Viktoria

Teflon is only truly problematic at high temperatures, which is why it's not recommended to heat them empty. The material starts to deteriorate above 500F. Birds seem to be especially sensitive. Humans can seem to experience symptoms, too, when the material breaks down. I've glanced over the actual science article, which was published in Nature in September. Joanna Aizenberg is brilliant, and she's doing amazing things with bioinspired materials. This material is very cool. She's fabricated a nanoscale structured material (nanoscale is very roughly 1/100 the width of a human hair) and infused it with a lubricant. The structure repels certain liquids and the lubricant repels others. There didn't seem to be any mention of the temperature range the material can survive, but the article implies mechanical stability. The other cool thing is its optical transparency. So this has potential for dirt, and ice repellant on windows, etc. I also don't remember what it said about the fabrication process, which might limit applications. Teflon, for example, is very hard to apply to anything, and requires harsh processing to make it happen.

Darienne, I think that having a blow-out every once in a while is a good thing! And you clearly enjoyed it. You can't be perfect all of the time. The trick is to get right back on your healthy eating plan and keep moving forward. I think it's the behavior over time that hurts us, not any one meal. Kat, Check out the author Gary Taubes. He discusses low carb diets and heart disease with respect to current research (books and blog). I think his basic premise is that cholesterol may not be the right biomarker for heart disease. Rather it's triglycerides and certain types of LDL. Anyway, basically low carb diets reduce these biomarkers even if you don't drop huge pounds. It was true for me, actually. Within 6 weeks of cutting out most processed carbs, my blood lipid levels were all well in the "normal" range, although my doctor would be happy if I raised my HDL a little more. Oh, and I have a hard time giving up baking. I have moved to making chocolates, mostly, and giving it all away as quickly as I can. Though I feel a little guilty foisting all of that sugar and processed carb to others. Jan, I really like that food plate link, but I couldn't get the second link to work. I'm printing out that food plate, though. I've actually been having trouble maintaining this eating style lately. Outside pressure mostly. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm making food choices because they make me healthier, not because of a diet. Speaking of which: I'm hosting american Thanksgiving this year for my family. Not the first time, but definitely the first time now that I've been avoiding breads, etc. My inlaws are definitely not low carbers. And it's Thanksgiving, which typically has a lot of starchy components. So I'm struggling a little bit with the menu. Anyone have suggestions? edited for baking comment., and again because I didn't like the way I phrased something

that's a truly astonishing accomplishment! Congratulations.

We are also reducing our regular use of processed foods. I wouldn't call it an ancestral, or primal diet, but I am now buying grass fed or pasture raised meet and dairy, weaning my kids off of processed foods (a bit unsuccessfully as yet), etc. I like that strategy, Darienne. it didn't help that the visit coincided with Halloween (double whammy) but I"m slowly getting back in the groove. I lost about 15 lbs, but have vacillated around the same weight for the last month, up and down. Day to day cooking doesn't much inspire me. So I often struggle with weeknight dinners, or meals when I have to prep ahead of time to eat at work. Plus I have 2 little kids with varying levels of pickiness. Tonight we had a broccoli salad. I steamed broccoli, and mixed it with some other salad fixings and chickpeas. Sounds boring, but it was actually surprisingly tasty. and the kids loved it. But I have weirdo toddlers who love broccoli. You'd think I'd embrace that and make chicken and broccoli every night. For breakfast I often have eggs. Lately I have been feeling like I need to branch out more but haven't gotten things together enough to make something else. Lunch is typically eating out if I'm in the office, or leftovers. However, as much as I want to, I end up eating things out of convenience rather than well thought out meals.

I suppose it was just those low carb baked goods that made me ask the question of substitutes. I haven't even tried any yet. I'm a firm believer that different things will work for different people and you have to figure out what works for you at that moment. I am doing low carb because of my dr's recommendation. I am fine most of the time, but I had some trouble when relatives visited recently.

Minas, I can't speak for Willow, but the molasses caramel recipe I use is easily googled. Look up 'chocolate molasses chews' and look for a blog called the hungry mouse (if I remember right). Those are a big hit around here, too. Especially with dark chocolate. Willow, your chocolates look lovely. I know you're going dark chocolate, but I like the piped design. I seriously have to find some Jaggery or panela.

I've made mashed cauliflower before. I love it. I tried to make a rice-like cauliflower, but it didn't turn out well. I've never used cabbage before in things that typically require pasta. Does it really work? I have made spaghetti squash before, and served it with pasta sauce. It's good, but not the same. It's also good with salt, pepper, and parmesan. I've also thought about making it like carbonara, but haven't yet.

I have a question for folks: Do you make diet versions of things, or do you prefer the original in much more managed amounts. In other words when it comes to sweets or certain favorite dishes, regardless of what diet plan you follow, do you make major substitutions or would you rather wait till you could have the real thing. I've seen people like 'hungry girl" and others make all sorts of weird concoctions to replace fried chicken or fat free salad dressing, etc on the diets that are low fat. Likewise I've seen even stranger versions of things like pumpkin bread or lasagna for low carb-ers. Some dessert recipes call for cups of sugar substitute. Cooking and baking are a huge part of my life. In the past I guess I have made "slimmed down" versions of treats (however sweet or savory you define them). This time around I seem to have a great reluctance to attempt diet friendly versions of food that I love. I'd rather wait and indulge once in a great while, than to have a low fat, no sugar, no carb (or whatever) "treat" every night. How about you? What are your "can't do withouts", or favorite subs?

Yours was an amazing food blog. Absolutely made me want to visit!

I don't see a front license plate on the truck, so it's a state that doesn't require them: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia or potentially nevada. Narrows it down, haha

I liked that the two groups had different challenges. At least it keeps things interesting.

Ooh, those are beautiful!

Excellent! And I love those cute onesies!

Mwahahhaaa! Sorry. Couldn't help it. I can't take credit for the idea. Chocolot posted about it not far upthread. But I was so taken by the idea, and had family visiting for the week, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I think the colors turned out well, even though they're just cheap cake store powdered stuff. And so shiny!. I gave the box in the picture to my husband to take to his work on Monday. HE claims that he thought that there needed to be either a creamy layer or thicker shell to balance with the raspberry. But he likes the flavor of white chocolate much more than I do. I actually had to make a second batch so that the family could get more than 1 each. I do love that tray with the slider. I'll have to print out those pictures! I only make candy for us, really, so volume isn't very high. I like that yours is adjustable. My rulers are thick and heavy, though, since they're solid stainless. I haven't had any leakage problems yet. But they are kind of a pain to arrange, and make the corners true, etc.

Amazon also offers super saver free shipping. So it takes a little longer, but it's a still free. There is a minimum purchase, but it's rarely a problem for us.

I love the look of that packet of Guayusa leaves in the photo above. When you brew it, do you measure by number of leaves, or do you crush it and measure by spoonful?

Lior -I'm totally jealous of that frame! Thank you all for the tips on the stone. I haven't decided which way to go yet. I have granite counters, but I don't know if I want to be doing things like that right on them. Inspired by Chocolot's eyeball post upstream, I had to make some myself. (I also just got your book, and it's great!) Because of the discussion about air bubble problems I was having, I dug out my mini-vortexer, which is designed to shake test tubes, etc in the lab. (I bought it for another hobby of mine) If you look closely you can see the bubbles coming to the surface. The mold was just small hemispheres, so it remains to be seen if it will work equally well in a mold with detail, but so far I'd say it did the job. I shook them before I cleaned the mold, which ended up being messy. Anyway, the eyes are just white chocolate with raspberry jelly filling. I love the tart with the creamy shell. Because I'm a nerd I debated whether to make the filling a clear one (since the vitreous humor is a transparent gel) but in the end I thought the red would be funnier and tastier. Alas, there goes realism Anyway, here are pictures:

Oooh. a tempering machine. Sooo jealous! Much like other fun toys (like a Sous Vide machine! a Thermomix!) I look on with envy but can't yet justify the cost. Heck, my husband looked at me funny when I gazed longingly at a food saver machine. It's one reason I'm hoping I can get a guitar cutter made for cheap. (obviously I thought that the cost of regular candy rulers was too much ) hmmm... I have an old piece of lab equipment lying around that I might be able to repurpose for a homemade vibrating table. So I have a question for the group, and I'm not sure where to put it: Marble or not marble? That is, many recipes call for putting the chocolate or other substance on a marble slab. It seems to me that this is primarily about thermal conduction. So, is granite or some other relatively non-porous stone sufficient? Is there some other consideration? Should this question go elsewhere?

I actually have a styrofoam cutter. It's just a wire, handle and batteries, essentially. Works by resistive heating.

The candy rulers are the 4 metal bars that you can use to free-form a block of caramel, pâté de fruit, etc, with. They're nice because they make unmolding your candy easier, the sides are straight, and you don't have to pour hot liquid on plastic (which is often the trick people give to unmold a pan: line it with plastic wrap). These are solid stainless, and quite heavy. My grandfather owns a metal working company. I commissioned these from him. They're 3/8x3/4x14 inches. On one of the 3/4 inch sides on each bar, there is a very small groove running the length of the bar at 1/4 and 1/2 inch "height", so I can tell the thickness of my layer. I used an actual ruler to lay out the form, but I might ask him to put inch markings on each bar. I think they worked perfectly. My next hope is to discuss whether he thinks his guys could make me a guitar cutter. Gotta be cheaper than $1K... I hope... I love these caramels. They disappeared quite quickly, despite their hard chew. If you google " chocolate molasses caramels" you'll probably find the recipe I started with. The hungry mouse, I think was the site. I hand temper my chocolate, though I'm contemplating getting some kind of warmer. I sometimes get bubbles in my molds, too. I imagine it's the same problem. I will try tapping, Willow. I've read that some people use a vibration table for molds I think, is this useful? As an aside, even now I still get excited when I successfully temper my chocolate. I am so thrilled when my leftovers have a great shine and snap. Is that weird? Edited for spelling

I'm really enjoying the videos, and browsing the recipes

Those macaro'ns look amazing. I haven't had the courage to try making those yet. I got some new candy rulers to play with. A family member made them for me. My first time using them! So I made chocolate molasses caramels. I love the molasses flavor. unfortunately they came out REALLY chewy. Too hard, I think. I'll try and cook them to a slightly lower temperature next time. What would the fat ratio in the caramel do to the texture? I had some trouble with the chocolate as well. Lots of air bubbles, and I had some trouble with the temper, which isn't usually as issue.

I would love to attend! DC is practically my back yard. is there any word on actual date yet? There's a big professional conference I typically attend in this general time frame, and I'm desperately hoping it won't conflict.

Wow! Sparrowgrass, that's phenomenal! Congratulations!

As a physicist, I find it challenging to read bio and medical studies, because it's nearly impossible to control all variables, and many rely on subjective self reporting. But NIH and NSF (the two major science funding agencies in the US, as well as smaller investment by other federal agencies and private funding) are more and more willing to fund rigorous studies in this direction. It's also far less of a career breaker for the scientists as well, to voice support for low-carbohydrate, even though the exact mechanism isn't known yet.