Lisa Shock

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.

Last time I checked, there weren't any local sardines to be had in Las Vegas.... Are you asking why these places have non-local foods on the menu? -That sardines should only be served within a certain radius of where they were caught? IMO, they do it because sardines are a classic topping that some customers expect on a pizza. And, because they are available in shelf-stable tins which provide a consistent experience, the pizzaiolo provides them. This is in keeping with the Vegas tradition of providing certain customers whatever they want. Face it, seafood in general is big business in Vegas -a city in a landlocked state. While I don't personally eat them, I don't see much of a difference between serving the sardines or the canned tomatoes. Each is the correct and best version of a food that has a place on traditional pizza. As has been pointed out before, if a food travels well, like parmigiano reggiano, Italians use it. I also think there's a limit to the local foods movement. Most Americans wouldn't want to give up their coffees, spices, or chocolates anytime soon -and many simply do not live near much agriculture.

Can you make it unfilled and keep it on the table as a display and serve cream puffs that you made separately? If so, you can fill the puffs at the last moment and have a better texture. I agree that the caramel is a necessity.

I like to use lightly crushed or cut up tomatoes pretty much straight from the can, the seeds don't bother me so much. I started doing this after reading Jeff Varasano's website he does have a pretty good procedure for seed removal. Anyway, I like the cleaner, more intense tomato flavor I get from this. But, it's a matter of personal preference. I used sauce for years, and everyone was happy with that too.

Usually the chocolate gets recycled into more showpieces. I wouldn't want to eat one since they aren't always made under strictly sanitary conditions. Well, in most competitions they are, but in hotel and school situations, the commodities can be re-used for years, and since they aren't classified as edible, the makers are a bit more relaxed about wearing hats, gloves, etc. The isomalt gets recycled as well, it's more expensive than the chocolate. And, it's not really great to eat anyway. I am liking the show a lot more than last season. They seem to be focusing more on real skills and showing a lot more action.

Well, only you know what your supplier is charging for ingredients this week. There are charts out there of approximate yields, but, your specific recipe might have you creating more or less trim than average. And, the charts are really basic, they may not take into account variations in vegetables by variety. But, yes, this is something done for each menu item to calculate price. It's taught in culinary school.

I thought I had put in a link to a Cost Card I hope it works this time!