emilyr

You've missed it for this year, but Inside Columbia Magazine (Columbia, MO) threw a nearly week-long Food and Wine Festival last week. I didn't go, but it seems like what you're searching for. Fine dining, cooking demonstrations, wine seminars and matching classes. They should have pictures up soon and info for the next one next year.

I've always just kind of assumed that a slush is a suspension. As the syrup/water mix freezes, the water freezes separately from the syrup which has a lower freezing temp (so the "slush factor" comes from water ice and syrup liquid). As the suspension rests, it separates, and the syrup sinks to the bottom.

OMG, Pille. Yum!

When we do them at church, we use an electric skillet. You can do about 18-24 eggs at a time, then we transfer them to the hotel pans and baste them every 5 minutes or so with melted butter to keep them moist (and one guy says to keep them from turning green in from the pans, but I don't know about that). Usually 2 or 3 people bring in their skillets, so we can make quite a lot pretty quickly.

I really like an Earl Grey that has double the bergamot than usual is my favorite with chocolate. Stash makes a good Double Bergamot Earl Grey that's pretty widely available.

Amazing looking dishes, everyone, as usual! I cooked dinner last night for mom and my brother's birthday (which was Saturday). I made a chicken marsala-esque dish with a local wine (Les Bourgeois winery's Fleur du Vin, from Rocheport, MO) and morels mom got from a co-worker; and I made risotto for the first time and simple microwave greenbeans with garlic. The family (except for brother who is UBER picky [doubly frustrating because I was trying to recreate something HE like in a restaurant! ]) seemed to like it, but I was disappointed with the chicken. It was alright, but not the dish I was hoping for. Not the best showcase for the mushrooms either because I think I let them cook too long. Next time I will use heartier shrooms. The sauce turned out ok, though, and the risotto was fantastic. I had never made it before because I'd only ever been able to find long-grain rice in my small town. Finally Wal-Mart started carrying some, and I think it will be a semi-regular menu addition. So easy and yummy. I carmelized some Vidalia onions as the base.

Add me to the JJ lovers list. There was one a block and a half from my apartment in college, and they still delivered! I could order a sandwich, hop into the shower, get into my PJs and head downstairs to meet the delivery guy. Plus, they were open open til 2 am, so were often on-call for the post-bar hours. And they would deliver a loaf of day-old bread and 4 pickles for only a $.75 charge. Great for four really drunk colege girls! And none of that has anything to do with the food. I've tried every sandwich on the menu, but usually get the Tuna or Turkey iterations. Their Vegetarian is REALLY good too (I'm not usually a fan of the all veggie subs). And Re: the bread: buy the loaves of french bread on Saturday night (usually from the early afternoon bake). Leave them on your counter overnight. Sunday morning (or, more accuratedly, Sunday afternoon) slice them thick and make french toast! Yum!

My go-to Cinco de Mayo "Mexican" chocolate dessert is to make a regular brownie recipe (I use the Joy of Cooking recipe) with cinnamon and chilli added to it, as well as dark chocolate chips or chunks. I use a combination of a smoky chilli like ancho chilli powder with cayenne for a bit of a kick. My best friend made cupcakes a while ago where she mixed a brownie mix with a cake mix and they were really good. I was considering doing this for my recipe this year.

Nakji - this looks looks like my favorite kind of salad. I love noodles or rice mixing with the cool crunchy salad. Good job, but sorry about the dressing. I'm curious, what are the pink strips under the tomatoes?

Is that like a meringue cookie? We always use a paper bag, but once, my grandmother talked about baking them on racks covered with old linens or tea towels. I wouldn't call it a tea cake, though, other than the fact that they could be eaten with tea.

Also - MO has an official tree nut (Eastern Black Walnut) and an official grape (Norton/Cynthiana). If you have the nuts on a cheese tray with a Norton wine, would that count as dessert?

Maggie - you seem to have put a lot of bags into this one. I just have a question: are you splitting the bags into strips or just crocheting them in one piece? That seems like it would be thick. I'm thinking of starting one myself, so I'm curious.

I'm all for the white cheddar popcorn. I have to only buy it once or twice a year, or I eat a whole bag. Also, it's good that wasabi peas only come in small cans around here, or I'd be eating them all day.

I had a roommate in college who had to watch her sodium and used NuSalt religiously. To me it tasted like sprinkling your food with aluminum foil. It's definitely salt-esque, but not salty.

Here's the final menu. Still no pics, because I forgot my camera again. Apps. Spicy shrimp skewers Figs in honey and olive oil Soup Beet vichysoisse Pea Soup side-by-side with creme fraiche Main Beef tenderloin with bell pepper and mushroom stuffing and red pepper sauce Lemon glazed parsnips Asparagus with dijon viniagrette Connecticut corn pudding Salad Baby greens with toasted pecans, English cucumbers and persimmons Dessert Pistachio Napoleons with berries This was quite an experience; I'm tired now and we only worked on it a few hours each day. I hope that everything goes well and wish I didn't have to work, so I could be there for service. It was definitely fun. I got to make recipes I've never tried before - like pastry cream for the Napoleons. I'm not a pastry person, so I was a nervous wreck making these today - puff pastry and pastry cream! I may be doing more cooking with my aunt in the coming weeks. Her doctor told her to stay off her foot for a few more weeks, so I will probably be going over to help get things done around the house, including cooking, hopefully!

This isn't really MY dinner, but it is A dinner...My aunt volunteered to cook a large meal for a group as a prize in a charity auction. She's a fantastic cook and was a columnist for the Food section of the local paper (and something of a local celebrity for her cooking skills). Unfortunately, she broke her toe quite badly over spring break and can't stand for long periods of time. She also had to reschedule this dinner a few weeks ago when she had flu for several days. So I went in today to do some prep and will head over tomorrow to help finish up all the rest. (No pictures because I forgot, but I'll try to get some tomorrow.) We made 2 soups which will be served poured into the bowl side-by-side, one is a beet vichysoise (sp??) and the other is a pea soup. These are so great. I like peas a lot, and was quite happy to scrape out the pan (with my finger!) before it head to the sink. The beet soup is a very pretty pink, and will have cream added to it tomorrow to make it nice and light; the pea is a lovely leaf green. The main will be a beef tenderloin stuffed with sweet red peppers and mushrooms. I made the stuffing today and the sauce that will top it of sweet peppers, beef broth, butter and sour cream. One of her stand-by dishes and a family favorite is Paul Prudhomme's Connecticut corn pudding. Made the base today - I'll have to add beaten eggs and milk tomorrow and bake. We're serving these turned out of individual ramekins, but the recipe is huge, so I'm hoping for leftovers! It's full of all kinds of good things like ham and peppers. The other sides, we'll be making tomorrow - something with parsnips. She had a friend help her make mushroom croustades yesterday, and the other appetizers we made today: honey and olive oil baked figs, spicy shrimp (from the Silver Palate cookbook, I think), and asparagus tossed with viniagrette. For dessert, we were going to prep the makings of pistachio napoleons, but didn't get enough white chocolate - we'll have to do those tomorrow. She also had quite a collection of fruits and berries, so there may be some other desserts as well. She makes the lists, I just follow directions! Most of the time, I really hate sharing the kitchen with another cook, but my aunt is one that I love cooking with, especially today. She looks over the recipes and chops things, while I stand at the stove, carry heavy stuff, do dishes and other stuff that requires moving around.

So here's Inside Columbia Magazine's Best of Columbia List. Juar in case you're wondering!

If you're looking for more pastry-related ideas, I think smoky would be a good addition to something like cinnamon rolls or coffee cake - not particularly "fancy" but I think the smoky/spicy/citrusy would be a really great combo.

I use the orange cleaning products that are out and about. Orange Clean is one brand, I think. Anything that says it contains real orange oil. I know that sounds contradictory, but it works.

A little more sugar? Can't hurt to try. Maybe 2 T instead of 1? Or maybe the zest of 2 oranges but only the juice of one (if that's where the source of the sourness is).

Oh Yeah! WurstFest is great. Also much bratwurst-loving happening at Hermann's Maifest and Oktoberfest.

I've never been to the Brat Days in Sheboygan, but there's a Brat Festival in Madison. I stopped by with a friend on the way up north. All it was was a big tent selling brats served by local "celebrities." No craft booths or what have you, but I think part of the time they had a polka band. I think it was around Labor Day weekend.

What's in this drink?! ← You drop a shot of Irish Creme - usually Bailey's - into a nearly full pint of Guinness and chug. They're quite disgusting, mostly just cause the idea of chugging a perfectly good Guinness (much less one contaminated wtih Bailey's) is just so wasteful to me!

I haven't caught this one yet, but volunteered at the True/False Film Festival this weekend in Columbia, MO and saw two really great documentary shorts about food in group of shorts called Working Title all about work. They were "ShikaShika" (about a family that heads into the Peruvian Andes to get ice to sell as snow cones in the Sunday markets and "Bread Makers" about an Edinburgh bakery that is staffed by adults with learning disabilities. They were both so great. "Bread Makers" made me hungry and "ShikaShika" made me cold!

My b'day is St. Pat's day and so is my best friend's husband. She's ended up being very busy on her birthday this year a few days before ours, so we're all celebrating together. I want to really blow everyone's socks off with the cake this year, but I'm not a super experienced baker. Last year I did a Guinness cake which everyone loved, but I'm thinking of making it an "Irish Car Bomb Cake" (being a St. Pat's kid, I've been forced to drink at least one of these monstrosities when we go out that night, but I think the combination might be improved in cake form) this year - Guinness cake and Irish Creme spiked ganache filling and icing. What do you all think? edited because i can't spell