DoctorK

Funny and a lot of truth. I have worked in penthouse offices (only because of corporate politics), in cube farms, and in a construction trailer on a construction site as site manager (and safety officer) for my company. Admittedly it was in Miami in record heat and humidity but it was interesting and I knew that what I was doing was important in getting the job done. Plus I got sort of fond on the hard hat (six strap suspension, not the Home Depot four strappers), steel toed boots and the high visibility vest. Even more fond of going back to the condo, changing shoes and walking to a great German bar with Warsteiner on tap every Friday for happy hour.

I am not sure that it is their egos that are huge.

Briefly, cast is pretty pure iron melted and poured into a mold to cool off, you can usually see the slightly rough surfaces formed by casting on the ouside of a skillet and sometimes even the casting seam especially along the handle. Once cast iron comes out of the mold, it cannot be forged (i.e., deformed by pressure) because it is very brittle but some surfaces can be shaped by grinding. Cast iron cookware is pretty much the same thing regardless of the source, it describes the process (which requires a particular form of iron) rather than the product. Hope that helps.

Probably not, cast iron basically pretty pure iron and iron is about the cheapest metal out there. Also cast iron has specific properties that would probably be lost with any significant impurities. However, like any other new cookware or glassware, it should be washed thoroughly before using with food, many of the manufacturing steps use mold release or forming lube that are not healthy. As mentioned, once you wash new cast iron, seasoning is a slow process which I have found is speeded up using either lard, suet or olive oil and time in a low slow (~250-300 F) oven, followed by well oiled use until the cooking surface is a beautiful slightly shiny black. (Okay, I've said enough about cast iron, or maybe too much but it is a fascinating metal with unique properties)

Just finished watching the recorded show (I can't watch it in real time), glad to see Bri gone, and it looks like they are creating a Subha redemption story arc. I don't have a problem with that, but the sometimes obvious producer direction working certain story arcs that they think will appeal to us is annoying.

I think the assumption is that a country boy (which I am not but after 67 years below the Mason-Dixon line) will have a lot of expertise with cast iron. The challenge would be to go beyond the run of the mill skillet dish, taking advantage of the special characteristics of cast iron cooking.

What really got to me was that the guy plaintiff was paying more child support than anyone else we have seen on this show, and the defendant was still sucking more money out of him little bits at a time, and that still wasn't enough for her entitlement, she just wanted more, more and more, and was loud and angry and indignant about it. The kid involved has my deepest sympathy, living with the harridan and constantly being told by her that her father doesn't care and doesn't pay his share.

I think it was, I am pretty sure that I remember the psychopathic defendant.

Yeah, I looked at the picture, the wound that Ms. Ellerbe said that it was just a little scratch. No, it was a significant but honestly not too bad, I have done much worse to myself being careless with power tools. But at least it wasn't done by a crazy woman and I dealt with it. The seriousness of the injury was not relevant, it just showed that he was attacked with a potentially deadly weapon; just because she wasn't good at it doesn't reduce the seriousness of the attack.

I really can't watch this crapfest anymore, but I was channel surfing after I got home tonight, did our great inventor really build a toboggan with brake lights and turn signals? Please tell me it wasn't so. Of course after the bug zapper hat (with its long extension cord), I can believe any idiocy from these people.

I don't doubt that he is a hipster dweeb, but I interpreted this comment as referring to his breaking up with the girlfriend who seems to be a real jerk.

I think it is important to understand and have some respect for animals that we kill in order to eat them. If one only understands packaged meats in the grocery stores, I think you are disconnected from the animal source. I was a city kid, but spent a summer on several family farms in rural Wisconsin. I killed chickens and cleaned them and then ate them, it was smelly and nasty but part of life. I also helped (or tried to, I was a little kid) in butchering a pig, not a fun experience but the fresh country sausage was the best sausage I have ever eaten. Maybe the solution is from Douglas Adams, breed animals that that want to be eaten and can speak up to tell you that.

Totally agree. What this episode was to me "stunt cooking" where oddness and strangeness were the goals, not anything related good cooking or fine dining. Sort of like "performance art".

I am so glad to see the show going back to being cooking. (/sarc just in case anyone missed it)

Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel. And I totally agree.

I wondered about this then saw a wide shot where the cars were each under a car sized mini tent, looked like the same size as the ones used to cover the cooking area. Quite possible that the race track has a bunch of portable covers for the cars in the event of a rain delay, but then I would have expected every top to have multiple product ads, it isn't NASCAR with out STP logos on every flat surface. ETA: Definitely fakey but the most fake show was where they had what appeared to be a single seat F-16 land and taxi up, then showed Gordon in a flight suit with a helmet as if he flew the plane himself. It is (barely) credible that Gordon drove one of the cars around the track a bit, but flying in solo, not so much.

This is true for all of the "reality" shows. What we see are self selected players who the producers think will bring in viewers. On the court shows, what we see are only the people who decide to go on a fake TV court show for their fifteen minutes of fame, even series like Big Bang Theory are crap, I was a physics graduate student, we were (mostly) not pencil neck beta males, partied hard, got in bar fights (and mostly lost) and busted our asses off to get our research done so we could get out of academia and make a living. By the way, get off my lawn!

I was pretty impressed by the kid myself. Taking out a gas engine and replacing it with a turbocharged deisel AND getting it to work is a major accomplishment, especially for an amateur mechanic. He even did all of the exhaust plumbing to route the exhaust flow through the turbo and out of the car. If Kennedy is a car guy, it would make sense that he would be impressed with the work.

Good point. Did the plaintiff say why he was replacing the door? Maybe he thought that would fix the problem? It did look to me like the water was entering the house just above the door, I would love to know if the drywall above the door was damp or even wet.

You can have a lot of fun in either room. However it might be awkward if Ken turns out to be a better cook. She irritates me because I think she has crafted a whole persona based on her looks, enhanced by her little girl voice (practiced I suspect) and doing the poor little girl crying every time she is criticized. As usual, YMMV.

Yeah, this was sad. Gordon pronounced it wrong every time I noticed, Joe sort of straddled the fence but mostly got it wrong, the only two people who consistently got it right were the woman guest and Jaime. Subha had it wrong every time I noticed. It is as annoying as people who should know better talking about "expresso". It reminds me of Gordon's pronunciation of tacos as Tack-os; maybe that is the British way or European but will get you laughed out of a real Mexican restaurant.

Yeah, from the first viewing, she was a shit stirrer. I think the old geezers could probably have beeen able to get along without her toxic input.

When one of the judges looked at the cross section and asked what the "white" meat was, the problem was obvious. She mixed beef and pork (the way most of us do) but didn't work them together nearly enough, the "white" meat was probably a large blob of pork,. If the meats were not mixed in well, then probably the rest of the ingredients were in randomly dispersed lumps instead of being evenly distributed. That is one way to make a bad meatloaf; however I don't think any meatloaf would have been up to expectations of the judges even with black truffle sauce (not that I would ever put that on a nice meatloaf).

Oh come on, you could have at least keyed someone's car! You're letting down the team.

Sam. I thought that Bri had a worse product but I didn't have a chance to taste anything. I agree this was not an exciting and dynamic episode.