JoNorvelleWalker

And the CSO is still there.

@Wolfert's chicken mechoui, one of my favorite chicken preparations: Lettuce and tomato, bread, much wine. And because no one was looking, cranberry sauce.

I have a friend who comes from a family where eating onions and garlic was forbidden for religious reasons. As @chromedome mentioned the Jains also do not eat onions and garlic but my friend said the reasons were different: the Jains abstain in order to avoid the chance of eating small creatures. Her family's religion abstains because of the negative spiritual effect of alliums. My friend married into a family who do eat alliums. Her practice now is to fast from garlic and onions one day a week.

What about the rhum?

After a particularly lovely dinner, a Balaklava Special No.1.

Thanks to Tiko Tuskadze, Supra -- Georgian dishes from two mornings ago, though remarkably the same as what's for tonight: Ispanakhis Pkhali (p14): Spinach, garlic, walnut paste, stir-fried green onion and cilantro. Lots of Georgian spices. Pomegranate to garnish. Tabaka (p140): flattened, spiced pan-fried poussin (or in this case Cornish game hen). Prepared on DeLonghi griddle. Served with steamed potatoes and green Tkemali. Tkemali is sour plum sauce. Mine was purchased but it was from Georgia. I confess I like red Tkemali better. Tuskadze says she ate it every day. Pretty much the same here, though last night was Japanese curry. Edit: I can't decide whether I like red or green Tkemali better.

http://www.camparigroup.com/en/joy-spence The blend is in honor of Joy Spence. I've been known to use 21 in my mai tai when I must make do.

What? You don't use Joy??

$57! I could only wish. Try about three times that. You must not be drinking the V.E.P.

Reposado tequila is quite OK but give me a good tobala mezcal any day.

You could get a job at your nearest orphanage, biology teacher and cook.

I'm not sure but it sounds messy.

Not sure if it helps...I am fond of rye, mezcal, absinthe and Chartreuse, but I drink them neat. For mixed drinks I seldom use anything but rum, cognac, apple brandy. (OK, sometimes kummel.)

Maybe rye?

After one batch of walnut paste in the Premier I am most impressed with the results. However I am overwhelmed by the work involved for cleanup. Mainly because of the weight...a salient feature of granite. I can hardly imagine little old ladies grinding curry pastes on a daily basis. There must be a better way. I wonder what would happen if I ran it for a while with water and detergent? I wish though I had ordered the Premier a few weeks ago when they were still offering a free kilogram of chocolate with purchase.

Once again I am saved because amazon tells me what I have already bought.

I liked this very, very much though speaking hypothetically I'd have to be rather drunk to bring myself to actually taste this stuff. (Kidney pie comes to mind from the UK.) Not sure why these dishes bother me as I'm from Philadelphia, home of scrapple (cornmeal and pig offal...perhaps offal is a euphemism) and pepper pot (intestine stew).

In my youth when I was in the orphanage the chef -- Theodore was his name -- once prepared pancakes without leavening. They were hard to chew. Amazing how food memories come back to one.

I've tried the alexa timer function a couple of times recently. There occasions your hands are covered in bread dough or worse you know. But I still don't have one actually in the kitchen. By the way The Economist refers to these devices as "Smart Microphones".

I saw the CSO selling from amazon tonight for $220.

This evening amazon had the Cuisinart Steam Oven latest model for $220 with the seller amazon but amazon was out of stock and the amazon listing was not coming up all the time. Price from other sellers was higher. It was weird. My coworker and I were both looking at the CSO listings and sometimes saw $220 and sometimes $299. Now that I am home I am trying to make $220 offering appear without success. For anyone interested in the CSO I advise checking.

Actually I have one in the freezer for an emergency! I'd still like to be able to recreate it though.

Sigh.

How I wish I had a basement.

Well, now I am in possession of a Premier grinder. Nothing wrong with my Waring, mind you, but they are different animals. I still seek the elusive pistachio paste which so far has been unobtanium. Nut butter in the Waring has been passible. But not the stuff of dreams. Furthermore I am now into Georgian cookery which calls for walnut paste with every meal. Indeed walnut paste was envisioned for tonight, but it turns out the Premier grinder requires breaking in to remove stone dust. Who knew? Several cups of peanut oil later and quite a messy clean up, I am now prepared. I think. The Warring jars go in the dishwasher. None of the Premier parts go in the dishwasher. Nothing like washing big heavy oily rocks by hand.