What I'm up to

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who voted for me for the weblog awards. It's nice to see that I've got some awesome readers who care about the blog. I came in fourth- not too shabby if you ask me.

Recently, I've been experimenting in many different ways, most of them involving sous vide. I just took out a flank steak that had been cooking at 131 for 24 hours. I'm gonna sear that off and see how it tastes.

In the avocado episode of his show (also my favorite show) Good Eats, Alton Brown claims that the enzyme responsible for the browning of avocados due to oxidation, can be "shut off" by cooking the avocados at 104 F for a few hours. He claims this temperature will not compromise the flavor or texture, but will kill that oxidation enzyme. I still have a little more testing to do but it's not looking good for Mr. Brown (or the avocados).

I'm working on developing the ultimate chocolate chip cookies for my taste buds. I like a chewy, texturally pleasing cookie, and I'm using some of the principles (speak of the devil) Alton Brown uses in his cookie show. I think I'm pretty darn close but theres one more variable I'm anxious to test.

Lastly, I'm experimenting with peanut butters. Right now I'm attempting a "BBQ" peanut butter by roasting the peanuts with traditional bbq spices then grinding them with brown sugar. I'd take that over Skippy any day.