StumptownGeek

Mustard greens with bacon and onion, buttered toast

Difficult to get the bacon done enough and not overcook the asparagus...

Sous vide rib-eye cap steak and green beans for veg...

Mustard greens with bacon, braised in chicken stock, reduced, topped with a poached egg and pink grapefruit

Caramelized endives with crème fraîche and pork breakfast sausages

In the (US) Pacific Northwest spring arrives early and summer late. Plenty of greens and cruciferous veggies at the Farmers' Market this morning: Tonight, steamed purple sprouting broccoli (CSO) with crustini from Modernist Bread French Lean Bread (master recipe), Mangalica Ham and Manchego cheese...

The return of the Rib-eye, with an egg and a quick fresh salsa:

12 oz. Bone-in Ribeye, cooked SousVide @ 143F for 1:45 and then browned on cast iron: What, where's the veg? Fine. Half of a 12 oz. Bone-in Ribeye, cooked SousVide @ 143F for 1:45 and then browned on cast iron, with Green Beans steamed 15min @ 212 in the CSO: Guess I'm having steak and eggs for breakfast tomorrow...

Roasted chicories and fried duck eggs

The Lodge L8SKL many are using for baking bread with the CSO has dropped to $15.29 on Amazon (US): Lodge L8SKL, 10.25" Cast Iron Pan

There's a cultural component to this as well. In Europe and North America most people prefer 2700-3000K. In Asia 4000K is often preferred. There are LED bulbs on the market with the ability to change color temperatures. Some people prefer different color temperatures at different times in the day (cooler in the morning, warmer in the evening, for instance) and those bulbs allow that. Also, there is some, not uniformly accepted, evidence that certain color temperatures at certain times in the day might have positive or negative health or behavioral effects. As far as color rendering is concerned, that's separate from color temperature. You can have a 2700K light source in which many colors look off, and a different 2700K light source in which most colors look great. There aren't good, readily available metrics used for most lighting available. There is a relatively poor metric in common use, Color Rendering Index (CRI), which rates the quality for eight defined color samples against a reference source of light, with 100 as the top of the scale. Incandescent has a CRI of 100. Typical LEDs are around 83, though specialty LEDs go as high as around 98. CRI as a metric is significantly flawed, however, so a higher CRI source can look better for those eight colors than a lower CRI source but worse for general use. If you can it's best to see the actual light source in your target environment and see how it looks to you. Dimming is another subject. Some LED lights don't support dimming. For those that do, the minimum illumination before flickering or the light turns off completely is a function of both the specific lights and the dimmer. Sometimes manufacturers offer lists of recommended product pairing for best dimming performance but it's not common. Again, unfortunately, you're usually best off trying combinations on your own. There is yet another light option with dimming. Dim to Warm LED lights lower their color temperature automatically as they are dimmed, similar to incandescent lights. At full brightness they might be 2700K to 3000K and at minimum brightness they might be 1900 to 2200K. This has the "dim to candlelight" effect many people used dimmers to get with incandescent lights.

Price on Amazon (US) has dropped to $415.35

How about if the turntable itself does the stirring in relation to a fixed paddle? http://tinyurl.com/bmbv7wt

I have the 1/2" thick version ("The Big") from the original Kickstarter project. I've made about a dozen pizzas on it. They've had the best pizza crusts I've ever made. It's very heavy. It's difficult to pick up or put down on a flat surface unless you have part of it hanging out over an edge. I also bought one of their storage sleeves to make it easier to carry and put away when I'm not using it. If you use it in a range with the cracked open door technique to keep the broiler element on be careful - I melted the oven control knobs on my range that way. I do still use that technique but now I remove the knobs first.

I made the "Fat-Free" Mac and Cheese last night. I had my doubts on the outcome going in. Is cheese flavor really all water-soluble? Can you really get that characteristic mouthfeel without the fat in the sauce? As it turns out the answer to both really is "Yes!" and the mac and cheese is delicious. I made it with different cheeses (50% Cheddar, 40% Emmentaler, 10% Parmesan) than the default recipe, cooked the cheese/water combination for about 40 minutes instead of 30 minutes and used spiral pasta instead of macaroni. I measured everything by weight as indicated in the recipe but yielded a lot less in volume than claimed - about 3 cups instead of 4 cups. The recommendation for baking post-flavor-extraction cheese solids into crisps was a dud - I tried that and they were tasteless. The flavor really was efficiently extracted. Perhaps the extra 10 minutes of extraction cooking made a difference. But the actual fat-free mac and cheese is a winner and I'll definitely make it again.