Marlene

I'll rmember that for next time! In the meantime, the turkey has been on the smoker for about 3 hours and it's looking really good. The temp is holding at around 280, I'm having trouble getting it up higher, but it doesn't seem to matter. The breast is sitting at 160 now so we should be on target for a 7-7:30 p.m. dinner. I'm doing traditional sides, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, I did manage to make a gravy from turkey stock and the giblets, cranberry sauce. Chocolate souffles for dessert.

Don't worry Mike, you'll have lots of opportunity to smoke with us! So what's the best way to make turkey gravy when one doesn't have any drippings?

Happy Easter everyone. It's a beautiful day for smoking here. Quick question. On the WSM, should I put the bird on the top grate or the lower one? Is 4 hours about right for a 9lb bird?

I've just been browsing through the 2004 edition cookbook of Fine Cooking and there's a braised carrot and shallot recipe that looks interesting. Besides doing them in the crockpot, I absolutely love roasted carrots as well.

Especially when I'm cooking a lot of other things and I don't have time to fuss with veggies, as in tomorrow's Easter dinner, I do mine in the crockpot. Yes they are glazed, but they don't end up being sweet.

Sorry! These are really good done this way. It's a toss up for me whether I like braised or roasted short ribs though. Roasted short ribs are not quite as fall apart as braised ribs are, but the other advantage to roasting is not having to brown the ribs first or chop up all those aromatics. The glaze really makes a difference I think on the roasted ribs. Because of the demi glace it isn't too sweet but gives them a reallly nice finish.

Ok, finally. The exploding chocolate souffle. It doesn't necessarily look pretty but this was to die for. Light, airy, chocolately. I think I'll reprise this for Easter dinner on Sunday since the lad missed out on this one!

Dave's short ribs and Janet's glaze, step by step: Make the rub and let it sit on the ribs at room temp: Slide them into a 250 convection oven for 2 and half hours. Make the glaze. In this case, it's dijon mustard, brown sugar, beef demi glace and a dash of honey: This is what you end up with:

I don't believe I've seen anything like it here, but then again, I haven't exactly been looking. Any Canadians know which section of the grocery store I might find this in? I did however manage to find something resembling sugar chips. I got something called Amber Sugar Crystals. Will that do?

I learn something new here everytime. Now I have to hunt for this stuff!

Chufi, thank you! One question. What is syrup from the ginger jar?

I really need to keep up! There's a recipe for this?! Is it in RecipeGullet? This looks like something I really need to try.

It is possible that the coffee used in the Miele you tested was neither fresh, nor ground properly, or just wasn't particularly good coffee. It is pretty expensive, but I might consider this when I remodel in the fall. If you aren't going with the Miele, I would definately stay away from glass carafes. Thermal carafes keep your coffee hot without cooking the coffee on the plate as MGLloyd points out. And they break. I looked at the Capresso before I bought my Cuisinart Grind and Brew, and thought it might be hard to clean. The basket, grinder etc all come out of the Cuisinart very easily for cleaning. Capresso does make some damn fine coffee makers though. And both the Capresso and Cuisinart are no slouches in the height department either. The Cuisinart is 15 inches high to the top of the grinder. The Capresso is 14 inches high. I had to get my carpenter to shave an inch off my cabinet valance so it would fit underneath. My husband usually makes coffee at 5:30 a.m. when he goes to work. When I get up around 7:30, the coffee is still hot and fresh. The biggest drawback to the Cuisinart is that is sounds like an airplane taking off while it's grinding.

Yes, exactly. At least with the whole bean system, you've got more control over flavour and amount.

Bond Girl, Miele has three systems, which one were you looking at? The reason I like the one I mentioned is because of the three of them, that's the only one that uses whole beans, and you can set the grind, the water temp etc to your own preferences. The other two use some other system, but it's not whole bean, and I'd distrust that. Plus, although it's integrated into the cabinetry, it's a stand alone system, so I don't have to concern myself with plumbing, just standard electrical. I've discovered the Miele Canada actually has a design showroom here where you can test the products out, so trip up there may be in order for me!

Confit lasts a long time in the fridge, although I tend to use quite a bit of mine for French Onion Soup!

I don't know. I'm really liking the looks of the Miele CVA615 and it uses a whole coffee bean system. I wonder if there's somewhere I can go to check out how decent the coffee is. Come to think of it, my car dealer has a Miele system. I liked the coffee there. I must go back and look at which one they have.

okey dokey. Maybe I'll skip the smoking and go get a fresh turkey to smoke a little later.

I know, but that's my point. the frozen butterball does not say injected with margarine, but according to Weber, the frozen butterballs are self basting. So now I'm not sure if I should brine or not.

So now I'm even more confused. Weber says the fresh whole Butterball turkeys are not self basting. I have a frozen whole turkey and according to Butterball.ca the fresh turkey is injected with margarine but it doesn't say anything about the frozen turkey being self basting.

Oh rats. I just realized my turkey is a butterball turkey. Does that mean I shouldn't smoke it? The weber site says not to brine it.

I'm pretty sure I'll use apple. I do have hickory though!

I've just checked my bird and it's about 9 lbs. Am I correct that if I do this at a higher temp on the smoker, say 350, it will only take a couple of hours and not be as smokey tasting as it would be if it was on longer and lower?

So, we're back from 6 nights in Las Vegas. Several restaurant experiences to recount. Breakfast: Breakfasts were at one of three places, Bouchon, Wynn's buffet, or the Grand Cafe Lux at the Venetian. Bouchon was all I could have asked for and more. Hubby had the American breakfast with eggs, bacon and sausage and a choice of breakfast pastry and I had the brioche french toast. I could have eaten that French Toast every day for breakfast, it was that good. I also had a mimosa (for what is a vacation without a mimosa for breakfast) and they definately used a good quality champagne and very fresh squeezed orange juice. Wynn's buffet gets high marks for very fresh, quality ingredients. While not as extensive as Cravings at the Mirage, they had several sections, Asian, Italian, American etc and everything was fresh. Omelettes were made to order and alongside the Prime Rib, was fresh smoked pork belly. Grand Cafe Lux. For a place owned an operated by the Cheesecake Factory, I wasn't really expecting outstanding. Well it wasn't, but it was pretty decent. The steak and eggs featured a generous NY strip and three eggs, plus real shredded hash browns. Unfortunately, the place seemed to be understaffed at all times and wait times for food and checks could be a little excessive. Lunch: We didn't eat a lot of lunches. Between late breakfasts, and huge dinners, we didn't need too. Two of note, one again at the Grand Cafe Lux and one at the Pinot Brassiere both at the Venetian. The Grand Cafe Lux features some fried chicken that was pretty damn good. It looks like chicken fingers when it arrives, but this is real fried chicken. Served with garlic mashed potatoes, I asked for a side of gravy for the potatoes and got real wonderful beef gravy. Dinners: Dinners included, Craftsteak at MGM, Okada at Wynns and Delmonico's at the Venetian. Other nights we either had a show so grabbed a quick bite or were just way to full from a brunch had at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. Craftsteak. I'd been wanting to try this steak place for some time after reading rave reviews of the place. They offer a Charcuterie sampler for an appetizer and I was intrigued enough to order this. I'd like to tell you what was on it, but the guy who served it to us didn't speak enough English to tell us well enough and what he did speak was rattled off so fast, that even though I asked him to repeat it three times, I still didn't get it. I know there was proscuitto and salami, and there were three kinds of mustard. The waitress promised to write it out for us, but never did. Nevertheless, it was pretty good. Hubby ordered the ribeye and I figured this was my chance to try Kobe beef. American Kobe beef, but still, so I ordered the "platinum rib eye". Don's rib eye, was grisly, scrappy, and way undercooked, (read raw, not rare) and my kobe beef, while decent, wasn't as outstanding as I was expecting. In fact, the dry aged ribeyes I get at Whole Foods had more flavour and tenderness. When Don mentioned his displeasure at his steak, the waitress' response was, "Oh you ordered the grass fed ribeye? I'd never recommend that". Well, where the heck were you when he ordered it? Sides were roasted onions and green beans both of which were pretty good. They also have a very extensive Scotch list and Don could have happily spent the week at the bar, working his way through it. As long as he didn't have to eat there. Okada at Wynn's. I had wanted teppanyaki. Specifically, I wanted teppanyaki at the Mikado at the Mirage. Unfortunately, the Mikado, closed their doors permanently in Novemenber. So what was a girl to do? I most definately did not want Benihana's. Enter the Okada at Wynn's. The Okada is actually three restaurants in one. They have a sushi bar, regular japanese restaurant seating and teppanyaki. This is slightly upscale teppanyaki. Instead of the usual shrimp, they served baby scallops. Vegetables included some very fresh asparagus and fried rice was included. The beef tenderloin that I had was extremely tender and the chef didn't skimp on butter or garlic. They paid special attention to my mushroom allergy, making sure he cooked the mushrooms at the very end, after all my food had been cooked. When they served me a miso soup at the beginning with button mushrooms in it, they couldn't do enough to apologize. This is a restaurant that we will definately return to. Delmonicos I have written much about Delmonicos and how much I like it. This visit did nothing to change that opinion. Of all the restaurants, this is the only one I took pictures in, (hey, I was on vacation!). They have changed their menu slightly. The amuse boche was a potato ham croquette: They've added a prime beef and beer cheese fondue to their appetizer list, served with fresh baked pretzel sticks: They still make their wonderful parmesan potato chips: Don had the rib eye: And I had a bleu cheese crusted petite ribeye with buttermilk onion straws, served on mashed potatoes. I didn't exactly need dessert, but I had to try this bread pudding: Delmonico's remains my favourite Las Vegas restaurant and one of my top 5 steakhouses overall.

I guess I should take my turkey out of the freezer if I'm planning on smoking it this weekend! I think it might be a 12 lb turkey, but I'll have to check. I've got applewood so that's what I'll use to smoke. I've read through this and since I intend to use the water pan, should I figure on 6 hours or so? Sides will be mashed potatoes, gravy made from turkey stock and glazed carrots likely. I suppose I should brine too. Overnight? How much salt?