emilyr

We do have a turkey fryer and we're not afraid to use it! I am lacking a good batter recipe though. I've tried many, but the one I looking for is the crispy, CRUNCHY, batter dipped chicken fingers like the the Village Tavern (Chicago people! if you know it, spill it. Please) makes. I hate to be so... whatever, but it's like Long John Silvers, but crispier and CRUNCHIER. ← I think beer batters are the best when you want something crispy and crunchy. I don't know amounts at all, but i do some flour and corn starch (about 3:1, I think). with just enough beer to make it a bit thinner than paste. Dust the tenders/fingers with a bit of flour so the batter sticks well, batter, and fry away.

Here's another event coming up this summer in CoMO: Inside Columbia's Wine and Food Festival. Just thought I'd throw it out there. It's still a long way off, but I think I'm going to the Cocktail Competition the magazine is throwing this weekend.

I got the Pampered Chef Microplane Adjustable Grater, Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (I'm a HUGE Terry Pratchett fan!), and Julie and Julia.

We got some Girl Scout cookies at work today as a preview to the selling season. Those Thin Mints should have been scared of me!

Here's an interesting story on this topic. Victoria and Albert's restaurant at Disney's Grand Floridian Spa is not going to allow children under 10. >clickety< I don't really care if whether restaurants ban kids or not (in my opinion, loud and obnoxious adults are way more disruptive - and they should know better!), and, to me, it seems to be up to the owner's perogative. I'm really just intrigued that it's a Disney property that's doing it.

Our NYE midnight breakfast turned out to be the perfect thing for our group. Many people had to work earlier that day, so we didn't get started til about 9 pm. Started out with some champagne cocktails (apricot nectar, ginger syrup and cava or OJ and Asti), mixed drinks, Strongbow hard cider, beer (and beer and beer and beer) and some nibbles - dark chocolate truffles with candied ginger, M&M's, crudites and some mango. We played Guitar Hero for a couple of hours (well, mostly the boys did ) and started cooking dinner around 11:00. My best friend Brandy made some great quiches - they were not too hard, only 4 eggs each, lots of cheese and half-and-half, very custardy - and a hash brown casserole (more cheese!!!). I brought some orange, caramelly cinnamon rolls that i baked right before we ate. Our friend Kirk made some homemade doughnuts (cinnamon coated or with chocolate icing). Marlene and Matt made Bisquik pancakes with bluberries, strawberries or chocolate chunks. Somebody (I'm not sure who) brought some cheese-filled smoked sausages. I have a feeling that there was something else on the table that we ate, but with the help of a few more champagne cocktails, we decided that it would be brilliant to do countdowns for every time zone in America. Blargh. I was very happy that I was not hungover this morning as we rose at 9:00 to root on our Missouri Tigers in the Cotton Bowl! I'm working now, so black eyed peas are going to have to wait for this weekend. I hope you all have a great 2008!!!

It's been a while since anyone's mentioned McKenzie's. My Christmas bonus from work this year is a gift certificate from there, so I'd be interested in what people think. I like steak fine, but I'm not a huge steak person; is it good for other items?

Several of my friends are working on the day of NYE, so we're not starting the party til 9 or 10. SInce most will have eaten some dinner before then, I'm thinking of having a midnight breakfast. My plans are for a couple of strate or potato tortillas with rosemary/pancetta/asiago and one with chorizo and chiles or something (So I can make them in advance then stick them in the oven around 11:00). Bagels maybe (if the bakery's open) or some quick breads. Fruit. Cheese. Mimosas. And something else. I haven't decided yet. We'll see how drunk my friends plan on being!

what about cracking them into a big plastic colander? something with biggish holes over a mixing bowl. it should work like your hands or a slotted spoon.

Ooh! I am! I make the ginger snap recipe (except I think they call it a ginger thin - i'm not sure) from the '73 era Joy of Cooking and load it up with chili/pepper powders and some fresh grated ginger too - call them atomic ginger snaps. Last year I used ancho cili powder for smokiness and straight cayenne for spice. (PS - I can't tell you exactly how much I add because I just do it to taste, but I can tell you don't do it based on the taste of the dough - the flavors get much stronger when baked!! just trust me on this one!) I roll them in demarara sugar for a crackled, crunchy outside. They're also great because you can get different textures depending on how you bake them. For chewy cookies I go with a heaping teaspoon ball and bake til they're not quite set in the middle. For crispy cookies (which I like the best), smaller balls - roughly half a teaspoon - baked until they're cooked all the way through. On cooling, they have a great snap. Back OT, when I was out east this fall, I had the Ithaca Brewing/Soda Company's ginger beer. It's good, but a bit sweet. Also, a chain restaurant around here HuHot has ginger beer that I go back for. The foods ok (build your own stir fry), but the ginger beer is not only spicy and tasty, not too sweet, but has extra chunks of grated ginger added to it for service.

A bit of serendipty - I thought this recipe sounded great and was all ready to look for recipes, but this Finnish spoon cookie recipe showed up in my email as one of the Food Network's 12 Days of Cookies. I may have to try these this weekend.

I'm working on figuring out which cookies I'm going to make this year, and tried this Emeril brown sugar shortbread with the addition of a bit of vanilla, some ground ginger and pinch of cloves (maybe a 1/4 tsp of each - I don't actually think they made a big difference). Instead of a springform pan, I used a stoneware shortbread plate, and next time I will porbably leave out the cinnamon and sugar that I put on the bottom instead of the top (since the bottom became the top when it was flipped out). They stuck just a bit in the middle. Then again, maybe they just need more butter! I think I'm going to add these to my Christmas goodie bags. They make pretty, tile-like wedges, and I'm always looking for a good non-peanut, non-chocolate cookie.

If you're doing a refrigerator type sugar cookie, it's fairly easy to add several different kinds of additions. Alton Brown adds peppermint and chocolate to make pinwheel cookies here, and I always use the Joy of Cooking basic cookie recipes. I think the new 75th anniversary edition has something like 13 different versions. As to adding cocoa, I've always done it with the eggs after creaming the sugar and butter. I don't know if there's any benefit to this, but it's the method I've always used.

wax paper

Empires have been on sale around here for the ast few weeks, so i've made a couple of apple crisps and cakes with them. They work great and are a bit too tart to eat straight out, but perfect for baked goods. The price for them has been between $.99 and $1.19 per pound, so they're a great deal too!

Yeah, that what I thought of this weekend too. I think that's probably what we'll do. Thanks!

My mom and I wrap together and often my sister, brothers, dad, cousins, friends, whoever's in the house jump in and help out too. It becomes a bit of a gabfest. If no one else is around, we put on an awful Lifetime movie or a plastic surgery show and ewwwww our way through it or just bring the pan and a good knife to Grandmama's and let people cut off what they want and forget the wrapping! ETA: Here's a question, do you wrap with a package-type fold or twist the ends. We're twisters for the most part unless the caramels are getting packed into smallish gift boxes.

One of my best friends from college and her parents are going to be driving home from their Thanksgiving celebrations through Columbia on Saturday, and we're going to go out to lunch. Where should I take them. It needs to be fairly casual and easy to get to from I-70 (though not necessarily right off I-70) because she gets lost easily . Downtown is kind of my target area so that we can walk around and "sightsee" or window shop a bit after. I was thinking maybe Booches. We've all eaten together before when I stayed at her parents cabin up in Northern Wisconsin and we tended to go to pub/roadhouse type places, but it doesn't have to be quite that casual.

Carrot tops, to me, have a taste somewhere between parsley and fennel fronds. I thought I saw Alton Brown make glazed carrots and top them with the greens, but I can't find the recipe. I think that would be a good use. Also, I like them in carrot slaw type salads. Outside of carrot dishes, they're good on salads and with chicken soups. I like the flavor with cream soups as well.

I like savory or herb-y french toast. With cheeses. Maybe with seared foie gras? Or a savory jelly?

This is the recipe I came up with last year when my brother requested GBC. I may do some crispy fried onion strips on top this year for crunch.

I had my third one in two weeks today (since I saw the "McRib is Back!" sign outside my local McD's). I would never try to figure out what's in them. I couldn't do that to myself. When I once worked at McDonald's as a teenager someone asked me what was in them, then said almost immediately, "No, wait, don't tell me! I don't think I could it eat it then!" and then proceded to order 2. I always get extra pickles (the sauce is so sweet, I need the sour), and the onions at my store are real, not the reconstituted ones from the hamburgers - I know because I had to slice them and I'm a severe onion wimp. I always looked like my mom had just died when I was done!

Thanks everybody! I'm so excited to try this out. I'm already not the greatest crust maker in the world, so I'm glad to find out that this won't throw a major kink in the works.

I was watching Pushing Daisies tonight (my new favorite show - and great pie shots every week!), and Chuck made her cheese loving aunts (she grew up with them calling the fridge the "cheese box") an apple pie with monastery cheddar cheese in the crust. Last week she made a pear pie with a gruyere crust (pear gruyere hee hee). I'm just wondering if this would be possible. I'm assuming you'd have to use a fairly soft cheese. Or maybe just something well grated. Would you need to decrease some of the fat in the original recipe to compensate for the cheese? Or increase the flour? Mmmm . . . I'm just imagining something like a grape pie with a nice brie crust or a mushroom quiche with an asiago crust. Thanks in advance for help wtih this! Emily PS - I love this show - they just referenced They Might Be Giants - "build a little birdhouse in your soul!" - - love it!

Is this technique called spatchcocking? I'd read about it but it sounded intimidating in the source I read, but this doesn't sound so bad. I may try it.