I definitely have a Sous Vide Supreme on my want list but since I recently dropped about $700 on a VitaMix set at Costoc it will probably be a while. :D One dish that really fascinates me when prepared Sous Vide is Fried Chicken. Have you tried this before? I love experimenting with new techniques to improve fried chicken and this one is very promising. (My other favorite method is pressure cooker fried chicken but that's pretty dangerous if you don't have the right equipment!) To make Sous Vide Fried Chicken soak your chicken in a strong brine for 30-40 minutes, rinse and soak in seasoned buttermilk for 8-12 hours. Season the meat with your preferred spices, maybe a little hot sauce or fresh buttermilk. Put the chicken in vacuum bags and cook at 160F for an hour. At that point you can dry the meat, coat in seasoned flour and fry it. Alternatively you can chill the meat down in ice water and hold in the fridge for quick frying later. The benefit to that method is that you can do all of the prep work for fried chicken in advance. Also, there are no worries about undercooked centers or dried meat. The chicken stays incredibly moist and the flavors really penetrate the meat. It's great if you want to cook a large amount of fried chicken for a crowd in a short amount of time. It's also good if you want to fry chicken to order. One warning though, you might want to cook the chicken to 165 though since the USDA has recently revised their meat cooking guidelines. Here is a link that might be useful: Hacking Your Slow Cooker: D.I.Y. Sous Vide Setup

Exciting! Thank goodness to my sous vide setup. I was cooking like mad the past 8 days for a lot of people. I was able to serve prime ribs, ducks, steaks, pork rib roasts, fish, short ribs, pork spare ribs, ---- all perfectly done, perfectly hot, at the perfect serving time --- all with no stress! I can see why restaurants like to use sous vide for their cooking. Your system: The pump should run full time. Only the heater is to be controlled by the controller. The pump you have is good. I use a different pump which has an 110vac motor. Much simpler than your brushless DC motor. A DC brushless motor has electronics inside (Hall Effect Device) which is more heat sensitive. You should get backups for all components, so that for long cooks you will not be stuck. Also get a couple of spare temperature sensors. Don't buy the sensor alone, can be $7.00 to $10.00. But this instead: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Digital-LCD-Thermometer-For-Aquarium-Freezer-H155-/200978818608?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0amp;hash=item2ecb456630 The sensor is the same thing, much cheaper. I had to replace my senor, which did last a few years of non-stop use. Have fun and let us know your progress. dcarch

I rarely buy commercial mayo but do date the top when opened. Said to be good for 4 months in the fridge. Storing Garlic in Oil Take extreme care when preparing flavored oils with fresh garlic or when storing fresh garlic in oil. Peeled garlic cloves may be submerged in oil and stored in the freezer for several months or in the refrigerator for no more than 4 days. Label refrigerated garlic in oil mixtures to show the preparation date (or preferably with a “discard after date” label). Do not store garlic in oil at room temperature. Garlic in oil mixtures stored at room temperature provide an ideal environment for Clostridium botulinum to grow and produce toxin (low acidity, no free oxygen in the oil, and warm temperature). The same hazard exists for roasted garlic stored in oil. At least four outbreaks of botulism associated with garlic in oil mixtures have been reported in North America in the late 1980s and 1990s. Outbreaks in 1991 (California) and 1999 (Florida) were associated with garlic in oil prepared in the home. linky, HERE I have a personal limit for anything homemade...sauces using fresh ingredients like yogurt, mayo, miso, dressings,...3-4 days as they tend to loose initial freshness. Exceptions are heavily vinegar/citrus based dressing seem just as good for 5-7 days.

That is basically the concept. A small, cozy, neighborhood cafe-bookshop in a house. I think there is a swing back to cozy coffee shops, away from trendy spaces that are all hard surfaces and sleek walls. I also think physical books are making a comeback; small independent booksellers here are doing well. My daughter’s plans for the limited menu are, as I described above, designed for a one-person operation with food prep/cooking done in off-hours. She wants to be able to run the whole thing by herself with very low cost structure, if need be. Therefore, plans for kitchen equipment have been scaled down. I suspect she will be more successful and busier than she thinks. The location is very good. She’ll be the only coffeeshop in the immediate area. Our Starbucks just closed; there is a church coffeeshop with odd hours - not open Sunday etc - and hidden away not on the main street. I’ve been checking out local coffeeshops and their business seems largely dependent on location and “vibe”. Honestly the extent and quality of coffee and food seems secondary. This weekend we visited a very successful coffeeshop that was started by a friend and has become a neighborhood pillar; the food was mediocre (baked goods bought in, some looked like Costco), the “kitchen” was only a sandwich prep room, and the coffee was b-a-d. Most coffee here is bad. Few customers notice, because they are basically drinking warm sugared milk, but 90% of the time, the coffee itself sucks. Daughter’s food will be better and her coffee will be actually good. So I am trying to design a coffeeshop kitchen that will have some “headroom”. If she expands the coffeeshop to a ”cafe” with a larger menu and a larger staff, I want the infrastructure to be there and ready for more equipment. We can get equipment installed in a day; re-opening walls or floor will be more disruptive. The basement will also be waiting if she wants to expand from “books in a cafe” to a ”bookshop”. For that, we’d need to build a stairwell, the original stairs to the basement was been removed and were too narrow/steep anyway. In a couple years, maybe. The other thing I’ve been thinking about is how to get maximum utilization of the space. Daughter intends to close at 4 pm ish, does not want to work 18 hours/day seven days a week. However, she has friends who might be interested in running the business in the evenings, and for that a more robust cooking facility might eventually be helpful. I would, of course, charge them additional rent . . .