blue_dolphin

Another vote for eye protection. You do not want this stuff, even a droplet, in your eyes! It's way more prone to violent boiling than hot oil so extra caution is really appropriate. I've only used LN2 at work, in a lab. The only food related "experiment" I remember was eating LN2 dipped graham crackers and blowing smoke rings.

I'm excited to see a So Cal blog! Maybe you'll take us to some places I can check out myself! And like IowaDee, I'd like to hear what you think about that Sunset cookbook, too.

Pesto! It was on a bit of crusty bread, direct from the blender I used to make my very first batch. A sunny Saturday afternoon in the little kitchen of my very first apartment. Oh my, how those flavors filled my mouth! I revisit that memory each summer with the first basil of the season but that first time was such a revelation!

I like to play with the Miso-Almond Sauce from Mollie Katzen's "Still Life with Menu." She uses it on Steamed Vegetables, Tofu and Soba Noodles. She uses 4 T miso and 6 T almond butter and gradually blends in 1.5 cups of boiling water. I like it as is or with some garlic, tahini in place of some or all of the almond butter, parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Or with peanut butter, ginger and some hot chili sauce with a sprinkling of cilantro.

lesliec - Beautiful blog! Each of your posts (prose and photos alike - Stilton and port is my favorite) could be a full article in a glossy food mag! I'd never contemplated bay ice cream or heard of alloro but I'm now convinced that I must get myself a bay tree. My only trip to NZ was 2 weeks on the South Island, clearly there is more to see. Thank you for all the effort it took to crank this out.

Duh! Strike the French stuff. Obviously didn't read the question carefully!

I'd go with a red (my preference if the salmon is grilled) and a white. An Italian Sangiovese or French Beaujolais for the red. And an Austrian Grüner Veltliner for the white.

I've been meaning to ask one of my beer-making friends to help me set up a home-made system like this: Carbonating at Home Edited to add, I only drink sparkling water, no flavored sodas.

I'm a big fan of the pour-over method. I have single cup version for both home and work. A friend gifted me one of these Melitta ceramic pots that I use when I want to make a bigger volume. I had a gold cone filter for a long time but went back to paper. It seemed to me that unless I washed the gold filter out promptly with lots of hot soapy water, it started smelling like old coffee. The gold ones are available, more commonly in the larger #4 size, but also in the smaller size that would fit a single cup holder.

So sorry for your struggles. I am no Paypal expert. I just paid with my credit card. If I recall correctly, when using PayPal, I usually get a screen that lets me choose to either use a credit card or log in to PayPal. I enter all my usual credit card and billing info and proceed. Maybe I set something up in the deep dark past that allows me to do that? Anyway, I really love this concept. I've got dozens of cookbooks on my shelves. Yet when I come home from the farmers' market or rummage up a few ingredients from the pantry, I've been searching online because I was too lazy to go book by book. I'd started to think I could no longer justify buying any more cookbooks because I just wasn't using them like I used to. So my subscription enables me to buy even more cookbooks!

I forgot to mention the cost. With the Egullet 30% discount, the cost of each 4-pack was $34.96 (list = 49.95) Shipping for the 2 4-packs I ordered came to $15.00 and tax added $6.12 for a total of $91.05, which works out to a reasonable $11.38/stem

The order I placed last week for a box of reds and one of whites arrived today and I'm very pleased. The glasses are lovely to look at and the boxes are certainly gift-worthy and well designed to protect the glasses during shipping without a gross excess of paper or bubble wrap. No extensive taste testing here and I'm hardly the one to do that in any case but I went ahead and poured a few ounces of my current house red and white. In comparison to my usual wine glasses, the wine seems much more crisply focused in The One glasses. Sort of like putting eye glasses on, for those who need them or adjusting the focus of a lens. Very nice. I'll order more.

Me, too. Went to Macy's to look for them on Sunday. No luck. So I also ordered reds and whites to try with the discount - thank you very much!

Hopefully that was a temporary glitch. I took a quick look and was able to log in just fine with the 2 browsers that I use (Safari and Camino)

Corinna, I order RG beans myself pretty regularly. For some reason I decided paying $1/pound for shipping was OK so I try to order at least 8 pounds. Not a problem - usually it's more. My regulars: Ojo de Cabra (Goat's Eye) is one of my favorites, along with Good Mother Stallard. You should try one of them or both. They are great by themselves, in my favorite pasta with beans and greens or mashed up as a dip. You mentioned Black Midnights and you can't go wrong with them. I use them for black bean chili, black bean soup and they're great in a black bean and roasted corn salad. I usually get at several lbs of them when I order. I also second your pick for Cannellini beans. Sometimes I struggle with getting them fully cooked without falling apart but that just makes them great for dips. Yellow Indian Woman beans are another one that I like a lot because it works well on its own, in salads, or smashed up with garlic and olive oil into a warm bean spread. The Christmas Lima's are great in the recipe from the book with beets and quinoa and are worth the purchase for that alone. You didn't mention salads as a use and I usually shy away from the bigger beans but this recipe is a keeper. Tepary beans are something I like to keep on hand because they work in soups, salads and spreads. And they're so darned cute! The Vallarta beans are really versatile and hold their shape very well compared with some other light skinned beans. Just my 2 cents.

Yes, this was my experience. My free trial expired on July 31, while I was off on vacation with no computer access. I was pleased to read this part of the e-mail notice I received: This thread reminded me to go back and pay for a membership and all my books were still there.

One of my co-workers keeps a package of Oreos in his desk drawer. He eats 2 cookies each afternoon. I find such restraint unnatural.

I see frozen rabbit in grocery stores pretty often. Most comonly from the Pel-Freez company.

Ach! Too late on the cheating part. My bookshelf is right next to me with the year on the spine of "Judgement of Paris" so I won't answer.

Agreed. In my experience, acetone/nail polish remover will easily remove Sharpie ink from glass. It may also dissolve some plastics so rubbing alcohol may be a better first pass on plastic containers.

I looked in yesterday. Doors were open, presumably for air, and at least one (construction?) worker was lounging out front but the space doesn't look quite ready to launch to me.

I agree. It's summer when I start buying cases of this. Bought a case at Binny's last weekend for $5.99/bottle. With the case discount it's pretty much $5/bottle. Another fan of Vinho Verde in the summer. One of my friends refers to it as "daytime wine". I've been enjoying the $3.99 Vinho Verde they've been carrying at Trader Joe's.

What a great opening line! I can imagine so many ways to finish that story (I don't really belong in this thread. Just popped in to see what other people are eating while nibbling on my own dinner: the other half of the "Mediterranean Chicken Pita" that I bought for lunch from the cafeteria)

This is my experience as well though I now have an electric wall oven. I had some great older gas stoves in rental apts. Some of the newer low end stoves have lower power burners and I found them disappointing. I'll add that the idea of a gas dryer was most alarming to me at first, but gas has generally been less expensive than electricity in this area so you'll probably find it in rentals.

Not especially healthy, I'm sure but I'm partial to the cranberry shortbread cookies. I thought they were a seasonal holiday item but they're still available in my local stores. I HATE when that happens. Two of my recently dearly departeds are the Artichoke Lemon Pesto from the refrigerated case and the Mixed Grilled Vegetable Bruschetta that came in an hexagonal glass jar. I'm still hoarding a jar of the latter so I can try to replicate it.