Abra

Cool, Megan! This will be fun, for sure. I'm glad you're going to Babbo, since I'm always looking at the gorgeous pictures in that cookbook. Other peoples' requests brings up a little question I've had for a while now - is it pronounced Peg-oo, or Peg-you? Either sounds weird to me!

Rancho Gordo sells the best beans I have ever tasted, bar none, and I eat a lot of beans! You've got to give them a try.

Since the subject of spills has come up, do you guys know a finish that's really spill-proof? I recently inherited my Dad's rosewood table, but I'm afraid to use it. He always kept it covered with a cloth, but then, what's the point? The surface needs a bit of touching up, and I'd like to get some low-gloss relatively impervious finish on it so we can enjoy it.

Thanks for the chilling ideas, Eatrustic. Lorna, that looks like a lot of liquid in your recipe. Do they hold up to dipping, without dissolving in the cup?

I second Walla Walla. Click below on the link to my second blog for some Walla Walla info. It's no Napa, though, if you're looking for glitz.

Awesome LC! I've never heard of Aeroplan. Can I somehow switch my United miles to Aeroplan?

Hey, what's with the pricking? I've never pricked a potato in my life. What's that meant to accomplish? Of course, I bake potatoes at 425 too, so maybe I'm not normal.

Helen, the texture was perfect with the melted butter. You can see that some of the patterns are a bit blurred - those are the ones to which I added some additional liquid ingredient. Next time I'd reduce the liquid in the base ever so slightly to allow for adding flavorings. I doubled the recipe to make the cookies you saw above (less a few that we had sampled before taking the photo). Here's the basic recipe: 500 gm/1 lb flour (I used AP) 250 gm/1/2 lb sugar 250 gm/1/2 lb butter pinch of salt 2-3 oz milk 3 egg yolks 2 tsp cocoa (optional) Melt butter and let cool. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, and salt (and cocoa if using). Make a well in the center and put in egg yolks, mix in well with a large fork. Pour in butter and mix with your hands until smooth. They forgot to print what to do with the milk, so I added a bit at a time here until I got the right dough feel - basically that it held together well and wasn't soggy. Bake at 350 - they say 20 minutes, but mine took 14 at convection-adjusted 350. I made this, then divided the dough into parts and gently kneaded the various flavorings into the smaller bits. That allowed me to change patterns for each of the flavors with little to no hassle.

Oh no, no recipes. The press came with the basic butter dough recipe, which is odd in that the butter is melted rather than creamed. I just added stuff to parts of the dough - aside from the spices and vanilla, which are self-evident, I used almond extract, hazelnut flavoring, fiori di Sicilia flavoring, orange oil, rose flower water, and Scharffenberger cocoa. I just kneaded in a bit of those and winged it, which is why they need refining now. The really nice thing about the press that you can't see (maybe all presses are like this?) is that the plunger/handle arrangement is ratcheted so that every portion is equal, making it very easy to produce uniform cookies.

My husband loves to haunt the cookware section of thrift stores and bring me little gifts, much as our cat brings us her special hunting gifts. Let us just say that I have not always appreciated his thrifty offerings as fully as I might have. But this week he brought home a cool Italian cookie press that he got for $5, seemingly brand new. Now, my mother made incredibly boring cookies with a cookie press, and I've disdained them ever since. But just testing out my new toy I made Starting at 1:00: hazelnut and allspice, roseflower and cardamom, cocoa with vanilla, orange and cinnamon, ancho and chipotle chiles, cocoa with almond, and in the center fiori di Sicilia. Some of these pretty much rock, others need refining, but I'm convinced that my new toy is well worth more playtime. Here's the bounty - this is what you can do with one pound of butter So, what cool old-fashioned tool or technique have you recently re-discovered?

If you've never had the Fresh Apple Cake with Caramel Glaze, do yourself a huge favor and make it. I've done it several times, for clients and friends, and everyone loves it. It's just what apple cake should be. I'll be looking for something to make this week to add to the tribute.

This cake is sounding really good. Did you frost or glaze it?

Jack, I'm another in the camp of "never thought to make souffle without bechamel" so that recipe is a revelation to me. I'll be making it soon - thanks so much!

I did this with Mexican chorizo and served it on little soft buns for a Super Bowl snack, with bowls of cilantro, diced white onion, and pickled jalapenos on the side. People loved it. Thanks, Genny!

I heard a rumor that the chef is the former one from Tamarind Tree before they were shut down. Can anyone confirm this? And how do you pronounce xeo - sho? sio?

Mmm, those Batali biscotti look really good, with all those yolks. As soon as Shel manages to eat all the chocolate ones, I'll give them a try. I'll bet I could use my vin de noix too, as a sub for nocello. I thought I had a recipe for gingerbread biscotti but I can't find it at the moment.

So after 4 hours in the crockpot on high, I had which looks pretty much like everyone else has been getting. I added 3 T of white wine, 2 bay leaves, and a couple of sprigs of thyme, set it on low for another 25 hours (!) and got I do think a finer cut would have been good, but I had read so much about mushy results that I probably overdid it, or underdid it, on the cut. My onions and shallots gave off very little liquid, for some reason. I used no sugar, and the confit is not at all sweet. It's intensely onion-y, and I'm looking forward to tasting it after it rests for a couple of days in the fridge. I don't taste the duck fat per se, but it does have that smooth roundness that duck fat brings to foods. So far it seems like a natural pair to a liver pate and a glass of Condrieu. In looking back over previous pictures, I see that I took mine quite a bit darker than many previous folks did. Mine is actually almost black, it's not a trick of the light, but it's not burnt-tasting at all.

Me too, FG - more details and visuals on the Egg-On-Egg dish, please!

Jeepers, mine is still not quite done, 26 hours later. I wish I'd done a different cut as it's still pretty chunky. I'll post what I did with pictures when it's done, since I did it 100% in the crockpot and have one of the newer "hot" ones.

I made David Lebovitz' chocolate biscotti today. They are delicious, did contain some butter as well as the yolks, and did crack a bit. They also spread quite a lot in the first baking, so if you make these, make the loaf narrower than you think is prudent. Me too, Trillium, I bake them standing on edge to get them evenly dry.

I started my first batch of onion confit this morning. I'm using about half yellow onions, with the other half being an equal amount of shallots and red onions. An equal amount of duck fat and olive oil, and nothing else, so far. When I get to the low, slow stage I'll add bay leaf, maybe some thyme if mine didn't get frostbite last night, and some wine. I don't have a red I want to open just for this - how about a dry white? Would a Roussanne do?

I have the Unicorn Magnum, and have finally finished slutting around from one pepper grinder to another. This is one to settle down with, if you really use a lot of pepper.

Ruth, I made your kringle last night, but must have done something very wrong. What I ended up with is a super-flat, brittle (very good-tasting)cookie. It's not over 1/4" high, and the puff never puffed at all. I did the recipe just as written, although normally I would use the Pichet Ong recipe for pate a choux. Is that amount really for a jelly roll pan? It was very difficult to spread so thin. I only did the pate a choux by hand, not with the mixer, just because the instructions didn't say to beat the heck out of it, so probably that was the problem. Any ideas?

Hey, it's actually starting to sound like quitting's getting a bit easier for you guys. True? I'm so proud of you all!

Marlene, I'd use a Silpat, or at least buttered foil, for those nuts. With that sugar they're going to stick like a mother.