FauxPas

I'm sure someone who does more wok cooking will reply and give you a better answer, but this is my approach. I put oil in the pan/wok, add garlic and then heat it gently long enough that the oil is somewhat infused with the garlic. Then I remove the garlic and heat the oil for the actual stir fry.

I have only used them in salads and stir fries.

For thickening yogurt, I put a strainer in a bowl (deep enough to allow some space below the strainer) and line the strainer with a large coffee filter or paper towel, spoon the yogurt in and put it in the fridge to let it drip for a couple of hours or until it's as thick as I like it. This is store-bought yogurt, but I want to try making my own in the IP, also!

gfweb, which veggies have you tried it with?

I sometimes order a FarmBox with various produce from a nearby organic farm. They also have meal kits and I ordered one of those, which we had for dinner. They have about half a dozen kits, all use organic produce and are vegan. I'm not a vegan, but the kits appealed a bit so I thought I'd give one a try. All the ingredients are in a labeled box. This is a simple kit for Potato Corn Chowder, Tomato Garlic baguette and lettuce boat salad. They include everything you need, even sprigs of thyme and a bit of basil, garlic cloves and soup seasoning. Almond 'milk.' A bit of cornstarch for thickening the soup. Vinaigrette for the salad. The end result was pretty good and it was a fun and easy meal. I don't know that I would order many of these in the future, but I enjoyed trying it out. They had a special one for Thanksgiving which looked really good (included stuffed squash). I was going to try that one, but hesitated and missed the ordering deadline. If they have one for Xmas, I might try that for an after-Xmas meal. .

Shelby, the picture links are broken back where you first talked about making yogurt. What kind of starter/culture did you use again? From Amazon? And did your strainer come from Amazon? Thanks! And I don't think you need to add cream if you use 2% milk. I think the link you gave for instructions used 2% w/o any added cream. But if you like a richer yogurt, I guess you can always add some cream to your low-fat milk. ElsieD, is that why you added the cream?

Ha, like this jar I just got out of the pantry?

Shelby and ElsieD, when making yogurt, did you use 2% milk or.... ??? Shelby, your yogurt does look delicious!

These are fairly tasty. Product of Canada.

No, only one crop, rotuts. They blossom in February and we eat the fruit in late Fall (November/December).

Thanks, rotuts! Our trees are fairly young and don't produce a ton of fruit, but enough for us to enjoy. The fruit is ready to eat in November and they don't usually stay on the tree past December because I eat them all!!! We have a tangerine tree that makes luscious juice, very sweet and clear, a Cara Cara orange that didn't produce much this year and two red grapefruit trees. I remember having a few of those Golden Nature Guides when I was a kid! Great series: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=golden+nature+guide Sabino Canyon is pretty popular these days, lots of people there at times!

Half of a grapefruit, freshly picked off one of our young citrus trees. So sweet and juicy. Mmmmmm.

I'm considering it.

I have just started trying out my new Instant Pot. I made a basic stew - cubes of chuck sautéed and then added some onion, celery, beef stock and red wine. Pressure cooked for about 20 mins, then added carrots and potatoes and mushrooms and cooked for another 20 mins. I would add the carrots and potatoes a bit later next time because i like them to have a bit more firmness. But the stew was very good. I also cooked some artichokes. I adore artichokes and was very pleased with how they came out of the Instant Pot. Followed these instructions for cooking times: http://www.hippressurecooking.com/steamed-artichokes-a-pressure-cooker-classic/ Thank you to everyone for sharing your experiences, lots of ideas to try out here!

Panaderia, I love seeing pics of your cakes and pies, etc. I wish I could mail-order a cake from you!

Rose-shaped eggplant parmigiana? Edited to add this link to images: https://www.google.com/search?q=rose+shaped+eggplant+recipes&espv=2&biw=1403&bih=896&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB_72xq8PJAhUS1GMKHSQKDJUQsAQIJQ&dpr=1

Hahahaha! Smithy, you have such good taste! Do you love it? Did you buy it for yourself? I found mine in a HomeGoods store, I believe. About 5 years ago.

I have an irrational love for my Boston Warehouse spoonrest.

They talk about the heat element in the Joule in this article, their alternative to the usual coil heater. They call it 'thick film'. Not sure that I really get it. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelwolf/2015/11/24/chefsteps-creates-joule-in-effort-to-push-sous-vide-cooking-to-the-masses/

I bought one yesterday - the $78 deal at Amazon.com was too tempting to pass on. I see today the same one is $140 or so. Looking forward to trying it out!

I'd love to see some pics of the finished room!

I found a bit more info. It does have a magnetic mount, which won't work for all cookware of course. Read more here and scroll down to bottom for specs, cut-away diagram, etc. https://www.chefsteps.com/joule Not sure I'm crazy about the exclusive smartphone control, either. But might be OK, if the app is really good. Edited to add: Posted same time as stckciv!

This is the first i have heard of this new piece of equipment, but I still can't find out what makes it better than Anova. It looks very similar. Does anyone else know? It's called Joule. http://blog.chefsteps.com/tag/joule/ ETA It doesn't look like it needs a clip. Does it attach to the base of the pot?

Last night, I started with a Nigella Lawson recipe for Warm Spiced Cauliflower & Chickpea Salad. Used quite a lot of harissa and skipped the fresh parsley-as-salad-green as had none in the house. Used lots of pomegranate arils. This would go well with various greens or other veggies. I only had one tomato so used a bit of extra tomato paste and next time might skip the fresh tomatoes altogether. Feta cheese on top would work well if serving it as a standalone salad. Last night we also had some ground pork that I seasoned and shaped into patties.

Just read about SquashDucken over at Food 52. Funny, but maybe not such a bad idea? Squash within squash within squash.... maybe with a few additions?