JoNorvelleWalker

I use a Silpat on my Paragon when I'm not using the Paragon temperature controlled mat. I love induction. I love that I can trust it to do its thing when I'm in the next room paying attention to eGullet and my mai tai.

Whole, parboiled 5 minutes in large volume of water. You do have a steak knife, right?

I doubt the basin provided enough steam. Also one only wants steam for the first few minutes till the crust has set. The baguettes should finish in a dry oven.

I haven't eaten all day, and they sure look pretty good to me! If I may make suggestions, slash the loaves lengthwise, with about a third of each slash overlapping but not touching the previous slash. Also try to find a way to introduce steam in the oven at the beginning of the bake. Easy if you have a steam oven. Less so otherwise. However a bit of steam will make a big difference to the crust.

I had plans of using them for food storage. So far one of the fourteen holds half a pound of Rancho Gordo beans.

For any of you who may still be married... I was browsing for a cutting board. I have twenty something cutting boards at count, but a girl can never be too rich or have too many cutting boards. I came upon this offer from amazon: (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) "Non-slip design on the cutting board surface to prevent the spouse from slipping during cutting."

I shall never again allow thirteen empty Planters Peanuts jars to accumulate on my kitchen counter. That could be unlucky. So I added another to make fourteen.

My ancient Zojirushi has a porridge setting but no setting for congee. The new rice cooker has both a congee setting and a porridge setting. Apparently at least to Zojirushi engineers Japanese rice porridge is a different dish from Chinese congee. The new Zojirushi also has a setting for steel cut oats that my Zojirushi does not. My only solace is my Zojirushi manual warns not to try to cook oats.

I notice Zojirushi has introduced a new rice cooker with a congee setting. So far I have resisted.

I am acquainted with garlic. What are commercial ground vegetables?

I suspect it was well before Melisa was a gleam in someone's eye I used to make Craig Claiborne's Turkish moussaka from the New York Times Cookbook. However Turkish moussaka is a quite different dish than Greek.

I needed something to use up excessive kimas meat sauce made from two pounds of ground beef. Many thanks to @Rachel Perlow for the suggestion to prepare white sauce in the blender. Plus I got an excuse to finally use my largest TeamFar pan in the anova. As a bonus I learned the TeamFar pan fits perfectly on the rails of my Vesta blast chiller. Some days everything goes right. For the eggplant I simply sliced and deep fried it. No fuss, no muss. Though a bit time consuming because of the amount required.

Moussaka — unctuous, gelatinous umami bomb. Perhaps I should have allowed it to rest a moment longer before cutting.

Admittedly I failed geometry.

How does one get triangular slices from a square pizza?

I did not notice any incorporation of air in my bechamel last night.

No, the Blendtec does not have a heater. However from friction a Vitamix or a Blendtec can boil cold milk in a couple minutes. I doubt a Bamix could do that.

Yes, but you still have to clean the whisk. And I wouldn't call bechamel an emulsified sauce. I make Hollandaise in a heavy Falk copper pan. With the blender you don't have to worry about a skin on the bechamel. Edit: plus I expect the blender would be great for desserts such as cornstarch pudding.

No one speaking up, I can report it possible to make excellent bechamel in a blender. Of course Rachel has a Vitamix and I had to make do with my Blendtec (joke).

I apologize again. Romans are known for dining to excess in a horizontal position. I'm not about to go searching at the moment, but I have read there exists a guide book in Greek and Latin for Greek tourists visiting Rome. It includes a section on Roman restaurant etiquette. Be sure to leave a tip for the slaves.

A massive horizontal brunch sounds more Roman than Greek. ...sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Pasta with kimas (Greek meat sauce). If it wasn’t for @Duvel I would have enjoyed it warm.

Or the wrong wife.

Sounds good to me.

No joy in Mudville today?