Mjx

Weirder than keeping a cow or goat in an artificial state of lactation and drinking that? Since I've given the whole dairy industry/human consumption of dairy considerable thought, I find those things pretty weird too, at least in Western societies. So, I'd have to say I find both the use of human milk and the dairy industry equally weird, at a strictly rational level. At a gut level, I admit I find the use of human milk in products for adult human consumption more off-putting. Also, at a practical/ethical level, does the nursing mother mentioned in the OP really have a recipes'-worth surplus of milk? I've known a lot of nursing mothers, and their babies generally had a good, solid use for all the milk available.

For recommendations on this sort of thing, we've got most of our leads by asking restaurant staff (anyone from waitstaff to owner/manager) where they source a given ingredient, which usually leads you right to the source (we toured quite a few places in Emilia Romagna thanks to this). You can do it on the spot (we did), or you may prefer to send out queries in advance, and nail things down.

Could a little of the sugar at the bottom be caramelizing? I could imagine this happening, particularly if the bottom of the pot is on the thin side. I've noticed some odd reactions with aluminium pots when acids are involved, no idea of whether the pH of sugar syrup is low enough for that to be an issue (although it seems unlikely).

Keeping rice in salt does keep it from clumping (I did this routinely, when I lived in a damp climate, until I switched to a salt dish), BUT you have to change the rice every once in a while. I've no idea of whether the effect is due to moisture absorption, mechanical impact, or a combination of these (I'd bet on option 3). My mother keeps rice in the salt shaker, but has a fit if I so much as suggest replacing the original rice (now reduced to bits only a little larger than the salt crystals), so I can't imagine it's doing much (or really needs to, in Brooklyn; no idea why she put it in in the first place). Wouldn't the humidity in the enclosed space of a salt shaker, especially if it's made of something relatively non-porous, reach higher levels than what you'd get outside, even on a really humid day? Sort of funny... isn't Morton's the salt with the girl with the umbrella, and the slogan 'When it rains, it pours'?

I don't trust any review sites, ever since one that shall remain nameless offered me considerably more than $5 to revise my scathing (but polite) review of a nonexistent hotel. Yes, you read that correctly. This hotel also demanded an advance deposit for the first night, and (no surprise) refused to return it. On Yelp, this hotel has nothing but 5-star reviews. Great reviews on Tripadvisor, too, although if you look at the forums, you read about a different story. I trust the reports of people I know who've had direct experience of a place, and who know something of the sorts of things I like. Everything else I take with a heaping fistful of salt.

It really depends on where you go, but the 'Too Cool to Care' attitude seems pretty widespread, and I really resent it. And I can't even be accused of being too old to understand, or never having been on the waitstaff end of things, because neither statement would be true. I know waiting tables can suck, and during the brief time I did it, hated virtually every second of it. On the other hand, I'd signed on for the job, so I made damn sure that my feelings didn't show: I was brought up to believe that when you go to work, you act professional, whether you have a shit job or dream job. I've never quite figured out most of what it means to be a grownup, but 'being able to act professional' was the one piece of the concept I nailed down early (I began working when I was thirteen). I kind of sympathize with waiters that hover; they appear to have not figured out that it's appropriate to say 'Please let me know if/when you want anything, and if you don't see me, have someone get me from in back: my name is Xxxxxxxx', and just keep an eye on things from a ways away. At least these people are trying. If a hoverer is really breathing down my neck (water refill after every couple of sips? I'm not dehydrated!), I just smile and say 'I'm good, no worries, I'll let you know if I need anything', which usually works. I have to disagree: There may be no specific criteria or standards for waiting tables, but surely 'being professional' (i.e. shelving the idea that you're the special one in the situation, and that it's all about you; being polite; making a point of actually finding out what your designated tasks are, and executing them to the best of your ability) should be a given. Pink slip, if you don't make the grade. It also helps if there's a senior member of the waitstaff who keeps on the back of the newbs and slackers, but in a lot of places, it seems that senior waiters are too cool too call someone on being too cool to care.

It is possible to slip the fortunes in after they're shaped, though; I've done it.

Could they be the sort of thing that you bake twice? First, when they're starting as little blobs of batter, then again after they've been formed, but before the 'fortunes' have been slipped in?

Been ages since I've had these, but when I was little, my mum used to slice them, and just toss them with a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and herbs (no idea of what they were). Really delicious.

These days, I spend most of my time in Denmark, where most things are really expensive. As a comparison, the strictly-for-tourists prices at Florence's Central Market (which I show people, but never shop at) seem reasonable, as does shopping at Eli's or Dean & Deluca in NYC. It's also really hard to find decent produce outside of people's gardens, here, so I just stick with the cheap supermarkets (one of which is a five-minute walk from the flat), where the merchandise is more or less the same as in the more expensive places, anyway. Between the selections on offer, and the prices, it's hard for me to work up enough enthusiasm to think more than one dinner ahead (i.e. the one for that evening). There are shops that carry various imports, but the prices tend to be so disturbing, compared to what we can get in the US or Italy (we travel a lot), that we when we travel we leave with empty luggage, and bring back as many of our favorite things as we can (this has included portions of prosciutto that occupied nearly the entire interior of the motorcycle's topbox). I really miss living in Italy.

I'd go this route, too. I've often frozen the shells, and the results are good, plus it takes very little time to re-heat and crisp them. I'd save discovering how using refrigerated or frozen paste plays out for when you don't have anything at stake, since unknown factors related to the paste being cold/thawing times could make for some really awkward and frustrating surprises, under the circumstances.

I shop pretty much every day, because my plans to plan ahead never seem to happen. For the most part, I still end up going to the local supermarket (early in the morning, usually, when there's no one there apart from a scattering of octogenarians), because I bake all our bread, and the local butcher charges prices that suggest that he is funneling substantial funds into a Swiss bank account he does have. I think I actually spend more when I buy ahead, since I'm spending so much money and getting so much stuff already, getting a few impulse purchases doesn't seem as spendy. When I'm shopping for that day, I stick to the list.

A variety of cake sprinkles that I use very occasionally, mostly on birthday cakes requested by other people, lurk behind the herbs and spices in the cabinet. They've been with us for two moves (over six years), and I have no idea of where they came from, no recollection of buying them. They just sort of... manifested.

Treat it like persistent jetlag (something I have to deal with really often): Do whatever it takes to make yourself sleep through your new 'night' for several nights in a row, even if if it means taking sleeping pills for two or three nights (or weeks). Seriously, if your body doesn't adapt, and you don't get enough sleep, you'll mess up your health (not to mention the potential for driving related accidents) at least as much as you might taking some sort of sleeping pill for up to three weeks (if it hasn't 'reset' you by then, it probably won't). Get new drapes, a white noise generator, avoid coffee during the day (really, really hard when you need it to stay awake, but caffeine lingers in the system for several hours), whatever, but if you don't get results in a couple of weeks, give some serious thought to getting a 2-3 weeks' worth of sleeping pills (an OTC one if there's one that works for you, or a prescription one, if not).

Have you tried extending the baking time? Generally, baking the loaf until it has relatively deep colour will fix the problem. I've found that the temperature will seldom rise significantly at the centre, even if you end up baking for as much as half an hour past the point that the suggested internal temperature has been reached.

I'm slightly concerned about that too, even though I don't use a dishwasher, so I just haul the stack of dishes out of the closet, put the just-dried ones at the bottom, and put the others back on top. Sort of a drag, but in the general scheme of things, not a huge deal.

I think if you grew up with/have a background in one of the southwestern European culinary traditions, it's standard knowledge (I'm basing this on my own experience, growing up in Italy); in other cultures, it might be unfamiliar, so possibly a 'secret'.

Apprently, yes. From what I can see, apart from cutting back on fibre, the array of things you can eat isn't actually affected (https://patienteducation.osumc.edu/Pages/search.aspx?k=gastrectomy, third link on the page).

I wonder whether that's the ice cream place I remember, which I really wanted to revisit... cannot remember the location or name at all. I'm starting to think that this may be worth a separate trip, before we head south, and not just for the sea food. Although I don't know about the bookstore... It's not really safe for me to enter a bookstore, at least not if i have my wallet with me. Oh man. Thanks, something definitely worth looking into. I love pie. I just hope we still fit into out clothes by the end of this trip.

When I was a kid, the cannoli I saw in Florence were plain, or with the candied fruit/pistachios you mention, or a light brown that was either hazelnut or coffee. I don't think I saw chocolate-chip infested ones until I was about 14. Even the last time I was there, a year or so ago, they seemed mostly confined to places that didn't do much business with the locals. I also recollect seeing some cannoli with candied chestnut pieces (at Gilli, I believe).

Good lord. YES. For whatever my opinion is worth, given that I'm still in the 'interested maybe' category, pending the announcement of the probable date (and compounded by the fact that the Phila. 'Heartland' gathering is looking awfully, good, too, and there's no way we'd be able to do both).

Got some Thai fish sauce that may be nearly a year old... just don't use that much at a time, although I do use it pretty often. And some shrimp paste that's several months old, which worries me a little. But that's it. Partly because we tend to use stuff as we get it, although over the past few months, the freezer has become a sort of holding pen/dump for various odds and ends we can't quite bring ourselves to bin.

From a practical standpoint, I'm wondering whether dough wouldn't stick more to the plastic ones than the willow ones, since the plastic surface seems like it wouldn't hold the flour so well. Since bread is baked long and hot, I don't think the sanitation is a huge issue (and I'm a bit of a germ freak), and they don't get treated that roughly, I imagine even the willow ones last a decent stretch of time. From an aesthetic standpoint, I confess I find the idea of a plastic banneton sort of depressing and self-defeating, since the willow ones are so nice to look at and work with, and part of the pleasure of using a banneton has to do with a sense of tradition (that might just be me, of course). I only have one, which is actually too big to use (birthday present from my boyfriend, who simply cannot resist the largest size of most things), but I love using it, even though the loaves I make in them are inevitably are gigantic and flattish, because they collapse under the weight of their ridiculously large volume. I'm planning on getting a more realistically sized one soon.

I'm afraid organic chemistry is several years behind me, now, but I'm fairly certain that I recall citric acid as being one of the compounds that is degraded by UV light/heat, so... store in a cool, dark place?

ATK recommends cooling things to about 90F degrees before putting them in the fridge, because when they're really warm or hot, they can raise the temperature of the entire refrigerator space to a level that is congenial to bacterial growth. I easily flake on putting things away while they cool, so I just set the timer for 20 minutes, as a reminder to put the pot in the fridge.