jgarner53
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Posts posted by jgarner53
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Hey, a keggerator! I keep waiting for my husband the homebrewer to decide he's ready for one. Then all we'd need to do is find room in amongst the bicycles, the table saw, and---oh yeah---the car!
My homebrewer husband put in the tap after he'd been kegging a little while and was tired of opening the door to access the picnic tap. All it took was the right sized drill bit, really. As I recall, it was fairly simple to install the tap.
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My garage fridge has a keg tap in the door! Now that's useful!
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You could use cornstarch instead of tapioca. I cook some of the cherry juice with cornstarch on the stove until it boils and thickens before putting it in the shell.
I love a lattice top to a cherry pie - the red cherries are so pretty! If you aren't confident enough about weaving the strips, you can also just place them. If you alternate - one strip this way, one strip at 90 degrees, etc., you'll get an interesting weave that way.
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I love the tribute cake! Be forewarned, bake the layers separately, and do not dump them into one pan (like I did once). I got a heavy, dense mess, and while it was amazingly fudgey, it wasn't exactly what it was supposed to be.
The Sarah Berhnhardt Glaze is lovely.
As for the chocolate fans, however, I suck completely at them, and just ignore them completely.
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Wow, exciting to read! What do you plan to do or where do you want to go when you're done? How long is the Pastry program at the CIA? Do you want to work at a high-end hotel or resort? Do you have a focus on something (like wedding cakes)?
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Clearly I didn't date enough when I was single! These stories are hilarious!
My darling husband didn't particularly like beer or coffee when we met. I hooked him on both, but have since myself given up on coffee (always makes my stomach too jangly). Now he's a serious homebrewer on top of it all!
And I'm proud to say that our palates have developed together. Where once we wouldn't turn down a meal at Red Robin (or Wed Wobin), we now happily head for the divey ethnic place with the much better food.
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An update on the inadequate sour cream usage of the Double Chocolate cake. While I might have beaten the eggs a trifle too long, I suspect that the true nature of the problem in this cake (at least my failed iteration at it) was that it had no structural integrity. Bite into a cupcake, and it turns into a thousand crumbs. Tasty crumbs, but crumbs.
so back to the drawing board and my kitchen to try this cake again, with the appropriate amount of sour cream. Oh darn. More chocolate cake. Whatever shall I do?
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What about using rum instead of the cognac? It would also enhance the chocolate flavor. You could use vanilla, too.
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Argh! I have the Double Chocolate Cake (the revised version with the unsweetened chocolate and added butter) in the oven (cupcakes and a 6-inch cake) and only AFTER it was in the oven, and I was washing my dishes, did I realize that I only put in 1/2 cup of sour cream, instead of the 1 1/2 cups it called for. The cupcakes are out of the oven, and it's all I can do not to tear into one right now to see if they're OK. The batter tasted oh so yummy.
As a point of comparison, I made the Black Magic Cake yesterday and wasn't blown away. I'd switch to cake flour (instead of AP), but there just wasn't enough chocolate flavor there to make me crave more.
Whereas the Double Chocolate cake - I could have just eaten the batter raw. I expect that the finished product (insufficient sour cream or no) will be make-you-want-to-gorge delicious and will probably become my standard chocolate layer cake.
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I'd say a good rule of thumb is, if you could imagine the residents of Lake Wobegone eating it, especially at a church supper, it probably qualifies as wholesome.
So, then, that would mean that jello molds are wholesome?
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My husband drinks a lot more of it than I do, but then again I have some kind of fruit with my breakfast most mornings. We like the Trader Joe's fresh squeezed stuff.
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I confess to never have enjoyed cassoulet either. Will you save me a bowl? I look forward to learning more about it (in today's grey, cool weather, a hot, steaming bowl of beans and pork sounds delightful).
What a beautiful marketplace!
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I confess I do still buy chicken broth, depending on the usage, even though I also make my own. I like to use mine when it will provide a key flavor component to the finished dish (like risotto).
But I make my own pancakes and waffles, macaroni & cheese and salad dressing.
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what about artichoke saganaki! enough to make me lick the whole inside of my own mouth and suck on my teeth , and don't even ask me how i did it when my tongue seemed to be busy with the eating part.
I think that's my favorite line of this blog!I could be wrong, but my own husband, born and raised in California, claims to have never eaten an artichoke until he met me in his mid-20's.
It's always been one of my favorite vehicles for butter - er, vegetables. What do you do at Bay Breads? Sounds like you're a baker. Tell us everything!Sorry for the delayed reply on this. My own fault for not turning on the computer yesterday, and I feel a bit sheepish answering this two pages later, but I am a pastry cook at the original Bay Bread (Pine at Fillmore). Other outlets (bakery/cafés) in Cole Valley, Russian Hill, and Cow Hollow sell our breads and pastries, but they're mostly all made at Pine Street (there's a big bread shop down in South SF, but every pastry is made in my location). I love it. I love the smell wafting down the street in the wee hours when I am coming in to start my day. I love watching the deft fingers of the bread bakers shaping and forming dough into every manner of shape, kneading in extras like dried figs and walnuts, the confident slashes the oven baker makes in the baguettes to give them their traditional grignes, the peel with the 8-foot long handle to get to the way back of the bread oven, the quick flicks of the wrist of the head viennoiserie baker as he rolls croissants, the magic of turning common ingredients like flour, butter, sugar and eggs into any variety of magical creations...of course, that doesn't even tap into what I do, which is pastry, which I also love. It's a great environment with great camaraderie; Pascal (the owner) always seems to have a smile on his face.
Oh, and the pot de crème? A simple spoonful of it can make me weak in the knees. A warm croissant, crispy and impossibly flaky and buttery, gets me giddy.
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You must smell like the Avon lady after! Ewwwwwwwwwww
Gawd, yes!
Does anyone besides remember Rose Milk lotion? I can't believe they still make it!
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it was so good that when i was biting into it i was thinking: I wish I had TWO MOUTHS! so could eat it in both at the same time!
Crisp edges, tons of seeds and onion and garlic, just enough butter that i put on only to sort of warm it not to melt, and since the butter was sweet (unsalted) i sprinkled the tiniest amount of salt flakes here and there.
That is so how I feel about a good bagel! Especially the everything ones, slathered with cream cheese and smoked salmon. CaliPoutine's right about the Bread Baker's Apprentice recipe - it does make some damn good bagels. Adding baking soda to the water helps make the outsides good and chewy. See?
Well, you can't see the chewy, but trust me, it's there!
I think I remember reading somewhere that you're partial to Acme's bread when you're in the Bay Area. You have had Bay Bread bread, I'm sure - it's in half the restaurants in town (as well as the bakeries). I think we (since I work there) do make some damn fine breads.
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A whole book about macaroni & cheese? Marlena, I fall and worship at your e-feet! Macncheez is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods, having eaten far more than my weight in it over the course of my lifetime, I'm sure.
Do you have a particular favorite recipe in the book?
Though I do have to disagree with you that it needs salad to be considered a meal. In my world, comfort food meals do not have to be balanced with adequate veg.
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Peanut butter cookies. I'll make them for my husband, and we make them at work (and then make ones with milk chocolate baked on top). Bleah. What a way to ruin good peanut butter! The texture makes my mouth go dry just thinking about it.
I'm not a fan of flaked coconut either, but fortunately, we don't use it in anything at work.
Anything rose flavored tastes like I'm eating my grandma's hand lotion. We do two things with rose (and we use rose oil, not water), and the stuff is so strong, especially when it's first mixed, that the smell gets on my hands even if the oil doesn't, and lasts well past several hand-washings. (To give you an idea of how strong this stuff is, just 18 drops will flavor a 27 pound batch of frangipane filling.)
And, if I'm not mistaken (I might be), I think this is my 1,000th post!
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The chunky, eggy, frozen noodles I buy for soup (Grandma's). They're chewy and irresistible.
Raw hamburger. I can never help but pinch off a bite or two.
Does eating finished raw dough count? I have to confess to a huge dough thing: bread, cookie, brisée, sucrée - you name it.
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Oh, hurray! Your column is one of my favorite parts of the Food section in the Chron.
And who knew you could bring cheese into the US from Europe? I thought the government severely frowned on all those lovely unpasteurized cheeses? Or if you're bringing them in, they figure you're on your own, risk-wise?
Of course, this would mean I'd have to get to Europe first, to bring home cheese. I can see the conversation with my husband now. "Honey, let's go to France." "Why?" "So I can get some cheese!"
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pho
hot and sour soup
Thai green curry
miso soup
creamy polenta
risotto
Hmm, seems to be a pattern here. Soup or creamy starchy dishes. I wonder what deep-seated psychological truth that unveils about me?
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I wish we'd fondued! We went over to some friends', and the food was, uh, marginal (read sparse and something of an afterthought, like a hodgepodge of their fridge leftovers, rather than a separate meal).
Am I being ungrateful, or when one accepts an invitation for New Year's Eve, shouldn't one expect some kind of organized meal (or munchie buffet)?
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Due to my work schedule (at work at 5am), the husband and I wind up eating dinner most nights by 6:30. Much later than that, and I feel like I have no time to digest before going to bed. However, come the weekends, I'm back to my old routine of eating dinner around 7:30-8pm.
Given my druthers, though, I'll fight for those 8pm reservations. 5:30 is just way too early, even for me with my schedule.
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Seoul International has some great food (including a stall where there's a guy pulling noodles), not to mention free internet.
San Francisco's International terminal has some pretty decent fare - well beyond the Cinnabon/Noah's Bagel/Pizza Hut/Jamba Juice/clam chowder bread bowls that you find in the domestic terminals.
eG Foodblog: Darcie B - Bakin' with bacon
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Great bagel and cat photos! I'm so sorry about the loss of your oldest. I lost one of mine last month, and I know how hard it is.
I think that Peter Reinhart bagel recipe is one of the best I've tried so far - so great and chewy! Though I think I skip the float test (if I recall correctly). Have you tried any other bagel recipes, and how did you come to find this one and settle on it?