Fat Guy

Specifically, I'll be getting 100 small ravioli from Borgatti's in the Bronx and serving them in a big bowl as part of a birthday-party buffet for a friend.

Ketel One, a perfectly good double shot, infused with eau de pickle, down the drain. I don't think it worked, though. I'm redoing in pure rubbing alcohol for the day today. This will wind up being a lot of effort to clean the lid of a jar that's only worth a few cents.

I find that if you have a pretty full load you can get more in, more efficiently, better positioned for cleaning, if you load all at once. It allows you to get an overview of all your stuff and plan what will go on the bottom, on top, be left aside for sink washing, etc.

Soaked it in vodka overnight. Will put on the windowsill today.

A couple of dishwashers ago a repair guy told me that the door latch is a common repair issue on dishwashers so if you can stage your dishes to reduce the number of openings and closings that part will last longer. Opening and closing the door for every plate and glass may be a lot of wear and tear. I don't know if anybody has had this issue or if it's just theoretical.

Tomorrow yet again I have to BS my way through a cooking project. I have never actually made a brown butter and sage sauce for pasta. Is it really as simple as melting butter over medium heat and stirring until it browns, adding chopped sage for a minute, tossing with pasta and adding parmesan? Anything else I need to know?

It isn't completely perfect but it is much-improved. And I sort of like that the table has taken some knocks. It makes me worry less about putting stuff on it and living with it.

This afternoon at Harney & Sons was a pretty enlightening experience. I'll report more fully soon.

For the first time in my life I find myself the owner of a refrigerator with an ice maker. Not that the ice is so fantastic, but there is -- from a consumer standpoint -- an infinite quantity of it. What are some things to do with a surplus of ice? There's only so much I can add to beverages.

The pickle smell is too resilient. Baking soda didn't do the trick. I think this jar is not a keeper.

On a typical weekday there's only one significant dish-generating meal in our home: dinner. I prefer to clear the dinner dishes, dessert plates/salad bowls, serving pieces, whatever I used in cooking, etc., into the sink and then load the dishwasher when I can survey what's what. If there are dishes generated by an earlier meal, especially on a weekend, I'll do a partial loading, but again I prefer to do the whole meal's stuff at once.

I don't think this is a torch intended for culinary use -- it's a hardware item. But I imagine it makes no difference.

The flame from this thing appears to be all blue. There's a more concentrated cone of blue within a less dense cone of blue.

Some people like to put every dish in the dishwasher as soon as it's used, loading throughout the day, meal, etc., one piece at a time. Other people like to fill the sink with dishes and load the dishwasher all at once. I'm in the latter camp, because it allows me to get a better overview of the task and plan accordingly. And you?

I found an old mini torch and a couple of butane refill canisters. Can that be used for kitchen duty?

Not a clue. I'll just have to read everything.

The experiment is in progress.

Baking powder not baking soda right?

I'll try it right now. I still have the lid sitting here.

No. What's the procedure?

We generally save glass jars from preserves, etc., to use in our cabinets as storage containers. Of course less and less stuff comes in glass these days, and lids are often not designed for long-term survivability. I also just had an experience where I couldn't get the pickle smell out of a plastic-lined lid. Anyway, would love to get your input on jars, the best ones (I sometimes will make a close product purchasing decision based on the reusability of the jar), how to deal with them, stories, wit, wisdom, etc.

So what's the difference? I have a couple of specimens of each here and mostly it just seems like the Irish breakfast is stronger. Is there an official position?

I know there are many who believe that using tea bags at all is horrible, but assuming there is sufficient evidence for the existence of good tea bags what's the harm in using them twice? That has been the procedure around every household I've live in: save the bag in a little dish, add more hot water later.

Look what I got: I'm busily reading through it in preparation for a tasting at Harney & Sons on Thursday.

Based on some preliminary tests, I'm starting to agree with you. Tonight I tried both a brown-paper bag and a Pyrex bowl. Both produced acceptable popcorn that was not anywhere near as good as popcorn popped on the stovetop with oil.