Florinaldo

An uneven finale for all three contestants; both Raufikat and Mahathi overcooked their puff pastry while Tanner made a mess of his Saint-Honoré. Judging from the comments, I was thinking that Mahathi would come on top, Tanya's comments about wanting to eat Tanner's berry pie all day probably being intended as a diversion, but the judges could not resist Raufikat's Earth Mother persona, which personally I find studied and artificial. Desserts like Gâteau Saint-Honoré are another factor which explain, I think, why there are so many pastry shops in France. If you have a hankering or need for a complicated bake like that cake, a Charlotte, a tarte Tropézienne or any of the other challenging but popular and delicious French desserts in existence, you have two choices: attempting to make it yourself, with all of the attendant technical pitfalls. Or you can rely on professionals who have the tools, skills and regular practice at making them (I mean, how often do home bakers get a chance to prepare a crème chiboust like they had to do in the technical?). Sometimes they may even have one already in store so you don't have to order it in advance so it's a good thing there's a shop on almost every block or so (at least in the big cities). I was surprised to learn that Tanner only recently got into baking. Perhaps if he had waited another year and furher honed in his skills he might have fared better. His combination of goat cheese and balsamic for the ice cream sounded intriguing; I hope it gets posted. The season being over means I will be spared another viewing of the canoli ad with Danny "I've got high standards" Smiles which we got twice every episode. At least the Dough Bros (silly title!) ads changed each week. These two are up for an award for their hosting in the previous season? Should it be blamed on a paucity of potential candidates or an absence of good taste on the part of the selection committee?

Already the final episode! At this point, I think the most satisfying outcome for me would be Tanner winning. They are all very talented, but he has a nice balance of skills and good taste, and even restraint in the show stopper round. His owl face one was spectacular while eschewing the usual facile choice of piling colourful things on top of each other in multiple layers (I am looking at you Raufikat). Although that is a strategy which the judges are often easily impressed with. He, and to a slightly lesser degree Mahathi, come across in my view as the most authentic of personalities in this finale. Maggie's elimination was expected. Her lack of consistency and confidence did her in.

I think Bridget mentioned she also keeps hers in the freezer. It's supposed to make them easier to grate, although the end credits bloopers would indicate otherwise. 😉 Thanks for the info, I will probably give them a try soon, especially since I am nearing the end of my supply of braided Fall garlic.

Same thing happened with the Watertown NY station we get here and they showed an earlier episode in the season. I thought that perhaps they would show it this week, but they skipped to the butter chicken one. It's the second time it has happened this season since they also did not broadcast the rustic Italian fare one. Perhaps there is a problem with their distribution operation. Thankfully the individual recipe clips were available on their site (free membership) and I watched the Schnitzel one (the Roesti will come later); I made and it was very good, although I did not achieve quite the same separation between meat and coating as Julia did. Jack is usually such a stickler for detail, I was surprised he did not mention that the tomato paste he uses is the doppio concentrato version (I paid attention to the label), which I also find preferable. Speaking of ingredients, Julia and Bridget have mentioned a few times this season buying frozen pre-peeled garlic cloves in bulk. Are those widely available in the US? I don't recall ever seeing this product here in Canada, but I confess I have not really looked for them very actively. The bloopers are indeed amusing but I wish they would change the selection once in a while (unless this is indeed all there is as far as broadcastable mistakes, i.e. no swearing) ETA: I just did an on-line search of two local grocery stores and I find that they do stock pre-peeled garlic cloves, vacuum-packed from what I can see. Does anyone know how long they last after the bag is opened, and is the taste as good as fresh garlic?

From her attitude and general demeanor, I think it was clear that this plaintiff was the self-designated Monarch of the Easement, arbitrarily deciding who is allowed to do what and when. Each time she contradicted an answer or statement from the defendant, I felt she was lying. The episode of her flinging snails at him and his construction workers sounded very plausible, despite her denials. It's the kind of bizarre detail I do not think he would have had the necessary imagination to invent. As for Corriero, his argument in her favour was barely half-hearted. He said in the end that he was going through it as a sort of devil's advocate (junior grade if you ask me), just to make sure it had been explored and justifiably dismissed.

Not only did they profess not reading it, they reveled in the fact, they celebated being ignorant and uncultured. As if the one thing they fear above all is doing somenting that is associated with some sort of elite, whereas they are supposed to be "typical" middle-class and reading a classic book is somehow un-American. Which may well be how the writers really view working-class people.

You are correct. I thought I had heard him say it was okay and he would just proceed, but I just checked the episode on the CBC site and he does say he will have to start again, and then adds "but that's okay". Maggie was pretty close to leaving also, but like others I agree that the microwaving was his undoing. I thought he could have tried to roast them a little under the broil or sauteed them for a short time, which always add taste and texture, but that might have altered the colour pattern which he wished to preserve.

Sorry to see Sheldon go, although he did have a so-so week; microwaving the vegetables instead of roasting them was certainly a dubious choice. I am not sure I would have eaten his showstopper after the measuring cup explosion. I think he should at least had scraped away the upper layer of the filling, as a precaution. He will be remembered as providing the most memorable showstopper seen on the show, his tower based on Buckminster Fuller's tensegrity structural principle. I love it when contestants with a technical or scientific background find a way to apply their particular knowledge to the competition. From a very strong field this year, perhaps the strongest of all four seasons, we are now down to four. I see Tanner as a quiet force that may surprise everyone in the end. Maggie may be next to be chopped, unless she gets a hold of herself and finds her way back to being more confident. I am always amused when Kyla the judge daintily holds the sample she is tasting because she appears to fear drips on her pretty dresses. As for the hosts, the best I can say about them is that they are a tad less annoying than the two Von Sketch ones from the previous season. I wish CBC would bring back the first two, although Dan Levy may be still basking in his Emmy wins and trying to capitalise on them.

The cod tagine recipe looks very good. A new reason to fire up the tagine dish, which I manage to use about only once or twice per month. Il found their quick preserved lemons recipe intriguing. As they say, the flavour cannot develop as much in just 24 hours compared to the regular process, which I have tried before (never quite achieving the result of commercially made ones), but the sugar may help compensate for that. Has anyone tried it yet? That being said, we usually have no problems finding commercially made preserved lemons around here, although sometimes only the pre-spiced variety is in stock, which I do not like; I prefer to add my own seasonings, specific to the recipe. Also, if you buy those bottled in Provence or North Africa, they most often used those small sweeter lemons that appear very characteristic to the Mediterranean and more authentic. As an attempt to approximate these, I may try the ATK technique with Meyer lemons, before the season of availability ends. Unlike Julia though, I will be using the finger guard while slicing them on the mandoline (perhaps she is using one of those models that does not come with one).

Plaintiff came across as such a confused airhead it was difficult to be sure of what the actual facts were precisely since she kept contradicting herself or amending her statements. On the other hand the defendant was an evasive liar. You could say that on the whole they balanced each other well as litigants I can only wonder if there is one single person the plaintiff ever met who he did not ultimately take to court.

That is for sure. One amusing aspect of the case was that the plaintiff whined about how her room was repainted in a stoner/hippie look. Yet, she was dressed and coiffed as if she was coming from an audition for a new community theater production of Hair.

Even her multiple layers of thick make-up could not hide the fact that even the plaintiff did not take her own claim seriously. I don't think it was from 2013 since there is no audience and everything is done virtually (except for poor Byrd). Plaintiff had a stupid looking haircut and tended to dramatically overstate the pain and damages they had to live through, but the defendants made a truly cosmic bungle by drawing up a lease agreement which contradicted the basic facts of the tenancy. And they kept whining during the hallterview, of course, whereas it was entirely their fault. As a bonus, JJ got to trot out her "it can only modified in writing" lecture she was forced to repress yesterday.

I believed she may have been all fired up to give her patented "four corners of the contract" spiel, and then got fustrated because the provision in question was indeed written plainly within those four corners. I am still trying to figure out why the defendant offered to pay for the paint job out of his commission. It does not make financial sense because the cost of painting would have wiped out most of his fee. Unless he desperately wanted to be rid of that difficult to rent listing and of the owner, who seems to be a real pain as a customer; she does not even have multiple properties to rent so there is no real incentive to give her special treatment. I think that the onus of painting the place should have fallen on her; if she is too cheap to do it, then she loses out on a rental and her long-term losses would be far in excess of the agent's one-month commission.

Especially if JJ decides to enable that behaviour. She was initially very insistent on seeing a provision in the lease that would obligate tenants to take care of the vegetation, but after defendant pointed it out, she let it go and chose not to enforce it. I think she believed that it was non-existent and simply "verbal" as plaintiffs had said and did not appreciate being proven wrong. It did not fit the narrative that had obviously set in her mind because she took an instant dislike to the defendant. She also took no notice of him saying that tenants had signed a document at the beginning of tenancy conforming that everything in the apartment was acceptable and that none of the problems they now claimed were noted at that time. I think defendant was another underserving victim of the dreaded syndrom of missed-morning-bowel-movement, which JJ seems afflicted by more and more often in her last years.

I think so too, but he made the fatal mistake of striking a very profitable deal when he bought the house. And as I said yesterday, JJ truly hates it when anyone but her manages to achieve that.

I am not quite sure why the plaintiff bothered to bring that suit since it made him look a bit silly. Unless he felt really aggrieved by the fact that the Lego stock was far below the advertised weight, concluding there is a chance he might possibly have scored 65 % more valuable figurines if the full advertised weight had been met. On the other hand there was no written contract, seller stated that the weight was an estimate and he did not make any attempt to check the weight before taking off with the items. It is roughly equivalent to litigants who do not get the used car they buy checked out by a mechanic before paying for it. But his goose was truly cooked when it turned out he may have offered some of the figurines for sale at a handsome profit. Nothing illegal there, but if there is something JJ hates with a vengeance it's someone making a great deal without her getting a cut of the profits. JJ also hates landlords recouping damages costs and cuts down on those as much as possible. Which is why she screamed that after 5 years the landlord needed to paint and pay for it. Whereas if JJ has any rental properties, I would be surprised if there is a single tiny brushstroke that does not get billed back to the tenant, and certainly at a rate that is rather advantageous for Her Majesty.

I never understand how some people think that grinning like an idiot every time you answer a question helps you come across as anything else but a lying dick. She also did not hold back on the scorn towards his GF Natasha, who is probably very deserving of much contempt for continuing to be associated with that dishonest defendant.

It certainly was pleasantly gratuitous. In a real-life work situation, it would be the supervisor's responsibility to consult her about a change proposed by a co-worker or to inform her directly if she makes the decision without consultation. So Nancy's frustration should have been directed at her captain, but it would not have made as good drama through amplifying tension between her and TK and his ex-teammates.

I am afraid judges DiMango and Acker have drunk the Corriero Kool-Aid. How else to explain that in today's quinceñero case they awarded the family 5 000 $? Mostly in "pain and suffering"! I was totally unmoved by their sob stories. They do not have a video of the event; too bad, but it is not the great human tragedy they portrayed it to be. I think they would have been entitled to the value of the missing video (as estimated by the judges if it is not listed separately on their service agreement), but not to be reimbursed for the photographs portion of the contract. Especially since everyone agreed the pictures were beautiful. The only consolation is that the defendant at least does not have to shell out the money himself. Which also means he does not have to go through the trouble of going after the missing videographer.

Yes but with simpler dishes there's less prep to do. However, since they do not have an army of off-screen assistants to have several swap-outs at the ready, I would think there is more waiting time involved for things to cool down, hydrate, etc. So it may well be a wash in the end. It would be nice if they did a BTS report on how the segments are produced "at home"; it would fit well into one of their infrequent special episodes. Today our PBS station had a mini-marathon of ATK at Home. They showed the Japanese and crêpes episodes back-to-back, and then rebroadcast the first one of the season. I had a chuckle when Dan mentioned that he learned of these Vietnamese crêpes thanks to a blog he started called Cooking with Moms. I thought "Of course you did!", because that idea seemed so fitting to his personality. Too bad he had to give it up after one episode because he was too busy; that is one I would have gladly listened to.

I posted some weeks ago wondering whether the cooks had gotten a renovation budget because some of the kitchens looked so neat and fresh (nothing major: a new coat of paint, replacing a backsplash, etc.). You have provided an answer for at least two of them. Location filming can indeed be difficult in some real-life kitchens because they were not designed for the camera to capture the action; in many homes for example the work area faces a wall so the cooks would turn their back to viewers while chopping and prepping. Unless there is room enough to set up a temporary fake island or counter. Previous seasons had the same number of episodes. Cook's Country usually has 13 episodes per season. Production time for each episode is probably shorter since the recipes are simpler and the camera equipment must be more basic (except perhaps in the fake studio "home" kitchens) because they work with at most a two cameras set-up and the editing is less fancy.

Glad to hear that the method works well. It is one I intend to try very soon. As for Dan's hair, I remarked some weeks ago that it looks as if more gray is coming through. It may just be that the styling you report makes it appear that way under the home studio lights and not because he missed one or two colouring appointments due to the lockdown. 😉

I know that people switch fields of study, usually before finishing the program; I remember examples from university of students going from physics to law after one year, or from finances to sociology. And many people work jobs that are not traditionally linked to the diploma they received. But doing it after medical school, a particularly grueling program from what I know, simply to avoid a confrontation with the family is a sign of a rather weak-willed individual. And she has not been portrayed that way; perhaps at most eager to please and not disappoint her uncle, but not to the point of doing something she hates for 5 long years.

If there were, then these shows would quickly run out of material. That plaintiff was especially pathetic. Defendant was unrepentant parasite. Neither of them was attractive in any conceivable way, which is I suppose a sign that they were meant for each other.

Judge John said that they were lucky to get the 250 $ she awarded them. This may be the furthest he can go to openly disagree with a ruling of hers. I totally disagreed with that ruling. Then again, I rarely sympathise with people who feel the strange need to organise a big pretentious wedding with every person they know in attendance.