pastameshugana

I can't believe all these rubes who've never bothered to cut their sandwich according to the rule of the 'Golden Mean'. It's a rule, people. "The smaller is to the greater what the greater is to the whole." Anything else is foolhardy sandwich tomfoolery and guaranteed to send you to sandwich making purgatory.

Great picture! Keep it up, you're on the right track.

+1 Usually when I'm taking pictures of anything (just yesterday my 3yo outside who insisted I 'go take pictures' of her!), I'll take many, many pictures. It allows me lots of experimentation, more chances of getting a good shot, and it's a piece of cake to delete the excess later.

Intolerance is always ok if you're being intolerant of someone whose views are either in the minority of public opinion or on the wrong side of the politically correct spectrum. The Barilla exec made the simple boo boo of expressing a political, moral or religious opinion with which the media disagrees. Hence the outrage.

It's very low end, but I use a refurb saeco Vienna plus that I've had for three years now. My last one (refurb as well) lasted me 7, and only died then because I couldn't get it serviced in India. I think I paid 299 for it from wholelattelove.com if I remember correctly. On a related tangent, the espresso beans from redbirdcoffee.com are a passionate love affair of mine.

Any piece of meat that size needs a remote.

Teo, Tony Northrup has a book on kindle/iPad/print that is good. Not food related but gives a good general understanding of principles and equipment. I think it's called stunning digital photography but you can search by his name.

What's the use of a good argument if you can't have it more than once? If we let it go too long we'll forget the fun of getting our knickers in a knot! And to keep the post on topic: My global chef's knife, sharpened on my Edge Pro Apex is the perfect tool for getting aforementioned knickers out of a knot.

Chili cheese coney with onion and mustard from Sonic. Unadulterated ramen packs. The cheap ones. Mint chocolate chip ice cream for brekkie. Little Debbie Swiss cake rolls. Eat all the chocolate coating off, unroll, lick the cream, eat the cake.

I was secretly anticipating your entry into this conversation. I've had my eye out for some time for a branding iron for my steaks, just for the halibut.

We just tried the mayo on the outside yesterday (after reading this thread) and it truly makes a superior crust. How could I have lived this long and not known that trick?

I've been all across Turkey (and various other places on Earth) and I love it. Mr's Meshugana and I love Istanbul so much that on one trip to the Middle East we booked an extra day just to stay there. We were able to get a nice, affordable room within walking distance of the Bazaar and Haggia Sophia (Hagya Sofya). You could easily spend weeks just in Istanbul, truly one of the great cultural experiences. The Grand Bazaar alone could suck up a week. Something peculiarly spectacular about waking up to the sunrise Muezzin's call in Istanbul, looking across the city and seeing hundreds of minarets silhouetted in the sun. And the food! If my life were my own I would spend weeks there, but, alas...

That's fascinating, dcarch. I love the process of creating and modifying tools. I'm currently in the process of building an arduino controlled dolly slider for my video rig.

That sounds wonderful. We usually spice it up with green chile and El Pato hot sauce. If we've got it and it's been in the fridge too long - gruyere is great. I love the idea of butter mixed with mayo for the outside, I need to try that.

I also heartily recommend the book by Chad. I learned as a young boy to sharpen by hand, but when living in India (when I purchased Chad's book) I ordered an edge pro apex that I absolutely love. My two main knives are globals - not the best but far beyond WalMart fare. My wife has a collection of various other things, plus my utility carry-around knife is a lovely anodized blue Kershaw open-assist. I sharpen all of these on the EP. I like the EP for repeatable angles. I do a compound edge on my globals and being able to set a specific angle I can recall is great. I think I actually sharpen the knives about once every 6 months or maybe longer, but a quick hit with the ceramic stick usually gets them back into 'tomato performance'.

One of my favorite deli's anywhere is Schlomo & Vito's delicatessen by the Tierra Catalina Condominiums in the Catalina Foothills. A great blend of Italian & Jewish, great personalities and the food was above par (whatever that might mean). I kept the takeaway menu and it's in my kitchen to cause me to have hunger pains whenever I see it.

For me it was a move to Asia. I discovered ridiculously cheap produce, and had a little more time on my hands than normal, and just started experimenting! We had a housekeeper that would occasionally cook, and I was amazed at the level of work put into simple Indian preparations, and I began to learn techniques and study to get better. Incidentally or not, that is when I discovered egullet. From then till now it's been almost a decade, and I'm still loving the process of learning.

No. it depends on what they eat. See what happens if you eat too much carrots. dcarch Wait a minute...tuna are eating carrots now? Mind = blown.

I'm curious: I've never seen tuna that 'pink' before - is it just the photo or was it really that light in color? Or is this a different kind or grade of tuna that I've just never seen?

For some reason I originally read this as 'smokey cheese' instead of scotch, and it sounded wonderful. I'm not a drinker, but I bet the right cheese would get along quite well with FN. Any cheese suggestions?

I've learned from experience that the key isn't leading the horse to water, but making him thirsty. A wife of a good friend of mine had told us she wasn't 'into' cooking - she had a basic few things, but no desire to learn. One time at their house for a BBQ (this was in India, mind you), I rummaged through their pantry and ended up making fettuccine alfredo from scratch (including noodles from scratch and alfredo from roux). She helped me with a few of the sides, but was stricken by how easy it was to make this from scratch. That ignited a passion in her and she's now a quite accomplished pastry 'chef' in her home and a joy to eat with. The point: For some people, seeing something incredibly easy (a perfectly sauteed chicken breast with S&P) that tastes like a million bucks can inspire them to want to learn. My $.02 (depending on exchange rates)

I'm not a drinker - but I bet that would make for some 'interesting' margaritas...

That is a beautiful picture!

I am deeply curious about the recipe you use because everything sweet potato I encounter seems to be, well, VERY sweet to the point of basically being a dessert. While sweet potato based desserts are fine, I don't really want to eat them while they're pretending to be a soup or a side dish to go with something else. I'm with you on that. Sweet potatoes are already so sweet, that by the time they've had brown sugar or marshmallows or whatever else gets thrown into them for many dishes, I'm quite put off. Roast sweet potatoes, by themselves, are great. What about a savory sweet potato soup? I'd try that! You guys are spot on. Actually this soup came about at a reaction to sweet potato toothaches. In my family growing up, we never did sweet potatoes. My wife's family, however, did the cinnamon, marshmallow thing which drives me batty. Here's the link to the soup I did last year, which has precious little info but a nice pic. My basic method: Boil the sweet potatoes till soft, meanwhile, sautee fresh chopped garlic and leeks till browned, I think I added a little fresh red chile powder at this point, and probably mustard powder to the onions. I bet using roasted garlic would be really great. Added chicken stock and the chopped sweet potatoes and simmered a little, then immersion blender till smooth. I added cinnamon & nutmeg & maple, salt & pepper, but kept the balance toward savory. Also milk and/or cream while simmering the blended concoction to loosen it up It has a little Indian flare - in that your brain is telling you 'this should be sweet' but your tongue is telling you 'this is savory'. I only made a small pot which is a shame because it stole the show!

Our first week living in Bangalore, we took the kids to a great steak place called The Only Place. The kids got quite a laugh when the waiter asked if we wanted 'wedgies' with our steak.