blue_dolphin

I just finished watching. I thought that dividing them up for that first quickfire challenge was a good move as one only needed to focus on 8 at a time, which is about my limit in terms of keeping people straight. I was really worrying about Jim - he got a good bit of early camera time, which foreshadows elimination almost more often than it does a win! I was also rooting for his chicken liver dish as I just recently made a fried chicken liver with balsamic marinated fig dish from Deep Run Roots and I loved the idea of his combination of flavors as well. I'm glad he went ahead with that dish vs the others he planned and that he didn't get eliminated so we can watch at least a little more Jim. I totally agree. A pressure cooker would make nice stone ground grits fairly quickly but even that wouldn't allow enough time to do anything very creative with them.

It would be even more magical if it were to happen at my house ! A number of years ago (more than 10), I made a New Year's resolution to bake all my bread and not purchase any. I kept the resolution and baked a couple of loaves, on average, every week. It was usually edible, rarely what I had in mind, but I stuck with my resolution. On the following New Year's eve, I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to buying bread. Aaah! Perhaps less rewarding but ever so nice to get ciabatta when I want ciabatta and whole wheat sandwich bread and sourdough....etc. I follow this thread and am envious of the loaves I see here. I occasionally buy a packet of yeast but then discard it after a few years. I haven't baked a loaf of bread since so pulling a homemade loaf from my oven would be magical indeed!

Not sure what I love more - Chum having her own observation chair , the guys documenting her use of it with photos or you for sharing it with us !

For the polenta balls, I used 425F for both steam bake and convection. For the risotto balls, I used 375F, and just convection. I may try using steam bake with the frozen ones as it seems to speed things up.

I also have relatively little experience in selecting or cooking meat and most often cook meatless meals but I am branching out. I'd be interested to hear which meat cookbooks you have short-listed. I think a broad "meat" cookbook could be as overwhelming as the general reference type books and for starters, I might recommend choosing a technique-centric approach (grilling, sous vide, roasts, braising or stews) that could be applied to a range of animal proteins. As far as videos, the ChefSteps recipes and classes are very good. There's a premium fee for full access but there is a lot of free content as well. A general cookbook to consider, that includes a good bit of how and why info is Kenji Lopez-Alt's Food Lab. It's not strictly meat but it doesn't have the Joy of Cooking problem of many, many recipes for almost the same thing, he generally hones in on one or two methods that he deems "best."

I wasn't sure where to put this but it's savory and baked so I'm going with this thread for these baked risotto balls and polenta balls. I wanted to try making some little appetizer items that I could make ahead, freeze and reheat as needed over the holidays rather than resorting to similar overpriced items from Trader Joe's so I played around with risotto and polenta appetizer balls. The risotto was leftover lemon, artichoke and shrimp risotto and I cooked up a fresh batch of polenta for the purpose. First, the risotto balls. I scooped out balls of leftover risotto, dipped them in flour, then egg, then panko. I sprayed them with a bit of olive oil and baked them. This risotto was pretty flavorful so I just went with plain balls rather than trying to make cheese-stuffed, molten-center arancini. I thought they were very good - crispy exterior and creamy risotto inside. I'm not a huge fan of leftover risotto as I think the texture suffers from reheating but these are a fine reason to have leftover risotto. Next are the polenta balls. The polenta had a little grated parmesan mixed in at the end but no other flavorings. I made plain (on the top row), stuffed with sharp cheddar (black pepper) or blue cheese (black sesame seeds) and with a bit olive tapenade stirred in (bottom row). They all got a spray of olive oil before going into the oven. The cheddar cheese pretty much melted away but you can still see the blue cheese inside: Flavor-wise, cheddar went better with crispy browned exterior than the blue cheese did. These were cooked on convection for 20 min, turned and baked 15 min more. Here are the olive tapenade and plain balls. Here, I cooked them on steam bake for the first 20 min, flipped them over and used convection for 15 min. Still a nice crisp exterior but the interior is much moister and creamier. The tapenade version is my favorite, I wouldn't bother with stuffing them with the little cheese cubes. The stuffing process compacts the polenta and smooths the surface while the unstuffed ones have a shaggy outer crust and looser interior. I par-baked and froze some of each of these as I'd like something I can heat up quickly. I'll continue with my research when cocktail hour comes around

I hope you enjoy it. I thought it was a good piece. It's longer than the average book flogging circuit interview and touched on some topics I hadn't heard her talk about before. The interviewer had clearly read the book and was familiar with "A Chef's Life" and Vivian's background.

That is quite a hunk of liver. Pâté????

That looks really good, @HungryChris! I never would have thought to add tajín to that combination of ingredients but I bet it works like a bit of pickled pepper would. An exceedingly lazy breakfast here. Trader Joe's frozen pumpkin waffle, homemade Instant Pot ricotta (mmmmm!), maple syrup and walnuts:

There was a nice interview with Vivian Howard, about the book on Heritage Radio's The Food Seen podcast earlier this week. You can listen here. I laughed out loud when she described one of the farmers she works with as a "former tobacco farmer, turned medicinal herb farmer" because that's exactly the way he came across to me on the show .

Good morning to you, Shelby! I'm looking forward to following along. Will the hunters be going out today, as soon as your guest arrives?

It's this one: Lemon, artichoke and shrimp risotto The only thing that has vexed me about that recipe is that the quantities in the list of ingredients are for the stovetop version while slightly different amounts are called for in the text of the pressure cooker version. Minor quibble. I used frozen artichoke hearts instead of canned but otherwise followed the recipe.

I followed the recipe: 6 min, high pressure with quick release. After I added the artichokes, shrimp and lemon zest, I put it on sauté for a minute or 2 as I added the cheese.

@ElsieD, thanks for the risotto reminder. Lemon, artichoke and shrimp risotto in the IP: And for the starch-on-starch police, there was a slice of ciabatta, lightly crisped to add a bit of crunch.

I would certainly recommend a starter set of bitters, like the travel set you mentioned. A number of bitters are available on Amazon, like this basic set of Angostura, Peychauds and Regans Orange bitters, Scrappy's classic or exotic samplers. The little 1/4 cup Oxo angled measuring cup can stand in for a lot of jiggers. I have several of these. A small mesh strainer is handy for double straining even if your mixing glass or shaker set includes a Hawthorne strainer. A citrus zester/channel knife for citrus peel garnishes is nice (I don't have that particular one so others may have more specific recommendations) A jar of Luxardo cherries could be a nice treat to add. Depending on your friend's existing glassware collection, a couple of rocks glass and/or smaller stemmed cocktail glasses might be a nice addition - so many contemporary "martini" glasses are bathtub sized so I often find good smaller examples at thrift stores but they are also available in shops. Oooops! I just realized that you asked for supplies not on normal lists and everything I mentioned would be very normal - sorry!

No. At my house, it's OK to have breakfast anytime, just like down at the diner. Also OK to have more than one breakfast

I almost bought the Ruhlman spoon set but choked on the $18 shipping.

Mmmmmm. IP risotto is so good. I need to make some soon.

Bastardized Butternut Bottoms! Oh my!

Dave Arnold's Liquid Intelligence has geek written all over it! Jeffrey Morgenthaler's The Bar Book spends quite a bit of time on juices, syrups, infusions, etc.

I don't have any expert answers to your query, @helenjp, but it inspired me to pick up a few bottles of Beaujolais to 'study' . My wine book (Karen MacNeil's Wine Bible) tells me that while many prefer to drink them as soon as they are released, Beaujolais Cru wines can be kept for 5 yrs or more and Morgon is one of the crus with the most aging potential so while a 2010 Morgon is getting on, it's not unreasonable to think it could still be drinkable and even enjoyable. The book also says that much modern, commercial Beaujolais stretches vines for max yields, adds sugar to compensate for underripe grapes and filters "severely" so it will be completely stable. In comparison, old-style Beaujolais is produced using low-yield grapes, no additional sugar and filtered "lightly if at all," so it would seem that an unfiltered Beaujolais Cru could be a traditional product. My local wine megamart had a dozen or so Beaujolais Cru wines. None specified "unfiltered" on their labels. I picked up 2 Morgons, 2012 and 2014, and a Fleurie, 2013. I'm curious to taste them. Back to the filtering question. There are those that believe filtering can strip wines of flavor and body, although this article says that the limited studies performed show no conclusive evidence either way with respect to taste. I have had unfiltered wines and they were fine. I don't specifically seek them out but I've tasted them during winery visits. Here's an unfiltered white from Booker in Paso Robles, CA: Not sure this photo adds much to the discussion but does show the cloudiness of an unfiltered wine. I took the photo during a visit to the winery in 2011 when I purchased a bottle of this wine and an unfiltered rosé. I've had later releases from the winery that were filtered so it's possible the wine maker was just playing around, although it seems like unfiltered or lightly filtered Beaujolais Cru wines could be a real artisanal product.

Squash soup du yesterjour. Today's toast, with brie and pickled cranberries, got a quick run under the broiler - just enough to make the cheese all melty.

I see your point, though it's never bothered me. Over on Serious Eats, Kenji gives the nod to the Breville model that displays the info you want, along with additional info. With my nearsighted eyes, I'd need to get closer to read the display than to see the IP sensor has dropped . And it's more than twice the price but if it's important to you, it may be the way to go.

I was reminded of @chromedome's mention of molasses storage tanks when I read this story in the NYT: Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly ‘Tsunami of Molasses’ of 1919 , about recent student research to understand why the incident was so deadly. Not particularly related to cooking but certainly on-topic for a molasses thread !

Almost instant roasted squash soup from fridge contents: leftover roasted butternut squash, roasted onions with sage, a small clove of confit garlic, a bit of roasted red pepper from a jar. Not shown are the last of a bag of frozen chicken stock, a little water and a squirt of sriracha. Served with a dollop of sour cream. Should have thought to thaw out one of those little loaves of roasted onion and sage quick bread. Only so much thinking I can do before breakfast and the toast was nice!