ScoopKW

I stand the bird up on it's legs. I peel the neck flaps open and remove any fat sticking to the skin. Then, using the back of a boning knife, I repeatedly scrape up and down each side of the wishbone. In short order, the bone is revealed -- you can tell by the change in sound. Then I use the point of the knife to go around the back of the bone and separate it from the breast meat. Finally, I reach in and grab the top of the wishbone with my thumb and index finger. (Mostly my index finger.) The wishbone usually pops out in one piece. This makes removing the breasts much much easier. I can't watch the TK and Zimmern vids, because I'm on vacation and using "borrowed" wifi. But I'm sure that's basically my procedure.

You have a copper hat? That's COOL! But it must be a pain to shine every day -- what with the salt and sweat and hair oil and all getting on it.

I'd toss it into my compost pile. But only because a can of condensed milk is cheap. I agree that there's almost no risk using it. But why take ANY risk when a replacement is less than a buck? For nearly everything life throws at me, I try to break it down to risk vs. reward: Can of ancient condensed milk: Risk: Death from some unknown contaminate. Reward: $0.89 saved. If it were beluga caviar, stored correctly, and just a little past it's sell-by date, I'd risk it. A can of milk that's almost old enough to start dating? Not so much.

Step 1 for me is to remove the wish bone. Makes the rest a lot easier. But I can't break a bird down in 12 seconds....

That's not how it works. Casino operators throw pizzas at the wall to see what sticks. They'll try any damned thing (so long as the powerpoint presentation is halfway convincing.) If the plan works, they make lots of money. If it doesn't work, they change it, and they make slightly less money.

I've made this mistake before. I made a salmon cheese sauce and omitted the salt I would normally use. Be sure to use unsalted butter when building the sauce. Makes a great gratin. And works well poured over broccoli, pasta, etc.

I'm making the same thing I make every year -- spot-on copies of Ethel M's pecan brittle.

May as well put that lock on now then. Someone will eventually ignore your greeting. But perhaps it's because its a proverbial "emergency." I'm still in the "cut the public some slack" camp. As a consumer, I dislike locked restrooms. I dislike asking the clerk for the key. (I'm not in prison or elementary school -- I don't need permission to use a toilet.) I dislike walking to the bathroom with a key that is usually connected to a length of PVC pipe. I wonder if anyone has washed and sanitized that PVC pipe* and key -- ever. I don't really know where to put the key while using the bathroom. I'm certainly not putting it in my pocket, that's for sure. There's never a key caddy. So usually it sits on the edge of the sink. Or on the hand towel dispenser. And then, after washing my hands, I have to pick up the PVC pipe/key combo, which is likely contaminated with eColi, salmonella, and every other fecal germ imaginable, and walk it back to the counter without somehow contaminating my hands. Point blank -- if a restaurant puts me through those kind of hoops just to urinate, I will find another restaurant. * Or similar anti-theft device. But they're all identical. PVC pipe, brass bar, acrylic wand, doesn't matter. It's a germ magnet. On the whole, I'd prefer a retinal scan or similar means of entry that doesn't involve extra microbial transfer. The door handle is nasty enough. Why add an extra layer?

I was kinda hoping for an invite to Rhode Island to dine at your place. Your menu sounds fantastic. But I suppose it will be oysters on the halfshell, steamed dungeness crab, grilled flatiron steak au poivre, and several servings of cheeses, pâtés, rillettes and salumis for before, during and after the Christmas brunch. Served with all manner of Napa wines -- we're celebrating the holiday in Napa again this year. I'm also looking to try some really good Imperial IPA. So I'll scout around for some Pliny the Elder and Hip Hop.

I think you should forget about it. Two people each day is no big deal. If it were six smelly hobos per day with poor aim, then I would say you have a problem. Barring that, there's no way I would deny anyone access to a bathroom. If someone needs to go, they need to go. What's the alternative? No reason not to try and sell them a pastry and coffee on their way out, however. In fact, guilt them into buying one -- "Hey, how about buying a pastry? They're really good, and it beats pay toilets." If you say it with the right inflection and a sincere smile, that could be a couple new customers each day.

My beef with the style (and it's a very new style, even in Europe) is the idea to make beer more "wine like" in order to appeal to wine snobs who "simply will not drink a pedestrian beverage like beer." Some of these companies are going so far as to age the beer in chalk caves in Reims and Epernay in order to give their brews better provenance. I find the style ridiculous. Champagne is made from Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and occasionally other varietals -- not barley. Even if brewers are hand-riddling bottles, disgorging the yeast and then adding a dosage for a secondary bottle fermentation, it isn't champagne. It shouldn't be called a champagne beer. I'm surprised the French aren't up in arms about it. I think the name is disingenuous at best. As for Boston Beer Company's goofy one-offs, this is the latest offering that has included beers such as Millenium -- the beer designed to be aged for 1,000 years -- and their high-alcohol "let's see how high we can go" Utopias. BBC has since dropped out of the high-alcohol arms race, leaving a handful of European breweries making revolting 40-60% abv ice brews. While experimentation is certainly a necessary component to brewing, it's my opinion that BBC is making these low-production run batches for a little free marketing. If it gets people thinking about craft beer, great. But I don't think it's doing much to elevate craft beers in the eyes of the US market. Note that I quite like most of the offerings from BBC. They make quality beers. They've certainly done more for craft beer than any other brewery in the US. But that doesn't mean I don't think Infinium Champagne Ale is a goofy beer, made more for marketing than anything else.

And Miller High Life bills itself as "the champagne of beers." Doesn't make it so. I know a fair bit about champagne, and more than a fair bit about beer. "Champagne Style Beer" seems to be more marketing dreck from a company that makes a lot of goofy "one-off" beers in order to get some free ink in the papers. While they're surely resting on lees, are the other champagne processes present? Are they riddling the bottles? Are they disgorging? Do they add a dosage? Then it really isn't méthode champenoise. So calling it a "champagne style ale" isn't entirely truthful -- and frankly, I think it does a disservice to craft beer.

I use a 5-gallon cornelius keg for soda water. I drink a ton of it. It sits in the kegerator, next to the keg. They're both attached to a large CO2 bottle that I only need to fill twice a year. After initial setup, the cost is negligible. Here's a link to a a complete setup: http://morebeer.com/view_product/18192/102298/Deluxe_Homebrew_Draft_System (It isn't hard to find the individual components FAR cheaper than this kit. Shop around.)

After reading the thread, I noticed only two people in the "gas and a wok/double boiler" camp. I'll pitch my tent with them. I wouldn't own an electric fryer any more than I'd own an electric water heater (and for exactly the same reason -- electric elements are too inefficient to get the job done right). I fry chicken at home every Sunday (during football season, at least), and it's a big cast iron pot, a good thermometer and a big portable burner for me. That way I can cook outside without smelling up the house. The cast iron has the best heat retention. And the burner is one one of those "Asian street vendor" burners that throws some serious heat. Short of a Hobart or a Frymaster in the house (that'll be the day), that is the only option I'd consider.

My home kitchen wish list: 1) A 3/4 inch gas line. This has been a common add to people's wish list. Unfortunately, it would require $xx,xxx to retrofit our house. It's not happening. So I get around this by virtue of an "Asian street vendor" propane wok burner. It has the BTUs I need -- but I have to go outside. (My outside kitchen is better stocked than my indoor kitchen, but that's another thread.) In my opinion, this is the one thing that civilians just don't understand -- and that's why most home cooks can't properly brown meat or sauté. 2) A Rational Oven. This is something I wish for at home A LOT. And it's got to be able to take full sheet pans. 3) If I didn't have it already, the pressure sprayer in my deep, deep sink would be here on this list. I can't imagine not having one. It was one of the first things I did to the kitchen. 4) Real pantry space. My 12 square foot pantry just doesn't cut it. I've built shelves from floor to ceiling, but I'd rather have a line of speed racks in a pantry that was designed with actual food storage and handling in mind. 5) A walk-in. I have two refrigerator/freezer units, and I don't like either of them. I'd rather just have a big freezer unit and a real walk in. I don't know where my guests would sit, as I'd have to give up the dining room entirely. But I still wish I had one. One of my refrigerators has been giving me problems. When it finally dies, I'm replacing it with True reach in. No door shelves, no butter caddies, no water dispensers -- just space and a lot of it. 6) If I had the refrigeration and freezer space that I want, I would build a meat-cutting table for my band saw. 7) Cambro containers. This is one thing I've been slowly rectifying -- thanks to restaurants going out of business and a used restaurant supply warehouse close to my house. 8) A real meat slicer. Not one of those piddly anemic consumer-grade slicers. A Hobart. Eventually, the aforementioned used restaurant supply warehouse will provide. 9) The first time I made sausages, I was hooked. I'm currently using the Kitchenaid grinder attachment. But a Grizzly* sausage stuffer is in my very near future, and that warehouse will eventually have a Hobart grinder for sale. 10) Another "gonna buy it soon" item -- an immersion circulator. I can't think of a reason NOT to have one in the kitchen. * Grizzly is a woodworking supply shop that has some decent meat cutting tools. They're a good bang for the buck.

I'm one of those people. Why bother? Because our pomegranate bush provides us with two or three BUSHELS annually. It's either juice it or waste it. That being said, I wouldn't go through the effort if I didn't have to.

Using a meat slicer. I don't really hate using it, I hate the fact that I use the slicer for five minutes, and then need to clean it for 30. Actually, I spend 15 cleaning the last slobbos tomato seeds, slicing ham, and then recleaning the slicer.

The board pictured is a simple flat-sawn hunk of wood. Any woodworker with a good jointer, table saw and thicknesser can make that for you, provided you locate the wood you need. Port Orford Cedar grows in Oregon -- google some lumber mills and ask if they'll ship you a single 16/4 or 20/4 piece of rough-sawn stock. Plan on sticker shock -- the price per board foot goes up with size, much like diamonds. But it won't be in the thousands of dollars range -- hundreds probably, but not thousands. EDIT -- bring a tape measure to the restaurant next time. That piece looks to be 20" x 48" x 5" to me. Then add an inch in each direction to account for milling. That's about 38 board feet (a measure of volume, how lumber is sold). Plan on at least $10/board foot for the kind of quality lumber you want. So around $400 for the wood, plus the cost of milling it, plus shipping. Check with your local cabinet shop. I'd mill it for a block of foie gras and a white truffle, but that's just me.

Depends on the wrapper. The Asian noodle-guy here does two kinds: super thin spring rolls/wontons and rather thick egg rolls. I don't have any here to measure, but I'd say the thick ones are a little less than 1/8" thick. Other than the wavy texture, there's little difference between the eggroll wraps and a lasagna noodle. Best of all, I ask him to cut the pasta to hotel-pan lengths. He charges by the pound, so it doesn't cost more. Once my mise is in order, I can crank out a pan in a matter of minutes. I wouldn't even grumble about making 12 pans -- the béchamel would take more time than the noodles.

I didn't think to try gun cases. That pistol case is too small -- I have a 19" knife. But a small rifle/shotgun case might be ideal. You could plonk it down at the back of your station, and it wouldn't take up much space. You'd have access to everything. Best of all, it's unlikely anyone would mess with you on your way to the parking lot. Something like this would be pretty bad-ass.

Did three things: Turkey tetrazzini (It's so old-fashioned it might come back into style one of these years...) A faux-North-African turkey pie (I have a glut of Moroccan spices that I need to use before they get too old) My favorite -- shredded turkey enchiladas with a screamin' hot buffalo-ranch sauce. (Did this for Sunday football. Surprisingly good.)

+1 for eggroll wrappers. I find them superior to no-boil noodles. When I'm in need, I head to the neighborhood Asian noodle store. He'll whip up a bunch of them, any size I want for a low low price.

No way in hell I would ever let some stranger sharpen my knives. No frikkin' way. -- Caps, bold, italics, underscore, 72-point font. NO FRIKKIN' WAY. Get to the point where you feel the same way -- THEN go knife shopping. My advice? Pick up a 10-inch Wusthof chef's knife and use that for awhile -- it will take a decent edge, and you can beat the crap out of it. Practice sharpening on it. You'll never be sorry that you own a Wusthof. Then you can try the DTs, Tads, Hattoris, etc.

I'm going to assume that you're not trolling. Before Julia, Americans were eating Salisbury steak TV dinners, eating Velveeta cheese, and they thought "fancy pants gourmet French cuisine" was beyond their means and beyond their skills. There's a damned good reason her kitchen is part of the Smithsonian collection -- she single-handedly wrenched this country away from TV dinners. She taught enough of us to cook that we have something of a food culture. Simply put, there wouldn't be an Alice Waters or a Thomas Keller without Julia Child.

One big-handed lefty to another -- buy "regular" Japanese knives. Then sharpen them lefty. After a few months of use you have a single bevel -- no premium price.