Lisa Shock

I've used the Nielsen Massey in mousses and I like it. I haven't tried it in cakes or other baked goods.

Party Down is about a catering company and episodes are titled for the affair being catered.

The upside, as I see it, would be absolute consistency (as long as foods were stored and handled properly) so, you'd never suffer underripe fruits or mediocre tomatoes. The downside would be absolute consistency, so that there would never be those moments of tweaking a formula or method and getting something new and exciting.

I have gotten good cookware at T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, Ross, and other clearance discounters. The selection varies; items come and go, never to be seen again. But, the prices make the hunt worthwhile.

I suggest getting ahold of the original Trader Vic's cookbook. Green Goddess salad is a must.

I think it's the proofing. The top didn't have as much rise alter on in the oven, so the top was more evenly baked all over.

A lot of episodes of Dragnet and Adam-12 take place in restaurants and bars. Most of them are merely shadowy prop sets, but a few are interesting like the early 1950's Dragnet episode that has much of the action take place in a health food luncheonette.

Sorry, I tend to use the term as slang for the tiny canapes I produce at my PT catering gig for high-end fashion industry clientele who don't actually eat much.

Depends on the crowd. At fancy events, people eat 1-2 bites per person. At events that effectively replace dinner, with people who aren't fashion models, it can be more like 8 per person -or more.

You can get small 4-5 oz disposable cocktail cups at a party supply store and make panna cotta. An easy, delicious flavor can be created by infusing the milk/cream mixture with orange peels and vanilla bean. You can top with berries after they set. -Easier than brulee, no baking and no flaming. If you have flexipans in serving sized shapes you could make small flavored cheesecakes and place them on pate sucree bases just large enough to hold them and not show. I'm thinking something like lime pyramids on square bases or domes on round bases. Verrines are always good, pastry cream and mousses are your friends here. Add some fruit compote, crushed nuts or cookies and you're good to go. Again, use the disposables from the party supply store.

You can infuse vodka with it for a tasty drink.

I can't recommend a brand, but, I have seen countertop convection ovens that hold half sheetpans.

You could handle them like green chiles; flame the skins (on the stove or grill), place in a plastic bag to cool, remove skins and seeds and freeze (a vacuum sealer would be useful.) You'll add a bit of a charred flavor but be able to store them for quite a while, a couple of years with a good vacuum sealer.

I like the lemonade and the slaw, both very solid offerings -and, yes, the waffle fries are very competent.

Umm, they're like night and day. HCFS has a hard, bitter aftertaste and the sugary taste takes a brief instant to develop in the mouth. On the other hand, cane sugar is 99.9% sucrose; it is immediately sweet with no aftertaste. Less refined cane syrups are another creature entirely, with all sorts of secondary flavors depending on the syrup. Have you done it as a blind test? I'm not doubting that they could be so different, but it's curious, since sucrose and the type of HFCS used in soft drinks are chemically almost identical. I have done blind taste tests with regular Pepsi & Mountain Dew (HFCS) and Pepsi Throwback & Mountain Dew Throwback (sugar) and people can definitely tell the difference. I prefer Throwback so much that I won't touch the regular stuff at all anymore. The taste is like a real treat, almost a dessert, and, yes, it's cleaner on the palate without lingering sweetness. Throwback is in supermarkets across America right now if anyone wants to run a test.

It is simply a matter of getting the correct temperature for the desired result. If you have a very accurate oven, you can make perfect eggs in it. But, those of us with less accurate equipment use the water bath to ensure an even accurate temperature. For solidly set hard boiled eggs, you look for the egg to get just to 184° -all the way through. The key is the application of heat for a long enough time to bring the entire inside of the egg up to temperature. You can ensure the result you like by getting a probe thermometer to use in your water bath -and use both the temperature and timer functions. I'd maintain 184° for about 15 minutes, to be safe, but, you can keep them at that temp indefinitely at the desired temp, freeing you up to do other things. Another factor affecting your method is the temperature of the room you're working in. If her place is colder, the pot of water cools more quickly. You might enjoy THIS article which has a fairly extensive description of various temperature egg styles.

Agree totally. The cole slaw is my one fast food addiction.

Even before pressure canning was available to the home cook in the US(the first home pressure canners were introduced in the US in 1917 and it was much later before it was widely used in homes), botulism was a fairly rare food borne illness. CDC numbers show very little change in the number of cases per year from 1899-preset day. The population was less than a third of today's poulation in 1900 but the incidence of home canning was MUCH more prevelant that it is today. I can't find exact numbers on canning prevalence but I would be willing to bet it easily offsets the difference. In 1900 the actual incidence rate was 1.18421053 × 10-7 or roughly 1 in every 8.5 million people would get botulism per year in a time where home canning was being done at many times the rate it is now (1). That doesn't seem to be a big concern to me. Couple that with the fact that more than half of the cases are from the west coast and it doesn't seem a very likely danger to me in Alabama. I am not suggesting that commercial food producers should ignore these guidelines. It would be disastrous if they did and there was a problem because it would possibly infect huge numbers of people. I just think it can be mostly ignored by your typical person at home making an occasional flavored oil or pesto. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/files/botulism.PDF Edit: Added footnote (1) To give an idea of a similarly dangerous activity, an automobile occupant's odds of fatality during a 30-minute drive are 1 in 8.5 million (and most of us engage in this activity 2-3 times a day). But, in 1900 the average lifespan was under 50 years. Diagnostic tools were not well developed at that time, meaning that deaths were often mis-diagnosed and undocumented. Garlic oil and pesto were not commonly produced in American households in 1900.

The response by the company was very interesting. Essentially what is incorrect is the procedural. I have some ideas involving flaming off a few ingredients (grilling limes anyone???) and caramelizing the sugar (oh wait wait it's been HFCS for 30 years!) before mixing. Really, honestly, none of this has been news for over a century. The ingredient list has been public knowledge for quite some time. I think you flame off the alcohol and some of the oils. Run a few tests, and get an answer in a few days. But, hey, this was news to my grandfather when he was young!!! Look, really, if mixing the ingredients listed makes a too sweet product, where do you go? caramelization of the sugar... re-examine the 'too sweet' comments from the company... Anyway, IMO, the modern HFCS Coca-Cola product is sub-par. The product jumped the shark decades ago in the 1970's. The psychological part is the real key. People are brand-loyal, no matter what they get served. I'm a Pepsi Throwback fan, plain and simple. I like the actual taste of Pepsi Throwback. blindfolded. really. If you're a coke lover, then you'll keep buying the HFCS swill and move on. Knowing what's in that phallic bottle probably won't change your buying habits.

It's supposed to minimize the chance that a person's hand would touch the spot where their mouth touched. With a water bottle, you have to unscrew a cap that may have germs on it because your mouth touched the rim of the bottle then the cap was replaced -over and over again. With a coffee cup, you have a cup with a lid with a hole in it, but, when it's close t being full you grab it near the top because that area is cooler than the main body of the cup. People might grab the cup under the rim, holding an arc under the lid. Or they might grab two opposite side of the rim with their fingertips, holding their palm above the lid. Either way, it's possible to touch an area where the lips rested, thus transferring bacteria from the mouth/chin to the hand or glove. A straw limits the contact with the mouth to a small, easily identified area of contamination.

Here it's a health department thing, all drinks for employees/students in a commercial kitchen must drink from a closed container with a straw. Having the mouth touch the outside of a container like a coffee cup top or water bottle rim is not permitted.

The anti-fatigue mats are pretty easy to find, Amazon lots of options.

Oh yeah when I remodel, I am taking a radical approach by having a furnished kitchen. I am going to tile the floors and the walls all the way to the ceiling with white ceramic tile or, if I can still get it, steel tile. The sink will be the only fixed installation -a small commercial 3 compartment with a dishwasher snuggled under the drainboard on one side. Normal appliances, sadly enough there's no gas here, the best I can afford. And, my dream setup of no cupboards. That's right, no fixed kitchen cupboards. I'm going to buy steel prep tables, metro shelving, cages, and free-standing steel cabinets for storage -all just like work. The advantage is that I can change shelf heights, counter heights and furniture placement whenever I want, and, some of these items are really cheap. (I can get an all steel table with a shelf underneath for under $200.) I plan to do this within the next 2 years.

Most of my countertops have a rounded edge to the lip that also curves slightly upwards. These are old laminate counters, that are fairly thin on the edge of the underside and then have a gap between the lip and the cupboards. Basically, it's impossible for me attach anything that needs to be clamped to a countertop like a pasta machine or a manual grain grinder. I got myself a little shelf to set on top of the counter to attach these devices so they stand upright, but, I am then forced to use them 8 inches higher than the counter making them uncomfortable at best. I'd love to have solid countertops with a straight edge, or a commercial steel worktable -and when I remodel that's on the top of my list!

Just remember that the cheese will mask a lot of the flavor of the wine, particularly the tannins in reds. (aka a big part of the reason people drink reds) This is why low-end wineries have handed out free cheese in their tasting rooms for centuries -you get that wine home and try it without cheese and wonder what you thinking when you purchased it. Whenever a merchant pushes cheese on you during a tasting, that's your cue to run away as fast as you can. Seriously good red wine just isn't paired with cheese. So, you're going to have to run some tests and taste the pairing to adjust amounts of cheese and possibly the type of wine(s) used.