plk

Good point about the fruit disappearing in the fridge. Ours usually stays out at least a few days, but we tend not to eat it fast enough, and then it ends up in the compost. It really interests me how people keep dairy at room temperature. I've seen somewhere butter containers (kind of like salt cellars) for keeping butter unspoiled at room temp. And I also have a little butter serving dish brought back from Africa that you fill with ice on the bottom and spread the butter in the lid on the top. Probably this is all more successful with salted butters. The sweet butter I get is pretty perishable.

Gorgeous! I love soapstone. I also think that the dark green stripe on the light looks good when you compare it to the light green on the wall. You don't necessarily want all the green to be the same level of darkness. Or value, or whatever it's called. Plus, I think it looks more authentically old-timey with the dark stripe. It reminds me of the painted lettering (and its darker outlines) that stores used to have on their front windows.

Well, I find it awfully hard to not be disturbed by behavior like that. You can't even talk to each other at the table, the level of noise and activity is so loud and distracting. I'm not saying it's the child's fault, but I don't think a child who acts that way belongs in a restaurant. It's typical toddler behavior and there's nothing wrong with it ... in the right context.

The bad behavior I see the most isn't a kid running around -- it's picking up the silverware and clanking it, playing with the water glass and clanking and sloshing it, pouring salt and pepper into the water glass, and loudly pounding toys on the table. And that's just what my in-laws allow their grandson (my nephew, not my kid) to do when we eat out with them. And unfortunately, I can not be the one to tell him to stop or redirect him -- they already think I'm allergic to kids. If we were in fast food joints, that might be okay, but this behavior happened in two places we were trying out for our wedding rehearsal dinner.

When I started living with people outside my immediate family (various roommates, my significant other who is now my husband), one of the first things I noticed was how much we would differ on deciding what to refrigerate. For instance, when we first moved in together, I thought it was really strange that he refrigerates peanut butter. Not only natural peanut butter, in order to keep it from separating, but also the regular supermarket stuff, like Jiff. It would never have occurred to me to do that because I don't think it's going to go rancid, and cold peanut butter is hard to spread. But I do keep butter refrigerated because I know it does go rancid, and I have tasted rancid butter (my mom keeps a stick out, unrefrigerated); it is awful. That said, I'm sure that refrigeration customs vary greatly cross-culturally and regionally, and I'm curious to see what other people do or don't refrigerate. So, my partial list: I do refrigerate: Eggs Butter Opened jams and jellies Opened or homemade condiments (mayo, mustard, relish, ketchup, horseradish, chili sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic chili paste) "Natural" peanut butter (the kind that separates) Milk and all milk products (yogurt, cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, creme fraische) (and yes, I realize the irony there since most of these were developed in order to preserve milk without refrigerating it) Meat and anything with meat in it Fresh fruit and vegetables that aren't going to be eaten within a few days Lettuce, regardless of when it will be eaten I don't refrigerate: Bread Molasses Honey Flour Sugar Oils Nuts Onions Potatoes Banannas Coffee beans Other stuff that is dry (beans, polenta, cereals) So, what do the rest of you do? Do you just follow the FDA food safety guidelines (I'm pretty sure I don't)? Do what your parent(s) taught you? Something else?

It happens, pretty much inevitably if your chocolate comes out of temper. I dipped some marshmallows (made with the fantastic recipe on recipegullet) in chocolate that I thought I'd tempered correctly, and they looked great ... for about a day. Then they started turning grey. I've never been able to do it right, so I for one really appreciate the skill involved. Also, I think that the people who will pay for an upscale gym's membership would definitely be attracted to upscale chocolates.

Yes, you can freeze dough right after dividing it. You then take out dough as needed, let it come up to room temp and let it rise as you would normally. Pizza dough tastes nuttier and wheatier if you do a cold fermentation overnight or over a couple of days. I wouldn't proof it fully then put it into the fridge, though, because it might overproof.

Aw, that's too bad! When you try again, I might try the method in the King Arthur Flour book for pain au levain. It's simplified in comparison to some other methods I've seen, but it hasn't failed me yet. And I do get a good mix of big and small holes. This is the method, paraphrased (the book has several pages, with illustrations): 1) Mix flours, starter, and water together. Do not add salt yet. 2) Cover bowl with plastic and let dough rest 20-30 mins (autolyse stage). 3) Take dough out, add salt, and knead until the dough feels right and passes the windowpane test. 4) Return the dough to the bowl, cover and let rise for one hour. 5) Folding stage: take dough out onto lightly floured surface, carefully flatten into a square (do not entirely flatten or you won't get big holes), and fold back up, each side folded into the middle. 6) Divide the dough if you want two smaller loaves. If doing one loaf, proceed directly to the next step. 7) Shape loosely into a ball (or two, if the dough has been divided). 8) Let dough ball(s) sit on a flat surface and rest, covered, for 20 mins. 9) Shape into round ball(s) (shape nicely this time). Do not degass -- just make them a little tighter. 10) Place smooth-side down into floured brotform or banneton and cover with plastic wrap. 11) Let rise for 2 hrs, or until proofed correctly. If the kitchen is too hot, the dough can overproof and then won't spring correctly in the oven. 11a) You can do some or all of this last rise in the refrigerator in order to retard the rise and give the bread a stronger flavor. If you do this, leave the dough in the fridge overnight. Baking (I use some of the tips from the Bread Baker's Apprentice here): Make sure oven has been preheated at 500F for an hour. Have ready a squirt bottle with water in it, a small baking pan, and boiling water from a kettle. 1) Invert dough from banneton onto parchment that is on your baker's peel (or a peel-analogue made from an inverted cookie sheet). 2) Slash loaves 3) Slide parchment and dough onto the pizza stone. 4) Put baking pan with boiling water (about a cup) into the oven, underneath or next to the dough. 5) Spray the top of the dough and the sides of the oven. 6) Reduce oven temp to 450F 6) Bake for 45 to 50 mins for a large loaf or about 40 mins for 2 small loaves

Hmm, 2% of eggs and 10% of pork? Is pork even a popular menu item at BK? The main thing they sell is beef, and the factory farming of cattle is every bit as problematic as it is with chickens and pigs. I do think it's good they're going to be using better suppliers for a portion of their food, and it will probably add up to a large volume of purchases. But it seems like this is a relatively small change for them overall and they're using it to frame BK as a company that makes ethical purchases.

I agree that organic products don't necessarily taste better, or look better, for that matter. But that's kind of looking at it the wrong way. I want to support farmers who don't contaminate the ground water, and I'm willing to buy some less than perfect produce as a trade-off. Insecticides and herbicides from farms are poisoning the rivers and bays around here at a rate that's really unreal. I agree you don't necessarily need to meausure carefully when baking -- especially when you're making bread. If you follow a recipe exactly, it won't turn out right because you haven't adjusted for your local conditions.

I've had great success with the starter instructions in the KAF Baker's companion. Very simple ingredients and process. Very loosely summarized, this is the method: Day 1: Combine warm water (4 oz) + rye flour (3.5 oz) + 1/8 t molasses. Day 2: Discard half, then add rye flour and water (same quantities as above). Day 3: Discard half, then add 4 oz water and 4.25 oz AP flour Days 4, 5, 6: Same as above Day 7 (or when established): discard all but 4 oz, add 8oz warm water + 8 oz AP flour I really like this method because I don't have to go shopping to get anything, and it's just dead easy. Our house stays pretty cold even in the spring (about 60 degrees), so it might have taken a couple of extra days, but it works great. There is definitely enough yeast in rye flour to get a starter going. I made bagels last week with this starter, using the formula in the Bread Baker's Apprentice, but using this starter as the sponge. If I'm not baking anything, I keep it in the fridge and feed it once a week. If I am baking, I'll take it out of the fridge and up to room temp and try to feed it twice before using it. If I don't, I'll inevitably end up with a flattish loaf (I usually just make a big round miche, so it spreads and doesn't get a good oven spring if the starter isn't really active).

I wouldn't say anything about the gross melting chocolate, but rather only emphasize how great your chocolates are. The implication will be that the other chocolates for sale may not be as high quality. I would have your handout say something like this: "All of our chocolates are made using real Guittard chocolate that is hand-tempered. Guittard is a California-based company that uses only all natural ingredients, such as pure cane sugar and vanilla beans." Anyway, something like that. I think you can get across that you are making a great-tasting product using high-end ingredients without making any direct comparisons to someone else.

Also, I'm sure HBO was handing out those DVDs for free to guests and panel members at the festival. So, he likely tried to pass off some free schwag as a tip. Classy.

I wouldn't recommend it, but here's one approach:

The problem with bottled water isn't just with the bottles -- it's also about the pollution created from transporting boutique waters from out of state or out of the country. The same criticism can certainly be applied to wine and beer, and perhaps there are restaurants who only serve local beers and wines for that reason. But the point is, does Alice Waters really have to make completely consistent environmental choices for every single product? No, I don't think an all-or-nothing attitude really helps. If she wants to draw a line in the sand for the water she serves, well, bully for her. She's not giving her dollars to an industry she no longer believes in, but if you see nothing wrong with it, you are free to buy all the bottled water you like on your own time.

Oh yeah, I would have walked out too. I'm pretty sure I have been in a situation like that and walked out, after just paying for the drinks. I guess I can see giving them another shot sometime in the future -- after trying all the restaurants you haven't tried yet in the Savannah area and revisiting the ones you like. At that point, I might go back, but given that we eat in more than we eat out, I probably wouldn't get around to it in my lifetime. It's just a matter of prioritizing the places who you know are good and the ones that you haven't tried yet over the places where you've already had one bad experience.

Chez Panisse makes a practice of serving locally-produced, sustainable foods. It's their whole "thing" and a big part of their appeal. If bottled water doesn't fit within that picture, of course they might choose not to serve it just as they would choose to avoid out-of-season ingredients or overfished types of seafood. Of course, the last time I was there, we ordered a great Belgian beer with dinner, which was surely not made locally.

Brown butter on the Parisienne herb gnocchi in the Bouchon cookbook. They're kind of a pain to make, though, with all the piping them into boiling water. Still, tasty.

Aha, I thought of another one: malt flavor. As in chocolate malted sodas, ovaltine, and those round malt candies covered in chocolate that you only really see at movie theaters. I have bought them accidentally, thinking they were chewy caramel balls covered in chocolate. So disappointing, especially since the texture is so unpleasantly hard and crispy, like pumice stone. However, I do not mind malt flavor in beer. That may be because the beers I like the most are very hoppy and the offending malt is minimized.

It's not exactly food, but ... sparkling white wine/champagne. I don't hate it, but I don't really like it, either. I briefly considered not having it at my wedding, but then thought that too many people would miss it, and it's not as if I would have to drink a big glass of it anyway. Also, persimmons. Every time I try one, I keep thinking that I will like it, but alas, that is not what happens. Of course, who knows -- maybe the next time I try champagne or persimmons, I will find them to be divine. I distinctly remember at one point in time hating yogurt, cream cheese, fig newtons, avacadoes, beer, sushi, smoked salmon, and coffee -- all things that I now really love. I still don't love tea, but I like it more now than I did 5 years ago.

Not the last time I looked, but the selection may have expanded since then. I'm just talking about my local specialty grocery store that has an otherwise big (though overpriced) selection.

What I am still unclear on, having read the article, is this: is the point that one red, or one white works as well as any other (regardless of its variety), barring significant flaws in the wine? Or is the point that when your recipe calls for a particular type of wine, you will get the most for your dollar if you buy at the low end of that type? One of my favorite recipes, for instance, is for a luxurious chicken pot pie made with a lot of morels. It uses a German Riesling (which, when I can find it, is about $20 a bottle) in the gravy, which had been reduced down from a stockpot full of chicken poaching liquid and the water from the soaked morels. The sauce is reduced again once the Riesling is added (then thickened when added to a roux, then enriched with cream), so I assume that a lot of the subtelties of the wine are lost through cooking or overpowered by other flavors. I guess I could try one of the cheaper bottles of Chardonnay I have around here, but those seem like seriously different flavors and I'm kind of afraid of adding undesirable flavors to something that is already expensive and really time-consuming. So, I continue to buy Riesling not because I even like to drink it (I don't), but because I don't want to wreck a really good dish at the last minute.

Right, but I'm saying, there don't seem to be any studies on that. The closest I can get to that topic is studies indicating that vanillin itself is a preservative. If that is true, it seems unlikely that it would break down with any haste at room temperature. It surely wouldn't be a very effective preservative that way. The only instructions I've seen regarding temp and storage are from vanilla extract manufacturers, like this one (http://www.nielsenmassey.com/faq.htm) who says that it should be stored at room temperature. They don't say how they arrived at that conclusion.

I haven't seen any studies on the effects of storage temps, but my brief search did bring up a bunch of articles on the effect of vanillin in inhibiting spoilage and yeast growth, especially in apple juice, various fruit purees, and cut fruit. That suggests to me that vanilla extract probably doesn't easily spoil, even at room temperature.

I use a pizza stone, regular AP flour, and prefer to retard the dough in the fridge overnight. The pizza stone does a few different things, as far as I can tell. It retains heat in your oven, so you don't lose most of it when you open the oven and slide in your pizza. It also won't cool down when the pizza hits it, but will cause the crust to quickly dry and blister, which is what you want. There are cast-iron pizza "stones" and I think they work okay. You could probably do pizza in a cast-iron pan, but it is a lot easier with a pizza stone. I found a flat rectangular one at one of the restaraunt supply stores around here. It wasn't large or industrial-sized, but it was cheaper than the one I was going to order online. Retarding the dough in the fridge overnight does improve the crust's flavor -- it tastes more complex and "wheaty" to me. But the improvement is not so much that you shouldn't ever make pizza on the same day you make the dough. As for flour, I use AP because it's what I have on hand. Strong flour would I think end up with a slightly more chewy crust, but that is not necessarily bad. As long as the pizza is baked quickly at a high heat, the crust won't be tough.