andiesenji

To coat all sides of a brownie you can use the same technique I use for petit fours. I spread a strip of ganache on a slipat sheet with a broad spatula and working six in a batch, set the petit fours on the sheet about an inch apart then transfer them to a clean silpat sheet. When the chocolate is set I place them onto a cooling rack set over a tray, then pour the ganache over the petit fours and let the chocolate set up. This way the bottom is evenly coated and the top and sides also have an even glaze. This has the advantage of sealing the cake away from air so that it will not stale. I like doing the chocolate glaze, it is much quicker and easier than the rolled fondant coating used when pastel colors are required.

Actually goat or kid is much milder in flavor than lamb. The local Mexican supermarkets carry chivo or cabrito (both are regional names for goat) and I buy it for a spicy stew and also for chili.

For me it would be smothered pork chops, fried potatoes, string beans and real corn bread. By that I mean corn bread that is made without flour, without sugar, without baking powder. A dense slab that is baked in a cast iron skillet, cut into wedges and is firm enough to hold together when dipped into bean soup. Bread pudding for dessert.

Whether a "cliche" or a "classic" tastes change over time. It is true that foods go "out of style" or out of favor and then reappear as if new and the cycle seems to be a bit more than a generation. Take for instance fondue - in the '60s fondue pots proliferated and every other party I attended has something melted in a pot with various things (some rather odd) for dipping. I can recall being able to find fondue forks in many stores, including the Five and Dime which disappeared also, then were reincarnated as the 99 cent or Under A Buck stores, although these have only a fraction of the number of items found in the old stores. About a year ago I opened one of the numerous catalogs that come in the mail and there, on the front cover, was a fondue pot. In fact there were three in the catalog, one was an electric. Fondue as a rare treat, as long as it is made properly, is fine. I just don't care for it as a steady diet and there are many, many ways to screw it up so the texture and/or taste is ghastly. Stir frying seems to be phasing out, although I think it will remain an option. More people are grilling than ever before and the variety of grills is staggering. The prices of the more elaborate ones is amazing. A friend who had to mount a major campaign to get her husband to spend a thousand dollars for a new kitchen range was flabergasted when he came home one day and announced that he had just plunked down almost four times as much for a barbecue for the patio. He excused the amount by saying, "It does have a fridge built in." My friend grumbled "For that amount it ought to come with a chef!"

Cheese grits come in many flavors and many consistancies. There are a couple of pretty grits cookbooks, Gone With The Grits is a small one that has a lot of really good recipes. I can't eat shrimp but have a friend who loves shrimp and grits so I fix them. My favorite is grits mixed with cooked rice and very sharp grated cheese then dolloped onto a griddle and crusted on each side.

I DO have an answering machine, but it's far from the kitchen, and I still run like an idiot to see who's leaving a message. It's mostly when I'm expecting an important call, but the important calls seem to come in at more convenient times. Isn't it funny how it's always the telemarketers who call at the most inopportune moments? After way too much of this, stripping off gloves to pick up call when up to my wrists in dough, or working with sugar, I finally solved the problem. I bit the bullet and bought a VTech 5.8 mhz cordless that I can clip onto my pocket and it has a speakerphone built in to the handheld unit. I can hit the button with my pinky and answer just fine. Sometimes callers are startled by the sounds of chopping, frying, tossing or banging pans but at least I can tell them to call back. Worth every penny and then some.

Fill the crockpot with hot water, turn it to high then dump in a cup of baking soda. (I buy it in the industrial sized boxes because I use so much for all kinds of things.) Depending on how thick the crust is, it will take several hours to loosen but will loosen eventually with very little work. If you have chrome appliances or shiny stainless cookware with burnt-on spots, you can use this trick which I have been using to clean antique appliances. Take a dry cloth (no terry cloth, no sponge), barely dampen it, have a saucer full of dry baking soda. Dip the dampened cloth in the dry soda and rub. This does take a little elbow grease but it will remove the spots and polish the metal without scratching or damaging it.

I will never, ever forget to clean the auxillary vent on a pressure cooker before use. Big pressure cooker - 20 quart. Cooking turkey backs and necks with rice for dog food. (great danes back in those days). Waited till pressure up to 15 pounds, turned burner down to maintain it. Left kitchen. Twenty minutes later BLAM! Kitchen now decorated with mangled turkey parts and rice. Lid of pressure cooker split, half stuck in wall, other half missing, hole in ceiling. Husband climbed into attick and found it imbedded in roof rafter. Dogs rushed into kitchen and tried to help with clean up. One does not get between three great danes and food of any kind. Actually they did a pretty good job up to 5 feet on the walls. I hired a crew to come in and clean the rest of it while I retired to my bed with a book and an ice pack on my head. Regarding hot pepper handlling (or how to avoid Hunan-hand, as it is referred to on the Chile-Heads list) Milk or milk products, yogurt, sour cream or whatever you have available with remove the capsacin. The casein in the milk surrounds the capsacin molecules and renders it inactive. Try it by touching your tongue with a hot pepper then take a sip of milk and hold it in your mouth. The burn will stop instantly. That is why sour cream is almost universally served with foods made with hot peppers in Mexican and Central/South American foods. It will kill the burn and leave the flavor.

I make large batches of onion confit or carmelized onions. I also make fairly large batches of duxelles, not to use in beef Wellington, which I rarely fix. I use it in combination with the onion confit and shredded meat to make a filled bread roll. I buy the round mini boules (Costco has them), cut out a "lid" on the top, about half the diameter of the roll. I dig out all the interior of the bread, leaving at least a 1/2 inch shell. I fill the hollow with a layer of the duxelles, layer of finely shredded beef or pork (cooked) then a layer of the onion confit. Replace the top of the roll. Wrap this in foil and place in a 300 degree oven for 20 -25 minutes just to heat through. Serve with a salad. *DUXELLES (Recipe from Melinda Lee, host of Food News KNX 1070 Radio Los Angeles) 1/2 pound, mushrooms – finely minced 3 tablespoons, butter 2 tablespoons, shallots – minced salt and pepper 1 teaspoon, dried tarragon 2 tablespoons, flour 1/4 cup, Port wine 2-4 tablespoons, heavy cream Using a towel, squeeze the liquid out of the minced mushrooms. Heat the butter in a skillet. Add the shallots and sauté briefly. Add mushrooms and stir until mushrooms begin to separate. Add salt, pepper and tarragon. Blend in flour. Stir for 2 minutes. Blend in wine, then cream. Simmer to reduce cream and thicken to a thick, paste-like consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Flavor will be intense! Enjoy! Andie

Regarding the question of the chocolate glaze, I just make a basic ganache which I pour while warm over the torte while it is on a rack. After the chocolate sets I lift the torte off the rack (using a giant spatula I found at Smart & Final) and place it on the serving plate. I use a method that is essentially the same as the one in the recipe on the Scharfenbarger site. It works every time. I use the Manufacturers cream also available at Smart & Final - it is not ultrapasturized and I like the way it "feels" better than regular heavy cream. Deep Chocolate Glaze or Ganache 8 ounces Scharffen Berger 62% semisweet chocolate 1/4 cup heavy cream 3 tablespoons sweet butter Heat the chocolate, cream, and butter in the top of a double boiler. Stir gently until the mixture is completely melted and smooth. Use lukewarm as a pourable glaze or let stand until thick enough to spread like frosting. If using as ganache, chill in refrigerator to desired consistency. May be reheated to soften. Refrigerate or freeze leftovers. Makes a striking coating with rich chocolate taste

I buy some cheap things that I consider semi-disposable - pizza pans, because they suffer a lot of dings and bumps. I found some inexpensive knives at Smart & Final that are pretty good, especially the long serrated slicer that I use for a bread knife. It workes better than just about anything else I have used, especially on artisan breads with thick crust. I buy a lot of utility bowls of various sizes at the Corning outlet, plus baking dishes, casserole, gratin bakers. I buy the Cambro storage containers at Smart & Final. They are non-reactive, airtight, and range from one quart to 26 quart. I store everything in them and also use them for brining turkeys, pork roasts, for processing pickles, saurkraut. Thre are some things on which I will not penny-pinch. I have things that I have been using constantly for 35-40 years and are still in perfect condition. They were expensive when newly purchased but have proved to be economical in the long run. By the way, on earlier posts there was some discussion of a crumb sweeper. Those used to be know as a "Silent Butler" ............

This is the recipe I have used several times. http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/21/120562.shtml It is as close to the traditional as I have been able to achieve. It is much better than the ones made with flour. I use the Scharfenbarger extra dark http://www.scharffenberger.com/products/propacks.htm and Spanish almonds if I can get them. Almonds are grown locally but they simply do not have the intense flavor that I find in the Spanish nuts. For the bread crumbs I use a brioche which I bake several days ahead of time, slice, remove the crust and dry in the dehydrator. I process them until they are very, very fine. I use large or extra large eggs.

I have a huge collection of cookbooks and I love to read the ones that are written with a bit of humor. Peg Bracken's are great. I also have a couple by Mary Lasswell, who wrote a series of books about 3 old ladies in San Diego, beginning during WWII. Mrs. Rassmussen was one of the ladies and the cookbooks are Mrs. Rassumssen's book of One-Arm Cookery and the same as above "With Second Helpings" The books are hilarious and the cookbooks are also funny but have some great "home cooking" recipes. The "One-Arm" bit is because these ladies love beer and one has to have one hand free to hold a bottle of beer, thus the title. If you ever come across Lasswell's books in a used book store check them out. Suds In Your Eye is the first. I pick them up whenever I come across them as I have given several sets away to people as a "pick-me-up" when they are going through a rough patch. I defy anyone to read these books and not get a chuckle out of them.

I use a round rotisserie tumble basket made by BBQ Guys http://www.grillingaccessories.com/baskets.asp (scroll down about 1/3 of the page it is on the far right. The spaces are too large for small things the way it is so I bought stainless steel hardware "cloth" with 1/2 inch grid and wrapped it around the outside of the basket. I have a large rectangular crockpot which is ideal for maintaining sugar syrup at the correct temperature. (I have several of various sizes that I use for candying ginger, citrus peel, etc.) The basket fits easily into the crockpot so I can dip and turn the basket. Since it has no handles I just clamped small vise grips onto the center of each end for handles.

Top round, 7-bone or any touch piece of beef that has a lot of flavor is a prime candidate for the old faithful "sweep steak" (It "swept" the 'burbs back in the 60s and was one of the 30-day entrees in Peg Bracken's "I Hate to Cook" book.) Aluminum foil, heavy duty the slab of meat a package of onion soup mix (If you want to be fancy you can use one of the packaged Hunter or Peppercorn sauce mixes) Put the meat on the sheet of aluminum foil Sprinkle it with the mix seal it in the foil put it on a sheet pan and into a 250 degree (F) oven leave it in the oven for 3 hours. It should be to the point of falling apart. You can use this as a base for stew and a lot of other combinations Shred it roughly for sandwiches Add a chili sauce to make sloppy joes layer with mashed potatoes for shepherd's pie Use your imagination..........

I have traveled in various parts of Mexico and they have regional recipes that are not usually seen in other regions and the way certain foods are prepared can vary considerably from one part of the country to another. Carnitas is a good example. I know cooks who have tried to duplicate it by roasting pork but what they don't realize is that in Mexico the pork is roasted in liquid, not dry-roasted. The taste and texture of the meat is totally different and many recipes do not mention the method of roasting.

Basenjis are not fond of being shut away from the action. They are known as "the barkless dogs" but that does not mean they are mute - and, they are very clever at getting into things. I now have a large 2 door fridge but a few years ago when I had a single door everyone who came to my home wondered why I had a large velcro strap near the top. It was to fasten the door closed because one of my basenjis learned how to open the door. Unfortunately she never learned to close it. I love family traditions and recipes. I grew up in a household of very elderly people. My great grandmother who lived to be almost 105 - she was born in 1844 and died in 1949 when I was 10. She came from England in 1919 with my grandfather and all of her life she kept journals and was an avid collector of recipes, and interested in the preparing of foods, unlike most Victorian ladies of her society. She was a wonderful storyteller and often described foods she had enjoyed on her travels in Europe, Egypt and other parts of North Africa. I have developed a couple of recipes from things she mentioned in her journals and for which I have found no references in any of my large collection of cookbooks. Andie

I seldom sit when I work in the kitchen - I have three roll around carts at various heights and different surfaces for different uses - they "park" under the center island which is a baker's bench. I bake a lot of bread and most standard counters are the wrong height for comfortable working with large batches of dough. My kitchen is fairly large and it is easier to put heavy pans and pots and prepped foods on the carts then roll them to wherever I will be working next. One of the carts has a marble top and one end has fold-down racks for sheet pans. I have a commerical Blodgett oven that holds up to 7 full-sized sheet pans (for shallow things such as cookies) and I needed a place to park the pans before and after baking. I bought standard kitchen carts and had them cut down to the height I needed then had large casters put on them as the ones that came on them were not adequate for the weight. One has a stainless steel top that is recessed 1/2 inch all around and is perfect for working with sloppy stuff as that lip keeps liquids from dripping off the sides. The third one, like the island itself has a butcher block top 6 inches thick. They are 24 x 42 and fit under the bench which is 48 in wide. I buy the extra wide cushioned shelf liner in big rolls at Costco and use it for keeping things from sliding, particularly on the marble-topped cart. (after having a full glass bowl slide off after it stopped abruptly when I was rolling it across the kitchen and one of the wheels hit something that had fallen to the floor.) Another reason I do not sit when doing any kind of prep is that my dogs would be right in there with me if it was within their reach. I have basenjis who are very intelligment and very curious about anything that is going on and they want to be in the middle of it if it has anything to do with food.

I have a two-handled mezzaluna with a blade that is about 10 inches long. I did use it in a bowl but found that it tended to "walk" on the counter even if I had a pad under it. I bought one of the 3 1/2 thick end grain chopping blocks, http://www.knifemerchant.com/products.asp?SRS=1 (My favorite knife man) then took it to the local high school and had the wood shop teacher give it to the class to hollow it out on one side with an arc that just fits the mezzaluna. I use it for chopping everything. I grow a lot of herbs and it is the best method I have found. Nuts, meats, etc., I went to this method because I have arthritis in my right hand and it became difficult to grasp the regular type of chopper. the mezz with the two verticle handles is much easier to hold.

Here is a note about brick cheese http://www.ulster.net/~psycho/brick.html (note they describe it as "slightly aromatic" that increases with age) and the source http://www.widmerscheese.com/catlist.cfm?passid=WV

I love the Wisconsin brick cheese which is difficult to find outside that state. I order it from an online purveyor. The FexEx guy who delivers to my office has complained that it stinks up his truck and he alters his route to come to my office first so that it won't be in his truck duing the hottest part of the day.

The slit on the chopper is for slicing. Usually used for potatoes and onions. I collect antique kitchen gadgets and utensils. I have quite a few choppers, single, double and triple, various types of handles. This one was made in the late thirties for people who had limited means and small kitchens to combine two implements in one. It is difficult to sharpen the slicer blade, some of the ones I have seen have been hammered flat. It can be sharpened with one of the diamond nail files but it really isn't worth the trouble.

Using the beans is a terrific idea. Why didn't I learn that 40 years ago? My first instructor in my first class in French method required that I make a French omelet and I had to work the omelet in the pan and flip it so one third of the omelet turned back on itself without using any utensil, swirling the mixture in the pan then giving it a push, lift and pull motion. I can't even begin to tell you how many messes I cleaned off that stove before I got it down pat. I can do it in my sleep now, especially if I use a non-stick pan, my training was before the Teflon era and my pans were tin-lined copper (which I still have). Nowadays I generally use the Calphalon.

I have several sizes of enameled cast iron lids (Descoware, similar to Le Cruset, which I have had since the 60s) These lids are heavy enough to weight anything and I use the size that just fits inside the pot. These have a loop handle so are easy to lift out with a pot hook without scalding the fingers. You can often find these at yard sales and swap meets.

Great subject! Who hasn't looked at a fluffy white thunderhead and thought of a dish of mashed potatoes or whipped cream piled on top of a dish. I walked past a local florist shop last week and saw a giant brandy snifter in the window filled with fresh flower blossoms, mostly white, with different colors scatter through it. A vision of a classic English trifle popped into my mind. It doesn't take much to remind me of food. Scents are also a trigger. Some time ago I picked up a magazine that had a vanilla scent and immediately thought of bread pudding. As soon as I got home that evening I had to fix one.