Patrick S

Let me guess, King Arthur's Bread Flour? ← Yes indeed! Consider me impressed. I'll try another brand next time I make pizza.

It was a little bit of a pain, but not too bad. If the knife is too dull, you'll squish the pasty cream out. Once its baked and cooled, and the pastry cream layer if firmer, you can go through the cuts again and make them a little smoother.

I made this pastry cream "baklava" after seeing the recipe on this blog. I followed the recipe except that I added some vanilla and a vanilla bean to the syrup.

The Cook's Illustrated recipe for Cincinatti-style chili, which uses ground beef only, has the beef is broken up in boiling water for 30 second, drained, then returned to the pot with liquid after the onions and garlic are cooked. I'm not sure what the rationale for that is, but the chili tastes fine.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned, that may or may not be relevant to this discussion, is that many if not most smoking foodies would probably agree with me that the most satisfying time to smoke is after a meal. I quit smoking 3 years ago (after 15 years), and the desire for a cigarette after meals stayed around for a long time. I hear the same thing from virtually all of my friends and family who have quit -- the post-gustation desire for a smoke lingers longest and strongest, after most of the old triggers have faded. What does that mean? I don't know, but like Richard Dreyfuss says as he's making a mountain out of mashed potatoes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I have to think that "this means something."

The one I use looks like this. It was a gift. There have been several discussions of pizza stones you might want to search for.

Your mileage may vary, but I've always had what I consider great success with Cook's Illustrated pizza dough. We make this at least once a month or so. It uses bread flour, has 2 tablespoons of olive oil, no sugar or honey. It can be a pain to get it really thin, but I don't worry about trying to get it so thin. I bake it on parchment on a pizza stone that is about 14" diameter and ~1/2" thick, set on the bottom rack, preheated to 550F, and the pizzas are done in 6-7 minutes.

I can't give you a good answer, but certainly it would depend on storage conditions. Chicken eggs can easily last a month as long as they are kept refrigerated, so I don't think it would be too surprising for quail eggs to last that long as well.

Availability. We had everything for BLTs except bread, so we used the rolls.

Pear and Vanilla Cake with Custard Best served warm. Enjoy!

I'm not sure. I prefer dutched cocoas and use them in everything, including recipes that specify natural cocoa, and to be honest I've never had any problems.

I can't compete with the great stuff the rest of you are making, but here's some of our recent dinners. Lasagna: One of my favorite things: Pot roast with garlic smashed potatos and gravy: Cheeseburgers (did I mention I love these?): BLT's: Pear Cake, which was served with vanilla bean creme anglaise:

Maybe. I worked 3rd shift at a state psychiatric facility for several years, and I'd say about 3/4 of us were smokers (I quit ~3 years ago). I'm not sure how we compared to other shifts, but there were certainly a higher proportion of smokers on 3rd shift than in the community at large. The job was also extremely stressful, which reinforced the urge to smoke. ← I think working nights is another symptom, not the cause. Waiters, chefs, cooks, actors, unemployed writers and rock stars don't play by "their" rules and take a certain pride in showing it. There's a feeling of apartness and an outlow mentality that comes with working odd hours, not having a "real" job and being in a creative, high pressure profession that brings a disdain for the way other people live. As Harry Dean Stanton eloquently puy it in Repo Man, "Ordinary fuckin' people. I hate 'em." I had a bit of that attitude as a waiter and when I worked on political campaigns -- at the time, another high-smoking profession. Of course, the flip side of the argument is that people with "outlaw" tendencies end up in off certain professions, but then you get into a chicken/egg question. ← A related possibility, which I will pull out of the air and offer almost entirely without empirical support, is that chefs tend to be more sensation-seeking than the average Joe. There are plenty of studies showing that smokers tend to rate higher than average on the "sensation-seeking" dimension on personality assessment tools. My very limited personal experience would tend to support the view that chefs also tend to be more sensation-seeking than the average Joe -- more interested in pursuing and experiencing all sorts of thrills, whether pharmacological, sexual, travel, and so on. So it could be that there are a lot of smokers in the culinary world because smokers are sensation seekers, and sensation seekers are more likely to have a great interest in food.

Maybe. I worked 3rd shift at a state psychiatric facility for several years, and I'd say about 3/4 of us were smokers (I quit ~3 years ago). I'm not sure how we compared to other shifts, but there were certainly a higher proportion of smokers on 3rd shift than in the community at large. The job was also extremely stressful, which reinforced the urge to smoke.

Actually, your tart looks great. I made a pear cake this weekend, also with a creme anglaise (vanilla in this case), that is not nearly as pretty. The cake is topped with pear slices, brushed with butter, and sprinkled with 1/4C raw sugar before baking. It was good, but not so good that I'll make it again. I also made some tart apple jellies this weekend, from a recipe in the latest Bon Appetit. Again, these were good, but not so good that I'll make them again. The flavor is great, but the texture is something like solidified apple sauce -- the recipe uses unpeeled apples that are cooked, pureed, and then cooked some more with liquid pectin.

I used dutched Callebaut with this recipe, and the cake rose just fine. IIRC, Ling used Valrhona (also dutched) in her cake, and it appears to have risen fine also.

I have baked with pretty much every chocolate, from Baker's to Valrhona. I've also used just about every cocoa that is made. In my humble opinion, Callebaut is a fine, simple chocolate and is an excellent value. I'd say the same about their cocoa. I love Valrhona too, especially Caraibe, but to me the price just is not worth the difference in taste. The exotic notes that Valrhona is known for are completely lost on most people, and actually is not what most people want. The chemical in artificial vanilla is vanillan. The dominant flavor compound in vanilla extract is vanillan. Vanillan is vanillan regardless of whether it is created synthetically or extracted from a vanilla bean. That leaves the question of how big an effect that non-vanillan stuff in real vanilla extract contributes to the flavor. The blind taste test done by Cook's Illustrated, as well as the experience of several people on the pastry and baking forum, reveals that the answer is "little to nothing." I have yet to see or even hear of any blind test in which artificial versus natural extracts can be reliably distinguished in baked goods. Until I see a blind test that directly contradicts the results I've seen so far, I provisionally hold that the superiority of real extract is just another culinary myth. Beans and powder and definitely superior to any extract, IMHO. But I would only spend the money to use beans where vanilla is the star, like vanilla creme brulee, or vanilla ice cream, or vanilla cake.

I hope you don't actually complain about this out loud. In most states in the US, that would violate the law. ← In 31 states, women have a right to breastfeed in all public places, and cannot legally be denied service for that reason. These are laws I totally agree with. However, no state to my knowledge is so Orwellian or free-speech disrespecting as to have laws against "complaining out loud" about the practice. The earth mother's fellow diners have every right to express disapproval if they wish. And in turn, earth mother has every right to disapprove of their disapproval. No one has a right not to be complained about.

Thanks for trying it and giving us your changes. What type of mango puree was it? ← I pureed some store-brand frozen mango chunks, and then heated it to a boil.

I tried mango marshmallows. I subbed about 2T of lemon juice for some of water that is added to the puree. I noticed that the puree+gelatin was not as solid as it is when I use strawberry, so I added an extra packet of gelatin. The marshmallows whipped up and set just fine, and the texture seems the same as that of the strawberry marshmallows.

I've used Just Whites brand powdered whites, and they seem to taste fine. I would expect that powdered egg whites are pretty much the same from manufacturer to manufacturer, since the only ingredient is dried egg whites. But I've only used the Just Whites brand myself.

Thanks so much for the details, TDOW!

Are you loving the new camera? The photos look great! Thanks! I'd trade a slice of the cake for some of that lovely lasagna! That looks delicious! What's that on the plate, under the ice cream? And what's in the cake/souffle thingy? I probably won't buy the FL cookbook, but I'd love to know more about this dish.

Yes, this is the recipe from Food and Wine. I think the cake has made a much better impression on me than it did you! I'm sure this is something I'll make again.

I used the lens that came with the camera, the EF-S 18-55mm. Eventually I will buy a dedicated macro lens, but that will have to wait a while.