Smithy

I have a flat electric (call it glass, call it ceramic) stovetop at home. The user's manual says not to drag or shake heavy cookware across it, for fear of scratching the surface. As I recall the manual is especially alarming about shaking/scraping heavy and abrasive items like cast iron across the cooktop. I'm sure that a rough surface of sufficient hardness could score that cooktop and make it more subject to breakage. I pick up my pans before shaking them when I'm flipping or sauteeing things. If your daughter or son-in-law are willing to take the same precautions they should have no problem. All that said...if they think it's too much trouble, then you should peddle the excess and keep your lip zipped. :-)

Toliver, you should see if your mother's neighbor would give you a few oranges. Zest from oranges that haven't seen the inside of a packing house is better, and now is the time to find out. Tangerines or minneolas would also give that a nice twist; thanks for the suggestion!

How black is black? I'm thinking of a 'black bottom pie' which has deep, dark chocolate brown at the base. Would something like that do, with whipped cream? Or does it need to be licorice-black?

Shel_B, some advice born of experience: if you find the right size and shape of container in a grocery store, get more than you think you'll ever need ALL IN THE SAME PURCHASE. Glad™, Ziploc ™ and Rubbermaid ™ have all fooled us into thinking we'd found the perfect size and shape of container for a particular purpose, only to change their molds shortly thereafter. So, for instance, we have 4-cup containers, roughly cubical, all with blue lids, all from the same manufacturer, purchased in 2 batches... and the lids are not interchangeable. >:-( Now that I've given you the benefit of my sage advice ;-), pardon me for asking this, but I'm curious: why do you want to store jars within plastic containers? I take it you're storing each jar in its own plastic box? Won't that take up a lot of precious storage space?

David, if that tastes as good as it looks I'd be pleased to be in the same room with it, and it would not stay on the serving plate for long. Would you care to share the recipe?

I don't see the rationale for saying that the dishes must be put into a preheated oven. If they're especially heat-sensitive they should be brought up to temperature along with the oven, to minimize the temperature differential. Hmm.

We hope you'll post pictures of your new kitchen: lots and lots of pictures, complete with discussion of your design choices, followed by exploration of just what you can do with your new setup. :-) Welcome!

That's a shame, but not surprising. How about more of a description? Are the streaks opaque, like they might be very fine bubbles? Are they colored? Are they darker but still clear, like a finely-grained wave pattern going across your ripple pattern? I'm fishing here...just trying to work out whether they might be impurities in the glass as opposed to uneven casting.

Those of you interested in taking the plunge into making your own pasta may be interested in the old eGullet Culinary Institute courses on pasta, here: Pasta Around the Mediterranean Stuffed Pastas - Pansotti, Tortelloni, and Raviolo Stuffed Pastas - Tortelli, Ravioli and Cappellitti I have several books on making my own pasta; I've enrolled in an online course on making pasta; but every now and again I remember that the eGCI can also provide an excellent start - without our having to wait for Franci's new book.

The streaks are a surprise. Care to post a photo? I think the waviness is likely due to varying thickness - not ideal, but no more likely to fracture than the bends at corners and edges. On the other hand if the bottom is uniformly thick (you can check that with liquid) then you're looking at a variation in the index of refraction of that glass, meaning a contaminated or poorly mixed batch. I don't know how likely that is, but if that's the case I wouldn't expect the dish to hold up as well as it should.

Yes, welcome, Matt! Shelby already told you about the coffee/tea section. (Good job, Shelby!) Take some time to explore around; make yourself at home here when your childrearing obligations give you time. There are a lot of enthusiastic modernist cooks, not-so-modernist cooks and downright-primitive cooks around here, and we love swapping ideas. If you need any help figuring out how to post photos or other technical aspects of the forums, don't hesitate to ask a host.

gfweb, that looks wonderful. How do you do your sprouts? I like the sound of orange glaze on them, and I'm in citrus country at the moment.

So: we're on the countdown to the New Year. How did we do? I've had some success with stuffed pasta, but not enough for confidence. I have my own sourdough starter and have made some very good loaves and some passable loaves and some...well, not so good loaves. :-) I haven't graduated to the rosemary/olive oil sourdough loaf that was my year's-end goal, but I blame it on an oven failure (still to be rectified) a month ago. I can't claim total success, but I think I've learned to get a better consistency than I found in my latest purchase of this, my target (latest grocery store purchase of San Luis Sourdough Rosemary and Olive Oil Bread): Mine Theirs How have the rest of you done?

I re-listened recently to a KRCW's Good Food podcast titled Soylent, Cricket Protein Bars, Beef Sashimi. I didn't realize before now that crickets can be (and are) dried and then ground into flour. The method of drying doesn't sound particularly humane - even for insects - but until now I'd always assumed that crickets were to be eaten whole and fried, as I've seen them recently in convenience stores. Still haven't tried them, but a cricket flour might be more palatable to this newbie than whole crickets. Edit: This is probably the very thing of which gfron1 was posting at the same time. :-)

Very impressive, Chris. What differences in texture did you see between the 'confit' peaches and the chamber-vac-compressed peaches? What seasonings did you use on the latter? Did you like the flavor of the 'confit' peaches?

You put on a beautiful spread - wow! Thank you very much for taking the time to show it all and let us enjoy it too!

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.