pastrygirl

Absolutely! In fact I am currently somewhat relieved that my boyfriend is out of town so I can go out wherever I want and not have to worry if he is going to get freaked out by the money spent or how to drag him someplace he might think is too fancy but would enjoy if he could just get over it I'll often sit at the bar, and have had many experiences where there was one last seat at the bar in an otherwise full restaurant and was happy I was solo so I could snag it. I have also done fine dining on my own, and at higher end places it becomes clear that you really want to be there for the food, which is a good impression to make. I always figure that if the choice is between doing something alone or not doing it, then I'll go ahead and do it alone instead of putting my life on hold waiting for someone who wants to do the same thing at the same time. I'm not going to say that I never get lonely or bored or feel self conscious. I used to usually bring a magazine or book, now I just play with my iphone between courses.

I have to disagree with this. I would not expect a cook to come to a non-working interview in uniform. I think it is weird when I see people in chefs clothes when they are not in the kitchen, for example I had an intern who arrived fully dressed for work, took the bus, walked through downtown, etc. Why not wait until you're ready to work to put on your chef coat? In part it seems unclean to me to be out and about in your cooking clothes, and in part maybe I just hate wearing chef coats and avoid them when unnecessary. Also, checks seem very institutional to me, like only schools and old school corporate places require them. Most cooks I know wear black or pinstriped Chefwear. One chef de cuisine had an issue with me wearing my black jacket to work because he took it to mean I thought I was special (no, just prefer black to white), but I don't think anyone I've worked for has cared about pants color/pattern.

About 15-3/8 inches. A couple more would be nice sometimes.

Try allowing for the liquid the cereal is going to soak up by adding extra milk to the base. Or soak the cereal in the milk and measure your milk after straining instead of adding cereal to the finished custard then straining.

So the butter doesn't melt.

NYE with BF and his friends, time to cook up some steaks and salmon filet. Friend decides he's going to 'slow cook' the steaks, I'm not sure why but decide not to get involved. Little bit later check in the kitchen and see steaks in a saute pan half full of beer at a bare simmer. WTF? OK... I only tried 1 bite, but it was the weirdest crunchy texture I've ever encountered in meat. So, I wouldn't recommend cooking it that way.

Did you put the eggs in the freezer to cool down then try to add the butter to cold eggs? Even a really cold bowl would probably have a negative effect. Whip the eggs on high until cool and thick and fluffy, no need for extra chilling, you want room temp eggs and soft room temp butter. If the eggs were very runny, its also possible you did not cook your sugar long enough. Try letting the butter cream come to room temp then beating it with the paddle while waving a propane torch or a heat gun under the bowl until the butter softens fully and your icing is smooth.

Proud of you!

Guacamole: avocado, lime, garlic, salt. Sometimes cumin but not lately. Definitely no onions or tomatoes. Grilled cheese: bread, cheese, mustard, cooked in butter. Anything else just interferes.

I had some coconut caramels in Vietnam, made by slowly cooking and stirring coconut milk and sugar. IIRC, they were pretty firm. Cooked down, poured between wooden rulers until cool, then cut and individually wrapped. Several photos of the process here:

Glad you have admitted the problem and are on your way to recovery. I'm probably not without sin either. I honestly do not ever graze on produce or snack from the bulk bins. It may have happened that I've sampled twice instead of once, but not often. I do look for the BIGGEST cheese cube sample, and will sample a cheese again even if it was the same cheese being sampled last time I shopped. (My local store almost always has two samples in the cheese area, one at the meat counter, and two or three other locations for chips or cookies samples). Probably have let an error in my favor slip by...damn it! And don't worry, I know I am a hypocrite in other ways - driving solo to work every day and not buying organic but claiming to care about my carbon footprint and the environment. Some people seem to be actively looking for ways to take advantage of whatever they can take advantage of. That, and people's grubby spittle covered fingers groping through the fruit make me lose hope. And sometimes my appetite.

I have some, but haven't tried tempering it. Would adding a few % regular cocoa butter (mycryo, etc) help, or does that defeat the purpose of using wild cacao?

I know! I can't believe I do it. I know. See above. Probably not. You think I should stop teaching my kids to do it? I used to think you seemed smart and reasonable. I'm so disappointed in you now. Why aren't you saving your mushroom stems for stock or drying them and grinding them into powder? Throwing away perfectly good mushroom stems, leaving your litter for someone else to clean up, who are you? I think what bothers me about things like taking bags but especially grazing is the selfish, entitled, opportunistic attitude. I want it, so I'm just going to take it, and take as much as I can, because I want it, and I'm special and deserve whatever I want. If it's small enough to fit in my mouth in one bite, its not stealing. It's easy, so that makes it OK. What??? You need to try a grape or cherry or bean before buying? How do you ever commit to buying a watermelon without taking a core sample to see how sweet it is? Do you open clamshells of berries to sample them or only loose, unwrapped items? If it's good, do you then buy that clamshell or put it back and buy a full one? How do you ever try a new flavor of chips or beer? Or anything new? You take chances, you win some, you lose some. Deal with it. The grocery store is a business, not a free buffet. And Fat Guy may wish to invest in some tupperware or semidisposable but recyclable gladware for his wife's fruit and parchment or waxed paper for his son's sandwiches. Reuseable and compostable, respectively. Seriously, how is appropriating a bunch of flimsy bags from a retailer then throwing them away day after day good for anyone? I mean, except you. Me, me, me; consume, consume, consume; let the little people pick up the pieces (or is that doing your part for the economy by creating jobs?) and pay the costs. Ain't that America.

Robert is correct, check locally for health department guidelines and specialty foods suppliers. 1 kg = 2.2 lbs. 28.35 grams in an ounce, 16 ounces or 454 grams in a pound. I lived in Asia for 2 years and made and kept handy a chart of conversions for metric weights and baking temperatures, which really helped. 7oz = 200g, 350F = 175C, etc. I'm not buying chocolate in quite as large quantities as you, but I get Valrhona packed in 3kg/6.6# bags, and cacao barry in 5kg/11# boxes - manufacturers still use metric, so that shouldn't be too confusing, unless the wholesaler only goes by the pound weight. Some Callebaut formulations come in 10kg/22# bags. As for price, I'm assuming the Callebaut is $8/kg and not the Valrhona? I'm in Seattle (not sure how much wholesale prices vary regionally), and I pay between $68 and $85 for 5kg Cacao Barry depending on the formulation, about $11.50/# for valrhona jivara lactee and $10.30/# for valrhona ivoire ($22 to $25/kg) . Good luck!

Your palate is good--Appleton Estate is aged largely (if not exclusively) in spent Jack Daniels barrels, if I'm remembering correctly. That's interesting. I have an extremely low tolerance for the smell of Jack Daniels, yet do enjoy the Appleton Estate. I just smelled my bottle, and I guess it is a bit whiskey-ish, I had been thinking of it more as vanilla. I guess as long as I mix it I won't notice - I was worried you had just ruined it for me! I tasted a hard cider recently that was aged in whiskey barrels, really unpleasant to me, definite whiskey flavor. Too much cheap whiskey in college... shudder

Flageolet beans should work too.

CR Sockeye for 24.99 and king for 31.99 @ west Seattle Thriftway. That store is convenient for me but does tend to be more expensive, I'll have to make a point to go to met market instead next time.

Come on now, Stan, you should know we take our brownies very, VERY seriously around here!

I use this one and like it: http://www.shopchefrubber.com/product.php?productid=8692&cat=0&page=1 Only $9.

Last summer I was making a dessert where combining the two worked well for me. I think I was having a hard time getting the right texture with just agar, so I added some gelatin and it was firm enough to handle without being too crunchy/crumbly like agar can get. It was a layer of strawberry balsamic agar/gelatin topped with strawberry chiboust, cut, then stacked with crispy layers to make a napoleon. I needed the agar firm enough to cut and handle but soft enough to get a spoon through. For a thin layer covering a half sheet pan: 500 g strawberry puree 100 g water 50 g balsamic vinegar 1 tsp agar 1-1/2 sheet bronze gelatin IIRC, it was a somewhat thick strawberry puree, which is why I added water, a thinner base like perfect puree wouldn't need it. I hope that gives you a starting point.

I really enjoy Trinidadian rum punch. It's one of those things easily adapted to personal taste, you can add more or less of any component. Here is how I make it: juice of 1/2 a lime about 1-1/2 tablespoons simple syrup 1-1/2 to 2 oz decent rum - currently Appleton Estate splash of sparkling water or club soda ice few dashes angostura bitters freshly grated nutmeg

Tempering chocolate. Did my best to avoid it for years, then finally decided it was ridiculous that I was so scared of it.

First the good: Ginger rum. Mixed gold luster dust with cocoa butter and painted it in part of the mold. Sort of interesting effect, with how much shinier the part with the cocoa butter is, like gloss and matte finishes on the same piece. Cherry-chambord. Colored cocoa butter painted in with a brush. The bad: I made these 2 weeks ago, and today the cherry chambord above were about half imploded in the tops, similar to some previous imploding I had on another flavor Hazelnut, collapsed. The first time this happened with the hazelnut, I thought the shells were just too thin. Now that it has happened again, and also with another flavor, I clearly need to change how I make them. The ganaches this has happened with are softer cream ganaches. I am thinking that the centers are drying and contracting and pulling on the shell until it goes concave. Should I agitate my ganache once cool to induce crystallization? Should I not use cream ganache, only butter? Or simply change the formulas?

That's funny, I was just thinking about that the other day when I sampled an artificially flavored coconut cookie. I was in love for a minute, but decided I do prefer real coconut.

It may simply be drying out, or if you changed chocolates recently, you may need to adjust your ratio for the new chocolate. I add some honey or corn syrup to my glazes, and haven't noticed any cracking problems, but my stuff isn't sitting uncovered in a display case, either. Did it work better with the schokinag? If it is only in certain display cases, what is different about those?