chromedome

Welcome, Gary. It's a great place to hang around, socialize, and learn. I'm in Saint John, so I suspect I'll probably take a drive up the old highway to see you at some point in the not-too-distant future.

So...after a bit of Googling I presume you're in Gagetown? Duh. Never mind, I looked up your introductory post in the new members' thread.

A former colleague of mine did something similar with a Dremel, tapering the bolster to just about nothing for the last 1/8" or so. He did it in stages because he wasn't sure how hot the knife could get without ruining its temper. He was also the first person I'd ever met who rounded the knife's back edge to reduce wear and tear on his index finger.

My girlfriend and I were walking out of the supermarket one day, shortly after moving in together. She had an odd smirk on her face and was shaking her head, so I asked her what was up. "This is so weird," she said. "We walked in there to buy two things, and we're walking out a minute later with two things. And they're the same two things!" (I hasten to add that I've also frequently walked into a store for two things, and walked out with $80 of unplanned purchases that were too good to pass up...)

I can't answer for JNW, but personally I avoid knives with a bolster because it's a PITA to sharpen one after the first couple of years. That being said, for $2 I'd have bought it too. Bolster or no bolster.

I've done that. You'll get a surprisingly good germination rate (probably because they're a sort of small bean) and they'll grow nicely in a pot indoors.

I've spoken to vegans who tell me that a really persuasive faux-meat product, one that genuinely could be mistaken for meat, wouldn't sit well with them...never mind a "real" meat generated in a lab. I guess part of the impetus for the question was an exchange between my girlfriend and one of her co-workers, who happened to be a vegan. My sweetie doesn't like the cold, and habitually wore a faux-fur coat to work that winter. Her co-worker, while acknowledging that it wasn't real fur, felt that she'd still be unable to wear it because it was too realistic. "Really?" my girlfriend told her. "Honey, if I was cold and you were slow, I'd wear you!" (It's even funnier when you know that my girlfriend is a cute and tiny redhead...her co-worker was aghast.)

They have a new, high-end fresh/local format they're playing with, outside Seattle. Main and Vine

I remember getting all teary-eyed when she and her brother regaled me with a spot-on rendition of "Lydia the Tattoed Lady."

I gave my daughter that movie eight years ago, when she was 15 and had a huge thing for the Beatles. She wasn't your typical Millennial teen. I remember overhearing her on the phone with a friend, venting at length over how Patty Andrews' (of the Andrews Sisters) comedic chops were under-rated by movie buffs. On another occasion, when I asked her what she was doing, she told me she was making up a playlist of "a few of my favorite Cab Calloway songs" for the same friend. Mind you, she also had a blast singing along to the Ramones and X so it's not like she had just chosen the big-band era as her "thing."

One thing I'd forgotten to mention about grapefruit spoons is that they work really well for scraping the gills out of portobello mushrooms before stuffing/cooking.

I usually look for grinders with a Peugeot mechanism as well. I went through a ton of mills when I was younger, then got one with Peugeot workings that outlived all the others put together (it died when the casing was broken accidentally by one of my kids). In the thirty or so intervening years I've had two others die on me under similar circumstances, but the mechanism always worked well. Right now I have a matched pair of them in brushed steel and polycarbonate (pretty accident-resistant) which hold the salt and pepper for my table. I know "fresh-ground" salt is a ludicrous affectation, but I like the look of the matched set.

That's pretty much the core of my listening, too. I remember such a glow of paternal pride when my kids were 10 and 6, bombing down the highway outside Halifax with them in the back seat singing along lustily to the Buzzcocks and the Ramones.

I have two different kinds. One is shaped like a regular teaspoon, with a rounded tip; the other has a slightly pointed tip. Since I don't use them for eating grapefruit I can't advise which is better for that purpose, but I see little difference between 'em for how they're used in my house. I just reach into the drawer, and use whichever comes to hand first. Mine, like gfweb's, are serrated on both sides (or more accurately, all the way around the tip for approximately 60% of the spoon's length).

Quince is wonderful stuff. Very tart, deeply flavorful and subtly floral...the latter a reminder that apples, pears and quinces are all part of the rose family.

LOL Ditto. I have (IIRC) a dozen, and I believe I've used them maybe twice for grapefruit.

An odd little thing that might work as a gift is grapefruit spoons. Remember them? Like a teaspoon with a serrated edge, for scooping out your grapefruit in the morning? I know they may seem quaint to many of you...the culinary equivalent of cufflinks or antimacassars, perhaps...but I have several, and find them surprisingly useful for any number of things, such as scraping the pulp from little Delicata or Sweet Dumpling squash (two of my favorites) or whisking the seeds and membranes out of halved peppers. Faster than a paring knife, easier to handle in a gloved hand (if the peppers are hot) and with notably less potential for cutting more deeply than intended.

Somebody has to say it, so I'll step up. "Everyone goes to Rick's." Apparently there is a replica of Rick's-from-the-movie in Casablanca. I doubt the food is worth going for, but personally (having worn out several copies of the movie) I'd take a picture there.

If you open the can without shaking it, there can be anything from 1/2 cm to 1/2 can of "cream" separated on top. You just spoon that off, and use the rest for another purpose. You'll find that higher-quality brands have more cream, so buy one each of the brands available to you in your location and compare them. It might be possible to buy cans of just coconut cream. I've done that in the past, but found the availability to be spotty. In the UK, I'd suggest trying Caribbean or Indian/Asian groceries.

The rules we teach in food safety training are to separate into shallow, small containers (less thermal mass, more surface area for evaporative cooling) and for larger quantities to use a water bath or chilling instruments of some sort (gel packs, etc) to bring down the temperature quickly. I keep a large number of gel packs in the freezer, and will drop anywhere from 1 to 8 into a pot (depending on its size) to cool it in a hurry. Stirring is important, btw, whether you nestle your pot into an ice water bath or drop cooling gel packs directly into the food. I've taken a Dutch oven full of stew from a simmer to room temperature in about 5 minutes, that way. At room temp, you're not going to overwork your refrigerator even if you put the whole pot in there. If you plan to portion some or all of it for leftovers or freezing, of course it makes sense to do this first and distribute the containers around your fridge so the (relative) warmth isn't concentrated in one spot. Don't stack them, because they'll keep each other warm.

The canopy should be the right size; 10 X 10 is the most common (and those that aren't are usually smaller, rather than bigger). One thing to check is the legs. Most brands stand up vertically, but a few splay the legs and may take up more space than the stated canopy size.

Have you tried separating and using just the coconut "cream" (not creamed coconut) as opposed to whole coconut milk? I've used it in lieu of dairy cream for a vegan ice cream (worked pretty well) and suspect it might work in a pourable caramel.

I had two notable examples of that while my restaurant was open. The first was two couples from Germany...one had booked months ahead, the other came off the road because of bad weather and followed our signs. They got talking in the dining room, and it turned out they lived a block apart from each other at home in Germany. Go figure. The second involved an older couple travelling with their grandson (the boy was keen on cooking, so I let him help me make the fresh pasta for my lobster ravioli and pappardelle. He was thrilled). A younger couple turned out to be from the same state, and then from the same town, and then from the same neighbourhood. Eventually it turned out that the older couple's grandson and younger couple's son were on the same hockey team, and they'd somehow managed never to meet. I remember being surprised that there was junior hockey that far south. IIRC they were from somewhere in one of the Carolinas. I guess that means the NHL Hurricanes are having at least a modest impact.

Alliteration is a wonderful thing on the commercial menu. I can remember having an extra couple of cases of romaine, and making rosemary-romaine soup. It went pretty well. So did the chicken and chestnuts, come to think of it....

Twenty isn't that large a quantity, if the price is reasonable. Two or three for yourself (so you don't have to do this again any time soon), eight or 10 as lightweight Christmas gifts, and probably a handful distributed to other interested eGulleters. I've reconciled myself to Y peelers, simply because I haven't been able to find a decent vertical model for years, but I'd cheerfully pay to have one of the 20 shipped to me here in Canada.