Porthos

Did you hear about the happy eater who consumed his hot dog with great relish?

As does my DW.

My mashed potatoes most likely would not make the "very best" list but a ricer would be difficult to use. I steam red potatoes with the skin on, then mash using an Oxo masher starting with just butter. When they are nearly ready I add a dash of milk and some sour cream. We all like the texture and visual appeal the skins bring to the finished dish. I suppose for purists this might sway them toward a "worst meal" feeling.

What my mother used to do to broccoli should have been punishable by law. How long do you have to boil it before it turns gray. She made, for almost every meal we ate at her houseful a couple of years, a lime Jell-O, Cool Whip and canned fruit salad that I dubbed Green Slime. Behind her back, of course. No, she was not a gifted cook. But I did appreciate her Swiss steak done in a pressure cooker.

Beyond the topic of cutting boards I am glad that this came up. I did some related research that has changed the way I look at hand sanitizers. I will be using them less and washing my hands more. Norovirus is the reason. I had been under the mistaken impression that hand sanitizers killed a broader spectrum of germs than they do. My faire kitchen cutting boards will still get 100 ppm bleach sanitizing, however. Lest anyone think I do so at home, no, they go through the dishwasher at home after a hand scrubbing first.

See the second paragraph for the difference, in relation to food safety, between sanitizing and disinfecting. http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/augustseptember-2011/sanitizers-and-disinfectants-the-chemicals-of-prevention/

Everyone, Thanks for the feedback. I think I am still going to stick with the 143.5 F temp as the next try. But what I will do differently is a quick sear on the finished chicken and see if that helps my DW. As I said, I myself am happy with 142 texture. Porthos p.s. On a few occasions my daughter and I have talked about how my DW seems to have developed a "Princess and the pea" attitude towards food which makes sorting out real things to change versus things imagined a bit more difficult. Since I still love her madly I am trying to figure it out as best I can.

For a 20 mmm thickness Baldwin calls for 1 1/4 hours at 142 F. I went 1 1/2 hours. It was not mushy. I am trying to balance perception of being done versus moistness for my DW. Neither my daughter or SIL found it to be mushy.

I made Sesame Ginger chicken breasts last night. I pounded them to 20 mm thick, 1 1/2 hours at 142 F. I was happy with the flavor and texture but my DW thought they were too mushy. I told her I would bump the temp to 143.5 then next time I made them, but I did remind her that I am trying to make them to be still moist enough for her. She is have trouble accepting that the meat is thoroughly cooked. Thoughts?

Welcome. Glad you've joined.

SInce bleach is my friend I don't bother with this time-consuming technique. @daveb I have bleach in the house for use with laundry so in my case the bleach has multiple uses.

For thouse who don't want to have to need a phone, just a circluator, Anova has put the Bluetooth model (you don't have to have a Bluetooth device to use it) on sale for $129.00 a couple of times this year. I suspect we will see this sale again. I am not knocking the Joule, just providing some additional infor about circulators.

I can't remember where I had read about hydrogen peroxide but my memory is that for thorough sanitizing to cover all of the common classes of harmful pathogens you use the peroxide then rinse and then use vinegar. The HP and vinegar can not be combined. I double-checked this before finishing this post.

I look forward to reading the article when I am back in front of a computer.

Safe and uneventful travels. Thanks again for another vicarious vacation with friends.

On call this evening?

@AlaMoi The OP asked for alternatives to bleach for his plastic boards. While my responses did not provide Shel_B with alteratives to bleach I did offer ways to consider using bleach he may have not thought of. And I started my response with " Shel_B, if you are trying to avoid bleach altogether then this will be of no help. " Your response did not address how to disinfect plastic boards at all. I am taken aback by you essentially asking the OP to justify his choices. And when I did use wooden boards I did sanitize them.

For what it's worth (probably not much) I have ask several retail food service operators over the last 8 years if they use bleach or quats. To a person they said they use bleach. If you ignore the environmental merits of either one, to me there is another interesting usage item. Whereas under CURFFL you need 30 seconds of contact with bleach, you need 2 minutes with quats. ETA: By law my ren faire kitchens do not have to be inspected and approved by the health department since we do not sell to the public. However, since we are feeding 80 people, all of our equipment, including our plastic cutting boards, are cleaned and sanitized in accordance with the CURFFL.

Shel_B, if you are trying to avoid bleach altogether then this will be of no help. If you make up a bleach solution that is 100 ppm of chlorine in water, and put it into a spray bottle, thrity seconds of contact with this solution,reasonably liberaly applied, approximates the California Unified Retail Food Facility Law requirement for sanitizing food contact items. CURFFL would have 30 seconds of contact by immersion. I use Clorox Anywhere in my kitchen at home: Clorox Anywhere hard surface spray. https://www.clorox.com/products/clorox-daily-sanitizing-spray/

Yum is yum whatever it is named.

I don't want to live on a planet where you can't eat bacon with your fingers. Fingers were the first utensils.

@Anna N I don't use a CSO, just a regular oven for bacon, but always at 400 F.

No cocktail hour today. Quietly mourning the intrusion of reality.

I saw the orange. Does this mean that there is a Brothers Perryman in your future?

RIDE stop. I am guessing that is what we call a DUI checkpoint here in California.