JAZ

Why do you say this? In what way does eating salt lead to obesity? Can you cite studies?

Erin, what are you tiao donuts? Your letter reminds me of my walk to the light rail station (on my way to work) when I lived in San Francisco. I walked by this great little bakery that made excellent croissants and pastries. In my case it wasn't so much time as it was calories, but when I had time, I'd just stand in front of the shop and smell the great aromas. Not as satisfying as eating the goodies, but it always made me happy.

I love toast, so I have toast on my wall.

Although I'll drink coffee out of paper or foam cups if it's the only choice, I really don't like to. Ceramic is my first choice, then porcelain or china. Needless to say, I don't drink much take-out coffee, and when I stay at a hotel that only has plastic or paper cups, I often buy a mug to use while I'm there.

I recently made a recipe by Hubert Keller I found in an old Fine Cooking magazine for cabbage salad with sherry vinegar and cumin. I had lots of cabbage, an apple, and some walnuts; I love cumin; and I love Keller's food. I thought it would be great. Wrong! What a pain for such a mediocre dish -- the separate blanching, shocking and marinating took way too long and way too many bowls. Also, it just wasn't very good: the red cabbage lost almost all its color, and the texture was rubbery -- halfway between cooked and raw. I have plenty of better cabbage recipes, so this one will not be making a reappearance.

Anna, although I haven't used SLT's hard anodized line, I was working for Sur La Table when they came out with their first line -- the 3-ply stainless cookware. We used it quite a bit in the kitchen there, and it performed very well. If the anodized line is the same quality, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

A while back I was looking for a cracker recipe and happened upon this one from Fine Cooking. The first time I used all sesame seeds for the topping, but had trouble with them all falling off. So the second time, I mixed sesame seeds into the dough (toasted first) and was fairly happy with the results. I didn't pursue the project any further so I never wrote up my recipe, but I recall adding about half a cup of sesame seeds. You can also add them to tempura batter.

I've had fish fillets crusted with finely crushed pecans -- I think it's a pretty traditional Cajun preparation, so I imagine you can find recipes online.

I recently read this Serious Eats article by Kenji Alt which was reprinted in Best Food Writing 2010. After trying his method, I have to say that it produced the best fries I've ever made, and one of the best batches I've ever tasted. They didn't particularly remind me of McDonald's fries, which is what Alt was after, but they were great. His method has three parts -- boiling in water with salt and vinegar, a very quick bath in hot oil, and the final fry after the fries cool. Mine were slightly larger than 1/4 inch in diameter (which is what he calls for) and they were quite cold when I fried them the final time, so they took quite a bit longer than the 3-1/2 minutes he specifies. Other than that, his technique worked perfectly. I forgot to take pictures, but I have half of the batch in the freezer to test out the last part of his theory, so I'll try to remember to photograph them.

Have you done this yourself? A few years ago I was trying to come up with a non-alcoholic drink that was reminiscent of a gin and tonic and tried several times to get a juniper flavored base without alcohol. I had no luck at all and assumed that the taste molecules in juniper berries were only soluble in alcohol, not water. Of the suggestions here, I think going with a different infusion like Earl Gray Tea is the best option.

There might be different ways a cookbook can be bad, but I submit that a cookbook with a recipe for Banana Salad Dressing is bad by any measure: mashed banana mixed with mayonnaise, peanut butter and evaporated milk, meant to be served on fruit salad. The book? The Use-It-Up Cookbook, which has a ton of suggestions for using up leftover foods, none of which sound appetizing at all.

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.