shaloop

I live near New Orleans and often buy beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Not good reheated. I've also made them at home from the Cafe Du Monde boxed mix. They are delicious. Taste like the cafe original and easy to prepare. But not so good reheated. Your best bet is to buy the mix and only takes 30 mins to an hour to make them start to finish. And though I often make homemade bread, no recipe I've found comes near to the mix when hot from the oil and covered in powdered sugar. Finish the experience with a fresh press pot of their chicory coffee or cafe au lait.

My standard flour is unbleached, all-purpose flour for most things. I usually use Gold-Medal or Pillsbury or sometimes even the store brand. I keep my flour in a cannister large enough to hold a 5 lb bag. Before I measure I always stir and aerate with a rubber spatula. I then dip, and sweep. I get almost exactly 5 ounces every time. I get 4 ounces for cake flour, about 5 1/2 ounces for bread flour, but 5 ounces for unbleached, all-purpose flour. Maybe it's because I live on the coast and its pretty humid here, don't know.

My 10 year old son's top 5 list: Zuppa Toscana w/homemade bread Taco soup w/tortilla chips Fettucine Alfredo w/grilled chicken Lentil Soup w/homemade bread Cajun Chicken Pasta My 8 year old daughter's list: Stir Fry (esp. garlic chicken or beef & brocolli)with rice Happy Family Ramen (my jazzed up ramen noodle bowl w/meat, vegetables and sauces added) Cajun Chicken Pasta Lasagna Lentil Soup w/homemade bread They also like hamburgers w/baked beans, Pork chops w/apple/cranberry chutney, Red Hot potatoes, Red Beans and Rice, Black beans and rice, and succotash. They had a hard time just choosing 5.

Once I pick up my kids (10 & 8) from school it's a mad dash to have a snack with them, help them with homework, care for the baby (9 months), make dinner and get ready for work by 5:45. So, this is something new for me (my schedule for the last 6 months) that I'm getting used to as well. I've started assembling a list of our favorite meals that are quick and easy to prepare so that I can start using a rotating meal plan, planning more time consuming meals for days off or weekends and still have a variety. Some ideas: Pasta with various sauces are great and as mentioned earlier, thinner pasts which cook fast are key. Water goes on to boil first thing, with lid on. Seasoned rice is common, which eliminates the need for gravies or sauces and quick cooking meats (boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin or sliced in half also boneless or thin pork chops or steaks.) I also love the individually packaged, frozen fish fillets like salmon or tilapia. Run unopened packs under water, then open and quick season while cast iron pan heats or oven heats. 5 to 10 mins to cook. Frozen veggies like corn, sweet peas and green beans are common and cook quickly in the microwave or saucepan. Add a pat of butter and seasoning. Or, steam whole green beans in microwave, 5 mins, then quick stir fry with sesame oil, garlic and soy sauce. To accompany a stir fried dish. Stir fried cabbage also quick with stir fried dishes. Soups, quick chili, corn muffins or drop biscuits are quick. also, I sometimes keep refrigerator roll dough on hand and just shape and put in oven with bowl of boiling water to rise. My 10 and 8 year old also help do things like make the salad (which we have several times a week), make the sweet tea, butter the rolls, stir things, fetch things and open packages, set the table, etc. Some of our favorites are: Garlic chicken with sesame green beans or stir fried cabbage, beef with broccoli, Honey Black pepper beef, quick Thai chicken (all stir fries served with white rice). They love a dish made with ramen noodles (briefly cook and drain, discard seasoning packets, stir fry leftover thinly sliced meat of choice, thinly sliced onion, garlic, ginger, cabbage, carrot, etc. Add bottled sauces, usually soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, and sherry with dash of sesame oil and garlic chili paste. Last add cooked and drained noodles and toss to mix. One of their favorite meals, top with sliced green onion and chopped roasted peanuts.) I guess you could use rice noodles or vermicelli but the ramen noodles cook in about 2 minutes and their cheap and I keep them on hand for this dish. Also, pasta carbonara, usually with leftover vermicelli (I cook a whole pound and plan on carbonara couple of days later). Red Hots (red potatoes, sliced and cooked with plenty of creole or cajun seasoning, drained and fried in very hot wok or cast iron with butter and more creole seasoning (Tony Cacherie's) often served with quick tilapia and salad. etc...

I'm in Mississippi and a favorite here is chicken on a stick. Like a fried kebab with chunks of chicken breast, onion, pickles and sometimes potato, which is seasoned, battered and deep fried. Yum.

This thread made me make grilled cheese from Kraft Deluxe American slices and fluffy white Texas Toast leftover from Friday's BBQ tonight for Sunday night Snack. (don't cook dinner on Sunday. Family eats a big lunch out every Sunday. Snack only in the evening.) I don't like Sushi. Tried and tried. Texture thing. Love Burger King Whoppers and McDonald's fries, Big Mac and Sweet Tea. Made a vow to myself when still a teenager never to eat spare pig parts and that applies to most animals. I do, however, love fried chicken liver and beef liver and onions. No other innards of any kind will ever pass my lips. Also have the huge industrial size jar of powdered chicken boullion which I use regularly.

I love this cake. I've made it many times. My friends love it too!

Anyone mind pointing me in the direction of these directions? I need all the help I can get with clean edges.

My favorite classic creme brulee is from the Epicurious Website. I omit the ginger. Ginger & Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee

Sure. I'll grab my recipe at work and bring it home and type it up for y'all......ya want white or chocolate? ← I'd love both but if I have to pick one I'd say White. Thanks so much in advance.

Um, no it's not. Chiffon cakes are what I bake constantly and they have a lovely little spring to them in the center when done. For me, they are the easiest cakes to make, bake and torte. ... In my opinion, chiffon always needs a little syrup on it, I never complete a chiffon without some sort of soak. Right now, my strawberry cream cake has a triple sec/simple syrup brushed on layers.....really good. ← Would you be willing to part with your base recipe for the chiffon cake layers?

Being that I'm not a pro (self-taught and tons still to learn, but doing wholesale business for almost two years), when friends see some of my stuff they're impressed (mostly cakes and cheesecakes) and say "Wow, that looks like it came from a store!" My reply, "Good, this is a business." But I realize that to many people, looks like store bought means it's not homemade. And homemade, like grandma's, means yummy goodness. Homemade also means hand-made, made with love. So, many of my customers, place signs out on the display case letting customers know that it's locally made and fresh and will tell them it's from scratch if they ask. I also make a point to list that on my brochures and website. Of course, my stuff doesn't look too perfect to begin with, but this is South Mississippi.

I bake a lot of cakes, all 3 layers so I use what I've found to be the easiest, quickest, but yet effective method for me. I cut either parchment paper or wax paper rounds to fit the bottom of the pan. There are a few places to order pre-cut parchment pan liners in the size round pan you're using, but it's a lot cheaper to buy a $1.00 roll of wax paper and get 75 feet worth of pan liners out of it. I usually use wax paper for that reason. I spray the bottoms only of the pan with nonstick spray and then place the wax paper circle on top of that and make sure it's smoothed out. Spread the batter, bake and cool for about 10 minutes. Run a thin, small spatula around the inside of the pan (between cake and pan) and place cooling rack on top, invert, place second rack or cardboard on top and invert again. I also leave the wax paper on until I'm ready to finish the cake for ease of handling the layers. (Although I generally unstick it while it's turned over and then replace it before turning it back over.)

My favorite: http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r2152.html

Sweet Potato Pie Serves 8 as Dessert. Southern Sweet Potato Pie 2 c sweet potatoes, cooked & mashed 1/2 c butter, softened 1 c sugar 2 T heavy cream 2 large eggs 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp orange zest 1/4 tsp salt 1 (9 inch) pie crust Preheat oven to 350. Blind bake pie crust until barely golden. Mix together butter, sugar, sweet potatoes, spices, extract and zest. Adjust to taste. Mix in beaten eggs and heavy cream. Pour filling into pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees F until set (doesn't jiggle when shaken) and toothpick inserted in center isn't wet. Keywords: Dessert, Pie, American ( RG2152 )