Smithy

It's a long time since I've eaten chickweed, but as I recall it has a delicate flavor and texture. Can you get mache?

Mick, it's a shame you never got responses here, but maybe someone else can benefit from your experience. What did you do, where did you go, and how did you like it?

According to the Metric Conversions web site, 1 U.S. fluid ounce is 0.96076 U.K. fluid ounces. (This web site has a converter: select your units to and from; plug in your numbers, and you'll get the converted measure.) I assume you're asking about fluid ounces instead instead of dry measurement. Sorry, I can't help with your other questions.

Hello and welcome, Steven E Metz. Based on your other post (so far) it looks like you're in the western part of the L.A. Basin? Make sure you check out our regional forums like the California: Dining area, as well as the broader-interest forums on cookery, baking, and food traditions where folks have been known to discuss both balance and excess :-) Are you mostly an eater-out, or do you also like to cook for yourself?

Those all look wonderful! How do people eat that beautifully jelled pork broth? Spooned onto crackers? I've always been pleased when I got 'pork jelly' or 'duck jello' but never thought to serve it cold.

gfweb, what a great idea! Our oven/broiler is dead (woe is me). Can you think of a reason this wouldn't work on a grill?

The Art of Fermentation, by Sandor Katz, has been making quite a splash. I'm a pickling newbie and have only purchased his 'baby' book, Wild Fermentation, but the full blown Art is reputed to be encyclopedic. Edited to add Amazon links.

I can see why they might worry if your foraged ingredients are all mesquite and cholla fruit, but I'm assuming far more geographic range than that. Speaking of cholla fruit: assuming that's one of the foraged ingredients (you mentioned it in another topic) do you go into level of detail like *which* cholla? Chainfruit cholla fruit looks very different from staghorn cholla fruit, for example. I have no idea whether they taste different from one another, much less what one could use as a substitute. If they're interchangeable, that would also be good to know.

Texas specific?! I hope you're going to include a tactful geography lesson. Glad to know they're still talking.

My mother never subscribed (too expensive) but I grew up fascinated by that magazine, even before I became interested in cooking. I still have, and occasionally refer to, their "Easy Basics for Good Cooking" cookbook that that helped launch me into cooking without fear. My sister's earliest excursions into what we considered gourmet cookery back in the day came from their magazines,and I'm pretty sure I still have some old clippings of theirs. It's difficult to imagine the magazine continuing. What a shame that Time thought it necessary to sell that lovely property.

Those are beautiful! I'm very surprised that the bows are made of burlap - wired or not, that fabric looks like a finer weave and pattern than any burlap I've ever seen. I must say, your handwriting is LOVELY - you could decorate/write a card for me any day! The contents look wonderful, and every recipient should feel honored. Congratulations!

Welcome back to the States - but truly, I'll be sorry when this topic ends. I'm glad you had more after your 'arrival' note. The Church of the Rock is spectacular! Did the Customs folk tell you anything about cheeses that they would not have allowed back in?

That sounds like the skillet my mother used as her principal cookware for decades. When she and Dad downsized she decided she could do without it. Sometimes I'm sorry I didn't take it, but I like to think it went to someone who really needed it.

Welcome indeed, chris_s. There's a wealth of information and opinions here - about sous vide, about feeding toddlers, about quick-and-easy meal preparation. You should be able to find plenty of help here. Ask away with your questions, and here's hoping you find a 'home' in these Forums!

Those are beautiful, ninagluck! Presented with a tray like that, I'd have trouble saving room for dinner. :-)

I am convinced that the long darkness of the northern countries' winters accounts for the darker creatures of their mythology. Can you describe the flavor of reindeer meat? Does it taste like beef, elk, lamb, deer? You're working from a small sample space, of course, but what can you say so far?

It's very cool that you stumbled into a pop-up restaurant! Did you talk shop with her a bit? I'm amused and intrigued that you seem to be encountering so much Middle Eastern food, there on a trip so exotically far north. I hope you'll be saying more about that. Thanks for the Christmas shop photos! it's so long since I was in a big city at this time of year that I forget what it can be like. :-)

Thank you very much for posting these photos and commentary, CatPoet. You've earned yourself a much-needed rest! I especially like the lussekatter writeup and photos. :-)

I think you're both awesome!

Very impressive, Darienne...and for an excellent cause!

The Kitchenaid set has been getting good reviews from people who were dissatisfied with other sets, including the Cuisinart, for the very reason you mention. I wish I could try one of these sets before buying. Maybe the best idea would be to have 'Santa' get me one from a place with a good return policy. ;-)

I have a heavy-duty electric "dutch oven" that looks more like a large rectangular skillet than a dutch oven. It was a mistake. I envisioned gala parties with buffet servings of some lovely dish in that appliance. To be sure it is nonstick; it heats evenly; it has a good heavy glass lid and a strap with which to anchor the lid down for transport; it is dishwasher safe. Those are all good qualities, and it would have been an excellent buy at $30 or $40, about half what I actually paid for it, but I still haven't gotten much use out of it because those parties never materialized. It occupies space on the bottom shelf of a bookcase in the spare bedroom. I keep thinking I should try selling it, or else donate it to someone who genuinely needs it. My ice cream makers (2), wand blenders (1 for the trailer, 1 for the house) and pasta machine (which travels with us) all get occasional use and I'm glad to have them. There's a battery-powered Kitchenaid "Professional" line of wand blender with changeable heads so that one can whisk, chop or blend with it. I keep wondering whether I'd get enough use to (barely) justify the staggering $300, or it would be an embarrassing extravagance like the dutch oven.

Rotuts, I think the murky appearance is due to the development of microscopic air bubbles just before they start expanding and you get the explosion. Air bubbles at the right size will be invisible to your eye but still provide light refraction. Get enough of them and you'll have 'murky' (i.e. translucent but not transparent) water. (I used to marvel at how fresh city tap water was opaque to ultrasound until it had a chance to outgas. It came out of the tap looking clear, but 1MHz sound couldn't get through even a few inches; then it became cloudy to the naked eye; when it cleared, those microbubbles were gone and both light and ultrasound passed cleanly through.) There's a pretty good writeup of how and why superheated water explodes when something else (a tea bag, powder) is added, at the Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments web site. That writeup notes that a pot being heated on the stove top has bubbles coming up from the bottom (where the pot is hotter than 100C and provides plenty of crevices for bubbles to form) and those bubbles are continually collecting more air as they rise. The evaporation of the state change at the bubbles' surfaces helps cool the entire volume of water. In the microwave, the water is almost uniformly heated throughout its volume to a superheated state. The bubbles visible are forming at or near the top of the mug or pot, and aren't providing any cooling in the depths of the mug. When a source of air bubbles is added (tea bag, powder) then there are suddenly thousands of bubble nuclei that allow the water to boil throughout its volume. Getting back to Shel's question: the heating element at the bottom of the pot and the evaporative cooling at the surface of the water explain the uneven temperatures in the pot. I've always tested probe calibration by stirring the pot and moving the probe around inside the pot to even out temperature differences. Edited for spelling and extraneous line feeds.

That is beautiful! I would expect it to be fridge stable before you unseal it, but once you expose it to air (especially after cutting) it becomes subject to spoilage bacteria again.

Beautiful! Beautiful work, and thank you for posting photos of that excellent-looking food. (Rotuts, make room for me under that table.) Anna, you scored big-time! Question regarding the panner: to what extent does the shape of the 'kernel' determine the shape of the finished product? The raisins still have a dimply oblong shape, whereas most of the other chocolates do not. If you rolled those raisins long enough would you get a sphere, or at least a smoother shape? It's fun to see what I know from minerals processing as a balling drum scaled down to candy size and producing such beautiful product.