Lisa Shock

Old Bay?

Ground flax seeds mixed with water make a pretty good egg substitute. I used to take whole flaxseeds and about double the amount of water and run it in the blender until thick. IIRC, it could be used ounce for ounce like eggs. (2oz = 1 egg) Agave nectar is a popular substitute for honey and doesn't have the issues that you may face with people not eating refined sugar because that's made with animal bones.

I have several ones without the fiberglass, I originally found them in kitchen stores. Amazon has a good selection, like this one from Wilton. Look for the ones that are solid colors. They can vary in thickness, but they all roll and bend a lot more easily than Silpats.

You cook the pasta in saffron water, just use a minimal amount of water. -And run a test before cooking the whole batch.

What if you made a s&p mix, to the ratio you like, and just had the cooks scoop out a preset amount like, say an eighth teaspoon per side? You could grind the pepper fresh daily and make up the mix in small batches so the salt doesn't sink too much. The bowl could be right near/at the grill with the measuring spoon in it.

One area of expertise to look at would be kosher parve desserts. They are dairy-free. They may contain eggs, and a test of an egg substitute would be required, but there is a long cultural heritage behind these desserts and probably some good methods to explore.

I agree with the above, I also refuse to use margarine. There are a few things where coconut milk or cream of coconut can replace dairy, but puff pastry and croissants just do not have tasty substitutes for the butter component. (supermarkets in the US offer 'pastries' made with shortening and they are pale in color and flavorless) I have made the old, 1950s era, mayonnaise cake with Veganaise and it tasted good, and was moist, it was just super-delicate and fell apart when I tried to decorate it as a 2-layer 8" cake. It might have been ok as cupcakes. I notice that most vegan cake recipes guide the baker to making cupcakes, IMO that's because the binders do not work as well and larger cakes simply do not have the needed structural integrity.

Don't forget that you can add the sauce to the veg and bring it up to a simmer before adding the pasta, or just serve poured over hot pasta, that will also help cook the vegetables. It'd like to pint out that I make a dish that is similar, but steams the veg rather than sauteing. I use my bamboo steamer and put the veggies in it to steam over the pasta water. If you prep the steamer first, the veg can be warming up over the pre-heating pasta water, and they will be done before the pasta. I also put sauce in a pint canning jar in the steamer to heat up. One burner and very little fuss.

I should mention that some items work just fine in 100% steel, like spaghetti servers -although I rarely use one. However, some items, if used in deep frying or just in/around heat for a while, must have an insulated handle of some sort -wood, silicone, etc. I wouldn't want to deep fry with a 100% steel skimmer.

O have to agree with silicone for spatulas, turners, and ladles. It doesn't scratch and works well. I like bamboo, but, it's really hard and scratches a lot of surfaces. Stainless for everything else.

Looks like Chef Dufresne is closing WD-50. NYT article. The last service will be on November 30. He made the announcement on Twitter, details are sparse at this time. Anyway, anyone dreaming of eating there needs to start making plans soon! "Nov 30 will be our final night of service at wd50. Come celebrate with us for the next 173 days. Stay tuned!! pic.twitter.com/DGnbfkkrV6 "

That sounds exactly like what happened to me, especially the early season part as mine were tiny new potatoes.

Penn Jillette - Great Green Gobs This is practically a classic American folk song, I recall it from my childhood in the 60s. It's also used as the theme song to 'Bizarre Foods America'.

Weezer - Pork & Beans

Here's a few: Monty Python - Spam Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches Harry Gibson - Who put the Benzadrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine? DeeDee Sharp - Mashed Potato Time B52's - Rock Lobster Jonathan Richman - I Eat With Gusto Damn You Bet Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy Dunno if parody counts, but Weird Al has a bunch of food songs: My Bologna I Love Rocky Road Eat It Lasagna Taco Grande Girls Just Want to Have Lunch Waffle King Addicted to Spuds

Yeah, I know, I usually add the vinegar to help the shaped potatoes retain the details of the knife cuts. It doesn't prevent cooking properly, I do it all the time, it just means that a thin shell on the outside of my potatoes doesn't get fluffy. (in the above case, I cooked the baking potato dice in water with vinegar and it came out just fine) As I mentioned in the potato salad thread, my potato salad is a showpiece for knife skills and the vinegar is the secret to the potatoes keeping their perfect cubic shapes. The other thing I have noticed in the past few months is newer types of potatoes at the conventional supermarkets, like Yukon Rose. I am wondering if some the Yukon Golds have been changed by some of the farmers experimenting with hybrids, or raising from seeds instead of seed potato chunks.

You do run that risk, I would just par-bake the bottom, with egg wash to seal it. However, that would need to be done right before assembly. A par-cooked crust won't hold well.

I recently got a bag of very small, new Yukon Golds to make a potato salad appetizer where I cut the potatoes in half and scooped them out and then served potato salad in the halves. They took forever to cook. My test half went really badly, it wouldn't scoop, even after boiling for 25 minutes. I wound up making the main 'salad' from some Idaho bakers I had and just cutting out the cavity out of the halves before boiling. I boiled for about 25 minutes in water with a little vinegar and salt. I thought they were done, drained and started to cool them, and then decided to eat one. It was hard. So, I started more water, just salt this time, and cooked them for another ten minutes. They weren't great, but, I had to present something, so, I assembled and went on my way. IMO, my potatoes were just too small, too young and did not have enough starch developed in them.

Looks like Bravo has a new addition to the Top Chef franchise: Duels, starting August 6. I'm torn about this one, it could be fun seeing previous TC contestants going one-on-one. Or the challenge rules could be so restrictive and convoluted that there won't be much for the chef's to do. I'm also wondering how much they're ripping off 'Knife Fight.'

You need to really think about the repercussions of turning the customer away. If he gets upset or offended, he will become a walking billboard spouting negative comments about your place. He can not only get on Yelp and TripAdvisor, he probably will tell a hundred or more friends and co-workers. You'll lose more than his business from that course of action, and, probably for a very long time. I'd say to suggest that management re-work pricing and wages and simply have a tip-free restaurant. More and more places are moving to this business model.

I'm trying to find the image I referred to, I think I found it in an online review. I know it took a long time to find. Now, I am hoping it was a real image, and not for the Denver Biscuit company... Just in case, here's a quick primer on how to spot a cut-in biscuit vs a drop biscuit. This article takes you through the process, and the photo with the hand holding the raw biscuit is very informative. That's what the sides look like, raw and cooked. Sometimes, the layers will slide around, which is what happened as they baked that batch. Normally, though, look for cut-out, geometric appearance (hockey puck, usually) and a thick side edge: http://www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_2842836 Here's a drop biscuit, one of Red Lobster's cheddar biscuits. Note how the texture looks like cake and is even throughout, no layers. It also has a puffy, cloud-like outer appearance with low sloping sides: http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/assets_c/2013/01/RL%20JIC%20002-thumb-300x224.jpg

The piped chocolates could be blooming because your hands are too hot and you're getting the piping bag too warm while piping. Your room might be too warm, or, parts of it might be, like underneath lights.

I can tell you, from looking at photos online, they are using a real cut-in biscuit, not a drop biscuit. Look for a recipe where you cut butter (real butter) into flour like making pie crust, and then add buttermilk. The recipe in Professional Baking is really very good. Also, try and taste just the top -some places brush the tops with butter, some with honey-butter, some with egg wash, etc. -That's usually easy to figure out. Good ingredients are key, try using cake flour. Some all-purpose flour in the North has as much gluten as bread flour, and doesn't make good biscuits. The other main thing is handling the dough. It needs to be handled gently, and as little as possible with cool hands. I like to give a couple of gentle 'folds' like croissant dough, it creates a layered structure. When cutting, cut straight down, do not twist your cutter, or, if using a knife, do not saw.

Here in Phoenix, I can buy pre-formed, raw flour tortillas that can be quickly cooked in a pan and are pretty good. I don't think many people would buy a machine to make tortillas, they are too expensive and not worth the real estate on the countertop.

If you can mail me one, I can reverse engineer it....