee will do that.

  44. 44.

    Schlemazel

    @Amir Khalid:
    OK, I admit to being slow on the uptake. Are you suggesting that I could show up there & buy beer? Sales are legal but purchasing while Muslim is not? Is that right? Just curious, i I bought it & gave it to you would I be in trouble? You? Both?

  49. 49.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yutsano: I’m not eating refined carbs, including sugar, and potatoes these days. So I used the turnips instead. I do eat sweet potatoes and yams, but I didn’t think they’d taste good in the stew.

  52. 52.

    LAO

    I feel like balloon juice really gets me today, I made beef stew in my instant pot. I will now recede back into the shadows. (Creepy music).

  58. 58.

    Schlemazel

    @chopper:
    You guys saying this repeatedly does not make it OK. I feel like the first time I went to a Chinese restaurant with my Jewish friend and the waiter kept trying to push the pork fried rice because it didn’t have much pork in it.

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: Kompromat.

    He admitted last year that he’d been hacked. It wasn’t clear if it was his email, his campaign servers, or both. The question is who is threatening him: the President, the Russians, or both? If the former, then this would corroborate what Steele reported that the Russians had an information exchange in place with the President for a number of years.

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gin & Tonic: I find it equally likely he thinks trump will give him the war he wants so desperately (Iran? No Korea? Uruguay? Andorra? all good) and the Putin has the kompromat the internet has been speculating irresponsibly about for years.

  65. 65.

    Barbara

    @Amir Khalid: Another ingredient that can deepen flavor is tomato paste — not much, maybe three tablespoons, plus some vinegar, in lesser quantities if pungent. Tomatoes have a lot of acid.

  66. 66.

    oatler.

    Fletcher Pratt’s book “A Man And His Meals” posited that stews originated in Europe where there was a surplus of fuel and shortage of labor;hence stew ,whereas in Asia there was a surplus of labor and a shortage of fuel, hence stir-fry.

  68. 68.

    Schlemazel

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Srsly? HAHAHAHA. I used to love this one deli in St. Louis Park, MN (once the safe place for Jews in Minnesota) that served an omelette they named ‘Traif’ it had corned beef and sour cream. Not good for you but man was it tasty!

  69. 69.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: Updates LAO’s files: she may have realized that she is being surveilled, alert all field operatives to reinforce operational security…

  72. 72.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Schlemazel: All alcohol does cook out. Cooking a stew takes time; the booze will be clean by the time a stew is finished.

    Once we knew that buying booze at all was an issue, we switched paths. Your example is apples and oranges.

  75. 75.

    Schlemazel

    @Adam L Silverman: \
    Oh, right. I didn’t know it that was the same as traif or contained a broader meaning. But then again my only knowledge of traif means not OK for kosher food, maybe it has a broader meaning I never picked up on

  76. 76.

    chopper

    @Schlemazel:

    enough burns off at first that there’s little left. it helps if you then add stock or some other liquid and keep cooking it down.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @chopper: Nope, it was fine. You just can’t see the browning because of the lighting. The meat was melt in the mouth tender.

  84. 84.

    Schlemazel

    @Amir Khalid:
    Sorry for 20 question but I love how governments try to enforce morality. What percentage of the population is not Muslim(approx)? So selling is not against the law, if I were Muslim & ran a store could I sell it or is that out too? How about restaurants, same rules? What is the punishment for breaking this law, could I go to jail?
    Thanks.

  87. 87.

    Schlemazel

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Maybe but I saw a lot of people suggesting it was somehow OK. Also, from what I have read alcohol evaporation is not as fast as suggested. But none of that matters as it is still not allowed, just like pork is not allowed. Not even a little, not even evaporated.

    EDIT: it is still going on @chopper:

  88. 88.

    Mike J

    @Amir Khalid:

    Plus, I hear that alcohol doesn’t cook out as quickly as all the fancy chefs assert.

    Since we were talking instant pots today, it should be mentioned that it doesn’t cook out at all in a pressure cooker.

  90. 90.

    LAO

    @Omnes Omnibus: eh, I didn’t have any wine in the apartment so I used beer. I made it both ways and with no alcohol and frankly, I’m such a shitty cook, I can’t tell the difference.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Schlemazel:

    You know there are places right here in these United States where alcohol can’t be sold at all, right? Dry counties still exist in places you might not expect, like Oregon. And there are US states where only the state government is allowed to sell liquor, though I’ve never lived in such a bizarre place myself.

  93. 93.

    OldDave

    Just finished a bowl of black-eyed peas, so hopefully I’m good to go as far as 2018 is concerned.

    What I really wanted to mention was the recent Bloom County series – the “Christmas” series that starts with Steve Dallas being kid-napped and taken to the hospital. It’s a thing of beauty, especially today’s comic.

    If you clicked on the link I provided above, you then click on the ‘left arrow’ that appears near the left edge of the comic to see the next one in the series (six or seven total).

  98. 98.

    Schlemazel

    @oatler.:
    “Puritans were against bear baiting, not because it brought pain to the bear but because it brought pleasure to the viewers”
    Samuel Clemens.

  100. 100.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Amir Khalid: I would probably try balsamic vinegar and cider vinegar 0.75:1 to deglaze in order to approximately mimic what red wine flavor might do.

  105. 105.

    chopper

    @Adam L Silverman:

    personally I’d say brown it in more batches so it doesn’t come out so gray. if you throw 3 pounds of stew meat into a pot in one batch it’s not going to brown well, it’s going to steam and boil. throw it in in batches and it’ll brown instead of “gray” and honestly it won’t take any more time if you do it right.

  106. 106.

    Schlemazel

    @Mnemosyne:
    RIght but the local authorities are not arresting people for trying to buy booze. I had dinner in a dry county by Dallas. I could not buy a drink but I could bring my own & drink it there. I found that level of stupidity particularly hilarious.
    In that particular case the store where I could buy my wine was literally kitty-corner from the place that charged me $5 to open it and give me a glass to drink it from but could not sell it to me.

  110. 110.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @LAO: I just ordered an InstaPot, I asked the kid* about it last night, she said get it.

    *She has one but hasn’t used it yet, her sister swears by her’s. She says it cooks rice in 5 minutes.

  111. 111.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: I was using sarcasm to respond to chopper. I started working in professional kitchens when I was sixteen. I’ve been a chef. I’ve been a bouncer. I’ve worked in taverns and pubs and bars and grills and upscale restaurants.

  112. 112.

    Schlemazel

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    No, not upset. But your constant suggesting that a Muslim should be OK with wine because eventually most of might evaporate would be upsetting to someone that lived under those rules.

  114. 114.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Schlemazel: Thank you. The point is that it’s alcohol in the food. To the extent that I understand Muslim dietary law, I believe it’s much like that for keeping Kosher it doesn’t matter if there’s not much pork in the pork fried rice, or not much lard in the Oreos.

  115. 115.

    chopper

    @Gin & Tonic:

    SE is pretty good.

    it’s like mushrooms. if you crowd the pan, it won’t brown well, it’ll steam and boil. don’t crowd the pan, do it in batches and you’ll be rewarded. also you’ll have a hell of a fond to scrape up.

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne

    @Schlemazel:

    You might be surprised — when we got pulled over for speeding in a dry county in Oregon, they searched the car and indicated that we would have been fined, and possibly arrested, if we’d had alcohol in the car.

    (We didn’t get a ticket because my friend with a Michigan license was driving my car with Arizona plates with me in the passenger seat, so the cops decided it was too complicated to try and ticket us. Fortunately, they didn’t know she was using her younger sister’s license.)

  121. 121.

    Schlemazel

    @Mnemosyne:
    Sounds like SOuthern States cops and Yankee plates :)

    BTW, in the olden days airplanes had to stop selling booze when they flew over dry counties HAHAHAHAHAHA

  122. 122.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Schlemazel: With the first, pork is the problem. With the second, I understand that the alcohol is the problem. If the alcohol is the problem, cooking it out should eliminate the problem. Grapes weren’t the issue. Alcohol was. I am neither Jewish not Muslim. I offered coffee as an option. I’ll retire from this field now.

  124. 124.

    gene108

    @Schlemazel:

    just like pork is not allowed.

    There is no pork in it, it was just cooked in bacon fat…what’s the problem?

    The hardest thing to figure out is something like refined beans has pork fat in it, so you would have to be careful about eating out. And a lot of folks, who usually consume pork don’t make the connection that even cooking in pork fat is not allowed in the diet.

  126. 126.

    Mnemosyne

    @Schlemazel:

    It was a classic speed trap on a holiday weekend. It was back in college (20+ years ago!), so we were lucky they decided it was too complicated to try and ticket us.

  127. 127.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @LAO: But what about a microwave? Fortunately I have neither (an?) Alexa nor a microwave, but I have a fruity work phone now, so I worry.

  130. 130.

    Lyrebird

    @Omnes Omnibus: @Amir Khalid: Marmite. A teeny bit. Plus more potatoes though you might need to add liquid.

    Also genius for non-alcohol substitutions: pomegranate juice for a red wine taste.

    I enjoyed serving as an unofficial culinary liaison to the Muslim Students’ Association!

  131. 131.

    chopper

    @Adam L Silverman:

    hey, if “chuck three pounds of stew meat into a pot” is your recipe and it works for you than rock on. you’re clearly not interested in any improvements.

  135. 135.

    Schlemazel

    @Mnemosyne:
    Around these parts Wisconsin is famous for that. The old trick was they would hold you for the Justice of the Peace. He was usually some political connected . The most common fine was “How much cash do you have on you?” My dads cousin was county Sheriff in Waupaca County and he told me, “Never carry more than $20 on you. Hide the rest in the car because if you get stopped you will be fine the amount you have in cash.”

  136. 136.

    Schlemazel

    “Goodnight you Princes of Maine, you Kings of New England!”

    Happy New Year to you all

  139. 139.

    Lyrebird

    @Amir Khalid: PS: I guess Omnes is tired of this topic, but here’s a link to the burnoff chart. It takes 2.5 hrs of simmering to get 95% of the alcohol to evaporate out.

    Do you ever eat kecap manis in your neck of the woods? That would cover for the A1 sauce nicely, and no need for fermented beverages to add complex flavors.

  140. 140.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @LAO: I’ve never been a microwave fan, and when our last one expired, I didn’t replace it. Thanks for asking after Harry – he’s wearing a doggie Baker blanket that’s a touch too short, but it’s the biggest I’ve got. Mr. Q insisted he’d refuse to let it be put on and be embarrassed if I managed to do so, but Mr. Q was wrong. Harry stuck his head through the neck like a champ, and nosed where it was hanging the next time out. He has boots on order for walks down the block. Poor Maggie must hate this weather.

  141. 141.

    seaboogie

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Fancy people? French, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian peasants are fancy people?

    I grew up (admittedly still working on that) in MN and WI, and the aforementioned group are super fancy. Exotic, even. Remember my Dad coming home from a business trip to NYC and introduced us to what we called “green spaghetti”, which we all recognize as pesto sauce now. He made it with dried parsley, basil and probably really bad olive oil – but we felt very sophisticated eating it. Our ethnic food was lefse and kipper snacks.

  143. 143.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Lyrebird: I have been apprised that use of booze at all can be a problem. At that point, I realized that I know fuck all about the religious stuff.

  148. 148.

    seaboogie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ahem – hotdish! (Hotpot being a sizzling specialty from some region of China – a more liquid version of fajitas). And yes, in MN tater tots are a staple*.

    *See also cream of mushroom soup – aka the Lutheran binder, and often the thing that holds a hotdish together.

  149. 149.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @LAO: A pibble/beagle is likely to be opinionated indeed, but also adorable like Maggie. Harry’s not exactly obedient, but he does know that I expect him to cooperate, so he does (mostly). We’ll see about the boots. It will be interesting also to see if Harry lives down to Mr. Q’s expectations; I hope he doesn’t. Layla fussed when he put her blanket on, as he expected, but stuck her head in when I held it out.

    @Steve in the ATL: @Adam L Silverman: Y’all best not be trying that with me. His full name is Harry Potter Wales, and is sometimes referred to as the Captain. Shit. It’s the fruity phone, isn’t it?

  150. 150.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LAO: That’s what she (and we) want you to think…

    Update’s LAO’s file: she’s in denial, the puppy is safe, no need to extract at this time…

  151. 151.

    magurakurin

    @Mnemosyne: that’s not a county. It’s a small town in Polk County and it’s not dry now. It’s not a revelation that there are still places in the United States that don’t allow the sale of alcohol. Countless souls in the Philly suburbs all know the importance of a stop at Circle Liquor before beginning their summer week at the Shore in Ocean City, NJ.

  153. 153.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    OT: I’m quite happy that I got 3 good pics of the flyover this morning, I still had my camera set for auto-bracketing so it took the 3 pics and then the buffer was full and I had to wait to take more and the planes were somewhere over east Glendale by then. But all the pics in the bracket came out good, much better than last year.

  154. 154.

    Lyrebird

    @Omnes Omnibus: I might start listing the folks in power who clearly know far less than you do, but that might be depressing, and maybe this is supposed to be a nice hearty non-politicial thread.

    Obviously I am fond of dispensing information if I think it will be of use!

  162. 162.

    Mnemosyne

    @magurakurin:

    Wevs, dude. If it makes you angry that I didn’t realize that Monmouth voted to allow alcohol 10 years after I was pulled over and had my car searched for booze, then that’s my bad. Monmouth stopped being dry 10 years after I was pulled over. Happy now?

  163. 163.

    HRA

    I have to admit I am surprised by the use of garlic in beef stew. That does not mean there are no recipes for garlic in stew. I am only going by how my Dad (the chef) and my mother made their stews. Mr. A and my dietary needs do not allow stews now and I do not make them.
    Yes the European countries all have their peasant stews.

  166. 166.

    Lyrebird

    @Jay S:

    I am having a hard time imagining turnips in place of potatoes in stew.

    Too bad you can’t swing by the OP’s place and try some! The first time I ever voluntarily ate turnips was in a good beef stew, and they were super yum. Have not found a veg equivalent dish.

    There is a fried turnip cake dish out of Hong Kong that’s tasty, too, but that is probably because it’s laced with little bits of pork product.

  167. 167.

    danielx

    Brrrrr….kind of alarming when the furnace is set at 70 and the temp is 66 inside the house. -9 outside and it isn’t even midnight yet.

  175. 175.

    Mike J

    @chopper: Oh yeah? Well you’re just a piece of undigested beef! There’s more of gravy than the grave about you.

    (Last chance for holiday stuff, gotta get it all in now.)

  176. 176.

    Adam L Silverman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: We’re under a wind chill advisory tonight. People have actually been warned to dress appropriately or risk frostbite if going outside. On the other hand, my heater isn’t having to deal with negative temperatures, and as always, it’s a two dog night.

  177. 177.

    HRA

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I was not criticizing your use of it. There were at least 2 different stews made with beef, veal or lamb weekly as I was growing up with my Mom’s cooking and most of them did not have potatoes..

  179. 179.

    Mnemosyne

    @danielx:

    People on Amazon are weirdly enthusastic about this blanket. I’m not ready to marry it like some people are, but it really is very soft and warm without being heavy. WaterGirl’s niece bought one for her for her holiday stay in IL but I haven’t heard how it worked out.

    I would be under it right now except that the cat is napping on it and she bites.

  180. 180.

    Mayim

    @gene108:

    There’s a next step, if you are keeping strictly kosher: if you cook treif (non-kosher) food in a pan, the pan becomes treif and any further food cooked in it is treif, even if all the ingredients are kosher. The oven is also treifed and needs to be remastered ~ self-cleaning cycle or blowtorch will take care of that ;-)

    There are some exceptions ~ Sephardi (Mediterranean) Jews treat glass as non-porous and it can be used for milk after meat and vice versa if washed well and let sit for 24 hours. Also, dishes and pots that weren’t heated beyond a certain temperature may be ok after being washed thoroughly and sitting for a day.

    Yeah, it can be absurdly complicated…..

  181. 181.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mayim: In the first Gremlins movie, when the gremlin takes a bite of the apple and then throws the apple away he growls “traif” as he does so. Technically, the apple isn’t traif, but it is a neat Easter egg (Passover afikomen?).

  183. 183.

    Amir Khalid

    @Schlemazel:
    No jail time, but you get one stroke of the lash. A retailer/restaurant/bar can be fined for selling or serving alcohol to a Muslim, but I don’t remember how much. When it comes to catching Muslims drinking in public, I suppose it comes down to whether they think you look Muslim.

    It’s weird when you think about it, because there is not a similar obsession with catching Muslims who buy/eat pork in public.

  184. 184.

    Jay S

    @Adam L Silverman: Your garlic comment sent me on a fruitless search for an old garlic soup recipe. From James Barbers Urban peasant series. Saute Garlic and onions in oil, add stock, season to taste simmer and add chopped up rustic bread to thicken. I haven’t seen as simple a version online.

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