jgm

I think the solution is obvious. Have her also make Jello shots while she's doing everything else (not necessarily with cottage cheese or tomatoes in them, in fact absolutely NOT with cottage cheese or tomatoes in them). Have several. Get too drunk to care.

I've been thinking about this since yesterday afternoon. The above suggestion, I think, is better than what I was going to offer. If it doesn't produce the results you would like, my suggestion would be to clarify the butter first, by melting it and skimming off the solids. You can do this in batches and keep it refrigerated. If the whitish clumps go away, you'll have your answer. If not, I'm not sure where to go from there.

The main reason I've hesitated to purchase a chinois is because I simply have no place to store it. I do make sauces from time to time, but what I need is something for straining soups - especially asparagus soup. Would a 400-micron Superbag be an appropriate substitute for a chinois for me? The idea that it would store in a very small amount of space is extremely tempting. I've never even considered making tomato water, although I had a wonderful gazpacho made with it last summer at bluestem during the Heartland Gathering, but if I had the means to do it, who knows?

Williams-Sonoma is carrying one by DeBuyer that I have and like a lot. They have two models and mine is the v-slicer. The blade is very sharp, and it WILL slice tomatoes, which most mandolines will not. I also have a straight-blade Oxo and it does a very good job. The DeBuyer takes up less space and will do soft items like tomatoes, so I replaced the Oxo with it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either one.

Having a sink full of hot soapy water has been helpful to me. I chuck measuring spoons and cups into it, and if I need them again, it's just a quick swipe and a rinse, and I re-use them instead of getting out more. And like you, I find it helpful to get the dishwasher cleaned out ASAP, especially before starting to cook. Often, however, I don't have room for everything, so if one or two bowls or pans has been soaking in the soapy water, it's a simple matter to finish cleaning them up and rinsing them off. I'm glad you started this thread. I don't know why I have never thought of moving the trash can over, but it's a great idea. I try to put as much into the garbage disposal as possible, since in our community it eventually becomes fertilizer; stuff like celery and potato peels can't go that route, though. It would save some floor cleanup, too.

Sometimes cookbooks just don't give all of the information they need to give. An inexperienced cook would have a difficult time with certain cookbooks that are aimed at more experienced cooks. It takes time, for instance, to learn when to use low heat, medium heat, and higher heat; it takes experience to know what low heat really is, versus medium heat. It takes experience to be able to anticipate something like the necessity for having certain (or all) ingredients prepped and ready, because parts of the recipe will go quickly and there won't be time to prep as you go. Not all cookbooks will tell the baker that egg whites destined to be beaten into stiff peaks, need to be at room temperature and not straight out of the fridge. If you'll really go through your cookbooks and try to look at them with a less experienced cook's point of view, you'll discover that some of them are not well written at all. I haven't read the article yet, but as someone whose cooking skills have improved by leaps and bounds simply by reading posts on eGullet, I can relate to being so inexperienced that it's difficult to know, after making a recipe, whether the reason it didn't turn out is because 1) I just didn't like it; 2)it's a lousy recipe, or 3) I didn't do everything the way it should have been done.

What's saved me in the past is prepping ahead when I can. That includes the obvious things, such as cooking double amounts and freezing some. This is an especially good thing to do with soups. Many soup recipes consist of chunking up some vegetables, throwing them in a pot, adding water, and cooking for 45 minutes, then whirring in a blender and adding cream. You can freeze them without the cream and add it as you warm up the soup. Lots of downtime during that process, and you can study or do something else. To take the pressure off, pick one night a week for BF to cook. Pick a second night for dining out. My husband and I often have a "snacking around" night. We each fend for ourselves, and dinner could consist of leftovers from a previously-cooked meal or restaurant "doggie bag", or something simple for me like an apple and some good cheese. It's also an opportunity to have some of those ridiculous childhood leftover faves, such as a sandwich I make on bread slathered with mayo, to which scrambled eggs into which some canned deviled ham has been added. I've never read the ingredient list on that stuff, and I don't ever intend to. That ridiculous sandwich is comfort food for me and I will not give it up. Another fall back is spaghetti, butter, and grated Parmesan. If you have soup in the freezer, you're set for a soup and sandwich night. It doesn't have to be lunchmeat on white bread. One of my favorites is grilled cheese made with comte, which is too hard to slice, so I grate it. OMG it's good. Another is an onion roll, turkey, smoked Swiss cheese, lettuce and mayo. You probably have some concoctions of your own. If you have a favorite pannini but no pannini grill, a frying pan will do. It's just as good without the 'stripes'. Finally, it's time to learn to prep ahead. For example, plan to fix vegetable soup the night after an easy meal. After the easy meal, chop up all of the vegetables you're going to use (except onion and potato; they just don't keep well after they're chopped). If you'll be combining something like tomato sauce and a few seasonings, combine it, label it WELL (meaning with all ingredients and the name of the recipe; believe me, you'll be glad you did) and put it in the fridge. The aim here is that when tomorrow night you come home from work, all you have to do is put things together in the pot because the chopping is done, the measuring is done, and most important of all: the cleanup is done. Run a sinkful of soapy water while you're doing this, chuck the measuring cups and spoons in as you use them, and when you're done, a few swipes with a dishrag, a quick rinse, and lay them out to dry. Or before you leave for work, unload the dw, and that night, chuck the prep utensils into it as you go. I have back and knee problems, and prepping a night or two beforehand has saved me. Last fall, one weekend a month, I was driving 150 miles, spending 2 days grocery shopping and cooking for my elderly parents, and driving another 150 miles back home. On Saturday night, even though I was dog-tired, I forced myself to prep ahead for the next day, and the Sunday cooking was much easier to face. It's looking like all this may start up again soon, so I'll have more opportunities to practice what I preach. Part of the beauty of prepping ahead is that it's not bad when you know it's the END of your time in the kitchen, not the beginning, and then when you're ready to put it all together, even that time is much easier to face if a lot of it is already done. Don't lower your standards. I know what you're talking about; a couple of years ago when my husband went from 2nd shift to 1st, I started cooking like crazy because I was so excited to have the opportunity to do it. But after about 3 months, I'd made all of the recipes I'd been dreaming about making, and I was burned out. That's when it's time to get realistic, work smart, and still insist on having good food.

Posts like this one are the reason I am addicted to eGullet. I have a question and a tip. First the question: I tend to freeze small amounts of leftover wine (for cooking), logs of herb butter, leftover tomato paste, and other well-intentioned items. I'm trying to figure out what kind of container to use to toss them into, since they so easily become lost. Plastic often breaks when frozen. I have some storage bins that are plastic-coated wire, but the openings between the wire are pretty large and there would no doubt be escapees. Any other ideas? The tip: My mother's freezers are a nightmare. She's good at labeling, but never includes the year. She also never remembers what's in there. Three-year-old leftover pizza, anyone? Anyway, from time to time I make her favorite entrees, and to make things easier for her and any helpers who have to figure out what to do, I print out instructions from my computer, laminate them, and put them into the package in a place that makes sense. Sometimes the dish just needs to be placed in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes after thawing, which is simple; but sometimes cheese or shrimp, etc. need to be added during the last 10 minutes or something. Mom tries to keep these laminated instructions, and I usually manage to get about half of them back. No problem to print out more; instead of laminating, they can go inside a ziploc bag, if necessary.

The upcoming issue of the New Yorker will be one of their "Food Issues", which I always enjoy immensely. The website indicates it will contain the following: John Colapinto on the Michelin guide ("On the job with a Michelin inspector") Calvin Trillin on poutine ("Quebec's culinary punch line") Adam Gopnik on cookbooks* Mimi Sheraton on spit cakes ("Despite the name, it's delicious") Evan Osnos on Beijing's love of wine ("Beijing loves bordeaux") Raffi Khatchadourian on the Givaudan flavor factory ("Inside the labs that flavor your food" Jane Kramer on Thanksgiving abroad ("The Challenges of Thanksgiving abroad"). *I haven't read the entire article, but one sentence my eyes locked in on probably sums up its focus: ". . .if the first thing a cadet cook learns is that words become tastes, the second is that a space exists between what the [recipes] promise and what the cook gets." Sounds like it'll provide a lot of delicious, guilty pleasure for sneaking away anytime you can during Thanksgiving preparations. Put your feet up and pour a glass of wine.

Here's a cauliflower soup recipe I made from the Williams-Sonoma website: Cheddar-Cauliflower soup It's one of those recipes that just begs for riffing. The cauliflower content keeps the calories lower than one would expect for what's essentially a cheese soup.

Our local trash hauler (which also handles our recycling on a different day from our trash pickup day) will accept any type of plastic or metal container. Edited to add: One of the reasons I'm especially interested in the Keurig, is that I work in a very small office, and we don't have a garbage disposal. So if I do any of my own coffee brewing, I'm looking for SIMPLE. If I use a brewing method that doesn't use a filter (such as that French press I mentioned), then I have to figure out how to deal with disposal of the grounds...which would probably involve bringing a small rubber spatula so that I can get them all out of the cup. If I use a method with a filter, then I have to either store the filter, grounds, and brewing apparatus, or bring stuff from home each day. That's why I'm trying to simplify. My unofficial title at work is "Den Mother", so I end up with all of the stray office stuff - you name it; lost & found, stray sheets of bubble wrap just-in-case-we-might-need-it, keys to this and that, etc. My co-workers are functionally handicapped: they bring spent printer cartridges to me instead of taking them to the box in the copy room. . .(I could go on and on). . .the point is, I have a small space and lots of objects to deal with it. Streamlining is good.

I actually have a combination French press and mug that I got at Starbuck's that I'll probably use. That will necessitate dealing with bringing ground coffee every couple of days, which I'm not crazy about. I'm discombobulated enough without having to have my coffee, and therefore the quality of my day, depend on whether I remembered to bring freshly-ground beans. Who knows. Maybe Santa will bring me a Keurig.

I appreciate the information. I think someone at one time had described the cups as "instant coffee". . .but after looking on the Keurig website, it's obvious it's a whole different kind of thing, including a filter. I may get a Keurig after the prices come down more. I've sampled coffee from them, and thought it was very good. I'll just have to be on the lookout for some really good sales. Thanks for the info!

Our office coffee is about like that of most offices - not good, and the longer it sits on the burner, the worse it gets. I just need a cup or two in the morning; I don't drink coffee all day long. I don't want to bring in my own coffee maker, and I don't have room for one in my office, anyway. I saw a box of the K-cups on the grocery shelf the other day and it occurred to me that it MIGHT be possible to simply dump the contents of one into a cup, add hot water, and have a pretty good cup of coffee. Obviously, one would have to try it to know for sure; but my question is: Is there something about the machine's brewing process that . . .how do I want to put it. . .means that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts? Or would it be a reasonable assumption that simply combining the contents of the K-cup and nearly-boiling water in a mug, would produce about as good a cup of coffee as the machine itself?

Just about any hot chocolate recipe can be improved, if you're in the mood to do so, by adding a bit of butterscotch schnapps.

Is there a local place that serves free meals to those in need? If so, do they need someone to help with prep?

Don't forget to use the word "artisan." I also like the idea of allowing people to taste. My husband and I were discussing cocoas recently; he (playfully) questioned why I pay $12 for Pernigotti, which is the best available here. (He knows I know how to find the good stuff, especially when it comes to chocolate.) I pulled out a can of Hersheys and opened it. "Smell this." "Yeah." I opened the can of Pernigotti. "Now smell this." "OOOOOOOOHHHH!" (Okay, so the can of Hersheys was 3 years old, and the Pernigotti was fresh. Still.) I would describe the difference between the two, as the difference between hearing a 5-year-old play Chopstix on the piano, and listening to a Symphony, live, playing Beethoven. I'm confident that if you do side-by-side tastings, they'll tell the story much more eloquently than any words can.

Do you remember anything about this program - which series it was a part of, etc.? I'd love to see it.

When "food people" (trying not to use the term 'foodies', which I don't mind but others do) get together, at one point or another the conversation always turns to things people remember about cooking from their childhoods. I find these stories fascinating. My grandmother could be really irritating - uneducated, opinionated, and not what you'd call mentally stable, for starters; but she was an absolutely wonderful cook. I will never forget her pies. My memories of her always have her in an apron, or resting in a rocking chair and reading the paper for a moment while a meal was cooking. A beloved neighbor, often referred to as "my other mother" - she had 5 sons, so my sister and I were her only daughters - was also a wonderful cook. She would allow me, as a small child, to sit on her counter and dip my fingers in the cake batter. In summer, tomatoes from their garden always ripened on her window sill. She loved pizelles, but didn't have a pizelle iron, so she made them on her waffle iron. That shot of whiskey she always put in at the end gave them a wonderful caramel taste, and ensured that the batter was always worth sneaking bites of. Of course, the cookies had to be eaten with regard to the waffle design. Some of us ate the edges, to leave a square that was then devoured row by row; others just launched the row-by-row pattern without cleaning up the edges first. During the Heartland Gathering this summer, Torakris was my roommate, and while I loved hearing about the differences between Japan and America in daily eating habits, I was fascinated to hear about her grandmother (or was it an aunt?) who, every afternoon, would grab a basket and go out and forage both from her garden and from the surrounding land, for ingredients that would go into that night's supper. What childhood memories of family cooking do you have?

Talked with a friend this morning about the cayenne thing. She said that she's attended classes at several cooking schools, and the woman from whom she learned the basics about sauces, always had "SPNC" at the bottom of each recipe, which stood for Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg and Cayenne. I would enjoy comments from more experienced sauce makers about what they think of this. Are there times you would not want to use those ingredients? The nutmeg and cayenne, of course, are added in small amounts, not enough to stand out in a sauce.

Who said I was angry????? Let us know how it turns out. If you like it, I might want to make it myself. There is a time and place for everything. My one and only point is, for any given flavor profile, the time is not "all the time" and the place is not "everywhere." While it's an exaggeration, there's also a lot of truth in it. A lot of people are stuck in this particular rut, and although it can certainly be a delicious rut to be in, I'm ready to move on down the road, so to speak. Not that I wouldn't want to come back from time to time.

Oatmeal??? Who'da thunk it??? I'll have to try it. As much fascination as I find with this topic, I would have to say that many sauce secrets may depend on the flavors in each particular sauce. But keep the comments coming, anyway. This is great!

Random thoughts and ideas... Think about a chocolate/caramel/salt combination. Incredible, and a form of crack for many of us. Pierre Herme, in both his and Dorie Greenspan's dessert books, has a lemon pastry cream that I haven't ever made, but I hear is to die for. No, it's not chocolate. . .but. . .passionate as I am about anything chocolate, I won't pass up anything lemon, either. If you're willing to stray from the chocolate idea, most people will find anything multicolored to be delightful. Petit fours? Below is a recipe I use often for strawberry pie. Instead of baking the crust in a springform pan, I often bake it in mini-muffin tins, and make individual tarts. I don't recommend serving strawberries in November, but take the strawberries out of this recipe and you've got a base for other fruits. Or just use the crusts, which are incredibly no-hassle and very good, to hold a chocolate mousse or similar concoction. I put 1 tablespoon of the crust mixture into each mini-muffin well, tamp it down, and it's perfect. Strawberry Pie Crust: 1 cup unbleached flour ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces 3 T powdered sugar Pulse in food processor until mixed. Pat into bottom of springform pan, allowing it to come up the sides of the pan slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until golden. Filling: 3 ounces cream cheese 1 t lemon zest ½ cup sugar 1 T lemon juice 1 cup heavy cream, whipped until stiff Pulse cream cheese, zest, sugar, and juice in food processor until mixed. Fold into whipped cream. Pour into cooled crust. Strawberries: About 3 cups strawberries, of uniform size ½ cup currant jelly Cut off stem end of strawberries and arrange, points up, on filling. Cover entire surface with strawberries. Brush on melted currant jelly. Refrigerate until time to serve.

I think it's probably safe to assume that in any chain restaurant, you're going to get processed foods. It's about consistency. Also you might want to read "The End of Overeating" by Kessler. Even if overeating isn't an issue in your life, you'll learn quite interesting things about how the chain restaurants approach menus and ingredients.

I was just thinking that, too. Great people, great food. It doesn't get better than that!