LowellR

FWIW, I have that knife (and have had it for years) and love it. It's well-balanced, holds an edge very well and is easily reasharpened. I can't compare it to the other knives discussed above, as I haven't used them, but do highly recommend the Wusthof. If it turns out the other knives are better for a similar price, well then that's a good dilemma to have. . .

Is there some trick to this? For me, opening the pressure cooker either involves waiting 15 minutes for the pressure to die down or running cold water over it for five minutes to do the same. Either way, the food inside continues to cook. Anyone have a faster way?

Huh. Being open-minded hurts my brain.

Stanley - please see this thread

As long as I can pick up a fabulous pizza and bring it to my house they can populate it with wall-to-wall pigs for all I care.

Yep. True, but so is the murder victim, and murder is neverthless illegal. (Though I'm sure you weren't actually suggesting that after-the-fact enforcement is not worthwhile). Now that would make it interesting. As would arming the tuna.

It would be enforced like any other endangered species ban - it would be illegal to sell or own the tuna. So the fisherman, wholesaler, retailer and customer could all be enforced against. And usually each countries' authorities enforce against their own citizens. . .

Not too surprising - Bluefin Tuna stocks are down 75 percent in the last 50 years, 60 percent of which is in the last 10 years ( more info, if you're interested ), and they're very slow maturing fish.

Ommegang Hennepin

Ditto.

In my experience the 'thump" is the best method to determine if the bread is done - sort of like the "poke' method for protein. But, like mdt says, you have to bake a fair number of loaves (all of the same type), before you can recognize the right sound. Different types of bread with different crumbs and different shapes will sound different.

It sounds that way to me, too, which would be a welcome change. I greatly prefer the educational shows to the competition / forced drama shows.

I keep my yeast in the fridge and find that, even with that precauation, I get noticeably better results if I open a new packet every couple of weeks even if the old one isn't finished.

So - I've subscribed to a CSA for the last three years (two different farms), but am thinking of abandoning them his summer. I love the fresh produce, I love being forced to try new things and the cost isn't an obstacle, but each summer seems to be some big flaw. One year, the spring salads were horrible; another, I ended up getting the same produce for about six weeks running when I know new things were coming out as a result of visits to the Farmers' markets. In all cases, mid-summer tends to leave me the "standard" veggies, little variation and nothing out-of -the-ordinary. Also, both Ms. LowellR and I work, so getting home to get the drop-off is not always easy and sometimes results in leaving our veggies outside in the 95 degree heat for four hours. So I'm thinking of abandoning the CSA model and simply making a more concerted effort to get to the Farmers’ Market. I'll have more flexibility as to what produce I end up with and will get to choose the "best" specimens, as opposed to being given whatever I'm given. The biggest obstacle, I think, may be convincing myself to spend the same amount of money at the Market as I do on the CSA - $25 or $30 a week. And I also wonder if I’ll get the same quantity I get from the CSA, although, frankly, I’ve never been overwhelmed (physically or emotionally) by the quantities I’ve gotten from the CSAs. I also feel bad for thinking about ditching my farmers. Am I overreacting? Am I forgoing the "value" inherent in the guaranteed share? Or should I just cut the cord?

That's a great idea, but do you have any idea of how I can get the humidity that high? I've put a bowl of water in the fridge, but that only gets me to about 25%. It would seem I'd need some sort of misting-type device to get up that high. . . Good point; thanks.

50 degrees - not so much what I'm drinking, but the temperature at which I'm drinking it. For a while, I've tried to drink my red wines a bit cooler than mid-Atlantic room temperature and my white wines a fair amount warmer than fridge temperature (I used to fridge them for a couple of hours before drinking if they had previously been at room temperature or took them out of the fridge some time before drinking if that's where they'd been). I recently got a second fridge/freezer, in part for the freezer space and in part to make a sort-of-wine-fridge. Turned up to its warmest, the fridge is right around 50 degrees, which cuts down on the need for my pre-wine drinking hijinks. None of this really bears mention, except for one thing - I had some extra space in the fridge (mainly on the door), so I threw in some beers, figuring (1) the darker and heavier ones would be fun to try at that temperature and (2) it would give me a head start on chilling the lighter ones I didnt otherwise have room for in my regular fridge. The really surprising thing is that I seem to like almost all of my beers at this warmer temperature. The darker ones are richer and fuller and even the light, hoppy ones have a much more interesting flavor profile theyre deeper and more complex and the hops are a less dominating part of the overall taste. Admittedly, I haven't needed a really cold I-just-mowed-the-lawn-beer yet - I got the fridge is November - but for most everything else, I'm definitely sticking with not-as-cold. Who knew?

Please let me know how it goes. I've enjoyed reading the Bread Baker's Apprentice but have been scared off by his frequent reference - and rigid adherence - to specific temperatures. I'm just not that precise.

That is EXACTLY what my loaves look like - inside and out - when I bake mine. I originally thought that this fact shouldn't be odd, but then realized why it is - I have an identical cooling rack. . . I don't see an icon for Twighlight Zone music.

I ate there on Friday and it was good, but not as good as I was expecting given Michel Richard's name on the menu. Expectations are everything, as they say. . . Also, as I write this, I think my biggest problem with the buffet was not the food itself, but that it’s really a summer menu and it's clearly not summer out there. The Gougeres were very good, but served at room temperature, somewhat dampening the cheese flavor. Also served at room temperature was the mushroom and cheese quiche. It was heavy on the mushrooms and quiche, light on the cheese. As a result, it had a nice eggy-ness, but could have used a bit more, I don’t know, “zip.” Or maybe salt. The French onion soup was also affected by serving temperature. While the soup itself was very rich and well-seasoned, it didn’t come across too well on the buffet - the soup bowls were at room temperature and, to mimic the melted cheese/crouton crust, they provide you with a giant, round crouton that they have previously covered with cheese and broiled. And then brought out to the buffet and served at room temperature. So the cheese, while having been melted at one time in its life, no longer is. As a result, once you add the soup to the cold bowl and the cold crouton to the soup, the soup, while very good and quite unctuous (I'm not sure what they use to thicken it, as it didn't taste starchy in any way), is barely warm when you eat it. Next came the charcuterie and cheese. The salami was good, but, frankly, it was simply good salami. The Jambon on the other hand, was a revelation – melt-in-your-mouth porcine goodness. Probably one of the best hams I’ve ever had, and I did my best to eat my way through Parma. The “Faux gras” was not only cute (using chicken liver) but well-seasoned and, while not tasting much like fois gras, was a very good mousse. The cheese were good renditions of what they were, but except for the Livarot, were fairly standard (It’s hard to wow me with Camembert or Roquefort). The Livarot, however, was a good, stinky, semi-soft cheese that I will definitely seek out again. In case anyone is missing the theme, though, the charcuterie and cheese were obviously served at room temperature. The Belgian endive salad was probably my least favorite dish. It had a light cream-based dressing that I think got watered down as the endives sat, probably exuding their moisture as the salt did its work on them. The dressing simply wasn't strong enough to stand up to the unexpected addition of the endive liquid. The Ratatouille and the lentil salad were both very good - well-seasoned and vibrant. The ratatouille had that wonderful summer garden flavor and I really enjoyed the heavy celery and red onion flavors which carried the lentils. But, again, both were served at room temperature. The chocolate mousse was amazing – silky smooth and richly chocolate. Given its milk chocolate appearance, I was quite impressed at the deep chocolate flavor, which kept going and going after the last bite. So, all, in all, it was good, but not great. If you haven’t been to the Garden Café, I strongly recommend you do, regardless of the menu. With a glass of wine and the fountain gurgling in the background, surrounded by greenery, it’s a wonderful place to escape the crowds on the mall. I’ve been many times for the other rotating menus and will definitely be back for this one. But perhaps in summer and with slightly lower expectations. And yes, it's all-you can eat.

Has anyone tried a vegetable growing box like this? I'm intrigued by the self-watering aspect, since my big problem with tomatoes (and some other water-hungry veggies) is that with my summer travel schedule and the full sun in my backyard, the intermittent drought conditions can sometimes be too hard on the plants. These boxes seem like a good solution, but they're quite pricey. . .

And the extended rising time will only enhance the flavor of the bread. In fact, some recepies call for an extended (12-24 hour) rise in the refrigerator rather than on the counter in order to develop more complex flavors.

Good point. I don't think monavano was contemplating skipping the biga step, but if so, I should qualify my "yes" to mean that you can use active dry yeast to make the biga and then to supplement the biga when you make the dough, but you shouldn't skip the bioa step and use soley active dry yeast. And sorry I haven't figured out how to reply to multiple posts in one response. . .

Yes; that's what I use.

I actually usually just use skim and it turns out fine (by "fine," I mean it seems to serve the desired purpose of keeping the holes to a reasonable size. I once made a batch without milk and the "holes" were so large that I ended up with essentially one hole - a loaf that was more or less solid on the bottom (with minimal holes) with the top crust standing off significantly. With the skim milk, the holes are more evenly distributed.) I once used 2% milk and didn't get results any different from the skim. Which is the long way of saying "yes."

And last night I made the Cook's Illustrated ciabatta recipe, with a couple of embellishments. It's a great dough, 1/3 biga that ferments for 24 hours, which gives it a really good depth of flavor. Then it gets very little manipulation (rise for an hour, give it a few turns and rise for half an hour (twice), after which you shape it into loaves and let it rise one more time), so it gets fairly big holes. It requires little attention during the "baking" and has become my new go-to loaf.