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Malawry

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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Everything posted by Malawry

  1. What other pies freeze well? I am thinking of baking ahead for Thanksgiving this year. Would a pecan pie freeze well? What about pumpkin? Or would the egg custards of these pies get wonky?
  2. I was a vegetarian (but never a vegan) for nearly a decade, and after the first few years my main reason for not eating meat/fowl/fish was "habit." I was deeply committed to deliciousness in food and sought out the best vegetarian meals by the best chefs in town, including a $250/head white truffle bacchanal on one memorable birthday. Now, it's true I'm not a vegetarian any longer, and that even when I was a vegetarian I found cooking well for my vegan friends to be a bit of a challenge--but I like a challenge. I fail to see why vegan food cannot be outstanding, whether or not an omnivore is motivated to sample it.
  3. I just served 117 people a "small-handful" plated salad with 6lbs of organic mesclun. And I had leftovers. I think 2lbs will be plenty of greens, even if you have some serious salad eaters on hand.
  4. I had Carnation Instant Breakfast as a child and liked it (my grandmother was trying to fatten me up), so I had mom find some for me at the store last night as a starting point. I am drinking a glass of it right now, chocolate flavor, mixed with whole milk, and it's staying down ok as long as I sip it rather than swallowing. So that's a good start. Additional info as to why I am seeking this sort of thing: I have breast cancer, and the chemo drugs are making me super-nauseous--I'm yarking quite a lot too. I can get down liquids far more easily than solids. I am eating ice cream and milkshakes too, but I wanted something with more nutritional profile if possible. Protein is especially good. I was told not to take a pill-type multivitamin so something with a spectrum of vitamins and minerals is also good.
  5. Kouign Aman, I don't think I've seen single cans for sale around here, so I'd like to narrow it down to just a couple of selections before going to buy. In my case, getting calories into my system is the most important thing, and I am sensitive to artificial sweeteners anyway, so something for diabetics may not make the cut. I actually need the simple carbs of sugar right now. ETA: I am open to trying a powder if it's good.
  6. Doesn't Marcel's also have a bus to get you to the Kennedy Center gratis? I think they used to. Worth calling and asking about. Mmmm, boudin blanc.
  7. I had the opportunity to check out Urban Burger recently, and it was a pretty good piece of beef--juicy and genuinely beef-y tasting. It's way off the Pike in Rockville. Not sure it's a "special trip" burger, but if you're already in Rockville then it's definitely worth checking out.
  8. For various reasons, I'm considering trying out some nutritional drinks. Not the "energy drinks" like Red Bull, the things that supposedly can replace a meal like Boost or Ensure. They're super-expensive, so I thought I'd ask which ones are least offensive before I make an investment. I don't think I'm any pickier than other food nerds out there, but I am allergic to strawberries and think a chocolate flavor sounds most appealing.
  9. I've been fascinated with Estonian culture since my husband started conducting composer Veljo Tormis' Forgotten Peoples musical cycles with his (American) choir. It has been a fantasy of mine for years that we will go to Estonia and interview Tormis and have a chance to check out the local cuisine. Thanks for giving me a taste!
  10. That fest has been going strong for a few decades at least. I remember really enjoying a demo class on Greek lemon chicken and some fantastic spanakopita there when I still lived in town.
  11. Re: Sticky buns...when I went back to the doctor's today, somebody had written across my check-in sheet, "Be good to her, she's a baker extraordinaire!" I'm not, but Dorie makes me one.
  12. Have you tried the pecan-honey sticky buns yet?!?!?!?! ZOMG. I baked them off yesterday morning and ate two for breakfast with a banana and some coffee. Sooo rich, sooo sweet, sooo yummy. We took the leftovers to the nurses at my clinic, and there were enough that they cut them up to share with the other patients and the office staff. One of the office people came running up to me saying, "Who is the goddess that brought THOSE in??" Helped me stand up a little straighter, that's for sure. Highly recommended recipe. As a matter of fact, I recommend you make it with half the brioche dough every time you make that--no matter how much you like brioche or bostock, you will love this even more. (Although they are very sweet, as good sticky buns are supposed to be. So if you don't like very sweet breakfast pastries, maybe you should stick to brioche and bostock...)
  13. So I made the double apple bundt cake today, exactly by the recipe except I omitted the raisins. It stuck in my (nonstick, extremely well-buttered) pan. I did taste the scraps and they are as luscious and moist as an oil-based cake without the grease factor. I am seriously bumming about the ruined look, though. (The top 15% of the cake stayed in the pan, so I tried to shave the top evenly and hope it looks ok with a drizzle on it. Could be worse...I could be making trifle out of this very sweet cake...)
  14. Pink is now all over a special assorted package of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies at Costco--eat cookies for the cure! (As if I needed another reason to buy Milanos...)
  15. Those breast cancer pink ribbons pop up more and more places lately. I just bought some Fleishman's yeast that urged me to "bake for the cure!"--they donate $0.25 to the Susan Komen foundation for every UPC from yeast that you mail in. When I worked as a sorority chef, we saved a million Yoplait foil lids for the same foundation, likewise marketed with the Race for the Cure program. For a while there was even a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook festooned with pink ribbon imagery. Are there other food and food-related products that do this sort of thing? Not necessarily breast cancer...although I can't recall other diseases getting this attention from the food industry offhand. (Wouldn't it be, I dunno, appropriate for heart disease to get equal billing from Big Food Business?) It would be nice to chronicle them in one spot. I may be cynical, but I pay more attention to these small actions since I myself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
  16. I've lunched at Laddie and Dukes and it's not bad--certainly a step above Ham's in any case. Thanks for the tips on Saffron, we'll have to figure out whether to try that or return to the Thai place on our next visit (or maybe do one for lunch and one for dinner!)
  17. Bread also requires special equipment, which there may not be space for in a restaurant in a city like NY. I don't hold it against a restaurant if they buy in the bread, BUT they better be honest about it! Pasta is something that a lot of bistro-level places seem to buy in, especially if there's a really good pasta shop in town. Or restaurants might get the good pasta shop to make special filled or flavored pastas according to their own recipes. An entire dessert buy-in program often results in a crap product, in my experience. If nothing sweet is made in-house, then there's probably nobody on staff knowledgeable enough to keep on top of it. There are some exceptions, and I know some great pastry chefs who work hard supplying dessert menus to good restaurants, but I still think the quality often suffers without thorough oversight of how the products are stored and served.
  18. I'm so glad you've discovered the porky goodness that is Giacomo's. I often bring their meats back with me to WV after a visit. My parents RAVE about Phoenix, but they haven't gotten my family over there yet. They're friends with the Batchelors (so now they have two food writers mentioning them in columns--they're getting a lot of celebrity out of foodie friends and a foodie kid) and John Batchelor did a nice writeup of a meal they took there together with some other people. You can probably find it on the Greensboro News and Record's website. (My parents are Barbara and Charles.) On our last visit to Greensboro in June, they took us to an outstanding Thai place down Westover Terrace near its intersection with Wendover called Taste of Thai. We'd tried to go to Healthy Spice, which has the same owners, but they were closed for some kind of renovation or something. Anyway, the food was unbelievable--none of that overly sweet glop I've had repeatedly in Thai places around DC. This is not the place for the same tired red curry seafood and pad thai you get everywhere else--the menu was inventive and long, although they still had a lot of the same stuff you always see on Thai-American menus. (This is Greensboro, after all.) Light, fresh flavors and portions that weren't too huge. We want to go for the lunch buffet next time we're in town, because my Dad says it's a great value. Has anybody tried the Indian place in the same shopping center as Taste of Thai?
  19. They offer it at some stores around DC, but I have not tried it. Supposedly it's made with the Carnegie branded pastrami they sell in the prepared meats cases. I did buy this pastrami once and found it excessively gristly. Not worth its price. Which is why I have not sampled the sandwich.
  20. I've been the person plating that cheese, and it's a PITA to handle on the line if there isn't special equipment for storing it. I had to move the cheeses in and out of the fridge constantly to keep it from melting down in the heat of the kitchen. If you leave it in the fridge too long, it loses its aroma and melting qualities on the tongue. I hated dealing with it, even though it took no longer to plate than anything else on the pastry or garde-manger station. You try remembering to put the cheese in the fridge or take it out when you're flooded on a Saturday night. It was a nice cheese plate though, with housemade crackers and a tart cherry-apple chutney...
  21. D&D stores vary widely. I'd agree with Busboy's assessment of the DC-Georgetown D&D--particularly his comments on cheese and charcuterie. On the other hand, the small store in Charlotte, NC is pretty crappy. Poor selection of overpriced goods with little redeeming value. I saw boxes of cheap cookie dough sitting on the counter in the bakery area. The cheese selection was only a half-step above a decent supermarket's. And most of their space was devoted to expensive premade sandwiches and other to-go goods. (I did like that wine was in a separate store, where there were tables and a short menu for sampling with the goods.)
  22. OK, the pastry is fan-freaking-tastic. Tastes of butter and bakes into a million crisp shattering layers. Almost as good as homemade. Stood up great to the little Kosher hot dogs I bought at the Kosher market recently. Made a superior base for a honeycrisp tarte tatin. (Yes, that's all I ate for dinner. Who doesn't love appetizers and dessert?) My two sheets of puff were separated by a sheet of bakery paper. With the paper, they weighed 1lb 2oz.
  23. It's available in Rockville, MD. I bought two boxes and plan to make them mine tonight, with a mini-tarte tatin and some pigs-in-blankets.
  24. The chowder came out pretty well. Thanks for the advice, Monavano. Nice corn flavor, not too thick or rich, not too sweet (I did not add sugar). I added only a tiny bit of celery for the desired anise effect, and a single carrot for extra sweetness. Good stuff. Cornbread + corn chowder is not overkill, in case anybody wondered.
  25. I like it crunchy, too. Oh, and I meant to further compliment you on the lovely plating in your photo. This corn came from some friends who have a farm down the road from me in Uvilla, WV. I'm not sure but I think it is silver queen. I note that your recipe contains no celery or carrots. I kinda like the anise flavor of celery, but worry it might overwhelm the delicate corn flavor.
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