gfweb

I suppose that if one had a little low stand you could turn the iron into a broiler that never touches the pizza. Hmmm.

The grease comes off on the washcloth used in steaming. Never dirtied an iron unless the cheese runs. In any event I give it a wipe.

Too many nights in hotel rooms. ;-) The initial steam is what makes it practical to do. Slices heated on a naked iron burn the bottom before the top melts.

Leftovers can be a problem for the traveler. Room service pizza, for example. Generally the stuff is more than one can eat at one sitting, but costs so much that throwing it out is unattractive. The solution is found in the closet of most hotels. Note how the iron is shaped roughly the size of a room service pizza slice. First get the thing good and hot. Turn it on its back (it may shut off) and put a damp washcloth on it. Put slice on the washcloth and fold over to cover. It will steam it warm pretty quickly. Next remove the pizza. Reheat the iron and put the slice back on to crisp up. Sort of a home-made combi-oven! Any other travel tricks out there?

The only person who I see as ethnocentric and hypocritical is T.Collichio,who will happily criticize an ethnic chef for cooking something other than his native cuisine and almost simultaneously criticize him for not branching out. Its good to be the king. Like Tom only cooks Italian food...

Different priorities at the time, I'd imagine.

Adjust? I suppose that link sausage would be OK. But that's change...at a critical time of day. Not sure its prudent.

Whether carpentry, plumbing, dentistry or cardiac surgery...there's a right way and a wrong way. I can attest that the meals I had at the old Le Bec Fin in Phila, when Perrier was in full force doing old school French classic technique on modern dishes, were transformative without being stogy. Who knew a sauce could be that good... a galette so sublime? Kind of ruined restaurant meals coming after. Sucks that that is probably gone forever in the US. The little things do matter. Maybe not in home cooking, but they matter.

I am approaching wakefulness at sausage time. Two cups of coffee minimum prior to breakfast. If I find a local artisan, his sausage I shall try.

And the thing of it is that I'm certain there were more than a few guys with his chops who are gone forever and unlikely to be reproduced. And not just in cooking. In many fields, deep expertise is a rare thing. Rigorous, dare I say painful, training is almost illegal and certainly frowned-upon...but it gives results worth the effort. Great stuff doesn't come easy.

Ah, distance is relative. I routinely drive 40 minutes to shop for various foods, but I commute abt 40 miles a day, so it's no big deal. And it's well worth the drive to get artisanal sausage from non-CAFO animals. I don't mind paying a premium price for a quality product, especially when I know the animals were humanely raised. I used to have an hour commute...uggh. And I'll drive for meat and fish, but it pisses me off. Our butcher isn't artisanal or non-CAFO, he's just a thief.

Good idea. We have some mennonites who schlep their stuff to a sort of nearby market. Next time I'm there... The Lancaster Co Amish and Mennnonites vary in the rigor of their practice. Most Amish don't drive, but will be driven. A whole job description of an "english" (which means all non-amish) guy who does the driving has evolved. Sort of a shabbos goy for the farmers.

We have one local butcher who is a scoundrel with the prices he charges. On principle I avoid him. A desert? Perhaps it is. Plenty of civilization nearby, but no WF...no decent fish place...local monopoly supermarket chain sucks for meats and fish. I could drive for 40 minutes....

Exactly right. Morning coffee...omelet...slab of sausage

On the other hand, J. Pepin never looks like an oaf when wielding a knife. Never.

You mean Haggis-loaf? . Not terrible if pan-fried and crisped up... Grew up with it Sausage for me!

If it is psoas it might be more toothsome than beef since the roo is erect more often than not. I've has this meat and it was indeed venison like, not too tender either.

Jones. I can find that with a short drive... Freezing planned.

The name "VacMaster" is worth $200 at least. Make it "VacMaster 3000" add another couple hunderd.

I need something in the fridge that I can whack off a couple slices from and fry up on Sunday morning. And not be annoyed at.

Bulk sausage in the tube.

I used to rely on Jimmy Dean to make a reliably decent product, but for a couple years the quality is down with gristly bits in the mix. As bad as Bob Evans's quality. I don't want to make my own sausage damnit. To whom do I turn?

Breakfast for one?!

gfweb, did you make those gnudi or buy them? If homemade, can we get the Rx, please? Pretty please? Inspired by Franci, I used the recipe she put up somewhere on the site...then fooled with it. IIRC hers is ricotta + parm + spinach rolled in a quenelle and then rested in flour for two days during which a thin flour layer accumulates and hardens as a skin when boiled. I don't have two days to wait for lunch! So I added a beaten egg and a few tsp of flour to ricotta + parm + garlic powder to firm up the gnudi and make them handle easier and then let them set in flour overnight. Boiled till they floated then dried briefly and browned in butter. The browning makes them lose a bit of their ethereal lightness, but not too much. I like the boiled ones in a marinara.

I don't mind his food writing.