Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I cooked half of one in a mixed vegetable dish and it added serious heat.
I use habaneros in chili, in hot Mexican cheese dip (which is a big holiday pot luck winner, half the folks at most parties love it the other half won't taste it) and in omelets. I will use the Bhut peppers in those . I got a few from a friend who grew them I am going to dry them out and try to plant the seeds next spring to grow my own.
Hot pepper does stimulate stomach acid so if you have an ulcer it can make it worse but it doesn't actually burn the skin, just stimulates the pain and heat receptors in the nerves to fool the body into thinking it is being burnt. The heat and pain receptors use the same nerve fibers so both are stimulated at the same time. Blistering from hot peppers is a result of the body being fooled so it is not really common. No flesh is actually being harmed by the hot pepper you just think it is. It is very true (from bitter experience) that the peppers do pass through into the stool and eliminating them can be VERY painful.

I loved Gourmet, and there are also food blogs that I refer to almost daily. There's room for both, if the quality is there. Ironically, the person who best expressed my feelings about the death of Gourmet is a food blogger: http://www.oneforthetable.com/oftt/stories/goodbye-gourmet.html.

More evidence that Ruth Reichl is pure class.

Kimball is an ass and America's Test Kitchen just got deleted from my DVR...

I thought this piece was excellent commentary. I couldn't agree more.

No, the internet didn't kill Gourmet. What killed Gourmet was greed. The ridiculous advertising aimed at the richest 2% of the population is what killed Gourmet. Not to mention competition from Saveur (which has suffered lately, too and better get it together before they succumb). There are so many more foodie mags out now than when Gourmet began - it makes me sad that Gourmet couldn't keep up. RIP Gourmet.

@ littlepaperheart

I do believe you meant "niche," not nitch.

@jerzeetomato

Perfect rant! And exactly what I'm thinking.

Blaming the internet for the demise of Gourmet (or anything else, for that matter) is a self-serving, short-sighted and pointless tantrum. Markets are fluid. Consumers pay for value. When the value dissipates, the market votes with its dollars. Progress hinges on the evolution of product and service. Combustion engines killed the buggy whip business. PC's made secretaries of us all.

@ Mrsdebdav.... right on!

I have flipped through Gourmet a time or two... I wished I could say I remember when it was good.

I see it this way. I am a person who has been around the culinary word magazine, tv, internet, books for decades. A devotee one might say. I subscribed to all of them.
There are many, many pretty blogs on online and some of them are just that "pretty" and their content is crappola. The content is just pedestrian at best. I am not going to name names because there are positive things to be said of many of these very blogs that I find lacking in the cooking/baking depts but they have redeemable qualities.
When you go throwing out names like David Lebovitz and then the names of people who take pretty pictures of food, it is insulting. David is a professional pastry chef and author. Bloggers as much as we hold on a pedestal are currently all trying to get their stuff out there and as much as I love to read baking bloggers, cooking bloggers and food blogging in general, often it disappoints me. Why? Because the last place in the world you want to hone your craft is in PUBLIC. There I said it!!
Example: When someone blogs about a quiche recipe from Thomas Keller (One I have made dozens of times without a hitch) and said blogger tells the free world they flubbed it, they did it again and the second time it was not so great so it must be the recipe, they have just sealed their fate.
I made the Thomas Keller quiche and it was great, it was freaking amazing, people demand for me to make it. Said blogger totally panned Thomas Keller (a successful restaurant owner, chef, author) and did it on their blog because they do not have the skill it requires to make that quiche, they have set the tone for everything else they post. Now I cannot read that very blog because I do not believe the gaul said blogger had to chastize a great recipe/Chef because they are lacking in skill but certainly not in veracity or the ability to post pretty pictures of their flub on the freaking internet.
Now you might say jerz what does all this mean? It means this. The blogosphere is just not the same as published, skilled culinary professionals. You cannot use the name of a blog/blogger and one of a chef, food author in the same sentence or in the same manner. I don't give two shits if a blogger has a book out because they had "buzz" and site hits and talked at freaking blogher or were on a talk show. You are mixing apples and oranges. Full stop!!! Blogging is in fashion and it will go out of fashion. The Eater article was not without merit. There are too many fish in the pond. Eventually how many people can you read about making the same damn cake. How many pictures of it do I have to look at on tastespotting? The blogs will thin out in time the fashion just has to pass.
A celebrated blogger is not a chef (although some chefs are bloggers, thank God). They are people who are taking pretty pictures, telling stories and creating buzz to sell themselves. To me this is the skip to Go and collect your 200 bucks. This is precisely why I do not blog. I have watched thousands of others take beautiful pictures of crap food and bad mistakes from good recipes. I have listened while bloggers pan great cookbooks/recipes because they are not capable of the skill they require and I have seen "propaganda" used to ellevate blogdom to some high level which is totally bogus and unearned by many.
Twitter is bullshit, I hate it, it reeks of self promotion. This is the era of self promotion. When this passes only the strong will survive. You will all get bored of the food blogosphere the same way you got tired of Food Network and Gourmet.
As for Conde Nast, I am not surprised they screwed up Gourmet. As I have said in past posts sucking down Risotto with underwear models did not a magazine make. It sucked and you know who is always to blame, the editor. No one blames the airline when the plane crashes they blame the pilot. Her talented staff picked out the shabby chic DKNY easter dinner photo shoot which to me was the same as the talking dummies on the Old Navy commercial.
Food writing as we know it has been dumbed down. It is a trend and it will pass. Rachel Ray's magazine is a huge success do you need any more proof than that?
As for Chris Kimball, I like him. Why? Because he is not full of shit. he may in fact be a prat but I like him. I read CI for one thing, nuts and bolts and unbiased reviews because CI does not sell advertising. Aren't you tired of being spoon fed trends. I am. Whew rant over...

I'll take davidlebovitz.com, 101cookbooks.com, and seriouseats.com over some random twitter post any day. And I think they all make money off my visits. Yes, the good still rises to the top.

I make parmesan crisp "bowls". Yummy and impressive looking. Simply increase the diameter of cheese spread in the pan. It should be less dense as well- when finished they almost look like lace. Invert melted cheese over a small bowl and voila! (I use rounded metal bowls and put them in the 'fridge to expedite the process.) It makes a lovely (individual) salad bowl -- will use next time I do (French onion) soup and salad.

Not necessarily Freestyla... there are other factors to account for:

The first is that glass, crystal in particular allows for optimum clarity when observing the color of wine. Taste, aroma and color are the three most important aspects when appreciating wine; using plastic cups would reduce our ability to get the most out of our senses. Also, unlike plastic, the brims of glass wine goblets can be manipulated to thinner than 1mm. This allows the wine to flow directly onto your tongue (and your taste buds) instead of immediately spreading out, avoiding your tongue and filling the pockets of your cheeks.

Additionally, the weight of glass helps stemware remain sturdy. If you used plastic stemware, the wine would weigh more than the cup and tumble over more frequently, costing you more money to replace those rugs. Standard glass and plastic costs about the same to manufacture but people are willing to pay more for glass than plastic. The luxury of hand-blown crystal comes with uniqueness, elegance and a sense of pride...just like that Corvette we all want.

As I'm sure you may know, recent news warns drinking water out of plastic bottles because the combination of sunlight, heat and other factors can cause carcinogens to leach out of the plastic and slowly poison you over time. They first discovered this by noticing a slight plastic taste to water. With a highly acidic ingredient like wine, the carcinogenic effect of holding wine in plastic can be even more detrimental to our health. A few companies make wine glasses that contain traces of lead which adds structure and allows the consumer to resort to dishwasher cleaning. Riedel does not do this. My suggestion is to avoid any wine glasses that are dishwasher safe. Would you want that corvette sent into a carwash or would you feel much better having someone handwash it for you?