kayb

For what it's worth...I find it works well for me to sear for about a minute on either side, vs. the Kenji suggested method of two minutes on one side and 10 seconds on the others. Damn fine bacon. But mostly, the quick cook is wonderful.

I cooked two racks of ribs, coated in dry rub, for 36 hours at 145 F, pulling them out and cooling them before sliding them in the oven with a glaze of sauce, for Christmas. They were the biggest, meatiest, baby back ribs I think I've ever seen, and the were GOOD. I have a meal's worth in the fridge, and another meal's worth in the freezer; we'll see those again. But the real SV winner of late has been the bacon mentioned upthread. I have to be very careful cooking bacon when my daughter is at home, as the smell is a migraine trigger for her. But to SV the bacon in its store vac-sealed package, clip a corner, drain the fat and drippings, then refrigerate or freeze, and then pull out a few strips at a time to cook -- not only is it MARVELOUS bacon, but it also cooks quickly enough I can have my bacon and not bother her! I have four more 24-oz packages of Wright's in the freezer that need to go in the SV. This is a life-changing process.

@rotuts It's a traditional dish that's been on every Thanksgiving and Christmas menu as long as I can remember. 1 12-oz bag of cranberries, washed and picked over 1 green apple (I use Granny Smith) 1 red apple (I use Fiji) 1/2 to 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped (depending how much you like pecans; I use a cup) 1 orange 1 small box raspberry jello 1 to 2 cups sugar (I use about 1 1/2) (depends on whether you tend more toward tart or sweet flavors) 1 cup water Grind the cranberries and apples roughly in the food processor or some sort of grinder. Add the chopped nuts. Zest the orange and add that, then peel and puree the sections and add that. Make a simple syrup of the sugar and water, remove from heat, and whisk in the jello. Pour over the fruit and toss to mix thoroughly. This is NOT a congealed salad. The jello and simple syrup make a sort of syrupy dressing for it. I don't make it as sweet as my mother did; she used the full two cups of sugar.

I didn't think there was any way to season cast iron except with bacon grease. At least that's all I ever knew to be used when I was a kid.

A gift box from Biscuit Love, a Nashville restaurant, that included two bags of quickbread mix (one sweet, apple fritter, one savory, rosemary cheese) and several jars of jams and jellies including smoky tomato jam, onion and garlic jam, peach habanero jam, peach preserves, strawberry preserves, and something else I forget. Still stockings to unload; I'm waiting until my daughter, who's been ill and who's, I hope, sleeping off a horrible sinus infection, gets up for that. She typically loads me down cool little kitchen widgets. Oh, and an Amazon gift card that I have no doubt will result in something kitchen-y.

Ordered a nine-inch glass lid to use on the IP when I want to use it as a slow cooker. If you have not done this, I highly recommend it; it's much simpler than using the regular lid, and allows for some evaporation and thus the appropriate changing of flavors if, say, you're making something that includes alcohol. I used it to make mac and cheese for our Christmas dinner; used the saute function to boil the noodles, drained them, switched over to "keep warm" and added the cheese, butter, cream and milk, and just stirred it periodically until we were ready to dig in. I found this one on sale for $9.95, free shipping. Looks almost identical to the IP-branded one. Glad I've got it. The IP gets even more versatile, if that's possible.

OK, so I didn't get any photos of Christmas (Eve Eve) dinner, but here's a pic of Christmas lunch from leftovers. Cranberry salad, potato salad, two slider sandwiches on leftover rolls (one ham, one turkey, both with Swiss, the ham with Dijon, the turkey with curry spread), a handful of olives. As I took a late afternoon nap and woke up at 5 minutes to six, I missed Christmas Eve 6 p.m. service, so I went ahead and fixed myself more leftovers for dinner -- a slice of cheesecake and a wee dram of eggnog.

@HungryChris, that's just wonderful. We've had Christmas dinners in some pretty unlikely places over the years, and they're always fun. One place I worked, the boss was a Texan and quite skilled at the preparation of brisket. He cooked brisket and we all brought side dishes. Much fun!

I have a prototype Edgeware that never went into full production. It's a V-slicer. I love it. I use a heavy silicon oven mitt when slicing. Use it mostly during canning seasons.

That is a lovely, lovely plate. We had the big family Christmas dinner tonight. Ham, smoked turkey breast, ribs. Potato salad, sweet potato casserole, asparagus, cranberry salad, mac and cheese. White chocolate cherry cheesecake. Pecan pie. A veritable snowstorm of wrapping paper shredded across my den floor. Two completely spazzed-out dogs. One mom who became a prime target for children's brand new Nerf guns. Plus a roasted turkey and gravy I delivered to a local group shelter as part of a holiday dinner project this afternoon. I was in such a dither cooking and finishing things I took absolutely NO food pictures (and those were some PRETTY ribs, too!). But we have this picture, which I think is much more important than the food: Hoping for all of y'all as Merry a Christmas as I've already had!

Pull out pantries and cats! Can't beat it! Happy to see things coming together for you. I know that's a good Christmas present. Hope you have a fine Christmas dinner from someone else's kitchen!

automaticconversion.com is my friend. ML to tablespoons or cups, grams to ounces, etc. That on my phone, along with a C-to-F converter, lets me sail through whatever I need to sail through. (As someone who often deals professionally in capacities of utility systems, the first time I had to convert "acre-feet" of water to cubic meters of water, the above website saved me. I've been a convert ever since.) I grew up on ounces and pounds, feet and inches, cups and quarts and gallons, teaspoons and tablespoons. And Fahrenheit. I don't expect I'm going to easily convert at my age. But as long as I have a phone that will do it for me, that's OK. Eventually, it would be most handy to have a world that was all one or the other (with nods to Lincoln in his Cooper Union speech, because I am a history nerd as well as an enthusiastic amateur cook).

Rat cheese. Haven't heard that term in ages. Used to get it on bologna sandwiches at the little country grocery up the road from my house when I was a kid. Loved me some rat cheese, especially when accompanied with chocolate drop candy and Ritz crackers.

@lindag, I've run into issues when I crowded the pot too much. Since it doesn't have as large a diameter and "floor space" as, say, my 12-inch skillet, which I'd normally use for browning, I find that I have to break more things into batches to brown. I usually use the "medium" setting to brown meat.

Turkey deviled eggs would be fun, I'd think. I used to get duck eggs at the farmers market occasionally, and I love one over-easy. Never thought of deviling one. I do love a deviled quail egg, though. But yes, they are an awful lot of work.

My only concern about it would be using the zip-lock (use the freezer bags; they are thicker/heavier than storage bags) and submerging the seal; I'd be real scared of a leak. I would go for a container in which it will fit horizontally, so you can keep the seal above water (chip clips around a piece of string/wire, or a wooden spoon handle, work nicely for this). Not having a lid is not a huge issue; you can simply add hot water as it evaporates away; you won't lose enough water overnight, say, to hurt things. Depending on when you plan to finish your SV, you can either chill it quickly in an ice bath, then refrigerate, or even freeze. For a long cook, why not just change your timing so it's through cooking about the time you want to take it out and finish the outside? As far as searing-crisping the exterior -- there are several options. I don't have a kitchen torch, but a lot of folks swear by them. I like, when I'm doing steaks, to SV, refrigerate, then throw them on a screaming hot grill to crisp/char the outside; doing that from chilled generally keeps me from getting the inside too done. I do things for which a rare or medium rare interior are not critical in a hot oven. If you don't mind the possibility of cooking your inside a little hotter than your SV temp target, then the oven is fine. In short, there are options other than stovetop searing, if they're suitable for the cut. And welcome to the forum. There are a lot of folks here that know a heck of a lot more than I do about SV, and I hope they'll chime in. Regardless, I hope your Christmas dinner is a rousing success!

In honor of @Anna N: I scooped the insides into a dish with a pat of butter and ate those while the skins were browning. Had no bacon bits and couldn't be troubled to fry any bacon. That's a salad plate, lest you think I've gone completely into carb overload. No sour cream in the house, but fortunately, there was plenty of homemade yogurt, which worked just fine.

If you live in an area where people have laying chicken farms, check to see if a locally-owned grocery or farm supply-type store carries "ungraded" eggs. I used to regularly buy double-yolk eggs, and the same store also carried small, or pullet, eggs.

No...the height of debauchery is spreading those emptied shells with butter or bacon fat, sprinkling on some grated cheese and bacon bits, and broiling them, THEN eating them. With more sour cream. And more wine. And I would know a LOT about that.

They weren't bad at all. I cracked them all over, rolling them around in my palms, and then put them back in cold water. Started peeling at the rounded end, and if you can get under the membrane, the shell comes off for the most part in a long spiral ribbon. One interesting note: I was peeling counterclockwise. I found that if the egg wasn't peeling well, I could change the way I held it so the direction was reversed, and it'd peel like a charm.

If anyone's looking for a glass lid for an Instant Pot, this one's on special for $9.95, not Prime, but free shipping. Been wanting one.

Sounds like a great evening. I love a silent auction. Years ago, I had taken my then-13-year-old daughter to a conference with me; one night, there was a reception with a silent auction. She fell in love with a "piggy bank" made from a small (gas-grill-sized) propane bottle, painted red, with a snout and eyes and ears glued on one end, a curly tail on the other, and four "feet" made of pipe -- an Arkansas Razorback. I bid on it until it got out of my price range, and told her I just couldn't do any more. A friend overheard us, bought it, and gave it to her. Now, it's in her son's bedroom. Like your salad spoons -- a new family heirloom!

Instant Pot, low pressure, two minutes, natural release, ice bath. I knew they'd get a little more heat when I processed them in the canner, so I decided to err on the side of maybe undercooking. Didn't split one open to check.

@Shelby, I drove an hour and 15 minutes, one-way, to get to the Asian market in Memphis, as the local Asian market didn't have any. Bought all they had in the cooler -- five dozen. They looked at me funny. The bacon jam rocks, if it IS my own recipe. This will be nice in gift baskets, and will be a good supply for me for a while.

I have been pickling things and canning things that will go in Christmas gift baskets. First, the aptly-named "firecracker pickles," a recipe my daughter got from a friend who makes them; she swears they're wonderful, though they're certainly the oddest pickle I ever made. One takes a gallon of el cheap-o hamburger dill slices from the grocery, dumps them in a colander, and drains off the brine. Then one packs them back in the jar, layering them with sugar and a Whole Bottle of hot sauce. It only looks like someone bled in it. The sugar dissolves into a brine. I let it sit a couple of days, then transferred pickles with a set of tongs to smaller jars, poured brine over, and processed in a water bath to get a seal. I tried one before I canned them and I think it singed a hole in my tongue. Then I decided to combine two childhood standbys into a single jar, and pickled quail eggs and chunks of Boar's Head ring bologna, sliced about 2/3 of an inch thick and cut in quarters. Each jar had a half a serrano pepper, half a red jalapeno, a clove of garlic and two tbsp. of salt, with a brine of 4:1 white vinegar and water. They look pretty, and there's certainly a novelty factor. Finally, I made a double batch of bacon jam, simplified greatly by cooking the bacon (two three-pound packages of Wright's ends and trimmings) in the package from the store, sous vide at 147 degrees for about 18 hours. Drained the fat, dumped bacon in Dutch oven, added the caramelized onions, brown sugar, maple syrup, brandy, a couple of cups of strong black coffee, Aleppo pepper and allspice and simmered for two hours. Processed it in batches to semi-smooth consistency, and canned in half-pint jars. Marvelous on biscuits, grilled cheese sandwiches, and grilled burgers!