jgarner53
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Posts posted by jgarner53
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Wow! The glove idea sounds great. I'll have to give that a try.
I've done the roasting bit before and found the skins frustratingly tough to get off, though maybe the steam bath with the damp towel and the gloves will help. I'll try that next time.
Tryska,
The baking soda method works as follows:
2 C water
2/3 C hazelnuts
3 TBS baking soda
(I was doing 1 1/2 C of hazelnuts so scaled the recipe accordingly)
Boil the water in a medium-sized saucepan. Add nuts and baking soda (it will bubble up and maybe over, so be prepared!), and let boil 3-5 minutes until the water turns black, and a nut dropped into a dish of cold water will peel easily. Strain into a colander, and rinse with cold water, then peel away!
After all that, I then toasted the nuts before adding to the cookies, and they seemed fine, though I don't eat a lot of hazelnuts so I might not be noticing a texture difference.
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Hey, I spent part of my honeymoon at the Jabberwock, too! We got married just before Christmas, and just took 4 days to drive around the state, spending a night here, a night there (and a night at the famous Madonna Inn!). The Jabberwock was beautiful!
Back to the food...
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Please tell me there is an easier/faster/more efficient way to take the skins off hazelnuts than what I'm doing.
Per the hazelnut biscotti recipe in Baking with Julia (recipe by Nick Malgieri), I boiled them in some water with baking soda (boy did THAT fizz!) for a few minutes and then rinsed them with cold water. That made the skins easy to slip off, but I still had to rub each one with a dishtowel to get all the skin off; some were easier than others, and I had to handle each one individually. I found that trying to rub a handful in the towel was ineffective.
But they sure are tasty!
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I'd much rather support a good, local bakery than a corporate chain. I can't think of any right now, of course, except for Noah's Bagels or Cinnabon, and I can think of better places to get both bagels and sticky buns.
Here in San Francisco, close by my house, an out-of-the-way, not central part of town, is a small bakery, and all he makes is cheesecake. Plain cheesecake - any flavors are toppings applied after baking. This is a heavenly, light (ricotta?) cheesecake, not NY-style, and the man does really impressive business. At Christmas, he only sells off of orders, so if you walk in off the street, you're out of luck. Cash only. Once he's out of the day's cheesecakes, he closes for the day. He's so popular that when he goes on vacation every summer, he sells a bunch of cheesecakes to a local market, and puts a sign up on the door -- but that's the only time you can get them at the market.
That man is my hero. Do one thing, do it really well, and you get to make the rules.
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I would find it more disconcerting if I knew he were deliberately "dumbing down" the pronunciation to suit the ear of English speakers.
Exactly. Now, if someone were trying to use those words to impress you, or got uppity and corrected you if you mispronounced it, then that's different.
Otherwise we'd have "KWISH-ee" instead of quiche (if not just "egg pie") and all sorts of other mispronunciations.
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Suppose you were a teetotaler - what would you sub for the rum?
It would change the nature of the cake completely, but I should think that you could go for a fruit flavor (apricot, orange, raspberry, lemon, or even almond, or a combination thereof). It wouldn't be a Diplomat cake any longer, but it would probably still be quite tasty!
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Looking forward to your blog and wondering what's on the menu this week - Indian or Asian cuisine? Grandma's favorites?
What kind of rolls did she make?
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This issue goes along with one of my favorite concerns - that people don't bake at home anymore.
I think the loss of the neighborhood bakery is definitely tied to cost -- if I can buy a half-sheet cake at Costco for $20 (or whatever it costs), why would I buy a small, 8-inch layer cake for $30? (aside from quality, freshness, and taste) And that also translates to the other side of the house. If I'm a baker and my $5 or $7 pastries aren't selling, I'm not going to stay in business, no matter how well-made they are.
I think that we, as a culture, have forgotten what quality baked goods taste like, or else we treat them as a special treat, as someone else said. Over the years, we've come to expect shortnening-based icings (with your favorite photo air-brushed on top), gummy fillings, and dry, overly sweet cakes as "the norm" for something from a bakery.
And since we're collectively unwilling, or unable, to bake something at home from scratch, our choices are then limited.
Here in San Francisco, we have several very good bakeries, as well as excellent bread and chocolates, but in the hinterlands - even as close as probably Walnut Creek, or Livermore, the "bakery" probably means what's in the supermarket, or at Costco. "Pie" means some concoction from Baker's Square, in a graham cracker crust, with packaged pudding filling, chopped Snickers bars, and a quart of whipped cream, rather than a simple tart with a butter crust and fresh, seasonal fruit. "Homemade cookies" means that I bought the pre-made dough at the store (cutting it off the roll is now too much work, and it comes in lumps), and stuck them in the oven (and if you believe the advertising, if you do this, not only are you a "good mom," but you are creating lasting memories for your kids)
In deciding to pursue a pastry career (I start school in September), I feel like it's somehow my mission, in whatever form it takes, to bring quality, fresh baked goods back into people's homes. Homemade cookies, pies, cakes, tarts. Somewhere between Mrs. Fields (and her cookies were probably good at first) and Martha Stewart.
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like Trader joe's or Whole Foods will encourage you to sample their products before making your decision.
I've never seen this at any of the TJ's I've shopped at over the last 15 years, but maybe I'm just not curious enough?
I did have a TJ's checker ask me once if I'd checked my eggs for broken ones. I looked at him and said, "you mean there are people who don't?" He replied, "you'd be surprised." But he's the only one who's ever asked me. The supermarket drones can barely manage to grunt out, "thankyoumsgarnerdoyouneedhelpouttoyourcar."
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Campbell's tomato soup
Saltines with butter
Jello
Custard
7-UP
I still love tomato soup, sick or not (though I don't eat Campbell's anymore), as well as custard, once in a while, but don't really care for the other things.
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Welcome, Mackrock,
Sinclair is right in that this board has a wealth of information to offer up.
I am in a similar situation to yours and finally decided to t the pastry by the horns and go to school. I hemmed and hawed over whether I want this as a career and finally realized that there are a hundred (or more) different ways to make this a career, from working in a restaurant to having your own business, so I'm sure to find my niche.
I'll be starting at Tante Marie's Cooking School (their part-time pastry course) in San Francisco in late September. Our text is going to be Nick Malgieri's How to Bake.
Good luck!
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oh, and one weird tip on rolling that i've never seen anyone else mention. maybe this is just me, but i realized about mid-July that when i was rolling out the crusts, i was pushing down on the dough. make sure you're rolling across the dough, stretching it, rather than pushing down, flattening it. for me, it came down to holding my elbows in against my body rather than out. i know that sounds weird, but try it both ways and you'll see how it affects your rolling.
I'd never thought about that. I mean, I know that I lighten up toward the edge of the crust, but I'd never thought about whether I press down or roll across.
And so I'm sitting here at work, not a rolling pin for miles, and certainly no pie dough, trying to mimic how I roll out a crust. Good thing no one can see me.
But oh, how I want a pie!
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My mom always used the scraps to roll out a mini shell, dotted with butter and cinnamon sugar and baked it (she even had a small pie plate for it). That was my favorite part of her making a pie because I usually got to eat it!
I usually don't have much in the way of scraps, and I love raw pie dough, so I usually wind up eating it.
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I'm sure everyone can agree that we're glad you got rid of that pervert...
Mr. Garner would think so. And he calls me the Pie Queen.
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(sniffs, chokes back a sob) My mom only ever made Bisquik drop biscuits.
I don't know that I've ever had a real, Southern biscuit.
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To incorporate the fat I really like to use a sturdy hand held pastry blender. It is less easy to over process the fat into too small pieces as one might do with a food processor. (A fork and knife are ok too, but I find the pastry blender easier to use and a worthwhile investment even if you aren't baking pies and biscuits every week...).
I second Ludja's comment here. Before I learned/discovered using a food processor for my crusts (which I did for speed's sake as much as anything), I used a pastry blender, which is what my mom and her mom had used. I find that the kind that look like u-shaped blades works a little better than the wire kind, but either will do.
Such a great thread! Pies are one of my favorite desserts, and I love anything with crust: tart, quiche, you name it. And Sinclair's right - it's experience. My first crusts were tough nuggets of dough, and I was always trying to get my mom's homogenous mixture. Little did I know that you WANT those lumps of butter!
Another trick I picked up from an ex-boyfriend. His mom made her crust with vegetable oil (insert green, nauseated emoticon here), and rolled out the dough between two sheets of waxed paper. It's a crutch, I know, but then my dough isn't sticking to my counter or my rolling pin, and I don't need to add extra flour either.
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OK, I'll bite. Being married to a technical writer does have its advantages (though I do spell better than he does!)
I use a lot of the words y'all don't care for but I will try to do better in the future. Or not....needs a comma before "but"
There is a place for it, many people who are working with foods are artisans, their work is artistic, adventuresome, not by rote.Comma splice! Either end the sentence after "it" and before "many," or use a semicolon. Same thing after "artisans" and before "their work."
Abbreviations work in some contexts but are out of place in others. I don't recall ever using 'shrooms, but am sure I have used words to describe foods that appeal to me as lucious, delish, etc."lucious" should be "luscious"
Frankly, I enjoy reading the posts even if they include words that are not what I would use, or there are no capitals, but there is incorrect punctuation and some very odd spelling. Having been an English major I notice these things but it is the context, not the grammer that makes the posts interesting to me.Again, needs a comma between "I notice these things," and "but it is the context."
OK. I've proven I'm a dweeb. You can hurt me now.
I really, really don't pay attention or care what spelling, grammar, or punctuation people use in their posts. It's all about the food.With regards to boning a chicken, I remember once in high school when a friend was staying with me for a week because her parents were out of town, and we went into paroxysms of laughter one night while cleaning up the leftover chicken. It had been boneless chicken, and, well, we decided that there had to be people who boned chickens, i.e., chicken boners. I don't think I breathed for 5 minutes.
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One other thing I'd do is chill the rolled out dough before you fill the pie, then again after it's filled, sealed, before baking (so cold pie goes into hot oven). The goal is to keep the dough as cold as possible until it gets baked.
Don't overwork the dough when you roll it out, either. Roll outward from the center, not back and forth, turning the dough 1/4 turn as you go to keep it round.
Beautiful looking pie, though!
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Fun'. I hate when foods are described as 'fun'. What exactly makes them fun? Am I a bad or dull person if I'm not totally rockin' out to my shrimp poppers with x-treme mango sauce?
On that note, anything labled as an Xtreme flavor. Usually kid/teen marketing. Xtreme ranch flavor! Xtreme pepperoni!
Exclamation points are usually also mandatory with the Xtreme flavor.
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Most mornings it's cereal (lately it's something called "Heritage Flakes," but it can be Frosted Mini Wheats or whatever else is in the cereal container), and a small glass of OJ. Winters I usually eat half a red grapefruit, but now that summer's here, it's more often a quarter of a cantaloupe. In the winter, I like steel cut oats, too. On Sundays we usually have one of three things: whole wheat french toast, waffles, or pancakes.
Always followed by my big fat mug of green tea.
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Chiles for breakfast?
Wow. Guess it takes a lot to wake you up to deal with the kids. -
As parents people can always help mold their children's tastes and habits, and only have certain things around the house, but when out with friends or on trips they will ask for what they see all of the time.
Just because a child asks for something does not mean that the parent has to give in. (Note that I am NOT a parent).
But as a point of example, my brother and sister-in-law always have a tray of fresh, sliced veggies in the fridge: pea pods, jicama, bell pepper slices, blanched asparagus, whatever's in season usually. Always available for the kids to snack on. If they get those fruit snacks (basically gummi bears in cartoon-character form), they're organic, or made from 100% fruit. The candy - all of it - Halloween, Easter, Christmas, etc. is put in a basket on the top of the fridge and only brought out with permission after a meal. String cheese is a popular snack. My nephew might not eat salad, but he'll reach for red bell pepper strips.
Nowhere in his kitchen (believe me, I've looked) are chips or Lunchables or 5% juice drinks.
They do, occasionally, get to have McDonald's, but it's a treat rather than a regular part of their diets.
It is possible. I mean, we all managed to grow up without the benefit of magic color-changing sprinkles for our yogurt and pudding you could squeeze out of a tube.
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My mom's minestrone soup. A perfect microcosm of mid-century food ideology, it combines canned broth and frozen vegetables with ground beef, but it's so yummy! It's the perfect thing on a cold winter evening with a hot crust of sourdough bread. So keep your roasted veal stock and farm-fresh veggies outta my minestrone! I want the best that Swanson's and Bird's Eye have to offer!
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I'm another pineapple core eater. In fact, that was always a great treat when mom cut up a pineapple. She'd quarter it, and we kids would fight over who got to eat it. I never thought of it as NOT edible.
And I really don't get people who dont' eat the rind of soft cheeses. yum yum! Parmiagano-reggiano rinds are a great flavoring agent (probably the salt & fat) in minestrone soup, though I pick 'em out before serving.
Shrimp shells, especially when they've been fried (along with the rest of the shrimp, of course). Good & crunchy!
eG Foodblog: tejon - Served family style
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Wow, what a challenge to cook around all those allergies! Good thing they have grown out of them (except the mild peanut allergy).
You asked if we'd had the afternoon appetizers at the Jabberwock. I barely remember (it's almost 10 years ago), but we got there near the end of the "afternoon sherry" hour so missed most of the snacks. I believe we left the next day after visiting the aquarium. I do remember the "blumbleberry" they served at breakfast - basically something like a blueberry crisp. Hoo boy, was that good!