Lisa Shock

It's a pestle for a chinois.

It can take a lot longer than that to whip. It can also be useful to pack the outside of the mixer bowl with ice.

Yet another source for reasonably-priced dinnerware: IKEA. Melamine IMO is barely more pleasant than the disposables. HERE is a white stoneware 18 pc. set of six dinner plates, lunch plates and bowls at IKEA for $24.99.

My DeLonghi mixer had an attachment available, I never purchased it, that scrubbed the skins off root vegetables. As I understand it, the device was some sort of insert for the mixer bowl which had sandpaper-like sides and when filled with water and vegetables rotated to scrub them.

Melamine will take up the same amount of storage space as real china, it will have to be washed like real china, so, labor-wise they are equal. I'd much rather be eating off discontinued real china than melamine.

I have gotten high quality china sets on ebay very cheaply. They are usually discontinued patterns, so you need to get everything you think you'll ever want at that time because you may never see the stuff again.

Well, yeah, I was practically yelling at the screen when Ed went for the pre-smoked boxed oysters. That's a basic, basic part of cheffing; not serving anything unless it's good, solidly good. He should have asked the fishmonger what was fresh and great that day. Holding on to the menu he had planned was not going to serve him well. Bev wasn't my favorite in LCK, but, she has determination and thoughtfulness and cares about food. I think the others have been pretty unprofessional towards her. It's hard to say for sure because all of the footage is heavily edited, but, she seems to just have different social interaction skills than some of the others in the group.

Not a spoiler this time! It was odd that Ed felt he was knocked out of the competition by Beverly. He made it sound sort of personal when in fact the Last Chance Kitchen was just another producers' twist. If anything, he was knocked out by Lindsey. I was wondering why Lindsey kept saying that she thought the stock needed to be emulsified when, generally stock doesn't have fat. I kept cringing at the incorrect use of the term. It was nice seeing Bev return. I was afraid that LCK was just going to bring back the last eliminated chef. She has shown real brilliance, so I know that she'll be a tough competitor in the finale.

I was also impressed by the fact that Pee Wee didn't impose any restrictions on the dishes. I'm tired of whining judges.

Since Tapioca is what you have, I'd use that. Raw flour is the worst of all the starches for making fruit pie fillings. It will never lose the raw flour taste. It will also never have the glossy shine of the other thickeners.

You'll like THIS NYT article about an unusual day there.

The challenge was poorly constructed... make people beg to use kitchens while the clock is running??? It didn't bring out a lot of real creativity, this one felt like a culinary school competition.

Cliffhanger! I will say that that Bev and Grayson got the challenge that terrifies me the most, and they both did well at it. I fear that I would be a deer in headlights with so much leeway. Now, tell me that I have to use grapefruit and jasmine rice and cauliflower, and I am so there. But, the 'do anything' challenge just stops me cold with too many possibilities. So, kudos to them both for getting something decent on the plate!

Gotta love Pee Wee! This episode (13) is the one that makes me jealous. I'm a huge Pee Wee fan, I discovered his show as an adult and just loved it. (I was making croissants for the first time and had the tv on while making turns, and his show happened to come on.)

I don't like frozen potato dishes, the texture is always weird. I'd make potato chips. (crisps)

I checked it against easy mac, and again the numbers are off. The amount of fat per calorie is almost double in the Arby's product. Chances are, this was a special blend made just for them, or, their data sheet is incorrect.

Make a showpiece? Ganache it and add a really strong flavor like peppermint oil and use it make truffles? (careful with the ratio, use less cream than you would with dark chocolate)

It may also simply have to do with them being pancakes. Unlike a cake where the whole batch gets poured into a pan and baked immediately, pancakes get doled out and cooked ladled-full by ladle-full. Sometimes the batter is held for a fairly long period of time, and baking powder just works better in these situations.

I can't name one thing, but, what I will say is that I believe that most of it is due to the corporations that helped feed the troops in WW2 and who wanted to keep sales growing following the war. So, rather that scaling back operations, they looked for ways to market processed foods to the home front and began relentless advertizing campaigns to convince housewives that real cooking was too difficult for them to manage on their own.

I feel that the block party challenge was a big waste of time. The episode is simply forgettable at best. The format of the challenge didn't inspire creativity, it was just a race to crank out whatever people could as quickly as possible. I think the chefs were hindered by having to shop at a supermarket for supplies and only having 2 hours to cook. Some of them didn't step up creatively, as pointed out by Tom when he asked probing questions about chicken salad, but, overall, I think the producers dropped the ball here. Chris maybe could have done better, I had really wanted team Moto to go far, he just seems to choke in execution.

Cox On Demand has it as well. Those of you who need a regional workaround online can use an IP masking service like silentsurf.co.uk and just type the TC:LCK url into the toolbar, http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-9/last-chance-kitchen unclick the disable javascript box, and you're good to go.

Interesting showdown this week. One more episode before the big reveal. I had hoped for so much more from Chris, and somehow he never quite delivered. I had really wanted Nyesha to keep her streak going, but, it would also be very amusing to see Beverly walk back into the kitchen. I think that she was unfairly ragged on for most of the regular show, she definitely can cook.

Making a brittle is just another type of sugar work, all of the usual rules and warnings apply. I'd just use a regular brittle recipe, making simple syrup first seems like a waste of time. All that extra water also just adds time to the cookdown period, there's no point in using it if you're going to boil it out. The oil on the bottom isn't for parchment, it's from the bare sheet pan. You don't want to use parchment because it will stick or get embedded. What usually makes the binding material opaque in a brittle is air pockets caused by the addition of baking powder at the end. Most brittles need this or they'd be almost impossible to eat. For comparison, here is my brittle formula: 14 oz Sugar 6 oz Water 10 oz Corn Syrup 2lb Peanuts, blanched ¼ oz Salt 1 oz Butter 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract 1 tsp Baking Powder Oil a half sheet pan very well, keep warm in a low oven. In a 6 qt pan cook the sugar, water and CS, washing down the sides occasionally. When the mix gets to 265° add the peanuts. Cook, mixing once or twice, until the mixture is dark and the peanuts roasted, just at 318°. Remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla. Add the baking powder and stir thoroughly and quickly. Pour into the warm pan and spread with a large palette knife. Pull with gloved hands, if necessary, to make an even layer. You can sub honey for the CS. And you can sub other raw nuts for the peanuts.

I like sage. Another way to go would be ground fennel seed.

Me too! Mine are all in a plastic bag in the freezer - along with the cloth couche, some kneading gloves the linen banneton liners, etc., to prevent "invasion" by flour-loving critters. A lot of bakeries do this, the couches never get washed unless something horrible happens.