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Danggit, you've made me amend my grocery order for the fourth time.

Lasagna with salad. I never used to put cheese through the layers but after reading US style recipes, I decided to do this. Nothing fancy, just a few spoonfuls of ricotta sprinkled over the meat layer. Cheesy bechamel sauce on top. Was pretty good.

@DesertTinker Can you please give me the source of this quote? I'd like to see what else they may have to say about this starter. It's going like gangbusters, by the way. I'm calling it Big Bertha. Why that popped into my head I have no idea, but Big Bertha it is, BB for short. I just fed it and I'm watching it to see how quickly it doubles. Can't wait to make Pinsa!

Arrrggghhhh.. I'm dying here. This morning, the old oven made that screeching noise over and over no matter how many times it was restarted. The one quoted above finally arrived today after a week in transit, so I got the old one out of the way, unboxed this one - one thing weird - the external box shows 2 buttons (no steam clean) but the inside box shows the 3 button version (with steam clean) but still the p/n is 300N, not 300N1. Anyway, I removed the oven (looks unused, but I noticed that one of the small screws in the back is missing - and it is the 3 button version but says 300N stamped in the metal on the back), removed the rack/baking tray to be cleaned, filled the water tank and plugged it in... and nothing. No LCD screen, no buttons - nothing works. I tried unplugging/replugging a few times but nothing. I emailed the seller and am waiting for the response... meanwhile, I'm left with the screecher.

@Smithy Your postulation was a very fine post.

Stir-fried bay scallops with roasted chile paste, garlic, ginger, minced serranos, and fish sauce, finished with slivered serranos and mint. Didn't have enough lettuce for wraps so I made tacos. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I postulate that that's the range of "low boil" as opposed to "full boil" or "rolling boil". I admit that so far I haven't found anything to support that terminology. However, Shirley Corriher in Cookwise notes that grain starches thicken at "just below the boiling point of water; can be held at this temperature without damage" (p. 275, First Edition, 1997) whereas root starches thicken at lower temperatures. The exact temperature depends on the exact starch, of course. My point here is that "just below the boiling point" may be that ill-defined 7-degree range.

Ice cream and orgeat.

Perhaps that explains why my poaching chicken thighs disappeared ....

Wednesday afternoon we went over to the Lime Out floating taco bar for linner. It’s only reachable by boat. You could easily swim to it from shore, but they only serve people who arrive via boat because they have cocktails, and swimming plus cocktails is usually not a good idea. Years ago there was a boat like this at a different beach that only served drinks, no food, and you had to swim to it. They did have a few issues over there with over served people getting into trouble in the water. That boat was destroyed in the hurricanes and not rebuilt. Lime Out floating taco bar You sit on floating lily pads, and the servers come out in that floating platform to push your food and drinks to you. We went later in the afternoon so it was not busy. Earlier in the day it’s always jammed up here. A couple of the tacos we ordered. Korean tuna, and two rum pork rib Another Korean tuna, a grouper seveche, and a jerked tuna with pineapple radish salsa We ended the day with a swim at Maho beach. That guy with the cooler at the water line is collecting water samples for the National Park. They issue beach water quality reports regularly. Yesterday we headed out with no set plans around noon time. By some small miracle, there was a parking spot at Trunk Bay. We could not let the opportunity pass us by, so we ended up spending the day here. There were a lot of other people, but the end of the beach we like is never crowded. We called an audible and made a last minute reservation for dinner at Extra Virgin Bistro. It’s a three course prix fixe. I am still full today haha. Here’s the menu Drinks. I tried the coco loco mocktail (just ok). Sister had a limin’, husband had a martini, and nephew had a up in smoke First course. Sister and I had the ricotta Nephew was excited that he could have the calamari. I think the chef made him a double portion, because this was huge niece and husband chose the pork belly Second course. Nephew had the sausage gnocchi Niece had the spinach salad with goat cheese and popcorn snd the rest of us had the wild mushroom pappardelle i could have stopped here, but it was time for the third course. Three of us had the tuna niece chose the short rib and nephew had the filet and then niece and nephew wanted dessert! Niece had the apple crisp and nephew had the passionfruit bread puddong Today is our last full day, and I don’t know what we are doing for food, but probably not much after that huge meal!

It’s the Black Hole of Boiling. Nothing should be cooked there! 🙃

I think your cats are eating better than I am!! I've seen those on a buffet in Malaysia. All different sizes... They're even better when rehydrated and then fried!

And what is the missing 7-degrees between simmering and boiling called and what would you cook at those temps?

@blue_dolphin interesting article . thank you for sharing.

This article has a pretty good boil vs simmer discussion.

I just got some similar treats: Oh wait…wrong topic 🙃

This is true, but bubbles start to develop at lower temperatures. "Simmer" covers a much wider range of temperatures than I'd thought back then, and the observed, for-practical-cooking-purposes boil happens at slightly less than 100C. In addition, the viscosity affects boiling point when it isn't pure water.

Exactly, once 100C is attained, any extra energy goes to the latent heat of vaporization.... So the more heat energy there is, the more violent the boil as there's more vaporization, but temp stays the same.

You could try Wondra flour, but on advice from an Asian cooking show, I've stopped using corn starch and use potato starch. It's very forgiving and I plan on trying it for other non-flour thickeners. Make a slurry in water and stir in.

But boiling water never exceeds 100℃ at sea level or whatever temperature appertains a different altitudes. In any one place, there is no difference in temperature between a boil and a hard boil.

@TdeV To answer your question about the shelf life of arrowroot, the simple answer, per the author of the linked srticle, is "I have found arrow root to have a limited shelf life." https://www.realbakingwithrose.com/blog/2014/04/05/the_secret_shelf_life_of_arrow

This is a pop tart ice cream sandwich. Available only at Walmart. Shown being admired by Rocco. Other devotee’s include my middle son. I don’t get the appeal.

Can the chicken be removed from the sauce? If so, I'd try whisking it to see if that improves the texture. If not, I think I'd go with the pastry topping...or else, serve the whole thing over cooked rice, so nobody can see the texture. 😉

Yes. The qualitative summation is here: Somewhere back then we had a discussion about what temperatures would correlate to that activity, but it depends on the liquid involved as well as altitude. (At the time, we were discussing the temperatures for simmering vs. boiling at something like 5,000' MSL.) If I find an authoritative source on the activation temperatures for the starches in question I'll post it here, unless someone else gets to it first.

Uhh, yeah. That’s the one. It helps to know that I do research in addition to clinical work. I have an ability to be fascinated with things other people find skull numbingly boring