Lisa Shock

I use powdered milk in breads, and I recognize that it has uses for feeding people who don't have access to fresh milk. I was referring specifically to the whipped topping recipe when I said this is something I know how to make but, wouldn't serve. Sure, if it were 100 years ago and I were poor and had 5 kids to feed and regular milk was tainted, I'd feed them powdered milk. But, I seriously doubt that I'd be using rare and expensive fresh lemons (definitely not available year-round when I was a child in the 60s) and expensive sugar to whip it into a foam topping with an electric mixer chilled in a freezer. I suspect that there wouldn't be much dessert available to be topped, and not a lot of time available to spend garnishing those desserts because I'd be working 4 jobs to be able to afford to buy the mixer and frdige and keep the electricity turned on. I just don't see this topping elevating any dish in the modern era. I understand that quite a few people posting in this thread believe otherwise. I agree that CoolWhip falls into the category of foodlike substances which I could happily live the rest of my life without. I don't like it, it is nothing like real whipped cream, or chantilly, and I don't see how it improves anything. I am mystified by people who slather it onto every dessert they eat, I always wonder what they're trying to cover up. IMO, a great pie, or any dessert, should be able to stand on its own.

I seriously doubt that powdered milk whipped with sugar and lemon juice ever comprised the sole food option for americans. I'd rather have no whipped topping on a dessert than something that wasn't worthwhile. I've never been the sort of person who just slaps whipped cream on top of every dessert. (Even though I grew up on a small farm where we bartered our beef and red raspberries for delicious Jersey milk and cream from the next door neighbors, and, I owned my own Jersey cow for a few years.) Honestly I'd probably never miss whipped cream if its sole function were just as a topping. (I don't drink coffee, so, the charm of those elaborate 1200 calorie breakfast drinks is lost on me.) I'd rather have no dessert than a weak one and adding weird tasting whipped fluff on top won't improve anything. If I had trouble getting access to cream for whipping, I'd make make baked apples, or a cake, or a berry cobbler for dessert rather than a mousse. This stuff falls into a category of fake and insubstantial foods that I could easily forgo thinking about for the rest of my life. (Other members of the category, for me, include fat-free margarine and artificial sweeteners.)

I did not say they were invented in SF in the 60's, Jatyes, go back and read my post. It was during WW2, as I posted earlier, in the early 1940s (42 they think), and, I met the woman who invented it. And, yes, the Fritos distributor caught onto it really fast and was promoting it in early 1940s signage. The Fritos people were also selling the pie at Disneyland in the beginning, as they were one of the first vendors at the park. Now, it's not the most complex idea, and, I don't doubt that it would be possible for multiple people to have done the same thing. Catch is, especially in TX, the chips were being sold and marketed as a side dish for lunches at luncheonettes where the main dish was a sandwich. Even at Woolworth's, the chile was sold out of a window, not inside, because it was a cheap food being sold to people who could not afford the full lunch in the cafe.

Did you dock the pastry before baking? It does sound a lot more like the cream had a void, though.

Even without the freezing question ( I suggest you make a small sample and freeze it as a test, it should be ok, but different types and brands of cheese can act differently) the baking part worries me. Even if it were made fresh, I'd worry about the sauce getting watery during baking. This project is similar to making macaroni and cheese, except that cauliflower won't act like macaroni. Can you assemble the sauce and fully cook the cauliflower offsite, then mix and place in a chafing dish to keep warm?

If you are concerned about holding pasta, tossing it in some gremolata (lemon peel only, no juice) and a little olive oil will help it not stick together if held warm. If you go with marinara sauce, serve it on the side. If it were tossed together, the acid would degrade the pasta over time. Gremolata alone with some veggies would also be delicious.

This stuff falls into the category of something I know how to make but would never actually serve unless it was specifically requested.

JohnT, I have countertop issues myself. I got a small wooden base from Pampered Chef that works well, they sell it as an accessory for their apple peeler. It would probably be fairly easy for someone with woodworking tools to make, too.

I know that in early seasons of the show, before LCK, not every eliminated chef would return to help out during the finals or some other event. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, could just be personal issues or a job opportunity, etc. That said, someplace on the Bravo website IIRC he admitted that the competition was far tougher than he imagined and he was in over his head.

Andie, I do know of one very specialized use for the electric wok: keeping boiled sugar warm so that you can use a pot of it in liquid form. -Like the caramel sugar needed for a croquembouche, gateau st honore, or the sugar for making a big batch of spun sugar, or maybe caramel sugar nut spikes. I actually picked one of these up cheap at a thrift shop when I was in culinary school just for sugar work. It works well and the shape is economical in that as you use the sugar up, the pool becomes smaller and less winds up wasted on the sides. That said, you need to make sugar showpieces, croquembouche, nut spikes, or spun sugar every once in a while to justify the owning the wok.

You can whip nonfat powdered milk into a topping. Here's a recipe.

Looks to me like a product that was shot out of a cereal gun then sprayed with a sugar coating, like the sweetened puffed wheat or rice breakfast cereals.

The closest you can get is to make candies with the method that gumdrops are made. (agar doesn't work well in candies, I tried, and you'd see lots of them and they don't exist) Candies like Swedish Fish and Fuzzy Peaches are made like gumdrops, and, if the sugar is vegan they are vegan.

That's reported cases of the public becoming ill from eating in restaurants, right? Because in 2011 in just one case, eight people were hospitalized with botulism -but all eight were prison inmates in the Utah State prison. (they were sickened by a batch of pruno, which someone had tossed an old, foil wrapped baked potato into)

Yes, you should be able to do so pretty much indefinitely -unless it gets burnt or is exposed to water.

You could also pour hot sugar into them to make hard candy, to use as decoration or just fancy treats. If you pipe it in carefully, you can get some nice multicolor effects. Since the shapes are natural, even if the mold bends a little, it shouldn't matter.

I use mine all the time for: making nut butters from my home-roasted nuts -much tastier than store bought, and I can make amounts as needed, keeping fresh nuts in freezermaking smooth soups -I have a friend who doesn't like chunky tomato bits in soup or saucehummus -I start by roasting nuts, then making nut butter, then adding the garbanzos and seasoninghomemade sauces like BBQ sauce from scratch and ketchuppurees to add to pasta dough for flavor, or as pasta fillingpureed raw onion in quantity as a base various Indian dishesI got myself a couple of sizes of steel milkshake cups to use with the immersion blender. In some cases, like soups, you can just blend inside the cooking pot. As others have mentioned, it's a LOT easier to wash than an old-school blender.

The peanut butter may help hold it together. You could try Speculoos (homemade or commercial) or one of the other cookie butters.

Here in Phoenix, in the past 5 years two restaurants were cited by the health department for having fresh garlic oil (that is, chopped raw garlic, plus parsley, and olive oil) of indeterminate age in bottles left out on the tables. Employees at one establishment stated that they made the oil about once a month to refill the bottles. It's not always about how many fall ill, it can be about how many times preventative measures need to be taken to prevent outbreaks.

Anna, I would mostly agree with you about complete dishes, with the exception of making NM style flat enchiladas. That said, it's more of an assemblage than actual cooking: layers of corn tortillas and filling with sauce poured over alternate layers, then heated. GIGO is the main rule with this one. I make enchiladas about once a month, so, it's worthwhile for me to keep the appliance. But, I mostly use my slow cooker for cooking plain dry beans. I like being able to run it on low (I have an old one with a low setting) when I am not home or sleeping, and I can put it on a timer. I also use the slow cooker as a buffet server for soups and some sauces. But, I cook a meal about once a month for a large group and not everyone does that.

Search for tonic water syrup on amazon, you'll find several craft tonics which are quite nice. Also, carbonating white wine really works well....

I've never made bourbon flavored hard candy, but you could just try a small batch. Depends on the bourbon and how strong the flavors are in it. You could also reduce the alcohol over low heat in a small pan so some of the alcohol and water boils off before adding to the candy, that will concentrate flavors.

I recall seeing an interview with a scientist who ran tests someplace on cans of tuna. The comment she made was something along the lines of, 'we'd test dozens of cans of tuna and they'd have really low levels of mercury, but then we'd get three cans in a row with levels so high they were considered unsafe for consumption.' The gist being that on average, the tuna supply was pretty safe. But, if you were the unlucky consumer getting those three highly contaminated cans, whoever ate them could be at risk for mercury poisoning -especially small children.

I'd have to see a recipe, but, if the pickle liquid is vinegar and spices, chances are low. The acid prevents growth, and it's not an anaerobic environment. Oil is where you get into trouble, because it seals the food under it from the air.

Usually that sort of thing is added as the sugar is pulled from the heat, right before shocking. That said, not every alcohol makes a good flavoring for sugar. There are professional flavorings made specifically for high heat applications. Check the selection at Amoretti.