Lisa Shock

Masking tape and sharpie works ok, and I have used it in the past. But, now, I use restaurant food storage labels. I got a huge box of rolls of labels on eBay for teaching, we always ran out, and they are great. They remind me to not only write what's in the package, but to date it, add a pull date, and initial it so I know who made the item.

I never liked real hotdogs, even back when I did eat meat. I found them to be too greasy and salty. I love Smart Dogs, though. -They are not greasy.

Thanks for educating us! How hot is the glass? Are they hard to hold? Do Iraqi people ever use those metal holders with handles for the glasses, like I have seen used in Russia?

I think she's being honest. The temperature, shape and materials of a pro oven just can't be replicated in a home stove. There are threads on this site about attempting to approximate a pizza oven, and, you can come close, but it's a time-consuming project. (I am thinking about the people who disable the latch on their ovens to be able to cook during the cleaning cycle.) The author also has to deal with people who won't calculate the friction factor on their mixers, don't own thermometers to check their water temperatures, don't have a temperature-controlled area for fermentation area and who might substitute virtually every ingredient for whatever they think will work 'ok'. From a professional standpoint, there are very few secret recipes out there. Anyone good enough can generally evaluate a crust and tell you what's in it and how it was made. Honestly, the best pizza crusts use very few ingredients and simply rely on good technique and the quality of the ingredients.

Just in case here's a link to the Ateco 12-pc cutter set ½inch size; it's the smallest one I know of off the top of my head. But, as you said, it's not necessary.

They look great! There are lots of tiny cutter sets around, if you're willing to invest a few dollars to make fancy shapes. The craft stores sell a lot of small containers now, you could maybe find an interesting one to use so that it's clear to others that you're pulling out a far more premium mint than before.

In each instance, you are using diffusion to get the ingredients evenly distributed. More marinade/braising liquid means it will have a greater affect on the food item. For example, if you are marinating a steak, the steak starts off having a certain moisture & salt content. With less marinade, the steak's water has a greater effect on the eventual salinity level you'll achieve when you get to equilibrium or the optimal marinating time. With more marinade, the water content of the steak has less of an effect on the overall water content of the batch. -All up to a point, I suspect that there's an upper limit on how much of various marinade ingredients can be absorbed by various foodstuffs. (I Can't afford to get MC yet, but, this seems like something that would be covered there.)

What's the manufacturer name, model number, etc.? Is it hooked up to a water supply? What is your text? Many professional resources will give desired proof temperatures and humidity %, or timing on steam for each formula. It's a lot like using the oven; you can make generalized statements about various types of doughs and how to proof them, but, each individual formula will give specific details. Most proof boxes run like ovens, you just set the temp and humidity knobs and wait til the readout is where you need it to be. But, every manufacturer has different controls, so, it's hard to say. Also, since it hasn't really been run properly, you might want to have it checked out to make sure the water line isn't calcified shut. Any equipment with a water line into it needs to be serviced regularly.

I love them too. Except if they drop from a height of more than six inches, then they break. They're just too brittle for me. So I stick with INOX (stainless) Japanese knives. (And the only reason for INOX is that it's required for commercial kitchens. I prefer carbon steel. But that doesn't fly in my world.) Well, yeah every place I have worked just has stainless workhorse knives from the restaurant supply. If you want to use your own you could in some places. When I teach I use my own, but, then I am in control of them every second. That said, I don't teach with ceramic. I have an old Solingen set in my knife roll, and it has served me well.

I will chime in to mention my love of ceramic knives. I know that most of the others here are not as enamored of them as I am. Many commercial kitchens don't allow them, and, I certainly wouldn't let just anyone use mine because if they break you have to deal with ceramic shards. That said, I have never broken one in the 6 years since I started using them. I just have a couple of Kyocera knives and two peelers. Other brands may be just as good, these were what my friends at a local Japanese store had in stock. My chef knife cost $60. I like them because they lightweight, meaning my arm doesn't get as tired after hours of chopping. They are razor-sharp, and thin bladed, so they can cut fine detail with ease. You have to get used to the lack of weight, at first it's like holding a razor blade -it feels like nothing. But, I have much greater precision than before. The only things they do not cut well are dense, hard items like large turnips or butternut squash. But, I have my trusty old cleaver, too. Once, just once, I did something really stupid and cut myself very deeply with a ceramic knife. (yes, I looked at it carefully when I washed it out, it was bad, really bad) I taped it up with neosporin, and the next day the wound was healed without a scar -the cut had been so precise and fine.

In a box? With holes? Wrapped separately? Not wrapped? The house is old, the basement is deep with stone walls and multiple rooms. It's unheated, but it doesn't freeze, I guess that's because the furnace and water heater are in one of the rooms down there. Produce gets stored in the room furthest from the furnace near the wall. They keep potatoes, root vegetables, apples and pears. They have some old wooden fruit crates used as a base to keep the food off the floor. Apples (from the Northern Spy tree) are usually stored in more crates, with a layer of newspaper between them. If they run out of crates, they also have a supply of wooden bushel-baskets. Sometimes, they buy apples or pears from local farms and just use the cardboard boxes the fruit came in. Potatoes just sit in their 50lb sacks on top of crates.

The pouring action itself causes some loss, regardless of temperature. That said, one of the first things I learned when I got a shave-ice machine was to use a really big cup if I was going to add a carbonated beverage to the shaved ice. Once the drink hits the ice, no matter how gently you slide the liquid in, it foams up quickly -taking up a large volume of space. Shave-ice has a lot more nucleation points than an equal weight of ice cubes because the surface area is vastly greater.

My parents keep apples in the basement all winter long, they live in Maryland.

I had thought of that, dunno if PJ would agree or not. He's got to be the final judge here. I've had some wonderful versions with grilled eggplant, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, etc. The bonus is that it's easy to make in a sheet pan, and faster to assemble than pizza because you aren't dealing with as much toppings-wise. -I also find it faster to press dough into a pan than to stretch a pizza into a circle.

I like them because they are small. I tend to use them in minestrone.

You're in NYC, right? If you're worried about food safety issues, why not have the pizza delivered in the morning so there's a shorter time in the food danger zone? (I'm assuming that when New Yorkers claim that you can get anything 24 hours a day there, they mean it...) Or how about making him some cheese bread in the morning, sliced bread with mozzarella run under the broiler to brown, and packing a container of sauce (maybe doctored up with his favorite topping ingredients, to dunk with?

Pastillage is what Necco Wafers are, as well. And, yes, prepare every bit of your setup in advance, the surface sets up in under two minutes. Thicker parts can take days to dry fully, but the surface is only workable for a brief period. Of course, you can always sand your candies to smooth them, before serving.

Bevmo sells styrofoam packing sleeves for wine bottles, they come as singles, doubles, and triples. I have used those on international flights without issue. I do place the entire thing inside of a plastic bag, just in case of cork failure.

I'd like to suggest Wondrich's Imbibe!, but, I don't know how immediately useful it will be. I personally enjoyed mixing my way through the book.

Agreed. I use the Duralex to drink from, not cook. I have been phasing out all glass cookware from my kitchen and replacing it with various metal pans. I've come to the conclusion that if cooking in metal pans is good enough at school/work it should be good enough for my house. I have a few legacy corningware items and some ceramic ramekins that I am using with caution, but, that's it.

In cooking competitions that I have participated in, one category might involve presenting a plate consisting of: 4-6oz protein, 3-4oz starch, and 3-4 oz vegetables. The exact amounts vary by rules of individual competition. Some competitions require calorie counts as well. HERE is one example of a competition manual.

I would like to mention that Duralex glassware is still tempered glass of high quality. I have manged to get some so-called 'used' Picardie items on amazon that were customer returns with damaged packaging but brand-new, unused merchandise at big discounts.

I was able to get pasteurized UN-homogenized milk when I lived in Santa Fe, NM in the early 1980's through the mid-90's -in glass bottles. It was great buying milk and scooping out a goodly proportion of cream to use for sauces or baking. I am not sure if the dairy still exists.

I would leave it open, but, be aware of the air temperature. In school, we bake in convection ovens, the old-fashioned way, so the temperature is fairly even all-around and the circulating air removes some moisture. If you try this in a regulated water bath uncovered, but the room has the AC blasting, the top may not cook well. I say leave it open because most formulas have some moisture that needs to be released during cooking. Caveat: there may be modernist formulas that work better sealed that I am not aware of. (I want the book, but cannot at this time afford it...)

I live in Arizona, and I miss fresh apples, unwaxed ones, right off the tree -you can pick a region, there are too many to choose from. And so many kinds... Winesaps were always my favorites. Then there's always cider and cider jelly. Most of the places that made these things when I was a teenager in PA are gone, so I don't know what to say about a location. My HS brought into the cafeteria full sized barrels of cider in the fall, yes, huge real barrels, and sometimes it would be a bit hard....everyone was a bit happier that time of year.... I also miss really ripe peaches. My parents, when we moved to Maryland, used to buy overripe peaches for $1/bushel at an orchard and have us immediately freeze them in simple syrup. We had a taste of late summer all winter that way. Once again, I don't have an exact spot, but, a peach orchard someplace where they raise them the old-fashioned way and let them get really ripe on the tree. I'd visit Santa Fe for apricots. People grow them in their yards and it's the only place I have ever been where they didn't have to be peeled to make pie. I know that other places have apricots, but, some of the older trees in Santa Fe were better than anything I have ever tasted. I'd love to pull a vidalia out of the ground and eat it immediately, in the proper terrior. I could do a whole world-wide tour of fresh local honeys, they are so individual!