fifi

Susan, those little wire shelves are terrific. I like the idea that they are bought individually so that you can mount each shelf at the desired height. In my previous pantry, on the wall, I put those multiple racks. I had to look all over the place for a rack that had at least one shelf with enough head space to hold some vinegar bottles and tall Tones spice containers from Sam's.

Without that kilo of butter or vat of cream, you are probably sunk. My two favorite ways of dealing with yams are the simplest . . . baked and served with butter or in a gratin with heavy cream (that breaks into butter and milk solids) with maybe a little bit of nutmeg. I really don't like adding sweet stuff to them but did for Thanksgiving at the insistance of my family that they wanted a sweet side dish. I added some dulche de leche to the gratin. I really hate the typical addition of pineapple, marshmallows, raisins, nuts and all the other stuff that gets thrown into the typical Thanksgiving side dish. But, those with a sweet tooth like it. One thing for sure, you won't have to taste the yams. Hmmm . . . vegetarian marathoner . . . probably ought to talk with a nutritionist. Fat is not necessarily a bad thing. (My son does marathons but isn't a vegetarian. His nutritionist worries about calories when he is training . . . so he adds cream to his protein shakes. Oh, he has about the lowest cholesterol on the planet.)

Katy . . . You are a very bad person! I am a sucker for ferns, palm trees and any kind of truly ancient flora. The orchid plates aren't bad, either. Oh good grief. They sell it here at Neiman's. Perhaps I could get myself a single champagne flute.

I guess I am pretty immune to this particular affliction. I really like white porcelain and I went on a similar hunt for the "perfect white plates." I wanted something really basic that I could add stuff to for the setting. I finally found "it" at Crate & Barrel. They have probably the best selection of porcelain dishes at the best price I found anywhere. Back up to porcelain>dinnerware and select see all. I have had these dishes for about 10 years now and I still love them. Even better, you can buy pieces open stock. Then I get these odd fixations. Like these quirky Gone Fishin' pieces from Sur la Table. I will have those. Then I saw this lovely fern pattern fine china and went on a search for something similar. I have been searching for about 15 years. Of course, part of the problem may have something to do with the fact that I saw that china in the collection at Windsor Castle. So, I guess I am not so much acquisitive as I am prone to obsessions about a few things.

I went a-googling and I have to say that I am now confused as to which bay is which . . . I mean genus and species-wise. I have no idea what the g&s is of the cemetary tree that we use. I always thought that the bay we use here in the Southern US was an indigenous tree, most often found in the forest understory. The USDA listing really only seems to have the California bay and it is Laurus nobilis. I am assuming that is California bay because the USDA map only has California marked. It appears that they may be wrong. Then the Virginia Dept. of Forestry lists Magnolia virginiana as "sweet bay" but it has a magnolia looking flower that I don't remember ever seeing. They don't mention any culinary uses, either. But then, I found this reference. Then to get more confusing . . . clickety! Then that site comes up with Umbellularia californica as California bay. Penzey's makes some disparaging remarks about "California Bay" but they don't give the g&s. I am guessing that Turkish bay is Laurus nobilis. If you aren't confused yet, you aren't listening.

I'm guessing it holds a bagel while you turn it and it slices it in half. If that's the case, the idea behind it, is that it would be difficult to slice your hand in half using this thing. I've noticed lots of gadgets, over the years, have been designed to allow bagels to be sliced, without slicing the hands that hold them. So I figure I've got pretty good odds, working in this category. ← And we have a winner! It is indeed a bagel slicer. And it works better than you would think. There are lots of bagel slicing things out there for a good reason. There is an alarming number of visits to the ER for really nasty injuries from slicing bagels.

Order more moving boxes.

I have never heard of this one. I checked the Campbell's site and no dice. I am getting really curious.

Nope! I am doing a happy dance. I have stumped the Gadget Queen!

Ok . . . So I am tardy. I just got around to putting up the pictures of my adventure. It came out great but there are some things I would do differently. First, remember that I did a smaller hunk, a little over 11 pounds, named Elmer Fudd. Here he is just before I added some more salt after day 1. He is resting peacefully in my grandma's jam pot. Here we are ready to go into the oven after an over night soak in about 3 changes of water. Elmer has been transferred to the big Magnalite roaster since I read in Bill's book that he cooks it covered. As you can see, and will see more later, this negates my carefully planned skin carving. The skin pulled back anyway. I probably should have tied it. Elmer has reached the 195 degree F nirvana after about 5 hours at 300 degrees F. I used 300 as a compromise between my usual 250 and Bill's 325. Besides, we were getting hungry. Note that there is quite a bit of liquid in the bottom of the roaster. We transferred him to a roasting pan for browning just because it seemed like a good idea at the time. We also cut the skin off and put it in the bottom of the pan to crisp up. It took about 45 minutes at 375 to achieve this: It was served pulled pork style and everyone agreed that it was the porkiest pork that they had ever had. The cracklin's kept disappearing. The saltiness of the meat was perfect. The liquid in the bottom of the roaster was really salty. What would I have done differently? I would have looked for a fatter pig. The meat was a bit on the dry side . . . not objectionable but drier than the pork butt that I am used to. I also would probably ramp the oven up a bit higher to brown it. I think faster browning may help with the moistness factor. Would I do this again. You bet! In fact, I am. I have a little piece of pork butt, about 4 pounds, in the fridge right now that is going on day 4. I haven't decided yet but I may put it into a 250 F oven without the cover and see what happens.

Bumping this up because I just got the niftiest gadget from my sister. Too bad she doesn't remember where she bought it or when. It works great! And doesn't take up too much room in the gadget drawer. Anybody guess what it is?

Give Frosty a hug for me. Now . . . Go and get yourself a roll of freezer tape. This stuff looks like masking tape but has a special adhesive that stays stuck on cold stuff and will come off cleanly when you want it to. Paired with a fine tip Sharpie indelible marker, you now have the optimum labeling system for your freezer. Keep it in a handy spot in your kitchen so you won't be tempted to get lazy about labeling.

Oh Yes! The Rotel and Velveeta routine. I have to confess that I made that for myself on New Year's Eve. (I never go out on NYE.) It was great! I spent the time schlurping it up on tortilla chips with my champagne while on the phone with friends from around the world. Great time. And it wouldn't have been the same without the "cheese" thing.

Doc-G . . . I haven't been participating in this cook-off but I find your explanation of temperature and the effect on the final product very informative. My nephew and I have toyed with the idea of doing sausage and I have added this to my favorites to be able to recall it when we get down to business. Thanks.

I just learned something that I did not know. I love it when that happens. I have eaten cassoulet here in the US, in France and in my own kitchen with my rather abbreviated attempts. I have to say that they were all good. But, the ones that depended a lot on the quality of the confit stand out in my memory. Your market pictures had me checking the flight schedules to London. There are some good deals this time of year.

That would certainly help the situation. The bag material is of a plastic with low permeability. My experience was in the days before such things were generally available.

I was wondering about the uprights with self defrost. I only dealt with one for a short time in a rented place. I had a devil of a time with freezer burn. Of course, that was years ago and maybe they have improved them.

Aaaah! To have a freezer again. The one you selected is probably about the right size. I live alone but occasionally get offered game, and I freeze a lot of "ingredients" like pesto, roasted red peppers, all dried chiles and powders, so I might opt for a size bigger. When I bought my house, my only practical option was an upright. Never again!!!! It was a bitch to defrost. Things were always falling on my feet. When you open the door, all of the cold air falls out. Things were just as prone to getting lost as in any other freezer I have had. I will have a chest freezer again! And it will be in addition to the bottom freezer of the fridge in the kitchen. The defrosting thing . . . In my experience, chest types are much easier and they don't frost up as badly. They aren't refreezing as much air since the cold air doesn't dump out every time you open them. Then you can just set your baskets of well labeled and sorted goodies ( ) in some laundry baskets draped with blankets or in coolers. Then you just attach the hose to the drain and get after it with lots of warm (not hot) water. Within an hour you are back in business and you don't have water all over the floor. I only had to do this every couple of years with my chest freezers. That darn upright got clogged with frost about every 9 months. Another plus for a separate chest freezer is that you can set it much lower and achieve longer storage times without losing quality. When we were cleaning out my parents' house, including a chest freezer large enough to hold 2 or 3 bodies, we found some shrimp frozen in water that were about 3 years old. They were still good. The biggest find was a gallon of wild grape juice that my dad had put up about 20 years ago. We intend to make "Dad's Memorial Jelly" out of it one of these days.

I made the roast beef hash with some fresh onion, the potatoes that had cooked next to the pot roast and I included some of the mushroom slices. The one thing that I notices was that it takes some patience to get the browning that you want. Also, wanting to follow Fat Guy's idea of finishing with cream appealed to me. Since I didn't have any cream, I used a couple of tablespoons of Mexican Crema. Voila! Beef Hash Stroganoff! Boy is it good.

I have several cutting boards, including a Boos end grain, a Boos long grain, a large cheapy from Ikea, a small cheapy from Ikea. My ancient and venerable medium sized long grain that I got from my father about 30 years ago finally split. I actually find myself reaching for the cheapies more often. The Boos boards are uncomfortably heavy for my aging wrists. If I had the counter space, I could just leave one out but I don't so they all live in a stand up space at the end of one counter. Also, the Boos long grain has really sharp edges that come alarmingly close to lacerating my hands. Yes . . . I could and should sand them down but, don't forget, I am unapologetically lazy. Besides, with what I paid for the darn thing you would think that they could at least sand the edges down. So, I guess I feel a bit of rancor toward that board and I hiss "pfui" at it as it languishes in its slot. (I have been reading too much Nero Wolfe.) I have drooled over some of the really pretty end grain boards and may actually get one when I get the space to leave it out and laying around. But in my "grab and go" situation now, I will stick with the Ikeas. As soon as the madness of their semi-annual sale ends, I will be venturing there to get a couple of more sizes. I oil them three or four times when I first get them then occasionally as they live here and I happen to think about it. If they split or break . . . so what.

I second all of the above on the fat thing. Fat is a good thing. It feeds your nervous system and maintains your brain. After that, I would say that the use of stocks and their reductions has added a lot of character to my cooking.

Maybe that is some residual bread. I don't know. Actually, the birds that I have made stock from have never had any bread in the cavity for stuffing. We just don't do that. Citrus fruits, peppers, onions maybe. But not bread or anything like bready. Maybe that is it. Maybe there was some residual bread stuff in there. That is the only thing I can think of but it looks like an awful lot if you didn't include the rib cage where some bread would have been trapped. I am feeling defeated.

OK . . . I am confused. What is that stuff settling out at the bottom? All of the stock I have ever made has a fat cap on the top, maybe a little bit of "gunk" at the very bottom (I don't use that fine a strainer) and that is it. I have never seen what you have there. Gee. I hope someone can explain this.

Thanks for that article, Melissa. I just found some Arborio rice in the cupboard, I have some good chicken stock in the freezer, and I see some risotto in my future. That really is the best explanation of what to do and why you do it that I have seen.

I got my Bamix last year as my Christmas present to myself. It has been a wonderful gift. My Kitchen Aid stand mixer is lost in storage and I have actually used the Bamix to do the creaming steps in making cookies and such for this Christmas. Yes, the KA would have been easier, but the Bamix did a good job. Now, I am remembering to use the darn thing more often and am becoming enamoured with it. I don't think I will replace the blender that died.