Ashen

I have been thinking about getting a vaccumpot but am also intrigued by the Aeropress. Does anyone know anything about the Aeropress and how it stacks up against presspots and vaccumpots?

I grew some tepin plants a few years ago.. The last of them for the season ripened just before christmas. My wife was doing all of her christmas baking and candy making and I decided to dip some in melted dark callebaut she was using at the time.. I left the stems on and they looked like miniature choc dipped cherries.

we can tomatoes most years.. Hot water bath.. blanch , ice water bath , peel skin, into a pot , then crushed using a potato masher. heated to boiling for about 5 mins hot pack into mason jars that are clean. new snap lids are essential . I don't bother sterilizing beforehand because if process time is over 10 mins you don't need to pre sterilze. I add 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid powder to bottom of empy jars for food safety and 1/4 teaspoon of ascorbic acid to help avoid colour changes . 1/2 teaspoon salt for flavour. 55 mins for quart jars.. I add 10 mins to the standard 45 mins because where I live is just over 1000 ft about sea level

I didn't mean the voltage was generating the heat. I beleive that is from the frequency of the oscillation of the magnetic field, vs the resistance of the atoms in the metal in the pot/pan. I still wonder how they make the whole thing work without both the "windings" being around an iron core though.

That is cool. As a single turn it would only be able to push 1 volt right? But the higher frequency against the resistance of the shorted turn produces the heat. I had wondered how it didn't also produce enough electricty in the pans to shock people using it .

I have known people who drink hot drinks, but their reasoning was that it was absorbed faster than cold drinks , thus hydrating faster. I think they misunderstood the concept at some point though, body temp liquids will be absorbed faster but hot has to cool down and cold has to warm up before it can be absorbed.

That salmon looks amazing . It has me craving fresh montreal bagels and good cream cheese. I loved the tour of the grocery store, I can't imagine any ordinary store around here carrying Callebaut . I love that stuff , my wife just made a white chocolate fresh berry cake yesterday. . 1.5 pounds ( 700 gm ) of white callebaut, golden,black and red raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. It is a once a year indulgence using 30$ worth of white chocolate in one cake like that.

I am an unapologetic omnivore as well. I went with my father hunting from a very early age( 4 yrs old) the first time he took me along duck hunting. I would help with cleaning and gutting the catch when I was older . As a child I would help to make salami and sausage, standing on a chair to help mix in the seasonings . Later on helping to break down the pig and cut the meat into chunks to feed the grinder. I think for many the only interaction they have with animals is as pets or in zoos, and this leads to a disconnect in their feelings about livestock. This leads to a slightly unsettled feeling (or more so) when they think about the ethics of eating meat. Speaking for myself , I have an understanding that livestock is raised to be eaten , and I have no problem with that. Most game that is hunted needs to be. The natural predators that would keep those populations in balance, are often ones that humans cannot abide to live too closely for safety reasons.

Up until about 5 years ago before they went out of business , WC Wood was making a 35+ cu foot side by side combo. That would be an all fridge and all freezer side by side with a trim package to make them look like one unit. It looks like Whirlpool is still offering the Sidekicks , so they must have bought the line to keep offering it. http://www.sears.ca/product/whirlpool-177-cu-ft-sidekick-all-refrigerator-stainless-steel/646-000153197-EL88TRRWS I worked for W C wood for a long time so I understand what you mean about the fridges and freezers not lasting as long. This is probably true but not because of any maliciousness or premeditated action of the manufacturers . It has to do with environmental laws, how efficient the compressors need to be and also the refrigerants that need to be used. The newer refrigerants that are being used to meet the regulations are more corrosive. R134a is basically a solvent.The compressors often run longer or hotter because the easiest way to bump up efficency, is to use a more precisely built but smaller compressor.

I thought about buying a wok burner for awhile until one day I was watching a Martin Yan program, the person he was talking to was cooking in a wok on a bed of charcoal. It struck me that historically this was the way wok cooking was done and I had the perfect instrument on my back deck already.. I fired up my BBQ with lump charcoal and stoked it white hot with a hairdryer , nestled my wok in the bed of coals and now I wouldn't stir fry any other way.

A Welsh lady I know makes Welshcakes {pice ar y maen }every first of march to celebrate St. David's Day . The recipe is pretty cool, and they are baked on a bakestone. I will ask her if she knows the term flannelcake.

I will second that.. I have and use microplanes , a mortar & pestle and we even have a garlic press that my wife prefers this . Still there is nothing quite like breaking down large quantities garlic into a puree with a blade to give me a sense of satisfaction. very weird.

This is something I did last year on a lazy late summer Sunday. I was grilling lots of small bites of different flavours , and included was a few skewers of shrimp on herb stems. There are oregano stems and rosemary stems in this pic. I finely chopped the herbs that were picked off the stems and combined with lemon juice, minced garlic and extra virgin avocado oil and marinated the shrimp , then threaded them onto the stems with a strip of lemon zest around them. A close up when they were about to come off the grill.

That is freaking Hilarious RWR.. You always make me laugh. Miss you over at JO's

I did some sideribs on my water bullet smoker yesterday . 2 hrs at 220-230F . I had just water in the drip pan , but I boiled it first so that it wouldn't take so long to heat up in the smoker. Dry rub just before they went on the smoker. After the two hrs I started spraying with a mop every 20 mins to half hour for approx 2 more hrs. The mop was just water and apple cider vinegar. I would normally also have apple juice as part of the mix but I didn't have any. Final doneness determined by internal temp not by timing . Thermapen to 185 F in the thickest part of the meat between bones. This was actually about 5 degrees higher than I had wanted to go but it stayed very moist and the collagen had broken down nicely. It really pays to get a decent thermometer so you don't over cook your meat.

A great Canadian riesling from Niagara is Cave Spring Indian Summer Select Late Harvest Riesling 2007 . It is almost into the icewine range of sweetness but the acidity more than holds it own to pair up with salmon. pushing the edge of your $ range though about 25$ for a half bottle.

Kaitaia Fire Chili Pepper Sauce is pretty much my favourite hot sauce now. It certainly isn't the hottest, but I just love the flavour of it. Apparently made in a similar process to tabasco , but it doesn't have that rotted chili pepper aftertaste I associate with Tabasco. On the homemade front, I usually make a batch of smoked habanero/scotch bonnet sauce in the fall. 1/4 bushel of the best ones I can find at the farmers market. Slow smoked with maple wood, then I blend them up with with some smoked garlic. Adding enough apple cider vinegar to break them down with the blender, I then run the whole works through the fine plate on my food mill. add salt to taste . I like the sauce to be very thick,more like ketchup thick instead of tabasco. I pack in small mason jars and freeze to use throughout the year. This sauce has serious heat, but the hab flavour along with the smoke means the heat doesn't overwhelm the taste. oh and I don't waste the leftover solids that don't go through the food mill. I spread them out on foil and back into the smoker til dried. I then grind up in my spice grinder to have wicked hot smoked hab powder.

I think you are talking about " The Two Fat Ladies". They would drive about on a motorcycle with a sidecar right? There are a few videos of them on youtube. They always cracked me up too.

I needed something for the grill that was easy today. I had alot of yardwork to catch up on. Slow smoked Tri-tip roast, natural lump, very light applewood smoke. Roast was coated in homemade steakspice. First of the season local asparagus dry grilled while the roast was resting. Dressed with extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, course grey salt and fresh cracked black. mesclun mix salad with cucumber and grape tomatoes. vidalia onion salad dressing. I ended up getting distracted by a stubborn mower and the roast went longer than I wanted. 155 F but still very juicy. The asparagus stole the show though..

It is one of those classic italian dishes. So simple , but unbelievably good. After taking the time to make homemade gnocchi it is great to be able to sauce it with something so simple.

how is it a moot point? the time it takes to boil the water initially is irrelavant. It is the time it takes for it to return to the boil after adding the pasta that is important. Most package directions give timings for how long to cook after the water returns to the boil. If it takes 30 secs to return to the boil with a large amount of water vs 90 secs with less water it definitely affects the timing. Just because the water isn't to a boil doesn't mean the sub-boiling water isn't cooking the pasta during that 60 secs. I wouldn't disregard free movement either. The water at the bottom of a pot is hotter than the water at the top, the hot water at the bottom boils to the top while the cooler water at the top sinks in a convection current. If the pasta can't move freely, the pasta at the bottom will be overcooked when the pasta at the top is cooked properly.

I think it is very dependant on what you are cooking. As others have noted things that go fast like stir frying need very strict prep. Other things can that go more slowly, can leave you with time to prep as you work. Even in those situations though, I am gathering mutliple ingredients as I go and placing them in my prep area, instead of going to find each thing as I need it. When doing prep for a stir fry I always used to use lots of little bowls and plates. I have now gone to just using one large rimmed sheet pan. I prep in small separate piles by order they go into the wok . I mostly like to stir fry over charcoal in my bbq, it is much easier to bring the one sheet pan outside than 10+ small dishes. The mise for something simple like making butter biscuits is just to have your oven hot and the flour, butter, salt, milk and baking powder all out on the counter with a large bowl before you start measuring .

Risi e Bisi , typically was a springtime venetian dish. a literal translation is Rice and peas. Preperation is similar to risotto but traditionally should be much looser, almost soupy . I think Anna Maria Volpi has a good recipe for it on her website if google for it.

+1 +2 it is the first thing that sprung to mind.

We have had a black panasonic 2.2 cuft 1200w microwave for about 5 yrs now. I love it. 16 plus inch turntable can actually turn with a pryex lasagna pan on it. ( it may bump once or twice til it finds its groove. ) The inverter tech is the main reason I would recommend panisonic though. It is true stepped levels of power. For example if I set it to 50%, it doesn't alternate blasting at full power , then turn off for so many seconds , then blast at full power again Heating things with it isn't even the most use I get out of it probably. I use it often fora resting area for large roasts , have even had 18 lb + turkey on a plater, or full pork crown roast resting in there on more than one occasion. Makes a good proofing box too. I can micro some water in a pyrex cup to generate some steam , leave it in there and still be able to put a large stainless bowl in there too.