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For me, it is a matter of using it when you have a pan that is not easy to grip. If something doesn't have handles or you have a pan with no lip on it, it isn't easy to pull it forward and grab hold of it. At least not with arthritic hands.

My mother raised me that it’s rude to answer a question with another question. So please forgive me. But in the absence of a wet environment, like steaming, why would this be better than towels or a hot mitt? I have a few pairs or glassblowing gloves and chemical clean up gloves I bought for such things. Work better than stuff marketed to home cooks and cheaper too

Thanks for the reply. If I melt, temper and let it harden, can I then use it as "seed" when tempering a new batch?

Found on FB by my daughter, who definitely does this.

What, you don't like their geezer stockings?

I'll take one of those sandwiches. Just hold the broccoli, and anything fetal. And maybe the lychees, although I might trust your zeal on that one. Most all your breakfasts seem fascinating and appealing, or things I might make at a decent hour, like for dinner. As I'm sure I've repeated (geezer time!) I can barely push down the lever on the toaster anymore in the morning, so my husband makes my toast for me. It may be under or over toasted, but I'm learning to shut my mouth.

idk about @liamsaunt but I cannot stand steamers with big siphons. Give me little necks any day of the week.

Since last posting I've received the long delayed Chris Young predictive thermometer. I've had much success smoking a few hotdogs. The predictions were right on. It's interesting to compare set temperatures on the GE Profile to the ambient temperatures measured with the Combustion: Set / measured 107C 119C 96C 101C 118C 108C After smoking a few hotdogs to 62C, tonight I am smoking another pork shoulder. One minute still left to go. My target is 92C. Finally after six hours my meat is resting. I can report that after the six hour cook, this pork shoulder was better than the last. I could chew it but not easily.

No. It means French Chicken, but the dish was invented in New York. It is Italian-American.

Chicken Francese for supper. It's an Italian dish. Wondering about the name Francese...named for a lady chef? It was quite nice, with just a hint of lemon in the sauce. A friend introduced us to Mustard Pickles. She had given us a couple of jars and we really like them. So I made my own batch last week. The pickle goes well with chicken pork, hot dogs. That's the yellow stuff on the lower left.

I broke into another of the packages I bought back here: this time, the Papas Rellenas: mashed potatoes around a beef filling, with a crispy outer coating. I hadn't planned far enough in advance to thaw one of the other treasures i'd purchased. These are to be cooked from frozen. The cookery is easy enough, as you see from the package instructions. I fired up my Cuisinart Steam Oven (which still needs to be cleaned so it actually produces steam) and preheated it, on convection bake mode, to 350F. Then I put in half the box's worth, i.e. two spuddy thingies. I wondered whether it would be enough, but I had already been pecking away at snacks and sandwiches earlier. Besides, I wanted the other half of the package to sit in reserve in case I could think of refinements. Not bad. The coating was indeed crisp, and the mashed potatoes inside the coating tasted good. I think I'd prefer a higher ratio of crisp coating to soft interior, as in mashing them to get a flatter surface. That might not be practical for this packaged food, but gives me ideas about how I might could do it better at home. I found the filling itself rather disappointing. Sure it was ground beef with seasonings, but I thought the onion was overpowering; also, some spice (they don't list cloves or allspice, but it's along those lines) wasn't to my taste. If I'd especially liked the beef filling I might have been disappointed in the ratio of beef filling to potato coating, but as it was I didn't mind. For my tastes, a dab of salsa improved the flavors. Here are some attempts at cutaway photos, to show the interior as well as the exterior. I still have half the box's worth: that is, another package of two. I'll have no trouble eating them later, but I wouldn't bother getting these again. On the other hand, they make a fine template for something to try making from scratch!

@ElsieD - what an absolute delight! I could wish we had something like that nearby, but I'm pleased to read about your pleasures. I never knew John had culinary training.

Le Cordon Bleu here has special menu events from time to time which they hold in their Signatures Restaurant. Tickets are pre-sold for these events; today's was sold out, the capacity seemed to be about 40. This event was called Boulangerie Delight and so it was. Below is the menu and pictures of the courses. The servers, cooks etc. were students in their final year with the head chef supervising. There must have been 14 of them roaming the tables, but they were never obtrusive. The food was mostly good, though the carb cakes could have been hotter. The coffee was cold, but cheerfully replaced. As you can see, the last picture is of the desserts, 5 each. As we were leaving, take-away boxes in hand, one of the students came over to tell us that there was an extra box waiting for us. That turned out to be a duplicate times two of the third course, so we came home with 18 assorted pastries! John shared a brief memory with the head chef about his time at Cordon Bleu when he took Cuisine Basics. They both lamented about banging their heads against the overheads above the work stations. Not meant for tall people. John is just over 6'3" and I'm guessing the head chef is the same. A nice change of pace for us.

You had me at steamers sticking their necks out of the sand. Your crowd never seems to order them, Doesn't anyone like them? Of all the things I miss from the east coast that's almost at the top of my list. I just love them. And of course there are none here on the west coast. It's mostly a clam desert except for manilla clams, which are okay but tiny and can't match the little quahogs.

Carpano Antica is a favorite. I love it in summer just over ice. I also like the Cocchi di Torino but can't remember the last time I had it or how. I love the amaro bitters, but surprisingly I don't like compari / or a negroni. My mother always had a bottle of Punt e Mes around in her dotage. Needless to say she didn't have a drop of Italian blood, but she did have an Italian boyfriend.

I haven't used it yet but my plan is to use it in peach frozen yogurt and ice cream along with peaches to bump up the peach flavour. I'm trying the same thing with strawberries. Maybe smoothies or protein drinks?

This may be OT, but peach powder sounds like it could be amazing! How do you use it?

@Shel_B, as I recall, they worked just fine.

I have these: (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies by Edd Kimber... They were fine. A way of using up sourdough discard, I suppose, but I'm not sure it brings anything to the party.

Just a strip that has gone out of temper likely. Looks like the block wasn't cooled properly when it was formed.

@Smithy the stock this was made in wa very bland. Ill have to boost that flavor considerably next time.

@FauxPas, what a sweet husband you have! That's a very nice gift.

It does look delicious. So sorry to read that it didn't live up to its looks! Why do you think it fell flat this time?

working w some fresh RANA ravioli , in this case mushroom. looks good . home made stock w 1/3'd puck of MoreThanGourmet Two beaten eggs , added off the heat after the ravioli were cooked. 4 min . Fresh spinach and Campari tomatoes , Tj's parmesanish and window green onion. this was very underwhelming . a disappointment . I used to make this sort of thing all the time , and it was very good. not this time.