JoNorvelleWalker

If only I had a bigger bedroom.

I thought freezer tape was for keeping packages from tumbling to the floor when the door was opened.

Yesterday I read a most uninformative explanation in the paper. What we know: an armed, army ex-ranger was in the restaurant for several hours. Much of the downtown was on lockdown -- no one was permitted to leave the public library for example. The man served in Vietnam and stood accused of Social Security fraud. The authorities decline to reveal what weapon the gunman had and why the police resorted to deadly force. No information about hostages or not. There was no speculation about what connection the person might have had to Panera Bread. Why he chose that restaurant, or any restaurant for that matter.

Dinner was supposed to have been a stir fry. But I got home late and very tired. Yesterday I made dough, and pizza called to me. Used up the last of some still fragrant basil. You do know what pizza looks like, right? The wine held out to the end. How wonderful is that? Had more wine anyhow. Dessert was fresh made yogurt: Plated with Georgian preserved walnut. Seconds not shown.

With ubiquitous Georgian preserved walnut. Just like ice cream except it doesn't melt. If I am dead in the morning you know it is E. coli or the KGB that got me.

Some of us like fat.

Oh, my! I recall reading in one of my Georgian books that Georgian women have very little kitchen space for spices and traditionally buy blends from trusted spice merchants...rather than filling up their bedrooms with individual Georgian spices.

I tried the retrograded method but it did not do much for me.

I don't have all the answers but I am about three hours into a batch according to the instructions from Natural Probiotic Selection. Note they have different recommendations depending on which culture of theirs that one is using.

Everything tastes better in Italian.

Ruining perfectly good instant mashed potatoes.

As far as I can recall my first ever attempt at steamed dumplings: Before CSO After CSO. Filling was pork and cabbage. Wrapper was too thick but that should be easy enough to fix next try. Dipping sauce was too salty and it almost knocked me off my chair.

By my count the link is a month old to the day.

My spice storage from the other thread... https://forums.egullet.org/topic/15363-your-spice-cabinet/?do=findComment&comment=2142427 Except for the spices in the bedroom.

Queensland is closer.

I was thinking the bedroom door...bathroom is too moist.

Did you try looking under the name of "hing"?

I don't ever recall seeing a kumquat in the grocery store. Just as well I don't like kumquats.

I love the idea of door storage!

By the cold light of midafternoon* I realized I had left out one of Kenji's steps: "After cooking, they get a final rinse before heading to the ricer." He calls for rinsing with hot water. When I made such good mashed potatoes the previous time I indeed had done this. Hard to believe I can run two dishwasher loads preparing a single meal for one person. Most impressive. Anyhow I have moved the tamis storage location from inside the paella pan in the cupboard behind the rosemary bush to the oven for ease of access. *when I woke up.

What can I say, @andiesenji we shall see. I've looked into American and British pasteurization requirements. Fortunately dairy pasteurizes more readily in the Western hemisphere. Modernist Cuisine volume 1 has food safety tables for dairy pasteurization that are even less stringent than official government requirements. I've made yogurt before but I probably haven't done so for fifty years. If the result is a disaster I've wasted only a quart or so of milk and a few lines of typing.

Well, I attempted to repeat my potatoes of the other night. These were not as good. Perfectly OK, mind you! But not as good. The one difference is I stopped cooking the potato pieces when I could pierce them with a knife (~10 minutes) rather than when they were falling more apart. Then I almost cried when I transferred the tamis to the sink and realized I had not scraped off the bottom. I watched as about a third of my potatoes rinsed down the drain. Though I suppose my waistline may yet thank me. I have a Chinois on order and next time I will try Kristen Kish's suggestion of forcing the sieved potatoes through a Chinois. It amazes me how easily I can fill up a dishwasher.

Well, I now have cultures coming from Natural Probiotic Selection. Here's hoping they won't kill me. Ordering with one click is a whole lot easier than walking to Shoprite for Fage, not to mention when the wetlands are under water. What I found interesting -- rather than boiling milk for yogurt, Natural Probiotic Selection recommends bringing the milk to 65 degrees Celsius, or even better, holding the milk at 70 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. This struck me as a lot like the @Ruben Porto method of heating ice cream mix, as discussed in the ice cream thread. (Except Ruben's ice cream method specifies 71 degrees Celsius for one hour.) I never could get my head around boiling milk for yogurt. I once did a detailed study (also reported in the ice cream thread) and boiled milk tastes vile. Or at least it doesn't taste much like milk to me. It will be a couple days before I have much to report. I don't have a yogurt maker, but I do have a Precise Heat Mixing Bowl.

Anyone have experience with Natural Probiotic Selection cultures? https://www.yogurtathome.com/home

The last hurrah of my lovely little pork loin: Four exceptional meals from this roast. I may yet render the remaining fat. That is, the fat I didn't already consume. I shall miss it. Possibly my only pork loin ever that was truly juicy. Cooked and reheated in the CSO. Applesauce and pounded mace not shown. The wineglass was disgustingly unctuous so dessert was Whistlepig as a degreaser. Tastes better than Dawn.