JoNorvelleWalker

What problems result from hand spinning? Other than possibly uneven shell thickness.

Thanks! I went for it. From a Polish Country House Kitchen is a gorgeous book. I know nothing about Polish food but the recipes are interesting. However I can't help but think the amazon reviewers are writing about one of the other books by Applebaum.

In her recipe (p 257) Capalbo calls for pureeing half the beans and cutting the rest of the beans into 1 inch pieces. By contrast, Tiko Tuskadze in her recipe for Mtsvane Lobios Pkhali calls for the beans to be simply sliced before cooking, still with bite, and not pureed. My beans were young, tiny haricots verts so I left them whole. Also I am lazy. My favorite pkhali remains Ispanakhis Pakhali, I think. That's spinach with walnut sauce.

Tonight I was preparing my 30 second green beans but was inspired to make Mtsvane Lobios Pkhali. Basically green beans in walnut sauce. Mtsvane Lobios means green beans in Georgian. Not sure how to say 30 second.

I'd put in a plug for Carla Capalbo's Tasting Georgia (2017). It is as much travelogue and wine book as a Georgian cookbook. With a goodly dose of Georgian geography and history. As Anna alluded Georgia is one of the few places in the world that I would love to visit.

Where I work we use timetrex with what I believe are USB based iButtons. Some of us had doubts at first but speaking as an employee it seems pretty painless. I haven't heard complaints from anyone. I certainly would not want to go back to filling out a timesheet.

Thanks, I went with it.

I enjoy Tempus Fugit but I don't have much experience with other brands.

Neapolitan style pizza: I said "style". Having eaten in Naples I would sooner eat week old rice or garlic six months in oil. Not for nothing is Naples called the Calcutta of Europe, no aspersions on Calcutta of India. In Naples I observed they didn't wash glassware between patrons. And yes, I almost died. OK, slight exaggeration, it was in Kenya I almost died. It was after dining in Naples that I wished I'd died. Sorry. Pizza was excellent, baked just short of four minutes. Bottom blackened and crisp. This was retarded Modernist Bread French Lean Dough to which I'd added a shot of diastatic malt. I find French Lean Dough makes more than acceptable pizza, while Modernist Bread Neapolitan Pizza Dough makes atrocious bread. Your mileage may vary. Anyhow it was good.

Any place with zombies on the lunch menu can't be all bad.

How fast do the spinners rotate? ...glancing over towards the drill press.

Question three: my high school aged grandson (see above) munching on my bars, mused that a filled chocolate egg might be lovely. I know from years in business one cannot ignore one's customers. I suspect he had in mind something like a Cadbury Cream Egg. I however envision a large hollow egg filled with, oh, say, chocolate espuma. Any suggestions for quality egg molds? Maybe it's just the photography but Tomric egg molds don't do it for me. There appears to be a disconcerting seam in all of them. (As much as I am pleased with the Tomric bar molds that I bought.) Brunner makes some pretty 3D magnetic egg molds but they are pricey: https://www.brunnershop.com/en/Spinning-Moulds/Eggs/ Does it seem reasonable that one could cast a hollow egg, say from one of these Brunner molds, then make a small hole and inject filling with the iSi needle attachments which I have?

Question two: Kerry kindly sent me some Cacao Barry https://www.cacao-barry.com/en-OC/chocolate-couverture-cocoa/chd-p64exbg/extra-bitter-guayaquil What's a good place to buy more? Is there another chocolate markedly superior that I should consider? As I was freezing* on some high school bleachers close to midnight night before last, it seemed this was in the running for the finest chocolate to have passed my lips. Certainly better than the produce of our local chocolate shop. *Technically at the same temperature as my chocolate storage cabinet.

As I said the PHMB heats for at least ten hours. Maybe continuously. I had anovaed only twelve grams of silk and the silk cooled and solidified very rapidly after I removed the bag from the water bath. My silk was definitely powdery but it seemed to work. Or something worked, the chocolate was in perfect temper. Are you preparing a larger quantity of silk at one time so that it stays silky longer?

Silk had been silky in the bath. I dried the bag and by that time the silk was cool and powdery. PHMB runs for ten hours at a time. Maybe continuously if you don't set a timer...have not tried.

I've been looking for a thread to share my ignorant noob questions: where to begin? Kerry talked me into trying the KitchenAid Precise Heat Mixing Bowl for tempering chocolate. After a couple false starts I anovaed up some silk and managed to achieve tempered chocolate that was still fluid enough to ladle. Very pleased with the results. Question 1: What temperature is ideal for adding silk to the melted chocolate? When I removed the silk from the water bath it hardened quickly. Didn't seem to matter to the tempering but it made a powdery mess. Can silk be made in bulk and cooled for later use?

Almost wish I had ordered more.

Indeed Cunningham's batter is a yeasted batter begun the night before. I had no strength to do it. Last night I was freezing on cold high school bleachers till 11:00 pm, got home at 12:30 am -- and the day before I fell in the cold, wet mud. Thought I would never again get warm. Tonight I am suffering an overly strong and unbalanced Mississippi punch. Takes much out of one.

Tonight I forgot what I was making and added too much Smith & Cross to my Mississippi punch. This threw the sweetness off so I garnished with a couple Luxardo Maraschino cherries. Am resisting the urge to prepare up a proper batch.

Thanks! I just checked my email and there it was! I'd even forgotten that I'd ordered.

I stopped reading at "big and heavy".

I just restudied the waffle thread and could find only my own post about charging Cunningham's batter in the iSi. No mention I could find of a modernist waffle version. I don't own a copy of MC but I have read it. Any more information? As it happens I really wanted waffles today, after essentially not having eaten dinner (not sure two cookies count). I dug out Cunningham's recipe before bed. But sadly I could not summon the energy. No waffles today for me.

I know I've told this story here before, however I believe it's been a while... When I was little I once demanded pie for breakfast. After a firm "no" my mother elaborated: "Actually I am from New England, and in New England people do eat pie for breakfast -- but this is not New England."

Sweetzels and milk, hold the peanut butter. Long day, incredibly tired.

My chocolates were a success at work. One friend said till now she'd never liked dark chocolate. The difficulty was convincing folks I made them. I'd say the Precise Heat Mixing Bowl was a success for tempering. I was working with 600 grams of chocolate though a kilogram at a time seems not out of the question. I wouldn't want to try much more than that. Obviously a kilogram limitation is a disadvantage for commercial chocolate makers. But then one can melt batch after batch. The downside is that if your Precise Heat Mixing Bowl is full of chocolate you can't make ice cream or yogurt.