MrDelicious

I've never successfully made bread-machine bread without it tasting like... bread-machine bread. Don't know why. Someone gave me the "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day" book and I was shocked how great and easy it was to make excellent (IMO) bread in the oven. But if you don't have oven access, I don't see any other way than the machine. good luck.

Here's my favorite cheap recipe for pasta. I saw this one on of the Anthony Bourdain episodes about "technique": Based on that show, here's what I came up with: 1/2 cup of olive oil add 1 bunch of fresh basil leaves coarsely chopped. add 10 cloves of garlic coarsely chopped. add a large pinch of salt add a large pinch of pepper add a pinch of red pepper flakes put on the stove on the lowest setting for 15-30 minutes. don't let it boil. just warm. (You're making a tea) strain the olive oil and reserve If you have an immersion blender: Add a large can of tomatoes (28oz), add the olive oil and warm. Emulsify with an immersion blender. If you don't have a blender do this instead: Add a large can of tomato sauce (28oz), add the olive oil and warm. Emulsify with a whisk. Add salt as needed. Add more pepper flakes as needed (you should just barely notice the heat) Boil a pound of spaghetti in salty water (salty like the ocean) until just about done. Add it to the sauce and mix and heat until pasta is done. Serve. This is the only sauce where I don't want cheese, I don't want meat. It's perfect the way it is. When heating up leftovers, add a tiny pat of butter (or olive oil) to a skillet and heat up your leftovers.

Look at some of these beautiful recycled glass/concrete counter tops. I've seen them in person. Some of them have stunning color combos! http://www.vetrazzo.com/eng/products/color_palette

Ditto (again) on the board scraper!!! I also use 2 of those square plastic graduated buckets. One for holding tools I'm using while cooking instead of scattering them around like I used to do. I use it like a gigantic spoon rest. Everything goes in there. Spatulas, tongs, ... The kitchen counter is far cleaner and more organized during cooking. The other one I use for holding things I'll be composting later.

This is the kit I bought: http://www.modernistpantry.com/spherification-kit.html Cheap and has enough ingredients to try several experiments. The only thing I wish it came with was the cool spoon with the holes in it. I also bought a scale that reads 1/10s of grams but allows up to 3Kg. That allows you to measure your liquids on the same scale. Some of the other cheap scales won't go over 1000 grams (or maybe even less). http://www.amazon.com/American-Weigh-Compact-Digital-Removable/dp/B002SVNEWA/ref=sr_1_88?ie=UTF8&qid=1332794033&sr=8-88 I had great success making Cantaloupe Caviar this weekend. I'd still like to find out how to make larger cavier. Mine came out small-ish.

Thank you. Today I tried white wine with the same recipe and it worked better. However, tasting a spoonful of the "caviar" left a less than desirable pasty film in my mouth. I did wonder about dropping the caviar right into an SA bath just to see what would happen, given that it gelled up so bad. I also could have removed them from the CC bath sooner, I suppose but they seemed pretty fragile for a while so I kept them in there until they stiffend up some. I've never had any professionally made "caviar". Is the liquid center supposed to be fresh and clean tasting as if nothing was added, or is there always a "gel" feel/taste to it? All of these things are appealing to me visually but if the taste of all these wonderful creations leave a gooey feel in your mouth, I wouldn't see the real benefit beyond a visual experience.

I tried this but adding 2g of Sodium Alginate to the juice and blending just caused the juice to gel. Never even made it to the CC bath part of the show. Are those juices not going to work? Or is there some other reason?

I tried a pizza screen once and the pizza was almost impossible to get off and cleaning was worse. Now I use parchment paper AND the screen AND a stone. I put parchment on the screen, make the pizza, then slide the pizza (on the parchment) onto the stone. Screen stays out of the oven. When the pizza is done, slide the pizza back out onto the screen.