JeanneCake

Sigh. We all need baseball caps that say "Board of Health" on them when we order food in person. Not that I think that will change anything. I wash my hands constantly and it drives me nuts when I see others who don't. I actually don't mind someone putting on fresh gloves to make my sandwich and then ringing it in and after the transaction, taking the used gloves off and tossing them. ETA: because the sandwich is wrapped or bagged before they start to handle the money...

Have a repair company look at it? See if they have done the whole auto paint thing or have any cautions about will it/won't it from an angle we might not think of...

Ah, then no worries! I've heard of people slathering on a quarter inch of curd or whatever and having the midsection of the cake start to slide and shift as a result. And then wonder what happened.... and why!

Can you elaborate on this a bit? How thick are you going to make the curd filling in between the layers? As an experienced wedding cake maker of many years, I would worry about the tiers sliding if it is just curd filling and it's anything more than a skim coat... even with a buttercream dam around the edge to hold the filling in ...

This tip from Rose Levy Beranbaum has never failed me: Boil them in water with a little baking soda, drain, rub in a towel then toast. The water becomes pretty black! ETA: Sorry for the repeat

If I were to think in terms of what I couldn't replace, it would be an early edition of Mrs Beeton's book of household management that I spent big bucks on 15 years ago (I should say pounds, I bought it across the pond). The thing I miss the most is what I can't replace - I have no idea where it went to (someone must have appropriated it!) and have missed it for 20 years. I called it the pizza pan; it was an old, very heavy and well used sheet pan but it wasn't the usual dimensions of a sheet pan (at least, not the dimensions found today). It fit in a home oven. It was bigger than a half-sheet pan, not as wide (but longer) than a three-quarter sheet pan and definitely smaller than the usual full size sheet pan... I made the best pizza in that pan. And the best California Fruit bars from Maida Heatter's book. Well, I still make great fruit bars, but I miss that pan. A lot.

The Wilton yearbooks usually have a section toward the back that lists the tube/tip number and a picture of the flower it makes; you can find these Wilton books (they're more like magazines than hardcover books) in craft stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, Jo-Anne Fabrics....

My nana didn't have a recipe, just a routine. I think everyone has a similar one - hers started with sauteed cloves of garlic in olive oil (but not til they were brown, just golden) then she added tomato paste and then puree (it was a big deal if a supermarket had a sale on Pastene tomatoes!!!) and then everything else but the kitchen sink it seemed would find a way in. She cooked the meatballs (which I was tasked with rolling - there's a picture in the family album of me at 3 or 4 in a high chair pushed up to the kitchen table, with the bowl of meat, a bowl of water and a plate of meatballs), sausage, bracciole, pork, etc separate and piled it all in. This was on Saturday and then after church on Sunday, she'd reheat it and we'd sit down to dinner at some point in the afternoon. And while it was heating, anyone would come along and pick out something and put it in the bread just like rooftop1000 mentions!!!!

This whole appropriating another "language" outside of the normal use makes me chuckle. I once dated a doctor who never used any hospital jargon outside of work; but when we were with a crowd from (his) work, then it was too much to keep up with. I learned a lot, though But this kind of thing probably happens across all industries not just the cooking profession.

When my kid was a toddler in day care for a while, the staff suggested parents use the wax paper sandwich bags to put their sandwiches in (rather than the ziplock sandwich bags or the plastic box thing); they were great. I haven't seen them for sale in years so perhaps not everyone is a fan. But I use wax paper the same way the others do: for quick clean up of just about everything I'm doing in the kitchen.

Do you have her contact information? Have your corporate attorney write her a letter, asking for all that information mentioned in the previous posts, and sending it regular mail and certified. This way, you're on record for requesting information that will help either prove her claims, document an issue with that batch of testing kits, or allow you to clarify any confusion. Good luck. I feel for you.

Seems like they have to say "something" to justify their position, and they're spinning it so it comes across as being solicitous of your health and well-being; but I agree it all comes down to: is it selling? If it's not selling it's taking up space that something else could be using and that moves faster! Their intentions to bring good spices at reasonable pricing was what prompted them to begin their business in the first place - they were the first place I'd ever heard of to get better spices than anything I could get locally from a store (grocery or gourmet) and they made it possible for other spice vendors as well as force the supermarket brands to upgrade their offerings. There's a Penzey's store somewhat near me so I've stopped buying mail order; do they still have that magazine (called One, I think)?

I've had the most excellent service from Sunnyland Farms; I mostly buy the midget pecans in the home pack, but everything I've ever gotten from them have been excellent quality, packed well, and arrived when they say it will. I've been buying from them for about 10 years and have never had a problem. I've also had excellent service from King Arthur in Vermont. I bought a Viking 7 qt mixer and the whip broke the third time I used it. They sent out a replacement whip immediately. The service I got from them was way better than the mixer's performance (we call it "dusty" because I just don't like it anymore, but I still buy from KA all the time).

I agree with xxchef about the differences in formulas to account for different results (we have four different formulas for ganache in our kitchen depending on what we are going to do with it); I also feel that most people thinking about the precision in pastry versus savory is more about whether a formula can withstand too much of one or more ingredients or the omission of a key ingredient. I am known for our carrot cake; and people are devotees to it. When I had a new cook last summer, she mistakenly scaled up the recipe and added 3.5 tablespoons of baking soda rather than 1.5. I didn't supervise her as she made the batter, but I knew instantly that something was wrong when I saw the cupcakes in the oven. She tasted them, and said they didn't taste bad, but I could not use them for sale. So for me, when I think of precision in pastry, it's more about accurately weighing/measuring than anything else. ETA the word accurately!

No idea. But would love it if we got to live in andiesenji's life for a week!

It was always frustrating for me to work with applying gold leaf; the slightest exhale and oops! This is a poor man's alternative: use an edible gold aerosol spray, made by Chefmaster (a truer gold than PME) or by PME. Both available through cake decorating distributors (such as Pfeil and Holing, Avalon Cake Deco, etc) and I think Williams Sonoma has some but I only say a white pearl when I was there last. Put the nuts on a parchment lined pan and spray with one hand while shaking the pan with the other so they roll around and you can apply the gold to as much surface area as possible. It smells like vanilla whenever I do this at work; everyone comments on it, strangely enough. Just don't get too close with the can, then the color beads up.

I would not let the incident affect my decision to go or not go; but if something were to go wrong during the meal, I already know there would be no interest from management in fixing it. Customer satisfaction doesn't seem to be high on their list. What I found interesting was the comment about people losing jobs because of past poor reviews by the critic. Perhaps someone the chef knows was one who lost a job and now has exacted payback?

I'm looking for some choices in buying Braun/Alaska Express mousse mixes. I know Qzina distributes them; I'm looking for others. Can anyone recommend places? Thanks!

If you are using fondant to cover the cake, you would want to use a buttercream on the outside so the fondant has something to stick to. Because it firms up, ganache doesn't provide a surface for the fondant to stick to. In our shop, we use a simple syrup flavored with the appropriate liqueur or juice to add some subtle flavor notes but if you're looking for a stronger Kahlua taste, you might consider making a creme anglais to serve alongside the cake, and put the liqueur in that....

Normally when you are presenting an individual dessert, you put it on a mono board that's a 4" circle that has a tab for easy handling. Lately there are some newer shapes and sizes out there but I need to find a 2.25 inch card to build miniature, personal bite-sized cakes on. I don't want the card or board to show much. I have 4" round silver mono boards and the client wants a uniform, clean edge just as if it were machine cut. So no matter how careful I am, if I were to trim these down they won't be perfectly uniform and the client has been very specific about not doing that. So a shout-out to all of my cake-baker friends in the UK and Australia and New Zealand who use miniature cakes more often than we do: what kind of card are you using and where can I buy some? The wedding is on New Years' Eve and the client and I just finalized all the details yesterday. So time is of the essence and if I find these available internationally, I need time for them to be shipped to the US....

I guess it depends on what you were reading. If it was just cookbooks, the copyright on the early ones (MTAFC, etc) would have given you some historical reference. If you read the book My Life in France, it chronicles the journey she took in her culinary education as well as the struggles in getting the first book published. The comments about recipe testing that are included in the book show that people were not cooking like that at home because everything was processed and convenience foods were being heavily touted as THE way a modern person cooked. The memoir type books will help you put things in context. So if you read those books and still had the question, that's why people would wonder if you were just trying to spice things up in the forums ETA: correct typo

do a google search for "wowie cake" - it is similar to the above recipes with oil, water, vinegar, cocoa, flour, sugar, salt baking powder and baking soda - no eggs; you need to use a dutched cocoa for best results. I am thinking of experimenting soon with replacing the flour with a gluten free flour substitute to see if it works as well.

This year I get to host Thanksgiving! And because my parents are older and hate to drive at night, they'll arrive around 1 and we'll sit down by 2 and they will leave for home (with lots of leftovers. I don't get this practice of sending guests home with empty hands. When my sister did Tday, I'd make a turkey before we left so that there'd be something to eat when we got home).

Your description instantly made me think of the sausage roll/bread from the Silver Palate book. It's an herbed bread dough that's rolled around an Italian sausage filling and smoked mozzarella (like a jelly roll) and then you bake it in a spring form pan (so it's round). My mother and husband adore it and I haven't made it in years. It will be a nice surprize for both of them on Thanksgiving day - though they'll probably save it for the next day!

One of my accounts has asked that I make some hush puppies for them to include in a bread basket for an event on Saturday evening. This means frying to order is out of the question, since I would be delivering their order (which includes other things besides the hush puppies) on Friday evening or some time on Saturday afternoon. I think this means I have to pretend and use a baked version that they can reheat (we don't have a fryolator in our kitchen and there's too much going on on both days to mess with frying them). So, are there any decent recipes for a baked hush puppy? Thanks in advance....