OliverB

I'd be afraid to get something rubbery and would probably rather get up 5 min earlier, but then, I hardly ever eat breakfast... But as a side note/idea, why not make a poached egg? Super easy in the microwave, I was surprised when I read this trick recently, worked great every time. Use a microwave safe bowl, I use a little pyrex bowl, add 1/2 cup water, drop an egg in, cover with a saucer and microwave for about one minute, done! You might have to adjust cooking time depending on your microwave. At one minute I get a perfectly poached egg, set whites and runny yolk. At 30 sec longer I get a hard cooked egg. Before you start, put a piece of toast in the toaster, once done add putter to toast, remove egg with slotted spoon, put on top, enjoy! I was happy to finally get poached eggs perfect in the big pot of water with some vinegar (which I like for taste, not sure it does much otherwise) and the 'tornado swirl' method, but this is so much faster if you just need one or two eggs. I won't be cooking a gallon of water for two eggs anymore. ETA: I was afraid of the exploding egg syndrome, which I got to enjoy twice in my life and it's NO fun, but nothing ever exploded and the saucer should keep things contained if it ever should. I think the water bath helps to even out heat build up and make microwave penetration more even as well. Of course, proceed at your own risk

I wasn't too impressed either. Seems a bit forced and cluttered. I'm no fan of fancy fonts scattered all over in super size. Take page 102/103, the opening pages for the Italy article. On first glance it looks like three ads on the left and a b/w picture on the rest of the spread (why?) and not much text. IMO wasted space and the headline text in that bubbly font is hard to read. Looks more like a greeting card. And I absolutely hate if there's no page number in magazines! Bad enough they don't number pages with full size ads, but on the opening pages of a big article? Next page is a convoluted mess of boxes, fonts, colors, line drawings and one food photo. I also hate ads that are made to look like they're part of the magazine, confusing and disappointing waste of time. Overall there's nice info in the magazine though, I haven't read it all yet, but I'll keep getting it. And maybe they'll calm down a bit with time and get a bit less flashy. Just because you can use 20 fonts in 50 colors doesn't mean you have to :-) I thought it's an odd choice for an editor, I've never read his old magazine though. And he seems enthusiastic about his new job, so let's see where he and the magazine go!

I'd LOVE to see him wear one of these!

this sounds like so much fun, I'd probably get it catered so I can play with fireworks instead of cooking!

Get a wok burner! Fits the occasion, cooking is fast once you have everything prepped. You might need more than one, sounds like a larger group. Or roast a whole hog on fire? Or a piglet? Lamb? With a powered spit it could be a nice thing that just goes and goes all by itself. Or a Hawiian Luau thing, roasting a pig in the ground for hours?

I'm not "ashamed" to use anything I think will work, from seasoning mixes to ketchup and anything in between. Sometimes a squirt of Heinz is just what rounds out a tomato sauce, even if it's one made from glorious freshly picked still warm from the sun batch. In the end, it's just tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, a couple spices. Balsamic or rice vinegar go in many things as well. Smoked paprika, mostly for the smoky taste. My favorite salad right now is raw kale (just the curly parts) and broccoli tops with a sauce made of about 1/2 thousand island, 1/4 olive oil and 1/4 balsamic vinegar. I never use campbell soups, but that's pretty much only because I did not grow up around them and have no idea which one can be use in what way. I'd use them in no time if I'd think they'd work, but I rarely make things with thick sauces or gravy. Reading about pure MSG makes me want to run out and get some of that as well, I know no shame in the kitchen I don't run a fine dining restaurant, what ever works will be used (and fine dining restaurants probably use all kinds of shortcuts as well, why not?). Of course within reason, I'd not use some cheap crap on a $30 steak,

LOL, I bet a show called "Hot Girls, Hot Pants, Hot Pasta"or "Pasta Gone Wild" would do very well out there in TV zombie land! Maybe finish each show with a bikini food fight?

it's really gotten bad, nothing but dumb "competitions", gross food (from greasy 5lb burgers to worms) and kindergarten like "instructions". It's really sad, years ago I watched a lot of the food channel, just had it running as background noise, can't do that anymore. Nothing but oafish guys with teenager hairdos and one or two pretty ladies falling out of their dress. Not that I mind the later but I'd prefer that on some other show. But just look at the other channels, nothing but dumb garbage, "reality" shows that have nothing to do with reality, game shows and crime crime crime. And knock offs of said crime shows. There are some good ones here and there, but considering how many channels I have, there's really not much worth watching. But the masses seem to eat it up! But not surprising, fast food for the little couch potato brains. I've often been close to pulling the plug on cable, and think in a year or two I will, there will be enough online content where I can pick and choose what I want to see when I want to see it, cable as we know it won't be around much longer I believe. And I can't say I'm sad about that.

I didn't know who he was, I don't watch any of those cooking competitions except chopped (where I can't stand the presenter or the arrogant judges, but have fun imagining what I'd do with the oddball mystery ingredients), but what an arrogant buffoon! Personality of a rusty cheese grater mated with a squeaky wheel. I've watched all the shows and I'm pretty sure that he said in every single one "I've never done this before, but..." then going off on some SiFi named process and creating things I'd never want to eat. I mean really? Never done it before so you test it on a highly paid gig? Without any testing? Why not use something you KNOW and have DONE before? I also don't believe that the handful of people there is creating all the food, just one of those TV wonders (like the 5th plate on the chopping block in chopped, never see the chefs make that plate...). Like 30something duckbreasts all quick frozen on ONE antigriddle? All cooked perfectly and kept warm in a freight elevator? How's that possible? And the flying pizza stunt was just embarrassingly childish. And I'm sorry, but I've never been at a catered event where the chef comes out before each dish and talks himself onto a pedestal of cryovacced meat glued gold dust, blabering on and on until finally "so, without further ado" (thank you!) exiting as if he just solved the world's energy problems and brought peace to all. Among all the awful food programming on TV, he's down there at the bottom. I'm just glad I don't have to eat any of his "creations" and I hope they cancel this show immediately. Until then I'll keep watching though, it's that car wreck on the side of the road thing.... And yes, his constant hair play is disgusting, I'm not even a fan of bearded chefs, can't quite wear a hat or hair net on that. His helpers? I don't know, remind me of a bunch of kids that didn't get a gig on mythbusters and the idiotic squibbles with the party planners (as well as the fawning by some of them) is just stupid. Bad TV.

oh yes, candy corn is an abomination. And anything with coffee flavor in it. I'm fine with some sweets with a cup of coffee, but not as flavoring in my sweets.

I've never made it, but googling it I found quite some recipes that sound pretty good. All are roasts, mostly on high heat with lots of flavoring added. One inserts garlic and a mustard/spice mix into slits they make in the meat. They all sound pretty good to me. Since this is very lean and seems to have little connective tissue, a two day SV is definitely overkill. You go long low and slow with tough cuts that have lots of connective tissue and fat, brisket, short ribs, things like that. I think this is not a cut for SV, but for roasting with lots of flavorful additions it should make something tasty for little money. I'm intrigued now, maybe this will be my first beef roast to cook in my big green egg, some whole onions and garlic around it, some mushrooms, maybe even some bacon on top? Hmmm~ It's a lean and heavily used muscle from the hind leg and is supposedly not very flavorful, but a nice long roast with veggies around, a nice pan sauce and then sliced thinly against the grain, I'd think it might be just fine.

I don't understand people camping out for the next iphone or ipad, but for a burger? Really? Or wait THREE hours for a burger? What planet do they come from? If the French Laundry had a day of free dinners, yes, I'd camp out for a week, but come on, for a mediocre fast food burger? Nothing better to do? But that aside, did somebody up thread mention "fried pickles" at The Counter????? We have one in town for quite a while, never went, but now I simply HAVE to! As long as there's no line Oh, does In'n Out still have those bible verse numbers or quotes on their cups? An other reason for me not to go there. I don't like being preached to, particularly not on the sly under my coke

to rate a candy by pocket sound seems a bit - uhm - odd, but ok :-) Personally I can't stand anything that sticks to my teeth, no matter what sound it makes

as for hard to light hardware store torches, yes, the simple ElCheapo ones you have to light with a "sparker" (or what ever that tool with a flint inside is called) are hard to light, but you can buy really nice heads that have piezzo lighters built in, pressure regulator, and you can use them upside down or any which other way you like. The torch I got at the restaurant supply store is somewhat like this one and fits on the little butane bottles you use in the cookers (pictured on the bottle in the link). Works the same way, attach, turn on, press button and you've got fire. Adjust and go at it. The gas is very cheap (Asian market!) and with home use, I have yet to empty the first bottle. There are also electric heat guns like this one that go up to 1100 degree F, which I think would work just as well. But there's no fire, no danger, where's the fun? I actually have two heatguns, I should check the temps I can get with them and try it.

I kind of like the induction and dutch oven idea here! I've never really made fried food nor do I eat it often, but sometimes it would be nice. "sometimes" does not justify yet an other machine in the closet though. This approach on the other hand, seems like a good excuse to get an induction side burner :-) hmmmm.... ok ok, first I should really play with my new vitamix, I know

I have yet to try them, maybe later today or tonight. They're not pretty to look at, part of what attracted me to them actually, that test tube look

all sounds and looks good, thanks!

I came across a jar of pickled pig's feet at Safeway today, could not resist. Says pickled on it, so I'm immediately attracted, and looks like a jar from a medical curiosities display at a circus side show, an other bonus. But what now? Google tells me they're a Southern thing, and are usually eaten as a snack. Haha, can't wait to put them out for a casual dinner or picknick! But is that all? You just snack on them? Cold? Roast and eat on toast? Dice and put over pasta? Make finger puppets? Curious what others might suggest here, if anybody here has eaten them before. I'll eat anything pickled

I don't know if you have one of those little creme brule (sp?) torches they sell (cute but pretty useless) or something else, but you can touch the food with the flame, just go sweeping. But in many cases it's fine to be just a bit away from the food, as things burn quickly if you touch it. Just play with it on a piece of toast or a carrot. It is said that a fire extinguisher should not be too far away from these games. Maybe play in the sink if it's steel.

I might actually sell my first printing and get the second one, "first edition" is in most cases uninteresting to me, but particular with a book I want to work with. Yes, of course I'll be charging the collector's price Ruhlman is trying a bit too hard to sell kitchen gadgets (a spoon with holes in it? really?) lately, but his blog still has amusing articles here and there. It must be a bit frustrating that the most famous books he worked on are Keller's books, and nobody mentions his name. No idea how much work he actually did, I'd guess quite a bit. His comments do come across a bit snippy though, which is really not necessary... Maybe he ran out of aspirin?

I used to use my propane torch from the hardware store just fine in the kitchen. Then I read that it might leave a "taste" and butane is better. I never detected it, but since I pretty much only use it with expensive things like prime beef I got a butane torch for the kitchen. It attaches to the small tanks (spray can size) that you use with little butane burners. Works very well, I think I spent $25 on the head at the kitchen supply store. Now there's also a new gas at the hardware store that supposedly burns hotter, don't recall it's name, I think it was more some kind of letter acronym. I have not tried those. You should be just fine, but don't set the kitchen on fire - or the food. And watch for smoke, I set off the smoke alarm with it once And my cutting board has some scorch marks, scars of a touch life

too late to edit my post, but on the subject of eggs, I pay $6 for 12 true free range eggs at the market. They differ in size a bit in each carton, but they are a lot better. (yes, really!) The local honey costs $10 for 1 pound. The heirloom tomatoes (here already for 3 or 4 weeks) cost $2.50 to $3 - depending on the booth. Fava beans around $1.50-2.50 I think Those are the prices I remember off hand. Other things are often priced per rubber banded unit, a bundle of baby garlic 2.50 a bundle of baby onions 1.50-2.00, bundle of basil 1.50, etc

for me it's definitely more expensive, but that's because I go there for things I can't get at Safeway, like true free range eggs, purple carrots, grass fed beef, local honey, etc. It's pretty much on par with Whole Foods though. Some things are comparable, bag of salad greens etc, but many things are more expensive, but also higher quality. Somebody mentioned the SF Ferry building market, that's a really expensive one judging from the couple times I went, but it caters to those that shop in the ferry building at all the very nice but expensive cheese, meat, etc stores there. Berkeley is also on the fancy side, living a bit under the Chez Panisse shine. My friends only shop there (same strawberries as Chez Panisse etc), I never go, too far away. I go to the regular year round Sun market here, there's an other one only in summer on Sat, that's actually a bit cheaper and has slightly different things, a town down the road cheaper as well and more catering to Mexican cuisine with things I can't even find in my town. And then there's a swap meet at a drive in, and I heard they also have a farmer's market section that's really cheap with big amounts of things. Haven't been though. But particularly here in the Bay Area, yo ucan really tell a difference in price and offerings depending on where the market is. Quite interesting actually. Once example, in my town you rarely find okra whereas the next town over has piles of it. Of course, you see the same with the stores in my town (Tiffany's, Apple store, Neiman Marcus moving in) and other towns where I go for my mexican or asian supermarkets etc. My main reasons to go are quality and products I can't find otherwise (though Whole Foods has a lot of the same things) and I just love strolling the market, though the best is opening my trunk lid after returning home and being overwhelmed by the smell of all the fresh stuff, and then spending an hour or so cleaning things, tasting things, playing with my food But in my case, the market definitely costs me a lot more than the supermarket.

hmm, I'll take a whiff next time I use it, at high heat I have the fan blowing, so might just not notice it. But I sure would have tasted a fishy taste on my chicken. I shall experiment!

I use Canola all the time, never noticed any fishy smell or taste. I just took a couple deep whiffs from my current bottle, safeway brand. There's a very very faint nutty smell, but nothing fishy. Strange. I have a pretty good nose, I usually cook by smell more than by tasting, and my wife has some fishy taste super detectors, neither of us has ever noticed anything even close to fishy smell. I'd have thrown it out long ago. Maybe it's one of those things that some people are sensitive to, most others not? I've never even heard of this before. I use it >because< there is no smell and practically no taste at all. I use other oils if I want flavor.