MelissaH

That implies available mascarpone. And although there's a reasonably large population of people with Italian ancestry in this area, I have yet to see mascarpone in the stores in town regularly. Good thought, though. Had I not used all my cream to make the butterscotch pudding, I would have alternated layers of whipped cream and butterscotch pudding. MelissaH

Or line a plate or cookie sheet with waxed paper, plop the little babies down with a little sauce on each, and put the whole lot in the freezer for a bit. Once they're frozen solid, bag the lot in a resealable bag. Then you can pull them out one at a time when you need them. MelissaH

Yesterday we hosted a party for about 30 people. Most of the food was provided by others, but we wanted to make sure we had at least one munchie, one soup, and one dessert. Everything went off without a hitch until I tried to cut the brownies I'd baked into squares and they crumbled to the point where they were too ugly to serve at a party. Taking a page from numerous eGulleteers, I whipped up a batch of butterscotch pudding, and layered it and the brownie crumbles into a trifle of sorts. It was yummy, if a tad heavy. I started thinking that a bit of fruit layered in with the brownies and pudding would have been a nice addition. My question: what fruit would go nicely with both chocolate and butterscotch? I know that bananas would have been an obvious choice, but bananas are the one food I cannot stand in any way, shape, or form. The strawberries we picked earlier this spring and sliced and stored in the freezer were another possibility; I knew that they'd be a slam-dunk with the brownies but wasn't so sure about the butterscotch. What else might have worked? Bonus points if it's available in small-town upstate NY in early December.

This thread brings to mind an article by Mark Bittman that originally appeared in the NY Times, was republished in Best Food Writing 2002, and I just now found on the Web, if you can get past the horrible font and background that make it difficult to read. The gist of the article is that restaurant cooking is a totally different beast (excuse the expression) from home cooking in every aspect, from ingredients to equipment to manpower to time allotted to general mindframe of the person doing the cooking. Bittman closes the article with a few tricks the home chef can try to make their food more restaurant-like...including the use of more butter. Julia would applaud. MelissaH

In following this thread, I'm a little surprised that my browning-on-top solution hasn't been mentioned: a blowtorch. I swear by mine for creme brulee, and have also been known to use it to even out the color on top of other dishes. Just don't hold it too close, and keep it moving!

Mr. MelissaH has maintained for quite a while now that Giada's head is too big. I haven't watched her much myself; something about that show makes me want to change the channel...or wait for the end of the half-hour. Gotta second previous remarks about natural-foods Christina. We have a PBS station that devotes a good chunk of Tuesdays to food shows, and after watching hers one rainy day, I was about ready to (a) turn her off; (b) laugh till I wet my pants; and © change into a dry pair of asbestos underwear and fire off a letter to her. (Really, now, how on earth could sprinkling salt over carrot sticks in a bowl help break down cellulose and make them more digestible? And if you added as much flaxseed as she does, would you ever get off the john?) That said, a few hours after Christina, we're blessed with a full hour of Julia, in various incarnations. Current selections are in her kitchen with "master chefs" and Baking with Julia. I never get tired of watching those. I don't care much for the new Charlie Trotter show. (At least it's new to me.) The first Kitchen Sessions was OK and watchable, but I can't handle the new one. Any time I see someone standing in front of a dozen little pots, taking a dollop from each and constructing a plate, I yell at the chef on the screen to "Get real!" I don't know if the show's changed that much from the first season, or if my supply of patience for things that will never happen in my own kitchen has just been exhausted. Although there was a moment in the first show that really grossed me out, thinking back on it: it was in the episode where he cooked fowl. The part that got me was when he showed us some-or-another whole raw bird, caressed it with his bare hands, and then immediately touched another whole roasted bird with his same bare hands, in the same continuous camera shot and without an intermediate stop at a sink with hot water and soap. After seeing that, I swore I'd never eat anything he laid finger on. Or have I just taken too many biochemistry classes? I suspect Emeril might be much more watchable when he's not in front of a large audience with cameras rolling. The bigger turnoff about him, for me, is that he's messy in the kitchen. Maybe you quit caring about that when you get rich enough to hire someone to clean your kitchen for him. Who would I like to see come to my TV? Flo Braker. Harold McGee, even in a cameo role on Alton's show. Someone doing Korean cuisine. Someone who can help me figure out how to get everything for dinner finished and on the table at the same time!

So, a little time has gone by since the last posting about using maple syrup in marshmallows. Has anyone tried it yet? My instinct is to use maple syrup to replace all the corn syrup. To me, a mapley marshmallow sounds like an interesting accompaniment to a pumpkin or sweet potato marshmallow. Or maybe just sprinkle finely chopped toasted walnuts over the maple marshmallows, in addition to or instead of other dustings? -MelissaH