castironchef

Savory or sweet? If you've assembled your souffle properly, they can be held for a few hours before baking.

I've deep fried candy bars, chocolate chip cookies and pieces of pumpkin pie. Yes, lots of beer was involved.

I'm holding out hope for the continued existence of the world. However, if you hear that the Semi-Ho Maiden (Ms. Lee, that is) is ever on ICA, that will be a sure sign of The End.

Are you willing to make them? We're doing sheet cake. I'm considering a pastry platter. My son likes the idea of a tower of donuts. ← If your reception were closeby, YES! Actually, it would not be difficult. Set the cobblers before the ceremony. Put them on (and under) the heat at the start of the ceremony. They'll be ready by the end. Surely a couple of Scouts could take turns watching them.

I have the same one (as best I can tell) and love it.

Congratulations! You've GOT to have some Dutch Oven cobblers, don't you? - Castironchef Scoutmaster

The potential for contamination is on the outside of the meat. The insides are sterile. If you get a steak or other chuck of beef and clean it, you don't have a problem. Thus you can slice and eat. Or, cook the outside to high temps and leave the inside either cold or barely warm and, still, no problem. You could even hand grind it and have no problem. The BIG problem is when you have a large industrial operation and you don't meticulously clean the chunks of beef before you grind. None of those operations can, without fail, clean all that meat and quite a few use "beef recovery methods" that are best left to another post. Given that mutant e. coli contamination is rare (let's say one in a thousand), then there's very little risk in taking a chuck of beef and grinding it. However, if you routinely take thousands of chunks of beef and grind them all together, or at least with the same equipment, - like the major processors do - then you have a significant chance of contamination to all of your product. As much as I LOVE rare hamburgers, I really don't want one from a restaurant where they buy from one or more of the mega producers. Only your small place, where they can grind their own, can safely serve rare burgers. The best solution is buy and clean your own beef and grind or chop it yourself and grill to your personal specs.

Actually, I prefer to use 151. I get good flavor, high octane and it doesn't cut the wonderful viscosity of great egg nog. Oh. Freshly grated nutmeg is a must.

Harold McGee's On Food And Cooking (the revised version) Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For the Food & I'm Just Here For More Food. You have enough books full of recipes. These will show you what's going on when you use those recipes.

Here's the deal: The great Chinese restaurants are small and heavily patronized by Chinese. No true San Franciscan is going to tell you about them on the web, for fear that once the tourists figure it out they'll NEVER be able to get a table. Either check with a friend from S.F. (BTW, "SFO" refers to the airport, not The City) or search out a small place in the avenues with a line of Chinese waiting to get in. That'll be the place for you. Just don't expect any more than one employee to speak any passable English! Good luck!

San Wo's!

Oh bother!

It's definately the humidity. Why, oh why, are meringue figures (in this case, mushrooms) mostly needed in the winter when, around here, we have rainy and humid weather? Regardless of how dry you get them, they'll turn to mush. Fortunately, when they're mushrooms, they'll look just fine, even when their consistency is that of a marshmallow. I also bake a specialty cake for which I make a large ax out of meringue. In the summer, there's no problem. (Not much humidity in Northern California.) In the winter, forget about it!

Since I was child, when we decided that mom needed to have fun on Christmas, too, we don't do a traditional Christmas dinner. (That's for Christmas Eve.) Instead, we go out and what's open? Chinese restaurants. Not much of anything else. So now, going for Chinese on Christmas day is a family tradition.

Something's wrong with your "nonstick." I've never had to oil, butter or spray any of my Teflon and Teflon-like waffle irons. Nor do they require any cleaning (except for the wet rag to clean up the occasional batter overflow. Now, my stovetop cast iron waffle iron is a totally different story. I always have to oil it. However, I don't have to clean it, other than to brush any crumbs off of it when it finally cools down. Also, I second the above advice about never peeking. Even if it doesn't split, the waffle will never brown right. Good luck.

What about Julia Child's first cookbook, The Art of French Cooking?

Shockingly rude and inconsiderate. I trust that the guest who brought this saboteur was suitably embarrassed.