Malawry

FWIW, all my other pans are much higher-quality...thicker, heavier, heat more evenly...than the pans from the supermarket. Many of them were given to me as a wedding gift. The 9" pans are the only ones I've tried to buy at a supermarket, and for the amount of cake baking I do I figured they'd be fine. I'd welcome links to sites where high-quality 9" pans can be had for a reasonable price. I understand the difference between a supermarket pan and a professional pan, but I usually only bake 2-3 cakes/year...and I really wanted to bake that banana cake yesterday. I had intended for this thread to be a place where we could talk about adjusting recipes for different pans (hence, "converting" in the title). I've got the skills of an amateur when it comes to pastry and patisserie work even though I work as a culinary professional. Of course we amateurs need all the help we can get! I do understand the basic chemistry and physics of cake-baking, but I'm not confident that simply changing pan sizes without making other adjustments to the recipe will result in the same quality of cake...I think RLB even comes right out and says that's not true in her book, in the story about her cake that collapsed during the NYC blackout because she baked it in a too-large pan. So yeah, more guidance from the pros would be really helpful here, and I don't think it needs to reside in a separate thread if it's specifically about cake pan sizes.

As an update, I baked the banana cake in the 8x2" pan so I can return the 9x1.5" pans unused and get some 9x2" pans at my leisure. I had extra batter so I baked some cupcakes with it as Ling suggested, and I ate one with a little Nutella as dessert after dinner tonight. Awesome recipe. Sugarella, I'm interested in your assertion that 3" pans are superior to 2" pans, and also your suggestion that I lay in 8, 10 and 12" pans. I find it hard to picture a use for 12" pans since I do cakes almost exclusively as the occasional hobby/birthday type thing...people have asked me about cakes for weddings I've catered and I always send them to somebody who really knows what they're doing instead of trying to do it myself. I recognize my own limitations, which include not understanding the utility of 10 or 12" pans. Does anybody else agree that 3" pans are superior to 2" pans?

The hot dog varies depending on the Costco. Around the DC Metro area, all the hot dogs are Hebrew National. In the new Greensboro, NC Costco, it's Sinai 48. I almost always eat a hot dog with lots of ketchup and mustard when I hit any Costco. There is one Costco I've seen in the DC Metro area that has fries in the food court...the Sterling store. If they exist in other NoVa Costcos I'm not aware of it, and they definitely don't have them in Gaithersburg, Beltsville, or my new "home Costco" in Frederick, MD. The fries are okay, they're the coated variety and you get a huge mess of them for $1.25.

Hm. Right now I am leaning towards baking the cake (which I believe is a 1-layer recipe) in one of my 8x2" cake pans and cupcaking the rest. I edited my original post to mention that my 8" springform currently houses a still-warm cheesecake I baked this afternoon. I'd rather return the 9x1.5" pans and try to get 9x2" pans instead. This still makes me wonder what kind of a pan inventory the average home baker needs, anyway. Besides the 8x2" rounds, the 8" springform and the 10" springform, I have a large Bundt pan, a million half-sheets, 8" square pans and various rectangular pans. I thought this was a good enough inventory for me, but now I'm thinking the 9x2"rounds are probably too important to go without. What else do you casual home bakers have in your pan collections? I think I have more sizes of cake circles than I do cake pans.

My husband and I enjoyed a terrific meal at Citronelle for under $300 last summer. However, he does not drink, and since I was driving I only had a glass of champagne and a single glass of wine, and we don't drink things like coffee or bottled water. I think we spent about $250ish. It sounds like a lot of money, but it's not for the quality of food and service you're getting...I know enough about food to be truly blown away by many of the things we ate that night. If that lobster burger ever comes back, you will probably find me standing outside the doors waiting for the restaurant to open with my breath steaming up the glass. And I don't get into the city that often.

OK, so I was planning to make RLB's banana cake today, from The Cake Bible. I didn't have any 9" cake pans, so I just bought inexpensive ones from the supermarket. (I figure, lots of recipes call for 9" pans, so they'd be good to have.) I brought them home and checked the recipe, which specifies using a 9"x2" round pan. My new 9" pans are only 1.5" deep. The recipe also specifies that it can be baked in a 9" springform pan. I have an 8" and a 10" springform pan, but no 9" springform. (Oh, and the 8" springform currently has a cheesecake cooling in it. Also from The Cake Bible. I forgot to add A FULL POUND of sour cream to the recipe. Somebody shoot me and put me out of my misery...) What would you do? I find I run into this problem often, but I hoped by buying 9" cake pans I'd resolve the issue. How can I adjust recipes to work in my pans? How many pans should I be investing in to make the 2-3 cakes/year I normally end up baking? I can return the 9x1.5" pans if they're gonna be useless, but I'm dead certain there were no 9x2" cake pans at the supermarket to swap them with...and it may be a few days before I go someplace where a 9x2" pan may be sold, and meanwhile I have overripe bananas just sitting on the counter waiting to be used...

I have used the word "source" to market my services. Specifically, I emphasize that I source high-quality ingredients and treat them well when I pitch a menu for somebody's event. I do not really expect anybody to pay much attention to this, but it helps to explain why my prices are higher than those charged by somebody selling frozen chicken cordon bleus out the back door. I have also listed sources of particularly spectacular ingredients on catering menus in the past, when catering higher-end small events for knowledgeable diners. Nobody's ever rolled their eyes at me. Maybe I should be glad I wasn't working an event you attended.

Sorry, Busboy. When I do a catering gig, sourcing is indeed a huge part of the job and a major PITA that I work into my budget. You might say that's just because I live in West Virginia, but sourcing was a major issue even when I was the chef for a sorority in College Park, MD and had a Sysco account. It takes serious effort to get the good stuff, especially if you don't do enough volume for the seller to consider you a worthwhile investment. I take pride in my ability to source quality ingredients on a shoestring budget, but I don't like how much time I have to invest in order to do so. So yeah, I want credit for my shopping, not just my preparation and serving skillz. Or at least I want to get financially compensated for that time. Believe me, it's a lot easier for Joe Fine Dining Chef to just buy from one or two major suppliers and call it a day. The more suppliers you deal with, the less volume you have for each one, the more time you're investing in handling those accounts. It seems piddly from the standpoint of the home cook, but it adds up. As for use of the word "sourcing," I admit I was needling ya'll by using it so often in my opening paragraph , but I don't regard it as any different from "buying" from a linguistic standpoint.

Ya'll better be glad that home kitchens aren't normally equipped with grease traps.

My husband and I really enjoyed the food and company at last night's dinner. I did manage to eat everything except the duck tongues and the pig's ear, but that meant that the only really different thing I sampled was the loofah (which was a delicious, green, mild plate of simplicity). The highlight for me was definitely the flounder steak with its sweet-sour-salty sauce and onions...I think between me and my spouse we polished off about half of that huge dish. Busboy called the sauce "Chinese ketchup," I guess due to its sweetness, but I didn't think it was cloying and what the hell, I have a massive sweet tooth. Other hits from my perspective: The tofu skin roll, stuffed with fish cake The oyster pancake, more like an oyster omelet, rich and eggy with plump oysters throughout Sauteed baby short ribs in black pepper sauce, fragrant and very peppery Bob himself made several appearances to help us guide our menu choices, and obviously Pontormo had done a great job of preparing him for the onslaught of eGullet folk. Many many thanks to Pontormo for putting together this dinner. We really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to returning to the restaurant in the future. BTW, if you ever go to Bob's, check out Aji Ichiban in the same strip of shops. They sell quite an unusual variety of dried fruits and vegetables, including about 20 types of dried plums. There are samples of most items. They also have cute little Asian candies...I was tempted by the firecracker-shaped chocolates. As a ginger freak, I was very happy to discover the puckery-hot experience of candied lemon ginger...I had to buy some to take home as a snack. Yummy. The store is tiny but there's a lot of cool stuff packed in there.

You might be right in some households, Fat Guy, but in my household we're SICK of eggs. They've been a little too rich for me during most of my pregnancy. I actually got sick off the sous vide eggs I had at Cafe Atlantico when you were here in DC a few months ago (I'm sure this was entirely about my pregnancy and not at all about the quality or safety of the egg), and I haven't been able to stomach them since. My esteemed spouse is trying to lose weight via a low-carb diet and he OD'd on eggs some time ago...he wants them maybe once every other week and that's it. I'm stopping work almost a month before my due date and plan to devote plenty of time to making all that chili and lasagna to stock the chest freezer at that time. Thanks all for the tips. Especially Sugarella, I am really liking the cheesecake bonbon idea and may give them a shot when I have no classes next week. Do you just bake your cheesecake in a half-sheet pan for those? (I have both a half-sheet recipe and recipes scaled for regular springform pans.)

Hey, I love that bonbon idea Sugarella! (Sounds like food for BEFORE the baby arrives, actually...) Do I need to do anything special with bonbons for the freezer? I mean, if chocolate gets refrigerated it blooms...does it do the same when frozen, or is there a way to package it so I can get it to retain that alluring snap? Pound cakes, mmmm. I have a Bundt pan dying for a workout. These are great, folks, thanks.

Baked choux freezes pretty well...I've baked choux buns and mini eclairs and frozen them for a few weeks plenty of times in the past. I'm just not convinced I'll be in a position to make creme patisserie (or whatever) and fuss with filling those suckers when the baby arrives on the scene. The quiche is a good idea, though, I noted it in the thread Torakris started and thought I might give it a shot.

I bought 5doz eggs for a class I was teaching tonight, since I was planning to cover egg cookery and wanted everybody to have a chance to experiment. We ran out of time and they ended up being perfectly happy to watch me demonstrate and then eat my samples (which, well, at least they were properly cooked, so I guess it's not a big deal). Of course, now I have way too many eggs hanging about. What can I make with them that can be frozen? These foods must be freezable until at least late April in a relatively "clean" freezer (no oniony type things in there) without deterioration. I am thinking of putting together some baked goods that I can make now for after my baby is born in April...it'd be nice to be able to offer something homemade to the inevitable guests without having to actually bake at that time. I have RLB's Cake Bible and would love suggestions that use this book and use a lot of eggs...also, I have no idea if meringues and whatnot freeze well. Can I make completed cakes with Italian buttercream for the freezer? Are there other pastries that are egg-heavy that freeze well? There is a sister topic to this one in the Cooking forum which I plan to pillage for savory ideas.

I am normally gleefully omnivorous, but right now have a comparatively narrow range of foods I can tolerate. I have absolutely no issue with anything people want appearing on the table, and I am also absolutely certain I will find plenty of things that appeal to me on the table no matter what shows up. I agree with Busboy that we don't want dumbed-down food...we can get that at one of the better Chinese-American places like Meiwah if that's what we're after.

I just made my first-ever Asian noodle soup tonight, basing my technique off of Ellencho's recipe in RecipeGullet. I used beef neck bones that were cheap at the Asian market instead of the much-more-expensive oxtails, plus charred ginger and onion and toasted star anise and cinnamon to make the stock. Thanks to blanching and cleaning the bones and using my trusty chinois, the stock was very clear and aromatic. I spiked it with fish sauce, a little soy sauce and some sriracha. Then we fixed bowls with shiitake mushrooms, some seasoned tofu I found, thin-sliced round steak, Shanghai cabbage, scallions, cilantro and some fresh udon. Poured in the boiling broth. Seasoned at the table with more soy sauce and sriracha. It was pretty good! Next time, though, I'll marinate the beef in advance...it did not pick up much flavor from the hot broth. Actually I marinated the leftover beef and will try some leftovers tomorrow to see if the beef has improved flavor. I'm not gonna need much of this udon for the soup. Any suggestions for how to use up the rest of it? Will it work well in a noodle stir-fry? Will stir-frying it be enough, or do I need to soften it in some water or broth beforehand? It was a little too chewy in the soup even though the noodles were fresh--they are very stiff when cold. Can I do something with it to improve it in the leftover soup tomorrow? The label says it's ready-to-use which was why I just added it to the bowl and then poured the hot broth over.

I'm rooting for all three of you down here. Marlene, I think you should cook your asparagus for tonight's dinner, because IMO green beans keep longer and in better condition than asparagus does. Two favorite asparagus things: 1. Stir-fried with julienned shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil and seeds 2. Sauteed with butter, finished with a shot of balsamic reduction

I would never call Greensboro a destination city for your average food nerd. However, if you do a little digging, it has better options than many other cities its size. Kathleen, I've long been surprised that the number of colleges and universities around Greensboro hasn't had MORE of an impact on the culinary scene, though obviously things have changed since I moved up to DC in 1996. (Although Bert's, Liberty Oak, Southern Lights, Ghassan's, Saigon and Stamey's were all open back when I lived there.) One other interesting thing about the Greensboro scene: there are a couple of very good chains that originated there. Ham's is one example...my dad used to eat at the original Friendly Ave. location when he was in high school. I still like the house-fried potato chips there; that chain is the reason why so many table-service sandwich shops sell house-fried potato chips in NC. I am also a fan of Lucky 32 which has at least one other restaurant in Winston-Salem--I like the American menu, the gentle prices, and especially the monthly "focus" menu with a regional or international cuisine. They mix a decent martini, too.

Just a note that Sysco carries an amazing variety of bacons. None of them are along the lines of a Nueske's, but the more expensive premium Sysco bacons are generally fresher and much tastier than your usual supermarket lines. I was very pleased with the bacons I got from Sysco--especially the thick-sliced applewood-smoked bacon. (It comes frozen, so maybe this accounts for my sense that the bacon is fresher...it's probably flash-frozen right after it's sliced.) If you ever get a chance to visit a Sysco trade show, be sure to try all the bacons they have out as samples and you'll see what I mean.

I love this stuff, personally. It was only about $2.50/bunch at the Asian market I was visiting last night (cheapest I've seen it), but it was a little too floppy--not fresh enough for my tastes. It's usually $3-3.50/bunch, never inexpensive but always delicious. I buy it when I have company usually, as a treat.

Thanks, Pork, for tipping me off to this place. It's very similar to the Han Ah Reum in Wheaton, just smaller with a less-extensive fish and produce department. I bought some supplies for the Asian noodle soup cook-off currently going on in the Cooking forum plus stocked up on other household staples (salad veggies, good soy sauce, etc). The produce is ample in variety and very gently priced, including rock-bottom prices on fresh herbs. The whole ducks are a better price than I've seen elsewhere at $1.50/lb (for Maple Leaf brand)...they're usually $1.99/lb at Asian markets and much more elsewhere. Unfortunately, they are not pre-weighed...I always try to get the heaviest ducks I can and there was no way to tell besides guessing at relative size. Ground meat was also attractively priced, I picked up both beef and pork for various cooking projects. I do wish they labeled the beef with fat percentages. I didn't think the fish counter smelled all that much like anything, despite my pregnant supernose...I didn't look at it all that closely but the whole fish did appear fresh and the blue crabs were quite active. The music was all techno-aerobicized pop, which amused me...Han Ah Reum always plays 80s favorites, but this place had fast music that kept you moving. I expected it to be busier than it was, but I guess most New Year's shoppers would have shown up earlier in the day or earlier in the weekend. I had a light dinner at Tup Tim Thai beforehand thanks to Bilrus's recommendation...spring rolls and a delicate tofu-vegetable soup (I love total bills of $7.25...). Nice little neighborhood joint. And of course I went back to my old standard Wegman's afterwards to complete the evening o' food shopping.

This is all awesome info. I plan to check it out tonight and will report back on my findings.

Giacomos is indeed fantastic...a great place to pick up some subs for your lunches. However, it is not that close to the coliseum...maps.google.com places it at 3.4mi, and it is way more than 5-6 stoplights away. (Most of the trip is along High Point Road, one of Greensboro's busiest thoroughfares.) If you drive to Giacomos, another mile or so farther out HP Road there's Jerusalem Market. They have kickass falafel sandwiches at the counter in the back, on Bedouin style pita with hot sauce. I've been eating there since they opened back when I was a teenager. Nice spinach pies and pistachio baklava too. Plus it's about the only place in Greensboro where you can get things like rose water or bulk fennel seeds. These are not the "fine dining" options you requested, though. If you want casual eats close to the Coliseum, I think your best bets are Stamey's BBQ (sorry, I know you said no BBQ, and they will be MOBBED that weekend) or Ghassan's which had a location nearby last I remember for chicken skewers, Greek salads and great steak subs.

Hey Pork, I'm having a hard time picturing where this place is. What else was near the Food Lion that Grand Mart replaced? I go to Wegman's once or twice a month down in Sterling and would love to swing by Grand Mart as a supplement--usually produce and things like frozen ducks are so much cheaper at those places!

I am a native of Greensboro and sometimes have the chance to dine there with my folks when I visit them. Yes, Bistro Sofia is in the old space occupied by a restaurant called Madison-something. (I think it was Madison Park, but I'm not sure.) Sofia is a lovely place, I remember really enjoying our dinner there. Unlike most places in Greensboro, they actually make their desserts in-house, including a nutella ice cream that's pretty renowned. Undercurrent is on Elm Street downtown. We ate there on my birthday a few years ago partly because the chef is an alum of my own culinary alma mater, and the head of my culinary school was pretty impressed with the food there. I remember Dad's country pate was one of the hits at the table. The food is solid and mostly American-focused. I have heard good things about a place I think called 221 South Elm, which would be pretty close to Undercurrent. Bert's Seafood Grille on Market Street is a fairly classic Greensboro restaurant, everything I've had there has been pretty much spot-on and it's very charming in its casual way (menus on blackboards, that sort of thing).