Chris Hennes

Did you ask your library if they could ILL it? I haven't checked our database, but I'd expect *someone* to have it.

What's the heat-up time on the Silvia?

Wow, tell us how you really feel !! Now I feel compelled to seek this out so I can commiserate! My local store probably sells it in individual bottles so I won't be out too much $.

No one is arguing that it would be espresso, we're simply discussing a potential use for the grounds from the inevitable failures I can expect to experience if I decide to go this route.

Is underextraction the standard problem with bad shots?

I got a new cleaver. It's a beast. And it was like $15.

As a guy who teaches robotics to teenagers, I think it's brilliant. As a coffee drinker? You would need to do a LOT of volume to need a robot to do that!

They are actually just fragments of Andes chocolate mints, if you're familiar with that product.

The Creme de Menthe component was the Andes bits: there is no liqueur in the recipe.

Thanks, @weinoo -- Any estimate of how much practice you needed before you were producing something you'd describe as "respectable" shots?

The brisket was served for dinner tonight: Sous vide is definitely my favorite way to cook brisket, and the extremely long cook time (72 hours) highlights one of the greatest strengths, as well as one of the greatest weaknesses, of the Oliso. The strength is its tight-fitting lid: I had absolutely no appreciable evaporation during this cook. By eye, anyway, the liquid level never changed. Of course there must have been some evaporation through the small hole in the lid, but it was absolutely negligible. The weakness, on the other hand, was the noise. It's not a terribly loud device, particularly when it settles into temperature. But the act of keeping the water bath at the very steady temperature that this device achieves is that it cycles a lot. So it's off for a few seconds, then there is a click and a brief several-second hum of the induction unit, then it stops. Pause a few seconds. Repeat. It's just loud enough to be noticeable, and frequent/infrequent enough that it's never quite in the background. It's definitely more annoying than the gurgle of water from an immersion circulator, in my opinion.

I think the places under discussion so far are: BurnCo Buffalo Butcher's BBQ It sounds like the priority is to get to BurnCo at 10:30am sharp so we can be assured of our choice of meat.

Planning for this event has moved to the PLAN: Oklahoma BBQ Tour, March 12, 2016 topic. Discussion of Oklahoma BBQ can continue here...

Several of us in the Oklahoma area are going to get together for a barbecue tour on Saturday, March 12, 2016. This is an open invitation to any other members who'd like to join us. This discussion is for working out the details, and for stating your interest in coming along. The discussion began here.

I like to think that's not my decision-making process! I like the people I'm sending these to, I just don't think they would really care one way or the other which chocolate I used. If I were sending them to you, @Kerry Beal, I would no doubt has used the Valrhona (and homemade peanut butter chips, and butter with a zillion percent butterfat, etc. etc.), because you would know and care about the difference. But my brother in law? It seems doubtful

Last but not least, plain chocolate chip cookies using Ghiradelli semisweet chips and the back-of-bag recipe:

Round 2: Hershey's Special Dark and Pecan, recipe off the back of the chip bag...

OK, I've pencilled this in for March 12th. Maybe start at 10:30 at BurnCo, then head down to ButcherBBQ after that? Are there other places of note while we are checking those two out, if we're going to make an event of it?

I'm booked Saturdays until OU's spring break, but might be able to do March 12 or 19th. Is anyone else out there interested in joining us?

I believe you: those damned chocolate peanut-butter chips with their "rounded teaspoon" size were a huge pain in the butt to scoop, the dough did not want to come out of the scoop. The Andes ones, on the other hand, were very easy. The dough was cold and not sticky, so they popped right out of the scoop.

OK, I've got to hear more about this! How is weighing the portion faster than scooping it out with a scoop?

You are a better person than me! I have two different sized scoops: every cookie I make is one size or the other .

Are they open weekends?

Yes, I love the Silpats (and their generic equivalents). They make cleanup a breeze, and as far as I can tell nothing sticks to them once the baking is done. I use them pretty much anywhere you'd use parchment (except cake pans, of course).

As I posted about in RecipeGullet, I also made Oatmeal/Cranberry/White Chocolate cookies. They had some spreading issues, but I got enough salvageable cookies from the mess to at least include a few of them in each gift box. I think I'm going to call it a night, and do the two batches of chocolate chip I had planned later this week.