CanadianBakin'

Ok, I think I've figured it out. My apologies for the blurriness(sp?). I'm using a different camera for the rest of the pictures and they should be much clearer. It couldn't possibly be the operators fault. This is the Austrian Apple Strudel served on Vanilla Sauce. In the center and just behind is the Mushroom and Rosemary Bread. Back right is the Dark Banana Bread and in front are Sesame Bagels and Orange, Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies.

YAY!! Another e-gulleter. I hope you can help me report each week. I sit at the front table of 4 and have shorter dark hair. Please introduce yourself on Tuesday. I think my pictures from this week will be better. I really need a few minutes to figure out how to post pictures. I have a link, just need the time. It wasn't foccacia, I'm not sure what you'd call it. Most people cooked them in cans so the bread mushroomed out over the top. My partner and I did ours just in a round loaf. I loved the texture of the bread but the shitake mushrooms were a bit rubbery. I think I'd use something else next time.

I didn't get to taste what you made but I saw a crab cake that was brought in for Chef Marco and it smelled amazing!!

I'm really sorry to hear about this too! Like the others said, you know tons more now than you even did a month ago so your next venture should be even better. Here's hoping for a new and even better location than you had. ...there always seems to be a reason why things happen. Best wishes!

Did you get any pictures of the desserts you've been serving at Rare?

We did have professional students and staff setting up and prepping some of the ingredients as well as helping us with equipment and techniques, but the dishwasher was not a student as far as I know. But yes, it is a bonus to not have to do the dishes after cooking. ← I paid closer attention last night and I think you're right. Either way, I'm happy that we don't have to take time to do dishes.

It was suprisingly easy to stretch the dough. It's kind of like some pizza dough demos I've seen on TV. You use your fists to hold it and let gravity do the work for the most part. Then when you lay it on the table you use your whole hand to stretch out any thick parts. It does tear but it's not a big deal since you are doing so many layers. We had way more dough than we needed so we just used a piece without holes. Dark Banana Bread - the only difference I noted was we used dark brown sugar instead of white. The taste was great but you can't "see" the banana in it. I think I like the appearance of banana bread made with white sugar better.

The Serious Foodie Pastry Course began last Tuesday. I'm no Jamie Maw or Zucchini Mama but I'll do my best to give you a peak into our class. We are taught by Chef Marco and the class size is 13. Day 1 We made Austrian Apple Strudel totally from scratch. When we were done stretching the dough it was as big as the table we were working on and you could read a newspaper through it. I really should have taken a picture of the process but I only got the finished product, and blurry at that. We made an apple filling with dried cherries soaked in a bit of rum and a creme anglais to serve it with. I really like the freedom he gives us. He had intended the filling to have raisins but left it up to us if we wanted to use something different. The rum was a suggestion by one of the students. As long as he's got it we can use it. Next we prepared the dough for bagels. It's a very stiff dough and they looked a bit funny while raw. They sat in the cooler over night. Day 2 We finished off the bagels by poaching and baking. We put sesames(sp?) on ours and they looked and tasted amazing when they were done. We made a Mushroom & Rosemary Bread. It was interesting to make the bagel & rosemary dough on consecutive nights because their textures were so different. The rosemary dough was VERY wet. I'm glad I was able to make this under Marco's instruction because at home I would have added flour and the texture wouldn't have been as good. Mmmmm, I love the smell of rosemary. We also made Dark Banana Bread and Chocolate Orange Cookies which were both delicious. I absolutely love the class and can't wait to go again! I'd really go every night if I could. Perhaps I'll have to enroll in the fulltime class sometime in the future. BIG BONUS which I don't remember reading in the other Serious Foodie thread is that the fulltime students volunteer their time to wash all our dishes. All the ingredients are scaled ahead of time so when we get there all we do is receive instruction while watching a demo and bake. Chef Marco also put out a variety of cheeses and fresh made bread for us to snack on throughout the class and both days there was also hand made chocolates of various flavours. *Pictures to come as soon as I have time to figure out how to post them. edited to add: Thanks so much to all of you former students who have posted your experiences! I never would have known courses like this existed.

I work for a plumbing and heating wholesaler. We have a luxury bath & kitchen showroom. It seems to me there might be something like this available as a freestanding glass shelf for the bathroom. I'll try to remember to check my catalogues on Thursday when I work next. I did search "free standing glass shelf" and got a number of bathroom accessory sites but the shelf units were all too big. It's a long shot but I'll take a look and let you know what I find.

Do you have any restaurant supply shops nearby that sell good used ovens? We have one here that offers a 30 day warranty on all their used convection ovens. If anything goes wrong in that time they send someone out. I would just feel a bit more comfortable knowing there was someone backing my oven even if only for a short time.

I can't help, but how cool is that?! I've never seen one before.

I've been wondering if buttermilk or sourcream might be the key to the "best" yellow cake. I don't have time for more yellow cake testing right now but I will keep it in mind for future testing.

I am Lord of the fry, kneel before me. fud, get your facts straight man, these are rated the best fries in town. I am buying Yam futures right now because we sell so many. Like the gingerbread pudding, they too will become World Famous. ← You must be the reason Costco now sells 5 pound bags of raw yam strips in the produce section.

What an excellent idea for a party! I might have to steal it. Most of my ideas were mentioned already. The only other one I can think of is my husband loves blue cheese with pears, apples or melon. That would probably be good on a skewer.

From the background it looks like you had this at home. Did you make it?

Gorgeous cake! You did a beautiful job!

The food safe course offered up here says 2 hours but I think 4 hours would probably be fine.

That's good to know. I'll have to get it out of the library again so I can try them and add it to my list to buy.

Can you please add a link to Chefette's recipe?

Thanks for posting your results, Wendy! I tried 4 different recipes lately and wasn't totally thrilled with any of them. CI's yellow cake like you tried - I actually liked this one best, mine was moist and didn't stick at all although I found it a bit sweet. It has a higher ratio of sugar to flour than the others I tried. Rlb's All-Occasion Downy Cake - my husband and I liked this second Marcy Goldman's yellow cake Flo Braker's yellow cake We both found Marcy's and Flo's a bit dry and "dusty". It could be I over baked them slightly. Funny thing is, I made a 3-layer cake with CI's, Flo's and RLB's and asked them to tell me which they liked best. All the layers got about the same amount of votes. Not much help! I did have someone comment they really didn't like Flo's and one person really liked RLB's as it was more like pound cake. I have tried Sarah's recipe and it totally didn't turn out for me. It was heavy and greasy. I'm going to try the Whimsical Bakehouse recipe next. I'm also really tempted to try the doctored up cakemix one that is on here somewhere. I think I would feel embarrassed about buying a cakemix but I guess I can get over it.

I just use regular canola oil. The tweaked version that is upthread has some melted butter in it as well. Did you try all oil or with butter? Mine has never tasted plasticky.

I just wanted to let you know I tried my UltraBlue torch on lemon meringue tarts tonight and it worked like a charm! The flame is fully adjustable, it has a trigger start and an open/lock feature for the trigger. I'm very happy with it! Oh, and the cannister is about the size of a spray paint can so it's very manageable.

McAuliflower - I'm sorry I should have done that myself. Thanks for putting them all together!

chocolate covered pretzels

How low would you go? I forgot to ask this is my last post. I baked some mint meringues (light and crispy, not chewy). I made some ganache (I think it was about 8 oz. creamy stuff (don't ask) to approx. 15 oz. chocolate). Waited until thick and cool - then piped some on and sandwiched. I only did a few because I wanted to see what would happen - and they got very soft and started to disintegrate. I don't want to use straight chocolate - but how much cream do you think would work without harming the meringue? ← That's odd! I've never had them disintegrate. The ratio sounds fine to me. I froze the sandwiched cookies before serving. I don't know if that made any difference. I hadn't planned on making them anytime soon but I happen to have a bowlful of eggwhites in the fridge right now so I'll see if I have time to give it a try in the next couple days and let you know what I find. I didn't use "creamy stuff" but heavy cream. Could that make the difference?