MelissaH

Is anyone using their Instant Pot at high altitude? We'll be visiting my parents in Colorado this summer, and their house is at 8600 feet. Do you need to increase the cooking times a little? Any other recipe adjustments? @Shelby, I'm particularly interested in what you would do for a cheesecake at altitude. I've been a flatlander for so long now that I've forgotten most of what I used to do as a matter of course.

The last couple of years, I've been using Pomona's Pectin to make my jams and jellies. It requires less sugar to set, but you have to add a bit of calcium (which is included when you buy the pectin). I've been pleased with my results, which taste deliciously fruity.

I wonder if others have had issues with the Purple Carrot, and someone is seeing writing on the wall? http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2016/05/mark-bittman-departs-vegan-meal-kit-startup-purple-carrot @JoNorvelleWalker, if you haven't, you really need to tell them the tale of the mushy apple!

My friends call me the queen of public transit. And IMHO this is all doable by public transit, especially if you don't mind a bit of walking. (I don't mind walking, especially given the amount of eating I expect to do throughout the weekend!) The only potential downside is that transit can take a little longer than driving in a private car sometimes. These directions are what Google Maps told me, and what I have printed. There may be other options available, as well. I have a paper map of Toronto that I can bring along, since my USA-ian cell phone will be expensive to use for navigation purposes. From the hotel to Soma: the subway stop by the hotel is near the Yorkdale stop of the Yonge-University line (#1). We'd take that south 6 stops to Spadina, transfer there to the Bloor-Danforth line (#2, the main east-west line), and ride 6 stops west to Dundas West. From there, it's a 750 m/0.5 mile walk to 35 Golden Ave. Total travel time including the walk on both ends is about 50 minutes (plus however long you have to wait for that first subway). For a comparison, the car travel time is supposed to be 20 to 40 minutes...plus however long it takes you to park, if you've driven your own car. From Soma to the Distillery District (this is what I put into Google Maps, and it seems to have taken that to mean the intersection of Mill St and Trinity St, more or less): this is basically a straight shot east on King St. on the 504 streetcar, with about 500 m/0.3 mile walk on either end. To get to the streetcar stop we'd walk to Roncesvalles Ave. The catch is that streetcars can be reeeeeallllly slow, and Google estimates that this trip will take nearly an hour. If time is an issue, this is one leg where we might do better using cabs or another car service, which could cut the travel time down to something on the order of 20 minutes (that's what Google said, using the highway instead of surface streets to get across town). To get from the Distillery District back to 3507 Bathurst: take the streetcar (#504) from west to Yonge St (or to walk the 1.8 km/1.1 miles there), and transfer to the subway. The Yonge-University line stops there at the King station, and it's 14 stops to Yorkdale (via Union Station; the overall shape of the line is like a U, with Union Station at the bottom. Our hotel is most of the way up the western leg of the U; the Distillery District is near the bottom of the eastern leg of the U). From there, it's a 1.6 km/1 mile walk, or if you have your car at the hotel you can drive from there. If you want to get closer than that, get off the subway at St. Clair West (10 stops) and walk around the corner to the bus stop on Bathurst St at Tichester Road for a #7 Bathurst bus north toward Steeles, which will basically take you within a block of 3507 Bathurst. Any way you do it, even if you choose to walk rather than take the streetcar to the subway or walk the last little bit instead of using the bus to get closer, travel time is a little more than an hour. There doesn't seem to be a fast way to do this leg; when I told the map to travel by car, it still came out to be a 40 to 50 minute trip. Is it worth noting that St. Lawrence Market is between the Distillery District and the subway station? FWIW, the Morato demonstration at 300 Adelaide Street E is not too far from the Distillery District. It's about an 800 m/0.5 mile walk from the subway's King station, which might be a valid option for those who arrive early enough on Thursday and don't want to deal with parking. We could do each of these trips with one token (and a free paper transfer) per person. Even if I don't plan to transfer, I like to take one anyway, because it serves as a proof of payment in case there are ever questions. Tokens cost $2.90 each, as long as you're buying three or more at a time. If you're a senior (65+), you can buy fare tickets for $1.95 each. All of the above will be available at the subway station.

Another possibility: it looks like Soma at 35 Golden Ave. might also be accessible from the hotel by a subway ride, which would eliminate the need for parking. (If I'm wrong, someone please correct me!)

Kerry, I somehow fell off your pizza list. I guess I'm just slick?

Did you report this to the Purple Carrot people? I would hope that they would want to know why you won't be a return customer.

Kerry, my name should also be on the SOMA list, please.

As am I.

This semester, my husband the chemistry professor is teaching a science class for honors students who are not necessarily science majors, and he's using food as the focus of the class. Yesterday he brought the Instant Pot to work, along with carnaroli rice, diced onion, shredded cheese, carrot juice, and other ingredients, and made a vegetarian risotto, which the class devoured. Did I mention this was an 8 AM class?

Are you ready yet to hire a herd of minions to drop in white and drag a clay tool through it?

And I'm in for both Friday and Saturday night dinners!

No master class for me.

In for Morato, Friday dinner, Saturday dinner...am I missing anything?

I have a ticket for Morato as well. And if there's still an IR thermometer, I'd like one please.

@Anna N, your story of only being saved prep time reminds me of a story I read (and can't remember where, or I'd give them credit): when cake mixes were first being developed, those in charge made a conscious choice to have bakers add their own eggs, because they found that it made people feel more like they were really cooking (and, presumably, less guilty about using a mix in the first place). I suspect this was also a conscious decision to have you grate your own sweet potato, and those things can be a bugger to grate. For one thing, the whole sweet potato probably keeps better than grated sweet potato. And this way, you get to do more of the work yourself, so it's more like you really cooked your own dinner and had to make some decisions (such as whether to grate the potato on a box grater or in the food processor). One thing I'd like to find out is, in six months or a year or two years, do people who started cooking with these meal kits generally go on to do their own shopping and cooking? Are they better able to choose and follow a recipe? If not, I'd say that the only goal accomplished is that of the manufacturers of these meal kits: making their pockets heavier.

That. And I would argue that if they feel the need for a cooking school with a separate charge and an upcharge for instructors on top of that, maybe their writers and editors aren't doing their jobs all that well.

How is there a school without instructors?

Ohhh, man, that looks awesome, but not like something you could eat a lot of or eat often. Would the flavors work on, say, the scale of a grilled cheese sandwich?

Last year, our Aldi was closed for a couple of months while they renovated. It still looks like an Aldi, but it's now a bit brighter and it's still a little cleaner than I remember. And I still have a very specific list of things I buy there, just like I do at Trader Joe's and other specialty stores.

Wegmans in Syracuse had them yesterday, $4 for a 2 lb bag, which is the pretty normal rate around here.

Will I get pinged for being off-topic if I post here about the return of Hydrox?

It would make a very different dish, but looking at the other ingredients, I wonder if perhaps feta might be a better match than the gorgonzola.

Not I.

(psst, @curls: for me the Seder is all about friends and food, and I don't hang out with a very observant crowd. We go for spirit, not letter, of the law. I don't think I've ever served a meal that's completely kosher for Passover, depending on whose rules you follow. For us, the fact that there's no leavening in the crackers themselves is good enough! Given that the taste of these is so much better than the cardboard usually served, I'm seriously considering it.)