K8memphis

Terrasanct--slippery slope huh. Maybe if it were illegal it would be easier to avoid. I was off it continuously for over a year and various spurts. I do use agave in my coffee (with a Splenda but ) agave does not spike your blood chemistry. It takes a ton of will power to get off it in the first place and way more than the average bear has in the long term huh.

The bottoms stuck with the parchment? ouch Well I always hold my cake pan at an angle so gravity will assist me and I bump the pan a nice jolt to loosen the baked cake so it slides that little quarter inch in each direction so I know it's loose. However that's the last thing I do before de-panning. If I use anything it's a combinatiopn of equal parts of shortening, oil and flour brushed on the pan but not under parchment. Pan goop is what some people call it, works great. I just keep it in my frige. Could be kept at room temp if it's used often. I just cut a parchment to fit my pan. If it's a real big pan I piece it together with a generous overlap. Generally I do not do anything else so the cake climbs nicely up the sides. After it's baked, I run a knife around the edges to loosen. Then I bang the pan on the edge of my hand looking for it to slide. If the pan is cold and it does not slide that silly little millimeter, I run the entire base of the pan over a flame or hot eye for a few seconds to loosen any grease that might be holding baby to tight. Make it slide in the pan each direction, put plastic wrap over top, put cardboard circle on top of that, flip it, put more plastic wrap place rack on top, flip that. Viola. I leave the parchment or plastic wrap on there for security--it makes it hold/handle better to torte and flip. Tmi~~ but cold cake handles better for torting and flipping. However it is my understanding that butter cakes do not loosen up enough after coming back to room temp--hence the omnipresent comment that the cake is 'dry'. It's not really dry it's just heavy down the back of the throat from the cold butter--so be careful. If you can microzap your butter cake before assembling all the better. Those are some really fine points and could be considered too much information but does classify under the 'any advise' request. That's how I do it.

Rest assured that while the back of the house might not get the tips, comfort and joy that the foh gets, they do for sure make some crazy incredible food with 'leftovers'. So while they are served in restaurants, you can't find them on any menu, probably not a lot of photos available, the less documentation the better huh. But I know you knew that.

For any next time that it doesn't come out the way you want ~~ And may you never need to use any of these ideas ~~ consider making a fruit leather out of the apricots themselves. For the apricot cement that one can only imagine how heavenly the flavor and aroma, maybe crush or roll into balls and dip in chocolate. If it is crushable, you could add to some shortbread dough, or any cookie dough. Play with it. Melt it again and what happens. Have fun with it. Just some disaster averted ideas for you. Happy apricots to yah.

For sure. In the original post, you quickly get the idea he is not like cooking guru boy or anything. Chefs, cooks and fast food burger flippers worldwide, even mud pie makers have nothing to worry about. kwim That's probably more of a list of the calories of the stuff he had to buy. I'm thinking he did use and eat both sticks of butter omg. I wish he woulda pushed it for 61 more calories. If memory serves he deep fried the bacon? (Memory might not serve though.)

I haven't recently re-read these pages, but the only other tips I can think of for pastry crust is: My 1951 Betty Crocker red & white cookbook that my little Mom bought new says to incorporate the fat half at a time. The first half gets cut in till it resembles cornmeal. The second half gets incorporated till the mixture resembles small peas. Maybe refrigerating the flour in advance of cutting in the fat would help a bit on the time line. I also have Mom's real wide shallow glass bowl that I use to do pastry crust. The sides of the bowl mimic the angle of my pastry cutter and I literally mark my starting point and count how many times I go around the bowl cutting into the flour so I don't over do. So I cut through the flour & fat then comb through that portion with the pastry cutter once to fluff it up. Repeat all around. So all told for a crust that starts with 2 cups of flour, I go around the bowl 4 or 5 times. If I do the fat in two portions, I would go approximately three to four times the first go round then once or twice for the second half. Maybe that gives a visual for how little you diddle with it. But you can use your fingers or a food processor too. Of course the fat is initially prepared into equal little portions that I toss in the flour before cutting. Some people use an egg in their pie crust. I often add nut meal to balance out the sweetness. And like I said, less is more with pie crust. There's lots of ways to do this. Hope all your pies come out great for Christmas and forever.

I love all these obscene sandwiches. They sound especially luscious. A lobster tail sandwich--I'll be there. The last memorable sandwich I had was at Taylor's in St. Helena Ca. I think it's called Taylor's QuickStop if memory serves. It's the local fast food joint. You queue up to a window and place your order. We had heirloom tomatoes with soft squishy fresh mozzarella on this exquisite cornmeal dusted roll that melted in your mouth spread with pretty green pesto. We got that a coupla times for lunch when we visited last summer. At the fast food joint. Be still my beating heart. And I love the honey mustard at our local Holiday Ham deli. I could down shots of it. Horseradishy hot and disgustingly sweet--perfect. The sandwich itself kinda sucks. I might have heard about this sandwich on egullet, but it was also obscene in a glaring, jaring way, calorie encrusted way. The photo is below the chart, scroll down to view. We offered to make it for our cycling friend who weighs his food and counts calories like Scrooge weighs/ed his ha'pennies. He declined. If the link dissolves, this is the list of goodies. Food ~~~ Calories Fried Mushrooms – 15 450 Bacon – 14 pieces 990 Onion rings – 18 1140 Ground Beef – 1/4 lb. 293 Corndogs – 2 540 Swiss Cheese – 4 slices 425 Provolone Cheese – 4 slices 397 Cheddar Cheese – 4 slices 455 Sliced Ham – 1/4 lb. 184 Sliced Turkey – 1/4 lb. 181 Pastrami – 1/4 lb. 394 Sliced Roast Beef – 1/4 lb. 200 Bratwurst – 1 510 Braunschweiger – 1/4 lb. 580 Wheat Bread – 1 lb. 1030 Lettuce – 1/2 head 25 Feta Cheese – 4 oz. 350 Italian Salad Dressing – 6 oz. 480 Oregeno – 50 grams 438 Salt & Pepper – 50 grams 0 Butter – 1/2 lb. 1600 Parmesan Cheese – 100 grams 465 Canola Oil – 154 Tbsp. 18,432 Total 29,559 calories

HB, It is amazing how much effect it has on us. It's not illegal we can get it everywhere so it is easy to be in denial and pooh pooh the whole idea of addiction and it's ramifications but it's for real whether we realize and admit it or not. Add in a few other health challenges and stack up a several decades of age on top of that and geez oh pete the elimination of sugar from the diet makes sucha big difference in the health. Wish I could do it. jgm, more fabulous corroborating input. I agree with everything in moderation but how to maintain that escapes me.

Simple to say anyway huh. So carbs are a better vehicle for sugar than a popsicle stick. We're still talking sugar. Didja know that there's a hormone secreted in the stomach that tells us when we are hungry. After we eat carbs that hormone makes us think we were hungrier than we were before we ate the carbs. Dude, I'm not into gummy bears but I am (used to be) into candy, bagfuls of candy candy candy.

What page was that on in the study?

The paper says this, Running puts endorphins into your head and you feel good. The three components of addiction are not involved. French fries, butter and driving and music can be obsessions maybe they can be addictions. I dont' know. We need other studies for those. This study which is not peer reviewed is about sugar. There are three components to addiction. According to this study they have documented the third one. That's exciting. That gives hope. That gives something for the peer reviewers to chew on coming up.

Do you mean that for example crack cocaine is said to be immediately addicting whereas other things take time to hook you? You are equating the immediacy of the need with it being addictive? If that's what you mean I don't think that's one of the properties of addiction. Sugar is a highly processed food. I'm so not following you. Intrinsically? I mean you gotta eat it.

I mean it's not rocket science. I'm not running to the kitchen to eat sticks of butter or fois. It's an intriguing study. It's an interesting take on sugar. I know I am addicted. I did not need the study. Manufacturers are adding more and more sweeteners to foods. Growers are cultivating our fruits and veggies to have higher sugar content.

I always come up with this anaology. The doctor who discovered that not washing hands between patients was killing us was peer reviewed into unemployment, depression and a miserable lonely early death. Clearly it's ok to have that as one's barometer. But it's not mine. I'd say there's not a great degree of prostitution involved more because sugar is so readily available/accepted, permeating our society and gaining on us rather than it's not being addictive. It's an easy experiment. And we are right to question all these areas of peering into the research. However, just try getting off sugar et al. That is withdrawal. Do we limit our children's intake of celery? There are three things that make up addiction as was listed in the original post--sugar hits the mark with all three.

This is in the 'other ideas' department. Just wanted to suggest Martinelli's a sparkling apple juice non-alcoholic drink as an idea for you. It's in a champagne bottle so it looks the part and does very well in a gift basket. Available in grocery stores I should add. Maybe add some jelly too. Just a bubbly idea for you.

I'm not seeing the different light--not trying to be dense. Type real slow for me. I'm not seeing any information here that high fat foods produce similar reactions. I agree that an occasional cookie is an indication of nothing. The research says binging brings on the bad results. Few of us are occasional Coke drinkers. And coke would be an intensified sugar rush. Speaking of Coke, brb... It's that so many of us are already addicted. This impacts us all differently with our different small and large health issues anyway. Try going without it. It's an important finding.

I challenge anyone to try and give up sugar, corn syrup, honey, splenda all the sugary things that can spike the blood chemistry. I mean even fruit, fruit juice. Onions and carrots are high in sugar. Try to elimnate sugar and items that turn to sugar immediately in our system like saltine crackers. You will experience withdrawal in proportion to the amounts you are avoiding. The skin gets so pretty when we are off sugar. Got droopy eyelids? Eliminate sugar et al. The brain funcitons so much more clearly when we get off sugar. Truly truly truly. But you're gonna feel like poo and crabby too. And you're gonna wonder why it's so hard and you're gonna relapse like a junkie on skid row. Hope someone comes up with a methodone, nicotene patch or something. Cold turkey hasn't been real effective for moi. At least not any of the myriad times I've done it.

Clear scientific difference between an obsession and an addiction. Addictions are not only scarry, 'pure innocent natural sugar' is a purely jaded chemical that carries the same addicting properties as an opiate says the researchers. That's a lot to swallow (gotta have it now and more too!!) In light of that, the fallout here is more health issues. Rather than folks breaking into bakeries and gorging pastry, the collateral damage is to our health. Not only that but the health of our families. Viewing this as the addiction that it is resets all the buttons for weight control and health maintenance. signed, fellow rat ps. I'm making tea-rings this weekend to sell in the bookstore. The brown sugar is about as thick as the dough. And I'm making the tea jelly to give as a Christmas gift with the linzer cookie recipe. Someone shoot me.

Wow I'm over here to enjoy the energy of others putting it out there willing to do something. Thinking maybe some will rub off. And I never even thought of the food safety-ness of those labels--oh geez--I just came to be refreshed and I've come across something else to do/worry about. Wow the ink & stuff could contain lead?. (or worse yet sugar )

← Try making this according to how it's written and sift the powdered sugar. It goes without saying that if you're not making the recipe according to the directions you'll have problems. An idea for you is to find a cooked recipe because this one is not cooked which of course is why it failed. ← ← Well you have a nice variation. Congrats. I thought you meant it got too hard after you frosted the cake. Y'know what's interesting to me? I've made the recipe on the Hershey can for over 50 years. I hadn't actually read the directions in eons until a few years ago. I tried it with melting the butter & stuff and I did not like it as much as the old way using the softened butter. I also sub a coupla tablespoons of coffee for some of the milk. Old palates die hard I guess.

← Try making this according to how it's written and sift the powdered sugar. It goes without saying that if you're not making the recipe according to the directions you'll have problems. An idea for you is to find a cooked recipe because this one is not cooked which of course is why it failed.

I mean this is a no brainer to me because clearly I am a sugar addict. Here is something interesting about this fascinating subject. The whole article is here. We're Pushers!!!! Guilty! No cookies for you!! So all the elements for addiction have been captured, documented here. What do you think? Surprised?

You cut cold fat into salted flour, toss with cold water, chill, roll, bake. Viola If these instructions are followed a good pie crust will ensue. Not to say there's not a learning curve but every cookbook I've ever seen lists pie crust as an easy process. But there's no 'refined technique' there's no big mystery to reveal, it doesn't take a lot of skill. Certain skill but it is easy. Results can be elusive but when you figure it out you will see how very easy it is. Just because someone has a problem making it does not then make the process complicated. Pie crust is an easy procedure. The less you try with pie crust the better it is. Some people like to use shortening in pie crust, they are not then palette-impaired. It's ok if some people like all butter pie crust. There's room for everyone.

Butter melting easily is not an overly advanced concept for a pie crust virgin to incorporate.

Many chichi foofoo pastry chefs use half & half--nothing wrong with all butter--same process--no mysteries--clearly everyone does not agree that all butter is superior. Nice pie crust can be elusive to produce but less is more with pie crust. Over thinking pie crust can lead to downfall. Unlike bread and cake that needs to be kneaded and beaten and worked and worked and worked, pie crust needs to be neglected and worked minimally. That's probably the magic if there is any. Abuse it ignore it abandon it. You cut cold fat into salted flour, toss with cold water, chill, roll, bake. Viola