Search results

I'm in a jamming mood, and have a couple of pounds of ripe Bartlett pears to use up, so I looked for Christine Ferber pear recipes and found an intriguing version of Poires Belle-Hélène as a jam. Very simply, it calls for a kilo of ripe Bartletts, juice of one orange and one lemon, 800 grams of...

I have been gradually replacing all my thin, home-grade bakeware (Wilton, Wear-Ever, Baker's Secret) with heavy-gauge pans. However, the pans I've been finding are all so-called non-stick. I get them on sale at Loblaws (a large supermarket chain), so for example a 20-gauge 9x5 loaf pan cost me...

...that I made a tiny profit on a knife sale? No, I did not sell it through this (or any other) forum. An odd set of circumstances led to me acquiring two knives of the same style and length within a couple of weeks of each other, one lightly used and lovingly maintained, the other brand-new...

My 12" Calphalon Commercial Non-Stick omelet pan is starting to not be non-stick, and I warped the bottom ever so slightly early on while cooking on an ancient coil-top stove. I'm looking for a new non-stick frying pan, preferably one of the newer, ceramic- or titanium-based (non-PTFE) options...

Mom used to make a really tasty, rich dish she calls "Chicken à la King." Basically, it was sautéed morsels of chicken in a basic white bechamel with peas (and sometimes carrots), served in vol-au-vents shells. I'd like to make something similar for the two of us, but perhaps with some...

I've been clarifying butter lately, small amounts using a small (1-quart) stainless saucier. I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly, but the results seem to be pretty good. To make 8 ounces of clarified butter I start with 10 ounces (2½ sticks) of sweet butter, cut up into chunks. Melt on...

Across town, across the country, across the globe: everybody is going somewhere. Where are you going? I have serious wanderlust. I spend most waking hours daydreaming of being somewhere else, anywhere else. At any given moment, I'm in various stages of planning any number of future trips. I...

About to place my first Red Bird order, 5 lbs of decaf espresso and 5 of real espresso. Which is the better choice, Bird or Jaguar? My preference is more sweetness and chocolate, and less roast than Seattle-style. I like a medium or city roast (Tuscany or Naples) rather than a full-dark...

New (To Me) Knife Day! The postman dropped off a poster tube yesterday, with Australian postmarks on it. Well-packed inside was a gorgeous, 300mm Masamoto KS yanagiba. Jesse was obviously very careful with this knife before it made its way to me; it is in like-new condition from end to end...

It may not be definitive, but it's a fun listen... and this guy has chops! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiC__IjCa2s&hd=1

My wife and I will be returning to one of our favorite resorts in the Caribbean later this month, where tipping the staff is strictly verboten (we've witnessed a waitress get fired on the spot for pocketing some money left on a table). The staff is genuinely friendly and gracious, and we get...

Absolutely hilarious new Jim Gaffigan stand-up, available only off his site for just $5 -- with zero DRM -- and $1 from every $5 will be donated to The Bob Woodruff Foundation, helping veterans and their families. Gaffigan always makes us laugh, but this one had me...

Posted in an old Ittosai thread but I'm not sure of how others read these boards and it may not have gotten any notice, so if it's OK I'd like to ask in a new thread. I realize that Ittosai Kotetsu knives are old news, like A-types and others from the "first wave" of the current Japanese...

Just checking in here. This forum has already helped me learn quite a lot, so I wanted to say hi, and thank you all! I've been fairly comfortable in the kitchen for many years, but apparently never really had good (or sharp) knives. In the past year I got back into yeast baking, and realized...