Deryn

(Miele XL video - worth watching for the 'how does it work' part) Rotuts - You should apply to be a (paid) ambassador-at-large for Cuisinart (for the combi oven). seabream - We have a relatively new member (check the 'introductions' section perhaps) who just installed a new kitchen with a Miele combi in it. You might try PM'ing him. And/or maybe you could phone your nearest Miele showroom and ask those questions?

I can certainly imagine how tired you must be, gfron, especially from the packing and unpacking. I used to do cooking 'demos' (that were really full dinners for 20, executed entirely in front of my audience) and the very worst part was the lugging of all the equipment (and I mean all of it - nothing was available where I did these - pots, pans, induction burners, electric appliances, utensils, even plates, glasses and cutlery) and ingredients into and out of my vehicle - and then cleaning it up and packing it out again afterward - in mid-winter in the north. The rest was fun and easy by comparison. Try to take it easy whenever you can. You have a very hectic schedule. That said though, that dinner sounds (and looks - thanks, FauxPas, for the pics and 'review') absolutely wonderful! You should be very proud of what you have and are still accomplishing. Take care on the road.

I have been drooling over the Miele combi oven with the removable water reservoir. The only thing that worries me about the top front reservoir is that it requires a pump to get water back to it when it evaporates/condenses and I wonder if that is just another thing to break and have to be serviced. http://www.mieleusa.com/Product/Ovens Cheaper than the Gaggenau I think ... though not free by any means, of course.

Oh dear. This is a pet peeve of mine. Please feel free to delete this post if it is not PC enough. I do do my best to be 'green' but ... We have 'garbage nazis' around here. Real garbage only gets collected every 2 weeks, despite the fact there is also a 'rule' that says we cannot keep garbage on our properties more than 7 days. And when the garbage truck comes, the guys spend quite a lot of time peering through the clear PLASTIC bags (in 2 colours and not cheap) we are forced to buy to make sure rules about what is allowed in there are strictly adhered to. If they see anything that doesn't belong (and I mean 'anything' - a small piece of what they deem recyclable paper in the 'real garbage' - put there because it was dirty on the side they can't see - means the entire bag is rejected), they leave a notice (on non-recycled paper) saying that it must be removed, and they leave the bag for collection another 2 weeks down the line (meaning that 'real garbage' - which can stink - potentially remains on my property for up to 4 weeks). Try as I might to make sure nothing gets in the wrong bags, this still happens far more often than it should. Cutting up cardboard and bundling it according to the many regs that govern that type of recycling doesn't always work either - with no explanation at all as to what is the problem, it is not collected - and I pay (more every year) for a service I don't consistently get any more. The good news is that cooking is now almost impossible in a kitchen cluttered with 4 large 'garbage' containers - plastic/metal, paper/glass, real garbage, and compost - which it was never designed to hold. Takes longer to sort out the refuse than it does to cook - and since that is not my favorite activity, I cook less and less. I still buy too much food (because I have to drive 2 hours to get it) but the good news there is that most of it can go into the compost container and that does always get collected every week. I would just eat out all the time and let others deal with the refuse but this is a 'one horse town' and there are very few places to eat and they don't serve decent or healthy food in my opinion. It doesn't thrill me that the consumer is often forced to buy goods in 'non-environmentally acceptable' containers so we are the ones paying more than once for the irresponsibility of industry. I have stacks of Styrofoam packaging piling up in my garage because they don't seem to be acceptable in any container and I cannot compress it without breaking it up into a million tiny pieces that fly all over the place and take years to completely clean up. My real garbage bag is often full of plastics of all kinds - no matter how I try to cut that down. I don't keep cows and other methane emitting creatures (well, I do have a dog but I feed him Beano). Neither of us eats beef more than about once every decade. I am doing my best to save humanity. I bought a freeze-drier to try to cut down on 'leftovers' going to waste. It uses electricity, a considerable amount, but hopefully that balances out eventually. But, my kitchen is painted green - and I am certain the paint was low odour and otherwise environmentally sound. So, yes, I am 'green'! I save on water too. The flow is so low these days that I take fewer showers because I hate being so cold while wet (and making the shower twice as long so I can get clean - consuming just as much water as if there was more flow). Good thing I don't go out much - the dog doesn't care how I smell. This is especially the case in mid winter, when I do my part to keep carbon emissions down by wearing mittens and heavy jackets indoors so I can lower the thermostat. And I do fewer dishes because I cook less. I try not to use bags at all when shopping - I buy all my clothes with large pockets now - because plastic is bad, paper is bad, and all other bags need to be washed every time they are used to be sanitary and safe - which increases laundry and I have cut down drastically on how much of that I do - to save the environment. I have also been known to buy new clothes (cheap from China) and dump the old ones into recycling containers at Walmart rather than washing them and using power and water. I actually bought a manual clothes 'washer' to help save the world - but until I can get a clothes line put up (those ARE allowed here, miracle of miracles - many places they are not), it gets used very little since I have nowhere to hang the clothes to dry - especially sheets. That much extra humidity in the house would mean I would have to turn on a dehumidifier - consuming more electricity. But luckily, the power police are not on my tail here yet. We don't have 'smart meters' so what laundry I do do I don't have to get up at 2 am to do - so far. By my accounting that is a good thing because if I did that I would have to turn on heat and lights. (Note: We have windmills making power for people hundreds of miles away - not for us - within full view of my front door). Meanwhile I was thrilled to learn the other day that the rain forest is growing faster than ever - apparently it has just been discovered that it LIKES the C02 produced by humans and cows. I thought I learned that in Grade 2 science - plants take in the CO2 we put out and give us back O2 to breathe - it is a wonderfully designed symbiotic relationship. I grow and forage a fair bit of my food in summer and dig by hand as much as possible, and all fertilizer (if used at all) is 'organic'. We have long winters though. I am a very responsible citizen and do my part as best as I can to help the environment but it has gotten to the point of ridiculous here.

I am obviously an old fogey. Opened the article because I thought it was about edible food containers. Forget sourdough bowls for chowder. Hold the wine. This is the wave of the future(?) and takes the potential for dinner entrees to be raised to new 'high'ts'. http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025336214_potcookingxml.html

Welcome to eGullet and FD'ing, Trish. I got that same oil too from Amazon. Thanks for the pumpkin seed info/idea .. they sound delicious. Kerry - thanks for the wild blueberry picture. I have some in the freezer and they will be going in soon - had hoped they weren't large enough to require cutting in half like the grapes or a double run.

A new use for my ebelskiver pan! What a fun gadget though - the automatic one. Hilarious and mesmerizing to watch.

I have frozen it. No separation at all. Followed the advice of the 'National Center for Home Food Preservation' (http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/freezer_lemoncurd.html). They say it can be frozen for up to a year, defrost in fridge. Mine didn't stay there that long however.

Hope others did the dishes for you. Glad the cauliflower/cheese sauce (and everything else) was a success!

Yes. Sterilizing is a fast and simple thing to do - why not be safe? You can sterilize them in a low oven, or a pot of boiling water, or as Simon said, in the dishwasher. Some even do it in the microwave (add a bit of water and heat) I gather. Lemon curd has a limited lifespan as it is, even refrigerated (max. probably 2-3 weeks unopened) - because it also contains eggs - particularly if you don't also water bath process the jars after filling. If you open it and don't use it all, be sure to use an impeccably clean spoon to dip it out each time too. It can be frozen though for longer periods but I wouldn't do that in jars.

Put the dry ice in the FD and set it to FREEZE ONLY (don't let it go to the dry cycle) to help preserve it a bit? I know it won't get as cold as the dry ice but maybe it is colder than any other place you could keep it right now.

Me too, Shelby. I live where there is nowhere to go to satisfy those cravings either - so I have to make my own and while it can be tasty, it is never as beautifully presented (when served for one) as it is in the pictures that Anna and Kerry take. I live vicariously though these lunch lady chronicles and I am so thankful they seem to like the same kind of foods I do (and no one can see me drooling as I look at the pictures).

Peggy - I too am sorry your FD was damaged and the excitement of trying it out is being delayed. I agree with dbinokc though - HR packs them really well so someone at the shipping company must have messed up badly. I hope the replacement will arrive safely and quickly. My FD was shipped to NC and then it sat in my truck for weeks (bumping around town, up and down hills, around sharp curves as I did errands, etc.) unsecured and then made a 2k trip with me to Nova Scotia. I FINALLY got to try my first load last night (after having it in my possession for over a month) - and it worked like a charm and was not damaged in the least after all that travel. My only comment is that the instructions could be a bit better for that first run - explaining better what to expect - or perhaps we need to have a network of FD users so we can 'phone-a-friend' at 2 a.m. A BIG thank you to Kerry who answered my late night PM's to reassure me when I panicked that the 'drying time countdown' didn't display and didn't display as the hours passed, so I was worried that, though the freezing had gone fine, the drying cycle was not going to work. And in my case it took much longer than '10-20 minutes' (more like an hour) to reach a top pressure above 600 and much longer again for it to begin 'cycling' down to around the 500 mark (and still the countdown time didn't display till I set it manually). Also note that the pump is loud - and contrary to the impression I got when reading the instructions - it doesn't 'cycle on and off', once it comes on, the noise/action is constant till you turn off the FD to remove your load. I need to rethink where I put this beast because though I slept through it fine, by morning the drone was driving me nuts. The instructions need to be updated as well if we are all now getting the newer pumps with no evacuation 'tower'. Searched a while for that before I realized there isn't one any more. If you have a handy guy around the house to set up the pump that might be intuitive but I bet it is not for all of us. Luckily though, those were my only surprises and everything came out beautifully in the end. I am only really commenting for those who haven't gotten their FDs yet and still have to go through their first time using this new machine. Once you have passed that point, my notes are probably extraneous since you will know what to expect. I didn't take pics this first run through but I dried shitaki mushrooms, thai chilis, snow pea pods, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and some starfruit slices. Chose those for 2 reasons - I had had them for a week and was afraid they were about to go bad and I can't get replacements within 10 hours drive of me, but also because I figured they were mostly low water items to experiment with for the first run. And I guess I was right about the latter because I doubt the whole cycle took even 16 hours and didn't leave much frost on the interior. I set the drying time to end when I had gotten up in the morning (Kerry's advice again) because I didn't want it to sit there for hours unattended - and that worked great but was overkill in terms of drying. The pressure was down to 60 torr before I shut it down manually and removed the contents.

I have to say that I am glad to be back in (one of) the land(s) (Canada) that 'gets' fruitcake. Yours looks lovely, David - and I love that you keep them that long before eating them. I have had some last for several years myself, on the counter in a tin, but eventually they disappear into tummies - they have never survived 10 years, or even 5.

What is the texture of the eggplant in the finished dish when assembled and baked immediately? Even if it is in a batter, once covered by sauce, I suspect that it ends up soft, correct? If that is the case, I don't think it really matters whether you bake tonight and put in the fridge or fridge it unbaked tonight and bake it tomorrow (although I personally might opt for baking tomorrow so it will be 'freshly baked' as opposed to 'reheated').

Shel - I would suggest you get some low-fat powdered milk to keep in your cupboard for those days when you just want to add a bit of foam to the top of an everyday dessert. For your Christmas dinner however you might want to consider getting a can of the low calorie version of 'real whipped cream' (since it is a special occasion, it might warrant a trip to a grocery store?). If you don't want to put the can on the table (it is rather gauche at a dinner party unless it is a barbeque), simply spray some out into a bowl and place that on the table with a spoon so people can help themselves. Advertised caloric values in the 'light' (still real cream) canned products are in the neighbourhood of 15 calories a tablespoon I think - which doesn't seem a heavy load, especially for a festive meal. If someone has a problem with the intake of any fat/calories, they are free to exercise free will and not take any topping at all. You already will have enough to do if you are feeding 18 people a large meal so why not treat yourself and them to a carefree host who can relax a bit rather than trying to whip up fake or low cal stuff at the last minute?

The cocoa puffs still look beautiful, Kerry. Sorry your pan attachment broke though. What a disappointment.

Thank you for the video. Took me back a few decades. My brother used to live just around the corner from Zabar's and when I visited I would run down to Zabar's to get fresh breakfast items (including lox, bagels, cream cheese, coffee) from Zabar's every day. I loved that place - it was worth the long trip (and putting up with my brother) just to go to Zabar's for a few days.

What I like about the strawberry-rhubarb Noosa is the tartness that is added with the rhubarb, which does help to cut the sweetness I find. I don't normally eat sweetened yogourt at all but do love the creaminess of Noosa I admit. However, it is very unlikely I will find it back here in Nova Scotia so I guess it will be just a southern, twice a year treat for me from now on. Thanks for the comment about the watery-ness of Liberte now, Darienne - haven't bought any in a while so will be aware next time I am in town for groceries. Greek yogourt should not be watery in my opinion - seems a bit shady to me to try to get us to pay extra for less actual product in the container. No real brand loyalty here - if companies continue to mess with consumers I will switch in a heartbeat, and pay more if I have to for a more honest, better product.

I have been on a Noosa (strawberry/rhubarb or raspberry) binge for quite a while now. Otherwise though I only buy plain Greek yogourt - and it seems it is usually Liberte most recently, although if I can't find that Oikos is ok. And always full fat, no matter what I get.

Spinach?

Welcome to eGullet (and more particularly, to this FD'ing thread), Jim. And thank you very much for re-iterating what I have tried to ask for several times now - and for the personal experience/safety information you added. We are all somewhat 'pioneers' here in the home freeze-drying world - and the drying part/learning curve seems quite simple and straight forward for the most part, but how one goes about rehydrating the FD'd result (if at all) may indeed make the difference between success and failure (as measured by food waste and discouragement). We can all learn from each other - and when new people come into this world of FD'ing they will have more and more information that one hopes will make them successful and happy earlier.

I can't answer your question but will there be no one else at the 'cookout' who could help you with opening the oysters before you grill them?

Heston Blumenthal - The Fat Duck Cookbook. This will take me eons to 'read'. No idea if I will ever make any of the recipes but I am fascinated by the mind of this man and his creativity.

Verna - Welcome to the forum and to the fun of freeze drying. If you can provide some details (such as what size meatballs and how you rehydrated them 'so they taste good') that would be a great help to everyone here I am sure.