dorachadas

I made some last night with the same recipe, but from her 30 minute kit. One thing I noticed in the instructions was to be wary of ultra-pasteurized milk and that much organic milk ends up ultrapasteurized. That might be something impacting your texture. However, I used regular old 4% milk, and ended up with the exact texture and slight disappointment you described. I also noticed the recipe you linked to says 175 is the ideal temp for stretching and the instructions that came with 30 minute kit say 135. These seem far enough apart to have a serious impact. I feel like I need to try it a few more times to get a handle on what the stretching/kneading should feel like and how it impacts the resulting texture. It seems like less kneading and heat would give you more moisture and a softer/silkier texture at the end.

I live in Buffalo, NY (snow anyone?) and last summer started with a 2-3 year old Meyer Lemon from Four Winds Growers. It was potted, left outside for the summer, brought inside this winter (our house was kept at 66 when we were home and awake and 58 when we were away or asleep). It had a few flower blooms over the winter and in the spring just before we took it outside again, 2 lemons started growing. Haven't picked them yet, but there are now 6 full size lemons (still green though), and at least 10 smaller ones starting to grow. No insect problems to speak of...yet...Very easy to take care of. If the leaves start yellowing a little, we give it some fertilizer for acid-lovers, and they perk right up again. Very excited for some lemons...

Vodka sauce: - Saute some red pepper flakes and garlic in EVOO - Add can of chopped tomatos (28 oz is good for 1LB pasta) - Cook slow while the pasta boils (usually something chunky - penne, shells, etc) - Drain pasta and dump into sauce - Add a few TBs of vodka and a nice pour of cream - Add some parsley or basil - All done! It has a nice spiciness to it, and if you've never had it or don't know what's in there, you would never guess it's vodka...

You're right - that does look like watercress...don't know why i thought it was lettuce. I don't think to use it much either, partially due to the fact that it's really hit or miss on whether my market will have it on any given day.

Last spring/summer there was a piece in the NYTimes food section about the Slanted Door (Vietnamese place in SF), chef Charles Phan and his version of Shaking Beef. I've never been, but I made the recipe to spec - it was quite tasty - the main differences from what you've pictured above are that he uses filet (I would probably opt for flank or ribeye next time) and served it over watercress instead of lettuce. I thought the bite from the watercress was good against the richness of the beef. The meat was marinated briefly and there wasn't any dipping/serving sauce aside from the significant amount of juice left in the pan (vinegar, soy sauce, onions, garlic and some butter) - served with limes and the s/p mixture.

A question for you folks with larger knife collections (thank you for posting the pics...must...suppress...jealousy) - do you have any interesting storage solutions? I have 3 larger (chef's size) knives and 5 or 6 others and my regular ol' knife block is overflowing. They make blocks with more slots for larger knives, but I haven't been able to bring myself to spend the same on a block that could buy a decent new knife. I've seen the magnetic racks - any good? Nasty to the knives? Do you just keep them in a roll? Maybe you own stock in Acme Knife Block... Surely if I come up with some more room it will be easy to justify to my darling that I need to fill it?

In the category of vegetable braises, I did the first recipe in the Molly Stevens book a few nights ago (potatoes with garlic and bay leaves) - talk about a great return on a ridiculously simple recipe. It took all of 5 minutes to get it started, and the result was perfect potatoes with a silky, garlicly olive oil sauce...

Great suggestions above! My daughter is about 16 months now and dinner is always fun because she loves eating just about everything that we do. Of course she also loves tearing around the kitchen like a smiling tornado, grabbing everything she can find. We've found that just plopping her down on the floor with a plastic mixing bowl, a wisk and a set of measuring spoons that are still on the same ring will keep her occupied and having fun for awhile, as she cooks along with us. One thing too add, in addition to picking simple weeknight meals, and starting early on the prep, is to pick meals that won't suffer a horrible death if you have to walk away from the stove for a few minutes. Any dish that requires constant attention and stirring (burnt/dry risotto anyone?) can be risky.

sacre_bleu, do you have any recommendations for other Thai/Vietnamese/Chinese restaurants in the Buffalo area? That's too bad about the food court - i had asked the owner also, probably over a month ago, and he said he didn't know for sure if he was going to participate until he found out when the city was going to take his property and for how much $$.

I live just south of Buffalo and work downtown - I don't believe there is a "Chinatown". I'm sorry to say that in the 3 years I've lived here, I haven't had any Chinese locally other than your average takeout. I've actually been planning on making a trip to the Asian market on Niagara for a couple months now, and haven't gotten around to it yet. We (coworkers and I) frequent a Vietnamese place (Pho 99) on Niagara that uses that market. I'll make a better effort to get over there this week and report back - what specifically are you looking for? There's supposedly an Asian food court opening up on Niagara later this year - there's a sign up in Pho 99 about it - mentions Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Korean...really looking forward to this if it really happens.

Thank you fifi & Ms. Wolfert - I'm going to try resealing them now, but won't worry too much. Hopefully the next few weeks go quickly. I went back for more Meyers for a second batch, but they're all gone...

I've been lingering around eGullet for awhile now and this seems like a perfect opportunity to jump in: I have a batch of Paula Wolfert's 30 day lemons going also (I discovered a few sacks of Meyer lemons at the grocery store last week and pounced on them) - I have them going in a Mason jar and placed plastic wrap over the jar before lidding it - when I shake the jar up to redistribute the salt, some liquid leaks out down the side. Obviously, my jar isn't airtight - is this an issue? My guess is no, but I would welcome some thoughts/reassurances...thanks!