highchef

In 2006, I will eat__more roasted veggies and play with different sorts that I don't know a thing about. Even if they're ugly. I will make__the loves in my life their favorite birthday cake and make it as beautiful and happy as humanly possible. I will find___an easy way to get the foods I want to try, like bookmarking all the web sites and setting up accounts so my orders can be done in minutes and I don't end up changing the menu at the last minute because I did not have the time to find an ingredient! I will learn to finish a dish like a pro. I will teach_my sons basic flavor combinations. and how to run a dishwasher! I will read every issue of Cook's and try to remember the more useful tips. This is the year I will try_to make simple dishes beautiful and appreciated even if they're only a couple of ingredients. I will make sure those ingredients are the absolute best that I can get and/or afford, or I won't make the dish. Don't you think food is like wine? Why bother with the crap unless you're starving... I will taste_a real from New Orleans beignet, although I can make my own. Gotta go full circle. I will use_less throw away stuff and try to be kinder to the environment. No joke. I will give___all the gadgets that I don't use in the kitchen drawers to anyone who wants them. I__am going to find a weekend culinary school somewhere and grab my sister and my best friend and have a get a way weekend. We_are going to travel a lot more. My kids are going to be grown and gone before I know it, so I must make a home they'll always want to come back to. That's a challange.

I think you are right. It's for a friend and it's a big birthday so it should be all about her. If I wrapped the mallows up like birthday presents..that'd work! Depends on how I decorate the cake. we'll see, but choco dipped marshmallows are on the party menu. Thanks!

I think you'd see quite a bit of textural changes with those subs/additions, denser and more marshmallow creme than marshmallow puffs. That being said, if they do come out that way, you're well on the way to fudge...I'll bet nobody else brings gingerbread fudge! I'd just add the spices and look for a molasses flavoring instead of adding the heavy stuff and at try not to jeopardize the volume. I'm going to make some tonight when the kids get home. I may put a bit aside and play with flavorings, but the majority will be dipped in chocolate (white and regular) and tied up with marzapan ribbons for packages to decorate a birthday cake. Since it's Christmas, the birthday cake may well be in the form of a yule log with the 'packages' scattered about it. Any ideas on this particular birthday/holiday presentation? I do not have a tree mold, but do have a gingerbread man cake pan, it's small but I could do several and make a string down the length of the table. I'll do the mallows today and worry about the cake for friday!!

That is a seriously cool gadget, and one that I want. I shall order post haste. Thank you. It reminds me of a 'flour mixer' that my mom had years ago...a stepped leveled lidded thing that you shook flour and water together to make a slurry for gravey. I haven't seen one of those in years. Looks like a milkshake glass with horizontal ribbs. did not collapse though. I don't think so at least. I need a funnel so badly, and this one folds flat. Yeah!!

no fruit, no chocolate. how about nutella...can't get any easier.

Well, I just saw thisone made on Sara's secrets. Looked good, but highly caloric. What the heck, go for it! I mean, you don't make these things when your trying to diet.

And on grits. Ham & grits and Red Eye Gravy. Yum. ← but you must have bisquits for the ham. And to sop up, of course. With grits. (please make those buttermilk bisquits!)

I personally don't, but don't think it's a bad thing...just another step. My husbands family did this and they're from north Louisiana... I put eggs down in my gumbo when it's going long...hell, it's chicken, why not eggs? the same I suppose holds true for the giblet gravy. Makes it a little different, kind of like grapes in chicken salad. Not bad, just different. edit: I do not put eggs in any other type of gumbo...just chicken and sausage.

there's redeye gravy that's not thickened, just deglaze the ham/bacon pan with coffee and reduce w s&p. good with ham and bisquits. I like sawmill gravy made with a roux and milk and as upthread, lots and lots of fresh ground black pepper. A bit of ham/pork gelee' (saved from the ham pan) down in the gravy adds lots of flavor. I always save that gel from the ham that you get when you heat it and freeze it for gravy flavoring.

I have called the company DuFour, and have had it shipped directly to me. someone was kind enough to post the phone # upthread, but still, here it is. 212-929-2800. I bought 6 sheets for a little over 100 bucks. expensive, yes. But I have no retailers here, so since they next day air (out of need) it got here today and I cannot wait till the morning and I can begin to play with it. I am well stocked with pecans, sugar, lemons, cream, milk etc...any ideas??

Marion Cunningham has a wonderful ginger muffin recipe in the WS breads book. You just throw the ginger in the cusinart unpeeled and go for it......I was hesitant, tried it and it's super. I'd really like to go to that lunch.

I'm also doing the pumpkin cheesecake, as well as a rustic apple tart and a caramel cake (I think, I'm having problems with the icing...loong story). I'll probably do something light with some mixed fruit, don't quite know what yet.

that's funny! and unfortunatly quite true, but if you take it literally you will never sleep in an hotel bed again....

Well, if you're coming to S.W. LA., then come along. The racetrack is open (although I could care a rat's butt, but then some do) and so is the new casino LaBerge DuLac. Which I hear has some decent resturants. I don't do casino's but have friends who do. There is no Rabideaux's sausage available, there apparently is no Rabideaux's sausage building etc. to make it. Cafe Margeaux is still closed, not expected to open until early next year. Sitting on a bayou has it's disadvantages. Margeaux's is known primarily by it's owner who I am happy to say, is a friend of mine. D.C. Flint is a master of wine, one of only 50 or so in the U.S.. He's a great guy who has a lot on his plate. He has had to gut the place, but he's busy with some wine deals so is not in dire straits. The trees are off the streets, Cameron Parish is still somewhat under martial law in that the Nat'l Guard are very much a presence. People are literally living in tents down there. I'm sure they'll welcome the foodbanks etc. who'll be handing out hot meals (actually, they've never stopped them). Lafayette is fine. Was there last month. Trouble is they've doubled in size, as Baton Rouge did. Lake Charles is almost normal except for traffic and lights and street signs. If you are planning a trip down here, please make sure you have a place to stay. Hotels have been at 100%. We still have Katrina victims (or the double hit ) around and they've nowhere to go, as well as our own residents who've been beaten up pretty badly. Rents are high, houses have gone up and there are help wanted signs on every single store...... fyi...pizza delivery stops at 6pm. I hate that.

There is a fantastic herbed chicken salad in the "Good Cook" series book on salads. Almost totally green with herbs. Served on bibb lettuce with black bread to go with it? Yum. The linzertorte and the dobostorte recipes in the "Foods of the World" series from "Viennas Empire" are also excellent. ← I actually tried to make the dobostorte once, a long time ago when living in a walk up in center city philly with a cranky stove/oven and about 3' total of work room. Those were the days. Do not remember how it turned out...will have to get the book out and see if it jars my memory. You know, your salad suggestion and the pork skewers together sound like a really nice weekend meal. Thanks. I took out the candy making in Good Cooks and was wowed, once again, how detailed and educational these books are. I made caramel yesterday for turtles, and made fondant a while back. I'm going to play with the fondant today, there are a lot of interesting ideas for it in this book. I've also made petit fours from the cake book for wedding showers. They're beautiful and you can't beat the instructions. Always a big hit, since everyone is used to that type of thing being ordered from a bakery it gives a lot of recognition to the cook!!

there's also carmel cake, and coconut cake. edit:sorry about the redunency?

I have to add, if the cat will allow, that I' ve had many a lunch where some of the husbands would come in and we'd get an 'My, I'd love to be a lady who lunched"......soon I realized that we were seeing the same guys, over and over..... hello ladies, here's the laddies...

I used to put a kettle on then line the top of the french drip pot with a scott paper towel, fill 1/2 way full of coffee and then slowly pour the boiling water through the grinds. Now I do everything the same except I get my water already hot from the hot water dispenser and pour it in via glass measureing cup. The hot water is at 212 F when it comes out of the spigot and that turns out to be the best temp. for brewing a pot of between roast coffee. It's just at a boil at that point. It's also handy for making tea on the fly..you know, you have just 5 minutes before you have to leave. I drink a lot more tea now!

Before kids, I too was of the 'ladies who lunch' crowd. My mom and I used to 'do lunch' downtown at 'the' department store. It literally WAS 'the' department store, because there were no others!: Well, not if you count Sears. And no one bought clothes at Sears, not womens clothes anyway. It was all about the shopping, for prom, or homecoming. Later I lunched with friends, but would drive to Houston and make a day of it. I miss those days. Hopefully, if I live long enough, I'll hobble back into what ever of the old up-town resturants are open with a blue haired bunch of ladies and look ever so prim. We will slice and dice with such percision that it'll be undetectable. A southern woman never would allow herself to be in a position where her manners were questioned, so we would be perfectly discreet and rely on body language to seal the deal. Lovely, dear...just lovely.

I have Time-Life's Foods of the world and the good cook series. I must get back to them soon. Any wonderful things that you've discovered in them that I must not miss?

I hope you read the part where I know knowthing about Chinese cooking.... edit: The noise from the carpenters putting our garage back together is making me a little light headed...Rita never ends.

I know literally nothing about Chinese cooking. That said, if you are looking to cook a hog's head, and need a recipe, there is one for hog's head cheese in John Folse's creole and cajun encyclopedia. If you do not have access to it, and want a copy, pm me and I will copy it for you. Hog's head cheese is not cheese at all, it contains none. The meat is cooked and formed, I'd have to read the recipe, but you could probably adapt it to have a Chinese, or oriental taste/presentation.

I saw this in Sur laTable and wondered about it. I'd check it out, but I usually get my le creuset 1/2 price anyway and just bought 2 new pieces at Tues. Morning (they get odd colors, but I'm odd too). I did like the panini grill, but I already have a grill pan. I wish he had a chefs pan, I'd buy that in a second at those prices. Mine has to go back to Lecruset because the enamel broke off on the bottom a little, but at those prices you get them fixed. If I could find a cheaper one I'd go for it, I use that pan everyday. If anyone has some of Mario's cookware please let us know how it is. Thanks

Do you use this often???? just kidding.

On the counter, no appliances. Microwave got a new house under the cooktop in the island about 5 years ago, best move I ever made. It's cute though, people always ask...Don't you have a microwave???.... Most of us, it seems, grew up with it on the counter and went to college with it on the dresser. It's been in our face for so long, we forgot it was an appliance. I have a love hate relationship with the toaster. It's suppossed to live under the counter, but since the kids have grown to love bagels for breakfast it's on the counter for an hour or so every morning. Then it goes home. It is not the appliances that gets me, it's the crap....keys, papers, mail, magazines, med's, passes, tickets, receipts, baskets, breads, crackers....on and on and on....who the hell has room for appliances? edit: for being stupid edit: again ok, do I have to write this on word to have spell check??? write, check and copy and paste...ok, I get it.