I’d weigh that down a bit when I’m doing it as I would be making paneer. Which I do whenever someone leaves milk out in the summer. I don’t have much use for milk but cheeses are always welcome.
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I think it’s a pig? (And hence the name “Pinky”)
(I thought at first it was a small Godzilla, with, like, spikes on its back. But the “spikes” are the pig’s ears, with the snout pointed up in the air.)
(Okay, at first first I thought it was the ghost of someone, in a shroud, walking the earth searching for something.)
I keep a small magnifying glass handy for just such occasions as this 
And in conclusion, I say: Cheesecake!
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Yeah, I realized it was a pig, too, the second time around. The first image was a bit blurrier. My conclusion is that German cheesecake pigs are nocturnal. But when isn’t a good time for cheesecake, really?
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Occasionally we miss food of days gone by.
Company Chicken or Grandma’s Chicken or Chicken and Chipped Beef.
Boneless skinless chicken breasts wrapped with bacon on a bed of chipped beef topped with cream of chicken soup and sour cream.
Good stuff, not particularly healthy but good stuff.
And parmesan and butter roasted potatoes.
And as long as the oven was on and bacon was around we cooked up a few months of bacon for various recipes and sandwiches.
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anachronic-cobra
Part of the reason I love M. Guichon’s work is because he always looks so thrilled to be doing it
scrabblezard
After years of making increasingly elaborate constructions he finally makes a classic chocolate bar
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“Sounds like it must sting, but hey, whatever gets you going!”
Ich liebe die Pfeffernüsse!
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Potash. TIL!
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Is it the confusion of the cheese made by farmers vs. cheese consisting of farmers? Or is it that it depends what kind of farmers you use in the cheese?
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Among his many impressive talents is working with that much chocolate while wearing white.
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Same!
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His perfect teeth tells me he never eats any of his creations
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Wow! Had never heard of this guy. His work is amazing!
If I find myself in Las Vegas I’m definitely checking out his pastry school. I imagine they have some cool stuff in the gift shop if there is one.
Those videos are mesmerizing.
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Only the best people make great food!
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Butternut squash! Do you dislike peeling it? I thought I’d share my method, below (with photos).
Several friends have told me that they don’t like to cook it because they really don’t like peeling it. But I find my way easy. They had never heard or thought of peeling it the way I do it.
I’ve looked around online and found various tutorials, such as using a vegetable peeler to go the long way on the raw whole squash (looked awkward and dangerous). Or piercing the squash all over and baking it before peeling with a vegetable peeler (looked slimy and dangerous). Or cutting the squash in half and placing it face down and baking it, then scooping out the flesh (hard not to scoop the skin too). But none like I do it 
My way:
Wash and dry the squash.
With a big sharp knife, make slices across the neck, making rounds ½ to ⅝ inch thick.
When you get to the bulb, slice it in half through the blossom end, and scoop out the seeds.
Make slices across the bulb-halfs.
WIth a small sharp knife, pare away the rind of each piece as if you’re peeling an apple.
^ My first experience with one-handed photography. You’ll have to imagine my left hand holding the piece and turning it, while my right hand with the knife pares away the rind.
That squash was small, about 1½ pounds. I usually have bigger ones. Of course, really big ones would be more difficult to slice through raw.
Please share your own butternut-peeling tips!
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I’m a big fan of the vegetable peeler.
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That is an incredible amount of chocolate. I hadn’t heard of Guichon before today, so I checked out his website, wondering if he was onboard with ethically-sourced chocolate (free of child/slave labor primarily), but I didn’t find any info there or elsewhere. It seems like it should be an easy choice for a celebrity chef with what appears to be a good deal of independence, making his living free from corporate sponsorship, whose whole craft is based around chocolate. Ah well.
The last time I shopped for chocolate in the baking aisle at my local grocery store I found that they didn’t carry any ethically-sourced chocolate. I started to look for some online today, and thought for awhile that I might not actually be able to afford to eat chocolate that I’m comfortable with buying. But I found some options available in the U.S. that I can swing buying from time to time (thanks to @vermes82 for providing the resources for the research, which I bookmarked in my browser but don’t remember what thread they were in originally).
Equal Exchange has the lowest prices by volume by quite a lot, but for larger quantities. The others are generally around $1.30 to $1.50 per ounce. Still not cheap, but chocolate probably shouldn’t be.
Up-to-date list of ethically sourced chocolate producers (an app is also available for phones):
Handy website, with links to company websites, but not as up-to-date as the previous website:
Thank you for sending me down this rabbit hole today, @MerelyGifted! Guichon’s work is remarkable. I hope that he will use his influence to promote a more equitable chocolate industry.
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I’ll smoke to that, Sugarplum!!! Thanks for the research and for posting it here!
The time we met chocolate, while it was at home
Our friend/guide/driver Bamis hipped mom and me during a Jamaican vacation. He showed us the pods and cut one off a tree. He cut it lengthwise, and all of us chewed the white flesh from the seeds. The flesh is tasty, but it doesn’t taste anything like chocolate. He explained that the neighbors’ kids all come to help the farmers harvest the ripe pods, chew off the flesh, then arrange and dry the seeds on cloths in the sunshine. The dried seeds are eventually ground into cocoa powder.
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Yeah, that looks nasty! I mean, I’d try it. But eww!
“Neighbor’s kids coming to help the farmers” sounds kind of troubling, especially with the harvesting part. Seems like a problem all over.
An honorable mention from my poking around today, more in your neck of the Peninsulas but with a bit of a higher price, is Mindo in Ann Arbor:
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