Anna N

I had an English cucumber that was threatening to go south before I was likely to eat it so I just turned it into Danish cucumber pickle. No seal on the jar because it's going to be refrigerated and will be eaten up very quickly.

I was a little thrown as to how it made it from the cake stand to the oven and back again.

I love seeing anyone's shopping. And those steaks Ha. One of them would cost at least twice as much as two of them cost you at my grocery store. I am always caught between winging it and seriously planning. Sometimes it's fun to wing it; sometimes I damn well wish I had planned it. It will all come out in the wash as my grandma used to say. Just have fun because that's all that really counts.

See this.

I think you cannot conflate those things it does "well" with those things it does "better". If you have two or three days to devote to cooking some short ribs them sous vide does them very well. If you need to get dinner on the table within an hour or two then the IP can do them better. Unless one has nothing but time on one's hands and nothing but money in one's bank one is always weighing many factors to get a meal on the table. Time, cost, logistics (two ovens would be a lovely but most of us only have one), preferences, availability of ingredients, strength, stamina, handicaps. So many, many things factor in to what is better and what is best or what is well and what is better. Perfection should never stand in the way of what is good.

Always happy to see you blogging.

I find that its warm setting is good only for keeping already hot food at temperature. It's range is very limited for reheating something. The highest temperature offered is 300°F or 148°C. I would normally re-heat at 325 to 350°F and much higher for certain things. YMMV

Flatbread from the book Bäco topped with caramelized onions, sautéed criminis and some blue cheese crumbles. I had cooked the bread and frozen it and this was all reheated in the Cuisinart steam oven. I do not think it worked particularly well. Next time I will try it on the re-heat function on the Breville smart oven.

Nah. I searched and searched and none of them seem to be the one. Somehow I recollect them being in a best recipes book that used to collect all best the recipes of the year from various sources. Edited to add that I think the Epicurious recipe comes very close and the books I am referring to were "The Best American Recipes of xxyear".

And while I love my Kindle books I'm always appalled when I see they are more expensive than the print version!

There is a recipe kicking around that I made many years ago for vodka soaked cherry tomatoes as an appetizer. I've looked and looked but cannot find it. Perhaps someone else will recall it. After all they're already peeled and that was the hardest part of that recipe.

This is so very true. There's a certain joy in being able to choose among many techniques and/or appliances.

I quite like mine but it does sound as though you have a whole different model! Or perhaps we just have very different expectations. No question it does a great job on chicken. No question it does a great job on certain breads for toast. I have never been impressed with it as a bread oven simply because it is too small (read not high enough to accommodate a normal loaf without futzing around with foil). I am not being contrary for the sake of being contrary. I think it's great that you are so impressed with yours.

You might want to hold off until Black Friday because I believe Amazon still does it on the Canadian site.

The problem is I have to package it and send it off. And it's going into an office environment so I kind of like it to look reasonable. But I may have done a lovely CYA act. The only suitable container I could find is so difficult to open that they will blame themselves for any disaster than ensues!

Oh I bet I could. I just don't always think that anyone wants the recipe. You don't need to click if you don't want to. Here.

Duh. It's a chocolate banana bread. I thought you could read my mind.

Could have been lunch and might be dinner. Certainly not ready for another meal at the moment. It was inspired by an Ottolenghi dish. Sweet potato and red onion wedges roasted and dressed with tahini sauce and za'atar.

I would certainly do the meat first and then when the pressure has dropped add vegetables and cook those. It depends a great deal on how large you cut the vegetables but I find an additional 3 to 4 minutes at high pressure is plenty.

@Kerry Beal sent me the recipe for this. I am a little worried about how it will slice.

My last potato became potato Rosti. It is great fun to take a single ingredient and give it various treatments.

And you, my friend, are the worst enabler of them all.

Cultured butter trumps pea butter anytime. Perhaps I should not have dismissed this toy so quckly. Amazing what you can accomplish at work with alligators nipping at your heels.

Very interesting. Thank you. I did know about the role of the artichoke in making "rennet" but the fig is definitely new to me.