Shel_B

It's not at all tedious. The beans will have been soaking in the rum for a while, so all I have to do is scrape the beans into the mixture, just as always. I already know I can add straight rum to the custard ... no big deal. This technique is new to me, so I may learn something, get a great result, or flop. Sometimes it's the journey, not just the destination.

I've already got a bottle of dark rum, so that's covered. Nutmeg or Allspice ... OK, I'll test those with the rum. Tks!

I like to try making a rum flavored custard. The plan is to infuse the vanilla beans with dark rum, and hope that I'll get a little rum flavor into the custard. Just to be clear, I'm looking for subtle flavor, not a hit-you-in-the-face rum attack. Any thoughts on this idea? Secondly what spice flavor might go with the rum? I've been lightly grating nutmeg over my custards, but with the rum flavor, might there be a more interesting spice? Maybe allspice, or mace? Thanks!

I buy just about everything organic, and research, often through Cornucopia Institute - but not limited to them - the quality of the organic products I buy and use. I buy only top tier organics, and much of my shopping is done at the Berkeley Organic Farmers market, although I do buy a good amount of items at TJ's. There is very little waste it my place, and likewise at Toots'. If, between us, we toss a five gallon can into the landfill every couple of weeks, that's a lot, but El Cerrito has an EXCELLENT recycling program and produces compost from green waste which is distributed back into the community. Even plastic bags and containers are recycled. My cookware is all pretty efficient and is purchased with durability and long-term use in mind. As for cooking efficiency, well, I am able to break down my cost for electricity (which is what my stove, oven, etc., uses) into 15-minute increments, so I know exactly what it costs to boil an egg or sear a pork chop. Rarely do I use the oven, rather, I most often use the Breville Smart Oven unless I'm cooking a big meal and need the space the full-sized oven provides, but even then some items will often be cooked in the Breville. It cost me 44-cents to prepare New Years Eve dinner for Toots and myself. In the FWIW department, my electric bill runs about $5.00 per month. Recently the City of El Cerrito decided to offer Clean Energy to it's citizens through Marin Clean Energy, and by May just about all the energy I use will be clean energy, produced by renewable resources such as wind, solar, hydro, etc. Rarely do I have leftovers unless I cook with that purpose in mind. Rarely is any useable food put into the compost bin. When cooking at Toots' place we often cook with the idea of making leftovers, and more often than not those items can be given a quick zap in the microwave to heat up. We also grow some of our own produce - potatoes, leeks, tomatoes, herbs, peppers, squash ... all organic, often using the compost provided by the city that we helped to provide. There's that completed circle ... We both reuse plastic bags from the market, and I pretty much no longer store anything in plastic, using only glass containers for most everything, and the containers are, of course, reused. I am slowly drifting away from foods sold in cans, preferring those items sold in glass or canning my own. Admittedly, it's a slow process, but I am making progress. Toots cans a lot of fruit and has been teaching me some techniques. Overall, I think we are very conservative. I buy more high-end organics than Toots, but we both support local businesses as much as possible.

I have had a similar problem with my LC, and did a lot of research on how to clean the pot. Ultimately, I soaked the pot in a mild solution of hot water and bleach with a little detergent added. After an hour or so I rinsed the pot well, washing with hot, soapy (Dawn dish washing liquid) water until clean. That solved the problem. I would not use any abrasive, even Bon Ami, on the enamel. If I recall correctly, LC suggests not using an abrasive, and recommended the bleach-soapy water method. CAVEAT: Your problem appears similar to, not the same as, my problem. In my case I left the pot on a hot burner and, for lack of a better description, burnt some food and residue into / onto the enamel. I did not try any other approaches, such as cleanser, Bon Ami, etc., before using the bleach technique. I used the technique on my older (40+ years) LC, so the enamel may be slightly different than the newer, cream colored enamel, although LC says they will both respond well to the described technique. YMMV ... Good Luck.

Thanks for all the responses, however, I wanted to know if I could use the fat as one would use lard.

The chops are fully cooked and smoked. Why cook 'em again, and why sous vide. To me it seems like so much nonsense.

The pork chops we had for dinner on New Years Eve came with a thick fat cap, much of which was trimmed off. I saved the fat thinking it may have some use. Would rendering the fat provide something like lard which can be used for various cooking purposes, or is it just pork fat with limited use? Thanks!

Last night Toots came by and we had a lovely, quiet dinner. I ordered a couple of 1 1/2-inch thick pork chops from The Local Butcher, and while I was there, decided to grab a jar of duck fat. Some roasted potatoes and sautéed greens rounded out the meal, along with some Champagne and a lovely French apple cider (which was used in the pan sauce for the pork chops as well). I cooked the chops following as closely as I could the "reverse sear" method described here - there were some time constraints - http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/03/the-food-lab-pork-chops-blah.html and here http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/perfect-pan-seared-pork-chop-recipe.html. The pork was local heritage pork purchased from The Local Butcher http://thelocalbutchershop.com/. The result was the BEST pork chops I've ever prepared, and actually better than some chops we had at the CIA in Napa. The organic Yukon Gold potatoes were roasted in duck fat after par boiling them in well-salted water for seven minutes. They were dried for 25-minutes on a rack, coated with duck fat, and roasted until the outside was crisp, brown, and chewy while the interiors were soft and creamy. The sautéed greens were fairly typical except that I put a little "wok char" on them and Toots loved it. Dessert was a Honeycrisp apple for me and a chocolate wafer for my sweetie. After dinner we played a couple of rounds of our favorite word game, Quiddler, http://www.setgame.com/quiddler and this time Toots cleaned my clock. We had fun. Breakfast this morning was popovers with either honey or lemon curd, fresh brewed coffee, followed by a canning lesson and some tips on how to dress up jars with those little cloth caps. Later we're going to a walk at the shoreline park a little north of us. Should be nice, and maybe followed by a nice, light dinner. Hope you all had an enjoyable New Years Eve and are having a great day!

How far in advance can I make a popover batter and store it in the fridge? Can it keep for 16 to 24 hours? I suppose it would need a couple of hours to come up to room temp before baking.

Maybe in a few years we'll be able to print an holiday meal, including a roast turkey. Might this be a precursor to a Star Trek type food replicator? http://3dprint.com/34038/3ds-cia-partnership/

While running some errands earlier, I ducked into a supermarket and saw the Glad™ containers, and some look like they'd work. I'll take a look at the Ziploc™ after Jan 1, and make a decision. In concept, both seem to be perfect for my needs, so the decision will come down to which brand will best do the job. Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas!

While I like your idea quite a bit, it's not right for me and the layout and work space in my kitchen.

Thanks for your sage advice (I love that phrase, BTW). I'm not planning to store each jar in a separate box. I should be able to get six or more jars in each box. The boxes are just to help keep me organized. I need all the help I can get.

Ahh ... Ziplocs in the supermarket! Worth a look. The web page has definitely got me interested. Thanks!

Those are nice (I have a few), but I should have mentioned that I'm looking for square or rectangular containers.

I need some cheap plastic containers to organize my bagged spices and herbs. Once organized and inventoried, the bagged spices and herbs will be stored in jars, however, I'd like to keep the jars in the cheap plastic containers as well. I don't buy large quantities, usually no more than 4oz of any herb or spice, so their bags will not be large at all. That may help with the idea of size. Any suggestions?

Came across this article http://www.chow.com/food-news/83707/making-the-most-of-vanilla-beans/ today. The tip about storing the beans in rum (vodka, I found, is also a good choice) is very interesting to me. Has anyone tried it? Comments pro or con?

Doesn't show up well at all....

Fortunately, there are several old, similar pieces here as well, and there's no need for me to bake or cook in the new Pyrex dish. I'll use it for other purposes ... glad I didn't have to pay for it.

Another Pyrex question: The instructions for my new Pyrex dish say to only put the dish in an oven preheated to the desired temperature. Why is that? For some items that I cook, the dish goes into a cold or cool oven and everything comes to temperature together. Seemingly, that's unacceptable for these dishes. Or is that unacceptable for any glass or ceramic dish?  