chromedome

I have used both V8 and tomato juice to thin/rehydrate the sauce in tomato-sauced pasta dishes that have been in the steam table for a while, but that's a niche use-case that's of little pertinence to most home cooks.

My cheapie B&D rice cooker crapped out yesterday while I was prepping meals for the in-laws. My GF and I each had one when we moved in together, one of which we kept and the other went to one of our daughters. So the casualty was either 8 or 14 years old, depending if it was hers or mine. Either way, it's hard to argue with the TCO on a product that sells for about $20. So I bought another one.

I don't know if anyone here buys this kind of thing, but some "Big Carrot" brand juices are being recalled in Ontario because they potentially contain...glass. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-05-06/eng/1620352012624/1620352018407?utm_source=r_listserv

When I was out doing some garden prep at my stepdaughter's place the other day, their mastiff was busily digging in the uncultivated portion of the area where my garden is. To my wonderment, she was digging up and eating the (damaging) white grubs that grow into June bugs. What a good girl!

I'm not sure it's going to move the needle on food cost as much as some of you think. In my much less-elevated restaurant I paid more for some of my produce than I did for ingredients like sturgeon and wild boar. They weren't serving supermarket-grade meats, and I'm pretty sure they won't be serving supermarket-grade vegetables either. They'll be dealing with boutique foragers, farmers, etc. The things that aren't innately "high-spec" must be made so, which requires time and skilled labor that would almost certainly negate much of the cost advantage.

It's been relaunched in a limited way by the old company's former CEO, under the name of Outdoor Supply Hardware. Same look, same feel, many of the same locations. Apparently they're doing well within their limited footprint. https://chainstoreage.com/store-spaces/orchard-supply-hardware-to-be-revived-sort-of

I will add that serving it out of the casserole dish is inappropriate. One needs a Welcome "Mat out of Hell."

I'm an omnivore, but I don't consider some form of flesh to be a necessity at every meal. (shrug) It doesn't affect the likelihood of me sliding my knees under a table at EMP, which was already effectively nil.

Well, there seems to be a demand for elevated vegan in NYC (you have to figure if there's demand anywhere, it's there...). There's also big-name precedent, with Ducasse and Passard going at least mostly-veg at some of their restaurants. I own Ducasse's Spoon cookbook, though I'll confess I haven't cooked anything from it.

After reading the many mentions of lentil-based faux liverwurst on this thread, I made David Lebowitz' "faux gras" last night. My GF has been craving liverwurst but can't have it (no red meat because it makes her RA flare up), so this seemed like something that would be worth at least a test batch. Turned out pretty good, and hit the spot for her quite nicely. My only quibble is the color, and I think I might add the tiniest bit of grated beet (or maybe even just a few drops of beet juice) to give it a hint of pink. I think uncooked beet would also give it a hint of that slightly metallic minerality you get with liver.

LOL Yup, you'll fit right in...

You say that like it's a bad thing? Probably my own style could best be described as "chaotic, but within boundaries;" more like a canal than a river, to draw an awkward analogy. I like to delude myself that if I ever live in one place long enough I'll get to the "place for everything" stage, but the reality is that my ADD will probably prevent me from attaining the "...and everything in its place."

An entirely different kind of "fun stuff," but last week when I was in the supermarket I found a couple of packages of fresh morels that were marked down 50 percent because they were approaching their "use-by" date (and yes, just about every part of that sentence still fills me with wonder). The same supermarket (Superstore, if you're wondering) also had heirloom tomatoes at $2/lb last week. They weren't as good as the best ones from my garden, but they were right up there with the "not-best" ones. Decidedly better than I would expect from a supermarket at this time of year.

The possibility occurred to me belatedly, but - in the immortal words of Austin Powers - "Sadly, that bridge had sailed."

I knew the "completely logical spot" part would resonate for a lot of people, which is why I mentioned it. In fairness, I bake bread every week and have owned the Zo for five years or so, and this is the first time it's happened. I fall between you and Ed, ordinarily: I'm not one of those "a place for everything, and everything in its place" types, because by the time I figure out an optimal spot for everything I'm usually packing up to move again and the process starts all over (the three years I spent at my last rental was, sadly, one of my longer stints). I *am* ordinarily a creature of habit, so most things tend to gravitate to - if not the same place - at least a consistent shortlist of spots. It's relatively rare for something to go missing. Coffee delivery from the earlier-waking spouse is a Very Good Thing. In our household it's me, and my GF unaccountably prefers her coffee at room temperature, so I place a mug on her nightstand in the morning while she sleeps. There's actually some context there, which I'll probably post in the "How are you doing?" thread.

I shall never again put the paddles from my Zojirushi bread machine...somewhere...while the pan is waiting to be washed. To clarify: I ran the dishwasher with the paddles in it, then did the sink full of hand-wash items later in the evening. The next morning, when I went to assemble the bread machine and put it away, the paddles were nowhere to be found and have not yet turned up despite a diligent search. This suggests to me that it wasn't a random "put them down somewhere and walk away," but the more insidious "I should put these in this specific, COMPLETELY LOGICAL SPOT where I won't forget them..."

I invariably skewer the veg separately. That way I can cook both veg and meat to the correct doneness, which seldom coincide properly.

I use a grapefruit spoon.

Wow. So... "Don't worry your pretty lil' head about it" is a show of respect? Who knew?

Yup, and a literal LOL.

It's Google-able, and totally made my morning. We had a similar moment here in Canada a couple of years ago (I believe I mentioned it on the "bastardized condiments" thread). When Mayochup was introduced (a mix of mayo and ketchup) it caused a great deal of amusement in our Indigenous community, because that sounds like the slang for "shitfaced"* in Cree. *(ie very, very drunk, in case that term itself is not widely used elsewhere)

They're on my (lengthy) to-get list, but I have done the equivalent by wetting kitchen towels and securing them around the pan with a length of twine. It's a PITA, but I don't bake cakes very often so it's not a big deal.

LOL Okay, now I get it.

Well, it's not especially clever, but... in the absence of oven-specific advice, wrapping the cake pan with insulating strips (Wilton sells them) is a universally-applicable option that helps keep the edges from over-baking before the middle's done.