abooja

This has happened to me numerous times, and with butter right out of the fridge. My solution is to microwave it more gently -- at level 5 or 6 instead of 10 -- and to stir it a bit (well, slosh it around in its container) halfway through. No more explosions.

I had my first ever Heath bar a couple of days ago. Hated it. It offered nothing but crunchy sweetness. I could barely discern the flavor of almonds. I almost didn't finish it, not wishing to ingest all those calories and not enjoy them, but I'm not insane. Throw away candy? Ha. Never tried a Skor bar, but I'm trying. I guess it'll be better than the Heath bar, but nothing compared to my homemade toffee. Perhaps that's the problem.

This reminds me of a great salad I made a while back with duck fat cracklings over frisée with duck confit and I forget what else. All I remember was the duck and those great cracklings.

Oops, forgot these are just sweets we're talking about. ' Please substitute Double Stuff Oreos for the Cheez-Its.

Cheez-Its, Twizzlers (strawberry), and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups get my vote.

I hated Triscuits as a kid. My folks would buy them, along with other styles of cracker, when they had a certain type of company and put out a cheese platter. I thought they looked like shredded wheat and, therefore, were the devil. I don't know that I ever even ate one back then. Nowadays, they're the only cracker I'm willing to buy, outside of Cheez-Its, that is. I usually top them with cheddar, sometimes hummus. Requires a tall beverage, particularly if the cheddar is good and aged. I'll have to check out the rye.

Droste is pretty decent, and pretty widely available (though, not currently in any of my markets). Unfortunately, I have no idea how it compares to Cacao Barry Extra Brute, but it should work fine in most cakes.

We hoard green produce bag twist ties for trash day. The sanitation guys around here don't pick up your garbage unless it's in one of these flimsy, $2 each, township-labeled garbage bags, and they don't even come with twist ties. The twist ties are also good for closing brown and powdered sugar bags. We've converted many a square, clear plastic rice tub to nuts & bolts storage. Nowadays, stale nuts and pretzels make their way into homemade suet.

Great idea about pureeing, straining, and freezing the blackberries ahead of time. Thanks. I just remembered that the aforementioned smoothies also contained bananas and almond milk. I used almond milk because of a vegan guest, but it turned out great. Might be a decent option for those looking to avoid dairy in these things.

A few months ago, I made smoothies that contained frozen peaches, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. I must have thrown some apple juice in there, too, as well as a bit of lemon juice. They tasted great, but were crunchy as hell due to the blackberry seeds. How does one get around this? Would a Vita-Mix pulverize all seeds into oblivion? Should one even eat pulverized blackberry seeds? Is this why I don't hear blackberries being mentioned? I suppose most folks just dismiss strawberry and raspberry seeds, but blackberry seeds are kind of difficult to ignore.

Made some caramel cupcakes yesterday with leftover caramel from the freezer.

I made Marcella Hazan's Minestrone alla Romagna this weekend for some guests, and it was incredibly good -- light and rich at the same time. It reminded me of something my grandmother might have cooked, and not the tomato-heavy soup I am accustomed to eating. I was skeptical that cooking vegetables for three+ hours would work, but it absolutely did. Can't wait to eat it again.

Waffles, for sure. The KA Belgian waffle maker cranks out some pretty ones. With mini chocolate chips and real maple syrup. Gotta have the crunch. These days, French toast is second, but only when made with leftover, homemade challah. As for pancakes, I like making them a lot more than I do eating them, but I will eat them on occasion, often with blueberries embedded in them.

I should add that the Ghirardelli mix brownies was the first mix I have used in many years. I've long since shunned mixes, and volume measurement, for every conceivable thing made from scratch (including Fluff) and weighed on my gram scale. People seem to enjoy my baking, brownies included. I can bake cakes far more worthy than what comes out of a Dunkin Hines box, some (7-layer) detailed on eG. I just decided that, after 20 years of from-scratch brownies, I get just as much, if not more, enjoyment out of eating mix brownies. I still prefer baking from scratch. It kills me to admit any of this, but there you go.

I'd like to think that I traversed that curve a long time ago, but I still often prefer brownies from a mix. Bad breeding or bad recipes? Brownies are one of the few items that I bake that flummox me so. I use very good ingredients in everything I bake. Makes not a damn bit of difference. I used to have a favorite chunky brownie recipe from Chocolatier that wowed them every time, but I stopped making them when I met my husband, since he was convinced he was allergic to all nuts. They just weren't the same without walnuts. Now that he can eat nuts, he decided that he doesn't like them all that much. My trusted recipe has been rendered useless. The Ghirardelli box calls my name.

Thanks to this discussion, I bought and then baked a box of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownies yesterday. I've got to agree: I still prefer them to any one of numerous versions of my homemade brownies. Burns me up.

CI's Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew combines beans with kale, and it's delicious. (There's that 'Tuscan' word again.)

My go-to recipe is White Bread 101 from King Arthur Flour's Baker's Companion. In addition to DMS, it contains butter and potato flour. Makes a killer loaf.

Krammar's Delicious Mystery Appetizer. If it's good enough for a dog...

abooja, can you describe these a little further? I want to achieve french fry nirvana and it seems God is in the details. Heh. Sorry about that. Idaho potatoes, sliced into steak fry size, but on the thin side, perhaps 1/8th of an inch thick? Not very helpful, I suppose.

I finally achieved french fry nirvana last week. These fries were crisp outside and creamy inside, and stayed that way throughout the course of the meal. The crazy thing was how simple it actually was. No more double or triple frying for me. I just boiled thinnish Idaho steak fries for around eight minutes in salted water, briefly cooled them, then fried them once. That one fry took a good, long time, however -- maybe ten minutes. It was brand new oil (creamy vegetable), and the fries weren't browning to my satisfaction, so I let them go. Wow, were the results ever worth it! Next time, I might boil them for one minute less, because there were lots of broken pieces, but not much less. I think the combination of the overcooked potato and steamy, long fry (from water in potatoes) is what did the trick.

Larry, that looks gorgeous. My version of pasta primavera involves broccoli, zucchini, red bell peppers, green beans, peas, carrots, onions and garlic -- sauteed in olive oil, with some crushed tomato and a bit of chicken broth added to thin it out. I usually serve it with fusilli.

Remember the original immersion blender commercial (infomercial?) from back in the day that featured whipped cream made of low fat or skim milk? How'd they do that without all the fat?

I always serve Sriracha with hushpuppies, ever since eating them that way at Brothers Barbecue in lower Manhattan many (like, 15) years ago. I wouldn't eat a hushpuppy without it.

I must be easily influenced because, just a few hours after reading this thread, I cut through the nail on my left ring finger. Oddly, there was a lot of blood, but little pain. I'm sure that's to come. I was cutting pancetta with my newly sharpened santoku knife, and not paying attention. I guess pancetta and human skin are disturbingly similar in texture to the distracted chopper. It's been a while since I cut myself in the kitchen. It's normally oven burns. I tend to get them in clusters as well. I've gone several months now without one. Maybe I've just been extra careful with my new (to me) oven. This probably signifies the end of that honeymoon period. Good thing I keep the burn ointment handy.