Kerry Beal

I did the debate between those and Chruncheez - it was a tough decision!

Dinner!

Dinner not quite ready - but very tiny cocktail done - so on to the second - Paper Planes

Just back from our first grocery shop for necessities - Dinner tonight will be chicken thighs from the steam oven and corn from the nuke. We looked at steak in the Valumart - they must have pulled out a micrometer to size them for cutting - they were much less than half an inch thick. Quickfry my ass - quick cremate! One small miscalculation - apparently we used up the rest of the Chase Elderflower this summer and forgot to remind ourselves that we needed St Germain. So all we had was about an ounce in this little bottle. One cocktail shared - we shall have to make something else after dinner. I prefer to think of it as liberating - rather than scrumping.

Nope - sucker is 120 lbs and too big for the car. Now if I could get a little travel size..,

Well they asked if we had reservations, we did express that we had some reservations about crossing in storm.

Guess I should have said still appearing to contain moisture.

Hope not - pretty low moisture I'd say.

Last kick at the cat before we head north very early tomorrow morning. Garlic cloves, lime leaves and guava puree. Some of the garlic cloves seem to have remained damp - others are dry as a chip. The damp ones seem to have the texture of black garlic - will store them in a closed container and see what develops. Galangal, pear slices and a lime from a small tree in a friends office. More tomatoes of course - they are too good now not to preserve, some thai basil and okra. I salted the okra quite heavily before freezing it - interesting how the salt seems to have freeze dried as well. I won't be freeze drying anything more until I'm back from up north - but will be using some of the FD'ed stuff I've made while we are up there.

I've had cocoa butter get so hot that I could never get it back to useable. Could that have happened to yours?

It's twue, it's twue... you yourself mention how sweet the veg get!

Indeed - I am starting to get a pile of bottles and mylar packages that need spots. The red peppers are earmarked for succotash bark - peppers, corn and either sweet onion or perhaps little lima beans in milk chocolate.

I've personally seen the one at Lee Valley - it looks to be good quality (as is most of their stock) and the price is reasonable.

I like dill with green beans - and of course lots of butter! Bit of mint with peas - and lots of butter.

I ran a piece of turkey under the tap and ate it several minutes later - tasted just like it had before I'd FD'ed (to be fair it was not fabulous before). I'm thinking that the rehydration of the chuck eye I might do in a vacuum box that you use to speed marinate things.

Welcome Carol - look forward to seeing what you produce!

Already in there! Made them my usual way with milk and lots of butter before FDing them.

Mike - can you describe the texture of these?

What came out this evening - The second run on the chuck eye, along with the batch of scotch broth that was in the freezer. Mashed potatoes - took some of these, added some boiling water - tasted just as good as fresh! Out of focus red pepper pieces. Coffee, cream and sugar - mixed with a bit of maltodextrin - think next time I'll figure out which gum would be the best to thicken this up before freezing.

I haven't found this to be the case. I have more problems with liquid leakage than crystal formation.

I have previously just pushed both thumbs against the underside of the rim and the lid pops off. My problem has come about because I'm vacuum sealing the jars in my chamber vac. That thing sucks and the lids are very, very firmly attached.

Ah ha - just went and looked at the pryer on the swing-away - it's got that lovely flat piece - should work without mangling the lids as long as the hooky bit doesn't mangle the edge. But just noticed I have two of these in the chocolate room for opening pails - they worked beautifully even on the smaller lids.

It's dark chocolate which is more prone to leakage than milk or dark mixed with milk. The better tempered it is, the more it contracts, and if the caramel is even a degree or two cooler than usual it expands a bit more than usual - you might get a leak you didn't have before.

But it's not the screw part of the jar lid I'm trying to open.

Any changes in the chocolate you are using?