HungryC

A thin layer of softened butter spread onto both sides of the bread will keep the bread from going soggy. Not vegan, I know, but a time honored solution. Also, draping the cut sandwiches with wet paper towels before sealing in zipper bags or however you plan to transport them will also keep them from drying out. Thinly sliced radishes (food processor), lightyly salted, and butter are colorful & tasty. Or how about fresh dill, cream cheese, and cucumbers? I'm stuck in a sandwich rut these days: triple creme (in my case, usually Mt. Tam), Major Grey's chutney, and a bit of baby lettuce...if you can get some inexpensive Brie, it's a tasty combination. If you're using presliced sandwich loaves, an electric knife allows you to trim the crusts off of an entire loaf at once without shredding the soft bread.

I enjoyed Restaurant Sage.....had the shaved pear & gorgonzola salad, sauteed bacon-wrapped shrimp in butter & worcestershire over Anson Mills grits. This place ended up being right down the road from my hotel, and it has a congenial & spacious bar perfect for solo dining (nice patio, too). The chef circulated, even in the bar.

I think upside down is the way to go...I do this with mini pie shells. Dough pressed inside tiny muffin tins swells up too much to hold a decent amount of filling, so I flip the pan over and press the dough onto the outside of the cups, prick thoroughly, and bake. The crust browns & crisps, but stays relatively flat.

Mochi? Who doesn't love ice cream mochi....

Call the Thai embassy and ask where the cook buys his/her lemongrass! Some little asian shop probably has a regular supply, as lemongrass will certainly grow in the Roman climate. The neighborhood around pza Vittorio Emanuele is full of ethnic stuff, but I can't recall seeing any lemongrass....

If you hit Trattoria Cibreo (the lower-priced spot that shares a kitchen with the ristorante) right as the doors squeak open, you won't have to wait. I realize that this may be an unfashionable hour for Florentines, but it worked out as a great strategy for us at other (usually busy) spots last year.

The "credit for gardening and cooking?" part makes me laugh: you CAN take Agriculture I thru IV as well as cooking courses for credit (separate from Home Ec) at the public high schools in my region. D'you think Lesley Stahl has a clue about rural public schools? Snort.

Bump: I'm headed to Fun-Roe for the LA Historical Assn meeting next week. Any additional ideas on tasty food in the area? Planning to drive I-55 to I-20, at least going north.

My local farmer's market already won't allow backyard hobby gardeners...anyone vending must pay a membership fee, possess a product liability insurance policy, and participate in a minimum number of weeks per year to maintain their spots at the market. The local board of health also already restricts sales of prepared foods to those produced in a commercial kitchen. But, we do have a gov't owned commercial kitchen available for rent, so small value-added producers can still comply with the health regulations. Haven't seen the "egg police", so yard eggs are still very much for sale!

Have you tried the Lance peanut bar? IIRC, it tastes quite similar to the peanut plank. http://www.lance.com/html/shopping/shop03....?Cat=24&Prod=54

I love the ceviche idea, either in lettuce cups or on a rice cracker. A south american theme (departing from the oh-so-peruvian ceviche) might help to pull things together, and it isn't totally obvious and done-to-death. Grilled, chilled beef skewers with chimichurri sauce, grilled chorizo on skewers, yuca chips and a creamy dip, tiny creamer potatoes hollowed out & stuffed with a cilantro and corn salsa.....or cheese-stuffed arepas or tamales. You can serve caipirinhas, if alcohol is part of the event. If not, an acai juice spritzer or other exotic-fruit punch might be a good choice.

Back in my 1970s childhood, Wilton sold a shaped cake pan that would fit your specifications perfectly. It was a tapering half-round with a flattened topside, intended to portray the full skirts of a doll, who rested atop the cake. Alas, Wilton no longer makes this pan, but I did find one on ebay.. The pan features a hollow rod through the center, which allows for heat conduction through the center of the cake.

I drove from Ft Lauderdale to Key West and back last spring, and it was easy to avoid chains (or tourist traps with bad food) along the way. Search the FLA board for a recent thread on Key West for some good tips. Edited to add: here's a recent thread on Key West & environs dining.

International Scientific Supply has what you need. Food grade lye

Salty pork "seasoning meats" (bacon, tasso, ham hocks, pickle meat) will never go out of style in my kitchen. Perhaps the trend was driven by Cali-cuisine-brainwashed, orthorexic types who felt the need to rebel? 'Cause some folks never stopped using bacon in an unironic, unapologetic fashion: bacon slow-cooked with green beans, bacon-wrapped broiled oysters, rouxs made of bacon grease, a swipe of leftover bacon grease in a black iron skillet before the cornbread batter goes in... Hell, those bacon hipsters probably never even saved bacon grease in a jar on the back of the stove. Mere bacon pretenders, they were.

As well as quite differently in a home oven that can't sustain 250 C (480 F) in an even fashion, like a commercial brick bread oven.

Important point: the "wetness" of the finished dough is not merely a factor of the water percentage, but is also determined by the flour's protein levels & extraction. Regarding slashing of baguettes, it depends entirely on the method & flour used: slashing pain a l'ancienne baguettes made with high-ash french-style flour (not esp high in protein) isn't necessary and won't lead to increased oven spring/rising.

If the dough is very high hydration (like ciabatta), slashing isn't necessary (or traditional).

Sounds like you're describing a coconut grater, used to pulverize the flesh of fresh coconut for making coconut milk. See here.

Vegetarian gumbos are definitely part of the cajun/creole tradition....both seafood-only and completely vegan ones. Catholic fast days shaped south Louisiana foodways, and "big" fast days like Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday/Good Friday meant extra sacrifice (as opposed to regular meatless Fridays). Anyway, gumbo z'herbes is based on greens: an odd number, for good luck, added to a gumbo when you'd ordinarily add the proteins. Collards, mustard, turnips, kale, cabbage, beet tops, parsley, peppergrass, scallions: if it is leafy and green, you'll find it in gumbo z'herbes (aka gumbo verte or green gumbo). Some versions of gumbo z'herbes use a little ham or sausage as flavoring, which is removed from the pot before serving for a "meatless" dish. Here are some photos of my most recent pot of gumbo z'herbes. RE: okra--generally it is sauteed a bit before it goes into the gumbo pot, and it is usually cooked very, very soft (no crunch, very little "chew"). I've never encountered chayote (called mirliton in south Louisiana) in gumbo, though it is used to good effect in casseroles & stuffed with seafood. I think it would probably dissolve into mush in a gumbo....

Tomato aspic can be nice, though a little US-1950s-retro. My favorite beat-the-heat foods are seafood-based: cold crabmeat salad, shrimp remoulade, boiled large shrimp w/a couple of different dipping sauces. I also adore goi ga, a vietnamese shredded cabbage, mint, holy basil, carrot, and poached chicken salad garnished with chopped peanuts and crunchy shallots. The key is the dressing: pound a clove of garlic with a cayenne pepper until pasty, then add rice vinegar and a pinch of sugar & salt.

With KitchenQueen's encouragement, I used the beater blade to mix in chips & chopped nuts to a big batch of chocolate chip cookies on Fat Tuesday, and it worked like a charm. No straining, no weird noises, no damage to the silicone/rubber flange on the blade.

Is it NOT rising at all, or just rising slowly? A long, slow, cold rise is great, as long as you have time to accomodate it. When I'm unhappy with the dough's progress at room temp, I usually put it into a cold oven with the oven light turned on. In my oven, this results in a consistent, roughly 75-80 degrees when the ambient kitchen air temp is 65 degrees. On the other hand, if it is NOT rising at all (even at refrigerator temps, yeasted dough will eventually rise), you need to 1)check out the age/freshness of your yeast and 2)be sure you're not inadvertently killing it by adding it directly with the salt, or perhaps using water/liquid that's too hot? It is hard to kill off ALL of the yeast in a teaspoon, but perhaps it's a combo of old yeast and other factors that might kill it off?

On LA 415 (the road that connects I-10 with US 190 in Port Allen on the west side of the river), you can get tasty boudin at Bergeron's (plate lunches, too). Joe's Dreyfous Store is a little off of 190 near Livonia; I haven't been in recent months, but it is a pretty solid place. It had quite a following, changed hands, went downhill, closed, and finally reopened with some of the original personnel. In Opelousas, the Palace Cafe has a wonderful, old-fashioned, small town vibe with decent to good food. In Eunice, Nick's on Second is tasty. I dunno if Mathilda's Country Kitchen is still open, but it was a wood-frame BBQ shack with friendly proprietors. On St. Mary, IIRC.