weinoo

I always iron with a towel on top of what I'm ironing when I'm on the road. Cheese, pizza, steak ums or guess what, rusty, mineral laden water won't ruin my clothing that way.

I bought a bunch of products from La Tienda recently, including some dry cured tuna loin. As an aside, they shipped very quickly and packed the stuff I bought perfectly with everything arriving in good condition, including jarred artichoke hearts, bags of potato chips, and the loin, which was packed with the sausage in a styrofoam box with 2 frozen gel packs. Anyone ever use it or have some tips for its use?

I skim chicken stock, if I make it on the stove top the old-fashioned way. I guess I skim veal stock too. But, I don't skim any other soups and some of them definitely look scummy at the start of the cooking process. Like, for instance, the split pea soup I have on the stove now. Do you skim?

Since it's generally a shaken drink, you could batch it all up and then just shake to order.

Beautifully ripe peaches topped with crumbled amaretti cookies (baked) and a glass of vin santo.

Flavor. Moisture.

I always try to follow a cookie or cake recipe verbatim the first time, then futz around with it. Best chocolate chip cookie I've ever made was a recipe from CI. Lots of compliments.

I gotta try to find this Wright's bacon.

Check this guy out stretching the crust: http://ny.eater.com/archives/2014/01/amateur_hour_ribalta.php Seems so simple, doesn't it?!

I'm sure - but it probably isn't available commercially. I forgot another one I really like, available here in NYC and, I believe, in other markets, and that's Schaller & Weber. Their double smoked bacon is great, and their slab bacon is one of my faves too.

Yes they did...I have the original, bought back in 1978 I believe...it's price was $5.95... A couple of friends and I had an interesting discussion about knife skills one night a few weeks ago. Two of us are culinary school graduates and one of my least favorite things to do was to tournée vegetables. Fortunately, I never had to do that in a pro setting, only in school. But it was a good skill to learn. I'd bet a big dinner that RR can't tournée a thing.

Is shoulder bacon bacon?

OK - so my next experiment is/was bread during the snow storm today. Simply following the recipe for "Rustic Italian Bread" from the recipe booklet that came with the oven. Well, not simply, because the recipe calls for proofing active dry yeast with sugar - I mean really, who the fuck does that for rustic Italian bread? Oh, it also calls for a first rise of 1 hour and a second rise of one hour, but my first rise lasted about 2.5 hours until the dough doubled - as is to be expected. I made the whole dough in my Cuisinart food processor, basically doing nothing by hand (since I still can't use one of my arms for another 4 weeks!). So it's a Cuisinart Rustic Italian bread . After the 2 rises and the proofing which takes place in the oven on the steam function set to 100°F, I reset the oven to the Bread function at 400°F, and let it rip for 35 minutes. Here's what the result looks like... You know what? It doesn't taste bad - it certainly doesn't have the crumb structure or the flavor of a slow-risen, overnight rise in the fridge. But for all-in-one-day bread - it's not bad. Some futzing with the recipe might make for a really nice loaf. Oh, I imagine that focaccia will be quite good.

I'm a big fan of Neuske's, and I also happen to like Niman Ranch's various bacons as well as Benton's. But I recently split a few pounds of Broadbent's bacon, and it doesn't move me - it's very salty (I know, I know, all bacon is salty but this stuff is over the top) and it cooks up almost too crisp for my liking. What's your favorite bacon and what brands do you avoid?

I don't peel the beets before roasting. The convection bake/steam setting seems to be the best one for browning.

An experiment with cooking beets worked out really nicely. I steam roasted them at 400°F for about 40 minutes, and they were perfectly cooked. There are a couple of steam settings on the oven. One is "steam" and another is "super steam." The "steam" setting goes up to 210°F, while the "super steam" setting allows for a much higher temperature, and that's the setting I used. I don't know if it also makes more steam, but it went through about 1/3 of the water tank in that 40 minutes.

So, I like the skin on russets, reds, Yukon golds, etc. And, because I try not to buy commercial potatoes, I believe they're (the skins and underlying flesh) quite healthy. But what about the skin on sweet potatoes? Who eats and why? Who doesn't...and why not?

I did the brussels sprouts per the recipe in the booklet that came with the machine. They cook fast -- I would lower the temp by 25°F next time, and stir after 10 minutes.

I wonder if it's possible you had a defective unit. I played around with the oven yesterday; on the steam function and set at 210°F, in 30 minutes the unit produced a ton of steam. When I use it on the Bake/Steam function, it doesn't use as much steam, but I don't expect it to. That said, after I filled up the tank 2 days ago and used it for various reheating purposes, cooking brussels sprouts with bacon (the bacon was crisp and cooked nicer than I expected), and the test I did above, the tank is practically empty. As to your unit injecting water into the oven that it turns into steam, that is not what happens with my unit at all. There is some condensate that forms around the steam injection hole which drips into the oven, but that was it. I am thinking of playing around with a bread recipe from the booklet.

I don't know exactly how much steam is "expected" to be generated, but every time I use it on one of the steam settings, it sure seems moist to me. The interior of the oven is wet, the drip pan has condensate in it, etc. It's not like cooking a steamer full of broccoli in a lidded pot over boiling water if that's what you mean - but it's an oven, with a steam injection feature. Sometimes, like for bread, all you really want is a touch of steam anyway. And there is a setting for super steam, which i have yet to try.

I didn't eat any of this because I'm heading out for dinner (well, I tasted the chicken), but the skin on the potatoes felt nice and crisp too. I don't have a microwave, and I always put a few fork holes in any potatoes I'm baking, but I imagine a little head start wouldn't hurt. In any event, they won't take more than an hour in this oven.

I did a little experimenting with chicken thighs (kosher Empire) today. Four large, meaty thighs, sprinkled with salt, pepper and a bit of pimenton, along with a couple of Idaho potatoes... Cooked on Steam/Bake 425°F, for 40 minutes... The potatoes needed a bit more time (they were huge) but the chicken came out nice and moist, and amazingly, the skin was as crisp as it could possibly be.

Leftover Gaspe Nova and wild salmon eggs from Russ & Daughters comes in handy for this One-Armed Breakfast of Eggs on Eggs...

Yeah, you might have to go online for it. I remember seeing one of Lidia's PBS shows where she made fregola...I seem to remember her only using 1 type of semolina, but that was probably the easy method.

That's what I get with a water boiler and my trusty Melitta or Hario cone filter.