I just wanted to thank @KitchenQueen for starting this thread and all the other posters for contributing as it encouraged me to pull out the Anova I got almost a year ago and play with it, which has been fun.
I know there is a ton of information here on eG, but trying to sort it all out was a bit overwhelming so I did appreciate this suggestion:
On January 1, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Dave the Cook said:...if you're not interested in a lot of byplay and theorizing and just want to jump in with some times and temps, ChefSteps just released a week-long intro-to-sous-vide set of recipes and techniques....
Based on that, I went to the store and picked up some salmon, chicken breasts and pork chops to play with. The salmon came out beautifully. I butterflied the chicken breast and made chicken cordon bleu yesterday and the pork chops are on deck for today. I noticed that Kenji has a "How to Get Started With Sous Vide Cooking" piece over on Serious Eats and I plan to try the steak and carrots as part of my curriculum while I do more reading and research on the threads here.
Why did I have it sitting around for a year? Well I ordered it, thinking it would be a good way for me (a recovering vegetarian) to learn to cook things like those mentioned for my mother who was coming to live with me and was accustomed to more animal-protein-centric meals. By the time it arrived, things had changed and I just put it away, thinking to gift it to my brother at some point. I may still pack it up and ship it off to him but I'll play with it a bit more. If I keep it, I think I would probably use it most often for fish, but we'll see.
Anyway, thanks for the nudge!
