Marlene

Marinated, then grilled rack of lamb I took the marinade, added some honey, reduced by half and thickened it slightly with a buerre manie I served it with a baked potato and peas. We loved it!

when I was training for the '76 Olypmics in swimming, I ate like that and more. Of course I was only sixteen at the time. I couldn't even think of eating like that now!

It's a Canadian thing. red seal test

I've been making a lot of bread this last year, and recently took a breadbaking course at ICE in New York for a week. Fermenting and proofing, the two stages of bread. Both are done when you poke a finger in the dough and it stays indented. So even if a recipe says let rise an hour or until doubled in size, use this as your guideline. I haven't made the CI version bread so I'm not sure what the ingredients are, but the basic dough of flour, water, yeast and salt will almost always benefit by the use of a baking stone and steam in the oven. Otherwise, it tends to have a dense chewy crumb. Start adding olive oil, honey etc, and the crumb starts to soften considerably. When you add the steam, you'll get something called oven spring and the crumb will start to open up. I never knead by hand, always by KA mixer, using the paddle attachment to bring everything together, then the dough hook for about 8 - 10 minutes depending on the dough. Think about creating some surface tension when you shape the dough. The one thing I found above all else. I used to hate the idea of making bread. I've come to love it, and find it one of the most relaxing things to do now. It just takes practice. Good luck!

The Kenmore double oven with ceramic cooktop that I have at the cottage, came with a retractable razor blade which is handy for quickly removing stuff that is stuck. Cooktop magic is good, and I also have the barkeepers friend for ceramic cooktops. I'm not sure that one is better than the other though.

I always use a chuck roast, or blade as that cut is called here in Canada. You could use a brisket as well. I also am pretty stuck on the low braising temp. The liquid should be just barely bubbling. I tend to find Molly's temps too high.

I make pot roast often. I sort of follow a Molly Steven's recipe from Fine cooking that came out in a issue a couple of years ago. Brown the roast first. Remove and add 1/2 lb of chopped bacon, and saute until the bacon has released it's fat. Remove the bacon and reserve with the roast. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of chopped carrots and onions and saute until softened. deglaze with a little brandy then add a quarter cup of tomato paste and cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Make a satchet of thyme, a smashed garlic clove, bay leaf, peppercorns and parsley. Put the roast and the bacon back in the dutch oven and add 2 cups beef stock and 1 1/2 cups of red wine. Add the satchet and cover the pot. Braise in the oven at 250 for about 4 hours. Degrease the liquid. I usually thicken the liquid with butter and flour but you can just reduce the sauce to taste if you like.

I use the Bartenders Companion which is not web based and is a companion to the Living Cookbook software that I use. I find it adequate for my needs, but then, I'm not a cocktail geek.

I havent seen any local corn yet. All I've seen is horrible looking( and expensive) stuff shipped in from the States. Huron county( where I live) is a very large corn producer. Ihope a good portion is meant for human consumption and not just for cattle!! ← The stuff we had last week was definitely Ontario corn, bought at the market, but we felt it was a bit young.

Susan, we've been focused mostly on the fresh peas available. Fresh peas and fresh corn are my two favourite summer veggies. It's nice that when the peas end, the corn is beginning. We did have the first of the Ontario corn last week. It was a bit early for it, but within two weeks we should be in full corn season here as well. That is, if it all hasn't floated away in all the rain we've had.

I cook with gas at home and with a ceramic cooktop at the cottage. Each has it's benefits. I'm not in the camp of loving how easy it is to clean the ceramic cooktop. Scrappers, special cleaners etc annoy me. I do love how there are no hot spots and how much faster a pot of water boils on an electric range. I don't love how long it takes for burners to cool down, rendering it harder to put a pot back on the burner. On the other hand, I don't really mind cleaning the gas cooktop. It's easy enough to take the grates off and clean. I love the responsiveness of gas, and how things immediately stop boiling if I turn the burner down. I do get some hot spots with gas though, but now that I've learned how to work with it, I don't find it a huge issue. For me it's a toss up. If I moved again (when hell freezes over), I wouldn't be upset if I couldn't have gas. They make some very good electric ranges these days, with Kitchenaid being at the top of my list for those. I would have put a kitchen aid in my cottage kitchen, but I needed a range with two ovens, and last time I looked, Kitchen Aid didn't make one. If they do, I'll be replacing this one in a flash.

You can always use a ziplock bag for marinading as well. I always cover my meats when marinading.

Assuming the butts are going to be eaten this Sat, then I'd probably agree with Chris. Wrap them well in foil, maybe double wrapped. Unpulled. Re heat gently then pull. Much longer than that, and I'd pull and freeze.

I'd pull then, freeze. You could wrap the pulled pork in foil first then into your freezer bags, but it doesn't sound like it's going to be frozen all that long.

I think that's what I saw at Nella's. It wasn't cheap though as I recall.

The last time I was in Nella's, I saw a couple there as well. And Canadian Tire seems to carry one as well, but I don't know how good it is Induction burner

figures.

Yay, I wonder if we'll get it in my dinky town. I can't imagine the chicken breast being as big in size here as it is in MI. I tried the biscuit this morning in MI( on my way back from the airport). It was good, and the biscuit wasnt dry. I detected no pickle flavor though. ← McDonalds' Canada at least has it on their website now, here, so I imagine it will be rolled out to all Canadian Mc'D' s pretty soon.

I heard the first commercial for this in Canada today, so I guess we must have them now. I suppose I'll have to go check it out.

I don't know. I haven't been in on the plans for how it will be packaged. Sorry!

← This is silly hyperbole. No restaurant I know, and none of the members who've posted on the eG Forums sous-vide topic, care about the vacuum pressure, as long as all, or nearly all, of the air is removed from the package. The pressure applied to achieve the vacuum inside the bag is irrelevant to the cooking process. Keller's well-deserved reputation is based on accuracy and finesse. A misleading title like this is disrespectful to the precision he preaches. ← I don't know that it's really misleading Dave. While Amazon is not showing the full title, since the image is not available yet, the full working title is Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide. Although I haven't seen the final galley mark up, I'm pretty sure sous vide is in the title somewhere.

For those who might be interested in this book, as a hint, there is a fabulous recipe for Spanish Mackerel and Serrano Ham “en Brioche,” Spanish Capers, Piquillo Peppers, and Lemon Confit . Not that I do fish, but even I'm tempted by it. I'm surprised the book hasn't been brought up before now. Although I've not done sous vide at home, I'm pretty willing to take Keller's guidance on the subject!

Michael wrote the book with Keller, Corey Lee, Jonathan Benno and Susie Heller. Mcgee wrote the foreword. I know this for a fact. In addition. McGee vetted the book for scientific accuracy and safety.

You know, this statement, and this one, are at total odds with each other. ----------

Hope the weather warms up for you! We've had one nice weekend so far, the rest have sucked. I'll be moving up to the cottage for the summer next weekend, and the kitchen renovation will commence. I'm hoping it will be a little warmer!