MelissaH

We haven't done a portion of a bovine but we have done a pig and a lamb. We split both of the above with friends. The one thing I'd suggest is that if possible, make very clear the sort of butchering you want (how thick do you want the pork chops cut? would you prefer chunks of stew meat or ground lamb? pork belly as a whole piece, or already turned into sliced bacon?). Unfortunately, the friends moved across the country, so we need to find more people to split animals with because our meat consumption isn't enough to warrant a whole quadruped for just the two of us. But with the right sharing partners, I'd do it again in a heartbeat...regardless of the trendy name it may have now.

My favorites are still the peanut, with the regular milk chocolate not far behind. Almond isn't bad, but they're too big. I don't care for the crispy or the pretzel: not enough substance. Anything else falls under the "why bother" category. YMMV, of course!

Kerry is the most evil of the enablers. And she looks so innocent, too!

I'm with you, @NWKate. Cheap white chocolate is a no-go for me, unless it's white chocolate chips in a really dark, not-very-sweet chocolate cookie. I think I'll leave both of these on the shelf.

Are both the boo-terscotch and s'mores varieties unbearably sweet, or is there more to them?

And yet another list. This one's from Eat Your Books. Did I mention that I've had Dorie's Cookies on order from the indie bookstore for months now? Only another 3 weeks till it's released and they can sell it to me! (I'm also really intrigued by the idea behind My Two Souths, comparing, contrasting, and combining the south of India with the southern United States. Of course, it doesn't hurt that these are both cuisines I enjoy.)

@Anna N and @rustwood, in my quick look through the book, I missed the special vinegar recipe. And I definitely agree that substitutions would be welcome, especially for the specialty ingredients that may not be widely available. And my reasoning is not only because specialty ingredients can be hard to find or expensive (the Blis Maple Sherry Vinegar, ordered directly from Blis, would cost $12.95 plus shipping). The other reason to include substitutions using regularly available products is that specialty ingredients may be transient: what happens if Blis stops making this particular vinegar, or the company goes out of business? How would one make the recipe if the vinegar is an endangered species, limited only to the quantities available in various people's pantries? I'm specifically thinking in this case of one of the cakes in Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible. There's a recipe in there that requires a specific candy bar (possibly Hershey's Golden Almond?) that has long ceased to exist. Without this exact candy bar, the recipe has become obsolete. (IIRC, in one of her newer cake books, she published a recipe that was similar to whatever this one was, but doesn't need the special and nonexistent candy bar.) Of course, I now can't find whatever the specific recipe was! Anyway, I prefer my cookbooks to be timeless. I get that any book will be a snapshot of the time in which it was published, as far as what's popular or "in" (both the recipes and the formatting). But when I can't make the recipes because I can't get the ingredients or a reasonable facsimile thereof (for whatever reason), the cookbook loses much of its appeal to me.

There's a book called Preserving with Pomona's Pectin, by Allison Carroll Duffy. I use the recipes in there for jam and jelly, and they're reliable for me. The chapters with recipes are titles Jams, Jellies, Preserves, Conserves, and Marmalades. No PdF, alas.

My husband commented a number of years ago that Fernet Branca reminded him of old Vicks Formula 44. I'm not sure which would be better to use in your bonbon.

I'll let you know when I get there. I have a work deadline starting to loom at the end of the month, which makes this a totally awful time to have all these wonderful new temptations cookbooks nearby!

Um, yeah. I got that one on Kindle a while ago, and am now reading through it. It's one of those books that makes me hungry just looking at the recipes, and of course the photos are gorgeous too.

I think I may need to stay far, far away from bookstores for the next little while.

So after going to the farmer's market last night and then dropping by a local bar to say goodbye to one of my husband's colleagues who is about to start a new job, we stopped in at the local indie bookstore. And I looked at the book myself. Apart from the salt issues, I decided that there wasn't a lot in the book that I would actually see myself making, so I left it behind for someone else to buy. I can't say the same thing about the Alton Brown's latest book, Simple by Diana Henry, or the new tome on rye baking. And this is just the start of the holiday cookbook release season!

Bump! Anything new in the world of sous-vide beets? The ones I regularly see around here are a little smaller than a tennis ball, but definitely bigger than a golf ball. I usually scrub them well, wrap them individually in foil, and then roast till they're soft all the way through. The skins slip right off when they're cooked. But in the supermarket this morning, I saw what appear to be vacuum-sealed cooked beets that are marked with a reasonably long shelf life. Is it possible to make them at home? Or would they freeze, so when I want beets with dinner I can just thaw a package?

I've never had a good pot pie. The crust doesn't do it for me. I'd just as soon have a bowl of really good stew, with a biscuit or two on the side. And I'm a little surprised nobody is marketing a combination like that.

I'm intrigued by what I saw in the Eat Your Books sample, but I am soooooo turned off by the pretention of Guatemalan sea salt.

I'm still disappointed the key lime variety didn't make a repeat appearance this summer. Is there any logic as far as which flavors are one-offs and which ones come back?

That depends. Are you looking for eternal life?

And? Have you tasted them yet?

@Anna N, did you try clickling on the "See all 4 formats and editions" link to get the Kindle edition? I'm seeing it on .com for the $1.99 price. (And yes, I bit.)

No. This is Kindle ebook format, from Amazon. And like Anna, I couldn't resist the Greenspan either. Better for drooling on my pillow at night.

Prompted by a post from @Anna N in another thread, I took a peek to see what I could find very inexpensively for my Kindle. Most likely to be of interest here are Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi ($2.99) and Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads ($1.99).

For us, cinnamon toast was made by buttering a slice of bread, sprinkling on cinnamon sugar, and then toasting it in a toaster oven. We were the only ones with a toaster oven rather than a toaster with slots, which probably explains why none of my friends made cinnamon toast this way.

Have you tried opening the IP and letting it boil, open, for several minutes? @rancho_gordo is a proponent of doing that for beans in the pressure cooker, and it might also make sense in this instance.

Love those pistachios! We hosted a gathering last year, and one of the couples attending is from the Detroit area. They brought a similar-looking box of goodies. Many others brought desserts, but these were the only ones to completely disappear.