Honkman

But it makes more sense for any recipe to start with unsalted butter as it is easier to add the desired amount of salt to unsalted butter than using salted butter where you have no control over the amount of salt already used in butter (and you knowing the amount of salt in your butter is very unusual and definitely not the standard in most kitchens).

Eleven Madison Park, Ink, Ludobites are three interesting "modern" cookbooks which all have different angles how the chefs approach their style of cooking. The Alinea might go beyond what yiu interested if you cook complete dishes but it might give a lit of inspirations even if you are using only part of the dishes. The Ideas in Food cookbooks are not chef cookbooks but they are interesting to think about how to cook in term of techniques and combinations

I think that actually a good, thoughtful Twitter account is even more valuable to get your work across. Most of the time we communicate with chefs about their work, setting up tasting menus (even with those who normally are not doing any tasting menus), learn about new webpages, books etc. it mainly happens through Twitter.

Dinner at restaurant for VD = amateur hour

Blogging about the development of a book is different than posting business details. Just imagine somebody from Ten Speec is member of the forum and reads your posts.

The content of both will be very similar but I liked the less cramped layout of "New Best Recipes" much more. Actually one CI book which is also more interesting is their take on replicating restaurant recipes at "Restaurant Favorites at Home"

The problem with Cook's Illustrated is that they reuse their recipes multiple times in their many books, magazine, special edition magazines etc. I think it is worth buying one of their bigger books which covers many different types of recipes - in that case I like their "The New Best Recipes" more than "Cook's Illustrated Cookbook"

The price of $90 seems a bit high for a such book. It would be nice to have at least a chance to have some kind of preview and/or some serious reviews

More recently also the pressure cooker - The pork belly adobo from Modernist Cuisine (at Home) is nearly reason enough to buy one

Rice Cooker

If you like them great but I just voiced my opinion about the quality of them. I also tend to avoid items completely if I can't get them in sufficient quality. To be honest I never understand to settle for the lowest quality just to satisfy a craving if this quality would normally not good enough if mote options are available.

Had to buy some salads at TJ (pretty much the only thing we buy there) and they had those to try - wow, really bad. Sorry to say but these might be edible if you never had a tamale before but otherwise these are a waste of calories, not a good texture and flavor.

I miss chanterelles - the cheapest I have ever seen them in San Diego was for $30/lb and poor quality

If you like both you might also take a look at LudoBites and Volt ink

Quark - German ambrosia... Very popular soft cheese in Germany (and very easy to make, here is a link with all necessary information http://twofoodiesonejourney.blogspot.com/2010/10/homemade-quark-staple-in-german-cuisine.html ) It is distinct different from cottage cheese or cream cheese (which are sometimes used in the US as substitutes). There are a few creameries like Vermont Creamery who are making quark in the US but it is not worth buying them as the quality is very low

I looked at it at a bookstore for 30 minutes and really liked the approach of the book as a "binder to the line cooks" but at least for me the recipes itself weren't really inspiring enough to buy the book. They sound OK but nothing unusual or something I haven't seen similar in other cookbooks. I think I am getting more and more selective about buying cookbooks and either buy a book because it has either a specific regional approach (some country or better part of a country and its culinary recipes) or a chef/restaurant driven cookbook (by a restaurant/chef which has an unique "culinary voice" or technical approach). Both didn't really cover Prune which seems to be a nice neighborhood restaurant based on the recipes.

How about a German Sour Cherry Pie: http://twofoodiesonejourney.blogspot.com/2010/04/old-german-family-recipe-for-sour.html

"Children, even 2 YO 50 % brats...." - I complete don't agree with your view on childrens behaviour. Children are no xx% brats - if children don't behave like it is expected it is normally their parents who never showed them how to behave. So 2 yo 50%^ are actually parents 50% brats

Nobody is judging Franci but this is a discussion board and I think interesting to see the different opinions on topics like that - there is no wrong or right but a lot of potential for discussion and nobody is using a sone size fits all approach. (And yes, I think having children might change your view. Before we had our daughter i also had certain thoughts how to raise a child but once you have it a lot of previous opinion don't matter anymore.

I am just curious if yourself have children - actually I think you will educate your child's palate less if you always give them the opportunity to eat something else than what the parents are eating. Nobody is forcing them to eat something and it is not the problem to make in theory a second dish but by going that route you exclude them from being part of the family table. You should be thoughtful how you educate the child's palate by teaching and explaining them about new ingredients and it often helps when you introduce them multiple times together with ingredients they are already familiar but they should always eat what the parents are eating.

if you like the book you should also give Clifford Wright other books a lookover. I like in particular his "Real Stews" and "The best Soups of the World" which nicely covers stews and soups from all around the world with many normally not covered examples.