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Originally posted by fluffygurl:
Ive been given a bottle of capers. Now the only recipe I know for capers is to mix em with cream cheese and serve with toasted bagels and crispy bacon any other idears?

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Originally posted by fluffygurl:
Ive been given a bottle of capers. Now the only recipe I know for capers is to mix em with cream cheese and serve with toasted bagels and crispy bacon any other idears?

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Originally posted by Drea D:
"NEVER defrost chicken and re-freeze."
"NEVER defrost italian sausage and re-freeze."

What's so bad about it? I can live with loss of texture.

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Anyway! Today I had a new cooking dilemma that I couldn't figure out on my own. Well, I did, but not to stellar effect. I was making my famous carrot ginger chicken soup and was accidentally bit too liberal with the crushed red pepper flakes, to the tune of burning in the back of the throat (good thing I pretaste throughout). I didn't know what to do other than water it down like mad and add some more of the non-red pepper flavor, but the soup was still a bit too hot and otherwise lost its punch.

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Originally posted by Princessjeanne:
This may be hypothetical, but if anyone has a possible answer, I'd love to hear it. Why can I make a five course meal for 8 people without terrible stress/disaster, but I ruined jello (from a BOX) yesterday? What is wrong with me?

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About thawing and refreezing chicken, I'd rather put the chicken back in the freezer because I think it would slow down the bacterial growth more than in the frig.

Edited to say that I also like grapes and nuts in my chicken salad! Artichokes are also yummy!

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Originally posted by Henna73:
Besides, with all the raw eggs I have consumed in raw cookie dough, I should be dead by now, but I'm not!

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Potatoes are a good hint for de-hotting, thanks! In the past I have had noodles in the soup, so maybe the lack of them made the hotness even hotter? I serve my carrot ginger chicken soup (liberally modified from a recipe from the magazine Self) hot. It's pretty good stuff and, even when not overspiced, wonderfully sinus-clearing in a pho kind of way.

My nan put apples in her chicken salad. It was very delicious. She made her own mayo, too, which may explain why I could eat it. I hate mayo. I wonder how her recipe differed from the jar stuff.

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Originally posted by Nieci:
I wouldn't mess with refreezing chicken either. Bacteria is scary!

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Originally posted by Drea D:
I know what you're saying but (shrugs) I've never heard a good enough explanation/scary urban legend that would convince me to to never defrost and refreeze.
In fact, I've never heard of anything bad happening to anyone from doing it, just ordered not to do it. I could be just missing something important, though.

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So the USDA says that it is safe to refreeze as long as food is handled correctly.
I still wouldn't mess with chicken or fish.

Thanks for the links! I understand a lot more now and I'll definitely be more careful.

On a sort of related note, I once ate 2 cold, delicious smoked turkey drumsticks, wondered briefly why they were chewier than I'd remembered, and as I was throwing the plastic package away, this message caught my eye:
Product is not fully cooked. Always heat to [recommended temperature]before consuming.

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Originally posted by fluffygurl:
Ive been given a bottle of capers. Now the only recipe I know for capers is to mix em with cream cheese and serve with toasted bagels and crispy bacon any other idears?

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Originally posted by Chele75:
Ok...tomorrow I'm planning on using my crockpot for the first time. I'm planning on making a "Hearty Beef Stew". The recipie mostly makes sense to me except when it says "1 whole clove". Do you think they mean 1 whole clove of well...cloves, or 1 whole clove of garlic?! I guess they would have said garlic right? (I feel like a moron.) And I guess another related question.....if I only have dried cloves, and that's indeed what it means I should use....how much would equal one whole clove of cloves?

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ahhh! your post broke my brain.

I'm thinking that they mean a clove of garlic, Can't imagine dividing up a clove, unless it is powdered.

I didn't know that a whole garlic was a head.

Drea, I truly believe that is you are exposed to 'dodgy' food at a young age (my Mum is a bit lax on food hygiene, but has never killed anyone) you get some immunity to bacteria but don't really want to test it out.

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Originally posted by jazzberry:
ahhh! your post broke my brain.

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LOL Believe me, I was just as confused when I was writing it. :S

Edited because it's early and my brain doesn't work before 10am.

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Originally posted by minxx:
A few weeks ago I made "creamy" broccoli soup that was topped with cheese. I followed the recipe but I couldn't get the soup to thicken. I even added more flour/butter mixture to thicken it but it was so not thick. Other than the soup being watery, it was really yummy and want to make it again. Any clues on how to make it thicken?

Edited because it's early and my brain doesn't work before 10am.

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Originally posted by meggo:
Yeah - I'd try cornstarch too. But the trick with cornstarch is it doesn't dissolve in hot stuff. So you take a small bit of water, toss in some cornstarch, mix well, put in the pot.

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