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Eggs Benedict. I love these, but despite its maddeningly simple premise, I've always fallen down on the main step: poaching the eggs. I suck at poaching eggs. I've done the vinegar thing, the swirl thing, all the other tips, and it sucked.

Finally broke down and just got a couple rings, fine-mesh sieved the eggs, did it at exactly 180F, no vinegar. The tard tools (because I am apparently too spastic to do it any other way) got them perfect. Or perfect enough anyway.

The only slight deviation I made was using fresh cilantro because it is the only fresh herb I have.
 
AnOminous said:
Eggs Benedict. I love these, but despite its maddeningly simple premise, I've always fallen down on the main step: poaching the eggs. I suck at poaching eggs. I've done the vinegar thing, the swirl thing, all the other tips, and it sucked
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It was my kryptonite in the first year of school, i knew the method and theory but fucked up everytime i did it. We were instructed to use the swirl method. My best poached egg in class came perfect only for me to drop it on the floor before plating it

Anyway off i go to the groceries to get supplies and make cookies and patisserie. As for the kneedless bread i did yesterday, it was the most ridiculous bread i've ever done. I messed up hidratation and temp from the looks of it, crust too hard and it was gummy inside. As if it wasn't enough of a failure, it was too salty. A true Scalfani moment. I'll salvage it for croutons or breadcrumbs. Next time i'll get it right now that i know what went wrong
 
Just finished around one pound of cookie dough that i left chilling in the fridge

I have a good feeling about this one, might be my best batch yet. The salt ratio to sugar feels perfect. I could chill overnight for better texture, but i can't hardly wait for 2 hours, i wanna eat them now
 
Did Eggs Benedict again just to celebrate having finally aced it.

The poached eggs were fine. I slightly cracked the sauce reheating it. I think this is going to be a regular thing.

I read you can fix the sauce by whisking in another yolk and/or water.
 
AnOminous said:
Did Eggs Benedict again just to celebrate having finally aced it.

The poached eggs were fine. I slightly cracked the sauce reheating it. I think this is going to be a regular thing.

I read you can fix the sauce by whisking in another yolk and/or water.
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Water fixes broken hollandaise

Adding another yolk is a little trickier, since hollandaise is already annoying to deal with. Good trick for split mayo though since you're not worrying about heat
 
An Eggs Benedict variation for the third day in a row (trying to establish a workflow I can just follow).

Eggs Benedict, again with cilantro, but leaning into that, I also added pico de gallo, jalapenos, and reaper sauce I made, forgot about, and then found behind other stuff in the refrigerator.
 
I've found for poaching eggs, the way I do it is: Boiling water -> Crack eggs into water -> Turn stove off/lowest setting -> wait alittle over 3 minutes -> Profit. It's the perfect poached egg for me atleast. Just need to master Hollandaise now, If you got hacks using mayo i'm all ears
 
The Lurky 1 said:
I've found for poaching eggs, the way I do it is: Boiling water -> Crack eggs into water -> Turn stove off/lowest setting -> wait alittle over 3 minutes -> Profit. It's the perfect poached egg for me atleast. Just need to master Hollandaise now, If you got hacks using mayo i'm all ears
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I don't have any mayo hacks, and I've never made straight hollandaise (not a huge eggs beny fan) but I've made Chef John's béarnaise on several occasions and found the recipe fairly straightforward. I never bothered with making it in a mixing bowl (or with the compound butter), my sauce pans work just fine. I don't remember where this tip came from, but your heat should be low enough that you can comfortably touch the bottom of your pot while whisking. This is the one thing my shitty glass-top electric stove excels at, I can move it on and off the "fire" while whisking constantly since everything is at the same level.
 
souschef said:
Just finished around one pound of cookie dough that i left chilling in the fridge

I have a good feeling about this one, might be my best batch yet. The salt ratio to sugar feels perfect. I could chill overnight for better texture, but i can't hardly wait for 2 hours, i wanna eat them now
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They turned out great, figured i'd share the recipe

The ingredients are divided between wet and dry ones for convenience
​
  1. 285g flour​
  2. 1 teaspoon baking soda​
  3. 1 and half teaspoons cornstarch​
  4. Half teaspoon refined salt​

  1. 175g of room temp butter​
  2. 150g brown sugar​
  3. 100 white sugar​
  4. 1 whole egg and one yolk​
  5. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract​
  6. 225g chopped bitter chocolate​
So what i did is mix the dry ingredients first in a bowl, and in another the wet ones. I creamed the sugars and butter first, then added in the vanilla extract until homogeneous, then folded into the dry ingredients until everything is combined. For the chocolate, since its not tempered i chopped it after freezing and combined with the dough. I went for irregular chunks and shards because i like this way better compared to regular chocolate chips. Then in a pre heated oven at 150C i baked them till the top is still soft but the bottom is firm and detach easily from the parchment paper. You can get a butter knife to test this, lightly touch the top of the cookie and if it collapses it'll need more time. They will bake pretty fast so you have to watch out

This result in a cookie that still feel "cakey" inside, which is my preference. For presentation purposes, you may save some chunks of chocolate to top them before baking, as with this method they will sink into the center of the cookie

I baked 75% of the dough yesterday after 2 hours chilling and a few hours ago after 18 hours chilling and honestly i didn't feel that much of a difference. After 2 hours chilling the dough is firm enough to be cut into cubes

It yielded me 36 small cookies, around 30g each (i think, i don't remember exactly sorry)
 
Tonight's diner:
IMG_20260222_184510.jpg
Tomorrow's lunch:
IMG_20260222_183636.jpg
 
I haven't made it yet but I'm strongly considering making japanese hot pot this coming week. It's still rainy and cold but I want to pack in more veggies and it looks like a delicious way of doing so that isn't another roast or salad. Now I'm undecided between chicken or veggie sesame with mushrooms and tofu. Will post here if I do cook it (and I'm not totally disgusted or ashamed with how I fucked up making it)
 
souschef said:
[cookie recipe]
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Made this with the only major alterations being subbing the flour for 1:1 gluten free baking flour and using semisweet chips instead of chopped chocolate. They're pretty good. Expanded more than I expected but that tends to happen with GF flour- I usually add a bit extra flour (and even xanthan gum depending on the recipe) to compensate but the dough looked firm enough without it.

No clue if anyone has heard of The Cookie Dough Cafe, but it was a brand of edible cookie dough (that you couldn't actually bake- it was intended to be eaten raw exclusively.) Anyway, this dough tasted exactly like that, so I'm tempted to whip up a batch just for that (outed myself as a raw dough eater smh.)

For anyone else trying this, my cookies took about 20-25 minutes to cook, and don't forget to turn the sheet pan half way through the cook time like I did. It wasn't mentioned when to add the eggs but I just did it alongside the vanilla extract. Oh, another change I did was partially melting the butter on the stovetop to make the creaming process easier- just had to make sure it cooled down a bit before adding in the eggs.

Screenshot 2026-02-22 at 3.31.13 PM.pngScreenshot 2026-02-22 at 3.31.19 PM.png

Tomorrow I'll be making chicken sorrenntino. I've never heard of it before souschef mentioned it a week-or-so ago, but anything that involves chicken and prosciutto is a winner in my book
 
synthetic_glazer said:
Made this with the only major alterations being subbing the flour for 1:1 gluten free baking flour and using semisweet chips instead of chopped chocolate. They're pretty good. Expanded more than I expected but that tends to happen with GF flour- I usually add a bit extra flour (and even xanthan gum depending on the recipe) to compensate but the dough looked firm enough without it.

No clue if anyone has heard of The Cookie Dough Cafe, but it was a brand of edible cookie dough (that you couldn't actually bake- it was intended to be eaten raw exclusively.) Anyway, this dough tasted exactly like that, so I'm tempted to whip up a batch just for that (outed myself as a raw dough eater smh.)

For anyone else trying this, my cookies took about 20-25 minutes to cook, and don't forget to turn the sheet pan half way through the cook time like I did. It wasn't mentioned when to add the eggs but I just did it alongside the vanilla extract. Oh, another change I did was partially melting the butter on the stovetop to make the creaming process easier- just had to make sure it cooled down a bit before adding in the eggs.

View attachment 8605159View attachment 8605160

Tomorrow I'll be making chicken sorrenntino. I've never heard of it before souschef mentioned it a week-or-so ago, but anything that involves chicken and prosciutto is a winner in my book
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I'm glad you liked it

Butter should be similar to ointment texture when creaming, liquid hot butter won't aerate the dough when you fold it. Hope you enjoy the chicken sorrentino

As for me i'm about to make a stir fry as i would for yakisoba, but i'll serve it with rice. I bought a tougher cut today because i wanna experiment some velveting technique. Might bake some more cookies later too
 
Made some spinach & ground meat meatballs & sauce. NYT recipe. Didn't have frozen spinach, so I wilted fresh, chopped and squeezed out the liquid (which liquid was part of the recipe). Enjoyed the sensory experience of making the meatballs as well as hand crushing the whole San marzanos for the sauce. My taste tests are positive, though I feel the meatballs need more cooking time (process is cooking the formed meatballs in oil in a Dutch oven on the range 3-6 minutes each side (I did 5) then simmering with the tomatoes and other things). Kind of wish I'd cooked them on 4 sides rather than the two per recipe.
 
MerriedxReldnahc said:
It is very delicious
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Looks amazing! My Grandma made some banana bread for me last week and I'm sad I'm about to run out... I think I may try my hand at it soon. I am obsessive about my potassium intake and frequently overbuy bananas so bread makes a lot of sense.
Dipodomys said:
Made some hashbrowns for dinner.
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It took me embarrassingly long to realize hash browns are as simple as using a cheese grater on some taters. I like to add a little bit of corn starch to mine to keep them together. I made some Buffalo Chicken yesterday and decided to make some nachos. Turns out 10 minutes at 350 is flirting dangerously close to burnt but they were delicious:
BuffChickNachos.jpg
 
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