MelissaH

I tend to do my kitchen torching in the vicinity of my stove, which has continuous cast iron grates. And that's typically where I rest my torch head to cool: right on the stove grate. While I understand their warnings and cautions and aversion to being sued by someone who doesn't follow the directions, I'm also loath to buy another torch when I have one that works quite nicely for everything else I do with a torch. Maybe when I kill this one, I'd consider going back to one with the cylinder underneath, but I hate the idea of spending at least another $50 on top of whatever the Searzall will cost when it's available for purchase by regular people, plus whatever consumables it will require, just because. Or maybe I just spent too much time in grad school, where you have to make do with what you have?

Last month, I let a friend use my kitchen to bake her older daughter's birthday cake. The daughter had requested a "real flour" red velvet cake. (One of her younger kids has celiac disease, so she couldn't make the cake at home.) The red came from beet puree. I liked it way better than a store-bought red velvet cake: it was not as blatantly red, but the flavor was a vast improvement over a bottle of red food coloring. (And, hey, beet puree adds a bit of fiber, so maybe the cake became health food?)

And, I would add, be able to carry out a conversation with my tablemates or the waitstaff.

Chris, may I ask why, now that you've used one? I find that I have better control over the torch with the hose, since I don't need to support the weight of both the torch and the canister while I flame-throw. The canister rides on my hip, in a holster that clips to my waistband. With the canister directly attached, I find that my wrist gets tired much faster.

This might be a silly question, but my torch is a few years old. It's a Bernzomatic with a trigger start that burns propane, with a hose between the torch head and the tank. I just took a close look at the torch, but don't see any model number or other way to identify it. Any guesses as to how I might be able to tell whether this torch would work with a Searzall, or is it a case of "If you have to ask, no"?

Applesauce, sour cream, or both to go with those potato pancakes?

One that we've used in the past is The Appetizer Atlas. But for other appetizer-type books, I tend to gravitate to caterer types: Ina Garten, even <shudder> Martha Stewart.

Unless there's a good single-serving rice cooker available, I'd think frozen rice would be more efficient for someone who's feeding one at a time.

Anna, could you give a little more detail about the chicken stock? What else went into the pressure cooker? Did you do anything to the bird other than unwrap it, check for a giblet pack hiding where the sun don't shine, and toss it in the pot?

Our local orchard says to store apples in the refrigerator, so I do. The only onions I refrigerate are "sweet" onions like vidalias. Regular cured onions stay out, but sweet onions aren't as dry and go bad in a snap if I try to keep them on the counter. Avocados stay out till they're perfectly ripe, and then the go in the fridge if I'm not ready to use them.

Andie, if I lived closer, I'd be one of the first on your doorstep to help out with the vigorous stirring and other hard labor associated with cookie baking. But instead, I'll just wish you an easy and uneventful recovery, and a fast return to the kitchen.

I understand. I know you've already made your mind up, but my next-door neighbor does a fantastic shrimp-on-a-stick version: a blanched snap pea pod and a cooked shrimp, on a toothpick, sprinkled with sesame oil, salt, and black sesame seeds. Tasty and easy!

Well, if you're lucky, by the time you're ready to bring it home, the cider will be ready to be transferred into a secondary fermenter, and will have blown off all its foam and whatever else it's going to spray off. Did you happen to bring a hygrometer or refractometer with you, so you can keep track of the fermentation and know when it can safely be put into a container with a lid?

Would a couple of drops of sesame oil help to maintain the gloss during the cold rest?

Rob, that purple color is amazing. Do they stay this color after cooking?

I didn't discover green bean casserole till I moved away from home, because my family never made it. Since then, I've seen it done both ways: canned beans and frozen. I can't abide it with canned green beans. (Then again, I can't abide canned green beans in anything, even when they haven't been re-cooked.) With frozen green beans, I like it. I've also tried several of the homemade versions, and they don't do it for me the same way that the cream of mushroom soup and can of fried mushrooms do. That's not to say that the homemade versions aren't tasty; to me, they're just something different that isn't the classic casserole.

My favorite use for the little prune plums is Dorie Greenspan's recipe for Dimply Plum Cake. If you have plums to spare, I'd be interested in your comparison of the two. <nudge, nudge> Anna, I too am a prime sourdough killer. When you figure out the secret to keeping a starter going without either going crazy or being completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of starter you toss out, please share it with me!

I kinda enjoyed watching Richard Blais in his original stint on Top Chef. But the more I see of him since then, the more of a cad he seems and the less I like him. I shudder to think of what's going to happen once he gets overexposed, as it sounds like is happening.

If you're looking for something you can just add water to, what about mixing the hot sauce powder with sodium acetate?

Shelby, would some variation on rice and beans work for your dad? There are so many possible variations, and all the ones I've tried freeze very well.

Myers is my favorite rum for baking. The flavor is assertive enough to not get lost and it seems to work well in my recipes, and it's not prohibitively expensive.

Oh, man, I'd love to be there for that playdate!

Anna, when you find a good pasty recipe, please share it. It's almost the season when we can find fresh rutabagas here!

Getting back to basics: last night we were invited next door for dinner, which was marvelous. One of the dishes on the table was the last jar of last year's applesauce; there won't be any more for another month or so because our neighbor likes to use northern spy apples to make her applesauce. Her sauce is chunky and spiced, but you could definitely tell that it was not made from a sweeter apple. What apples do yinz like to use for applesauce? Do you look for something specific, or just use whatever you can get, cheap, at the time you're ready for applesauce? Will you hold out for practically the last apples of the year, like my neighbor?

Smithy, you called these "wild apples." Are these like normal domesticated apples that have gone feral, or are they some form of never-domesticated apple? Or are they actual crab apples (which we can buy at a few farms in our area)?