...I think we need to have a new journal to get past all of that drama that our group went through (through my own doing, I'll add) :B

So - let's talk about ice cream shall we?

From: http://www.icecream.com/icecreaminfo

Did you know:

~ 5th Century B.C. - Greeks enjoy a dessert similar to ice cream -> 1300's -> Marco Polo brings an early form of ice cream to Europe -> 1700's - ice cream is introduced as a delicacy enjoyed by high society -> 1776 - America's first ice cream parlor opens in New York -> 1840's - the ice cream churn is invented -> 1851 - the first ice cream plant is opened -> 1880's - the ice cream sundae is invented -> 1904 - The waffle cone (supposedly) makes its debut in the World's Fair in St.Louis, MO. -> 1929 - Rocky Road becomes the first widely available flavor (OTHER than Strawberry, Chocolate and Vanilla) - 1984 -> July is declared National Ice Cream Month...all the way up to today, since other than cookies (or bacon :P) ice cream is the best selling treat in America!

~ The tallest ice cream cone was over 9 feet tall and served in Italy

~ Most of the vanilla used to make vanilla ice cream comes from Indonesia and Madagascar

~ Chocolate syrup is the world's most popular ice cream topping

~ 87% of Americans have ice cream in their freezer at any given time, and the average number of ice cream pints enjoyed in a year is 48.

~ A cow gives enough milk to make 2 gallons of ice cream per day - which is about equivalent to 730 gallons a year!

~ It takes 3 gallons of milk to make a gallon of ice cream

~ BUT: The main ingredient in ice cream isnt milk, per se; its air.

~ It takes about 50 licks to finish a single scoop ice cream cone...unless you go too fast and get "brain freeze", which happens when the ice cream touches the roof of your mouth

~ 1 in 10 people will admit to licking the bowl clean when eating ice cream, while 1 in 5 will admit to sharing ice cream with their dog :3

---

Well, if anyone has anything else to add, please feel free...or if anyone is inspired to do a recipe, please put that in your next post!

From Chris:

I have sent inquiries to the admins if posting recipes from others (sites, magazines, cookbooks, etc.) would be ok AS LONG AS we gave the references...

Though I will put here what mentioned, and I think its certainly worth mentioning:

"Wuff has heard a LOT of discussion regarding recipes on other forums, particularly prevalent on the Yahoo Pressure Cooker group and Rice Cooker group. Folks are always posting their version of PC and Rice Cooker recipes that they find elsewhere, and invariably, about twice a year, someone new to the group raises an objection about copying other sources.

The Bottom Line: Recipes are NOT subject to copyright in the same way that novels and other written works are. Why? Because you can not copyright a list of materials as a concept. You can copyright the photo as an individual artwork (photography is art), but you can not copyright the number and portions of the materials used to make the dish, nor can you copyright the technique in which they are put together.

You COULD copyright the words, if you right the recipe as a blog article, talking about the background, source history, and humorous anecdotes of trying to make it. That's a story. But the CONCEPTS of technique and material are not in themselves subject to the copyright.

So, with MANY copyright lawyers and other legal and semi-legal pro's in those groups weighing in, the TL;DR version is this:

You can use the list of ingredients and describe the techniques in your own words, and there is no copyright infraction, but it is polite to reference the source if you know it, as a matter of courtesy. You have to use you own photos; can't cut and paste those. And if there is a story associated with the recipe, the story is the property of the one who wrote it."

SO - Until I hear otherwise (and IF there was a problem with posting recipes with links, the admins would have just cleared out our entire group, and been done with it already XD)...

Please feel free to submit any and all of your recipes to us, AND, if they happen to be from any OTHER source (again, magazine, website, cookbook, etc.) and please, please, please put in your reference!!!!

That is all from me!

UPDATE:

I just received a note from the admins, but I'll put in what I asked as well:

From -

I have a small question for you...

Since our group does post recipes, there are times that we use recipes from other sources, (i.e., cookbooks, internets, etc.)

As long as we post the source of the recipe (i.e., link, author, book or etc.) and this is our own photo, this is still ok, correct?

Please respond!

Replies from user and staff members

AsiaNeko, posted on: 04/01/15 02:05 pm

Hey there!

Yes that is permitted. Just make sure to make it clear that the photograph is yours and the recipe is what you are citing.

From Chris:

...It seems, according to FA rules, I had to take down all of those bake show pics I had just posted since theyre not really our work >_<

Of which I know I specified...

And put in scraps, BECAUSE of that >_<

*sighs* Sorry folks!

From Chris, your bacon loving moderator...

Lets get things rocking shall we :B

Of course I -would- have to post this sort of thing :P

But I spotted this story in the Huffington Post I had to share with all of you...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thril.....m_hp_ref=bacon

Also:

I'll be gone on vacation (going to California, if you can believe it!) this coming Saturday, but will be back in about a week - so if you have any comments, recipes, etc etc etc please just note and I'll get to them when I get back mmmkay?

Bone appetite!

From Chris, your cooking mod...

I just spotted this over on Deviant Art...and, without a doubt it is inspiring!

http://techgnotic.deviantart.com/jo.....ndia-513146787

I hope this inspires you folks as well, so see what you think!

From Chris, your bacon-loving moderator :P

We now have 3000 (and counting) watchers !!!

I'd like to thank everyone on behalf of the group, and I hope we've passed the audition... *coughs*

But I think my chef's hat should go out to

etc etc etc ! *whew*

I dunno if we'll get to have our own cookbook, but, we're close enough!

P.S. Before I forget...as a small personal aside...

COOKING IS AN ART FORM.

Having heard more than a few comments recently, stating otherwise...yeah, this really rubs my scales the wrong way. >_<

But if I may - for all of us who have put our food out on our page - this is something that we have created, for you to enjoy, because this is what we enjoy doing.

And we need food, right? Why not share it, with those who enjoy it?

Why not learn from the process, in how to make it?

Why not learn about the culture, the history of the dish?

Or just simply: Why not?


That's why, and that's all from me :P

From , your cooking mod:

I thought it would be nice to mention at least two things for our newest journal today...

First, Did you know there are furs on here that have their own CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for honey and bees?

That would be who says this:

"Here is a link to our honey - http://ofbees.com/honey/ - we have a small amount available for sale right now!

We are almost sold out of hive shares (the CSA) for 2015, but we do have a 'mead-makers' share which offers a large amount of honey http://ofbees.com/hive-shares/

On the main page we've got our photos/info about meadmaking, as well as how the honey is gathered and the keeping of bees. :) http://ofbees.com/

Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Foxfeather

And secondly, made this rather cute video that's too good not to share, so, I will mention it here:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6475484/

And her youtube link which is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featu.....;v=NeagZDIIeYY

From Chris: No chopped challenge today, folks, I think this might be fading away tbh!

BUT

1st off, we welcome all of our new watchers / new chefs / etc. who have joined our group!

Secondly its the 75th anniversary of the Crock-Pot ™ so yey :P

Thirdly, I received this note from who says:

"I have been trying to make home made tortillas.

I have the masa and a tortilla press.

The instructions say to mix 2 cups of the corn meal with 2 and a half cups of warm water. Divide into 16 equal lumps. Place a lump between two sheets of wax paper and then use the press to make about an 8" tortilla. The problem is that I can't get the tortilla to let loose of the wax paper; it just breaks up. I also tried the 'hand' method but again it just sticks to my hands.

Any suggestions anyone?"

If anyone can answer his dilemma that would be great !

Finally - Im not sure how many people want to do this, BUT just for fun, if you'd like to make a dish with an edible "FACCC" logo in it, we'd love to post that for our group!

Chopped Challenge: Red Hots Cinnamon candy; Pork Loin or Chops; Asparagus; Canneloni Pasta; Cojita Cheese

From

You know, thinking back on my life...Ive had good food more or less.

And one of the memories that I have was - years back, when I was just about a pup - going over to the Woolworths store right over to their kitchenette and get a bowl of chowder and maybe a grilled cheese if I was (or tried to be) good.

How about you folks...whats your best food memory that you have?

A rather interesting story...which you can say is either ironic, or just plain messed up :P

http://http://munchies.vice.com/articles/h.....illing-oysters

Article by: Munchies Staff

No matter whether you’re coming home from a night in “da club” or a candlelit dinner, it’s always of important to practice safe sex—lest you end up with an undesirable affliction. It can be easy to give into temptation when you’re all hopped up on the sensuous powers of edible (and drinkable) aphrodisiacs. A bottle of champagne, a dozen oysters, and a chocolate mousse for two can steer the direction of your night towards the scandalous. Unless you have to omit the oysters, because they’ve all died of oyster herpes.

Today, Bloomberg reports that in the past six years, more than a quarter of France’s oyster population has been lost due to a rampant strain of oyster herpes known as Os-HV1. This virus isn’t like the one we think of in our own kin—while the best-known human varieties cause pesky but largely harmless cold sores (and … other embarrassing sores), the type knocking out oysters is largely fatal to them (though benign to us). In Australia’s New South Wales, the same type of herpes once killed a staggering 10 million oysters in a span of just three days.

The global oyster industry is valued at some $4.1 billion, so there are major profits to be lost in the face of the virus, which many researchers think has been aggravated by warming water temperatures caused by climate change. Oyster herpes really kicks into high gear when the water temperature rises above 60 degrees Fahrenheit—which is becoming more and more common in oceans globally.

Scientists at the University of Tasmania are racing against and studying the destructive path of the virus by monitoring oysters with heart rate monitors affixed to them with dental gum. Researchers are hoping that the oysters will provide some sort of indication or physiological change if they are exposed to or contract the virus, which could help farmers develop a system for removing afflicted oysters from their populations. The team of scientists is also observing another set of oysters’ reaction to fluctuations in light and temperature in hopes of finding ways to temper—and better protect them—from the herpes crisis.

Oyster to oyster, the virus doesn’t travel through sexual contact; unsurprisingly, oysters don’t exactly get down and dirty the way that vertebrates tend to. It’s believed that the virus is spread by attaching itself to plankton particles, which then make their way into oysters’ shells and food supply.

Os-HV1 is also known as Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome, and is not a new problem—just one that has seen major increases in the past few years. In 2008, the virus apparently mutated and “[turned] it from being an occasional nuisance to a killer,” University of Sydney professor Richard Whittington tells Bloomberg. Since then, its path of doom has spiraled out of control, particularly in Europe and Australia. In the past six years, prices for French oysters have soared by more than 36 percent as harvest sizes have dropped. In New Zealand, oyster production has fallen by a panic-inducing 60 percent.

Global warming’s new victims now include your favorite edible aphrodisiac. It’s too bad that oysters are best served ocean-fresh; otherwise, we’d suggest you stock up now.

Chopped Challenge: smoked almonds; chicken breasts; cous cous (any kind); green onions; peppadew peppers

From -

I hope every one had a good holiday and lets keep going with all of our new dishes- either your own, from around the world or what have you!!

...As for any New Year's resolutions, you can forget it, because I still loves me that good ol' smoky, crispy, salty, and fattening high-cholesterolic heart-attack inducing product lovingly referred to as BACON :P

*hugs*

Chopped challenge: stuffing; leftover turkey; gravy; cranberry sauce

From

I'd like to say - and wish - a Happy Thanksgiving to all of you folks that watch us and to those that showcase their dishes here, and I hope you enjoy all of it!

And gave me this idea - If there is something that you have cooked for Thanksgiving, please feel free to share it with our group (preferably with a recipe of course!)

What's more you can be as traditional - or as UN traditional - as you'd like to be!

Call it a "Thanksgiving meme" if you will!

Update: Feel free to include in your recipe as to how your Thanksgiving went, with the dish, with family, etc - as a funny story, something you'd rather avoid, or so forth!

Chopped challenge: Red peppers; rotisserie chicken; radishes; relish; reblochon cheese

This is a journal that posted, and I'd love to know what you folks think :3

From: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6217385/


Dragonwuff Musings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Vargr has been lucky enough to encounter journals and other entries of artists asking for a friendly fur to buy them a pizza or other yummies, in exchange for an art piece. Well, anyone who has spent more than a couple minutes in this wuff's presence knows that Varg is, shall we say, "food obsessed". *grins* Seeing a fur going hungry really gets wuffy's attention, and being able to help them out gives wuff all sorts of warm feels.

And by "lucky", wuff means that he was able to come across those requests in his browsing while they were still pertinent (sometimes wuff doesn't get on FA for a few days or more). Also "lucky" that Vrghr had the means to satisfy those requests when he came across them.

So, wuff has been the recipient of quite a few "pizza commissions" over the years. And has been thrilled that technology has allowed a wuffy in CO Springs to feed in "real time" hungry artists in NY, TN, CA, OH, and other places. Placing orders, scheduling deliveries, and making payments all in a matter of minutes. And Vargr has received some delightful art as a result, and helped out a few hungry furs at the same time. Win win!

But wuff noticed as he was paging around on the Amazon site the other day, that they have added yet another new feature to their "Prime" list of services: Prime Pantry! And a little light went on in this wuff's often dimly lit attic. Perhaps here was another way to put arts and foods together!

The new "prime pantry" stuff works like this: Amazon offers a "Pantry box" that holds 45lbs/4 CuFt of stuff. You fill it with various pantry goodies, and they ship it anywhere continental US for $6. The neat part - you needn't buy bulk cases of stuff! Want a few cans of soup, some cereal, juice, pasta, etc.? Just put them in the box. The website tells you how full the box is, and how much room each item takes up. Pay for the items when you're done, specify the shipping location, and off it goes for $6.

AND, they also offer "subscription service" on lots of those things. You set how often and how much, and they auto-ship things in the time and amount you want. And the more items you subscribe to, the bigger the discount you get on the subscriptions.

So, wuff was thinking. What if some of the "Starving artists" out there might enjoy a "pantry box" or other goodies, delivered to their front door? Perhaps on a reoccurring basis for stuff they use frequently or want to keep in stock. And in exchange, they offer a "foods commission" picture every so often in return?

Also, the prices are VERY good - on par with those in the big discount or warehouse clubs. So wuffy could put together a very reasonably-priced "care package for starving artists", with lots of goodies. And those contents could be adjusted so the deliveries would be what the artist wanted/needed, as times change.

And wuffy gets some nice arts in return, plus a warm feeling for helping others enjoy something tasty and filling. If wuff can't be there to help cook for his fur friends, this seems like a nice alternative.

So, Vargr thought he'd put this idea out there, and see if others might be interested.

Thoughts?

Vargr Dragonwuff

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chopped Challenge: Ruby Red Grapefruit; Vidalia Onions; Flank Steak; Spinach (Raw or Cooked); Honey

An interesting story I spotted a little while ago, lets see what you folks think!

How School Lunch Became the Latest Political Battleground
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE OCT. 7, 2014

The lunch ladies loved Marshall Matz. For more than 30 years, he worked the halls and back rooms of Washington for the 55,000 dues-paying members of the School Nutrition Association, the men and still mostly women who run America’s school-lunch programs. They weren’t his firm’s biggest clients — that would have been companies like General Mills or Kraft — but Matz, wry and impish even in his late 60s, lavished the lunch ladies with the kind of respect they didn’t always get in school cafeterias.

Many of the association’s members considered him a dear colleague. “He would tell everybody: ‘You are a much better lobbyist than I am. You are how we get things done,’ ” said Dorothy Caldwell, who served a term as the association’s president in the early 1990s. “And people liked that.”

Matz often told the lunch ladies they were front-line warriors in the battle for better eating, and they liked that too.

Every school day, they dished out more than 30 million lunches, all of which were subsidized by taxpayers. They also served about 13 million subsidized breakfasts. Many students got more than half their daily calories at school. Few workers, inside the government or out, did more to shape the health of children.

So when Michelle Obama started Let’s Move!, her campaign against child obesity, in 2010, the members of the School Nutrition Association were her natural allies. The average weight of the American child had been climbing at an alarming rate since the 1980s, and now one in three American kids was obese or overweight. One recent study found that by 2030 more than half the adult population would be dangerously overweight, leading to millions of cases of diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Researchers at the Institute of Medicine, meanwhile, were finishing new recommendations to bring school meals into compliance with national dietary guidelines, and Congress was about to reauthorize the school-lunch program. This gave the White House an opening. If there was a war to fight against childhood obesity, then school cafeterias would be a perfect place to wage it.

That year, the Obama administration got behind the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, an ambitious bill that would impose strict new nutrition standards on all food sold in public schools. A generation raised on Lunchables and Pizza Hut, the bill’s authors believed, could learn to love whole-wheat pasta and roasted cauliflower. Kids would be more energetic, better able to focus in class and above all less likely to be obese. But to pass the bill, the White House needed to enlist not only Democrats and Republicans in Congress but also a host of overlapping and competing interest groups: the manufacturers who supplied food to schools, the nutrition experts who wanted it to be more healthful and the lunch ladies who would have to get children to eat it.

Few people understood how to accomplish those trade-offs better than Marshall Matz, in part because he embodied them. He spent his early career advising Senator George McGovern, a Democrat who led efforts in the 1970s and 1980s to defend and expand federal nutrition programs. Matz worked for major food interests, but he still considered himself a nutrition advocate. He advised the Obama campaign on agricultural issues and even helped one of the School Nutrition Association’s former presidents get a post in the new administration. He prized his access to the White House but believed deeply, his friends in Washington told me, that bipartisanship in Congress was what allowed the school-lunch program to endure.

To Matz, it seemed clear that a bargain could be struck. He advised the lunch ladies — a term that almost nobody in Washington uses in public and almost everyone uses in private — to support the legislation, even though it did not provide as much money as they wanted. Under pressure to show concern about child obesity, food companies backed it, too: With $4.5 billion in new funding over the next 10 years, the bill did provide plenty of new business, and their lobbyists could always massage the details later. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act became law in 2010, with overwhelming support in Congress.

But as the government began turning the broad guidelines into specific rules — specific rules with specific consequences for specific players — life became more difficult. What began as a war on obesity turned into war among onetime allies. Republicans now attack the new rules as a nanny-state intrusion by the finger-wagging first lady. Food companies, arguing that the new standards are too severe, have spent millions of dollars lobbying to slow or change them. Some students have voted with their forks, refusing to eat meals they say taste terrible.

Last summer, the School Nutrition Association dumped Matz. In the small world of Washington food lobbyists, the decision provoked unending gossip and speculation. Matz said little about the sudden turn, even to friends. “I was not happy,” Dorothy Caldwell recalled. Several longtime members pressed the association’s professional staff for more information with little luck, and the answer soon became clear to them: The lunch ladies were taking sides, too.

Today the School Nutrition Association is Washington’s loudest and most public critic of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Even as they claim to support the act, the lunch ladies have become the shock troops in a sometimes absurdly complex battle to roll back the Obama’s administration’s anti-obesity agenda. Some Democrats in Congress fear that if Republicans win control of the Senate this fall, Obama’s reform will be gutted within a year — and with it, the government’s single-best weapon against childhood obesity. “It’s a war of attrition at this point,” one congressional aide told me. “Right now we’re in that phase where you’re fighting a rear-guard action to hold on to as much territory as you can.”

The federal school-lunch program has always invited martial metaphors, and not without reason: It was the U.S. military that first advanced the national-security implications of a healthful lunch. In the spring of 1945, at the dawn of the Cold War, Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, a former school principal who joined the armed forces before World War I, went in front of the House Agriculture Committee to deliver a stern warning. Hershey headed the Selective Service System — the draft — and he told the lawmakers that as many as 40 percent of rejected draftees had been turned away owing to poor diets. “Whether we are going to have war or not, I do think that we have got to have health if we are going to survive,” he testified.

Within a year, a majority of lawmakers from both parties had voted for the National School Lunch Act. The act declared it “the policy of Congress, as a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the nation’s children.” In the way of many programs inspired by the Department of Defense, the School Lunch Program grew in large part because it offered something to everyone. Over the coming decades, the Department of Agriculture would send billions of dollars to states and school districts to help cover the costs of school meals and spend billions more to purchase surplus farm products for the schools. The program was expanded significantly under Richard Nixon, who sought to ensure that poor children got their school lunches free, and by the mid-1970s it fed 25 million kids.

Jimmy Carter made minor cuts to school-lunch subsidies in his last year in office, and Ronald Reagan, arguing that government shouldn’t subsidize meals for children who could afford to pay, made even deeper cuts. His administration also modified the dietary requirements: Among other changes, some condiments could be credited as vegetables. Opponents of the cuts quickly pointed out that, under the regulations, even ketchup could qualify — an observation that led to considerable derision in the press.

Read the rest here:

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/m.....azine&_r=0

Hey all,

So Chris sent me a note asking for some advice about why a recipe is required. My job has had me pretty busy so I hadn't really gotten the chance to really look things over and see what's going on.

The reason we require a recipe is because as a community we should help each other learn and grow. This club was made when an old friend and I began swapping recipes for fun. Some of the things we made were just taught to us by family (you know the old granny 'use a pinch of ____') and that meant we had to figure out exactly how much of what was good for what we were trying to make. So even though we didn't have a recipe written down- we went through the effort of writing it for each other.

I ask you guys treat each other with the same consideration. This is meant to be a collection of shared knowledge, talent, and joy. If you make something that you don't have a recipe for, then take the time to write things down. I know 'professional cooks' don't do this, but not everyone is a professional and you're not really helping others to learn and grow by saying, "LOOK WHAT I CAN DO! No. I will not help you learn to do it."

That's all I have to say on the matter. :)

Chopped challenge: spiced apple cider; pork butt; fingerling potatoes; chickpeas; jasmine rice

After a lot of thought...I will only say this:

I, , your friendly neighborhood pangolin, have been called upon to help this group the best way I know how...and, I also have a very old rule that I've lived by for many, many years, which is this:

I do the best I can, with what I have.

And what I have is what I was given, when asked to mod this said group, these said rules:

"1. Cook it!

2. Take a picture of YOUR dish. Not a photo from a cook book, we want to see how it REALLY looks when it's put together!

3. Submit the photo and recipe to YOUR gallery. (Please submit the photo and put the recipe in the submission comment section.) Feel free to put it in your scraps if you don't want to clutter your art work up with food stuff!

4. NOTE US WITH A LINK TO YOUR RECIPE! Please do not put recipe links in shouts they get lost that way. And please put the recipe title in the subject line. We will re-submit the photo, and the recipe to our site with a link to YOUR submission included. Comments on the club submissions will be encouraged to be left on YOUR page."

The caps there, by the way, are a part of what was and what have always been on our front page. You can't really miss it, unless you were somehow ignoring it.

But I'll come to that particular point in a moment.

Please note I will not change those said rules "for your convenience".

Nor, again, am I asking you or whoever wants to try the recipe, to follow the recipe to the letter either! I know, full well, that since cooking is an art - art is open to interpretation, and also, improvisation! So if there is one recipe that calls for sugar, for example, and you happen to be diabetic (and there are plenty of diabetic furs in this group, I might add) - Im not going to ask you to put in sugar as is!

...That would be a bit irresponsible of me to say the least, but I digress :3

As for the "ignorant" part...and I do so loathe to use that word, but its really the only thing that I think fits...

Yes, there are those out there that would rather look at the picture of the dish and learn by doing.

While that is all well and good as a -way- to learn, with all due respect: that really isnt learning anything, at least to me. Nor are you sharing what you have learned by -not- putting it into what's called a "recipe", that delightful incantation of steps and ingredients that makes your food so magically delicious :P

You learn by what is put down for the ingredients, of how it is cooked, and how it came out. If not, well, maybe you might have skipped a step like I did and you live and learn from those mistakes and not do them (hopefully :P) if you can possibly help it !

...And now for those outrageously horrific, wholly unforgivable, mortifingly less than mature and quite possibly uncalled for 'caps':

********************************

YOU ARE MORE THAN FREE TO CHANGE THAT RECIPE, ON YOUR OWN TERMS, ON YOUR OWN TIME AND/OR ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN TASTES. -> BUT !!! <-

My point to this rant: If I get a food picture, from you, without a recipe - I will be more than happy to fave it - but, I can not and will not post it on our groups page.

I will also -not- give, nor make, any exceptions to this rule to anyone posting to our group unless you, the poster, have at least put in a link to the recipe you used, with your food submission.

********************************

I apologize if my stance in that regard upsets you, but as the mod for this group, I -have- to stand by what the original mods put forth in their original rules. And quite frankly, I agree with them, because having a list of what you put into the recipe...how you made it...what its like...etc. is:

Essentially, you are being the 'teacher' to those who want to learn about the dish itself, and more importantly, from you.

Otherwise, leaving those furs in the dark about that sort of thing is promoting ignorance - no matter which way you might want to describe it.

I don't want to leave that kind of 'legacy' behind me...

Do you?

Something to think about Im sure :3

---

And speaking of recipes:

put out a journal featuring recipes given to him by his mom here - http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6103629/

Which is another way of learning: by passing your recipes down to the next generation :)

...But, I'd like to do one better...if you folks have the time...

Would all of you out there, reading this rant/journal, be willing to put out a journal of your own - featuring your own favorite family recipes?

Call it another challenge if you will !

From Chris - who now helps mod this cooking group...

First, I'd like to apologize ahead of time if this journal is going to cause any of the usual drama that us furries are known to do at any given time....and, I'd like to point out this journal isnt meant to point fingers at anyone in particular either!

I also want to say this: I will fully admit that -I- am not one to do cooking by the book entirely either. More often than not, as I have mentioned, I have skipped steps (to my chagrin) or maybe I've added other things that the recipe itself did not call for.

But I would ALSO like to point out - this is FACCC, and right at the front of our page it says:

"We're here to encourage people to share their favorite recipes and try new ones. There are lots of fantastic cooks out there, and many of us are tired of cooking the same things over and over- always our own recipes. The hope is that we can form a sort of exchange here, and help bring the furry community closer through the art of cooking."

This is not JUST about taking a shot of your dish and just posting it, as is.

Whats more, there IS a reason why you see those dishes that we post/get from you, our chefs, marked as 'tutorials'.

YOUR cooking IS NOT JUST an idea...a whim...something that says "hey Im bored, I'll just post this pic of scrambled eggs that looks like the silhouette of Abe Lincoln and maybe I'll get a fave or two..."... :P

YOUR COOKING IS, HOWEVER, an inspiration! (Even if you might not think it is, I might add!)

This is why we post it here WITH that recipe that belongs with it, so that way folks will TRY it !!!

And yeah, ok. maybe there ARE folks out there who might NOT like the food pictured (heck, we've just did a "Food Critic" journal on that, so enough said there)....

Maybe they might NOT try the dish...

But MAYBE...

JUST MAYBE, MIND YOU...

Maybe they WILL - and if that IS the case...

Well then, it isnt all that much to ask for the effort on YOUR part, to include the recipe, now is it?


Thats all I ask, is just, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR RECIPE, WITH YOUR DISH!

*hugs*

Chopped Challenge: chicken breasts; taco shells (soft or hard); mustard greens; green tomatoes; eel sauce / plum sauce

Idea taken shamelessly from journal here- http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6076036/

...Which was just too good not to share :B

So with that said - what is the ONE meal you cant live without?

Chopped Challenge: Create a two course meal using a minimum of four of the following ingredients: Goat or Lamb, capsicum/pepper, parsley, basil, kale, Aubergine (Egg Plant), Cream, squid ink or edible flowers.

Thanks to for the challenge idea!

From

I think it needs to be mentioned that while we do our best to show our foods...and how to cook it...

Its important to consider those that may not be able TO enjoy it, because they may not be able to afford that luxury.

With that I will give this out:

http://www.nokidhungry.org
http://www.unicef.org
http://www.feedingamerica.org

Its shameful, to say the least, that with our 16 MILLION children (and growing, by the way)- and thats one out of five children...or, that nearly 22 percent of our children live in poverty...and nearly HALF of all the people who use the SNAP Program (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) are kids!

Think about that. Think very carefully. That might not be YOUR child, true - but, that is still someone who has their whole future ahead of them, and yet is denied that ONE basic necessity!

Something has to give, and I hope that we do more than just say "Thats just too damn bad, those *&^%$ moochers should get a job, etc etc etc"...

...Thats rather insulting TO say, by the way, but I had to put that out there as a small example, because that is just ONE of the stigmas that these children face every day.

Just think about it. And do MORE than just think.

Chopped challenge: Cream cheese: Puff Pastry: Canned Crab Meat: Hot Pepper Jelly: Scallions

An interesting article I spotted while browsing the food blogs!

From: http://firstwefeast.com/eat/kitchen.....ife-line-cook/

Copied and pasted from that same page, plus a few of the comments that had extra slang in them!

Anyone else hear any gems? Id love to hear from the pros as well!

ON THE LINE
The “line” is the kitchen space where the cooking is done, often set up in a horizontal line. Being “on the line” means you are a “line cook”—an essential foot soldier in any functioning restaurant.

RUNNING THE PASS
The “pass” is the long, flat surface where dishes are plated and picked up by wait staff. The chef or high-level cook who “runs the pass” each night is in charge of letting the cooks know what they will be cooking as orders come in. They are in control of the watching the order tickets, monitoring the speed and rhythm of the coursing, and making sure each dish looks good before it goes out to the customer.

5 OUT
Coordination is essential for any busy kitchen where there are multiple cooks in charge of different dishes, components, and garnishes for every plate. When a cook yells “5 out” or “3 out on sirloin,” it signals to the other cooks that they will be ready to plate in said amount of time.

SOIGNE
Mostly used by wannabe fine-dining douchebags, soigne (pronounced “SWAN-YAY”) means “elegant” in French. It’s used to describe an exceptionally sexy dish, or when you really nailed a plating presentation.

A LA MINUTE
A la minute is French for “in the minute,” and it refers to making a dish right then, from scratch. Instead of making a big batch of risotto during prep time and reheating portions of it hours later, a dish made “a la minute” is cooked from start to finish only when an order for it comes in.

MISE
Short for mise en place (French for “everything in its place”), this term refers to all of the prepped items and ingredients a cook will need for his specific station, for one night of service. E.g., Chef: “Did you get all of your mise done?” Cook: “I just need to slice shallots for the vin(aigrette), chef, then I’m ready.”

12-TOP/4-TOP/DEUCE
A “12 Top” refers to a table with 12 diners. A “4 top” has four diners. A “duece” just two.

NO SHOW
A “no-show” is a kitchen employee who doesn’t show up to work. No-shows are undeniable a**holes.

ON DECK/ON ORDER
As tickets shoot out from the kitchen printer, the cook running the pass will let the cooks know what they have “on deck”—for example, “4 steak, 2 quail, 1 blue, on order”—so the cooks can mentally prepare and start setting up what they will be cooking throughout a diner’s meal.

FIRE
When a chef calls out “fire” or “pick-up,” a cook will start cooking that particular dish (e.g., “FIRE! 6 broco, 3 polenta side, 1 lamb”) “Order fire” means to immediately start cooking a certain dish because there is only one course on the ticket, much to the annoyance of the kitchen (because it forces them to restructure the entire pick-up). “Pick-up” can also be used as a noun, as in “I had to re-do my entire pick-up because some jabroni order-fired a porterhouse.”

RUN THE DISH
When a dish of plated food that is ready to go out to the dining room, cooks will “run the dish.” Servers ask, “Can you run?”, when they are waiting to ferry the food out of the kitchen.

DYING ON THE PASS
Hot food that is ready to be run that has been sitting on the pass for an inordinate amount of time getting cold and losing its soigne character because waitstaff are either too slammed or too lazy to pick it up.

86’D
When the kitchen runs out of a dish, it’s “86’d.” Dishes can also be 86’d if the chef is unhappy with the preparation and temporarily wants it off the menu. Patrons can be 86’d, too. One of the earliest documented usages of this term was at the bar Chumley’s in downtown Manhattan during Prohibition. The bar had an entrance on Pamela Court and an exit at 86 Bedford Street. Police would call ahead to warn the bartenders of a possible raid, telling them to “86” their customers out of the 86 exit door.

WEEDED/IN THE SH*T/ IN THE WEEDS
Used when a cook is really fucking busy, overwhelmed by tickets, and frantically trying to cook and plate his dishes.

THE RAIL/THE BOARD
This refers to the metal contraption that holds all of the tickets the kitchen is working on. Once a ticket is printed, it’s stuck to “the rail” or “the board.” “Clearing the board” means the kitchen has just worked through a large set of tickets.

CHECK YOUR PLATES!
Every open kitchen where the cooks can actually see patrons will have a term that signals that an attractive man or woman is in the dining room. It might also be “Ace!” or “Yellowtail!” or whatever the kitchen comes up with.

THE SALAMANDER/ROBOCOP/SIZZLE/COMBI
Kitchen equipment names often get abbreviated or nick-named. A “salamander” is a high-temperature broiler; a “robocop” is a food processor; a “sizzle” is a flat, metal broiler plate; “combi” is an oven with a combination of heating functions; “fishspat” is a flat-angled metal spatula good for cooking fish; a “spider” is a wire skimmer; “chinacap” is a cone-shaped colander; “low-boy” is a waist-high refrigerator. There’s a million of them…

VIPS/PPX/NPR
“Very Important Person,” “Persone Txtrodinaire,” and “Nice People Get Rewarded” written on a ticket signals to all staff that their work should be top-notch for these diners. It can be industry, celebrities, friends, or family—they all get hooked up.

CUPCAKING
Mostly for bartenders, “cupcaking” is used when a barkeep is spending noticeably too much time and attention on an attractive patron sitting at the bar.

FLASH
If a piece of protein is slightly undercooked, a cook with “flash it” in the oven for a minute or two to raise the temperature.

SANCHO
When a cook sneezes, a co-worker will announce “SANCHO.” This is in the Mexican tradition of pointing out that someone named “SANCHO” or “SANCHA” is in your house banging your wife or boyfriend while you are at work. It’s a funny dig. The proper response is, “No mames guey! I’m not worried about Sancho.”

SHORT
To be missing a component of a dish or an ingredient, as in, “Dammit, I’m one meatball short!”, or, “Landcaster f***ing shorted us again on cream.”

DUPE
Short for “duplicate.” When tickets are printed in the kitchen, they are usually printed on two- or three-ply color-coded paper which signify courses. This allows the person running the pass to keep track of and discard layers as courses leave the kitchen, as in, “Gimme that dupe, I gotta cross off the apps.”

BUKKAKE
Does your dish have a swipe of yogurt, a squiggle of cream, or a splash of creme fraiche on it? That’s “bukkake.”

⅛ PAN, ⅙ PAN, ⅓ PAN, HOTEL
The standardized, stackable metal pans that cooks use to braise meat, carry vegetables, and roast things in are called “hotel pans,” which can be deep or shallow. There are many pans of different sizes and shapes that relate in volume to the hotel pan: three ⅓ pans can fit into a hotel, six ⅙ pans make up one hotel, eight ⅛ pans, etc.

BEHIND/ATRAS
In the fast-paced ballet of cramped kitchen spaces, cooks let their co-workers know they are moving behind them so there are no unnecessary collisions. When carrying knifes, heavy hotel pans, and pots of burning liquid, the usual call is, “HOT BEHIND!” Atrás is Spanish for “behind.”

CHARPY
A mispronunciation of Sharpie, the permanent markers cooks use to label containers of ingredients for their mise.

LEFT-HANDED SPATULA/BACON STRETCHER/LONG STAND/GRILL EXTENDER
These items do not exist. But tell a green cook to grab a “left-handed spatula” for you and watch the frantic search begin. Hilarious!

GETTING A PUSH
During service, work on the line usually comes in waves. When the tickets start printing faster and the restaurant is getting busier, the kitchen is “getting a push.”

TRAIL/STAGE
A “trail” is the kitchen equivalent to the second-interview. After interviewing with the chef, a cook will come in to “trail,’ to try out the kitchen, so the chef can see how the applicant works under fire. A “stage” is a longer-term trail for a designated period of time—a couple of weeks, or a month or two. It’s meant to be a learning experience for the cook, and free labor for the kitchen.

CROPDUSTING
Cropdusting is farting, intentionally or accidentally, while moving down the line. Also works for wait staff, as in, “Goddamn table 17 is the f***ing worst! When I drop their check I’m going to try and cropdust them.”

BURN THE ICE
Disposing of the ice in the ice machine, under your mise, or at the bar by pouring hot water over it.

SOS
Sauce on the side.

ALL DAY
This refers to the total amount of dishes a cook is cooking in one specific pick-up. It works as a clarification system between the chef and cook. The cook might say, “Chef, how many linguine am I working?!” or “Can you give me an all-day, Chef.” The chef would reply, “You’ve got 4 linguine, 3 spaghetti, 2 cappelletti, and 2 kids pastas, all day”

WAXING A TABLE
Giving a table VIP treatment.

ON THE FLY
When a dish was forgotten/dropped/miscooked/etc whereby the kitchen must get that dish out first / as quickly as possible.

SANDBAGGING
Pre-cooking heavy usage items during peak periods and/or refers to servers holding multiple checks and ringing them in all at once

Chopped challenge: Romaine lettuce; candied lemon peels; shrimp; blue cheese

From Chrismukkah T. Pangolin or , your friendly mod:

First, I would like to apologize in advance if this journal is going to cause any drama than what us furries are already capable of achieving at any given moment.

HOWEVER - It has recently come to my attention that certain, and certainly unneeded/rude comments were left on one of our submissions.

Not to mention that another comment was left, ALSO rude and uncalled for, to another fur's submission (on their page, not ours).

Yes, these comments can be (and have been) removed from the said submission(s).

I am honestly not sure what to think, except that - our group is only showcasing the dish, the skill, and THE COOKING that goes into every dish we showcase here on our page. What is more, we hope that you at least TRY the dish that we show here, thats why we do this!

But with all due respect - if it happens to be from an animal (or calls for ingredients from the animal) - we are NOT going to apologize about it. For the most part, we are carnivores...or at the very least, omnivorous.
We have always tried to please every palate, though we do realize that not EVERY dish is going to work out.

If you happen to be vegan or vegetarian, fine. I can only remind those of you who have chosen, or have, that lifestyle/diet: we HAVE posted those kinds of recipes. Moreover, we are NOT forcing you to try a dish that has meat, contains meat, or has anything meat-related in the dish itself.

We are not even forcing you to look at the dish...I mean, you must have better things to do, right?

Cooking is an art form.

Art, we realize, is subjective.

So are opinions, and while we know all about the old saying about opinions...

That DOESNT mean you have to act/be like that saying, now does it :3

I will NOT - and I repeat, NOT ban you outright (as it might hint at on the front of our page) as you do HAVE that right to express your opinion.

I also believe in free speech - as well as, MY freedom to remove your comment from the submission IF I believe you are coming off AS rude.

HOWEVER, IF THIS BECOMES OR GETS TO THAT POINT WHERE YOU -ARE- BEING AN OBVIOUS TROLL WITH MULTIPLE RUDE COMMENTS OR ETC., I WILL BLOCK YOU, NO EXCEPTIONS, END OF STORY, PERIOD.

The pangolin has spoken >_<

...Sheesh !

Chopped Challenge: Rice Krispies; Chicken Breasts; Nori Seaweed; Bell Peppers; Cashews

From

I think its time once again where I need to hear back from you as to what kind of cooking blogs you like, or, if there are any new ones you folks may have heard about!

So I'll start first:

www.smittenkitchen.com
www.projectfoodie.com
www.food52.com
www.phamfatale.com (seriously, this girl is brilliant)
www.food.com
www.allrecipes.com (an 'oldie but goodie')
www.foodandwine.com
www.epicurious.com
www.relish.com
www.sippitysup.com

---

And secondly...

*coughs* Im not sure how I should say this, so I'll just say it...

Yes: I am not, and I repeat, NOT, the worlds most greatest food photographer. Oh sure; I've had some great food shots from time to time, but all in all, yes, I know I can do better :3

That said, here are a few things that -I- have learned :B

If I've suggested this program a million times, I'll suggest it a million more - www.photoscape.org

This is a FREE program - virus free, spam free, and even FREE free application that does wonders in clearing up my photos. The ONLY THING it sucks at is enlarging photos...other than that, yeah :B

And here is what I recommend (and what Ive seen recommended on other blogs, I might add) when shooting your food:

1.) Please dont shoot it in the dark...I mean, if I can just about make out what your food is, do you think anyone else is going to?

2.) Use natural light. My main thing is, I usually end up shooting MY food under that yellow light bulb...and I think we all know how that goes *dies*

3.) At least TRY to make your food look interesting. Ive seen it suggested on other food blogs you should use a fork, for example, in a spaghetti dish...whats more, you shouldnt 'crowd' your dish with other stuff !

(I can say that I have done that "no-no", by putting my foods on the kitchen sink area...and the background is the detergents that I use...boy, that sure looks reeeeal appetizing...*DIES*)

4.) Use a shadowbox (?) - Now here - you notice that I put a question mark ... because there are some folks who swear by using them for a more professional look! Of course, there are those that dont bother, like yours truly :B

But I would hear your thoughts on this folks and YES, I do know you CAN make your own with some cheap white cardboard !

So how about it - anyone else have any tips...or new food blogs....or both please?

*This is from an article I still have from the Providence Journal by Mark Patinkin that struck a chord with me - and lets face it, I think we have all felt this at one time when we have done a dish that we sincerely regretted making...or, eaten something that still haunts us to this day!

"And then there was the infamous salmon loaf incident of 1967.

I am not sure why my mother did this to us. I guess she felt she should expand our horizons beyond things like chicken and pot roast.

So, she served salmon loaf. All five of us sons kind of stared.

'What's that?' one of us asked.

'Try it,' my mother said. 'You'll like it.'

That's a bad sign right there. She wasn't saying what it was.

On most nights, everyone pounced so you could have seconds before the other animals ripped you off.

No one pounced on the salmon meat loaf.

We were told we had to at least try it, so everyone put a bite on a fork, tasted it and began choking like we'd been poisoned. But we had to keep at it.

Decades later, I am still suffering from salmon-loaf PTSD.

I got to thinking about this because my newspaper ran a story last week that we'd first run 100 years ago. It was a feature asking Civil War veterans to share thoughts about the worst meals they recalled. Many mentioned "hardtack". I looked it up. It's a flat biscuit that looks like a wallboard.

At the same time, we also asked readers to recall their own worst meals. I can't compete with memories of service food, like MRE's - "meals ready to eat."

But, my mother also subjected us to two other items I'm still traumatized by. Liver and Tongue. I'm not over those, either.

I also survived eight years of school cafeterias. I hear college food is better today - perhaps that's where everyone's $ 50,000 is going. It was different when I was in school. I don't recall any salad bars or custom-order grills. You took what they had.

We were routinely served something aptly named "Mystery Meat", since no one knew what it was. We also had these round something-Parmigiana covered in red sauce. If, as you were leaving the cafeterias, someone asked you what was for dinner, you'd tell them, "Elephant scabs". They'd nod knowingly.

It's hard for me to eat any kind of salmon since it traumatized me one other time.

Around age 30, I was in Paris and stopped by a restaurant at 3 p.m. wanting just a Coke. Using my limited French, I told the waiter, "Coca-Cola...seulement." That means "only."I tried to show off by using a strong accent. I thought I nailed it.

Twenty minutes later, the waiter brought out a Coke and a dinner plate with a large half fish with the head still on it. I don't like food with the head still on it. I'm an American, so I asked what it was.

"Saumon", said the waiter. I guess my pronunciation of "seulement" wasn't so good after all.

I think my worst meals have been those I made myself. It's not pretty to watch a single male cook, at least those born without culinary genes.

One night, I committed to making stir-fried chicken in a wok. I added vegetables and to kick it up, I poured on random sauces. Then I grabbed a bottle of lemon juice and poured that on too.

It made something strange happen. The stir-fried chicken turned blue. I had never seen blue chicken before; I'm not sure anyone had. I tried it anyway. It was as bad as it looked. It's not easy to badly screw up chicken, but I did.

I also once badly overcooked meatloaf, but figured I'd soften it a bit overnight in the fridge. Not exactly. The next day, I had to stab it with a screwdriver to break it up. It tasted as bad as the chicken.

If you asked my children to recall the worst meals they've ever eaten, it would probably be my own signature dish. I'm proud of it, but they hate it. They probably hate it because I make it almost every night. It's chicken, rice and peas. They now refer to it with a I probably shouldn't print here, but it's the first letter of each word in the dish.

I still say it's not as bad as they claim. To prove it, perhaps soon I'll hit them with salmon loaf...and enough random sauces to turn it blue.

...Maybe they'll appreciate me then."

So with that - I know one of MINE was certainly the "drunken cinni-bunnies" as well as my fail strawberry cheesecake - does anyone have any 'fails' that still stick with them?

Chopped challenge: jicama: pork shoulder: cherry tomatoes: cous-cous: golden raisins

This group is now being modded / helped by the ever-lovin', paunchy, portly, pugnacious pontificating pangolin himself,  chrismukkah !

I do give my word that I will certainly keep this page more updated on a semi-regular basis, and (hopefully) not keep folks waiting for aeons to get their dishes posted here :P

...Also, Id like to thank for this idea - to start things off fresh, why not do a "Chopped" meme of sorts?

That is: just for fun mind you - our group picks out random ingredients...and then the dish gets made according to what you can DO with those said ingredients!

Important notes:

1.) You dont HAVE to do this, it is just for fun as mentioned previously :P

2.) There's no 'time limit' either, though if you want to put down how long it took you to make the said dish, WITH the said random ingredients, please feel free!

3.) You are ALSO free to use OTHER ingredients in your own kitchen (much like the 'Chopped' show) to help you with the dish involved!
(Please be sure to include what other ingredients you used, however :B)

SO: *opens basket to reveal the ingredients*

Salmon; Maple Syrup; Kale; Mandarin Orange Slices and Popped Kettle Corn!

TIME STARTS NOW :P