Lisa Shock

I haven't checked in a while, but I seem to recall that they changed the rules back to once again allow recipes with flour as the qualifying ingredient. Her other book, Perfection Salad, is also good. Similar theme in earlier time period. ← I have a copy of Perfection Salad, and also enjoyed it. You are correct about theBake-Off -a cup of flour is one choice of two required items to enter. The last time I looked into entering there were close to 50 qualifying ingredients that were processed food products, including a line of Mexican-style canned goods, but no plain flour. It's heartening to see that they have returned to some basic baking ingredients like eggs, butter, chocolate, cocoa and nuts.

I have been thinking about this article for several days now, and realized that the Pillsbury Bake-Off has evolved along similar lines. Back when I was a kid, you could enter a recipe as long as it contained a cup of AP flour and winners had developed exciting recipes like cheese bread and chiffon pie. Now, it's all about combining various frozen, boxed, canned and refrigerator-case food products in as little time as possible. -And the winning entries aren't anything that I'd want to serve. For anyone interested in the topic, I highly recommend Something From the Oven by Laura Shapiro.

It should last about 5 days in the fridge. Some mousses freeze well, others don't. You may wish to run a small test immediately with a couple tablespoons, so it will freeze quickly and you won't waste much if it doesn't work out. Good luck!

You may want to look into getting the wide mouth jar attachment for the vacuum sealer. It's Foodsaver brand, but apparently the hose size fits several other brands as well. It's only $10 plus shipping and something which I have found to be very useful. I use my jar sealer to vacuum seal canning jars, which are very inexpensive and food safe. I have all of my dry beans, grains, seaweed, dry mushrooms, and some pasta sealed in the 1 and 2-quart size jars to prevent pantry moths. (we had a huge infestation 5 years ago, no activity since we started using the sealed jars) I routinely seal & refrigerate homemade gari every year. If I make extra mayo I seal then refrigerate. I also find that leftovers last longer if sealed before refrigerating. I have given up on plastic storage containers almost completely -the canning jars run about $7 for a case. My mom used to freeze peaches in glass jars, unsealed. They were far superior to canned peaches. So, the jars may be useful in your freezer as well, even without vacuum sealing.

I'm rooting for Keller all the way now. He clearly has a broader range of experience and education, and he is producing more complex dishes with greater variety.

The time limit to edit posts is past, so sorry about the double post. I just wanted to add that I recognize that peaches aren't normally a huge source of botulism spores, unlike garlic, so there is less of a concern when preserving them.

Today's Recipe Redux, in the Times Magazine is Brandied Peaches and the article incorrectly states that old canning methods, where air pockets remained in low-acid sugared fruit, harbored botulism and implies that the current author's water-bath canning procedure will eliminate the threat. Um, wrong and wrong. They really need an educated editor over there....

Make sure to purchase a reasonably sized unit that won't sit mostly empty. It needs to be at least 2/3 full to run at optimal efficiency. Frost free units dessicate the contents faster than manual defrost units, but, if you get a vacuum-sealer, that won't be a problem. Try to find the coolest place possible for it, so it isn't running like crazy to maintain temperature.

I know it's not a salad, but, you could make baked beans in the oven overnight and just allow them to cool in the oven (if it's not being used) while covered and they'd be ready for lunch/dinner right around the time that they'd be cooled to room temp.

I have chosen the Aspic de Pommes. It's a tad unseasonal, but I am intrigued by the fact that it's an aspic that does not contain gelatin.

Don't know what I'll make yet, but I'm in! Even an Omlette will do.

I just have to ask, why are you trying to feed Ninja food to Pirates?

Softer white breads tend to have some fat in them: butter, oil or shortening. Each type of fat gives a unique kind of crumb/crust. Milk solids also give a unique flavor to bread. I'd look for a formula like one of the basic rich white bread recipes in Wayne Gisslen's Professional Baking, the CIA Baking & Pastry book, or Bo Friberg's Professional Pastry Chef book. Then, I'd make the formula several times, each time with a different fat and see how that works out. Is there any way to contact the previous people?

I liked Jeffrey's pilot episode best. But, he's not a perky blonde.... Oh well, this competition is pretty pointless. The committee of judges chooses someone to fit their pre-existing mold, it's a formula for blandness. Judging from several challenges over the years, it's clear that the winners are simply destined to be presenters of material created for them in the FN kitchens. They are not being looked to as a source of unique recipes or techniques. They are simply there to lull the viewer into accepting more non-challenging pap. Melissa's show Ten Dollar Dinners begins airing on Sunday at 12:30pm. (I notice that she wastes money on plastic bags for her breading station.) I was surprised to see that Scripps has started another food website called Food2. They are currently featuring Kelsey from Season 4 along with Spike from Top Chef.

Off the top of my head: egg salad Mediterranean platter: hummus, tabouli, stuffed grape leaves, etc vegetable sushi pasta salad with lots (at least 50%) of veggies plus beans couscous salad wheat berry salad (I have a recipe someplace for a curried one with soybeans) gazpacho or other cold soup Pack sandwiches with the bread and toppings separately to avoid sogginess. -Unless you want that, like on a cheese & veggie muffuleta. Extras like carrot and celery sticks -my mom added cucumber spears, cherry tomatoes, and bell pepper strips. The bento thread in the Japan/Asia section is a goldmine of ideas...

Plated desserts are exciting and interesting, I think there are several categories from ACF competitions which would be fun to watch: cake decorating of various types, showpiece (sugar, marzipan, pastillage, chocolate) making, petit fours platters, bon bons, and frozen desserts. They do cut away a lot from the culinary competitions on the existing Top Chef shows. We didn't see all 3 hours of the preparation of Elk in episode 14 of season 3 -it was cut down to fit in the one hour along with the quick fire and other things. They already edit out hours of braising, baking, and slow-cooking. On one level, yes, bread baking might seem boring, but, it could be a valid challenge and interesting if edited to be interesting. In culinary school we produced several types of bread every day during a 5 hour class which also included a lecture. For some breads, we made them over several days, retarding the dough in refrigeration, but many breads were easily produced in under 5 hours. (we made 4 breads on the day we made challah and braided it with a 6-braid) They just need to get clips of contestants talking about why they chose various flours, hydration levels, and add-ins and then show what comes out of the ovens. And, in many ways, bread is a far more forgiving product -unlike anglaise or tempering chocolate, where you need to be spot-on with temperature and technique.

don't kill me...but what's a nut spike? and painting....just doing some brush strokes for texture on the plate? and a chocolate piece....that's would have to be something substantial to hold the weight of a brownie, yes? thanks for the cool ideas! ← You can see a nut spike in my avatar pic. You make some caramel boiled sugar and pull a toasted nut through it so the nut is coated and the sugar pulls to a long spike. Once you have made the sugar, you can also pull lots of other garnishes like spirals and ribbons. Generally, what people do with sauce on plates is apply with squirt bottles and maybe manipulate with a tooth pick or skewer. You can get cool bottles with small tips at Sally Beauty Supply. Here's a link showing some simple basics. In school we were taught to look at the whole plate as a work of art and to use the sauce as the background structure. You can do something as simple as making rings of various sauces and drag a skewer through to make a simple flower, or go much further with lines and different sized dots. That said, we were never allowed to just slap a zig-zag down like the culinary people do so often. The brownie could lean on something that wasn't necessarily huge, like a chocolate spiral made with acetate -if the chocolate piece is attached to the plate first with a dab of chocolate. You can also present a dessert inside a molded chocolate bowl or tulip made with a balloon. Hope this helps!

There's always ganache....

Nut spikes add height and crunch and can be made several hours in advance. You could make a shaped chocolate piece and balance the brownie on it, for interest. You can add oil based flavor to chocolate, if you want it to be raspberry. You can also paint the plate with sauce. You could do a chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, and berry coulis.

I'd just treat them like polycarbonate: gentle soap, water, 100% cotton to dry. You don't want to risk scratching the inner surface, although there's a good chance they already are pretty scratched. For outer surfaces, I'd use Bon Ami, it doesn't scratch and I use it on my collection of old kitchen appliances. I'm just not certain how much it affects surfaces on a microscopic level.

I make old-fashioned boiled dressing for slaw. I prefer the fruit juice sort, my husband prefers vinegar so I make two batches of dressing and save them vacuum-sealed in the fridge and re-seal after each use. I use an adaptation of Boiled Salad Dressing, Method III from the 1953 Joy of Cooking. For the juice type: 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon paprika ¼ to ½ cup sugar 2 tablespoons butter 6 tablespoons fresh juice (I prefer lime, but orange and lemon are tasty) 3 eggs ½ teaspoon dry mustard 6+ tablespoons fresh lime/lemon juice and/or cream Heat the first seven ingredients in a double boiler and stir constantly until thick. Remove from heat and add additional juice and/or cream until you get a good consistency and flavor. I like adding just a touch of cream to balance the tartness. You can always thin this out later with more juice. The vinegar type is Method I, on page 498. I tend to just hand-cut fresh cabbage and maybe grate in carrots. Doing it yourself costs about 1/3 of the price of bagged cut cabbage.

Now THAT, Sir, would make for a good spin-off show to watch (unlike FN's cheesey 'challenge' shows). I'd love to see the likes of Charlie T, Susan Wallace (a magnificent P-chef here in DC) and Elizabeth F go head to head. ← Or how about Francois Payard, Jaque Torres, Bo Friberg, Gina DePalma, Fancisco Migoya, etc... Given how often the chefs on the show choke when it comes to dessert or pastry work, this could be really cool. Dan ← After season one of regular Top Chef, I emailed the producers suggesting a Top Pastry Chef show. It would have to be structured a bit differently, if you want to see quality artisan breads, for example. But, I think it would be do-able and interesting.

I manage on about $150 a month for two on just food -not counting non-food items bought at the grocery. But, both my husband and I are vegetarians. I try to make a pot of dry beans each week in the slow-cooker, so that I have them on hand to add to salads or make main dishes. I make bread from scratch. I make almost everything from scratch now. (especially since Breyer's changed their ice-cream formula) We have pizza about once a week, the same with a bean night with Indian Dal or bean burritos. The rest of the time, I try to cook with mostly vegetables and a little starch and dairy. I'm lucky to have a produce-focused store called Sprouts nearby, so I can get reasonably priced seasonal produce. I also live near a dollar store that sells a lot of food. I make snacks, like popcorn and potato chips. I try to make extra portions of certain meals so that I can freeze them for later. This helps the husband when I am not at home. We keep salad fixings and fresh fruit on hand at all times. We make salad dressings and mayo from scratch. They taste better and cost a LOT less. I buy dry grains and beans in bulk, when they are on sale. And, I try to have a variety on hand. (5 kinds of rice, 6 kinds of beans, couscous, pastas, etc.)

Brown butter has a ton of uses in the bakeshop, most cakes (especially the nut flavored ones) will benefit from its use. If you are substituting it for regular butter in a recipe make sure to adjust your liquid amounts since regular butter is about 20% water and brown butter has no water. On the savory side, it can be used very effectively in sauces or is delicious as a simple sauce on its own. It's my favorite dressing for a baked potato, along with some salt. I find that it adds richness and depth to Alfredo sauce. You can make a batch and store it in the fridge for a few days or freeze it.

Philadelphia style is my favorite type of ice cream. I love the smooth, light texture and find the chewiness of other ice creams made with eggs and/or gums to be annoying. (why, oh why, did Breyer's have to change their formula?) I have been working on a butter-almond flavor but trying to get the butter to be noticeable flavor-wise without actually being tiny chunks in the final ice cream. I'll post a recipe if I get things worked out....