Pierogi

No, nothing adverse happens to the baked goods. I'm not sure if, in fact, "wax paper" is really "WAXED paper" these days, or if its been new and improved and modernized the way everything else has been. But used for lining, I guess there's sufficient insulation from both the batter and the pan that the wax paper stays intact, for want of a better word. However, you can't use it to line cookie sheets, since it will not tolerate direct exposure to heat. Only when there's a batter or dough covering it can you put it in the oven.

Oh. Holy. Cats. I made this tonight with an admittedly sad 1/2 bunch of broccoli from my CSA. Wow. Wow. Did not blow me out of the water, it blew me out of the universe. This soup is phenomenal. PHENOMENAL. Spectacular would not be an overstatement. I tossed in a (very) small crushed clove of garlic, and since I didn't have goat cheese like Gordo suggested, I used some feta. I used *too* much feta, but it was still..........phenomenal. I could not believe such flavor came from such sad broccoli and water. Even when I got to the end, and it was cold and had too much feta flavor, I kept scooping up little tastes, because the broccoli flavor was so vibrant. Wow. The dregs (that had too much feta *mental note, light hand on the feta*) got spooned over the dogs' dinners, and they loved it too. All 3 of us almost ate the paint off the bowls. Thank you RaRoOb for sharing this. I'd have never believed it was so amazing. I'd have paid big bucks for this soup in a restaurant. BIG bucks, and been happy.

Yep, at that point I just stop the machine, scrape it back down into the bowl, and start again. Sometimes I do that 3 or 4 times, but I just process for a bit longer to compensate for the stop time. It's just "one of those things", and I deal. Edit to add---still better than hand kneading !!

That first pic is Washington DC, isn't it??? Busboy ?????

Usually its just for me, and usually between 1/4 and 1/3 pound (one pound is the size package I typically buy) for a dinner. It skews to the lower end for heavier sauces, or if there's a side or a large salad involved. Higher, obviously, for lighter sauces and less side dish bulk. When I was working, and wanted leftovers for lunch, I'd cook 1/2 a pound routinely.

Salt pasta water, always, and heavily. Salt veg while they're sweating/carmelizing, absolutely. Salt meat before (large chunks) or during (ground) browning, yes. Salt to "dry brine" (poultry, beef roasts), yes. Salt when the sauce starts to cook, yes. Taste and correct when it's about ready, always. Unless its something that's going to reduce, then I hold off until the end. And I use a light hand when there's inherently salty/sodium rich ingredients in the dish (olives, capers, anchovies, cheese, etc.). Then I usually skip the inital salt, and wait until the end to "correct". But I still salt the pasta water, if the other product is being used as a pasta sauce. And I always put a bit of salt in my rice, polenta, grits, couscous and other grains.

Very cool !

I saw that same episode - one of the reasons I have given up on the food channels and stick mostly to PBS. .... Frighteningly enough, I've even seen Rick Bayless (whom I normally revere), rinse roasted chilies to get rid of the skin & seeds. I was stunned.....

Oh, wax paper, wax paper how do I love thee?? Let me count the ways.... Buttering casseroles/cake pans/baking dishes - check Separating things for the freezer - check Wrapping cheese - check Lining cake/loaf pans - check Tossing under a box grater - check Keeping a cake plate clean while frosting - check Staging formed cookies/biscuits/rolls before baking - check My kitchen is never without my box of Cut-Rite (now owned by Reynolds of course, but still good stuff). Parchment is only used to line sheet pans or form bread/pizza on. Everything else, wax paper handles better, and cheaper. Unfortunately it won't stand up to oven heat, or I'd never buy parchment. Edit - Because, at least in English *without* is one word. At least in this context.

I usually do refrigerate them, although I can certainly remember, as a child, seeing carton upon carton of eggs around Easter time, sitting in the aisles of the local grocery stores, waiting to be scooped up, hard boiled and dyed. And no, it wasn't all *THAT* long ago !!! Now, of course, they're always refrigerated. I do, however, routinely pull out the amount of eggs I need for a baking project, either the night before, or the morning of, and leave them sitting on the counter until I'm ready to bake. I seem to remember reading somewhere that eggs work better in baking, especially if you need to separate them, at room temperature. That said, I've also purchased eggs at farmers' markets, and am going to from my CSA, and I know those puppies haven't seen cold storage ever. And I'm still here. However, I don't eat many, if any, uncooked egg products. I might not be so cavalier if I did.

When I became serious about cooking, and joined the Kosher salt club, Morton's was all that was available, so that was what I used for years and years (and years). About 2 years ago, one of the local MegaMarts (Stater Bros. to be exact) started carrying Diamond, and since I knew Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen preferred it, I switched to that. I flat out LOVED it. It didn't seem as dense to me, as others have mentioned, and for sprinkling on the top of baked goods (focaccias, etc.) it seemed to hold up more and not sublime into the dough. Then. Stater Bros. stopped carrying it. Now, they, and all the other chains, only have Morton's. I'm bummed. If I'd known it was going away, I'd have stocked up. Diamond, is, IMHO, far superior. But I'll use Morton's if that's all that's around, which it is.

Jell-O, or any other overtly gelatinized thing. Textural there, just can't handle it. Eggplant, it's the taste as well as the texture I can't deal with. Oddly enough, I've made peace with lima beans, which I hated when I was a kid. So long as they're not cooked to mush. But don't try to feed me gelatin. For that reason, I've never (and *will* never) eaten a raw oyster.

*THOSE* are gorgeous ! Congrats.

Uhh... with the rabbit, you just clamp the arms around the cork and pull the lever out. It doesn't take any effort at all. My Rabbit worked that way, I believe, precisely once, maybe twice. I don't know if I had a defective one or what, but I literally would have to wedge the lever against the counter, and lean on the squeeze handle with all my might to remove the worm from the cork. I actually replaced the worm because I knew how it was *supposed* to work, and it didn't, so I thought the worm had bent. The second worm performed the same way, so after another series of struggles with it, I ditched it and stuck with what works for me. Edit for clarity.

I had a Rabbit for a several years, and just recently put it in the Goodwill pile because I found it absolutely impossible for me to get the cork off the worm after it came out of the bottle. Getting the cork out of the bottle was slick, but getting the cork off needed brute strength or finger dexterity I don't possess. I had finally limited it's use to when I had guests that could remove the cork for me. I should mention I have very weak hands and wrists. Still, even with that limitation, the traditional waiter's corkscrew I picked up for about 5 bucks at Trader Joe's is easier for me to use than the Rabbit was. For me, if someone were gifting me, the Laguiole would be the bee's knees, because it's so pretty.

I have a wimpy 4.5 quart Artisan, and frequently have the problem with dough climbing, no matter the type, speed of the mixer or hydration. Or, I have the reverse problem, where a small blob of dough will "cleave" off from the main one, and just rotate around the orbit of the hook, never really getting kneaded or "slapped around" like it should be. I should note, I usually do half quantities of most bread recipes, since I'm baking for one, and want only one loaf at a time. So I've written off my issues to insufficient quantity, resigned myself to stopping the machine, and re-integrating everything, and carrying on.

Toss up between Ruth Reichl and Jonathan Gold. Probably only because I'm most familiar with their works, since they were/are both prolific LA-centric writers. But I also love Reichl's writing in general, not just restaurant reviews.

Yes, the roller: and I have a 6qt model, but I don't think this attachment will be a problem for your Artisan model, at all. Rolling out pasta is not that stressful on the machine, I don't think. Cool ! Thanks for the response. It goes on the "I want, I want, I want" list now.

KCET split, as of 1/1/11, from PBS, and is now programming independently. Whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen...... I have seen Chef Prudhomme's show on another SoCal PBS station, and LOVED it. LOVE him. LOVED it. As you said, just a wealth of information, most of it just as toss-away asides. Haven't seen Folse, either, though I keep trying to. Have loved Ripert, which has not been aired here before. Lidia, Tommy Tang, Ming, Bayless and Raichlen are all regulars in our rotation, but welcomed back (well, other than Raichlen, at least by me). Some of the other offerings on KCET's new daytime cooking block, are, well.....odd....to say the least. There are some Japanese-produced shows that make the original "Iron Chef" look like Hemingway wrote them....

Has anyone considered that the sad state of toasters is a possible result of the litigious nature of the American consumer? Not to be a PITA, but in reading the comments (and yes, I have a toaster I loathe...) it seems everyone is going back to toasters they used in the past that *gasp* HEATED things and *gasp* got hot ! Why. You could burn yourself on them. Sure can't burn myself on my toaster, my bread barely gets hot enough to melt butter. Isn't it sort of an ancillary to the Mickey D's coffee, and the tags that say "don't use the blow dryer in the bathtub" and "don't open the Cuisinart while it's running...." Me thinks they've made products so safe, they can't possibly perform the job they were intended for.

One of the pundits on American TV tonight said something to the effect that "the Trenta comes with a free side of Depends (adult diapers for those of you not in the US, and therefore not exposed to US personal care brands)...."

Frozen is the way I go too, for stuffings like lasagnas, manicottis, enchiladas, etc., etc., etc. To get a similar yield with fresh, you'd have to buy 10 times as much, muck around with cooking it down, and then get it cooled, drained and dried. SOOOOOOOO much easier to toss a frozen block in the fridge for a day to thaw, then squeeze in a strainer ! And cheaper too. I'm actually disappointed by the flavor of "baby" spinach in salads. I remember spinach salads back in the day made with the mature, curly leaves, and they had so much flavor. So I rarely buy the baby spinach, unless it's called for in a specific recipe....I can think of a couple of pasta sauces I make that need it, or use it as an alternative to arugula, or for a stir-fry. For salads, I actually much prefer the mature leaves. Reminds me of, as I said, the old time hot-bacon dressing salads I loved as a kid.

Traditionally, New Orleans "Barbeque" shrimp, which isn't barbequed at all, but oven-braised (or stove-top braised) in a butter/garlic/lemon/Tabasco/Worcestershire sauce broth, is served with heads/shells on. You eat it all, and sop up the broth with crusty bread. *YOU* may do that. *I* make my New Orleans Barbeque shrimp with shelled, tail-on, shrimp, from which I extract the last little morsel of tail meat, and leave the spent shell on my side plate. I still sop up the broth with crusty bread, though.

Martin Yan was right up there with La Juia and Graham Kerr as shows I watched with my mom that got me into cooking. "Chinese" was exotic for us....way exotic. But he made it seem non-threatening and achievable. Though he was entertaining, there was never a doubt he knew his stuff. I still watch his shows when they're on with awe and respect, and think part of the reason I love Asian cuisines so much is that he opened my eyes to the flavors that are possible in them. He's in my pantheon of food gurus with very few others.

Chris, I'm assuming the attachment is the roller and not extruder, right? I really want the roller, both for pasta and for pierogies (which are essentially an egg pasta dough), because I think it would take the last of the heavy-duty work away from my poor, old, arthritic hands and arms. Is your KA one of the mega-powerful ones, or the wussier Artisans like mine? I'm only afraid mine doesn't have enough power to run the thing, and that's what's stopping me.