Come all ye self-styled chefs and kitchen users, we must talk.

Minarchist wrote:

I sold a lot of video games this year. It finally paid off.

...I might be a little excited about this.

IMAGE(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/540950_10151425405099665_1448861003_n.jpg)

Looks like something I wouldn't mind having either. Really nice Minarchist!

Oooooh man, I am jealous.

I'm not sure I'm more impressed you actually got it, or that you had THAT many video games to sell. Congrats, I've always been intrigued by it despite my complete disdain for the author's work in other fields.

How are you going to afford all the gels, liquid nitrogen and emollients now?

That's a lot of books for only 5 recipes.

Stilgar Black wrote:

I'm not sure I'm more impressed you actually got it, or that you had THAT many video games to sell. Congrats, I've always been intrigued by it despite my complete disdain for the author's work in other fields.

Turns out obscure JRPGs can be worth some decent scratch.

plavonica wrote:

...pretty cool recipe...

Nice, I'm was planning on grocery shopping tonight and it looks like this is what'll be for dinner! For reference, how many does it end up serving?

Minarchist wrote:

I sold a lot of video games this year. It finally paid off.

...I might be a little excited about this.

IMAGE(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/540950_10151425405099665_1448861003_n.jpg)

Hey, what's your address and when are you next going to be out for a few hours? No real reason, just curious...

This is a great snack. Get a Nordic Ware Microwave Popcorn Popper. Get a spritzer and fill it with freshly squeezed lime juice. After popping the corn without any oil, spritz and salt the top, put the cover back on, shake, and repeat 2 or three times. It's probably the healthiest and best tasting popcorn ever. Basically the perfect snack for when you have the munchies. There's a bagged version you can get, but they use oil, so it's a bit greasy.

I actually just used a cheap travel mister from target that just cost a couple bucks. It was easy to squeeze the lime juice using this, and I had a cheap funnel that worked perfectly. Threw the bottle with the remainder in the fridge so that it's ready for my next batch of popcorn.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

This is a great snack. Get a Nordic Ware Microwave Popcorn Popper. Get a spritzer and fill it with freshly squeezed lime juice. After popping the corn without any oil, spritz and salt the top, put the cover back on, shake, and repeat 2 or three times. It's probably the healthiest and best tasting popcorn ever. Basically the perfect snack for when you have the munchies. There's a bagged version you can get, but they use oil, so it's a bit greasy.

I actually just used a cheap travel mister from target that just cost a couple bucks. It was easy to squeeze the lime juice using this, and I had a cheap funnel that worked perfectly. Threw the bottle with the remainder in the fridge so that it's ready for my next batch of popcorn.

Will definitely try this. Trying to stay away from Lays and such.

Hell, you don't even NEED the specialized popcorn popper. Just use a paper lunch bag, fill with a quarter cup of popcorn kernels, and fold over the top several times. Microwave as you would a store bought bag (about a minute and a half, or until the popcorn stops popping) and you're golden. Season as you like, spritz, etc.

dhelor wrote:

Hell, you don't even NEED the specialized popcorn popper. Just use a paper lunch bag, fill with a quarter cup of popcorn kernels, and fold over the top several times. Microwave as you would a store bought bag (about a minute and a half, or until the popcorn stops popping) and you're golden. Season as you like, spritz, etc.

Yup, you can totally do that. You can also cook the popcorn in a pot on the stove. However, I gotta say that the Nordic thing is really easy and does an extremely good job at getting everything just right. Also, you get to use the thing as the bowl you eat it from. It's totally worth the buy in my book. Assuming you have some lime juice prepped beforehand, the whole thing is just a 5 minute, 1 dirty dish process.

plavonica wrote:

Filthy skimmer here! Thought I would contribute. I made a mac&cheese green bean tuna casserole the other day and it turned out great.

Recipe:
4 hotdogs, $.32
2 boxes of mac&cheese, $1
1 big can of tuna (approx 10oz), $2-$2.50
1 big can condensed cream of mushroom soup (approx 25oz), $1.25
2 cans of green beans, $.66
1/2 of large onion, $.24
2 tbsp butter, $.07
couple handfuls of dried chow mein noodles, $.25-$.50
Total: about $6

Utensils:
Big pot
Small pot
Mixing bowl
Mixing spoon
Casserole dish

Put a big pot of water on to boil, while it heats up chop the hotdogs into the water. While waiting for the water to boil chop up half an onion and stick it into the small pot with the butter. When the water comes to boil put in your macaroni noodles and boil for 7-10 min. While the noodles boil saute the chopped onion on med-high in the butter until it doesn't smell so bad and it starts to turn a bit clear (add pepper and garlic powder if desired).

When the noodles are done *finish making the mac&cheese* then when the onion is done put both into a mixing bowl. Rinse out the big pot and put in the 2 cans of green beans. Bring to boil for about 5-10 min. While the beans boil mix in your can of (drained) tuna and mushroom soup into the mix bowl, add 1/4 cup of water or milk into the can and mix it up if you really need to get the remainder off the inside of the can.

When the beans get done drain the water out and stick them in the mixing bowl. Mix everything up then stick into a greased casserole dish. Put desired amount of chow mein noodles on top while the oven pre-heats to 350f. Cook for about 45min to an hour depending on your altitude.

It turns out to be a good casserole. If you have any left over meat you can chop it up and add it in as you need it. Replace the chow mein noodles with cheese if you want as well, but it does add to the price. Enjoy!

*edit, missed a step.

this sounds terrible... i'm still going to try it.

I make something extremely similar, but the kids call it "macaroni & disease".

How to Make the Perfect Ice Cube

Unfortunately, it's gizmodo, but the video is really interesting. I wish I could get one of those big Japanese ice press things. They cost several hundred dollars, though. You might be able to use spherical plastic molds in the cooler to get a similar effect and still get a pretty clear ice sphere.

I need to get myself a cooler and some molds.

For those who don't want to go to a Gawker website, here are the instructions:

1. Get a small, insulated cooler you can fit inside your freezer.
2. Get plastic molds. You'll use these to freeze your chunks of ice. The blue molds in the video are 2 x 2 x 5 inches; if you want cubes, look at these.
3. Put the molds into the cooler, arranged into lines.
4. Fill the entire cooler with water, so that the molds are flooded. Put the cooler into the freezer with the lid open or removed.
5. Wait until the block is frozen all the way through. Yes, it's a slow process. Then remove the cooler and the ice block inside. (If it sticks, let it thaw a little.) Set the block in a clean plastic bucket, and leave it out for an hour or so to let it temper.
6. Cut out the molds. Using a serrated knife, carefully score the block in between some molds. Use a mallet on the back of the knife blade to carefully split the ice. If it's starts cracking like crazy, let it temper a little longer.
7. Once the molds are free, you should be able to slide the blocks of ice out of them pretty easily. If they don't come out easily, let them warm just a little. The ice that comes out should be almost perfectly clear. There may be some clouding at the top, but this can be cut out using the serrated knife method in the step above.

Other advice for clear ice cubes: make regular ice cubes, but boil your water first and/or use distilled.

Cloudy ice comes from dissolved air and impurities in the water: boiling gets the air out, and using distilled rules out impurities. See this article, for example.

Mind you, I haven't tried any of these, so YMMV. Although it seems like something I ought to try....

Well you also need a slower freeze. Modern Freezers are designed to freeze quickly.

Why lake ice, for example, is so clear and so hard is that it is freezing at 20-31 degrees. The crystals form slowly and larger.
Your ice box is -20 to -17 most of the time. Using an insulated container will slow down the freezing process for whatever is inside.

The other thing you can do, is just buy a block of ice and get a hammer/chisel. These can be kind of tough to find compared to buying bags of ice. But I suspect any liquor store by you can at least order a few in their next shipment of ice if you ask in advance.

That article claimed that slow freeze is the only way which is why they use the cooler. According to the video, it worked really well. They said that the distilled water/boiled water methods don't really work. Here's the claim:

Some of your friends will tell you that boiling water first is the secret to clear ice. Or double-boiling it. Or using distilled water. Having tried all of those, I can tell you with utter certainty that those techniques do not work. This one does, and the key component is speed.

When ice freezes quickly, air bubbles get trapped within the ice crystals. When ice freezes slowly, the bubbles don't get inside. The best example of this is an icicle. Icicles freeze extremely slowly, and they come out clear as glass. Another example is a lake. Large and slow to freeze, a body of water solidifies as extremely clear ice, aside from a little frost on the top. That's what the cooler does—it creates the lake effect. The insulated walls and the large body of water slows down the whole freezing process. If you do it right, you get ice that is clear as glass.

The serrated knife with a rubber mallet looked like a really great way to break up the ice block. You could probably get a really cheap piece of crap knife to do it.

Well if you want to get serious about your drinks, you do not want any metallic or chlorinated/fluorinated taste to the ice. Boiling or using distilled would be a good step.

Once again though, a block of is 2 bucks.

KingGorilla wrote:

Well if you want to get serious about your drinks, you do not want any metallic or chlorinated/fluorinated taste to the ice. Boiling or using distilled would be a good step.

It certainly couldn't hurt!

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:

Well if you want to get serious about your drinks, you do not want any metallic or chlorinated/fluorinated taste to the ice. Boiling or using distilled would be a good step.

It certainly couldn't hurt!

Or spring?

*disclaimer*I have no idea where I heard of this.*/disclaimer*

Is there any merit to the whole 'aged ice' thing? My understanding is that among whiskey (and perhaps other) drinkers water which has been frozen at least 24 hours is deemed a better ice for drinks.

My intuition wants to say "frozen is frozen, it's probably equalized with your freezer's temperature long before 24 hours" but admittedly I've never conducted any experiments on melt time, temperature, or impact on flavor in this regard.

krev82 wrote:

*disclaimer*I have no idea where I heard of this.*/disclaimer*

Is there any merit to the whole 'aged ice' thing? My understanding is that among whiskey (and perhaps other) drinkers water which has been frozen at least 24 hours is deemed a better ice for drinks.

My intuition wants to say "frozen is frozen, it's probably equalized with your freezer's temperature long before 24 hours" but admittedly I've never conducted any experiments on melt time, temperature, or impact on flavor in this regard.

My guess on that one is that it's untrue but stemmed from the idea that slowly freezing ice will give you crystal clear ice cubes like in the article I just brought up. I don't think it would have anything to do with taste, just clarity and perception. Anyways, that's just a guess.

No matter how hard your ice, if it is melting into your scotch or bourbon, you are not drinking fast enough Nancy Drew.

Do it like they did in the nineteenth century. Splash a few drops of water in there and call it a day. If you want your scotch cold, join an expedition to Antarctica.

KingGorilla wrote:

Well you also need a slower freeze. Modern Freezers are designed to freeze quickly.

Why lake ice, for example, is so clear and so hard is that it is freezing at 20-31 degrees. The crystals form slowly and larger.
Your ice box is -20 to -17 most of the time. Using an insulated container will slow down the freezing process for whatever is inside.

So maybe I can take distilled water, some molds and then just leave them outside overnight. Screw all this cooler within the freezer crap.

I do like that sphere mold though. That was pretty cool.

Demonicmaster wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:

Well you also need a slower freeze. Modern Freezers are designed to freeze quickly.

Why lake ice, for example, is so clear and so hard is that it is freezing at 20-31 degrees. The crystals form slowly and larger.
Your ice box is -20 to -17 most of the time. Using an insulated container will slow down the freezing process for whatever is inside.

So maybe I can take distilled water, some molds and then just leave them outside overnight. Screw all this cooler within the freezer crap.

I do like that sphere mold though. That was pretty cool.

I prefer this sphere mold, though!

sometimesdee wrote:

I prefer this sphere mold, though!

Probably wouldn't last too long, though, what with that weak spot 'n all.

what is with all these people making their spirits so cold? Cold numbs the tongue. You lose so much flavor that way. If you need it cut, use branch water like Walken Dead mentioned. Just a bit of Brita and you're good to go.

Oh no I wasn't going to use for spirits I am a straight scotch kind of guy no 'on the rocks' business. I was thinking more for kids and other parties.

sometimesdee wrote:

I prefer this sphere mold, though!

That is cool too.