pastrygirl

Dipping in chocolate is always an option. One of my favorite holiday cookies is leckerli - a spiced honey cookie with candied citrus: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/leckerli

I made caramels yesterday with the thought that I would give some to friends and family for thanksgiving. O.M.G. I can't stop eating them, and will have to make another (bigger) batch if I want to give more than 12 pieces away 1/2 c lyle's golden syrup 1 c sugar 1 c cream seeds from 1/2 a vanilla bean 2 TB butter 2 TB navan vanilla liqueur 1 tsp salt

I use it for various sizes of smaller individual tarts. It would probably make 3 9" tarts. I need something that doesn't shrink or slide down during blind baking tastes amazing and melts in your mouth. I have an almond tart dough recipe that I really like, to compare the two, for a pound of butter and an ounce more sugar the almond has an extra egg, 6 oz more flour, and 8 oz almond flour. Maybe I should bake it and turn it into a crumb crust.

My chocolate tart dough always seems dry. I like the cocoa flavor and it performs well and holds its shape well, but it's missing something in texture. It is a somewhat soft and sticky dough. Should I use more butter? Melted dark chocolate instead of cocoa powder? Hydrate the cocoa in hot water? Use only egg yolks? What do you think? 1 lb butter 9 oz powdered sugar 2 tsp vanilla 3 lg eggs 22 oz AP flour 3-3/4 oz cocoa salt Thanks!

The latest tipping thread got me thinking about how much we in the restaurant industry love to bitch and moan and compare war stories, yet we still seem to love it somehow. Is this the sort of bad relationship we'd counsel our best friend to run, run away from? Or is it not as dysfunctional as it seems, and we all have our reasons to stay? I'm happy in my job as a pastry chef. I make things, which makes me feel useful, even if they are not very useful things. People then shower praise on me for it, which strokes my ego. I get to indulge my loner nature and work alone for at least half the day. I can't imagine myself in retail, and think I'd last about 20 minutes in the front of the house. The pay could be better, but the there is nothing I want for that money can buy. Sometimes it has been a factor, but not the only one. Catering orders and restaurant week can be annoying, as can vegans and freezer failure, but I pretty much do what I want all day. How could I complain about that?

They must count for at least one book collectively! Whenever I show my friends an issue of Art Culinaire and refer to it as a "magazine," there's this look they give me... When you consider that it's 12 years of issues and $750 , it better count as at least one!

Open table will show how many times a guest has reserved, canceled, and no-showed at your restaurant. I've heard that OT will cancel the accounts of people who no-show too many times in one year over all the reservations made on the system, not sure if that is true or what the number is.

I'm pretty sure I haven't responded yet. 59 pastry/baking/chocolate 18 savory/general Do 51 issues of Art Culinaire count?

Edward J, I'm curious to know how much of the US food service workforce is in a union or has the option to join one. In my career I only encountered a union in the one large hotel I worked at briefly, a Fairmont hotel. My other jobs have been for independent restaurants. While there may have been times when employees joked about needing to unionize, it never really seemed like an option. Do chain restaurants have unions, or mostly just hotels? Any idea? From my experience, unions seem the exception rather than the rule, but that's just me. What is the union/non percentage in Canada?

Or send the kitchen a six pack: http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/2011/03/six-pack_for_the_kitchen.php http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/815843 Because servers work for tips, and apparently cooks work for beer. Cooks don't have mortgages or school loans or spouses and kids to take care of such that extra cash might come in handy?

Does the fruit need to be whole, or can you cut it in half and remove the stones before cooking?

I would love to see either no tipping or a system where everyone who works makes the same base wage (there would have to be a scale based on experience, but bear with me this is fantasy land) and tips are divided among all according to hours worked. Of course Americans tend to be so afraid of anything that sounds like socialism (god forbid we be weathering this economy as well as Canada is or have the standard of living that Norway does, but I digress) so the latter isn't going to fly. When Thomas Keller opened Per Se, I remember reading that the service charge was to be distributed in such a way as to narrow the income gap between front and back of house. Good for TK. In places I've worked where the kitchen gets tips, it has been a paltry percentage, adding up to $100-150 a month per cook, but even a hundred bucks goes a very long way to make people feel appreciated and not resentful. Tipping, and especially servers talking about the cash in their pocket creates so much animosity within the industry. You just worked 10 hours and will be taking home a hundred bucks after taxes, and the servers are bragging about walking with two bills after their 6 hour shift? Talk about urge to kill...c'mon people, have a little tact. The current American tipping system seems to work for the vast majority of servers, no matter how much they bitch and moan about an occasional cheapskate. They don't really want to change the system, or work for an hourly wage 40 hours a week, or not have a flexible schedule and cash in hand. Servers just tend to be very vocal, and a lot of people have done the job in the past and can commiserate. Try this: ask a server what their actual gross income for the past year was, divide it by 2000 (40hrs/wk x 50weeks) (or if you want to assume that a server should be able to make a living on 25/30/35 hours a week, adjust the total number accordingly) and ask them if they would do their same job for that hourly wage. I bet a majority would say no because they are sure they can make more and don't want to be limited to just that hourly wage, they know they can upsell and get 25% or more, more, more.

You could grind it to a very fine powder and just leave it in. There might be some grittiness with tea leaves, but something as fine as matcha powder will incorporate smoothly.

That's terrible. Might as well stick with the romantic visions then

I just re-tiled my bathroom with help from a friend who does professional tile work. You're right, sticking the tile on is not the hard part - prepping the wall is, but there is definitely a learning curve with cutting and spacing and making sure you don't end up with impossible little pieces in weird corners. I'd recommend Diana get a laser level and set it up in the kitchen. No question about what a straight line looks like then!

The more you order, the lower your shipping cost per item is. You can't afford NOT to order more!

When I order a negihama roll, it has scallions, but that may be due to availability in the US, not correct translation.

Thanks both of you. Shipping from Montreal to Seattle is so expensive I try to make sure I get as much as I need at one time when I order from D&R. So if I only need one each of the stencils I must need some new molds or transfer sheets to fill out the order.

I question whether 2 turkey wings are worth confit-ing, as they are not going to be a lot of meat and maybe not enough for everyone to try.

Thanks Katie. If anyone really really wants kaffir limes of their own, they are vaialable online: http://www.ripetoyou.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=90 Whenever there is a new exotic citrus, these guys seem to have grown it. Citron, calamondin, limequats, bergamot...

Maybe fata paper? http://www.jbprince.com/table-service/fata-paper-cooking-film-10-meters.asp This is not supposed to used on an open flame, but withstands most other heat.

Thanks, I'll try the recipe. I attempted a sort of marmalade today, it came out OK, not sure what I could do with it. Flavor macaron filling? I also want to use the zest in my next batch of lemon curd.

I'm thinking of buying some silicone chocolate stencils from Design & Realisation. http://www.dr.ca/30mm-round-silicone-stencil-for-chocolate.html Do you think one of each design is enough, because I can just pick it up and use it again, or will I find myself wanting to use a few at a time? Does the chocolate need to set before you remove the stencil, or is it better to remove it while the chocolate is still wet? The stencil makes two dozen, and I could see wanting to make between a few dozen and a few hundred pieces in a session. D&R has a holiday promo for their friends on facebook, find them and see.

Y'know, I was thinking I should offer to share with the bartenders. Kaffir lime margarita? How do you make lime cordial?

I contacted my wholesale rep and it was about $15 for a 10lb bag, so I'm going to get a bag to play with. I'll report back.