fifi

aaahhh... It appears that you have joined the afflicted.

I like the idea of the port with a good beefy demi glace. I am thinking that you just had a better beefy demi glace than I did and that was why you found it decidedly beefy. I am out of beef demi glace and will have to go on the hunt for some beef stock makings shortly... right after I rob that bank.

$99 for a crock pot? That is nuts. I also don't know that I would trust a company that never made one before to know what they are doing. There is subtle science in the crock pot.

I haven't had boiled peanuts in many years. When I worked at FDA in New Orleans, one of the guys would always make boiled peanuts. He had some elaborate process that I obviously don't remember. Ya'll have mentioned texure a few times. These had a texture similar to a water chestnut. They were not at all mushy like a cooked bean. What is the "traditional" texture?

Those "golden" tortilla chips make the best chilequiles. It is a texture thing. I got hooked on chilequiles for breakfast while doing some work in the Tampico area and their corn tortillas are thicker than normal. For the Jaymes quick method for chilequiles, goldens rock. I wonder what the deal is with not allowing pictures? I am wanting to take some pictures in this awesome Fiesta Mart here and intend to go talk to the manager about it before I do anything. Cool blog.

There is a really nice web site on Knysna here.

How about focusing on a particular item (burgers, pizza, chili, whatever) that uses regional styles and ingredients instead of just one ingredient. This will probably take longer than you think to get organized so there should be plenty of time for our more northern brethren to dig out of their snowbanks.

Compost 'em.

I have used it as a side with some lovely grilled porkchops. (Not grilled by me but by a friendly grillmeister. ) With brie and crackers was pretty good. One of the best was in a big fluffy baked potato. The next adventure will be with a really cheesy omelette.

A blog on your adventure is definitely in order. My first thought is to start it in Adventures in Eating. We could all vicariously join in your adventure. It would be really fun to follow what you do with the place. Contrasting the pictures from your blog and the pictures of the place that you have shown here, I can see where your special touch will probably be applied to this place with great effect. It appears to have "good bones" that will respond well to your touch. Menu development as you go along would really be interesting. For some inexplicable reason, I am fixated on the flower baskets as shown in your blog. Would you be carrying that tradition to the new place?

Ah... Not the dark side. I can't wait to get back to gardening. What I am plotting now is getting some small scale farmers to start growing some of this stuff and starting a market. Ah well... Something to do when I retire from my day job. I look at all of these seed sources available and wonder why someone isn't growing these things for commerce.

I just went through your blog. Damn. I don't think you will have a problem getting guests standing in line at your door. I want to have breakfast at your place.

Gerhard... What a fantastic beach. Do people swim there? My kids (grown) and I have B&B'd through England and the Pacific NW here in the US. One of the things that attracted us were innovative breakfasts. Looking back on it, I don't think there was a lot of expense involved or any more labor than usual, just innovation. Our favorites used local ingredients, in season and good breads. Sometimes the breads were from a local bakery and information on the bakery was part of the menu. The menu was typically fixed and that was OK. I don't think you have to offer a "diner style" number of options to be successful. The draw was always that the breakfasts were different and interesting. I still remember that dungeoness crab omelet that we had in Washington state. Another memorable B&B was one run by a passingly strange lady in the Lake District of England. She had homemade preserves and wonderfully unique omelets. We remember that she insisted that we drink our fresh juice down right away before "the life forces of the fruit expired". Anyway, I bought one of her cook books. These places attracted us because their marketing copy in the guides we were using emphasized the unique breakfast menus. Great fun. Best of luck in your new venture.

I am developing a toy lust for that Oxo mandoline.

Yet another dynamite web site. Many thanks for that. The way my plans are going, I am going to have to lease a few acres. Oooo... I see they have Vulcan Chard. I used get the seed from Shepherd's until they got bought out and the seed varieties went to hell. This is one of the best of the red stemmed chards. It is absolutely stunning in the garden.

I have to agree with Jaymes and rancho_gordo on the "bean juice" issue. While I prefer most beans cooked with "just enough" liquid, there are those that lend themselves to wonderful bean juice. The pintos, of course, but also those fresh shelled peas in the summertime. Good cornbread to soak it up is a necessity. Nothing is right or wrong, just a whole 'nother thing. I have always heard of teparys but, strangely, never tried them. I will have to go looking for them.

As usual, I am confused. What is the difference between a taco and a burrito? We seem to have used the terms interchangeably. The usual is some combination of eggs, chorizo, potatoes, salsa, cheese rolled up in a flour tortilla. Interestingly, I almost never see corn tortillas. I wonder why that is? Does that portend a more Northern Mexico origin? Or does it put the pointer right back to Texas? The link isn't working right now so I could be talking out of my sombrero.

I don't think the weight of the lid has anything to do with it. If you do the math you find that you really aren't developing any significant pressure in the pot due to the weight of the lid. I cooked beans with this method for years before I got my LC. I do think that the weight of the pot evens out the temperature because of the mass of the pot. It is the same principle as with crockery. I am probably going to add an Emile Henry to my toy collection just because Wolfert says it works. Then I also use the crock pot if I am only doing a pound. It just seems like I do what seems like a good idea at the time. The crock pot takes a little longer because you don't have the heat on all sides but I can just set it to low and go shopping without worrying about it. I am more likely to use the oven in the winter. You asked about recipes and I looked in my collection and find... I don't have any! Next time I do a pot I will take note and enter it, especially if they are particularly good. (Not all of my ideas are as good as they seemed at the time. )

I am so glad we have another convert. Onward to better beans! I think the article is a fine idea. (psst... Hey Russ!)

Toliver... You are an internet genius.

The pasillas are all that I find as well. This from Zarela Martinez in the food and life of Oaxaca. She gives some mail order sources but last time I tried that I bombed. I tried Frieda's By Mail (Los Angeles), Tierra Vegetables (Healdsburg, CA), and there are others as well. I haven't tried in a couple of years. I am sort of waiting for Fiesta here in Houston to get them. I occasionally bug the produce manager and the reply is always along the lines of "I would love to find a source." I suppose that part of the problem may be setting up a reliable supply. Someone needs to get themselves down there and bring rancho_gordo a supply of Oaxacan pepper seeds.

There's probably little demand for them. I brought mine back myself from chiles I ate. (Burp). Remind me at the end of summer and I'll try and save some for you. That is odd. A lot of recipes you see for the mole that uses them says something like "you can't get these pepper in the US so subsitute blah blah..." I always take that as an immediate challenge and hope that the ever increasing variety of peppers coming available I will score some. No such luck. How much do you want us to read into how you transported those pepper seeds? Oh yeah... An please get with the mail order plan Pepper Man. Those of us in the farmer's market wasteland are waiting. I want beans, too.

I agree with you and would have gone for the high/low/warm model but, I couldn't find one! Then that two chambered pot got me. I haven't tried it yet but may do that this coming weekend. I am thinking a small corned beef and some smothered cabbage in a belated nod to St. Patrick.

Does anyone have a clue as to why seeds for the Oaxacan peppers can't seem to be found? I have googled every which way from Sunday and the only thing I get is recipes and not many of those either. Even this exceedingly cool site doesn't have them. And these guys have probably more variety of peppers than I have seen anywhere. What is the deal rancho_gordo?

The paprika chicken cooked on high worked really well. This one seemed to perform as expected on high. I then switched to low with the lid off because the onions had a LOT of water. That performed as expected also. This is the one I ended up with. As I said, it came with the carry case and the extra crock. The extra crock is not pictured here and may be a special made just for Sam's or they picked up a bunch of them that were previously offered but now discontinued.