jaynesb
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Posts posted by jaynesb
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They didn't know anything about the puff pastry at Trader Joe's in Plainview, NY.
jayne
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This won't help for today but you might try using canned evaporated milk next time (I'm not talking about sweetened condensed milk. Just something that is evaporated milk.) It's got a slightly thicker texture than milk and I started using it for mac & cheese when I began using a Cook's Illustrated recipe that I really don't follow very closely anymore but I always use the canned evaporated milk nowadays. It doesn't curdle as easily but I do use eggs so if I'm not careful, the sauce does break.
jayne
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Here's a good recipe -- of sorts -- for Pad Thai, with a lot of advice about how to make it turn out well:
http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2007/01/p...hai_for_be.html
I've tried a few and agree with jmsaul that this is a very good one as are the words of advice.
jayne
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I loved following the story of the kitchen during its planning as well as the construction.
Now that I'm in the midst of one myself, I realize how much I learned from all of the comments and tinkering of the layout.
Thank you Varmint and everyone who participated in those topics.
jayne
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I went to a mid-town NYC restaurant tonight. It's well-rated by one of the main restaurant guides and I'd heard good things about it. The place takes special pride in their wines and what they are doing to promote wine.
I'm hardly someone who knows a lot about wine and handling/serving wine but I do know what I've liked and found something we felt we would enjoy. The following server behavior seemed a little suspicious to me. What do you think?
1. Did not put cork right down on table. Sort of passed it along side of body after he took it off the corkscrew. For a minute, I thought he was putting it in his pocket. Then he put it on the table.
2. Each time he poured wine in our glasses, he wiped off the mouth of the bottle with his hand (yes, his bare hand!) My husband said not to make such a big deal out of it but it seemed kind of gross to me. I've seen napkins used for drips but this seemed just plain wrong not to mention gross. After I saw him do it to us, I watched him serve other tables and he had the motion down. Just lightly pass his hand around/over the bottle to catch drips. When he wasn't pouring wine, he was taking orders, entering then on the computer, and offering to grate cheese, etc.
After I got sufficiently bothered, I moved the bottle to a place where we could do our own pouring.
Am I over-reacting or should I have said something to someone at the restaurant?
jayne
I'm not sure what you mean by "suspicious" unless you're suspicious that the waiter didn't know what he was doing. The cork thing is insignificant; though a traditional part of wine service it doesn't really reveal anything (unless you think they're serving bootleg Burgundy and you want to check the cork's stamp) and can safely be glossed over. Wiping the bottle with a bare hand, however, is gross. You would have been withing your rights to mention something about that.
Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking of giving the restaurant a call today about it. It just seemed so gross to me. I'm glad to hear that it wasn't some kind of acceptable, yet rustic, way of wiping the bottle.
jayne
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I went to a mid-town NYC restaurant tonight. It's well-rated by one of the main restaurant guides and I'd heard good things about it. The place takes special pride in their wines and what they are doing to promote wine.
I'm hardly someone who knows a lot about wine and handling/serving wine but I do know what I've liked and found something we felt we would enjoy. The following server behavior seemed a little suspicious to me. What do you think?
1. Did not put cork right down on table. Sort of passed it along side of body after he took it off the corkscrew. For a minute, I thought he was putting it in his pocket. Then he put it on the table.
2. Each time he poured wine in our glasses, he wiped off the mouth of the bottle with his hand (yes, his bare hand!) My husband said not to make such a big deal out of it but it seemed kind of gross to me. I've seen napkins used for drips but this seemed just plain wrong not to mention gross. After I saw him do it to us, I watched him serve other tables and he had the motion down. Just lightly pass his hand around/over the bottle to catch drips. When he wasn't pouring wine, he was taking orders, entering then on the computer, and offering to grate cheese, etc.
After I got sufficiently bothered, I moved the bottle to a place where we could do our own pouring.
Am I over-reacting or should I have said something to someone at the restaurant?
jayne
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hmmmm, ..........now I ask myself how can a man like that be lonely??....you are easier on him than I would be, even if he were my son,............jeeeeez,
.....and that's not quirky, its manners, hygiene and most of all, respect,..... offer a place to hang out without the food
I do have a soft spot in my heart, for the guy. He's absolutely batshit clinically insane. Like, real-on-meds-crazy. I suppose even crazy people can be taught to use serving spoons, though.
Can you go at it the other way? Maybe as he's leaving, actually invite him to dinner with a specific invitation for a date about 4 days later. Ask him if he's got anything going on over the next few days and say things like "Great, we'll expect you at x:00" and "if you need to change the time, please give me a call otherwise take care until then. " Maybe an intermediate call to his house during the day to chat but also close with, "looking forward to seeing you on x take care until then." Maybe too subtle?
Maybe you could gradually slide in an additional day between invitations. If this has been going on for years, it's not going to change overnight anyway and it sounds like your dinners are pretty much badly affected anyway even without him at the table.
On the other hand, you could also try changing your dinner hour frequently and be finishing up when he shows up.
jayne
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There might be some recipes in NYC or Deli Cookbooks:
I used to have this cookbook but gave it away. Almost all of the recipes were mostly meat and soups and from Jewish Delis (Both Kosher and non-Kosher) Not terribly useful for a vegetarian like me and I wasn't ambitious enough for many of the meat recipes.
America's Great Delis: Recipes And Traditions from Coast to Coast (Hardcover)
by Sheryll Bellman
Sheryll Bellman page about the book
jayne
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Penzeys also carries it Link to Penzys cocoa powder
They have stores in many states as well as online/catalog/telephone ordering.
jayne
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Add them to a veggie lasagna to give it some extra bulk. (I know what you are probably thinking. It was a veggie lasagna anyway so what's the big deal. It's just that mostly,
I make spinach or swiss chard lasagna and they tend to be a little compressed.) I've never tried adding it to other baked pasta dishes.
The grated zucchini lightens it up with the extra bulk.
Just give it a little extra flavor before adding it to a layer.
I grate them, squeeze out as much liquid as I can and mix with seasoned olive oil (containing chopped garlic, some herbs, salt & pepper)
jayne
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I like to have frozen chopped ginger on hand. I peel and chop it a little then put it in the food processor to chop into tiny pieces. Then I put them in a sandwich size ziplock and flatten the bag contents to the size/shape of the bag. Seal the ziplock and freeze on a flat surface. (This makes it easier to break off a piece since it will freeze into a sheet.)
Kind of a shortcut and I'm sure that someone will tell me that flavor or texture gets lost but I used to always run out of ginger or discover that my ginger was shriveled up and moldy. So this basically works in a pinch.
jayne
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I realize that the topic concerns the fillings and not the bread but you might also try toasting the bread first (I found that on a hints sheet once for preparing lunches for kids.)
Unfortunately, my [9-year-old twin] children won't eat normal sandwiches but they do go wild over cooked then frozen empanadas that thaw out to room temperature by lunchtime. These are 9-year-old kids though. I've never tried eating my empanadas that way.
jayne
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I sometimes used mine on top of a rimmed baking sheet if I've got a pie pan or tart pan with something that contains a caramel-type filling that can boil over. It makes cleanup a lot simpler.
jayne
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We love this apple kugel recipe and after Pesach ends, you'll be able to make it with brown sugar. I'd definitely still want to eat a kugel like this after the end of the holiday. I served it at the seders and have been snacking on it during the day.
Apple matzoh kugel (FYI - Abigail Kirsch is a caterer in this area.)
I actually printed out that recipe last week thinking it looked it good. Thanks for the confirmation.
You can drop the white sugar from 1 1/2 cups down to 1 cup easily. (And my comment about the brown sugar was intended for Pam because she mentioned a difficulty getting KLP brown sugar in her area.)
jayne
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We love this apple kugel recipe and after Pesach ends, you'll be able to make it with brown sugar. I'd definitely still want to eat a kugel like this after the end of the holiday. I served it at the seders and have been snacking on it during the day.
Apple matzoh kugel (FYI - Abigail Kirsch is a caterer in this area.)
You might be able to create a flavored crumb mix (salt and dried herbs) and sell it for breading (or give it away!) Maybe a cute sticker label with a clever name? (Hey, people made a fortune selling "Pet Rocks" a few decades ago!)
Around here, people eat matzoh ball soup all year long. Maybe you could sell frozen matzoh balls. (One of the local brands charges $6 for 6 large matzoh balls and they can be frozen.) You might also be able to see if any local synagogues will be having Friday night dinners in the near future and have a need for matzoh balls.
And then there is sculpture.....
What can one fashion out of oversize crackers? The finalists in Monday's contest came forth with matzo candlesticks, a matzo Wailing Wall, even a matzo video game, complete with mini matzo Mario. "Super Mario Brothers is a game of conquest but more notably of oppression," the artist's statement read. "You thought it was a game about pizza-eating plumbers? How could you be so naïve?"Full article is here (until it become unavailable on the site) Manishewitz Matzoh Sculpture contest
The contest winner won $1000 (US) for his replica of the Washington Square Arch (in New York City)
good luck...
jayne
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I'm chiming in too late also for veggie suggestions but here are some that might be helpful for the future.
This year, I made this golden veg broth for matzoh ball soup . It had a good body to it, probably because of the leeks. I waited until 1 hour into the cooking to add the parsely and dill but it's probably fine to just follow the recipe. I liked it better than other veggie soups I've previously made.
In addition to using it for soup for matzoh balls, the broth was great for cooking purposes. I used it instead of water to prepare Passover couscous (from a box) and served roasted vegetables (cubed red pepper, sweet potato, zucchini, red onion with garlic olive oil and thyme) as the vegetarian entree. Leftovers can be drizzled with a vinaigrette dressing and would make a good cold lunch. The couscous does get a little gummy but that's the nature of the Passover version.
I also make a jicama and orange salad. It's got cilantro and mint and is pretty much a combination of the veggies and herbs from this and the dressing from this
It's very refreshing and has great colors and textures. I usually use regular navel oranges and cut them up quickly instead of removing the membranes.
jayne
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Maybe you could roast some veggies with herbs and garlic and then use some of the liquids that are given off along with the oil or puree the veggies afterwards with some extra liquid. (If you cover the baking dish for the first part of the cooking you might get some extra juices that you can drain off and save before finishing the cooking.)
jayne
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Around here (Long Island, NY) we can find KLP baking powder and baking soda. (I gotta be honest, for many years, I stayed away from using these because they seemed to go against the spirit of unleavened) but now I use them.
Arm and Hammer baking soda now comes with a KLP label, at least for some boxes. The baking powder I have for Passover is from a company called Mishpacha. It's ingredients are potato starch, baking soda, monocalcium phosphane (could be their misspelling of phosphate?)
For those torte and cakes (or other recipes you are adapting for Passover), if you are already beating egg whites stiff, sometimes you can get away with leaving out these chemical leaveners. Ditto if only a pinch is called for in the original recipe.
(For recipes that call for cream of tartar, I just omit that during Passover)
jayne
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I tried making these Chocolate Brownie Cookies yesterday. They're from Claudia Fleming's Grammercy Tavern dessert book. Very yummy.
I used instant coffee dissolved in some water instead of the espresso. Regular chips were fine (because I didn't have the mini ones.) Also, I used an almost tasteless margarine because I wanted to know what to expect with Passover margarine. The "taste testing" we did on this recipe resulted in a decision to keep the rest of the batch (instead of tossing it in the trash the way I usually do for these Passover dessert tests.) I expect the cookies to quietly disappear
over the next few days as they were made before we switch the kitchen over.If I can get through the carts parked in the Passover aisle of our grocery store, I'll try to pick up unsweetened chocolate.
jayne
Forgot to mention - I replaced the small amount of flour directly with cake meal in my test.
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I tried making these Chocolate Brownie Cookies yesterday. They're from Claudia Fleming's Grammercy Tavern dessert book. Very yummy.
I used instant coffee dissolved in some water instead of the espresso. Regular chips were fine (because I didn't have the mini ones.) Also, I used an almost tasteless margarine because I wanted to know what to expect with Passover margarine. The "taste testing" we did on this recipe resulted in a decision to keep the rest of the batch (instead of tossing it in the trash the way I usually do for these Passover dessert tests.) I expect the cookies to quietly disappear
over the next few days as they were made before we switch the kitchen over.If I can get through the carts parked in the Passover aisle of our grocery store, I'll try to pick up unsweetened chocolate.
jayne
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You might also like to read John Thorne.
John Thorne Q&A here on eGullet
Some of his books are out of print but you might be able to locate them. He also publishes a newsletter. Here is the link to John Thorne's Website "Outlaw Cook" .
On the site is this link that you can follow to get additional information about some of his publications:
To purchase books or newsletters
jayne
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They collected favorites from the older cookbooks. It's kind of a best of the past decade. I'm not sure if all the recipes in this edition did appear in the individual yearly books. Credits in the back show the original publication. So while there were many wonderful recipes in those books, not all of them made it into this one.
Hope this clarifies things.
jayne
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This reminds me of a "dessert" that was served about once a month at my college. It was toasted crackers with cream cheese and jelly. I was never very interested in it and to this day, I can't remember if I ever tried it.
Now I'm going to have to try warming potato chips, crackers, etc. (This might also be a good thing for Passover too. We tend to buy a lot of chips for the holiday. Not sure I can put warmed potato chips out for the seder though.)
jayne
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jaynesb - yay! I'm so happy they liked them.
I can't find kfp brown sugar. Otherwise a pecan pie cookie would be fantastic. (Canadian companies have a hard time getting sugar from the US.)
alana - we can't use flour in our baking. Our options include matzo cake meal, which is matzo that is finely ground (that's flour and water baked into a cracker and ground) or potato starch. It takes some work to get some good baking done.
I've never cooked with it, but does maple sugar work as a substitute or maybe some combination of maple syrup and white sugar? Normally, molasses plus white sugar is supposed to be a brown sugar substitute. (As found on various websites when googling for the substitution.) I don't usually see KFP maple syrup here in NY but maybe you guys have it.
jayne
Hand care
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
If you've got about an hour on your hands and are going to be in a cool/cold place, (as I was when I was taking my children to ice-skating lessons last year), you can do an intensive moisturizing treatment.
You'll need plastic gloves. I used the baggie type ones.
You'll also need warm-weather gloves or mittens. (Don't use tight-fitting ones.)
Fold the top lip of each plastic glove outward to make it neater/easier to get them on.
Put on a generous amount of lotion or cream.
Carefully put on plastic gloves, you don't want to get lotion on the outside of the gloves where it will stain your good gloves or clothing.
Unfold the "lip" when the gloves are on. You shouldn't have lotion on the outside of the plastic gloves now.
Put on a pair of regular gloves or mittens over the plastic ones.
In the first 10 or 15 minutes, there's still a lot of unabsorbed lotion on your hands so don't try to grip anything. After about 30 or 40 minutes, it should all be absorbed. You can rub in or wash off any residue. I find that my hands feel very hydrated and silky after doing this.
I got this idea from going to a spa once where they did a similar thing with heated mittens. Sorry for all the in-depth detail. I was trying to be really clear because I don't want someone to get clothing stained from lotion and be annoyed at me!
jayne