gfron1

I have no idea if using that story is doable since the author has/had rights, Gastronomica has/had rights, and now the publisher of BFW14 has rights. And FauxPas, we should PM because I'm doing a couple of pop-up nights in Tucson very soon, although Silver is a great place to visit.

I mean use that chocolate as the chocolate you'll take to 45º, then seed with new back down to 32º. But again, i would just warm it all back to working temp...but I'm lazy that way.

Interestingly, they just released the article to the public: HERE

You'll get different answers but since its going on the bottom, I would carefully re-warm to working temp and go ahead with it. If the chocolate was not in good temper I would start from scratch just for the practice.

What a poser! For the most part my photographer has gone for natural unstaged pics, but this is one he uploaded last night from when I processed my county fair animals a few weeks ago.

I work hard to have my staff get to the real question. When someone wants a sample or something on the side, I wish the customer would just say, "I'm afraid the salsa might be too hot for me, could I have a taste?" Then my server could give a better answer than when they hear "I'm afraid I won't like the salsa, could I have a taste?" I know, I'm an overly post-modernist pragmatic German so I I don't like frilly conversation or words. I like to say what I want to say so there's little room for confusion.

On a side note, I just received Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook by Dina Falconi. Best identification book I've seen in a long time as it shows the plants at different times of the year. The cookbook is good, but boring. No pics and nothing really interesting, but still, well written recipes. Beautiful illustrations that have very useful content embedded in the pics.

Deryn - I any melon rind will work. Its that tart, fresh, bitter taste that comes from the white part of cantaloup, honeydew or watermelon. That's the closest comparison. And MelissaH - I hear ya loud and clear. I figure the less I do the better for the designer as it will be easier to add than to change. But again, my software knowledge is dated (PageMaker).

So far I have had a direct conversion of mesquite and benne. Here's a recipe from the book - unedited, and I would love to see some tester take on all or part of it. The end is near now that I've gained clarity. Yucca Blossom Ice Cream with Mesquite Cous Cous 448 g Flour 3 ½ C 60 g Mesquite Flour ½ C 4 Eggs 60 g 2 Egg whites Whisk the flours together and pour into a mound on your counter top. Make a well in the center. In a bowl, lightly whisk the eggs and whites. Pour the eggs into the center of the flours. Using a fork mix the eggs with the flours gradually working your way from the center to the outside. When the mixture becomes too cumbersome with your fork switch to using your fingers. Once combined, knead for 5 minutes and wrap in cling film. Let rest 30 minutes. Roll the dough to 1/8” thickness and chop with a knife as if you were mincing herbs keeping the pasta about the size of a bb gun pellet. Let rest uncovered to dry slightly. Yucca Blossom Ice Cream 250 g Milk 1 C 160 g Yucca blossoms, chopped 1 C *Note to eGer, I think this time of year maybe do a melon rind 245 g Cream 1 C 240 g Buckwheat honey (We like our local Bee Chama honey) ¾ C 6 Yolks 5 g Salt 1 tsp Place the milk and blossoms in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cover and remove from the heat, steeping for 1 hour. Strain the blossoms out of the milk and combine the milk, cream and honey, bringing to a simmer again. In a bowl combine the yolks and salt and whisk until light and frothy. Pour a third of the hot milk mixture into the yolks, whisking, and return the hot yolks to the remaining milk mixture. Continue whisking gently until the ice cream base is slightly thickened. Remove from the heat, cover, and let cool in the refrigerator overnight. The next day freeze the ice cream in an ice cream maker, and transfer the ice cream to a container to freeze until firm. To serve, fill a small stock pot with water and add 220 g (1 C) sugar. Bring to a boil. Add the cous cous being sure to break up the pieces before they go into the water. Boil for 5 minutes. Serve the ice cream drizzled with pine cone syrup over the cous cous after a meal of spicy goat tagine. Suggested Substitutions: Lately I’ve been exploring the similarities between mesquite and benne. Benne is available from Anson Mills online.

Today I am going through and removing all of the extra spaces, extra tabs, and other crap that will make my designer's life hell. Now that I have an ingredient list format that I'm happy with I am setting it up in my document to make it easy for the designer. It looks like crap on my page but he'll just have to set his template tabs where he wants them and import, and then my text should all fall into place without extra tabs and spaces to throw things off. Little things that I never considered when I started this project. Having done a ton of design work in my past is proving helpful and the only problem is that I haven't done any professionally since PageMaker, but the concepts still hold true.

Thanks - ironically I just got a big box from Anson Mills. I want to see the difference between their benne flour and mesquite flour.

I do know about the anti-canola screamers, and I don't use it, but I'm also a believer in accessibility for all which is why I list it as an alternative to rice bran which is 4-6 x the price. As for eggs, I was just looking at a number of books on my shelf and there is not consistency at all. Maddening. I think I might lean toward Momofuki Milk Bar: ##g Rice bran oil ## C 2 Egg Yolks Nothing here

Editor and I are currently debating how to list eggs. I currently say "20 g Yolk of 1 egg" but that's awkward. She's on board with me as far as the use of grams. We're thinking about putting a mention in the How to Use This Book that for us eggs are 50 g, 20 g yolk and 30 g white (Grade A Large). She says, "20 g Egg Yolk" and leave it at that. That also addresses my cooking oil issue. Instead of saying rice bran oil, I can just put "cooking oil" and in the How To section say that for us we prefer rice bran but you can readily substitute canola.

Today I am working on all of the substitutions. At first I put them in the ingredient list but that was becoming too cluttered, so now I have a statement at the end of each recipe that says Suggested Substitutions. Much cleaner and allows me to explain the consequences of the substitution.

Its a little thing, but today I'm merging documents. I had made every recipe its own document, which is now proving to be a pain in the ass for editing. I want to do find/replace and such and have to open each document - 20-30 per section. Pain! My designer said he doesn't care how I save them but my knowledge of design software is that he will ultimately drop a document into his template. One document surely will be easier to do and he can place his own page breaks in. So that's what I'm doing with my life this morning. Cut. Paste. Save.

I'm starting to get more and more guest chef gigs which is fun. Hard because we close down when I travel, but fun because I get to cook for new crowds.

Today was the first request since this little discussion we've been having. Our soup of the day is a Tunisian goat - been selling great, but very slow day. Customer comes in for late lunch, hears the soup special and asks for a taste. She was the only customer. I sent it out and then my server and I talked through this...which I now share with you for context for the strategy we're going to try. Too busy to do samples - obviously not Sauces or scratch and portioned - she wanted soup Soup - no justification other than we don't want to and are trying to stop the practice Soup sample got sent out - "Ooh, I don't like this"***this becomes very important to decision Why not have a $1 portion that we can send out of anything? Might piss some off, might disuade others Time and expense is my concern, the $1 dish would address that for me...suggesting that its more the money than the time what if we just say no to condiments because they are "portioned" for the sales, but allow soup at the $1? ***The customers who request samples will 90% of the time reject the dish one they taste it because they are picky - this is why they're asking. What if we piss them off and they never come back...we're talking about a very small group of people but...never good to lose any. Final: The servers have to be able to explain succinctly why, so we put on the menu "Sample requests can not be accommodated due to time and portion restrictions. Thank you for your understanding." When a customer asks for a sample, the server responds, "I'm very sorry but as the menu points out we're not able to do that, but I can tell you that the ketchup is really good - lightly spicy with fresh tomato flavor." - being specific to the flavor. So what do you all think of this? There are times when we could sample but it seems like its all or none - consistency. I love the reminder above that servers have a responsibility to describe the food in a way that gives the info that the customer needs.

I kiss a lot of ass and I love it! I am in the biz because I enjoy serving folks. Ask any of my customers, read any of my reviews. At dinner I visit with 100% of the tables - no less than 5 minutes. And yes, Larry, unfortunately I've averaged 70 hour weeks for the past 3 years...that's not counting the time at home doing my book keeping. My original post was one part bitching and two parts seriously asking if this is something that happens elsewhere. I just have never walked into a restaurant and even had the most brief of moments where I thought to ask for a sample - not at a McDonalds, not at French Laundry. It just strikes me as unusual. And like Larry, I'm mostly a one man show so it does stop flow which means its impacting the other customers - sometimes its just a few seconds, sometimes more, but always its a mental disruption. I accommodate. I smile. I curse something to the effect of "Just eat it, you'll like it, and if you're that unsure, order something that you're more sure of."

I've been doing a major liquor cabinet stockup tied to getting my copy a couple of weeks ago. Why the hell did they not create an app for the book that lets you plug in what you have and have the app identify doable recipes?

My comment about apple v. pear is about structure and texture. I'm just suggesting that you throw a fairly neutral base in with it.

You can drop the booze but its so weak that it won't be noticed as far as the alcohol. Can you do an apple puree/sauce?

My standby: 1/3 C Juice - can be lemon, apple, orange... 130 g (4.6 oz) Sugar 4 Sheets silver gelatin (1.75 tsp) 30 ml (1 oz) limoncello (calvados, grand marnier) 355 ml (12 oz) Cream Heat juice to a simmer; add softened gelatin; cool to room temp (I do all of this in the micro btw, which drops it down to 60 seconds. Add booze. Whip cream to soft peak; add a quarter of the cream to the juice and combine; add the juice cream mixture to the rest of the cream and fold carefully. *Just a note that generally I find 1 sheet of silver equals 1 tsp of powder. For some reason, in this recipe I double the sheet gelatin to get it to set up like I want - which is almost always for a cake layer. Edited to add that I would cut in some pear puree - like a 1/4 C with the juice.

I am in an odd town. My partner always says he's going to write a Mapp and Lucia style book of the characters around here.

Lately we've had customers asking if they can taste this or that. It started out as soups, which while a pain, was not terrible. Lately its sauces. Sometimes its a sauce like our house made ketchup or mayo, which is more of a pain, but still ok, but also the sauce that some of our meats is cooked in. Is this normal? Its starting to drive me crazy - one for the stop in work flow, but also the audacity. Am I off base...service with a smile

That makes sense - thanks. Today really has been a tremendous day. With that new organization, every recipe fell into place. Every essay fell into place. Nothing felt forced or arbitrary anymore. The first section feels really exciting - heavy photo essay with written support that covers how to forage, ethics and finding your voice as a cook. And now I'm at roughly 75 dishes - 25 per section mas o menos. I've already reorganized our DropBox files to account for the changes and have my to do list of recipes which is much more clear. My photographer is psyched that he'll play a more prominent role, and that he can use many of his existing pics. My editor is psyched because we seem to have a direction for the story. And my designer is psyched because...well, soon he can start doing something. Twas a good day indeed.