jgarner53

I have the same problem with those pants, Wendy. I love the style, and the fact that I can get a custom inseam (hooray, no floods!), but it bugs me that if I wanted a back pocket, I'd have to pay another $10 or something like that to get it on the bootcut pant. I think if I order from them again (again, for the length), I'll get the regular chef's pant. I think that the extra room in the thighs and seat will accommodate my pastry buns better.

If you have a torch, you can probably brulée the tops of those when you serve them... Last night I had apple/quince crisp, my first bit of quince of the season. Yum!

I made them. They turned out fantastic, probably the best bagels I've made so far. Click here to see them. Next time I make them, I'll make sure I have enough hi-gluten flour on hand first and take the bagels out to boil only once the water's ready. The everything bagels collapsed a bit while waiting for the water. They froze great, though (wrapped in foil and placed in ziploc bags)

I love Recchuitti chocolates! His stuff is beautiful, the packaging exquisite, and such a treat! I can't remember if I knew that he and Fran Gage (my own pastry teacher's mentor) were doing this book. I will have to check it out.

Oh, the timing on this is just perfect! We do desserts for one of our restaurants, and the spice brulée (typical pumpkin pie spices: cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg) hasn't been selling so well the past few days. I want to think it's the nice weather that's deterring people, but if it doesn't pick up, we'll have to change it.

So are they flavored with various wines? Can I eat the cab wine gum with fish or should I opt for the sauvignon blanc gum? How does one pair wine gum with food?

It was a given in our household, though sometimes it would be replaced with a Waldorf salad, or carrot/raisin, or sometimes coleslaw. But more nights than not, there was the tossed salad on the table: iceberg, maybe some tomatoes, I can't remember what else, and a bottled dressing. I STILL eat salad with dinner most nights. I am in a huge rut, but it usually consists of lettuce (romaine, or green or red leaf), cuke slices, diced red bell pepper, and sliced mushrooms. Seasonally, I'll add tomato, or use spinach instead. I prefer to dress the salad on the fly (a touch of salt and pepper, balsamic and extra virgin olive oil), but my husband prefers to use a bottled dressing when he makes it. If we have company over, there is still usually a salad course, though I will buy mesclun, toast some nuts (walnuts, pecans, whatever's on hand), some goat cheese, actually whisk up a dressing, and add something seasonal - orange slices, dried cranberries, a quickly broiled fig or two, all depending on the season.

I use butternut squash, personally. Split, scoop out seeds, and roast at 375 until it starts to caramelize (up to 2 hours). But that's only for my pies. If I were going to make muffins or something else, I'd probably just buy canned pumpkin.

I think this is so cool! I've never even considered freezing batter before. Especially when my tiny oven is so hard to manage if I've got more than 2 cake pans in there. Next time I do a cake that's in three pans (rare, but I have a few recipes where it doesn't work to dump all the batter into one), I think I'll freeze 1/3 of the batter and bake it off later to make sure all three layers come out evenly.

OK, I'm going to have to bite the reality show bullet and tune in for this episode of Martha. I'm not a fan of hers (too much "I'm the overachiever - everything I do is perfect and effortless - even though there are likely a dozen staffers making look that way, they'll never get the credit" for me, though I would kill for that soapstone-countered kitchen she had on one of her earlier tv shows. But to watch presumably neophyte bakers try to do a wedding cake? A tiered, presumably fondant-covered, elaborately decorated cake? Hoo hoo boy, won't that be worth watching!

The rugelach we make at work bake in a 350 convection oven for about 20 minutes. I've noticed that the sides where the egg wash doesn't hit don't get very brown at all; if the whole thing had not been egg washed, I might look at them and think they weren't done. We just added two new flavors: cranberry pecan and caramel apple. They taste like fall!

A friend's son, then about 2, asked his mom for a strawberry without the "spots" (seeds). Thankfully, not being one of those overindulging moms, she did not oblige him. Same kid later announced that he wanted to be a snowman when he grew up. Not food related, I know, but very cute.

figs figs figs figs figs figs Tossed together a quickie sandwich at work today: walnut roll, proscuitto, two halved figs, and a nubbin of goat cheese, heated until the figs were warm and soft and the goat cheese melty. Oh man was that good! other favorites: butter (working in a bakery that makes amazing croissants, and working somewhere above the croissant oven will do that to a person0 cheese (see bakery comment above) ham

To add to the chorus on TJ's, I get my butter (about $2.79/lb), cream, eggs, milk and much of my chocolate there. If you have a Smart & Final (or are they just in California?), you can buy bulk pounds of butter (rather than being wrapped in quarters), half gallons of cream, and large bags of flour, sugar, brown sugar, powdered, etc. that will save you. I definitely agree with trying to make a little money off your addiction. Try taking your stuff into work and asking for "ingredients donations" to help defray the cost. Maybe 50¢ a cookie or $1 for a slice of cake. People generally love home-baked treats, especially as fewer and fewer do it themselves.

raspberries are great with figs.

JFinLA, when you scoop, do you flatten the scoops out at all before freezing, or just scoop & freeze? I have made these cookies numerous times, but have never frozen the dough and baked from frozen.

Congratulations! How long have you been in your job? Are you working in a restaurant, bakery, or what? I've been there - I've been in my first pastry job for three and a half months now. I know exactly how you feel, and it does suck. But you will get faster. If you have tasks that you do every day, try to set yourself a time goal. If it took you an hour today, try to do it in 55 minutes, then 50 minutes, etc. Even if it's just mechanically moving faster, that will help. Like Anne said, the repetition will make things faster. Also, as you get more comfortable in your kitchen, you'll know where things are without having to look for them and how to maneuver efficiently (like she said, getting several things in the walk-in at once, or grabbing an offset when you have your hand out to get the rubber spatula or a scraper). I will try various tricks to try to speed up some of the more time consuming tasks I do and then stick with what seems to work. K8memphis' advice to think through some of your tasks when you're not at work is great as well. You might want to ask your chef if he or she has any suggestions as to what works for him/her on any particular task. I've gotten great hints from all my co-workers on ways to speed up. Hang in there! It will get better! It took me about two months before I really felt like I was in a groove. Now when I get a new task, it's easier to adjust and build up my speed on those things.

I've tried it (using Shirley Corriher's recipe in Cookwise, but I wasn't bowled over by it. It was fun smearing the butter around though.

Certainly Mae Ploy Thai green curry paste is on my list. I couldn't even begin to know where to start, and it makes for a pretty quick meal when I'm in the mood for Thai. I fall into the canned bean camp myself, usually because I don't think about beans far enough in advance to plan for the cooking thereof. So quick and easy to toss a can of cannellini beans in with some pasta and wilted spinach and cheese. And yes, Trader Joe's frozen spinach puffs, pork gyoza, French onion soup pucks, and the occasional quiche (though I eat more than I should at work). All good when I'm on my own for dinner (well, not the spinach puffs) and have no intention of cooking.

I'm not quite sure how turning the dough overworks it. When I turn my dough, I'm not stretching it, just handling it enough to lift it off the board and rotate. Whether you turn or not, you have to roll your pin over all of the dough, right, to keep it even? So it's a matter of turning your shoulders or turning the dough, and as long as you're not stretching it or working it while you turn, it shouldn't overwork the dough. Rolling it out several times, however, yeah, that's gonna overwork it. (You know, it tears, you're frustrated, you wad it up and start over) Wendy, didn't you make another pie out of scraps from one of your doughs with equally flaky results?

Flaky Flix! I loved those as a kid, too. But I think that Mother's has stopped making them. Next time I'm at the giant megasupermarket (where I only go when I can't get something at Trader Joe's), I'll have to take a look.

I doubt I'll see a shortage of sugar either. Mine comes from a plant here in CA (C&H), not more than 50 miles away.

I love the banana cake and use the larger amount of bananas (I think she gives a range). It's great with a rum-laced cream cheese icing as well.

B&M Baked Beans! I noticed that the Vermont Country Store had it. I have looked and looked and looked here and can't find it. It was a big favorite of mine when mom served it along with franks & beans. Long gone, but not forgotten - Jello Spoon Candy - pudding mix (vanilla, peanut butter, and caramel, I think) with a pouch of liquid chocolate topping, akin to Magic Shell, that hardened when you put the pudding in the fridge to set. You had to tap through the topping to get to your pudding.

I think it has to do with where soapstone is quarried. It's not like there's a soapstone quarry around every corner. The deposits aren't likely as common as granite. Most of the soapstone companies I've researched all seem to be on the East Coast somewhere. Though I suppose that granite is shipped all over the place. I do like the fact that it's not in every kitchen. Can I just say that I'm personally sick of seeing granite everywhere?