kayb

These make my mouth water. I used to get them at IHOP with strawberry preserves. I have never tried to make them...but must, someday. Never thought of them with caramelized apples, which is one of my favorite ways to prepare apples.

Off topic, but this made me think of "fried biscuits," a deer camp standby. One takes the flaky "whomp biscuits" -- the "old-fashioned" style won't work. Pull them apart in horizontal layers so you have two flatter biscuits for each one. Fry them on medium heat in butter until they're puffy and done in the middle. Serve with jam, jelly, syrup or sprinkled with sugar. These are heart-stopping and artery-clogging, and wonderful.

@Anna N, could you share a link/recipe for the Asian pear pickles?

I agree with @Anna N and @rotuts. I think you got a defective unit. Mine has never fluctuated more than a half a degree after reaching temp, and it seems to circulate well. They'll send you a new one in a heartbeat.

I love NOLA; I love to eat my way through it. I have a friend who contends the way to "do" a foodie tour of NOLA is an early breakfast somewhere of beignets or croissants and coffee; brunch at one of the classics; late lunch at a po'boy place or Willie Mae's, appetizers in a bar of a favorite about 5:30 or 6, and then dinner at 9 p.m., with lots of walking between each. I think the only disappointing meal I ever had in NOLA was at Tujague's, on the opposite side of Jackson Square from Cafe DuMonde. I'd heard great things, but I guess you can hit anywhere on an off night. This one was. I've never been overwhelmed with either Acme or Felix's. Drago's oysters are MUCH better. Glad you got to Mother's. I love the shrimp and oyster po'boy, and the debris isn't bad, either.

There is no such thing as too much Jarlsberg. I had a tradition for my daughters' 16th birthdays, that I would take them (alone) to dinner at a French restaurant. My middle one asked if she could have a steak. I said she could. She asked if I thought they would have Heinz 57 or A-1. I told her it would not matter if they did or not, she would not use it. Not there, not for that steak. For one night, she could be grown up.

I love anything you can do to it. Some of my favorite preps: -- Saute fresh corn kernels and asparagus in butter until barely crisp-tender, with a healthy handful of minced tarragon. Add steamed shrimp, and toss just until the shrimp are warmed. -- Drizzle spears with olive oil and roast at 450 for about 6 minutes. Put on a platter and sprinkle with some lemon zest. Cube cantaloupe and fresh mozzarella and toss with a lemon viniagrette; pile on top of the asparagus. Sprinkle the whole thing with grated parmigiano. -- Saute in butter, slide onto a plate, and quickly fry an egg or two in the remaining butter. Slide on top of the spears and dig in. -- Cut into one-inch lengths, blanch quickly, and shock in ice water. Toss with sliced raw sugar snap peas, par-boiled carrots (to the point they're a little tender but not cooked through), in a mixture of 2:1 vinegar to granulated sugar. (It's good to add sliced mushrooms to this, right before serving.

Here's one I just ran across: Website here.

Assorted thoughts: Brunch at Brennan's -- I'd highly recommend the egg yolk carpaccio and the eggs Sardou. Dinner menu -- hard to go wrong with Gulf fish (it would hopefully be grouper) amandine. I think the soft-shell crab at Antoine's is consistently the best I've ever had. Add to your schedule if you can squeeze them in: Shrimp and grits at Mr. B's Bistro Chargrilled oysters at Drago's Should you want a steak, La Boca Argentine, in the Warehouse District right near the Central Business District, is excellent. As I recall, it's either on Tchopitoulas or right off of it. I've heard great things about Luke, although John Besh is in disgrace at present. Am also fond of Restaurant August. I usually sit in the bar and eat appetizers and drink wine. Crawfish cheesecake at the Palace Cafe is a marvelous thing, as is the fried chicken at Willie Mae's Scotch House. Eat a po'boy, somewhere. Mother's has a good one. And you should have a drink in the Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel.

I have been somewhat successful in soaking hickory chips in bourbon and using them. I bought a big box of assorted flavors of wood chips from Amazon -- mesquite, cherry, oak, hickory, alder, apple, maybe a few others I'm forgetting -- and I've been experimenting with what goes with what.

Welcome to the Dark Side.

Handy. I have a stainless colander that came with a set of stainless mixing bowls that fits perfectly in my 6 qt. I use it frequently. It has the little handles, as well. I find it particularly useful when making stock...solids lift right out, and go straight to the trash.

I don't cook hot soups much in the summer, but I will keep watermelon gazpacho in the fridge most all summer long. Love the stuff.

Leftovers-R-Us. Took the white rice from Saturday, and the asparagus and corn and shrimp from Friday, and made fried rice. I am replete.

Two iterations of pork tenderoin: After the char siu, with which I was not overwhelmed, I stuck the other half of the tenderloin in the fridge. Sunday, I diced it up, peeled and diced some potatoes and cooked them, made a Mornay sauce (with the addition of some paprika) and stirred it all up together. Topped it with a combo of panko and grated parmigiano. With frozen lima beans and an apple salad, it served well for Sunday lunch.

A wood rasp works wonderfully as a citrus zester.

You put me to shame. I still have the raised beds to do, and the seed garden needs hoeing, but before that, the hoe needs sharpening, and before that, this twingy muscle in my back needs to quit.

I am likely now one of the few Southerners to own a set of Paderno cookware, thanks to the kind efforts of @Kerry Beal, with assistance from @Anna N, who went to Canadian Tire to check out the cookware sale. Kerry was kind enough to buy the set and ship to me. My old, mismatched stuff has gone home with the youngest child; it doesn't look nearly as nice, but it's an order of magnitude better than what she was using. The Paderno performed admirably tonight on the orange chicken and rice. I thought the recipe sucked -- it was unGodly sweet -- but the cookware did great.

I would love to have two of those. No bun, no aioli, just plenty of lemon wedges. Oh, Antoine's! Or Mary Mahoney's!

I am bowing to the child's wishes tonight and cooking -- Chinese. Orange chicken, in point of fact.

Cooking the bacon, pouring off the grease, wiping the skillet out with a paper towel. Over and over and over. That's why it's good to season skillets in the summer, so you can make lots of BLT's. I would suspect the burger thing is the same principle, but beef fat has never seemed to me to be as "greasy" as pork fat. Dunno why.

Clemson spineless is good okra. When you pick it, it's a good idea to wear a long-sleeved shirt, as the leaves have a stickery "fuzz" on them that can make you itch something fierce. And like all okra, it has tough stems, so carry a knife or kitchen shears to cut it from the plant, rather than just pulling it.

Welcome back! Share one or two of your favorite dished with us, why don't you?

Stick it in the oven on the "clean" cycle. When it comes out, wipe it out, and season again. My Lodge carbon steel pans didn't season "pretty" --- but they don't stick, either. I've seasoned with everything from flaxseed oil to bacon grease. I'm about to be of the mind bacon grease is as good as anything.

God bless y'all. A dear friend went to India on a business trip. Contracted food poisoning the night before he left. Spent the flight home, as he tells it, "locked in the airplane lavatory, sitting on the floor, hugging the toilet and praying to die." He can't eat Indian food to this day.