Lisa Shock

Pre-measure acetate to fit inside a cylinder item to use as a form. Spread tempered chocolate on the acetate, place inside the cylinder, cool, then unmold.

I'd like to point out that oils that rancid oil doesn't start to smell bad until it's really very unsafe to use. Oil can be rancid and smell fine, odor is not the best indicator of rancidity. The free radicals formed as the oil deteriorates can promote the growth of cancers. I add a dose of BHT to all of my oils when I open them, and I store them in the fridge in the smallest bottles possible, to minimize exposure to air. I also discard unused oil after a few months.

The Braun Multimix is a good thing, if you can find one in your price range (at a yard sale, etc.) it's a handle with removable parts: an immersion blender, egg beater and 1 cup food processor. (edited for spelling)

My Braun Mulitimix came with a mini chopper/processor attachment that I use a lot. I also have a similar attachment for my Delonghi DSM700 mixer.

AP flours vary in gluten content regionally in the US. It's more like cake flour (low gluten) in the south, because it's used for biscuits, it's more like bread flour (higher gluten) in the north and west. I see that you're in Maryland, so your AP flour could go either way.... I don't think that there is an adjustment you can make, other than maybe kneading them a bit to develop what gluten you do have, just be aware that the cookies won't be as chewy.

Does it have to be puff pastry? Why not make large seasoned croutons, which can be stored for days at room temperature, then just top with cheese and stick a salamander or flame off with a torch?

Yes, BBC America shows one episode per week -regardless of the season. The first two seasons, while not perfect by any standard, at least let viewers see more about each contestant and their restaurant. There was less time devoted to fake challenges and more time spent on having the restaurants running. I felt like I got to see a lot more of the day-to-day challenges of running a place in the first two seasons. I have to agree about the looks issue. The contestants appear to be either pretty (the picnic guys) or drama queens (the Front Room woman who hates everything and vomits on cue) or buffoons. I can practically hear producers encouraging people to act up and act out to create 'drama' for the show instead of looking for stories in their journey as restaurateurs. I don't blame Raymond so much as the snakes he has bedded down with. I would gladly visit any of his establishments, but, sadly, I have never been to the UK and cannot afford to any time soon. (A visit to Le Manoir would be doubly sweet for me, as I am a huge fan of Chef!) I do think that he should take a long hard look at what has happened and consider saying 'no' to a fourth season. This part of the Blanc empire does not meet the standards he sets for his other ventures.

Well, now season 3 is almost over. The format of the show has been changed, so a couple is now eliminated every week. I am not happy with this change, since we don't get to see as much about the couples and the restaurants as in past seasons. Also, once again, the competitors are very unqualified. I guess the producers think this will make the show accessible to the mainstream public. I, however, am not enjoying watching the incredibly basic mistakes being made.

I agree with the metal bowl solution. They have the added advantage of not randomly exploding on you. The stuff they slap the name Pyrex on nowadays isn't worth the money.

Looks like the New York Health Department is starting to cite bars that don't inform customers that they are consuming raw eggs.

The usual formula is to get one bottle of wine per person who will be drinking. Each standard bottle contains 4 of 5 glasses, depending on how people pour. And, if they pour for themselves they tend to fill up glasses almost twice as full as a server would. The rationale for the one bottle is as follows: one glass before dinner, two with dinner, and one afterwards. That, and some people will always drink more than others.

I think your temperature is too high. Most cakes recipes call for 350°. Do you have a thermometer in your oven to confirm the temp? Also, you have to remember that there's still some carryover cooking going on even after they leave the oven. They will be firm to the touch after they are overcooked and beyond.

What about mice? Or lizards? (I live in Phoenix, AZ and found a lizard in a cupboard once.)

I had a couple of fairly lengthy discussions with Albert Adria, and, he said that the restaurant itself doesn't really make money. They survive off the sale of books. IMO, if he needs a break, he needs a break. After spending years living in a van trying to keep the place alive, and then a lot of intense years working hard running it, he deserves a sort of retirement. The toughest part of shorter vacations is knowing that you have to return to work soon. With a longer span of time ahead of him, perhaps he can fully relax and enjoy life a little.

If you are weighing your ingredients, they should scale up or down just fine. Old recipes used to give warnings about cake size to offset some of the errors inherent with volume measurements. I use RLB's chocolate cake (the american style one) from the Cake Bible as cupcakes all the time.

A good grocery store encourages the produce employees to cut open fruit for customers to sample. So, I say don't be shy ask to see one cut open.

Great attention to detail there! I really like how everything coordinates with your packaging. One trick for samples is to save some of your defective items that cannot be recycled into new candy. If you cut the pieces into halves as samples (another trick to stretch the budget) you can often hide/eliminate flaws or just discard a bad half.

I have a relative, who shall remain unnamed, who eats with the salt-shaker in hand. Every single bite, once it is on the fork, gets at least three hard shakes.

Good question! I live in the west and have never seen one. A quick search online finds a lot of wholesalers and commercial producers, but no formulas. My guess would be that they are made with egg and oil, like many challah recipes, so they would be pareve if made in a kosher facility. I can ask around, but won't be at a big baking conference for a few months. If I had one to try, I could probably give a good estimate of a formula. (edited for clarity)

Thank you! I don't have any candy coating, but I do have lots of chocolate - would it be alright to use regular melted chocolate? If you melt the chocolate, you'll probably have to temper it for it to work as glue. -Unless you never let it get hotter than about 85°.

The mexican stuff isn't brown sugar, which I do make by using molasses and sugar. The mexican stuff is more like turbinado, sort of.

Here in Phoenix, the Mexican tan stuff can be gotten fairly cheaply (2 pounds for 79 cents) and it is marked as cane sugar, I am assuming that it's slightly less refined. It does have a slightly 'brown sugar' taste, and I like using it for making simple syrup for cocktails because I feel that it's closer to the sugar that bartenders had available to them in the early 1800's.

You can paint the tart shells with chocolate days in advance. The pudding can be made the day before, but then, so could pastry cream. One easy fruit to use is canned mandarin oranges. The tarts themselves need to remain refrigerated and should be served the same day. Royal icing is the traditional glue for sweets. Instead of mortarboards, you could get rice paper and licorice laces and make tiny rolled diplomas.

They didn't press it at all?

Watch out for 'deals' on equipment. When it breaks, and, eventually it all breaks, there might not be any local service available to repair it. Check on repair service before buying and installing anything. You don't want to be caught with a walk-in full of hot, rotting food for a week while trying to find a repair person. As for a sandwich place, those can be as tough or tougher than a bakery. You're suddenly in competition with everyone from Panera to Taco Bell. All of whom make huge quantities of food in centralized commissaries to distribute to individual locations. They buy their food in such large volume that their retail price is often what your wholesale price, as a small business, will be. And, your customers, especially right now, will be comparing your value for money against those same chains. I know that it isn't fair to compare artisan product to machine-churned out food, but, for a lot of customers paying a couple dollars more than Panera charges for a sandwich won't happen very often.