Abra

Oops, my bad on not reading the recipe carefully before posting. If the puree doesn't cook, everything i said is just hogwash. Thanks, nightscotsman.

That's great news about IKEA cabinets. As for the hood, I've been amazed over the past few years when I was working as a personal chef in other peoples' kitchens at the progress that's been made in the downdraft vents used on island cooktops with no hoods. At first I thought it would be a recipe for disaster, but the higher end ones work amazingly well.

Chufi, that beautiful plum sauce makes me laugh, because today I was doing plums for you too. I picked blueberries, blackberries, and rhubarb in the garden, and combined them with some truly wonderful plums I salvaged from an abandoned orchard, put them all under a crisp topping, and put it in the freezer for you to have for breakfast when you're here. The island fruit season will be over by then, and I wanted you to have some of everything. I also made a deep dish blackberry pie for the freezer, and then, because I'd made extra pie crust dough, I made some treats for my husband, using some new ingredients from my pantry. With this delicious goo that I got for my husband's morning toast I made this just by spreading some of the praline on the dough and then sprinkling it with cacao nibs. This maybe looks a bit better than it tastes (the opposite of my usual baking!) but it's still pretty good. Then with this interesting, tart and tangy cider reduction I made this a galette filled with apples that I caramelized in butter with a little sugar, nutmeg, and the boiled cider. After piling the apples on the dough, I gave it a light microplaned dusting of farmhouse cheddar, drizzled the apple pan glaze over the cheese, and baked. Actually, I underbaked it a bit, alas, because the glaze was in danger of burning before the crust was perfectly brown. Inside, it looked like this I seriously need someone to come over right now and get the galette out of the house. Possibly because it has no cinnamon, my husband, the ostensible eater of this creation, doesn't love it. Whereas I, unfortunately, think it's one of the best apple desserts I've ever made. If I weren't typing at this minute I'd probably be eating it. Dangerously good.

As a birthday present to PJ, I couldn't resist making his picture look a little more avatarical, since Ellen's on vacation. I'll have one of those naanini, please.

You guys are lucky - I've never seen a skin-on butt here. I might be able to get the butcher to do one for me. Is it a big improvement?

Duh, I think get it now. The water content is a function of the temperature, so by the time it gets to soft ball, no matter how much water there was in the puree to start with, it's all going to end up equal. The only difference would be the time it takes to get up to temp, right? Thanks for the advice to heat the berries before straining, I was just going to puree them in the food processor.

After refusing for a couple of years to even look at this thread, I finally read it all at one go on a stay-home-being-sick afternoon. Whew. It's always fun to join in when the beta testing is done and the great tips have been developed. Would someone please address the fruit puree consistency issue? I see that some people have whizzed fresh or frozen fruit, while others are using commercial purees. It seems to me that the water content is going to vary considerably - does one adjust the added water based on the thickness of the puree? For example, I have a ton of blackberries. But if I puree them, blackberries being mainly seeds, won't I just end up with a thickish juice, not remotely plausible as a puree?

Gorgeous, Heinz, and of course I have a dish of burstingly ripe plums sitting on the counter. I also have a huge bag of apples, and a mountain of blueberries and blackberries I picked this morning. I need to do some serious fruit baking! Gfron, did you gild that ginger yourself? It's totally beautiful.

I love this topic already. We, like everyone, have been talking about a remodel with the greatest of trepidation. Our kitchen has already been remodeled once by the original owners, so it looks nice cosmetically (except for the pale blue laminate countertops) but there's still not nearly enough counter or cupboard space for a serious cook, only one oven, and no walk-in pantry. You're a better man than I Dave (maybe because I'm not one) but I would have fought to the death for an island over a banquette. Your final result is cute, but an island would have had a different beauty, one I'd prefer. That's a brilliant idea about the sans-fronts IKEA cabinetry. I would never have thought of that. I wonder whether they'd let one return the fronts here in the US. Now scubadoo, that is a major island! Can you tell I'm countertop obsessed? I actually want stainless, but am unlikely to get it. Will you say more about the work place/show place question? Do you not care about the aesthetics at all, or is it more a matter of degree between you and your wife. I notice that you both ended up with something I have now, and don't want. That's a stovetop that faces directly into a windowless wall. With all the time I spend at the stove, I really want something to see besides the wall. Is it more a matter of practicality, that you both ended up with that stove orientation, or am I alone in caring about that?

Patrick, you just slay me! Did you have to pick up that croquette with fingers, or did the pudding manage to support it? *Deborah* - what, no picture?

Not quite, Kerry. It's pee-sah-lahd-yair. There's a light emphasis on the first and last syllables. Although, seeing as you're Canadian, that might well be the Quebecois pronunciation.

Well, that's probably your problem right there. If you mean normal US "sticks" of butter, 4 to a pound, they're half a cup each. So 3/4 cup is 1 1/2 sticks, not 2 1/4 sticks. Sounds like you've got 50% too much butter in there, if the recipe calls for 3/4 cup.

Meat Traffic Controller - I love it! I think we should all add that to our resumes.

When I made this pate earlier in the summer, I saved the delicious-looking liquid that pressed out. It's been in the freezer for a while now, and I'd like to do something with it. Any suggestions?

Michael, I want to test, and since I was already planning to try hot dogs for a party for Chufi on Sept. 23, to show her some "real" American cookout food, I hope your recipe is ready to try before then!

Oh, that raw milk brie! That's a gorgeous photo.

Heinz, I cured the tasso from the recipe in the Charcuterie book that we're all using. It didn't come out to be very spicy at all, but it has just a nice little bite to it. There's garlic in the pesto, arugula, toasted pecans, Parm Reggiano, and olive oil.

Beautiful, Wendy! I've never done, or had, an egg on a pizza. I need to try that soon.

I had thought we might share, but in practice everyone ended up using all of the toppings they really wanted, and since we could only grill 3 pizzas at a time, people were sitting down to the table in waves, so we didn't end up doing much sharing. My personal favorite things turned out to be the garlic roasted in duck fat, the arugula pecan pesto, and the tasso ham that I cured back in May.

Ok, so here's the scoop on the bay-infused and lavender-infused Meyer limoncellos. I asked people to vote - of 10 drinkers, 8 preferred the bay, and 2 preferred the lavender. Well, a couple of people have an irrational fear of lavender and wouldn't even taste it, and a couple liked the lavender but preferred the bay (me included) and a few just hated the lavender. So, I say to skip the lavender thing, unless you know it's for someone that really likes lavender as a flavor. The bay, on the other hand, in a Prosecco cocktail, with no bitters or sugar cube, was very interesting and refreshing. I did try bitters, but even a tiny drop of Fee orange overpowered the bay flavor, and the limoncello was already sweet enough so a sugar cube would have been over the top sugarwise. I think the real lesson from this is that Meyer lemons don't make a very lemony cello, and it's probably better not to use them unless one wishes to add some other flavor, like bay leaf.

Will you give us your recipe for dates stuffed with lamb? That sounds gorgeous. And speaking of kitchen appliances (which you were a few pages ago) what is the name of that little cake-baking plug-in thingie that I used to bake cakes in a zillion years ago when I was spending time on a kibbutz in the 70s? It made surprisingly good cakes, without an oven per se.

Andrew, the torta is 8" in diameter. That's 2 lbs of goat cheese, and boy, do I still have quite a bit left, not that it's going to be a problem!

Yes, the arugula pesto is the bright green goo. Toasted pecans and the nuttiness of arugula make a yummy combination. As to the dough, for the first time I was able to get and use 00 flour. I used that 100%, and the dough, after an overnight retard, was very soft and flexible. I thought the dough was a little undersalted, and a bit more salt might have helped the dough's structure, but it was pretty easy to work with and quite decently good to eat.

From the new Mount Townsend Creamery in Port Townsend, WA, their delicious Seastack Chaource. Just as complex and intriguing as it looks. And from the Babbo cookbook a goat cheese torta with Lebanese fig paste and mint pesto. This stuff is addictive - if you have the book, make some asap!

Wood fire grilled pizza for 11: just cover a big table with foil, assemble a pile of toppings, grill off the dough, and let your guests have at it. Toppings included homemade ricotta with basil and parsley, peperonata, garlic roasted in duck fat, caramelized onions, olives, home-cured lamb prosciutto and tasso, speck, grated Fontal and pecorino romano, arugula and toasted pecan pesto, tomato sauce, and I'm probably forgetting something else. After topping, each person returned their pizza to the grill to be charred to taste. What a messy, happy way to have pizza!