blue_dolphin

I put them in the fridge for an hour or two before slicing as the recipe suggested. They were firm enough to need a sharp knife but not gooey or messy to slice. I trimmed off the very outer edges because I thought they looked dry but they are actually just pleasantly chewy. If I'd measured and marked, I could have done a better job but here they are in their box, ready to go to the library:

These are Chocolate-Espresso Revel Bars from Shauna Sever's Midwest Made Chocolate Revel Bars are apparently something of a classic Better Homes & Gardens recipe though I had never heard of them. Basically 2/3 of an oatmeal cookie-type dough is pressed into a 9 x 13" pan, topped with a chocolate layer of melted semi-sweet chips + sweetened condensed milk (which must be cloyingly sweet) followed by the rest of the dough to partly cover the chocolate. This version adds some chocolate chips to the bottom dough, uses a bittersweet chocolate ganache for the chocolate layer and adds espresso powder to both the dough and ganache. I had no chocolate chips so I chopped up a bar of the Valrhona 85% cacao dark bitter chocolate that I also used for the ganache. I gotta get these out of the house and soon!

Marie Callender's is still around. They charge an 80 cent deposit on each pie pan and you get it back when you return the empty tin.

Those treats do look alike but they also look very appealing! I agree bars are an excellent choice both for ease of prep and ease of transport. I used to make them often for meeting snacks. You did not ask for suggestions and surely don't need any but I'm going to pass along an easy bar cookie with a different, non-brownie/blondie look. It's from an '80s era book, The Joy of Cookies by Sharon Tyler Herbst that I relied on quite often. The recipe is for Orange Marmalade Cream Cheese Bars and I found it online here. They do require 2 bakes - one for the crust and a second for the cream cheese topping - and should go into the fridge a while before slicing to firm up that topping but are otherwise quite easy. You can use other nuts instead of pecans and other preserves in place of the orange marmalade though the book cautions against using inexpensive brands that "deliver little flavor, little fruit and too much sweetness."

I noticed big "Two Buck Chuck is Back" signs at my TJ's recently. I don't buy it. I don't find it vile as others do, it's just uninteresting and I was thinking that it must have been out of stock. Thanks for explaining that it's the "Two Buck" part that's back!

Not @ElsieD, but I did a little test run with her idea. With my first batch, I followed the recipe that @FauxPas linked to: https://www.spendwithpennies.com/jalapeno-poppers/ except that I used some red chili pepper brie instead of the cream cheese/cheddar mix specified. In that recipe the panko gets mixed with some melted butter but not pre-browned. They did nicely brown up in the oven: For that reason, I thought that pre-browned crumbs might get too dark in the oven so when I tried using the bacon grease, I made one as above and browned the crumbs for the other one. Both were fine. Sorry, I forgot to take an "after" photo. I pulled out the one with the pre-browned crumbs after 15 minutes and let the other one go for closer to 20 min. The pre-toasted crumbs were a bit more uniformly crunchy but not a big difference. WRT to the bacon grease, it added a little flavor, but with the red chili cheese and jalapeños, it wasn't striking. Either way, this was certainly an easy to make some quick snacks. I'll try this next!

I'm not sure if this stuff is in the same category, but I use the More Than Gourmet products Glace De Poulet Gold (Roasted Chicken Stock) and Glace De Viande Gold (Reduced Brown Stock) which have been recommended in various eG threads over the years. Since they are 20X concentrates, you can either dilute fully for a stock or less so (or even use directly) when making sauces. I usually make my own chicken stock starting with uncooked chicken so it's pretty neutral and unsalted. If a recipe warrants a roasted stock, then I add some of the roasted chicken flavor. I rarely have homemade beef stock on hand so I'll use some of my homemade chicken stock and some of the brown stock. They make a mushroom flavor that I'd like to try.

I put my Paragon by the window in hopes of illustrating this. Without the mat, the surface is perfectly smooth: The mat is flexible and hopefully, you can see that the sensor in the middle does actually sit just slightly proud of the surface when there is no pan to press it down: My 1 qt All Clad saucier, which has a fairly heavy handle can be a little tippy on this surface when empty. As I've used it more, this seems to be less of an issue. Maybe the mat has gotten less stiff than when brand new? I dunno. Edited to add: @CanadianHomeChef, thanks for all your contributions to this thread and the table of temps you linked to in the first post. I can't afford a Control Freak but am just delving into this topic for tips I can use with my bargain Paragon and appreciate your input!

Generally, I'll use the sauté function to continue cooking at normal pressure. Rarely. I might if the food seemed seriously underdone. If it's close to done, then I'm afraid of overcooking. I do not. With beans or anything that can foam up, I never use quick pressure release.

Slow scrambled eggs with grilled, bacon-wrapped jalapeños Set the Paragon @ 180°F/82°C still not a super slow scramble but much closer than yesterday's 95°C setting. I found the recipe for the jalapeños here, following a recommendation from @FauxPas. I stuffed them with red chili pepper brie instead of the cream cheese/cheddar mix specified and grilled them on the Phillips indoor grill.

On the road in the Princessmobile, @Smithy's been trying her hand at some bacon-wrapped, grilled jalapeño poppers. In that same discussion, @FauxPas shared this link for a baked version and I gave it a try, using Trader Joe's Red Chili Brie instead of the cheese mixture in the recipe. The buttered panko topping nicely simulates a breaded and fried version. Nice little happy hour treat. I'll try the bacon-wrapped, grilled version next.

I just stopped by TJ's to pick up a bottle of inexpensive port to use in this Serious Eats short ribs recipe. Look what else jumped into my cart: Could this thread have had anything to do with it???? That red chili pepper brie is the "Spotlight" cheese at my local TJ's. It sounded so wrong that I had to try it and it's actually not bad. I'm not sure I'd call it brie but it's nice and creamy and I think it will be a good cheese to stuff into those jalapeños. I think I'll try the panko-topped, baked version but clearly, I'm prepared for the bacon-wrapped, grilled version as well 🙃

Yes, I was going to suggest pinging Dave Arnold, who was involved in that HarvardX class. Obviously, he's not at Harvard but he was involved in that and might have some connections to suggest. Seems to be pretty responsive via Twitter. Here's a link that includes the lecturers and schedule from one of the iterations of the course.

(Not so) Slow Scrambled Eggs with Bottarga I planned to try this Zuni Café recipe with the Paragon. Based on an online Control Freak mention, I chose 95°C which was a bit too hot for a truly slow scramble but they were still nice and moist. The yolks are quite orange so the bottarga kind of blends in visually but the flavor is still there.

Cassoulet is what I'm planning on using them for, too. I need to get some duck legs and confit them.

I mentioned above that I received a gift certificate to a local gourmet foods shop. I visited the shop with some friends the other day and since this holiday thread has popped up, I'll share my selections: I think most items are recognizable. The little jar on top of the tomato can is piment d'espelette and the item at lower right is mullet bottarga

Thanks for sharing all the great photos of your trip. I've been enjoying them with great envy! Do they sell suitcases at Eataly World? Seems like it would be a good business. If I'd seen your pictorial on that Lurisia Chinotto, I would have purchased the bottle I was eyeing at an import shop the other day. Next time!

I agree on cooking them separately. Personally, I'd soak both of these beans, cook them in separate pots in a low oven (after bringing them to a boil on the stovetop). Test and you can remove them as they are done. If you've been following along in the RG bean club Facebook page, you'll know that a lot of people have been reporting longer than expected cook times with the cabelleros.

It sounds like an interesting. I'll be curious to see how it develops.

Quiche du jour Spinach, onion, red bell pepper and some finely diced country ham. Cheeses were TJ's baby Swiss, Unexpected Cheddar and a bit of the Jasper Hill cave aged stuff. The crust is between you, me and the doughboy. Edited to add that I failed to take a photo of my slice but here's what the inside looks like:

I’m sure you’re all heated up by now so no help here. I'd reheat at 325-350F, stir and taste at 10 min intervals, then add the cheese for the last few minutes, switching to broil if you want it browned.

That's my stunt double (aka back-up) CSO 🙃

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are the N 25 and N 20 paella pans in the CSO Here's another picture of the N 20 with a half-head of cauliflower that I posted a while back

That looks delicious! What's the bread component? Looks a little bigger than most of the English muffins I get at the store.

How disappointing! I see on the Edwards website that they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee if you call within 14 days of receiving the order. Do you still have time for that? My own experience with country ham is pretty limited to the biscuit slices I ordered from Broadbent. Compared with a city ham, it is indeed drier, chewier and salty, though I have not found it to be tasteless. To me, it's kinda like a super-lean, no-fat bacon and should be very flavorful and not tasteless. I hope you can get a refund or maybe have them send you some bacon instead. I generally soak the slices in cold water for a little while to temper the salt before blotting them dry and putting them into a hot skillet with bacon drippings for just long enough to give them a bit of color. I've used them that way on various breakfast sandwiches. Here's one on focaccia where you can see that these are fairly thick slices I'm getting. Alternatively, I've used them as @Smithy describes, dicing the meat and including it in scrambled eggs. Here's one I posted earlier this month: If the ham you have is truly tasteless, this isn't going to help, but my first impulse on reading your post was to recommend that you cut it up into smaller pieces, stash them in the freezer and pull them out to use it as "seasoning meat" where you'd use a smoked hock in beans, collards or the like.