Lisa Shock

Organic unbleached flour helps, too. That and filtered water was all we used in a sourdough master class I took.

Most would give it to you, I think. I have seen people selling various things online, with all sorts of claims. It will change over time based on what you feed it and your environs, so, you will lose the original yeast fairly quickly.

Their farms have to be in the far south, where winter doesn't have much of an effect on plant growth. When I lived in Maryland and raised cattle, next door to a dairy farm, we had snow off and on from October through April and relied a lot on hay, silage and feed grain to keep the animals alive through the winter.

I believe that it's wax and/or silicone impregnated paperboard. Someplace like Uline should sell it, you might have to call and ask them about it.

We used to have our rep from each major distributor fax us a price sheet weekly on our top 15 items. We had the rep come over and bring samples and info on each item before making the lists up -obviously there were sku and name differences on each list but they were as equivalent as we could get. Dunno if anyone will still do that.

I've been very pleased with them all the way around. They ship really quickly and everything I have gotten has been very good quality. I got a small steel table there in an odd, small size. It's just an 18 gauge table, but, it's better made than any I have worked on at school or in restaurants. IIRC, it was delivered a couple days after ordering.

I make gravy from onions, it's sort of a pureed french onion soup thickened a bit. You can freeze the onion soup before it's gravy, and have gravy ready really fast. Here's a basic recipe, I rarely measure anything when making it, sorry. Onion Soup base: Olive oil white onions, 4+ large ones you want to start with what seems like a LOT of onions dry sherry salt water dark, Chinese style soy sauce or Bragg's aminos (for color) fresh thyme roux: oil AP flour Peel and thinly slice the onions. Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a tall stockpot. Add the onions and a teaspoon of salt, and cook on fairly high heat, stirring frequently. Cook the onion mass for at least a half hour, an hour is better. The onions should be browned on the edges. You don't want totally caramelized onions, you just want them sweated and a bit browned. Add a tablespoon or two of sherry and allow the alcohol to cook off. Add water to the level of the top of the mass of onions, a half teaspoon of soy sauce, some fresh thyme leaves stripped from the stems, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste and add salt as needed. If the color needs a boost, add tiny amounts of soy sauce until it looks good. You don't want a distinct soy flavor. Simmer to incorporate the final additions, serve hot as soup. Freezes very well. For gravy, allow to cool and puree in a blender or with an immersion blender. To make gravy, make a dark roux with oil and AP flour and slowly stir cooled soup into the hot roux and allow to simmer and fully thicken. This gravy also makes a good base for a vegetarian stew; cook chunks of potato, carrot, pearl onions, whole mushrooms, sliced sunchokes, etc. in it and add a few frozen peas just before serving.

This particular nut roast may well be delicious, but growing up in a vegetarian family, some iteration of this has been the Thanksgiving centrepiece every year, and they've never been even close good; in fact, I'd describe the texture, scent, and appearance of every single one I've been coerced me into eating as being the exact opposite of festive. If something like this is being considered, a trial run is a must, in my opinion. I became vegetarian in 1979 and have eaten a lot of group meals with vegetarians and have also never had a good nut roast. I'd really rather just have a series of decent sides than something posing as a main dish.

I egg wash the interior of the bottom crust before filling.

Question for Lisa: do you pierce your potato? Yes, I do! So, oops, I missed a step in my instructions. My mom had some potatoes explode in the oven once because they weren't pierced, my family always pierces now.

I am a vegetarian. I usually just skip serving any sort of meat analog stuff, since it's not all that great. (I really, really hate Tofurkey.) There are literally hundreds of things you could serve for this meal which is essentially a harvest celebration. HERE'S this year's suggestions form The Well, with a link to over 600 recipes. If you feel like you need a main dish, the stuffed pumpkin is big enough to qualify. I feel that cranberries are essential, I prefer the fresh/raw relish type made with orange juice. I also serve some sort of dressing/stuffing but, sometimes I do wild rice, sometimes I do blue cornbread with green chiles. If I do the the wild rice one, I sometimes serve stuffed mushrooms as a starter; they are stuffed with a bread-based stuffing with chopped granny smith apples and nuts.

I am curious about this. Honestly, after I've finished off most of the potato and toppings, I get out a sharp knife and cut up the peel and eat it. It's really one of my favorite parts. Not to mention that I've always been told it's got lots of good nutrients. What is the advantage of having no peel? The peels contain the glycoalkaloid poisons solanine and chaconine. Most of the time, the levels of these is low enough to not do much harm. (That said, even low levels can affect a patient's reaction to anesthesia, so consumption of anything in the nightshade family up to a week prior to having a surgery is not advisable.) But, if a potato hasn't been handled properly (too cold, too hot, turned green in the light) levels rise and a person can be poisoned. Growers try to keep the levels low in new breeds, but, like any vegetable, individual specimens may have varying characteristics. People occasionally die from the poisoning, but, it's pretty rare. In 1979, in the UK an entire boarding school was poisoned by potatoes served for lunch, 17 boys were ill enough to be hospitalized. I myself used to experience frequent stomach discomfort when eating potatoes. Once I stopped eating peels, I got better. The method if pretty simple: pre-heat your oven to 500°, peel some big baking potatoes like russets, rub with oil, sprinkle with a little kosher salt, place in the oven on a tray or just on the racks, bake for 15 minutes then turn the temperature down to 250°, keep baking for another hour. They develop a crispy shell that is clean and smooth with no iffy spots.

Mine don't have a real peel, because I use a method I heard James Beard talk about on the radio which creates a crispy crust on the outside of a peeled potato. That said, I cut down the middle, fluff, and pour on beurre noisette and sprinkle a little salt.

Antique dealers buy it up. Go to an antique mall and you'll see tons of it. I think you're just not as fast as the pickers.

Here's a quick treat, it's something pastry chefs whip up for special desserts or to make something quickly for a competition. Pour some corn syrup into a small bowl or measuring cup, maybe a 1/4 cup's worth, and add a drop or two of water based flavoring and stir well. Then, add a couple of random drops of food color and don't mix it. Prep a sheet pan with a sheet of parchment or a silpat, the silpat works better, and preheat your oven to 400°F. Use a teaspoon to scoop up some of the syrup and smear it into 1"-2" diameter circles with at least 2" of space between them. -The more random the color placement, the better. Bake for 10-15 minutes (convention helps) or until the syrup bubbles up then stops. Remove from oven before it browns or burns. Be careful, these can burn you very badly. If you handle them with gloves, you can quickly place them over the back of a ladle or small bowl to make them into bowls to hold desserts or other interesting shapes. You can just allow them to cool, too. They will cool into a delicate, lacy hard candy.

Don't forget that you can keep all the trimmings in a plastic bag in the freezer, then make stock when you like. This way, you conserve a little every day with very little overall effort. Tomato Mushroom Garlic Beets are ok, but color the stock very, very pink. This is fine for a lot of applications, but, some may find hot pink risotto off-putting. As stated above, use the corn to make its own stock. Potato makes cloudy stock and the flavor isn't worth it in most cases. I don't use broccoli or other family members because of the smell. If you can stand the 'boiled cabbage' odor in your stock, then use them.

I am on the fence here. I think it sounds tasty, but, I wonder if the ginger flavor would disappear or worse, burn as the sugar caramelizes. I'd boil a tiny amount to caramel stage to test it. Good luck!

In culinary school, we were taught that the standard breading station for deep frying was flour, egg, then bread crumbs -or a replacement like crushed corn flakes. We also learned batters like tempura and beer batter. I've never seen raw, dry flour on the outside layer for deep fry. Can you reference a recipe? I have seen variations on flour and herb dredges, with and without egg, for sauteing. But those are usually recipes where a pan sauce is made and one function of the flour dredge is to cook the flour a bit before it becomes part of the sauce.

Whose Amaretti? I haven't found a commercial brand I like. Actually, now that you mention it, I used to get Lazzaroni and liked those well enough. They have disappeared from places I shop regularly here in Phoenix, it's been maybe 3 years or more, now that I think of it... The Virginia ones seem to have taken over, and, I'm not as fond of those.

Lisa, what makes you say that? I would think that the cell walls would break down but release a more non-viscous liquid, as so often happens when you defrost frozen stuff.... Growing up, we had a big garden and sometimes things would get a touch of frost and have weird textures and ooze odd things. I should have been clearer, yes, actually being hard frozen through would have resulted in a limp slimy plant and a bunch of excess water. But, sometimes, just a little frost or cooling to just above freezing does odd things to plants.

Might have been caused by an accidental freezing.

Used to be Pepperidge Farm Brussels, until the company reformulated all of the cookies in the early 80s and Brussels no longer resembled its old self. (a pair of lace cookies with a lot of chopped nuts sandwiched with very dark chocolate) Current favorite: Amoretti.

I really enjoy my FoodSaver, I even use it for keeping cat food fresh. I also own one of the original Rotato peelers. I have used it to make garnishes and bird's nest potatoes. There is an electric version now, but people complain that it isn't as sturdy as the original model.

I am in the Orange Punch crowd that Mr Wondrich writes so eloquently about. (although sometimes I use clementines)

My condolences, Dave always wrote with insight, wit and clarity. His writing helped us all join in as part of his life. He will definitely be missed.