Smithy
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Posts posted by Smithy
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12 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:
Toasted crumpet spread with plenty of butter and ginger preserves. July Flame peach from the farmers market. Black coffee.
This really makes me regret traveling right now. There are actually good nectarines in the Duluth grocery stores right now. i've been enjoying them -- and, to my chagrin, I left the last one in the refrigerator the day I left! (I notified a friend to go enjoy it.) The good news is that I'm going through Colorado and New Mexico. Maybe I'll be able to score some good peaches along the way. I still dream of the lug of Palisade peaches I picked up one year.
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@Kerala but you must admit you've made a wonderful case for buying the full-sized BGE at this point. 😉
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Not deliberately funny, but this is the best place I can think of for last night's story.
The scene: a Super 8 hotel in Story City, Iowa. I note at check-in that you have to ask for a coffee maker for the room, and ask for one. The clerk notes that there's coffee available 24/7 in the lobby. I ask for the coffee maker anyway, the way I won't have to get dressed for my first morning cuppa.
A half-hour or so later, I go back down the hall to ask about the coffee maker. She'd had to send her partner to the storeroom, wherever that is, to find one. She produced it.
Me: "What about coffee packets to go into it?"
She: "You mean there aren't any in the room?"
Why she'd think that, when the coffee maker isn't already kept there, I don't understand. I never did get any packets.
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18 hours ago, rotuts said:
yes. probably do not need to rotate every hour for the second half , every two hours might be fine.
very important to ' air dry ' 24 hrs or so in a refrigerator .
the dry surface keeps all the juices in the CD's a very nice new finding for me.
and do not temp. the whole left by the thermapen oozed juce.
Ill be doing this a lot, each sale from S&Shop. very nice large drums.
15 hours ago, weinoo said:I actually do this now with most all chicken I cook. Salted lightly as well.
This is valuable information, and something I'll try next time I get around to cooking chicken. Thanks!
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1 hour ago, Maison Rustique said:
I ordered a rolling island yesterday and it will be here next week. Then I have to figure out how I'll wrangle the package 100+ lbs. into the garage until my sis and BIL are here and can put it together for me. I did have a 15% off coupon from Wayfair and used that which paid for their 5 year protection package which will cover replacing various things that might go wrong. So, if the rubber wood top splits or warps, they will replace it free.
Post pictures when it's set up! If you have your sense of humor about you, you can also show in-process photos. 😀 (That's probably a bridge too far, I realize.)
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1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:
This link should take you to a search for kitchen islands and carts on Wayfair. They have quite a few options at affordable price points and should at least give you an idea of what’s available. I was able to find similar items at Home Depot and Lowe’s, though not as many options.
I'd forgotten about Wayfair, though I should have remembered because my darling and I bought an item or two from them. We had a few laughs assembling the furniture after it arrived, but were quite happy with the products. Thanks for that reminder. There are some nice-looking options in there.
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Followup: actually, these hearts and gizzards (no liver in this batch) have an odd aftertaste that's gotten more unpleasant as I've eaten. I don't know whether it's something in the marinade or something essential to the organs themselves. I can see a case for the fine chopping and soaking suggested in some of the other recipes. A good rinse, even, to get rid of a grittiness in the gizzards. Thoughts, anyone?
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Some good ideas here! I opted for a more-or-less yakatori style this time, loosely based on this NYTimes recipe. I say "loosely" because my marinade was simpler; I didn't have all the ingredients they listed. Soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar, lemon, ginger, garlic. I had nothing resembling sake or even sherry. Note: do not try substituting brandy! That batch of marinade went down the drain.
Marinating while I did other things:
Skewered (with the sacrificial blood -- those gizzards are tough, and my skewers skewered me once too)
Finished, after just a little grilling:
I won't show you plated, because it's boring: meat and peppers. It needs rice, and I couldn't be bothered. A salad would have been good, but I had that earlier.
Oddly enough, I like the gizzards better than the hearts. When my mother fried chicken bits, hearts were my favorite. Have my tastes changed, or is this not a good treatment for the hearts? I'll have to experiment with it.
Speaking of experimentation, I appreciate all the other ideas and am glad I have another container of these things to play with for some of the other recipes. I'll make sure my friend knows to keep saving these for me. Thanks, folks! Keep the ideas coming!
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@Maison Rustique is being pretty quiet about these photos, and we don't know her budget. I fear, however, that "relatively inexpensive" may preclude these beautiful works. Then it comes down to getting a "relatively inexpensive" rolling cart that will fit the space and the budget, then put a cutting board atop it. Have I got that right, @Maison Rustique? In that case you might even be able to find a suitable candidate at Home Depot or a similar local store.
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18 minutes ago, weinoo said:
Those Boos islands are nice. One might be able to customize them as well:
There are some nice-looking islands in there. I still have the drop-leaf butcher block rolling cart I used as an island, way back before we remodeled our kitchen and put in a full island. However, the manufacturer of my cart seems to be out of business now.
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39 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
I should say that maple syrup is unknown in Xinjiang or anywhere else in China. It is uber-North American.
That's not to say you shouldn't use it should you find a recipe.
It is nearly al produced in Canada and the USA and used there, although limited amounts are exported to Europe. I've never had it, ever.
Oh, I understand that. I just have no idea where I'd find maltitol syrup, and right now I'm on a "use stuff on hand" kick that may not last long. As you note, honey is also a possibility.
This NYTimes recipe for energy bars looks like it might be a good starting point, based strictly on appearance. The recipe should be unlocked.
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*mega-bump*
I have 2 pints of chicken giblets, collected by a friend who saves them but whose wife won't touch them. I've finally gotten round to thawing one of the containers, and now I'm wondering what to do with them. I love fried chicken hearts...but am not likely to fry anything, any time soon. Up here @ChefCrash mentions chopping the gizzards finely, sauteeing with oil and butter, then braising in their own liquid until they're tender. That has some promise. Another idea is to stir-fry some or all of the giblets, along with some red bell pepper, onion and broccoli. But with what sort of sauce?
What should I do with this stuff, now that I've committed to cooking it? I'm reasonably sure that a sheet pan roast in the oven is the wrong way to go. I'm also reasonably sure that I won't go to the trouble right now of wrapping the firmer giblets (hearts and gizzards) in bacon and then grilling them. Maybe next time around, with the second pint.
Ideas, please.
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Cabbage rolls are a real labor of love, even more so than meatballs. I applaud you, @Ann_T!
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My neighbor, who runs a small backyard farm and sells at the local farmers' market, went camping for the weekend. Her raspberries are coming ripe, and she graciously invited me and another neighbor to come pick the ripe ones rather than letting them fall to the ground. The other neighbor was busy, so I picked 2 buckets' worth -- one for me and one for her.
They aren't as sweet or tart as I'd expected. Is my sense of taste going off? Maybe, since I've been battling a cold and a general loss of appetite.
But...today, I tested my own backyard's wild rasberries.
There's no comparison.
I'm torn between selfish relief that it isn't me, and sorrow that my neighbor's farmed berries just aren't good this year. I don't plan to tell her.
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1 hour ago, liuzhou said:
I'm not big on sweet snacks but like these.
新疆八宝切糕 (xīn jiāng bā bǎo qiē gāo), literally ‘Xinjiang eight-treasure cut cake’ a traditional snack or cake from China’s far western province, Xinjiang. As always with number in China, there aren’t necessarily eight ingredients, but around eight. These had ten. Jujubes, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, raisins, black mulberries, and flaxseed, all held with that old traditional favourite, 4-O-α-glucopyranosyl-D-sorbitol syrup aka maltitol syrup. Honey is used in more traditional versions.
I'm no longer a big sweets person, but this looks really good to me. I should look around for recipes along these lines. I don't suppose you have one handy? (I also don't have access to maltitol syrup, with or without the formal chemical name you so hilariously provide) but I have a lot of honey and maple syrup.)
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1 hour ago, liuzhou said:
"Whole Wheat Sourdough Rubon Country Bread Multi-grain French Old Bread German Sourdough Bread”!
That's one of the funnier labels I've read in a while! 😀
Too bad it's only "not bad". It looks great in the photos.
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I'm with @Shelby so far: happy to live vicariously for the moment. Still, this is looking mighty good. Please keep the info coming.
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11 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
We also get 法棍 (fǎ gùn), literally French sticks.
These are baguettes 🥖. Sometimes. Never great, the best come from Walmart or a Taiwan chain of restaurants here on mainland China. Those from local bakeries are highly unpredictable.
They aren’t anywhere close to the real French baguettes my French grandmother bought every morning, but are edible bread.
Walmart China Baquettes
Well, they look convincing in the photo!
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48 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
I have both bamboo and rosewood. Neither are great.
I had a bamboo cutting board and thought it was fine, although I didn't like it as well as my other boards and gave it away. (I think it was the dimensions that I didn't like.) What do you see as its shortcomings? And what's the rosewood like?
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55 minutes ago, Maison Rustique said:
I am looking for a small rolling kitchen island for the new house in order to expand my storage/prep space. It needs to be small and fairly inexpensive. I find no stores in the area that have more than one style in the store to see, so I need to order online. I am going to show my ignorance here. I kept rejecting many that looked good because it said the cutting board top was rubber wood. I thought they meant it was some sort of manufactured fake wood-look thing. I finally Googled it and discovered that it actually is wood and is supposed to be sustainable, etc.
My question is, do any of you have experience with a rubber wood cutting board? I don't want to buy it thinking I can use it as a cutting board, only to find that it isn't really a good choice for that purpose.
I'd never heard of rubberwood until this post of yours, so I can't say anything from experience. Based on my quick reading, it looks as though you'll need to be diligent with the maintenance in order to prevent it from warping. For what it's worth, I find that to be true even with my maple Boos Board...and, I confess, I always put a protective cutting board atop my Boos Board to protect its surface! 😁
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There are some amazing colors in the photos above, @liuzhou. I'm used to seeing reds, oranges and yellows on mushrooms, but I don't recall ever seeing the blues and greens -- at least, not without some putrefaction. I especially like the teal tones in the first photo of the post above.
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14 hours ago, Maison Rustique said:
And need to peel and chop the other tomatoes to use in a pasta sauce because they are too far gone to slice.
Gazpacho is another idea for those overripe tomatoes. Refreshing, filling, cool / cold.
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2 hours ago, Shel_B said:
And what is the missing 7-degrees between simmering and boiling called and what would you cook at those temps?
I postulate that that's the range of "low boil" as opposed to "full boil" or "rolling boil". I admit that so far I haven't found anything to support that terminology. However, Shirley Corriher in Cookwise notes that grain starches thicken at "just below the boiling point of water; can be held at this temperature without damage" (p. 275, First Edition, 1997) whereas root starches thicken at lower temperatures. The exact temperature depends on the exact starch, of course. My point here is that "just below the boiling point" may be that ill-defined 7-degree range.
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35 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
But boiling water never exceeds 100℃ at sea level or whatever temperature appertains a different altitudes. In any one place, there is no difference in temperature between a boil and a hard boil.
16 minutes ago, KennethT said:Exactly, once 100C is attained, any extra energy goes to the latent heat of vaporization.... So the more heat energy there is, the more violent the boil as there's more vaporization, but temp stays the same.
This is true, but bubbles start to develop at lower temperatures. "Simmer" covers a much wider range of temperatures than I'd thought back then, and the observed, for-practical-cooking-purposes boil happens at slightly less than 100C. In addition, the viscosity affects boiling point when it isn't pure water.
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Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Sorry if you explained this before and I missed it...was this an infusion of a fig leaf in the cream / crème?