Chris Hennes

Count me as a vote for the CuisiPro, with the caveat that, in all honesty, I just don't use it as much as I thought I would. A food processor or blender and a strainer are more effective for most of the things I thought I would use it for, so it really just ends up taking up space in my cabinets. I would suggest evaluating what you want to use it for carefully before spending the money. I love gadgetry, but I didn't really need this one, in the end.

Thanks for the reality check, Bud. Excellent point. So the solution is to re-calibrate your oven. Dunno how yours works, but my oven dial has a screw on the back of it that I can use to physically change where the various temperatures are. Or, just turn the dial up as far as it will go before going into "broil" mode, if that's how yours works. If it still doesn't hit 500, then consider more drastic measures.

Ilana that fish market looks great! I so badly want to move to a city with decent markets!

That was the impetus I was waiting for... just what I need, another book about chocolate . Thanks for the heads-up.

The wrap is just a flour tortilla from the refrigerated section. The principal flavorings are Hoisin and soy sauce, but there is also ginger, garlic and sesame oil. It was a tasty recipe, though I thought serving it with a hoisin dipping sauce was overkill in the sweetness department. HappyLab where did you get your guanciale? Home-cured? I've been meaning to try that recipe, but I haven't gotten around to it. It looks great. Brigid Mary is that recipe from his Bread Baker's Apprentice book? It looks a bit like a thin-crust pizza, one of my favorites.

HappyLab that Spaghetti Carbonara looks great: one of my favorite meals. Do you make it with bacon, or pancetta, or what?

Shelby those pork chops look great! I'm working my way through the 7 lbs of leftover pork roast from last night. My wife is back out of town, so I can eat all the mushrooms I want. Tonight, I had the "Chinese Pork & Mushroom Wraps (a.k.a. mu shu pork)" from January 2008's Fine Cooking.

Based on last night's pork roast, I followed the January 2008 Fine Cooking recipe for "Grilled Roast Pork Cubano Sandwiches": I definitely recommend this one, although I think you need to cook them over much lower heat to get everything warmed up at the same time, or you need to pre-warm the meats, etc.

Wow, that is a beautiful omelette! I had a French Cruller from the Dunkin Donuts across the street... (in my defense, no place else was open when I dropped my wife off at the airport at 5am )

I always look on the bright side: for OKC, this is that property is insanely cheap, i.e. I can have a gigantic garden and greenhouse. Coupled with FedEx service this means that I can do a lot of great cooking at home. But I like to eat out, too! I don't necessarily need "high class" all the time, but having the option would be nice.

Some of the flavors in a well-made stock are quite volatile: slamming it on high heat for a long time will concentrate the essential stock flavor (chicken, beef, etc.) but any subtleties added by herbs, etc. will be cooked away. Even some of the main flavor notes will change when cooked like this. It always pains me to have to reduce a chicken stock that I carefully attended for four or five hours, monitoring the flavors until it was just right. I should probably keep some "cheap and easy" stock on hand for those situations, but I never think to do so...

Do you mean you can't get to the webpage, of your browser isn't showing the word "this" as a link? Try just clicking on the word "this" in the first sentence, "while surfing around i found this link" and see if it takes you there. If not, the link is: "http://www.konditorforum.dk/opskrifter/worldpastryforum/". And thanks, Torsten, for the link!

Tonight my wife was in town, so we had a pork roast from last month's Fine Cooking: it was pretty good, although we both thought the fennel and apple dressing was too sweet. I should have tasted it before serving, I think it could have been fixed with some cider vinegar and a bit of salt. This was a Niman Ranch Saratoga Roast, which was substantially larger than what the recipe called for, so I also should have tweaked the cooking temperatures, since by the time the center was 145F the pork was overcooked, to my taste. Good thing the NR pork has so much fat!

Is that some kind of garlic/cheese bread on either side of the spaghetti? Looks tasty...

Thanks, Erin. Today's lunch was a little less ambitious: leftover beef chili with cheddar, wheat thins, and a healthy dose of Sriracha---

I think the shelf life here is primarily due to the high water content of the banana puree. Have you tried reducing it first? I generally reduce fruit purees by half before incorporating them. It changes the flavor some, so you will have to weigh that against the shelf-life benefits. Do you know the water activity of your recipe?

A lot of these things don't really seem to be neuroses, but more "normal" personal preferences. For example, disliking something because of its texture doesn't strike me as neurotic, or disliking certain flavor combinations, or flavors in general. I think of a "food neurosis" as irrationally refusing to eat something, the key being the irrational part. My mom's husband's insistence on only eating yellow/orange cheese, for example, even though the only difference is the addition of (tasteless, odorless) food coloring. Or Fat Guy's mom's refusal to eat brown eggs. There is no rational reason for these behaviors. That, to me, is neurotic.

500€ ?!? Am I missing something here? It sounds like your standard pedal-operated trash can with a pneumatic valve to slow down the closing action.

Ilana that coffee table is gorgeous. The photo of the pita reminds me how long it has been since I made my own. One of my dream-kitchen items is a wood-fired oven to make things like this in "authentic" style. It looks fantastic!

10,000 cookies in a month? Sounds like you're more than "just a home baker"!!

My mom's new husband is "allergic" to white cheese. The yellow stuff is fine...

Really? I've made superfine sugar by food-processing regular sugar with no problems. Did the sugar melt after long processing?

As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to call it "chili" the principal flavor had better be chile peppers! This recipe only called for one can of pickled jalapeños, for six servings. It tasted good, but I would call it "Southwest Chicken Soup" or something like that. And I would still add a few fresh peppers!

smallworld, The buckwheat Soba noodle from Japan is obviously excellent in cold salad. I like Soba both hot & cold- much better than WW. ← This is true, but I bet soba noodles taste weird if you try to sauce them with a bolognese. I wonder if there isn't an appropriate use of whole wheat pasta unrelated to the classic Italian uses of standard pasta. I don't recall whether I liked the WW noodles themselves or not, only that they were objectionable in the dishes I tried them in.

Same here. Strangely enough, no one seems to want a culinary tour of State College, PA.