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Based on the info I've accumulated, news reports and reviews, the butter I used was made by Bunge, and they were rated poorly in a few reviews. I'd like to find a european-style butter, or even an american butter that's of a brand I trust, like Clovr-Stornetta for something local or Plugra perhaps. I don't know what would be lost in the cooking process, but my intent is to just get a known, good quality butter. There's a market nearby that carries many brands and many arieties in those brands. I'll just see what they offer and pick one. If it's one that's nuanced in flavor, it would be nice to see what happens to those flavors during the process. I'm not too concerned with fat content, but again, it would be nice to see how it affects the result. I don't think it will, at least not much. I'd like to see the results for myself rather than rely on opinions from others

Just curious, what defines “a better quality butter” for you? Fat content? Something else? Seems like the flavor components found in cultured butters, for example, would be filtered out in the process of making ghee.

The latter. Pork reigns supreme here, and beef is more popular for the “finer” cuts (e.g. filet, Tafelspitz, roastbeef, …).

@Duvel are beef ribs less popular due to the price of beef or the more general preference of pork ?

As a friend put it, "my table has rooms!"

Attendees Chocolot Kerry Beal alleguede curls RanaMN Melani RobertM DianaD Lisa M citowolf - Celia D Lambrecht gourmet +1 Sue PEI (possibly with Jane) GRiker Rajala Kate

@SLB, I like the color of the new tablecloth better overall, as well. Agree also that having the leaves in the table makes it a junk collecting platform (oh, so much space, I'll just put these things on the one end and I still have plenty of space to sit on the other end...)

My butcher had Leiterstück on offer - an in Germany rather unpopular beef cut that translates to short ribs 😎. I bought quite a bit and the first dish I made was Gulaschsuppe : plenty of onion, garlic, peppers, carrot and potatoes. Spiced with both smoked & spicy paprika, caraway, bay leaf and marjoram. Cooked yesterday and rewarmed today. Great 🤗 Served with sour cream, breads, and some nibbles … No complaints 🥳

True that - we still have a couple of the Firemixer 14's available!

Yesterday I made another batch of ghee, and this was the best yet, although not quite perfect. The heat may have been a skosh too high, but the result gave me a medium amber liguid as clear as spring water. Judicious skimming and careful pouring negated the need for any filtering. After cooling, I tasted, and this was the nuttiest-tasting ghee I ever made. Some milk fat solids stuck to the bottom of the pan, so that's why I thnk the temp was too high. The pan cleaned up quickly and easily though. Next batch will be made with a better quality butter, mostly to see if there's any qualitative difference between brands. Thanks to everyone who jumped in earlier ... the info was helpful.

Oh, interesting. I have seen recipes that call for instant banana pudding so that's why I thought it would have the artificial taste that I don't care for.

A winterized version of Charlie Bird’s farro salad with the radishes, tomatoes, and mint omitted and roasted beets and spicy maple glazed delicata squash added. I also used much less oil than the recipe called for because my farro was still very moist after cooking and didn’t need much dressing. https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/charlie-birds-farro-salad

Another grilled chicken wrap from Good Things. Samin calls this one Souvlaki-ish chicken. The chicken thighs get marinated in the creamy oregano dressing before grilling. Same smear of whipped tahini. Today’s veg were cucumbers, radishes, carrots and cherry tomatoes and got tossed in the same dressing.

A particularly tasty way to clean out the fridge: Chorizo from a local butcher, fried up with onion, chiles, and garlic. Added in excess frozen spinach, an opened can of crushed tomato, and some excess coconut milk. Herbs and spices included Thai basil, lamb masala, Aleppo chile powder, and Mexican oregano. Fish sauce and a little brown sugar to round out the flavors.

Count Kate in. She can’t post right now.

Turns out (surprise!) that keeping avian predators around is a good way to limit bird/rodent damage to cherry crops. https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/tiny-falcons-are-helping-keep-the-food-supply-safe-on-cherry-farms/

I spent some more money, and got an option: Also, I removed one of the leaves. Living in an apartment, its a whole lot easier to leave the leaves in the table than it is to find some place else to keep them. But I decided that having that table all gigantic all the time was inviting junk and also making me feel lonely. So I took one off and put it under the sofa. Anyway, new every-day tablecloth, I ran in the opposite direction of creamsicle. The creamsicle might in fact go on ebay, although it does look nice beneath my heath plates.

Another example is 水饺 (shuǐ jiǎo), meaning "boiled dumplings". Both syllables use a falling and rising tone. If you get it wrong and use only falling tones, 睡觉 shuì jiào, then you are saying "sleep" or "go to bed".

Banana pudding shouldn’t have ANY artificial banana flavor in it! It’s made of layers of vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, and slices of actual bananas, all topped with either whipped cream or baked meringue! It’s basically a trifle.

Leftover piece of pizza and small salad. Was delicious and plenty for me. Included a Pic of the best way to reheat pizza. Stove top! Can't stand nuked pizza and oven dries it out too much. I did drizzle with a bit of pesto oil since it was a bit dry first round. Helped!

While the locals are battling to get their favourite places back, the local government, in their infinite wisdom, is trying to lure more Tik-Tok idiots to the city. They have commissioned a luosifen mural near the entrance to what used to be my favourite market but is now a hell-hole.

I think that a Savage Brothers Firemixer will work.

I'm not sure what we are doing differently, but it's not just me. The Modernist Bread French Lean Bread recipe, which uses slightly more flour than the bread I make, comes with the note: "For an 8 qt stand mixer, multiply this recipe by 1.5 or up to 2.5. Unless you use a 4.5 qt stand mixer, the 1 kg recipe is not enough mass for the hook to catch and mix all the ingredients to make a uniform dough. Even with a 4.5 qt bowl, with only 1 kg of dough, it may be best to start the mix using a paddle attachment; switch to a hook after autolyse." And it is not only KitchenAid. My Ankarsrum struggles and fails to mix a kg of dough. The bread recipes Ankarsrum gives are for larger batches. For 1 kg I've gotten good dough results only with paddle type mixers, such as the Sunvivi and my other similar mixer. One of my KitchenAid mixers lives on my counter but it is more used for grinding meat and rolling pasta.

Like many other languages, Mandarin Chinese is tonal. This means that each syllable is assigned one of five tones. Other syllables with otherwise the same pronunciation will often have different tones. These tones are important. Get the tone wrong and you change the meaning. This can be embarrassing in that while you intend saying something inconsequential, you actually come out with something shocking or amusing. One that I hope is deliberate (I know it isnt) is food related. Bell peppers, the most pointless vegetable ever are, in Mandarin 甜椒 (tián jiāo). The first syllable, tián, has a rising tone while the second has a high flat tone. Accidentally change both tones to falling then rising and you've changed the meaning to the verb 'to lick feet', something more flavourful! There are many more food related examples which I will put here as I come across them.

As long as you are delighted with the dough from your KitchenAid, use the KitchenAid.