Smithy

Those cookies are beautiful. Sometimes, the basics are best.

I'll bet that's going to be good, although perhaps still a bit startling depending on the answers to these questions:Do the eyes remain intact, a la the second Indiana Jones movie? and Is the brain in there also? If so, what would be its texture by now?

Welcome to the forums! Feel free to ask questions, participate in the discussions, and post about food topics that you find interesting. Do you have any particular food or cooking interests?

I have a couple of pieces that I allowed to stain past the point of no return. The only damage I've noticed is to my pride. Do use their cleaner and work to stay ahead of the stains - in other words, don't let them get bad if you want to maintain the pristine look.

I hadn't read about substituting peanut butter and sesame oil for sesame paste before. That's a good trick to keep in mind.

Welcome to eGullet! It sounds like you'll fit right in here. This crowd includes scientists, accomplished bakers, enthusiasts of almost any cuisine, and cooks of every skill level, and we all love to teach and learn about food and cooking. Come on in and join the discussions!

Ramps for basil. That's quite a switch in flavor profiles, isn't it? I'll try it sometime if I ever lay my hands on ramps at the right time. This topic is great fun! I look forward to reading more, and savoring the recipes from afar. Afar, I said. I. Do. Not. Need. To Buy. Another. Cookbook. Yet.

Wow, that's a great price if the setup works as advertised. $50 for the induction unit and the pot? I don't need it, but this is very tempting.

keychris, those Easter animals are darling! Are the shells themselves also edible, or just the contents? The egg is also awesome - and I understand that one's edible all the way. Very creative!

You make an excellent point about the oil. My oven has a measurable drop in temperature, as measured by my Sur la Table digital oven thermometer placed on a middle rack, whenever I open the door. I was surprised at how pronounced it was: 10 - 15 degrees F. I should add that I was also surprised by the swings in temperature of this particular (electric) oven, even with the door closed. I don't know if I still have the data, but I discovered last fall that it overshot the initial target temperature by at least 20 degrees (F) when I was setting for 350F, and once it was supposedly at the target temperature it oscillated something like +/- 10F. The best way to stabilize temperature in my oven was to add thermal mass, in the form of pizza stones on top and bottom racks, and use the convection feature. In other words, my oven may not be typical.

The test sounds like an excellent idea, and I've tried something similar myself. One problem I noted with my (electric, with convection option) oven was that the oven temperature dropped crazily every time I opened the door to measure temperature. I realize that the oil in the containers won't lose heat as rapidly as the air in the oven, and therefore the oil containers will reflect more accurately the temperature profiles in the oven. Still, it's an invasive procedure. I'll float an alternative idea that I've read elsewhere (sorry, I don't remember who should get the credit): baking sheets with uniformly measured pancake batter spread around on them. As you watch the batter cook (without opening the door) you can get a feel for where the hot and cold spots are. It isn't as qualitative as your idea, but it also reduces the need to open the door and upset the heat balance. What do you think?

I opened it, sniffed, tasted, and cooked my first dish with it. This must be a mild example, based on some of the posts above. I'd say it doesn't smell fruity or grassy like olive oil, and it doesn't smell like walnut oil or almond oil, but it also isn't neutral like, say, grape seed oil. It feels more heavily oily than most cooking oils I use. I used it as the base oil for a roux in a Cajun-style bean dish: started with a roux, threw in the chopped onions, celery and peppers, added chicken broth, the last of some Rancho Gordo beans (borlotti and marrow) that I had lying around, some heavily spiced smoked sausage and no doubt some additional seasonings. Many hours later, the stew was done and it was good. Based on this recipe I certainly didn't see anything wrong with the red palm oil. I couldn't tell whether it added anything, either, although I liked its red color. More experimentation is in order.

That's a nice-looking setup, Chris. Are you planning to put anything down to catch meat juices so they don't drip onto the floor?

Lovely, simply lovely. Keep it coming!

Oh, Jason, I do love conch! Thanks for that link!

Erm. budrichard, at the risk of being nitpicky here: while I agree that sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is a salt, it isn't the table salt under discussion here: sodium choride (NaCl). Is that really what you meant?

What is the white soy sauce like, liuzhou? I've never heard of it.

You do put together some beautiful salads, Plantes Vertes. I may have missed it uptopic - if so, I apologize - what dressing do you typically use?

Oh...and this may be obvious to you, given where you live, but don't forget about date shakes. :-)

Franci, how would you go about making those? Especially the date chutney

At present I'm stuffed from dinner (way too many barbecued ribs), and I still want some of those. RIGHT NOW!

Please tell me more about the chorizo/date combination. Do you mean the pitted date was stuffed with chorizo and wrapped with bacon, or were the chorizo and date chopped together, formed into a ball, and wrapped with bacon?

I've fallen in love with dates in the past few years, thanks in part to visits to your part of the country. First off: assuming those dates have been dried, or at least mostly dried, they'll keep. You don't have to can or refrigerate them. I have some (I blush to admit) that are more than a year old. I've kept them in plastic bags, tied and stored in an airtight container, until time to use them. Some have gotten a little soggier, perhaps - and therefore more suited to becoming a paste than before - but none has rotted. I think they have too much sugar and too little moisture to rot, once they've been dried. That has been part of their charm in the more arid and hot parts of this world. Second: what other varieties did you get? I may be able to help with some information. I came away with some information as to varieties and classifications from recent visits to a large date oasis near you. I've figured out over the last few years that I'm especially fond of the deglet noor, khadwary, khaisab and barhi varieties. In past years I've thought that the medjools were overrated; however, this year I decided they were pretty neat for, say, stuffing with almonds or walnuts. They're so big and firm, that they just ask to be sliced in half, seeded, and stuffed with something! Third: There are many date-based dessert or bread recipes, and I have some. I have at least one recipe for the date equivalent of what we know as "fig newtons". If I can get the author's permission I'll post it here with attribution to her book; otherwise, I'll post some general information and pointers. Fourth: It's a standard around our household to put chopped dates into our fruit salads. This is a great topic!

Thanks for the answers, everyone - and DTBarton, for your general recipe, which I appreciate but haven't quoted here.Except...now I'm *really* confused. I thought crab meat was one of those things that you had to get from a freshly killed crab - as in, kill it immediately before cooking. Y'all seem to be saying that's not necessary. Please educate me: * Have I been misinformed about the need to cook crab immediately after killing it? (Be gentle, please!) * How long can uncooked crab be kept, and how, before it starts to spoil? * What sort of crab meat is the default when I'm looking at a crab cake recipe? I read things like "lump crab meat" but never specifications of whether it's in a container or freshly-dug from the shell. It appears that everyone in the world knows but me. *blush*

Blether, thank you for the recipe, as well as the link in your following post. One question (only one, at the moment): why does the fold go into the top (exposed part) of the pan? I'd have been inclined to tuck it into the bottom. I'll let the experts address your questions. I just want to admire the pattern made by the seed coating and the slashes. Beautiful!