Lisa Shock

They also probably pack it with a gas instead of plain air, too. This way, there's no oxygen to cause oxidation.

I have some of the cheap plastic Japanese 2-part sphere molds and have only had limited success with them. The ones I have are the type that you fill one side an then quickly place the top on it, hopefully forcing water from a ledge inside up into the top of the sphere. They are messy to use, and I often only get one somewhat complete sphere out of a mold that's supposed to make 4. If my budget would allow, I'd love to have one of the heat-press type, like THIS.

I stopped roasting in olive oil after reading THIS article by Harold McGee. I get better results with canola oil. Ran a bunch of tests for a restaurant that I did some consulting for, olive oil wasn't the best fat for roasting potatoes. (we had to stick with vegetable oils for this application) In the blind taste tests I ran, olive oil was consistently rated worst in flavor and texture of the potato. I will say that choice of fats makes a huge difference in baking. Butter tends to make cakes dry, whereas oil in cakes gives a moist result. This is the secret to great pancakes; use a light oil (canola, vegetable, soybean) and extra egg to make moist pancakes. But, this whole topic is about the basics of cooking anything: know your ingredient. Know as much as you can about all aspects of it. And, know as much as you can about every ingredient you add to it -as well as how that additional ingredient will interact with your original ingredient. With the addition of each item, you have to ask yourself if you fully know what you are doing, and, if what you are doing is the best possible course of action to maximize the potential of the original item. You also need to be able to accurately quantify your actions through the use of scales, thermometers, timers, refractometers, etc. IMO, this is the essence of modern technique.

Panna cotta can work well and is faster than pots de creme/creme brulee, and, if made with milk, cheaper. If you have access to some small, sturdy glasses you can pour into those, chill, and be ready to serve -with maybe a couple of berries as a garnish. One of my favorite flavors is orange/vanilla made by simply infusing vanilla bean and orange peels as I heat the milk/cream mixture.

Egg whites bind many baked goods. That said, pureed flax seeds act as binder and egg replacer in some applications.

I have taken master level classes in baking gluten free. People with celiac disease are in danger when exposed to the components of gluten (the two amino acids are sometimes found separate from each other in surprisingly non-grain related foods) in even microscopic amounts. When making foods for celiac sufferers it is vital to have an entirely separate environs to store the ingredients, prepare the foods, and wash the dishes. Most ordinary bakeries, for example cannot really prepare safe foods 'once in a while' or 'one day a week' because the air, air ducts, pans, ovens, sinks, commodity containers, etc. are all contaminated with gluten residue from other baking. There are a lot of websites with incorrect statements posted in a factual tone. Like all medical information online, one needs to look critically at the source. There are two reasons why it's 'big' right now. One is that it's a fad with all sorts of followers from movie stars to the pseudo-medical fringe healing crowd. It's the diet of the moment. The other reason it's big is because it has been discovered to be more prevalent than previously known. 2002 Study HERE. It used to be thought that about 1 in about 6,000 people had the disease. Now, we know the number to be closer to 1 in 133 people. There are blood tests that accurately diagnose the condition, and the good news is that kids are being diagnosed earlier, so they stand a chance at a better life than people living in the past who endured the slow destruction of their intestines without treatment.

HERE is my Green Goddess recipe (vegetarian).

Green Goddess was the most popular salad dressing for a while, it was supplanted by creamy Italian in the 70's. Ranch had been around as the dry mix since the 1950's, but didn't really start to conquer the world until Hidden Valley, a Chlorox subsidiary, developed a shelf-stable ready-made bottled version in the early 80's. What also contributed to its rise was, ironically, the proliferation of low-fat foods. Mayonnaise became a bad word in the 80's and 90's so a lot of places selling processed foods subbed Ranch for mayo to seem healthier. (which is ironic because Ranch is made with mayo)

I agree with the stale bread as a beginning. I usually use a challah loaf that is stale enough to have visibly shrunk. With stale bread, the custard gets absorbed well and you won't have an eggy mass on the outside of the bread. I fry in beurre noisette.

A lot of places do this to balance out the steaks, which don't have much margin at all.

What drives me nuts about people eating pizza with ranch dressing is that every time I have witnessed it, the people doing it have picked up a slice and immediately dunked the pointed end of the slice (the center of the pizza) into the ranch dressing without actually tasting the pizza first.

What about homemade ice cream for dessert?

I was never fond of ranch dressing, I find it bland and boring. I always preferred creamy Italian or blue cheese if selecting a creamy dressing. Overall, though, I tend to be a classic vinaigrette person for salads. The butter idea sounds good, though.

Yes, just put it in a container and freeze. I own a FoodSaver vacuum sealer, but do not use it for rice because it tends to crush it. And, if you don't seal at full vacuum, you have the same freezer burn issues as not sealing it and are, IMO, wasting a bag when a reusable storage container would work as well. Also, if you look for square/rectangular shaped containers, you can pack the freezer pretty efficiently.

Well, if you make it yourself you can control the salt levels. Also, at my house we eat a lot of different rices, so, my frozen rice selection includes red cargo rice (my favorite brown rice), brown super-short grain sushi type rice, white imperial-grade sushi rice, white jasmine, brown jasmine, and black short grain rice. TJ's doesn't have all of these types. Also, I toss in a hunk of kombu, or occasionally a lump of ginger root, when I make the sushi rice types for added flavor.

I am currently paying $9 for 20 pound bags of Jasmine rice at the Asian market. I can get a 4pack of BPA-free plastic storage containers in a 12 oz size at the supermarket for about $2.60. Cost of water and salt are negligible. So, my cost is less than a dollar for one of those 12oz (by volume) containers, and I can reuse the container for a few years. Making extra rice when I am already going to make rice anyway takes a few seconds of extra effort in terms of scooping and waiting for a measuring cup to fill with water, and, maybe, washing a larger sized pot.

True, but, you could make the frozen rice yourself much more cheaply, even including the price of storage containers. If you just make 6x too much rice once every month or so, pack it and freeze it, you're set. You could also make double the amount of rice one night for, say, Indian food and refrigerate the excess and use it the next day or day after for fried rice.

Me too. Agreed. And, ranch dressing should never, ever be near a pizza. (I don't eat the stuff at all, but dipping pizza into it is a horrific abomination.) Years ago, I worked in a restaurant that served pizza and other things. We also had french fries. Some people would order pizza and fries. I never understood this. I mean, the fries were good, we cut potatoes fresh every morning and fried them twice in peanut oil. But, for me, pizza and a small salad is enough.

What about using the eggs for desserts? You could make a yolk-rich cake with italian buttercream frosting and a pastry cream filling. (you can also freeze plain, unfrosted cake very easily) And there's always pavlovas or sabayon or pots de creme. Then tempura the mushrooms along with some other veggies. (the batter uses an egg white) And make soft boiled egg tempura.

Agreed, rice freezes remarkably well. I always make extras when I make brown rice and freeze it in several sizes of containers for various applications.

The fat adds mouthfeel, recent research shows that we have a taste for fat. Also, some astringent and some bitter compounds are masked by dairy. Isn't it usually milk with tea and cream in coffee?

You may be burning the chocolate. What happens when you increase the volume of a recipe like this is that the hot milk, butter, and cream represents a proportionately larger hot mass that won't cool off as quickly because of the physics of the surface area to mass ratio. Also, it's the hottest part of the summer and your ambient room temperature is hotter as well. Even a few degrees difference in the room temperature affects things. I would: Carefully monitor and regulate the temperature of the milk. Add the butter after the milk has heated the chocolate, just before stirring -maybe cut into small chunks. Carefully regulate the temperature of the cream as it heats. Temp the mixture as you work and try to keep it as low as possible. Take notes about the room's temperature each time. Hope this helps!

What if you made apple patè de fruit (or gumdrop) and some fairly firm caramel then stacked the two sheets on top of each other, cut with a cutter and enrobed the resulting candy? -Or, if using chocolate molds, pipe in caramel, cut the patè de fruit into shapes that approximate the base shape, place on caramel and finish with chocolate. They won't last a really long time, but, at least you'll get a textural difference.

Haven't tried it, but, I am wondering if an oral anesthetic like Anbesol might work for the hand problem...

I don't like the idea of serving anything with toothpicks in it at all. I don't personally serve anything with them at all, ever -at home, or work. I only have them in my kitchen for doing fine detail work on sugar flowers and marzipan showpieces, not food someone will eat.