Smithy

Wild thought here, in light of Lisa's comments on cocoa fat and on spice concentration: suppose you used mesquite flour in place of some of that spice? No fat that I know, and a spicy flavor, but AFAIK not hazardous in concentrations like the spices she noted.

Very interesting! I didn't realize that Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese (and certain others) could not include milk from cows that had been fed fermented silage. Interesting that silage produces a couple of unique fatty acids that can be a good 'adulteration' marker.

Returning to your original question: I wonder whether it's actually a different plastic than most, instead of something with a surface coating. The phrase 'poly board' doesn't actually say much, from a chemical perspective. Does it seem unusually light or heavy for its size? Is it particularly hard in addition to being slippery? I once had a cutting board made of polystyrene (I think); it was almost glassy in its transparency, hardness and slipperiness, and quite different from the standard polypropylene cutting boards. (I finally decided it was a lousy cutting board and repurposed it as something like a surface protector so I could put a potted plant on a wood surface.)

@huiray, that salad looks delicious. I'm so glad to see high-quality canned tuna - in olive oil - in use instead of water-packed cheap stuff. There's a world of difference. @Sparren, that looks delicious and unwieldy. I have a question about the name. It surely isn't called a bookmaker's breakfast because someone will fold it like a book? Is it a betting breakfast?

Why I don't think of fish cakes more often is beyond me. Fish cakes and crab cakes are so good, and we have access to fish that would lend itself well to that treatment. Thanks for the reminder, @Paul Bacino. @Shelby, you crack me up: leftover gravy led to those elaborate sandwiches! It's better than what I usually do, though: if I have some leftover sauce that I want to use, I frequently end up making too much of the new thing for the available sauce...so I have a different set of leftovers. It's difficult to make it come out even.

Nice! Thanks for letting us know the result. I'm glad you kept it. I hope to see photos of it in, oh, the Dinner topic?

That's the spirit! Take one for the team! (then another, and another...) Incidentally, my first thought at the photo was jam instead of chocolate sauce. If you like, oh, say, rhubarb or blackberry jam and have some available, you may find yourself needing to make more ice cream after this batch of hot fudge runs out.

About that stripe: do you suppose that dental floss, or perhaps the wider flatter dental tape, would work as the food-safe thing you lay in the mold before painting the first layer?

All the fried food in that post looks done to perfection: crispy and golden, not too dark. I can almost taste the crunch from here.

I can't decide whether I like the ladybugs or the hedgehogs better. Both are adorable!

I'd go with al dente, if I understand that term properly*. Without a soak it's crunchy all the way through, correct? It may even be crunchy enough to break a tooth, but at any rate it is too hard to give off flavor: just a very loud CRUNCH. You don't want it like that. You want it somewhere in the 'resists without crunching, but doesn't seem mushy' stage. It will visibly expand...I can't think how much offhand...maybe to twice its volume? * I confess: my idea of al dente pasta is strictly through reading.

I agree with @pastrygirl: 1-1/2 hours sounds like much too long a cooking time for the product you show. My own assessment is that this looks like the bulgur I get and only soak. I'd try soaking it first, probably only for 1/2 hour, and see how it does. The stuff I get often has vermicelli bits mixed in, and even then I only soak the mix for 20 - 30 minutes. This topic sent me on a search for my bulgur packages, only to realize that I seem to have left them in the trailer. The trailer is in the shop. I want tabbouli NOW and can't have it! :scowl:

I made a lemony tahini dressing similar to the recipe that @Thanks for the Crepes posted. It's similar but not identical, I suspect, because I needed to use a blender to remix the tahini - no fork or whisk was going to get that done in my lifetime. Once the blender bowl was in use it made sense to add everything else and blend. It's a beautiful green color due to the fine texture of the parsley. Next up will be the Serendipity version, but I think this is quite nice.

Hmm, somehow we always avoid Phoenix altogether. One disadvantage of that, however, is that we miss out on visiting Haus Murphy's in Glendale, near Phoenix. Great German food (braised pork shanks and sauerkraut is our favorite, but their selection of wursts is also excellent), broad selection of beer, and an oompah band in the biergarten. It's well worth a visit. Arrive hungry. I think @Darienne is the one who wrote about restaurants in Moab. Maybe she'll chime in.

I might have a few recommendations. How far south in California, by what route? and does the Southern Route include Phoenix, or Tucson? Good that you're getting to The Curious Kumquat again. Sip one for me as well, will you?

It does look like a great spread and far more food than 8 people could eat! The last photo of your first post in the set has food labeled as "Some pickled root. Tasted like parsnip.". It looks like it has a coating, as though it was also fried. Do you remember whether it was?

What beautiful produce and food! What a lovely welcome! The refrigerator decoration, although far prettier than my assortment of magnets and notes, looks a bit obstructed for opening and closing. If it had a cloth covering like that in my house, it would discourage people opening and raiding the refrigerator, and we'd claim that it was to encourage our diets. I suppose they just flip back the part that covers the door?

Do you have to be registered with them for that promo code?

How strange. The article says that thighs and drumsticks are generally considered 'by-products' and sold off quickly. I'd have said, based on what I see in our stores and the personal preferences of my family and friends, that thigh meat (at least) is prized almost as highly as breast meat here. At any rate, I read this linked article to mean chicken parts, as opposed to processed (ground, mixed with other things, cooked at the factory) chicken. That doesn't help your farmers - nor does it mean you're getting good, fresh local chicken if it's coming from here - but maybe it means that a recall is a recall.

Since we're on tahini sauce recipes in general, be sure to check out Rachel Perlow's Tahini Sauce in RecipeGullet. FoodMan also posted a recipe in his eGCI course, Introduction to Lebanese Cuisine. The recipe is somewhere midway down the first page, in the "Basics" section. He also gives uses for tahini other than as dressing.

Oh, that waffle does look delicious. It looks as though it uses pre-cooked bacon. Yes? No? He doesn't specify, that I can see, but the timing ("until the cheese is melted") doesn't seem long enough to cook bacon.

John's right about our needing some more ideas about which way you're thinking. I, being a chocolate fiend, would suggest chocolate - either a layer cake (double chocolate, anyone?) or even a single-layer variety, like Death by Chocolate or Reine de Saba. But that's just me, and I have rich dark chocolate on the brain lately. If you make a smallish dessert for her to take home to her family, is there any danger that the office staff will try cutting into it anyway, despite the macarons? Would it be advisable to box it securely for her to carry away?

Host's note: this seems to be the post formerly known as #132, to which as least 2 posts have referred:

I see this sort of adjustment being made often among those of you who have taken the IP plunge and who are learning its ways. Forgive me if it's been noted before, but how much time does it take to come up to pressure, and at the end to release the pressure? In this specific instance, if 50 minutes wasn't enough, and you had to go for another 5 - 7 minutes, how much total time extra would be required as a result of releasing and then re-pressurizing?

@Thanks for the Crepes, when you posted your question I thought you meant, say, a salad dressing based on tahini, with a lemny note added. Is that what you mean? Would you describe your ideal a bit more fully, please? Consistency, uses, flavor profile if it's more complex than tahini with lemon would all be helpful.