Rhea_S

I went to Trout Lake this past Saturday and bought way too much. I bought several plants. Foodwise, I bought a couple of pounds of cherries from Spences Bridge, chervil, arugula, English peas, rhubarb, radishes, scapes, and blueberries. I was told by several vendors that sour cherries are done for the season and the remaining types of cherries should have only up to two weeks left if that. The blueberries I bought are plump, sweet and delicious. Unfortunately, I didn't take note of any of the vendors. It was all a bit overwhelming in a good way.

Great job as usual Ruth! Those look amazing. The interior looks perfect to me and made me forget that croissants are supposed to be crescent-shaped. Did you say that's your first time making croissants? I want to make some, but I better wait when my entire family, or some friends are around to ensure that I don't eat them all.

Thank you Neil, Luke and the lovely woman who answered the phone when I was lost somewhere on the sky train. I had a great time and probably overstayed my welcome despite having had only 20 minutes of sleep in 40 hours. The hanger steak was terrific and went very well with the cream ale. I'm one of the silly folks who left my notes behind. I'm also the one who started judging the ales in the wrong order and wondered why my cream ale tasted so off. The answer is that it was actually a lager. I noticed that PaoPao's handwriting became increasingly worse and the comments shorter and culminated in absolutely no comments for the final beer :) Edit to add that my only regret is deciding not to order the gingerbread pudding even though I watched longingly as Andy's son enjoyed his serving.

That smoked duck breast always looks so good. I had a skim milk latte, so coffee for the 2nd day in a row. In the past 5 years, I've had maybe 5 very small cups of coffee total. I'm too lazy to brew coffee for myself and I couldn't find a local establishment with satisfactory coffee. A co-worker told me that they had great coffee at a nearby coffee shop, the Trout Lily Cafe. I was skeptical, but I needed something yesterday morning. Outstanding coffee. Perfectly roasted beans and they are ground fresh for each cup. I had a mocha yesterday with a freshly baked spinach-feta quiche. I had the latte today with a yogurt parfait full of fresh fruit and granola. Best coffee in Springfield, IL: Trout Lily Cafe on 6th street (downtown)

The pastry recipe is fairly easy. You don't have to worry about your ingredients being very cold or overworking the dough. It was very easy to roll out right from the start. It took longer than regular short crusts because of the chilling time in between the pats of fat, but I liked working with it better.

The first episode was too American Idol, but the 2nd was much better. I thought Ming Tsai was a bit over the top during both shows, especially explaning about "86." That surprised me because I like him on his cooking shows. Ruhlman has an infectious smile and I looked forward to each of his segments. No clear favorites yet in terms of the contestants.

Here was my attempt at egg tarts: I posted about the pastry recipe I used over on the other egg tart thread in the baking section. The recipe I was following for the filling said to bake the tarts at 300F, but I found this took forever and I upped the temperature to 375F after about 30 minutes. I'm going to try this again at 375F right from the start. The only ones that didn't come out as crispy and flaky were the ones I overfilled. The filling dripped down the sides and made the sides and bottom soggy.

I forgot to add that I only made a half recipe of the Eccles Cake pastry and it gave me 48 mini-muffin sized tarts. I also substituted vinegar for the lemon. Edit to add a picture of my first attempt at egg tarts. The better looking ones were eaten earlier and I forgot that one of my co-workers always has her digital camera.

I made egg tarts this morning and I used this recipe for the dough: Eccles Cake pastry. It's a bit more simple than puff pastry. The crust did end up looking like the picture in the first post. I didn't pre-bake the crust and that worked fine except for the ones I overfilled. The crust became soggy only on the ones where the egg mixture boiled over and seeped down the sides. My egg custard still needs work though. I'm going to bake another batch tonight and take pictures. I didn't have time this morning. I haven't had an egg tart in a long time, so I don't have a point for comparison. Should the crust be slightly sweet? My only problem with the above recipe is that it lacks a bit in flavor, or maybe I just don't like the flavor of lard. These released from the pans easily and I didn't have to do any prep on the pans.

A big part of the choice between using a mix or starting from scratch is your goal. If your goal is simply to bake something in order to serve or eat some cake, then I suppose using a mix would be fine. However, if you're more like me, who takes pleasure in the process and not so much with the end result, then it has to be from scratch. I don't use mixes, but I have enjoyed eating cakes made from mixes. I'm usually the first one to slice into a pistachio cake (yellow cake mix + pistachio pudding mix?) and I go back for seconds. Same for a Kahlua cake made from a mix a co-worker brought one day.

I forgot about Tenderflake. We don't get that here in the US, but my mom usually used Tenderflake in her pie crusts. I didn't even realize until now that it's lard (been a long time).

David's book: Room for Dessert He has the Chocolate Orbit Cake recipe posted on his website: link

At my local supermarkets, the lard is usually by the sausages/hotdogs or close to the meat section. Really good, fresh lard does make great tasting crusts, but the supermarket brands aren't quite the same. Butter definitely makes better tasting crusts than shortening (which doesn't have flavor unless you buy the fake butter-flavored kind), but shortening and lard tend to produce flakier crusts. Some try to compromise by using a mixture of shortening and butter.

I didn't get around to making these this weekend, but I was going to make them tonight. Thanks Dejah for the reviews. I had pretty much decided against the Wei-Chuan recipe and was leaning towards the Rhoda Yee one. Maybe I'll google for yet another recipe. Siu Mai will be made tonight as well.

I hope not. Dessert has always been the most exciting part of a meal for me. I go to restaurants, order several savory items, and not always finish each of them. The server usually asks why in a worried tone, and the answer is of course, "I need to save room for dessert." I have also been known to order two dessert items for myself.

I agree with all of Ling's on-campus recommendations. Those were my usual places plus the hospital cafeteria, but that was more for convenience. I loved the cinnamon snails and still want to try making them at home. If I recall correctly, my favorite cookie at Blue Chip was the Mocha Chip or something like that. Amazing that things haven't changed too much. Exactly ten years since I graduated! ouch. I wish they had Vietnamese sandwiches in the village back in my day. We only went to McD's, Subway or the Chinese restaurant over there.

Everything looks amazing Wendy. That giant egg is a true work of art as is your entire Easter pastry table. If that took you only one week to plan, I can imagine how incredible your other ones must be. It's obvious that you love your job/career.

Congratulations on being Food and Wine's Last Bite for May. I always turn to that page first whenever I get a new issue.

I didn't rotate my pans. Also, I'm not a pro, and I just like to experiment. I hope someone else comes along with an explanation for the fragile tops.

I ran into the same problem this weekend. I baked two pans at the same time. The ones on the bottom rack, and directly on top of the pizza tiles that I was too lazy to remove, ended up with the very thin and delicate tops. The ones I baked on the upper rack were more solid, chewy and had nice feet. Do you suppose the temperature on the bottom rack was too high compared to the upper rack that was closer to the colder air coming through the partially open oven door? In other words, is this problem due to too hot an oven? I was trying to make rose-flavoured macarons filled with rose-lychee buttercream based on a description of Herme's Ispahan. The flavor from the rose water disappeared with baking, so I'll try some more. I've made rose buttercream before, so that part I think I have ok.

Wow on everything! Even with free rent when I get back to Vancouver, I think I may need a 2nd job for all the cheese, desserts and other wonderful food. Hamilton Street Grill need a part-time dishwasher? Food question: How do does the rice pudding get in the waffles? Or is it a rice batter that's cooked to a soft set? Another food question: Are the potato cones each made with a single slice of potato?

The picture of Dave packing halibut made me do a bit of a double-take. Looked like my brother for a second even though my brother is a bit darker. My brother worked at The Salmon Shop, Lonsdale Quay for a few years. The pictures from Duso's also made me even more eager to get home. I used to pick up freshly baked foccacia, a couple of bocconcini and sometimes some olives whenever I missed my connecting bus as Lonsdale Quay. Not Duso's at LQ now though and the items didn't seem to taste as good in the new shop.

We'll sorta be neighbours when I move back to the west coast in June. My temporary (or possibly permanent) home will be in Coquitlam.

One of my most memorable summer vacations with my family was down in Lincoln City, OR. I doubt the mussels down there are too different from the ones in BC. I was an early riser and I went and chipped away at the mussels growing on the rocks during low tide. By the time I got back to the cottage with my big bucketful, my mom would be up and ready to soak then cook them for lunch. Those were the best tasting mussels I've ever had although I did build up quite an appetite from harvesting the mussels and shivering in the cold Oregon mornings. On a related note, for camping and oyster enthusiasts, my family used to also go camping in Washington state and a favorite activity was oyster picking. I was usually the designated shucker and my usual routine was shuck 3 eat 1, slowing down the eating after I'd had about 8 smaller ones. Why Washington vs. Vancouver Island? Cheaper ferry rates and we were never sure about rules and regulations on Vancouver Island. Here's a link if anyone wanted to know the limits for various shellfish in BC: Shellfish Table

There are several Persian bakeries in this area. My mom would always buy the warm barbary bread and pitas. I liked to try all the different cookies. Some were too sweet while others weren't sweet enough for me, but the bread was always good.