abooja

This is a fascinating regimen, and one I've certainly not heard of prior to now. Are you still on the low-iodine diet while you do this? One more question: are you encouraged to eat high-iodine foods once this phase is over, or are you simply inclined to gorge on seafood after a week of deprivation?

Years ago, I remember Mario Batali saying that he deep fries in extra virgin olive oil. At the time, I thought that must be wildly expensive, but was he crazy for a different reason?

Yes, they are chewy, a bit on the flat side, but never cake-ish. They tend to stay that way for a few days after baking. But they are a different sort of chewy compared to AB's "The Chewy". More dense, less puffy. Perhaps a bit sweet, but that is mitigated by the salt, and the abundance of bittersweet chocolate. Don't substitute semisweet for the bittersweet. I did once, in a fit of laziness (used chips), and they really suffered for it.

What about adding a bit of vital wheat gluten to your dough? If you use King Arthur All-Purpose flour, it's only 1% lower in protein content (at 11.7%) than their bread flour (12.7%), so the difference would be negligible. BTW, I've tried both recipes, and now prefer the infamous New York Times salt-dusted chocolate chip cookies to both. It uses a combination of both bread and cake flours.

Thanks so much for the response! Interesting to hear that you like it better than Droste. I may run out right now to buy some, as I will be baking tomorrow.

Has anyone ever tried Rademaker Cocoa? It's Dutch-processed. I usually buy Bensdorp and Double Dutch Dark (from King Arthur Flour), but used to buy Droste as a substitute for the Bensdorp when I ran out and needed it in a pinch. Wegmans now carries only Rademaker, also from Holland, but I have no idea how it tastes. I can't seem to find one independent review anywhere. I'm baking a large quantity of whoopie pies on Wednesday and don't want to run out. I also don't want to have to use the Hershey's Special Dark I keep on hand in a pinch, although it's not terrible. Whaddya think? Or is all this fretting overkill for whoopie pies?

Unless I'm mistaken, The New York Times Magazine still has a weekly column on food. Does that count?

equals snake-oil salesman. I certainly understand why you might think that, and my husband would agree, but despite the fact that Dr. Hoffman sells his own line of nutritional products (some through Vitamin Shoppe, no less), much of what he says about diet and nutritional support is valid.

The microwave is another option, particularly during cold weather when you can use it first to boil a cup of water to sit adjacent to your plastic wrap coated bowl of dough.

Dr. Ronald Hoffman, a complementary medicine practitioner and radio talk show host, speaks often of the Paleolithic Diet, primarily as it seems to benefit those with multiple food allergies or autoimmune diseases. While he is more a proponent of his less restrictive Salad and Salmon Diet (a link to which can be found here), he often suggests eliminating wheat and dairy products from one's diet, if not just temporarily, in order to minimize inflammation or to try to pinpoint the origin of some physical distress. This, to me, seems a more worthy benefit than weight loss, and would be the only thing that might motivate me to try it, given my awful carb addiction.

Gosh, I would have called it quits by now. Sorry you're having such troubles. The week, while it must seem interminable at this point, will eventually be over. Stupid mice. Stupid, gross mice. On another note, Diamond Crystal kosher salt is easily ground with fingers, and does not contain iodine unless specified. I wouldn't leave the house today unless I was armed with a ton and a half of food (regardless of your particular desire to eat it), and a bag of that salt. Beats starvation.

Thanks. I live in the town adjacent to Downingtown, and my brother lives in Lititz. I'm going to have to check out both Victory and Café Chocolate.

I just bought a can of these at Wegmans while futilely looking for sweet flour sauce. They're grrrreat! I've managed never to try wasabi peas, but love Sriracha, and decided to test them out. Very glad I did. Thanks! P.S. For me, the sugar helps counter the spiciness of the Sriracha. These are plenty hot for me.

Just thought of something completely useless that I own -- this Cuisipro Stainless Steel Herb Mill. I bought it years ago, thinking it would make herb chopping a cinch, and used it exactly once. It was fine on sturdy herbs, like rosemary, but turned parsley into mush. The only reason I've kept it all this time is because it cost me $15-$20. I wish they'd stop manufacturing it already so that I can unload it on some sap on eBay.

I finally tried the rye. While I really enjoyed them, DH did not, as he is not a fan of caraway seed. While there are no visible caraway seeds in them, the flavor is very strong. Too bad, because I might have bought them more often if the caraway flavor was less dominant.

Thank you, David. Very kind of you.

I make a meal out of Cheez-Its more often than I'd care to admit. I, too, love "Mexican Casserole" with canned tamales, canned chili, cheddar, onions, jalapenos, and Fritos. Haven't had it in years. I doubt my stomach would tolerate it well these days. I think Taco Bell tastes great, but I very rarely eat it. My arteries thank me.

I made chicken & dumplings last night for the first time ever. It also happened to be the first time I ever ate c&d, but not the first time for my husband. I grilled him repeatedly as to the style of dumpling he had previously eaten, the texture and color of the finished product, where he had eaten them, etc. Besides Cracker Barrel, he had them, he believed, somewhere in Atlanta, and possibly Germany. (??) The dumpling was always of the noodle variety, which dovetailed nicely with my desire to make "authentic" Southern style c&d, the variety slkinsey touts on Page 1 of this discussion. In fact, I used his grandmother's recipe as a starting point. I started out yesterday morning making the broth/stock. It was a little bit of both, I suppose, since it contained a lot of meat, but also gelled upon refrigeration. I cut up a 6+ pound roasting chicken, and browned it in two cast iron pans along with a club pack of chicken thighs. I added that to a stockpot along with a whole white onion, 3/4 of a Spanish onion, three carrots, carrot tops, two old parsnips I had forgotten about, the core of an even older bunch of celery, two bay leaves, Italian parsley, a tiny amount of dried thyme (dried myself a couple of weeks back, as I didn't have fresh), some tellicherry peppercorns, a tablespoon or two of kosher salt, and enough bottled spring water to barely cover the whole thing. I removed the breast meat five minutes after this came to a simmer, set aside the meat, and returned what bones were left to the stockpot. Ditto to all the other meat one hour later, then I let it simmer another hour. Cooled on the back deck for a few hours, I returned a bit less than half of it to a dutch oven: The dumplings were made with two cups (10 oz.) AP flour, a bit of salt, and one cup of the boiling broth. I often make Mandarin pancakes/flour tortillas using this ratio. Since the broth was pretty fatty, I had to add a bit more flour to keep it from being sticky. I let the hand-kneaded dough sit for 1/2 hour, then rolled it out in batches on a heavily floured mat, cut it and let them dry for about an hour. Incidentally, they didn't appear to dry at all: I seasoned the broth, let it come to a simmer, added the dumplings, and covered the pot. Ten minutes later, I added back much of the chicken and 4 oz. of whole milk, to which I had whisked in a few tablespoons of flour, since it was clear I had way too much broth in the pot: It may not look like much, but this stuff actually tasted fantastic. I was so pleased to have been able to produce a marginally decent facsimile of an authentic chicken & dumplings, based purely on a few tips here and there, and instinct. Next time, I will roll out the dumplings a bit thicker. While they weren't mushy, I did wish they were a bit more al dente than they turned out. I'll also use less broth next time, or more dumplings. Because there will be a next time. Thank you, Elaine Mills Kinsey!

Funny you should mention that, because I recently cooked with my pantry-stored Tiparos fish sauce, and it sounded as if someone had added a handful of mica crystals to the bottle. I used it anyway, and the dish turned out fine. I've owned this bottle for less than a year. I can only imagine how bad spoiled fish sauce must smell, since I find the odor of even the fresh stuff quite repulsive. I suppose I should start storing it in the fridge. I don't use it nearly often enough.

This Emeril Lagasse Passover Brisket recipe is a winner, and will cook in the allotted time. I brown it on the stove, not in a high heat oven, which also saves some time. The meat should not completely fall apart in your hands, as it might if you let it cook the entire time he suggests. No pressure cooker required.

I owned this book for many years before I decided to bake from it for the first time last year. I made the Pear Galette. It was a bit bland, for my tastes, but looked pretty damn cute. My guests seemed to enjoy it. I'll definitely have to delve into it some more. That macerating the cherries then, separately, reducing the juices and adding them back in idea sounds like just the ticket for a cherry pie that might finally blow me away.

One of my most shameful menus includes Shake 'n Bake pork chops with chicken-flavored Rice-A-Roni. I maybe make it once a year. It requires an ocean of water to quench my thirst after that meal. I am also ashamed to admit that I have, historically, disliked the idea of sushi, sashimi or just about any raw/undercooked fish so deeply, that I tried to convince myself that others' presumed enjoyment of it was more a desire to impress others than a lip-smacking, I've-gotta-have-more-of-that-good-stuff type of experience. Ditto to sweetbreads and foie gras. Just offal. (As was this joke.)

I'm starting to dabble with the idea of baking that "great loaf of rye bread" that I talked about in Recipe Challenge 2010. I will follow George Greenstein's (Jewish) Sour Rye recipe, substituting my wheat sourdough starter for the rye starter, and making up for the loss of rye flavor with the addition of altus, or soaked and mashed old (rye) bread. Only problem is, and this is a biggie -- if I don't have a loaf of old rye bread laying around, having never made it, what the heck do I use for the altus? Do I pick up a loaf of rye at Moishe's when I'm in Manhattan next week and save a portion, bake an inferior loaf of rye bread, wait a week, and use that, use a hunk of Beefsteak rye, or just forgo the altus altogether? I may have just answered my own question, but suggestions would still be appreciated.

I finally made sausages this year -- on Christmas day, in fact -- but I'd like to try different varieties, including andouille. That will be cool (hot?), because I'll get to use the grinder, the sausage stuffer, and the smoker for one dish. Speaking of smoking, I'd like to try to make my own pastrami this year. Not that I even like pastrami (I don't love it), but DH does, and we only ever get the good stuff when we drive into Philly or back to NYC. To go with the pastrami, I'd like to bake a great loaf of rye bread. I've made rye bread before, and I have included rye flour in certain bread recipes, but it was never anything outstanding. The combination of good, homemade pastrami and rye would certainly give me bragging rights in this household. Like KateinChigago, I'd also like to try my hand at cassoulet. Ever since DH "lost" his bean allergy, I've been forcing one bean recipe after another on him. Cassoulet seems like the most complicated bean dish I can come up with. I've already made my own duck confit, sausages, and often cook beans from scratch, so this seems like the next logical step. Last but not least, I'd like to try my hand at Pierre Herme's macarons, once and for all. I've purchased the various nut flours and I have repeatedly saved/aged the egg whites from ice cream making, but never took the final plunge. This is my year.

Ha. I neglected to mention that I always covered the bowl with plastic wrap after the first explosion blew the draped wax paper clear off the top of the bowl. Still had explosions, because I had not yet learned the nuances of my microwave. Microwaving cold butter in it at level 10 will lead to an explosion within 15-20 seconds.