Badiane

I love me some orange salt! I carry it in my purse just in case there might be mashed potatoes somewhere along the way! I am also a big fan of Lawry's Seasoned Pepper. The Seasoned Salt ingredients are as follows: Salt, Sugar, Spices (including Paprika and Turmeric), Onion, Cornstarch, Garlic, Tricalcium Phosphate (prevents caking), Paprika Oleoresin (for color), Natural Flavor. Please note that there is no MSG! They also do a 25% less sodium version. You could probably reverse engineer it, but what would be the point? You'd just be mixing a bunch of dried stuff together to get the same results, n'est pas? To steal a line from the granny in the Frank's ads, I put that sh*t on EVERYTHING!!

The best thing I can tell you is GET A LAWYER. Doesn't matter how good a partner you have or how well things are going. Get it in writing. Protect yourself.

I cringe every time I see someone scrape ingredients off the cutting board with the cutting edge of a knife. It's soooo bad for the knife! Flip it over and use the non cutting side! Drives me insane. When I was in cooking school, if you wanted to incur the wrath of Olivier Andreini, all you had to do was scrape that blade on the board and he'd be on you like a dog on a pork chop. Also, as soon as you finish cutting something acidic, rinse your knife. Acid dulls the blade.

Don't forget to check out the Dollar Store - they often have name brand foods on for a dollar or 2 for 1 etc. I get Dole Pineapple and Green Giant veggies there all the time.

Hit the Saturday Farmer's Market in the U District and look for the Tandoozy cart...get the fresh made on the spot naan bread brushed with garlic cilantro oil and served with freshly made mango chutney. OMG - best $3.50 I ever spent.

It was nice to see Rob Feenie on the show...but I squirmed a little when he critiqued the food of the kid who took over his kitchen after he was ousted. Not that he didn't deserve it, but still, must have been a bit hard for him not to fire back. I'd love to see Connie win...but chances are good she will be the next one to go.

Check out any government funded employment services in your area. Often they run interview skills workshops and can offer you pointers and tips. Also, they often have funding available for things like a new pair of shoes, or pants or even a knife if you need it. Often also they can fund things like transportation for the first two weeks of the job if you get it. Also get some answers ready to go...think of answers to questions like 'give me an example of a time something went horribly wrong and you had to fix it' and the ever famous 'what are your weaknesses' and the answer to that is NEVER 'I'm a perfectionist' or 'sometimes I get too invested in the task'. Trying to pick a weakness that makes you look good just makes you look like a doofus. Everyone has weaknesses. Just say you have lots, but you are smart enough to know when to ask for help from people with different skill sets. If you haven't already, and you can afford it, eat at the restaurant before the interview so you can speak first hand about a couple of dishes. If you can't least go online and memorize the current menu if you can. Good Luck!!!

When I was a child, the grace in our house was a standard repetition..."God bless this food, which we are about to eat, Amen." When I was small, I thought my dad was saying "God bless this food, a gerbil's treat, Amen". I kept waiting for the gerbils to appear. Sadly none ever did. When I was a little older, I used the time that no one was looking to eat as many pickles as I could shove in at one time. I was a weird kid. Now, a brief moment of silence over the plate, to give thanks for the food, the people who grew it and the hands that prepared it suffices. Unless my brother is there. He's a mennonite minister and it makes my elderly mother happy to have him pray aloud. I still use the time to eat all the pickles. I like to think that my mom puts the pickle dish in front of me on purpose, and that she asks him to pray for 'everyone' so I have time to eat a couple of extra ones

Rubbermaid makes those containers with the easy find lids in glass now! Fantastic and not hard to find in stores. http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?Prod_ID=RP091945

Check the Pound Shop...here in Canada, the most reliable place to find them where I live is at the Dollar Store, so it's a logical leap Exact same brand as available at the specialty store where I live, and on offer 2 cans for a dollar!

Fat free half and half is a dairy product that mixes up skim milk with other ingredients including corn syrup solids as a thickener. There are typically other stabilizers as well. The product is meant to be a cholesterol and fat free alternative to conventional half and half. The top five ingredients are: nonfat milk milk corn syrup solids Artificial color Sugar I have read some creepy tales about it clumping and whatnot, but probably it's personal preference. I would not use it because of the added sugar and whatnot. I just use whole milk now instead...works fine and there's no corn syrup or carageenan. If you want to make low fat creamy potatoes, try out a bit of cream cheese.

I got the issue. As soon as I saw Gwenyth Paltrow on the cover I threw it in the bin and didn't pick it up for a week. I paged through it, thought the articles were ads and ignored most of it. It seems to be aimed at the twitter crowd - guess I'm just not in the demographic anymore. And I hate hate hate that the occasionally interesting back page has been reduced to a picture of a dirty napkin with some scribbling on it.

I use salted butter all the time, so I doubt that is the problem. Maybe the temperature of your syrup or the amount of time you spent beating it. It always takes way more beating than I think it's going to.

Amen to that!! Garlic mashed potatoes are one of the seven signs of the apocalypse.

I don't know about the sausage making bits, but the pasta roller is excellent, and I use it all the time for gumpaste work and making crackers and assorted flatbreads as well as pasta.

^^^ Heidi, that is just blood brilliant. I am awed and impressed. I can't wait to try it.

I go with a hot air popper...takes four minutes, and no oil needed. I don't know if you have Shoppers Drug Mart where you live, but they have an organic plain microwave popcorn without all the wierd oily stuff, food coloring or artificial flavor. Just plain corn. It's not bad. Especially with butter and salt

I would just brush them really well and use a hairpin to clean out the middle. That's what we did in cooking school!

For the kids... Jelly Belly's Pop Rocks Captain Crunch Freeze dried fruit

In our kitchen, we call it 'weasel hats'...kind of a misheard lyrics kind of a thing Yes, we always get our weasel hats on before we start cooking!

That's unfortunate but understandable. They never got the attention they deserved out here. I wonder if they will truck in that delicious Abbotsford tap water. Water shouldn't have a taste, but this stuff does. It's not a good taste, but it's there. Nevertheless, they certainly made a nice crust with it.

I'm still undecided on this. It was Top Chef, but strangely not. I do not like the host woman - I have no idea who she is or where she came from or what her creds are. I don't recall even seeing or hearing her name during the show. She is a little plastic for my taste. I like Mark McEwan just fine. I was kind of surprised that they weren't shopping in his store, to be honest. The two things that I had real issues with were the woman who owns the restaurants in LA - what? We couldn't find one single Canadian chef/restaurant owner to sit at that table? I guess they couldn't invite Feenie as one of the competitors works for the man who took over his restaurant, but still. Also, the fact that they are shopping at Loblaws, which in BC is known as The Real Canadian Superstore and is not somewhere that I would purchase meat of any kind under any circumstances. I go there to buy toilet paper and toothpaste and the occasional kitchn appliance. Not a place I would think of as a gourmet emporium. Perhaps it's a better store out there in T'ranna. Oh...and also I didn't care for the tasting being held in the curtain panelled room. What, you can't walk around to the tables like Padma and Tom? I just thought it was wierd. And one plate to share between all the judges? Skeevy. If you are going to have them present dishes on the alter of judgment, surely you can have them make four individual small plates. I'm going to watch it a few more times, but honestly, I found it hard to be interested in anyone but the dude from Lumiere (which has more to do with Feenie schadenfreude than anything else) and the woman who had the pastry shop that has closed down since she filmed the show. Does anyone know what the current FN demographic is?

Sorry, I have no idea what show you are talking about...can someone fill in that blank? I am making the leap and assuming that the Anthony in question is Bourdain. And highchef, he was much less a midnight toker and much more an all day heroin addict, among other things. Interesting to me how even after as many years clean as he has behind him, he still references his addiction like it's a loved and missed old friend that has died but is still on his mind.

I'd say that you can form them into rolls at step 7, then wait for them to rise until they are nearly doubled...how long that will take is anyone's guess, but I'm guessing it will take about the same amount of time as a loaf, give or take.

You can sometimes get butter that isn't colored...you may have to source that from someone nearby that actually makes it. Unsalted butter seems less yellow to me that salted, so that's what I use. I think you can get undyed butter at health food stores, also. Most recipes you will find on cake websites call for a mix of butter and shortening - this will give you the 'crusting' that you want if you are piping onto it. Cakecraft.net sells white food coloring that will produce a white frosting - it is a paste, so presumably you wouldn't need to add gallons of it. You could also consider icing the cake with something tasty and then covering it with a marshmallow fondant - that would be bright white.