Kerry Beal

Another thought - is it a name brand mold or a knock off?

I have had the good fortune to try Franci's cakes - she brought some for Anna and I when she was in Toronto last year. Gotta say - they were fabulous! I was particularly taken by the limoncello cake.

I've used a couple of things in the past that I'm happy with - the first was a huge silicone sheet that covered one of my big stainless tables and the other is silicone matting from Ikea that does the same. The Ikea mats have patterns on them cause I think they were for kids - but it didn't seem to hurt their function.

Anita - are the backs on your magnetic mold plastic or metal? As Lisa mentioned - I think the swirls are the unmolding marks that you get with large smooth surfaces - and always seem to be worse with magnetic molds because the back/top of the magnetic ones is usually a lighter material than the polycarbonate of a non magnetic mold and as the chocolate crystallizes and contracts the mold material needs to do it's bit in the reaction. Same thing happens when you mold on acetate - you tend to get more significant unmolding marks because the acetate doesn't contract in a complimentary fashion to the chocolates contraction. That being said - as Lisa has said painting the molds first may go a long way to correcting these issues - but large flat surfaces are always troublesome.

Shall I add you to the list?

Ah yes - by layering I mean adding some puree, and some freeze dried powder and some compound and maybe a bit of booze right to the ganache.

The chicken tenderloin is the piece of the breast that has the tendon running through it - perfect for chicken fingers!

I kind of like to give a variety, however nothing sickly sweet.

Try adding extra layers of flavour - some fruit puree, some freeze dried fruit, a bit of compound flavouring - and for fruit - add a bit of citric acid.

I'll keep an eye out for one - I often see just the base at thrift stores - usually don't bother to buy them because when I give away a food processor I want it to have the blades and such.

Is it made in japan or china?

Remember the rules - "she with the most toys when she dies - wins!"

One of the Ecole Chocolat graduates who has one makes huge numbers of chocolates calculated that it paid for itself in 7 weeks. But her hubby misses the failures which were his to eat!

As I'm sure I've mentioned on eG before - I am fatiguable! Stubborn though - hate to give in to it. What's the line 'Life is short - hurry!' Anyway I'm the shelf life course tutor on Ecole Chocolat - a student mentioned that UK hygiene pack the other day and asked if there was something similar in the US. I really liked the look of the program so it stuck in my mind. Someone needs to write something similar for NA but it isn't going to be me!

I'd add 1% - not sure how much mycryo is called for?

I think that might be the case - she mentioned something about prototype when I pointed to a feature. Seems the be the same company that handles modernist kits and the sphericator

Welcome Captain - do you use a commercial Laksa paste?

Had to bump this old thread - found humbugs at the gift show in Toronto today - are being made by a company in Montreal named Stilwells - owned by a delightful man by the name of John Angus, with whom I had the pleasure of a long chat this morning. Story here on the rescue of the company by John. Next visit to Montreal I'm going to look him up and have a tour.

Attended the gift show in Toronto today - Microplane has a couple of new things - something for ginger and a couple of little boxes for garlic, one for shreds, the other for slices. But the thing that caught my eye was some neat looking items for fermentation - Mortier Pilon products - their fermentation crocks have a simple water seal on the top that looks like they would work a treat.

Have no idea if this would be useful to you - but I thought it covers things nicely for the UK. http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/sfbb-caterers-pack.pdf Not sure about use of home though.

Definite RobertM Sue Casey Chocolot curls MelissaH Gwbyls tikidoc Robyn sarahdwyer Dilittante + 1 YetiChocolates dhardy123 Beets3 Tentative gfron1 - not seeing a commitment to come above but seeing an interest in Morato! lambrecht gourmet prabha Mark Heim (strong tentative!) patris and sib Lurking waiting to decide DianaM

Devil's advocate here - my chocolate room microwave is on wall brackets like these that I found for about a buck as a thrift store. No counter space required..

How did he do those non splattered ones?

Yup - just didn't like the flavour

Here's the turkey meat cooked in a bit of chicken stock - wasn't at all impressed with the flavour so didn't use it in the soup. Soup with with stock from cooking the turkey, carrots, parsnips , celery and the Christmas Limas - good grinding of pepper.