jgarner53
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Posts posted by jgarner53
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why did you sit at the bar for a half hour?
$3 happy hour cocktails
Yeah, we probably should have told the waitress about the movie time. But again, considering how empty the place was, and the time we sat down (and that things moved smoothly until the point when we got our salad), I didn't think it would be a problem.
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I'm embarrassed to say I've never had a truffle. Or truffle oil. So I can't say whether I like it or not.
Most of my other things, I'm not really embarrassed by. Yeah, I don't like mustard. So what? I'll probably eat it if you make me a sandwich, and it's on it, but it's not my favorite. I'll choke down broccoli, too, if I have to.
I personally would consider it very rude to be at someone's home and leave a little pile of broccoli on my plate, or pick something else out of my food unless I had an allergy. To me, that's behavior worthy of a 10-year old, not an adult.
So you can imagine my reaction when my mother-in-law did just that at Christmas. She just said, "I don't like XXX."
I think pate tastes like cat food (not that I've eaten the latter
).I'm probably more embarrassed that I could eat a whole box of Velveeta Shells & Cheese.
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I have to have a list, otherwise I'll forget something. We plan out meals each week and shop for those, plus weekly staples like milk and OJ. Additionally, as we run out of other things (laundry detergent), they go onto the whiteboard on the fridge.
From the stuff on the whiteboard and reading the recipes for the week, either Mr. Garner or I make a list (depending on who's doing the shopping).
I am more susceptible to impulse buys, particularly at the farmers' market, where I can easily be seduced by heirloom tomatoes or the perfect eggplant, but I've also been known to throw the odd bottle of wine or carton of ice cream in the cart if I'm feeling like it.
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Last night, Mr. Garner and I decided to go out to a movie that started at 8. We chose a nearby, popular restaurant (one subway stop away) that we'd enjoyed before. At about 6:30, we sat down at the bar for a cocktail before getting a table. Around 7, when we got our table, the restaurant was, at most 1/4 full. We ordered, but didn't indicate to our server that we were trying to make a movie. Mr. Garner ordered the daily special (a chili), and I ordered a soft polenta dish with roasted vegetables. Neither of these should have taken very long to plate once the order was fired, right?
Wrong.
We got our salad within a few minutes, and when the waitress cleared the plates, she brought over another basket of bread.
At 7:35, after trying unsuccessfully several times to get her attention, as we were getting antsy about making our movie and still didn't have our food, I asked another server to find her for us. Eventually, she came over. I asked for our food packed to go, as we needed to leave to catch a movie.
She huffed that we should have told her we were in a hurry and then offered the excuse that the kitchen was sometimes slow because the order had been fired a while ago. I said that we didn't think we'd needed to tell her we were in a hurry because the restaurant was very obviously NOT busy when we had ordered.
When she brought our food, she asked us if we wanted the meal comped, or something taken off the bill. I said no, since we were taking the food. We paid and left, leaving no tip (yes, I realize that this is as much the kitchen's fault as anything, but I was pissed off).
First off, how long should one have to wait for the main course, assuming 1) the restaurant was only 1/4 full when we ordered, 2) we had ordered no cocktails or wine at our table, 3) this is not a "destination" restaurant where people go to spend the entire evening lingering over their meal and 4) we'd ordered relatively simple dishes that shouldn't have required a lot of a la minute prep? (The couple at the table next to us, who'd sat down at least 10 minutes after we did, received their overcooked steaks before we got our to-go package.)
Second, should the waitress have asked us what we wanted in compensation, or just made a gesture and then told us? "Please accept our apologies; I took one of your main courses off the bill." -- that sort of thing.
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HTH?
Huh??
Thanks for your suggestions Sinclair. Yes, I will be studying pastry, starting at the end of next month. In the meantime, I'm cooking/baking as much as I can, reading books like "Cookwise," and about to start McGee, so I can understand the science behind things. There can be worse things than making 8 different mousse recipes!
So I do know that sugar will burn yolks, and that you have to whisk & heat gradually to avoid getting scrambled eggs. I started beating the yolks before putting in the sugar, and in retrospect, probably put it in too fast. Upon reflection, adding ice to my cool water bath is probably where I really destroyed the yolks, though; they cooled too fast, seized up, and instant yuck.
Since I'd already melted the chocolate in the recipe and mixed in the butter, and had other things to do yesterday afternoon, I went ahead with MacDuff's suggestion and used less sugar. I beat on a slower speed (4 of 7 on my hand mixer - still not willing to get out the whisk, though I had considered it), and used just cool tap water for the cool-down with no further problems except a slight ring of hardened yolk where the waterline was on the outside bowl (but that stuck to the bowl, so I could work around it). I haven't tasted the final chilled product yet, but the prelimary tastes were good.
My other note on the recipe is that it called for 4 TBS of strong coffee. Well, strong coffee means the rocket fuel/paint thinner that my husband drinks, calling for 3 heaping TBS. of beans in a 6-cup moka pot. To the home cook in 1961, that likely meant 2 scoops of Folgers in the percolator. So my resulting mousse is much more of a mocha mousse than chocolate, but that's OK.
As long as it doesn't kill me, I look on it as an opportunity to learn.
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I imagine that the restriction on preparing foods at home for your client has a lot to do with cleanliness. If you were catering commercially, you'd use a commercial kitchen of some kind. If I were planning on using a personal chef, I'd think that knowing the food was made "right here, in my own kitchen" rather than in some unknown place, would be a comfort.
For all I, the potential customer know, your cats walk all over your counters, there are bugs everywhere, and your refrigerator doesn't work properly. Ahh, but my own kitchen -- that's familiar, even if I have the same problems!
What a beautiful view you have! I'm extremely jealous.
Edited because I can't string a sentence together.
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Well, aside from mixing alcohols (margarita, followed by wine, followed by something else...), the only thing I know of that gives me a headache is dehydration.
My other headaches are muscle tension, and nothing (and I DO mean nothing) seems to get rid of them except time.
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Yeah, I decided against the savarin as well and am trying to make mousse au chocolate from Mastering the Art.
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So in honor of Julia, I'm trying to make mousse au chocolat from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
The first step has you beat 4 eggs yolks with 3/4 cup "instant" sugar (I'm guessing that's superfine/caster sugar?) until it forms the ribbon. Fine, no problem.
Then you continue to beat over simmering water until it's too hot to touch. She says that it will become foamy. Once that's done, then you put the bowl over a cool water bath and continue to beat until the yolks once again form the ribbon and the final consistency will resemble mayonnaise.
What happened was that I didn't get any foam when heating the yolks over the simmering water, and when I put the bowl over the cool water and continued beating, I got a thick, grainy (the sugar never dissolved) mess.
So in considering the problem (cooking egg yolks and ostensibly dissolving the sugar), I was thinking that it might make MORE sense to pour a sugar syrup into the beaten yolks, like with an Italian meringue, as the sugar is already dissolved.
Will this work, or do I have to go back to Julia's technique and try again? If so, where did I go wrong? Was my cold water too cold? What temp should I be looking for on the yolks/sugar when they can be considered done?
I was beating at about speed 5 on a hand mixer the whole time.
We will, for the moment, at least, ignore the fact that this recipe cooks the yolks but not the whites (it calls for stiffly beaten whites instead of whipped cream).
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In honor of Julia, shouldn't we bake something this weekend?
Savarin, perhaps? Mousse au Chocolat (though I don't think there's a recipe for it in BWJ)
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I never met the woman, but I'm sitting here at work in tears.
A few months ago, I had the good fortune to take a cake decorating class taught by Stephanie Hirsch, Julia's personal assistant for the past 16 years. I asked her what the most important thing she had learned from working with Julia was.
She replied that Julia didn't get flustered, didn't let things bother her (in other words, don't sweat the small stuff). That she always approached things with humor and joy.
If that's all any of us learn from her, and so many of us learned much, much more, then we are all enriched.
G-d bless you, Julia. Thank you for everything.
I lift my glass and a stick of butter to you.
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In my experience, at least, the glop on fruit pies/tarts (when it's glop, as opposed to glaze) is heavily dyed with food coloring, usually to mask inferior fruit underneath. So what you think is a tart with beautiful crimson strawberries is nasty red glop covering pallid, underripe, flavorless berries, all sitting on a soggy crust. Blecch.
I wouldn't buy that either.
So what may be happening is that people recall an experience like the one I just described and bypass fruit tarts, or else they think that the price is too high for fruit and crust. Perhaps that's not "fancy" enough for the event, and they feel a cake with fancy decorating would be more appropriate. Like having a fancy dessert means something rich - like triple Snickers cookies & cream peanut butter cheesecake.
Do people usually buy something else if they don't go for the fruit tart?
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I'd say easily. I made mine a week ago, and they're still good. A little "tighter" on the surface, maybe, but definitely still soft, puffy, and yummy!
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I think it comes down to what and how you define a "special occasion," and what you do to celebrate it. 50 is nearly one a week, probably more clustered, of course, around the holiday season. I know I don't have 50 "special occasions" a year in my life.
But if you use the term "special occasion" to include Jr's first steps as an excuse to indulge, then you probably have a more problematic relationship to food. Wouldn't that be the same as eating to try to self-medicate? "Oh, I'm feeling blue. I'll eat this pint of Ben & Jerry's." While the internal dialog may be different, and certainly "occasions" usually mean other/more people around to observe and judge you, I think that the end result is the same.
The only times I really don't hold myself back at all, occasion-wise, is Thanksgiving and Christmas morning. Not eat my homemade sticky buns? Are you kidding? Have only one (or no) slice of bacon? Fuhgeddaboudit.
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butterscotch creme, à la See's bordeaux.
Either that or just more chocolate! (dark, please)
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Happy Birthday!
And so far I love the berries and am impressed by the menu. How many clients do you work for? How much food do you prepare for each at a time (how many meals)? Do you just prep dinners, or do you manage other meals as well?
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There are farmers at Alemany and there are people with large trucks that pick up produce from a distributor at Alemany.
Good point. I wasn't aware of that. I do know that many of the vendors I've spoken to seem to have first-hand knowledge of their produce, as in what's coming in or going out, when we might see more of this or that, etc. I will make an attempt to hit the stalls at Alemany that are actually staffed by the farmers.
IMHO, one of the benefits of patronizing a farmer's market is giving money directly to the farmer, and not some middle-man, third party distributor.
Squeat, given that you don't have a car and would spend ages in a Muni-induced hell to get to Alemany, I give you full blessing to attend the FP farmer's market.
I, on the other hand, do have a car and live closer to Alemany than I do to the FP. -
And I didn't report that I made the X cookies a couple of weeks ago. Not being able to find candied orange peel, I made some myself. I felt that overall, the cookies were good, but that the orange peel dominated. But I don't know whether that's because of my candying technique, or whether there was just too much orange peel in the recipe. I wanted a slightly more dominant fig flavor.
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I have all weekend (and 8 appreciative guys coming over on Sunday) and could do something this week.
Next week, I plan on making the tuiles, to go with a meyer lemon sorbet I'm making for a dinner party.
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It all looks spectacular. Congratulations! I hope your hard work is paying off with ample customers. It looks like your breads are popular, judging by the empty bins.
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At the risk of being labeled a pariah, or infidel, or blasphemer, I can't stand the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market.
Yes, they have absolutely gorgeous produce. I have no beef with the farmers.
Yes, the location is stunning.
But I refuse to pay $3/lb for peaches, $6/lb for cherries when I can spend $20 at the Alemany farmer's market and get a week's worth of fruit and veg for my husband and me AND a great tamale if I'm hungry.
I find the yuppified, upscale clientele at the Ferry Plaza, with the $500 strollers and kids running every which way, the distant parking (if you can find a street spot, or else pay $3), and the prices all too much to deal with on a Saturday morning.
Yes, Alemany is frequently foggy.
Yes, the parking lot is a logistical nightmare (who planned that, anyway)
Yes, I have to fight for my spot in front of a stall with little Asian ladies half my height.
But I can go there uncoifed, looking like a slob, and not feel like I am somehow competing with Mr. & Mrs. Pacific Heights.
So sue me. You can serve me at the Alemany market Saturday morning.
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As to my preferred reference to Orange County (having grown up in it, I feel I have more than enough right to trash it), I generally say "behind the Orange Curtain."
I have yet to find good sushi in OC, and my husband (former Irvine inmate) and I are usually looking for some. Good to know the names of a couple of places for the few (maybe 2-3) times we're down there each year.
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I haven't bought any Frog Hollow peaches this year. From what I recall last year, I wasn't impressed -- not enough "peachy" flavor to make it worth the cost.
I've also stopped visiting the Ferry Plaza farmer's market in favor of the Alemany market where the prices are cheaper. I've been getting outstanding peaches from a vendor that has a sign saying "voted #1 in farmer's market." FWIW, after tasting the offerings at other stalls, I tend to agree, enough to make it worth $1.75/lb for these beauties.
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The pizza cutter was my first instinct, too, though I sprayed mine with cooking spray, and it worked just as well.
All Things Blueberry
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Cobbler, pie, pancakes, in a sauce over anything lemon (cheesecake, tart), an alternate to caramel in creme caramel.
They freeze extraordinarily well, too. I rinse them, then place on a sheet pan in the freezer until solid. Once they're solid, I bag 'em up and vacuum seal, and it's blueberries in February.
Or you could send some to me!