2 jars cucumbers, carrots and onions

Slice produce and cram into jars. About when they are half-full is when you want to slip the fresh dill into the sides with a butter knife or something. This time I sliced the onion across the midsection (so each slice has like 10 concentric rings) but left the slices in slice form rather than popping out the individual rings. These take up less space when crammed in the jar and you can cram in more food.

Usually a single-batch recipe is enough brine to cover the produce crammed into a 1-liter jar. A double-batch of brine solution is enough for 2 1L jars. The 2X version consisted of: Continue reading →

We made a modified version of Alton’s Melon Sorbet on Sunday. It turned out wonderfully. This sorbet meets with the misty_shadows seal of approval.

Our modified version contained:
1 lb 10 oz diced melon
10 oz sugar
2 Tbs peach schnapps

All ingrdients into bar blender. Pulse until visible chunks are gone, then blend low for about 30 more seconds. Chill mixture for about 30-60 min in fridge. Process in ice cream machine (with our machine we broke it into 2 batches at about 20 min each) until it is slushy and holds its shape. Relocate the mixture to the freezer for 2 hours.

I don’t think the type/proof of liquor is important, as long as it’s about 2T of a liquid which doesn’t freeze at the temp of your freezer. The peach schnapps we used is about 30 proof.

[oops, this was supposed to go to good eats, but I’ll leave it in here too :]

Thanks for all the advice. I wanted to share my latest mayo experience…

My last attempt at mayo was reasonably successful. It was a stable emulsion, but it was syrup-consistency and didn’t stand up. Someone suggested adding more oil, and that did the trick. It was very nearly mayo-like.

This time, I ended up with “broken goo” but I was able to save it. The first whip attempt never really got to the “frothy” stage, so I started with an empty bowl and 1 whole egg, whipped until frothy (or at least foamy) and then poured in the broken goo :) It seems like once you get to the foamy stage, it’s smooth sailing from there out.
Continue reading →

I made some pot stickers using Alton’s recipe as a, well, general guideline :) They turned out pretty OK.

I made a few substitutions, because I didn’t have scallions or bell pepper on hand. I replaced scallions with minced onion, left out bell pepper completely, and instead of mustard I added 1/2 tsp of McDonalds Barbeque sauce. The filling turned out a little on the sweet-ish side but tasted great.

Figuring out how to wrap them was interesting, since I deleted the episode already and the recipe doesn’t exactly say how to shape them I used square wonton wraps instead of round but after a bit of experimentation they seemed to to OK.
Details, including some pictures

Hmm, it’s been a while since I made pickles. This time I made 4 jars (1L each). 2 are cucumber and onions, and 2 are carrots, onions, yellow bell pepper. All have fresh dill, and fresh garlic.

Brine solution contains: water, cider vinegar, champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar, raspberry vinegar, sugar, salt, yellow mustard seed, pickling spice, dill seed, dill weed (dried), powdered ginger, onion flakes. Continue reading →

15. 2 jars cucumber, plus 2 jars carrot+cauliflower, all 4 with onion, bell pepper, garlic Recipe…