JeanneCake

@Kerry BealYou broke your ankle?! Are you ok?

I shouldn't be surprized that Florence is closing, it still makes me sad though. I love Jack Ubaldi's "cookbook" - mostly for the stories

I've done a few in-person grocery shopping trips; fully masked and right when the store opens at 7 am. I'm out by 7:30. Different things have been out of stock, sometimes I wonder if it's just because of the time I'm there (they haven't stocked the meat cases, or the produce yet). A major grocery chain here (market basket) has a habit of no gaps on the shelves. So you take one or two items off the shelf and the shelf is empty behind the single line of seltzer bottles at the edge of the shelf. There was Near East Rice Pilaf boxes on the shelf with taco shells. In the section for granola bars, it was a wall of Nature Valley granola bars (single file!!) because there were no other brands available. I'm noticing the pasta section doesn't have the usual selection of brands but the shelves are well stocked. plain cream cheese seems ok; but the flavored ones are in short supply. We like this spicy pork noodle soup that uses ramen noodles and I noticed this week there is only the 12-pack boxes of shrimp flavor. which reminds me that I need more gochujang and black vinegar

I found both the Toffee Crunch and the Birthday ones - the birthday ones have little sparkles on the outside and a layer of speckled white and plain chocolate fillings inside. If I hadn't seen the outside I wouldn't have known these were any different from the usual Oreos. The toffee ones, well... they're ok. To me, these didn't taste like a Skor or Heath bar and no way would these be confused with a homemade toffee. But dunk them in some tea or coffee and I'd eat them. Still though, my all time favs are the Dark Chocolate ones. Nothing will ever be as bad as the tiramisu ones.

The Greek man who ran the pizza shop next door had one of these, it was on the menu as "gyro" and it was lamb. Then he sold the place to an immigrant from Kuwait, who called it shawarma. There was a place 15 or so miles north of here, named The Shawarma Shop and that's what they called it. They also had several options for meat: beef, lamb, pork. Me personally, I called it delicious. The Greek man made fantastic gyros. The Kuwaiti owner made the most incredible "chicken shawarma" sandwich/sub and I was sorry when he went out of business.

I can't wait to get mine! and Mr Whipple was my first thought I guess I'm aging myself!

Great. Another foolish term. Foodie always made me roll my eyes, but food influencer? Seriously? I'm with rotus. Knock it off already LOL and, who actually decides who is, and who is not, an influencer? is there a committee?

We routinely use a whisk for ganache - we let the cream come to a rolling boil and pour it over the callets (we also add butter for our purposes) rock the bowl a little to ensure the cream gets down to the bottom; and wait a few minutes then use a whisk.

We've had requests for GF biscuits before, and I've had decent results with the Bob's Red Mill Biscuit and Baking mix, if you can find that in your area. Or buy online. Good luck! I hope it helps!

This brought to mind a funny memory - one of my room mates was a friend from high school; we shared an apartment for a year or two. For her birthday, I bought her an espresso maker (we were young and not very flush so it was not an expensive machine!) After admiring it and setting it on a place of pride on a kitchen counter, we never actually used it much. She did have names for some of our things (cars, mostly. My baby blue VW beetle was christened "Mildred" by her for some unknown reason, neither of us had never known a Mildred and we never watched Mildred Pierce either). So one day she starts assigning names for various kitchen things, and stops at the espresso maker. I realize she doesn't much use this appliance that she had been pining for and without thinking - or hesitating! - I suggested she should call it "Dusty" 🤣

and you got an glassware with a full tank of gas - my parents got a full 8 place settings of water glasses, high ball, old fashioned (I had no clue what that meant at the time), there were three or four different types of glasses 😆 They must have been pretty sturdy to have survived three kids

I had the same thought; I saw the title and immediately thought of Toliver.....

I'm getting RLB's newest Cookie book (bible?) whenever it gets published....it was supposed to be fall of 2021 but like so many other things, it got pushed to this year. The anticipated date for release is October 2022. I'm happy to let you all enable me it's been a while since I added to my collection....

😥 He will be missed. Like all of you, I enjoyed his posts, his wit, his humor.

Here is a link that I hope works. You'd never believe that in a previous life as a technical trainer I taught people how to program and set up their telecommunications networks to do video conferencing. And then fiber optics technology. Because I can't link anything successfully Electric spin brush to clean grout and other stuff! (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

I hope this works! This is what we bought for the shop, it works well and we just change the heads when we need to. Electric spin brush for cleaning (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

For the first three years in our commercial kitchen, I scrubbed the grout with a tile brush and it made my arms feel as if they were going to fall off. Then for some reason I found an electric scrub brush on Amazon, bought one and it changed everything! Now everyone wants to scrub the grout lines 😆 (we make it easier by using soft scrub cleanser or scrubbing bubbles on the really bad parts but usually soapy water and a few minutes does the trick). I got one for the bathtub at home, but that's beyond the scope of the thread LOL

Yeesh. I have four round bins (repurposed buckets) on my counter (at home) for spatulas, etc - things with handles you need while cooking... doesn't everyone?

Hmmm. Where to start? (there isn't likely to be an end!! Instant Pot (I bought the first one for home use, then a second one for work) eZtemper (this one is for work) Philips Avance Infrared Grill Breville Smart Oven Air (and because of this marvelous device, I ended up buying a Breville Waffle Maker for the kid) Ooni Pizza Oven Polyscience Induction Ninja Creami I have so far resisted Darto pans (because I would mess up seasoning them, and I am too afraid of setting off the smoke detectors in the house while doing so....) and I've also resisted the Blast Freezer but every time Jo mentions hers, I lust after it and go check the website and try to talk myself into it. When I see the inside space, that's when I walk away - because I want something bigger I love hearing the first hand use by fellow eGers for new to market devices as well as older things and that's what does it for me - you guys are great!

Rose Levy Beranbaum uses the microwave to reduce the juices from thawed raspberries and strawberries when she makes her fruit purees. She says doing it in the microwave means the juices don't caramelize the way they would on the stovetop (the juices in her puree recipes are reduced from a cup to a quarter cup so it would spend some time on the heat); perhaps that's the motivation for this author?

Welcome to the party! Happy you are here

One of my distributors is out of cream cheese and all purpose flour; I have three different places we buy from and luckily the NY distributor has it. Customers have no patience when you tell them you can't get something. I'm beginning to understand why some people have left the industry. We're all tired of this, taking it out on me doesn't help.

I like it!! Pretty cool inspiration and execution. You won first prize, right?

This isn't related to the pandemic as such; however the media is breathlessly reporting that there's certain to be an egg shortage in Massachusetts in the new year. A new law bans the in-state sale of eggs from hens that are raised in enclosures with less than 1.5 square feet of space starting January 1. I haven't gotten a definitive answer about how this might/will affect commercial food businesses (can we still buy eggs from our distributors? will eggs coming from out of state to said distributors be allowed for sale to food service providers? No one knows - or I should more correctly say that all of my distributors have no idea at the moment what will happen come January 2022! So eggs might be the new toilet paper at least in MA

Hmmm. I was thinking I wanted prime rib for Christmas dinner, I haven't looked at prices yet but I'm sure sticker shock will set in. I wonder if I should have a plan B. It will be just 4 of us at dinner, but I like to have enough left to not have to cook the next day or two at least.