prasantrin

I'd make Peanut Butter Cookies with Salted Peanut Caramel. It's thumbprint-y, which is always fun for the little ones, but the salted peanut caramel adds a little more difficulty for the older ones.

What about pies with a teeny weeny bit of dairy? I want to make a pecan tart, the filling of which calls for 3 tablespoons of cream (cream, honey, brown sugar, and butter are boiled together), and then I want to freeze most of it. Am I asking for trouble?

5oz! Since it says "rounded to the nearest 1/4oz" I might use the 4.8oz that Dorie Greenspan uses. She uses the same method (dip and sweep), so I'm guessing they say 5oz just to make things easier. I'm planning on making the classic lemon bars. The ingredients are: I can't remember which website I got that from. Looking it over again, I'm a bit surprised she uses the measurement "stick of butter", or was that the measurement added by whoever posted it? Where'd you get the books so cheaply? Maybe they ship to Japan!

I haven't heard about keeping it cold, but along a similar vein, a Canadian science show reported if your popcorn isn't popping very well, you should fill a jar with popping corn, add a tablespoon of water, shake, and let sit. The popping corn should absorb the water and be poppable again. I have a big Costco container of popping corn, and it won't fit in my teeny tiny freezer.

Even after rehydrating, the dried figs will have a different texture from fresh figs. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but personally, I wouldn't bother with the cake unless I had fresh (but I love love love fresh figs).

no that sounds so good! ← Ditto! It's kind of like fried cheese served with lingonberry jam served at a Danish/Czech restaurant I like. Except they use brie (or camembert?) instead of cheddar. If you're into spicy stuff, try grilled cheese eaten with Thai sweet chili sauce. I haven't had it, but a fried cheese spring roll (just cheddar cheese wrapped in spring roll wrappers and fried) dipped in sweet chili sauce is very very good, so I imagine the grilled cheese version would be, too!

skipper10 or JFLinLA--could either of you tell me Cindy Mushet's standard weight for 1 cup of flour? Dorie Greenspan gets 4.8oz/cup (136g), which is a bit higher than average. I usually assume 120g/cup. I found a lemon bar recipe of hers online, but the measurements are volume only. chezcherie--you could very well be right about the scale thing! BTW, I was looking at the Sur La Table website, and the book is $29.95 right now as an introductory price (it will be selling for $40). That's even a little (less than $2) cheaper than at Amazon! Now if only I lived in the US...it's Y5600 (US$60) in Japan!

Way back when we first started talking about Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan wrote (bolding was added by me): I'm sure some Canadian and American cookbook authors (particularly those with little professional or international experience) prefer volume, but I think most would prefer to work with weights, and would rather use weights in cookbooks if they could.

That's what I was thinking! That DG's Baking and CM's A&S would complement each other nicely. I've only seen a few of CM's recipes online, and they seem just as accessible as DG's recipes, so that even those who are not in the US can make them with relative ease. I didn't realize there were measurements in both volume and weight. Bonus! I wonder why her publisher's allowed it when so many other publishers don't (because of "space restrictions").

Did you let each layer set before adding the next one? I'm not sure about the particular recipe you're using, but generally it's best to let them set a little.

Darn. I suppose I could just sprinkle some chopped candy canes after it's cooled a bit, but it's not the same as having them all mixed in! OK! That's easy enough!

What would happen if I made peppermint-flavoured caramels (using Kerry's recipe) and added chopped candy canes to it? Would the candy canes just dissolve into the hot caramel? If yes, is there any way I could mix in chopped candy canes without having them melt? I'm thinking I'd like the crunch of the peppermint. And about adding nuts...should I add raw nuts (probably pecans) to the caramel while it's cooking, or should I toast the nuts, then add them after the caramel has reached it's temperature (and before pouring it out)? It's getting might cold here, so it's caramel making time!

I've had my first taste of See's chocolates. I like them! I could see myself buying a few pieces were I ever in a See's store, and were I the recipient of a gift of See's chocolates, I'd eat the whole box by myself! With a side of milk, of course, because I thought they were a little too sweet (but not necessarily in a bad way). Another thing I've learned about See's--they have amazing customer service. When I bit into a walnut chew, I found a bunch of walnut shell pieces. Not so pleasant, and I was lucky I didn't break my already fragile teeth. I wrote to them suggesting they add a warning to their labels. They wrote back for additional information, and they also offered to send me a replacement box of chocolates. I replied it was completely unnecessary, especially since I ate that walnut chew, anyway (just sucked around the shells in my mouth and then spat them out--and yes, I told them that, though not in those words), plus all the rest of the chocolates were gone. And I'm in Japan, and it would cost more to send the chocolates than the cost of the chocolates, themselves! Well, they wrote again, and offered to send me a gift certificate! Now here's the ethical dilemma--the chocolates were a gift to the office, not just to me. If I accept the gift certificate, do I really have to share the bounty with my co-workers? I'm thinking not, since it was my teeth which were at peril...Oh the guilt! But if I got a box of nuts & chews, I could eat the all by myself!! It's not such a bad thing not to share...is it? I really liked the caramel (no nuts in it, unfortunately) even though it was kind of sweet, and the chocolate-covered almonds (sort of like a bark) were good, too. The marshmallow thing was quite sweet, but I ate both of them, anyway, since I figured no one else would like them (what a sacrifice...), and I had one other thing...a butterscotch square? I liked that one, too. I found out See's has a couple of stores in Tokyo, but a 2lb box is more than Y6000 ($60). Ouch. ETA--I just checked...it's a 1lb box that's Y6090! Holy smokes!

I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's just a bit formal.

Does anyone have this book, yet? David Lebovitz blogged about a peanut butter cookie with peanut caramel from the book, and now I think I need it. It is, however, about $20 more in Japan than it would be in the US, so if I'm going to spend the extra cash, I want to know it's really really good!

Those big black beans often served at New Years?

Boy, are you going to get slammed for that one!

A lot of "old fashioned manners" are considered rude these days...

You also have to know how to read expiration dates. I've found many an item that was past it's expiration date, but was still on the shelves. (I have no problem eating food within a reasonable time past its prime, but if I'm buying it, it had better be discounted.)

I think the point was that even performing in an orchestra can teach you some of the same things you'll need to work in a kitchen--how to work in a team, etc. etc. So yes, it does have something to do with what we're talking about.

I didn't even notice the one on the left until after I had replied! The one on the right looks most like mine, but the one on the left looks like my brother's late cat. Maybe Shiro has been reincarnated at your house, too... Roast beef...hmmm...I vaguely remember something, but a good cat-stealing-food story is always welcome! even if it's a repeat! Don't shake the cream into the milk! I love drinking the cream off first. (does that sound vaguely dirty? ) Could you drink some chocolate milk for me, too, so I can live vicariously? It's been years...decades, actually, since I've had Avalon chocolate milk. And if you get out to UBC, have a UBC cinnamon bun? I actually don't remember them as being particularly awesome, but it's just the feeling of nostalgia that I'm after. Those were the days!

How'd you get my cat to your parents' house? I'll have you know that she never eats things she shouldn't, and she never jumps on counters or tables! Mmmmmmm....pork roast with crackling. No pictures of innards? Was it just a little pink? You drinking Avalon with the cream on top?

I was trying not to out "anyone" I didn't realize Michelin reviewers were widely known. I always imagined they were a non-descript sort. How were the staff able to recognize them, and did their presence affect the food (i.e. did the staff work harder than usual to make the food perfect)? I'm a little surprised at Yung Kee's inclusion. I've only eaten there once, and only tasted 3 or 4 dishes (plus I had a bad cold at the time), but if Yung Kee is Michelin quality food, and if Michelin really does only rate the food and nothing else, then there should have been many many more restaurants included. I'm sure there are better places than Yung Kee out there. Just out of curiousity, is it known if dim sum was eaten at any of the starred places?

How do you know they came nine times? Did people at the restaurant recognize them, or did they let the restaurant know who they were?

While the company is owned by a US firm, in Canada most Tim Horton's shops are franchises, so most are, in fact, Canadian owned.