LindaK

JeanneCake, Filling from the top, which then gets covered by glaze or frosting...genius!

I've volunteered to make dessert for an informal birthday gathering tomorrow night, as many little kids as adults. Given the rest of the menu, I'm thinking of making cupcakes à la Hostess style--chocolate w/ chocolate frosting and the cute squiggle on top (the batch for adults will have some rum syrup moistening the chocolate cupcakes and most likely rum in the creme filling too). Easy, except that I've never filled cupcakes before. I'm not afraid to wing it but would be more confident with some expert advice. I've read conflicting opinions as to whether you cut a little wedge from the bottom, pipe in the filling, and replace OR whether you just stick the pastry tip in the bottom of the cupcake and give a squeeze. Also, any advice about best fillings. I'm thinking a creme patissière, maybe lightened just before filling with some whipped cream. While I'm looking to answer this immediate question, if you have other favorite filled cupcake ideas, recipes, advice, please share here.

My Cuisinart FP has been a workhorse for 20+ years. I did have to replace the workbowl a few years ago when it cracked after having a cast iron pot dropped on in, but the company was still able to replace it. It probably needs a new blade but the motor still runs like it's new.

Then add some crisp pancetta bits, toss, sprinkle with chopped parsley. This was a favorite at one of my neighborhood restaurants in St. Louis. I haven't made it for a while but now I'm thinking that I need it for dinner. Soon.

djyee100, thanks so much for doing this homework for us! Recently, when opening the jar lid as instructed, I remembered this line in your earlier post: I read it, but the point evidently didn't sink in. Fermentation? gases? In my fruit? Well, my Vieux Garcon is quite effervescent these days. Had you not mentioned this, I would have assumed it was poisonous and tossed it. How does the fermentation affect the flavor? I've not experienced this before.

I haven't read it, but the New York Times recent hailed the reprint of the I Hate to Cook Book in a recent book review, which described it as a cookbook for those "who appreciate...processed-cheese, canned-soup and alcohol-laden recipes..." Sounds like a contender.

I used a mix of zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, and mushrooms. The recipe also suggests carrots, turnips, kolrabi, asparagus, or butternut squash. I didn't get the sense there's anything particularly authentic about any specific vegetable or vegetable combination, but perhaps there is. anyone know? The tortillas were about 6", and I just measured the diameter of the little porcelain gratin dishes that I used for service (not owning the lovely cast iron Staub mini gratin pans used in the cookbook photo), they're just shy of 6" on the bottom, the flared sides helps them accomodate a little more. I didn't measure the vegetables, I just chopped and roasted. I'd estimate that I used a generous 1/3 cup of cooked vegetables per tortilla. Yes, they were overfilled. The recipe calls for 8 cups of cubed vegetables, and we know that veggies shrink as they roast. So guestimating that, following the recipe, you end up with 6 cups of cooked vegetables for 12 tortillas, that comes to about 1/2 cup veggie filling each. Sounds right to me. The amount of sauce was a bit scant for 12 enchiladas. I only made 8 and had some sauce leftover. Comparing my picture to the one in the cookbook, it looks like I oversauced somewhat.

two non-tomato pasta sauces that I adore that I don't see already mentioned: - brown butter and sage, with a bit of parm cheese at the end. yes, that's all. good unsalted butter and fresh sage, finely chopped. It really needs fresh egg pasta. I'd heard of it, but the flavors didn't click in my brain until I sampled it while in Piemonte, Italy. This is the best excuse to make your own pasta. If you are feeling ambitious, make agnolotti. With this sauce, ambrosia. - in Marcella's Italian Kitchen, Marcella Hazan describes a simple baked eggplant with garlic and parsley as a vegetable dish. Delicious. A note follows that says that leftovers can be chopped and added to sauteed garlic, parsley, and evoo and used as a sauce for spaghettini. Stupendously delicious. I always make extra to have leftovers w/ pasta the next day.

Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas with Creamy Tomatillo Sauce and Melted Cheese (Enchiladas Suizas de Verduras Asadas), (pp. 199-200) I don’t remember the last time I made enchiladas, but the thought of creamy tomatillo sauce was too tempting to pass by. Plus, with an overflowing vegetable garden, I’m always searching for new ideas to use them in a main dish. The sauce is a snap to put together. Roasted tomatillos, garlic, onion and chilis, pureed and cooked with some broth. Not having a working blender at the moment, I used my food processor to make the sauce. It gives it a little texture—the tomatillo seeds in particular don’t disappear entirely. A blender would likely give you a smoother sauce. But no matter, it was delicious—tart, hot, creamy. Nice, too, that you can make it a day or two ahead, which I did. Otherwise, the recipe is simply roasted vegetable-filled tortillas, napped in the sauce with a little cheese. I used this recipe as motivation to finally try my hand at making tortillas, inspired by the tutorial and conversation in the Making Tortillas at Home topic. That was a lot of fun. A bit tricky at first but I got some good ones, enough to make the enchiladas. What a difference they made to the recipe, both flavor and texture. Oddly enough, the only thing I didn’t especially care for in the recipe was the roasted vegetables. Their caramelized sweetness was jarring in contrast with the sauce. I like roasted vegetables but the combination didn’t meld in the finished dish for me. Still, the recipe is a good template for enchiladas suizas in general and the sauce recipe is definitely a keeper. I’ll try the enchiladas again with other veggie combination or with a chicken filling.

Really interesting post, Maureen, thanks. My introduction to this particular balancing act was in Marcella Hazan's introduction to her pesto recipe in The Classic Italian Cookbook, now out of print but included in The Essentials of Italian Cooking. She advises for American cooks: "In Genoa, they use equal quantities of Parmesan cheese and of a special, mildly tangy Sardinian cheese made of sheep's milk. The Romano pecorino cheese available here is considerably sharper than Sardo pecorino. You must therefore increase the proportion of Parmesan to pecorino...the proportion I suggest is 4 parts Parmesan to 1 part Romano...a well-rounded pesto is never made with all Parmesan or all pecorino." I have played around with her recommendations and have long since concluded that Marcella is right, as usual. For pesto, using both cheeses makes all the difference.

Which is why my kitchen floor gets my vote. Another reason to love wood floors.

There's a cookbook sitting on my shelf, La Dolce Vita, by Michele Scicolone, a book of Italian sweets that I bought because of its chapter on semifreddi (plural). I haven't actually made one yet, but that's another matter. Although the author notes that, for Italians, a semifreddo can refer to all sorts of cold desserts, she says that: "the best ones are mousselike mixtures that are mixed or layered with fruit, chocolate, crumbled cookies or nuts and are frozen...The airy mousse and the chopped bits never really freeze hard and the result is creamy, yet chunky for an interesting texture." The mousse comparison is useful. She notes that "...to maintain the volume of air...the ingredients should be folded in carefully and quickly and the utensils kept cold." The book has a dozen recipes for semifreddi that all sound delicious. I WILL make one, eventually. Other recipes I've made from the book have been excellent.

I wondered about that as well. Most recipes call for including the alcohol to the sugar syrup while it's cooking, a few use the brandy to top off the fruit cooked in sugar syrup afterwards. From what I've read, I think the high alcohol level of brandy/cognac is what helps preserve the fruit safely without using the usual canning/water bath process. That argues for not cooking off the alcohol entirely. Does anyone know if this is the case?

I've seen mention of this book, too, and would be interested in knowing more about the contents--mostly recipes? technique? Truth is, I have a dozen plus cookbooks that cover this territory and I'm reluctant to add others unless they tell me something new. But Dorie has co-authored books with the likes of Daniel Boulud and Pierre Herme, so I have no doubt that she has good recipes and secrets to share.

Rosemary, what an interesting addition to a fruit tart. Sounds lovely. I love frangipane with fruit.

So I started my first batch of vieux garcon/rumptopf. The recipe couldn't be more fool-proof or forgiving. But still, a couple of lessons learned: - don't use very ripe fruit. It will turn to mush once it hits the hot syrup--as I discovered with some of my plums. djyee100 counsels this above and I should have paid attention. My solution: pluck out the intact fruit, add to the canning jar, and strain the remaining syrup /fruit mush through a chinois, pressing to get all the fruit juices. Tasty, tasty. - it takes less sugar/cognac syrup to cover the fruit than you would think. The fruit releases a lot of juice and it all adds up. I ended up with more syrup than I needed to cover the fruit. But I did like the results of the 1 part sugar/1 part brandy ratio for the syrup--not too sweet, not too much alcohol. So here's my first batch. Yellow and white peaches, nectarines, and plums. The lovely color comes from the plums: I do wish I'd done this before cherry season ended. I am tempted to buy some cherries at my local over-priced grocery store. But that does defeat the purpose, doesn't it? Has anyone added other flavorings to these preserves? I am thinking about vanilla beans, candied ginger, cardomom pods, etc. Any good combinations that you've tried?

Host's note: for those who are already thinking about a Heartland Gathering 2011, we've moved posts on that subject to start the PLAN: 2011 Heartland Gathering topic. Please continue to discuss the 2010 Gathering here!

hi, and welcome to eGullet and the Boston area! Here are several that I know of: Stoddards. Knife specialty store. sadly, no longer in Boston proper but not far away either. http://www.stoddards.com/ China Fair. Two locations, one in Cambridge (Porter Square) the other in Needham. A large selection of kitchenware, some but not most, for professional kitchens. Good prices. http://chinafairinc.com/xcart/customer/home.php Eastern Bakers. This place serves the trade but will sell retail. http://www.easternbakers.com/door/ there are also places in Chinatown, but I can't remember names. Worth wandering through the neighborhood to browse and eat! And of course there are the usual retail places such as Williams-Sonoma and Sur la Table. W-S has a discount outlet at the Wrentham Outlets, south of Boston.

This is incredibly impressive. Until now, I couldn't imagine a 2400 pp cookbook--but reading through your Table of Contents, every chapter looks to be essential. And the photography is gorgeous. Bravo!

Heidi, I'm looking through the index now. I see some recipes for fruit (strawberries, peaches, prunes) steeped in wine. Are you referring to those? Have you made them? Paula Wolfert's "Mediterranean Cooking" has a recipe for peach wine, which I'd forgotten about til now, but it always sounded intriguing.

what a brilliant idea! I've always followed the "no refrigeration" rule for tomatoes. the freezer never would have occured to me. This is a perfect solution to the problem of my plum tomato plant. It always seems like a good idea in May ("sure, I'll make sauce and freeze it") but when I'm picking dozens at a time in mid-August heat, the idea of standing by the stove to make tomato sauce loses its appeal. As of last week, I'm experiencing the onslaught of cherry tomatoes. I planted two--a sweet 100 and a sungold. What was I thinking? But I love to eat them out of hand, in a salad, or saute them briefly. The sungolds (yellow/orange) are especially tasty.

This looks beautiful and delicious. Can someone try describing the flavors/textures to those of us who have never tasted this desert? Is the cheese sweet or salty? does the semolina make the dough layer somewhat crunchy? I'm also wondering about the filo dough variation--any pictures of that version? Thanks for sharing this.

Welcome to eGullet, runwestierun and Jane, and thanks for the tips. This does seem brilliant. I have no doubt that eGullet members will give the site a thorough test-drive.

Both the Vieux Garçon and Rumtopt sound wonderful. I like the idea of being able to add fruit as the season evolves. And neither requires hot water or steam pressure processing, which for me would be a disincentive. Yet another benefit of the booze!

Cutting boards (only two?), steel cooling racks. two each of 9" and 10" cake pans. the list goes on.