Alex

OK, I'll bite (figuratively, although literally, too, if you'd be so kind as to make this for me when I'm in DC): How'd you get the heart on there? Do you have a heart-shaped mini-branding iron?

As AlaMoi mentioned earlier, thaw the scallops in the fridge -- I do it on a rack over a plate or baking dish -- then bring them to room temp before cooking. I use half butter and half grapeseed oil in the pan. Get it very hot but don't burn the butter (obviously). The exact time depends on the heat and your pan, of course, but (again like AlaMoi) I found that U-10 dry scallops take about 2-2½ minutes for the first side and a minute for the second. Here's a truc from Paula Wolfert, which I'm pretty sure is buried in a forum somewhere in the bowels of eGullet: After searing the scallops, while you make the pan sauce, hold them in a 200F oven (the Breville is great for this) on a wire rack over a pan. They'll continue to exude some liquid that otherwise would wind up on the plate and look nasty.

Ah, Printers Row. A good number of years ago we stayed there, at Dearborn and Congress. For the life of me I can't remember what it was called back then, but it's now the Hotel Blake, formerly the Wyndham Blake. In the hotel was an excellent restaurant run by a well known chef, but of course I can't remember those names, either. I do remember what the place looked like, though. There used to be a little Leonidas chocolate shop on the ground floor of -- I think -- the Rookery Building, at LaSalle and Adams.

FWIW (probably not much), I'm definitely not a white chocolate fan, but El Rey is the only one I've been able to actually enjoy without reservation.

Welcome, Jim. There are quite a few eG'ers who either live in Chicagoland or visit there regularly, so please keep us in the loop about the progress of your chocolate shop. Are you looking at any particular neighborhood(s) or 'burb(s)? (This is the chocolate class, yes?)

xkcd is great! Randall Munroe is a physics/math/computer/science/slightly warped person, so many of his strips relate to those topics. Here's another recent food-related one: Lunch And another one: Food Combinations And still another: Kitchen Tips I also used to use xkcd to make a humorous point about statistics or the scientific method to my students, or sometimes just for a laugh. Here's a recent favorite: Human Subjects And another one: Placebo Blocker OK, one more about food, etc.: Vodka

Hello, SL. Please also see the PM I sent you. I've designed many a survey in my time, and I have to echo Deryn's and gfweb's sentiment: it's indeed a poorly designed questionnaire. I don't see how it could possibly help your end product. What sort of product did you have in mind? What class is this for? Did your professor review the survey before you posted it? Without knowing anything more, my advice would be to go and talk (or re-talk) this whole thing over with your prof.

This isn't really a sauce, but how about spooning on the plate some basil oil, which should stay green (this recipe, but add the step of filtering it through a jelly strainer or other ultra-fine mesh device), and some sort of vermouth-citrus emulsion?

Sorry. I couldn't resist. I'm guessing the unknown object is extraterrestrial. Has it moved in the past few hours? (FYI, the comic is Brewster Rockit.)

This is the same video, but on YouTube. Looks like it's at Seaway Mall in Welland, ON, Canada. I'm going to be right by there this summer!

In the YouTube video, shirts are removed, but only by a few of the cutlet, er, anvil pounders. (Food reference: didn't such males used to be called "beefcake"?) Flash mobs, especially opera ones, are just great. I hope to witness one some day. Maybe I'll have to organize one of my own. And speaking (again) of food, here's one from several years ago at Whole Foods, most likely in the Baltimore area.

True. For splatter you need Lucia di Lammermoor's mad scene.

Here are some useful Q & A's from nj.com, entitled "So you ate a bag of Dole salad - Now what?"

And I always thought the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore was the ideal sheet metal fabrication ditty. Also for pounding veal cutlets. (The cutlet-pounding parts are at 1:16 and 2:37. Then check out this flash mob.)

What a great idea for a forum! Sometimes I like music while I cook, sometimes I don't. And, like you, it needs to be energetic (or mostly so -- a Mozart symphony is fine, e.g.). And loud. Which means when Ms. Alex is around, I usually don't listen. My most recent CDs were The Best of Van Morrison and Junction (Hot Club of Detroit w/Cyrille Aimée).

Here's something different for your Bundt pan: Joan Nathan's Gefilte Fish Pâté I've been making it for many years now. Even folks who usually turned up their noses at "regular" gefilte fish tended to like this version -- perhaps because of its firmer texture and more concentrated flavor. And those who did like the regular variety usually preferred this one. One year I served it with homemade horseradish enhanced with lime juice and zest, which was a big hit. Living as I do in the Great Lakes State, I've usually used all whitefish instead of the whitefish/pike combo in the recipe, but I'm getting ready to try it with cod from Costco -- probably made in an actual pâté-type pan, as it'll be only about a pound of fish instead of the recipe's three.

If you're getting just one Bundt pan, I'd stick with the classic shape. If you get into Bundt-ing in a serious way, you can always add. I'm on my second Nordic Ware. It's nonstick, but like MelissaH, I'd probably opt for non-nonstick the next time. I also agree that sufficient Pam, butter, or whatever is essential. I have an unholy assortment of brands for the rest of my bakeware, so I'm not the one to make a recommendation. I do like my Chicago Metallic half-sheet pans very much, though. Have you ever read Bonny Wolf's essay about the Bundt pan? It's in her collection Talking with My Mouth Full (Gail Simmons stole the title for her memoir). And here's her Bundt talk on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, with recipes. And here's the WaPo's obit of its inventor, H. David Dalquist.

I sent a "reminder" email after two business days. They finally replied that evening, and did cancel the order.

These are great. I had no idea. Thank you. On a whim, a bunch of years ago I picked up that very same Egg Cuber, in pristine condition, for something like 50 cents. From time to time I'd bring it into the light to impress and amuse our guests, but I never used it to actually cube an egg. I've tried to sell it for 25 cents at our last few garage sales, but alas, no takers. Perhaps I should have charged 50 cents and included an actual cubed egg.

In the Food Funnies forum, liuzhou just posted about the weekly "Inspect a gadget" series in The Guardian, by Rhik Samadder. And lo and behold, the September 30 article was about the Polyscience Smoking Gun. He loved it.

I am, for an order placed on Jan 1. I called them yesterday and requested a call-back (vs. waiting on hold), but they never did. So I sent an email to customer service about this today, explaining what happened and requesting that my order be cancelled. I received an auto-reply that said "We do our best to respond to all emails within one business day," but of course I'm not counting on that. The good part, if indeed there is one, is that my credit card hasn't been charged yet, either.

@Toronto416 Gorgeous stuff. Thanks for posting this. And I like your analogy. (I own the Bylsma recording on Pro Arte; it's my favorite of all. Many years ago I was fortunate enough to hear him performing the last three suites, in an intimate recital in Detroit.)

Pearls Before Swine: Cheese conquers all

At this very moment I'm soaking some Midnight Black beans (for just a few hours; Steve says they need "little, if any, soaking") which eventually will be combined with onions, carrots, celery, and local Tuscan kale, probably served over rice, for a simple Sunday night dinner. I looked, but the article is nowhere to be found. A site-specific Google search (Sando site:sunset.com) turned up only a brief mention in an April, 2015, article about the home-canning of beans.

"Man bites, stabs another over stirring of chili" The perp bit the other guy's thigh? We take our chili very seriously in the Midwest.