K8memphis

Oh my God, Oh my God, I think I'm in love!!!! SUGAR, boys and girls. It's sugar. Get rid of trans fats, no worries. Good riddance. But if you got on the trans fat banned wagon (love that play on words) to save the world, consider the passive aggressive serial killer crystal sweet sugar. And the 'artificial' sweeteners are worse. Tell me please what's not artificial about sugar? (Don't anybody forget I'm a cake baker ok?)

Truly, if all the kids can read and crime, drugs and poverty are not a factor in Philadelphia, hey, legislate some calorie counting and exercise for the fortunate citizens. City officals need to stir up public scorn??? The marketplace could not be a more effecient effective arena to accomplish this. There's trans fat free labels alll over the products in the stores. Restaurants could get some. Not every problem needs a new law to bring resolution.

Ignaz Semmelweis died a lonely broken man because his well educated colleagues laughed him to scorn permanently when he said lives could be saved by doctors washing their hands between seeing patients. After his death it took decades for this simple idea to take hold and produce the amazing results we all know it to have. The only law is the law of public opinion. Trans fats are unargueably bad for us. I'm not gonna loose any sleep over it. Sugar is even worse for us because it also contributes to heart disease, diabetes and cancer. It is omnipresent not to mention addictive. Try going off sugar and sweeteners for a couple days. This is an ingredient that is literally killing us. The body adjusts as best it can. Legislation is not the answer. With education and proper diet the market can correct itself. Nobody's hooked on trans fats. If Ignaz could see me now Badda bing badda boom

I think it is a market issue. I oppose it.

Trans fats are being banned because of heart disease right? Sugar beats the hell out of pancreas...diabetes. Alcohol beats the hell out of our livers and our families and neighborhoods...cirrhosis. Too much anything will kill you including water of which we mostly consist of. It's none of the government's business. They currently have thier hands full deciding where to spend more of our money. The true facet to that quote is that it's the acknowlegement that legislation of such matters does not work. Morality is above the law. Here's another old adage. 'The only law is the law of public opinion.' Think about it. So the longevity of a food item should determine whether it gets banned or not? (White sugar is not a building block. )

I don't know, if the owner is waiting tables, y'all are the only diners sometimes, never seen the place more than 2/3 full, dude, they need all the corkage fees they can get.

Neither is sugar a health food, diabetes is epidemic. Sugar is in lots and lots of products needlessly. It does rot teeth. There's a probably link between alcohol* and alcoholism. Drinking water recently in the news tragically killed a woman. And our government is not known to be able to draw the line. If one regulation is good, then many more will be better and better, right? *That ban didn't work at allll! ← If that's really the way you feel about government, then why should we even have one at all? If your argument actually made sense, then any government law or regulation would be a bad idea, including the Clean Water Act, requiring driver's licenses, criminal laws, etc. If you're actually coming at this from an extreme libertarian perspective, it's kind of pointless to debate with you. No one is threatenting to ban sugar or alcohol in Philadelphia, and comparing trans-fat to either one of them is silly and disingenuous. ← The serious downside to banning trans fat is that there are many more 'dangerous' foodstuffs out there. This (sugar, alcohol & water) would be an illustration of the downside of banning food. Sugar and alcohol are extremely damaging to our bodies. My burning question is, is Whiz transfat free, or is it just the natural cheeses that are loaded with transfats? ← I wrote to the Cheez Whiz folks to inquire about the uncertain fate of Philly cheesesteaks and they will respond Monday maybe. So eat up over the weekend!!

Neither is sugar a health food, diabetes is epidemic. Sugar is in lots and lots of products needlessly. It does rot teeth. There's a probably link between alcohol* and alcoholism. Drinking water recently in the news tragically killed a woman. And our government is not known to be able to draw the line. If one regulation is good, then many more will be better and better, right? *That ban didn't work at allll!

Besides, your fingers are also warming the butter. You don't want to warm the butter at all. I imagine you learned this finger smush technique in school. And maybe going forward after you make some good pie crust you can go back and figure out how to do it that way. But make a few good ones first. It just doesn't make sense to make it that way. Although my son was instructed to make it that way too. This will sound funny but even Gale Gand said that when she interviews people to work with her she determines if they have hot hands or not. Hot hands are a problem for baking*. There are a thousand factors to baking one simple thing that can be unique to each ingredient and tool and person. Be encouraged. The most important thing is passion. So you're golden. * piping and chocolate work, smushing pie crust etc.

I would not use my fingers to cut in the butter. You're working up too much gluten so it's tough. If you can't use a food processor, use a coupla forks or a pastry blender dealie. Betty Crocker says to add the fat in two portions. Take the first go round to a meal consistency for tenderness then add the remainder and cut it in till it looks like the size of peas, this for flakiness. You literally cut in the flour. What you are doing is mushing it in. Sprinkle the water all at once. No sense diddling around. The less you work it, as you already know, the better. I sprinkle the water over all of it and use a fork to fluff around. It just comes together fine. This is pie crust right? The french names throw me. I use a large flat-ish bowl, it's probably 12 " across and only like 4-5 inches deep so I can easily get to all the powder without re-smushing it. Also, the sides of my bowl mimic the angle of my pastry cutter. Since you are having trouble, only go around your bowl, cutting the fat in 4-5 times for the first go round, 3-4 times for the second go round.* Have your butter in small-ish pieces. Umm, I use my pastry cutter to lift a scoop of the mixture and sift it back through the cutter to be sure things are fairly well combined. Some larger bits of fat are fine but a lot should be finely combined. Just cut in the fat in one or two portions. Cut it. Don't mush it. Sprinkle water over all. Fluff with fork. Smush together--if you can tell it's gonna be dry add another tablespoon of water. Pick it up, it will all come together. But next time, add that tablespoon into the first and only amount of water you add. Don't over think and don't over work it. Don't diddle. *If you add all the butter at once, then go around like 5-6 times. Even if it is under combined, you will be able to get it right on the following batch because you can judge the difference between your fist of rock crust and the (if it's) under worked batch . But I think you will get it this time.

Cali, Great Idea. And that formula sounds awesome. I think almost everything tastes better with coffee in it. I do one that's endlessly brilliant. It's straight out of The Cake Mix Doctor and I used it in my son-in-law's grooms cake. I wanted to post the formula with the demo I did so I wrote for permission to use it. I did get permission but I never did post it on there for whatever reason. So I'll just give it from memory with full credit to her. It's one box of cake mix and one pint of melted ice cream and three eggs. Make sure that the ice cream melts down to a full 2 cups. Some ice creams are whipped so the extra air needs to be replaced with milk or cream. Just mix it up and bake it. This is a great batter to bake up in any of those molded pans you can get now, like the fancy nordic type bundt pans, castles, roses, floral etc. There's a stadium one now. I mean it's a BRILLIANT recipe. Just think of the never-ending possibilities. The cake comes out a bit more dense and it's just a fabulous formula. I guess the only problem with it is that I didn't think of it first!

Great photos! Thanks for all this. Umm, are you taking the class photo? Or which one are you??

It'll never make it to Memphis. We'll build a stadium to honor the dear departed trans fat first, a Trans Mahal if you will. We're into stadiums here.

Wow, beautiful work. Came out wonderful!

But I thought those didn't taste good. We need a trend with good tasting stuff. See, cake mix takes another one in the gut. Are you sure they use cake mix? Most people will not divulge that information. Just because it tastes bad it's cake mix? Methinks you've proved my point.* My sister-in-law has been married for 30 years to my brother. God bless her. But anyway. Anytime any place her wedding comes up, the fact that the cake I baked her was so amazing is still being reported and recounted 30 years later. The marriage like I said, not so much. But the cake the cake!!! *From the introduction, "The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook"

I'm game to try it one more time. I'll get chef-boy to cook it for me some day, but yeah, Rebecca, expect the knock on the door from UPS any minute!

This is interesting. I cannot compare to other countries and while I can tolerate puddings just fine, some slimy things are too much for me. I can eat fresh mushrooms but not cooked ones--eww eww eww. Although I do like okra which although it's uber slime it has some crunch to it's sliminess. Interesting. Yes, texture is a big deal. And partly why I did not care for fois gras when I had it. Although I'd like to try it one more time. Isn't is supposed to have a little crunch on it?

I could not agree more, however, it ramps up the cost so much it outprices itself. I understand that with proper management the price factor might become more balanced, but then you have to pay a good manager who can train their folks the proper handling of food etc. Obtain fresh produce that is high maintenance, making daily decisions on what's cost effective, viable etc. Nothing worthwhile is easy is it. Of course just getting someone to make the food they do get appetizing would be a plus.

Great first post. Welcome to egullet. It goes without saying but I'll say it anyway that nobody has to like cake mix. But you all do recognize the greater disparity between the unjustified disdain for those of us who use a mix* and those of us who use other culinary shortcuts**. Phyllo dough is very very easy to make. With a tail wind one can get it stretched out in ten minutes. I've got a pictorial on it for whosoever wants to***. But I love packaged phyllo dough too. It's so pretty and versatile. I would ten thousand times more rather have good old cake mix any day than taste that dang freaking nasty egg white mumbo jumbo in a wayward scratch cake. Barf barf barf. Weddings are infested with them. "Oh it's all scratch cake, no toxic waste here." Yeah, no kidding, where's the trash can. *Or are thought to use a cake mix. Cake mix almost always will take a bad rap for unfortunatley made scratch cake more often than not. **Umm, some of us add so many ingredients to cake mix sometimes, it's hardly even a shortcut anymore. ***Honestly, whenever you might get a chance, make some strudel dough. It truly is a rush. I'd suggest you do it slowly over time, gather up the different tools. Find a suitable table and a suitable flat sheet or tablecloth. Then try it when you can--just honestly a rush like no other. <highfive>

Strawberry shortcake on a snowy day seems so luxurious. mmm

My point is to say that cake mix is not toxic waste. It need not be feared. It is not only a legitimate product it's a versatile ingredient in it's own right. Who makes the cake is much more important than the specific ingredients. The best ingredients wil not a great cake make. Is the shunning of such a prolific product not curious? We were told that our Russian exchange student might have a reaction to our serving of corn as it's animal feed to her. Ok country to country yes that's understandable. This cake mix revulsion/aversion is within our borders and within each of us. It's a crazy stigma. You know some of the chichi-est places use mixes. I am particularly referencing celebration cake. While I think cake mix is so much more than sheetcake, I still challenge New York to start a trend. Mix it up with Ann Byrn, the Cake Mix Doctor. Make it popular.

Wohhhw. You did a great job! It's awesome, truly. I know what you mean about being nervous to post something though. How tall is it? What size cakes did you use? Andy would be proud.

Kerry and all, I got the Impossible Pecan Pie and the Impossible Chicken Tamale Pie recipe in the recipegullet. From Northwest Indiana's The Post-Tribune's Family World section C, page 1, dated August 25, 1982 by Janet Burton, post-Tribune Food Editor.

I love the upscale chef story with the zucchini pie.

Impossible Chicken Tamale Pie 1982 Mom gave me this article written by Janet Burton located on page one of section C, from The Post-Tribune, a Northwest Indiana newspaper, dated August 25, 1982. In the article Janet states that it's been almost 20 years since the recipe for Impossible Coconut Pie surfaced. Janet states, "Ideas come and go and after waning for a few years impossible pies are back, adaptable to every course from entrees to dessert. The secret of the pie is the use of prepared biscuit mix which is added to the pie ingredients and forms it's own crust. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3." 1 1/2 cups cut up cooked chicken 1 cup frozen corn, thawed 1 envelope taco seasoning mix 1 4 ounce can chopped drained green chilies 1 cup shredded cheddar or Montery Jack cheese 1 1/4 cup milk 3/4 cup prepared *baking mix or Bisquick 3 eggs Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 10 inch pie plate. Mix chicken, corn and seasoning mix, spread in plate. Sprinkle with chilies and cheese. Beat remaining ingredients until smooth, 15 seconds in a blender, 1 minute with hand beater. Pour into plate. Bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean. 25 to 30 minutes. Cool five minutes. *Master Baking Mix 9 cups sifted flour 1/3 cup double acting baking powder 1 tablespoon salt 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon cream of tartar 2 cups shortening (that does not require refrigeration) Stir all the powders together, sift three times into a large mixing bowl. Cut in shortening until it resembles cornmeal. Store in covered container at room temperature. To measure master mix for use in recipes, pile lightly into a cup and level off with a spatula. Makes 13 cups. Keywords: Main Dish, Lunch, Mexican, Easy, Dinner, Blender, Chicken, Pie, Brunch, American ( RG1927 )