Lisa Shock

Keep checking eBay, search for b-grade beans, or extract grade beans. These should be the same flavor, just shorter in length and sometimes having an odd, not straight shape. I avoid the ones that say 'dry'. This is a pricey year, IMO, you should buy a little now to get your needs met, but wait til next year or the next to buy any quantity. Vanilla pricing is like this, some years there's hardly any crop, then the next year the market is flooded. IIRC, 2006 was one of those years when a pound was $125 or more. By 2008, you could buy b-grade beans on eBay for about $20 a pound. When prices are low, buy in bulk and vacuum seal them.

Everclear works better than lower proof alcohols (like vodka) at extracting flavors. All that water doesn't do you any real good, and you pay a lot of money for it. Once you've got the main extraction done, you can lower the proof and round out the flavor by adding other spirits. I have three Tahitians: one finished with some dark rum, one finished with a good bourbon, and the starter jar with just Everclear. When I pack for gifting, I include a whole bean in the gift jar. But, for extraction, I really prefer chopping the beans into 1cm lengths. I like to make it easier for larger flavor molecules in the seeds to escape the thick, tough skin. Years ago, when I started experimenting, I tried just using whole beans, and even after a year, the 'extract' was pale and weak compared to when I switched to chopped. I switched because I saw other people's extract and wondered why mine was so pale and delicately flavored. Even a lengthwise slit will help you.

Only if you care about spending a few minutes to get the vanilla beans out years from now when they are spent. (most of us chop the beans, so they are small sections) BTW, I am in the Everclear camp. The only time I would nix a bottle would be if it were made of leaded crystal.

Same here, several times over. At one house, I just kept the jar towards the back of a pantry shelf with other stuff in front of it.

The congee, while not making any sense at all as a KFC item, appears to be a fairly decent bowl of real food. The durian pizza people should be sentenced to doing KP duty in a Naples pizzeria for a decade or two.

Forgot to mention that I strongly object to the black pepper in the OPs recipe.

Five hours is quite the achievement. I notice that they made sure to add fruit to the icing in the middle.

If things are too thick, I often just add a little water.

I tend to go more towards THIS recipe. However, I like to use Japanese buckwheat noodles, they stand out better when cold.

hehehe, you say that now, wait until Thanksgiving or some other holiday, when you decide to make biscuits at the last minute, or roast the sugar snap peas.... *evil sounding laugh*.... Actually, three is generous, two is what most come with. Congrats! It's a beautiful stove!

How many oven racks did it come with? I recommend buying (check the website) extra oven racks. You won't use them every day, but, when you're baking a lot of cookies, or making holiday meals, you'll appreciate having them. My oven came with two, I now have six. I don't have to wait for some cookies to be done before loading more, so I save a lot of time when cooking for events.

I have a booth at local antique mall. I can wait until the right person strolls by. Since I only paid $1.75 for it, I can offer it for sale at a 'discount' price of $7 and still make a tidy profit.

You might want to look at improving your packaging.

For me, the big positive about them is how little space they take up. I just hang them on my tool rack, whereas my old copper colander takes up space with the pots and pans as if it were a pot. Also, the colander on a handle (or two) has a big advantage when it comes time to clean up. There's much less surface area, and they fit easily into the dishwasher. I always felt bad putting the old colanders I had in the dishwasher, they took up so much space for something so full of holes. (I tend to wash pots as I cook and rarely ever put them in the dishwasher anyway.) Shhhh, but, you can also use the colanders on a handle when your sink is already full of dirty dishes...

I currently use one of these strainers. But, sometimes the handle is awkward, I am considering one of these. I tried using various inserts a while back at a catering company I worked at, the results were not great.

Wow, they have a Daiso!

I don't know for sure, but, since it's labelled as minimum 70.5% maybe they add a touch extra to make sure. I know some companies put extra food by weight into their packaging, just to make sure that every package contains at least what the wrapper promises. I am also wondering if it isn't done so that if the chocolate gets stored in a humid place, the additional weight of atmospheric water absorbed by the sugar doesn't push the percentage down below the label %, causing legal troubles.

I use a Black & Decker rolling toolbox (about the size of a rolling cooler, like this: http://toolboxesmall.blogspot.com/2011/04/black-decker-mastermate-tool-box.html ) to carry my tools to classes I teach and competition. I also have a propane torch, some steel rulers, a bunch of steel trowels with different sized notches for chocolate work, steel scrapers, box cutters, and a bunch of faux finishing tools (like this) for chocolate work and sugar. Then, of course, there's the medical supply place I get sugar blowing equipment from...

Agreed. They have always been something best eaten within a few hours of baking. Compared to other breads, they are so skinny, and the holes so large, the design just invites staling. And, I have eaten world-class competition baguettes. (being on-call as a substitute competition judge has its perks) Yes, I believe the Vietnamese put a little rice flour in the mix to aid in crispness, but, considering how humid much of the country is, this makes sense.

Ironic that small places in Vietnam can get the baguette right when most American supermarkets can't. -Not even close.

You are lucky to have such good friends! In the second restaurant photo, we can see a bit of the floor. What's with the lavender plastic baskets and the white ten gallon tub?

I've got allergy issues, so, many processed foods are off limits for me. I do like potato chips, and on occasion have been known to eat apricots straight from the can... (I keep emergency supplies!) Most of my processed food supplies are whole foods, like canned plain beans, some fruit, water chestnuts, baby corn, plus condiments. My mom, as much as she hated to cook, distrusted most processed foods, and so I never grew up with them. As difficult as this may be to believe, my dad preferred brown rice, so ate that fairly often at home. We'd buy bread and crackers and chips, but actual meal-type hot or cold foods were made from scratch. I also am a picky eater, and my tastes, plus being vegetarian, mean that I don't like some common packaged foods. I do not like cheddar cheese, for example. So, I make scratch mac & cheese with mozzarella & red onions & basil, mozzarella & green chiles, Jarlsberg & chives, smoked Gouda & mushrooms & garlic, etc. -Some kind of mild cheese and some strongly flavored vegetables/aromatics. For me, if I am alone and tired/lazy I often turn to making a sandwich or reheating a frozen entree that I made. I try to cook several portions of certain meals, so that I can freeze up some single-serve quick dinners. I also freeze portions of rice and plain cooked beans, making some meals faster. Usually, at least once a day, I make something fairly complex from scratch. I make bread dough fairly often and have pizza/calzones a couple of times a week, with various toppings and sauces. With raw dough in the fridge and some raw ingredients plus maybe a sauce or summer herbs in the freezer, much can be accomplished pretty quickly. Even something as simple as cheap ramen gets a makeover here. I toss the flavor packet (allergies), and either make a broth with small amounts of vegetable scraps and herbs, or, cook the noodles up plain and stir fry them with vegetables and maybe some tofu/tempeh. Neither dish is worthy of serving to Keller, but, neither follows the manufacturer's instructions, either. Years ago, when I first went out on my own, I'd try things like boxed rice/couscous side dishes (and often suffer from the allergic reactions). But, over the years, I have learned to make those dishes from scratch and the flavor is so much better, I have not been tempted to buy a boxed mix in over 20 years.

Just got these today at Savers. They were 30% off the regular price, so, I paid $3.49 for the pair. The basket is Longaberger, from 2002, and marks my first success in finding a genuine one in a thrift store on the regular shelf, not in the 'special' case. That said, I see one on eBay right now for $16, so, not worth a fortune, but definitely will be profitable if I sell it, or make a nice gift. The book is from 1971. It has a lot of stories in it. I like goofy old cookbooks with lots of 'atmosphere'. I'll read it then decide if it's a keeper or not. If I cook for a royal wedding party, I'll have some good material to draw from! (ok, ok, I know that really, most of these recipes are just derivatives of Escoffier or Ranhofer. I just like to imagine that it's the year of publication and I just got the book, and never went to culinary school. I like figuring out menu plans for imaginary family dinners for days of yore.)

Yeah, that or coconut oil. It's to make what some people call 'bulletproof coffee'. I hate coffee in general, so, I don't follow these fads very closely. It's somehow related to those ketogenic diets.

The stirring mugs are primarily for people adding a lot of butter or oil to their coffee, in order to temporarily distribute it. There's also usefulness there for people who drink those commercial protein powder drinks or diet shakes, or whatever.