prasantrin

That was be a very cruel thing to do to recovering alcoholics, especially since not all the alcohol will "cook out". From the rec.food.cooking FAQ So at 350F for 35 minutes, approximately 35% of the alcohol will be retained. And for some alcoholics, just the flavour of alcohol may be enough to cause them to relapse. Making the cake with alcohol would be a seriously uncool, thoughtless, and just plain stupid thing to do.

Coffee? Failing that, there's a very long thread about finding the perfect chocolate cake somewhere in the baking forum.

Thanks for the help! I found the wiki article shortly after I posted, and I was able to use that info to pinpoint the recipe I was looking for. Or at least what I think is the recipe I was looking for. I'm hoping to try it out soon. No luck on the David Rosengarten recipes, though. I think he must have retained the copyright for his recipes (though I may be wrong). I sure hope I can find the disks I had saved those recipes to!

I can't find my copy, but Fine Cooking did a ganache specifically for hot chocolate. Just cream and chocolate, I think. No cocoa powder (there may have been butter, but I'm not sure). They probably have the recipe on their website, but you may have to become a member (you could probably claim it as a business expense).

For Japanese, A First Book of Japanese Cooking, if you can get it, is a good place to start. There's one that's even better for beginners, but I can't remember the name or author off-hand, and I can't find it on Amazon. There's also Quick & Easy Japanese Cuisine for Everyone. "Quick & Easy" is a series of Asian cookbooks--Vietnamese, Chinese, etc. I can't vouch for authenticity, but if she's really new to cooking, they could be a good place to start. You can "look inside" on Amazon to see if they may meet your (your friend's) needs/wants.

I was browsing through the Food Network's list of shows, looking for references to the old "How to Boil Water" show. I'm pretty sure that's what it was called, but it didn't involve Tyler Florence, but had a woman and sort of geeky guy as hosts. I got the best chicken souvlaki recipe from them, but I've since lost the disks I saved them to (this was more than 10 years ago, before the prevalence of CD-Rs much less memory sticks). David Rosengarten's recipes are not on TFN's site either, but Sara Moulton's recipes still are. Where can one find the good recipes from TFN?

As mentioned in another post above, waitstaff often get paid much less than minimum wage, so although they're technically "getting paid", they rely on tips to raise their salaries to at least minimum wage (although it usually raises it much more). But not mentioned in the post above is that some states do require that even waitstaff get paid minimum wage. In those cases, I would feel less pity for the untipped staff. The restaurant didn't call the police because the staff didn't get "extra money". They called the cops because the contract was unilaterally broken. Should the matter have escalated to that point? No. But for all we know (and we don't), the guests could have become disruptive and threatening (i.e. the cops were called more because of their unruly behaviour than because of the lack of payment).

Is the mugi sold in the rice section the same kind of mugi used in soups (like beef and barley soup)? I can't find barley anywhere except the stuff in the rice section!

Are you freezing your cookies for the Christmas season, or are you just testing out recipes that you may make again around Christmas?

Regarding the rice noodles, would you recommend using rice flour if one does not have the equipment to grind the rice, or would the noodles not be very good?

Are you supposed to wrap the goods before bringing them over? If so, don't forget to factor in cooling time, because you can't wrap the breads when they are still hot. That would be an additional reason for you to request subbing some quick breads in for some of the other yeast breads. If she only needs to stake her claim, perhaps you could bring over the premade items (hot chocolate mix, caramels) on Friday (and the quick breads if they've been OK-ed), and then bring the yeast breads over Saturday morning. That way you could do the breads all day Friday, bake them off Friday night before going to bed, and wrap them the next morning.

If they were having lunch at JG after the proposal, I think the idea of surprising them with something special would be great. But since it's happening before the proposal, the extra-special treatment might tip the fiancee-to-be off that something even more special might happen later on. Could you add something to their dinner instead? Or perhaps have some champagne or similar sent to their hotel room for after the proposal?

In part repeating what you wrote about wrapping flour granules in fat, but adding some new information That doesn't address the melting butter thing, but to that I would ask another question, if you put cold butter in a 350F oven, will it melt at the same rate as room temperature butter? Or as butter held at 30C?

I think cookies usually work best with less creaming. Is it possible your butter was too warm? The rest tan319 suggested mmay help that, especially if you put it in the fridge for part of that time.

Mmmmmmm. . . that sounds good. Frosted flakes are the one junky cereal for which I get cravings now and then. But if I buy a box, I'll eat the whole thing in one sitting. I especially love the intensely sweet milk it produces. I'm going to have to try it soon. I wonder what else I could make with frosted flakes.

I haven't made them, but may I ask what kind of peanut butter you used? You'll have a different result if using natural when regular commercial is called for, and vice versa, but I can't remember off-hand how the result will differ (I think natural gives a drier product??).

Why a paper towel rather than a dish towel? Does it have more abrasive properties?

Yes, yes, make your own. But I don't want to waste the potatoes, eggs, and flour it would take to perfect making my own. If I could just get some decent ready-made gnocchi that is available to the masses, I'd be set! There are some brands in the refrigerated section in my area of Japan, but the one I tried was horrible--gummy and heavy. So I'm turning to the mass-produced ones. Barilla? De Cecco? Those are the only ones I've seen in more than one country, so perhaps some of you have tried them? Are either of them any good? Worth trying out?

Pyrex can go from cold to hot--it can even go from freezer to a hot oven. It just can't go the other way around. Other info from the Pyrex website (bolding is mine): And their safety and usage instructions: Sometimes it pays to read manufacturers' instructions, even if they are "stoopid".

Regarding Alton Brown's method, since you have to refrigerate the wings for an hour after steaming, would it be possible to hold them even longer before baking? I'm thinking overnight, maybe 24 hours? (If I cook them all at once, I'll eat them all at once. I'm trying to avoid that.)

Purple is sesame, yellow is okara, and orange is konnyaku. All the flavours are listed in hiragana, which is pretty easy to learn to read. That and katakana would help you a lot if you're going to continue purchasing from Japanese websites. (Learning the meanings of basic kanji in addition to those would help even more. You don't even have to learn the readings, just basic recognition.)

Actually, I used to eat the crumbs out of a box with milk. I liked them better than the whole flakes. Does that make you feel better about not transgressing the "spirit" of the question?

I was going to do my first experiment tonight, but I had forgotten that I didn't have any eggs. Oops. So I melted some butter in a pan, then added some cashews and tossed them around. Then I put them on a baking sheet, tossed them with Penzey's Barbeque of the Americas, and baked them for about 10 minutes. Not bad, but I feel I need more spice to it. If I can remember to buy eggs tomorrow, I'm going to try the Epicurious recipe.

Regarding citrus extracts, why do some recipes call for using alcohol and water? Some recipes I've seen have equal parts alcohol:water, and others are 2:1. I'd prefer just to use straight alcohol, but would a combination of water and alcohol give me a more flavourful infusion? Also, is there a specific (or best) peel: liquid ratio? Some recipes say one lemon, some say two, and the amount of liquid varies anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 cup. If it matters, I'm planning on doing meyer lemon and also yuzu.

What kind of cheese does your daughter like? You could use any flavourful cheese--blue, gruyere, etc. They'll all work. If I were going to use gouda, I'd look for an aged gouda.