Lisa Shock

Agreed with none of the above. I'm with lochaven, tonight I'll be watching the adventures of Walt & Jesse cooking up 'Blue Sky.' The BBC shows are waaaay better, and Bravo has Top Chef Masters in a new season right now -just not tonight. The only series I have watched on FN recently was a show that is currently in hiatus, Health Inspectors, where real health department inspectors helped people fix their restaurants. Even that was pretty overly dramatic and barely believable as a 'reality' show. I'd also like to point out that my cable operator offers 'On Demand' so you can catch shows you missed later. If three things are on at once, I can just watch two of them 'On Demand' -or record one with my DVD recorder.

Modernist Cuisine is very good for learning the science of foods and cooking as well as some food history. There's no one all-encompassing book on cooking everything because of the differences in the major world cuisines. Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking covers the basics of French cooking. (Professional Cooking, the Cordon Bleu's textbook, would be a good next step for French cuisine basics) There are other basic tomes for Chinese, Italian, etc.

I've gotten some yellow grape tomatoes that were really outstanding, purchased at Fresh & Easy, grown in California.

Alton Brown covers this in his 2006 Myth Smashers episode. Scroll down a ways to find the relevant section. For those too impatient to read it, it takes a lot of oil in relation to the amount of starchy water to prevent foaming and rolling. Foaming can also be prevented by simply using more water. Lots of oil results in oily pasta which doesn't allow sauce to stick to it and has an odd mouthfeel.

Innoseal makes a variety of sealers that automatically twist wrappers then wrap tape around the twist and cut the tape. The tape they provide is re-resealable and comes in several colors. You can also have them print custom tape. You've probably seen the seal on bakery goods, fruits and vegetables. I got one of their sealers a few years ago at Sur La Table and have enjoyed using it. They do make a sealer for pops, here it is advertized as being for cake pops, but anything with that sort of paper stick would work. (the person giving the bad review couldn't figure it out) This isn't the prettiest option, but, it is definitely fast.

C-CAP works with public high school students and gets them scholarships. They are a nation-wide non-profit and sponsor a series of competitions for the scholarships.

And, as I predicted, just like with Robert Irvine, the FN execs are already planning on bringing Paula back in1-2 years. Bobby Deen just filmed an episode of Iron Chef America. They film 6mo to 1.5 years out from the air date. It will be the perfect re-introduction for PD's brand.

In retrospect, Ms. Charles should have asked for some sort of profit sharing or partnership agreement in the business when she was tasked with creating and approving all of the standardized recipes. That, or a big consultation fee. But, she probably would have been turned down, and PD would have found someone else to do it. Lots of people help restaurateurs create their menus and recipes, catch is, very few of those businesses ever go on to being such big businesses. Still it has to be hard knowing that someone else is making big bucks representing those recipes as their own. I do understand that PD and family did spend a lot of time working the business, and they feel that they deserve the success from their hard work. But, they didn't do it on their own. I was surprised to learn that the recipes used at PD's first restaurant were not her own. The few times that I watched her show, I got the impression that her rags to riches story involved her as a single mom struggling alone, not as being part of a group project with her female friends.

Yeah, flour is a big deal for a diabetic, you could make the whole thing with artificial sweeteners and it would still be very problematic. The agave is digested a little tiny bit more slowly than sugar, but not much, especially after being cooked. Don't forget the carrots. They are very, very high on the glycemic index and forbidden fruit for some diabetics. -Especially when cooked. Overall, I agree with prasantrin; ask the client if they want an artificially sweetened simulacrum or a real cake. Most diabetics can take medicine to balance things out and would rather have the real thing.

Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Bernaise 'edited by' Justine Harding et al. I bought this online, unseen, while researching whether or not to write my own book on the topic. This book contains a compilation of sauce recipes from previously published sources owned by the publisher. There is no author given for any recipe, they just credit the editors of the source cookbooks. The 200+ recipes given include gravies, pestos, marinara sauces and fruit coulis. Only 17 of the recipes are for a mayonnaise, hollandaise or bernaise and those recipes are just the bare-bones classics taken/stolen from Escoffier, Mrs. Beeton, and other classic sources. If you own any decent comprehensive cookbook like Joy, Fannie Farmer, Escoffier, Julia's Mastering the Art, etc. you already have these recipes and far, far more. The binding is hardback, and that's the only nice thing I can say about this book. Amazon.com has copies for $2.45 and I am warning you not to waste your money on it, you will regret it.

They probably assume that you are draining the beans. And, no the bean liquid would not adding any binding abilities.

I should add that gelatin stops being a binding agent once it's heated, so, cheapo sour cream made with gelatin won't bond a burger that will be cooked.

If you raise enough to need to choose a diet, or want to challenge people to give more, or something, why don't you go for a truly historic one? You could eat like a medieval European peasant for a week, or pyramid building Egyptian slave, or a Chinese servant in the court of the Yuan dynasty, or somesuch.

Real sour cream (Daisy, Knudsen) is not a binding agent. Cheapo sour cream and imitation sour cream may have some binding ability if they contain gelatin. Non fat sour cream or yogurt should work ok in this recipe, they too are not binding agents. They usually contain a lot of starch which binds a little bit, think sauce thickening, but not enough to hold a bunch of starchy beans together. Potatoes have no binding abilities beyond weak starches. Once again, think thickening sauces not holding large chunks of anything together. Mashed potatoes aren't very well bound, not like an omlette or a loaf of bread, or bread dough. The bread crumbs are the binding agent in that formula. If you sub yogurt, make the burgers fairly quickly, the acidity may break down the bread crumbs' gluten and lessen the binding ability.

I don't get it. Seems like it would get a lot of gluten development in the defrosting and subsequent folds.

Great! I didn't know that! So, you mean that so long as the root stays in tact, we're golden for much longer than w/o it? Yes, as long as there looks like some little bits of root, you're fine. I routinely keep partial onions for weeks+, and, even if there's just a little left it still works because it's still alive. Avoid buying onions that don't have any root, they will not last. That said, if you leave a partial onion with the stump on it in the fridge too long, the center will start to grow. -There's nothing wrong with that, it's just uneven to cut.

With elderly people, medications may be an issue: no grapefruits, nothing with vitamin K, etc. You might want to ask about this first.

The mystery has been solved! Ruth is actually Josh Friedland, a freelance writer.

Sprouts, if you have one, carries the whole corn. Try a natural grocer.

That's mostly a myth. It takes over 2.5 hours of simmering to get down to only 5% of alcohol left in food. Here's info from the USDA on how much alcohol remains in food after various sorts of preparation: Alcohol Burn-off Chart Preparation Method Percent Retained alcohol added to boiling liquid & removed from heat 85% alcohol flamed 75% no heat, stored overnight 70% baked, 25 minutes, alcohol not stirred into mixture 45% Baked/simmered dishes with alcohol stirred into mixture: 15 minutes cooking time 40% 30 minutes cooking time 35% 1 hour cooking time 25% 1.5 hours cooking time 20% 2 hours cooking time 10% 2.5 hours cooking time 5%

Thanks for working so hard for this project. I think it's about time that such a museum existed. I think that many people don't really know much about the history of food, and this is a great way to help them discover the past.

Could be the pipe going into the house. Here in Phoenix, the size of pipe allowed under zoning laws differs for houses vs commercial applications. So, a stove in a restaurant gets fed (usually) about 50% more gas than a home stove.

If you only need to use half an onion, use the top half. Cut it at the equator and put the bottom half, with the root stub intact, in a plastic bag or wrap tightly. The onion will still be alive and will last much longer than diced onion, or any part cut away from the root.

You need to look into your local area's laws about managing/working in a bar. Here in AZ, managers (which is what I guess you'd be during the project) have to be certified by the state: take a class, have a background check, and get fingerprinted. A bar owner would be insane to let someone run their place without the certification; the penalty if an owner is caught include large sums of cash, jail time, and, losing the right to ever own or work in a licensed establishment in AZ ever again. You'll probably also need a food handler's card. You're going to need to develop a relationship with an owner. I think what they would want is an assurance that it will make money, and, that you won't require any extra work on the part of the owner or staff. They are not going to want to do anything much extra just to indulge your dream. Also, they will definitely want to retain control of cash handling, so, you'll have to work out how to direct the customers to pay. But, then, if they pay with a credit card, you need to get your cut from those receipts. Whoever does the books is going to have be able to work out your split easily.

Springform pans will leak eventually. In culinary school, I was taught not to use them. We made cheesecake in regular cake pans. One way to have a super-crisp crust is to bake the cake and crust separately and only unite them when served. Usually with some sort of pate sucre, or other dough type crust that can reliably be moved around as a disc.