I just receive "The French Laundry Cookbook" and highly recommend it. It's the recipes of the restaurant and a dissertation on the ideology of his way of cooking. Perfection in taste and presentation is it's mission and is cooking in the way I've always dreamed it should be.

Concentrating on maximum favors in small portions (so as not to dull the senses with a continous onslaught of the same flavor with large portions), each bite is a feast. An explosion to the senses, to be relished and cherished. Then onto the next, completely different, creation.

Prick an egg with a pin before boiling and you won't get the green line around the yolk and your egg won't crack. Prick at the fat end of the egg.

OR - salt the water first, put the egg in when the water is cold. Bring to a boil and take off the heat for 15 minutes for hard boiled eggs. The salt will prevent the cracking of the egg.

Silicone bakeware. This stuff is fabulous - no more flouring, buttering or otherwise preping your pans. Baked goods fall right out. To clean up just rinse. I ordered a whole bunch of the stuff.

When salting food, always do it up high, away from the food so that the salt spreads evenly. Salting too close will get some spots of the food more salty than others.

I like to cook and enjoy learning about cooking. This blog is to log things I've learned.

Today I learned that gratin means crust.

That Sabayon, which is a french word for custardy sauce with wine, comes from an italian word which means beer.