Asparagus is also perfect steamed in a microwave.

To hear my mom tell it, it’s not definitely fracking that’s causing her own house to crumble.

I grew up in Guthrie and ended up in the Bay Area and have so much admiration for anyone who can tough in out there. I have to have my Xanax prescription renewed before any trip back because the thought of being within the borders gives me panic attacks.

At Carl’s encouragement, I’m posting the shrimp and andouille dumplings I made this week.

I have the good fortune of having a mother whose pasture produces morels and a father who raises pheasant. So I’m most looking forward to baking my once-a-year morel, green pea, and pheasant pot pie.

I’m late on this, and I don’t have any photos of the gumbo itself. But these are the dumpling/handpies I made out of it. They need work, but I’m generally happy with the result.

I’m making shrimp and andouille gumbo for dinner and am seriously considering turning it into hand pies too.

My favorite crust tips, in addition to what you’ll read in a lot of posts (all of which are important):

Another piece of good advice: Don’t refer to women as “females.”

This isn’t related to chili, but my comment would never be seen on the cheesecake thread.

My mom is a very sweet, guileless Christian woman who just hates the things he says. But she’s internalized the idea that men should be in charge, justifying it by thinking that maybe God told women to stay in their place because men would get up to even more trouble if they weren’t running things. I don’t know what…

This is my first challenge to try in real-time. I’d been a flip-phone holdout, but I’ve started selling pies and needed to be able to process credit cards. I was able to switch from T-Mobile to Project Fi, get a smartphone in installments, and lower my bill $10 a month. I’m thrilled. Thank you for this series!

Epicurious has a perfect pumpkin pie recipe that uses butterscotch as a base. I wonder if turning it into a caramel first would help with the textural issue. I’ve also seen recommendations to puree batter that’s been sous vided (?) to better the consistency. If you ever wanted to try again, that might be a way to go.

I just commented under Tristan about this. There’s nothing better than shrimp-head broth for gumbo.

Once a month we’ll make shrimp head broth with thyme, garlic, and bay leaves, then use it as the base for shrimp and andouille gumbo. Dear heavens it’s tasty.

Beef tongue, all the way.

I’ve found that building in an empty day ends up saving money anyway: if you plan a meal for every night you’ll likely end up with a surplus of leftovers, not all of which can be frozen. It’s a terrible feeling to budget, plan meals, buy a bunch of ingredients, and have them wilt because you can’t get through…

Chefsteps’ recipe for pot de creme in mason jars has you screw the lids on until just finger-tight—where you put the jar on a surface, and tighten the ring with one hand just until the jar moves with it. It works really well because it allows air bubbles to escape before the seal sets. Put it in the water with tongs,…

Has anyone tried browning their flour before making pasta or gnocchi? I’d like to get that roasted flavor without the textural change that comes with browning after the fact (personal preference).

Duck confit works really well. You can also replace some or all of the duck fat with olive oil. I prefer all duck all the time, but a lot of people find the flavor to be cleaner and brighter with olive oil. You should try it. It’s pretty easy and worth the wait.