jayt90

Appropos of nothing, the before photo of the room had the camera well out of the serving window, and it was daylight. The dark photo shows the flash bouncing off the nearest white surface, and the camera shuts it down, as if it has enough light for a good picture.

Cali, I'll bet we are all glad this turned out so well, first time out. Do you have any shots of folks dining? How did they like the salad? I think the complaint about too spicy rice was just a reaction to parsley, foreign to some. Your budgeting is just slightly over $3 per, but that could be the chicken, since these folks don't have huge appetites and half a breast might be enough. How did the co-ordinator react.? The C comes across as a conservative, provincial pain in your early reports. This has been a great blog!

When you use barley in lieu of arborio for risotto, are you still doing hte same long stirring/adding stock process? or is the barley a little easier? ← Barley should take twice as long as rice, but it not necessary to stir continuously. Whether it's rice or barley, you can check it's progress every few minutes, adding hot stock as needed. Constant stirring is for OCD fussbudgets.

Rasteau has been good in the past. I think it made Classics when Lloyd Evans was there. I'll look for this, and maybe the Concho Y Toro. Got the Marqis , but the Kilakanoon is probably gone.

Most homes like my mom's, in Strathroy, Ont. have no kitchen staff, they bring the food in and reheat in microwaves. My mom cooked fairly adventurous meals all her life, just like Maggie's grandma, but she adapted to the bland food at the home in her late 80's, telling me, "I've never had a bad meal here." They get one shot of alcohol before dinner, if permitted. I'm not sure how I could adapt, but I think the baby boomers will be more than a little demanding, when the time comes.

The Marquis Phil looks good, but there is not much so I'll rush out to a Vintages Corner. The Kilakanoon doesn't show up in store supplies. I'll have to try the Tunisian pinot noir (Didot?) at $13. The Star review was good.

We can only go by the photos, for both brands, but the Staub appears to hold a lot more. The LC is shallow, just like the traditional Moroccan vessels. Although that is type I'm looking for, I know that at some point it would be overloaded and might boil over.

Yes, but I would try to get the larger bones out first.

The 11" pan shown is huge compared to North African tagines. There is a middle Eastern store nearby with a $70 tagine, probably half the size of the Staub. But it is so much more delightful to look at, and will make a better presentation when the top is removed at the table.

Sausage from a loin? But some of those loin roasts would be good brined and cured in the fridge for a few days, then rolled in peameal and sliced thick for breakfast or lunch.

Fridge thawing is safer. If the frozen roast goes into a slow oven for several hours, some parts of the interior will thaw and spend a long time in the danger zone above 40F. If someone got sick (unlikely) this would be an obvious source. I use a microwave to get a roast to an 'almost thawed' state, when there is no time for a fridge defrost.

I have a large set of Sabatier carbon steel knives, made 20-80 years ago, mostly purchased from http://leevalley.com. The older smaller knives didn't have quite the cachet or quality of the more recent Sabatiers, primarily because good steel was expensive, and they were made thin. Recently Lee Valley Tools has offered a replica of a 7" carbon steel 'French Peasant's Knife', at $23.50. I got one a few weeks ago, and it is strong, balanced, sharp, and still sharp after working through the Xmas season. It is a great small, all purpose knife, and I expect to get a few more to give to students or interested cooks.

The $1.99 price tag didn't clue you in? ← The maximum i have spent on a screw cap wine is $25, and it keeps climbing.

Stroh is actually available in a number of different proof levels - here in Canada we get "54" which is definitely not overpowering. ← Bought it yesterday at LCBO Vintages, where the 93 rating from WS or Wine Tidings was touted. This stuff is potent, and 54 refers to 54% or 108 proof. Not bad, for $28. Too bad it smells like cheap perfume. I suppose I' ll get through it somehow, maybe with aspartame based cola.

I have used them, and they make a great brew, but are hard to clean. The oils, and very fine grounds easily stain the cloth and are difficult to remove. I wouldn't use strong detergent, but a mild non scented soap would help, plus soaking in a baking soda solution. A lot of bother for my morning routine, and I usually tossed them after a month or so. I prefer the metal #4 baskets, which pass all of the flavour with a bit of sediment. If you want to try one again, they can be found small stores run by ethnic South or Central Americans, or Italo-Iberian stores. I have no idea if it is used in Asia, but maybe in the cofee producing countries.

A Coleman's paste made with water will be similar to Chinese mustard, raw, and spicy-hot. A tin of Keene's says to let the paste sit for at least ten minutes to develop flavour. I just checked the label on Maille Dijon: water, mustard, vinegar, salt, citric acid, and sulphite. I believe it is aged before packing but don't know how long. While the mellow mustard flavor holds well after opening, the spicy-hot nature subsides in a few days; I suspect oxidation is at work here. A domestic (yellow) mustard is similar but has turmeric and paprika added. Considering the low price,I doubt if it is aged before packing.

It will be good braised in a curry, just like breast of lamb, but without the fat. (There is a lot of collagen and water in that b. of v. tissue.) Starting a veal demi-glace is another issue, but it will work well. I seem to remember something about roasted tendrils. Has anyone had these?

Yes, it is on hold when I have to leave the house or sleep. If the assembly is large or frozen, I start on high for about an hour, then go to hold. Maybe I should do some temp. tests and contact Rival if there is a problem.

I have had poor results with Creuset on the stovetop, Results were stringy and dry. Last week I had a locally grown Hereford blade roast, and I had to use it in the crock pot while away at work. I used the warm or hold setting on the roast, vegs, and stock that were all room temp. I had already learned that higher temps would not work in this large oval crock pot. The resulting stewed beef was great, the best I've done in recent years. I checked the internal temp of the blade rost (I know, not a stew) and it was 165F after 9 hours. The gristle and collagen were nicely soft, and the worst part of the tied roast was only slightly stringy. And of course a great broth for the gravy. I.m not a huge crock pot fan, but this time it worked better than the exalted Le Creuset dutch oven.

Rochdale was built in the mid 60's on Bloor St. near Spadina with CMHC mortgage money. I beleve a group counter-culture people (including Dennis Lee) organized a company to take over the high rise while it was still being built They kept up the payments and opened Rochdale College, and residences. Two floors were aboriginal; the other floors were counter culture, and easy to get into. There were a lot of free or low cost courses, and also drug dealers; the cops loved his, because traffic was mostly in one place. By the mid 70's the college had failed and the place was bankrupt, so CMHC took it back and it became a senior's residence. I'm not sure what it is now.

Can you get Trio (Nestle) gravy mix? It is used by most diners and chip trucks in Canada for the gravy part of poutine. It is actually quite good when made with stock instead of water. Adding foie gras at the finish would be true to Quebec chip truck standards, but would not elevate to Picard's or Jamie Kennedy's bistro level. Be sure to use real chese curds!

Eden Vale Riesling, from Henschke, and others, is alway on my list of desirable whites to acquire.

I'm not sure ypu can equate air cured proscuitto with smoked country hams.

The main objection to individual raw milk producers is the excrement factor. As clean as the operation may be, there is always a chance that warm sloppy cowshit has dribbled down to the udder and all the germs, salmonella, e colli, and TB, are not necessarily eliminated before milking the teats. That is why governments want to pasteurise the milk. If the cow's excrement was harder, and more discete, like , say, a sheep or a horse, we would not be having this discussion. I think it is incumbent on Mr. Schmidt to explain how he can keep the cows' teats not just clean but sterile.

It is Greg Sorbara. His family started to use raw milk when they had their own cow on a farm in B.C. Apparently Greg was one of the milkers. They now make the trek to Thornhill to get a weekly supply of raw milk, cheese and other products.