Genkinaonna

No idea but those gyoza look pretty tasty!

I made toasted almond ice cream base from The Perfect Scoop in the SVS. I've NEVER had creme anglaise turn out as well as that batch did. I was seriously tempted to eat it over peaches and not freeze it at all. It cooked at 82C for an hour, then icebath for 30 min and then in the fridge overnight before freezing.

I made pesto tonight. Here's the proportions I used: 5 oz basil 2 oz roasted pecans (or other nuts, but pecans are what I had tonight, I really like pistachios too. Pine nuts are a no go, my kids will eat the whole bag unless I hide them!) 1/2 oz roasted garlic 2 oz pecorino romano 3 oz olive oil 1 oz butter (unsalted) .2 oz kosher salt .15 oz lawrys garlic salt (god help me its just not the same without it) Into food processor and blend, or into vitamix and blend. Tonight I used the food processor since the vitamix was dirty, but it does emulsify much better in the vitamix. Or you could break out the mortar and pestle, if you're feeling ambitious and don't have three angry children nagging you to hurry up and get dinner on the table... Makes enough to sauce about 2 lbs of pasta. Good stuff. I made two batches and vacuum sealed one for the freezer. Organic basil's stupid expensive off season, and I have a bunch growing in the garden right now, so I figure I should stock up before it starts getting cold out.

I'm making pesto tonight. I will weigh and report back.

No fair! I pay at least $3.00 a piece for starfruit, when I can find some that aren't beat up. I think you can candy it, but I'm not sure how good that would taste... If you were doing a tart, I'd say it might make more sense to just do a basic pate sucree and fill with pastry cream, then top with slices of starfruit. I'd assume the lovely crunchy texture would be lost in baking.

That's a very pretty rose! Pulled sugar was my nemesis in culinary school, I know what a PITA those little buggers can be...

Ummm...so you're coming to make me breakfast for my birthday, right? Good. Just making sure!

Guittard makes a vanilla milk chip. They're pretty decent, if you're not expecting white chocolate-type flavor.

Get Baking From My Home to Yours. Much wider variety of items, all of which are easy to make and DELICIOUS! Plus her writing style is incredibly approachable. I'm about halfway through baking all the recipes in the book and I haven't had a miss yet. Seriously, best baking book I have! And I have lots...

Suzi, you can send some of that peach kuchen my way! I picked peaches this weekend but they're kind of underripe. We had a really cold wet spring and so the whole crop this year is about 3 weeks behind and much smaller than usual. But I made the best of a bad situation with a Peach and Frangipane tart. The crust got a little dark, but I'm sticking with the description as "deeply caramelized." As in, "I meant to do that..." Yeah right! Still tasted pretty good though. Hard to go wrong with any stone fruit and almond filling.

Mmm...crispy skin! Percyn-that shrimp looks so light and delicious. Perfect summer fare. Norm-Yum! Ribeye is my favorite, and I could eat that bread by itself as a meal! Shelby-Glad it's cooling down (finally!) for you...that carbonara looks delicious, and anything that tastes like a snickers is perfect in my book! I made Korean-style chicken thighs and roasted veggies tonight. The chicken thighs were supposed to be grilled, but we had a little mishap with an overfull grease/crumb tray at the bottom of our grill. Luckily we managed to get the gas turned off before the flames shooting out of the back of the grill ignited the back side of the house, but I opted not to push my luck and cooked the chicken in a skillet instead. It's better grilled, though The beans were a mix of purple, yellow, and romano beans from the farmer's market, I tossed them with some sesame oil and a little salt and roasted them 'til they were crispy on the edges. So tasty. The summer squash came from a u-pick we went to this weekend. It sounds odd to say, but I'd never had them before, and I think I prefer zucchini. These tasted too squash-y and sweet. Almost like a butternut squash, which I'm not a big fan of. But overall it was a successful meal.

If there's "cake" in the name, there better be actual cake in the dessert. Just sayin'... Nothing annoys me more than a birthday cake with NO ACTUAL CAKE! This is a pet rant of mine, my husband teases me about it all the time since we go to so many of my children's friend's birthday parties. A layer of cake, then a layer of ice cream, perfectly acceptable. Otherwise, no thank you!

There's still a great pie place in Garibaldi...at least there was as of last summer. Don't remember the name but it's right off the freeway and since Garibaldi is bitty teeny tiny shouldn't be that hard to track down.

I'm with Darienne...I'd eat 'em all and not worry about the plating too much. That being said, have you thought about spiltting the cakes and putting the berries in between them, overflowing onto the plate? That way you still see the lovely top but you get maximum berry to cake balance

Love that cake, it's so...so...prehistoric! In my quest to finish making all the recipes in Baking From My Home to Yours, I made Sweet Potato Biscuits this morning. Only they were actually pumpkin biscuits, since I firmly believe that potatoes should not, in any circumstances, be sweet. So I used a can of pumpkin instead, and added cinnamon, ginger, and cloves to the recipe as well. They made a great breakfast with melted butter and cinnamon sugar on top. My kids don't know how lucky they are! They just take for granted that every child has biscuits or muffins fresh from the oven 3 or 4 mornings a week...man is college gonna be a wakeup call for them...

Well if you have time to shoot down to Portland, The Meadow has the best selection of bitters and tinctures and infusions (oh my!) I've ever seen. It's about a 2 hour drive, but I think it's worth it. And they have a wall of chocolate and lots of interesting salts as well. I have pictures of the store in my blog.

I just took advantage of the sale at Borders and picked up Paletas, The Whimsical Bakehouse, The Perfect Scoop, and World Vegetarian. Just got a bunch of cookbooks at the library too, so I haven't even had a chance to crack any of my new ones open. But soon, oh yes, soon, I will...

I generally serve out what we're going to eat for the meal and then put the leftovers of soups, stews, etc, into a shallow container to cool while we eat. Then the first thing I do when I go back into the kitchen is put the leftovers into smaller containers in the fridge. The time that it takes us to eat dinner is usually enough to cool the stuff down to less than 90 degrees.

I bake pizza on a gas grill all the time. Just get it screaming hot, oil the dough and make it thin, flip it once, add toppings and about 3 min later you have pizza. I do it right on the grates though, I'd imagine you could put a sheet pan on there and do it like that too. I use dough I buy from a local pizzaria although I'm contemplating experimenting with the Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day recipe...

You can put me down as a strong maybe...March is perfect for me. Lisa, I'd split the cost of a hotel room with you if that would help out! Pulled sugar has always been my nemesis...

I love it on fries dipped in mayo. I like the Penzeys brand better though. Not my highest culinary peak, but tasty nonetheless. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to make some for yourself. Presumably it falls into the category of added sodium, which isn't the best thing for everyone, but I don't think there's anything truly horrible in it.

Robirdstx-We're pantry twins! I love that set up...I have the same one and all my friends are jealous!

Holy cow those are adorable! But do injured turtles really NEED to be eating lollipops? The humidity has been horrible here too!

I've always been put off by any filling recipe that starts with "cream 2 cups of crisco" so I'm not really in the whoopie pie camp either. And there are certainly lots of mediocre cupcakes out there giving the good ones a bad name. But a good cupcake is like a slice of the the best, most moist and delicious cake and frosting, all in a couple of bites and a cute portable wrapper. I see why they're popular, I just wish people would just stop making sucky ones! Pies (especially weesy ones) may fall into the same trap. I'm rarely impressed by store bought pie crust, it's usually overworked and leaves a slick coating on the inside of your mouth. We'll see...

Oh wow, that seafood! And those zucchini fritters look so delicious...I would have those for breakfast anytime!