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Romy

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Everything posted by Romy

  1. Ah, sorry! I was having some problems copying that photo from my husband's site. I've reposted here at a less squint-inducing size. Hmm, I think that recipe must be referring to a cooked puree-- cooking to reduce the fruit puree by half and thereby getting a thicker, more gelled puree. Might be a worthwhile extra step. If I recall correctly, my strawberry marshmallows were a tiny bit softer than the vanilla bean marshmallows I made with the same recipe base (but not so much as to be less appealing). Might be that extra liquid and raw pectin! I added cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg to my pumpkin spice marshmallows. Really, the pumpkin just made them a pretty color, I think. You can only add so much pumpkin before your marshmallows won't set. But no one minded-- they were really delicious. (Went well with my pumpkin spice, maple buttercream, and marshmallow fondant cake!) Warm spices and marshamllows are such a great combination, in my opinion. They can do so much for your routine hot cocoa. Cinnamon and cayenne might a good combo for hot cocoa (and probably already mentioned elsewhere!).
  2. I second this recommendation. This cake is a crowd pleaser, and totally forgiving. It's not terribly dense, so it is probably best for smaller cakes (not stacking tiers). Deep chocolate flavor, and comforting-- like grandma would make. I routinely make 4 layer 9" birthday cakes with this when someone asks for a plain chocolate cake. It goes very well with a 7 minute vanilla frosting-- if you are not adverse to using eggs, that is!
  3. Emmalish, I've made Nightscotsman's strawberry marshmallows before, and I did not strain the fruit. Since it was winter, I opted for frozen strawberries since the fresh ones looked so appalling. I just pureed them in a blender. The tiny seeds let people know it's actual strawberries and not just flavoring, in case the taste alone doesn't tip them off. I recently made pumpkin spice marshmallows (based on Nightscotsman's recipe) using pumpkin puree and then dipped in dark chocolate for my wedding favors. Here's a very dark picture of that process. I find flipping the marshmallow out onto waxed paper sprinkled with a little powdered sugar and using a very lightly oiled (with cooking spray, or Crisco, or any other neutral-flavor oil) pizza cutter to be a fast way to cut the slab into squares. Then, I toss the squares in powdered sugar with a little additional cornstarch in a big Ziploc bag. I find using the smallest amount of cornstarch/powdered sugar in the bag as possible to be the best bet for coating the marshmallows enough to eliminate stickiness, but not to create a powdered doughnut effect. Had to learn that the hard way.
  4. Ice cream at the local DQ; there were tons of them in Northern NJ. It tastes best when you lean against the bumper of your car while eating it. Just don't drip any ice cream down your arm and onto the car that Dad has just spent all afternoon washing... I used to prefer Peanut Buster Parfaits and Hot Fudge Brownie Delights. My sister liked a vanilla Blizzard with Nerds, Butterfingers, and M&Ms. Gross. My Mom always got a plain vanilla cone. These days, I like a small cup of chocolate ice cream with peanut butter sauce. It's slightly warm and just a tad grainy, and so delicious. Tastes like nostalgia, especially in the sunshine.
  5. In terms of predicting the coming apocalypse, the whole "no stars" section of this website, Heat Eat Review, is a gem. But please, watch the video review of the Kids Cuisine Deep Sea Adventure Fish Sticks meal here.
  6. I realize this is (probably?) a facetious reference to culinary school, but I'm all in favor of making Home Economics mandatory at the Jr. High and High School levels. I'm not particularly skilled or knowledgeable in the kitchen compared to most people here but the general public has a way of surprising me by finding ingenious new ways of screwing things up trying to cook. Not trying to be some kind of elitist foodie, just asking that people be taught how to safely prepare and handle food ferchrissakes. Sorry to reach so far back to this comment, but I've been recalling my junior high home ec classes. Our teacher was not everyone's favorite, but learning the basics of cooking was invaluable, and even the most jaded of us couldn't help but feel a little pride when we sat down at our (meticulously set) communal table and enjoyed our soup, roasted potatoes, cake, what-have-you... We got tested on everything from measuring, cooking, setting a table, cleaning, food safety, and table manners-- oh, and sewing. And this was in NJ in the 90s. I wonder if my school is still offering the class? I hope so. I had other access to cooks in my family, but for some kids, I'm sure this was the only real cooking the got to do in their young lives.
  7. Kay-- Good luck with the recipe! Like some of the commenters on the website say, this makes a very full pie, so I slightly increase my dough recipe to make sure there is enough to work with. I've never frozen the pie filling before, but I can't see why you couldn't if necessary. Just keeping it chilled might be enough, though, depending on how far you need to travel. You can freeze pie dough, wrapped very well, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. I think if you plan on freezing your pie you might want to freeze the filling and dough separately and then put the pie together and bake it when you get to your destination. The dough on the outside will definitely thaw faster than the filling, and could effect its flakiness. I agree that using flour as a thickener is ideal if you're not looking for a stiff gel filling, or super clear glaze-like consistency. It adds flavor to the liquid you're thickening, not just viscosity. Though of course, that's not always desirable!
  8. I dream of the day when I can retire and have some sort of routine for making my own staples, but for now, I have to make do with experimentation when time permits. I make dinner from scratch almost every night, but it doesn't involve having prepared my own canned goods or stock in advance. In an ideal world, it would! I make my own pizza dough, since making it is easier than trekking to buy the fresh pre-made stuff. I could go over to Arthur Avenue, but that's an hour round trip on the bus, plus shopping time and waiting at the bus stop time, so it doesn't happen on a regular basis. I make all of my own desserts, that much I can say. I can't see spending $30 on cake I can make at home, even if ingredients cost almost as much. Steaming live lobsters recently was wonderful. I could have bought them steamed, but doing it myself was a learning experience. Too expensive to do routinely, but certainly quick and easy. Ditto on sausage and pasta making. If I could do it weekly, I would. Nothing like homemade sausage and ravioli. But with shopping and clean up time added in (with no doorman for special order ingredients, and no dishwasher), it is often not practical. Oh that I could pay the bills with a part time job!
  9. When making apple pie, I use a modified version of an old(ish) Bon Appetit recipe that employs pre-cooking and boiling the released juices, and I'll never make it any other way. The recipe is here. Pre-cooking the fruit quickly extracts the juice that would otherwise flood your pie pan when you cut the first slice, and make your bottom crust gummy. Gross! It is also beneficial if you make a double crust pie-- the fruit is pre-shrunk, so your top crust won't cave in or hover above a filling that has cooked down in the oven. I use a combination of sweet/soft and crisp/tart apples in my pie. It yields a not-too-sweet filling, and the soft apples melt in and around the crisp ones which hold their shape, and still offer resistance when bitten. A filling that is all one texture is just not as interesting. And no need to cool and re-heat (unless you want to). I use my own crust recipe, and take some liberties with the amount of spices. I also use dark brown sugar instead of light brown. Another benefit to pre-cooking-- you can taste your pie filling before baking and get a reliable sense of how the end product will taste, allowing you to add a little more of any ingredient before sealing your pie up. This pie has won me an award, and numerous accolades from (often rather fervent and opinionated) apple pie lovers. Perhaps I am mad for sharing my secret, but i hope that no one ever has to suffer through a runny pie again!
  10. I would love to hear how this turned out! Hope it was successful, and not too stressful.
  11. Ah-- actually, this was uttered by the mature-beyond-her-years little girl to the little boy. Barb just spoke jive. And who could forget: "We're out of coffee." My favorite is from Groundhog's Day: Bill: "Sweet Vermouth, rocks, with a twist." Andie: "I'll have the same. That's my favorite drink! ... What should we drink to?" Bill: "I like to say a prayer and drink to world peace." Or something along those lines.
  12. Well, I guess I'm going to bring this discussion back into the realm of the anecdote: Went to a party a fairly long time ago with a friend of mine. She was intensely high (and yes, I was completely sober, an impartial observer, of course!) on E, and had bought a bag of oranges on her way over. As soon as she got to the point where mingling without handling people was nearly impossible, she pulled me over to a couch in a back room and started talking and peeling and eating the oranges, one after another, after another, after another... until the whole bag was gone. When she got through that last orange, she dropped the bag in her lap, and we just stared at each for a moment. I pointed at her and stated the obvious: "You ate the whole thing! You're gonna die!" The night went on, and was a fantastic time-- but needless to say, she was not a happy person for the next few days. Pretty hilarious from my perspective though! But as for what to eat while conventionally high: I think grilled cheese is great. Ice cream with huge gobs of peanut butter. Buckets of chips and salsa. Steak fries covered in salt and ketchup. Any fast food, especially if someone else goes to buy it. And extra thin, crsipy cheese pizza. A whole one. For myself.
  13. Ah, MarketStEl! Your talk of potato chips has reminded me of the glorious chips I had when I was in NC last year! Lay's (I think) Dill Pickle flavor. I haven't been able to find any up here in Northern NJ, but I'm sure they're out there somewhere. They had the perfect balance of seasoning, salt and grease. Is saliva bad for keyboards?
  14. Well, I'm convinced! I'll have to get over there for dinner soon and report back. The February wine tasting sounds great (tapas, according to the website).
  15. Oh boy. Here we go: Frostys n' fries at Wendy's, any chocolate ice cream with a hefty blob of peanut butter tossed in, pizza from down the street at 3 am, hot dogs at Yankee games, buttered bagels, Red Baron Supreme pizzas, Bourbon Chicken at the mall, Slim Jims, Dunkin' Donuts chocolate glazed and Boston creams... And from NJ diners: mozzerella sticks, nachos, deluxe burger platters, two eggs and bacon with rye toast and home fries at any hour, mozzerella cheese fries. Okay-- time for dinner!
  16. Oh, these are too funny. I'm sure many of you have heard of Dirty Dick's Crab House and Awful Arthur's on the Outer Banks of North Carolina? They also have two gourmet nut shops: Dog Nutz and Try My Nuts. I swear. I've actually grown addicted to Try My Nuts's Nuts on Fire. Anyway, my entries: Botulism Bistro Pizza Plague-- the new pizza chain that's spreading fast The Petri Dish-- it'll grow on you The Smoking Gun Cafe-- you shoot it, we serve it Pappy's Goiter House Chuck's Abattoir & Deli Hair of the Dog Wine Bar Frenchie's Laundry and Curry Hut Mystery Meat BBQ Shack Burgers n' Boils Clappy's Public House The Flatulent Flagon Alehouse Soggy Bottoms Saloon *sigh* My apologies.
  17. Great thread! I'm looking forward to tonight's episode! A few comments: YES-- I did notice J. Steingarten's comment on the other judges! It was something along the lines of "well, if no one else is going to say anything critical..." because up until that point it had pretty much been insipid praise all around. It was terrific to watch him slumped back in his chair, distancing himself from the bland personalities at the other end of the table. And, I nodded my head in fervent agreement when he criticized Bayless for his attention to authenticity-- authentic is great, if there's a reason for sticking with tradition. Bayless said little about why he chose the traditional recipes he did for this very un-traditional Mexican ingredient. Or perhaps they edited those comments out. I couldn't taste the food, but it would have been nice of him to explain why he though buffalo was a good substitute for whatever meat was used in truly authentic preparations of his recipes. I, too, would pay a great deal to see Bourdain slay Flay. Whose cuisine reigns supreme, indeed. As much as Flay annoys me, and though entertainment value is given as much (or more) weight as skill on the show, that's still why I love the FoodNetwork. Where else can I see so many chefs in action, for better or for worse? Speaking of worse, it would be great to see Rachel Ray up against Batali. She really gets my goat. It would be a joy to see her floundering in a real kitchen, in a real hurry, as opposed to her making 30-minute meals that Emeril could make in 3 minutes on his Live show. How I love to hate TV personalities!
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