rickster

Although piping out the meringue on the parchment circle it the best way to do it, you can also spread it with a spatula in the circle as well, if you're careful.

New Homeowner, what other restarants do you like in the area?

Since you and Funcook were at the same restaurant on the same evening and your experiences were very different, maybe Funcook can elaborate on the problems with the food. My experience has been that it was OK, but I have not been there in a while.

In retrospect, the post from New Homeowner looked a little suspicious since it showed up in 3 different threads with the same wording at almost exactly the same time. While I thought the restaurant was better the last time I went there about a year ago, I hadn't been in several years and haven't been back, since in wasn't very compelling. I was hoping it might have improved. Obviously not.

I did not mean to imply this is a good thing.

Having a high number of "hobbyists" in a class is going to change the nature of the instruction just through their classroom interaction. If 100%, or a significant portion of a class fails, someone is going to start questioning what is wrong with the instruction or what is wrong with the type of students admitted to the program.

I wonder if the gelatin trick works with sorbet? Although you would have to heat either the puree or the syrup to melt the gelatin.

You might have more luck posting this question in the New England forum rather than the China one.

Thanks for the advice on Hunan Gourmet. I have been there several times although only once in the last year or so and thought it was OK, not great. It was definitely better the last time I was there than on previous visits. It might be a question of communicating to the staff exactly what you want as you did. It might be worth another try.

I have not noticed a difference, but my oven is very new. My understanding though is that because of the heat radiant qualities of the tiles or stone, they help maintain an even oven temperature, which could obviously be a big help if you oven has problems maintaining a set temperature. There are recipes that call for example, baking 10 minutes at 475, then dropping the temperature to 400. With the stones, you might expect the drop to occur more slowly, but I have not noticed any problems with this.

I can't answer the type of tile question specifically. I use a pizza stone I bought from a kitchen supply store that works perfectly well for most applications like tart and pie baking. I only wish it were bigger for bread baking since it limits me to one boule at a time, although I can bake 2 baguettes on it. The stone stays on the bottom rack of the oven (electric) virtually 100% of the time no matter what I am baking, broiling or roasting. Besides bread, tarts and pies are baked directly on the stone, which greatly aids browning the bottom crust. You just need to make sure the stone is properly pre heated. Cakes and cookies/biscotti are baked on a middle rack or higher above the stone, not on the stone. I am not a fan of leaving a pan of water in the oven, and prefer to spray the interior of the oven a few times in the early stages of baking with a spray bottle. Note that either of these techniques only applies to bread baking and some similar yeast raised pastries (croissants, danish). In particular, I think leaving the pan of water in ruins the texture of croisssants and danish, even though it is recommended in Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible.

These thin sheets sound similar to something I used to see in the stores called teflon sheets. They were as thin as parchment but were grayish black. I tried them but found them annoying to clean for some reason and switched to silpat when they came out.

I find Penang Grill inconsistent. Some very good things, some mediocre ones, although I usually use them for takeout, since seating is so limited and maybe that is affecting the quality. I have been to Asiana once and thought it was very good.

Sutter Home is a big generally low end wine producer. Red zinfandels can be a very good thing, white zinfandels basically not.

Not only that, I had a Calphalon pot that got all discolored from having some acidic tomato related sauce sit in it too long. I bought some Calphalon and was then given some AllClad. I'll never go back to Calphalon.

I don't use my airbake much, but I do prefer it for baking biscotti, since it tends to keep the slices from browning during the second baking.

Not sure what this proves other than I used a bad recipe, but last week I tested out a new chocolate chip cookie recipe baked on Silpats and the balls of dough barely spread at all. Thinking that the problem was possibly that the Silpat inhibited the spreading, I baked the second batch on an Airbake pan with parchment and got exactly the same result.

I use SIlpats all the time and like them alot. Much easier to use than parchment. However I do belive that cookies cook slightly differently on them so I'm not sure all recipes will come out perfectly (this was discussed on a macaron thread). For sheet cakes I prefer to use parchment though. I worry that the batter may seep under the Silpat, although I've never tested it.

I've on occasion seen the San Pellegrino products at Trader Joe's in the Northeast (the Aranciata and Limonata). I'd expect they'd be in the Chicago stores too.

I agree. I'd think you could blot up almost as much fat using this method as using multiple layers of towels. The little fat you couldn't get would be pretty insignificant given the amount of bacon most people eat in a serving.

This a little unfair to Miller. Miller set up ASCBCo hoping to take advantage of the boom in craft beers that appeared to be imminent in the early-mid 1990's, and entered into partnerships with a few small breweries. You can argue that Miller did not know how to market it, but it is also true that there was a boom and bust in the craft beer market and many breweries and brew pubs went out of business. The venture was a steady money loser for Miller and it was clear that there was never going to be a decent sized market for Belgian style beer in the US. I believe they tried to sell it but were unable and decied then to shut it down.

Thanks. I had already spoken to them to confirm that they were open. They are definitely high on the list.

Sounds like the bottle I have is no good too.

The fruit has to be warm to get the sugar, butter and cinnamon to melt into it, if you're going to use that recipe as a base. Orange flower water and Rose water are traditional in Middle Eastern desserts, which Nigella's recipe seems to be a take off on. Both have a very delicate taste so you have to be careful what you combine them with so as not to overwhelm them. Having said that, and assuming you're not into doing a baked dessert, you can use the Orange flower water in a basic fruit salad pretty successfully. Epicurious.com might have some recipes.

I should have mentioned that I will be in Halifax on a Sunday. Little did I realize that many of the higher end places recommended on this thread will be closed (Chives, Da Maurizio, Il Mercato, Bish).