Abra

The only trouble with these is that they taste so good straight out of the oven that it's really hard to avoid eating 5-6 of them before you even notice what you're doing. They're really good! And they keep perfectly in the freezer, too. My (lucky) husband's been getting profiteroles every night for dessert since I "discovered" this recipe in the September Food and Wine.

Chris, are you ok? Bruce, do you wear a glove and dispense with the guard?

MXHassett - do you mean that your method is to start at low temps and gradually increase, or to do them all the way at about 200? I'm getting more grapes this morning.

Are raisins actually sun-dried in CA? Even now? I've been Googling without success. Somehow I'd imagined that I was the only one not to know how to make raisins. These grapes weren't always wild, so they're more feral. Someone planted them, but now no one tends them. I think the tart element is too strong for a regular table grape, although I'm not positive about that. I'm going over there tomorrow to see if I can get more to experiment with.

Ok, the sun was shining, but I made them in the oven. I'm hoping that those of you who have made raisins will help me out here. I had a bunch of beautiful grapes These grow more or less wild, and seem to be some sort of wine grape. They have a gorgeous, wild, winey flavor, sweet and tangy. Can anyone identify these grapes? There are so many of them, and I hate to see them go to waste, so I thought I'd try making raisins. I have a small counter top convection oven that comes with dehydrating racks, but I couldn't find the instruction booklet anywhere. Even a call to the manufacturer produced no raisin advice. I decided to wing it and spread the grapes out on the racks. Then, I had no clue what to do next. All in all, I had them "cooking" for about 17 hours. I started out at under 100 degrees. After a few hours nothing visible was happening, so I upped the temp to 150. Another couple of hours, upped it to 175. Another couple, up to 200. Ah, now they started to turn into raisins. After 17 hours they look like this Frankly, they're some of the most delicious raisins I've ever tasted, being slightly tart and tangy, still reminiscent of wine, not too sticky sweet. So naturally I want to make more, but I'd like to avoid all the temperature shenanigans I went through yesterday. How should I really go about making more of these alluring treats?

I'm not sure if these are what you're looking for, but they're soft, doughy, made with milk, and absolutely delicious Buttery Pan Rolls. I pretty much always make them for Thanksgiving, and people devour them.

I recently got a mandoline, the OXO version, and haven't mastered it yet. I think I see why people get cut. If I use the guard, and believe me, I do, only about half of the vegetable gets sliced before the guard can't hold it anymore, making it tempting to use one's fingers. At that rate, it takes a lot of carrots to make a respectable pile of julienne, and then, you have a lot of ugly weird shapes of vegetables left over that are good only for the stock pot. Is that just the nature of the mandoline, or does it sound like I'm doing something wrong?

Yummy blog, Susan! The birthday boy is very lucky, and I hope he knows it. That's an interesting technique for dry-frying the shrimp. Would you say you need non-stick to pull it off? And I found myself worrying over the sight of the already-cooked shrimp going onto the uncooked pizza - did they manage to stay tender after the heat of getting the dough cooked? The result was certainly gorgeous.

I hadn't been to Le Pichet often enough before last night to realize that they change their menu every six weeks. Now, for 3 more weeks, you can have a really wonderful dinner if you have exactly what I had. Wowsers, was it good! Crisp fried pork tongue on shredded carrots marinated with cumin, currants, orange and parsley - oh, that tongue! Indescribably, meltingly rich and tender, with a big pile of carrots as a lovely foil. Fish of the day (halibut last night) wrapped in Serrano ham and pan roasted, on pearl barley, grilled figs, and endive - a gorgeous balance of flavors and textures. Next time I'd beg for a couple of extra figs. Chocolat chaud - Parisian hot chocolate, not on the menu, not on the board, but offered by our server. A very shareable cup of thick, warm chocolate, like a thin ganache, and another bowl of whipped cream, for you to assemble one spoonful at a time. OMG. Three more weeks, get some! Shel's chicken liver terrine was a huge, velvety portion, and his salade Nicoise was big enough that we had leftovers for lunch today, and was piled with tuna. All that, plus a demi-pichet of Saumur, for under $70 plus tip. What a nice restaurant.

Gorgeous, lmf, and kudos to him! Did it taste as good as it looks?

I thought it was a really disappointing issue, with virtually nothing I want to cook. It's sad, as I've subscribed and enjoyed Saveur for years. I too had no idea it was in trouble, but now that I see this issue, I can see why.

Perfection! I too wish I could see the inside - it must have been lovely. Good idea about removing the interior skins. If I ever make one, I'll definitely remember that.

Wow, 50 bottles of champagne! It sounds like your cider pressing party was a great success. I'd have given a lot to hear your guests exclaim over the turducken, not to mention the American BBQ sandwiches, and my very own sauce. I think I should rename it Transatlantic Sauce in honor of your party. What did you serve for sweets after this extravaganza?

I guess we're all of an age, here. My Dad died in April, at age 90. He was born and raised in Italy (really, he was my step-father, not that it mattered) and his biggest contributions to my culinary life were teaching me to use lots more garlic, and then even more, and to drink red wine with dinner. He died at home, according to his wish, and I was with him. Sadly, in his last days all he could manage was jello, pudding, and ice cream. I wish I could say he died after a hearty dinner of pasta in garlic and parsley sauce, washed down by a good Chianti, but since he didn't, I have to have that for him. Up until a couple of days before he died, I kept trying to get that pasta recipe out of him. He swore up and down that he'd never made any such thing, but still, my childhood memories are filled with chopping piles of parsley and garlic in a wooden bowl, frying them in olive oil, and tossing them with the thick macaroni-pasta that reminded him most of Italy. He may have forgotten it, but I haven't, even if I don't know exactly how we made it. I still have the bowl and the wooden-handled chopper, and the ancient cast iron skillet we made the sauce in, and the recipe's in there, somewhere.

Holy cow, rickster, I was just on the KA site yesterday and missed that completely. Thanks!

It's funny, I always thought a quenelle was exclusively a cooked item as in Jack's demo, and assumed that there was another name for the uncooked-mousse type thingie I'm talking about. Glad to have that cleared up - thanks for the links! When they say scoop with one spoon or another, do they mean scoop it from one spoon to the other, and then back again? It's a little hard to see in the pictures. I'll have to look for that scoop, Ludja. Any idea where you found it?

I'd like to be able to make those perfectly elliptical lozenges of mousse-like stuff that are often served in a small dish of soup or puree, or as a dessert side. I assume that you do it with two spoons, but the shapes are so uniform, and so perfect, that I really need to see someone do it. Would someone be willing to demo this process, and share a couple of recipes for me to practice with?

Ah, I see that King Arthur does indeed have it, but only in the "pro" size of 50 lbs. I shop there a lot, but I'd never looked at the pro section. My local grocery does carry some Bob's Red Mill items, so I'll ask them whether they can get me some flour. But in the meantime, thanks for the formula, Apicio. I can blend it myself, for sure, now that I know the ratio.

But where can one get unbleached white pastry flour, or any white pastry flour, for that matter? I always look for it, but have never seen it anywhere.

You can't know that. A turkey could be President if we didn't eat it - this is America, after all! Ok, that was gratuitous. I'm with Arey and others who say if it died so that I can eat it, let it be worth eating. I was a vegetarian for 9 years, while I tried to get my mind around this whole death-eating thing. I think that in truth I still don't believe in eating meat, but I sure enjoy it. If I think about it too much, I can't enjoy it at all. So I'll be brutally honest and say that I mostly try not to think about it. If I actually had to kill it, no way could I eat it unless I were absolutely starving to death.

At home, my husband mostly does the dishes. At work, in my incarnation as a personal chef, doing dishes and leaving my clients with a "how did she cook all that and the kitchen looks so clean?" experience is part of my service. After a party at home, though, I'm always glad that my husband hates washing by hand. He never does the wine glasses after a big party. leaving to me the exquisite squeak of the soft white glass brush, curved, chenille, kissing the rim both inside and out. I wash those glasses and think of the lips they've touched, and the things those lips said. I stand them gently upside down on a clean towel, and think of how happy my husband will be when he sees that I've done his "job" for him.

I'd like to talk about "pastry flour", an ingredient not normally available to the home baker. When a recipe calls for pastry flour, I have three choices: AP flour, cake flour, and whole wheat pastry flour. What should I be using?

Fabulous blog, Joie! Aurora is now at the top of my list for my next trip up there. And if I don't find out how to make cedar jelly, I think I'm gonna die! Will they share the recipe?

Since you're in Malaysia, I'm thinking that variations on fruit and ice cream, all sorts of combinations thereof, will be your best bet. Or fresh fruits, brushed with a bit of honey and grilled, served with sticky rice and coconut milk. Cookies keep for several days, and can be served with fruit, or ice cream, so they're versatile. They take longer than 20 minutes to make, but can last and be used in a vaiety of desserts for several days.

Probably too late now, but I would say Pogacha. I haven't been there in several years, but I've heard that it's still really nice.