blue_dolphin

I also checked Amazon and see that I've had my CSO and Instant Pot for almost exactly 2 years so they meet the cut off and would be my picks. For something more recent, I must say that I love love theiSi silicone bowl scraper that I bought last year. So handy for scraping bowls or as an extra bench scraper. I think @btbyrd recommended it in a thread about kitchen gift items. I use it, and the iSi slim spatulas every day.

I have a Fagor Duo that came with 4 qt and 8 qt pans. They are nice heavy saucepans that I use frequently and the glass lid for them also fits the Instant Pot, so I'm not getting rid of them even if I don't use them for pressure cooking. I used the 8 qt for stock once or twice after I got the IP but the need to fiddle with the gas to maintain proper heat isn't worth the extra volume of stock. I'll also mention here that I've chatted up the Instant Pot to a quite a number of friends. Those who already use pressure cookers understand the value of hands-off pressure cooking and are usually quick converts.

@Smithy, I agree with @Anna N about needing single leaves for that particular salad but you don't really need to core the sprouts first, even though that's what the recipe instruction implies. This is a quote from the recipe that appears online here. I just started with peeling off the leaves (which is fiddly enough), then sliced the center and discarded the rest. I reasoned that if I cored them first, I'd have nothing to hang on to while slicing them. Worked fine for my sprouts.

I enjoyed that taste of fall while we were dragging summer out with 90°F temps here. My favorite is always your appetizer selections - I could happily make them my dinner....along with some wine, of course! Thanks for welcoming us to come along when your hunter visits!

Funny you should mention this. I just put DRR back on the bookshelf after making the fried green tomatoes last night and caught sight of that pork chop with the pickled peanut salad on the back cover. I said to myself, "Self, you need to make something from that peanut chapter next!" In that photo, there's a smear of that citrus sweet potato butter - another yum!

Fried Green Tomatoes with Curried Peach Preserves and Whipped Feta p 458 I really liked this. I suspect there are those whose patience would be tried by a fried green tomato, marinated in buttermilk coated with a crunchy breading flavored with sesame seeds, ground coriander, smoked paprika and cayenne, served on a whipped mixture of feta cheese and buttermilk with curried peach preserves on the side. Not me! Left on my own, I probably would have been happy with the fried tomatoes alone but the addition of the salty, creamy whipped feta and the sweet-tart-spicy preserves makes this something special. The only thing I think I"d do differently would be to serve both the preserves and the whipped feta on the side or else just eat faster so the crispy breading on the tomatoes doesn't get soft. Edited to add that I talked about the curried peach preserves in another post but I wanted to give them another shout out. Highly recommended by me!

I'm with you. I suspect the mini would take care of much that I do with the IP, assuming I'd use my stovetop PC for stock and larger vol uses. The mini might have been my first pick if they were all available before I purchased but I'm not switching now.

I purée them with the sauce, freeze in small ice cube trays, pop them out and store in ziplocks in the freezer. You could also freeze directly in a flat layer in a ziplock and just break off what you need.

Wow, 3 tablespoons of maple syrup for one serving! Maple syrup is my favorite sweetener for cooked cereals but that amount makes my teeth hurt!

I haven't seen the pumpkin Pop Tarts yet but I saw (and resisted) a Trader Joe's version yesterday. I also noticed a whole "pumpkin spice" end cap display at Whole Foods. It's taking over the earth!

@rotuts, I'm not Kim, but that recipe is on p14 in the Nov 2015 Cooks Illustrated. I was able to pull it up via my library's online magazine reader, perhaps you can do the same?

@Anna N posted a link to it on the Amazon.ca site here. It is still showing up there but it's listed as not currently available on Amazon.com.

Yes, yours is more curved than any I have seen. Perhaps that means it has a much more specialized use than carving.

I can certainly see something like that being used to carve fruits and vegetables into fancy shapes. Very much like the bird's beak knife I linked to above.

Looks similar to a bird's beak or tourné paring knife. Edited to add this link to a listing on Amazon

I'm so glad the okra worked out OK! This made me laugh so loud! I absolutely love this book's convention of giving the pepper measurements in BOTH teaspoon measurements and grinder turns. For example, in the Okra Oven Fries recipe, it calls for 10 turns of the pepper mill or 1/4 t black pepper. First time I cooked from the book, I tested out my grinder and learned that it puts out about 2X the volume that Vivian uses. As @Anna N commented, I now know that and have used that method going forward! - no more trying to eyeball 1/2 a teaspoon! That said, both spoon and grinder turn measurements are given throughout so the user can certainly choose which to use or to be annoyed by!

If anyone's on the TJ's email list or has been in the stores in the last few days, you know that pumpkin everything has returned in full force, including my personal favorite, the pumpkin Danish Kringle ! Of more interest to me was the return of the frozen all-butter puff pastry dough (made in France) and their reasonably priced organic sweetened condensed milk.

I did them in the CSO on convection bake at the specified 400°F and they took the full 25 min that was specified in the recipe. In addition to turning the pan, I also flipped the pieces around to get more even browning. The 6 oz of okra that I cooked is absolutely the max to maintain some separation in that small oven pan so I would certainly recommend using a larger pan in a full size oven if you are doing any more than that. And I'd use convection if you have it as I think it helps to crisp them up. The spicy mayo sounds like a great dip for these guys. Edited to add that the one change I've made to most Deep Run Roots recipes is to start out with half of the specified amount of salt and that usually works out well for me. I generally do with with most cookbooks. On the other hand, someone in another group said Vivian's recipes were under seasoned with respect to salt and she routinely doubles the salt!

Ha ha! You know, I started out thinking I'd just do a cup or two. I was mostly curious what they'd be like - it seems like such a decadent thing to do, like peeling grapes. But it wasn't as tedious as I thought so I went ahead with the full quart. I had a lunch scheduled where I was supposed to bring some pre-lunch nibbles and I thought these might be fun to put on a platter with some veggies and dip. The lunch got cancelled at the last minute so now I have more of the little cuties to play with!

Two recipes here. The Fancy Sandwiches p 245 from the cucumber chapter and the Cherry Tomatoes in Basil Vinegar p 275. The sandwiches layer a radish spread (radishes, butter, cream cheese, mayo and radish greens) with cucumber slices that have been salted, drained and tossed with lemon juice. I modified them to open face on thin slices from a small loaf of multigrain bread instead of the original white bread triangles with crusts trimmed. If I find myself in possession of some white sandwich bread in the next little while, I'll give that a try but I kinda like this version. I added a few radish slices and minced radish greens for garnish. The Cherry Tomatoes in Basil Vinegar provided a nice contrast to the buttery little sandwiches. They are rather a labor of love because the recipe asks you to PEEL the cherry tomatoes, not something I normally do. The first step is to make the basil vinegar with lots of basil, rice vinegar, peppercorns and a little salt and sugar and let it sit for 3 days - 2 weeks. Mine went a little over a week. In the photo below, I was short on the rice vinegar by about half a cup, once I got a new bottle and added the rest, all the leaves were submerged but I wanted to get the photo while the leaves were still pretty and green. Next, the basil and peppercorns are strained out and the PEELED cherry tomatoes are added. I used 3 different varieties of cherry tomatoes - one red, one gold/orange and one with green & red skins (I think they were called Jellybean) that came out a darker red after peeling. The recipe says they should sit for at least 2 days and will improve for slightly for up to 2 weeks in the fridge. She advises against water bath-canning them because the heat will damage the texture. They are quite nice and I look forward to playing around with them. A little of that basil vinegar and some olive oil should make a nice vinaigrette, Vivian suggests using them as part of a pickle plate and I'm afraid I'd want to put a little sigh on them that said, "Look here - I PEELED all of these dang little tomatoes for you!"

'Caesar' Brussels Sprouts from Josef Centeno's cookbook, Bäco. The recipe is available online here. I have plenty of the dressing, pickled red onions and caraway breadcrumbs leftover so I'll be happy to make this again soon.

Another thumbs up for the Dijon - both the regular smooth mustard and the whole grain versions.

Three things I am liking from TJ's these days...plus a few more I often keep on hand. No photo, but the spotlight cheese is a very nice Fourme D'Ambert at $8.99/lb. It's a rich, buttery French blue, described here on The Kitchn. Murray's Cheese sells a Fourme D'Ambert for $22.99/lb. I've been enjoying this one a lot. Lovely on some crusty bread with a glass of port. They've been getting this Brut North Coast Sparkling Wine in the fall, through the holidays for a few years and it was back at my TJ''s at the same $9.99 price as last year. I think it tastes like a much pricier bottle, but it's inexpensive enough that it's easy to use in cocktails or to top off a splash of a shrub. They usually have a Brut Rosé that I like as well but I haven't seen that one yet this year. On the non-luxury side of things, I'm liking the Kohlrabi Salad Blend, a mix of shredded kohlrabi, red cabbage, kale, golden beets that I've been turning into a quick slaw. Here's some of it in a slaw, sharing a plate with a few other TJ friends. I dressed this particular slaw with a little TJ's Sriracha Ranch dressing, thinned with juice from the TJ's bread & butter pickles, both of which I generally keep on hand. Clockwise from the slaw are TJ's Organic Baked Beans (nothing extraordinary but fine for beans from a can), TJ's ridge cut potato chips with sea salt, a pulled pork sandwich dressed with TJ's barbecue sauce on a TJ's par baked ciabatta roll and some of the bread & butter pickles on the side.

That Bäco Bread looks really good, @Anna N! I bet they will reheat from frozen very well on steam-bake in the CSO, though they may not be as wonderful as freshly made. I'll be interested in hearing how the frozen dough balls fare. Since that recipe makes 10 breads, it would be nice to freeze either the dough or the finished breads.

I'm so glad to hear that you got a good result from your first CSO chicken dinner! You won't mess up the cooking program by opening the door. Like @JoNorvelleWalker said, just pause a few seconds for the steam to escape before reaching in. It will cool off a little and take a bit to get back to temp so if you are in and out a lot to check temps, you may need to increase the overall cooking time to compensate. I generally get nice results with chicken thighs with steam-bake at 425°F for 20 - 30 min, depending on size. Those big leg quarters might take longer so I don't think you were too far off in your choice of cooking time.