JoNorvelleWalker

Yup. Dinner tonight was three bowls of ice cream. I tried Frutero for the first time and am ordering more.

Here's my Le Creuset tagine... I had to order from Europe as the larger 31 cm Le Creuset tagine was not available in North America, nor was either size tagine in Volcanique. Not to mention the 31 cm tagine in Volcanique. One simply cannot mix colors of Le Creuset. @chefmd may disagree. https://www.amazon.fr/Creuset-Tajine-émaillée-céramique-volcanique/dp/B001IKK2FY?th=1 It's been some years since I've prepared a tagine in the Le Creuset. I use the Le Creuset for strong seafood flavors such as shrimp that I don't want absorbed by my unglazed clay tagine.

I recently tried Tate's Bake Shop Chocolate Chip, purchased from Whole Foods. Not too sweet. I have to say they're good.

I shall never again...not sure never again what. How about I shall never again get out of bed. Last night during a storm I heard a crash that did not sound like thunder. I wandered around looking for broken glassware, but everything seemed fine. Eventually I went in the kitchen to fix dinner (hotdog, five nights in a row). The magnetic knife block with all its knives had fallen. The fall snapped the lid off the new citrus juicer. Maybe a good thing since my homogenizer was spared.

There is a reason Chimay sells 1.5 liter bottles.

I don't have the technology to get the wire ball stopper back in the bottle.

At the cost of CO2 cartridges I might as well buy more beer.

I thought about decanting the remains of the opened bottle into an iSi.

My vacuum stoppers work for sealing still wine. But a vacuum stopper would just pull the bubbles out of a carbonated beverage. Perhaps I should consider buying smaller bottles in the future.

I have one of that style stoppers too! I'll try it next bottle.

I was dismayed the other night when I found my previously opened bottle of Chimay ale was flat. I used a closure that was designed for Champagne bottles, but the closure didn't help with the Chimay bottle to any great extent. What kind of closure could keep beer from going flat? Consuming the entire bottle in one sitting would not be the best suggestion.

Amazon has invented a new subscription to take money away. Whole Foods deliveries normally have a service charge of $9.95 per order (plus optional tip). Now, with the new subscription of $9.95 per month, orders from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh over $35 have no service charge. In addition, one hour delivery slots are no added cost. Plus they say subscribers get priority for slots. For anyone doing the math, if you order once per month you break even. If you order more frequently, you come out ahead. For someone like me who is dependent on kind friends to take me grocery shopping, it is a good deal. Amazon offers a one month free trial to hook you in. Meanwhile construction of the new Whole Foods store near me hurries on apace.

Alas, last I checked Neisson and La Favorite were not available around here and my stocks are running low. My mai tai recipe is actually half La Favorite and half Wray & Nephew. I only went to all Wray & Nephew when La Favorite became hard to get.

Orange juice should work as long as you adjust the sugar to get the final Brix in the right range. I'm thinking blood orange soda would particularly nice.

The three stores near me were not on the list. Wray & Nephew will either come back in stock or I'll change my mai tai formulation.

The small print says "Check with the merchant for stock availability."

Almost every day I get fun stuff to evaluate, although some of the fun stuff is more fun than others. I just finished a review of a new West Bend 5 cubic foot chest freezer: (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) What a joy. I'd never had a chest freezer before. Amazing, when you lift the lid of a chest freezer the contents don't go spilling out onto the floor. I relocated my blast freezer to the dining room, and set up the West Bend in the living room where the blast freezer used to be. The West Bend easily held all the food from my ice bound freezer in the kitchen with oodles of space to spare. I've now been able to defrost both the kitchen freezer and the blast freezer. The blast freezer is not recommended to be run continuously, though I confess I had been using the blast freezer as an overflow freezer from the kitchen. If there is a power interruption the blast freezer does not automatically restart. The West Bend will. Meanwhile I have high hopes for a new nugget ice maker that's on the way. Considering the current Excessive Heat Watch the ice maker can't get here soon enough!

I have three refractometers but for the grapefruit soda I used DiFluid brand... (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Returning to my grapefruit... Now that I have the Vinci juicer I can quickly and easily juice grapefruit. I treated the fresh squeezed juice with Pectinex and let it sit overnight in a 1000ml separatory funnel. (I have to complain grapefruit juice does not clarify as readily as apple juice.) I took 400ml of the clarified grapefruit juice and added 100ml water and 25g sucrose. The final Brix measured 12.8. I have not measured the pH of the soda, but the pH of the juice was 3.1. I charged the soda in an iSi and let it rest in the refrigerator for a few days. I sampled the first glass this afternoon. Wow, was I delighted. Good stuff. Perfect sweetness and acidity. I only wish I had the refrigerator capacity to keep the sep funnel cold while clarifying.

It would seem Pimm's is not the only beverage with supply issues. The other night when a kind friend drove me to the ethanol emporium, I was no sooner in the door than I heard "I can't get your rum!" Apparently Wray and Nephew is not to be had in New Jersey.

There is a thread on commercial lever presses here. I think the Vinci extracts less oil than my Hamilton Beach. Whether that is better is a matter of taste. Certainly the Vinci makes good juice. And it juices grapefruit! Would you use a masticating juicer for citrus?

Almost all the kitchen toys I get are products provided at no cost in exchange for my evaluation and review. An outstanding new toy for my collection that I actually paid for myself is the Vinci Hands Free Electric Citrus Juicer... (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Think of the Vinci as an inverted Nija CREAMi. The reamer rises from below. Sensors stop over extraction. Works with citrus sizes from limes to grapefruit. The flavor of the juice is very clean. Compared to my beloved Hamilton Beach 932 Commercial, the Vinci is lighter, takes up less counter space, and produces better juice. The Hamilton Beach has had almost daily use for nine years and is still going strong. Spare parts for the Hamilton Beach have been available for going on a century. I can't say how long the Vinci will last. All parts of the Vinci except the motor are top rack dishwasher safe. But cleanup is simple, as is cleanup of the Hamilton Beach. The big thing is the Vinci will juice grapefruit, whilst the Hamilton Beach will not. The Vinci would be great for anyone with arm problems. Of course unlike the Hamilton Beach the Vinci needs to be plugged in.

But if the opener does not shut off think of the impact on the electric bill.

Thank you @Smithy! The recipe I used was from Warburtons by way of Nagi of recipetineats. I simplified by just throwing all ingredients in the Blendtec and pressing the batter button. I have Nagi's cookbook home from work and I must say her recipes, what few I've tried, work well. Her mother has a Japanese food site that is a joy to peruse, although I've not tried cooking from it.

Sorry, no picture. I ate the two most photogenic ones and I don't have the energy for photography.