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@Smithy quite some time ago , when I used to bake I used an enamel coated cast iron skillet , ie heavy mass , and 10 " in the bottom rack , and threw in a couple of ice cubes. the cubes evaporated , so the door of the oven did not need to be opened again its was much easier than trying water in a very hot oven , and quicker.

They certainly look great except for the color. It looks like you didn't use a bread wash. Here is an excellent article that explains different bread washes that you could use. I usually just brush them with milk but that's only because I'm lazy.

@AlaMoi, opening the oven multiple times for misting may result in more heat loss than you'd want. Another option to consider is placing a pan on another shelf and letting it preheat; when you put the dough in, throw either a cup of water or several ice cubes into the preheated pan. I don't remember whether the water or the ice cubes worked better for me, but they helped with oven spring.

well, first attempt in the books . . . disappointing.... followed Bouchon Bakery book recipe & technique precisely. I do not have a steam oven.... the bread did not brown - the technique calls for baking at 460'F imho, this is too hot. baked in a preheated oven on a preheated stone,,,, it's 'done' before the crust has time to brown. lack of rise - altho the 'times' were done by a timer, I suspect my kitchen is too cool for the prescribed times. next up: reduced baking temp multiple 'misting' for humidity extend rising times to make results vs. timer going off . . .

I borrowed one of those rubber collared jar openers and it popped right open, then I yelled "I LOOSENED IT FOR YOU" at the gadget before returning it.

I've completed a few tests in order to find an alternative to Flaxfiber. The candidates I tested were Inulin cold, Inulin hot (without the application of heat, so I can't guarantee proper hydration and activation, but in the past, it seems to have worked after an overnight resting period), Xanthan gum and a combination of Inulin hot/Xanthan gum. First, I did a test to compare texture change and flavour release against a Flaxfiber benchmark. To do this, I blended and hydrated the different stabilizers/emulsifiers with store bought apple juice in the same ratio I've used for Flaxfiber in the sorbets/sherbets above. Control sample: 1.8g Flaxfiber 250g Apple juice Results in a runny fluid gel like texture with little or no change in flavour compared to straight apple juice. Inulin cold: 1.8g Sosa inulin cold 250g Apple juice No noticeable texture change at this ratio, but the 10% POD was quite noticeable... Inulin hot: 1.8g Sosa inulin hot 250g Apple juice Slight texture change, but still very much a liquid and nowhere near Flaxfiber. Good flavour release. Xanthan gum: 1.8g Xanthan gum 250g Apple juice It looks like Sosa may have reversed the Flaxfiber to Xanthan gum replacement ratio because this resulted in a thick nasty goop. 0.9g might have worked better, but I went for another option. Inulin hot and Xanthan gum: 1.4g Inulin hot 0.4g Xanthan gum 250g Apple juice Very close in texture and fluidity. Good flavour release, but interestingly, it highlights and exaggerates the acid in the juice rather than the fruit. Still, this was enough of a success to proceed to a full cultured milk sherbet trial: Same recipe as above, but 3.6g Flaxfiber was replaced by 2.8g inulin hot and 0.8g Xanthan gum. Inulin should be added together with Gellan gum, sodium citrate and sucrose. Version with Flaxfiber on the left and inulin/xanthan on the right. Both very good, but a couple of minor differences. The inulin/xanthan version is slightly softer and melts a bit too quickly on the tongue for my liking (they are both very stable on the plate though, probably thanks to the gellan gum). It's also more acid forward in flavour, but that could be partly because of milk from different cartons/production dates. If I didn't have Flaxfiber, I would definitely experiment more with this. I would probably try to increase the amount of inulin and/or xanthan a bit though.

This was originally going to be a fattoush: toasted bread broken up, laid as the bed for torn lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg, with my current batch of dressing. But I wanted hummus on that tiast, so kept the bread whole. Open-faced toasted sandwich with hummus, salad atop it. This tomato is from the very last of the excellent locally-grown tomatoes I can get here for the season. I'll be sorry to see it go, but I'll celebrate it while I can. It turns out that the hummus plays very well with the salad dressing. I've added some hummus to the mix. It looks too goopy to honor with a photo, but that doesn't stop its being delicious!

Tacos with roasted Poblano chiles, Shiitake mushrooms, and shrimp. Other flavors came from sliced jalapeno, sliced white onion, garlic, cumin seed, thyme, Mexican oregano, cilantro, fish sauce, and ancho chile powder, finished with crumbled feta and a splash of half-and-half.

Took a drive out to our farm house and to enjoy the fall colours. Got home too late to bake the huge ham, so I did 2 thick slices on the pan, drizzled with maple syrup.

I usually start the day with a smoothie but decided to give the blender a day off. I had a few odds and ends in the refrigerator that became a tortilla de patatas-ish breakfast. The filling was leftover potato pave, red onion and yellow pepper sauteed in butter and tomato infused olive oil. I topped the two egg dish with labneh and semi-dried tomatoes.

Espresso loaf cake with burnt butter and coffee icing by Diana Henry (recipe)... It was fine, but failed to wow me. I thought the icing was better than the cake, which is the opposite of what @blue_dolphin thought way back on page two (!) of this thread, so don't let me put you off if you like the look of it.

The guiding idea for this tabbouli is from Balaboosta (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), written by Einat Admony, a restaurateur / writer / cook in Manhattan. Her proportions are 1 c bulgur (before soaking), 1 c each cilantro and parsley, and 1/4 c mint, with the tomatoes, onions and dressings thrown in. That said, she herself writes in the book: Last night I was busily using as much of the herbs as I had available, and flying by the seat of my pants -- that is, no cookbook. And to @rotuts' point, I like the bulgur for its texture and ability to absorb and show off the tangy dressing. So I suppose you could say my version is from Northern Minnesota.

That area of downtown Santa Ana is really charming. Next year, I’ll try to get tickets to more of the Encuentro events - it’s 3-day weekend of Peace, Love & Beans - and stay overnight. There was an art walk, movie screenings, panel discussions related to food and drag bingo, among other things.

"Big enough to swaddle a baby" spinach.

Ive had various friends from the Middle East their version of tabbouli was always very green. I prefer T a la @Smithy. I think bulgur has interesting flavor , and texture .

That's what I'm used to too. Basically a parsley/mint salad with a few bites of grain thrown in for good measure.

What region is your tabbouli from? It has a lot more bulghur in it than I usually see. The Iraqi version my friend's mom used to make as well as the Jewish Moroccan version I've had have almost no bulghur by comparison - they're mostly green.

@Duvel, those "hot dogs" look fantastic and one would be enough to feed me for a week! Ha! I feel like a broken record. Still trying to use the bagged salads my friend gave me (almost done with them!) and my sis and BIL brought me what is likely the last of their home-grown tomatoes. So, this particular salad kit was well-past the good by date. I salvaged enough lettuce from it, added a large tomato and some bacon and it was plenty for me with all the croutons.

@blue_dolphin What fun!! Was Steve there? That area is so different since I lived in OC. I've got that place on my list to check out if I ever get back to SoCal any time soon.

...sprain my ring finger trying (unsuccessfully) to open the world's most tightly sealed jar of cornichons

A few weeks ago I received a slushie machine: (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) This is not to be confused with the shaved ice "slushie" machine that sits next to it. The new machine makes nice frozen fruit juice, but tonight I decided to try a chocolate milkshake from the included recipe booklet. I have to say I am pleased, other than with huge amount produced. As I dispensed the product it looked more like soft serve to me. Since I have so much milkshake I've decided to dispense a good bit of it into containers and blast chill it. Time will tell. Edit: when I went to dispense the remainer of the milkshake, the texture was different. Now it was more like a milkshake than soft serve. If I want to try to do this again, I should freeze the first portion that comes out rather than the last.

Spinach is starting to bolt so I have been harvesting. Is this what they call baby Spinach?

Oh, the La Chamba pot! I look forward to reading more about it! And the salsa: chile and peanut may be marvelous!

So many beautiful dinners and spreads show up on this topic! But then, here I am: I needed to use the herbs before they went off, and by the time I'd finished making tabbouli I wasn't very hungry. I post this to show that non-fancy dinners are also welcome here. Tabbouli in Tostitos Scoops, sometimes supplemented with hummus (yesterday's culinary achievement). Not fancy, but delicious and filling. And the dishwasher is now taking care of yesterday's and today's dishes.

Over here in the Lunch topic, I detailed the menu from the “Supper with Friends) meal at the Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Encuentro held this weekend at Alta Baja Market in Santa Ana, CA. I had a little time to shop at the market and picked up a few items: I got a La Chamba soup pot and comal, two bottles of cocktail bitters from Miracle Mile Bitters - toasted pecan and yuzu - and a jar of Taco Maria Chile morita and peanut salsa. Looking forward to trying out all of them.