JoNorvelleWalker

My replacement beans arrived unspilled and very well packed.

She's not reported back...that's not a good sign.

As I was broiling tonight's pizza the oven shut itself off with an over-heat error message.

Beautiful, beautiful @chefmd but I hope you put them down again. Or have your liver donor lined up. I love mushrooms as much as the next girl but I'd be scared, very scared. (And selfishly I'd like to get a ride again from you someday.)

Not only do these pieces look impractical, they don't exactly scream "Ozarks" at me. Isn't there some traditional regional pattern that you could emulate? My own stainless is Oneida but I no longer remember the name of the pattern. The design is colonial but simple, and I would not trade it for the finest silver. (I used to have the finest silver from when I was married and I gave it all away.) My main concern about flatware in a restaurant is "Is it clean?" Edit: my Oneida pattern seems no longer available. (Not to worry, I have lots.) The closest current pattern I could find was Paul Revere: https://www.oneida.com/flatware/fine-flatware/paul-revere.html Very similar. I think I should be most happy with Paul Revere if I found it in a restaurant. Even if that patriot and rum bibber never made it to the Ozarks.

Granted the relative humidity in my refrigerator is too low for me to measure with my hygrometer. However unless you own a fancy refrigerator that circulates dry air I'm not sure refrigerator drying will be that rapid -- besides, low humidity or not, water condenses on most everything in my refrigerator. Last night I did a boneless pork chop sous vide, 58C. That seems to have been a good temperature for me but there were problems.* This particular package of boneless rib chops were pre-brined. Then I salted again before bagging. After anovaing I dried with paper towels and the hair dryer on hot to see the difference from drying cool. Wasn't paying much attention (blame World of Warcraft) and the blow drier rendered the fat. Oops. After pan searing the pork was ham-like. Tender, juicy, and not bad at all, but the unmistakable somewhat rubbery texture of ham. Last time I buy expensive (granted, on sale) pre-brined fresh pork. I still think hair drying on cool has its place in my culinary repertoire. *dropping on the floor was one.

Fascinating history, thanks for the link!

Don't know. I thought I did. When I went to put the pie in the oven the display didn't look right so I turned the broiler on again. After three minutes I pulled the pizza but the top crust didn't look right. There should have been leopardizing on the top but it looked rather raw. So I put it in again for another minute. Still no joy. Then another thirty seconds. After loading the poor pizza three times it wasn't as pretty as it might have been and stuff was dripping over the edges. The top crust was still on this side of raw and the bottom crust was black. Compare this pizza with my last pizza from the other night: Edit: the bottom pizza is 3 minutes.

I confess there is not much of it left. But seriously, the top has no leopardizing while the bottom crust is black. The pie should have been done in three minutes but I let it go four and a half minutes trying to get some color on the top. All I can think of was that the broiler was not really on.

At work this evening I mentioned to a colleague that a bag of my bean club box arrived broken and spilled. She said two bags of her bean club box arrived broken but she hadn't bothered to report it. She assumed RG was trying to cram too much into the container. I hope @rancho_gordo is reading this so the packaging will be improved in the future.

Not as pretty as @Ann_T's but got the job done. Actually I suspect the broiler never really came on. The bottom of the pie was blackened but the top crust remained raw. I may trouble shoot this when I'm sober. Or I may just pretend it never happened.

The current issue of the NY Times Magazine is on candy. Shamefully sinful. I cannot unsee the images.

@JoaoBertinatti was your question specifically about lactose free ice cream? If so I am afraid I have nothing to contribute. But I have recently tasted some excellent commercially made ice cream that does not use gums nor stabilizers: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/72119-americas-favorite-ice-cream-guess/?do=findComment&comment=2175368 I have tried MVR milk for ice cream as reported earlier in this thread; however I went back to concentrating the milk for the ice cream base while pasteurizing. In the US or at least in this part of the US, MVR milk (as I understand the term) with reduced lactose is available in grocery stores. Thankfully I am blessed with good ice cream genetics and lactose is not an issue for me.

Pizza night here too, but I am fortifying myself before I throw the pizza in the oven, and anyway I'm sure mine will not look as good as yours.

@andiesenji how does the Ninja parmesan compare with parmesan grated with the Cuisinart grating disc (which I purchased a while ago and still haven't tried)?

Tonight it's a bowl of McConnell's. My impression continues that it's really good stuff. The ingredients include no gums. Nonetheless the texture and melting characteristics surpass Graeter's which relies on gums. McConnell's (lack of) sweetness and it's subtle flavor is much more to my taste. I couldn't even find the waxiness that I complained of the other night when I was testing both ice creams together. Graeter's is a few dollar's less expensive per pint but it's still no contest.

I'd wipe with paper towels first though.

Multifunction product.

Thanks, @Jim D. I got a good laugh! Right now the chocolate encrusted molds live in the bedroom while the cleaner molds are in the living room.

Tillamook's store finder says no.

Thanks! This is what I'm scraping with: http://amzn.com/B00076R2R6 The width is just right for the molds.

Last night I prepared perhaps the best chicken I have had -- or best CSO chicken (which is pretty much saying the same thing). https://forums.egullet.org/topic/156030-dinner-2018-part-1/?do=findComment&comment=2175137 Nothing special in the settings, just steam bake 20 minutes at 450F. What I did differently, after salting the bird for an hour or so I directed my new hair dryer on it for about half an hour. Cold air at maximum fan speed, till the skin appeared translucent and quite dry. I claim no originality for this, just google "hair dryer chicken"*. But the combination of dry skin and steam was something to behold. A few days ago I got the new dryer motivated by chocolate work. So far it's been great for surfaces of sous vide steaks, skin of chicken parts, and under breasts (my own). *Marcella Hazan has an old recipe for hair dryer duck. However Hazan boils her duck then blasts it with hot air.

I would not go out of my way to buy Graeter's again but it was on sale, and I wanted to see what the hype was about. The ingredients include carob gum and guar gum, and with that help I would have expected the texture to be better. Anyone else have opinions of McConnell's?

Oops, didn't see this -- thanks!

I've now read much of Greweling but I forgot to look for that iSi technique. When I wake up a bit I'll go look for it. Is Blumenthal's vacuum method documented in a book someplace? Still trying to figure out how to keep the spatula clean each time for scraping molds. I suppose one could use a fresh spatula for each mold. I'm not filling a lot of molds at one sitting. Any other methods for insuring a beautiful smooth surface for the backside?