JanMcBaker

Oddly enough I had the same thing happen earlier this week when I was trying to make freezer peach jam. I used Sure-Jell for low or no sugar jams (I tried low sugar). I followed the directions but I wonder if my fruit was a bit overripe, which they said would cause it not to set. Anyways, they do have directions for trying to salvage jellies or jams that didn't set. I'm assuming the regular Sure-Jell or Certo would have the same directions if you wanted to give that a try. You can either try saving a single test jar as they recommend, then doing the rest if the test sets ok, or jump in as I did and redo the whole batch cause I just didn't feel like doing it in two steps.... It did look to set up better. Good luck! If worse comes to worse, sounds like it would make a good topping for pancakes or waffles....

This was after a pitcher of Sangria. He thought it was a fox. ← I liked what Evan said about it.... "I got you Babe!"..... Wonderful dinner, by the way. Loads of fabulous tapas, then the pork and sides! Diann, thank you so much for getting this together! it was sooo yummy, and I got to meet some more eGullet members! Eeek! Edited to add-- How could I forget mentioning the sangria! It was wonderfully refreshing and quite tasty. Nice job, Katie! Had a glass of red and one of the white. I'd have a hard time deciding which one I prefer.

Speaking from personal experience here..... I've made non-wheat baked goods for my sister, for whom wheat is a problem. If you're making recipes using xanthan, follow the amounts! It doesn't take very much at all to have an effect, and it can make batters very difficult to work with if you use too much-- and it definitely doesn't take much to be too much. More is not better in the case of xanthan. I've never used xanthan in sauces, but seeing how it works in baked goods, for general home use I'd be more inclined to use cornstarch in sauces. I can see where it would be too easy to get a slimy, gooey sauce with xanthan. I think it would be easier to control the amount of cornstarch used.

I'm with andiesenji. You should be able to pull the husk back a bit to see how things look. Other things I find helpful is to check the general condition of the corn--- is the silk still silky and moist or is it dried out? How's the husk-- look moist too or is that dried out? What's the temperature of the corn feel like? Do you know when it was picked? Unless you know it was just picked, I like it to be cold, or at least still a bit cool from being refrigerated. If it feels like it's been out in the heat for some time, all those lovely corn sugars will have turned to starch.... However, depending on how tender the kernels still are, it might be salvageable as corn off the cob-- cut kernels off and heat gently with some sugar, butter and/or cream, salt and pepper, or other seasonings as you wish.

Huh??? Since when does the word 'liquid' mean water-based? Direct from Merriam-Webster on-line-- "a fluid (as water) that has no independent shape but has a definite volume and does not expand indefinitely and that is only slightly compressible ." Note that it states 'as water', not that liquid is water.

Ummm.... last time I checked, it sure looked to me like melted butter was a liquid. I would think that, just because butter isn't a liquid in all its permutations, doesn't mean it can't be considered a liquid for certain uses.

Kobi-- Looks like a great trip, and good pictures, even if it was a cell phone! Glad you had such good time. But now you have to come back again and get a proper, fresh-baked, butter-slathered pretzel from the Amish stand in the Reading Terminal Market!

Nothing works better for me than a swarm of groping Harpos ticking off the hotties. Dinner theatre at it's Marxist best! ← Now that's the most ridculous thing I ever hoid!

'Sammie' for sandwich. It's not even saving any syllables. It's one of those things that's kind of cute when you're 5 but just sounds really juvenile when a grown person says it.

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So of COURSE it's on the same night as the latest pizza tour!!!

I'm volunteering from 5 to 7. See you there? ← I'm on clean-up, scheduled from 8:30-10. See you there! Hope the weather's not too interesting-- last I heard they're calling for thunderstorms from Saturday night into Sunday morning......

I can't help it--- you avoid that mark by bending at the waist and leaning out, away from your shoes......

ahem ... I never missed the Midnight Buffet ... even if I had eaten a full dinner at 6 pm ... surprised that the ship didn't sink ... ← hmmmm...... Maybe that was the real problem with that cruise ship that tipped recently. Maybe all the people who went to the midnight buffets were all on the same side of the ship...

Sandy, you're trying to think of the Country Club Diner on Cottman Ave. However, there was speculation as to whether 3 bells were warranted in the first place, plus it's since changed hands. I haven't been there in ages so I can't say how it is now.

I don't know if he carries them year-round, but I know I've seen them at the Pennsylvania General Store at the Reading Terminal Market. He only carries products made in Pennsylvania-- is that local enough? http://www.pageneralstore.com Edited to add that he also carries Pennsylvania maple syrup.......

I don't have a specific item to suggest, but more as a general idea--- what do you like to eat? Perhaps something that you really like and are familiar with how the finished product should be. But if I had to suggest something, though, perhaps that all-American classic-- chocolate chip cookies. It's one of those really simple, basic things but are apparently easy to mess up! I say that only because of how often I get told "How do you get them to come out so good?" and "Mine don't come out anything like this!"

How about this one, gang? In an ever-growing attempt to gain round-the-clock customers, I guess, Taco Bell has come up with... 'fourthmeal, that meal between dinner and breakfast'. How's that for genius?

As a side note-- something perhaps to keep in mind for a regular, 'trying out pizza places' tour in NE Philadelphia-- I was driving home from work the other day and happened to see a sign in the window of Salerno's Pizza. It's on Verree Rd. just south of Rhawn. Anyways, the sign said they had kielbasa pizza! I thought that sounded interesting..... Edited to add that it turns out I am available for August 3 pizza outing......

I saw that in the Daily News this morning about Smoked Joint-- that the last day is Friday, and they hope to open soon in another location.

......or maybe Thursday August 3? Edited to add that July 27 would work well for me...... Dentist appointment on the 3rd! Sorry about that. Edited again to correct my date to July 28th..... heh....... I'd probably be OK after the dentist on Aug. 3rd but I had something else to do after that.

And again regarding Braverman's-- frankly, I'm surprised they lasted at RTM as long as they did, at least based on a cake I bought there a few years ago. I was extremely disappointed in it and embarrassed that I bought the thing! I forget (or blanked out) the details, but there was nothing about the cake that made me want to even give them a second chance! It was outrageously overpriced, in terms of both size and quality (i.e., lack of). Their signs had depictions of milk, eggs, butter, etc.... I tasted no evidence of these ingredients in the cake I bought. When I recently mentioned buying a cake there once to someone who works in the Market, she just shook her head sadly and said something like 'oooh nooo'. I'm saddened to say that I've had better tasting supermarket cakes.

A couple other thoughts--- what kind of flour did you use, what kind did Maida Heatter use, and what kind was RLB weighing? Discrepancies there (e.g, all-purpose flour vs. cake flour) could cause a problem. Also, you mentioned using a 9-inch tube pan where a 10-inch pan was called for in the recipe. Putting the same amount of batter in a 9-inch pan rather than a 10-inch pan I think would have too much batter to rise. It would be more spread out in a 10-inch pan rather than a 9-inch pan and wouldn't have so much of its own weight to overcome in rising.

I have a silly question-- I've certainly heard about 'pressure canning', but-- does it use a pressure cooker specifically for canning or does your run-of-the-mill pressure cooker work? Should the cans sit on anything in the canner to avoid thermal shock? Thanks!

If Maida Heatter says to beat the eggs for 25 minutes, then you can be sure it's safe to beat them for 25 minutes. I know there's other leavening in that cake, but the beaten eggs probably add a lot of lift also. I don't have equivalents right at hand, but I think a 1/4 cup of flour is 30 gms. so 1 cup should be 120 gms. You might have too much flour in there. And figure 29/30 gms = 1 ounce, then 4 ounces of butter should be 116-120 gms., so you might need to add a touch more butter. I know they're small amounts but sometimes that can make a big difference. I don't know off hand what sugar's supposed to weigh--- maybe some professional pastry chefs can 'weigh in' on this one.....