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Also much more expensive and, since I'm the one paying for the entire shindig, no way! I'm saving my money so I can take my parents to West for a wonderful dinner or lunch ;)

My dad will be celebrating his 65th birthday this September and we're having a party. The general consensus is for a Chinese restaurant. I had suggested Sun Sui Wah, but I was shot down quickly. Everyone we asked said that the quality has gone down since new management. Have any eGulleteers gone and agree or disagree? P.S. The party is now at the reliable Pink Pearl where my dad can have his favourite Peking duck and service has always been excellent for us.

I usually grill or pan-fry a piece of meat or fish. I liven this up with some sort of sauce and serve on a bed of greens or with a starch (usually rice) and steamed/microwaved/roasted veggies. Stir-fries used to be in the rotation, but I had a tendency to cook too much. Also, I have at least one vegetarian meal per week. I don't bake for myself very often aside from an occassional fruit cobbler or tart. Dessert is usually a piece of fruit. I do try to plate my food nicely, but I don't bother with proper place settings. Dinner is almost always eaten on the formal dining room table Planned entrees for this week include braised chicken with figs, leek and goat cheese tart, steak with onions and tilapia filet with green curry sauce.

Last Saturday, all consumed within a half hour: roasted nori pistachios peppermint tea white nectarine instant pancit canton with shredded cabbage, scallions, leftover roast pork and a scrambled egg tomato sandwich (mushy white bread, tomatoes and Hellman's mayo)

So how does a cake explode in the oven?

I have a "what not to do with swiss chard." Do not accidentally leave in the trunk of your car for one week, especially during the summer. I noticed a disgusting, pungent smell in my car last night and first thought it might have been me since I had just been working out for one hour (ruled that out quickly). I also ruled out my a/c. I went through my trunk and found a bag of chard I had bought at the farmer's market about a week ago and a puddle of brown goo. Luckily, it was all nicely contained in a plastic tub, so nothing on my car's carpet.

If you have an extra tough piece of meat, you can tenderize it with mushed up kiwis. I don't know how long you leave the meat in the kiwis since I've never tried this, but I do know that you can't leave it in for too long. It ends up the texture of liver. (I just realized this is the pastry and baking thread -- meat pie?)

Excellent lesson! I was just planning to take a peek while at work, but I ended up reading the entire lesson. No questions until I practice at home. I just wanted to add my comment regarding the grip. I used to hold my knife with my fingers curled around the handle. My previously-injured shoulder and elbow would hurt whenever I had to chop for more than 15 minutes. I eventually switched my grip to that demonstrated by zilla and now there's no shoulder/elbow pain. My theory is that the latter grip produces a more natural and efficient movement. Does that make sense?

Congratulations Louisa! Less than a week to go... any jitters yet or has the euphoria of a new adventure taken over everything?

Most of the items mentioned in this entire thread have been brought to an office potluck at one time or another and I have shamefully eaten and enjoyed some of them, even going back for seconds or thirds. My favourites are hash brown casserole, beans and cornbread, rotelle (velveeta cheese dip), graham crackers layered with sweet white stuff (condensed milk and cool whip?), broccoli salad and lil smokies or meatballs in goopy sauce. I have very poor resistance to free food at the office.

We have ice cream trucks here in Central Illinois, but they don't play music anymore. It's just a bell that I find difficult to hear.

Leftover cherry clafouti. Quite yummy and fun (I'm shooting the pits into my office trash can.).

In Tagalog (or Filipino), it's cha-a (phonetic spelling). Tea was brought to the Philippines by sea but most likely by the Chinese merchants and immigrants. Coffee seems to be a far more popular hot beverage with tea mostly regarded as the drink of choice during an illness (aside from Chinese-Filipinos).

Steamed rice, fried egg and kimchi. Mixed greens with pan-fried steak or chicken breast or other protein source and a simple vinaigrette.

A most enjoyable review. I had to read slowly for once to savour every word and some parts I even read twice. Thank you very much!

I just have a cheap Cuisinart ice cream maker, but I've had good results. I freeze the container for at least two days and I chill my custard/ice cream base at least overnight if not a full 24 hours. The resulting ice cream, straight from the machine, is usually quite soft -- like mousse. I transfer it to a plastic container and put in the freezer for an hour or so and it firms up perfectly. Hope that helps.

Thank you! I should have asked before I started. Truthfully, I was too scared to do the parchment and water steaming thing. I would have cried if all my macarons ended up in a soggy mess in the sink.

I tried making macarons yesterday. I did gerbet macarons because I thought smaller ones would be easier to do on my first try than larger ones. Foolish food adventurer that I am, I actually did leave my egg whites to sit out uncovered for 3 days per Nightscotsman. I did notice that the whites whipped up much faster and seemed more stable than regular room temp egg whites. I used a recipe from The French Cookie for lemon gerbet macarons but followed loufood's directions. One thing that I definitely did wrong was use Silpat instead of parchment. I had problems with sticking, so I broke several while trying to remove from the Silpat. Another mistake was forgetting my 2nd batch in the oven and they got a bit too brown. I've never had macarons before, but they looked like all the pictures I've seen -- no cracks, shiny dome, frilly stuff around the edges. As for texture, crisp outside, chewy inside. Does that sound right? I was supposed to fill with a lemon buttercream, but I ended up just putting some homemade blackberry ice cream. I have a few more left and I'll try to take a pic tonight. I'm eating some of my broken ones now and they taste better today than yesterday.

Bad phonetic Chinese spelling of bitter melon is foo kwa if that helps any. I love winter melon soups although I've never tried the sweet. I now like bitter melon, but I most like it when the bitterness isn't too prominent. I haven't figured out how to cook it without it becoming bitter, so I never cook with bitter melon at home.

I forgot one more that I use quite often: The Chinese Gourmet - William Mark. I almost always have very good results and the book is informative and a good read. I also have Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, but I don't think I've ever made anything from the book. The size of the book is intimidating while the actual recipes don't look all that exciting. I much prefer cookbooks with photos.

My favourites are Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen and the Wei Chuan books. I like the latter because most recipes fit on a single page, ingredients are grouped in order of incorporation into the dish and the resulting dish is always good. I like Wisdom because it produces the Cantonese dishes that taste the most similar to those I've had at Cantonese restaurants in Vancouver and at friends' homes.

I am very fortunate to have the local farmer's market right outside my office building. This is what I bought this morning: zucchini blossoms basil variety of baby eggplant beets fingerling potatoes yukon gold potatoes fresh eggs cottage bacon Other items that looked good today: Calhoun County peaches several varieties of beans

My half-sheet pans from the restaurant supply store -- around $9/ea while inferior cookie sheets retail for over $12.

The cheapest that limes ever get here are 10/$1. A 1-lb bag of new potatoes is about $1.50. The noodles are about 5/$1. No fresh tortillas here, but a dozen from the refrigerator case is $1.50. The sugar, if store brand, can be only $1. Cheapest price for corn right now is 5/$1. The Jumex is just under a $1. Those same items (but mine would most likely be of a poorer quality) would cost me almost $16 and I only live a couple hundred miles from Chicago!

The turkey burgers I made this week had ground, dried chipotle pepper, green onions, pepitas, s & p and olive oil. Even with the olive oil, they were a bit dry despite being careful not to overcook. I had them with avocados, radish sprouts and store-bought hamburger buns.