Priscilla

It is coming along nicely, thank you for asking, Lovebenton. Not finished yet, however ... I've just bunged it back in the oven at 200 degrees, switched to a small Cousances (like Le Creuset, Descoware) round, uncovered, to continue. After more than six hours' cooking yesterday, covered for the first two hours, uncovered for the rest, it got to light tan/still very liquidy. Haven't added the sage yet; waiting for greater reduction. I allowed a glug of Marsala in there too, at the beginning. I never was inspired to save bacon fat before we came upon the Niman Ranch uncured bacon a couple of years ago (they also market regular cured). The fat resulting from cooking it is so pure and sweet, quite like fresh lard with a subtle whiff of smoke. And it only gets saved then if the bacon's been cooked in the oven, where the fat doesn't get overheated and indigestible. So, all this to say, the snowy white Niman Ranch uncured bacon fat so far seems an excellent fat for this task. (Among others; I use it in biscuits, and breads where lard is the desired fat.) The reason onion confit especially appeals is because a favorite pizza in my house has been for years caramelized onions with a blue cheese, like Gorgonzola. Blue cheese and caramelized onion, in general, is a flavor profile I keep exploiting. Seems to me that a chunk of some blue cheese and a jar of way-caramelized onion confit would be a very good thing to have in one's fridge.

OK, I'm making onion confit today, inspired by this wonderful discussion, and a bunch of yellow storage onions in the basket there. It'll be an oven version -- no crock pot, but I've got a vintage Descoware oval that has never ever let me down volunteering itself for the job. I apologize in advance if this is something I missed in the discussion thus far, but if I don't get on it there won't BE any confit: I want to use bacon fat ... has the bacon fat question been addressed? I also plan to use a sprig of sage on down the line. Also adding braunschweiger to the old shopping list.

OK. Is the unimproved sideboard earning its keep? Is the new stove getting hot when asked to? Is holiday meal prep in a new kitchen a good way to shake out remaining bugs? (Please note non-reference to bugs in knife blocks.)

FM, is your falafel recipe somewhere on eG? Looks so wonderful! A tremendous run of fabulous meals from everyone here on Dinner! ← It is in my eGCI class on Lebanese cuisine, here Elie ← Yay of course of course of course -- knew I'd had it at one time. Thanks!

FM, is your falafel recipe somewhere on eG? Looks so wonderful! A tremendous run of fabulous meals from everyone here on Dinner!

Well, lessee, my Mother was from NYC, my Dad was from the OK panhandle, and we always had a relish tray (cut glass not crystal; my Mom just gave it to me over the summer), similar to those described but more austere, just celery sticks, radishes, black olives, sweet gherkins. Mayhaw Man's pimiento cheese is sososo good. I was already planning celery filled with this for Thanksgiving. I always serve Paul Prudhommes candied yams. And I love Julia Reeds cheese straws -- I think nobody does Thanksgiving like Southerners. Guess one could say that about nearly any meal, however. Cheese straw star -- please describe. My cookie gun, which is a Mirro not a Rival but which is just exactly like my SoCal-via-NYC Mom's, has a plate with a flat, toothed slot that I use for cheese straws. Have I been remiss? Please advise. Also, MM, please please please can we hear about the food at your Aunt's funeral? May she rest in peace.

Yes, I'll be interested to see how it would work in its present interesting shape, after painting. And I'm fascinated pondering your design embellishment ... show show show! I think I would vote for white on the kickboard, unless red there is sensibly integrated into the design. If you do end up bolting some larger rectangle onto the top, we'll all just try very hard to pretend that waterfalled front edge is just not there.

Is this item purchased and owned already? I so agree with MtheC about the white paint job, and even the cherries, because it reminds me of how Sir Terence Conran would sometimes drop those red-cherry-and-checked patterned linens and porcelain pieces into his modern kitchen spaces. Agree also with preserving of the curvyness, both the top itself and the waterfall front ... but what about that backstop? Very nice that the KA fits neatly in the lower cab. I understand, as a counterspace-challenged person, if it must be stored, but moving my KA5 here and there is kind of a drag. Not the biggest drag in the world -- naggingly annoying, say. Also, might be worth a check to see if your Home Depot puts contractor markdowns out at ungodly early hours for otherworldly low prices. Like when they open at 6 a.m. or whenever it is. I lived in ignorance of this Home Depot Shadow World, until a contractor neighbor rehabbing somebody's powder room showed me a bath vanity complete with sink and hardware he scored for $5.

Very cool blog, LMF! Beautiful food. And what a pretty cat!

Taking to heart perpetually wise Maggiethec.'s spiced nuts admonition, I wonder if knowledgeable types could point me to additional recipes, in books or with linky-links. Redfox, any chance of a recipe for your garam masala ones? Jayme's caramel corn, a Big Yes. Like Cracker Jacks would be in Heaven. Izzat in Recipe Gullet, I wonder?

Adam, really stupendous! Your marzipan work is beeyootiful -- those bacon slices are just adorable. Not to slight the pie -- but the Consort is a marzipan eater and so those caught my eye especially. The hypocras, if my cursory look-see is at all accurate, seems not far off the mulled wine I poured for parents of trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. How did you make it?

I got irrationally anticipatory reading the start of your blog, Susan -- based on your beautiful Dinner posts I just know it's going to be an engine of love and goodwill. Russ, too -- West VA lends a mysterious whiff of the exotic to regular life, I think. Blog on!

Wow, Seth, what a wonderful piece of writing. I adore your categories -- they are just spot-on, as are your opinions, so far as the books with which I am familiar. I'm not used to agreeing so thoroughly! Many thanks -- a million thoughts begin to swirl. Amateur bread baking has its curse-like element -- you think you'd like to learn about baking your own bread and then, before you know it, the nice UPS man is dropping 25-lb. bags of organic short-patent flour from the Kansas Mennonites at your door. At least, that's what happened to me. Your is fortuitous, joining in congruence with a couple of other events that have me returning to levels of bread baking not seen in my kitchen in years. (I've baked all along, but you know the diff between subsistence baking and discovery baking. I've settled on King Arthur Flour, however, rather than the more esoteric flights of years ago ... the flavor and especially the consistency is fantastic.) We installed a new oven just in September (we've put in bread-worthy ovens wherever we've lived, but tried for 6 years to make do with a very charming but woefully inadequate 1950s Gaffers & Sattler that came with this house), and, I took advantage of Jackal's generous offer to ship his sourdough starter. The recent Q&A with P. Reinhart must figure in here, too. I'm just starting on the sourdough trip, something in all my years of amateur baking I'd not done. What a miracle THAT is, hewing closely to Jackal's comprehensive instructions. With sourdough baking I'm understanding a lot more about all my bread, I think, with no end in sight. Lovely to read your thoughts and think again myself about my friends the bread books: Clayton's French bread book is superior, almost in spite of himself, in a way. That pain Italian from the bakery in Monaco was a bread I made a lot, some years ago ... very dependable and good. Joe Ortiz, the only time I've paid for a cooking demonstration was to see Joe and Gayle Ortiz -- his book is deep bread, and Gayle's book, The Village Baker's Wife, is wonderful as well -- don't miss a chance to visit their Gayle's Bakery in Capitola CA. I consult him a lot. Now I'd better add pepitas to the old Trader Joe's list, because I know just from thinking about it I'll be making his German multi-grain. E. David, well, life-changing is not too strong when it comes to English Bread and Yeast Cookery. The flour material, as you say, is a benchmark. But I love all those homely type of sandwich breads -- not least because my family loves sandwiches. I also agree about R.L. Beranbaum -- I'm a little galled by the Fill-in-the-Blank Bible conceit overall I suppose, but her naive hubris about such things as the wheat germ you mention really stick in my craw. Wheat germ in bread? See Seth's The Hippies, if not Giants of Prehistoric Times! Or, any bad health-food-store doorstop loaf, for that matter. I would like to submit that the bread chapter in Madeleine Kamman's In Madeleine's Kitchen was very helpful to me a number of years ago. Her three-day minimal-yeast starter with a hit of cumin in it produced some of my best bread ever. Also the bread part of Mollie Katzen's The Enchanted Broccoli Forest(I think; could be the first Moosewood) ... I learned a lot, particularly about whole wheat. Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen has Paul's mother's white bread in there, which, after eating at K-Paul's years ago, I was very very glad to find instructions for. The King Arthur Flour people have been a tremendous resouce over the years, both of equipment and information. Their The Baking Sheet subscription newsletter is always pretty interesting too. Just received Dan Lepard's book, haven't started on it yet though. Of course lately I'm relying on Jackal's eGCI's sourdough class -- what a resource! Of course my dream is to have a bread oven out in MY garden, which is not entirely out of the question, depending on how deeply the reobssession roots. Phew, so much material. I'm looking forward to hearing more thoughts on the individual titles.

Yay! My knife block, bless it, has nothing in it, except its knives and steel!

Thanks, Priscilla. Do you remember if it's possible to mount the shelves upside down on Metro (and Metro-likes)? Seems like I could turn the top shelf into a lid holder that way. ← Not Priscilla, but a die-hard Metro fan. I think the black plastic bracket clips are what determine which way the shelves go on, snap them on upside down and you're good to go. Or do everthing right side up, with the idea of flipping it over when you're done. And do make sure if you're going to work at the unit that you have a nice ledge on whatever your work surface will be. regards, trillium ← Yes (thank you Trillium) the shelves can go either direction. AND now, thanks to this discussion, or as I should say, thanks to the Magic of eGullet, I have realized there is a small but incessantly nagging problem I am going to solve this weekend by turning the top shelf of my Metro unit ledge-side-up, so that things will not threaten to fall and konk me on the head so much. I've used various of the shelves ledge-side-up in years past in different places, but apparently I'm storing different stuff up there now, and have been afflicted with cultural lag on this account. Aaah Metro -- the antithesis of built-in obsolescence. DtheC, this would make a diff if you were stacking non-flat lids up there. Tremendous capacity, can't you just picture it? I've mentioned how I store flat lids in the Metro slots, but I do have one non-flat lid that bedevils me, a heavy lovely Descoware skillet lid. I have it hanging on an s-hook, an imperfect solution that has lasted many years. I think it could sit quietly up there behind its safety ledge with its friends the Texas Ware bowls and the salad spinner and the other things on the top shelf. Also I'll be ruminating on squeezing another shelf in the midsection there, ledge-side-up, all shallow-like, for LIDS! And suchlike. OK, now off to have a stiff drink in advance of a peek into the old knife block slots.

Wow this is exciting. DtheC, I do so understand the weighing of household disruption as part of any project -- as important as the financials, really, I think. Go Metro (and Metro-likes)!

I've got granite countertops, but also a butcher block table. The table has been with me lo these 21 years or so since I got married, is quite scarred, but I just love butcher block more and more. I think if I was revamping I'd do like Andiebasenji and have miles of it, linear feet anyways. I do like the granite, which came with our present house, for working with pastry directly upon, and it is blessedly groutless. Not a thing wrong with granite, really. I had laminate on purpose in a former house, where we replaced condo-white generic tile (bye-bye grout) with groovy flecked Wilsonart®. I loved it, would not hesitate to have laminate again. I think one gets a LOT of utility and design depth from laminate for not a lot of money. Course I also had the aforementioned butcher block table along with, but found laminate to be a great work surface for bread and pasta and similar. DtheC have you ever seen a photo of the late Craig Claiborne's kitchen? He had the most beautiful and inviting marble-topped work surface, separate from his countertops, not at all unlike what you're putting together.

Wow what an improvement. Looking lovely! Re: individual tile removal, I noticed at the Dremel display, which I always visit longingly, there is a Dremel bit especially for routing out grout! Or at least one that works for that job. Got me thinking maybe there's a little something similar I could plug into my Makita. The cabinet looks great. Ikea butcher block, not as thick or as sturdy as Boos, as aforenoted, ain't too too bad, and, inexpensive verging on cheap, and might be applicable.

Nice roast chicken with a lime inside, more experiementation with new convection capability. Rice with fine vermicelli, browned first, with onion, garlic, little bit of tomato. Lovely redleaf and Romaine salad with the Consort's typically excellent white wine vinaigrette. And sourdough bread, made by me! Thanks to Jackal's venerable starter and copious info in the last year's eGCI sourdough bread class. Far from perfect, but high-quality 100% sourdough seems tantalizingly possible!

Behind the curve, but sourdough is timeless. Baked my first sourdough loaves yesterday ... thrilling! They did not embody ultimate perfection, but they looked quite passable, and the assembled eaters gave full and a bit astounded approval, and I can see full success on the horizon! Thanks Jackal for the starter and all the info. All the bread baking I've done over the years I'd never ventured into sourdough. But I think there's another bread-baking lifetime ahead of me!

I keep flattish lids, graduated by size, on a shelf of my Metro unit ... they slot in so economically perpendicularly, like records in an old-fashioned record rack.

Yay for Metro. I love Metro. I think that sounds like a great idea, D the C. You can hardly go wrong with Metro. Course, I'm biased -- my Metro shelf unit has been with me in every kitchen since the 1980s. I continue to love it so much I added in a little sibling for it in our present home, and outfitted them both in matching big-ass locking casters. A bonafide classic, and, works. All kindsa stuff can hang on a Metro unit, from all kindsa hooks. And yes, as Fifi points out, it does come in different gauges and there are knockoffs around.

D the C, in a house we lived in some years ago now we had a fantastic pot rack we made from a length of metal fencepost or street-sign post we found in a field while hiking -- you know the type, already has perfect perforations running its whole length. Ours was baked-on-enameled grey, which suited our then-kitchen. Big old eye hooks in a beam, lengths of chain with quick-links to achieve the proper hanging height, inexpensive threaded j-hooks inserted through the existing holes and held there with bolts to hold all the stuff. It worked, and looked, great! We left ours industrial-looking -- every room needs a touch of industrial, in my estimation, along with a touch of black -- but one could paint or otherwise tart it up to suit. Also, as you began above, why NOT a length of Metro shelf, hung from chain with my beloved quick-links? It's certainly strong enough, and has a tremendous amount of potential hanging capacity. A single Metro shelf is something one sees kicking around from time to time, if one finds oneself in used-equipment sorts of places. Even fake Metro, which I dislike on principle but accept the existence of, would probably suffice, strength-wise, eh?

Thank you for the info, everyone. The ep broadcast tonight in Southern California pitted pizza toast against hotcakes ... fantastic documentary on the guy making the provolone cheese with the Swiss cows. What a great show this is!

We've been enjoying Cooking Showdown, DOTCHI NO RYORI SHOW, (subtitled in English), wherein two Japanese dishes are pitched against one another, with a lineup of judges who must by the end of the show pick one, and only those aligning with the dish garnering the most votes get to eat. It's all quite tongue-in-cheek, the competition part. I love how the provenance of each ingredient is explored, and the demonstration of each dish's preparation. I also love the comedy and the groovy judges. But what does DOTCHI NO RYORI mean?