Genkinaonna

I'm with Jenni. My mom was an awful cook, and cooking didn't really interest my dad. I learned from watching cooking shows on PBS...when I was able to buy my own books, I bought cookbooks! Now that I have control over the kitchen, cooking is my favorite hobby! I love that my four year old knows what fondant is, how to make ganache, and what ingredients go into pesto. It'll be interesting to see if the trend goes the other way with our children, if because we're so food obsessed here, our children will be not that interested in food...like some kind of odd cycle.

So excited to see what you have to share with us this week! Thanks for the quick history lesson too!

I always tip well...waitstaff puts up with a lot of crap...people are NOT at their best when they're hungry!

You can add 6 to mine: My Sweet Mexico Pop Bakery Chewy Crunchy Crispy Gooey A World of Cake And just so I have something to eat to combat a sugar coma: The new America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Cookbook Ideas in Food

I guess it's better to complain here than actually do it at the restaurant. I get frustrated about the upselling, but I understand that restaurants are struggling right now. However, I don't feel being pressured to add something extra to my dish is going to help ensure my return business. In my mind, if the waitstaff is attentive to the best of their ability and the food is consistently good, I'll put up with any other little annoyances. It kind of ties in to the thread on being a "regular." I have certain restaurants that I go to, repeatedly, because they don't push any of my (admittedly personal) buttons. I agree that for everyone that complains about something being done one way, there's another person who complains that it's done the opposite way. It does seem like there are certain things that do rub quite a few people the wrong way, though... Maybe this thread can count as group therapy, and we can all be nice to our servers next time we head out, even if they over/underfill our glasses, comment on the amount of food we did/didn't eat, or brandish white truffles at us in a threatening manner!

I know that the number of eggs needed varies based on moisture content of your flour and size of the eggs, but you could have also underbaked them. They need to be baked until they are golden brown, uniformly all over, you shouldn't see any paler yellow in the creases...otherwise they will retain too much moisture and collapse. I've done that on several occasions. Only way to solve it is to fill them with something yummy from the fridge and eat the evidence!

Pierogi- Glad you're recovering from the photo-bonanza! I'd say the Mary-Helene's Apple cake is another must try. My husband calls it devil cake, because he can't stop eating it! We had the chard pancakes for dinner the other night, topped with whole milk greek yogurt and rotisserie chicken. Starch and veg in one dish!

I keep it on hand for cake baking, lots of cake recipes call for buttermilk as do many muffins recipes. The proportions are usually on the bag, you just add the powder with the dry ingredients and sub water for the buttermilk in the recipe.

You could make pastillage and break it up into little pieces, and use those...it can be tinted with food coloring.

I'd say a really big part of teaching should be ascertaining what level your students are at...I've taken classes where half of the time is devoted to basics, like cutting an onion, what temperature chicken should be cooked to, etc...rather than focusing on the actual topic of the class, for example "Turkish Cooking" or "Chinese Appetizers." Being clear in descriptions of classes about what skills the students should already possess would be helpful in not wasting time for the student that are not beginners. Even a "skill rating" level of beginner, intermediate, or advanced with a short description about what each one of those descriptors entails would be helpful in my book.

I took the plunge and bought the Fissler set with the smaller and larger pots...damn Amazon and their one click ordering. So now I need some "go to" basic recipes to make my husband not want to permanently block my internet access

So basically it's creme fraiche?

Yeah I'd say it might be time to look at alternate career options...

We've done it, one of the places in town only has communal tables, but it's difficult when you have one person in the party (me) who is chatty and wants to talk to everyone else, and one who is relatively anti-social (SO) and isn't interested in making any new friends. Overall I think individual tables work better, even if there's just one set menu for everyone...

Lookit you! You're the queen of the pressure cooker people! What's your favorite brand for the 5-8 qt range? I'm trying to get over my fear of pressure cookers and value the opinions of my fellow Egulleteers much more than those reviewers at amazon.com...

Well I'd say the pizza pan was a success...those look great! Looks like we're going to get two for the price of one this week...Texas and New Mexico...have a safe trip!

I know that there's been another thread about this, but I just got "My Sweet Mexico." So excited to try out some traditional mexican baking. I want to jump right up and go to the mexican grocery store down the street, but have to wait for the rugrats' bedtime

Keep us up to date on how it's going! Where is Greenville?

I'd go. Especially for the classes. I would think it might be difficult to cater to differing ability levels in such classes, though.

I'm officially giving my husband grief for not having as cool a hobby as yours! I can't wait to see how the pizzas turn out!

That bread is beeeau-ti-ful! I love the way the house smells when I bake. I wouldn't have the self restraint to save half a loaf, it's just calling out for some butter and jam... Enjoying the blog!

I made the Racines cake yesterday, it was a great chance to break into the bag of cocoa nibs I'd bought on an impulse when I saw them on sale at Whole Foods. It came out beautifully, almost looked just like the pic in the book, down to the crack in the center. I was expecting it to be denser, it was almost more like a baked mousse than an actual cake, but great. Not too sweet, lots of chocolatey goodness, and the cocoa nibs added just the right amount of contrast. I'm so excited to try out some of the other recipes! It's great to see Mr. Lebovitz posting here! It's comforting to know that if I seriously screw up a recipe, I might be able to get some feedback from the author on what I did wrong!

That frosting closeup looks downright pornographic (and I mean that in a totally good way)! Now I wish I'd made a caramel cake instead of a chocolate cake for dessert tonight

Well don't scare 'em off! I love the food blogs!

Thanks so much for all your hard work this week! I really enjoyed it. You deserve an extra one of those yummy looking libations for taking us on such a great trip!