IndyRob

He makes a strong argument, but I'm not sure that I agree. Sure, the frittatas had a consistancy problem. Some may have even been inedible. But presumably some (if not most, or even possibly nearly all) were good. There were some scenes with enthusiastic conversations about which of the three varieties were the best. On the other hand, Casey didn't seem to like the braised bacon before it went out - even without the much criticized eggs. To me, it didn't seem to work on any level. I'm very glad that neither Ripert or Bourdain were judges for that one. Too many connections there.

I just went back and reviewed the dishes. I don't think either team did very good job of considering their options and working together. I think the problem was time. If they got to think about it overnight, I think it would've been much better. After thinking for a while about the T-Rex challenges I think that, yes, you are very limited, but having meat, eggs and dairy is huge. The eggs alone can do many things. I think if I were doing this I'd do... An omelette or other straight up egg dish A steak with a hollandaise* and bits of cooked seasoned egg whites A flourless cheese souffle Some chicharrones in some form to get some crunch * No citrus for the hollandaise, but perhaps some acid could come by making butter and using the buttermilk.

For experimentation purposes, I'd certainly give coconut oil a go.

“I don’t think it was an award-winning dish but all right for Top Chef. But maybe not.” Well, there we have it.

Oh, I think I would have definitely been on the stroll. It could lead to ideas that might get me hyped. Hyped would be better than semi-rested. I think the carnivore menu was tougher than originally thought. I don't buy into Tiffany's reaction that she thought she could use anything, but no pantry items? That's a severe limitation. In retrospect I can think of some killer options (egg omelettes/crepes is a good one, KTO), but could I think of these upon entering the coolers? Maybe not so much. My favorite bit about this episode was seeing Marcel, Richard and Angelo work together (even if there was some minor quibbling in the commentary).

One of the few truly OMG! inducing things I've ever made was Julia Child's Cream of Scallop Soup from Mastering the Art....

I think the emotional stakes have been raised in All Stars. Originally I imagined that the first chefs to be eliminated would be especially crushed. Everyone has a history of going far in the series. But additionally, Colicchio has blogged that it's tougher even on the judges who now have personal relationships with the contestants. And this probably makes the contestants more willing to speak out.

I was comparing the cost to soda. Carbonator: $29.99/130 liters = $0.23 Flavoring: $4.99/12 liters = $0.41 Name Brand Cola: $0.99-$1.89 for 2 liters Sodastream Cola: $1.28 for 2 liters (plus initial investment and shipping where applicable) Cheaper CO2 sources have been mentioned, but on the flavoring side there's also Open Cola.

You need to carbonate just the water and then add flavorings. I once absentmindedly added the cola flavoring to a bottle I had not yet carbonated. Faced with throwing it out, I decided to ignore the admonitions and carbonate it. Not a good idea. There was soda everywhere.

This is true. I bought one a couple of years ago because I was so frustrated with pricing of soda. Buying it at the regular price usually means that you're paying twice the price of getting it on sale elsewhere. Having to constantly comparison shop for a staple had me very annoyed. Brand loyalty was the first casualty, but even then, I sometimes had to visit two or three stores. So I got the SodaStream. But I concluded that if you can find 2 liter bottles for 99 cents, you come out ahead of the SodaStream cost of about $1.24. Convenience is a trade off. On the one hand, you can stock a lot of soda syrup - and making up a bottle is much easier than going to the store. But there is a whole set of logistics required for maintaining a supply of syrup and CO2. A pleasant suprise was that I liked their diet cola formula as much as the 'Big Two'. I had never found a generic store brand I could drink. Even buying bulk brand name syrup from GFS was not a better option - either economically or quality-wise. Still, my SodaStream has fallen into disuse. But I may re-stock it now that their are more retail options. It looks like they had a failed distribution attempt with Kohls and Williams & Sonoma. But now they're back with more retailers. The best solution would be to hack it to use large CO2 tanks. This would reduce the 2 Liter price by nearly 40 cents. But this would be tricky, potentially dangerous, and legally dubious given all the legalese involved in with the SodaStream. Even that name brand name bag-in-box had a legal warning about using it in a non approved manner.

I really like my Presto Kitchen Kettle. It's a virtually identical setup to that which you posted, except it has thicker sides than that stainless model. I haven't used it for traditional slow cooking, but I use it mainly for sous vide. It's quite good at this. It's also good at deep frying and boiling pasta water. Although it doesn't seem as insulated as a dedicated slow cooker, I don't know why it wouldn't do the job. I routinely braise meat in very similar containers and the KK's sous vide duty has proved a good ability to keep a constant low temp. I believe that there are other models of the Multi Cooker that are more like mine. This may be one of those cases where paying a bit more for stainless steel will actually mean getting an inferior product.

There's another topic on this but I'll forge ahead anyway.... I got one of these for Christmas last year and so have about a year of experience with it. Lessons learned: 1) Because of all the proprietary bits, it's way cheaper to go with a homemade hydroponic setup. It's also better as it's more flexible. But this is true only if you like tinkering and have a place in your house where you can hide a big ugly setup. By contrast, the Aerogarden is extremely easy to set up and is very attractive. Besides cost, really the only big problems are a lack of flexibility and lights. The lights are very bright and will be on for 18 hours/day. So you don't want one anywhere near where you might be sleeping. 2) I think it would be better to have two or more three-pod setups than the bigger six or seven pod models. Buying one three pod model is also less risk as a starting proposition. The main issue I have found has been mixing different plants. For instance, growing basil and chives in the same unit is pointless. Basil grows like crazy and it (depending on how on top of your pruning you are) is going to grow up or out. One way or another, the basil is going to hurt the chives by either shading them, or causing you to move the lights up out of range of smaller plants. But growing chives in one of these things is pointless anyway since you'll only get a base that's about, at best, a dime's width. Cut off enough to use in meal and you'll have another week or two before you have more. A pot with some soil and seed, kept watered outside is just as easy (in season) and will give you a much better yield. Having more of the three pod models would give you the options to specialize each and keep them on different schedules. 3) They are really great for starting plants to be transplanted outside - even for a brown thumb like me. I have yet to have seeds not germinate (even my own), or not successfully transplant. I think this year I'm going to start sometime in February and transplant nearly mature plants in the spring. I've also had good luck starting peppers in it. 4) I think the transplanted plants have more aroma/flavor. The hydroponic herbs are not the best (but possibly better than nothing in the winter). 5) Don't plant things just because they came with your kit. If you let it grow but don't use it, it will be taking away from the stuff you want. Mint is a common culprit. You start out by thinking you'll find a use for it, but most never do. Overall, I think the Aerogardens are great confidence builders for people like me who are just not experienced in raising plants. Follow the instructions and you will have success. You just have to manage that success.

Sous vide, poaching and confit share some obvious similarities and differences. But what about the not so obvious? If I have brined some pork, will poaching in the brine be the same as sous vide-ing the brined pork? Thomas Keller uses a hybrid of confit and sous vide for lobster by adding some beurre monte to the sous vide bag. Where are the lines clear and where are they blurry?

I'd suggest giving it some more time. Most of us are excited about it, but we already know each chef fairly well by now by their previous ups and downs. I can't imagine watching season 8 without knowing about the previous seven seasons. Usually, the early episodes are confusing but more becomes clear as they pare down the competitors and are able to spend more time with each. As I think Sethro would attest, they will focus on the drama and leave out a lot of good work. But with as many as 17 people to cover in the initial episodes, it's hard for them to show much depth in around the one hour alotted.

I feel sure that this probably wasn't her experience, but Julia Child's Cream of Scallop Soup was an OMG! experience on the first try.

I thought the quickfire was an excellent idea. Team up by seasons and cook for the bragging rights. But as I watched, I realized that, ironically, whoever would win this honor would inevitably wind up saying that season 8 was much tougher than any of the other seasons. Oh well. But another benefit was that they didn't have to cover 17 chefs individually in a quickfire. I was about to panic as Richard didn't stop when the clock ran out. I thought he could could go home for not presenting a dish. But that's not how it works. So I guess if the clock is running out and there's something on the plate that could get you eliminated, you should just keep working and fix it regardless of the clock. I somehow doubt you can keep working on it until the following morning though. I wonder what the rule is. Make it to the table on time? Once I saw that Richard was off the hook, it seemed to me like Stephen was the one to go. However, part of me wanted Elia to go because she was making me nervous for her. I'm glad Richard and Fabio will survive to fight another day. Oh, and after all the Season-7-Isn't-Up-To-Snuff angst, Angelo pulls off the first win. And...Bourdain's blog is back. Tony is feeling bad for offending Fabio.

But I'm guessing that some of the personalities may have changed as well. Tiffany F was not someone I could ever support until I saw the reunion show. After that it was not out of the question that she could make amends.

Funny. But okay, this leads me to a question about salt mills. With pepper mills, the point is to keep the oils in the pepper corn until grinding, right?. But salt doesn't have oil, does it? Does grinding salt have any purpose beyond turning a too coarse product into usable product - which could've just been bought that way?

If true (it might be flour for all I know), I haven't seen an issue from it. I don't think a little extra thickening agent would do much harm. I've done some pretty thick cornstarch/water mixtures to glaze bread crusts. Even at that level, it's not really much thicker than a marinara.

I think I'm clearing my slate. We might be suprised by some of the chefs' growth.

Egg roll wrappers can be very, very good. But there really is such a range in lasagne styles that I'd hesitate to fully endorse them in this case. I don't know what you're going for. I'll just tell you where I'm coming from. After reading a book by Pino Luongo, I was able to dine at Coco Pazzo Cafe in Chicago. I think this is not owned by him. I think it may have been given to his crew and continues on without his name. Someone here may know the real story. But the 'Tuscan Lasagne' was an eye opener. I couldn't place the pasta. I even thought at some point that they might've taken a rolling pin to slices of Wonder Bread. In his book, Pino points out that pasta dishes are not pasta with sauce, but a whole which is to be taken together. You shouldn't be able to tell where the sauce ends and the pasta begins because it's an integrated whole. I took my best shot at recreating it a couple of weeks later. Discarding the silly Wonder Bread idea, I used egg roll wrappers in a rather fussy production that came close to the original dish. It needn't be so fussy on a larger scale, although presentation may suffer. But it was basically this - some tomato sauce lube on the bottom, followed by seasoned ricotta/egg mixture, followed by some cooked ground sausage, another layer of pasta, of course. Repeat to desired height. Douse with a 50-50 mix of marinara/bechamel and heat gently but thoroughly. It could be pretty quick. You just need to cook the egg and soften the pasta. Then it's just about the plating. I imagine it could also be steamed sans sauce which could be applied hot at plating.

Please, do tell us. I'm all about divine food experiences. Nothing complex. Seasoned filet seared briefly but aggressively on very high heat. Then finished in the oven to a perfect med rare. Bites dipped into a hollandaise like a fondue. The fat lacking in the tenderloin cut is more than made up for in thickened butter (with a little built in acid). The contrasting harmony between the 'clean' taste of the meat and the enrobing of the sauce is, IMHO, astounding.

In my humble opinion, if you can't get excited about this cut, then you've already failed. One of the most divine food experiences of my life involved this cut.

I think Julia was special for two reasons. First there's the historical transformation thing. That's been well covered. But her life seems to have been an epic version of one of her episodes.... "Ooops, that didn't go well. Well, just pick up your head, deal with it, and move on..." Slogging through the tough parts invariably led her to a successful conclusion. That said, I can understand someone viewing her programs today and wondering what the fuss is about. When the Cooking Channel started running her old shows, I set my DVR to capture every one. But other than the awkward moments that make me smile and cringe at the same time, there's nothing new for me to learn. But I guess that's the point. Julia's revolution is the new normal.

I've had good luck freezing cheese. I don't detect any difference upon thawing. The cheese I freeze isn't special though. I buy 5lb bags of shredded for around $2/lb (it's twice that at the grocery). I rebag it into three or four portions and keep one in the fridge and the others in the freezer. As I empty the bag in the fridge, I move a bag from the freezer to the fridge.