MelissaH

We got our Weber gas grill the spring of 1999. At the time, Weber was equipping their grills with quick-disconnect regulators, which could be attached to suitable tanks without tools. (This was the old-style quick-disconnect where you pushed the connector, not the new style of regulator that has a QCC1 connection, a plastic nut large enough to turn with your hand.) Fast forward to this spring. For some reason the grill wasn't working well. (Of course, this was just after we'd refilled the quick-connect tank. ) We were able to trace the problem to the regulator, which we replaced with the QCC1 variety. Once we did this, and used our other two "normal" propane tanks with the grill, it once again performed beautifully. But we now have an "orphan" quick-connect tank, nearly full. Fast forward again to two nights ago. I opened the tank's valve, turned the grill burner on, hit the igniter, watched the blue flame leap down the burner...and then sputter and go out. Empty tank. The *second* tank was also empty. This left us with propane in only the quick-connect tank. My husband swapped regulators again, but the old regulator is still not working properly and we couldn't get things hot enough. The burgers got cooked indoors on a beautiful night. My question: Is there anything we can do with this nearly-full quick-connect tank? We don't have any other quick-connect appliances, but we do have a filling adaptor. Failing that, is there any way to get the propane out of this tank safely, so we don't bring a bomb to our transfer station? Thanks, MelissaH edited to add valve proper names

Absolutely. Just spread them out on a cookie sheet and stick in the freezer, then package the individually frozen peppers into bags. If you try to just freeze a bagful of peppers, you get one giant frozen lump o'pepper that's nearly impossible to use. MelissaH

I made a batch of pear sorbet today. I used the pears I got last week at the farmer's market, as they were finally perfectly ripe. I can't remember what kind they were, but they were described as "similar to a Bartlett," green with a dark red blush, and quite crisp. Half a dozen pears weighed about 2.25 pounds. That's what I had so that's what I used. I started by peeling, coring, and cubing them. I put them in a saucepan with about half a cup of water and let them cook, covered, for about ten minutes till they were soft. I turned the heat off, and then realized that my husband had used the blender last night, and it hadn't made its way into the dishwasher. So instead of blending the cooked fruit, I got out the food mill, fitted it with the finest disk, put the mill over a 4-cup pyrex spouted measuring cup, and milled the cooked pears into pearsauce. (Had I realized from the beginning that our blender was dirty, I would have saved myself the peeling and coring. In fact, next time I won't bother, even if the blender's clean.) The recipe said that the result would be about 2 cups of puree. I had a little bit more than that. I stirred in a slightly heaping 1/3 cup of sugar (recipe said 2/3 cup) and the juice from half a lemon. And then instead of the extra water, I stirred in three good-sized ice cubes, both to add a little extra liquid and to cool the mixture. I covered the measuring cup with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about an hour, at which point I got the freezer bowl out of the deep freeze and put the ice cream maker together. It took less than half an hour to spin and freeze. Served directly from the freezer bowl, no waiting. End result: silky, smooth, pear-y, and almost creamy. Definitely a keeper. MelissaH

What I brought: A freezer container of freshly made pear sorbet. When I picked up my copy of The Perfect Scoop, one of the people who works there said that it was cruel to order such a book and then not bring any ice cream in. So I did. They were delighted. What I found: In the new edition, the first change I noticed was a new introduction. The second change I noticed was that the hand-drawn illustrations of various dishes were gone, replaced with photographs. The overall appearance of the new hardcover book is also much glossier than my old paperback edition. The index is a little bit more comprehensive: the old index was strictly recipes, but the new one also includes proper names of people mentioned in the various stories. There's apparently a reference to Alice in Wonderland somewhere in the text, because there's an index entry. I didn't look to see what it was. Some of the sidebar notes and headnotes to recipes have been modified slightly, either to reflect new suppliers of some ingredients (one headnote in the charcuterie section specifically mentions Paul Bertolli's sausages) or because times have changed slightly and they no longer need to specifically define terms or ingredients for today's audience. But when I compared recipes head-to-head, I found that the order had been changed slightly, presumably to make things fit on pages better, BUT the recipes themselves were still the same. "White cabbage" and "sweet butter" have become "green cabbage" and "unsalted butter" in the new edition. In a few cases, the order of ingredients was rearranged slightly; the one that sticks in my mind is that the shrimp jumped to the top of an ingredient list because direction #1 is now "peel and devein shrimp" but in the old edition, IIRC the shrimp were listed somewhere in the middle, as "shrimp, peeled and deveined" but without the explicit instruction to peel and devein them. I did notice two changes to the text. One was in the chart of apple varieties. Apparently Fameuse apples are no longer available, as they're gone, replaced with Gala. (Isn't it convenient how the two variety names are close enough alphabetically that it's an easy swap without having to do anything else to the table? ) And the other text change is that the list of Silver Palate prepared items in the back has been replaced by a metric conversion chart. My verdict: if you already have the old edition of the book, don't bother with the new one. If you're looking for the book, you'd be just as well finding a used copy that's cheaper than the new edition. They're essentially identical, unless you absolutely need to have photographs with less information than the old hand-drawn illustrations. MelissaH

Here's a question: why not pair the dish with beer? Especially if you have something in mind that you believe to be perfect? Oh, and welcome to eG, dabstar! MelissaH

I've wondered the same thing. My local independent bookstore actually has a copy in stock at the moment. Maybe I'll bring some goodies in for the staff, and settle in my favorite chair with my old copy and the new copy, and do a head-to-head comparison. MelissaH

Being the other person who failed completely at making rock candy, I'd like an update please. I'd also like to know if it picked up a lot of smokey flavour. ← I'd also like to know if the flavor's noticeably smoky. When I was in grad school, one of the ways we'd purify a solid product was to recrystallize it. We'd usually try to grow our crystals somewhat slowly so we'd get only the pure product. If we rushed things and just let the crystals crash out of a supersaturated solution, we'd risk getting contaminants trapped along with the good stuff. Any smoky components would be "contaminants" to the sugar, and I'm curious if you're getting enough of them in your rock candy to taste a difference. MelissaH, one-time chem-geek

I love/hate it when a foodblog makes me homesick. I've never been to Spain. But my husband and I were married in Ouray, and my parents live there. (I think I know which store your mug came from, K.) Here's a challenge that most people get wrong the first time: pronounce Ouray! MelissaH

This is SO NOT FAIR to those of us who used to live near the area but had to move away! MelissaH

We always just put the ears directly on the grill, no soaking beforehand. They get a great roasty flavor as the husks start to char. And the silk comes right off, very easily! MelissaH

Amen to that! MelissaH

Ours is currently on hiatus for the summer, when we can easily get most of the fresh herbs we want from our next-door neighbor's garden. (With her permission, of course! ) The only things she doesn't grow that we use in large amounts are cilantro and parsley, but those are both easily available elsewhere. She grows basil, but once it gets to be in season, that's in wide supply at the farmer's market. We're currently trying to decide what we want to start this fall, once the garden's supply is gone. Last year, we were able to get fresh sage well into November! We probably could have gotten more out of our Aerogarden, but ran out of the nutrient tablets. Next time, I would order another batch along with the seeds, so we can get through spring. MelissaH

Amen to that! Another Utica specialty worth trying is Chicken Riggies. Despite the cutesy name, it can be quite good: rigatoni with chicken, peppers, and a sauce that's mostly cream with a touch of tomato. MelissaH

But if you're planning on putting it in the dishwasher, make sure it will fit in yours! MelissaH

Our current favorite Utica restaurant is Babe's. I don't know if they do brunch, but it is convenient to the Aud and keeps us well fueled for hockey games, which is what we're typically looking for. MelissaH

Melissa, I hope it isn't too late, but you can't go wrong with the Visiting Cake. Very easy, very quick and very delicious. The recipe is making the rounds in my large, extended family (thanks to email) and the name has morphed into Irish Visiting Cake. One sister uses it for a quick strawberry shortcake, another niece adds fresh lemon thyme and pine nuts, and yet another tried it with Splenda. I'm quite happy eating it as Dorie originally wrote it Hope you can try it, there won't be a crumb left. colleen ← That looks good. But what I wound up doing was a Dimply Peach Cake. (No plums worth buying around here, but the supermarket had adequate peaches.) The peaches I had were so enormous that I only needed two, cut into eighths, to top the cake. I used a smidge of cinnamon rather than the cardamom in the original recipe, and lemon zest instead of orange. And it went over quite well. There are exactly two pieces left after breakfast this morning. MelissaH

I didn't pull these either. The bone pieces pretty much fell out, though, in some cases as I took the pieces off the grill. We ate some, and brought a couple of plates over to the next-door neighbors who had a rough day yesterday. I think I'll chop the leftovers into small pieces, vacuum pack them in serving-size portions, and freeze them. We were thinking how the leftovers would make a wonderful addition to fried rice. MelissaH

My country-style ribs just came off the WSM. So they wound up needing about five hours to cook. I've been amazingly restrained, and didn't even taste the little bits that came off. I did notice that these pieces of butt are more dried out than the corresponding piece of uncut butt would probably be. But then again, I could do this all on one day without having to plan ahead of time. We'll see how they go over tonight. I'm currently debating whether to pull the meat or just leave the "ribs" whole, while I give them a little bit of a rest. MelissaH eta: I did give in and taste. And it's good, not dried out as I'd feared!

You need to give yourself several hours for them. I always hesitate to give time estimates. When I first started smoking meat I asked when would it be done. I got a reply, that I considered snide at the time, that it is done when it is done. I know now the meaning of that. Every one can be different. The country style ribs still have all the fat and tissue to break down. So, as I recall they were on the smoker for close to 4 hours. Clearly they will not take as long as a 16 lb pork butt, but they still need some time. ← I was looking for a ballpark estimate, more than anything so I knew how early I had to wake up this morning. It's relatively cool here now (just under 70 at about 11 AM) and the winds are relatively light, for once. The skies look as though we may get some rain before the day's over. So, I was up on the later side (for me) this morning, and fired up the WSM. The country-style ribs went on at about 9:15, just as they came out of the package. They've been on for about two hours now. Hickory chunks; WSM temp about 240. Thermometer probe stuck in a "rib" says 156. So far, so good. Now, time to make a batch of =Mark's sauce. We've invited friends to join us; it'll be served when it's done. MelissaH

This is sort-of on topic, as country-style ribs are just cut-up pieces of butt (as previously pointed out by lancastermike): Any guesses how long it might take to cook them on a Bullet? Lancastermike or anyone else who's tried it? MelissaH

I've invited a friend to help me work out some issues with resizing a knitting pattern on Thursday morning (two days from now), and I'd like to have something coming out of the oven when she gets here. It needs to be something I can get mostly prepped tomorrow night, and then just do the last-minute mixing while my oven preheats on Thursday morning. (Or if there's something that could be made and baked the night before without suffering, that's also fine.) And because we're going to be busy with swatches I've made as well as measuring tape, calculator, pencil, and paper, I'd prefer something that stays relatively neat (much as I love them, I don't want my knitting covered with chocolate swirls or cinnamon sugar). I'll probably have about an hour and a half from the time I wake up till the time my friend arrives and whatever goodie I make must be ready to eat. Any suggestions for suitable recipes from this book? MelissaH

Leave your stuff at the hotel, even if they don't have your room ready. Then get out and walk, walk, walk. Stop at an ATM to get some local cash, and get some food anywhere but McDonald's. See if there's a market anywhere the day you arrive, since markets are a great place to walk and eat both. Maybe find a museum that's kid-friendly, but follow my very wise grandmother's "museum rule" and don't spend more than an hour there. Maybe plan to go to Klary's favorite teahouse in the park. Do whatever you can to keep moving until it's time for an early dinner. Eat, and then stumble into bed. Wake up whenever you wake up, and you're almost functioning on local time in one very painful day. And take lots of pictures because you won't remember much of what you do on that first day as you sleepwalk through. MelissaH

What about something along the lines of a Black Forest Cake? You could use chocolate cake for the chocolate-cherry flavor, and yellow or other vanilla cake for the cherry (no chocolate). Or does the cherry need to actually be in the cake itself? MelissaH

I don't know why tapioca is supposed to be better for cherry pies. But because my husband doesn't like the texture of tapioca, I blitz minute tapioca in my spice grinder and use the resulting tapioca flour to thicken my cherry pies. The obvious answer is to do a test: make a cherry pie with tapioca, a cherry pie with arrowroot, a cherry pie with cornstarch, a cherry pie with potato starch...and then invite the neighborhood over to eat cherry pie. MelissaH

And Bev's for dessert afterwards? Depending on when/how long you're here for, don't forget the Oswego farmer's market on Thursday evenings starting at 5, and Fulton's on Saturday morning. The strawberries will probably be over, but you may be here for the cherries. And we get sour cherries here! And also, plenty of u-pick berries in the area, probably getting close to blueberry season by then. (The strawberries have been supreme this year.) MelissaH