blue_dolphin

Well, I didn't get around to it yesterday but....ta-da... I did it today! Frozen hash browns, country ham biscuit slices, poached eggs and Hollandaise, topped with herb salt. What a delicious feast! I reserve resolution-making until Chinese New Year 🙃

Over the last 3 years, I've been getting coffee via a subscription to YES PLZ, a small roaster in the LA area and enjoying it. They roast a different blend each week and have added a batch of decaf once or twice a month. You can choose 8.8 oz or 12 oz packets and can get shipments weekly, every other week, every 3 weeks or every 4 weeks. Their online tool makes it easy to skip a shipment or make other changes. They used to ship a little newsletter with info on the beans, other articles and a playlist. Now, you get a link to the newsletter instead of a hard copy. There's no option to enter any preferences, nor can you get more of a blend you loved so this is not for someone who wants to dial in their own ideal coffee and enjoy that same perfection in each and every cup. I've enjoyed the variety of trying something different every couple of weeks and I appreciate the ~ half pound size for my one AeroPress/day. Roasts tend to be on the medium - light side. The very first blend I received tasted shockingly bright, fruity and acidic to me but that's the only one I haven't liked. And even that one was rather nice after I added some darker roast beans to the mix. I was roasting with an air popper but the need to keep my eyeballs (and by default, my ears) so close to the noisy thing got too annoying, even with my noise-cancelling headphones. In the long run, it would be more economical to cancel the subscription and save up for a better grinder. Maybe someday. My YES PLZ subscription is currently on pause because I received some gift beans over the holidays but I plan to start it back up soon.

Very nice! Always thought it seemed perfect for cooking but curious how it would handle solutions much more viscous than water. Always annoying to step away and come back to find the stir bar quivering over in the corner of the carboy instead of stirring briskly! What size stir bars did you get? Please keep us posted on how it works out.

My plan was to make Jessica's "Trashy Benedict" that @Kim Shook shared in this post. I went to TJ's for some frozen hash browns. I had some country ham biscuit slices in the freezer but my attempts at Hollandaise for one haven't been stellar so I opted for a lazy way out and plopped a poached egg atop a wedge of TJ's Tarte d'Alsace. Then I ate another wedge without the egg!

I may be completely off-base but I thought @JoNorvelleWalker was suggesting washing greens in a bowl rather than the sink. For salads, I use the bowl from the salad spinner. For larger amounts, I might use a stock-pot or a larger tub. I do this because it often takes less water than filling up the whole sink and it's easier for me to dump the water on outdoor plants.

Are there any moisture-containing ingredients like tomatoes, onions, etc.? If so, it should be fine. You do need some sort of liquid to create the steam that will generate pressure. Here's a recipe that uses no added water at all but there's enough moisture in the ingredients to make it work. Colombian Chicken Stew With Potatoes, Tomato, and Onion Recipe by Kenji Lopez-Alt on Serious Eats. Even if all the other ingredients are bone dry, you may ruin the meal, but the Instant Pot should sense that it's overheating and you'll get a "burn" error on the display before it's destroyed. I generally find recipes by the author of your book to be OK so I kind of doubt that will happen.

Generally, yes. Some for a month, some just a day or two. A few are more long-term. Here are a few options: You may have noticed that @Toliver often said that he found the deals via a BookBub email. This is not something I've done, but you can sign up here if you are interested. Edited to add that I noticed that you can also search for deals directly on the BookBub website. This link should take you to their Cookbook listings. Could be an option if you don't want more emails ! Eat Your Books maintains lists of e-book deals for multiple countries and updates them fairly regularly. Note the links to "Long Term Deals." Some of the EYB listings may be sale prices but not rock-bottom "crazy" ones. You can search directly on Amazon. One way is to choose Kindle Books -> Kindle Book Deals -> choose "Cookbooks, Food & Wine" to limit the search. You may need to scroll down to find that last choice. Amazon generally has a new batch of Kindle book deals each month. In addition, there may be daily deals or other promotions from time to time.

I'm not sure what bun trays or bun cases are. I do have what, in the US, are commonly called muffin tins or cupcake tins. I have re-usable aluminum types like this(eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and disposable aluminum types like this (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). I have used both types with and without disposable paper liners like this.(eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Any chance that’s what you’re asking about?

I never met @Toliver but I've greatly enjoyed his contributions to eGullet. He shared all sorts of information from safety recalls to the latest news on snack foods, candy, Oreos and other treats and, of course, those crazy e-book bargains. After watching the lovely remembrance video from his co-workers that was shared by @gfweb, I sighed and took some quiet time. On my next visit to eG, I clicked over to the Tater Tots topic where the first post that popped up for me was this one from @Toliver: Ooof - kinda like a punch in the gut to see his name and avatar pop up like that but also such a sweet and funny post that it made me smile, too. He will be missed.

I will never again re-use a heavy cream bottle for something else without also re-labeling it. I have no recollection of doing this but can't argue with the reality. Made an interesting plate of pasta with mushrooms and pancetta and finished the sauce with Amontillado sherry and then a generous splash of eggnog instead of heavy cream. Ooops! The thinner consistency and yellow-ish color tipped me off and a sniff confirmed the situation. It was Jeffery Morganthaller's excellent eggnog recipe with the same sherry and añejo tequila. Not terribly sweet but not exactly what I intended 🙃

Both types of recipes are included but it’s not a book I’d recommend to someone who's focusing on classic Viet cooking. This link should take you to a list of the recipes with ingredients on Eat Your Books.

Indeed. I have a chunk of Vella Golden Bear dry jack that's acquired the properties of glass. @andiesenji recommended steaming to soften hard cheeses and I need to give that method a try.

Yep. The Mouli-Julienne is what I use also. Takes a little bit of elbow grease, though maybe that's because I've been using mine for over 40 years....and the actual elbows for even longer! I have a couple of microplanes (this (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) or this (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)) or use a veg peeler for shavings and curls.

I'm sure you are correct. The Kindle preview was loading quite slowly so it’s likely I only thought it was complete. I’ll try again. Edited to add that as @Anna N pointed out, the Kindle preview does indeed include the bacon recipe. I was just not patient enough to wait for it to finish loading. The hardcover preview does not have the recipe.

My Red Boat book arrived today. I wasn't sure what to expect - a fancy promotional brochure or an actual cookbook? There's certainly a good bit of company/family pride going on but it's a real book. I'm not thrilled about the combo of colored pages that have a bit of a sheen and a rather fine font used for some of the text. Shouldn't be a problem in kitchen light but it wasn't so easy to read over on the sofa. There's a sample of the introduction available via Amazon's Look Inside feature here: The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook: Beloved Recipes from the Family Behind the Purest Fish Sauce (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). You can choose to preview the hardcover version and see the page colors or the Kindle version which is blessedly free of colored backgrounds and multiple fonts. No recipes in either preview though.

Welcome to eG, @fabritius! I'm not a wine expert nor have I made this particular soup but I think I'd enjoy the nutty taste of a nice Amontillado sherry with it. I like your riesling idea as well. My "when in doubt" wine is a Grüner Veltliner but I think it would just taste sour next to that soup.

Thanks for those tips! I had a couple of rolls that didn't fit into my pan and considered trying to freeze them in single-serving portions. I ended up tossing them out but I'll keep your technique in mind for next time.

With a nudge from @Smithy's Princessmobile Cinnamon Buns, I decided to try the Sausage-Stuffed Honey Buns from Deep Run Roots p 376. These are a nice sweet treat, especially warm from the oven, but a little bit of a production. Aside from the sticky dough challenge I've encountered with all of Vivian's yeast-powered recipes, nothing was particularly difficult but I seemed to end up with a lot of dirty dishes Basically, you make a honey-sweetened yeasted dough, roll it out into a rectangle, top with a filling of cooked sausage, honey, brown sugar and butter, roll and slice. The slices are arranged in a cake pan containing a honey glaze flavored with orange juice and zest and thyme. After baking, the pan gets inverted so there's a sticky honey glaze on the top. I reduced the sweetening by about half and find them plenty sweet. I really can't imagine them made with the full amount. The glaze alone calls for 2 cups of honey - that's about a pound and a half! The full recipe makes 20 buns. Vivian says to use 2 round cake pans but does not say what size. I found a version of the recipe online where they reduced the amount of glaze by half and put all the buns into a 12-inch cast iron skillet. There's also a comment there that says the sausage filling was too sweet. I set out to make a half recipe, 10 buns. I used half the recommended amount of glaze and for the filling, I used the recipe indicated amount of sausage but reduced all the other ingredients by half so instead of a honey-butter spread, I have coated sausage crumbles but I thought it came out fine. On the dough, I can only say that Vivian's baker is either a wizard with sticky doughs or scoops up 150g cups of flour. The recipe gives cups, I always measure 125g/cup if no weights are given and with her recipes, I always need more flour. Sometimes a lot more. I reduced the honey a little in the dough and I forgot to add the tablespoon of sugar. Here we have the dough topped with the sausage filling. This would be much more of a buttery spread if I'd used the full amount. Rolled and sliced. It was a pretty squishy roll. Here, the rolls are in the pan with the glaze on the bottom, have proofed for half an hour and are ready for the oven: They get baked, covered with foil, for 30 min, then an additional 15 min uncovered. Out of the oven: Inverted on to a plate. Sorry for the unsightly reflections. This recipe doesn't include any modifications for letting the dough sit overnight for morning baking. I'm going to try wrapping up the roll of dough and refrigerating it overnight. In the AM, I'll slice, arrange the slices in the pan with the glaze, cover and proof. It will probably take at least 90 min - 2 hrs instead of the 30 min when starting with warm dough but still do-able for a late breakfast or brunch.

I always figured cooking was like biochemistry and baking/candy was more like physics 🙃

Dishoom toasts whole spices for their garam masala at 50 C or th slowest gas setting for 2.5 hours. Limited setting options here so I used 125 F. Then poppy seeds and rose petals are added to the pan, oven is switched off and the mixture sits in the oven to cool for 30 min before grinding. Seems on the low & slow side of things but I did it and was happy with the results.

I like to fold or hang each item as I take it out of the dryer while I marvel that I have my very own washer and dryer and don't need to go to a laundromat or a shared apartment laundry room so I'm not averse to the task and can't speak for @kayb, but people who have large families and especially with small kids, the sheer volume of laundry can get pretty overwhelming and I'd imagine it could leave a negativity that would persist even after those little ones are launched and on their own. Growing up, our neighbors had 8 kids. It was the job of the youngest to do the laundry on Saturday. They dumped all the clean laundry in the living room and each kid was expected to collect and fold their own items from the massive pile. It was a sight to behold but surely would have put me off!

This is the current state of my "recently purchased" cookbook shelf: Some are new releases, others older editions but new to me. I like to keep them here until I've gotten to know them fairly well either through cooking or lots of reading. The book between Black Food and Zoe's Ghana Kitchen is Mumbai Modern. A 2022 resolution is to limit new purchases until I've cleared this shelf and these books are all filed by subject. I reserve the right to make exceptions 🙃

And don't forget volume 2 of that set: The use of full color, step-by-step photos on almost every page of these books was a truly lavish choice at a time (vol 1 came out in 1987) when color illustrations were often still limited to a few sections and demonstrates his commitment to teaching. This set is a treat!

I like that one, too. If I remember correctly, this book also contains his recommendation to use the NYT Sunday Style section as a clean and hygienic surface for draining bacon as one can be assured no one has ever touched it.

I plan to treat myself to a copy, too. Nice interview with co-author and chef Diep Tran on Evan Kleiman's Good Food: Fish sauce: One man’s equivalent to a midlife crisis Maserati