We found our coffee 'sweet spot' a couple of years ago. So nice when that happened.

Just perfected my Sprouted Rye Ruis. I've worked on the recipe for a year now...this mornings bounty baked in a traditional v-pan. Will be fantastic this evening with smoked salmon, goat cheese and other charcuterie delights.

My smoked tomatillo salsa causes a stampede at work...and my fresh fridge pickles.

How good of you to openly discuss your trials in the kitchen as most of us have them even after years of cooking. I'm with you on making bread as my successes are limited. Too, my beautifully mounded pound cakes usually sink while cooling (?).

Sleevendog, you're not crazy when you say coffee tastes better without a paper filter. The paper filter absorbs more of the oils than metal ones do, so it's going to taste different.

As far as chicken breasts go, if you have the space for a sous vide apparatus, you'll find that a chicken breast sous vided at 148 for about 4 hours will come out tender, juicy, and flavorful--and it's been pasteurized in the bag and will stay good in the fridge for several days.

Classic cheese sauce that doesn't get gritty(i.e. curdled). I gave up on that long ago - probly a good thing too, since it doesn't do anybody's waistline or arteries a bit of good.

My 'holy Grails' would be: OpenTable restaurant reservations, alternating with food delivery services. LOL!

But seriously....for a long time it was soup. I made some great (and complicated) soups from recipes, but the throw-it-together impromptu soups didn't work well. Finally have a routine down and as long as I remember to add salt (my homemade broth gels when refrigerated so it's rich, but I never salt it until I use it), we finally have good soup appearing every couple of weeks on the table.

I stopped cooking bacon on top of the stove and started baking it in the oven, which worked a lot better. I still have not quite gotten down the right procedure for making a Spicy-Sweet Bacon that one of the Southern restaurants here in town makes, however. But it's not something me or DH should be eating a lot of anyway, so I don't work very often on the problem, hee-hee.

I really can't think of anything else. There are so many really good restaurants in our area (the San Francisco Bay Area, Northern CA) that there's a lot of recipes now I don't bother to make because it's easier to just go out and order it. No shopping, no prep, and NO DIRTY DISHES.

Plus, with our drought I'm saving water [smile].

SD, that rye looks FANTASTIC! One of my favorite breads. I had half a mind to try it once but then I googled the technique and decided to just keep buying it, I can get good imported stuff at the local Meijers grocery chain. I bow down to your tenacity on that one!! Jakkom, soup is an interesting addition. I've always figured there was no honor in being good at soup, so thanks for making me feel like I have SOME credibility in the kitchen! ;) It seems to be the one thing I can do with very little effort, throw together a great soup out of whatever is languishing in the fridge. In fact, I would go so far as to say I am a POOF soup savant! ;) It seems to suit my style the best--all jumbled together in a big pot and the simmering process works it all out in the end. On the other hand, anything that requires meticulous attention to detail, a hands-on skill of shaping or folding or manipulating in any specialized type of way, or multiple steps . . . not in the cards for me. But since I like the idea of eating such things once and a while, I keep trying . . . If I had the money and the access, I'd leave it all to the pros! Perhaps best that I don't have either, or I would weigh a lot more than I do!

I'm working on the perfect whole grain bread. I have it to an A-/B+ but I want at least a good, solid A.

ipink, i worked on that recipe for my Mom and Dad. He loves it. After buying the Ezikel frozen stuff for years. In their mid 80's, and giving him all the proper stuff, he can make it now. (but does call often for flub trouble)... but that is ok...nice to keep in touch an have a challenging conversation about the 'rise' and the biga. I just sent them a new bread knife and other goodies for mothers day. (he had ground down his bread knife so it had no teeth...at all).

plllog. You will find it. I sought what i needed in a sprouted grain bread and had no recipe that worked, so i made my own. Took almost two years.

Still off and on trying to make a good sprouted grain burger/cake. Not a replacement for a hamburger at all...., but have a good arepa corn flour version. Just not a great home whole seed ground, sprouted grain, lots of veg, that i want yet. I think that is a fall sept-oct month challenge.