pax

I bought rennet and citric acid at my local co-op. Actually, I bought about a pound of citric acid at Christmas time because I put in my Christmas tree's water.

I'd like to apologize. I didn't respond to the post, I responded to the fact my husband is an unromantic goober, which is my problem, not yours. I'm sorry for my rudeness.

Why wouldn't you want to give your wife a nice Valentine's Day dinner? You're in Paris, with friends, on a pleasure trip. It's not like you're going to get downgraded for eating a romantic-ish meal, even with friends.

Eh, ding dong can serve uncooked fish, and that's ok? That's a health hazard. Nobody ever died of runny ice cream. Totally wrong person went home.

I'm sorry for the delay. My satellite internet is giving me conniptions the last couple of days. I pulled the idea out of a January's Gourmet issue. It can be had on line as well, which is good because the paper version left out the amounts of rennet and citric acid. I tried first with just the crock pot, but I could not get the temp to hold, and with the crock as opposed to a nice thin stainless, lifting it out of the crock pot holder didn't help it cool fast enough. Then I tried it on a heating pad, and couldn't get the temp high enough. I did have to heat the milk on the stove to as close to 80-ish as I could get it, and then transfer it. The lowered output crock is not enough to heat it to the right temp, only good enough to hold it. I used an oven thermometer, one of those you stick in a roast? and then the read out is outside the stove? to measure the temp, making sure I dangled it from overhead so it wasn't touching the crock sides. One issue with this thermometer...it does not alarm on the down curve...that is, it let's me know if the thing is getting hot, but NOT if it's getting too cold. You really need to watch it. FWIW, I am using a cheap o Rival crockpot. It has a warm, low, and high setting. I use this set up with the crock pot on "warm", the dimmer switch set at half way. I didn't think this thing my husband handed to me so nonchalantly was a big deal. It's a dining room dimmer switch on a lead I can plug the cord into. I don't think it's something he actually needed his degree to work out. He's got stuff like this every place. He's Professor Flubber. I never imagined having to worry about burning the house down over plugging in a dimmer since pretty much an idiot can install one in their dining room without a degree, so I'm really not so sure why Dougal is so crabby with me about that part. Now, I did not make sheep's milk cheese. I made cow's milk cheese, because my sheep aren't in milk at the moment and won't be until they lamb in April, I was just so excited to be trying it, I did it with the cow's milk on hand. Come April, though, I can't WAIT! I am going to do it again on Monday if I can so I will take a lot of pictures and put them up on my site and link you to them. ETA: It took me a while but I rediscovered the Gourmet link. I am really hating this Wild Blue set up. http://www.gourmet.com/food/2009/01/the-re...resh-mozzarella Or http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/01/mozzarella

My husband has a degree in electrical engineering. I told him what I wanted and he fixed it up for me. My experience is he's pretty good at keeping me from burning the house down, but I very much appreciate your efforts, too. Thanks! *knocks on wood*

....really late to the party? DUH. Putting a dimmer switch on my crock pot means I can hold a gallon of milk between 88-91 degrees for HOURS, flawlessly. I am doing the happy homegrown organic fresh sheep's milk mozzerella out of my crock pot cheese dance, can you see me?

I'm pretty sure she can still be Chinese and not eat tofu. She's a kid, give her a break. When I was a kid I ate bologna out of the refridgerator by the packageful, can you imagine how gross? She'll grow and change constantly. Eh. Try giving her battered fried tofu sticks with ketchup. It might be a texture thing. My kid pukes up scrambled eggs, but is happy to eat them hard boiled. I have no idea why.

For lunch: Garlic cheese pork sausages in butter-onion-tomato-sauce and unbelievable good bread with really really luscious butter. I got tomato sauce on my nose licking the bowl. Half a bottle of a Kim Crawford Merlot that was yummy. Then I snoozed in front of the fire. I intend to repeat the process in a few hours.

I'm not a pro, but for what my fix is worth, I keep them inside similarly shaped metal baking equipment, otherwise I find that they get warpy.

You're a good man, Fress. But those shoes, they don't go.

I have a couple of silicone muffin "tins" and cake rounds, and I've been ok with those if I cook longer and slower. However, over Halloween I picked up a silicone seasonal cupcake thingie and I DID have an off taste. So much so I tossed two "tins" worth and baked the rest of them in regular tin tins and they were fine.

I've given some thought to whether or not the new wave of peanut allergies is actually a peanut allergy, or some kind of fertilizer/processing/stabilizer chemical reaction.

Well, anytime you compost, you could get vermin. The key is to contain the compost in a safe place. I have a Ford diesel truck and I just cannot bring myself to pour homemade fuel into it. I will pass this post along to my husband, Professor Flubber, and let him think about it. Maybe we could experiement with the tractor, which is a poc anyway and if it died, well, good, because then I can get a real dang tractor and stop dinking around with this one.

You'd be surprised how popular a big block of frozen fat is with the birds. When cool, I pour it into milk or cream cartons, add some seeds, shake, and stick them in the garage where they freeze solid. When I feel like it, I put it out on the bird feeder and it's usually gone within days. In the summer time it gets composted, which is exactly what compost people will tell you not to do. My feeling is I do not need my stuff to be done rotting in a big hurry so I throw everything biodegradable in there because it all breaks down in the end.

Thanks to iTunes and my husband taking my kid away for a few days, I had a Top Chef marathon in the last couple of days and am finally able to read this thread without ruining it for myself. I really loved Eugene's ingenuity with the grill. I'm sorry he didn't seem able to follow through. Danny, what the $%^? "Maybe the tension was getting to her, maybe it was that time of the month". Maybe you're a sexist pig, honey, and need a giant bib. My 6 yo knows not to drip her pb&j on the floor. The fact that there aren't any prizes for the individual elimination challenges takes away some of the fun for me, and I'm sure for the chefs, too. I like a good session of kitchen gear voyeurism as much as the next girl. Kathy Lee is a tactless malevolent person, and she looks terrible. I recommend some whole foods, a nap, and way less plastics. As in surgery, not Gladware. Gail is looking great this season. I think the new guy is going to be too much for lax U.S. telly watchers. If I hear Ariane bitch about being the o"ld" 40 yo one more time I'm going to stick her between the eyes with a botox dart. Shut up. ETA: I'm joking about the botox dart. But still. Shut up. If you're feeling old it's cause you never stop whining long enough to do something that makes you feel good.

I am right there with you. Number one example? Chocolate croissants. With fruit and cream to follow. FYI, Annie's Organics does an ok version of Spaghettios and I think there's a ravioli version too. I laid in a few of them for power outages for my daughter, and she likes them very much. They aren't bad.

I have been thinking of the many, many possible uses for cherry chutney, especially with Valentine's Day around the corner.

I don't know if any of you read the political blog site Daily Kos. I do and I came across this today. The author agreed to let me link it because I thought some of you might enjoy it. There is no controversial political debate, unless you want to get into the merits of foods from different parts of this great country. Here is a link to author dmhlt66's diary from this morning. dmhtlt66's "Inaugural Luncheon" In addition to menus, there are recipes, flower arrangements, crystal, place settings, etc, etc, etc. It's a very fun read. The following is is one of the recipes. Almost all of the information contained in the Kos diary, including this recipe is also available from the Senate's own site, here, but I think it's fun to read from the author's perspective, and I do owe him credit 'cause I'd never have seen that Senate site without him. I hope you enjoy.

Sadly, it got worse. Nature's Path Chocolate Frosted Pop Tarts are the bomb with espresso around two, which led to a craving for strawberries, so I pulled a jar of homemade preserves out and ate them by the spoonful, but only after dropping shatters of Fire Bars into them. Yesterday I made the base for caramelized onion dip, and today instead of making it into dip, I slathered it all over a salt fried rib eye. And I made steak fries. And I stabbed them all through the middle a few times to get 'em crunchy. It's midnight and I'm thinking about some more of that lemon sorbet. I'm also thinking about ancient Hawaiian royalty and how their people thought bigger was better, so they had special techniques for rubbing their Queen's bellies to help them digest their food more easily. I need a Royal Tummy Rubber. Right now. I've eaten more in one day than I have in months, I think. It's got to be the weather in addition to PMS, it's been horribly grey and windy and cloudy for days and days.

I woke up at 5 am and decided potato pancakes and applesauce sounded like just the thing. With Saranac Root Beer, which is the BEST. ROOT. BEER. EVER. At 8 am, coffee and a few (uh, less than a dozen) palmiers. There is now a pound of freshly ground chuck in the fry pan right now because I accidentally caught sight of a box of Annie's Cheesy Lasagne in my emergency stash of "Dinners Dad Can Make". I think there is some extra zingy lemon sorbet in the fridge that'll make a nice palate cleanser after that. Ohmigod. It's not even noon. Stop me before I eat again. ETA a "W" in now.....my machine has a "W" issue, can't imagine why.

Sidwell is a Friends school. It doesn't surprise me a bit the menu is thoughtful. There are lots of interesting funky alternative schools doing good stuff in D.C. I considered Sidwell for my oldest but decided the commute would be a nightmare, and settled on one out in Bethesda, and the menu is equally good. They grow some of their own stuff, in the lower school. I considered Holton, but on their home page they proudly disclose Sodexho handles their catering. That's not the reason I choose another school, but it did make me pause.

There's not much I can tell you about cooking, I think. I just wanted to send good energy your way. And like I said, you already know this, but I think "poor people" cooking can be much, much healthier. Maybe if you can look at it as the year of choosing simplicity instead of the year you're FORCED to cut back might make it more palatable. (Please don't think I'm lecturing, I'm not, I'm suggesting to you and reinforcing for myself!)

You people obviously don't use enough butter. Who could be happy with that measly little pat? I'd have to stand there clicking away like a Madame Dufarge on speed before I'd get enough to have happy little butter bump of love.

Wow, Captain Crunch cereal. I loved that stuff. I loved to find the little "berries". Oh that's a memory.