K8memphis

Are those the pale wonky saucer shaped wanna be potato chips though? Doncha think they are too crunchy? Well clearly you don't. But classic potato chips are so much more tender and crunchy. Try a bag during the Muncho drought. It might help. Can you get some umami powder somewhere? You can get everything else in New York. Get some fish dip.

I noticed Mom's brand at Fresh Market on a recent excursion to cop the bourbon salmon, my latest addiction. (Apologies if someone already mentioned FM)

Adds the umami flavor.

You are in serious withdrawal. How dire! Can you get anything shipped in? But alas I realize how that ups the ante tremendously on the quantity. And then you have to use such restraint or go down all ablaze with the fever of Munch abundance. I mean ithas been two months. Cause for celebration surely. But I have my own munchy demons to slay (read: feed regularly). Potato chips and Cheez Its. p o t a t o c h i p s And that combo bag they got now with all things cheesy.

Maybe, maybe not, Tracey Geez what a mind grinder! Yah, polenta slices nice. But would you want to eat it cold? I really like Tracey's ideas. Even with real cakes, the stand often can make the cake. Just like a picture frame can make a painting. And you can incorporate all the ideas into one of those multi-level covered with floaty stuff stands like she said. Umm, you can get those at Sam's. At least they used to carry them. Bitter chocolate covered fruits?

I have no clues. I just think this is good example of why I don't like to do tastings. What about a simple glaze? and cover it all up with flowers or something? Why not throw in low fat, low calorie, sugar free and organic? A fruit icing? banana something? Is that Rich's cream stuff any kind of possibility? The fake whipped cream stuff?

Lemon juice in brownies? And chicory root??? Eeeghads But I tell yah the dead give away is 75% organic. Lights were flashing bells were ringing before I ever read the first ingredient.

I don't think so. You can easily make loch ness monster shapes too.

Y'know this could get some traction. Y'know the American type 'scone' pans that make triangular 'scones'. Take one of those and make little empty pie crusts. Smaller than that exact size though. But that are little containers, that have all three sides. Or use an aluminum foil mold or whatever to bake off little mini pie shaped containers. Get crazy with the fluting. Then serve it ON TOP of some ice cream! Oh I wanna be there! Filled with the apple & lemon spheres of course. I think I'd do some raisin rum ones too. And just a tid tad of a whipped cream poof on top but not so much you can't see the spheres. And you could kinda dangle a coupla white chocolate doo dads outa the whipped cream poof. Maybe put the whipped cream where the pie crust fluting would go then balance some white chocolate scolls there flowing over the 'pie'--way way friggin cool.

It's not at all like painting the Mona Lisa. It's very easy. It's paint by number if you've ever done it. It's a step one step two process just like anything else. Like I said willpowder.net has some jumping off place type recipes. Mind your ph balance. Watch your math too. What you might want to think of is, what do you want to deconstruct. What do you want to y'know like put in the Star Trek transporter and make it into something else? Sweet or savory? Sweet & sour chicken and do pineapple and pepper cavies ( cahvees = spheres) or something. Or do stuffed s&s peppers and put a piece of chicken on the plate then a sawed off green pepper with pineapple caviar in it. Or what would you like to create? What about apple pie? Do apple and lemon cavies to eat with cinnamon pie crust cookie things. You kinda pick a theme and run with it. What do you like? Memphis is big on barbecue. An open faced pork sandwich on brioche with barbq sauce cavies and cole slaw dressing cavies on a bed of chiffonade cabbage. That sounds kinda cool. Baked bean raviolies. A bag of chips!

I have certain recipes that I have polished up over the years but not many. Truth to tell I am not a very good cook. Although I've learned a lot from Chef-boy (our son) of all people. I mean as the kids were growing up I thought a box or two of Rice A Roni Fried Rice, some meatloaf and green beans is a pretty good dinner time. Hey I graduated to boxes of Couscous. Add a few sauted onions, girl, I'm a freaking gourmet! No wonder my husband does the cooking and Chef-boy went to culinary school. But I do the holiday stuff. And I can bake tea-rings around both of them. I mean I had some customers hooked on my stuff at the tea-room but again I just have a couple well polished comfort food type recipes. I excel in presentation and in baking. As for the future, I am very very happy with my husband's cooking. Breakfast this morning was excellent. Scrambled-y egg with tomato, melty garlic chunks, sweet onions, a bite of a toasty bagel, lotsa spicy pepper, mmm. We eat like royalty when Chef-boy-wonder comes home to visit. Our daughter had us over for supper on Father's Day--Wow I'm blessed! Surrounded by greatness. My eating future looks pretty good because other people are doing the cooking. I'm either in between deals or have a deal going for my sugar art. Currently have a deal going... edited to say: But my heart beats for quantity cooking. I love to make huge quantities of whatever it is. Maybe that's why I don't like to cook for the two of us.

Dude, I just winged it. Play a little. Check willpowder's site for the recipe's there. www.willpowder.net. I spent fifty bucks but I had my stuff overnighted. Walgreen's gave me syringes. There's a ph balance to preserve. Make your product flavor intensive. It seems to need a flavor boost.

Great question. Pretty much depends on how much you want to do it and how strident/stringent the rules and regulations are in your part of the globe. Oh but yes you should do it. I should do it too. Just any minute now I'm getting it together (again...and again after that till I get it right) Oh yes for sure do it. I'll buy some. If you can market to me over the border. It will probably cost a lot. You gotta want it. But dreams come true so at least keep wanting it.

My Grandmother was a Serbian who came here in the early part of the 1900's from what was then part of Austria. Her strudel dough was indistinguishable from a Greek phyllo. I asked my Mother about it when I visited her yesterday. Her memory of helping her Mother, and making strudel herself and with my Sister, is getting a bit vague. But, as luck would have it, my Cousin Steph, recently repatriated from The Netherlands, stopped in while I was there. She could recall both seeing our Grandmother make strudel and helping her Step-Mother with the process. Some "tricks" she remembered were having the room as warm as possible during the process, keeping the back of the hands well floured to stretch the dough with your knuckles, and stretching it just thin enough while leaving a heavier edge along the sides that would hang over the edge of the sheet-covered table to hold the dough in tension while it was buttered and filled before rolling up into strudel. (I knew there had to be some reason this task was done on such a seemingly vast scale!) Stef also recalled how the rolled strudel, (either the standard apple or delicious cottage cheese/lemon), was then laid in an "S" shape into the baking pans by Grandma's gently lifting it from the table as a helper rotated the pan at just the right speed beneath it. Personally, I can recall how each end of the "S" contained a bit of the thicker dough "overhang" tucked underneath which, after the strudel was baked, was the perfect combination of crispy, chewy and carmelized! Stef will search through her Step-Mom's cookbooks and notes for any recipes, and we've tentatively scheduled a strudel-from-scratch making exercise for August when my Sister and another cousin from California can be present. SB (volunteered to serve as Documentarian and, of course, on the Tasting Panel ) ← Oh hooray for overhang I knew there had to be something great to do with that! Always tugged at my heart to just discard, just toss with a flip of the wrist. sniff. But even when I get the proportion of dough to tabletop correct so I get the overhang, I cut it off before buttering. (duh, Kate!) Makes much more sense to keep it as an anchor! <insert clapping hands smilie face> Let me know if there are any no shows on the tasting panel. I'm totally doing the big table this year. And one little request if possible, to weigh the dough and measure the table top, please. If it's convenient.

keep you from being burned? wow, are they also making bullet proof ones these days?? ← He said being BADLY burned, which the initial layer of heavy cloth can absorb a lot of the heat and impact from some spilled liquid or fat. And they can definately help with oven tops, sides, etc. ← Certain kinds, like all cotton maybe/maybe not. I mean it would also hold the heat on your body longer too. But how about the seersucker chef jackets? Chefs from hot weather areas don't always wear the heavy ones. Now the cloth frog closures are a help to be able to rip it off your body like a chip n dale dancer type presto change-o go the clothes-o. Unless they get frayed/gnarled up in the wash and won't come undone. Wear any fricken thing you want.

I could not agree more with Fat Guy's assessment. Not to get off the subject of food but you can substitute most any ailment for obesity and get the same chemical/pharmacuetical/pharmacopia resolution. Some/most doctors are legal pushers/chemists doling out chemicals, 'the stuff'. Just sit back and watch the latest and greatest magic pill get the television advertising bucks. Like so much chum in the water attracting the sharks who are gonna then sue for you due to the dire side effects. I mean assuming you have loved ones left behind that want to fight the cause for your dead/dying self. But in my battle to improve my health though eating/living better, instead of changing my diet much any more, I decided to up my metabolism by cycling/excercising more. My diet isn't really that bad. My metabolism has always sucked. Most of my 20's I fasted one day a week to maintain my weight, I'm a super light eater anyway. I'm gonna try and substitute green tea more in place of sweets Monday through Friday. Then y'know keep more to the salads and low fat, good carb, nice glycemic type food. Well I always say through Friday but Friday night starts the weekend after all So but then enjoy a little more indulgent food on the 'weekend'. Now I have cycled for two and a quarter hours as a direct result of this post. And my metabolism is so much happier. Thank you, Michael.

I think the thread has become it's own answer. It's a perfect example of do whatever you want there are no hard and fast rules. There are high end chefs who wear the colorful whimsical chef clothing. The expensive coats are for anyone who wants to purchase them. Like the store checks your credentials?

It's as big a variance as the variances in 'chocolate cake' for example. Some chocolate cake formulas call for acids some have no flour, some have one egg some have four, some have sour cream some have coffee some have this some have that, it's all chocolate cake in the end. I don't see acid or not in the dough as a big variance. It's simply a difference from one region to another.

Strudel dough is Bavarian/Hungarian and phyllo leaf is Greek. It's same/same. It can be made either way with or without acid.

Yes, umm, The Complete Book of Pastry Sweet and Savory by Bernard Clayton Jr. 2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon butter or margarine room temp 1 egg room temp 3/4 cup of water, approximately ( I use one half cup) This is my paraphrase of his instructions. Combine everything but the flour and salt and mix well. Add the mixture to the flour & salt. You want a soft elastic dough, not sticky at all. Knead it for 12 minutes. This is a dough you want to literally slam onto the work surface using considerable force. Whack it good while you knead it. I just use my Kitchen aid and then slam it around the board. But If you get your KA going good it will slam bam it around too. But you want it nice and smooth. Now then you want the dough to rest for 20 minutes with a hot dry bowl or pot over it. Commence rolling and then let the stretching begin Magic. Pure magic.

← Egh, hmmm, why indeed. I guess it's like a climber to Mt Everest type of thing. Once you get a few batches going, you realize you can actually do much more. So I will. In the fall. To be continued...

Probably like three batches I think. That shouldn't be too bad...but June is too hot to bake struedel though, gotta wait for fall at least.

Let's get this into perspective, Stevarino. I took 18 ounces of dough and stretched it out in this pictorial to 28x36 inches and I discarded 5 ounces of dough. So I stretched 13 ounces of dough into a 28x36 inch rectangle that you could read the newspaper through seen on slide #16. This was my first attempt after a 25 year hiatus. I made several more batches after that on a smaller table top of 30x48 and they fit much better. My challenge is to make one the size of my dining room table w/leaves which is gonna be 39x62+18+18 or 39x98. <faint> How many batches of 18 ounce dough should I use? If you wanna do this now, I can toss the cat off the table but I gotta gather up the rest of the ingredients too. I usually make this for Christmas but twist my arm.

I suspect there's something about the elasticity of the dough that it can only be stretched thin enough when done to large dimensions? Kind of like how it would be hard to make a hand-tossed 6" pizza crust. When I see my Mom tomorrow I'll ask her is she remembers any of Grandma's "tricks". ← Cool!

For most people this is true, but I live in a tiny NY apartment, and I do not have a table that I can walk all the way around. Actually, I don't even have a table that is ever completely clean (as in nothing is on it). ← But you have a floor. So you can just dump everything that's on the table under the table. ← Or, move the table and make the phyllo on the floor! My Grandmother used to put both leaves in her dining table, then put a form-fitted cover over it which I suspect she'd made out of old bed sheets. She could stretch the dough by hand so thin you could read a newspaper through it! My Mother and Sister have tried on several occassions to make phyllo, more for tradition's sake than anything else, but they had a hard time working fast enough to get a consistent thinness like Grandma used to. SB (wouldn't even dream of trying it himself ) ← Steve, I think if I increased my recipe I could cover the big dining room table. I thought about this during last year's stretchings but I didn't attempt it. But I will try it this year. I also have to sew two sheets together. I'll start with a regular batch on the little table first to get the hang of it again. Yeah the stretching it over the edges is the real deal. I just need to make more dough for that. And it works so perfect as it is I'm kinda scared to diddle with it. But it would be cool to make eight or twelve struedels at a time. My recipe covers a 48x36 inch table top. Yeah working fast enough to get it all stretched is key. I wonder if I can pull it off. I'm gonna try it later in the year. I'll report back.