andiesenji

In case anyone is interested, Cost Plus World Market has the roasted and shelled chestnuts in a jar closing out at half price - I bought all they had at the Brea (Calif) store today. This is a good buy, they keep for a long time on the shelf and are just fine to use in recipes or even eaten out of hand - I know, I have consumed quite a lot. Check your local store.

Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I have been intending to try it for a sort of bread pudding I make using brioche dough, as an alternative to the very old recipe I have been using for many years. I use it in the following recipe which I developed from something mentioned in one of my great-grandmother's journals. She was travelling in France in the 1870s, as I recall and being very interested in foods, often described their meals in detail. She, like most Victorian ladies of that era in England, adored sweet breads, cakes and similar sweets. I looked in vain for such a recipe in by collection of cookbooks and never found even a mention of anything similar. Marzipan filled brioche bread pudding. original recipe by Andie Read all directions first. This recipe takes 2 days to do it correctly Easy Brioche Rolls Must start day before serving this dessert. 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup butter or margarine 1/3 cup sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 pkg. dry yeast 1/4 cup lukewarm water 1 egg, separated 3 whole eggs, beaten 3 1/4 cup flour Scald milk and while hot add butter (margarine), sugar, and salt. COOL TO LUKEWARM. Soften yeast in the water. Add to LUKEWARM milk mixture. Add egg yolk and beaten eggs and stir. Add flour and beat with wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees) until more than double in bulk, about 2 hours or less. Stir down and beat (stir) thoroughly. Cover tightly with foil and refrigerate overnight. Remove from fridge and allow to come to room temp. Take plain brioche dough and form into small buns (golf ball size works nicely), cover and let them rest for 10 minutes. Filling You can use store bought marzipan or make your own. Make a rope of marzipan about the size of a tootsie roll and cut into pieces about the same width. (You don't have to shape them.) Put one of the marzipan pieces on each bun, draw the dough up around it and pinch and twist to seal. Place in a buttered pan with seam side down. Cover and allow to rise about 30 minutes or until nearly doubled in size. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush tops of rolls with melted butter. Place pan in center of oven. Bake till nicely browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire grid. When cool cover loosely with a cloth and let them set out several hours. We want them to be just a little stale. The next step which takes this into an entire new category Egg custard 4 eggs + 2 egg yolks, beaten till creamy 1 1/2 cups milk 1/2 cup cream 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 cup sweet sherry (optional) Mix all these ingredients and beat until completely blended Preheat oven to 325 degrees Place the marzipan filled buns in a buttered baking dish sides touching. Pour the custard in and around the buns but do not cover the tops of the buns. Let this stand for a few minutes then add more of the custard mix as the rolls will have soaked up some. Place the pan in a bain marie and bake until the custard is set. (Time varies with the size of the baking dish and the amount of custard) For a 9 x 11 pan it should be done in about 25 minutes. Test with a thin knife blade BETWEEN THE ROLLS at about 20 minutes, then at 25 minutes. Test every 2 minutes after that until blade comes out clean.

If it is the Danish dough whisk, you will find it does an extremely rapid job on quick breads thus insuring a more tender result. It also is great for slack doughs. I have been using them for years and it is very helpful for those of us with arthritic hands.

When I make croquembouche I get the styrofoam cones in various sizes and cover them with gold foil which makes a nice base and looks fine even when some of the puffs have been served. It makes it much easier to transport them as I have a thick, high-density styrofoam base into which I stick 1/2 inch dowels onto which the cones fit and that keeps them from tipping in transport. I invert a tall Cambro container over the cones and secure them to the base so they won't shift.

My best friend gave me (besides several non-food items) a glass cutting board with a savannah scene with basenjis on it. This is not for use with kinves. It will work as a trivet if I can bring myself to use it. It will probably be hung on a wall in my kitchen as it is much too pretty to use. Her brother and his wife gave me a set of cheese spreaders with porcelain handles that are the little fat French chefs character figures - I have a set of the canisters with the same design as well as some towels, hot pads and a pepper grinder, but I have never seen these little cuties.

Regarding the best utensil for making spun sugar.... If you can find one of the old-fashioned italian pasta servers, the kind that looks like a small paddles with a bunch of dowels stuck into it..... That works better for me than a cut off whisk. The pegs are at right angles to the handle of the utensil so for someone who is not too tall, it is much easier to work with. I used to have to stand on an inverted milk carton to get my arm high enough above the dowels to make the really fine spun threads. However with this utensil I can stand on the floor. Also the wood holds onto more of the syrup so you get more threads per dip into the sugar pan. I got the ones I use at an Italian market as regular stores do not carry the large ones. It wouldn't be difficult to make your own. My teacher, back when I was first learing, had a fat dowel (actually I think it was a piece of closet rod) into which he had drilled holes and inserted thin dowels that were about 5 inches long, in a sort of double spiral pattern. He would spin the dowel as he waved it back and forth over the catch rods and would get an incredible amount of extremely fine threads very quickly. You could do the same thing with just a double row of pegs.

There is a Canadian distributor for the Electrolux because I have a friend near Niagara who bought one last year after some searching. She is away on a trip right now so I can't ask her the name but you could probably find it via a search.

This is the one I have been using for many years. It was put up on this web site a few years back and it works quite well. This one is slightly different and may be easier for your purposes. Depending on how long it will be between preparation and delivery and serving, you can make spun sugar and drape it over the top of the iced cakes, however if the humidity is high, it is going to weep and collapse unless added just before presentation. An alternative could be spun sugar "ornaments" formed on parchment paper and packed loosley in a box so the customer could place them on the cakes just prior to serving. I have done these in the past and put them in a box with a couple of packets of the "Dry-Store" pellets to reduce damage from humidity.

Do you have it stored in a container with your eggs, just so the eggs will take on the flavor, right through the shell? That is the way I keep mine! I feel like I am getting more for my money that way.

One of the doctors that subleases in our office gave me a pizza baker which I am going to leave at the office. I don't think she has a clue that I make real pizza from scratch and have an oven in which to bake it. My daughter sent me a Trader Joe's gift card for $100.00 (she knows me quite well) and some lovely jellies she brought back from Scotland, from Moniack Castle, Sloe Berry Jelly, a meat and game jelly and Pear and Rosemary Jelly. A weaver friend sent me some hand-woven kitchen towels that are so lovely I don't know if I can every bring myself to use them. One has a pineapple (for hospitality), another an eggplant, another a carrot and the fourth an ear of corn. I also got a gift card for Sul La Table but the giver did not indicate how much it is for....... Also subscription renewals for several cooking magazines. There is also in my email a notice of an Amazon.com gift but I haven't checked it yet. It is possible it is for something other than kitchen stuff, but I doubt it. Oh yeah, from several folks who still have not got the message that I can't drink alcohol (severe allergy) several bottles of wine most of which I am passing along to my best friend who can and does drink wine. I am keeping some for cooking and for making vinegar as I am getting a bit low. Perhaps the wine buffs can tell me if Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1988 Bordeaux is a good year.

This is the vendor that I recommend. I have bought several appliances from this place and they are unfailingly helpful. Compare what they offer with the offerings from other vendors.

The first KA I bought in 1969 is still working. My stepdaughter has it, has used it constantly since I gave it to her in 1979 after I had used it for 10 years. It went back to Hobart for a repair in 1982 - they had a local place in the San Fernando Valley at that time and you could go in there and buy attachments, repaired mixers, extra bowls that migt have a tiny dent, for reduced prices. Meanwhile, I had a larger Hobart that I used for my commercial work for many years but it was difficult to move and was so tall that I had to have a special cart made for it so I could use it without standing on a step-stool. So I bought one of the newer KAs, a pretty cobalt blue, the "Pro" or Commercial model with extra power. Burnt out the motor on bread dough. Shipped it back for repair, got it back and it failed again, thought I had a dud and bought a second one. It will not do heavy bread dough. I still have it but don't use it for anything heavy. I bought the Electrolux which was called AEG at that time and it will do everything I ask of a mixer, including kneading the Struan dough (Peter Reinhart's recipe) and the thickest of cookie dough. And in the second bowl, it will whip eggwhites and cream to incredible volume with its double whips. I have recommended it to several people and everyone who has bought it has been very happy with it. The vendor I recommend includes with it several "extras" that cost extra with other vendors. I have posted it on other topics about mixers. I am not on my own computer at the moment so can't give you the URL without searching through my posts.

This place has the VillaWare pan for 29.95. It is the same as the ones I have. I just paid more...........

There are few Pyrex baking dishes that are really deep enough for lasagna. I have three of these as I usually make three varieties of lasagna for parties. Penney's have it cheaper, it is essentially the same one. lasagna pan. I also have one of Tom Castiglione's lasagna pans (stoneware) but while it does produce a lovely lasagna, it constantly bubbles over. It could be just a bit deeper.

I roast a ham in maple syrup. Any kind of ham will do, but it really does a wonderful job on the cheap "loss-leader" hams sold in markets at this time of the year (or sometimes free with a certain dollar amount purchase). These are always very salty and practically inedible (for those who savor really good ham) but my method has the effect of pulling a lot of the salt out of the ham and the maple syrup not only improves its flavor but also makes it more tender. I don't know how available ham is in Japan or if you have the very salty ones. Following is the method for this "recipe" Following is a copy of the post with the recipe on 10/1/04 I should add that I did an 18 pound ham a while back and cooked it for almost 5 hours at this low temperature. It was almost like ham candy. Even people who don't like ham went back for seconds. All About Ham, Ham goodness Oct 1 2004, 05:26 PM Post #4 I grew up eating home cured ham and nothing has ever tasted as good. Occasionally my relatives who still live on the farm send me a ham for the holidays. These are really big hams, nothing like the little ones in the market. No dye to color the ham pink. It is more a dark red. I have developed a "recipe" or method for turning a barely edible "loss-leader" supermarket BONE-IN ham into something quite acceptable. However it involves finding some inexpensive maple syrup - I buy the jugs of the stuff at Costco but Trader Joes sometimes has a sale on the "B" syrup which has more flavor. You need a lot of it because the ham has to be covered at least half way with the liquid. First you take your ham and trim off as much of the outside fat as possible. Then you take your trusty chef's fork or if you don't have one use an ice pick, and stab the thing all over, stab deep, right down to the bone. If you have a shank end and the shank is quite long, saw it off so you have something that will be easier to turn. Then rub the ham well with dry mustard, use gloves and really massage it into the surface. Then put it into a pot that is not too much larger in diameter than the ham but leaves you enough room so that you can lift the ham out easily when you need to turn it over. Start it with the shank end up, don't lay it on a side. Add the maple syrup until it comes up well past half way on the ham, if you have enough, cover it. put it in a slow oven, keep the temperature around 275, certainly not over 300. At the end of an hour turn it over and put it back in for another hour. Repeat until the ham has been in the oven a total of 4 hours. lift it out of the pot and put it on a wire rack over a sheet pan or in the sink so the excess liquid can drip off. Then transfer to a dry roasting pan, turn the oven up to 350 and put it back in the over 30 minutes to brown. When the syrup is cool, strain it and store it in the freezer, you can use it for another ham. You can do this with a spiral sliced ham, one of the cheap ones that are usually way too salty, but you have to have it tied fairly tightly so the slices won't separate during the cooking.

Sorry I did not reply to this earlier. I somehow missed it. I have had one of these for a couple of years. I don't like it at all. After a couple of months of use it appeared to have a sort of "furry" surface and if you wiped it with any kind of cloth or even a scrubber, there would be tiny fibers clinging to the roughened surface and I didn't want those transferred to any food. They say you can sand it down but I haven't bothered. I put it out by the greenhouse so the gardeners can use it to cut up stuff. I can say that it resists cutting by a machete when they are trimming crowns of plants that are going back into the ground, or cutting seed potatoes, etc. And they say it won't absorb odors, but to me it smelled funny, sort of a chemical smell, when it came out of the box. It reminded me of airplane glue....... however it has been many years since I have been in contact with any of that, so I could have a false memory.

Back in the late 50s and early 60s, there was a fad of drinking milk with Scotch - known, at least in the places frequented by my husband and me, as Moose Milk. Cube ice was placed in an old-fashioned glass then the milk was added and lastly the Scotch was sort of floated on top. The drinker could stir or not, whatever his or her personal preference. The elderly folks in my family often drank milk with sherry, a sweet sherry, it was poured into a jug and whipped. They called it a Sherry Flip and it was a pre-bedtime drink. Since they all seemed to live to very advanced ages, I don't think it did them any harm. Eggnog and milk punch were served during the holidays and there certainly was plenty of liquor in most of it, although there was a plain version for children.

I never put excess grease down the drain or through the garbage disposal. A little, such as the residual in a skillet is not a problem but I treat it with Dawn as that really does separate the grease into discrete particles so it won't clump. All our trash and garbage goes to a sorting place where they remove the recycleable items and they don't appreciate cartons of liquid grease. I buy a box of kitty litter and pour the grease into that, which absorbs it and forms a solid which won't spill. I then seal it in a plastic bag and put a yellow sticker on it and mark it "Grease-No Recycle". The pick up guys appreciate it. I tip well so I get really good service. They push the dumpster back up the drive and into its little "garage" for me. Usually they leave them out at the side of the road. It pays to be generous. They have thanked me many times for not putting grease out in gallon jugs, which, in the heat of the sun, sometimes pop, leaving an awful mess in a dumpster. One day some spilled out of the dumpster as it was being raised up for dumping into the truck. It is raised up past the front of the truck and a bunch of oil someone on the next road had put out in a 5 gallon can spilled down over the windshield. You can imagine, with the dust blowing, just how messy the windshield was. I gave them some Dawn and let them hook up the hose to the hot water in the garage so they could clean it. They were really P.O.d at the person who did it.

As far as keeping them from sliding. I buy the rubber or whatever, shelf liner that is thick and squishy. I buy the big rolls at Costco because I use it for stacking stuff in the van as it keeps things from sliding, such as dog crates stacked on each other or large bins holding food and etc.. I put it under appliances on the counter that might have a tendency to "walk" and under mixing bowls so I don't have to hold them or under anything that I don't want to slide, mar the surface on which they are setting or otherwise move when I don't want it to move. This works great. It holds my extra marble slab in place when I need it for additional pastry space. It holds a sheet pan in place when I am holding a bowl with my left hand and wielding a spatula with my right. The stuff has a thousand uses, including keeping rugs from sliding on slick ceramic tile, marble and hardwood floors. (It also keeps the dog bowls from scooting across the floor when being energetically licked)

All "Baking Powders" are now double-acting as they include both the acid and alkaline components which are activated by a liquid. A single-acting ingredient would be baking "soda" which needs to be combined with an acid (such as buttermilk or chocolate) to get the desired reaction.

Not a contest, no winner..... I spend the holidays with my friends and their decorations are incredible. Their main tree is enormous and has at least a thousand ornaments on it. The one in the den is for the grandchildren and has a lot of ornaments made by the kids and grandkids over the years. Then there is the living tree in the cabana with all animal and wildlife-related ornaments. The outside is also decorated extensively - Jim spends weeks on it - he has been retired for almost 20 years and has a lot of time on his hands. However everyone on their street (actually a private road) decorates to the nth degree and they get a fair amount of sightseeing traffic. I asked and Carol does have a couple of pickles. One is a "collectible" someone gave her several years ago. She said it came with a little booklet that mentioned a tradition she didn't recall what it was about.

Check the little cookbooks at your local market check-out stand or at Wal-Mart, also as the check-out. Look For Taste of Home's Soups and Slow Cooker recipes. I picked this up about a month ago as my housekeeper wanted to try some slow cooker recipes and I couldn't find any of my other cookbooks without a time-consuming search. She wanted to make a potato soup similar to those from her home (in Hungary) but want to try the crockpot method. This cookbook has a recipe for Potato Chowder that is excellent. Anka was thrilled with the way it turned out. (She made dumplings too.) She also made Taco Soup when her friends came to visit a couple of weeks ago. She is going to make another one tomorrow. When she gets back from the market I will let you know which it is. I read through the book and it packs a lot of recipes into a very small package. 76 recipes on pull-out recipe cards.

I have both and I like the Michigan Maple better than the Boos. I have similar sized ones and the MM is heavier than the Boos and it is noticable when you pick them up, you don't have to weigh them to feel the difference. My housekeeper has noticed it and mentions it every time she has to move one of them. She say the MM feels like it has "let" in it.

I forgot a couple. I pulled my box of ornaments out of the closet and right on top is a little silver punch bowl with what looks like eggnog. There is a little frying pan with 2 eggs and 2 slices of bacon and a little plate with a short stack of pancakes. I have three little cakes, all with wedges cut from them showing the inside, one pink, one brown and one white with brown icing. I also found a little Skippy peanut butter jar. These all seem to be made of that plastic clay that one bakes in the oven. I also found a little toaster, a little mixer (looks like an old Sunbeam) and a little blender. These all came from Williams-Sonoma about 20 years ago. At one time I had a "fun" tree in the family room next to the kitchen in addition to the "formal" tree in the living room. It had a lot of household things on it, not just food related itmes. There are brooms, mops, a vacuum cleaner, people ornaments such as a chef, a maid, a baker, a waiter. I am glad you brought this topic up. I had completely forgotten about a lot of these ornaments collected over a 40-year span.

As far as the properties of various faces of woods, for about 20 years in the 60s and 70s, I used for my cutting board a large piece of quarter-sawn maple (also known as "tiger-maple") that was bolted to a slab of red oak, also quarter-sawn. I don't know if you know about red oak, but it is extremely heavy, much heavier than maple. Each slab of wood was slightly less than 2 inches thick so the entire thing was almost 4 inches thick. In the 4 houses in which I lived during those years I had a section of counter top cut out so the slab could be sunk into an area to make it even with the countertop. Anyway, I could use either side but generally used the maple side but turned the slab over when we had company. The edges on my knives did not dull any faster on these boards as they did on end grain blocks, and I am very fussy about my knives, always have been. When I sold my house in Canoga Park the buyers specifically asked that I leave that cutting board. I had offered to get a new one but they liked that one. Otherwise I would still be using it. It is true edge grain cutting boards do get a bit cut up at times, however unless one is leaning on a blade with a great deal of force, it is not going to deform all that much. Cutting most vegetables does not require that much force. One of my friends uses a slab of walnut from an 80-year-old tree cut down on his property in Agoura Hills. He also has one out by his barbecue and both still have the bark on the outside edge. This is sort of the ultimate end grain, only it is 35 inches in diameter. With what it cost him to have the tree cut down and the slabs cut and finished, he figures each cutting "board" cost him about $300.00.