Lisa Shock

I've had good results from putting items in the washer with powdered oxygenating cleaner, allowing the washer to fill and agitate for a minute then turn the machine off and allow everything to soak for a half hour before turning it back on again. I've also used White Brite on whites, with mixed results. Some set-in stains come out really well with this, but it can also pull color out of trim, embroidery, etc. It definitely gets rid of the yellowing that plagues chef coats over time. I would use it on all-white towels only.

My husband uses a nut chopper that has a hand-crank and deposits everything into a glass jar underneath, all very clean. I use a pie dough cutter inside of a sturdy bowl. Either way, we have the nuts in a container that we can then dole them out from.

Depends on what you're going to use it for in the end. I usually just toss peeled and seeded fresh fruit into the blender. But, fruit like pears and apples has a type of fiber in it that has a texture like straw if the fresh puree is frozen. For making sorbets and ices from apples, pears, etc, some recipes deal with this by calling for cooking the fruit before pureeing, others have you juice the fresh fruit with an electric juicer so there's almost no fiber whatsoever in the juice. I have made really great apple sorbet using fresh juice, and preserving the color with vitamin C crystals. (the juicer really opens up the iron in the fruit and it discolors very quickly) For use in mousse or mirror-tops, etc, lightly cooking the fruit then tossing in the blender works just fine. Because a generic puree is never the same from batch to batch or fruit to fruit, you may need to adjust your brix levels, depending on the final recipe's intent. For example, fresh strawberries have a lot more water, less pulp & less sugar as a puree than a papaya puree. I took a class in ices at the World Pastry Forum '06, taught by the French Pastry School (Chicago), where we got charts showing approximate fiber and sugar levels in various fruits, and formulae for adjusting recipes accordingly. Hope this helps!

Wow, so ungrateful.... I suggest that you get evidence of what the meats cost nowadays, and give a presentation on your budget constraints. Or, you could be a bit passive-aggressive and ask the supervisor where s/he regularly purchases meats for the amount allotted. If they are going to micro-manage you, you could also try giving in, and calling the supervisor every time you run into a bind. So, in the recent example, you's phone up and say 'The only beef is $7 a pound, the butcher has offered me cod at $2. Do we serve cod, or is it a vegan meal tonight?' I hope this works out for you, I don't know that I'd be able to keep my cool!

Well, I noticed this morning that the cocoa infusion has the same sort of feathery clouds in it as the chocolate-bar infusion had. I am using SACO cocoa. The ingredients are listed as: Blend of natural cocoa and Dutched cocoa (processed with alkali). The flavor is starting to transfer to the alcohol, and so far seems decent.

There's a Grocery Outlet about 5 miles from my house. Their stock is random, but, whatever they have is cheap. I've gotten some excellent wines there for under $5 a bottle, in addition to food. We've got Sprouts markets all over town. They get loads of good produce, and occasionally it will be dirt cheap because it has an issue. Last year, a large number of artichokes got frostbite that only affected the appearance of the outer leaves. At 6 large ones for a dollar, we enjoyed the trimmed hearts in many dishes. Also, 99 Cents Only carries some foods, including produce. Recent scores include 10lb bags of Yukon Gold potatoes, 5lb bags of red onions, and whole watermelons -all at 99 cents.

I had that same idea while looking at the weird clouds of lecithin. My guess is that it would taste good, as long as you use a cocoa you enjoy. (My husband hates one national brand.) The fact that it's already a powder means the flavor will easily transfer to the liquid. -Just went out and got more cocoa, and started a batch. Updates in a few days.

If you're going to buy food to prepare, try visiting one of the LeeLee markets. They are huge Asian markets with tons of fresh everything (frog legs, eels, live crab, durian, longans, trumpet mushrooms), and good representations of food from all over, including the middle-east and India. They are at 75th Ave & Cactus, and, Dobson & Warner. My favorite place to eat, and they can accommodate large groups, is Tapino on Shea near Scottsdale road. It's a tapas place and a winebar, with a huge wine & sherry BTG menu. If you make reservations, the chef/owner can accommodate special diets. My vegan friends love it, so do my carnivore friends. My husband who does not drink lives it. They have indoor and patio seating.

I have shopped Fresh & Easy in Phoenix. There is no Marketside near me, and I am not really wanting to give them any financial support, but, if I see one, I'll go look around. Fresh & Easy is designed to be a quick-stop type market. They are not deep in selection, but they aren't meant to be. They are also heavy on their house brand items. In some categories, like detergent or ketchup, you may find one national brand plus the house brand and that's it. I like the fact that they don't carry foods with transfats, and they carry a large assortment of organic items. It's the only place I buy tortillas now, since the only place in Phoenix that made non-transfat tortillas closed a couple of years ago. It's the only place to get transfat-free cake/cookies, made with real butter, aside from a bakery that's 8 miles away. They aren't phenomenal, and I usually make my own, but when the hubby is weak, it's at least decent real food not a trans-fat chemistry lab. Yes, checkout is all u-scan, but associates are there to help. They have a hybrid self-scan cashier lane or two for checking out large quantities, and they will man those stations continuously if it's busy. They have a sampling station that seems to be open all the time. It's a fully outfitted kitchen and employees really make the food you try. It also has handwashing facilities, so I trust them a bit more than other sampling situations. The prices have been cheaper than other local markets. Plus, you can get a weekly coupon for $5 off every $20 you spend there (excluding alcohol.) They also mark down items to half price if they are close to expiring, so you can sweep through and get some real bargains if you're willing to consume the food soon. Pluses: Bakery goods, while not great, are better than supermarket chain stuff. Carries commodity type groceries at cheap prices. Has a good, although small, selection of world foods basics. Has flat pretzels (current favorite snack) cheaper than anyplace else. Has a pretty good selection of inexpensive wines. (low end of Bevmo's selection) Has organic basil year-round in big bags for a very cheap price. The downsides are: Produce is pre-packed, so you have to buy a bag of lemons instead of just one. Produce selection is limited, so you won't find more high-end specialty items. Bakery and deli items are made at a central commissary and brought to the store. Overall, I like the store. But it's also really close to my house. I don't know that I'd stop in so often if it were further away. It does not replace my weekly trips to Sprouts (farmer's co-op-owned grocery with better produce) but, it has almost completely replaced my trips to conventional supermarkets.

My dad (in his 80s) enjoys grilling, and will fire up the grill anytime, even if there's 3 feet of snow around it. Other than that, he has dabbled in a few things, but relies on my mother to really cook. I remember him being seriously very sad, and complaining, when Mom went off to work full time while I was in college because he was either getting slow cooker meals or sandwiches. He really expects the women to cook, even though being very verbally supportive of women's lib. His dabbling essentially results a regular Sunday breakfast, and a few meals a year. His special dishes are: *shirred eggs with a side of red flannel hash made on Sunday mornings, fed to mom in bed (romance!) *navy bean soup/dried lima bean soup *beer bread *a weird white-sauced curry dish *rumtopf He can also make scrambled eggs, but likes to eat eggs over-easy, which he cannot make. I can recall several times as a child when my mother was sick in bed, and Dad had me cooking all the family meals for a week or so. The first time it happened, I had just turned 4. The last time, I was 11, and wound up not just making meals but also cooking/hostessing a big cocktail party for his business associates. Thank goodness for good cookbooks! -IIRC, most of the cocktail party menu came from a book by Countess Mapie de Toulouse-Lautrec. I had started making salads and soups, and helping with dishes, while standing on a chair at age 3. I graduated to main dishes and desserts around age 7, and really started making pastries like laminated doughs and petit fours at age 10. I am just now realizing that his encouragement of my kitchen interests was probably more about him getting more food (Mom hates to cook!) and better food, than about encouraging my development.

I use Everclear as the alcohol because, years ago, when I started making perfumes, I discovered that some herbs/flowers did not fully give off their oils in vodka. I often ran into weird situations with small beads of oil in the bottom of the vodka jar instead of everything infused throughout. I have always had good results with Everclear, it seems to really pull the flavor out of whatever item I am making extract from. (try to use the best ingredients you can find!) Sure, it lacks additional flavors, and it has a bit of a harsh mouthfeel, but I tend to use my extracts as ingredients where it does not matter. If one were to add simple syrup (or gum syrup) in equal amount to the extract, one would have a liqueur. -And the vanilla version tastes like what you always wanted the vanilla bottle to taste like when you were a kid.

I have not made peach extract before, but I have made a variety of floral ones, black raspberry, quince, apple, yuzu, chocolate, and vanilla. Let us know how it all works out! Honestly, your previous work sounds delicious, but if you are able to improve upon it....

Funny you should say that...I just posted some results of my liqueur making in the Spirits section.... Maybe you could try making a peach extract? It's pretty simple if you have a safe place to store a jar of alcohol for a week or so. And, you're lucky, good fresh ones are still in season. Get a bottle of Everclear. The amount you use will obviously be about the amount you wind up with, so the amount is up to you. Get some really fragrant peaches, I'd guess about two per 750ml bottle of alcohol. Wash and dry the fruit, then cut it up very finely and place in a non-reactive jar/container and cover with the alcohol. (do not use the pits) Allow to infuse for about a week, shaking or stirring the contents every once in a while. Taste the alcohol daily. Once it seems to no longer be getting more fruity in flavor, strain, discard fruit (it's edible) and package the infusion for long term storage. If you take the infusion and mix it 50/50 with simple syrup, you have liqueur -which could be sprinkled onto the cake after it is baked to add flavor. My other recommendations would be: to flavor the icing with the peach extract, or to inject each cupcake with a peachy filling.

I bottled the chocolate liqueur last night. I used plain syrup, 2 parts white sugar to one part water, to finish it, in an equal amount to the chocolate infusion. At the last minute, I decided to go for a pure and simple approach. The infusion had to be strained twice, once with cheesecloth in a chinois, the second time with a coffee filter. This was due to the lecithin clouds. My advice for anyone starting such a project is to find a chocolate without lecithin in it, your life will be much simpler. If strained and left alone, the infusion would be a powerful chocolate extract. Although, remember that since the chocolate had a touch of sugar, there is also a hint of sweetness to it. The amount of sugar in the chocolate, and personal taste, will affect how much syrup to add at the end. Anyway, my husband who does not drink, and does not like alcohol tasted the finished product and really liked it. I think I captured pretty much the whole picture when it comes to the particular chocolate. Note on the use of Everclear: I used to make my own infusions of herbs and flowers in order to make my own perfume. The books I had instructed me to use vodka. But, I found that certain herbals did not release their essential oils or blend in the vodka. I stumbled onto trying Everclear, and I have not looked back. The low water content really helps pull flavor out of all sorts of things.

I don't adjust the leavening either. However, I make certain to use recipes that are written by weight, not by volume, since the errors made by 'measuring' by volume can be magnified when making a large cake. I won't repeat theKitchen Scale Manifesto, I'm just mentioning my agreement with it.

I'd like to point out that what we in the flaky camp are referring to is actual layers that come apart almost like those layered dinner rolls. You can usually split one of these biscuits into 4-5 horizontal layers. -Unlike, say, cream biscuits, which are squarely in the cakey camp.

I haven't eaten there, mostly because my husband was displeased with them for some reason. But, they have had locations here in Phoenix, AZ ever since I moved here in 1995.

I agree with your speculation. I have seen citrus peels change color like that after a long time soaking in alcohol. I add vitamin C crystals to some of my concoctions to preserve color. It's usually about a ½ teaspoon to each pint of fruity mass. I have never made limoncello, though, so I have no idea if it would help. As for flavor, I have made liqueurs that were blends of two things like blueberry/lime. Maybe using your quince as a stepping stone for a blend would work out. I'd suggest adding maybe a spice to the mix, or something to boost tartness. The chocolate infusion is current working its magic in my fridge. (I live in Phoenix, it's summer, house is too warm to keep chocolate from melting.) The only weird thing right now is the candy bar I chose had lecithin in it, and that lecithin has formed cottony clouds in the alcohol. The grated chocolate looks like large-grained sand in the bottom of the jar, and it stays down in the bottom centimeter or so unless I shake it up. (I shake it twice a day.) The lecithin has added murky clouds that have taken over half the height of the jar. Needless to say, I plan on straining this carefully when the time comes. An initial taste of the infusion has given high hopes for the end result. Even after one day infusing it had a very distinct chocolaty flavor. -Not much of an aroma beyond alcohol, though, so I am giving it more time.

I use the recipe from Professional Baking, my old P&B school textbook. I use cake flour, butter and buttermilk. The big thing to me is technique. I cut in the hard/cold butter, leaving chunks in the dry mixture then add the buttermilk. I then lightly roll the dough out and fold it over and repeat few times. I learned this in school, but my mother also did it. The visible chunks of butter along with the folding creates flaky layers, almost as if it were a roughly laminated dough. Of course, you must use a cutter to portion these out, and you need to use a swift up and down motion (no twisting!) to keep the layers from sticking together.

I started an experimental batch of chocolate liqueur today. I will post updates as they happen. The chocolate used was Chocovic's unique origin Ocumare Criollo 71% bar. I live near a Trader Joe's, and it's the best of what I could get my hands on fast. If I'd had any Callebaut I would have used it. I saved the unused portion of the bar for comparison tasting with the liqueur later on. The cane sugar that has been appearing at my local hispanic foods market looks light in the package, but cooks up fairly dark in appearance. It has a rich flavor without the molasses overtones of a brown sugar. I've been using it because it seems closer to the sugar available in the 1800s, I just mixed and drank my way through Imbibe!, and I like the taste. Of course, substituting regular white sugar would be fine. The chargond comes looking like pebbles, it needs to be ground to dissolve quickly. Here's the procedure I used (at home, extra tips for home users): Ingredients now 20 grams bitter chocolate 1 pint Everclear later 1 lb raw cane sugar/sugar 1 cup water 1 tablespoon gum arabic (I buy it marked "edible gum chargond" at the local Asian market) Tools ceramic bowl coarse microplane 35000 series with 35057 attachment to protect fingers non-metal spatula non-reactive, airtight container (I used a pint canning jar) Final container, non-reactive, quart sized I refrigerated the chocolate overnight. An hour before starting I checked the thermostat to make sure it was at 72 degrees, and put my bowl out to make certain it was cool. I grated the chocolate into the bowl then used the spatula to move the resulting powder into the pint canning jar. I topped it off with Everclear, then used the spatula to stir a few times to ensure that there were no air pockets under the chocolate. I closed the jar tightly and placed in a cool spot away from light. I'll check the flavor/aroma every couple of days. This could take up to 30 days to work. Once the alcohol is infused, I'll make what my husband has dubbed 'complex syrup.' Grind the chargond finely (or use powdered gum arabic) and add to the sugar and water in a small high-sided saucepan. Allow to come to a boil, skim the impurities and cool. It may be useful to double the recipe and have some to use for mixing unrelated cocktails later. I keep a bottle of this syrup around for general home bartending. I usually mix equal parts infusion and 'complex syrup', but this can be adjusted to taste. The infusion portion alone (of my other liqueur experiments) has proven to be very useful in making all sorts of patisserie items. Anyway, more later!

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out!

I started making floral liqueurs in the 1980s when I first read the Toklas book. My biggest mistake once involved using flowers from the florist. Since they keep the flowers in water that has been treated with a chemical preservative, well, I wound up with crystals of preservative in the bottom of my bottle. Now, I only use flowers I know were raised organically and not treated, usually from someone's garden. (of course, I live in Phoenix, so we don't have many beloved flowers like violets, I make special trips for those) I have used vodka in the past, but I currently prefer Everclear. I make two basic types of liqueur: one juice-based, one infused. For juice-based, like quince, I run the fruit through my juicer and add a dash of vitamin C crystals to preserve color. I then mix with simple syrup to taste, then add an amount equaling the fruit/syrup mixture of Everclear. For infused liqueurs, like yuzu where I use peel not juice, I steep the item (peels, petals, pods, etc.) in Everclear for 3-30 days, checking every other day to see how things are going. As someone stated above, the ingredients can vary wildly in the amount of time needed to get all the goodness out. Once the Everclear is well infused, I remove the infusing item, strain if needed, and add simple syrup to taste. I generally use equal parts simple syrup and infusion, your tastes may vary. I have never tried chocolate. I will try soon and post some results.

What about cooking the cake in a sheet pan and cutting it with a round cutter? That's how we made them in pastry school...

There's a chance that your mixture won't set up properly. One function of milk when paired with acid in a cake is to form proteins that set up as solids in the finished cake. You may wish to add some NFMS or powdered milk to your dry ingredients to help keep it stable. You'll probably also need to look at reducing the amount of sugar, since nectar contains a lot more sugar than milk. Extra sugar tastes good, but can lead to odd unstable results like collapse into a crispy cookie-like mass.

This sounds like an interesting project. I'd like to suggest Old Fashioned oats, I like the texture better. Of course, I usually use crunchy peanut butter so that the final cookie has nut chunks in it, as well...