Kouign Aman

re Toque "Next up - the cheese course. The waiter did stop by to see if we wanted wine with it - as the pairings had run out " Incredible, and tacky, that the pairings werent designed to carry thru.

Mother's Day - Perfectly fried eggs - no runny white, totally runny yolks, little bits of pepper from the bacon fat. Wheat toast w scads of butter Henry's Pepper Bacon (baked flat and ignored til perfect, thanks to eGullet & a few runs to optimize time and temp for our oven & preferred bacon). Coffee. It was good. I want to have it again, for dinner tonight!

Our version of the ever-popular hot dip is 1:1:1 mayo:grated parmesan:chopped artichoke hearts (marinated or not) season w tobasco or cayenne to taste bake at 350 til bubbly, serve with crusty bread. (I've used this as a pasta topping too, its not brilliant, but it is good).

Ryekrisp with butter and lashings of chocolate sprinkles (ones of real chocolate, not 'cake decor'). Somewhere I have pictures, and will try to find and post them. Frozen raisins.

I like the first two 'domed' chocolates a lot. The translucent green is lovely. The Frogs are First Class. Perfectly Frog!

There have been oodles of previous discussions here on eGullet concerning "why buy it when you can make it?". That's not the issue here. Regarding the original question, I think besides the cost of ingredients you also have to factor in the cost of your time spent making the item. Minor issues would be amortizing the cost of utilities/energy, equipment used, and so on. But cost of personal time seems to be a major factor in this case. That's it! I'll invoice my family. Toliver is right. I'm proud to know I've made mayo, mustard, ketchup, bagels, cheese, yogurt, etc. from scratch, often with eGullet guidance. The point here is: where can I save money? Sometimes we can afford the time but not the money. So even if it takes 10 hours, its affordable. Other than cake and cookies, I dont think I make anything cheaper than I can buy it. In fact the last home-roast chicken (while markedly better) cost me 2x more to make than to buy ready-cooked.

pan, pour in boiling water when the bread goes in. Check the technique in the 5 min bread thread.

Some 20 years ago, my British parents rate H.Salt fish & chips above most of the little individually owned shops in Britain. While the occasional small shop excels, the occasional small shop also serves rancid-grease-laden glop. H.Salt was consistent, crisp, not too greasy, acceptable chips. Been a while tho. Now I feel the need to verify the recommendation on my next trip north.

Cracked conch: cut into strips, battered and fried. Sweet and wonderful. Then probably undefined clam varieties, then mussels, then scallops.

Mine is used for glueing strands of mardi gras beads together. I suspect a soldering iron would be easier, but I havent got one of those.

At least you have eggwhites. At first I thought - no eggs, no dairy, I'd starve. But rice, veg/fruit and meat makes for an easy week. I would horribly miss soysauce tho. Roast potatoes in olive oil are wonderful and I never keep on the skin.

La Gran Tapa has improved. We havent yet tried any entrees, but have been pleased with the tapas menu. The lamb chops are especially good; tender, lamby, herby. The short ribs are nothing special in flavor or texture. The gazpacho was right up there with the 30 or so bowls of it that I ate in Spain - fresh, snappy and refreshing. The house red is good, and on Saturday evenings, they have an excellent sax player.

Sausage and bread - fun to try the different sausages. I'd prefer if the bread had salt, but its good w the meat and mustard. The bacon candy and lardon icecream was interesting and pleasant. The candy was a bit too sweet for my taste, but the icecream was excellent. Distinctly cured bacony/smoky flavor while retaining appropriate sweetness and very good creaminess and melt quality. It was distinct from bacon in flavor - a bit more of the 'fat' taste and less of the meat, as appropriate for something titled lardon The winner of the day was the hot strawberry cobbler. I hate hot strawberries. I have to make an exception. It was one of the better restaurant desserts I've ever had. The menu changes daily - we missed the nettles by one day. I'll be watching the menu for other interesting items, and plan on reacting quickly.

The other night three of us arrived at opening time and were seated in view of the kitchen. Tables coming in after us were having orders taken and delivered. We were being ignored. One of the kitchen folk noticed us and pointed us out to a server, where upon we were asked for our order. Unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule from the getgo, and this had taken a serious chunk of it, so we asked what was fast. The waiter asked, the cooks/chef said 'all of it' and things went well from there on out. How to thanks the folks behind the flame, who saved us from a hungry night? (We said thanks, but we'll be back solely because of that attentiveness, and want to know the most appropriate way, for now and in case of future incidents at other places).

You;ve got lots of strong flavors going on, and that will be fun. I wonder if the flow would work better slightly re-ordered? Maybe tuna to quail to steak to chicken? I know its more usual to put the big red meat dish last, but chicken curry is strongly flavored and that way you avoid bacon being in two courses in a row. Strawberries and seared tuna is not working in my head. It sounds nasty. but for what its worth, I dont like strawberries w rhubarb either. YMMV. Can you do anything w kumara?

The worms will move away from the areas that are too hot.

I'd forgotten how much fun it is to make meringues. I like the idea of trying them with brown sugar.

I saw a Pizza hut offering at a British airport once: eggs and sausage pizza w sweet corn. Definitely adapted to the locale.

Now sold in single serving sizes at Target, which is incredibly useful for beach picnics and entertaining the parents at children's birthday parties.

Lora, three cheers for you!

Why not add the breast part way thru, so it all finishes together?

I tasted every praline I could find in New Orleans, and agreed with you re the 'meh', but I thought it was an absence of richness. When we stumbled upon the Southern Candymaker, the richness was found - they make buttery rich pralines, not just painfully sweet ones. They were the only ones worth eating in the entire city IMO, and at that time. Galatoires - Yes! As you say!

And they are still dried chilis even if you are deseeding them to plant the seeds, and not for cooking. And its still a bad idea to use those same unwashed fingers to put one's contacts in. In this case, intention has no impact on outcome.

I'm wondering, from the herbal nature of the beast, whether it wouldnt be more palatable in spaghetti sauce.

In lieu of icecube trays, we made 'plops' on a cookie sheet and froze those. As noted by others, once frozen, they move nicely into freezer bags. I prepared single items, rather than pre-making combinations. "3 course" meals, and combinations are easy to by combining 'plops', and help as baby starts eating bigger meals without giving advance notice. I'd mix a small dose of some form of fat in several of the foods, and those were key at dinner so that baby stayed full and I got to stay asleep. Mango and chicken was popular for a while. Later, when finger foods were in, I would cut carrot sticks and steam them. Once cooked, they freeze ok (raw carrots never recover from the freezing experience and cannot be made edible by cooking afterwards), and make a nice independent treat if you need a bit more time to get the rest of dinner on the table. The food mill was useful. I used it to make most of the pureed foods. As quickly as I could, we moved to a rougher textured puree, and then to finely chopped, because I knew kids with texture hangups and I didnt want to be serving babyfood for the rest of my life. I didnt usually season the large batches, which left me free to season individual meals as inspiration struck and the microwave thawed the 'plop'. I did a small batch of browned onions and then chopped them very fine. I froze them in 1/4 tsp size, to add to other meals at whim. Onions are good food. Mostly, have fun. After all, you'll be feeding this person for many years to come.