cakewalk

Ay, there's the rub. I would love to have a new set for every day of the year -- and every meal of the day! It's not that I don't love what I already have, but every time I see something new I think it is so beautiful. But I can be content with just looking (most of the time.) Stores that sell tableware are like museums!

Oh the complexities of kashrut! Well, l suppose like anything else it can be as complex as you make it. There is a difference between "being certified as serving kosher food and drink" and having an overall certified kosher establishment. The concept of "kashrut" in its entirety does not pertain only to the food and drink. (That would be much too simple! ) So, if a place is open on Shabbat, it would not be considered a kosher establishment, even if the food and drink itself is kosher. The two aspects are not completely distinct one from the other. Because nothing is. Distinct, that is. Am I being clear? There are other examples where the food itself might be kosher or veggie, but the place wouldn't be considered kosher. I remember a friend of mine mentioning (long ago, so I don't recall the details) a veggie place that was Buddhist, and all food was considered sanctified to Buddha. Kosher food or no, you wouldn't catch many Orthodox Jews eathing there. So there are things besides the actual food and drink that are taken into consideration. But like all things of this nature, individual choice always exists.

Here's a picture of the Guinness Stout ginger cake baked in a bundt pan. I also made them in mini bundt pans. Sorry I have no photo showing the crumb. I was very pleased with the results. As I mentioned in an old post, I bought a 6-pack of Guinness; one for the cake and 5 for me. ← The cake looks lovely, and I appreicate your good usage of that six pack. But one of the comments about that recipe mentioned the following: "... there are notable differences between this recipe and the Gramercy Tavern gingerbread of Feb. 2000. This recipe omitted 1&1/2 teaspoons baking powder with the flour (oops!) and this recipe cuts the sugars to 1/2 cup each (a good change) so beware but make this cake!" Did you use the baking powder in your recipe? And how much sugar? Thanks. I'm not ready to bake the cake yet, but I might start on the Guiness tonight. Ginger.

I don't know how you found that site, but it's great! But I find it funny that the webmaster complains about the flowery milk container, and I love it! In Israel the containers are a boring one-color plastic job. Anyway, the thing about the plastic bags of milk, at least in Israel, is that the milk is not homogenized. (At least it wasn't when I lived there; that might have changed.) Not such a big deal, but you had to shake the bag before you poured. So when I used to come back to the States for visits, I would unconsciously shake milk containers before I poured milk into my coffee, like you would shake a container of orange juice. Got a lot of weird looks from people. Those bakery shots are incredible!

Are those triangular cubbies from Beit Govrin? Re: Israe'ls cottage cheese. It is indeed the best in the world. It's also got a 9% fat content. They did eventually make a "low fat" cottange chesse, which had 5% fat. Also pretty dern good, IMO. And then, alas, they came out with a 1/2% cottage cheese. Feh.

Chocolate with chocolate whipped milk?! I don't remember that at all. I really have to arrange a visit now. I never ate krembos either. But the kids devour them. It always used to make me laugh seeing the kids on their way home from school, each one with a dot of "krem" on the tip of his nose -- the telltale sign of having just finished a krembo. I'm amazed at everything you've written about Tiv Ta'am and all the luscious photos, particularly those cheeses. (I remember when the only thing you could get was "gveena tsehuba" -- yellow cheese, it was all encompassing.) I'm a former Yerushalmit, and, as you can imagine, we never saw that kinda stuff! Although maybe now they do. (By way of explanation, Jerusalem is a lot more strict on religious issues than lawless, heathen Tel Aviv and its environs. Lovely blog!

If it tastes bad, then the garbage is the proper place for it. I have, however, saved many a disaster dessert by layering pieces or spoonsful with whipped cream in parfait glasses. ← The lemon bars were beyond help, but that is a good idea for future reference. (I fully expect to have other duds!!) That's quite a failure, Ling. I wish my successes looked half as good!!

Could you please share the pistachio cardamom cake recipe? Sounds great! Thanks. ← It's in RecipeGullet. I'd supply a link, but I don't know how. It's a wonderful cake.

I had an absolute disaster trying to make lemon bars for the concierge in my building. I liked the dough part of one recipe and the lemon part of another recipe and tried to coordinate the two. And then I didn't have the right size pan ... for either recipe. Good God, what a mess. Even I wouldn't eat it (and that's saying something.) It went in the garbage. I made the pistachio cardamom cake for the concierge (that cake is foolproof, not to mention delicious.)

When did the "Chinese food and a movie" become the Jewish Christmas day vogue? I don't remember it at all from when I was growing up. Then I lived overseas for about 20 years, and I remember my first Christmas when I got back to the States, that's what everyone was talking about (and doing.) I felt like Rip Van Winkle. When I was a kid I remember we used to visit non-Jewish families in the neighborhood (yes, there were a few ) on Christmas day, and as an adolescent I also used to spend the day with a good friend and her family. Maybe my neighborhood just wasn't with it. Anyway, this year it was "Syriana," but then I went home for dinner. Not that there was much to eat, since I had no leftovers.

What a lovely blog! It makes me smile. (Not to mention a lovely trip down memory lane.) I remember the last time I was in Israel (about two years ago, time for another trip) the thing I went most crazy over (if you don't already think I'm nuts, you certainly will now) was the cucumbers from the market. (There are cucumbers in the market, Mr. Wilde.) Great shuk photos, BTW! I especially got a kick out of the "tari tari" sign above the artichokes. But I absolutely love those cucumbers. They have taste! I look forward to photos of milkies and crembos. I think I could live on milkies.

It most certainly is NOT! Tuna fish is for sandwhiches. Full stop. ← Actually, Cake, really good canned tuna packed in olive oil is not just for sandwiches and in combination with noodles, there are some precedents to the casserole amongst so-called white folk who tan. It's great in a number of quick Italian home-style dishes that are probably based on wonderful things they do with dried pasta and seafood in Naples (see regional forum). While the best of the best imported brands of oil-packed tuna are extremely expensive, Geneva, distributed by Chicken of the Sea, is less costly and really tastes like something. Saute garlic in olive oil, add a couple of chopped canned Italian plum tomatoes (just the tomato, drained), stir and let cook 5-10 minutes then add the drained tuna, tons of minced fresh parsley, freshly ground pepper and capers. Dump cooked spaghetti into pan to make sure none of this great stuff is lost. Glass of red wine.... ← Oh my. White folk who tan. You should see my screen now. This is what I get for trying to eat ice cream, watch The Nutcracker, and read eGullet at the same time. I am not now, nor have I ever been, multitalented. But oh that young Baryshnikov. Anyway, I was talking about growing up in a Jewish family. Tuna fish, back then, was for sandwiches only. Full stop. On Wonder bread. (And they were especially good if you put potato chips in them just before you were ready to eat.) Really, there was no such thing as a casserole in my family, I had no idea what it was, and I'm pretty sure no one else in my neighborhood did either, so why would we waste a can of tuna on it? But I do appreciate that recipe. It looks both simple and intense. It also looks like dinner at some point over the weekend.

It most certainly is NOT! Tuna fish is for sandwhiches. Full stop.

Quaker Oats recipe for me too. That and the Toll House cookies are two "regulars," and they're good. I'm pretty sure there was a cookbook that had all these "Back of Box" recipes, the author tried them all out and rated them. Anybody else remember such a thing?

I can't believe you started this thread. I saw that commercial for the first time this evening, and it brought the same thoughts to my head. Who eats green bean casserole anyway, says I to myself. And what is it? For the record, I'm white white white. But I'm also Jewish, kosher, eastern european father, the works. I never even heard of casserole until I went away to college (upstate new york.) I'm telling you not a single person in my neighborhood where I grew up (the Bronx) ever ever ate that stuff. I think it's a clever Campbell's marketing ploy. Tell people that they've always loved it, and it's time to have it again, and people will believe this to be true. But the real truth is: towards the end of this summer, I discovered string beans. Real string beans, that is. We never ate them when I was growing up, except sometimes for a "luxurious treat" my mother would buy canned string beans (read: when it was on sale.) I always thought, literally until this summer, that all string beans tasted like canned string beans, and I could never bring myself to buy them or cook them or even look at them. But anyway, now that I am in love with real string beans, I do think that a string bean casserole -- with real ingredients, screw Campbell's -- might not be too bad. So, maybe string bean caserole can be the next cookoff?

Oh, I dunno. "Nosh" just doesn't seem to be a word that fits Chris Kimball at all. I appreciate a lot of things about the magazine. Their testing goes a long way in teaching me how foods behave when you do this, and when you do that, etc. I've made several of their recipes, and while I've always felt the end product was very good, I've also usually felt that the amount of time each recipe demanded was too much. A vegetable casserole shouldn't take 3-4 hours, with much of that time going into prep. Also, as has already been mentioned, I was pretty ticked off when I realized that purchasing a subscription to the magazine did not include access to their website. I mean really. And the tone of the magazine used to drive me up a wall, but now it just gives me a chuckle. I don't think I'll renew my subscription when this one lapses.

And if it's a Hollywood movie, what are they going to do about a happy ending?

In any case, it is interesting to note that smugness and derision seem to know no bounds. www.foodsubs.com/levenyeast.html Yeast is a one-celled fungus that converts sugar and starch into carbon dioxide bubbles and alcohol. This has made it a useful ally in the production of bread, beer, and wine. There are many varieties of yeast. Bread is made with baker's yeast, which creates lots of bubbles that become trapped in the dough, making the bread rise so it's light and airy when baked. A small amount of alcohol is also produced, but this burns off as the bread bakes. Beer yeast and wine yeast are used to convert sugar into alcohol and, in the case of beer and champagne, bubbles. You should never eat raw active yeast, since it will continue to grow in your intestine and rob your body of valuable nutrients. But once deactivated through pasteurization, yeast is a good source of nutrients. Brewer's yeast and nutritional yeast, for example, are sold as nutritional supplements, and Australians are fond of yeast extracts--like Vegemite, Marmite, and Promite--which they spread like peanut butter on bread.

Last summer (or the summer before, I really don't remember, but recently) there was a situation in NY that I thought was nothing less than horrifying. It was on the news, and I really don't know how it all ended, but here are the basics of the story: You know those ice pops that are sold, they come in a long plastic tube-like bag, and you eat it by opening one end and gradually pushing up the frozen ices? We used to call them push-ups. They come in all different flavors, they're cheap, and kids love them. Anyway, there was a company (I don't know which) that manufactured and sold them to neighborhood stores, and it was discovered that they had minute traces of alcohol in them. Not enough to taste, but enough to get into the bloodstream and slowly start to create alcoholics out of a bunch of kids. And it gets worse. These particular push-ups were found to be sold only in poorer areas. They were found in stores in Harlem, the South Bronx, Washington Heights, and I don't know where else. They were nowhere to be seen on the upper East side, perish the thought. They were pulled from the market, and I don't remember hearing any follow-up about what happened to the company that made and distributed them (although I sincerely hope they were crippled, financially and otherwise.) Were the parents responsible for allowing their kids to buy and eat this stuff? That is an extreme example, but I think we all have a right to expect that people who sell us things, any things, are not deliberately trying to harm us. Unfortunately, that is not the case. And yes, I mean deliberately. It's about the profits, it's not about your health. And it will always be about the profits. That's what businesses are about, whether they're selling alcohol-laced ice pops or sugar-loaded cereals. They want your money, not just for now but in the future as well. They spend a lot of money discovering new ways to continue to part you from more and more of yours, and ethics don't really figure into it all that much. It's well and good to say, "it's the parents' responsibility," but the world is much larger than a "me and my child" mentality. I shudder to think of everyone living within his own white picket fence. I'm not absolving parents of responsibility for their children, and I don't think anyone is. But parents are up against billions of dollars whose sole function is to deliberately work against everything you might try to teach your child. I think the stakes are just a bit unequal.

Thanks for that post, phaelon. I live in the neighborhood and often pass by there on a weekend, usually as I'm going to or coming from somewhere else, and keep meaning to stop in but ... I always wondered how they could get away with callling themselves the Cupcake Cafe. I'm an old coffee drinker but an espresso newbie, so that sounds like a good place to start. Probably this weekend.

Wow. That marble cake looks like it's actually floating above the plate. All the photos are beautiful, and I suspect everything tastes about 100x better than it looks. (Vicarious thrills here.)

What a bummer of an article. Not only does it mention the best holiday foods and then say, "no, no!" -- but it also gives you mouthwatering photos of those foods. Is there a bit of a mixed message here? I shall have my cake and eat it!! (And then spend some extra time in the gym.) But the most un-give-uppable thing for me is halvah. And the holiday is Everyday.

Wow. Talk about control-freaks. I'd wager she also behaves similarly in situations that don't involve food. And mean-spirited to boot. I'd say most people who are on diets do not behave this way, and would also shudder at this story. The only way to prevent this from ever happening again, of course, is to always have more than one dessert at the ready!

Well, as soon as I open my eyes I thank God I don't have a dog or a cat to take care of, since I'm already more than I can handle. Then I grind whichever beans I have this time (from Intelligentsia, which, I've discovered from experience, makes much better coffee than Peet's or that place on Bleecker in NY and a couple of others that I've tried along the way) and make a cup in the French press. Then, a block away from where I work there's an Oren's, bless their big beautiful hearts, and I usually get a medium regular cafe au lait. (Unless I don't, in which case I have the coffee at work.) And at Oren's they also have these wonderful pistachio bars that I always try not to buy but usually fail miserably. But together with the coffee, they make me a very happy morning camper.

Just wanted to say that the 32nd Street Jack's World does have the books, upstairs as Daniel said. I bought the FL cookbook a couple of weeks ago for $9.99 (the 45th Street Jack's is more expensive??!?!) and noticed several of the others there as well.