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Got any good recipes for bison? Specifically, a bison recipe using seasonal veggies? (bonus points for a crockpot recipe) There's a bison stand at the farmer's market and I really want to do something fun and interesting with it. So far we've only been subbing it in for ground beef in pasta and omelettes.

use a dehydrator to make delicious jerky! my mom did this recently with a simple marinade and it turned out great.

how about we stop with those damn refrigerator pop-over ads?? I know that's bringing in some money for you guys at AT, but they are so damn annoying!

Agreed about the pop-over ads. Sometimes they make it impossible to click on the first post...

As far as bison goes, I often use ground bison (or a mix of ground bison and turkey) in chili or spaghetti sauce. It's also great in meatballs!
Here's my favorite chili recipe: http://www.pithyandcleaver.com/?p=41 and

I've also used bison in these meatballs:
http://www.pithyandcleaver.com/?p=54
and these
http://www.pithyandcleaver.com/?p=138

I agree about those annoying pop-over ads, they also get in the way of the search box half the time.

Bison is great for burgers on the grill too.

Kitchen gadgets:
Would you recommend getting a knife block set (8-10 pc) or just have two or three good knives, such as a chef's knife & paring knives? Knife block set seems to come w useful knives such as a bread knife and different sized paring knives.

I'm a fan of the Presto Saladshooter: It makes shredding cheeses, carrots, radishes, potatoes etc. quick & easy.

Any suggestions on mincing garlic and not getting your hands to smell? I usually just mince w a chef's knife.
My boyfriend appreciates my food, but not the garlic hands. :)

would like to fourth or fifth the dislike of the amana ads. i find them very frustrating.

Just adding my voice to the hatred of those ads. It freezes my browser for a few seconds as the little refrigerators do whatever it is that they're doing. And I can't click on the first post at all. When I try doing it, it opens a new window linking me to Amana.

Do the ad people actually think that pissing off the people viewing the ads is an effective way to sell their product? And making the viewing experience on thekitchn this frustrating will turn off even the most regular of visitors. Please. Take the damned ad down.

The best way to get the garlic smell off your hands is to rub them on your stainless steel sink with a little soap and water. Something about the stainless steel works like magic. If you don't have a stainless steel sink, you can buy little bars of stainless steel that look like bars of soap, marketed for just this purpose.

@lilbee I have a knife block set but could easily just have gotten the knives separately. I don't actually use the 10" chef's knife all that often, I find the 8" more usable. The paring knife is good to have but I had to buy a bread knife separately. Mine were a gift and having the block has been handy but really think about what knives you use and if you want to store them out on the countertop or not.

This may sound slightly weird, but I think one of the points at which I realized I was really becoming serious about food and cooking was when I started enjoying having garlic-scented hands.

The first times I caught that scent lingering on my hands a while after chopping garlic, I was disgusted by it. Then I had some sort of breakthrough where smelling garlic on me was sort of like finding money in my pocket that I forgot I had put there.

i love the smell of garlic

Can someone help me out with fruit butters? I had this AMAZING and super smooth cinnamon blackberry butter once, and I can't find any recipes that look like they would even get me close to its awesomeness. (Most recipes don't call for seed extraction. Wouldn't the result be gritty?)

Does anyone have fruit butter secrets to pass on to me?

Just wanted to mention that there will be a Macaroon Madness class at the Viking Cooking School in Glenview, IL (about 30 minutes outside of Chicago) on June 14 from 11am - 2pm.

I'm trying to get the word out because I suggested this to the instructor during a pasta-making class I took a few weeks ago. So, this is a brand-new class but they may cancel it if not enough people sign up.

Here are the details: http://www.vikingcookingschool.com/hc-cgi-bin/hc?sku=63020&store=42&templ=new_vcs/view_class.html

Has anyone tried those Debby Meyer Green Bags for preserving fresh fruits and vegetables? Do they work?

I bought the Debby Meyer Green Bags at CVS a few weeks ago and they actually work pretty well. I think the trick is to have as little moisture in them at all times, so about 2 or 3 times a week I just wipe the insides of them with a paper towel. They kept a head of cabbage fresh for about 3 weeks and they definietly keep carrots and green peppers fresh much longer than just leaving them in the crisper. I don't think they work as well with fresh herbs, but that may because they typically have a lot of moisture.

OK - here's a great use for a potato masher. I am drooling over this recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

Oh - and if you're using Firefox, kiss advertising good-bye forever by downloading adblock plus. It gives me great joy to say that I have never seen the annoying amana refrigerator ad!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

^^^props^^^

leepert is correct. Quit whining about ads and take control of them. AT can use the income.

I was reading a recipe and it said "start bacon in a cold frying pan". I've never seen that before and was wondering the purpose of ensuring the frying pan is cold? Is this a common descriptive when discussing bacon-frying?

@ bkg0712--I think it's to reduce the splatter mess and potential burning (of the bacon) if you start bacon in a hot pan. I haven't thought about it too much though--that's how my mom and grandmother did it, so that's what I do! Watch this video and read the comments if you'd like more bacon-cooking info:
http://www.chow.com/stories/11089

@lilbee and fab - no need to buy a special bar, even if you don't have a stainless steel sink - surely you have something else steel, it doesn't matter what. I've found the edge of a spoon works well for getting under my fingernails.

Just a quick scrub under some running water works like a charm!

I am behind you.

Any recs for what to do with radish greens?

Gorgeous looking Radish Greens Pesto over at Chocolate and Zuccini, http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2009/05/radish_leaf_pesto.php

Otherwise, I have never made them but imagine they could be treated like any other green with a quick garliky braise and a squeeze of lemon.

I think AT makes great decisions in general and I love this amazing free service. And, agreed, Firefox is the best for blocking pop ups.

Here's a recipe for furikake with radish tops, bonito flakes and tiny dried shrimp:
http://justbento.com/handbook/johbisai/homemade-furikake-no-1-radish-leaves-bonito-flakes-shrimp