Kerry Beal

Never could make a green I was happy with.

Rodney is in Paris right now - coaching the Brazilian candidate for the World Chocolate Masters - so I suspect he isn't watching eG - but I shall try to answer for him. Once I've made my coloured cocoa butters I store them in something akin to baby food jars - I heat them in the microwave until just partially liquified and don't bother with the hand blender at that point. I only use the hand blender when I'm producing them originally. About 10% by weight.

I've always eyed those surgical cabinets - got to keep that in mind if they ever rebuild my hospital.

Is that one of those 'spine' bookcases holding the magazines on the other side?

Worth the wait. Looks great N! Anything you'd change or other things besides the faucet you are particularly thrilled with?

Back to using a mason jar for our cocktail shaker - from Serious Eats 'cocktails with aperol'. We needed to finish the bottle and pack away the booze. A Two-One-Two. Tequila, aperol and grapefruit. Anna used the remains of the broccoli, shrimps, portabellos and little tomatoes to make this excellent stir fry. Salt, pepper and garlic.

Brilliant!

I believe there's a thread somewhere from wayyyy back. I keep forgetting to look in to those! I'm pretty sure I can't find them around here, though. I would need to order them. Could you eat them as you would spaghetti bolognese? I have - they are kind of texturally incorrect - but I still enjoy them with that kind of sauce. They are getting easier to find all the time - even the mainstream grocery stores are starting to carry them. They seem to end up in the refrigerator section even though the non tofu ones don't require refrigeration. Rinse well in several changes of water (don't sniff them before you do) then either rinse with boiling water or cook for a minute or so at a simmer.

Ah yes - we saw her grad pictures on your website. And somehow I came to the conclusion that your name was Deb (I think I read your website as hillmandeb.com) - I realize now I made that up out of whole cloth! It is wonderful to have a place to take food - allows lots of experimentation without the weight gain.

See post #3 - it's not likely to be big enough though for cooking - and never got to try it out.

Last of the chicken curry for my lunch.

Not quite pasta - but have you discovered shiritaki noodles?

Yup - gotta find a spot for it too! Couldn't find a 12 inch clay stove liner anywhere so far.

And for me the apple bitters (Anna threw out the scabby apples this am), a tasty absinthe (though I did make absinthe), anything chocolate other than bark - so now I have about 20 kg of chocolate up here, something with the pie pumpkin, something with the second cauliflower, also the naan in the Big Easy - that's the main thought I had when we bought the thing. Oh yeah - ramen burgers. Shit Anna - a Brazilian cheese bread - how many cheese breads it that?

So all this - Has to fit either into this - or this - I'm searching for the shoehorn!

Why not try one little jar for experimental purposes first - if it doesn't work you can go back to the re-cooking with the commercial pectin.

Does breakfast get any better than this? Shrimps with cocktail sauce and a big honking cup of tea!

Heidi - I tend to use saba most for sauce for duck - though I have used it a fair bit in chocolate fillings when I want to get some additional raisiny flavour. Hence it's addition in my rum and raisin filling.

Thanks for the blog Dave - thoroughly enjoyed it!

Let me explain how I ended up with Bombay Sapphire. I asked one of the nurses who had a place across the border to grab me some duty free Beefeater. Got BS twice!

Not sure - I'd have to sit down with all my rums and compare.

A Bitter Elder for Anna whilst I head back to the hospital to see what the police have dragged in!

After the 3rd heating and sealing - it's taken on a lot of nice colour. Strained off it's wood chips. After dilution down to about 45% it was a very tasty tipple. Also tasted the carpano antica imitation today - it still hasn't cleared completely but it's getting there (though I suspect the ride back in the car is going to bugger that a bit). Tasted it next to the real thing. It's sweeter than real carpano - so the suggestions made upstream about using a dry muscat are duly noted. It will still benefit from a drop of two of the sherry to bring the flavour closer to carpano - that being said it's really nice and should make an excellent - albeit sweet - sweet vermouth.

The SVM that Digging Dog linked to above will certainly do the trick with a heat source. I used one with a crock pot for the first 5 or 6 years of sous vide cooking that I did. Anna N and I beta tested the units way back when and were always happy with them.

That's very exciting! Let us know how it goes.