OliverB

what k43 said, those approaches should give you the best results you can hope for. And never cook with sweet onions, they're for eating raw in salads or on burgers etc. I'm pretty sure you can't even find sweet onions in France, or at least could not in the past. And as mentioned, you can make a whole big fat pot of the stuff and freeze it in portions. Unless you eat it all right away of course

also do lots of market research. Why did that bakery close? Owners old? Or just not enough business in that area? I'm not into sweets, but even if I were I'd have no idea where there might be a bakery in my town or the next town over. For coffee there's Starbucks which I avoid like the plague and Pete's in my area. Considering what they charge for a cup of hot water with a bit of bean dust, I tend to make my own at a fraction of the cost. Would you also offer bread etc or only sweet things? For whole sale, are there companies around that have lunch counters where they might sell your wares? Cater parties. Do as much research as you can, and - personally I'd - avoid friends and family in your research. They will most likely praise your baked goods, not matter what. Get professionals to help you with your plans. Working in a bakery or better in several is really important. Work for free for a month if need be, just to see how these things work. I could not deal with the night work hours, others do just fine. It's a touch business with not much of a margin, you're competing against all the mass produced clamshell stuff in the supermarket. Even a Dunkin had to close down in my area a while ago, and that's a brand everybody with a sweet tooth knows. Maybe try selling at farmer's markets? Betty's Bake Sale in my area did that for years. You'll get a lot of foody customers and good feedback. And it can be fun, I always liked working at markets. For cost planning, don't forget insurance, which is getting more and more expensive. You need to cover your rear in case somebody breaks a tooth on a nut shell and sues you. Maybe there's a coop market of some sort in your area, where you could sell your goods? Might be a good idea to just rent a commercial kitchen for a couple days or nights during the week and bake up enough to sell at a market or at a food and wine festival or something like that. Get a feel for customer's reactions, tastes, and demands. I've thought about a bread bakery in the past, but the cutthroat business, mini margin and crazy work hours quickly wiped that out of my mind. It's sad, but it's very very hard to run a nice traditional business like a bakery/butcher shop/etc nowadays. Especially if you compete with some of the better supermarkets like Whole Food in addition to Safeway and all those. Plan very well, and good luck!

thanks all, I think I'll do the pizza tonight and I hope more will grow in the same spot. They promise us a week of rain...

it's an elm tree. I'm making about half of them now with some onions, garlic and some pork, all fried separate then all together with some chicken broth, boil down, add cream, smoked paprika, eat with brown rice mix. Seems to come along nicely :-)

as a side note, you can buy (fire)roasted canned tomatoes.

I don't have a sand pot yet, but I'll keep that in mind! Sounds really good. That books also looks great, but expensive. Not by itself, but I'd have to buy all the clay pots.... :-D

that's an interesting idea, thanks! And maybe I can make some stock with the stems and other left overs. Other ideas out there?

Yesterday I found a huge cluster of oyster mushrooms growing on a tree in my yard. Scales in at 1 lb 9 oz, what would you do with them? I'm thinking some kind of meat with mushroom sauce, but more than one pound? Or just sautee them? Eat them with eggs? Here they are, the large one on the left is 6 inches in diameter:

interesting! Reminds me that I bought a book fittingly called Sauerkraut last time in Germany, have to dig that up. Might give it a try before it gets too warm here... I love good sauerkraut, which is almost completely unobtainable here in the US. At least I have not come across it in the Bay Area, unless it was imported stuff from Germany. And that just seems a bit too silly.

Last night I made two prime rib eye steaks by first searing them in a very hot cast iron grill pan to get nice markings, then finished them on a plate in a 200 degree oven. While they were in there I also put sliced pineapple in the grill pan to get nice dark grill marks on both sides, in the oven they went too. Mashed potatoes with turnips and garlic in them and a salad. In summer I like to put unshucked corn on the bbq to serve. Might also fire roast peppers and other veggies, cut teh corn off the cob and make a veggie salad. Or a sweet and spicy fruit salsa, pineapple like above, mango, lime, cilantro, s&p and some cayenne or similar. Mushrooms have already been mentioned. Garlic or herb butter. Garlic bread A version of zazicki (sp?), i.e. shredded cucumber with yogurt dressing and garlic In winter any hard squash, from spaghetti to acorn. Roasted, cut into 1.8ths, peeled and maybe fried a bit in butter to give some color on the cut sides. Roasted corn salad (not creamed) Beans in any which way they come, be it fresh fava or some wonderful heirlooms from Rancho Gordo or just a nice green bean salad. Steamed beans, thinly sliced red onions marinated in sugar and red wine vinegar for a while, s&p and good olive oil. Radishes as salad, marinated, or just on the side. Little red ones or the long white ones (daikon). Chutneys if on hand

google should bring you plenty links, I've seen them made from just about anything, old fridge, closet, oil drum, wooden box. Just don't spend too much on it, or you might as well buy a smoker post some pix if you get it working, I love to see what people come up with!

maybe this is more an old fashioned way to keep it moist, for the chicken that did not "retain 5% water" or what ever it may be in your supermarket. Most chicken are plumped one way or an otherAfter all the chicken took a bath in a gigantic ice tub to cool down quickly after slaughter. (which is why I now only buy air dried for roasting) If I used a lemon for some reason I stuff it in there, otherwise I leave it wide open. I also never could tell a difference in taste, but then, you don't really eat much from the inside of a chicken. As for the oysters, it's a small meaty area around what one might call the shoulder? It's not very big on chicken. Easiest way to find it is to pull the skin off a chicken's back sometime. I'm not sure what all the fuzz is about though, tastes like chicken to me

I've never noticed any off flavors (or smells). I use a torch from Ace hardware. Initially I got a set with tank, torch, flint lighter and different tips, but those always went out when tilted down. (I use it for artwork and around the house too). Then I got a different top from Ace (their brand, but I'm sure just branded that way) that has an on/off switch, ignites when you press the switch down and you can even lock it down. This one I can hold any way I want, it never goes out and the flame is very hot and clear, indicating a good burn I think. Works very well on crusting up a pork shoulder after smoking it for a couple hours at 200-250. I've seen the same setup on several photos from kitchens around the country and am quite happy with it. But for some expensive SV steaks, I'd probably rather get a cast iron (grill?) pan and get it really hot, as indicated above.

I only have one thing I've been meaning to make (and bought the ingredients twice already for), the fried chicken from Ad Hoc at Home. But this idea falls into my goal for this year: a threesome each month. Meaning, picking any of my 200+ cookbooks and committing to making (at least) 3 recipes from that book in one month. That way actually using the books for more than reading pleasure. I might open the book at random and make what ever is on that page or I might select 3 things in particular, not sure yet. First book is Ad Hoc at home of course, then probably Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking. We'll see how it goes...

I cut my butter in smaller pieces if I have to melt it in the micro, that usually works very fast and never exploded on me. I'd be hesitant with frozen butter, if at all I'd use the defrost setting I think. And yes, microwaves don't heat from the inside out, the waves don't even penetrate very far into food. If you think about it, how could the waves enter the food and NOT heat the outside while heating the inside only? They get weaker the further they penetrate until they're gone. It's not an x-ray. Be very careful with the super heating mentioned above, I've heated water that suddenly boiled over once I put a teabag in. You do not want boiling water flying everywhere.... Always let a cup of liquid rest for a couple seconds if you had it in there long enough to boil. Oh, and never put an egg in, open, closed, in a bowl, poured on a plate, doesn't matter, it will explode and make a terrible mess. You can buy a kind of clamshell thing to make "poached" eggs in the micro and you'll hear the explosion (especially if you forgot to pierce the yolk). I threw mine out as the eggs were rather rubbery that way anyway.

I'm getting a bit confused by all the mix and prep and numbers. Is the Vita Mix Vita Prep 3 the top model? I think so, but.... Since they're retty close in price and I expect this thing to last a long time, the difference in price is negligible and the extra power might be nice to have. I plan to make soups and veggie juices as well as plenty ice snow for making sausages. Also saw there are 3 different plades, ice, dry, and wet. Does it come with all of those? A smaller container is less important to me, I'd rather make stuff once or twice a week and refrigerate than dealing with it every day. The Vita Prep 3 sells for $480 on ebay it seems.

First, I'd have thrown it out (or better returned it) and most likely would not SV anything that might be slightly off, full heat and lots of spice would be my remedy if really in a bind. Like the medieval cooks Don't know about your cut, but I've had a pork tenderloin recently that was similar, just an off smell once I thawed it. I had frozen it immediately after buying, it was cryovaced at the processing plant (was from costco) and should not have had a chance to go bad. But it had an odd smell probably similar to yours. Also the outer layer of meat was somewhat grainy, not tight as usual. Since I had no plans for a costco run and it wasn't worth it money wise I just threw it out. In your case, I'd definitely let the butcher know. I'd probably call and ask to speak to the manager or head butcher and describe this (instead of making everybody uncomfortable in the store with other customers) and see what he says. If it were me, I'd offer you a free replacement for sure. And next time I'd highly recommend not to use any meat that might be off, and especially not for low and slow cooking, be it SV or smoking or slow cooking. All that aside, your dish looks wonderful!

I've used my Zwilling kitchen shears for many years and they work just fine. Recently I bought the OXO poultry shears as they were on sale and they work very well too. I'd never spend $70 on such a thing, but I also don't cut chicken every day. To debone a chicken before cooking I use my butcher knive and cleaver. After cooking either the shears and the knife or often just the knife alone. Cut legs and wings off and then slice the breast meat off. Rest goes into the stock pot. I'll actually do that a couple hours from now :-) I don't know if you really need dedicated poultry shears, unless you cut a lot. A good set of kitchen shears will do everything and then some. My OXO were more of a "I'm in the kitchen store and want to buy something since I walked all the way here and they're on sale" Not really anything I'd consider essential though. I just like cuttlery.

thanks for those names, I'll def look at Teubner's books next time I'm over there. Can't speak for France/Spain, as I don't speak those languages. As for the ElBulli book, I know what you're saying. I just had hoped for more recipes than photos of cooks. The book is interesting, but too big and expensive for what I'd get out of it. If I find it used or on the bargain table some day, I'll probably pick it up though :-)

interesting list, I'm surprised to have 6 or 7 of those books, as it's pretty Britain based. A list written in the US would be very different and would not include many of those on this list. Does any cooking magazine or paper compile a list like that here in the US? I guess we could try to do so here too, but I'm afraid it would take the better part of the next decade to finalize it ;-) on McGee, I love the book but - and I do have a science background - it goes a bit too far into detail (for me) and I find myself skipping over things. I just don't need the full bloody detail about the last molecule's reason for changing. It is interesting, but not something I tend to memorize. Or use in cooking. I don't think the book is necessary for good cooking or even great cooking, after all, that has happened for centuries before. It is >interesting< to read the science behind what happens, but personally I can't say that the book (and I read it twice) changed or influenced my cooking as much as some other books did, largely those by Thomas Keller. Of course, just a personal opinion, and well all know how it is with opinions On my personal list - which would be much shorter - there'd be Keller and Reinhard and the Zuni Cafe book, Thailand the beautiful cookbook (or what it's called, don't have it handy) and a couple meat books including charcuterie, the river cottage book, seven fires. But then, that's the problem with these lists, maybe they be done by one person or a group, they'll never include all of "your" books and they will include some "total duds" too ;-)

incidentally, this is also how you build your hopefully healthy immune system. You won't be immune against something you've never come across. And a lot of things are doing just fine airborne and you don't need to touch anything or anybody to catch (literally) what's been sprayed around. To me it just comes down to common sense.

no sig in my copy, they must have signed it before wrapping it (again). I just got my Ad Hoc signed by Keller, you can see that sig at my blog if you scroll down.

this is interesting. I don't mind skimming and simmering for a long time, but with two little ones it can be hard to find a day where there's enough time to be around the house for hours. With chicken stock I find that there's little scum to deal with. I'm pretty sure I'd skin with veal bones or beef stock though, especially "white" i.e. made from not roasted bones. That scum is really filthy foamy icky stuff that I'd simply not want to ingest, no matter how tasty it may be. Still, seems a pressure cooker would get great results after skimming in a lot less time here too. I guess I'll have to put a KR on my amazon wishlist :-)

I get some good little tomatoes at Trader Joe's, I think they bred a lot of sugar back into them. I'm not a fan of buying stuff from Mexico (or Holland, like a bunch of other rather pale tomatoes at the same store! From Holland! How crazy is that?). Same with those shrink wrapped corns, they seem to be available all the time, have nice color and are ok tasting. But I'm a bit weary of the artificial atmosphere in the package, and can you determine if it's regular corn or some genetically modified thing? When it was picked? What it was treated with to ensure long storage and shelf life? If in a bind, I buy what needed, but on a day to day basis I tend to go with what is fresh and not in a clam shell or shrink wrap and has not traveled hundreds or thousands of miles, lived in a cool dark space until ripening gases (and sometimes light) were introduced to ship the next batch. I love the little tomatoes in salads and on simple pasta with pesto dishes though. Quality has increased as consumers complained about gorgeous tomatoes (etc) that had no taste and the breeders are busy improving on it. But off season I prefer canned over shipped for things like sauces etc. Or my own premade and frozen ones, as long as they last. Hint, go to the farmers market a bit later and ask the tomato guy for a box of damaged or over ripe ones, they're usually happy to sell you those at a discount as they otherwise have to throw them out. And for sauce making they're perfect! Just process them right away.

I'm sure who ever has a strong allergy against something knows how to protect themselves (or their parents do if little kids). We really can't sanitize the world for those with special conditions, as nice as that would be. As for hosing the carts down, that won't remove any germs, that'll remove dirt (and I think the stores put the carts where they get rained on for a reason, LOL). To sanitize the carts you'd have to dunk them into a pool of chlorinated water or similar. And that would be rather costly and supermarkets have tiny margins since we (yes, WE) all want everything cheap cheap cheap. And just wiping down the handles really won't do much for you anyways, as everything you pick up in the store has been handled by multiple people on the way to the shelf. Including by the employees who just collected all the carts in the parking lot. I'd hope (but not bet on) that employees wash hands before handling produce, but I doubt (nor see a reason for) such a policy for putting cans and packages on the shelves. (the usual requirements of washing after the bathroom etc aside - which I doubt are policed in a supermarket as much as in a restaurant or deli setting....) If one is that afraid of germs, I guess gloves and a mask are the only remedy that really would make any sense. Or ordering online, take delivery in the garage and fumigate with disinfecting spray before entering. Germs are necessary to keep your immune system up. Personally I believe all this clean fit many throw is a reason for the sudden increase in allergies in the US too, but that's just my opinion. My family in Germany laughed out loud when I told them that I'm not allowed to pack a peanut butter bread for my kids school lunch. Something like that just doesn't exist in other countries, at least not that I'm aware of. Paranoia is a good business in this country