Lisa Shock

Thanks so much! That pan on Amazon will be great, especially since I occasionally cook for a supper club and have to carry my stuff with me to cook in strange kitchens-I'm afraid of losing my antique cast iron at a party.

Maybe, but, you'd still be stuck with the problem of enzymatic browning resulting in a fairly dark, probably unsightly, end product. I'd try making a banana puree with a little vitamin C powder before infusing.

Are you serving bread baskets before dinner, making sandwiches, or what? There are a lot of types of bread, most have very inexpensive ingredients. The main cost is labor. We can guide you, but need to know how it will be used to be able to give suggestions.

I love your pans and they are 19th century, but they are actually called "turk's head" pans as "gem" pans are smooth with no scallops (and are actually more common in the early days). Pans like yours were harder to cast well so they are rarer - they are sand cast and required a good deal of hand finishing after casting and those scallops made it more time consuming. Gem pans are either half a globe rounds or shallow ovals with a slightly flattened bottom. Like these... The "golfball" name they use is very recent and seldom used by serious cast iron collectors. Here's another site that has gotten a fair amount of my money in recent years but not for cast iron pans, I inherited those but they have some wonderful figured molds. antique molds and pans I have a couple of the turk's head pans that hold a dozen muffins one is made by Griswold and the other by the Chattanooga Foundry and it is quite rare. The early muffin pans did not have to be used exclusively in an oven but could be placed on a tall trivet in front of or at one side of the kitchen fireplace and thus bake the muffins. I used to take mine on camping trips many, many years ago, and baked plenty of corn muffins with a reflector oven and a wood fire. Thanks! I had always figured the 'turk's heads' were pans where the grooves came down at an angle, like babba molds. But, hey, live and learn! I really like these pans and wish that a modern manufacturer made them. When I was a kid I had a toy set of pans that had a mini version in aluminum, and I baked all sorts of treats in it. So, as an adult I went looking for a similar pan and wound up having to buy them at antique stores. Someplace, I also have one that makes mini, two-bite sized treats.

You might want to look at various toolboxes at the hardware store. I have a high-impact plastic Black & Decker tool box on wheels for my pastry equipment, I got the long one because I have rolling pins. The make smaller versions and, other companies make other configurations. You can always add dividers, or place padded bags inside.

I have these two cast iron gem pans, the top one is marked with the letter 'R' and the bottom one is completely unmarked. The bottom one has gate marks on the middle two cups (on the underside) while the top one as sprue nubs on the outer four cups. As far as I know, this means that these are from the 19th century. While cast iron made this was was popular in the 1700's, the small size of these pans means they were probably for use in a home of modest means, and people didn't have ovens in their houses until stoves became popular in the mid-1800's. An older item would have been used by a professional bakery, and probably larger, with more cups. Anyway, I love these! I love making brownies in them, since everyone in my house is a 'corner lover' and this means that everyone gets lots of chewy crispy edge. Cornbread is also wonderful from these, and very attractive to serve to company.

Blackened redfish was huge in the 80's, but, I know that population is in decline, so I cannot recommend it. Santa Fe 'style' was hot and southwestern food became trendy -fresh salsa was introduced to supermarkets all over. Tahitian vanilla was everywhere in desserts in the 80's, and gourmet pizza with anything on it was being copied by a lot of people. For me, home cooking was epitomized by The Silver Palate Cookbook, my link is to the 25th anniversary edition. BTW, the plated dessert was first created in 1984, IIRC.

Looks like there's going to be a sort of new food network soon; Scripps is reworking Fine Living into the Cooking Channel. Content appears to be mostly re-works of old concepts and a stable of familiar faces.

Here is an article about hashbrowns which may be of interest. I don't know of any books on the topic, but, you could make almost any stir-fry item, just be careful about anything too saucy.

Liquid helps to fix the dust onto a surface. Alcohol or lemon extract is often used with it to decorate rolled fondant cakes, the dust is mixed with the alcohol then painted on. This gives a particular type of look, which can be very shiny and even. It also allows a decorator to use the dust as a paint, with great accuracy and the look of a painting. On gumpaste flowers, the dust is generally lightly brushed on, then the finished flower is held over steam for a moment to fix the dust. This also darkens the color just a little. The steam is useful for flowers that will be transported, since loose dust could float around and color unintended areas.

You don't have to use liquid with it. Just apply with a soft brush (soft like a makeup brush) and don't touch them afterwards. Normally, I just steam sugar flowers to get the dust to stick, but, I think if you do the application in the final container before transport and unpack carefully, you should be ok. Look for slightly darker colors.

How about a chinois and stand? It's useful for soups as well as sorbet, jellies, etc.

I have seen references in the past, I recall seeing an Italian woman as a guest on some cooking show 20+ years ago making Easter pie and the crust was essentially the same as fresh pasta, just not boiled. I remember finding that a bit perplexing. I usually make my own version with a more traditional French crust.

I salt the water in addition to adding vinegar. We have city of Phoenix water, but I cook with water from my reverse osmosis filter, so the water should be pretty neutral at the start. BTW, the carrots I mentioned are added to the salad raw.

Yeah, people marvel at my potato salad because I carefully cut the potatoes into large dice and add a couple tablespoons of vinegar to the cooking water so they remain very cube-shaped when done. I usually add jullienned carrots to the salad for contrast, and to show off the knife skills. A few days ago, I was called upon to make the vegetables for a corned beef dinner, and I used two separate pots -each with some of the liquor from the beef along with extra water as needed. In the pot for turnips (quartered), potatoes (whole) and carrots (tourne-d) I added a little vinegar and cooked each item separately so I could get them perfect. I added baking soda, just a tablespoon, to the pot for the cabbage, and it remained a lovely green. Anyway, other starchy vegetables benefit from acidifying the water. The two warnings are: it will turn green vegetables a really ugly brown-khaki color, and watch out for starches that take a long time to cook, like dry beans. You don't want to add acid at the start of making baked beans, or they will never soften. This is why old-time advice is to avoid tomatoes in them. (you can add acid at the end) Bonus recipe: I have made really good rice with lemon juice subbed for part of the water (about one whole lemon for 2 cups dry rice, with a little grated peel) -both white and brown rice cooked normally and were very tasty. (you can add a little white onion at the start, and maybe toss on some cut cauliflower to steam for the last 5 minutes) The lemon's acid didn't seem to affect the rice much.

Just one small tip, don't forget the lessons about how acid can affect various starches, for example how a touch of vinegar in the water will keep boiled potato cubes looking crisp and clean.

Try to incorporate local, seasonal items -and make sure that the judges know that you did. I know that it's hard to face a challenge where you can do almost anything. Contests where you have to work with a specific ingredient are less intimidating. That said, choose your ingredients carefully, and go for flavor over form. Trying to force food into a form (say, a napoleon) never really works. Whereas, talking about 'how can we explore olives?' will lead to creative answers. I would go with tried and true flavor combinations, with, of course, impeccable plating. One of my friends who has won national-level competitions won a pastry event with a plated dessert that was essentially red raspberry filled pastry and lemon sorbet, with a bit of almond cake. I asked her about judging, because I figured that something exotic would win, and she explained that a judge told her that they were relieved to eat her dessert because so many entries were too weird and not well thought out, and hers was simply delicious. I am guessing that you get to choose your theme. If this is the case, do your research carefully. You don't want to call something 'Santa Fe style' when it is in fact a Texan specialty. Make sure you can answer questions about your dishes with authority and intelligence. Good luck! (most people like Italian food, so I'd start looking there)

I wish that it would contain recipes using weight rather than volume measure for dry items, unlike most of the recipes currently posted.

The show about the Cheerful Soul was better than the entire third season. I really enjoyed seeing the process of opening their new place.

Enrollment in community college is booming and many are desperate for instructors.

Are you making the same volume as at home, and, are you using the same type of bowl?

Also, did you shock the pan once you pulled it off the heat?

This is the sort of situation where a thermometer is very useful.

My guess is that it's related to temperature. You got some caramelization or maillard reaction because of relatively high heat. A lot of factory-made candies get some texture from being pulled, and drying a bit, on long machine lines that are warm due to friction but not too hot. I stopped eating White Rabbit after the first Chinese tainted milk scandal, and honestly, I don't trust that it doesn't have some sort of optical whitener in it -or other, worse ingredients off-label.

I've been excited about the show since the ads started airing. I'm glad that you're proud of it, we've seen a lot of recent food shows where the producers guided content to personal conflict rather than exploring the potential in the food.