Shel_B

Toots is going to be making this cake http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1015378/orange-cake-ancona-style.html for an event this weekend. The recipe calls for the addition of some ouzo. She has no ouzo, and is not particularly interested in buying some for this one time use. She does, however, have triple sec, vodka, brandy, rum, sweet vermouth and some sweetish white wine in the fridge. Oh, she may also have some advocaat. Which of those choices might work best with the recipe. I suggested brandy, but was thinking the rum might also work. Am I even close? Which would you suggest? Would leaving out the alcohol altogether be an acceptable solution? Thanks!

My next purchase will be a kitchen scale. I have a quick, general question: Are there any scales where the tare weight can be greater than the capacity of the scale, i.e., say I get a scale with a 1-lb capacity but the bowl or vessel weighs more than 1-lb empty. Can I still get a tare weight?

Uhm...I do. I will use the reds in pasta sauces (and pour a glass for the cook, too ). Sometimes I'll use a white when I bake salmon or make some sort of seafood fettucini on the stove. 2Buck Chuck now costs a little more than 2bucks. It's drinkable and it's cheap which is fine by me. I don't drink much wine these days, but even when I had a nice cellar there was always a place for 2 Buck Chuck. I now use the merlot for cooking, especially when I make a particular spaghetti sauce.

Where are you located? I like Caggiano. They don't have a website, but here's some info: http://www.elysewinery.com/recipes_13_1908997775.pdf

Much of the dairy in the local TJ's is just a little to a lot less than the supermarkets in the area, and, for the most part, the quality is equal to or better than those supermarkets. TJ's has good prices and a nice selection of cheese. Today Toots and I hit Costco, and Toots specifically compared some cheese prices. Costco was a little less expensive, but a much larger amount of cheese had to be purchased. I compared some frozen berries, and TJ's had the better prices. Coffee prices were comparable, but at Costco we had to buy 3-lbs but a more reasonable amount (about a pound) could be had at TJ's, and TJ's had a wider selection. Meat was something of a tossup, depending on the cut. TJ's eggs are better priced than the local supermarkets, and TJ's has better prices and a more interesting selection of breads. Butter is substantially less spendy at TJ's. Bottled water of the type I sometimes buy is about 20% less than the local supermarkets. Cereals (like Cheerios, Shredded Wheat, Kashi products, and oatmeal varieties) are generally much less expensive at TJ's. Snack crackers are a better deal at TJ's, and they have some very nice, and unique, selections.

Rosemary-Olive Oil Popovers: I was wondering if extra virgin olive oil would be an acceptable replacement for butter (or shortening) as the fat to mix into the popover batter. I'd like to make a rosemary-olive oil infused popover. America's Test Kitchen, or maybe Cook's Illustrated, suggested that using full fat milk may inhibit the rise in their popovers because the milk was "too heavy" with fat. Might rosemary infused olive oil have that same effect? Also, since popovers depend, at least in part, on steam (as I understand it) to give them their rise, would a higher fat butter, which has less water than a typical American supermarket butter, inhibit rising to some degree? Thanks!

Is there a proper way to wash a potato, and, if so, what is it?

Not that I'm going to make a cake with gold or silver leaf, but I am curious as to how much of the leaf would be needed for a cake as described above.

You mentioned that you cook the orzo al dente, and maybe there's more residual starch on the grains than with spaghetti and other pasta shapes. Is the other pasta you use also Ronzoni? Perhaps there's a different amount of starch and protein in the Ronzoni orzo compared to other brands, or even other shapes of the same brand. I'm only guessing here ...

Soak the pot, dishes, and utensils and remove residual orzo before putting them into the dishwasher. If for some reason you can't soak the pot, then take some time to remove the orzo by hand before it starts sticking to the pot. Leaving the pasta in the hot and cooling pot and on dishes and utensils can "cement" the pasta to the walls of the vessel and to the dishes and utensils. In the FWIW Dep't, the pot I use for cooking the pasta gets put into the sink and soaked (in hot, soapy water) just as soon as the pasta is removed.

Toots and I enjoy the skins on all potatoes, including sweet potatoes and yams, but we limit our enjoyment to non commercial (organic and home grown) potatoes. Good, healthy nourishment.

As I don't use coffee filters, I went to the local Peet's and got a few big Bunn-type filters that I could use in my 8-inch strainer, just to see what the result would be like. I lined the strainer, set it over a nice sized bowl, and poured in the stock. There was only a dribble of stock that went though the filter and the rest just sat there for a couple of hours while I did something else. I ended up straining the stock through one of the T-shirts I have reserved for straining purposes. Since there were so many recommendations to use coffee filters, it was surprising the technique didn't work. Any ideas as to why the stock wouldn't drain through the filter?

This morning I tried something different, mixing some homemade coconut milk with the homemade almond milk. I've not perfected the proportions yet, but the first two blends tested were pretty good suggesting that the idea has the promise for making a very nice, refreshing beverage. I made a batch of coconut milk from dried coconut and added some of the strained liquid to the previously prepared almond milk. The next step in the experiment is to mix the dried coconut with the soaked almonds, and process them together. It may take a little more time to get the right proportions, but then, only one batch of milk need be produced. When making the almond milk this morning, I added a vanilla bean and a couple of medjool dates for a little more flavor and sweetness. I've been doing that occasionally since I first started making almond milk. Adding fresh fruit to that makes a nice smoothie, and since I was gifted with a nice supply of vanilla beans, I'll be adding the beans more often.

I don't know if this could be the problem, but, for the future, maybe a lower, slower preheating would be in order. I recall reading something in my Le Creuset manual about preheating s-l-o-w-l-y. Although, an electric burner does come up to temp relatively slowly. That said, I don't always preheat my Lodge low and slow, and I've never had an issue. The pan is about 35 years old, and it's been used on gas, electric, and over campfires. I'd guess that there was a flaw in the casting of your pan.

Today I went to buy some sponges of the type described above, and for the first time I read the instructions on the package. They said not to put the sponges in a microwave (no reason given). I use the Scotch Brite sponges, both the pink ones and the blue ones. I've been putting mine in the microwave for quite some time, since someone on this forum suggested it was a good thing to do. Once one of the sponges separated at the point where the scrubber and the sponge joined, but other than that, I've not noticed any problems.

That's good to know, although, when using eggs, I generally by fresh ones. Thanks!

This morning, that's what I did, using white and crimini 'shrooms and some dried porcini and shiitake. Thanks for your suggestion to keep it simple.

There's some mushroom stock simmering on the stove as I type. I took your advice and added some ground, dried porcini and shiitake to the chopped button and crimini mushrooms. Keeping it simple this time - the apartment has a nice, earthy aroma. Thanks for the suggestion.

My concern, and apparently it's unfounded, is that putting eggs into warm water would cook them to some degree. I guess that's not the case. Thanks ... great idea.

And since I use eggs infrequently, I sometimes forget that I have eggs stored in the fridge, especially if the carton works its way to the back of the shelf and other items are placed in front of it, and if I forget long enough, the quality of the eggs definitely suffers.

I'm not Shel_B, but when I bake on the spur of the moment, I sometimes forget that my eggs are supposed to be at room temp. I take them out of the fridge, crack them into a bowl, then go "Oh shoot - those are -cold- eggs!" At which point "Is it safe to let these sit out until they're warm, or do I have to warm other eggs and turn these into breakfast?" becomes relevant. That's exactly what happened recently when I was making a batch of popovers. And that's what prompted my question. Thank you, Elaine. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that has had this experience.

Great article =explains a lot. Thanks for the pointer!

I am familiar with that technique, but your comment, and HungryC's, does not answer my question.

Although I don't bake much, I often bake on the spur of the moment, and need to bring eggs to room temp. Is it acceptable to do that with eggs that have been broken into a bowl, or is it better to let the eggs come up to temp in the unbroken shells? And yes, I know about using a warm water bath for eggs in the shell. I just want to know if eggs that have been broken into a bowl can be allowed to come to room temp. Has abyone ever done this? Is there a downside? Thanks!

After trying these chiles, I wondered what all the fuss was about Hatch chiles. I do buy them for one specific dish where I want a very mild and not to hot chile background flavor. It's for a specific spinach cheese frittata that is often eaten by women in their 70s and 80s who want very little heat. These chiles are perfect for them.