kayb

Oh, @Franci, that is just spectacular!

But someone at P&G (isn't that who makes Dawn?) has now earned a nice year-end bonus because they've come up with a "new" product that cost little but will likely sell like hotcakes. Oh, well, if people want to pay for that level of convenience, more power to 'em. I'll stick to my dish sponge with the handle that holds detergent. I will note, however, that the finest spot-cleaner on the planet is a combo of Dawn and hydrogen peroxide. Will snatch red wine right out of carpet.

Pesto!

Come on! Always plenty of food for a few more!

This is the best, and easiest, thing in the world. 1 box yellow cake mix 1 box instant chocolate pudding 3 eggs 2/3 cup vegetable oil 2/3 cup water 1 tsp vanilla 8 oz sour cream 12 oz mini chocolate chips Mix the wet ingredients together, then add the cake mix and pudding. Fold in the sour cream (I used Greek yogurt, because I had it) and chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes if you're baking in a bundt pan. I baked this in one of those four mini-loaf pans, and it was too much; they had big muffin tops. Next batch, I'll make those four, and a couple of my mini-bundt.

I've been elfing today. Cashew brittle and mini-chocolate pound cake. Chocolate fudge with pecans and almond brittle. Peanut butter fudge and peanut brittle. Tomorrow I'll do some more mini-cakes and/or quick breads, some mini-cupcakes, maybe another batch or two of fudge (I'm thinking white chocolate peppermint, as I seem to have an abundance of white chocolate) and another big batch of Chex mix. Then I'll wait until after Christmas and make a few GF treats before the GF child and her family get here.

I suppose Christmas dinner can fit into this topic as well. What's everyone planning? It appears I will have two. One on Christmas Day, which will be small, and the other on the Sunday after, with all the fam and all the stops pulled out. Christmas day, I am thinking will be an all-day buffet kind of thing so we can just graze as we wish, as we get up, as family comes by. I'll do a ham, and might smoke a turkey breast. Deviled eggs. Cranberry salad. Potato salad. Maybe a broccoli and cauliflower salad. Dips and chips and crackers and spreads; it's been a long time since I've had a good pate d'campagne. Assorted sweet things to nibble on, likely leftovers from treat-making. I might be moved to make a coconut cake. The Sunday after, as everyone will have had all the Christmasy foods they can hold, I'm going to have barbecue. I have a smoked pork shoulder roast in the freezer that I'll pull out and warm and pull, make some slaw and baked beans and potato salad, put out some buns and some corn tortillas to make sandwiches or tacos, put out a couple of bags of chips and make some cheese dip, and call that done. The GF brownies with ice cream and chocolate sauce were a hit at Thanksgiving, so I may repeat that, and maybe make a lemon icebox pie. There should be cranberry salad left, so that will go out, too. I'm contemplating roasting sweet potato wedges in the CSO just for a little something different. Kids are staying over that night, so I'll send them off with waffles and fruit and such the next morning. They're leaving me the grands, so we'll have several favorites while they're here, including burgers at home, and taking them out for sushi. I've never seen a six-year-old and an eight-year-old who can eat that much sushi! We also plan to build a gingerbread house and potentially make spaghetti monsters. What are y'all doing?

That saddens me, but thanks for letting me know. I trust Shaw's Crab House and the Berghof are still there?

Things I have so far resisted: The Phillips Avance grill. An air fryer. A Chamber vacuum sealer An A4 box. On the list of things I likely would not have bought, but for eGullet, and could not live without: An Anova sous vide circulator A CSO An Instant Pot A Thermapen A pair of good Japanese knives Innumerable small kitchen goods Innumerable cookbooks A healthy stash of previously unknown or at least untried in my kitchen ingredients I also bought a Paragon induction hob, which I have yet to use, but I'm pretty sure once I get used to it, I won't be able to live without it.

Great minds. Same thing we had last night. Along with some kraut and fried potatoes.

Thanks!

Thank you! It was a bumper pecan crop year around here, so I love new pecan-anything recipes.

Stunning.

Oooohhhhh. Would you post the recipe for that, please, @shain?

Doggone. SO tempting!

Hi, Jake! Welcome to the forum. Nice looking website. Might I suggest a preliminary, introductory "landing page," explaining the website and blogs are new and will shortly be populated with entries? Any special focuses you're planning?

@David Ross -- saving that one for sure. Do you see any reason why one couldn't freeze those after the putting the rolls on top of the caramel step, before the final rise? It occurs to me they'd be nice to gift frozen, so folks could put them out to thaw and rise the evening before to bake for breakfast....

Chum is a Good Dog. Wish I had some of your venison.

I dearly love crawfish etouffee over catfish. The late lamented Cajun's Wharf in Little Rock had such a dish; called it Catfish Ponchartrain.

Never made a cannele in my life, so this is purely theoretical. Would it help if you preheated your oven blazing hot, with a baking stone, then cut the temp down to baking temp, and put the pan and molds on the stone?

Welcome. There are some members here with experience in commercial kitchens, and many others with much insight on the scientific side of food prep. I'm sure you will find many sources of info that will be helpful. Me, I'm just a home cook, and I love learning about experimenting with and learning about the traditional cuisines of other lands, so I'm waiting eagerly for anything you'd like to share about Russian traditional cookery.

I think we're kin. I was prepared to type those very words.

My bread-baking talents don't come up to many of the others in this group, but when I decided I wanted to bake, I just dived in and started, me and the recipe books. Yes, I had some decided failures. But they became fewer. Of course, I am a verbal rather than visual/tactile learner, so that was an advantage. If you're the type who learns better in a classroom setting, I can't imagine you'd find a school much better than what I'd expect the King Arthur classes to be. I will say that the biggest thing that helped my bread-baking along was getting my Kitchenaid stand mixer. I'm a wuss with not near enough upper body strength. I'm bad to give up on hand kneading before I ought to, before the dough's ready. You only have to knead it to that point once, via KA, and feel it to know the difference. Once I learned the basics. reading in this forum helped me refine and learn much more. FWIW, Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Bread Bible is my favorite bread recipe book.

I have a tapered, wooden one (I believe they're called French rolling pins?) made by a friend who does woodwork. First time I'd ever used that style. Rolling pin used the entire time I was growing up -- and I wish I still had it -- was an old round whiskey bottle with a long neck. As we were a tee-totalling household, I always wondered where the bottle came from.

I have no idea if it's still there or not, but 20-plus years ago, on my first trip to Chicago, and one of my first experiences in a higher-end restaurant than the local diner or burger joint, we went to Bistro 110 across from the old waterworks on Michigan. It remains one of the relevatory experiences in gastronomy that I can remember. I had some kind of a steak, which I little remember, except it was good. Likely a filet, but I don't recall. The port wine-foie gras reduction served with it was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted in my life -- until they brought dessert. I ordered creme brulee, because everyone else at the table did. I had no idea what creme brulee was. It came in a wide, flat ramekin, perfectly caramelized crust, a handful of fresh berries scattered across the top. I swear, my eyes rolled back in my head. I wanted to lick the ramekin (but refrained). I've had some wonderful meals in Chicago since then, including one at the Berghof that I credit with reawakening my dormant interest in German food; steaks at Lawry's and Hugo's; pho at Le Coloniale; seafood at Shaw's Crab House (really? In the middle of the country? Very close to the best I ever had). But I shall never forget that meal at Bistro 110. We ate there many more times on subsequent trips, and I was never disappointed. Chicago remains one of my very favorite cities in the world.