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Lori in PA

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Everything posted by Lori in PA

  1. Thank you for the very good-sounding ideas. I'd try one of them, but the cake is GONE -- The Husband just ate the last piece and said, "It may not be pretty, but is sure tastes good!" Next time, I'll either make sure I'm home when the unpanning moment arrives or I'll give more detailed instructions...
  2. If I wanted to serve it pre-sliced, I'd have to really serve it pre-chunked -- it's that sad. I thought of toasting hunks of it and making bread pudding with caramelize apples, but I don't know if the cake would get too soggy with the bread/cream mixture. Anybody ever do something like that? Other ideas?
  3. It seems to be my role on this thread to provide comic relief. This week's episode: Lori wants a dessert, made ahead, to serve to potential company after an event on Friday night. She wants something autumnal and homey. Double Apple Bundt Cake will fit the bill perfectly. She has the ingredients and she can JUST squeeze its preparation into her Thursday afternoon. The youngest lad has to be ferried to soccer practice before the cake will come out of the oven, but no matter, The Husband will take care of its last minute needs. She calls instructions to him as she dashes out the door: "When the timer rings, five minutes in the pan cooling on a rack, then turn it out onto the rack and leave it." She returns, eager to see a browned crown of cakey goodness resting on the cooling rack. Instead, she finds a broken half-cake on the rack and its twin half still stuck in the cake pan. "I'm sorry," says The Husband, with not nearly enough grief in his voice. "Didn't you loosen the cake with a knife all around the grooves before you tried to turn it out?" she asks, bereft. "I didn't know I should do that," he answers, more sympathetically now. Hmmm. Suggestions requested -- how do I salvage it?
  4. If your relationship is stronger thean ever then you are doing something very, very right. The best to both of you! ← Yes, indeed. I'm glad to hear of some better days.
  5. I know it's sort of off-topic, though it is food-related -- PULEEZ post a pic of the Velveeta sculpture, ok?
  6. that is food for thought, Lori, and a challenge. It will have to wait a bit so I can arrange my thoughts a bit better... the first day when we got back I almost cried when I went to the supermarket and saw the sad display of vegetables, but I am almost ready to appreciate Amsterdam's blessings again ← I understand. It's funny, though, how often I've read your posts on the dinner thread or the the Dutch cooking thread and longed to go to Amsterdam, a city I've not met in person. Your food photos and loving descriptions are the reason, of course, and it's never occurred to me that maybe Amsterdam has not such nice veggies! Instead, I've stood at my grocery store cheese case and thought, "Why can't we have more choices? Stupid US FDA import rules!!!" I'll be looking forward to your list, and my apologies to the Canadians -- it should be titled "Chufi's List of What I Love Most about American and CANADIAN Food..."
  7. That was a wonderful, wonderful report. It sounds like you had an oomphed-up version of many of America's great ingredients/foods, which is just what a holiday should have, I think. Once again, I am struck with how lovely it is to be able to travel and experience new tastes, customs, and so on, BUT also how lovely it is to come home and appreciate the unique blessings found there, which are often only made apparent by the contrast. That's what I wish you would post here -- a kind of Chufi's List of What I Love Most about American Food and What I'm Glad Exists in Amsterdam. Can you compile such a list for us?
  8. I made another round of the Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread, a batch of Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread, and another of Chunky Oatmeal and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chipsters. Some of the shortbread accompanied us on a day in Washington, DC and was just what was needed -- packable and the perfect pick-me-up mid-morning with a cup of coffee while we watched the zoo elephants getting their pedicures and as a nibbly sweet after lunch. We raced home to find a bunch of teens waiting on our porch, ready to begin a weekly Bible study. The Peanut Butter/Oatmeal/Chip cookies were also ready and waiting. As many of you know, teens will devour just about anything, so that isn't necessarily an indicator of a great cookie, but I pronounce them very good. Again, I had issues with cookie beauty with the shortbreads, but I'm pleased to say my drop cookies were the "thickest" I've ever made -- cooling those baking sheets between batches may be the ticket. Thanks, Dorie.
  9. South-central PA: --church suppers/fire department dinners: Baked or Slippery Pot Pie (slippery is boiled) or turkey and filling (bread stuffing) or roast beef and filling or chicken and waffles --banquets/weddings/corporate events: stuffed chicken breast is popular or a boneless chicken breast with some kind of sauce
  10. I just spent many minutes I don't really have this morning catching up. Lovely, lovely, to spend some time with you in your temporary part of the world. Thanks.
  11. Yesterday afternoon I spent some time with my new book (Sam's Club) and decided to mix up the Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies. I must insert a disclaimer here: My friends and family often make comments like, "You know, that Lori is a good cook, but her cookies..." I'm known for my spread-out cookies, I'm afraid. I was seduced by the lovely photo on pg. 126 -- sharply squared cookies with their homey little fork prick marks marching across each one. Dorie's baking instructions were comfortingly precise -- "bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the mid-way point. The shortbreads will be very pale -- they shouldn't take on much color." They spurred me on to unwarranted cookie confidence. So, yesterday I mixed and rolled them in their clever zippered bag -- "This is fun," I thought, because I hate rolling out cookie dough the traditional way -- and moved them to the fridge for their overnight sojourn. Bright and early this morning I carefully preheated my oven and nursed my first cup of coffee while I waited for the official ding of proper baking temperature reached. I used my ruler and bench scraper to cut precise 1 1/2" squares of dough. I pricked lovingly, whisked my baking sheets into the oven, and set my trusty timer. Nine minutes, rotate and switch pans, nine more minutes. I eagerly opened the oven door to find... ...not beautifully square, just-kissed-with-golden-color cookies, oh no! It was the old story -- my careful quadrilaterals had oozed into vague, slope-sided, over-browned short-thins. Some were merely medium tawny, but here and there were decidedly dark cookies. I’m ok. I don’t need your pity. Really. One of my sons tasted a homelier specimen and said, “Wow, Mom. This is good!” It just goes to prove what I’ve always believed – some of us must be content to produce a lifetime of cookies with unfortunate complexions and figures who turn out to be beautiful on the inside, after all. In my case, I’m blaming it on the oven.
  12. ...when any trip anywhere is proposed, your dh says, "Well, where does egullet tell us to eat?"
  13. One of my favorite gingerbread memories is an idea from the back of the Betty Crocker mix box: Make gingerbread as usual. Serve a square of it, warm, with a thin "pat" of cream cheese on top and a generous dollop of warm lemon sauce. That was one delicious thing.
  14. I put the whites in a plastic container that is just large enough to hold them so they don't "slosh" around too much. I stack them with their hollow centres up. When I arrive at my destination, I put the whites in the devilled egg platter and squeeze the filling in from the ziplock baggie. If I am feeling particularly festive then I might take along a few chopped chives or other garnish to finish them off. ← What she said.
  15. What a treat to finally steal many minutes to read all of your blog so far, Michelle. (We are tres busy here -- leaving tomorrow to take dd to college in big, bad Tampa.) Thank you for the diversion and for making me wanna go to Israel!
  16. I'm a butter person, but I like a big honking hunk melting into a great pool to be semi-stirred into the oatmeal, steel cut if I have time.
  17. My favorite brown-bag sandwich: homemade egg salad on rye/pump with alfalfa sprouts and thinly sliced radishes. I'm also a big fan of the cold salad plate, any number of combos made up of hard-cooked egg halves or deviled eggs, a bit of leftover meat, and cold cooked (roasted, grilled, sauteed, or simply steamed) vegetables like asparagus, broccoli, peppers, green beans, or carrots, arranged on a plate and garnished with some kind of interesting-but-easy dip -- mayo with wasabi or sesame oil, or orange zest and mint, or chives and lemon zest, or...
  18. Lori in PA

    Roasting tomatoes

    I have the best results with freezing my slow-roasted tomatoes. I usually just cut them in half before roasting and drizzle with olive oil. I often add cloves of garlic, too. I'm about to use the last of the freezer tomatoes in a "sun-dried" tomato dip for a friend's wedding this weekend. Then I'll be ready to start this year's bounty.
  19. What a great blog this already is -- I can FEEL your pleasure at being home!
  20. With herbs from my garden, I often cut a bunch of different things and put them in a drinking glass with water like a bouquet. It sits on the counter out of direct sunlight and gets snipped from at will. Works great!
  21. Nice looking bread, Ann! I'd really like to move from baking my home-y, old-fashioned breads to learning how to bake even older (?), but new-fashioned artisinal-style breads. I'm assuming you baked that yourself? How did you learn?
  22. Lovely writing, but I must disagree about Cunningham's Cooking with Children. In fact, I don't always love the final product from her recipes, often feeling a bit of this or that or a tweak to a technique would improve it, but I never fail to appreciate her teaching methods or her tone. The proof is in the kids' reaction to it. I'm on my second year of using it with kids' cooking classes -- it is a hit, particularly because of her prose. They feel empowered by her confidence in them and her simple instructions. I'm sold.
  23. I'm glad you are blogging, Ann -- it will be nice to get to know you better.
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