Beanie

I am s-o-o looking forward to this. I have never posted on the Chinese forum, but have made many of Ah Leung's wonderful dishes, including last night's dinner of ma po tofu, with leftovers being today's lunch. Happy New Year Ah Leung and thank you for your great pictorials!

I bought a brand called Executive Choice at BJ's Wholesale Club. It's an off brand industrial wrap like Sysco or Reynolds and has the slide cutter, which I like very much. I'll never go back to buying the puny little, overpriced sarans and supermarket clones. If you have the space, I highly recommend the 18 inch width.

I don't think it's readily available. I asked my food service supplier and they don't carry it. I'm curious as to where others get it.

Well by NOW I have moved on. It maybe only seems more as if I haven't because the responses keep coming here and I keep responding and clarifying what happened. So, yeah, whereas the day I posted this I was still fuming, by now, just a couple of days later, it actually feels as if it happened a very long time ago. ← Good.

I think it's time to move on. You may never have an answer. Personally, I think he really meant what he said and then his boss got pissed because he, the owner and buyer, does not want to deal with a new supplier, no matter how great the product. But I'm just speculating. Maybe the guy is embarrassed; maybe he's just a rude jerk and a liar. I had a steady account for three years that dropped me with no explanation, and despite my attempts to find out what went wrong, to this day I don't know the reason. It was extremely distressing because it was an important account, we always went out of our way to provide excellent service, and the client seemed to recognize and appreciate it. Frankly, I spent too much time racking my brains out and being stressed. The point some of us are trying to make is that in business you won't always be able to figure out motivations. Sometime you just have to accept the situation and move on.

I bake fudge brownies in a half sheet pan. They are very gooey and difficult to cut without freezing. After cooling, I cover with foil and put the pan in the freezer for a few hours. When frozen, I turn the pan upside down and the entire brownie slab falls out easily (I use parchment on the bottom.) Cut into portions and wrap individually as Melissa said, then back into the freezer.

Totally true. I forgot to say in my previous post that I can't even cut my fudge brownies unless they're frozen first. Don't stress out over this customer.

It sounds to me like the customer wants to make sure the brownies are not left over from the previous day. I agree with the other posts that you should explain that the brownies are baked from scratch in large batches and frozen immediately for storage. The fact that they are frozen doesn't mean they aren't "fresh." While some baked goods such as muffins taste best just after baking, I don't think that's the case with brownies. I bake fudge brownies and always freeze them, and I agree with Medrich that they maintain their fudginess. I've been in this position and always tell the truth. I have never had a customer object. In fact, if a customer asks for a baked good that is not on display but is in the freezer, I will offer it and they are usually happy to buy it frozen (unless, of course, they want instant gratification ) One of the biggest surprises has been my experience with pies. I make them from scratch, but freeze them before baking. Once word got around that I usually have unbaked pies in the freezer, customers started buying them that way, preferring to bake them at home themselves (and probably telling their guests they made it from scratch.) It works out great for me, because my shop is low volume and I obviously hate when baked pies are unsold at the end of the day.

If I remember correctly, it was date nut bread, not raisin bread. Yum. Schrafft's

New restaurant in Park City. Shabu. And here's a review. Edited to say oops, just realized it's not new. But still, has gotten great reviews.

I've never used All Clad and can't compare, but I've owned the 10.25 inch Sitram saute pan & cover for more than 30 years, having purchased it at Bridge Kitchenware from the late Fred Bridge himself (see Fred mentioned here). Fred was an old curmudgeon who warmed up to customers only if he suspected they were serious about cooking. Otherwise, he could be rather disparaging . I apparently passed his test, because he chatted me up and recommended the Sitram saute pan along with a Wusthof chef's knife and swore they would last a lifetime. After years of constant use, they are as good as the day I bought them. I love Sitram, I love the memory of Fred Bridge, and I love telling this story.

For anyone interested in seeing the model G, here it is. Cool!

Yesterday's Dining section of the New York Times had an interesting article on this topic. Click here.

I've had a Kitchenaid K5-A with the bowl lift since the 1970s and love it. It is made by Hobart and is a workhorse. Since you mentioned budget being a factor, I'd suggest you check ebay where I've seen them go for around $100. Replacement bowls and other accessories are still available through Kitchenaid's web site and elsewhere. I agree with other comments that it's not great with heavy bread doughs, but it's never labored or stopped working when I've used it for this. (On the other hand, my relatively new KA food processor died while mixing bialy dough based on Maggie Glezer's instructions; it was out of warranty and I had to pay KA $100 for repairs ). To keep the mixer from walking around, put shelf liner under it; I use the nubby kind with holes. If I were purchasing a second mixer, I would definitely look at the Electrolux and Bosch for their greater capacity. But for a good all around mixer at a reasonable price, the older KAs are great.

Dairyland in the Bronx carries Dufour by the case. Their retail outlet is Chef's Warehouse.

Vital Wheat Gluten.

Another congratulations! That is such great news. Thank you for sharing.

Me three. After reading all of hzrt8w's pictorials in the Chinese forum and trying out many of the dishes, it has changed the way I cook Chinese food. Check out this one for stir fried spinach with beef; similar to your dish.

I once got a free bag of SAF instant yeast at a bakery show, used about a teaspoon to bake some bread, and placed the bag in the back of the refrigerator in a plastic container. About five years later I decided to bake bread again. The yeast was fine... perhaps not as active as fresher yeast would have been, but I didn't do a comparison test. I've baked many loaves of bread with that yeast with no problem.

I'm just came across this web site while searching for something totally different and thought it would be of interest to all of you looking for German food in the NY area. Though it's called Germany in NYC, it seems to cover the metro area.

That looks great. Do you like the way it tastes? How did your dad's sandwich turn out? Post recipe please.

I know that cupcake! First ones gone at any place I take them -- and mine are BIG! No problem using a good dark bar. I read some place that there is no official distinction between semisweet and bittersweet but that generally under 60% is semisweet. Let taste be your guide, especially since that "mound of creamy filling" is VERY sweet. ← This is correct. There is no official definition of semi vs. bittersweet. Would you share the cupcake recipe?

David802, As SweetSide said, a gallon of water weights 8.3 lbs. (I just noticed my gallon calculation above says 66.4 gallons when it should say pounds. ). I didn't realize you were only 16 and am really impressed at your motivation and passion. I don't want to present information that will complicate things and turn you off. Your original post said that the bread formula at work included 50 pounds of starter. Do you know the starter ingredients and weights? You can include them in the overall list of ingredients and percents. If you play with Glennbech's calculator tool, you can enter the ingredients in the starter and the dough and you'll see the percentages calculated automatically. There's a feature at the bottom that enables you to scale it back. If you scale it back to only .10 you'll get a recipe that calls for about 13 lbs. flour total. I encourage you to read the numerous eG threads on bread baking. Here are a few: Baking with the Bread Baker's Apprentice Dan Lepard's book & bread There are many excellent books available as well. I especially like Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice and Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread, A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes." Good luck. Edited to add: What kind of yeast are you using? 1 oz. of fresh yeast (about a tablespoon) is equivalent to 0.4 oz. active dry yeast (about 1.25 tsp.) and 0.33 oz instant yeast (about 1 tsp.)

You may also want to try converting the original formula into baker's percentage and weighing your ingredients instead of using volume measures (a good scale for home use is not expensive.) Using this technique, flour is always 100% and other ingredients are calculated as a percentage of flour. Once you know the ratios, it is easy to scale a formula up or down. Here's an example using your formula: Flour (100 lbs.) = 100% Water (8 gallons @8.3 lbs per gallon = 66.4 gallons) = 66.4% (say 66%) Yeast (1 lb.) = 1% Salt (2 lbs.) = 2% any other ingredients would be calculated the same way. If you wanted to scale this back to 2 lbs. of flour, you'd add 1.32 lbs. of water (66% of 2), etc. etc. You'll have to include the starter ingredients as well. One of the posters in this forum, Glennbech, has developed this conversion tool that you might find helpful. Once I learned about baker's percentage and used it a few times, life became easier.

You don't mention the brand of flour, but King Arthur has an organic bread flour named Artisan and it contains malt. Here's a link from the KA web site with info on the different varieties of organic flours and the recommended uses. Malt is added for flavor and to control enzyme activity; the bread pros around here can provide more technical info. Hope this helps.