emmalish

I agree. I really like the hearts. It's kinda hard to tell what's going on with the other ones because of the pattern of the mold, but I see nothing wrong with them either!

← I was cringing for both of them when I saw that scene.

It should be noted that nobody wants to work with Stephan. They are all elevating personal qualities over competence. The fact is, Stephan does act like a jerk much of the time, and I can see why others would find him irritating, but he never cooks a bad dish. I can understand the concerns though. We've seen how overbearing he can be in the planning stages, as well as how loud and distracting he can be in the kitchen. No one wanted him on their team because while the team win is obviously important, the success of each individual's dish is of utmost importance to each chef. And with someone so distracting and stressful on their team, I'm sure they were worried that their own performances would suffer as a result. I can understand that thinking. It turned out to be a mistake. Radhika let Jeff stay in the kitchen simply because he didn't want to be FOH. But it sounded to me like Carla was the only one there with pastry experience and they were all thrilled to not have that responsibility. No one wanted responsibility for the desserts, but Carla stepped up. And then tripped and fell. I agree she should have been the one to go home. I hate the policy of judging based on the current challenge only. They really should look at overall performance.

I'm definitely stupid like you. Possibly even stupider, because I actually own trays and still make multiple trips from room to room. I just forget I even have them... Speaking of trays I always forget I have, I've got one of these – just big enough for a single tea service. I love it. Haven't remembered to use it once yet.

I missed this! I'm going to have to rewatch for this alone. I agree. I found it ironic that she said she didn't want to win the quickfire because she didn't want to run one of the restaurants, and then she ended up running it anyway.

Based on this ep AND past performance, I think Carla should have gone. However, Radhika didn't exercise any control over what was supposed to be HER restaurant. The other contestants designed their own dishes, she let Jeff work in the kitchen when she knew he was the best choice for front of house, she didn't really oversee anything happening in the kitchen (although it looked like she hovered a fair bit), and in the end, she was too stressed and nervous to present a gracious and welcoming front of house. Still can't stand Toby. But I'm entertained by the way Tom visibly braces himself whenever Toby begins to speak. Anyone else notice this?

If I'm eating corn as a stand-alone vegetable, I'll go with canned (if fresh isn't available). If I'm adding it to a soup or stew, I'll use frozen.

That's what I assumed. As I recall, Leah saw that was a mess and tried to rescue it as best she could, in the time available.It goes without saying that the cheftestants have clashing objectives. First, they want their team to win. But second, if it loses, they want to make sure someone else goes home. As the first objective trumps the second, I have to assume they believed Ariane was up to the task she had volunteered for. ← This was my take on it too. Arianne had won previously on the strength of her protein alone (and I got the impression she kind of floundered her way through those wins too) – it sounded to me like all three decided to play on that strength and let her deal with the lamb. I don't think they realized she was in over her head until it was too late to do much to help. Yes, she did ask for help, but not until the damage was done (or at least that's what the editing showed).

I'll buy canned corn (nostalgia I'm sure); tomatoes for use in sauces (convenience); chickpeas for humous... and I think that's about it... I always thought I hated green beans because the only time I had them as a kid, they were canned. Same with olives. Imagine my surprise when I ate some fresh ones (probably just to be polite when I was having dinner somewhere else) and loved them. I have an aunt who LOVES canned black olives – I don't think she's ever even tried any other kind. Canned potatoes? Boggles the mind...

I'm in a fairly trendy area of a big city. Right now there are four major chain grocery stores, plus several smaller markets all within walking distance of me. When I first moved here, however, there were just the 2 large markets, both in walking distance, but in opposite directions from where I live so I'm sure they didn't really consider themselves to be in direct competition. One of them has always been good. The other one, however, was disgusting. I would go there for certain packaged foods, but their produce department was a joke. Everything was past its prime and they always had fruit flies everywhere. Just going in there would kill my appetite. And then, another market opened right across the street from them (it wasn't at the time, but it's since been bought out by Whole Foods). It was a smaller store, but carried only the best quality organic foods. Yes, more expensive than the crappy market, but the produce was always beautiful. Surprisingly, it STILL took a year or more for the crappy store to realize they had some serious competition there. I honestly think the manager was of the opinion that no one would want to pay the premium prices of the new store and so he just carried on as he always had. They've since cleaned up their act and are now a good place to shop for produce. But obviously, even with the new store right across the street, and with another option not that many blocks away, people must have still been buying their produce there in spite of the problems. Which tells me that for some people, yes it IS all about the bottom line. My mom, for one, is the type of person who won't buy fruit at its prime, but will get it on sale when it's just about to go bad (and then she'll just cut off the bad parts). Personally, I'd rather pay a bit more and get higher quality.

Oh, I didn't even notice that in the description. So to get that white line, would they brush in the dark chocolate, then brush a line of white chocolate over that, and then spray with dark chocolate, and then coat the molds with white? Sounds like a lot of work, but it probably wouldn't take all that long in reality...

So that might be the solution, pipe in a line, then spray - gotta try this next time I get the spray gun out. ← It looks more like it was brushed in than piped. The background image behind the photo of the chocolate is actually a close-up of the pattern. Looks like a little river of chocolate...

Cool, I love stuff like this! I've only browsed through it quickly, but I'm surprised at how much older (or more recent) some things are than I thought.

I had a craving for vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup last night. I had vanilla ice cream, but no syrup. I held off as long as I could, but I finally gave in and made the Lean Chocolate Syrup... I almost made the fudge ripple recipe, because I've made it before and it's delicious, but I wanted to try one of the syrups. They all looked good, but the description says this is David's favourite all-purpose chocolate sauce. I glanced through the ingredients and the description, and it looked good and I had everything, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was late, apparently I was on auto-pilot. The recipe said it makes 2 cups. Sounded great... so I pulled out my small saucepan and started adding ingredients... 2 cups water, 1 cup cocoa powder, 1 cup light syrup... do you see the problem? It's already waaaaay more than 2 cups. I just kept adding things to the saucepan until it was dangerously close to the top (and yeah, it did boil over). What a mess. Totally wasn't thinking. Delicious chocolate sauce though!

I made two batches of marshmallows before Christmas – both based on Greweling's recipe – one vanilla and one chocolate. I've made the vanilla before and am happy, but the chocolate is just amazing. It tastes just like a hot chocolate with marshmallows. I had a bit of a problem with the method of adding the cocoa – which was just to add it towards the end of the whipping. Seriously, cocoa everywhere. If the amount of cocoa specified in the recipe had actually made it into the marshmallows, I'm sure the flavour would have been even more pronounced. I'd read upthread that a few people had added the cocoa to the sugar syrup on the stove. How do you find the fat content affects the whipping? Noticeable? I may try that next time. Greweling also suggests coating the chocolate marshmallows in a starch mixture with 1/3 cocoa, but I'd read someone post somewhere that they coated theirs in just cocoa powder. I tried that, but within a day they were sticking together again. So I re-coated them with the powdered sugar/cornstarch mix. That's why they're looking a bit blotchy here...

Oh yeah, he definitely has a lot of those remarks prepared. At times he dropped that rote stuff and seemed rather thoughtful, though. ← I agree. When he made his first comments comparing the vegetables in one dish to a British character actor upstaging the stars of a movie, and the bland leading the bland, I was wondering whether I would want to continue watching this show at all. It was a relief when he dropped that act and actually critiqued the dishes.

Sadly no, but if you find one PLEASE let me know too! I'd love to do something other than gingerbread for my cookie cutters. scratch's cookies looked like they held their shape pretty well – especially the snowman's hat looks nice & crisp. Can you tell us more about those cookies? Kim, too bad about the flavourless cake. It's always so disappointing to try a new recipe and have it not taste as good as it looks. But it looks delicious!

Oh man, scratch, those are adorable! And I totally hear you about slowly regaining use of your hand again. Definitely a labour of love.

Thanks, but trust me, not all of my photos turn out. The snowflake design is just piped white royal icing, and then I sprinkled a bit of sugar on them for some sparkle. I bought these cutters years ago and never got around to using them and then forgot I had them at all... and then I was shopping and saw some snowflake cutters in the store and thought "hey, I've always wanted these!", bought them, took them home... lather rinse repeat... Long story short, when I was cleaning up and organizing all my cookie cutters earlier this year, I found THREE identical sets of snowflake cutters, all unopened and unused. D'oh! So I had to promise myself that I'd finally use them this year.

I've finally gotten around to posting photos of some of my holiday baking. I always make gingerbread – this is the first time I've used my snowflake cutters. I'm really happy with how they turned out... I also made ginger chocolate crackles... And marshmallows (I made both vanilla and chocolate)... There were also spiced pecans, puppy chow and shortbread, but they all went before I thought to take pictures.

I would definitely add a vegetarian options, even the more unrepentant carnivore can have vegetarian friends ← And please, something besides the typical grilled veggie panini that almost every other place offers. Boooooring. Especially when the meat sandwiches are so richly layered and well-thought out, it's such a cop-out. Whatever you're thinking for the meat, do something similar but with veggies (and cheeses and seafood, for many of us). Think tapenades and pestos and relishes. Think unique combinations of cheeses. How about a vegetable paté? Humous? One of my favourite sandwiches from years ago had thinly sliced green apple, swiss cheese, cream cheese and (I think) caraway seeds. A really nice wrap I had recently had shrimp, rice, spinach, tomatoes & goat cheese. Fabulous combination. If you're buying your bread from a local bakery, think of some unique breads, like an olive loaf or potato bread. I don't expect you to focus on vegetarians, but I also believe it's important to have a few options available to us. I think you might be surprised at how many of us are out there. And if the sandwiches (and soups) are well-designed and tasty, we won't be the only ones ordering them. There's a soup place up the street from me that always has 6 different soups available on any given day – one or two of which are always vegetarian. And invariably the vegetarian options sell out first (which is not surprising in this neighbourhood). They've been doing this for years and yet I often have to walk out because they've sold out of the one soup on the menu that I can eat. When one product is consistently selling out before the others, why is this not a cue to them to offer more vegetarian options?

Does real hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows count as a meal? Perfect "food" for a snow day.

I'm way too lazy to bring my own lunch to work most of the time, and as I work freelance I'm finding myself in different parts of the city and am always on the lookout for a good lunch shop. I've gone to some really higher end coffee shops expecting to be completely wowed by their $10 shrimp & salmon sandwich... and instead could barely choke it down because really, that' all it was – good shrimp and salmon, but nothing else really – honestly it kinda tasted like what I imagine cat food on toast would be like... And then I've gone to a little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop in the middle of nowhere and had the BEST tuna salad sandwich ever, because they use amazing fresh bread (brought in daily from a nearby bakery), and while the tuna is nothing spectacular (just canned tuna with salt, pepper and jarred mayo), they also layer on tons of fresh lettuce and tomatoes and sliced pickles and whatever else I may want. Never mind that I only paid $5 for it – I would have gladly paid much more. This same little coffee shop also brings in fresh soups daily (made locally, but not in the coffee shop). They have different soup every day, so I feel like I'm getting a variety. And this may not be important to most people, but as a vegetarian I really appreciate that all of their soups are always made with vegetable stock, never chicken. So many times I've gone into a place hoping to enjoy a nice vegeetable soup, and unable to get it because of the chicken stock (*sigh*). You could have a great following of vegetarian customers if you offer at least ONE guaranteed vegetarian soup per day. I doubt most meat-eaters would even notice the difference in a soup. Actually, this little coffee shop being nearby is one of the reasons that particular office is one of my favourite places to work.

No kidding! Can you tell us about the fillings, cmflick...?

I'll say it too: WOW!! dystopiandreamgirl, those are amazing! I love the varieties you've come up with, and the flavour combinations sound amazing. I can't decide which one I would want to try first, although it would be a crime to destroy any of them! Merry Christmas, everyone! Whether you celebrate the day or not, I hope you all have a wonderful season! (oh man, there were waaaaay too many exclamation points in this post...)