Chris Hennes

Phew, we are almost to the present! Here is tonight's dinner... tacos! I have loved tacos since I was a kid. Taco Hell, Ortega, Store Brand, you name it, I love them. Of course, as you might image, when I make them at home I use the Cook's Illustrated recipe for the meat, fresh ground, of course (and aggressively trimmed---who wants greasy tacos?), and I love avocados and red onions, to say nothing of the Cabot extra sharp cheddar. What's not to like? I include this shot of avocados because avocados are wonderful, and they deserve the attention : Here is the finished posole: And finally, the tacos (or at least, the fixins'):

Continuing our time travel, this is last night's dinner: BLTs. Alas, the bacon will not be done until Sunday, so I used store-bought... Prep and construction: Final assembly: Me:

Time warp!! It is now lunchtime on Thursday... Despite the name, I almost never get sushi there. Stay away from the sushi this far from a body of water... instead, I get the lunch combo, which comes with soup: Katsudon, and four banchan (that is the term, right?): The Katsudon is a breaded pork cutlet on rice with a bunch of veggies. Total cost (not including tea): $6.95. And that's a big bowl of Katsudon. If you're in SC and you're hungry, cheap, and picky, this is your place.

OK, I just finished pre-bottoming and cutting the PB&Js. Holy cow, those are going to be a real adventure to dip tomorrow! (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, PB&Js are a two-layer chocolate-covered bon-bon. The top layer is a raspberry jelly and the bottom layer is a peanut butter and chocolate mixture called "gianduja." They taste remarkably like a rich peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To "pre-bottom" is to pre-coat the bottom with chocolate to make them easier to handle. And they have to be cut because you make them in a large sheet, then cut them apart before dipping in the chocolate coating.) The jelly is softer than I expected it to be: I don't know if I screwed it up, or if that's the way it is supposed to be, but I am worried that when I try to dip them the jelly will start to slide around or dissolve into the chocolate. Well, to calm my frustration, I am currently enjoying a 5:1 gin martini: Tanqueray, Noilly Prat, 8 drops of Fee Bros. orange bitters, and two olives from the olive bar at Wegmans (I don't recall the variety). It is helping... Mise en place: Finished martini:

OK, thanks for the tips. I thought I had read someplace that 2 hours was the time to shoot for, but I don't know where that was. I will know better next time: I have a lot of posole (the ingredient) left! I don't know the names of any of the sauces I make, but I have a couple that use peanut butter as the peanut flavoring agent. They are primarily Vietnamese and Thai-inspired, I think. Nothing on the menu this week, I am afraid.

Dinner tonight was tacos: I was going to make the shells from scratch, but my masa harina smelled off (I haven't used it in months), so I used store-bought shells. I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe for the filling (surprised? ): I made that in advance last night and stored it off in small ramekins in the freezer: one double-batch makes a half-dozen or so dinners. I like mine with red onion, avocado, lime, and sharp cheddar. I also had some Rancho Gordo posole. I'm not sure I made it correctly though: it ended up pretty firm. What is the texture of posole supposed to be? I soaked it for three days in the fridge, then simmered it for two hours today, and it seemed a bit too al dente, but maybe that's what it supposed to be like. Thoughts?

Did you use milk or dark chocolate? Gianduja can be made with either, but the colour will differ depending on the chocolate. ← I used milk chocolate. It has firmed up OK, so I guess we'll find out the texture once I coat it and get to try a piece .

I loved the palate test, though I was a little concerned that the quality metric they used was price: wouldn't make more sense to just label them "Lower" and "Higher"? I assume the items were carefully chosen so that the higher-cost item was also higher quality, but of course that is not always true. I want to try that test at home: I bet I'd be in the 50% correct range (i.e. no better than guessing) . I need to work on that...

So I made the gianduja a few minutes ago, tabling on my laminate countertop until it cooled to room temperature, but I don't know if it worked right. First, room temperature right now is about 76 degrees F, so it's a little warm. Second, the photo of the pbj makes it look like the gianduja is pretty light: was it supposed to get lighter as I worked it? It did not. Last, I made a 2/3 batch to make sure I had enough (to fill 1/2 the area as the recipe calls for), and it was, but barely. So, should I have been working air into the gianjuda? On the upside, it tastes frickin' phenomenal!!

Speaking of the cupboards: here is the last batch---Picking up where I left of in my previous cabinet post: Above the sink: potatoes, onions, nuts, bread Here is a closeup of the nuts: they deserve it! Next to that is just plates, etc. After that is the Band-aid cabinet. There is other stuff in there to, but the important thing is the Band-aids: Finally, the spice rack I put in when I ran out of cabinet space for them: And I think that's pretty much it where it comes to food in my apartment... did I miss anything?

Yes, and yes . The refrigerator is another story entirely...

lol, I have a few years to go before I can retire to my own "Salumi" ... Lunch today doesn't really need any photos: I had a chicken queso burrito from the Qdoba across the street: they are a lot like a Chipotle, if you have those where you live. Basic chain burrito place. We have a local "taqueria" a few blocks down that makes burritos, but they are crappy, so when I need my fix, Qdoba is where I go. I think the queso sauce has crack in it: that's the only explanation for its addictive nature. I have to be careful not to eat the whole burrito, though: it has your bad stuff quota for the week, all wrapped up in one tasty tortilla . I prefer to get my bad stuff at dinner...

Before the weekend extravaganza hits, better finish off the kitchen tour: OK, here come the cabinets. If you reference back to the original photograph of the kitchen in this post, we are starting above the refrigerator and working our way around: Above the fridge: misc. seldom-used dry goods Next to the microwave: oils, vinegars and the all-important fish sauce On the counter right below that: citrus and sea salt Above the oven and microwave: sugars, salt, starch, etc. Next to that, the main dry-goods cabinet Phew. More in another post...

OK, I started in on the pbj's the other night, so first, let me express my appreciation for the "wet hands" technique of getting the glucose syrup out. Thanks, Kerry! It worked! It was great! But I have a question: I don't think my little marble slab (12"x12") is big enough to table the gianduja. Should I table it on my laminate counter top, or is there another method I should use? The tabling is to induce crystallization, right? Like with fondant?

OK, this morning I decided to go to Starbucks to give the new Pike Place Blend a try. It's not bad---reminds me of the Dunkin' Donuts coffee, actually. It is a definite improvement, in my mind, to their previous roasts: I don't take cream or sugar in my coffee, so I always found their original style too roasted to work in anything but espresso drinks. This stuff is more drinkable straight. I still owe you pictures from yesterday's lunch, dinner, and chocolate adventures: hopefully sometime today IG will be happy again. Last night's dinner was BLTs, and I also made some taco/nacho meat to freeze. Then I coated the truffles I started earlier in the week. I also started some pbjs from Greweling. So, lots of catching up to do, and this weekend is going to be a culinary roller coaster ride of pork and chocolate insanity!

Yeah, according to my wife OK actually has a lot of co-ops. What do I know...

That's cool: we don't have that here in State College. I wonder if they will in OK---I bet there aren't many co-ops there! I wonder how much the equipment costs to do it yourself. I'd like to try it with pecans, hazelnuts, etc. I love nuts.

Cook's Illustrated did an article on well-done burgers in their July 2006 issue: they use 80/20 but add a bread/milk paste (like you might do for meatballs). ETA: I think "panade" is the word I was looking for... kept want to type brandade, but I knew that was wrong!

I like that he seems to be trying to stick to his style and area of expertise instead of making stuff he has no idea if it will work (I don't think that's how you win this competition...). Maybe I'm just sympathetic because I've been playing around with sous vide recently... That and the editing somehow makes him seem like the most normal person on the show.

Peter, sorry I missed this post! I really do need to give the prosciutto another shot, but my current theory is that I should wait until after the move. One of my priorities once I am settled is to put together some kind of humidity-controller room so I can join the dry-curing party. I just don't have enough control in my current setup, and if anything edible came out, it would be a fluke! I'm still a bit bummed by that particular failure. It was a beautiful duck breast...

Yeah, I'm a little nervous about the move to Oklahoma City: I can't really figure out if they have anything like a WF, TJ, or Wegmans, or anything! I mean, I know I'll be able to get beef, but what about other things? Like peanut butter!!

I've never seen those! Onion parsley?!? I'm having a hard time imagining that one. I don't know that I could eat a whole jar of one flavor, but maybe I'll try some "mix-ins" in my peanut butter some time. The deep chocolate would be great on fruit, I would think.

Lol, nope. They never have any coupons for that! What kind do you like? I have heard the Peanut Butter Company makes good stuff (and they even sell it at the Wegmans), but I don't know if they are a hippy-enough brand... lead me, oh Maven of the Peanut Butter! Where should I seek these patchouli-scented wünderbutters?

Thanks for the peanut butter trivia: I tend to prefer the Smuckers Natural on sandwiches, but it is too thin for many other purposes. In fact, I have taken to removing all the oil from the top, then putting the whole thing in the food processor and slowly adding the oil back in until it is the consistency I like. I am such a peanut butter dork! It also doesn't have that perfectly smooth texture that I like on bananas and apples, so I go Skippy or Jif for the smooth, and Skippy Super-chunk when I'm feeling chunky.

Well, Image Gullet isn't cooperating with new images right now, so I guess I'll just continue the kitchen tour Now we start in on the dry goods: this is my main pantry: Our apartment is sort of strange in that they used the floorplan from another type of apartment the same firm manages, and they didn't make any adjustments to accommodate the other changes they made, so this is really a coat closet. It is just nowhere near the door, so we use it as a pantry, after adding some supplementary shelving. I think most of the stuff in there is pretty normal, except we have a lot of peanut butter: Part of this is due to my wife's couponing, and part due to my love of peanut butter, and desire to find the optimum peanut butter to use in all circumstances. Represented there are four brands, seven varieties, and nine total jars. All totally necessary when you have this much jelly: Those six jars are all that remains of the nearly thirty jars of strawberry preserves I canned two summers ago. I've been eating a lot of PB&J!