Alex

Starbucks Via Columbian medium roast (a Costco acquisition) isn't bad at all. We take it on trips as an alternative to the usually terrible in-room coffee service. It hardly takes up any packing space. At my workplace, it's just a standard Keurig. Pods are in a drawer. Barely worth a picture.

This is a great question, with some intriguing posts so far. Ever since starting Lipitor (atorvastatin) I've been extrememly careful about not eating even a little bit of grapefruit. I don't miss it terribly, but it would be nice to have that option if the occasion arose. The official Lipitor web site has a link to a pamphlet that says grapefruit juice "Contains one or more components that inhibit CYP 3A4 and can increase plasma concentrations of atorvastatin, especially with excessive grapefruit juice consumption (>1.2 liters per day)." However, it also says that consumption of 240 ml of grapefruit per day produced a 16% increase in the maximum plasma concentration of the drug and a 37% increase in bioavailability (unaltered drug in the bloodstream) Regarding JasonW's comment, according to the Wikipedia entry for CYP3A4, "Variability in CYP3A4 function can be determined noninvasively by the erythromycin breath test (ERMBT). The ERMBT estimates in vivo CYP3A4 activity by measuring the radiolabelled carbon dioxide exhaled after an intravenous dose of (14C-N-methyl)-erythromycin." IV erythromycin doesn't sound "noninvasive" to me, but what do I know? The NIH pamphlet that haresfur mentioned says, "Watkins and his coworkers have found that a chemical common to grapefruit and sour oranges, dihydroxybergamottin, is likely the molecular culprit." According to Wikipedia, regular old bergamottin also is found in grapefruit juice and shares responsibility for this enzyme effect. The entry adds, "To a lesser extent, bergamottin is also present in the essential oils of other citrus fruits." So now I'm wondering about Earl Grey tea. The amount of oil of bergamot probably is miniscule enough to not cause any untoward effects, but it still might be worth investigating.

After an extended period of cookbook pruning, I had to add one more: Ad Hoc at Home. I'll be making the Santa Maria-style tri-tip tomorrow night.

Well, it'll be three weeks of not ingesting empty or mostly empty calories (except for cocktails with egg whites), which couldn't hurt and might help.

I second Candyfreak and David Foster Wallace. If I could stretch the definition just a bit, along with the decade (to 2000; and let's not debate right here when the century actually started), I'd add Hot Sour Salty Sweet, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

Order placed on the 15th, shipped on the 16th (from California), arrived on the 24th. That's about average for ground shipping at this time of year. The product seems fine. Tonight I sprinkled a bit on a bowl of chestnut soup. That worked.

Barley malt syrup When I was into bread-baking, I used to use it for rye and whole wheat. Those are some good-looking rolls, CC. You probably can find malt syrup at a well-stocked health food store, or maybe even a Meijer. There's always mail order, of course.

Have fun!

Here's the article

I figure if Keller (and the Voltaggio brothers) recommend Market Hall, that's good enough for me, so I just placed an order for two jars @ $11 each. Shipping is a little expensive, at $8 for an order of less than $25, but the product itself is less expensive than elsewhere, so it's a wash. There's also a 10% discount coupon available until Dec. 17 -- enter LUXURY in the appropriate box at checkout.

It depends how much grinding and tamping you want to do. If you don't mind the heresy, as some would say, of an automatic machine, Costco has the Saeco Odea Go II for $399.99 shipped, until December 19. Ours has been hissing away merrily for nearly two years now. Do the regular maintenance (e.g., clean the brew group), put up with a couple of quirks, and life is good.

Thanks for the bacteria vs. spores/toxins info. Guess I didn't read quite closely enough.

Yes, it's quite enough. See my post.

As we know, a good guideline is "When in doubt, throw it out," but in this case I'm with emannths. Roasting and stock-making should kill 'em all (the bacteria, not the diners). And it'd been only a few hours past the "OK to leave out" period. Here's a reference.

If I were in your position I'd be overjoyed at being assigned beef tenderloin for my final exam. Granted it's not as beefy-flavorful as, say, a serious dry-aged ribeye, but it's still tasty while providing a more blank canvas for your sauce, so to speak. Plus it's an easy prep and relatively easy to cook properly. If you're using pre-cut portions, you can do a very quick sear, then set them aside until you're ready to put them in a low oven to finish. If you're cooking a whole tenderloin (don't forget to remove the silverskin!), it takes nicely to a mushroom-based stuffing. If your instructor values classic sauces, a perfect béarnaise would be ideal. As you probably know, you can hold it in a warmed Thermos-type bottle. A port-based sauce also works nicely with this cut. (Cook shallots in butter; add port, red wine and rosemary sprig; reduce; strain. Just before serving, reheat, add a bit of demi-glace and salt/pepper to taste, then swirl in more butter.)

As Jaymes and others have said, she was the right person for the right approach at the right time--that time being 1961 to 1963, when the country was fascinated with all things French, due in large part to Jacqueline Kennedy's influence.

By a wonderful coincidence, I caught an episode of Good Eats yesterday in which Alton Brown used that exact method of sugar + draining in a colander. He reduced the exuded liquid but used it to brush the top crust, not as a thickening agent. He used tapioca and apple jelly for that. Here's the recipe.

One small turkey per person. That way everyone gets to take home leftover meat AND a carcass.

Full story here. Much ado about nothing? A piffle-y bit of fluff? Or has Slate got something there?

Today's Grand Rapids Press/milve.com has an amusing article about the McRib.

Wow. Sous-vide beaver tail. Never in my wildest imagination (and it's pretty wild) could I have conceived those words being side-by-side.

Thanks, Linda. Turns out she decided to go to Franco for one of her dinners, so your timing is impeccable. I'll forward your info to her, and post an update after getting her post-dinner report.

The elusive Kit-Kat Dark (now available from Amazon!)

Here's a good reference.

I'm certainly not an expert about such matters, but I suspect it's an AC frequency issue. The U.S. and Canada run on 60 Hz AC; eastern Japan runs on on 50 Hz. Your transformer probably converts voltage but not frequency. Do a Google search on <convert 50 hertz to 60 hertz> for possible solutions.