slbunge

I eat them as a side all the time. You won't find them as starchy and filling as a potato so think of them along the line of a side of, say, green beans. Upon consideration from what I said above, I usually steam my beets in the oven. I put pierce unpeeled beets with a fork several times each and then put them in a baking dish with a small amount of water and then cover tightly with aluminum foil. Pop that in a ~350 degF oven for about 30 minutes (depends on the size of the beet) and test for doneness with a fork. If you want to dry roast them, a hotter oven with peeled and sliced or chunked beets would be the ticket. Toss with olive oil or spray the pan before roasting.

I'm one of those who loves beets. Their flavor is minerally, or earthy, and I need simple flavors to compliment: egg, young goat cheese or ricotta, butter, dill. I have a great recipe for a chilled beet soup with cucumber and buttermilk. You add diced cucumber and hard-cooked egg to the soup at the table. I had a great salad of roasted (but cooled) beets with poached egg, asparagus tips, haricor verts, frisee, and goat cheese at a restaurant called Nectar in Washington DC. Mostly, I roast them with the skins on. When done (mild resistance to a skewer), slip off the skins and slice. Add a dollop of butter, a bit of cracked pepper, and enjoy. Oh, and if you have the greens, as squeat suggests, a saute is nice. They also add a nice flavor to broths or stocks.

Is that a coconut-something? Great blog by the way...had to catch up from minimal eGullet time this past weekend. Great way to avoid working on a monday morning.

Polish immigrants have a very similar dessert called kolaczki (pronounced kolach-ky). My sister-in-law's, great aunt (Aunt Martha to just about everyone she knows) makes the best kolaczki I've ever had. She starts with a lard-based pastry dough with a good bit of cake yeast, a couple of eggs and milk. Her fillings are a dollop of either apricot jam or raspberry jam. Rather than round, she starts with a square, adds the filling in a diagonal line, then draws two diagonal corners into the middle over the top of the filling. She also dusts with sugar to get a nice carmel sweetness on top. The finished product has a nice balance of flake and chewiness. Just had some in March and now I want more. Edit: Spelling (the horror!)

The most lively dinner-table discussions I have ever been involved in (friends, family or otherwise) were quite clearly subjects where no one was well versed. Lots of passion, plenty of wine and very few facts. Next time I see it happening, perhaps I will try to steer the conversation to the political situation in Finland and see what happens.

We were there a couple of months ago and that dessert was the highlight for me as well. Spouse thought the chocolate pudding with cardamom espuma was better. But, of course, she is wrong.

It's not finger food but there is a recipe for Apple Salad with Cabrales and Toasted Almonds in Food and Wine. Recipe is available here. I'm a sucker for virtually anything with cabrales.

That was the hardest I have laughed in a while. Thanks for the link.

Were you based out of San Pedro? One of the guys I work with used to dive for Urchins there. He has since hung up the fins and rubber knee pads.

Actually, I was paying attention to the stove and it looks great. I long for the old stove we had in our last house (sold with the house). Great 50-ish year old range that had taken a few lumps. Four burners on the right with oven and broiler below. Left side was a prep area on top and pot/pan storage below. Worked great but had endearing tempramental qualities: if two burners were lit, usually the pilot wouldn't light a third; hot spots in the oven; oven temp setting from dial was not accurate; etc. Great stove, made us work for our admiration. Another thing about your blog is the window into your town. Seems sort of unspoiled though it is close to New Orleans. I had heard from friends who live in NO that there is vast urban-to-suburban movement accross the lake. Perhaps the tract housing and Target/Walmarts are going up elsewhere. I hope so for your sake because the grocery, farm stands, and snoball shops seem ideal.

There is nothing better than a wedge of good iceburg lettuce, a very small amount of onion, and a well-made blue cheese dressing. Though I consider myself a food enthusiast (read: snob) I'd take the 'wedge salad' over the organic micro-greens most days.

Though most would say my diet is a much better match for white, I vastly prefer reds that fall in my price-range so that is usually what I drink. Exception is a warm summer day when a chilled, crisp, citrus-ey white does just the trick.

Just wanted to revive this thread and share my recent experiences. Though I came late to finding this course, Jackal10 was kind enough to continue the sourdough starter offer and it arrived safe and sound this past week. I added about half of what arrived to a batter of equal parts flour and water. It took basically all day to get things bubbling (house was colder than the advised temp) so I fed it once before bed and left it atop the refrigerator. By morning, I had this. Quite promising. So, I proceeded to whip up a batch of bread following the instructions in the course materials. Note that I used King Arthur AP flour rather than bread flour. The protein content matched one of the notes in this thread above so I chose not to add any bread flour. I may on the next batch, just for comparison. A snafu of timing kept me from baking this morning as anticipated so the dough sat in a colander, wrapped in a towel for 26 hours. A bit longer than recommended. I didn't have a suitable basket and thought that the colander might provide a bit more air movement. This is the bread prior to baking. Note the star on the pre-cut view, that is the pattern of holes from the colander. My four slashes could have been better placed to provide a larger square so the spring was a bit more even. As it was, the bread appeared to have a rather severe tumor growing out the top. (Also, pardon the hurriedly opened paper from the butter that dominates the background.) Regardless, the bread baked up nicely. I baked for 40 minutes at 450F with a cheapo stone on the floor of the oven. The bottom was a bit charred. The flavor was quite nice. Hint of sour, nice sort of toasted nut flavors. The texture was chewy and the crust had a great tooth. I wanted a bit more open texture. Perhaps a longer proof pre-refrigeration or less time in the refrigerator? In all, well worth the effort and I will continue to work the recipe, especially now that I have a jar of starter available.

One more thing. What method do you use for feeding the dough in and receiving the results. I often felt I needed a third hand or an assistant. The method I used was the hold the dough being fed with my left hand above the rollers, my right hand was turning the handle. The outfeed sheets would sort of clump below the machine until I stopped and straightened it out. Draping the dough over the top of the machine seemed like it should work but it seemed to stretch the dough as the rollers competed with the weight of the dough dangling over the back side and the friction of the dough against the stainless. My method worked but it was clunky.

My first attempt at stuffed pasta was met with mixed results. I didn't have a camera with a charged battery available so I don't have photographic evidence. The course was a great help. My biggest issue was that as I got to 7 on my Atlas machine, the sheets began to sort of tear. As if the layers of dough were shearing. I suspect this means I should have kneaded the dough longer to develop the gluten. Any other reasons I would have this trouble. I ended up stopping at 6 after having troubles with the thinnest setting. Other than the rather, er, rustic look of the little pillows things tasted really great and it was a great learning experience. Oh, the meal was butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter and bittersweet chocolate (recipe adapted from here) paired with rapini sauteed in EVOO and a bit of garlic. The sharpness of the rapini was just the ticket to balance the sweetness of the pasta filling.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this fine course. In an odd twist, yesterday I was thinking about what to do with a butternut squash we have laying about. I immediately thought of ravioli. Lo and behold, this morning I ran smack into this thread. The stars have aligned. Anywho, very well done. Can't wait to get started.

I always thought that Spandau Ballet was the Muzak of 80s new wave anyway. Back on topic. I like a bit of quiet, instrumental music at restaurants. Mostly, I find it programmed too loudly and it becomes sort of distracting.

I also can't stand having to call a particular size of cup by a pseudo-Italian name. I do, however, benefit from the Starbucks marketing machine. When travelling for business I can usually count on Starbucks saving me from having to drink 'office coffee'. Not as good as the stuff I make at home, but worth a stop by the nearest strip mall.

Also not exactly on topic... Is there anyone that has an 'in' with the food staff over at the whitehouse? Might be a fun Q&A. Wonder if the secret service would have to approve.

Dude. You are a freak. Just kidding of course. I do find it interesting that the 'milk chocolate for the people' in candy bars in England (Cadbury, mostly) has a much smoother texture and a bit more flat taste than US chocolate in Hershey's or Mars products. As an aside, what sorts of cocoa powder do people normally use? We have a box of Valrhona on the shelf but I'm thinking about branching out.

K-Paul's in New Orleans is somewhat famous for their fresh coconut cake. You must request it when you reserve and even then they cannot guarantee that it will be available. I requested the cake while there this past October but, alas, they couldn't find coconut that was up to their standards so it was not available. Both hosts and the server were aware of our order and went out of their way to apologize and suggest a suitable alternative. Just curious, is red velvet cake chocolate?

I'm in the habit of tossing parsnips in when I do mashed potatoes as well. After boiling them, I mash the potatoes by hand but run the parsnips through a food mill before stirring them into the potatoes. The food mill (or perhaps a ricer) helps to leave the stringy part of the flesh behind.

We were turned on to Valrhona chocolate by a deli in Madison, WI whose only dessert available was Valrhona brownies. Holy cow were those good. When eating plain chocolate my favorite is Valrhona Le Noir (61%). For filled things (truffles, etc) I prefer the chocolate to be Valrhona Guanaja (70%). Anyone tried the Vahlrona easter egg collection? Mmmm.

I have said it before and I will say it again, Point Loma Seafoods is amazing. I whole-heartedly agree that it is worth the cab fare. While there, if you have a few hours a stroll around the area would also be nice, the terrain is quite a bit different than the convention center area (steep hills in Point Loma vs low marina areas by the bay).

I'm a fan of PBR as well. Straightforward American beer that is reasonably clean tasting. Much better, in my opinion, than MGD or Bud. But I'm still pissed that they left Milwaukee.