Chris Hennes

That is indeed a sad sight... all that time, wasted! Fun?!? Frustrating, more like. I was pretty bummed when my duck breast prosciutto didn't work out; I haven't had the fortitude to press on and try again, and went back to fresh sausage for the time being. Harder to screw up.

After a brief break from the "stuff my wife won't eat" theme, since she was actually home last night and we went out, I return with leftovers: chicken chili from this month's Fine Cooking magazine. This used up the leftover chicken from the mesquite-smoked chicken the other night: the meat went into the chili, and the carcass was the basis for the stock. I think this chili would be much improved by the addition of more chiles! Like maybe some fresh jalapeño added at the very end to give some crunch and heat. Has anyone else tried this recipe? This fell into the "questionable chicken dishes" category: the verdict is, my wife would like it, as long as I made it spicier.

Wow, those have some serious "bling!" factor!! I love the sparkle, and the brush effect looks great to me. I'd buy them!

Blech, that is a sad state of affairs. I can't stand that one! If that's the best, it's a good thing I didn't try too many others! Do you like it, or just tolerate it? Maybe our tastes just differ...

Why leather? That's really fascinating...

Ilana, thank you so much for those pictures of the market. It is cold here this morning, and those helped a lot! I want to move south!

I decided I wanted pasta alla bolognese for lunch today (getting out of my grilled sandwich rut) since I had five containers of bolognese in the freezer. Evaluating my dried pasta selection it occurred to me that I could probably make fresh pasta in the amount of time it took to boil the water, which sounded like an interesting challenge. It turns out that it took about 3 minutes longer... doh! And I look like I've been dredged in flour... Fettucini alla Bolognese on fresh egg pasta:

I did the same thing a couple years ago here, and in my experience, the answer to this is a resounding "no." In general they have been sitting there for weeks, if not months. Wegman's does not turn them over fast enough to get fresh ones. If you buy them the first day or two they are stocked (when the case is very full) you can probably find some good ones, but after that, they will generally be relatively stale and flavorless. At least, that was my experience.

Wow! And the beans are as advertised? No issues? ← I'll admit I haven't gotten mine yet, so I can't PERSONALLY vouch for them, but there's a whole other forum of happy customers discussing their vanilla-related projects, so I'd assume the best. ← I have so dang many of these vanilla beans I have no idea what to do with them all! I have no idea how they compare to "grade A" beans, but they work just great in everything I've used them for. I have igourmet.com on my list of places to buy stuff as a good general-purpose site. There are many product-specific sites for individual items. Are you looking for anything in particular, or just ideas for places to shop?

This pig mold is awesome: I really would love to pick up a nice one to sort of combine my two hobbies!

Mesquite-smoked chicken with sauteed squash and baby potatoes (chosen because my wife likes her chicken well-done, and I prefer it a bit less charcoal-like):

I've been on a grilled sandwich lunch kick this week: today was a ham and cheddar (with a healthy dose of Dijon mustard)---

I find that a simple roast chicken works well in these situations: minimal prep, cooks in 45-50 minutes (enough time for a round of cocktails and maybe some cheese), looks fancy and reminds people of the holidays. Mashed potatoes and sauteed squash as an accompaniment, maybe? Easy, mostly hands-off, tastes good, and for people not used to a well-prepared roast chicken, a revelation.

Are you all using raw nuts for your bark? I was just thinking about the almond dragees I made, and was wondering if you could do something similar to the sugar-coating of the almonds before including them in the bark. They ended up with a really rich almond/caramel flavor that I really loved.

Hah! I told my wife that when we have room in our house I wanted two or three of them! Moveable counter space is really slick.

These look great---what are the fillings?

She likes it: she just wouldn't let me count it as a whole meal!

Episode III of "What Chris Eats When His Wife Is Out Of Town": Fried Rice from Cook's Illustrated, March 2001.

Well, it's just an ingredient, but it's pretty assertive in Ruhlman's garlic sausage recipe (which is great). I had garlic ice cream at a place in Duluth, MN once. It was... nasty. So, um, stay away from that one...

Reuben Redux: this time, with Russian dressing instead of Thousand Island. Definitely better balanced, with much stronger flavors. (The original appeared in the Dinner! thread, I believe).

If you're just looking for a way to use up the excess chocolate, you could also try rochers: I think that the little stacks of nuts and other goodies look a little "neater" than the bark, even though it's not really any different. Though I must say that Anna's bark looks fantastic!

No need to feel dumb at all! I'm always worried there must be some special trick to things, so I ask a lot of questions here, most of which probably sound ludicrous to people who actually know what they are doing. Oh well---that's how you learn. I doubt anyone was born knowing how to make a puree .

These might be the handiest apartment-kitchen invention ever. I think it would work well for feedmecookies since she has an open floorplan that makes it easy to move stuff out of the way when you don't need it. I love mine (even though it's mostly dedicated that that monstrous meat slicer).

Are the recipes laid out basically the same way as in his first book, i.e. basically a list of ingredients, and then three steps: "make ganache," "cut," "enrobe," and about 75% whitespace on the page? I think I'm getting to the point where I can try his recipes from the first one, but man, those were intimidating to a beginner!

A relevant quote from the article: The fact that this is a new city ordinance makes the previous argument about whether the money is actually being spent on health care a moot point: they do, in fact, have to "open their books" at least to the city. No trust necessary.