Lindacakes

I'm not as regular as I've been, so it is a shock to find this out. My condolences to Anna's family and to Kerry, and to all of us who are part of this family of eGullet. Anna was always my favorite of the Big eGulleters. I loved her point of view, her expansive knowledge and experience, and her kindness when I would reach out to her with a question. If I was poking around looking for something to read, if I saw her name, I read it. If I saw her name, I took it as gospel*. If I saw her name, I felt happy. This experience of being part of the eGullet family is diminished, and yet not, because everything we contribute becomes part of the great body of knowledge that we share. For as long as there is an eGullet, what we have contributed is permanent. Anna lives on, then, not just in hearts, but in minds, and especially, for those who will come here to learn. They have yet to meet Anna, and yet to love her. * Except not beans. I love beans.

Thank you very much, @AlaMoi There are a lot of recipes online and it's a "thing" -- somehow I'd never heard of them.

@AlaMoi, would you mind sharing the cherry walnut bar recipe? Christmas equals candied fruit, nuts, and sugar/butter/flour. In all its glorious forms. Agree with all your points. Once per year. Panettone has a lifespan. It is born into the world as a cotton candy bread to be eaten as is. When it gets a bit older, toast it and butter it. When it is older still, make French toast with it. As it enters the twilight of its time on this earth, make a bread pudding. In my house, you would need a separate panettone for each of the lifespans because I like it too much. I had one in October, a gift, that blew me away: dark chocolate with hazelnut topping. Stop it. All that butter and dark chocolate, too. And nuts. Since I (we) ate that early, I declared it to be The One. No more. Instead, I made cookies with dates, candied pineapple, Brazil nuts and slivered almonds. I (we) ate all of these cookies promptly. We saw a lot of movies this Christmas, and each took a bag of six cookies into the theater with us. I froze the last eight and they lasted maybe a week. Then I decided I just couldn't stand not having a "proper" panettone, and went out and bought a regular candied orange and raisin version and ate it, in handfuls, in the car. I am not lying. If you do not like the "neon" version (who does, really?), make it yourself. It's time-consuming, but not hard and Mama Mia, is that good. Very good. It's nearly orange peel season, my friends. And if you think, my lord, that woman must be big as a house, try Lynne Rosetto Kasper's most brilliant idea: make a nice little salad with baby greens. Light pieces of onion, maybe some cucumber and little slices of green pepper. Then a few shaves of excellent parmesan. Add chopped pieces of candied orange and chopped hazelnuts. Salt and pepper it.

@jedovaty I actually started this with the I Hate My Food Processor thread, so ok to throw eggs at the shiny Windex-hungry Chrome. This morning I went to touch a little 4 cup model at Williams Sonoma. I want six cups, no slicing blades. @Darienne Ah, spreads, good one.

Thanks to Lynne Rosetto Kasper, I know about skinning chickpeas. Once you've seen a pile of chickpea carcasses it's very difficult to not skin them. It does make the flavor cleaner.

I did this once, roll cookie logs in parchment paper and store them in the freezer. We finished each log methodically, and then took out the next one. Before they were frozen.

As suggested by Anna N in the I Hate My Food Processor thread, a counter-balance. What it works well for: Turning graham crackers into graham cracker crumbs, very quickly and very evenly. Mostly used for key lime pies, but mine have their fans and I make many during the summer. Cutting butter into flour for a piecrust, and then adding the ice water and bringing the dough together. I am perfectly capable of doing this well with a pastry blender. I took a pie-making class with Carole Walter, and she suggested it was the optimal way to create a crust. She's right, it's very effective; the butter doesn't have a chance to get warm. I have not made my own hummus because Costco carries a good one, and it is inexpensive. But I'm going to try it. I like a silky hummus. I have not made my own coleslaw, because I don't love it, but I imagine I would if I made it myself.

Halvah dust, amazing.

That's exactly how the smaller choppers work -- flat top with a little oil drip hole. https://www.cuisinart.com/search_/?s=elite+collection+4+cup

These are very helpful comments, thank you to all. I am surprised to find out how not alone I am. Although I suspect those who adore their FPs likely just skipped the thread. I make carrot cake from the Silver Palate, which requires cooking and mashing the carrots. I highly recommend this recipe for anyone who might be looking for a good carrot cake. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/silver-palate-carrot-cake-50075298 I have a set of these Microplane graters/shredders and I use those for carrots for salad -- https://www.microplane.com/kitchen-graters-professional-series I have two stand mixers, one an old Kitchenaid that was my mother's, with the glass beehive bowl, the only appliance I keep on the countertop. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-50s-kitchenaid-hobart-c-tilt-1787510828 I also have a bowl lift 6-quart Kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook for bread. I just sold a Vitamix on eBay because drinking gallons of raw spinach gave me oxalate issues and green drinks is all I used it for. Selling a variety of don't use or rarely use items on eBay has sparked my current interest in downsizing the FP out. I do understand the chopping and sauce needs, hence the 4-cup machine.

Am I the only one? I hate lugging it out (it's on the bottom shelf of a rolling cart) and I hate washing all the parts I didn't use but got dirty any way. I'm not crazy about the circular slicing blades. It's a 12-cup KitchenAid with a separate small bowl. I am thinking of releasing it to the wild and replacing it with a smaller 4-cup Cuisinart "Elite Collection" chopper/grinder. And a mandoline. I use a knife and cutting board. I've read the threads on mandolines. What I use the processor for: cutting in butter for pie dough and making graham cracker crumbs. I use an immersion blender for soup. Interested if anyone else has done this and regrets it or has opinions. Thank you.

Thank you, all. Very interesting comments. It's always refreshing to know that you are not nuts, it's the crackers that got small. I could not find the Maida Heatter recipe in Eat Your Books, I'll look (I have them all). I had thought of making a graham cracker dough and making cookies and crumbling them, but I don't really want to do that. Key lime pie is so easy, why complicate it? I do things like vacation in Florida for a week, travel from Miami to Key West, eat key lime pie as much as possible, and form opinions about key lime pie. Therefore, I am a proud member of the graham cracker crust and whipped cream regiment. Seventh battalion. The best slice was found in a diner in Marathon, by the way. Astounding result. I did find these interesting ideas: Teddy Grahams. I like them. No one wants to mass murder all those cute little bears, but I will try it. I like Italian packaged cookies, and something called Lazzaroni Pain Croute Integrale came up. I will look for those. Ditto Arnott's Marie Biscuits. I took the Trader Joe's back. So sad. They used to be the absolute best.

Browned butter, excellent concept.

Can anyone recommend a truly good graham cracker? I grew up on Honey Maid, but I don't think they taste the same any more. I thought Trader Joe's graham crackers were the best. They disappeared, and reappeared as graham squares. Not good at all. I was in Whole Foods looking for 365, couldn't find them, and bought Annie's. I don't like those either. I suppose the old-fashioned taste of a graham cracker is gone, but I hold out hope that someone is making them without the taste of cardboard and chemicals. Summer is almost over, and I have to have a key lime pie before that happens, and I"m desperate. I know someone is going to say make your own. I would then ask, where would you source the graham flour? Thank you . . .

This looks like The Vessel to me.