Patrick S

Not really. It looks really dense, like pound cake, but its not. The mouthfeel is actually quite light. Thanks so much, John! As you can see, I'm having fun with my new camera!

Patrick S is smiling tonight. We had some hot and spicy Texas chili and vanilla bean cake for dessert.

Tonight, Bill Yosse's white chocolate vanilla bean cake. I used Lindt white chocolate, 3 Tahitian vanilla beans, and a little extract on top of that. I can't wait to take a slice to my brother, who loves all things vanilla.

Jiff is a good one for cookies. My favorite is the CI chocochip cookie recipe, adding 1/2C peanut butter and subbing pb chips for chocochips.

We made some Texas-style chili last night -- big cubes of chuck, no beans, fairly hot. I top it with jack cheese and fresh onions, but I left them off for the pictures.

I have some frozen mango that I was going to use for something else, but mango marshmallows sound more interesting. I wonder if I should boil the puree first, or if the sugar syrup itself will heat the puree sufficiently to degrade the gelatin interfering enzyme.

Randi, I would not hesitate to use chicken that has been maintained in the fridge a few days past the "sell by" or even a "use by" date. It may not be at peak quality anymore, but so long as you are cooking it thoroughly, you'll be fine.

Carrot cake needs carrots like triangles need three sides -- you could leave out the carrots, and you may have a fine cake, but it won't be a carrot cake! Seriously though, carrots do serve an important function -- they ameliorate the guilt you might otherwise experience after eating massive quantities of cream cheese icing. I do hope you'll try swapping broccoli for carrots and post some pictures of the experiment -- its so close to Halloween, and I would love to behold something hideous and terrifying. ← Are you calling my broccoli cake "hideous and terrifying" before even trying it or seeing it! ← Yes, but I mean this as a compliment. It would be "hideously" amusing, and "terrifyingly" original. I hope you'll consider a thickened pea-soup layer in the middle. <cue creepy piano music from The Exorcist> I do hope you'll try the beet cake. That really does sound much more promising!

depends on your tap water... some water doesn't taste better with filtering. Never mind that there are whole towns in Canada that have to get their water trucked in for everything. I was just listening to a program on the radio about a town in my province that has NO running water. Now, I doubt they're selling a lot of high-$$ water in places like this - but the point is that there are places where the local water source just isn't drinkable. ← Your point is well taken. I'm sure there are places on earth, such as Somalian refugee camps and some south american shanty towns, where the tap actually tastes worst than Evian. Thank goodness such places are exceedingly rare.

Carrot cake needs carrots like triangles need three sides -- you could leave out the carrots, and you may have a fine cake, but it won't be a carrot cake! Seriously though, carrots do serve an important function -- they ameliorate the guilt you might otherwise experience after eating massive quantities of cream cheese icing. I do hope you'll try swapping broccoli for carrots and post some pictures of the experiment -- its so close to Halloween, and I would love to behold something hideous and terrifying.

Just use your favorite choux recipe, mix in about 2-4oz of cheese after you incorporate the eggs. After your pipe your puffs, egg wash them and then sprinkle some more cheese on top before they go into the oven.

I didn't realize this until Penn and Teller pointed it out, but Evian spelled backwards is naive. Just a coincidence, I'm sure, but I always thought Evian tasted much worse than plain old tap water and wondered why anyone would pay so much for it.

Mix 1.5C white sugar, 0.5C light brown sugar (or just use 2C white sugar), 4Tb corn syrup and 0.5C water in medium pan. Cook over med-high heat until you reach 300F, then reduce heat to med. When you reach 350-355F, take pan from heat, let bubbles subside, then add 1C heavy cream (warmed in microwave), 0.5C sour cream OR creme fraiche, 1t vanilla, 1t lemon juice, and a good pinch of salt. Whisk to mix it all together. You may have to put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes to get all the hardened caramel bits incorporated. I'd have to disagree with the idea that STP "needs" toffee sauce, as opposed to caramel sauce. The sauce recipes that go with most STP recipes have seemed pretty boring to me, like thick, vaguely caramel-colored simple syrup with butter mixed in, not nearly as tasty as caramel sauce.

Apples poached in ginger and caramel are good. Tarte tatin is my all time favorite, though that may not be very "untraditional."

I'm glad it turned out well for you! But let me assure you that magical (and tasty) things happen to sugar when you heat it above 300 degrees, and you can do this without having it solidify.

Danial, I've left egg whites out for up to 48 hours, used them in baked goods, and eaten the resulting products many times with no ill effects whatsoever, so I tend to doubt you'll be needing any activated charcoal. Unfortunately, many sources, such as K8's, don't distinguish between whole eggs -- which rapidly go bad at room temp-- and egg whites alone, which contain antibacterial enzymes like lysozyme, and which direct experience shows can be maintained at room temp for quite a while. I wouldn't try to store broken whole eggs at room temp for any length of time, but I've done this with whites many times, and never had any problem.

Technically, toxins can't die because they aren't alive to begin with. Almost all bacterial toxins are proteins (that is, composed of a sequence of amino acids in a specific order and folded into a certain configuration), and protein toxins can be rendered inert by heat, since heat "denatures" them, and destroys their protein structure. It is correct however that not all bacterial toxins are equally thermolabile, and some could potentially require more heat they are going to recieve in the oven. Egg whites do freeze just fine.

As long as you are cooking with them, I don't think there is much of a risk of illness. Even if bacteria proliferate in the whites (which would probably be marked by changes in smell and color), they would be killed by the cooking.

Vodka has helped to preserve my last nerve on many occasions. I'll have to try some of the other applications.

Ok, I'll be the first to gush! That looks terrific-- and thanks for the extra tips on making it. I will definately be trying it. Hope you do follow up with a discussion/recipe on your favorite caramel sauce recipe... ← Thanks Ludja! From memory, the sauce went as follows (if I make any errors, I'll correct them tonight when I have Yard's book in front of me): Mix 1.5C white sugar, 0.5C light brown sugar, 4Tb corn syrup and 0.5C water in medium pan. Cook over med-high heat until you reach 300F, then reduce heat to med. When you reach 350-355F, take pan from heat, let bubbles subside, then add 1C heavy cream (warmed in microwave), 0.5C sour cream, 1t vanilla, 1t lemon juice, and a good pinch of salt. Whisk to mix it all together. You may have to put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes to get all the hardened caramel bits incorporated. Like I said, this is my favorite caramel sauce now. Its nice and dark, smooth in appearance, and has a more complex flavor than most caramel sauces due to the sour cream and lemon juice (not to mention truly caramelized sugar). ← Hello All I have the toffee on and look at my thermometer - are you sure they said 300 degrees and 350-355 degrees F? Because that's some hot sugar. I have a guest who said something about Sticky Toffee Pudding - So I'm in there boiling this sugar. Quick can someone confirm these temps? Thanks. ← When I make caramel sauce, yes, I routinely cook the sugar to ~350F before adding butter and cream. Be careful though, because once you are at 350F, the temp is likely to be rising quickly, and it is easy to burn the sugar.

Thanks. How much do you get for that price?

Freshdirect sells there's for $3.49/# maybe they would be willing to FedEx you some. All butter Puff Pastry ← That's an amazing price -- that about the same price as the tasteless Pepperidge Farms puff pastry. Too bad their website says they dont deliver to my area. Does anyone recall how much the puff pastry from whole foods costs?

Its filled with cream cheese icing.

Tonight, we're having pumpkin roll:

Williams-Sonoma has this for the low, low price of $42.50 per 14oz sheet, shipped overnight Link