MelissaH

My husband and I are considering the acquisition of a pressure cooker. We think we'll use it for making stocks and soups, as well as expediting dinner prep on nights we do stews or braised dishes. And probably other things too, when I figure out what-all it can do. (Probably not beans, though: I've always been happy with doing those overnight in a crockpot.) Very often we're just cooking for ourselves, but when we make stock we do largeish batches, which we reduce and freeze. We also sometimes host a pre-hockey game dinner with a bunch of friends who also have season tickets; it's not atypical for us to have 8 at our table and less than 1.5 hours to cook and eat before walking back up to campus through the snow and wind. (Screams stew or chili or soup, doesn't it? ) I've read this thread from last year. I've also looked at the Cook's Illustrated article from January 2005, which tested 8-quart models and ranked the Fagor Duo as their top pick. That brand also got kudos here, and is consequently quite high on my list. Those of you who have pressure cookers (now a year older), how do you like yours? Is there anything I should think about that hasn't yet been mentioned? If we get one, I'm definitely thinking stainless steel rather than aluminum. Would you get an 8-quart model, or do you wish (or are you glad you have) a 10-quart-er? Are there any must-have accessories? (I should note here that we have a 22 quart pressure canner, so it's unlikely I'll be doing any canning in the smaller one.) Thanks, Melissa

My husband and I have not done a walking tour, but we've done a few cycling tours (on our own rather than with a tour company, carrying all our gear on the bike). And we've always fallen right into the swing of things, and somehow even been mistaken for locals once or twice. I think any non-car mode of transportation is a good one to forge a connection. Anywhere. MelissaH

I'll second Owen's recommendation of El Rincon. My husband and I ate at the original in Sodus a couple of weeks ago, and it was excellent. From Oswego, it was about 45 minutes down route 104. (YMMV. ) MelissaH

And I just had a second go with the Dimply Plum Cake. We're getting deeper into fall, and the Italian prune plums won't be around for much longer, although the ones I got at our orchard store were once again very sweet and even a little overripe. Last time I made it, I'd thought the cake was too sweet and the plums too tart in comparison. So this time, I cut the brown sugar in the cake batter to half a cup, and used the last quarter cup to sprinkle on top of the cake, aiming (and mostly hitting) the plums and not the cake batter. The cake itself (made with 7.2 ounces of flour as weighed on my scale ) was much better, because it was less sweet. And because this time I took it out before it overcooked, it didn't feel dry, like I needed to guzzle milk or tea or something alongside. But alas, the plums were still mouth-puckeringly tart in comparison to the cake. Worse, the sugar directly on top of the plums drew out more moisture, so I had to wait much longer than the prescribed 15 minutes before unmolding the cake from the pan. After half an hour, I worried that the cake would get soggy, but there was still liquid on top that hadn't soaked back in. I wound up placing a rack on top of the pan, and inverting it over the sink. I'll keep the sugar reduced next time, because I think it tastes better that way and because it hasn't hurt the texture of the cake. But I need to try something different for the plums. Maybe I'll try making an orange juice and confectioners' sugar glaze, and applying it to the top of the cake through a ziplock bag's snipped off corner after it comes out of the oven? That way I can amp up the orange flavor, because it's getting somewhat overshadowed by the other flavors...and also make use of the denuded orange that donated its zest to the cake. Next time I may also need to try a different fruit, since the local plums are pretty much over and done till next year. MelissaH

I made another Honey's Apple Cake, except that this time it was a Pear Cake. I used Bartletts, almost but not quite ripe, this time. And it worked beautifully well. I kept the cinnamon in, and was quite happy with the result. The little Seckel pears were more delicious, with almost a spicy flavor. But the Bartletts were soooooo much easier! They were much bigger, so the peeling and seeding part was less onerous. And because the Bartletts were firmer than the Seckels, they were easier to handle overall. I did like the way the Bartletts held their shape, probably because they really needed about another day or two to ripen. Next time I'll try with riper big pears of some kind, I think, and see how much of a difference that makes in the overall cake, or whether the filling turns to mush very quickly (in which case maybe turning on the convection to my oven might help?). Part of me says to just use the Seckels despite the size issues, because they disappear in short order but we can get Boscs and Bartletts and other big pears for more of the year. Oh, did I mention that it's great for breakfast? MelissaH edited to be more specific.

Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. I can't wait to read the rest. And Klary, your refrain reminds me of what I say in the supermarkets of Amsterdam: "Why can't we get this at home?" (I usually say this standing in front of the cheese selection...or in the chocolate aisle.) MelissaH

Well, at least for now, I think we're all off the hook about toothpaste. A small tube should fit into a quart-size ziplock bag without a problem...along with a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer, a smidge of lotion, and all the other comforts of home. And at least for now, those water bottles purchased on the concourse don't need to be hidden in the carry-on bag either! MelissaH

yep. I want to bake bread. I have an 8 hour work day. Within that work day I'd like to produce bread. It can't bee too terribly time consuming or difficult as I must do it in conjunction with my schedule, but a little challenge never killed anyone. I work in a teat kitchen so we have well calibrated ovens etc. ps nice boules ← Don't overlook the possibilities of overnight work. You could set up a starter last thing of the day just before you go home, let it do its thing overnight, and then come in a smidge early the next morning to finish the dough, let it rise till lunch, then shape and proof, and bake last thing in the day. Or you could time things so that you do your last rise overnight, low temperature, and then bake in the morning. Breadmaking does take time, but very little of the time is active on your part, and you can even juggle the times somewhat by watching your temperatures and the amount of yeast you use. MelissaH

I made a Dimply Plum Cake last night, using some of the Italian prune plums from Thursday night's farmer's market. I didn't take a picture because it looked remarkably like the one in the book. I left it in the pan for the 15 minutes described in the book, and the cake unmolded perfectly and without a single drip of plummy juice. Taste-wise: pretty good last night, although the texture had dryness issues because I probably baked it about two minutes longer than it really needed. The combination of plum, orange, and cardamom is a winner. This morning the texture was better, although still a tad dry right around the edges because of my goof. Whipped cream probably would have fixed everything, but I didn't have any on hand. My bigger issue is that the plums, although very ripe and dripping with juice, were not quite sweet enough to play well with the very sweet cake. I think that next time (and I have enough plums left to try again) I'll probably take some of the brown sugar out of the cake batter, spread it on a plate, and dip the cut sides of the plums in before applying to the top of the cake. I'm hoping the added sweetness there will take some of the jolt out. I'm also starting to think about baking individual cakes in a muffin tin, to give it the potential to get a little fancier but without too much more work. MelissaH

As snowangel requested of me in a PM, the sourdough waffle recipe is now a part of RecipeGullet. You can find it here. MelissaH

Sourdough Waffles Serves 4 as Main Dish. My favorite waffle recipe is originally from King Arthur, and it's written for a fairly goopy starter (not a firm starter). I refresh mine with equal masses of water and flour, a little more than 4 oz. each per refreshment. This is one of my favorite things to do with the part of the starter that gets removed in the refreshing. I generally don't measure too carefully when I make these, which is atypical of me! Sometime, I'll try the method Cook's Illustrated recommends in an article from March 2004 or thereabouts: heating the buttermilk, mixing all the ingredients (including the eggs but completely omitting the baking soda from the batter) together from the start, and refrigerating the batter overnight to rise. I'm concerned that if I left this particular version in my fridge, my starter would be too sluggish to do much. But if you try it before I get to it, let me know how it works for you! 2 c flour (can use half WW; about 9 oz) 2 T sugar, more or less 2 c buttermilk (I generally don't have buttermilk on hand, so I about half-fill my 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup with plain yogurt and then fill the cup with regular milk, making sure I stir a bit to avoid an 1 c sourdough starter (usually works out to about 8 or 9 oz, but I use whatever I remove from my starter jar just before adding water and flour to refresh) 2 eggs 1/4 c oil or melted butter (melted butter tastes better, but always seizes when I try to mix it in) 1 tsp salt (I use kosher) 1 tsp baking soda Mix flour and sugar in whatever bowl you'll use for the batter. I like an 8-cup bowl with a spout and a handle, because it makes it easy to get the batter into the waffle iron. Mix together milk and starter. Break up the starter as well as you can. Stir into flour. Cover (I use a shower cap swiped from a hotel) and leave out overnight. In the morning, blend in eggs, oil, salt, and baking soda. My Black and Decker waffle iron (makes square waffles, which can easily be divided into four quarters) needs about 3/4 cup of batter per waffle. Any leftovers freeze well, and can be toasted straight from the freezer for future breakfasts. Keywords: Vegetarian, Waffle Iron, Easy, Breakfast, Brunch ( RG1806 )

Can you tell us how you do that? I am looking for things to do with my starter. ← My recipe is from King Arthur, and it's written for a fairly goopy starter. I refresh mine with equal masses of water and flour, a little more than 4 oz. each per refreshment. This is one of my favorite things to do with the part of the starter that gets removed in the refreshing. I generally don't measure too carefully when I make these, which is atypical of me! 2 cups flour (can use half WW; about 9 oz) 2 Tbsp sugar, more or less 2 cups buttermilk (I generally don't have buttermilk on hand, so I about half-fill my 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup with plain yogurt and then fill the cup with regular milk, making sure I stir a bit to avoid any air pockets) 1 cup starter (usually works out to about 8 or 9 oz, but I use whatever I remove from my starter jar just before adding water and flour to refresh) 2 eggs 1/4 cup oil or melted butter (melted butter tastes better, but always seizes when I try to mix it in) 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda Mix flour and sugar in whatever bowl you'll use for the batter. I like an 8-cup bowl with a spout and a handle. Mix together milk and starter. Break up the starter as well as you can. Stir into flour. Cover (I use a shower cap swiped from a hotel) and leave out overnight. In the morning, blend in eggs, oil, salt, and baking soda. My Black and Decker waffle iron needs about 3/4 cup of batter per waffle. Sometime, I'll try the mix-it-all-together-and-refrigerate method. I'm concerned that if I left it in my fridge, my starter would be too cold and sluggish to do much. MelissaH

I kind-of sort-of made a Russian Grandmother's Apple Cake on Friday. Except that because the farmer's market in town had beautiful little Seckel pears last Thursday, I used them instead of apples. And then because I thought that ginger would go nicely with pears, I used that instead of cinnamon. The pears were a PITA to prep compared to apples, because they're so tiny. And I wound up not using any lemon juice in the filling because I used my last lemon to make the crust. The individual components (crust dough and pears/ginger/sugar filling) tasted good, and the cake looked beautiful when it came out of the oven. Of course, I didn't think to take a picture because I was planning to have it around for a little while. But shortly after the cake came out of the oven, the next-door neighbors invited us over for their night-before-their-wedding party. And since we couldn't go over empty-handed, I brought the pear cake. (My husband brought over homebrew.) The whole cake disappeared rapidly, to rave reviews, and I never got to taste a piece. My husband got some, though, and he assures me that pears and ginger work quite well. I liked that the Seckels didn't turn to mush, but there must be some other pear that holds its shape but is a reasonable size? I actually felt just a little bit naughty messing around with this recipe, because it's one that I generally don't do much with. (It's also one of the few that I actually measure things by volume, because that's how it's always been done.) But then again, it's become MY recipe now, so why shouldn't I play around with it? Note to self: must remember to retrieve deep-dish pie pan some time next week while we care for the honeymooners' cats. MelissaH

Wedding dinner last night: Salad from a bag, with a few slices of red onion, two grape tomatoes, and a hot pickled pepper of the type sold in jars as pepperoncini added to each plate, drowned in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing; delivered to the plates. On the buffet: roast beef sliced deli-thin in salty jus, half-inch-thick sliced ham, rigatoni in red sauce with a little bit of rubbery mozzarella melted over the top, little red potato chunks in something greasy, and baby-cut carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower with some crunch still left. And wedding cake, which was white and sweet. The vegetables were my highlight of the evening. MelissaH

My favorites are all yeast-raised. Light, crispy, and delicious. Originally, I used Marion Cunningham's recipe, as published in the Fannie Farmer cookbook and others, but also available on the Web in many places including this one. But I've modified the method a little bit after reading an article in Cook's Illustrated about yeast waffles. Now, I mix all the ingredients together (including the eggs, but omitting the baking soda completely) and refrigerate the batter overnight. It bubbles up just fine, and the waffles are just as good. Since acquiring a sourdough starter, I've been using that rather than dry yeast to make my waffles. I make up the whole batch, and then freeze whatever I don't eat right away for later toasting. MelissaH

Andie, You've lucked into one of my faves. My husband and I discovered it at the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, better known as PennMac to those who live in Pittsburgh. We made our planned purchases when we were visiting from Ohio, and then asked Dear Heart (that's what she calls everyone, so that's what we've always called her) to surprise us with something else. We got our wedge of cheese home, opened it up, and started eating. We ate it in slices on crackers, melted on bread, grated on pasta, and in chunks with fruit. We loved it, but then couldn't figure out what it was. We described it to them over the phone, but when we said that the rind was stamped with "piave" they said, "Oh, you mean Piave cheese!" Incidentally, we looked for Piave everywhere in NE Ohio, at all the usual suspect markets for decent cheese, and nobody ever had it. When we finally asked for more information about why nobody had it, we learned that for some reason that cheese could not be sold in the state of Ohio. We imported our own for the five years we lived there. Here in CNY, I need to shop at Wegman's if I want it...and pay about half again as much as I did from PennMac in Pittsburgh. But it's still one of our favorites. We pretty much use it anywhere we might use Parmesan, because we like it as much and it's less expensive. HTH, MelissaH

1C of AP measured by dip-and-sweep method is about 5oz. ← Patrick, I realize this. But presumably, the author of any cookbook measures out the flour in some way, and consistently uses this method throughout the cookbook. For me, anyway, it would be useful to know what a cup of flour weighs, as measured by the person who wrote the recipe. MelissaH

Dorie, For those of us who bake by weight: when you measure out a cup of flour by volume, what does it weigh? MelissaH

As of a couple of weeks ago, when I changed planes in O'Hare we got many announcements to the effect of no liquids and no gels, but there was no apparent enforcement either. I didn't see anyone actually try to get their boarding pass checked and head down the jetway with a drink in hand, but the bottle of water I'd bought while waiting and then stashed in my carry-on bag got no notice from any employees or fellow travelers. I never saw anyone being randomly selected for additional screening on any of the four flights. My dad tells me that in Denver, they no longer sell bottled water or other drinks on the concourses. I think that's what they'll have to do if they want to keep people from carrying contraband on board. Of course, that will make for some mighty unhappy travelers.... My first leg of my flight home was a redeye. I wish I'd had the nerve to stuff a small tube of toothpaste down my pants, or into a sock, or something. I'm beginning to wonder if they still make old-fashioned tooth powder! MelissaH

Ah, it looks like I'm going to hit the jackpot. My United Express flight into ORD comes into Terminal 2 tomorrow, but my flight out leaves from Terminal 1. And my flight home (the connection from the redeye) also leaves from Terminal 2. (That's based on tracking the flights the last few days, and seeing what they have posted for tomorrow.) So I get to do a couple of mad dashes through the airport, and I'm guessing that I won't have much time to stop for anything. I did, however, leave enough room in my luggage for a bottle of water, should I have the time to purchase one. MelissaH

Any suggestions on places to snag a *very* quick bite or sip in O'Hare? I'm particularly interested in places that sell caffeinated beverages in the various United concourses that are open between 5 and 6 AM. At that hour, I'm not too picky. MelissaH

Soapstone's nice, but expensive compared to laminate. Countertops are easy to replace after the fact. If your budget is getting tight, this is one place to save. MelissaH

I was also under the impression that no food was allowed. But I looked at the TSA's Web page on banned and permitted stuff, and it doesn't explicitly say "No food allowed." The things it lists as not allowed in a carry-on bag are: *All beverages; *Canned or jarred goods containing soup, sauces, peanut butter, fruits, vegetables and jellies; *Cheese in pressurized containers; *Duty free alcohol and other items; *Gel based sports supplements ; *Jell-O's; *Pudding; *Whipped cream; *Yogurt or gel like food substances; *And also baby items if you aren't traveling with a baby. My flight out leaves at 9:51 Eastern time and if everything's on time I'll arrive at my destination at 2:30 Pacific time (in other words, seven hours in transit, not counting the time to get to the airport an hour early!). I have barely an hour's layover at O'Hare, and even if the two gates were right next to each other, that's hardly enough time to buy something for lunch and wolf it down before being herded onto my connecting flight. I'll have the option to purchase a snackbox on board, but for $5 I can bring something from home that's better-tasting and probably better for me...if I'm allowed to bring it on board.

Has anyone flown with a PB&J sandwich since the new restrictions took effect? And do they confiscate cheese sticks, or baby-cut carrots? I'll need to bring something that can withstand an hour's drive to the airport, another hour of waiting at the airport, a couple of hours of flying, and a quick layover at O'Hare before my cross-country flight. I'm open to suggestions! MelissaH

Malik, thanks for the ideas. I hadn't realized that the convention center is in a pricey part of town. We're willing to travel for good food, but the budget is unlikely to extend past public transit costs. As far as the kinds of food we like: anything goes. The people I'm likely to be eating with are adventurous enough to try nearly anything, but still appreciate something along the lines of a good burger. For us, well-made but still within our price range is more important than the kind of cuisine. Bakeries with good bread, cheese shops with nice selections, and farmer's markets open on Friday afternoon/evening and Monday morning are all good. I know there are probably many more markets on weekends, but unfortunately I'll be in meetings of one kind or another starting at about 8 AM on both Saturday and Sunday. But if there's anything open in the very early morning on Saturday or Sunday, this Easterner will undoubtedly be awake and ready to go. Thanks, MelissaH