Franci

I'm very particular about it what kind of dessert I like. Generally don't want to bake a cake I wouldn't eat myself. I'll make you laugh. The dessert I dislike most is tiramisu. I recognize that people aspect more than a rustic apple tarte for a birthday. So, in my mind is a genoise, or a moister cake, like almonds cake, with some cream or ganache or custard or fruit. A very good butter cream I can tolerate just small amounts of whipped cream (mixed with pastry cream for ex or zabaglione). I like pouring ganache but not whipped. And as decoration, I like it simple. Thanks Chocomom, you are too kind. Those cakes in fact are too complicated for me. I have something in mind, I just wanted to come with some decoration ideas to make it look a bit nicer. And this time I'm baking 2 cakes, also for a 2 years old boy, son of a friend. For my daughter I was thinking of something like THIS or THIS, not as tall, I don't like tall cakes. Brilliant, why didn't I think about it. Thanks Deryn, a lot of work into your kids' birthdays! I do perfectly understand the about ME thing, I do the same for my food (not pastry, luckily). I had to google KISS principle. Smart.

Cakes decorated with fondant or sugar paste are something I really don't like. In looking for cute ideas to decorate my kid's cakes for parties I found these ideas and to me are very cute for a little girl cake This This This This I'm neither this talented nor creative. I looked very hard for similar ideas without much luck. Any suggestions on books or websites?

The only tested recipe I have is this: CRESCIONDA 4 eggs, 100 g butter melted 50 g cocoa lemon zest 120 g sugar 300 g pulverized dry amaretti 210 g pulverized cookies (petit beurre) 1 teaspoon baking powder 500 ml milk butter and flour to dust the mold (24 cm) Preheat the oven at 180C. Whip eggs and sugar. Add the liquified cold butter, add the shifted cocoa and lemon zest. Add the milk and to finish the pulverized cookies and baking powder. Bake about 40 minutes My crescionda it's pretty dense but I don't recall the neat 3 layers that I've seen in some pictures. The recipe for the picture I linked comes from a cooking forum where a lot of people tried it. Very different than the recipe I followed. 4 eggs 8 amaretti pulvirezed 40 g petit beurre pulverized 3 tablespoons sugar 2 rounded tablespoons flour 500 ml milk 100 g grated dark chocolate (or 2 tablespoons cocoa powder) a pinch cinnamon, lemon zest, a small glass of rum and a pinch of salt. People suggested the 24 cm tin and everybody seems to like more with chocolate than cocoa. Also they separated the eggs and whipped the whites. Surely more custardy than mine. I'll have to try it.

I would rent a kitchen space for sure. I am thinking very hard on how to get around the problem of keeping food warm or cold long enough. The mom in NJ was able to deliver her lunches at the cafeteria in schools, I don't think this is an easy option in a public NY school. And to package a lot of meals early in the morning and having them still hot/cold at lunch time is a challenge. Also, drop up points? My husband doesn't think it's a good idea but I'm more considering delivering one week (or every 2-3 days of meals) at home, already portioned in containers and parents just have to warm up in the microwave in the morning (which is so much easier than making your own meal anyway) and pour in hot thermos for hot meals. Cold meals is not an issue. Usually parents have already lunch bags and ice packs. In this way the whole logistic gets much easier. Any thoughts?

Ah. ah, it's a better way to say: stale cookies? I bought come chocolate cookies that my children didn't want to eat, plus there were some lemon cookie crumbles, plus a little bit of vanilla cookies that also are not being eaten fast enough. Another way I use up old cookies is an Umbrian cake, crescionda, looks like one of that popular magic cakes, but my children don't like that kind of cakes...so crepes.

Crepes made from leftover cookies using much more milk than indicated in the recipe http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2013/12/ohcrepes.html

If you are looking for an easy kimchi recipe to start with, I highly recommend Holly's recipe. I really like it http://www.beyondkimchee.com/easy-cabbage-kimchi/

I grated with the westmark grater a small celeriac, added 1 egg, some hazelnut flour, thyme, salt and baked in the oven. I cut round, piled with mushrooms and some Bruxelles sprouts and bacon to eat along

Today to eat with salmon I made a very classic Sicilian salad: fennel, orange and olives. I only added a few pomegranate seeds for color and some tarragon. Dressed with extra virgin olive oil, a little orange and lemon juice and salt

Deryn, thanks! It could be. I'm ordering tonight.

Thanks for the advice. Butchering meat or fish is a very enjoyable activity to me. I only buy organic chicken, the few times I buy it. I have bought a couple times whole foods organic chicken breast (the one they vacuum seal) and I decided I cannot eat the stuff.

Thanks Kim, not Olli, for sure. Better!

Can anybody help me out to find this great guanciale from Virginia? We used to buy it from Heritage meats at Essex mkt in Manhattan but they just told us they are not going to carry it anymore. Of course my husband tried to ask the name of the producer and they didn't want to give the info. They are only going to carry that crappy Batali's guanciale from Seattle. The guanciale we are so in love is not too salty, not too heavenly spiced and quite smoky. Perfect texture. Comes from Virginia.

It is a very nice cake, quite moist and a little dense (doesn't have gluten in it), definitely more sorbet or ice cream.

Out of curiosity. How do you remove wax from citrus. Do you care if it's organic or not? I am really jealous of Heidi. The idea of lemons coated in wax make me just sigh at the memory of Menton lemons. I've made a couple weeks ago, with the Ipad is more difficult for me to write and link posts, some Portuguese pork ribs with oranges. Really nice. One very nice Italian cake that I bake sometimes is Caprese bianca: almond flour, white chocolate, limoncello and lemon zest. Sometimes I make a middle eastern cake with whole lemons, almond flour, butter and eggs.

I'd prefer to turn vegetarian...since I moved to the US I cannot eat chicken, at least supermarket chicken anymore, it has such a strange texture. Is it me? Maybe really nice chicken from a good farm...but then I prefer a lamb chop at that point.

Tonight I made beef stock with some beef shank and necks/knuckles I had in the freezer. Bone marrow was cut from the shin and left to soak in salted water and was simmered in some stock just to cook through. In the same stock I reheated the meat (that was my cup to drink). Some kale, broccoli, always present kimchi, some left overs in little bowls. For the kids, Italian version of congee. Beef stock, rice, pressured cooked 6 minutes, crumble shin in the bowl.

Husband decided to stay home for lunch. We went together shopping and came back with a skirt steak. I roasted some butternut squash , dressed with some austrian pumpkin seeds oil/evoo/vinegar/walnuts, kimchi, salad and some stock to sip

Ravioli mainly for the kids, I'm very glad they cleaned their plates. Husband and I ate more tapas style: frittata I really liked, sautéed shiitake, collards in wok, chorizo and guanciale, kimchi. A little cup of beef stock. I gave up wine this month, meat stock is better than water for me.

I don't know how Italian American bakery do, I'm not familiar with their recipe. But the one with the candied cherry are very typical in my area and in Sicily but there is no butter in there, at least in the one I know: it's just almond flour, eggwhites and sugar. I also use frolla montata (whipped pasta frolla, with soft butter) to make cookies with a similar shape but no almond flour.

You could think also at mayo (cutting with another oil). Also Ligurian sauce with walnuts to dress pasta, you could add a bit of walnut oil (and do an hazelnut variation). Veal roast with hazelnuts a very Piedmontese dish (where you can also use a bit of hazelnut oil). I particularly like squash/pumpkins with pistachio or walnuts (I have in mind that Turkish dessert) but could go savory and beets. Veloute' of butternut or celery root or beets. I like to use hazelnut and walnuts (and their oils) with bitter greens. I remember a dish from J. McLagan in fat with pork rillettes, endive and apple plus hazelnut oil. Love cold white meat (chicken, pork) salads with radicchio, endive, frisee.

Since I asked, I'll tell you what I have, not much, I was hoping to find something interesting. I have Lavazza Qualita Oro (at my whole foods cots double than this) Hidden Springs Maple Vermont Maple Syrup (I don't save but I don't have to go and buy) Haribo Gummi Candy, Happy-Cola, 5 pounds (my husband is addicted) Maisie Jane's Smooth Almond Butter (I have the 3 pack subscription) Ambrosia Pure Honey (which still is much cheaper to me to what I can buy around me) and having 5 subscriptions I save 15%.