gfron1

Beautiful. Is the child holding the fruitbowl made of chocolate or just made to look like chocolate?

And how about millefeuille's pronounciation?

This topic has been added to the Southwest and Western States Index. You can find it HERE. Thanks for the report!

I'll spare you the true confessions of all of my mis-pronounciations of various pastry terms (of many languages). But, I have heard schooled pros making many of the same mistakes, so here is my attempt at correcting my pronounciation of the pastries I have made. Anyone want to help us phonetically challenged bakers? Tuile (I called them twees forever) Genoise (My friend called it a jen-oy-see) Crepe (Not creep, but is crehp more appropriate than crayp) Bavaroise (bahvahrah, bahvahwah...) Dacquoise (duhqwah, dahqwah...) Gesztenyetorte (I won't even try) Macaron (French, not coconut) (I can't even check my spelling because there are so many errors on the internet.)

I don't believe I've seen that pic yet How did it work out?

A day late and a dollar short - but that does look super. I'll get it on my to-do next weekend also. Thanks.

Tri2Cook - see the difference in our guts? I used Valrhona which is so dark - what did you use? I wonder what the taste difference is?

All of the components are finished. Patrick A will be assembling it for me tomorrow - geez I hate doing that to him! I ended up combining a few of these ideas based on my time, skill and what I had on hand. The base is a puff sprinkled with demera. Hazelnut pastry cream. Layers of fillo sprinkled with butter, sugar and toasted hazelnut crumbs. Orange whipped cream. Decorated wth a dried pear sheet which was splashed with rum. Sprinkled with more hazelnut crumbs. Plated with 70% ganache ribbons, and orange sauce and pears poached in muscat. If we get a pic, I'll be sure to post. Thanks again everyone.

Be sure to check out some of these topics in the index, some of which might be useful HERE.

Fantastic demo - thanks! I've heard about that process and have tried to mimick, but its never quite the same.

I recently bought Ortiz Familia Reserva Bonito Tuna which touts itself as an aged tuna resulting in a more mild flavor. Does anyone know about this stuff? Does aging matter at all or was it a good reason to charge more? I tasted a very subtle difference, but really didn't care.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I'll be whipping something up in the next two days, and I'll let you know what we ended up with.

My understanding of their explanation was that gas was playing a huge factor (but we saw those price increases a year or so ago). This new increase is due to the trucks being fuller. More is being shipped (much out of the country), so the trucks don't have room, so they raise their rates. I know that I have a truck that does the LA to Houston run weekly (carrying just one pallet for me). My previous driver was charging me $195 per pallet. After a year of business he said that he only did "full trailer loads," which meant I was out of luck. My current driver (of 2 years), has kept the price the same but I've been watching his trailers get fuller. He started with 1 trailer, now he has 2 and they are almost at capacity. And the math is easy...stop 20 times per trailer to make deliveries, or make 1 stop for a single delivery. In other words, supply and demand.

Your question made me re-think my comment above because I've made it with both, and when I did a google search I found both equally used. I'm not sure which is more traditional, but it probably depends on what texture you're going for then.

This has been going on for a couple of years, but recently my distributors seem to be sending me price increase letters on a weekly basis. The latest from a German foods distributor is citing these figures: -Milk 50-80% increase -Wheat 64% in the past year -Milk Powder 70% in the past 8 months -Cocoa 49% in the past 8 months -"Auxillary ingredients" (such as lactose) 250% in the past year They're citing bio fuels, poor harvests for grains due to environmental conditions, and major shipping channels being overloaded and thus raising their prices. This really seems out of control. Being a skeptic I never know if these figures are legit or padded to make an extra buck, but either way, prices are going up and so get ready to pay more at the grocery.

I know when I worked at Keystone Ski Resort, we ate like kings in the back room - salmon and fillet every night! I think its a fair representation of the buffets. We actually got so sick of it that it was a joy when the chef would make a special staff meal.

Geez gang...I have all sorts of friends who have dietary needs and I don't put my energy into worrying about how they respond or what monopolizing may happen - that's their crap to keep. I enjoy the challenge of making great foods under unusual circumstances - meaning their restrictions. I like to pick the brain of folks with dietary needs so I can have a better repertoire. But I certainly don't put energy into all the drama around it - its just not why I cook. (For the record - I eat anything and everything and love it)

Growing up we did weekly with a monthly Sam's Club run for stock up. As an adult, I used to do weekly trips (never on weekends because of the crowds - a dislike I learned from my mom). My weekly trips were focused around coupon shopping. With the advent of Trader Joe's I then went weekly starting at TJs then to the big box. Now, we don't really have coupons in our community, nor do we have TJs (thank goodness for my store's survival), so we plan out 3-4 days (for produce freshness). My weekend meals start with farmer's market finds when in season. My schedule would not allow daily shopping (except at our store), but that sure would be our preference.

My apologies if you've already done this but there are a few previous topics that touch on vegan foods HERE. Also in the Pastry & Baking Index we have a section on special diets that you might find helpful HERE.

I'll be in town Sat-Thursday morning and have reservations at Fruition on Tuesday. Let's see...that leaves Sat, Sun, Mon and Wed for more food! Unfortunately I'll be stuck in the Westminster strip mall hell at the mercy of taxis. Is there anything worthwhile up that way? I'll also see if I can't get to Domo based on the above rec. Are there any unique or exceptional pastries (not bars and brownies)? If Desiderio comes out of hiding, I'll be buying some chocolate too.

I've only made it this once (although I plan to make it again this weekend), but I modified the recipe due to time constraints and peeled the citrus so I had less pith than the original recipe (if you do this you have to add juice back in to get the moisture level correct). I think with the sugar bath as suggested in the recipe it would be fine. I liked the purity of my modification however.

Insider info: My store had been buying ground bison from north of Taos for $4.50/lb from a family farm that processed at a university. They just raised their price to $6.00/lb and she still rarely has enough to give me. The family sells to restaurants and stores but does the bulk of their business at farmer's markets. Unfortunately for my customers, they've priced themselves out of our market for the most part. I'd like to see someone corral up all of our javelina (wild boar) and domesticate them. I hear the taste isn't as pure as pig (which to me is a plus).

An earthy, fall struedel with raisins and dried apricots. If you're too busy, cheat and used store bought puff.

You can find it in the index under Special Diets - Almond Cake. And it truly was a fantastic cake - I wish I could take credit for it, but the recipe is The Old Foodie's.

Silver Leaf.