Pam R

What a lovely blog! Your photography is fabulous, and I'd love to spend a week eating with you. Everything you've had this week looks delicious. Can you tell us a little about halal meat? I'm afraid I don't know much about it, yet I'm very familiar with kosher meat. Are the processes similar or very different? What makes it bland and fibrous - the raising, the slaughtering, the processing or the cooking? Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

I like that there are a lot of salads. Always looking for new and interesting salad ideas. Just sayin' . .

I did a demo on meat kreplach here. Same idea, different name. Just skip the last step in forming them - pinching the two tips together. Anyway, when I make my dough, it's always tender, even silky. And easy. I love your filling idea . . need to experiment.

I think it's only partially fabricated, not totally. When I get one (in warm weather usually) I ask for them to make it with chocolate milk. I think it gets mixed with some kind of coffee slurpee deal.

They're addictive. I haven't had any in years but noticed them yesterday while shopping. They went into the cart. Then I took them out. Too addictive.

I'm watching an episode right now, actually. I was just saying that he's cooking really simply -- things that most people can attempt themselves. Well, of course we don't all have access to all of the fresh ingredients that he and the gardener pull out of his garden. But, he's cooking the way I like to cook. I like the show. It's nice to have some real cooking on FoodTV. It would also be nice to have a huge garden with a gardener and a nice wood burning oven out back . .

Did they ever get back to you? I picked one up at a Target in North Dakota, and I'm wondering how I'm going to get more bags when I run out. . .

In Canada, a quart (Imperial) is 40 fluid oz. US quart = 32 oz. It just gets more complicated, doesn't it?

1 lb. (or 16 oz.) = 454 grams, so 100 g is not really equal to 1/4 lb. You're left with about 2 extra ounces. 28g = 1 oz 113.5g = 4 oz

Interesting. Do you know who sells the 24oz Chivalry glass? I wasn't able to turn it up with Google. ← Restaurant suppliers. It's listed on the Russell Food Equipment online catalogue. (They're my main equipment supplier.)

I cook whole ones at 400 for about 45-60 minutes. The ones I use are 24-32 oz, on the plump side. But, like all things it's a matter of checking them to see when done.

What are you doing with them? Roasting them whole? Stuffed or unstuffed?

Libbey makes a 24 oz. (glass) Ice Tea glass. It's the Chivalry line, which isn't the most beautiful, but. . . They also have a 24 oz. jumbo tumbler (panel).

How about this 24 oz. glass? Sure, it's not 28 oz., but it's large enough for 16 oz. of fluid plus a couple of ice cubes. And it's insulated, so it should keep the liquid colder, longer -- meaning you would need less ice. eta: that's a 24 oz. Tervis tumbler

Wow. Good timing. Manischewitz moved out of their Jersey City factory this year too. They moved to a renovated Rokeach matzo factory in Newark - and there was a 'matzo shortage' during the move. I guess these factories have been around for so long, they're all seeing the need to upgrade. I hope there will be a window in the new factory that you can knock on and get a sheet right out of the oven.

What is a 'bunch' of eggs? I think using gloves (I'd go for vinyl over latex/) is a good idea. The fastest way I've found for separating eggs is to crack them into a bowl and use your fingers to pull the yolk out of the bowl.

I rinse my can opened after using then send it through the dishwasher. I was always told to wash lettuce in vinegar water - I believe it's supposed to kill any bugs.

My concern is that he went to the grocery store from the bank and knocked on all the watermelons before choosing one. That's one of the reasons why I always wash them. I have a store, and I receive a lot of goods off the back of delivery trucks - and things come in filthy. Especially in the winter, when there's slush and muck everywhere - it all gets transfered to the goods. The produce is being shipped in the same mucky trucks.

I've always washed all my fruit. I never thought that was strange. Is that strange?

I do use aluminum foil. I bake in a commercial convection oven, but I tent the foil over the cakes, making sure that they really are tented and not touching the cake. I bake over 100 chiffon cakes in a one week period every year - and it's the best way I have found to keep them from getting too dark, but not falling because they haven't baked enough.

Oooh. Dips. Next time I will! We served these with fried chicken, hamburgers with all the condiments, potato latkes and applesauce, salad and a tray of vegetables. So there was a lot on the plate. But I think a big bowl of these with some dips would be a great thing to have on the coffee table for a holiday party. It's funny how people who aren't crazy about parsnips or beets find they suddenly love them when they're fried and crispy.

Usually short sleeves. I used to wear a chef's coat when we did a lot of catering - but I'd always fold the sleeves up to above the elbow. It gets hot when you're cooking. If I wore long sleeves to protect myself, I wouldn't have all the lovely scars that are such great conversation starters.

CKatCook - did you make one?

I cut in 1/4s then peel and core. Peeling one 1/4 is a few, straight cuts. Much easier for me than spiral.

4 of the 6 shanks I cooked today: Those four were browned, then the mirepoix sweated in olive oil, added black pepper, garlic, tomato paste and a little cake meal (like flour, but not). Then added red wine and chicken stock. Added the browned shanks, covered and into the oven for 1 3/4 hours. Strained the sauce and reduced it by half: For the other two, I did something similar to Nigella's recipe. Marinated overnight in salt (too salty), fresh orange juice, olive oil, rosemary, garlic, sweet wine and olive oil. Then I roasted it at 300 for 3 hours, turning over every half hour. Glazed with amazing cherry jam and cooked another 10 minutes. Not dry, but I think I'd start it off with a little more liquid in the pan, covered for an hour or so to start.