blue_dolphin

I saw that the other day and was wondering about it. Yes to your sandwich idea! I'd say smear a thin layer on some nice crusty bread (maybe toasted lightly first), top with some parmesan or romano cheese and give it a run under the broiler for a nice onion toastie! I bet a smear would be good on sandwiches, like a grilled cheese or roast pork or beef....

I spied this new-to-me Baked Lemon Ricotta Cheese on a recent TJ's visit. A while back, I made some homemade baked lemon ricotta cheese and was curious to compare the results so I picked some up. My homemade stuff was just flavored with lemon zest so it was fairly savory and paired well with crusty bread and salty olives. This stuff on the other hand, is really quite sweet, almost like a cheesecake. In fact, I also made a lemon ricotta cheesecake but this is even sweeter. I can see it on breakfast waffles with fresh fruit or maybe on some extra spicy gingerbread. The blurb about it in the TJ's flyer suggests stirring it into pasta to make a creamy lemon sauce. I really can't imagine pasta with cheesecake sauce . I'm debating between trying it because it sounds so weird or taking it back now while there's only a little sliver missing.

I haven't met a duck confit sandwich I didn't like....duck confit grilled cheese with brie, gruyere and caramelized onions...mmmmm. Or duck confit quesadillas with the same ingredients plus maybe some arugula or spinach. Duck confit banh mi.

Since you mentioned the price, I will add that the prices quoted for the bottles I'm most familiar with struck be as being on the high side. I'm curious what others think. I compared them with my local Total Wine store and to Hi-Time, where I place the occasional order. Below is the top 10 listing from that NYT article. The first price is the one quoted in the article, followed by the prices at my local Total Wine (TW) and on Hi-Time's (HT) website as of today. Some of the Hi-Times prices were marked as "sale" prices. ★★★ KNOB CREEK STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY 100 PROOF, $38 TW = $30.49 HT = $26.99 ★★★ JIM BEAM PRE-PROHIBITION STYLE RYE 90 PROOF, $30 TW = $16.99 HT = $15.99 ★★★ WOODFORD RESERVE DISTILLER’S SELECT RYE 90.4 PROOF, $45 TW = $35.49 HT = $26.99 ★★★ NEW YORK DISTILLING COMPANY RAGTIME RYE 90.4 PROOF, $45 TW = N/A HT = N/A ★★½ MICHTER’S U.S. 1 STRAIGHT RYE 84.8 PROOF, $44 TW = $39.99 HT = $36.99 ★★½ BULLEIT 95 RYE FRONTIER WHISKEY 90 PROOF, $44 TW = $19.49 HT = $21.99 ★★½ FEW RYE WHISKEY 93 PROOF, $60 TW = N/A HT = $59.99 ★★½ (RI)1 STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY 92 PROOF, $32 TW = $49.99 HT = $47.99 ★★ CATOCTIN CREEK ROUNDSTONE RYE SINGLE BARREL 80 PROOF, $45 TW - N/A HT = $45.99 ★★ RITTENHOUSE STRAIGHT RYE 100 PROOF, $25 TW = $24.99 HT = $21.99 The (rī)1 was the outlier, being significantly more expensive at my local outlets. Edited to add that the star ratings are from the NYT article

I didn't even think to look it up - I thought it was @sartoric's own made-up word, and a very good one!

I watched The Mind of a Chef Potluck Music Special last night and enjoyed it. I can't determine if this will be aired as part of the series or not but it's available on Youtube. The footage of Iñaki Aizpitarte (WSJ link: Iñaki Aizpitarte: The Chef Behind Le Chateaubriand) skateboarding through the streets with his young son made me smile.

Excellent! I'd very much like to invite you to the Hollywood Bowl next season - we can discuss your musical preferences so as to choose the best fit!

It was @FrogPrincesse. I followed the link that she posted to the course info and they do offer gift certificates, so that may work well for you. Edited to add - and she beat me to it!

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.