Chris Amirault

Nope: followed the recipe to the letter. Here's the incriminating photo:

So something bad happened. The bag didn't burst, but I have to start all over again. All of the evidence of the problem is in the pictures above. Any guesses as to how I screwed the pooch?

Uh oh......

Marlene, I wish you and yours the same! Merridith, once you get the hang of it (careful stopping of the vacuum and sealing at the right moment, a long tail, and double sealing everything with the moist setting), it's not that scary. Having said that, I'm running into the kitchen right now to check.

Scalded, vanilla-y milk on left. Sugared, ribbon-y yolks on right. Another great feature of this house: these hidden cutting boards that would make lousy cutting boards but are handy temporary counters: Post-tempering and combining milk and yolks. I got curious, so... Sure enough, a teensy bit of very, very tasty scrambled eggs: Then, as I was picking up my trusty Bennington Catamount Flameware fat separator, I heard a very unpleasant scratchy noise. Upon further investigation, I found that the handle had broken at the base: The break was only on the outside -- at that point. I decided that shards of broken glass wouldn't be appealing texturally, and internal bleeding doesn't really count as a Chrismas miracle, so I carefully switched over to the bag itself: As for the fat strainer, which I've had for a long time and use regularly, well, I just ordered a new one immediately, wiping away a tear.

Uploading photos of the successful effort, but I wanted to show this video that illustrates simply how you bag liquids with a FoodSaver. Just make a nice long neck on the bag, lower the base of it below the FoodSaver itself, and:

Phew.

All right, I'm taking the plunge. ETA: Who says eG Foodblogs aren't full of drama??

Thanks. Got my eggs all ribbony, and milk is scalded. I don't want to curdle the eggs. Should I bring the milk down to room temp before mixing and bagging?

Great! Thanks Matt. One question: Wolfert says to bring it to 165F/74C on the stovetop. Any thoughts about why the temperature difference?

First foodblog snafu: lost a few pictures of the daube and masa prep. I'll make up for it later tonight, I promise.

I will give it a go and report back. If worse comes to worse, everyone can have prune/armagnac egg nogg, right?

I bought these for bartending, but on days like today they are godsends: They're Keen PTC slip-ons for men. I've spilled all sorts of things on them, dropped broken glass, you name it. Comfortable, dry, and they're wide enough for my simian feet. Which, for a few minutes, I am putting up to rest. Daube's in the oven, pineapple syrup's strained, prunes are chopped, masa is made. Photos coming up soon.

The masa with this newer corn is grinding at a much faster rate. I hope that means for some remarkable tortillas.... Finding out soon. Meanwhile, I'm getting the Sous Vide Supreme set up to do an ice cream base. Anyone have experience with that? Cough Merridith cough.

Can one of you fly out here and make those spaetzle for me?

A couple of days at 62C. And, yep, fresh tortillas. Because I don't have enough going on right now.

I've had the benefit of two kitchen helpers today. Here they are cutting circles out of bread for the onion soup croutons: We also pulled enough breadcrumbs for the week's recipes and dried them slightly in the oven: While they were separating the daube marinade components into three portions -- -- I was slicing the duck ham, which turned out very well. The PX sherry worked great: Then we washed every leaf in the house (pardon the lousy photo): Bebe asked me to make black beans with dinner tonight, so I got out this great hock stock I've been hoarding: The beans are Rancho Gordo midnight black beans. Used the hock fat to sauté the vegetables for the beans: Lots of dishes to do, of course, and I thought I'd show this simple set-up to extend the drying rack, using a shallow Vollrath hotel pan and some cheap (and bleached) bar rail draining mats:

I will tomorrow morning, when they're baked. Do let me know. It's one flour and one sugar, btw; one just scoops the sugar out from the right bin. They are one of those things that blow people away about the kitchen, it's true, but they're also a bit of a pain: the cap for the flour chute gets stuck and, when you dislodge it, you dust the Sylvia. Morning prep pix coming.

I've switched over from Thomas's too, but to the Whole Foods' store brand ones. I'm sure I've given TJ's a try some time in the past few years, but I'll have to refresh my memory. Sounds like I should get all three and do a side-by-side, eh?

The PC is putting in a few hours at work, so I'll have to get back to you on that. Perhaps someone else around here knows.... Here's the word from Andrea: "Sitting on mixture of butter, brown sugar and (stabilizing) corn syrup: will caramelize as bakes an make the goo."

Just pulled out and then pulled the pork butt for tonight's dinner. Behold:

Thanks! One main reason: you can't poke meat with the IR thermometer.

Haven't tried them. There's a TJs down the (busiest retail) street from our new house, and we stop there once in a while. I'll grab a few and do a comparison later this week.

Nope. Just dribble a bit of water on them.

As the freezer indicated, we like our English muffins around here, and we like them in one particular preparation: a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. (Lots of hand-wringing about what that means over in this topic.) This morning, thanks to a cheese splurge for the onion soup tomorrow, we had a special treat: I am too harried most mornings to make a perfect fried egg, and frankly my technique isn't always what it should be. But this morning, using a ton of butter and a pastry cutter, I took a deep breath and coaxed one through a slow cook. Sometimes, the foodblog spirits shine down upon you: Bull's eye.