Name: Madhu
City: Corpus Christi
Resolution: Use My Sous Vide Controller To Cook World Class Steaks.
Here's what Madhu says about her goal...
My resolution: Parts for the controller will be arriving next week. By the end of next week I hope to have put it together and be eating custardy/creamy eggs and world class steaks.
Thanks, Madhu! Readers, do you have any advice or suggestions for her?
(Image: Faith Durand)
Monterey Pitcher fr...

That sounds like a wonderful resolution! The best turkey breast I have ever eaten was made by my cousin in his homemade sous vide cooker. I couldn't stop talking about it for weeks. Besides cooking steak and eggs, I recommend trying some white meat as well, as it is so much better than white meat cooked in the oven! Enjoy :).
Item's I've done on my homebrew sous vide controller other than mentioned above:
1) Lamb shanks - tremendously tender, full lamb flavor (but very long cook time, see below)
2) Butter-poached shrimp (or lobster tail) - uses much less butter than having to submerge the seafood in pot, but the vacuum pressure may deform the shrimp in funny ways
For long cooks (more than a couple hours) insulate or elevate your cooking vessel from your countertops: long-term heat expansion can crack a resin countertop, probably also granite, marble, concrete. (Personal experience)
What sous vide equipment do you have? I'm fascinated by sous vide, but it's SOOOO expensive...
I built a sous vide setup for ~$100 from scratch. You'll need to know how electricity works, and be comfortable enough with your skills to feel confident plugging something electric that you've built, that's filled with water, into an outlet. I used these instructions to generate a parts list:
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Sous-Vide-Immersion-Cooker/471/1#.UPMnvCfAfAc</a href>
Getting it properly calibrated for my thermocouple, because the documentation surrounding it was practically nonexistant and I couldn't find the exact one that was used by MAKE. By far though, the hardest part was convincing my wife that eating something I cooked in a hot water bath overnight was safe :-P
And way to go me messing up the href tag.