isomer

Hi andiesenji, The purpose of sifting the flour three times is to aerate it, which is why your cake rises higher than when you don't sift the flour. Same with beating the bejeesus out of the eggs (beat them until they just start to fall) - you are strengthening the protein structure and whipping in as much air as possible.

How about a SOG Autoclip? They're not expensive, and very good quality. It's about the equivalent of a paring knife.

Authors@Google just posted a on YouTube.

My favourite thing to make with boneless/skinless chicken thighs is oyakodon. Great comfort food, takes only minutes to make, and uses mostly pantry ingredients.

Chris, if you get a salamander in your home kitchen, well.... I'll be mighty jealous. Man, that is an amazing idea!

I got this book a couple of weeks ago, and have been liking it quite a lot. The big advantage to these recipes for someone making chocolates at home is that there are no difficult-to-obtain ingredients in any of the recipes. Ok, except coconut fat for the meltaways, which is a bit hard to find. Also, the instructions are very clear, and the illustrations actually illustrate the techniques! My only two complaints, and they are minor, is that there are no metric weight measurements, only imperial, and that there is no mention of water activity or shelf life for the various recipes. In any case, here is a riff off of his basic chocolate ganache truffle: An homage to the best cookie in the world, these are World Peace truffles

I don't know about you, but it's far too dangerous (healthwise) for me to keep a batch of World Peace Cookies on the counter. They're far too addictive. So normally I only make them when I plan to give away most of the batch and just keep a few around for nibbling. So in the interests of health, I tried an experiement. I cut 3 cookies from the log, put them on a plate, and microwaved them on 70% power for about 90 seconds. And it worked!!! They cooled on the plate, and were almost as good as out of the oven! So now I can keep the cookie dough safely out of reach in a vacuum bag in the freezer, and make as few cookies at a time as, uh, needed.

Some raw oysters have a metallic taste. I'm thinking specifically of Belons (European flat oysters) which taste a little bit like licking a battery, but not in an unpleasant way... at least not to me.

This weekend I made black olive "cheeks" (puccia) from Daniel Leader's "Local Breads". They came out wonderfully. I think this is a very underrated bread book. It's easily my favourite.

Nice looking breads, MikeJ!

Glad it worked out for you!

The Cooking Issues blog suggests that soaking them is not only OK, but better: Crowded Wet Mushrooms. A Beautiful Thing.. Go figure....

Congratulations, Kerry. The room looks fantastic!

They are indeed air-tight enough to keep smells from fenugreek, mace etc... away from everyhing else. That's what I use them for.

Kerry, recipezaar insists you can make a roux in the microwave. I've had this bookmarked for years, but still have never tried it. Probably worth a shot!