emmalish

Chiming in from Western Canada. Growing up, raised by parents who grew up on farms during the depression (if that has any bearing on things), our meals were breakfast, lunch, and supper (the main meal of the day). Many of my friends referred to the evening meal as dinner, however, so I always thought the terms were interchangeable. After I grew up and moved out, I started referring to it as dinner as well because that's what everyone else was calling it. We would go out for dinner, not supper. A few years ago I was speaking with my mother and mentioned what I'd had for "dinner" the night before and she promptly corrected me that it should be called "supper". She actually made a bit of a fuss about it but I can't remember her reasoning. I still don't see what the big deal is. I couldn't care less whether it's called supper or dinner. It's just the evening meal.

Even tho I can't attend (again), I'll once again volunteer to do any organizing/typesetting of recipes, itineraries, whatever. Just PM me.

Oh! I haven't been following this thread at all and had no idea I was on the maybe list! Afraid you'll have to take me off. Not going to make it this year, anyway. I'm hoping this will become a regular occurrence and I'll actually be able to attend some year.

Well... maybe not exactly 2 inches. Maybe an inch? inch and a half? What does everyone else find?

If you end up with too much batter (you want to have a couple inches of leeway for the cake to rise), just put the excess into a muffin tin and bake up a few cupcakes too. So far the only recipe that was too much for one of my bundt pans was the banana bundt (which I highly recommend).

There's a discussion here about a transfer sheet machine. I know it's not what you have, but there is info about how it works and links to sites that explain the process in more detail. Hope this helps...

My understanding is that if a cake rises in the oven but falls when jostled or removed from the oven, it's because the structure of the cake isn't strong enough because it hasn't finished cooking, whether because the temperature of the oven is too low or the time is too short. I would say get an oven thermometer (they're well under $10), and see where your temperature is really at, then you can adjust either temperature or time accordingly.

Hi, baroness. How did you do that ? I searched online at Epicurious and all I got was this. I'm not baroness, but there's a link to the recipe way up in the original post.

I'm far from expert, but some things it could be are underbaking (either time or temperature could be off – as baroness suggested), too much leavener, undermixing... I'm sure someone who knows more than I will be able to look at the recipe and figure it out. Does your cake look like it rises properly and then falls? Does it fall while it's still in the oven? Or is it fine until you take it out of the oven? Another question is are you sure your oven is calibrated properly? Mine is so far off I rely on an oven thermometer instead of the dial.

For me, making something myself is more because of quality than cost. But it's also about enjoyment of the process. Why would I buy cookies or cake from a bakery when I can make much better myself? And have almost infinite choice over what I get? And I love baking. Same with hummous – it's so simple to make and takes hardly any time if you start with canned chickpeas and the end product is miles better than anything I can get elsewhere. However, sometimes it becomes a time issue as well. Yes, of course I can make my own stock and commercially prepared stocks don't even compare. However, I also know I can get fabulous stock made "in-house" at the Stock Market at Granville Island. So do I buy vegetables and herbs and spend half the day making stock? Or do I buy what I know is a really good product that's ready-to-go?

Oh, that's lovely, Robyn!

I've just gotten around to watching the show now. Very disappointing. I wish this had been covered by Food Network – for all their faults, I would hope they would have paid more attention to the actual food. We really don't get to see much of anything. They skim over everything, poke their cameras into the kitchens occasionally to show us completely random snippets of the preparation, they skim past the descriptions of what the different competitors present, and then quickly list the winners of each segment. I'm watching this show because I'm interested in the competition – I understand we can't see everything, but at least show us all the finished chocolates. I'd like to see more of the techniques, and I'd like to see some of the judges' comments. Pfft. Off to look it up online instead...

What!? Oh my, I obviously don't spend nearly enough time in the Cookbooks forum. Thanks Marmish!

This is a timely discussion for me. Culling my bookshelves, especially my cookbook shelves, is on my agenda for this holiday break. Haven't quite gotten around to it yet, but I've still got a few days to go. I expect my criteria will come down to the same as kalypso's, although I will probably hang on to my Donna Hay cookbooks, even though I've never cooked from any of them, probably never will, and they really don't reflect my cooking style. But they're so pretty! I think I'll make a list and give first dibs to my coworkers and friends. Anything that's left over will be donated to charity. Or should we start an eGullet cookbook exchange program?

Mine was just delivered this morning. Love love LOVE it! First impression – it's a beautiful book. Lovely typography and photography, beautiful colours, nicely laid out. It's the type of book that I enjoy curling up with and just flipping through (as I'm doing now). Content – it's definitely aimed at people who have no formal training. And as someone who's completely self-taught in chocolates and confections, who has had to scour the internet for information, I can already see this book answers a lot of questions I had in the past in a clear and concise manner, in most cases well-illustrated with step-by-step photos of the process. I know I will learn a lot of new things from this book as well. I'm looking forward to experimenting. Recipes - Keeping in mind I haven't actually tried any recipes (I've only had the book for about 1/2 hour so far), they look easy to follow, with all the different steps explained in detail. They also show a difficulty rating, in many cases they list variations, and also list point form "keys for success". It's been mentioned up-thread that many of these recipes are the same as in the previous Chocolates and Confections. I haven't compared for content, but Chocolates and Confections is geared to professionals, and the recipes skip over steps and explanations with the expectation that the reader already understands the process. I don't know that I'd recommend this book to a professional (I'll let them chime in with their reviews), but I'd definitely recommend it to someone like myself, or someone who wants to try their hand at chocolates and confections for the first time.

I've ordered mine from Chapters – they say I should have it by the 30th. Do you think it means anything that the threads I'm most active in are either baking/confectionary related, or the weight watchers thread? Do you think they're related in any way?

oh no... how did I not see this earlier?

Oooh, thanks Darienne. I'm out tonight but I'll swing home quickly and see if I can set my recorder in time.

I haven't made this myself, but I just had some amazing bark at work the other day. Dark chocolate with orange zest, dried cranberries and rice crispies.

Many people who call themselves vegetarians DO eat seafood (it's just easier than having to constantly explain what pescetarian means). Could you contact her to double-check that? As for the allergies, I feel horrible for her if she is indeed allergic to all those things. A few of my friends went to see a naturopath a couple years ago and raved about how much he helped them, so I decided to give it a shot too. I came away from that meeting with just as long and just as random a list of "allergies" (determined through homeopathic testing). Yeah, no. Not to say this woman's allergies aren't valid. They may very well be and I certainly wouldn't risk her well-being because of my own scepticism. But that's a helluva list.

Thanks Kim! I'm really happy with how it turned out, but shocked at how long the entire process took. Worth it tho. I've started writing pot sizes in my recipes too. And timing (so I know that while it's cooling to 110°, yes I do have time to go watch some tv). You're going to love Anita's book. It's so adorable!

I made the chocolate fudge from Anita Chu's (PastryGirl) Field Guide to Candy. I don't have fond memories of homemade fudge. My mom's fudge was always hard and grainy, so for years I swore by the sweetened condensed milk no-fail fudge recipe, because you couldn't possibly get something so smooth and creamy the old-fashioned way, right? So this was my first attempt at "real" fudge. I actually ended up making 2 batches. The first one went haywire through my own fault. I didn't realize it would boil up so much and I started with too small a pot. When it was around 230° it was threatening to boil over and I had to pour it into a larger pot – it ended up getting sloshed around and dropping temperature and raising again... it turned out somewhat grainy. So just to prove to myself that YES, I can make fudge, I immediately made another batch. It's sooo smooth and creamy. I took some into work and one of my coworkers said "this isn't fudge – this is little squares of icing". I'm assuming he meant that in a good way. There were lots of "mmmm" sounds anyway.

I've never had anything stick, except a bit around the rivets, but even that cleans up easily. I also love that the lids are clear so you can see what's happening inside. And they're oven safe to... 400°? ish? Can't remember off-hand, but higher than I've ever needed.

I have a couple of the cuisinart non-stick hard anodized pans and I love them. They claim you can use regular tools & cutlery with them, and I have used a fork in them a couple times with no issues. Not super expensive either.

Depends what I'm looking for. If I'm looking for a chocolate cake recipe, I won't bother with the "Hot Sex" cake, because that title doesn't tell me a thing about what kind of cake it is. If I'm just casually browsing recipes, I might check it out. Although I might not – again, because the name doesn't really tell me anything. If it were called "Better than Hot Sex Chocolate Cake", then I'd probably check them both out and decide between the two based on the actual recipe.