jgarner53
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Posts posted by jgarner53
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I know that's true for the lycopine in a tomato, which needs to be consumed with some fat for it to be useful.
...hence the oil in that marinara sauce!
I think that the food police should just all be crammed into a little, windowless room and fed nothing but steamed, dry veggies, salad with just lemon juice for dressing, and dry, overcooked, unseasoned chicken.
I sure as hell don't want to eat it.
One of the reasons, though, that I think that these articles surface periodically is that Shape is no doubt expecting that they are continually getting new readers. You might have read a similar article 4 years ago, but if I'm just gettiing into fitness, I might just pick up my first issue this month, and this would be news to me.
I noticed this years ago when I was getting married. Wedding mags aren't exactly something one subscribes to for years on end, so they tend to repeat information.
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I love soup.
Yesterday, after the worst of that dilly of a storm (Squeat was right), I got off work early and had some of mom's minestrone that I'd frozen last time I made it. Very much a mid-century recipe, but very satisfying with ground beef, zucchini, tomatoes, and topped with grated asiago. I ate it with a bit of leftover (homemade) baguette, toasted.
My all-time favorite soup, though is tomato, preferably with homemade cracked wheat bread to dip in, or a grilled cheese, but saltines are OK, too. I've lately switched to the Trader Joe's asceptic packaged organic tomato instead of Campbell's.
Or split pea (again with the cracked wheat bread - maybe I should make some today)
My freshman year in college, I was in a small village outside of St. Louis, and the (one) cafe in town made amazing soup and homemade bread. One of my favorites of theirs was the macaroni & cheese soup.
This time of year (and even during summer, here in SF), I could probably eat soup every day. Pho, tom yum, tom ka gai, hot and sour...mmmm soup!
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On the whole, we spend far too much time "on-the-go," and far too little time lingering over a leisurely meal. Even at Thanksgiving, where most of us don't have to rush back to work, and the kids don't have soccer practice, tutoring, and play dates, we all scarf down our food and then go back to the football game on TV. There are so many "on-the-go" products on the market now - even Campbell's soup now comes in a sippable cup. Does it even need to be heated? Kids' snacks have pudding and yogurt in squeezable tubes to combine the "fun" factor with the whole OTG thing. We eat in our cars constantly, between snacks picked up at the quickie mart to drive thru meals because we can't be bothered to sit down and stop our lives for anything.
Add to that our paranoia about calories, carbs, fat, whatever, it's no wonder that we don't enjoy our food.
I also tend to think that some of this goes back to our Puritan heritage where just about anything sensual (and face it, good food is sensual), was considered sinful. At least enjoying it is sinful.
How many of us have said, or thought, or been with people who've said, "Oh, I'm being so bad by eating this," or "I really shouldn't, but..." We dish this guilt out to ourselves every day. This food is bad, that food is bad, but I'm going to eat it anyway.
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I made the walnut applesauce cake from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Cakes (at least I think that's where it's from) over the weekend. A lovely cake, with walnuts and raisins in it. I subbed out half the raisins for dried cranberries to add some color.
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On Pastrylady's suggestion I added pumpkin puree to my white chocolate mousse. I mold it in a demisphere mold and topped it with a chocolate almond daquoise-put in the freezer and then unmolded it the next day. Glazed it with ganache. Garnished it with orange butter cream and a black cat cookie. Boy do they look awesome in my case and by the way. Pumpkin is great with ganache
That sounds amazing.
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I have a good recipe for a quince pound cake (made in a bundt pan) if you're looking for something slightly out of the ordinary.
other recipes that come to mind:
Almond cake
Chocolate stout cake
They're all at home. Let me know if you'd like any of them.
Edited to add: I made a great walnut applesauce cake over the weekend, too. The instructions call for a 9x13, but I divided it into smallish loaf pans instead because they're going to different people, and it came out fine. It's iced with a honey cream cheese icing. That one, I think is from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Cakes.
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I have made a similar decision in the past year, except to pursue pastry school. It was a hard decision, fraught with a lot of "what ifs" and "buts," but I finally took the plunge. (You can read my blog from the link in my sig).
Roux's right. Only you know if it's right for you.
One option you might consider if you aren't sure you want to (or would want to) deal with the hubbub of a restaurant kitchen is becoming a personal chef. There are several members on eG who are doing just that.
As for schooling, see what's in your area. Or, if you'd have to go outside your area, where would you want to go. There are a lot of good cooking schools around the country, though some of them are pricey.
good luck.
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The gene that allows someone to decide that the eggs in the fridge are too old to use, go to the store and buy a new carton of eggs and place it on top of the old container, without throwing the old eggs away, of course.
That's probably the same gene that makes a friend's husband pitch the milk on the day it expires. Even if it isn't bad, and half the gallon container's still full.
My grocery lists start on the white board on our fridge, then get added to as I figure out what we're eating for the next week. What really irks me is when I forget something that was on the list. Like yesterday, when I had to run to the store for two stinkin' carrots!
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some really delectable cheese and a great bottle of red wine
a fine port and some lovely dark chocolate
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a 100 square foot pantry
You could fit my entire kitchen into that 100 square foot pantry.
Can I amend my list, Santa? A Le Creuset dutch oven because mom is NEVER going to give me hers, even though she complains that it's too heavy.
All-Clad pans to replace my serviceable, but not the greatest, Revereware.
I'll make you extra cookies, Santa!
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Don't feel bad. I've had trouble with parsnips taking a year and a day to cook, too. You're very brave to show us the good, bad and ugly, but it all looks wonderful from here.
Any homemade bread is a good thing. Lopsided or not.
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I would love to have a subscription to a local wine shop's wine of the month club as a way to learn more about wine.
A remodeled kitchen comes to mind, too, with ample storage for sheet pans, baking pans, a good-sized pantry, plenty of smooth-surfaced counterspace. Not exactly easy to stuff in a stocking, but we're talking wishes here!
A handful of cookbooks that are on my amazon wishlist: "I'm Just Here for More Food," the new edition of "On Food and Cooking," the "Bread Baker's Apprentice," and oh, I could keep going. The list is long.
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I've neither received nor given an "---- of the month" gift, but I think they're great ideas. I particularly like (and would love to receive myself) a wine, cheese, or beer of the month.
What I don't like are the gift basket things. Especially coming from close family. Especially when you handmade them their gifts. Hazelnut Vanilla Cappucino in the tin (you know, the kind whose ads features women on cozy sofas, all dreamy-eyed over their coffee?)???
Not that that's ever happened to me, of course.
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the Walmart peppers smell strangely like gasoline or kerosene
That's just really quite frightening.Enjoying the blog so far, and congratulations on discovering cooking! The great thing is that there are always new things to learn, new toys to buy (is that a scale I see in the background?), and new things to try.
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I feel for you. That's a really awkward kitchen, not much smaller than mine, but the layout scares me! (and makes me grateful for my own kitchen). If you haven't yet, check out that home site's kitchen forum. It's a fantastic resource for people going through exactly what you are. They can help give you ideas on what to do temporarily until you can manage a real remodel.
Then take your time thinking about how you want to redo the space.
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Ooooh, candy corn!
I love candy corn and usually buy a bag or two each year, but this year, with pastry school, I figure I'm getting more than my fair share of sugar and haven't bought any yet. As for what to hand out, we usually get about 50 or so kids (I guess?) and hand out only stuff we like: Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Sweetarts, Butterfinger, Smarties. -
Cat Cora is also the (to my mind annoying) chef portion of the remodel trio on "Kitchen Accomplished," FTV's latest non-food show.
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Wow, just some amazing work there. And while I might not choose one of those cakes for myself, or even want to create something like that (the Addams family cake comes to mind), the level of detail and amount of skill and time that goes into creating these pieces is just mind-boggling.
As for that "jar of pickled peppers cake," just how do they get the cake to look transparent??
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I just bought a torch, and it's definitely propane (and my Hank Hill inner voice adds, "and propane accessories"). $15 at my local mom&pop hardware store.
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Imagine the curious onlookers. "They actually bake bread? From scratch?"
I already get that. The incredulous "you made this?!" as though it were outside the realm of possibility, impossible for a home cook, or simply so onerous a task that the person cannot conceive of someone voluntarily doing it.
I think the statistic that 2 out of 3 meals will be eaten out of the home by 2010 is erroneous, unless you consider kids eating lunch at school, or adults carrying leftovers to the office/job, as well as people grabbing the granola bar in the morning as they run out the door. Perhaps in large urban areas, this might prove true, but I think that there are enough people like snowangel and tejon who are defying the statistics.
For my own part, on days that I work, I'm all but forced to eat out, as the office where I work has no break room, and the lone microwave is in the boss' office (as is his small, dorm-sized fridge). I do not feel comfortable enough to ask to invade his space and use his microwave, and as I don't care for the basic sandwich, I eat out. My preference would be to bring in leftovers. As for breakfast, it's always at home, and dinner is there as well (homemade, not takeout or frozen), at least 4 nights a week.
All this in spite of my suboptimal kitchen, with its substandard lighting such that I throw a shadow onto whatever I'm cutting/washing/cooking. My kitchen might not be as small as some (it's about 120 square feet), but that doesn't mean it's a joy to cook in either. However, I decided at some point that having an inefficient kitchen is hardly an excuse not to cook, and I can turn out some pretty spectacular food in spite of its failings.
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Quince is beginning to come into season here, and I picked up a couple of pounds at the farmer's market yesterday.
My pastry chef instructor demo'ed the use of quince in a tart. She cooked chunks of the fruit in a sugar syrup with an orange, cinnamon sticks, star anise and cloves, then put the fruit into a tart shell and baked. While I enjoyed it, I felt like the other flavors overpowered the delicate flavor of the quince itself.
So what (if anything) do you do with quince? When I was in France in college, I remember having a lovely quince paste/gelee for dessert. It was cut into slabs, or thick slices, but I haven't the foggiest idea of how it's made.
And, for the science geeks out there, why does it change color so drastically when it cooks, going from a creamy pale color to that beautiful rose?
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Well, aside from the vegetables and herbs that die a slow, lingering death in the vegetable crisper, slowly turning to goo
, I would hope that I treat my food with a certain amount of respect.OK, I confess. I slice my lettuce, rather than tear it by hand.
And there's the occasional overcooked bit of something, or recipe that I screw up because I'm halving it, and forget somewhere in the middle. But I chalk that up to carelessness more than a deliberate food crime.
Swiss versus Italian Meringue Buttercream
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
And I thought that a French bcream used a creme anglaise base. At the very least, French bc is the only one with any yolks in it.
My understanding is the same as yours: Italian bc uses heated sugar, and Swiss bc heats the eggwhites and sugar together.