Rhea_S

I just remembered cakes I love: pudding cakes (and I don't mean cakes made with instant pudding although I always have a slice or two of pistachio cake when it's brought to a potluck). Whenever I need a quick dessert fix in cooler weather, I'll usually make a chocolate pudding cake spiked with some sort of liquer and chopped nuts. In warmer weather, it's a citrus pudding cake served alone or with fresh berries. I love cake with thick, gooey sauce and it's even better when you don't have to make the two separately.

Another tried and true recipe that's in Purdy's A Piece of Cake is the Crazy Mixed Up Chocolate Cake. It's one of those cakes you mix right in the baking pan - no messing up bowls, whisks, etc. You just need a spoon and the baking pan. I have other recipes for this type of cake, but Purdy's tastes the best to me. Not too sweet and a good chocolate flavour. It takes 4 minutes to put together plus baking time -- about the same time as a cake mix. Also, it's lowfat and no cholesterol -- no eggs and uses only about a 1/3 cup vegetable oil. It still amazes me that a cake can be good with so little fuss.

Maybe I'll trying reading it a second time. I do think he captured the essence of the midwest rather well, but I didn't enjoy the book as a whole. The foodie bits were good enough for me to wish that he had spent more time on the professional side of the Denise character and less on rolling around in the garden coop.

Aside from a newish addiction to the laugh-out-loud funny Evanovich Stephanie Plum series, I've recently read the Zuni Cafe Cookbook and Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. I enjoyed Zuni Cafe; the same cannot be said for Corrections. The book has its moments, but it reminded me of a soap opera narrated in a condescending tone. I continued reading each page straight to the end in hope of finding the supposed wit and humour I read about in glowing reviews. Instead, the book made me feel thoroughly depressed.

Did she purposely substitute thick soy sauce (kecap manis?) or did she think she was using molasses? I have a dear friend I love very much who doesn't understand the concept of preheating an oven. She puts whatever item into the oven while the oven is cold; then, she turns on the oven. She and her husband tell me that it's a waste of electricity to preheat. They're also unwilling to pay for decent knives, yet they wonder how I can chop so much more quickly and precisely whenever I bring over my own knives (and mine aren't even close to top-of-the-line). For someone who scored quite low on the snob test, this sounds awfully snobbish.

The large supermarkets available in my area are Jewel,Cub Foods, Shop N' Save, Super Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Schnucks and Meijer. The last two tend to have fresher and more exciting produce that you can't find in the other stores. They both also carry King Arthur flour which is a big draw for me. Meijer has the best selection of international and health foods. The meat prices are usually one of the best for the area while the quality is better than the others aside from Schnucks. The only thing I really don't like about Meijer is that it's like a Super Wal-Mart, "one-stop shopping." You can buy goldfish and live birds right across from the flour aisle. The baby clothes are across from the pet section and so on. I go to the other stores regularly except for Cub Foods and Super Wal-Mart regularly. Cubs has no appeal for me and Super Wal-Mart isn't worth the trek across town. I go to Jewel because it's the closest to my house, Shop N' Save for $0.99 DVD/video rentals, Sam's Club for dog food, party supplies, bulk items, cheese and plugra butter and Schnucks and Meijer for produce and meat. I also shop regularly at the local Asian grocery store and go to either St. Louis or Chicago every couple of months to buy things I can't find around here.

Wonderful pictures... thank you!

My local library is really quite excellent for cookbooks (especially for a city of just over 100,000). The cooking and food section are comprised mostly of books from donations or memoriams of specific books. The donors obviously love good food and food writing. I'm most familiar with the baking and pastry section and its 150+ books. The collection includes Luchetti, Payard, Beranbaum (including the chocolate one), Silverton, Village Baker, Healy & Bugat, Malgieri, Gand, Brachmann and so on. I don't know enough to say there are any rare or hard-to-find books, but it's more than adequate. The main library and its local branches tend to buy at least two new cookery books every month. If a book isn't available in the local system, you can ask if they can get it in from a different city. I use the library mostly to borrow the cookbooks that I'm considering buying and to borrow fun novels that I know I'll only read once (such as the addictingly funny Stephanie Plum books).

Excellent report! And surely much, much cheaper.

My tulips and other spring flowers are finally starting to bloom. Not bad considering I only planted the bulbs three weeks ago. I had a huge bag of mixed bulbs that I bought back in November. I was too lazy to plant them and they sat in a paper bag on my front porch all winter. Terrible, terrible. Lovely Maggie told me to go ahead and plant them and now I have flowers. Thank you. As for culinary gardening, I'm starting my herbs this week and my tomatoes and whatever else looks good on the weekend.

Do any of you ever use screwpine leaves or extract? Please provide examples or recipes. I've only ever used the paste or extract for desserts. For example, I made a pandan-flavoured sponge cake last weekend and I thought it was terrific. I decorated it with pandan buttercream icing and filled the cake with macapuno (some kind of mutant coconut) jelly. The flavours went well together although the cake and frosting were too St. Patrick's day. The pandan paste I used has an abundance of green food colouring.

As a Canadian, my preference is serviette; however, I discovered very quickly that I can't use that word in central Illinois. I once asked for some serviettes at a local donut place and received a look as if I had said something rude. Umm, errr, napkins please.

The dating part wasn't actually shown. Most of the show was of the two guys cooking and getting cooking tips from two chefs/coaches (Cat Cora and someone else). Then, their meals were judged by the bachelorette and she and the winning cook "won" a dinner for two at Nyla. Only still photos were shown of the actual date.

Delicious report as always. I think Trio has become my favourite restaurant based solely on your reviews (sorry A.W.)

Where can I get a Bourdain bobble-head?

Some silly name like Sissy Biggers?

I think the Food Network actually was ahead of the game here. They used to have Ready Set Cook. Another cooking equivalent to American Idol is the much more classy Masterchef competition (obviously not on Food Network).

Tomato paste in a tube. I rarely use the stuff, and when I do, it's only in small amounts.

My parents asked for my Tilia Foodsaver. They use it for storing fillets of salmon that my brother catches during fishing season. My mom also vacuum-packs then freezes cooked food for my dad to bring with him whenever he's assigned out-of-town. It works great for them. When I had it, I used it to split the contents of cereal boxes. I can never finish a whole box without the bottom third being stale by the time I got there. Same for meat. I don't buy in bulk, but I'm still unable to eat the store portions on my own. The Foodsaver saved me money. I'm probably going to buy a new one soon because I'm going to start home cooking for my dogs and I only want to cook for them once a week.

Paula is Paula Deen. She's a fat southern woman with wild hair who uses more butter than the two fat ladies combined. All of her food is deep fried to a crisp, and her medicated-southern excitement is frightening. No matter what anyone says about any of the other Food TV cooking shows (as opposed to the travel/unwrapped variety), rest assured that Ms. Deen's program is the absolute worst the network has to offer. -Eric My gross-out moment from Paula's Home Cooking was when she made the moon pies. The "cream" filling was shortening and icing sugar. Yuck! There was also some other quick dessert that was soda crackers sprinkled with chocolate chips, put in the oven and the melted chocolate was spread out over the crackers. First and last episode for me. But I suppose there are people out there who like that sort of stuff.

Sorry about this Fritz, but my major PMS cravings are beef and dairy. I'm currently not at the beef stage yet, but my grocery lists for the past two weekends prove I'm definitely in the dairy stage: whole milk, whole milk yogurt, lots of cheese, whipping cream. I don't usually have any of these items in my house except maybe for some Parmesan cheese. If I do have milk and yogurt, it's usually skim/fat-free. I also get into dessert mode where cookies just don't make the grade. I had to make tarts this weekend: one chocolate and dried cherry and one pear. Both were 12-in tarts. The chocolate is gone and I'm about a third of the way through the pear tart.

No corned beef and cabbage for me tonight :( Lamb stew with whole-wheat couscous Bedtime snack: homemade, extra thin crackers and goat gouda (a bit too mild a cheese for me)

I like drinking buttermilk after I water it down a little. I've only had the grocery store buttermilk, but I've been told that fresh buttermilk is completely different and delicious. Buttermilk is used quite often in lowfat baking and that's pretty much all I've ever used it for aside from biscuits. If a baking recipe needs buttermilk and you don't have any on hand, you can make a substitute using milk, a little vinegar or lemon juice and let it sit for a couple of minutes to thicken. And yes, you can make creme fraiche by adding buttermilk to cream and letting it sit unrefrigerated until it thickens (hours and hours). This used to scare me, but I haven't died or become sick, so I guess it's safe.

Your smoked corned beef was delicious. Guajalote brought some to Awbrig's party (in case you didn't read the Chicago party thread) and everyone devoured it very quickly. It even got a vegetarian to eat meat!

I slow-roasted my corned beef last year and it was excellent. I love corned beef anyway, but slow-roasting gave the corned beef a slightly sweet taste. I cooked the veggies separately in a pot with broth and corned beef spices. And all of you do know that the best part of the corned beef is the leftovers?