Lisa Shock

Some ovens have two internal controller mechanisms that regulate the temperature, one of yours could be broken. Do you have a pizza stone? If so, place it on the bottom rack, or, if you have a sealed element bottom, place it directly on the bottom of the oven. It will help keep the oven at temperature because it's a big heat sink. On the cake front, are your eggs fresh? When you cracked them did they have lots of firm whites and very little thin whites? Old eggs don't have the leavening power of fresh ones. Old eggs also don't have as much intact protein in them and protein is one of the ingredients which firms up during cooking and holds air bubbles in place. With old eggs the air bubbles tend to deflate due to a lack of protein. There's an old myth that old, room temperature eggs are best for recipes calling for whipped whites. The old whites appear to whip of wonderfully, and it happens really fast. But, once added to a batter, they have no structural integrity and result in product that doesn't rise at all, or product which rises and then collapses. One other tip is to really thoroughly cream the butter and sugar. I just read advice from Shirley Corriher recommending creaming for seven minutes in a stand mixer. But, that's probably not signficant enough of an issue to affect your outcomes so drastically.

Did you run vegetable oil through it after your last use?

Chocolate itself has hundreds of flavor components, so adding curry to it is muddying the waters a great deal. I am not really familiar with curry chocolates, so I must recuse myself from this part of the conversation. One quick taste I give to newbies is have them taste a bittersweet chocolate, a really dark one. Most tasters will say that it's really bitter and not really sweet at all. Then, I have them taste a really tannic red, like a Sangiovese, and then the chocolate again. The chocolate will seem very sweet after the very tannic/big Sangiovese. You have to just taste various wines to see what matches with it. Often the matches are very random. I used to work at a wine bar and we discovered that one of our very dry rosè lambruscos matched really well with a raspberry filled chocolate candy. We just randomly discovered this, having the candy at hand and several hundred wines to taste with it.

It's not really my place to make generalized statements about what other people should eat or not. I did genetic screening, and I know that for myself, it's better to not eat some things (coffee) and better to eat others. That said, my rule of thumb is to try not eat anything that's advertized. (tv, online, in magazines, etc.) I figure that anything that needs a marketing budget isn't heading in the right direction. Yes, I occasionally eat chips, candy, crackers, etc. (you can see my post reviewing test flavors of Doritos on this site) but I try to limit it to maybe once a week. And, I generally prefer to make snacks from scratch because I can make them taste better. (they might be marginally healthier, but, I don't fool myself into thinking my homemade potato chips are health food) In general, I think we are being inundated with more and more advertizing (for all sorts of things) and don't really stop and question the whole situation much. Most processed foods are the cheapest possible ingredients in the smallest possible amount for the largest amount of money the market will bear. The manufacturer isn't looking out for you, they are looking out for their bottom line. I made a meal recently for friends and as part of that meal I made a simple red onion rice pilaf from scratch and blew everyone away because all they'd ever had was pilaf from a box. I pointed out that my recipe involved an extra two minutes of work (dicing an onion and sauteing items in order before adding stock) than the box, produced more than twice as much food, and cost less to make. I wish I could give that demonstration to more people, especially kids, and show them how to cook and eat better -while saving money.

The old serving sizes weren't determined by doctors or nutritionists, they were at the whim of the manufacturer. Often times they were ridiculous when they were originally created. Comedians made fun of the 4 servings per pint of ice cream from the very beginning of the program. Nobody buys a pint of ice cream to feed a family of 4 dessert. The elephant in the room has always been that many of these processed foods never really had a 'place' in a well-balanced diet, especially on a daily basis. But, manufacturers wanted the public to think they could easily incorporate them into their everyday routine. There has been a lot of psychological research done by the big food producers to craft these labels so that the food remains as appealing as possible.

The serving size change should be good, IMO some manufacturers have given arbitrary serving sizes in the past so that their product appears to be more healthy. I have seen servings listed as 2½ per can of sports drink, or (everyone's favorite) the 14 liquid oz package of ice cream labelled as 4 servings. The other trick that I am sick of is the small portion size to disguise the amount of man-made trans fat in a food, like the deceptive way that girl scout cookies are labelled. (I gave up trans fat in 1991) Many of the cookies have serving sizes stated as 2 cookies and the grid portion of the label says 0% trans fat. But, hydrogenated oil is one of the ingredients. They are allowed to say 0% because each serving contains (barely) less that 1 gram of it. So, if you eat, say, 4 cookies, you get something like 3.6 grams of trans fat. If you eat the whole bag, you get 18 grams, or more. BTW, there's increasing evidence that antibiotics affect our internal microbiome and cause us to become fat without any increase in calorie intake. Farmers have known this for over 50 years and it's why they feed livestock low level of antibiotics -they speed up growth and fattening without any extra feed costs. http://www.wired.com/2012/08/antibiotics-obesity/ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/opinion/sunday/the-fat-drug.html edited to correct math

Jon Favreau has a film titled Chef which is opening in limited release today. It won't be showing in Phoenix/Scottsdale for another week or so. Right now, the Rotten Tomatoes score is holding at 88%. Here's the trailer. I like a lot of Favreau's work, so, I am curious about this film and will go see it as soon as I can. Just wondering if anyone has seen it yet, and how accurately the cooking life is portrayed.

Wikipedia is missing some entries, here is a more complete list of American food holidays. I suggest 'Eat Like a Pirate Day' - take a large group of friends out to eat, and spend lots of money and give generous tips (maybe include a piece of jewelry with the tip), like a pirate ship crew on shore leave after scoring a big haul. Pirate attire optional.

BTW, Fry's which is part of Kroger's empire, had these for $1.88 a bag.

What if you made a wine gelee from a really fruity wine like a brachetto, then cut it into discs and layered it into the serving cups? (the bubbles will make it interesting looking) Maybe do dark mousse in the bottom of the cup, then the gelee, then a more milk chocolate or white chocolate mousse on top. Or, make the gelee fairly firm and mold it in fleximolds to make small cups or bowls and pipe mousse into them... Let your boss know that, while tasting wine with chocolate is a common event, mixing the two isn't so common. You have to be careful, both wine and chocolate contain a LOT of flavor components and you're risking getting a muddy mess, flavor-wise.

I tried them, they were all too weird for me to eat more than a few. I got them in Phoenix at Fry's supermarket. The blue bag was too spicy for me, the spice hits you pretty late and then takes over. It did have a distinct smokiness which I liked, I was guessing that it was some sort of chipotle flavor. If it were just not so spicy, I think I'd like this one. The orange bag is kind of odd in that it's sweet and spicy, which normally would not be bad for me, but, it's just coming out as 'wrong' in my head. (I loved Poore Brother's 'Calypso' flavor potato chips.) The red bag definitely has a strong 'Doritos' cheese taste, but is also spicy. It's not bad, it's just not really exciting.

Singapore Rice Noodles might be something to consider. (I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek with the currywurst suggestion. I first heard about it from someone who just raved about it, it wasn't until I looked it up that I discovered that it's just cheap sausage with a mix of commercial condiments.)

Yeah, with convection, it doesn't matter so much. My cheapo stove is not convection, but, being just a couple years old, it heats pretty evenly. (I have tested it.) Yes, the upper rack(s) get a bit hotter, but, I just pull the cookies from there faster, and then move all the other sheet pans up. Anyway, having seven racks instead of two makes a huge difference in the amount of time and electricity (no gas in my neighborhood) I use baking off cookies, crackers, etc. If I get nervous about opening the door too much, I leave my pizza stone on the bottom shelf, where it normally lives anyway. I own a MC steel but have not tested it as heat sink in the bottom of the oven yet.

Gotta love dual ovens that are tall enough for more than a couple racks, that's really a beauty! One suggestion, I don't know how many oven racks came with your stove, but, you might want to check out the manufacturer's website and see if they sell more if you don't have one for every groove/slot. (hopefully, you have a place to store some while not in use.) I'm set up so that my modest cheapo stove can have a rack in every slot, if I wish, and this way I can bake off seriously large quantities of cookies. I don't use them that often, but, when I do, they are very helpful in cutting my baking time way down and using less energy.

Have you looked into vacuum sealing them?

Hmmm, will look for it an my next trip to the super-big asian market. I'll also check out the Indonesian aisle for peanuts. Gonna be a few days, though.

You could always make currywurst from scratch.....

Do you start with raw nuts and roast them before grinding them? I find that roasting right before using the nuts really makes a big difference. I even make peanut butter in tiny batches that I consume in a day maybe two max.That said, different types do seem to have different flavor, I tend to prefer the 'Spanish' ones.

1) plain, unfilled, in a dry container with desiccant packets then fill to order 2) Chocolate and a stencil, however, it will be very delicate handwork as they break very easily.... You could print using one of the sugar icing printers and attach a printed sheet with a dot of chocolate.

Or, if you happen to already own one, this would be a good use for the Modernist Baking Steel.

I have always had issues with freezing potatoes and just generally avoid doing so. I freeze stews then reheat with raw potato in them, long enough to cook the potato. I'm not all that fond of frozen potatoes either, and I can spot a frozen french fry a mile away. (frozen fries are terrible if cooked then left to get cold, fries made from fresh are still edible if they sit around and get cold) I just don't think there's an easy solution for the problem. The additives you mention are probably for things like purees, like cream of potato soup. They don't make a lot of sense for a chunky stew where they won't penetrate the insides of a 2" hunk of potato.

I'm thinking a late summer harvest theme. Drink: Daisy Buchanan (cheat: make it as a punch with white wine instead of champagne) For the vegetarians, I often take a vegetable biryani to Thanksgiving meals for vegetarians. It's vegan, so everyone will eat it. (don't make the mistake of thinking that the vegetarians will eat dead animals like fish, or even eggs, unless they tell you otherwise) It's good, and meat eaters take home leftovers and ask for the recipe. I make it with a modified fried rice method: The day before: Cook some Jasmine brown rice (salted water) and refrigerate it. Cooks some garbanzo beans, from dry beans, in water that has salt and cumin in it. Refrigerate when done. Saute carrots in oil with lots of ginger, stopping when they are still a little firm. Keep going with whatever vegetables you have at hand, cook each in a different spice that is compatible with a mild curry but slightly undercook it. On the day of, saute a diced onion and the rice in oil with a little curry paste in it and pour into a chafing dish/hotel pan. (It's supposed to be mildy fragrant with spice.) Heat up each of the vegetables one by one in the same pan/wok and pour into the chafer. When finished, stir to distribute evenly and keep warm. This will keep well covered for hours. Another entree, one that could be made with meat (as well as meatless with beans) and rice, or barley, bulghur, etc. is a medley of stuffed roasted vegetables. The filling can be made days in advance, and softer vegetables (eggplant, bell pepper, zucchini) will roast very quickly so you're mostly just heating them through. You can take this in many directions depending on how you spice it: Middle East, India, French, etc. They can have a sauce (cabbage rolls) or not. (when I do cabbage rolls, I cook red lentils mixed with jasmine or basmati rice and add lemon zest and juice to the water for the vegetarian rolls to give them a bright flavor) Sides could include roasted vegetables, like eG's popular roasted cauliflower, baked potatoes with a toppings bar, roasted root vegetable medley, etc. Make sure to have a great salad. Perhaps a mini salad bar would be in order, with a couple of dressing choices and toppings like sunflower seeds and nuts. The vegetarians will eat the salad, and it can be a fallback for anyone on a special diet. Fresh fruit is also appreciated for those who might have issues with dessert. That said, sorbets are a dessert that most people will eat without arguing over whether or not there are eggs and/or dairy in the shortcake, etc.

I don't know how much this will help, but, you might try soaking the rice for about 45 minutes before cooking it.

The problem I see is that many foods have little quirks that are really specific, for example, ginger will coagulate milk into a custard if cooked at a precise temperature. If you wrote a recipe for a drink that involved milk and infusing ginger in it by heating then cooling, your reader would be surprised to no longer have a drink. You'll also get flavor interactions that you don't expect. I mean, I have thought of things that on paper sounded tasty but turned out to be oddly flavored, bland, and oddly textured. Other times, I have come up with combinations which exceeded the sum of their parts. (butter & teriyaki sauce)

I am just like you with regards to coffee. I can always taste it and it ruins the chocolate. I just add more of whatever liquid is being used (like milk in a cake) plus, I add a dash of chocolate extract. I used to buy chocolate extract and got varying product flavors, nowadays, I make my own. Just get some EverClear then freeze and grate some good chocolate into it and wait about a week, or more if you are patient. Then strain and use. (keep in a tightly sealed bottle) It gets weirdly cloudy and I have not been able to fix that, but it doesn't really matter.