TheEditor

I am a fifty-ish male with a brand new kitchen. My daughter has been cobbling together Mediterranean dishes for herself and suggesting I try some as more healthy alternatives.

Can someone recommend a good cookbook, site or some recipes to get me started? I have a new kitchen, gas grill, crock-pot, sous-vide, etc. I live in LA so I need recipes that work for west-coast groceries. (I know - I am asking about regional dishes while I don't live in the region).

Corned beef is on sale and I have had good success rinsing and soaking the meat for a while to leach out some salt.

One recipe said to put the meat into a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Drain, then pat dry and into the oven/crock pot.

I assume the boiling is to remove the salt.

Does anyone do this?

Something is lacking in my breakfast.

I cook a pack of bacon and a half-pack of Tater Tots on the weekend because these take a long time to cook. I am also NOT using cheese for stomach/health reasons.

I basically:

* Scramble an egg

* Slice 1/4 avocado

* Nuke bacon and tater tots

* Roll everything into taco flour tortilla

* Pan toast the burrito on 4 sides

The avocado & eggs are seasoned with salt & pepper. Toasting the result adds a great flavor. The Taco sized tortilla is a bit small, but I feel better eating modest portions.

The result is a good, tasty breakfast, but feels like something is missing. It's a bit dry & heavy.

I tried adding salsa - but onions and garlic is too harsh for breakfast. I have done a swipe of sour cream which helps add moisture, but not enough.

Should I try to find a green salsa with less onions or add beans? My favorite restaurant breakfast burrito added rice. Perhaps some diced tomato's with the eggs? What do you recommend?

I like putting bacon in a cold oven, setting to 425 and waiting about 30 minutes. Done it for years and it works great.

(I like dry and crispy bacon)

But some people have suggested 2-4 hours at 300-200 degrees.

When I do this - the bacon stays flat, the fatty parts remain and have texture and the size of the rashers is much larger than you get with high heat.

The bad part - the meat becomes tough like Bacon Jerky. I prefer a crispy rather than tough.

Anyone have experience with this?

NOTE: This bacon is a whole pack cooked, drained and stored in zip top bag for including in breakfast burritos during the week. So it's not to serve right away with a meal.

I am getting a new Kitchen but I need to get out of my rut of 8-10 dishes. I want to do a "Julie & Julia" where I take a cookbook and try to make nearly every recipe.

Many cookbooks are like CD's: One or Two good items, the rest filler. Can anyone recommend a cookbook from Amazon or Kindle where all recipes are decent? I know Americas Test Kitchen books are better than most.

I live in California so books that use West coast meats & veggies would be best.

Family member is doing a film project for school and will be shooting at my house all day with about 8 crew and cast members. I would like to set out more than basic coffee, bagels and muffins.

But it is a large crowd with wandering times they can swing by for food so I need ideas that can sit out for 3+ hours, be microwaved, etc. but be safe. These are also young actors and students so while their metabolism could handle sweet and fat - they probably want healthy options.

What I have planned is:

* Coffee (starbucks travler), OJ, Lemonade

* Wheat english muffins, plain bagels, 1 low-fat Cream Cheese, 1 flavored Cream Cheese

* Low fat yogurt in a bowl with ice

Thats all I can come up with.

I could do a big bowl of scrabbled eggs, perhaps with pepperoni? Sausage or bacon seems wrong.

Any breakfast casserole dishes you could recommend? Not sure I could do Quiche but need something I can setup the night before and then cook in oven in the morning so it's ready when they show up.

Again - these are all students, young people who are helping with a university film project for a relative of mine. Seems like "thanking them with food" would be nice. But some of the nicer dishes tend to need to be eaten fairly quickly after being cooked, and this wont work for a "Craft Services" situation. Any suggestions?

I ordered a few cans of smoky paprika a few years ago from an amazon kitchen vendor and I am getting low. I might also want to buy some Vanilla bean and a few others that my MegaMart does not carry.

What are the good on-line sites for spices? My needs are not exotic, but I just want a site that has a good site, good selection, good prices, etc.

I have had bad luck with pot roasts. At the end the meat is submerged in the liquid and while cooked - the meat does not have flavor. It tastes like boiled meat.

I just did a successful pot roast -tender and tasty.

I put a upside-down vegetable steamer in the bottom of the crock-pot, then put in the liner. The onions and liquid went into the 'moat' and the meat was browned in a skillet, then placed on the platform. Went in at 11 am and we ate at 7 pm - so about 8 hours.

By the end the juices had come up about an inch but the meat did not taste boiled. The heavy coating of salt, pepper and garlic powder made a nice crust and made the meat tasty.

So how come people have made great pot-roasts without a platform to suspend the meat? I think the secret is they use a large baking dish so while the liquid comes out - it has a lot of space so the meat does not become submerged.

So what do you think? Are your successful pot-roasts kept out of the liquid or are they submerged?

What can I do to make a corned beef sandwich tasty?

After St Patty's day I got some sandwich rolls and toasted them, put on a slice of swiss cheese and back in the toster oven to melt. I put on some low-fat Thousand Island dressing and thin-sliced corned beef. (I was trying to mimic a Hot Pastrami but with Corned beef.)

It was .. tasteless.

So I added some Saracha pepper sauce and while it was now spicy - it tasted like Saracha.

I went for some mustard and found some Frenches and this helped, but it was not great.

I wanted a sweet taste like Hot Pastrami from Togos, richness from the cheese and some heat or flavor. I got none of that.

What could I have done to pump-up the flavor? Sweet and hot pickles? Roasted Red Peppers?

Is there a favorite sauce I should mix up and squirt onto a sandwich? What should I do to add flavor?

I had a great experience with a pork shoulder using an Americas Test Kitchen recipe. I tried a variation with a Beef Brisket and it did not come out so well. Can someone tell me what I did wrong?

BRISKET:

Large flat-cut brisket.

Made a brine with 1C salt, 1/2C sugar, 3 Tbls Liquid Smoke (don't judge me). Soak meat for 2 hrs.

Dry meat. Mix 3 tsp Liquid Smoke and 1/2 C yellow mustard. Coat meat with Mustard mix, then coat with spice rub.

I wrapped the meat in foil. Put in 220 degree oven for 4 hours.

The foil packet leaked but I thought that would be fine so it did not pot-roast the meat.

Meat was then put into fridge until the next day. (Plans changed) The next day I un-wrapped meat and put in 325 degree oven for 30 minutes to heat it up.

I Wanted tender, falling apart meat fibers to mix with BBQ sauce for BBQ beef sandwiches.

The meat was tasty but firm. I had to slice it against the grain, then cut into cubes to mix with sauce. It worked - but not what I wanted.

PORK SHOULDER:

This was treated the same way but put into a Dutch Oven with a bowl at the bottom to keep it from sitting in it's own juices. Then cooked at 325 for 3 hours. It came out falling apart, the fat had all disolved leaving tender, juicy hunks of meat. (The dog, not normally a chow hound, is right by my side when I go near the Fridge hoping for a chunk.)

I thought the lower temp and longer time for the beef would work better - but it did not.

What did I do wrong? The time and temp? The foil packet leaking instead of sealed in a Dutch oven?

My daughter tells me there is a little sandwich shop in San Francisco that basically makes 1 thing.

It is boneless chicken strips that are basically fried (buttermilk soaked, dredged in seasoned flour, fried), some sort of spicy slaw on a roll with either a ranch or blue-cheese dressing.

She wants me to try and re-create this.

Does anybody have a recipe like this?

Tonight: I have taken the bulk pack of chicken breasts cut into strips. I made a buttermilk, salt, paprika, garlic, pepper, dash of hot-sauce marinade.

I plan to make seasoned flour mix, dredge, sit for 4 minutes, shallow fry to brown, then onto a rack and into the oven to drip & finish cooking. This is my 'practice' for the chicken sandwiches.

What else can I do?

I have had Kaiser for many years so I have gotten used to working with the HMO system. But new jobs gave me BlueCross so I now need to pick a local doctor to see.

My Mother (retired RN) suggested I look for one with "Internal Medicine" specialty as I may need this in the coming years.

One doctor in the BlueCross plan wont take me as a general patient because I dont have problems in his specialty.

Another doctor is accepting new patients but it will take 2 months before I can see her just for a checkup.

I stopped by a third doctors office and found one of the doctors is accepting patients but wont submit to a interview because "we are too busy for that kind of stuff" according to the sour-faced nurse.

They seem to want me to sign up - but only show up when I have issues.

So how am I supposed to pick a doctor when they wont come off their high-horse for a 30 minute chat or interview? Did I do wrong by picking a specialty and I should go for a General Practitioner? How do I judge if a doctor will treat me the way I expect? Example: If I come in with knee pain, one doctor would give pain pills, another would recommend massage, another would tell me "You are 80 lbs over-weight. Diet and exercise is what you need!" (I want the doctor who will give me the third answer.)

But I recently had my first case of food-poisoning. I want a doctor that would call in a script for Composine on the weekend or some such (because I wanted to die).

How do I find a doctor, and determine how they will respond to various health issues? I'm pretty healthy but I'm getting up there in age so my needs may increase.

Nobody from work lives out where I do so I cannot get recommendations.

Any advice would be welcome.

My Mom and others have helped me come up with some basic questions:

Are you accepting new patients? (This can end the conversation)

Do you have a specialty?

Are there any board certifications? (Certifications are good, but not required)

What nearby hospitals do you have privileges at? (Important for emergencies)

How many Dr's do you have in your practice to handle evening or weekend emergencies?

Any others?

I have cooked smaller roasts using Alton Brown's technique of low-and-slow for several hours, then remove, rest then back in for 20 minutes to create a crust.

We found a 9 lib Roast (with bones) that I put in a 220 degree oven at 11. I want to pull it at about 130 degrees to let it rest while oven heats on high.

Any idea on how long it will be? I have a chicken and corn to have ready about the same time.

My wife is running a relay marathon with 8 women doing 200 miles this weekend in relay stages. They have a four hour window (8 to midnight) where they will show up to our house for showers, food, aspirin and naps.

What fast food should I serve them?

It needs to be take-away as I probably wont get home until 6 pm myself.

I was thinking of El Polio Loco with roast chicken, rice, beans and a Veggie Lasagna. Basic protein, carbs, etc. and one of the women is vegetarian.

Then I plan to make several pots of hot coffee to send them off at Midnight for their next leg.

Any other suggestions?

I commute with a 20-something Asian woman and strong-armed her into getting a DVR which she loves. But when we talk about favorite shows - her list is very different from mine.

She watches "Real Housewives" and "Millionaire Matchmaker" and "Say Yes to the Dress". She cannot explain WHY these shows attract her, but they do.

What is the 'hook' some of these shows have to target her age and gender?

I know advertising (which pays for all of television) has to show businesses the age, gender, income, ethnic makeup, etc of each show so they can sell commercial time to their target audience. (Tampon commercials during football - bad idea. During Desperate Housewives - good idea)

Are there any websites you can go to, type in a show and see who the target audience for the show is?

Before I select a ebook appliance, I would like to know what PC software you guys use to read/manage your libraries. If I can find good software that I love, I will use this to select a appliance that is compatible.

What PC software do you guys love (PC or Mac)? I am struggling with "Calibre" and it is giving me some grief, but it's strength is to manage your library rather than reading.

What non-proprietary sites do you use for eBooks? (I am afraid of tying myself to Kindle/Amazon or Nook/Barns&Noble). I know about Project Gutenberg and I am using a .txt file and .html file from them for testing.

What other advice, links can you give me before I put some eBook reader on my wish list?

I used to enjoy the early Patricia Cornwell novels. But I picked up a recent novel and I almost could not finish it. The former Detective/love interest is now a belligerent Biker with the intellect of a high-school drop-out?

And the niece? Expert computer hacker, martial artist, motorcycle rider, millionaire, lesbian with a brain tumor? Good grief. Ok - I have some friends who might have 2 of those, but that set?

I no longer care what happens to these characters. Does Cornwell not have an editor who gives her feedback? Or am I just un-happy with the way the series has gone?

Does anybody still like these books? Let me know why as I used to like them.

The weather turned cool and I decided Chicken and Rice would make a nice comfort-food dinner. My wife came in and smirked "You've been watching Alton Brown again haven't you?".

The dinner... was a disaster. Cup of rice, 2 cans of Campbells Golden soup, water and onions, cooked at 350 for an hour. The rice was hard and un-cooked. We had to do 3 separate stir and microwave sessions to make it edible. And the taste ... was like canned soup poured over rice.

So I need to do it right. Give me your Mom's, your Grandmoms award winning recipe. I'm not afraid to cook, saute, chop, etc. Should I have used Cream of Mushroom soup? Should I saute fresh mushrooms, add nuts, cheese, etc.

I've searched RecipeZar and a few other sites and they all repeat the canned soup trick. I dont want the cheap and easy way - I want the high quality way.

I'm facing a week of vacation and need a stack of books to relax with. I love SciFi, adventure, thrillers, but I listen to lots of audio-books during my commute so I'm out of favorites.

Below are my favorites I have already exhausted. Please suggest others/similar:

COMEDY:

Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum)

Jasper Fford

Terry Pratchett

Michael Moore

Carl Hiaasen (Some here I have missed)

JK Rowling (of course)

THRILLERS:

Doug Preston / Lincoln Child (Agent Pendergast/Alex Cross/et.al)

Dan Brown

Daniel Silva (But I just saw "The Defector" is out...)

Kathy Reichs

Iris Johanson

Jeffery Deaver

SCI FI / Fant

Jim Butcher (Dresden Files)

Louis McMaster Bujold (Miles Vorgosan)

Michael Crichton (you will be missed)

Greg Isles

AUTHORS & THINGS I AVOID

Koontz, King, Meyer (sorry, I'm not a teen girl), Any book with vampire hunter/demon hunter/Magic hunter/girl with a sword on the cover or in the title.

Short of that - I am open to clever, witty or sarcastic books or series of books including guilty pleasures.

Gimme your favorites please.