gfron1

Yes they are more chewy than crumbly - no crumbs missed my mouth in the eating of this cookie And yes I did use the whole clove for the stem. The orange water/sugar dipping process formed a glaze, so while the pic makes it look like there was loose powdered sugar - there wasn't.

Amygdalota me Orange These are almond cookies dipped in orange blossom water, powdered sugar, shaped like a pear. A little distraction from pig snout desserts

So here's the lay of the land... Yes, the course feels set to me as well, however, I have two days of utter madness in my life - that damn cheese bust is going to be the death of me! So, I hope you all keep sharing ideas, because two days is a long time in my mind. I've switched my brain from "what should I do?" to "can I pull off this technique?" So, I'll be rushing around until Sunday trying to figure this out - as the light bulbs turn on...please share because I may toss it all out and start from scratch. Tonight, however, was our bubble drink party. The fact that we had a bubble drink party should tell you how rural we are. We are about 3-5 years behind the coasts. I'm going to get posting the pics in the dinner thread. NOTE: For the record, no dirty gossip was shared with me about Ling as I alluded to previously...Ling has accrued celebrity status among eGulleters, and so she has become a target of jabs and jokes. All in good fun

promiscuous?...exotic...fulfilling flesh... You naughty boy!

I'm not ignoring these suggestions - all very helpful, but I'm in the middle of boiling my bubbles for tonight. I had a very successful trip to my butcher. Now I've got a team of carniceriadors (I may have made that word up) rooting for me in Spanish. I have paper thin beef steaks, and my kidney fat...I haven't made up my mind but its coming together.

Here's a thread that gets into the conversion info. BTW, my sheets are 2.5.

Cheeseheads...there's a nice article in the NYT in the Dining section. Just an FYI. BTW, this weekend is my monthly cheese party. Not a very exciting one - German cheese in honor of National Cheese Month and Oktoberfest. Pics will be posted.

Well I'm awake now and can unequivocablly say that I will not ask anybody to suck the dessert out of a pig snout. S_Sevilla seems to be channeling my thoughts right now. All of these ideas are really great and I can't wait to make a decision...however, last night I got to make a greek cookie for a friend (I'll post in the dessert thread later), and tonight I have my bubble drink party - and there's still that cheese bust I need to carve. I'm also heading down to Deming today (1 hour south) to go to my carneceria for the suet in case I happen to use it. I will also say that the backroom drama is much more intriguing than what the masses read on this thread. You would be surprised how many PMs have hit my box with secret tips, hidden secrets, and dirty gossip. Shame on you Ling...I never knew you were like that!

OK, here is brainstorming gone awry. While I keep pulling away from the bison, I am drawn to it like an auto wreck on the side of the road. So tonight my spouse and I played more with the idea and could I actually pull off a sweet buffalo sheet. The idea that ended the conversation went something like this... "I really think pig is the way to go." "What part?" "How about snout?" "Snout!?" "Yeah, you could fry it, and hide something sweet inside, then ask the guest to suck on the snout to get the sweet out." On that note...good night! edited to add: In all seriousness my greatest dilemma is whether to go gimmicky or make something that any other human being might be intersested in making. If I do the snout, I'm inviting Ling for the first taste/suck

It will happen in the cheese thread - the funniest part is that I asked his wife for pictures of him so I could carve the cheese, and since its a secret, she took them while he was asleep. He's turning 85, and the pictures look like they came straight from the mortuary (he's one of the alivest people I know), so we'll be sure to post the picture with the sculpture

Thanks Ludja - you always have great ideas. I was playing with the idea of a green chile chuntey...I need to get the primary dish figured out. Ling, why do I have the feeling I won't know what I'm going to make until it hits the stove

A co-worker had a suggestion, which follows many of yours, and honors my desire to have a local/regional flare - mincemeat tamales. We're we're having some language difficulties in communicating with my local carniceria...but I think I'll have some fresh suet be the end of tomorrow.

I assume Lorna went through the same thing last week - I had trouble falling asleep and woke up very early with ideas running through my head. Since this is a challenge, I feel like I should stay away from duck fat, and other things that are incorported into a dessert. What I'd really like to do is have the animal product be the focus of the dessert. I had to look up the definition of animal to see if bugs were fair game. Coincidentally, we're in the tail end of our tarantula mating season, so those nasty suckers are everywhere right now...but not for long. Renka, your comment intrigues me because I've felt drawn to the mooncake thread...drawn enough that I've been looking at buying a mooncake mold. I have a antique Chinese store nearby, and I just happen to be visiting that area tomorrow - so if they have one, maybe I'll see that as a sign. My wake-up thought was focused on bison. I was thinking of a paperthin sheet of bison (cut against the grain), soaked in an infused simple syrup (maybe sage), cooked somehow (possibly fried or boiled in sugar water) to make it very delicate and edible, with green chile chutney, and accompanied with a sage mousse. Clearly my sleep turned me to a conceptual dessert which I am in no way commited to, but I love the idea of making this dessert scream Silver City. All of these piece may prove to be too much in the end. To add to the drama, I've accepted Lorna's challenge on a week where I'm throwing a Japanese potluck tomorrow night (I got a Bubble Tea Party Kit , a cheese cutting party on Thursday night in preparation for my monthly cheese party (we're having German to celebrate Oktoberfest) on Saturday night, for which I agreed to carve a lifesize bust out of velveeta blocks of a friend for his 85th birthday. That on top of running my store and my full-time job running a meth treatment clinic. Now that my excuse and whine is firmly established...I'm awake, enjoying my Peet's coffee and raring to go! Thanks again to Kerry for unleashing the beast, and to Ling for the challenge. Edited to add: And Jackal, I still think an interesting take on mincemeat might be fun since I've never had the real thing, and we're approaching the mincemeat season.

Hmmm...I'm a duck rookie, and live 3 hours from any major city, so we'll have to see what I can get. I can say that I'm racking my brain to see if I can use local animals - javelina, rattle snake, bison, etc.

Animal product!??? Wow...well, OK. So I accept wholeheartedly. I'll post a bit more for background in the morning, but it reminded me of my fried peach skins that looked like bacon. My very, very initial thought is incorporating fish into a sweet paste and boiling it as a noodle - never done it, don't know if it would work, but its a starting point. Also, feel free to clarify the challenge if I stray from the original concept like if you're looking for a big piece of flesh draped over a chocolate cake (I gave up my veggieism about a year ago thank goodness). My other thought is that I want it to be accessible but a bit over the top. So that's it for now. All I have to say is I am very honored and can't wait to get going. As my spouse said, "You were challenged by the only EGulleter to have their own verb! Wow!" So, I'm off to out-Ling the Ling!

A perfect start to this challenge! The bar has been set...

Any idea if these recipes are any good? If not I'll have to play around with them... Also, I've checked and its not the ...pita. It was definitely a cookie, not cake.

Could be?.....I don't have anything else to add. I'm on the hunt for a friend.

I'm looking for a recipe for a Greek pastry/cookie that I think is called amygdalota. It is a slightly chewy cookie with almond slivers and its not crumbly...any ideas?

I'm not sure if this is the best wedding cake unless you are Chelonologist (I had to google for that word!), but it is amazing.

Thanks Shaya. I figured that a dark chocolate would go best with the 5 Spice, so I used my favorite - El Rey 73.5%. And because it was so dark and spicy, I knew I needed to cool and sweeten...hence the mango. It was a really nice combination.

Not really a dessert, but served this morning also...sugar and curry roasted pistachio with soy nut and raisin

Here's what I took to church today for social hour: 5 Spice Chocolate domes filled with Mango Puree. and Chocolate Tulips (store bought) filled with Almond Cream, layered with brandy and Cherry Confit, topped with a brandy soaked cherry.

May, be sure to post a pic - I saw your post in the dobos thread and I don't know if I've seen one of these before. Thanks

Vanessa and Kerry - those are all beautiful! I can never seem to quite get the sheen that you two do (I haven't taken the time to really understand tempering). And Kerry, I just returned from our county fair and spent too much time in the pig exhibit - they aren't quite as cute as your pigs.