[Mike Nolan]

No cooking tonight, I took Diane to Outback for her birthday.

[Mike Nolan]

They went over very well, as usual.

They smelled so good baking (the dough and butter) that I think I'll make a batch of regular croissants over the holidays while our son and granddaughter are here. And bagels, since my granddaughter LOVES bagels.

[Mike Nolan]

I made two sizes of chocolatines today, I think I like the smaller ones better. They were rolled out to 2 mm and cut in 2.5 x 5 rectangles, the bigger ones were rolled out to 3 mm and cut in 3 x 6 rectangles.

I need to work on keeping them from unrolling in the oven.

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[Mike Nolan]

I made the detrempte for croissants last night and did the first two turns today. I'll do the third turn in the morning, then final rollout and make chocolatines with most of the dough for a Christmas party Friday afternoon.

[Mike Nolan]

We had macaroni and cheese tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I think brown butter can be refrigerated safely in an airtight container for at least 5 days, though some sources say two weeks, and it should keep several months in the freezer.

[Mike Nolan]

Aaron, in one of the BBGA classes I took online, I learned the trick of taking parchment paper or a towel and wrapping it around the top of the mixer to keep the flour from spilling out during the first part of the mixing, before the flour is hydrated.

That won't help with a recipe that produces more dough than the mixer can handle, though. My 50 year old 4.5 quart KA struggles with one of the Challah recipes I use and with the Clonmel Kitchens Double Crusty Bread recipe, both wind up climbing the hook. It's making funny noises again, and my wife was looking at an Anksarsrum over the weekend. (I'd probably see if I could get the KA repaired or buy an inexpensive KA just to have it for egg whites and the pasta attachment.)

[Mike Nolan]

We had spaghetti tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

We had a cat who kept picking fights with squirrels, losing badly. They nearly chewed his tail off more than once. He wound up with a couple of bald spots by his tail where the fur didn't grow back out. Eventually he decided that the squirrels weren't worth chasing, and he complained less about going to the vet than any other cat we've had.

[Mike Nolan]

I find it deglazing the pan with a little dry vermouth improves the gravy.

For Thanksgiving I rested our 12 pound turkey for about a half hour in a dome made from two large Vollrath stainless steel mixing bowls, an idea I first saw on an Alton Brown show. That gave me another half cup or so of juices to add to the gravy. (AB when he doesn't go off the deep end has a lot of good ideas, along with a few strange ones, and like a lot of 'trained' chefs, he oversalts his food. I used his recipe for popovers once, then went back to the King Arthur one.)

I have a theory about why so many chefs oversalt their food. Like many kitchen workers, they are heavy smokers and heavy drinkers, and it takes that much salt to register on their palates.

[Mike Nolan]

We wound up having creamed tuna on toast.

[Mike Nolan]

I wound up cooking mine for about 18 hours total, but it was pretty thick after 12. (I kept adjusting the spice mix, and each time I added spices I cooked it some more.) In the end it was probably a little too thick.

[Mike Nolan]

We had a rotisserie chicken, and I'm using the remains to make stock this evening.

[Mike Nolan]

We had steak, mushrooms and baked potato.

[Mike Nolan]

We had tacos/taco salad.

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