gfweb

You are asking good questions. Check out the sous vide threads. eG has answers to all of these questions. One that you don't ask is "is cooking sous vide as fun as using flames and ovens?" Short answer...no, but I would say that results trump process, and that there is still plenty of room for classic technique in non-meat food.

One piece of advice...avoid debt.

Hard to imagine.

This is gonna be good.

Beans , a mortar and pestel, and an old scale. South America?

Somebody with a big garden.

I make corned beef with top round cooked sous vide. Not fatty but still moist and tender.

Cast iron from the hardware store is always a good option. WalMart carries Tramontina pans which have gotten very high ratings. I'd give them a serious look.

Airline bourbon is a variable situation. Usair only has Jack Daniels which isn't even a bourbon. Good only to clean the tray table. Otherwise a fine airline. Delta has Woodford, which is the sole redeeming factor for the whole hopeless company IMO. United and American have Jim Beam Black...adequate, just like the carriers.

Oban single malt. Woodford reserve for routine bourbon and the estimable Pappy VanWinkle for whenever I deserve it. Jim Beam isn't bad stuff, better I think than Old Granddad and Wild Turkey, but a couple notches below Woodford. Some of the fancier artisan bourbons lose that bourbon taste and are a little scotch-y to my tongue.

We have been fooling with crockpot recipes for our college kids to make at school. W-S had this recipe for lasagna http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/slow-cooker-lasagna.html?cm_src=RECIPESEARCH which turned out to be more than adequate after tweaking the spices etc. Who'd a thunk.

I think that the principle holds though. My memory of kraft Mac and cheese is better than the product is if eaten today. Same with grilled cheese...better then than now.

Herrs ripple chips for me. Vinegar and salt Herrs is #2.

Ok ok. You win. Some but not all of the criticisms were vague. Some but not all were unworthy of an NYT reviewer.

The criticisms were very very vague. With the exception of the note about lacking seasoning, the objections were on the order of "the souffle lacked conviction." What the hell does that mean? NYT reviewers are usually better than this guy.

Gayle. I'm very fond of her. But she dresses terribly. Terribly. Like a college kid trying to look grown up. You'd think Bravo would drag Tim Gunn in for a fast makeover. Rule of threes...right waistline...patterns.

Problem I have with chopped is that a few of the judges are a-holes. Even Zakarian gets pissy. Respect the protein indeed. Top Chef is the worst for that. Little Tommy goes nuts with that.

Stupid question. Does a 3 cup unit make three cups of rice? I see posts implying that it isn't a full there cups. Others seem to say that its 3 dry cups at the start. So if I put three cups of dry rice into a cooker what is the yield?

I once got terribly plastered because my wine glass kept getting refilled and I didn't notice. "I'm only on my second glass " I thought. Lol. By the time I realized it was too late. Keep my water glass full but leave the wine to me.

I've been looking for Pappy.

My dad had great nostalgia for the "fried mush" of his depression childhood. He convinced my mother to make it once and found it horrible. Perhaps my mother screwed it up,she was a terrible cook, but perhaps the memory was better than the dish ever was. The remembered casseroles may be like that. But then again maybe not. Paella is more or less a casserole.....

Glad you aren't leaving.

Agree about tripadvisor. Truth can be found there.

NPR says that one should go by the majority of reviews and ignore outliers http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/09/12/160755775/five-ways-to-spot-a-fake-online-review-restaurant-or-otherwise?ft=1&f=139941248. That may avoid fake reviews, but isn't usually useful to me in deciding where to eat. I say the opposite; look at the outlier. So many reviews are by regulars who like the place and are thus biased toward the positive. Like Zagat's problem. I like the outlier, the guy who goes to a new place (to him) and sees it with fresh eyes.

You could calculate the pH if you knew the proportions. No measurement needed.