curls

Sous vide'd some chicken breasts for use in lunches during the work week. Figured out Monday & Tuesday -- cold soba noodles, baby bok choy, peanut & sesame sauce, and shredded chicken. Will pack some sweet cherries too, so tasty this time of year! Cooked the chicken breasts with a sprinkle of Dizzy Pig Tsunami Spin, Dizzy Pig Pineapple Head at 65 C for 90 minutes.

I'm another one in the Wolf camp and very happy with mine. It is a six burner with the gas oven (actually it is all propane -- too expensive to get natural gas to the house). It is usually decked out with stainless steel knobs (not at all flimsy) but once or twice I have swapped those out for the red knobs. Love having the ability to do a low simmer on all the burners (see @weinoo's post for photos of how the low simmer operates on the Wolf).

@FrogPrincesse is that your daughter in the photos? If so, she has gotten so much taller since I met her at the chocolate workshop. Soon she’ll be taller than you!

Wonderful, I wouldn't want you to have all that lovely cheese and lack mushrooms.

I love the griottines! Have a large container in my fridge that I use for a few things: snacking, over ice cream, make brandied cherries with them, make cherry cordial chocolates around Christmas time. What are you planning to do with yours? Glad Kerry got some groceries but I don't see any mushrooms -- you should send her back out for those! 😀 Wait, I looked at the photo again... are there mushrooms in the upper left behind the onions?

Perfect delivery @Anna N!

That prosciutto dress is amusing and quite odd. Based on all that you saw, what do you expect to be the new hot items for the year?

Did they also have Super Colon Blow? Which company made the beautiful chocolates? Interesting flavors too!

Beautiful cheese shop and cheeses. Will look forward to seeing them again when you and Kerry are up North!

@RobertM it appears that Kerry is human. Just find a way to accept that and then you may, if you like, challenge yourself to be as good a human as Kerry. 😃

I don't know about the fireworks oreos but the cherry cola oreos have pop rocks.

Yup, they have had it for a while. Quite an improvement on their old website!

Here is a link to Chocolate World's moulds you can filter the list by World Chocolate Masters and Chef's signatures moulds to see a number of the moulds used in this course. This includes the design that @Jim D. asked about. https://www.chocolateworld.be/winkel/vormen/kadervormen#0

Might the flavor mellow or meld witha bit of aging? I remember when we toured Soma the mentioned that they age their chocolate liquor... I just don’t remember why they did that. Anyone remember or have more information?

Rob they look very nice. What did you fill them with? Also, what are the mold sizes... around 14 grams?

Thank you for the suggestion but I don't remember seeing the salted nut roll when I was growing up. Will keep my eyes open for it now and give it a try. Also, waiting for the results of @Tri2Cook's experiments. :-)

I am pretty sure the payday has changed or we are having a shared hallucination of how they used to be. I had one a few months ago and it was off from what I remembered -- it was missing that sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy thing it used to have. :-(

Center of a Payday is white and similar to the traditional pecan log. I'd definitely start your experiments with Ruth's recipe.

Jim D can you share what is making the course so challenging? Do you expect each week to be more challenging than the pevious week? Do you need to master the material to work on the next item or are different skills needed for each assignment? If you are willing to post some of your results, that would be appreciated. I am sure everyone’s chocolates look beautiful, even if they don’t all match Andrey Dubovic’s work.

@Kerry Beal, do you get to see photos of the other student’s work or is the teacher the only one to see everyone’s results?

So the white power flowers went rancid but not the other power flower colors? Guess I’ll check mine and get them in the freezer if they are still ok. I haven’t had issues with my colored cocoa butters (and some of them are a few years old). I keep everything in the cool, dark basement. Thanks for the heads up Kerry!

Thank you so much Anna N for bringing this thread back to life (pun intended); I had missed it when it was started. It is bittersweet to read all of your stories and you have prompted me to travel down my own food related memories based in the kitchens of my Omas and my mother. Thank goodness my parents are still with me but they are starting to have some health related close calls. Lots to think about and much to hope for as we all head towards our inevitable end of life. I read an excellent book that is somewhat relevant to this topic, "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" by Atul Gawande.

You could make some very interesting moulded bon bons with that technique! No tape needed and some detailed designs.

Any kamado cooks planned for the weekend? Since it is a holiday weekend in the States, I am hoping to do a few cooks. Possible options are hot dogs & hamburgers, steak & chicken fajitas, and steaks. Sides will most likely be done in the kitchen. A few weekends ago I did a low and slow cook for some ribs. I was happy with how they turned out but would have cooked then an hour or so longer if I hadn't needed to clean up and go to sleep. Sometime soon, I hope to do some dutch oven cooking in the kamado. I'll probably start with a chili and work my way up to fish stew and the like.

I always thought it was a dogwood blossom. Now I’m curious and may do some research. @Kerry Beal the pictured turkish delight looks softer than the pieces I tried at the workshop — is your version similar to the texture of commercial turkish delight? Did you flavor it?