John DePaula

Just got back from Teardrop with some friends for a Repeal Day celebration. It's definitely one of the best places (THE best?) in the city for cocktails. They really care about what they're doing and it shows.

If you could only eat pizza at one place in Portland, I'd say it would have to be Apizza Scholls. Just one opinion.

I just finished watching this episode off of my TiVo. Really, not nearly as complicated as I thought it would be. Of course, I haven't read through this thread to learn about other techniques, but his looked pretty good. And the suggestion to make Moon Pies? Oh yeah... I gotta try that! (and really, I want to try his melt the chocolate with a heating pad and keep in temper method) ← Hmmm... did you notice that his chocolate was totally NOT in temper? I'm not saying that you can't do it with the heating pad, but you'd have to keep a pretty good eye on it, though.

I always try to setup the melter the night before. I set it to about 50C or so and let it melt overnight. Then after being thoroughly stirred, over about 20 minutes or so, I add the seed chocolate and stir more until the correct temperature is reached (~31C for dark). If you're just doing a small amount, then the microwave will probably be faster... But for larger quantities, the melter is definitely the way to go.

If you really can't find what you need in the UK, you could always buy a step-down converter... I bought an up/down converter to use some appliances here in the US i.e. ones that I purchased in France which use 220V/50hz I can now use in the US.

And I just found this posted over on PortlandFood.org: 2nd Annual Booze Bazaar at House Spirits, 12/15 from 12 to 5pm Hope you have a good time while in PDX.

I don't know that much about Spirits, but a recent Food & Wine (Nov. 2007) article recommended the following: Clear Creek Distillery 2389 NW Wilson St. Portland, OR 503.248.9470 . Edgefield Distillery 2126 SW Halsey St. Troutdale, OR 503.669.8610 . Highball Distillery 610 SE 10th Ave. Portland, OR 503.803.3989 . House Spirits Distillery 2025 SE Seventh Ave. Portland, OR 503.235.3174 . Integrity Spirits 909 SE Yamhill St. Portland, OR 503.517.2030

If I find the recipe online, it goes on my computer. Then I update a master file with links to my local HDD version. If it's not online, I can either scan it in, type it in or write up a list of recipe names & where to find them i.e. which book in my collection contains the recipe. This allows me to do a keyword search in the master file so that I can quickly find what I want. And from Tejon I recently learned about a software program The Living Cookbook which looks kinda cool. Also, check out the following: How do you manage your recipes?

The temperature to which you cook your caramel is related to the amount of moisture contained. So the more moisture you start with, the longer it will take you to reach the right temperature. I haven't tried cooking with tea, rather than plain water, though it should be possible. Not sure how the tea would hold up; probably depends in large part on the particular tea. You can add the fruit puree at the beginning (careful not to let is scorch while cooking) or near the end, which could give you a stronger puree flavor. I just put mine in at the beginning and it's pretty good.

Oh, I LOVE that one! And it was delivered PERFECTLY by Andrea Martin.

During the holiday season I am just not going to be making chocolate for 10-12 hours, and then come home and make a nice dinner. This year I planned ahead and now my freezer to stocked with some wonderful items that I just have to take out and reheat: Moussaka (not really moussaka but very similar lamb and eggplant casserole) Pork Daube (from The Cook's Book - a very nice Pork stew; frozen in FoodSaver bags and boiled to reheat. Just add some rice and maybe a green salad). Meatballs (just open a quality jar of pasta sauce and simmer; add pasta; very simple) Vietnamese Chicken Thighs (by Kerry Beal, see elsewhere on eGullet) Spanish Chicken Lentils with Caramelized Onions Squash Soup Really, any kind of soup or stew should work well. HTH

Have you tried Vantage House?

Clickity->Omega Engineering

I use a cello square.

Of all the thermometers that I have (both analog and digital), only the Polder read 100C (212F) when placed in boiling water. And PaulRaphael is right about keeping the probe connection dry. And as a side note, I found that one of my digital thermometers went absolutely NUTS when I turned on my spice grinder and the probe wire was laying atop the spice grinder's cord...

Some of my top places to try are: Toro Bravo, Sel Gris, and Carlyle. Lots of good places to go. Check out PortlandFood.org

You are just kidding me! That's gorgeous, Tri2Cook. And by the way, that's not tri-ing, that's pretty much do-ing!

Luis, From where are you purchasing the Dedy? Kerry, I believe, had a friend bring it back from Germany.

I'm a twister, too!

Yeah, I only use all-natural ingredients as well and often I really do not like the bottled flavors anyway. A lot of times, they're just too harsh.

I do have the idiot box on quite a lot but eventually, I just can't stand it anymore. 500 channels and nothing to watch! What's up with that? I have done books-on-tape before and that's enjoyable, too. We have a really good library system here in Portland. I can get online and find books; they'll ship them to my local branch for checkout. I need to do more of that for audio books.

Ok, 'tis the season and I'm wrapping a lot of caramels. This task kinda drives me crazy! Lately, I've been putting on old French language tapes (French in Action by Capretz). I love that stuff and it helps slow the loss of a 2nd language for me. What do you do to combat the tedium when you're working long hours at mundane tasks?

In addition to what everyone else has already mentioned, I use some exotic (and some not so exotic) teas to flavor my chocolates e.g. Butterfly of Taiwan oolong tea, Earl Grey, etc. Lavender Leaves are also a popular infusion.

Personally, I wouldn't worry quite so much about the thermometer issue. I think it's more important for sugar work, by far. For chocolate work, you have so much variability because of humidity and the amount of beta-crystals, etc. You'll develop an eye and a feel for chocolate so eventually you won't need to rely on the thermometer so much. Happy Tempering! And remember: Making Chocolate is Making Fun!

One thing that you should be aware of is that thermocouples are accurate only over a fairly narrow range. What that means is that your thermometer may be accurate to +/- 0.5ºC over the range of, say, 90ºC - 110ºC. But if your working range for chocolate is 25ºC - 55ºC, the variance may well be different. Could me more, could be less. So, calibrating your thermometer for boiling water may not actually be helpful since you're working in a different range with chocolate. Sorry.