pastrygirl

I was thinking of this thread tonight. I was invited to a reception at Food Lifeline's new Hunger Solutions Center and was able to tour the facility. They collect and re-distribute about 40 million pounds of food annually to 275 food bank in Western WA. The place is very large, about the size of an average Costco and they turn everything over at least once a week. They take in food in any form from half-ton pallets of coffee beans that need to be packed into pound bags to 5 gallon buckets of sour cream that were over-produced to a carton box full of assorted produce. They have multiple prep rooms, at least two of which can be adjusted to refrigerator or freezer temp and can be completely hosed down. Huge refrigeration and freezers with storage plus more warehouse space with dry goods & non-perishables. At first I thought they had a ton of bananas, but apparently banana boxes are their standard unit. A food bank will order a box of potatoes and get one of these very boxes. They also do a lot of meals for kids, packed into lunch bags for school. Figuring out government standards for children's meals is apparently kind of a pain and smaller food banks can't always keep up. They had banana boxes full of shelf-stable, government-approved lunches. It does seem that distribution is a huge part of the issue. Having the large central hub allows them to take things individual food banks can't. A farmer with excess apples wants to move them 5000 lb at a time, not 50, and the smaller facilities may not have the time or space even to re-pack one huge bucket of sour cream. Hundreds of volunteers a week help break down, sort, and re-pack, and inventory all of the food coming in. The individual food banks then order to suit their own clientele in terms of what they like and is practical to cook. In terms of rural populations, I think it's just hard to get out there. But it is good to see people trying!

Interesting! I did try some bamboo charcoal covered peanuts once. And there are cheeses with ash that I forgot about - that's probably an anti-fermentative or anti-bacterial use? Oh and someone on Instagram had a burger on a black charcoal bun, that's where else I'd seen it lately. It just seems like it should taste like dirt or otherwise horrible.

I've noticed charcoal being used in food - this local company puts activated charcoal in their vegan "ice cream". I used to have a theory that you could put anything in ice cream and people would still eat it - but charcoal? So you can have your frozen dessert and cleanse at the same time? Is this really a good idea and not another way to increase your cancer risk? I like a little smoky grilled meat but I'm not sure I need more charcoal in my diet. What say eG?

I met her in Melissa Coppel's class back in September! Lovely woman, really passionate.

Gelato holding cabinets are apparently a few degrees warmer than scooping-style ice cream holding cabinets. It's not just the recipe, serving temp will affect texture as well.

After years - years! - of peeling, cooking, and ricing potatoes for potato bread, I finally switched to Bob's Red Mill potato flakes. Since this particular recipe had lots of olive oil and rosemary and the potatoes mostly added fluffiness, I don't think you could tell any difference. Or chefs throwing huge amounts of veg into the large Hobart and mix with the paddle to break them down smaller for stock. I definitely remember chefs doing this with mushrooms, pretty sure they did it with other veg because I was worried about them warping the paddle. Actually, that may have been what one chef was doing when he did break the paddle on a stand mixer - I wouldn't have been as annoyed if it happened during routine pastry work, but he was mashing up carrots or chicken bones or something hard.

I was just thinking, that's not a shortcut, it's just not dicking around wasting time! Not just you

Is there no molasses in Germany? How about black treacle?

Shhh, don't tell millennials! I have to agree on the generations though. I associate the cooked to death thing more with people of my late grandparents generation (they were both born in 1910). My parents ('34/'43) are/were much more adventurous. Dad has passed, but my sister and I took my mom to Thai food last night and she was wishing it was spicier. The idea of sushi creeps her out but she's definitely not into bland and mushy. Julia Child and Jacques Pepin were influencers too. "Gourmet" cooking, imported ingredients and techniques became available to boomers as they were entering their prime. So marketing may be a factor, but also the shifts in global commerce and imports. Wasn't the low salt thing bigger in the '80s or so? Older people may have more issues with hypertension etc and need to watch salt, but I think salt got some unfair demonization for a while and was seen as unhealthy for everyone.

To extend it and make it thicker. The colors are expensive - $40+/lb, way more than chocolate. If you're airbrushing, there's more limit to how thick you can work with, but for finger-painting and Jackson Pollock-ing I like it with a little substance. This may be a quirk limited to me

Thanks! The yellow & green were mixed with a little white chocolate and just dripped/flung from a spoon. Yes, the yellow on the hemisphere was (gloved) finger-painted. I do have a little cheap set of brushes that I use sometimes. The trouble with brushes is that the cocoa butter quickly cools and forms thick chunks in the bristles. It helps to keep them on a heating pad and wipe out the bristles every now and then.

There's only so much that stabilizer can do. If you don't have enough sugar, it's going to freeze harder.

A couple of thoughts I don't think have been discussed - Is it a gas or wood/charcoal grill? If the latter, consider how much grilling you can do while the fire is at its prime. Hubby may need to re-build the fire or have extra fuel to maintain it if you're going to be grilling all day long - if he's the grill master, make sure he has a plan so it will be good for burgers for an hour or two plus whatever else you want grilled for dinner. If you want to do a grilled salmon entree for dinner, just quickly mark the pieces on the grill to get the char marks, then refrigerate on sheet pans and heat through in the oven for dinner. Much easier to get them all cooked & on the plates faster. Are there any dishes that can do double duty for both parties? Maybe the teens prefer chips and the adults prefer crudite with their dips, but both parties could get hummus and guacamole as an appetizer. Make a big batch and divide into a few bowls so you can refresh and have a nice one out as needed. Or sides - maybe cook a enough new potatoes for both parties, turn some into potato salad to go with burgers and crisp the rest in the oven with olive oil and herbs for dinner. Likewise with green salads, fruit trays, grilled or roasted veggies - maybe they get a slightly different garnish or presentation but it's easier to prep more of fewer items. Add goat cheese and pecans to the dinner salad, dress, and plate it vs. a bowl of mixed greens on ice with a few bottled dressings with the burgers. As much overlap in ingredients as possible will make it easier.

The taller dome is CW 2295

You can also mix in a little milk or white chocolate to make the CB thicker and more opaque, like the red on these cacao pods - finger painted in but shows up decently. I've definitely experienced thinner layers of red all but disappearing on dark chocolate. The white (Chef Rubber white diamond) was also mixed with more white chocolate (callebaut zephyr). These are 60% dark shells.

I had never heard of Micelli, but that may be a good thing. I'm working with Tomric on custom molds, I think they mostly do the vacuum formed, not the injection? DO NOT convince me that I need to spend extra for injection molds, it's already a temptation!

Some chocolate makers have incredibly intricate chocolate molds that boggle my mind. How do they clean them? Or do they not clean/polish them? Or have an army of interns? Or just do it perfectly every time and polishing molds is for suckers anyway? They are beautiful, but seem so very impractical. What am I missing? The Soma is not bad, mostly thin lines, but the Askinosie ...

Who is this everyone? Lots of people are fans of rice cookers for rice, but I can't imagine rice coming out better after three hours in a slow cooker than 20 minutes on a low burner. But then I don't really "get" slow cookers. Anyway, I'd either try less water or go back to stove top.

Been bonbon-ing lately these were for a wine tasting/fundraiser cherry-almond, salty caramel, and lemon Whipped these out today to have something special for moms at opening day of the farmers market tomorrow. Same old salty caramel but gold on gold in tall domes.

Indian Atta flour? Isn't that whole wheat? It might be a possible substitute but not necessarily a perfect substitute.

As for the variations in the red tone, that looks finger-painted.

They're fairly new, introduced in the last 6 months or year. It's probably big enough for a home baker making single batches, and should take up less counter space.

@Merry Berry I think you're on the right track, the edges don't look as sharp as you should get with tape.

@paulraphael thanks I'll give it a shot. If I can't put it back together then I'll get a new one I've used KAs for a lot of years but never seen this happen. Mine is about 11 years old but has only seen significant use in the past 3.

My kitchenaid is not dead yet, but the part that moves the beater came all the way off today. I shoved it back on most of the way and continued with my cupcakes and buttercream, but maybe this is a sign to start shopping around. Anyone else have this issue and successful long term repair? I have the 6 quart, up to 10 quarts would be useful.