mgaretz

If you want the flour sack kind, then Sam's club has them cheap and they are pretty good quality.

If you do hit Duarte's, save room for the olalieberry pie.

Even if the deal is (or seems like) a good one, still get your lawyer involved. I can't tell you the number of seemingly great deals that went way wrong and now my wife has to get people out of trouble.

Do not neglect getting yourself a good real estate lawyer to negotiate your lease. They can save you way more than their fees. (I'm married to one.) If you can get it, an easy out after a year is good to have in case the biz doesn't make it. You don't want to have to be paying rent on a space you're not using. It sounds like you're coming from the world of a one- person business. If you've never had employees that will be a big difference. Don't forget to build in the cost of payroll taxes, workers comp, insurance, a payroll service or program etc. into salaries. Also, it sounds like in your current business it's easy to take time off. Not so with retail unless you have enough trusted staff to run the business when you're gone. Easier said than done. Don't forget your marketing budget. If you build it, they usually won't just come. Last, not sure how it goes in your area, but don't forget to build in a few extra months of paying rent and leases on equipment while you are closed (before you can open up for business) as the health department drives you crazy!

I've done home pressure frying of chicken, in fact I bought my first pressure cooker with that use in mind specifically. (Note - you can't use a standard pressure cooker - you need to get one that is specifically designed to do pressure frying.) I have to say that I didn't think it was much better than standard deep-fried chicken, as long as you have a fryer that can get to 375oF and maintain it when you put in the chicken. I think the batter and seasonings are more important. (I was trying to recreate Broasted chicken, which I had in So. Cal when I was a kid but doesn't seem to be had anywhere in my area.)

I have a demo model Nakiri from W-S that was on their magnetic holder in the display case. It put scratches on the blade. I'm sticking with my block.

Try a little xanthan gum. Not too much or they will be gluey. You'll also need a stand mixer as it will take a long time and high speed.

Lucy's in Yountville and the Wine Spectator restaurant at Greystone (CIA) are good choices in the Napa area. Crystal Fish in Monterey for sushi.

The mayo-type dressing, aka thousand island, on burgers predates McD. It was always what we had with burgers growing up in anaheim and a lot of the local, non-chain restaurants served their burgers this way. Special sauce was used by jack in the box well before McDonald's started using it on the big Mac. We had a fast burger place called Burger Chef that sold their burgers for 12 cents or 10 for a dollar. They had ketchup and mustard and a pickle chip. The burgers were made on a dual sided chain broiler like Burger King, but they came way before Burger King and beat McDonald's to town by several years but I'm not sure if McDonald's came first in other locations. But the basic McDonald's burger (which was all they had back then) was essentially the same as the Burger Chef one. Carl's jr and its "competitor" Heinz (some sources say it later acquired by Carl's and others that it was secretly owned by them all along which wouldnt surprise me as the menu was identical) used a combination of ketchup and sweet pickle relish, which Carl's still uses as far as I know but it's been years since I was in one. I remember eating at the original Carl's restaurant but don't recall what was on the burgers. But local diner Armstrongs used thousand island and shredded lettuce and had great shoestring fries before any of the fast food joints existed.

Thats based on our own vengroff's Sous Vide Dash.

Personally, I like chicken breasts done sous vide. They're juicy and tender, but not super-amazing. My daughter, on the other hand, doesn't care for them and prefers the texture from oven or BBQ methods, so that's how I make them. In other words, the difference isn't significant enough to make the chicken one way for her and another for me. I think the big difference for most is that they don't know how to cook a chicken breast conventionally and are used to dry, somewhat tough breasts. The difference between those and ones made sous vide is huge and that may be why you've seen the descriptions you have.

Costco has had them off and on for $69. Worth a look.

I've seen wine made from all kinds of things, but meat and vegetables? ;-) (can't do a graphic smiley on my iPad!)

Was in Williams-Sonoma today. Cherry pie filling for $19.95. Says it's enough for two 9" pies but I doubt it would do two, more like one.

I have a similar cooker from Cuisinart and I like it a lot. Doesn't do as many things as the model you are looking at. The Cuisinart browns and sautes but you really only use these modes to pre-cook or brown things before pressure cooking so you save a pot. Looks like my rice cooker will do the rest of what this does. I got my rice cooker (a 5 cup) to replace my 10 cup because we often only want to make 1 cup of rice and the 10 cup has a 2 cup minimum. So check the minimum amount of rice this will do and see if that works for you. In general though, I have a big stove-top pressure cooker (a Fagor that can also do pressure frying). I never used it because I don't feel like I have any control over it. I could probably learn, but the Cuisinart is so much easier to use and cleans up easier (the inner pot is non-stick, the one you are looking at is stainless).

Thanks Kim. It's pretty easy. The glaze is just ketchup and sugar. You can use white or brown but I usually use white because I'm too lazy to get the brown to dissolve. I don't measure but it's about 1/2 cup ketchup to 3 tbs sugar. Cook the meatloaf to an internal temperature of 135f in a 375f oven. Then take it out, turn on the broiler and baste the meatloaf. Give it about 6-7 minutes under the broiler then repeat the glaze and broil for another 6-7 minutes. You'll have to determine the time based on your broiler and how close the meatloaf is to the burner. Pull it both times when it starts to get a bit charred, to your taste of course. Edited to add that the meatloaf is cooked on a broiler pan as a free-form loaf, not in a meatloaf pan.

Hamantaschen!

An update on the cherry pie filling sorbet. It came out fine. After two days in the freezer it has the scoopability of store-bought. Tastes great, like frozen cherry pie but not quite as sweet because of the coldness, which is not a bad thing. I think my next experiment will be to freeze about 2/3 of a can into cubes, put them back in the blendtec with the unfrozen 1/3 and process it all for instant sorbet, skipping the ice cram maker.

We have more rosemary growing around our complex than any other plant, so fresh rosemary is as simple as stepping outside to snip some. But recently I made a batch of a BBQ rub called memphis dust that called for powdered rosemary. It was a piece of cake to dry it in the microwave and then powder in a mortar and pestle. In your case you could just dry and save what you don't use fresh. If you have a vacuum sealer, you can try sealing a sprig and freezing it. Then thaw and see how well it survives. I do this with Thai basil and while it wilts and blackens on thawing, it works and tastes fine when used in a cooked dish. Rosemary is more sturdy and I'm guessing it would survive the freeze/thaw cycle much better.

The other day, I served one of these to a friend who grew up in Hong Kong. As you suggested, he said it was nothing like traditional char sui, but it was delicious. Thanks for the recipe! You are very welcome.

I have tried the retrograde and it does reheat well (in a microwave) but so do my regular mashed potatoes. I don't use any milk - just butter. I'm not sure if it matters to reheatability, but I also return the drained, boiled potatoes to the dry, hot, boiling pot for a few minutes. This supposedly drives off excess water and makes a better mashed potato.

I'm getting geared up to try "ice cream" (most of which will be non-dairy) using my sous vide supreme and the Blendtec to pre-process the ingredients before the water bath. Been a while since I played with my ice cream attachment for the Kitchenaid so I wanted to try something simpler to get back into the swing of things. I took the very simple route and took a can of cherry pie filling and puréd it in the Blendtec. The only thing I added was a tsp of almond extract. Then chilled it right in the container for 3 hours. Then poured into the ice cream attachment and ran it for 20 minutes. I only ate a little but it was good - I think it will be better tomorrow after a day in the freezer. (One can was not enough to reach the middle paddles, so I also think it would be better with more volume.) I figured the cherry pie filling had enough sugar, starch and gums to make a decent sorbet that won't be too icy, but we'll see.

I'm doing pulled pork but not in my new smoker. Back to the old slow cooker method until my daughter moves to Davis for college - she doesn't like the smoke even though it's outside. Will also be making cole slaw with both red and green cabbage at her request.

You can't copyright a title. http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html. About half-way down.

Best of luck!