Malawry

I took a one-afternoon basic knife skills class many years ago from L'academie, before they offered the workshop described by JeffSenter. It was a great experience but it was also way too short. I am a big believer in L'academie's recreational program, which I think offers some of the most reliable classes around. Some of the series are especially useful; I think Susan Watterson in particular is a knowledgeable, patient and entertaining instructor. I am a graduate of the professional program at L'academie. There are lots of other classes out there, though. Many community colleges offer recreational classes that may be of interest, and they're usually not too expensive either. There are also people who teach private and small classes in their home that may be of use, especially for specialized skills--I'd jump at the chance to take an Indian cooking class from Monica Bhide, for example. The Washington Post publishes a comprehensive list of cooking classes every year, which is probably linked to their Food and Dining page on their Web site.

Uptown bakes a full menu of breakfast pastries: quick breads, muffins, scones, danishes, brioche, croissants. I know they sell at least some of these items to Balducci's (especially the muffins), and I think some of them are baked to Balducci's specifications and are not available to other accountholders. They also bake an assortment of cookies. I did not sample any of the breakfast pastries as I was there to sample and order breads for some events I'm catering, but the menu certainly was thorough. Uptown also sells donuts to its customers, but that's just a middleman service--the donuts are not fried in-house.

Most of the Balducci's quick breads (and I think also their yeast breads) are baked by Uptown Bakers. I found this out when I toured Uptown two weeks ago, I think they're one of Uptown's biggest customers. Uptown produces some great products, IMO. Petit fours are not on the list, though.

Mr. Maw is one of the most appropriately-named individuals in the business today.

The sort of griddle Eunny was talking about can be picked up and cleaned any number of ways. The griddle I was using at work (the subject of my initial post) was built-in, so there was no way to clean it at a sink or over a trash can. The bench scraper is also called a dough scraper--a common tool in pastry kitchens that I find dozens of uses for at home or at work. They're not very expensive--here's one from Sur La Table. The bench scraper might be useful for decrudding the home griddle between loads of pancakes or whatever.

Dude. Did you see on the Philadelphia.au website that they have a Philadelphia cream cheese with SWEET CHILI SAUCE packed in a separate compartment in Australia? That's cool. That has nothing to do with bagels, though.

Next time I'll look for parchment. I really didn't see any underneath the cake circles on this cake though. Hmm. There were dowels in the cake for support but those don't help with the frosting. Thanks for your response, Bkeith--I tried to convince the bride and groom to consider using you for their wedding cake but they were too tight on budget apparently.

Well, the wedding is over, and I didn't run out of cake. The bride and groom did end up biting the bullet and paying for delivery of the cake, which made everything seem a lot less nervewracking. I used the Wilton guide. The cake was not layered, which I didn't realize when I posted, so it was actually really easy to cut cleanly. However, I had trouble slipping offset spatulas underneath the tiers and lifting them off without leaving a bunch of frosting attached to the bottom of the cardboard cake circles (and a center of unfrosted cake on the tier underneath). Is there some trick to doing this that I should know for next time? I feel a lot more confident about cutting and serving a wedding cake now, but I hadn't anticipated problems with separating the tiers.

What Marlene said. I usually set up veal stock to cook after dinner, and pull it off the stove to strain in the morning. You don't have to roast your bones--roasting adds a different flavor and color to the stock. Unroasted bones make a "white veal stock" which is useful in other ways. Don't fear the cooking time, 12 hours is a minimum, and think how great the house will smell when you wake up. I do give you permission to pick some of the meat off the bones at the halfway point, though--sometimes that's hard to resist.

Wow, thanks, Darcie B. I knew somebody would come to my rescue! I will have a car with me to get around, and now I have a sense of where to hit. Southern Kitchen and Blossom sound especially like good lunch choices. It looks like we'll be staying in one of the downtown hotels; which of these places is closer to that area?

The Mountain View Diner in Charles Town is okay--near the intersection of US 340 and Rte 9. They don't sell crafts though. I have not seen or heard of this John's Diner, but I will look for it. Where on Route 9 is it?

Yeah, GG, I saw that site too, but the local CVB basically tells me bupkes about what those restaurants are actually like. I'm looking for recommendations from people who've actually been there. Or at least rumors of recommendations from friends of friends who have been there. What's to like about the mall, Susan? I suspect I'll be spending my days walking around it, since I'll be 7mos pregnant and it'll be really cold outside when I'm there.

I'm sorry to hear that, Jay. Most of my Asian cooking is fairly pan-Asian, not specific to any one country or region, so I didn't realize they were lacking in authentic Chinese ingredients. I've never asked for customer service anywhere but the fish counter there--just seemed like a bad idea, and I'm sorry you had to find that out for sure. I'm just being curious now: what ingredients were you seeking that you haven't found?

So it looks like I'll be spending a few days in Charleston, WV in early 2006. (And I might be returning periodically thereafter, due to spousal professional obligations.) What's good to eat around there? Anything? I don't expect slick martini-menu joints (though am open to recommendations on them if they exist) but there has to be at least some decent country cooking down around there. I suspect it's mostly chainsville, but I'll have enough time on my hands to look for something more locally flavored. Tips welcome. (I am specifically referring here to Charleston, WV, the state capitol, not to Charles Town, WV, which is about 5 miles from my house and I already know has very little to offer from a culinary standpoint.)

FabulousFoodBabe, I'm pretty sure Cheerwine is only distributed in the Carolinas, mostly North Carolina (it's a native NC product). I loved it as a kid but now it tastes a little too much like cherry cough syrup for my adult palate. Edited to add: link to Cheerwine Country Map. They're available in far more of the Southeast than they were when I was a little kid. Plus parts of MN, WI, IA, IL, MO, and NE! Good news for many Cheerwine fans, no doubt.

You absolutely can peel and chop your potatoes the night before. I would. Store them in water in the fridge overnight. I have never tried cutting down the potatoes into small pieces or slices, but if you try it I hope you report back on how it went!

Han Ah Reum in Wheaton (Georgia Avenue, about a mile past the downtown Wheaton area) has every Asian grocery item I've ever looked for, plus a few I haven't. Have you ever been there? It's really large and nice and they play fun 1980s pop music to boot.

Go to Silver Spring and check out Jackie's or the new Ceviche. Or Franklin's in Hyattsville, as already suggested. If you really don't want to leave College Park, the only parent-friendly acceptable dinner option IMO is Lupo's on Route 1/Baltimore Ave. It's not fabulous creative cuisine, just solid Italian favorites served with bread, a salad and inexpensive wine. I took my mom there when I was working in College Park last year. I also regard local chain Hard Times Cafe, in the shopping center with the Home Depot and Shopper's Food Warehouse near the Beltway, as a good (and inexpensive) dinner option. I usually get the vegetarian four-way and the root beer there. College Park does have some decent lunch places--there's a Kosher place, I think called Pita Plus, with excellent Sephardic specialties near Marathon Deli which I like. The Bagel Place is actually really good--some of the best bagels around, especially if you get them in the morning. After dinner, for a real touch of color, there's a location of York Castle Tropical Ice Cream somewhere around Beltsville (beyond the Beltway) on Route 1. Let us know where you end up! Edited to add: I've never had a disappointing meal at Tiffin on University Blvd in Langley Park, and both my parents and my mother-in-law seemed to enjoy it when we took it there. It's not terribly far from the university and is a good idea if everybody likes Indian food. Be sure to get the onion kulcha if you go.

I had this awesome dish of fried razor clams in a wispy tempura-like batter showered with fried garlic at a Chinese restaurant a few months ago. I've not cooked them myself, but I'd definitely try this if I managed to get my mitts on some.

I think handmc may be onto something there. I usually saute the shells until bright red before proceeding with a lobster stock.

There's no reason to fear the flour component of pasta. Especially since it's been so wet outside where you both live--extra moisture in the air can lead to extra wet pasta dough. I generally try to limit the flour in the initial doughmaking, but I'm generous with it when it's rested and I'm rolling it out. If it's at all sticky, don't put it through the machine without flouring it. If you do you'll just gunk up your rollers, which may have led to your thin streak Susan. In the early passes I use plenty of flour, flouring both sides of the pasta packet until unsticky, running it through the largest setting of the machine, rubbing both sides with flour, folding in thirds, pressing the air out, and then running it through the machine again. I don't start taking down the setting on the machine until it has a fleshy, live feel to it--it's hard to describe, a little satiny and soft and supple and not at all tacky unless squished with a finger. At that point a tiny brushing of flour on both sides is usually adequate between each run-through on a lower setting...sometimes it gets dry enough you don't need to keep flouring it. I have not made pasta with semolina and am curious how it turns out. Also I don't know if semolina behaves differently than the pasta I am accustomed to making, with regular unbleached white all-purpose flour. You can cut down pasta at any point if it's getting too long. I learned from watching a classmate who had become a real pro that properly made flour-rubbed pasta can be laid folded gently on top of itself between run-throughs, which saves time until the final run-through when you have to cut the sheets to make your shapes or whatever. Oh, and when I say rub with flour, I mean sprinkle one side lightly with flour, and then use the flat of your hand to gently rub the flour into the pasta. There should be no puddled white flour spots; brush any that appear off with your fingers or (better) a dry pastry brush. Turn over and repeat on the other side. Brush off any excess, checking the first side again, and then either fold again to run through the largest setting if it's not supple yet, or take the machine down to the next lower level. It took me years of practice to manage not to ever make the pasta sheet wider than the roller. I wish I could explain how to do it properly, it's just an instinct/feel thing for me.

Sorry it took me so long to come back to this issue. The cake has the following tiers: Bottom: 14" Center: 10" Top: (the bride and groom want me to cut and serve the top rather than saving it) 6" I am getting more mystified by this bakery by the minute. Apparently they are not delivering or setting up the cake--a friend of the bride and groom is picking it up and setting it up before the wedding. I don't want to alarm the bride, but I have a terrible feeling about this. And I don't personally have the time or the willingness to accept responsibility to get the cake myself. I'm considering bringing a pastry bag and an offset spatula just in case something awful happens...

Food Lion might, too, as they are also a Southern grocery store chain. I'm pretty sure I've seen it at some of the gourmet markets in the area as well (Dean and Deluca, Balduccis).

I really don't think you're going to find what you're after within an hour of the city, unfortunately. I wish I could tell you exactly where you'd find what you're looking for, but I've been chewing this over and have absolutely no idea. I mean, I'm from North Carolina and this sort of thing is pretty rare even there--you can get aspects of it at lots of places (the ham biscuits, rarely family-style service, but I've never seen the communal table) but not the whole experience it sounds like you're seeking.

As a vegetarian for close to a decade, I enjoyed vegetarian restaurants because of the variety of dishes they offered that were accessible to me. Furthermore, I enjoyed not having to worry about chicken stock or gelatin sneaking into my soups and desserts. As an omnivore, I would be happy to return to a vegetarian restaurant, but I'm unlikely to decide to go to one independently. I had a lot of vegetarian restaurant food when I was a vegetarian, and don't feel the need to explore it when there are so many other, more varied options out there. I still eat and prepare vegetarian meals periodically (frequently of late, since I am pregnant and have lost some of my taste for meat as a result). I like all that "vegetarian protein stuff" like tofu, tempeh, beans, veggie burgers, seitan etc. and I still cook or order those foods.