Chris Hennes

It has the distinct advantage of allowing you to actually taste the coffee itself, rather than just the roast. It's not fantastic, but it's better than their usual. It's certainly not a roast I'd call "blonde", either: more like a full city roast.

Just a note to clarify that, while we may refer to it as a "potluck," it's not a buffet-type potluck, it's a multi-course plated meal lasting several hours (or at least, it has been every year that I've gone). This eases the requirement that the kitchen be able to accommodate all the cooks, since there is downtime between the courses... sometimes a LOT of downtime, depending on the cook

I own both, and have not used the hand-crank a single time since I got the KitchenAid: I agree with emannths that the extra hand makes things easier. I don't feel I've lost much in the way of control: you still have to constantly handle the dough, and now you get to use two hands to do it.

I use one of those Borner V-slicers. Cheap enough to be practically disposable, and works fine if you like your fries/chips fast-food-style (that is, pretty thin).

I've booked a room at the Residence Inn down the block from RTM, so I'll actually have access to a kitchen there: there might be enough room for someone else to do some prep work there, too. ETA: white lotus, definitely bring Dance along, the event wouldn't be the same without him!

@KennethT, did the leaves get crispy cooked like that?

"a couple of little steaks." Yeah. Little. How you going to cook it?

I think that modern tastes for salt levels result in a confit that is not safe to store at room temp in the traditional way: then again, if you are using the sous vide method for making the confit, the stuff will keep in the bags you cooked it in (unopened) in the refrigerator for a long time, and in the freezer basically forever (as Bud notes). I wouldn't screw around with canning unless you are really desperate for the fridge space.

gap and Kerry are right: TOC for Fine chocolates: Great Experience Characteristics of the most frequently used ingredients Chocolate processing Rheology Shelf life and factors that extend shelf life Sugar processing Starting out Praline recipes based on nuts Fat-based recipes Ganaches Caramels Nougat Fruit-in-liqueur chocolates Marzipan and persipan Truffles and chocolate truffle balls Fruit dough Miscellaneous Fine Chocolates 2: Great ganache experience's chapter breakdown is a little hazier, but the first 50 pages cover the technical aspects of ganache in reasonable detail, and the remainder is ganache recipes.

We don't typically see any really young kids (they probably won't much appreciate the food anyway, it's not your ordinary potluck ) but a few people have brought older children. I believe we had a six year old last year, for example, though he had both parents there to tag-team the effort.

I basically always double Wybauw's suggested flavoring quantities: I made an espresso bonbon yesterday that needed at least double what he suggested to get a really good coffee flavor.

It's a difficult number to pin down because most people don't actually attend every single planned event: I'd guess that in the last few years we've had maybe 20-25 people at the restaurant meals, and around 30 at the Saturday meal. Of course, not everyone cooks at the Saturday meal, so it's been more like 10-15 people in the kitchen with various people wandering through to see what's going on throughout the afternoon, and 30-ish diners. I've never actually done a head-count though: Steven might know best since he is our traditional expediter.

I think your best bet is to simply scale back the cream to suit your tastes and give it a try: I generally have no shortage of volunteer beta-testers .

Mexican Chorizo is one of the easiest sausages to make at home, too: I highly recommend it. You can even use a food processor to "grind" the pork if you don't have a meat grinder; the texture is not quite the same, but it still works. And then you know what's in it (and what's not).

Have you considered using a normal soft sandwich bread and then slicing it and compacting it with a press or rolling pin after baking?

I think the temp difference here is probably too great to go the delta-T method: IMO the gradient in the rarer steak will be unacceptable. I'd go with the first suggestion of cooking your wife's steak to her desired temp, then dropping the bath temp and adding yours. Hers will be served cooler than normal, but the texture will be that of the higher-temp steak.

You can put me in the "I already bought plane tickets so we'll be there" category. Flying out Monday morning, incidentally.

Yes, you can freeze bread dough: in my experience it freezes quite well. It obviously takes some time to thaw and rise, and there is typically some yeast die-off (which extends that time), but otherwise I haven't really noticed any adverse effects. Some authors suggest increasing the amount of yeast a bit to account for the die-off, but I just live with the longer rise times.

What is your alternative? To spend $2k on a cold-weather model? Makes more sense to me to go with consumer experience rather than manufacturer butt-covering.

The atmosphere at Arnold's was definitely fun, but as a man with no sweet tooth to speak of, I avoided the pie so can't comment. Last night I had a fantastic meal at The Catbird Seat, which appears to be current darling of the Nashville dining scene, if the difficulty in procuring reservations is any indication. The space is small: diners sit at a counter surrounding the kitchen (or at least, part of the kitchen: not all of the cooking happens in front of you). The cooks are happy to chat about the food, and the sommelier was excellent (we opted for the standard-issue beverage pairing rather than the more expensive option). I didn't love every single thing put in front of me, but I definitely loved a lot of it, and I didn't hate any of it. Much of it skewed Modernist, but not all of it, and it was less of an Alinea-style of overt Modernism and more of a toned-down approach. One of the clear benefits of having a late weeknight reservation at The Catbird Seat is that The Patterson House is right below, and we were able to get seated with no wait at all for a few pre-prandial cocktails. Patterson House is, in my opinion at least, one of the premier cocktail bars in the country, and is well worth a visit.

Last night for dinner we ate at Flyte. I had a very well-prepared poached egg with bacon and grits as an appetizer, a quite good mushroom salad (not overdressed for once, you could actually taste the mushrooms), and a lamb loin. I was disappointed that they were out of their brisket: I had chatted with out waiter about it and it sounds excellent (cooked sous vide for 72 hours). I enjoyed the lamb, though I thought they may have salted it too early as it came across a bit cured: not unpleasantly so, necessarily, but I prefer a softer texture. I also thought that the rest of the dish was pretty aggressively salted. Not exactly over salted, per se, but at the upper edge of the acceptable spectrum. I had a lemon tart of some kind for dessert, which was marred by what I thought was a pretty poor crust: too crumbly, it basically dissolved into an unpleasantly-sandy mush on eating. Finally, I should note that they pride themselves on their eclectic and reasonably priced wine list, and the staff seemed knowledgeable about it. I was overall quite impressed, and would recommend giving them a try.

I just got back from lunch at Arnolds Country Kitchen: I didn't like it quite as well as Holly did, though I agree that seeing rare roast beef here was a pleasant surprise. Otherwise I thought it basically tasted like your standard Southern fare: competent, but not stellar. Service was very friendly, and we met some interesting people at our table.

Allow me to express an interest in the topic of molded chocolates, and of interesting ganache flavors for said chocolates.

I had lunch today at Prince's Hot Chicken Shack: I had the medium, which I thought was just right. Worth a visit if you like your fried chicken spicy. ETA: I see reports in various places online of a wait at Prince's. There certainly was not one when I arrived at noon on a weekday in the off-season: I think maybe one or two tables were occupied, and that was it. It took maybe five minutes to get our chicken. I enjoyed the chicken, but maybe not enough to wait an hour plus for it, if it had come to that.

I guess if you are worried about the little feet of the french press scratching your countertop you could use a trivet. Seems crazy to me, though.