KennethT

Our wine fridge has a cartridge of expanded clay pellets that was soaked in water for a few hours before being installed in the floor when we first initialized it. The way our wine fridge works is that the walls get cold and any humidity condenses on the walls and hangs around there, eventually running down to the floor and into the cartridge of pellets, which then evaporates to re-condense on the walls. It keeps the humidity pretty constant - around 70%. I store all of our "cellar" items in there... potatoes last a really long time, onions, garlic, apples - anything that would have gone into a root cellar back in the old days. We keep them in rattan baskets to help allow air circulation.

Everything looks fantastic (except for the hospital food).... but I hope the little one didn't need to go to the hospital after frying his fingers! hehe....

I was hoping you'd chime in about this. I knew that boudin wasn't a translation for sausage, but meant that it was a type of French sausage. I always thought the French was saucisson - but I don't know how that differs from saucisse...

@Shelby Around these parts (the US, especially in the south) when we see boudin, we think of the Cajun version, but boudin originates in France (I think) - where it basically just means sausage. Typical boudin in France is a blood sausage, but there's also boudin blanc which is blood-less. There's also a boudin in Belgium that is similar to the French but not the same. As far as I know, none of these have rice in them and all of them are very different from a Cajun boudin... Maybe that's the type that the Amish make? Are your Amish similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch Amish?

If you really want to see it, you can download a free VPN and point the server at one in Australia. The website will then think you're in Australia and should have no problem playing.

Thanks. I've bought a few trees from Four Winds growers - they're great! I actually looked at their website the other day and was surprised by the prices - they've doubled since I bought my last tree (at least 10 years ago). I appreciate the idea of seeds, but since I'd be growing it indoors, if I decide to do it, I'd get one grafted onto dwarf rootstock.

I wonder if some of that has to do with how cooked it became during frying... meaning muscle tissue is mostly water. If you grill a steak to medium rare, you're only desiccating the outer edge, leaving most of the water content intact. But with ground beef, how do you know when it's done? If it's done so that it's browned and crispy, much more of the water content would be removed than in the steak example. On a side note, most recipes that I've seen using ground beef have you fry until browned, and then some water is reintroduced, the pan covered and cooks for a few minutes so that the water is absorbed - it's not saucy, but the meat is much more moist. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think it has anything to do with the meat being on sale...

I always just saved butter in the freezer - if wrapped in foil and then plastic, it lasts practically forever that way. Some smells can go through plastic, which is why the foil wrap is important. @Smithy I wouldn't worry about the surface drying out - once the plastic (or foil) comes in contact, no more moisture will leave. Leaving it uncovered will have it dry out much faster. Anyway, if I were to save it in a vacuum bag, I would use a mylar one which would have the benefits of foil and plastic all in one. Otherwise, I think a completely sufficient method would be to wrap in foil then put in a ziplock bag and get rid of excess air via displacement.

I think part of what you're looking for comes with experience, which just takes lots of practice. Also, I think it makes a difference if you cook a certain style of food all the time (like from a certain region), or if you're constantly bouncing around - not that there's anything wrong with that. But, for me, when I started making a certain type of food over and over, certain things started jumping out, so now, if I watch a video showing someone making a new to me dish, I understand what they're doing right away - even if it's in a language I don't understand, I don't need captions anymore. Also, I think that one thing to keep in mind is that, for centuries, most cooks had no understanding of the "why" of recipes - they just did as they were taught and didn't think much about it. This was true of professionals - journeymen cooks learned from their masters and then continued the tradition, as well as home cooks - a daughter learning from her mother who did things the same way her mother and then her mother did.... It's only relatively recently where a select few people have to started to ask "why" and then, after learning, change their method from what was always "this is the way" to something different.

Yes, that's what I was calling "sweet soy sauce" from time to time.

This is the way it's always used here - the skin is green like a lime, but the flesh is orange. It is very acidic, like a lime but different.

Thanks for following along and (hopefully) I'll be back in July for Komodo, Take 2, new and improved!!

Oh, and a gratuitous Singapore airport baggage claim shot....

After dinner, we waddled around for a while before heading into the transit area and to our terminal. We had Gold status with Singapore Airlines because of our points, which allowed us entry into their Gold lounge which is quite nice. There is a lot of nice seating that's not too crowded, a shower room you can use, plus a huge amount of food. They have a manned laksa station which I would have loved to have tried, but I was way too full. They also had lots of Indian food, some dim sum, western choices, a help yourself bar with gin/vodka/mixers plus a staffed bar, wine, and desserts. One thing I was happy about was that they also had a nice selection of TWG teas - which is a high end Singapore tea brand. Since we had a few hours to go while waiting for our flight and I was already getting exhausted, I figured some caffeine wouldn't hurt.... And, of course, you need something to go along with the tea.... Cream puff, chocolate muffin and mango cake. All were quite good. Unfortunately, all tales come to an end, so we eventually had to leave our super comfy seats and make our way to the gate and then hour 18 hour long flight home.... food on that flight can be found here, here and here.

It took me a while to figure it out also - the QR code leads you to a website on your phone, but ordering through it was not very intuitive... plus, after a while, one of the servers came around and asked if I needed help!!