gfron1

Thanks Shelby. And T2C - don't go quoting U2 on me

Before I had my .01 scale, the .1 was enough. Now, I love my .01...but its probably not really necessary. What's more important is the ability to be, and continue to be accurate. For this, look for scales that provide a weight to re-set your zero out. I'm sure I overdid it with my ScoutPro 400, but it hasn't failed me in any application yet.

Chris- its Pierre Herme's crust from the Choc Desserts book. You can see I wasn't as interested in the crust as the filling, hence the ugliness. And Ravenshadow -really, it was a great leap that you provided me. I'll probably keep playing but I can die happy with this version.

The best peanut butter pie ever (at least that I've made):

Ravenshadow's recipe was the trick I needed. That recipe is not exactly what I was going for, but it shifted me into thinking about pudding and pastry cream. I basically made a peanut butter pastry cream, folded in a touch of whipped cream and poppa had his baby! I scarfed two cups of filling and then filled the shells with the rest - it was that good. (just ignore my ugly crust)

I'm enjoying this travelogue! my only experience with Filipino food is a care packae sent by jumanggy and a fast food joint in San Fran. The fast food joint was really, rather disgusting, I think because of how it was prepared, so I'm glad to see food that looks tasty instead of plastic. I noticed that the empanada is in a fluffier pastry than what we normally see in the US and the Americas. It looks very good that way - not dry like ours often are.

I'm puffing dry - not cooked and I'm sure its smaller than T2C's, but still the same texture. I pour about an inch of oil in a pan so its shallow deep fry...if such a thing exists.

I've been making these great adult rice krispie treats by puffing my Minnesota hand-harvested wild rice. Last night I puffed Thai black sticky rice - also very good. This morning it was tapioca pearls. Next on deck is Lotus Foods red rice. What else have you all puffed? BTW, for those of you who don't know, to puff, you can just put in hot oil. I've been using peanut, but I guess most high smoke point oils would do.

thanks guys - a point that responds to both of you. The outer colors will be pink with a white (formerly clear) glaze. The wedding colors are white and orchid pink. I might switch the bavarois and mousse so that it is pink on the outside with the white top - probably a better color contrast. And the spraying of cocoa butter is a good idea (I'm sure addicted to using my Wagner power painter), which could also give me the pink outside. I didn't originally mention it because it would be one more element to deal with in the process, but it certainly creates a nice effect. BTW, I didn't mention that I have to create a large version of this as well for the cake cutting.

First, I'll use the rings to cut the genoise into discs. Then I'll use the same 2" rings, with the genoise at the base, to pipe in the bavarois, and then freeze. That whole mess will get set inside a 3" ring, lined with acetate, filled with mousse, and frozen until the last day or so.

I guess my other thing is that I keep getting these new cool mags and never have time to make anything from them. I can find enough eye candy on blogs. So, like you, I'd love to hear from others if its worth anything.

My business is really hitting its stride right now. Our sales have doubled in the past three weeks and I'm getting all the cool gigs (I know this because we're a small enough town to know what cool gigs there are). I just signed a contract for 80 wedding pastries. Its a local doc who didn't want a wedding cake - which is great since I refuse to do them. I pitched my concept and they bought it so I'm not looking for help there. It will be a 2" genoise disc, brushed with chambord syrup, topped with raspberry bavarois (and since we loosely use terms around here - to me this means a custard folded into a cream), all of that wrapped in a white chocolate mousse, with a layer of snow white glaze on top, decorated with a squirt of whipped cream and a fresh raspberry. I will make 80 of them (plus a few just in case of problems). I'm glad they liked the idea because its fairly straight forward for me. Here is my rough plan: 1. Genoise - I'll bake sheets and cut out the disks. 2. Bavaroise - Set it with gelatin...I might go a bit heavy on the gelatin just in case they don't eat it right away or if its warm 3. Mousse - the bride doesn't really like white choc, but I assured her it would be more vanilla. I chose white choc because it would add a bit more stability, along with more gelatin. 4. Glaze - I rarely do glaze so I could use help here, but I was going to use this new Snow White coloring from Amoretti. I'll wrap my pastries in acetate and pour onto the frozen pastry, and let it set up. Everything will be done and frozen the weekend before, then glaze the morning of, and cream and berry on-site. The genoise is a piece of cake. The rest has room for error. The biggest risk is that I'm making 80+ of these and only have a dozen rings (I'll buy some more). Should I even be using rings or is there a better way? Anyway, any advice is welcome. Thanks

got the same offer and I thought, "$10 for a subscription! Wow! Cool! Okay." Then I realized it was $10 per issue...no thanks until someone tells me its worth it.

i actually had my intern do it, but after watching them go nut by nut, I suggested the old towel trick and it speeded things up dramatically.

I recently made Peanut Butter using Alton Brown's recipe and method. I roasted shell on, coated in peanut oil and salt. It was done when they were nice and dark and very fragrant. I cooled them, shelled, and finally skinned them between towels. I did do this in a food processor with peanut oil (LeBlanc has been the best so far). The ratios on Alton's recipe gave a perfect consistency.

I haven't tried freezing them yet - they don't last. You take the syrup to soft ball so you might know better than I if it will freeze well under that circumstance. And the liquor chestnuts - again you can put in whatever you want. I just happen to have these chestnuts soaked in brandy that haven't sold in 3 years so I figured it was time to give them a new life.

Thanks Sam - that's a great suggestion because I'm always looking for pre-jar preservation methods.

I've been making these power bars which a modification of someone's recommendation from my Keeping weight on in the kitchen thread. At first they didn't sell, but when I changed the name from Power Bars to Gourmet Rice Krispie treats, they fly off the shelf. I like the recipe because it is infinitely adaptable to the seasons.

Thanks. I'm waiting for andiesenji to offer a full canning course (hint, hint).

I'm going to avoid all of this idea with the cafè, but let me ask this question anyway...I think in the first post I mentioned that I give a good coating of lemon juice to my zucc right now. Do you think that addresses the acidity issue? Not that I'm going to do it, but I'm trying to understand the role of acid since I do almost no canning.

huh...now that's a good thought. That won't address the tang, but ravenshadow's recipe may do that. But a cheaper pb may deal with the intensity issue. On another approach, when I made my own pb I used cheapo pb oil. I could use LeBlanc roasted pb oil which is incredibly powerful (it is very good stuff). I'm making this for me and not the cafè so I don't mind spending a bit more.

HERE are a slew of grilled zucchini packed for sale. Some are in jars and some are in plastic tubs.

But you can buy the exact same thing in the store, so is it because they are using preservatives that they're able to do this?

I use a lot of zucchini in my cafè, and right now I grill daily, finished with a bit of lemon juice. I would like to grill them, and pack them in olive oil so I can do maybe a month's worth at a time. Can I just pack them in a jar and treat them as if they were a preserve or curd?

I'm having 20# of fresh sardines flown in tomorrow. Thanks for the comments in this thread. I'll get some pics posted after tomorrow.