Muffinzz

I purchased an APO thanksgiving weekend but got a lemon that wouldn’t connect to WiFi. Even with the good customer service, because of the holidays my replacement arrived this weekend. The good news - I got a new build with the black plastic casing around the reservoir, so fingers crossed for durability! My first experiment was the challah from Babish. I overkneaded a bit, but the overall product was tasty and got very good oven spring with the steam. Not bad for my first braiding!

This was my first thought, too. Also, I think supermarket pork tasted better back then, before they started breeding for leanness and trimming the crap out of everything.

Breaking down onions with a perfectly sharp knife, watching the pile of dice grow.

I can't even look at those squishy "circus peanut" candies without a wave of nausea passing over me. I love marshmallow, but those things are just evil. Also, fish sticks, which is weird, because I'll eat filet-o-fish at Mickey D's, and real fish. The smell of them is enough to put me off.

I'm not sure I can think of you as anyone other than Shelby! So, did you choose your username because of Steel Magnolias? That's always the first thing that comes to mind when I see your name. My Little House set is sitting right next to me on the side table. I pulled it out when you mentioned it in your wonderful foodblog. I'm hoping they release the set for Kindle soon; I'm so used to reading books on the device now, I'm less motivated to hold a real "paper" book. For Little House I'll make an exception, though. I've always loved the description of how they used the whole hog.

Delilah's? I loved Dynasty. Going back even before that, I can remember going to Ming's in the 70s when I was 3 or 4 for Dim Sum.

I would really like to find and try ramps this year. It may take some doing given my location, but here's hoping!

The Carbonnade a la Flammande mentioned by Chris Hennes upthread is one of our favorite recipes of all time. The steakhouse burger recipe (that was Cook's Country, but still), the grilled skirt steak fajitas, sweet and tangy oven barbecued chicken, brown sugar glazed roasted carrots, and their shepherd's pie are all frequent flyers at our house, as well.

The Balsamic Sauteed Mushrooms from Fine Cooking, Feb/Mar 2008 (recipe's on their website, but you have to be a member to view it). These were, quite literally, plate-licking good. We've made them three times already.

You could make Poutine... yummy, yummy Poutine.

I use the LamsonSharp guards that Human Bean mentioned upthread on my chef's knife and santoku. I love them.

I eat my popcorn with chopsticks, one piece at a time.

Hiroyuki, I am really enjoying your blog, and appreciate you taking some of your limited time to show us what life is like in your part of the world. Best wishes also to your wife for a speedy recovery. It almost seems like the word "purin" is an attempt to phoenetically transcribe the english word "pudding", which is what I would call that particular foodstuff. Well, pudding, or flan, anyway.

I've used London Broil in a pinch. It won't produce nearly as good results as skirt/flap meat, but kind of resembles flank.

I'm still thinking about the cloves in the Friese nagelkaas. I think the clove flavor would be marvelous, but I'm not sure about the texture of the cloves themselves. Chufi, do they soften in texture as they sit in the cheese, or is the texture similar to chewing on a clove straight out of a spice jar?