CaliPoutine

Check out the Friday Sale at Amazon. They have a Le Creuset 7 1/2 qt round red plus skinny stove top grill for 139.98( free shipping and another 25 bucks off using discount code). This is an awesome deal. clickity

These sound good to me. turkey burgers with double smoked bacon. We dont eat red meat( but yes, we do eat bacon) so I think I'll go with those. I'll be using a mix of dark and white turkey. Check my blog for pictures of the turkey farm in my area.

Of COURSE it was English. As in, probably, English when I've been out in the sun too long. As in English when I should have turned the computer off at least three hours before I did. As in, well, bad English. Sorry for the incomprehensibility. What I thought I had said was that I keep a bag of plastic whatchamacallits that we use over and over again to decorate family cakes. These are generally of the dollar store variety and they allow us to create truly bizarre little cake-top scenarios. Hence the mention of the now infamous ants-all-over cake which featured about a gazillion plastic ants crawling up the sides and all over the top of my son's birthday cake one year. He loved it, but it was difficult to eat. If I were asked to make a dachshund cake, I'd find a plastic dachshund and surround it with appropriate accessories. Such as fire hydrants and/or trees. But that's just me. I'm kind of into tacky. And in my world, a kid's ice cream cake should not necessarily be tastefully decorated. Sorry for the confusion. ← I totally understood what you said the first time. Does that mean something is wrong with me? I dont think I can handle the transfer. I honestly dont get it. I also dont want to make a buttercream with crisco either. So, I think Ill have to go look for some plastic things at the dollar store. Thanks for all your help.

I know this is late, but those evertfresh bags work like a charm. I bought them about a month ago on QVC. I love them.

My niece asked me to bake an ice cream cake for her bday party this sunday. I was thinking of making a 9 inch round, then splitting it in half. putting one half on the bottom of a spring form pan, covering it with icecream, then topping with the other second half of the first layer. I also thought about baking the cake in a 10x10x3 square cake pan and doing the same thing. My questions are: How do I frost the cake? It seems like it would be awkard to frost a frozen cake. What type of frosting do I use? Chelsea( niece) wants me to draw a dachshund on top of the cake as well. How would I do that? Im thinking maybe that writing gel from the supermarket. I'm using "premeasured" ingredients for the cake(aka, doctored up cake mix). and Id like to bake it tomorrow so it can ripen for a few days( I think the flavor is better). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2323 market. Great food, great prices. sorry, i just went to look up for further info. The place is actually called 2223 market. clickity for more info. edited for corrections to name/address and to add link.

I bought the lodge cast iron press. 14.99 at Bed, bath and beyond, then i used a 20% off coupon too. They do have them at amazon if you're interested.

Isnt whole foods amazing? and amazingly expensive. I usually go once a month when I visit friends in Ann Arbor, but I wonder how far oakville is from Exeter???. Hmmm, let me go look that up.

Me!! Good kosher alternative eh? Can you send me a piece of coconut pie please? ← If it could fit in the envelope that I put the butter ruler in, I would!! ( Im mailing that today)

I wanted to give you all a re-cap of yesterday. OMG, If I never see another cookie again, it wont be too soon. LOL. I arrived at 1pm and went over my recipes with the owner. Clearly, this kitchen was not set up to do any pastry work. He didnt have many of the items I needed. I knew I was going to have to go to the store, but I wanted to complete the coconut cream pies first. This recipe is from Cook's illustrated. The crusts use animal crackers, butter, unsweetened coconut and some sugar. Baked in the oven for 15 min, cool. Filling is milk, coconut milk, sugar, unsweetened coconut, egg yolks, cornstarch, butter, vanilla. I made a double batch and I was pleased with the results. I filled the pies and covered the tops with saran( after explaining to the owner that a skin would form if the pie wasnt covered). I got the stuff I needed at the store( brown sugar, oats, molasses, choc. chips, crisco and peanut butter). Came back and started on the cookies. I brought my KA and a 1/4 cup measure, my small ice cream scoop, my cookie sheet and silpat and few other odds and ends. Thankfully I brought that stuff. There was nothing in that kitchen. I had to rig a cookie sheet out of a giant( well used) roast pan. I covered the inside with foil and buttered that. The ovens were off so everything took a lot longer. I burnt one big batch because a line cook turned up the oven without my knowledge. I made 12 batches of dough. 3 of each flavor. I baked off 8 batches and the owner asked me to freeze the rest. I was really happy with all the recipes. This time the ginger cookies came out looking more like yours claire because I used regular molasses. They didnt have any cayenne so I left it out. My partner took the test batches into work and everyone raved about the ginger cookies too. Whoda thought butter flavored crisco would work so well. I always thought butter was better in everything. They only served 8 covers the entire time I was there( 1-9pm), but 3 ppl ordered pie so I was happy. The owner seemed very happy with my work and told me that when things pick up( its a very seasonal town), he'd call me. Thanks for all YOUR help!!

is catfish traif as well? I always heard it was because its a bottom feeder. I know this might sound weird too, but I was telling my spouse that I feel "cleaner" when I eat in a kosher restaurant. Maybe since she isnt Jewish and I am, she cant understand that. Last month we were in Ft. Lauderdale and I took her to a few kosher deli's( something small town Ontario is lacking). I had matzaball soup( good balls, flavorless broth), and half a turkey pastrami( I added swiss cheese, I dont keep kosher obviously). It was so good and I commented to Robin that I felt lighter and cleaner eating there and she just shook her head and asked me to elaborate and I really couldnt. Does anyone understand this?

Mine look very similar, but are lighter (probably because I don't use blackstrap) and a little bit thicker.....not much thicker than yours, but a little bit. How long did you chill the dough? The key (at least I think -- I'm not an expert) is to form the dough mounds ahead of time and then chill the heck out of them. I'll try to find a picture. ← I chilled it in the freezer for 1 hour. The cookies are still good, but they are flatter than yours. I'll see what the owner has to say, I go there this afternoon. Im bringing both cookies with me so he can try them. I also decided to make the kitchen sink cookies and the chewy pb cookies ( upthread) and a double chocolate chip( tollhouse recipe)

Well, I'm just very happy that you tried them and liked them :). I've given the recipe out to a few people, but you are the first person to actually make and review it. ← Hi again, I was just reading back thru the thread and I notice you say the cookies are fat and puffy. Do yours look like mine, because they arent that puffy. They are flat, but have a nice "chew" to them. I used blackstrap molasses because thats all I had.

Thanks for posting the picture? Did Sandra give you a ginger cookie too? I'm curious, because yours look just like mine :). Glad you were okay with the shortening. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I found it works extremely well for big, huge, gigantic cookies. ← Hi Claire, Sorry, it was you, not Sandra. I was exhausted last night and I wanted to get that pic posted. I should have checked where the recipe came from. Thanks again

Here are the two different cookies.

I was nervous about baking with the shortening( I never do) so I decided to test. I baked the giant ginger cookies from Sandra and I also baked Maida Heatter's sour cream ginger( with glaze). Maida's are made with all butter. Im very surprised but we actually prefered the shortening cookies. They had a more pronounced ginger flavor and spread out a bit more. I'll bring both cookies for the owner to sample and see what he thinks. Thanks a lot!!

Although a bit more than a big soft PB cookie, I think these sound divine. Di ← Those sound great, however I cant find the mini pb cups here in Canada.

Sandra, Have you made those before? Thanks

Cant you take it to work? Hmmm, other than donating it to a soup kitchen, I'm at a loss. Too bad I wasnt closer, I could sure use it.

Hi all, thanks for the help. I picked kitchen sink cookies( martha stewart), double chocolate( nestle cookie recipe), and claire's ginger cookies( Im making them in the restaurant so Im going to use the shortening) and I need one more. Im thinking peanut butter. I want a big, soft pb cookie, What do you have?

Thanks Claire, Im loathe to use shortening in baked goods, I dont like the mouthfeel it provides. Have you tried to use butter instead?

Hi all, Im hoping someone can help. I was just hired to make 12 dozen cookies for an event ( The restaurant hired me). They requested 2 "regular" kinds and 2 someone " different" kinds. The owner suggested something with macadamia nut 's, but I informed him that mac nuts are really expensive. So, those are out. Does anyone have any really good recipes? I have to make large cookies and I have already picked out Martha stewarts kitchen sink cookies. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

No one in their right mind would open a restaurant with cooks who had been there for only 2 hours. ← He didn't. FOX opened a set where they probably paid people a few hundred bucks a head to act pissed off and "TOTALLY SURPRISED!" when their food was late, or the restaurant closed early. ← Yeah, really. Who in their right mind would wait 2 hours for a meal if they were paying for it. What kind of paying customer would allow a chef to insult them? Its all theatrics and its total BS. I hate it already. Im sure they had all the contestants sign waivers because slamming a plate into someone's chest is legally an assault.

Yes! The perfect challenge! Some suggestions have been raised as to vegetables in season: Fiddleheads, English peas, fava beans, asparagus, early tomatoes. . . Why not a vegetable plate for mystery basket night? Some artisinal grits perhaps? Really good vegetable plates can be a great way to express creativity. I'm just sayin.' Looking forward to it. ← I'm sorry, but I'd have to kill myself before I made grits in my kitchen. Just sayin is all. Besides, I proved in my last blog that I couldn't find grits here to save my life. There is a God after all. ← Hey Marlene, I just brought back a container of grits from Port Huron( for a Canadian friend that just loves them!!), just say the word and I can bring you back some too Even though Im living in Canada, I'll have to root for Sam since I was born in NY and his pizza dough is AWESOME.

Ive never even heard of that magazine.