blue_dolphin

The bi-fold doors really impede making full use of the space as pantry storage. The spaces are deep but the door blocks part of it so you can't have full-width pull-outs. I have a 27" deep, 3 ft wide closet around the corner from the kitchen that I'd like to dedicate to pantry/kitchen storage but those dang bifold doors block at least 6 inches which adds up when you consider it's 84" high.

With all the food and cooking magazines that Meredith had, it would seem they have significant recipe collections that I might be willing to subscribe to but after gutting the actual cooking expertise of those publications, would they actually invest in combining the various archives into something cohesive with user-friendly functionality? It would surely be an expensive proposition.

They opened a store in my area, too. I don't have the freezer space (nor appetite 🙃) to justify a big delivery order but I'd like to check out their stuff.

And queso fresco, though the recipe I use (from Nopalito) uses more vinegar, more salt and is also pressed like paneer so it's more firm, salty and tangy.

Around 3 weeks ago, several people in the Facebook Fine Cooking Community group reported receiving an email notification that their FC subscription had ended and will automatically convert to Food & Wine. They said there was a link to opt out and that it worked very easily. Sounds like you're not seeing this in your account, but when I go to the Fine Cooking website, scroll down to the bottom and click on "Manage My Subscription," I am taken to a magazines.com page with contact email addresses for various magazines that are ceasing publication. There used to be a "Subscribe" button at the top of the FC home page and there was also a "Subscribe" link down at the bottom. Both are gone.

Grains for Every Season: The "Damrosch" Buckwheat Crust p 83 and David Lebovitz's Salted Honey Pie p 82 The buckwheat crust is credited in the header notes to Barbara Damrosch who published the recipe in a cookbook she wrote with her husband, Eliot Coleman, The Four Season Farm Gardner's Cookbook. It's just uncooked buckwheat groats pressed into a buttered pie pan and pre-baked to lightly toast them. The recipe says that you can bake the filling directly in the crust without the pre-bake but it adds a toasty flavor and crispness that I think is important so I wouldn't skip it. It does, however, mean the buckwheat groats are rather loosely attached to the plate rather than being stuck in the butter so it would be wise to use caution in handling and pouring in the filling. As indicated, the filling is from a David Lebovitz recipe and is one he adapted from The Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book. I used buckwheat honey to go along with the crust and the flavor comes through nicely. It gets sprinkled with sea salt before serving which helps temper the sweetness but it's still a very sweet pie so I'm glad I made a 1/3 scale recipe in this 6-inch pie pan - a very small slice is enough for me! The buckwheat groats have a nice crunch, even on the bottom of the pie. We'll see if that holds up after sitting overnight. The header notes say that the crust is also good for quiche so I made a small one with mushrooms, dandelion greens and leek, in an even smaller pie dish - a one-egg quiche! In this one, the buckwheat groats softened to more of the consistency of graham cracker crumbs, except for around the top edge where they stayed crisp. I might try sprinkling a thin layer of finely grated parm over the crust and popping it back into the oven a bit before filling to see if that might help "seal" out the moisture from the custard and add a bit of salt and flavor.

@weinoo's right about there being only one way to know for sure! What does CellarTracker have to say about your particular wines? As @liuzhou and @Norm Matthews pointed out storage conditions can have a big effect, but that would at least give you a start. You could also check with a wine shop that specializes in older vintages. They likely have someone on staff who's familiar with older Rioja's or can recommend someone to you. I have a friend who loves his wines and only collects first growth Bordeaux and a specific subset of Rioja's. There certainly are some that age well.

Hey @BooBear, you mentioned elsewhere liking to research things. Did you know that this site has a Search function? Yes, indeed! If you search for Macaron and specify that term appears in the title, you'll find several great threads where members may have already shared the info you're asking for. Have you already read through these topics? Macarons: Troubleshooting & Tips Macarons - Baking Macaron: the good and the bad I'd like to learn to make macarons ...and about 40 others!

The second image is a photo I took and posted here with a small plate of World Peace 2.0 cookies sitting on top of the book Yes, misrepresented by me! 🙃

Not for me - I like hearing all the deets! And I can see why you want to renovate for better function even though it looks OK. Will you be keeping the layout the same, as far as where the appliances are? I'm totally on board with upper cabinets that reach the ceiling, assuming they're not so tall that you need an extension ladder to reach them. That microwave/vent fan looks really nice. I have a very ugly one with a fan that does nothing and have been saving up to get a proper exhaust hood but keeping the MW could be handy so I should consider that option. Could Mijo's flooring choice have been at all influenced by that shaft of sunlight? Either way, it looks like a great choice. I like the quartz a lot. I'm not a fan of 6" granite backsplash I have in my kitchen but maybe that's because I'm not a fan of that particular granite to begin with. My MW is 19" above the surface of the cooktop and I get spatters clear up to the top of that and on the bottom of the MW. If I could afford to refresh the kitchen, I'd take that section of backsplash up to the microwave or hood. If I had that fridge and was re-doing the kitchen, I'd try my best to get a new one into the budget. That one looks so annoying! You should be able to sell or donate that one so it gets used and not tossed. Looking forward to following along!

In Ottolenghi's book, NOPI, there's a similar sounding recipe, Lemon Sole with Burnt Butter, Nori, and Fried Capers (available online here) where the nori is added to the browned butter along with ginger, lemon and parsley. Aside from frying the capers, it doesn't sound terribly fussy, particularly for a NOPI recipe. If you've got any Spam in your emergency rations, you could make some Spam musubi. Nori-crusted steaks from Cooking Light magazine might be an idea. Eric Kim put it on his Creamy Asparagus Pasta in the NYT (sorry, I'm sure there's a paywall) for that umami hit that @heidih mentioned.

This may have been discussed but I couldn't find a dedicated thread. It seems that Fine Cooking will no longer be published. Too bad as it used to be one of the good ones but not surprising since Meredith pretty much killed it off when they booted the test kitchen staff and sold all the equipment back when they bought Fine Cooking from Taunton Press back in Sept or Oct 2020. Original content tapered off once they published what was in the queue and was largely replaced by recipes reprinted from other Meredith publications like Better Homes & Gardens, Eating Well, Food & Wine, etc. Existing FC subscribers will get Food & Wine instead. Not sure what happens if you are already a F&W subscriber. The online archive of FC recipes is still intact and accessible. Not sure if it will be merged into a fee-only Meredith site at some point like Bon Appetit/Epicurious is doing. Should that happen, one route to access past issues is through the Fine Cooking Community on Facebook. You may recall that when Taunton Press sold Fine Cooking to Meredith, the FC website fell through the cracks and disappeared. While it was gone, the Facebook group uploaded copies of all the back issues, first to the group files and eventually to a Google drive to maintain access. After a couple of months, the FC website was restored but the Facebook group has remained active. Instructions to access the Google drive are in the Facebook group FAQ.

From what I can tell, the site is allowing 3 recipe views before requiring a subscription. If there are a few recipes you want to grab, you can delete your browser's Bon Appetit and Epicurious cookies, use another browser or use another device. I don't expect everything to be free but $40/year is too much.

Tortilla is still the more common term around here. Depending on the store, I see an increasing amount of shelf space devoted to "wraps" of various flavors and colors and made from different types of flours with a significant number of "gluten-free" options. They are often made by tortilla companies but the wraps are often packaged in smaller packages at higher prices: Annals of Price Discrimination: A Wrap’s Just a Tortilla That Costs More

From what people share in online baking forums, including this one, it is more common to pull favorite component recipes from different sources than to find a single cake recipe with cake, filling, frosting, toppings and glazes that perfectly suit individual tastes. So go ahead and dig into all those reference books you’ve collected and assemble your masterpiece!

Thank the good lord!

You could order yams (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) from an on-line source.

So many windy days here, too. There was an article in the LA Times a week or so ago, Why it’s been so warm and windy in Southern California this winter, that said that there had been at least 20 Santa Ana wind events this season, with each lasting 2-3 days, equating to 40 - 60 days of wind. I believe we've had 2 additional events since the article. I find it unsettling, even in my house - can't imagine having days upon days of it in an RV!

I have Zoe's Ghana Kitchen and it does not have a recipe for Mbahal which is a Senegalese dish. The Mbahal recipe in last month's Bon Appétit does sound good, even if you question its authenticity!

This recipe for yakgwa looks kinda similar but doesn’t have pumpkin. This one has pumpkin seeds as a decoration. Another recipe here (scroll down) This blog post tells about the different types but no recipe.

My favorite is Max Halley's Sandwich Book. Runner up is A Super Upsetting Book About Sandwiches. In the grilled cheese category: The Great Grilled Cheese Book: Grown-Up Recipes for a Childhood Classic

I'm not familiar with Hotel Room Service cookbooks. Most hotels offer room service items off their restaurant menus and there are all sorts of hotel restaurants. What are your favorite Hotel Room Service cookbooks? That might also help us understand what you mean by "best"? Most complete? Easiest recipes? Most thoroughly illustrated with photographs?

Coconut curry shrimp and sugar snap peas over brown basmati rice I was in the mood 🙃 I had some coconut curry that I bought from ZEF BBQ so all I had to do was cook the rice and toss this together. Itch scratched!

Thanks a bunch for resurrecting this thread. Just read back through it - so many good ideas! Please consider snapping some “before” photos for the kitchen reno thread you’ll be sharing with us…..you will be sharing, right? Please and pretty please 🙃

I agree. I've cooked quite a bit from it and have more recipes on my list. And it’s a treat just to read!