Love your new benches. Did you build them yourself? The plant next to the fern is my neighbors avocado she started from a pit. Since I had plenty of room I offered to overwinter it in the greenhouse for her. It seems to like it since it is putting on new leaves. Next to that are cuttings from my Brugmansia that I potted up a few weeks ago. I don't know if you read the Brug forum, but there was a post about rooting Brug cuttings in water with an aerator so I tried it and was astonished with the success! They produced a mass of roots in just 5 weeks! This way of rooting greenwood cuttings succeeded way beyond my expectations. Without the aerator, which keeps the water from going stagnant, I usually end up with rot on some cuttings. Do you have problems with ants in your greenhouse? I had a horrible time with pharoh ants last winter & this summer. With a combination of Combat ant baits laid all around inside and painting lavender oil in all the cracks & crevices, they have been virtually no problem this year.

Posted by foodonastump "...just the natural shape of the tops of green peppers." Looks like the bottom to me. ;-) You never answered John about which was which. " The one that is cut into a square shape is sous vided. Because it was more tender, it didn't matter if the meat was cut across the grain or not. Does a pepper have a stem end or stem top? For a pineapple, you can cut the top off and plant it and it will grow. Monkeys open a banana from the top. Humans open a banana from the stem end; The end justifies the means? Tomatoes have blossom end rot. That's a TOPic for us to debate on. Here is a tip: Banana came from Arabic word banan, meaning "finger". Which end of the finger is the tip? Is the tip the top? Or the tip the "end" of your finger? End of discussion. Posted by susie_que "I didn't do corned beef this year as I gave up red meat for lent however I do plan on trying your beautiful ideas next year!! Cheers! Susie" Thanks. The meat is not "red" with home corned beef with no nitrate :-) Posted by annie1992 "First, the Irish in me requires me to point out that shamrocks actually have three leaves, it's what St. Patrick used to teach the "trinity" of father/son/holy spirit. That's actually a 4 leaf clover you've got there, which is supposed to denote very good fortune. No matter which, it's still very cool and creative. Annie" "I think St. Patrick devised the shamrock as a way of telling real Irishmen from the fakes. Jim" So you are telling me I had sham shamrocks? :-) dcarch

Posted by foodonastump -----âÂÂdcarch - I LOVE the skeleton! That is genious. Cauliflower brains to match. Question - Seems to me a long time ago I read that wild rice isn't really rice. Is that true?â Thanks FOAS. You are correct. Wild rice is not rice. ItâÂÂs dehydrated maggots. :-) Posted by beverlyal ��"â Very creative Dcarch, although the wild rice looks a little too much like worms for my taste. You obviously have very little to do so I think you should come down here and let me put you to work.â Thanks beverlyal. ItâÂÂs a date. I am coming right down. Make sure your DH is away. :-) Posted by caliloo ��"â Great job with the carving... and this is what it brought to "mind". Rather timely with the upcoming holiday! LOLOLOL! Alexa Here is a link that might be useful: Maggots Micheal, you're eating maggots. â â Thanks Alexa. I have had deep fried silk worm pupae. Delicious. While tasted nothing like chicken, did taste like scrambled eggs. Posted by jimster -----âÂÂdarch, --- I can see it however and the plating is wonderful, achieving your stated objective perfectly. -----The last photo delivered the punch line and made me laugh even harder. How do you think of these things? Jimâ Thanks Jim. Which last photo you are referring to? I can bearly understand you :-) ( Sorry guys, inside joke) Posted by teresa_mn ��" âÂÂdcarch - once again you have come up with amazing pictures.----â Thanks Teresa. I did consider adding a little coconut cream. I am glad I didnâÂÂt. Posted by dedtired ------â Only you, dcarch, only you.â Thanks dedtired. Yes, I have that LP also, by the Platters. LOL. Posted by pixistix ��"â mmmm, great pics and the wild rice looks perfectly cooked.-----â Thanks pixistix. Heavenly treat it is. You can say that again. Posted by lakemayor ----- âÂÂdcarch, That is really some skill you have. That is impressive. What an imagination! Thanks for sharing those pictures. Karenâ Thanks Karen. And I want to thank all for putting up with my nonsense ideas. Posted by pixistix ��" âÂÂ--------- (Sorry to temporarily derail your post, dcarch . . . I guess your pics were just so inspiring!)â Please continue. I am fascinated with your stories. I am learning a lot.

FOAS,I have pretty much stayed out of the sous vide discussions but I'll jump in this time. I tried half a dozen or so stove top sous vide experiments last winter and this spring with success in all but one attempt (although bemoaning having to listen for the alert beep of the probe thermometer when the temperature fluctuated). The one failure was with lamb shanks which came out tasting so gamey that they became dogfood. They were large shanks and maybe from an older animal. They were seasoned with a little salt, pepper, garlic and bits of preserved lemon and should have been great. I think the fault was with the meat and not the method. This spring Max got me a Sous Vide Magic temp. controller and a Fresh Meals Magic bubbler/heater that came with an 18 liter Cambro type vertical container and lid. I would say that on average I use the entire setup about once every ten days. I like that you can cook more than one kind of meat at time, as long as they cook at the same temperature and as long as you write down and set timers for the amount of time each meat requires. I use the heater with my ten cup (probably six quart water capacity) rice cooker for cooking smaller amounts of meat and bringing previously sous vide cooked and frozen meats up to a serving temp. I would say I use the rice cooker setup at least 5 times a month. I have a two and a half pound chuck roast reheating now, and what I have learned about chuck roast is that I should cut and seal it in smaller amounts, more like a pound, because while it reheats and sears beautifully ONCE, it is not so great if you have leftovers at that point. Although Oliver, the 76 pound poodle in the house, thinks they are wonderful so nothing is wasted. As with anything there is a learning curve and I have kept notes on what I've cooked, the time and temperature, and whether any adjustments needed to be made in the future. I'm not sure how or if altitude affects the whole process. I have Doug Baldwins book and since he is at the University of Colorado here in Boulder I can only assume that since his book does not address altitude there are no modifications needed. My questions, earlier this year, about seasoning cast iron pans were in order to have more successful post sous vide searing and I do now have a number of well seasoned pans that I'm happy with and use them and my cast iron grill pan to do most of the finishing. We are only a two person household and don't eat dinner at the same time every day (basically we eat late, and later) so it is a great convenience to just be able pull something out of the freezer and thaw and heat in 45 to 60 minutes. Of course there are many other ways of achieving a good and quick dinner and I use them too. The meats that I have cooked repeatedly and like are: eye of round, cooked to just below med rare with one dinner using the hot roast and the rest chilled, sliced thinly, frozen and used for sandwich meat (beefy red-pink all the way through and tender); pork loin done the same way as a roast and sandwich meat and also with one inch thick boneless slices to finish as pork chops (pork cooked to 138�), boneless, skinless chicken breasts to use in many ways, chicken hindquarters bone in skin on cooked in a confit style; short ribs; chuck roast, lamb shoulder chops (very successful unlike my one attempt with shanks), ribeye steaks and prime grade sirloin steak. Only once did I cook pork too long and noticed that it was harder to slice neatly and had a slightly softer texture than I would have liked. So I'm glad I have it, I wouldn't want it to be only cooking method for these meats but we have been pleased with the results. I haven't tried fish in it because fish is so quick to cook in other ways but I'm sure I'll get around to trying salmon since one of our favorite ways with that is low/slow roasted at 225�. I haven't tried eggs, or vegetables, but I am intrigued with using it for yogurt and dulce de leche. Lee P.S. You are probably right about the sub $100. version, but wait we'll send you two, on a late nite infomercial - someone is already marketing a modified deepfryer/sous vide unit.