Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

How long has it been on the counter? If only a couple days, it is fine. Most people leave it out at room temp overnight to ferment after bringing a jar home from the store. As mentioned above, the kimchi will be on the more ripe side (more sour) and as a result will be perfect for jjigae or kimchi fried rice.

The beans are called Komjung kong (검정콩) or black soybeans. You just soak them and throw them in the rice cooker along with the rice. You can find them at most asian grocery stores. They also sell multi grain mixes to add to your rice as well.

There is an alton brown episode where he dry ages beef though if you have access to a great butcher, why bother with it at home?

For salami etc... Michael Ruhlman has a great book called charcuterie with all sorts of advice.

Depends on what the food is and what is eating it. For meat, the primary decomposer is bacteria where it is essentially taking up the nutrients present in the tissue for food and using it to grow and divide. Fruits and vegetables have more rigid structure so they are usually broken down first by fungi (i.e. mold) before bacteria can access and use it as food. What is happening to the food itself is that these organisms are breaking down the fats, complex sugars and proteins into less complex units that they can process and use as food. A by product of this process is the gas (and smell) you mentioned - which if I'm remembering correctly is mostly methane and carbon dioxide.

I don't spray the pot and haven't had sticking issues - since the temperature in the pot is so high both pam and butter will break down and burn.

The problem once you open it is exposure to oxygen - it changes the flavor of the wine over time. Some oxygen is good initially, but if you let the wine sit after opening for a day or two it won't taste as good. There are a few ways to prevent this - you can get vacuvin (which is around ten bucks?) which provides a few rubber corks and a hand pump vacuum that takes the air out of the bottle after opening. Another great option is to get a wine preservation spray (wine enthusiast sells it online for 13). It's basically a can of inert gas (similar to the air dusters you use to clean your keyboard) that takes the place of the oxygen in the bottle after opening. You spray a bit into the bottle, cork it and it preserves the flavor pretty much indefinitely. These are both relatively cheap options. Boxed wine on the other hand usually comes in way fewer varieties, larger quantities and generally aren't that good.

I guess if you're planning on using the wine for only cooking and are going to use the rest of it within a week or so (and don't want to buy anything else), I'd just stick it in the fridge.

Milwaukee - Sprecher's brewery. The best root beer ever - it has honey and vanilla in it. Kopps frozen custard- it's like ice cream but more rich and super silky (it has a higher butterfat percentage). Also get deep fried cheese curds while you're in WI.

Chicago - Frontera Grill/Topolobampo. Love Rick Bayless and his food is killer. Also at least 1 hot dog with everything, lou malnati's deep dish sausage (in patty form) and mushroom pizza, a pizza puff and an italian beef sandwich.

DC - half smoke at Ben's chili bowl. I like Jose Andres restaurants - cafe atlantico/Jaleo. Ethiopian down by U street. Also excellent vietnamese - I like nam viet in particular (by cleveland park in DC or in arlington VA)

Take the pasta out of the boiling water a minute early and toss it into a pan with the sauce already simmering - then cook together til finished. There is no need to drain off the excess water, I usually just pull the pasta out with tongs (in fact I usually toss in some of the pasta water into my sauce to help finish it). This has a couple benefits, mainly that the pasta will absorb some of the sauce as it finishes cooking and that the starch from the pasta water will help to thicken the sauce while allowing the sauce to "stick" to the pasta.

Everyone seems to recommend Spike's Junkyard Dogs in Boston (self proclaimed "world's best hot dog"), but I really really don't like the place. The roll they use is way too large and dense and I found the hot dog itself to be just okay. And while on the topic of tube shaped meats in Boston, I don't particularly enjoy the italian sausage served on the streets and at sox games here either (e.g. sausage guy...etc). I've had much better elsewhere (then again, I'm comparing everything here to Chicago where I grew up).

Random, I just had bluefish last night for dinner. I cooked off some sliced garlic in olive oil, seared the fish in the infused oil then topped with a piperade to finish.

I like to toss them with a vinaigrette - red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper + goat cheese.

What cut of beef do you have?

I think it's a matter of preference - some people prefer to hit it quickly on a super hot pan and leave the fat in the middle still fairly solid, while others shoot for medium/medium-well to heat the fat through before you eat it. I suppose you could try both since you have 2 pieces?