Smithy

Thank you for letting us know how it came out. It sounds wonderful! edit: That stove looks like a lot of fun. How did you get on with it?

I have better luck with a slightly coarser grind. The extra-fine grind I get at the grocery stores for our conical filter coffee pot tends to get a bit more sediment through the press than I like. If you're a Gevalia fan, you can check out their grind; I've had pretty good luck with that in coffee presses, so I'd say that's a good target size. I use about the same ratio. The strength will depend on how long you let the grounds steep. Two things I think make a difference that you haven't listed: use boiling water (I'll probably get some disagreement on that) and stir the grounds to make sure they're fully wetted before they steep. I usually add most of the water, stir the grounds, then pour the rest of the water over the spoon to rinse it as I'm filling the beaker. (It saves water and cleanup.) Oh, and cap the beaker while steeping, to keep the heat in; just keep the plunger up until you're done steeping. I like French press coffee. I'm not crazy about the cleanup, so I save it for special occasions: small batch, no electricity... ;-)

Do you think Forkish's book (I assume you mean "Flour, Salt, Water, Yeast") is especially better or more insightful than, say, one of Peter Rienhart's books? I'm signed up for a Craftsy class on bread baking, taught by Reinhart. I keep thinking that I should be working my way through the multiple baking books I already have, as well as the two online classes, before I go buying more books on bread baking. However, you do seem to particularly like Forkish. Anna N, what's the resolution on that new, cheap scale? Does it read fractions of grams, or just to the nearest gram or even - as one of my scales does - to the nearest 2g increment? That was a GREAT find!

Lynne Rosetto Kasper often advocates putting cherries into a jar of brandy and storing them that way for some months. She says they may a wonderful dessert: either eaten out of hand or used as topping on ice cream or the like, and cherries add a nice flavor to the brandy. If that sounds interesting to you and you want more details that nobody else provides, I'll listen again and summarize the information here. She just responded to a call about that on her radio show, The Splendid Table, within the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately the show's web site doesn't summarize the call-in section, so it's a bit of a search to find calls later.

So, Shel_B, I see from your sumac topic that your friends have arrived back home. What did they bring in addition to the sumac? Tell us about your haul! :-)

I can't make it, but I love the idea! I hope there's a great turnout!

I had to look up Sainte Maure, and then I wondered what else is on the pizza? Tomatoes, I think, and what type of olives? More importantly: Wwhat are the tendril-like things and petal-like things that look like flower parts? I'm guessing some kind of mushroom, but maybe you're doing something with flowers that I need to know about. :-) The whole pizza looks beautiful. I'll bet it tasted good.

It looks like you both have 2 slices of meat there, too. :-)

Wonderful, simply wonderful: your meals at home as well as in the restaurants, and the virtual tours. The handwritten notes showcasing some of the books in that amazing bookstore were an interesting touch. I love wandering in places like the shops and markets you've shown us. Thanks for taking us along!

I'd like to make bread like that. It looks wonderful: ideal for saying, on the one hand, "it has fewer calories" and on the other hand, "look at all the voids I can fill with butter/braunschweiger/jam/whatever". Tie wraps! Very different than the new citrus squeezers or zesters that I thought I saw.

What is in the squarish container behind and above the Montana bread knife in the third photo and to the left of the oven mitts in the photo before that? It looks a little like colored plastic hearts. In the bottom photo there seem to be identical red thingies packaged in cardboard and plastic, sitting atop what looks like gummies. I take it that was a latest-and-greatest thingie that each of you will use and take home? What is it? The label suggests something to do with citrus.

Rendering the bacon fat in water is a good trick. I hadn't thought before about how that would help cut the salts, but of course it would. Funny, I never saw Wright bacon ends and pieces in California; we didn't discover it until we started traveling in Texas. It's one of our staples now. Love the stuff!

What a great haul from your shopping expedition! I'm looking forward to seeing it in use. I feel your pain about people throwing things away, when they're perfectly good. Expiration dates? Hah! Add 10 years, at least. :-) Is that a stack of 4 small cutting boards (in nice colors) I see? High-density polywhateverpolymer? I have a terrible time passing up things like that. Thanks for letting me shop vicariously.

Thanks for the nickel photo! The tempura looked pale compared to what I usually see. If I didn't know your photographic skills in general - and have more from this batch as a comparison - I'd wonder whether it was exposure. Since I do, I don't. If you get my drift. ;-) Which leads to the next question: how did the texture of these rather pale tempura shrimp and vegetables compare with the usual, more golden versions?

As it happens, it's only just started warming up here. I scored several packages of rhubarb at the grocery store earlier today (I missed the Farmers' Market); I got plenty to make sure I could participate. I'll post photos later so y'all can comment. The checkout clerk noted that he loves rhubarb just dipped in sugar; he eats it out of hand, like celery!

It probably needs to be larger than a standard six-pack sized bottle. Maybe it's an excuse to buy yourself a nice bottle of champagne vinegar, perhaps? Or one of those oversized beer bottles would be about right. I think one of the reasons Mom used an oversized bottle was to make sure it had enough mass at the bottom to stand upright with that large cake balanced on it. Edited for clarity.

That's the purpose of putting a pop bottle in the hole in the center cone. It holds the center of the cake pan (the loose part) up. My mother never used the feet on the outer part. I suppose if your center part of the cake is so slippery that it slides right off the center cone then it might slide down onto the pop bottle, but I doubt it would hurt anything. My mother had a large bottle that had once held 7-Up, especially dedicated to sprinkling clothes for ironing and holding up inverted angel cake pans (not at the same time). It was smaller than the family-size bottles you buy now but larger and a single-serving bottle; I'm going to guess about 20 oz but I could be way off there.

What should I look for when selecting rhubarb? Color? Size? Weight for its size? Something else?

Oh, those ribs! Much prettier than mine! :-)

Just tell everyone it's an "Angel Puddin' Cake", Shelby. I bet it'll be delicious! cyalexa, thanks for the comic relief. The plastic bottle and ensuing disaster makes for a great image, but it probably wasn't so funny at the time. :-)

MelissaH and I have similar questions. I'm thinking that if Sudbury has a Costco or a Real Grocery Store, then it's come up quite a bit since I last passed through. Granted, I last passed through many years ago. Photos of the trip will be welcome, as always. Is the Giant Nickel still there?

No, that's why I wondered. I've never seen one of the stores, and I didn't pay much attention to the topic here. Lobster condos. Huh.

It looks great, Shelby! (I love that watermelon bowl!)

The placards for selecting seafood and meat look like something more stores should use to educate customers. I can't make out enough to see whether they convey good and useful information, however, or are just overly-precious marketing ploys. What was your take on them?

How about a rough recipe, or description? Maybe one of us with local rhubarb can try it.