JAZ

Most citrus fruit and chocolate. I like them separately, but I don't get the pairing. Orange and dark chocolate are okay, but lemon, lime or grapefruit just don't go with chocolate.

Steven, do you find that PJ's tastes are changing, or does he still like the same things in his lunches? He seems very adventurous (not that I have much experience with that age group). And I know you've mentioned elsewhere that what you can pack is limited by his school. How does that affect lunch-making?

Although I haven't tried that, I do make a hybrid when I'm using thicker, chewier bread or if I want to add other elements. What I do is butter one side of the bread and cook it (butter side down) in a skillet until golden brown on the one side. Place on a pan with a rack, griddled side down, and top with cheese (and anything else I'm adding), then run under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Kind of an open faced grilled cheese sandwich.

One thing I forgot to mention is a pressure cooker. Do you have one, Chris? Might be worth considering.

Given that you're pairing the cheese with a mango spread, maybe my idea for a cheese spread won't work. I think the texture of slices of cheese would work better. But I've never had any luck cutting cheese on a mandoline -- the problem is that the cheese sticks. A cheese knife with holes in the blade -- like this one -- works as well as anything on aged cheeses. It's what I use when I need to slice aged cheddar or gouda.

Aged cheeses dry as they age, so they're never going to slice very well (depending, of course, on exactly how aged they are) -- they'll always have a tendency to crumble. One way around this problem that would probably work for tea sandwiches is to pulse the cheese in a food processor with just enough liquid or fat to form a thick spread. Depending on what else you're planning for the sandwiches, you could use a little cream cheese, butter, or beer.

I like a thinner quiche for a couple of reasons. First, I like a higher proportion of crust, but also I find thick quiche can be overcooked around the perimeter by the time the center cooks. Not that this has to happen, but in my experience it's common. Finally, I find sometimes that in thicker quiche, all the filling ingredients sink to the bottom. I understand that in Bouchon, Keller goes to great lengths to make sure these problems don't happen, but I'd rather just make a thinner quiche.

Chris, here's a suggestion for general strategy rather than actual recipes. If I were in your situation, I'd make a list of a dozen meals that your family likes and then take a look at each one to see if there's a way to make it fast. Look at where the time sink is and see if you can get around it, either by advance prep, or making large batches and freezing portions, or buying prepped ingredients, or cooking sous vide.

Tammy, even if you don't add cream, you won't end with a bright red soup. Every soup or sauce I've made with roasted red peppers comes out a kind of reddish orange -- pretty, but not a true red. That being said, I make an intense roasted red pepper and caramelized onion soup that's great as a soup shot (I assume that's what you mean by a canape soup). There's a little cream in it to smooth out the flavor, but I wouldn't call it a "cream soup." Here's the recipe. [Edited to add link.]

In the quiche recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Child and Beck call for a ring mold 1" to 1-1/2" high.

Although I don't face the same problem, I've developed some strategies for dealing with leftovers that might help you out. I'm not a fan of eating the same thing (chili, stew, curry, etc.) all week long, but I find that if I make a big batch of these sorts of things and freeze all but one serving in one-serving sized portions, then it's like a new meal a few weeks later, instead of seeming like leftovers. I've also started freezing portions of various sauces and marinades -- things like satay (peanut) sauce, jerk grilling sauce, pesto, salsa, various tomato sauces. With a fast-cooking protein, you've got a more complex dinner than you could make in 30 minutes.

I really don't understand what you mean when you say that stirring breaks apart the rice. How vigorously do you stir? What rice do you use? The reason I ask is that I've never had rice "break apart" from stirring start to finish. I wonder why you find that to be a problem.

I've made risotto using several different methods, and I have not found that to be the case. Harold McGee from On Food and Cooking:

From the article: It sounds as if they paid some attention to outside opinions, but other than that, the only thing they say about their selection process is this: If you page through the slideshow (here) you can read what they liked about each bar.

I like to pair roasted red peppers with aged gouda cheese. After roasting, chop or julienne the peppers, toss with sherry vinegar and olive oil (sherry vinegar complements the peppers nicely). Top crostini (or gluten-free crackers) with the peppers and a curl of aged gouda.

I'm one of the few who actually like Rose's Lime Juice, as I explain in my article Any Other Name. Now, however, I make my own lime cordial (which contains kaffir lime leaves and peel as well as lime juice). Here's my recipe: 1 cup granulated white sugar 1/4 cup demerara sugar 2 ounces gin 3/4 cup water 5 kaffir lime leaves Rind of one kaffir lime (dried or fresh) Zest of one Persian lime 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon dried mango powder (amchoor) 5 ounces of lime juice, divided In a medium saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the sugars in the gin and water. Add the leaves, rind, zest, salt, amchoor, and 2 ounces of the lime juice and bring to a simmer. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes and then remove from the heat. Add the remaining 3 ounces of lime juice and let cool. Strain through a very fine strainer or cheesecloth. Keep refrigerated; this will last at least a month.

I regularly poach two eggs at a time; they almost always come out perfectly. Here's how I do it. I have a saucepan that holds just over a quart. I fill it about 3/4 full and add 1 tablespoon of salt and half a tablespoon of vinegar, then bring the water to about 200-210 degrees (hot but not boiling). I've never found that swirling the water does anything but tear the whites apart, and the same thing happens if the water is actually boiling. Meanwhile, I take a small fine strainer and place it over a custard cup, crack one egg into it and let it drain for a few minutes. The thin part of the white will drain out. Toss that out (it's what turns into the wispy threads that cloud up the water) and return the egg to the cup. Repeat with the other egg. When the water is at the right temp, carefully slide the eggs into the water and set the timer for 3-3.5 minutes (if the eggs are at room temp, I go with 3, if cold a few seconds longer.) If I'm doing more than two, I usually do as Dougal suggested -- chill and reheat.

I used to get dolmas in cans that were pretty good. And instead of plain canned salmon, how about smoked salmon in vacuum-sealed packages?

A while back, maggiethecat posted a link to this recipe from the NY Times for broccoli with toasted garlic and oyster sauce. I've been making it frequently (with a few changes). It's great as a side dish but also good with beef, pork or chicken added to make it into a main dish.

My appliances at home aren't high-tech enough to beep much, but the kitchen where we teach is filled with new Miele appliances, and they all beep annoyingly. Especially the dishwashers -- there are three of them in the kitchen, and they seem to beep pretty much constantly. It's not loud, but that's part of the problem. You can't tell what's making the noise, so you run around trying to figure out what it is. On second thought, I take back that my home appliances don't beep. When I'm preheating my oven, a random timer starts, and the oven beeps when the timer is done. It doesn't mean that the oven is preheated -- in fact, the timer seems to have no relationship to anything at all. It sets for 5 minutes when I preheat the oven to 350. Five minutes when I preheat to 375. Six minutes at 400, but also 6 minutes when I preheat to 250. So not only is it a beep, but it's meaningless.

Where did you find stainless bowls that work on an induction range? None of mine have a magnetic layer.

I think that would work fine, but I would keep the cherry tomatoes in large chunks so the flavor doesn't get lost.

I grew up with green bell peppers making a regular appearance in various dishes -- "Chinese" pepper steak over rice, stuffed peppers and the like -- and I always figured that everyone cooked with them and liked them. But in the past week or so, I've run across several people who loathe them. Most of these people like red bell peppers -- it's just the green ones they don't like. Who knew there was such antipathy toward what I consider a vegetable bin staple? Does anyone else like them? If so, how do you cook them? What dishes do you use them in? And if you hate them, why? Flavor? Texture? Something else I'm missing?

JAZ, once you do that, the sandwich (by me) becomes an egg salad with bacon. If the main component of the sandwich had been egg salad, then yes. In my case, though, it was definitely a BLT, just with a thin layer of very plain egg salad -- almost like an egg-enriched mayonnaise.

I lived a lot of years with no dishwasher. I never wish to go back to that state. Now that I have a dishwasher, I run it pretty much everyday. I rent, so I'm not in the market for a new dishwasher, and in fact the one I have works fine. But I have a question about dishwasher detergent. I started out using the old Electrasol, mostly because it was inexpensive and was one of the few detergents that wasn't lemon or orange or "mountain fresh" scented. It worked fine, but then Electrasol became Finish, and also became a lot less effective. So I tried a couple other brands, but didn't find much difference among them. Then I tried Cascade Complete, which was on sale. Cascade Complete is by far the best detergent I've ever tried -- the dishes are spotless and sparkling even after minimal rinsing and prolonged sitting around before going into the dishwasher. But not on sale, it's really expensive. Part of that cost is offset because I no longer have to fill the "prewash" cup, but I'm wondering if there's anything else out there that will do as good a job for less money. What's your experience?