Lisa Shock

Actually, eels were probably a big part of that first Thanksgiving. If you served eels there's a good chance that no one in attendance would be tired of them, or ate too many as a kid, etc.

I keep wondering if maybe LCK happened, and they will surprise us with it at the end when they tell the finalists...

Stuffed pumpkin.

It would set immediately, however, the whole pan wouldn't come to temp all at once. The bottom and sides of the pan will set first.

Tempering is something you have to practice a bit before perfecting. Are you stirring after the initial melt? (also, your temp might be a little high for some milk chocolates, you are risking burning the milk part)

Cookies: Biscochitos Polvorones con Piñon Dry provisions in a nice little crate: a big bag of piñones (that's what I miss the most) a bag of blue corn meal red chile peppers red corn meal (I helped develop that, along with hundreds of other residents, with Seeds of Change) Seeds, from Seeds of Change: Green Chile Blue Corn Red Corn beans Maybe make up a little cookbook with basic recipes for green/red chile stew, biscochitos, etc. in it. Or just buy one. I'd also look for someone to give you a deal on a bulk purchase and try to include a fetish in each gift box/basket.

I place my cooked pizzas on my wooden cutting board, that absorbs some of the steam and helps the crust. We usually just grab it off the board, I've never served pizza in a formal situation. If I were planning to do so, I would probably consider getting a long wood serving platter of some sort. The wood also helps keep it warm a little better than a metal tray or ceramic platter.

I also make my own, I have a couple on hand each made from different types of peppers, some fresh some dried.

Please let us know how it goes and what worked and what was unexciting or bad. Someone in the future will surely reference this thread and you will have more detailed info on the topic once your ordeal is over.

You might have a bad bottle. It doesn't happen very often with spirits, but it can happen. The distributors replace bad bottles for the store, so, the store should be fine with you returning it. I used to manage a wine store/bar and we had a day once a week when bad bottles would be picked up and replaced for us.

Don't go cheap, don't get plastic, don't get one with a lip. A nice heavy base is useful. There are several good brands out there, I have mostly used Ateco 612 and 613 and prefer the 613. Those just stay level, and are good workhorses. The plastic high end Wilton does tilt, and I own one, but tilting cause the cake to slip off, so it sits unused at the back of a cupboard. I think the tilt is too gimmicky overall. I'd rather have a work table with adjusting height. Oh yeah, don't get the rectangular one unless you do a lot of rectangular cakes. I worked at a place where that was the only turntable and it was really difficult to use for round cakes.

You know, you can buy a cheap heating pad at a drug store and the low setting is perfect for keeping the chocolate liquid. You may wish to put a towel on top of the pad for easier cleanup.

You want a recipe that has no leavening so that your walls have crisp, straight edges. Usually, the formulas for the house type dough are different from other formulas. They will still have spices to smell nice, but, aren't really meant to be eaten. I use a formula from an old professional baking book.

I forgot to mention the king of casseroles: timpano, or, for the less ambitious, timballo.

That's the traditional American fare on election day...

There's always New England Boiled Dinner.

I know that you said you were not fond of Jello, but perhaps you were just referring to the boxed product? For some variety and texture, you can use plain gelatin to make something with your clear liquids. That consomme can be jellied, as well as your juices and teas. And, of course, you can use fancy molds to dress up your portions. Tomato water should be useful to you, you could make a lovely clear aspic from it. You could make waters from other watery vegetables like celery, bell peppers, lettuce, onions, cucumber, garlic, etc. just filter carefully. You could mix waters to make a sort of gazpacho. (too bad about the vodka, you could have a Bloody Mary made from tomato water, celery water, and vodka)

I'd look into FedEx delivery and dry ice packaging, or cold packs. Or, just get someone there to make them, I think the graham crackers would be the only item you'd have trouble finding.

Might be that your room and equipment are too cold. I usually have a sterno burning at the top of my work area and have a large silpat down on the table to insulate it. That and, I use a gooseneck lamp with a heat bulb in it to illuminate the work and help keep it warm. You can also reheat on small silpats in the microwave.

No, do not tear up the tortillas, you want them to form layers for you, and I always use 4 per layer. They become a soft substance that's easy to cut through, a little like a tamale. The original recipe for this calls for each tortilla to be fried briefly during construction, I just stopped doing that and you can hardly tell. You could use chips, but it will take more sauce to make them soft. I'd use nopales with green sauce, not so sure about the flavor with red. I usually make scrambled eggs with nopales. A layer of roasted poblanos would be good, you could add other roasted veggies, too, or leftover fajita veggies. I have also done sour cream layers when the sauce was very hot.

I make Santa Fe style flat enchiladas in a slow cooker: put down a dab of sauce (red or green chile sauce, vegetarian style is more flexible, you'll wind up using about 24 oz total in the dish) then 3-4 corn tortillas, then ¼" layers of whole- cooked or refried beans, sweet corn, cheese, spanish rice, finely sliced raw veggies like carrot & cauliflower with a little sauce poured over, with tortillas separating each layer and a little sauce poured in to moisten. Top layer gets a lot of sauce poured over, then a layer of cheese. You can add layers of precooked meat if desired. Serve with extra sauce if needed, the tortillas really absorb a lot. Does Coq au Vin count? You need to make potatoes or noodles separately.... Pizza Rusitca, northern style: it's a pie with a regular pie crust, filled with ricotta/egg mixture with cured meats, I often add chopped spinach or broccoli and some diced onion to boost the nutritional value. Frittata: you can use fresh veg, potatoes, etc. or use cut up leftovers. Some of my best frittata have been made with leftover lasagna. This is one reason why I freeze small amounts of leftovers. Eggs in purgatory, use a simple recipe: just tomato sauce, a pinch of pepper flakes and eggs. Serve with crusty bread. Sushi cake. Ok, it's not a traditional casserole in that it isn't baked. But, it's good in summer and can be assembled hours in advance if kept in the fridge. (it actually works better if you let the layers in the pan rest with some pressure on them for a couple hours) Use plastic wrap to line your pan, I use a round one.You can get creative with the rice, I make an orange layer with grated carrot added. And, I like to make an inside layer of sliced avocado, it does get exposed to air and doesn't turn color as quickly. Anyway, you can decorate the top and sides with all sorts of thinly sliced vegetables, Japanese pickles, etc. in addition to or instead of fish. Ideas.

Sometimes, it's for a deeper, more complex flavor. That said, I have been mostly doing single flavor stocks (just chicken and water, or onion and water) in the past few years and really like the clean, identifiable flavors.

I use a Cambro container for preferments that will be retarded under refrigeration. That and any dough stored in the fridge.

I don't like breakables in my kitchen, just like the work kitchen. I just use the metal half-sphere bowls from Ikea; they don't weigh much so you aren't lifting much more than the dough itself, they wash easy, won't break, won't spontaneously explode, can be heated with a torch if needed, and will take a lot of abuse from other kitchen activities.

Ratio is highly flawed, don't trust it. Professional Baking has most of what you are looking for, as does The Professional Pastry Chef, and the upcoming Bread book by the Modernist Cuisine Team will have more. But, honestly, there's already a ton of information online. (although the MC team should give us better data) And, of course, attending a culinary school pastry program will get you even more information. I don't know of anything that will totally free you from recipes. You may have noticed that there aren't any cookbooks or websites about free-form baking without recipes. In culinary school we memorize charts for things like ingredient amounts in all the types of custards, etc. While it's true that I can make a more informed guess about something (will it turn out as a runny sauce or a firm custard) I'm still mostly following formulas that I memorized. Even in master level classes, formulas are handed out and disaster may strike if they are not followed precisely. Sure, in some cases, you can make liberal substitutions, but in other cases something simple as replacing the recipe's orange flower water with orange oil will destroy it. And, or course, we use scales for a reason. Even simple American-style recipes which use volumetric measurements for dry ingredients are too unreliable for professional chefs.