blue_dolphin

That Microplane version looks nice - seems like it would work on a normal size carrot, unlike the Paderno I have that requires a horse-sized root!

Ahhhh! The first Réveillon of the season for me! Also the first I've tried with Punt e Mes instead of Carpano Antica. I think the Punt e Mes helps conjure up a spicy Christmas Tree while Carpano Antica has the eggnog and sugarplum fairies covered - both good! I'm missing the cinnamon stick garnish and this is still just the thing to put me in a holiday mood but I'd better track down another bottle of Laird's for more careful testing.

For yogurt cheese, I've usually used a coffee filter like FauxPas showed above but I also have this nut milk bag from Amazon, which I think is the same as the one Shelby used.

I used a recipe I found online: Light And Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes, attributed to Martha Stewart Living. I used half skim milk and half coconut milk (part of a leftover can in the fridge) and ended up adding a bit more milk as the batter was quite thick.

This morning, I cooked a whole little pumpkin in the IP, buzzed up the whole thing (skin, seeds and all) in the Blendtec and used some of the purée to make some pumpkin pancakes (photo over in the Winter Squash cook-off thread). The purée is thicker and less watery than the usual canned stuff. I've got 2-3 more cups left. Aside from the ribs (I'll try those when my brother visits over the holidays), that completes my initial IP trainee curriculum. Many thanks to all the previous posters for providing such a wealth of helpful information!

I cooked a pumpkin in the Instant-Pot this morning, puréed it (skin, seeds and all, à la hummingbirdkiss and used some in pumpkin pancakes: Served with walnuts and maple syrup.

I know nothing of this dish, but it does sound good and I would like you to be able to make it and report back! In the comments section for this on-line recipe, Alcatra – Portuguese Pot Roast, two people mentioned a shop called Amarals in MA sells these pots and will ship if you call them. The recipe above and this one and this other one use allspice, but no cinnamon. Good luck!

I purchased Peter Gordon's Salads: Innovative Main Courses, Appetizers, Desserts, and More after reading recommendations on an older thread about salad cookbooks. I use it more for ideas than following exact recipes but I think it's worth taking a look at. Both of the books @rotuts's mentioned, Lettuce in Your Kitchen and Raising the Salad Bar, are also recommended in that previous thread, along with a few others.

All I can say is that you must have been very, very good this year to deserve all those lovely presents!

As requested, here are pictures of the stainless steel basket from Amazon. I used a pair of pliers and a big screwdriver to pry the handles off. You'll have to navigate over to Amazon if you want to see them as I didn't take any photos. Here you can see that it has 3 little wire feet: You can place it directly into the Instant Pot: Or if you want it elevated a bit to accommodate more water without bathing the bottom of the basket, you can put it on top of the trivet: I imagine the little mitts or something similar would be useful for removing it from the steaming pot. Instant Pot should include something just like this, but with a little handle like a pail. I expect it will be very useful. Easy to just store it in the pot, too. Edited to create Amazon-friendly link

Wow, like the weather is scary and beautiful, those javelinas are scary and cute at the same time. Until a couple of years ago, I actually thought they were some sort of mythical beast! A friend served us those same apple rosettes at a dinner party a couple of weeks ago. She mentioned the same YouTube video that you linked. They looked pretty and warm from the oven, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, they were quite tasty! I like the idea of the eggplant parm rosettes, too. Or I could try a version with squash and maybe some Boursin cheese instead of the apricot jam in the puff pastry......

I just ordered this 3qt mesh basket but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't make a recommendation. Reviewers indicate it's a simple matter to remove the handles so it fits in the IP. Hopefully it will be worth the $8.65 price. It wouldn't let you stack up 2 different containers like that one though.

Rice salad for lunch. Using up leftovers. TJ's brown rice medley (brown rice, black barley, daikon radish seeds), roasted squash, steamed broccoli, dried tart cherries and spicy pecans. Dressed with a cranberry vinaigrette.

You are right about that - there's an Instant Pot Facebook group with over 14,000 members! Edited to add link

You would win that bet, Toliver. From the San Diego Union Tribune: "At the May 23 taping of the show’s elimination challenge at Juniper & Ivy, the judges held a lengthy conversation with the two San Diego beer experts about the craft beer explosion locally and nationwide..." They don't say when the San Diego episode will air. Also in that article, a comment about Chad White's decision to leave San Diego and move back to Spokane.

Puff pastry apple rosette?

While this was something of a production for me, just because I've never done it before, there was a nice efficiency in using the IP. Everything done in the one pot, easy clean up. Some of the "reducing" steps would have gone quicker in a wider pot on the stove and it was a little fiddly to adjust the heat in the IP but it was easy enough once I got used to it. I think there's a certain something that long cooking brings to a ragu that the pressure cooker doesn't quite compensate for, despite Kenji's machinations in putting this recipe together. My ragu sat in the IP (keeping warm - unintentionally) while I watched Top Chef (2 episodes!) last night and when I parceled it out to freeze, it seemed to have "come together" flavor and texture-wise so I'm pretty sure that the answer to rotuts query about how it would taste the next day would be that it's much better. Other ragu recipes I've read, including some of Kenji's others used ground veal and ground lamb in addition to the livers and beef this one seemed simpler but I did end up going to a lot of stores to get everything. Andisenji recommended a chain with in-store butchers and I suspect I could have gotten everything in one trip but I started locally first. I suspect the cost could be reduced by keeping an eye out for specials. Pancetta - I usually keep some of the diced stuff from Trader Joe's in the freezer. It's $3.29/4 oz package so that was easy. Ground beef - TJ's had 1 lb packages of ground beef at various fat percentages so I bought 2 lbs of the 20% at 4.49/lb. From Australia. I thought the texture of the raw beef was oddly spongy, maybe due to the vacuum packaging. I wouldn't buy that stuff again.Ground pork - TJ's doesn't carry. Sprouts had only super-lean <5% fat ground pork, not what I wanted. Walmart and Vons were out. I ended up getting a piece ground to order at a local carniceria/taqueria. If I do this again, I'll get the beef here, too, as they are happy to grind meat to order. It was 3.79/lb for the pork shoulder. I ended up with 1.4 lb, a little more than called for.Chicken livers - 20 oz tubs from Tyson were $1.60 at Walmart and I figured they were going to get cooked to death so I made my life easy and got them. They had a LOT of them in the case. Not sure who buys them. I know they are available elsewhere but not all the time. The livers do add a certain depth to the flavor. Some SE commenters complained of too much of a liver-y flavor in Kenji's previous ragu recipes. I didn't think the flavor was strong, just a little something in the background. I poached the extras thinking they would be a treat for my boys but they turned up their little feline noses. If I make this again, I'll try using the extras in a pate. Shelby, I was thinking that this would be wonderful with some of your venison and I'm sure those livers will be a great addition when you find them.

Continuing my Instant Pot curriculum, I moved on to Kenji's Pressure Cooker Ragù Bolognese from Serious Eats. This was a good recipe to test out the sauté function, PC and sauté again at the end. I've never cooked a ragù Bolognese. I rarely cook any meat at all so just procuring the ingredients was a novel experience. The recipe uses 1/2 lb pancetta, 1/2 lb chicken livers, 2 lbs of ground beef, 1 lb ground pork. Here are my ingredients: I spent $23.70 on the meat and gelatin. Everything else was on hand. Not an inexpensive operation. There was supposed to be some fresh basil added at the end but I forgot to buy it so there is none. The recipe said the chicken livers were to be "finely minced." Mincing fresh chicken liver is sort of like mincing snot. Kenji has another recipe where the chicken livers are blended with an immersion blender. I might have preferred that hands-off method, although it brings a bit of a bass-o-matic imagery to mind. Sorry, that bit of post-vegetarian commentary has nothing to do with the IP itself. The Serious Eats article associated with this recipe mentions adding the wine and letting it reduce completely before adding the tomatoes, stock w/gelatin and cream but in the recipe itself, the stock/gelatin, wine, tomatoes and cream are all added together and there is no mention of reducing the wine. I followed the recipe but maybe should have followed the article and reduced the wine first. When I finished the PC step, it looked like a pot of steamed meat immersed in a lot of liquid. It ended up reducing OK and within the 30-45 min timeframe the recipe suggested. The end result was quite acceptable. Using the PC reduces the simmer time from anywhere between 2-4 hrs depending on the recipe to 30 min but it's still not a quick recipe. While it was tasty enough, I thought the ground meat had the taste and texture of boiled meat. Maybe the fault of the PC or perhaps my choice to omit the wine-reduction step contributed to that result. Or maybe this is the nature of this sort of meat sauce. I should probably try a non-PC method to see what result I get. But it won't be happening for a while as I've got a LOT of sauce on hand now (lasagne anyone?....) and no big desire to spend $23.70 on more meat. Kenji said that he tested the recipe in both a stovetop PC and an electric PC (the Breville Fast-Slow Pro) and mentioned being in the midst of some epic pressure cooker testing, saying, "stay tuned for the results," so perhaps we will see more PC cooking on Serious Eats or in an upcoming book.

kayb, I saw your post in the dinner thread so I will report my similar lunch. I had ice cream. TJ's Peppermint Joe Joe's ice cream, to be specific. I went out to do some errands, including picking up some broccoli for a nice salad for lunch. Bought the broccoli and the ice cream, amongst other things. Got home almost 3 PM. Starving. Ice cream. Maybe wine for dinner.

Sorry, I have no special menu suggestions you. Coincidentally, a few years ago, I spent Christmas and New Year's hiking in New Zealand - great memories of a beautiful country! Our group included a Jewish family from NYC and I remember at the lodge where we celebrated Christmas they reported that if they are at home, they always participate in the traditional Jewish Christmas meal of Chinese food. Edited to fix link

I would think you would be OK if you can put your bird in the fridge on a wire rack above a plate or tray to catch any juices.

I know! I was wondering if she had another statement prepared to ask the council to address the Christmas snow issue, too. Maybe that's for the next council meeting! Never had a McRib either but the McRib Locator doesn't show any sightings in my area even if I were so inclined.

That baguette sandwich looks very tasty, Liamsaunt! Ham, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich: The cheese is the Trappist Vieux Chimay from Belgium that was TJ's spotlight cheese last month - very melty-making, Black Forest ham, farmers' market egg on an onion poppy seed ciabatta roll from the day-old shelf at Walmart !

Reporting my Instant Pot curriculum progress. Not too much to glean here, as the heavy lifting has already been done by earlier posters. The only thing that might be new is my test of a single serving of brown rice, using a dish inside the IP. ​Rice - based on this post that Anna N pointed to on the IP blog, I used the little rice cup that comes with the IP, measured 1 cup of jasmine rice, washed the rice and added it to the IP with 1 cup of water. Same ratio as I use with my ancient rice cooker, which came with a similar cup. Pushed the "rice" button and allowed the pressure to release naturally. RESULT: perfectly acceptable white rice. I was initially concerned as the IP is a good bit wider at the base than my rice cooker, which has a more tapered bowl so the rice was barely covered by the water but the result was fine, although there was a layer of rice stuck to the bottom of the pot.Grains test 1- This is sort of a cheat because instead of the planned wheat berries, I used TJ's Brown Rice Medley (brown rice, black barley, daikon radish seeds) so it's still sort of rice. To avoid the sticking issue I had with the plain rice, I placed the rice and water (same 1:1 ratio and volumes as above) into a pyrex bowl. I put the bowl, uncovered, on the trivet in the IP and poured 2 cups of water into the bottom of the IP. This time, I used the manual setting, high pressure, 23 minutes at pressure, followed by slow release. RESULT: Perfectly satisfactory. Like most brown rice products, it has a bit of a "chew" but that's to be expected. Handy to be able to take the dish out of the IP, all ready for serving.Grains test 2- small volume. I decided to test making just a single serving of the same product. I measured 40ml of the TJ's brown rice medley, washed the rice and placed it into a small Corningware dish with 40ml of water. I placed the dish on the trivet in the IP and poured about 2 cups of water into the bottom of the IP. Same cooking parameters as above. RESULT: Perfectly satisfactory. Would I do this often? I dunno. I usually cook 1 cup of rice and do something with the leftovers but it's good to know I could go with a single serving if I want. Below, on the right is the full cup of brown rice medley cooked in a pyrex bowl. On the left is the small volume test (40ml rice + 40ml water) ready to be placed on the IP trivet for cooking. The small volume cooked up perfectly. mac & cheese that Anna N made from this site. I made 1/4 of the posted recipe. With the smaller volume, I put the ingredients into a pyrex bowl as I did above. As Anna N reported, the macaroni was not cooked after 4 min at high pressure so I gave it 2 more min at pressure. The cheese melted fine when I switched to the sauté function although I was working with more of a double-boiler situation than direct heat. Once the cheese was melted, I removed the pyrex dish from the pot, added the panko and broiled it in the Cuisi toaster oven. RESULT: I'm not a big mac and cheese hound, but this was fine. I might play around with it to make a broccoli mac and cheese sometime. Beans - Earlier in this thread, Rancho Gordo passed along a Deborah Madison suggestion to cook unsoaked beans 20' in the PC and then 20' without pressure so I thought I'd try it. I usually cook unsoaked beans in a low oven, after bringing them to a boil on the stove top. I'm happy with that method but there have been times during the summer when I wanted beans without running the oven for hours. In previous tests, I thought PC beans tasted like canned and I didn't like them much. For today's test, I used 1 lb of Rancho Gordo Yellow Indian Woman beans with my usual amount of water, salt, bay leaf, garlic and del arbol chile. These were cooked for 20 min at high pressure. I did a fast pressure release, although that was a mistake, should have been slow. Then I had to play around with the settings to get a nice slow simmer and found that the slow cooker setting, adjusted to "More" with a regular lid on the pot was just right. This batch ended up getting more than the intended 20 min simmer as I was fussing with the settings. RESULT: They are a bit overcooked but really just fine beans and most important, they taste nice and bean-y, much better than canned! Good to have this method available for summertime bean salad making. Next up on my curriculum are the following lessons, though I may switch things up. the whole pumpkin à la hummingbirdkissKenji's Pressure Cooker Ragù Bolognese - this one will require some shopping so not sure how long it will take me to get to it

I'm not such a minimalist that I could maintain that kitchen as it's styled for the photos but it certainly suits the home and presumably, the owners. The island pop-up appliance garage is sort of gee-whiz but the pantry-type space next to the fridge seems to have ample space for various countertop appliances. Aside from needing to completely clear the decks to maintain the look, it seems fairly functional. Interesting to look at the other entries and read what sort of requirements these designers were asked to fulfill.