Tri2Cook

Mine won't actually be on Labor Day, the forecast says 100% chance of a fairly large amount of rain that day so I'm doing it tomorrow. I went to the store yesterday and got them to cut some pork blade steaks about 1 1/2" thick. I coated them in a hefty dose of rub, wrapped them and tossed them in the fridge. They're going in the smoker. Anything else will be decided when I go to the store in the morning. It's going to be a combination Labor Day bbq and game grub for the Alabama vs. USC game.

Yeah, a little bit. I've been following and inspired by Michael Laiskonis' work for a lot of years. If I had to name my most important pastry influence (besides my mom, I would probably have never started in the first place without her), this would be the guy. The biggest thing he unknowingly did for me was push me to examine why I was doing certain things. Plated desserts had hit the high-point of that phase where huge numbers of components were getting scattered and tossed all over the place and you had to play a game of connect the dots to eat it. I would look at what he was doing and wonder why he wasn't doing that too. It certainly wouldn't have been lack of ability. Then it hit me... because he knew what people really wanted. A delicious and beautiful dessert that didn't require instructions to enjoy. It connected and changed what I was doing for the better. Anyway, apologies for going off-course a bit with this but it was an important realization for me and completely changed the way I thought about what I was doing. This long-winded gushing was the jealousy-induced result.

That village is pretty cool. I'm trying to imagine a Canadian winter in one of those homes. Even with the fire that close, there had to be some pretty chilly nights. It'd be a tough decision. During a hot summer, I'd want the bed by the window. But then winter would hit and I'd probably regret that choice quickly. I have no idea what the mystery item is. Edited because I added additional thoughts before posting but failed to place them correctly so it was a bit disjointed.

Nobody is saying it shouldn't be discussed and brought to the light for people who don't know. We're saying we agree that what they do/were doing is wrong but according to the reports available for us to see, as a company they're trying to do better. We're not claiming they're a role model for equal rights or that they don't have people on the individual level that are as bad or worse than ever. We're just saying that according to the reports we have access to, they seem to be heading in the right direction. But you're saying you're not interested in whether they're trying to improve or not, you will continue to be angry over what they've already done. So what is there for the rest of us to talk about if anything we say is shot down with "I don't care"?

They have an entire section of their menu called "vegetables and sides" that contains 22 items and 19 of them are without meat. They have 12 salad dressings listed, none of which are likely to contain meat. Maybe one or two contain anchovy as part of the seasoning but I'd be surprised if it was any more than that. They do only appear to have one salad and no entrees that are vegetarian and I'm not sticking up for them and claiming they're vegetarian friendly in nature but if we're going to criticize, it needs to be accurate.

Doesn't sound like cheating to me, sounds like a smart way to work around that cool but somewhat pain in the arse swirling technique.

From the article... But why is it that these mostly white, "pedigreed" chefs attain such incredible fame and success when equally talented immigrant cooks might labor in obscurity for years? The "pedigreed" chefs is the answer, it has nothing to do with the color of their skin. When a chef gets acclaim and notoriety, it's generally because his/her name is on/attached to the business. You can earn a name in the industry without earning acclaim from those not in the business, restaurants usually know who the good cooks in town are, but I don't think that's the sort of "fame" they're talking about. Gordon Ramsay is a "famous" chef. He gets the celebrity and fame, his large number of cooks producing the food in his restaurants do not... regardless of ethnicity. But there was a time when he was slogging it out in the kitchen just like the rest of us. If the cooks, of any color, want the notoriety, they need to take the risks. Open their own place, do it right, rise above the crowd, get their name out there. Nobody is ever going to write an article about the awesome meal Mr. Line Cook made for them last night, they're going to write about the awesome meal they had at Chef Whoever's restaurant. The "equally talented cooks" (I intentionally omitted "immigrant" because that's just irrelevant media pot-stirring, there are plenty of talented white cooks working away in obscurity too) have to have the motivation and drive to climb higher if that's where they want to be. The rest of us will be in the back and it will have nothing to do with race.

"You kind of sound like you wish you could be in the kitchen forever. Some people do make it work." If can work... but forever is exactly how long you'll be in there. I know I'm certainly in no position to retire and don't see that situation changing if I don't decide to move into another line of work sometime in the near future.

"That said: what do you use to fill the mold cavities evenly?" I don't have actual popsicle molds but when I fill other types of molds with things that are to be frozen, I use a piping bag. *Still completely unable to quote posts via the quote button. The " button in the tool bar that is supposed to give you a quote box you can enter text in yourself doesn't work either. I can't do any form of quoting other than as I did it in this post.

I've been following this thread with interest. Everything looks tasty but I don't eat a lot of popsicles so I haven't been overly tempted. Until banana peanut butter popsicles happened... now I feel like my outside observer position is weakening.

15 tablespoons of salt and spices in 2 cups (32 tablespoons) of flour... that's some powerful stuff.

He didn't actually ask about a lemon meringue pie specifically. In my mind, a lemon tart and a lemon meringue pie are two different critters. The difference being, to be a lemon meringue pie, it has to include meringue, to be a lemon tart, it can, but does not have to, include meringue. So I don't see a problem with the whipped cream quenelle or a need for it to represent anything. To me, the crumble was standing in for the crust. So it both represents and fits. I think you were doing fine covering the basic components and flavors but if you want more you could bring in a little contrast through textures, temperatures, flavors, etc. since you're doing it as a plated deconstructed dessert rather than a slice of pie. Sticking with the basic flavors will keep the idea of a lemon tart front and center (probably the route I would go if you want people to "get" lemon tart without it being a lemon tart) but contrasts work if you aren't worried about being completely literal with your translation. I did a deconstructed lemon meringue pie years ago and kept it obvious that that's what I was going for and it was good. A nice slice of the pie would have been much less trouble and just as good but sometimes that's irrelevant because it's also fun to do what you want to do. And if it's not fun, what's the point?

I haven't been to a Cracker Barrel in over 25 years and I've only been there for breakfasts but I remember over easy eggs, country ham, hash browns, biscuits and sausage gravy that were as good as or better than I could have got anywhere else. But that was a long time ago, I have no idea what they're doing now. As for their employment practices, I didn't know anything about any of that until I read this thread. But if they're genuinely trying to do the right thing (and I'm not saying they are or are not, just basing that on what's been said here), isn't answering "we were wrong but we are striving to do better" with "that's nice but you still did it so we're going to punish you forever" counter-productive to the whole point of calling them out for it in the first place?

I haven't done spheres in years but I remember them being pretty heat stable if you're talking about the alginate spheres with the liquid centers. I never tried boiling them or anything but you could put them in a hot liquid and they were fine. If you're talking about the smaller "caviar" type, the gellan version is very heat stable but the agar version can go pretty warm once set. Mint transfers to liquids extremely well. You shouldn't have a problem with that part regardless of the liquid base.

Jiggs dinner with pease pudding and blueberry duff and roast chicken with Newfie dressing... a ridiculously large meal but it's pretty tasty (although the dressing I've experienced contained too much Savoury for my taste). The older daughter's husband's parents are from Newfoundland, that's where I got my introduction to some of the cuisine. Looking forward to seeing what you get into there.

Never mind... I think I want to stay out of this one entirely now that I think about it..

I hate sweet potato fries. I don't hate eating them but I hate that they exist as a restaurant menu item if I happen to work at said restaurant. People want them crispy, they barely get crispy and don't stay that way for the time it takes to get a plate from the kitchen to the table. So a certain percentage come back requested to be more crispy. You go round and round that circle until you do indeed manage to get them to stay crispy... and then they send them back as overcooked and "too dark". Which they are... but only because the person kept insisting they be cooked more. So getting them crispy in the air fryer may indeed be a futile effort.

I remember watching that series as well as In Julia's Kitchen With Master Chefs and Baking With Julia on PBS back in the 90's. I have the companion books for all three series, there's some good stuff to be found. I've watched the episodes on the PBS site in the past but it's been a while. Might have to revisit them one of these days before they decide to take them down.

Nice work. Been hot and humid where I live and as a home hobbyist at the beginner end of the scale, I don't have a work area set up to deal with those conditions. So for that and assorted other reasons, I haven't done much lately... not that what I do is all that exciting anyway. But the weather is already becoming more cooperative so I hope to get back to learning and posting some of my messes again soon.

I eat habaneros all the time so I'm not too worried about the heat level but I like the idea of having them in jam form. I did a google search and came up with recipes that sound like they'd be pretty close to what you said you did. I plan to use pectin, I want it to set. I also stumbled across recipes for peach habanero, pineapple habanero, blueberry habanero, strawberry habanero and habanero ginger jams... so maybe some very small batches of assorted flavors will be in order.

Looks like the mystery has been solved... but now I want to make habanero jam. Recipe?

Good memories attached to the Silver Queen. When I was a kid, my sister and I would visit our grandparents (mom's side) every summer. About once every 2 or 3 weeks, grandpa would announce we were "going for a drive". What that meant was a long drive in search of roadside stands with people selling the bounty from their gardens. We'd usually end up with a pretty nice haul but grandpa's focus was on finding the Silver Queen corn. At every stop, my grandma would check out and choose the veggies she wanted. But when we found the corn, grandpa did the inspecting and choosing. Those trips almost always ended with a stop at Dairy Queen for an ice cream or root beer float. My sister and I were young and sometimes would get antsy being confined in the car for those long drives but we never complained... and I'd give almost anything that's mine to give to be able to go with them on one of those drives now.

You can always rely on kids for entertainment value.

It will never be more than a theory because there's no way to truly unify it. Food is seasoned properly when it tastes good to the person eating it. It's entirely subjective and will never be definitive. It's not even definitive when a high end chef says so by not allowing customers to add salt to their food because they "know better". All they know is what they consider to be the dish in it's perfect form. I have no problem with that, I can enjoy experiencing the food the way they want me to experience it, but that doesn't mean I'll agree that everything is seasoned perfectly for my taste. A chef who is truly offended by a person who says "that dish is delicious but I think I'd like it even better with a little more/less salt" has lost touch with reality. To think that the only correct taste is their own isn't skill, it's arrogance.

On the downside, it adds the whole having to make crepes thing to the equation. But they were good. My mom worked at that restaurant when I was a kid which is why I'm in possession of their "top secret", locally famous at that time, chocolate pie recipe.