CookBot

Were there? They seem to have escaped my notice amid all the nostalgia for midcentury foods over the past few years. Sounds exactly like dessert in my childhood home. Almost always canned fruit for desserts (which is strange, since I grew up in California, where there was all that fresh fruit). Cake only on birthdays, pies very rare except Christmas and Thanksgiving. I was just thinking recently how we so often had canned apricots, and now I never see canned apricots in the supermarkets.

In the '60s, my mother used to take finished Jell-O, beat it with her hand mixer until it was broken up into little bits, and mix it into evaporated milk that she had chilled and then whisked like cream. (We were poor, so she used that instead of real cream.) She then turned that mixture into a graham cracker crust, for a sort of version of chiffon pie. It was actually very pretty, with the sparkly colored bits in the white "cream". And I'm sure you could use real cream instead and it would be better.

Love that the neck is included. I hardly ever get necks included with my chickens these days, even from my local free-range farmer.

Oooo, that single cheese drip down the side. It's like a still life waiting to be painted by an Old Master.

Translation?

Say. No. More.

A classic dinner from my childhood.

I was always taught that if your custard base has little bubbles in it like yours appeared to, it was because the heat was too high, or your bain marie water didn't come up high enough. Not too large for me!

I wonder if Popeye's is using Evercrisp (or its equivalent) in its breading? The chicken I get from them stays crisp for a really, really long time.

Definitely worth it for a cheap thrill!

I don't recall every seeing anyone melt cheese onto a half-shell oyster before. I can't quite imagine those two textures marrying well together, but I'm more than up for giving it a try!

Same here. I roasted two this past weekend and had the same experience, skins tough rather than crispy. Insides were nice and fluffy, but not enough difference to convince me to spend an extra hour of cooking time. I did mine in the countertop oven with convection turned off, at 400F for two hours (lowered slightly because the Cuisinart runs about 50 degrees hot, even with convection turned off).

OMG, haven't had that in decades. Used to be such a menu stalwart in the leather-booth steakhouses of my youth, prepared tableside by the waiter. I haven't even seen green peppercorns in ages. Did you find them dried, or in brine?

A life fully lived, it would seem. I thoroughly enjoyed her gossipy memoir, Insatiable, despite (or maybe because of) it being as full of salacious sexual tales as it was of food. Her reminiscences of Burt Reynolds were nothing short of eye-popping. Her email newsletter was good fun too, full of tales of New York restaurants I knew I'd never visit.

Tragic. Only 49, so young for a heart attack. I followed the blog only sporadically, but I did love the movie. That, however, was far more because of Streep and Tucci than anything to do with the food blog. And the designer who created the food scenes, who I think was Susan Spungeon?

Just gorgeous. And if I wind up getting a steam oven, I'm going to blame it on your photos. I could probably find room for it on the steel shelving in the laundry room, but it would be sharing a room with the cat litter box, which seems... a little off-putting.

That photo made me gasp. It might be the most delicious-looking piece of browned chicken skin I've ever seen.

Thanks so much. You're making me a little sorry I decided against a steam oven because of my reluctance to give up the countertop space. Maybe I could put it in the laundry room....

I'm really looking forward to having leftover KitKats and Heath Toffees for dinner tonight.

Thank you! Just one more question and then I'll quit bugging you: are you baking in a steam oven?

Even more impressive. You're getting tremendous oven spring, based on the reveal from your baking slash cut. With a free-standing loaf, I almost always get more spread than I want on a round loaf during proof. Based on the crumb revealed in your slices, you have a pretty high hydration rate. What percentage of water would you say is in your usual method?

How was that squash lasagna? I keep looking at that recipe and thinking "Could those things possibly taste good together?" But I often think that about Ottolenghi recipes, and then am shocked by how delicious they turn out.

That crumb is pretty much my ideal of what a great country loaf should look like. A beauty! I've never been able to achieve such a perfectly round, beachball shape. What size pan are you baking it in? Cast iron, or.... ??

Beautiful loaves! And I don't think I've ever heard of Etorki. Is it German?

No, it certainly doesn't.