Kim Shook

A couple of platters totalling 10 lbs would be more than enough. And the cheeses wouldn't need to be exotic; would even the pre-sliced cheddar, swiss & provalone from Costco work? What about 1) candied ginger and 2) chocolate curl in a contrasting color. Would it be tacky to tint white chocolate to one of the sorority colors? I am a simple person... Thank you, Karen. I'm going out on a pricing mission in a few minutes and I'll check the prices of cheese and dried fruit at Costco! And I like the idea of candied ginger - I'll stop by the Asian grocery, too. And I don't think that using the sorority colors is tacky at all - I thought of doing buttermints in the colors and letters (APO) !

Halloween Cupcakes: These were supposed to look like mummies, but I’m not thrilled with my work:

Thank you! I’ll frost and freeze those two then. That will be nice to have that out of the way. No dipping things. People will have just come in from dinner and I think that they want to stay with after dinner stuff. I’d love to do a big cheese/dried fruit platter, but don’t think that their budget will allow for that. I will score those two (I don’t think scoring would work for the coconut cake) and put a little something in the middle of each square – I was thinking little gum paste leaves for the gingerbread cake (if I can find tiny little leaf cutters – I might even have some) but haven’t thought of what to put on the chocolate. I don’t have The Cake Bible yet, unfortunately – it’s on my abebooks.com wishlist. I’d really appreciate the list.

Those are just beautiful! Great piping skills. I need to start practicing!! Happy Halloween!

Thank for all the help and the good ideas. I want to make sure that we’re talking about the same thing. I have what I think are half sheet pans – 12x17 and a whisper under 1” deep? I will just use those, if that is what you all are talking about. That’s why you want me to use 2 layers per cake, right? The planner says that there will be between 100 and 150 people, so I thought 3 cakes would be plenty (they are doing chocolate fountains also). I was thinking of pitching a coconut cake w/ 7 minute frosting, a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a gingerbread cake with pumpkin/cream cheese frosting. These are all T&T cakes for me. If a 2 layer recipe will fit in one sheet cake pan, then I’d need a double recipe of each cake. Now, considering that I’ll need to cover the cakes twice (filling and top), all around the sides and enough to do any embellishments, do you think that making twice the frosting will do? I know that I can’t freeze the 7 Minute or the cream cheese frostings, but do you think that this one will freeze ok? Also – with the cream cheese frosting – I know that it needs to be refrigerated. I’m planning on frosting the cakes in the morning and they won’t be eaten until that night – do I need to refrigerate the cake all day? I’ll put them together and frost them when frozen – thanks for that advice – I can just see myself trying to handle SIX giant floppy cake layers ! As far as the not-so-sweet things, all I’ve come up with so far is the cheese biscuits with pecans, that I mentioned, a bleu cheese biscuit with preserves (like a savory sandwich cooky) and spicy glazed nut clusters with sea salt. Does anyone have any additional ideas, keeping in mind that they have to be made ahead of time (preferably freezable) and no heating at the venue? And not too fussy, time-wise? Thank you again for all your help!

Mark – thanks! I thought this one looked kind of interesting – very no frills, you could just put it in any pan and with the bottom, it looks pretty sturdy. percyn – unfortunately, NOT a Benton’s. But we’re ordering one for Xmas eve and a couple of pounds of bacon for a discerning friend as his Xmas gift! BTW – perfectly cooked steak!!!

Mark – that chicken is gorgeous. Your roasting apparatus is different from mine. Is there room under there for a can of beer? We really loved the beer can chicken, but my vertical roasting rack wouldn’t accommodate a can and the can alone isn’t steady enough and it fell over during roasting. Kayb – thanks for the carbonara instructions – we’ll be trying that soon! Prawn – that pigeon meal is gorgeous. The sauce is just amazing looking! And your tart and macarons are perfectly perfect! Bruce – where are y’all getting fresh lima beans? I’ve looked all over and can’t find any. Blether – what a wonderful piece of photo journalism! I love liver, but haven’t ever tasted fish liver – how does it compare with quadruped liver? Rhonda – I love your cake! And how clever you are putting it up on a can to glaze it and to cover the edge with the cut Reeses cups! I am stealing both those ideas! We are still on a ‘cleaning out the freezers’ binge . On Sunday, I cooked a 15 pound ham that we had bought on sale a couple of months ago. I gave some to my in laws, but there is still a LOT of ham in my fridge: On Monday we had chopped salad: Ham, butterbeans and biscuits: Tuesday was ham, cheese grits, scrambled eggs, apples and toast: Last night was salad w/ Gorgonzola dressing (store bought, but very, very good): HAM and Gruyere quiche and hushpuppies (we have a whole bag of those in the freezer, too): Dessert was my daughter’s delectable apple pie with a scoop of Häagen-Dazs ginger ice cream: I cannot tell you how perfect that ice cream is with apple pie! And how welcome after so many days of that freakin’ HAM! Tonight is laundry/pumpkin carving/pumpkin-poundcake cupcake baking night, so instead of even trying to think up another use for HAM, I think I’ll just sling the bag o’ pork onto the island, add whatever cheeses are in the fridge, open the cracker jar and call it dinner. Plus, there’s some of that PIE left!

abooja – I am in the process of cleaning out my freezers to prep for holiday baking and I don’t have any caramel – but now I wish I did! I made a Red Velvet cake from Cooks’ Country Magazine for a work birthday today. Her birthday is actually Halloween, so I tarted it up with ‘blood’ and gummy eyeballs: It was a LOT redder than it looks in the picture. I’m not a big fan of Red Velvet. To me, it has an off-putting aftertaste. Possibly the dye since I’ve heard that some people are sensitive to the flavor. But it was a request and everyone loved it.

I don't think that you can go wrong following Lan4Dawg's suggestions - he's mentioned some of my favorites. I have to single out The Heritage of Southern Cooking. I've cooked from this for years and love it. The prose is charming and the recipes are delicious.

A few questions for the more experienced folks here. My daughter's sorority is having a big alumni dessert gala for 100 to 150 people. They are doing chocolate fountains with fruit, etc. and want me to do something less sweet and sheet cakes. For the less sweet, I thought I might do cheese straws with pecans. If anyone has another idea for this I'd love to hear it. All of this will be prepared ahead at my house and taken over there the day of the party - no cooking/reheating facilities on-site. I can do the cheese straws ahead of time and freeze them. My other concern are the sheet cakes. I have a million questions! I'm planning on buying disposable 12x18 sheet pans and cake boards just a little larger. I want to do an assortment of cakes and I want to use my own recipes (NOT the time to experiment, I think). If I have a recipe for a 2 layer cake, will that fit in the sheet cake pan? I know that I'll have to adjust the timing, but do I have to back off the temp a little? And will the recipe itself need any adjusting? I keep seeing that a 12x18 cake will serve 32-48. Does that sound right? For one layer? It sounds a little skimpy - should I make them 2 layers? I'm sure I'll think of other questions, but that should do it for now. I'm getting back with the organizer Tuesday and I'm spending this weekend trying to come up with prices. I love all of this except pricing - it's boring. The only way that I know of doing it is going around to the stores that I'll be using, pricing things, adding everything up and then checking store prices for the same items and trying to see if I can make a profit and not get too high above them. Not terribly professional, I know, but then I am a 'hobby cook' (I love that phrase).

I forgot to mention that I'm in the process of trying to work down the food in our 3 freezers (one in the refrigerator and 2 smaller ones outside) to get ready to start stocking them with Christmas food in November. Consequently, my meals will start getting a little odd at some point when I am left with really disparate items to use up! Tonight's dinner was Romaine and Arugula salad with olive oil/orange Muscat champagne vinegar dressing: Rib eyes, filet mignon, tiny roasted potatoes, butter beans: The salad was fresh, of course, and the potatoes were some tiny little babies that I couldn’t resist the other day at Trader Joe’s. They were so good – creamy and crisp!

I have to disagree about the TJ puff pastry. I have totally switched to that - it's all butter and I find it very tender and flaky and never have had any trouble with it not rising. I haven't bought it yet, but they were sampling a frozen bay scallop, mushroom dish with a creamy sauce. I was almost afraid to try it ! But I girded my loins and tried a bite and was amazed. The sauce wasn't overly salty, the scallops were firm and sweet and not 'fishy' at all. Can't comment on the mushrooms since I am a fungophobe, but I was impressed. We'll be buying this.

Shal – what a great idea! That pasta is luscious looking! percyn – gorgeous short ribs – I need to make some soon! I heart Fall! kayb – I’d love to have the recipe for the udon carbonara! It looks so creamy and slippy and delicious! Toliver – I use that ‘rub’ a lot, actually! I mix it with sugar and rub on steaks, too! Blether – lovely oysters! Last night was Italian sausage sandwiches, fried corn, green beans and salad: Tonight we had my MIL over for dinner. I did romaine and arugula salad with olive oil/orange Muscat champagne vinegar dressing: onion garlic soup w/ gruyere croutons: Two kinds of panini: Close up of raisin bread, ham, turkey and Swiss cheese panini with fig preserves: Close up of pear, pecorino & prosciutto panini: pound cake w/ maple-caramel sauce w/ sautéed apples:

Steve - Yes, it's in two pieces. The part with the tube in it just drops into the part with the sides - there's no clamp like on a springform. I guess it must be warped. Time to get a new one!

deensiebat - I love the look of those chocolate PB cookies! I’ll be trying that recipe! DeliciouslyLekker – that scone is seriously gorgeous! Dessert tonight was supposed to be Cook’s Country Cold Oven Pound Cake, but this is what happened to my cake: I’ve used this pan many times and never had this happen before. The cake ended up being awful and sodden (not surprising since most of it leaked out the bottom of the pan) and it was 10pm and I didn’t have any more soft butter. So I had a pound cake mix (I never have one on hand, but I make these really popular pumpkin pound cake muffins for Halloween that use the mix) and just made that quickly. I made some maple-caramel sauce with sautéed apples and served it over the cake slices: The cake was blah, but the sauce was awesome!

I second the cheesecake suggestion and I have a great one - perfect for Thanksgiving. It's Pumpkin Cheesecake. Even folks who don't love pumpkin pie (like me) seem to love this cheesecake and it travels great (Indiana to Virginia one year).

I'm an admitted glutton. I want both. Give me an order of eggs and bacon and grits and biscuits...and throw in a short stack...or a big gloppy cinnamon roll. I just like the contrast of going back and forth between the salty bacon and sweet pancakes. But don't put them on the same plate !! Eggs mixed with pancake syrup grosses me out. I do, however, put syrup on my sausages and I love brown sugar bacon.

If I order grits, I always expect to have to add salt and pepper to my own taste. But GOOD grits (not quick or - horrors - instant), should come with some seasoning already added. Grits need LOTS of salt and pepper and I personally think that a few dashes of hot sauce is necessary. Cheese grits may not need as much salt, but still need a good dose of pepper and hot sauce. I'm making a cheese grits souffle tomorrow morning (ye gods, actually THIS morning) for my parents and the recipe calls for 3/4 t. salt to 1/2 c. uncooked grits, but I'm sure it will need more. If the grits you order taste like "spackling" instead of corn, then I suspect you are getting instant or quick grits. Try making them at home and see what you think.

Yep - and it makes my face flush, too (I have rosecea!)

Soba – going back to your roasted tomato meal – that just looks incredible – I’d love the entire thing! Bruce – how I envy those tomatoes. We are too shady to grow any and I never got any really good ones this year – even the garden fresh ones from the farmers market and my in laws’ garden were pallid. percyn – the hoagie is a thing of beauty and that bread!!!! I have a couple of recent meals – a little dull compared to what y’all are cooking lately! A few days ago I made really quick steak tacos with soft corn tortillas and salad: Last night was fresh kielbasa from John McGinnis in Pittsburgh with caramelized onions, baked potatoes and salad. Wonderful kielbasa:

Jaymes, I think that you are talking about my picks. I intended them as appetizer picks rather than martini picks. But...if you used little mini beads that weren't very heavy, that might be a great idea. I want to find someone who teaches that wire art thing - where the thick wire (that looks like soldering wire) and beads are wrapped around serving items. A couple of martini glasses and a silver cocktail shaker decorated with those and a couple of picks would make a wonderful gift! Hmmmmm.... You should be able to find a Gem & Mineral show in your area - There is one in Harrisonburg Oct 23-25 - or check in the listings of Lapidary Journal http://www.jewelryshowguide.com/event/results.php?letter=&category_id=34&screen=1 Most shows have at least one wire-wrap demo artist and you can get just about any supplies your need. Thank you, so much! This is a craft I really want to learn - I am good at color choice and arranging things, but not terribly artistic, so I think this is the thing for me!

Jaymes, I think that you are talking about my picks. I intended them as appetizer picks rather than martini picks. But...if you used little mini beads that weren't very heavy, that might be a great idea. I want to find someone who teaches that wire art thing - where the thick wire (that looks like soldering wire) and beads are wrapped around serving items. A couple of martini glasses and a silver cocktail shaker decorated with those and a couple of picks would make a wonderful gift! Hmmmmm....

The bacon that I used was pretty lean, so I didn't have a pan-ful of fat when I finished. I didn't want to clean a rack, but I'm sure that would help. I think that you could cook the bacon until it was almost done and then drain the fat and apply the brown sugar - it caramelizes pretty quick. Glad you liked it!

Being the smarty I am, I went straight to your website to look for the brown sugar bacon recipe, and it's not there!! I googled, and found a bunch, but I'd love to know which one you used! Or did you do-it-yourself? (just sprinkle brown sugar and broil?) I just made bacon yesterday, so I'm itching to try it. Definitely NOT a recipe. Like you, I googled, and ended up just sprinkling a good amount of brown sugar on the bacon, pressing it down lightly and baking at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes. A couple of caveats: I used really good thick bacon (since you made bacon, you don't need this advice, but others might) and I put it on Reynolds Non-stick foil. It looks like it's not going to work, because when you first take it off the pan, it's really gooey and a little limp, but when it cools a little it gets perfectly crispy. Mine were done about 20 minutes before we ended up eating, so I just put them back on the pan under the eggs when I cooked the eggs for about 7 minutes and they were perfect. Let me know how you liked it. I can't wait to have it for dinner tonight!

Lovely, lovely desserts everyone! dystopiandreamgirl – your leaf cake is, live EVERYTHING you make, absolutely gorgeous and amazing! And the mini pizzelles with the berries are adorable. The picture is great – I can imagine the taste and POP of those berries! Thank you for sharing your lovely creations with us. Well, I have one pretty ordinary, but delicious offering: These are Elinor Klivan’s Super-Sized Ginger Chewies with Sugar Babies. One of our favorite cookies. The little drippy looking bits on the right are melted out Sugar Babies – these bits get very brittle when they cool. I just break them off and they become a cook’s treat! These are going in the freezer as a gift for a friend we are seeing in PA next weekend. For dinner last night, I did a Ginger Mascarpone Icebox Cake w/ Caramel Apple Sauce: I’ve made this before (and Marlene has, too, I think). It’s from "The 150 Best American Recipes" by Fran McCullough & Molly Stevens. Someone at eG recommended the recipe. It’s just so good and easy – no cooking and you make it the day before you serve it. I had some maple caramel sauce in the fridge and sautéed some apples to make a sauce to serve with the cake.