Live It Up

I was at costco yesterday and I saw that they had a few of these books. I know I saw Greece and France, but they weren't labeled with a price. They might have had others. Anyway, it might be worth checking out if you have a costco nearby.

speaking of alton brown...he has another show where he grills tuna on a grate directly over his charcoal chimney starter. So, if you have one of those, that would probably work.

Yeah, I can't stand the flavor of super market puff pastry. As an aside to those who have access to freshdirect, they have all butter puff pastry that's ridiculously cheap.

Thanks so much for the help....I always wondered if the apples were cooked first, and consensus seems to be that they are. I've never successfully made puff pastry, so I'll probably buy some for my first attempt at least. artisanbaker: for the sugar glaze would I brush them before, during, or after baking?

I have Rick and Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures, which includes this recipe as well. It's one of the few things my husband has actually learned to cook, so we have it a lot...in fact it's on the menu for later in the week. Perhaps your boys can cook them for you next time.

I just received my copy of Linda Dannenberg's Paris Boulangerie- Patisserie, which may have been a bit of an impulse purchase. Anyway, to my disappointment, even though there is a chapter on the Dalloyau patisserie, there is no recipe for my favorite item that they make: the chausson aux pommes. Does anyone have a good recipe for these? They don't seem to get mentioned much, but I love them. I don't want something that's like an american apple turnover (which in turn is like apple pie except in pocket pie form), but I'm not really sure what the difference is. I don't bake much besides tarts and muffins, so maybe someone can walk me through this. Thanks!

I've never tried it, but perhaps you could try torching the sugar on the rhubarb to get that caramel crust. It probably won't cook the rhubarb at all, though. Maybe you could try steaming it just for a minute before torching? Seems like there's got to be a way to make this work.

I'm very interested in this discussion as I'm currently considering going to culinary school. However, I have no desire to work in a restaurant or cater--I'd like to work in a test kitchen for a food magazine or maybe even the food network. I feel like I already have all the skills I need to do this kind of job well, but I don't know how realistic it would be to think that I could get it without any professional training or experience. That said, I do have a degree from NYU, which cost a lot and I have never used. I don't want to waste my money, which is in very short supply. As an aside, does anyone know what you might expect to earn doing the kind of jobs that I'm interested in?

I have NO time, so my grocery shopping is pretty much limited to what I can pick up from point A to point B. Usually that means the crappy key food on avenue A on my way home from work, or the chinese market (the only one that's open after 7 pm) on my way home from the gym. If I had my choice, I'd probably stock up at chelsea market once a week and supplement with essex street market. Unfortunately, chelsea market is out of the way for me and essex street closes before I can get there most of the time. Luckily my mom has a car and a costco membership, so she does a lot of shopping for staples for me (and delivers too). Moms are great.

ooh, I've had the crunchy-with-sugar-veggies...truly disgusting. I think I've posted about this before elsewhere, but I could be wrong. Anyway, the worst meal I've had at someone's house actually recurs every year. I can't remember which Jewish holiday it is (I think it alternates between passover and chanukah), but we get roped into going to our cousin's house. At best the food is bland and over cooked, at worst the chicken soup is spoiled (it's happened more than once). But, as far as I'm concerned, the piece de resistance is the carrot souffle. My cousin got the recipe from a friend a few years ago and now it makes a regular appearance. The first time I saw it I thought "carrot souffle, sure". I took a portion and dug in. It was crunchy with sugar. Aside from the orange color, there was no indication of anything carrot derived in it--it tasted overwhelmingly of artificial vanilla flavoring. As a crappy dessert it might not be so offensive, but as a side dish for chicken..ugh. Anyway, at least we know to avoid it now, but my husband remains uninitiated. I must figure out a way to trick him into trying it.

So I wound up going with veggie/olive oil/salt thing, and my friends thought I was a genius! I did steamed asparagus and string beans, raw baby zucchini, endive, and roasted beets. I also whipped up a mascarpone and hazelnut dip. Unfortunately I have a bit of a cold and I couldn't tell what the dip tasted like, but it was received well. LMF--those chickpeas sound great...I did a similar thing for a party where I roasted the chickpeas until they were crunchy like nuts. However, your method sounds much faster, I'll try it next time. Of course, I forgot to bring my camera home, so no pictures, but it all worked out perfectly and everyone had room for dessert.

Thanks for all the ideas so far! I do love to do salads in endive, but I feel like I have done it to death already. Also, I really don't like mayonnaise, but I do like the idea of some sort of crudite with a dip. I never would have thought to do them with just olive oil and salt, but I think that's what I will do. Thanks weinoo! I happen to have a couple of different salts in my pantry (Hawaiian red, Fleur de sel...maybe another one). Also olives--duh! And asparagus sounds really good, too. Maybe I'll steam some and add it to the veggies for dipping.

I was actually taught to dice this way when I took some cooking classes when I was maybe 10...but with garlic. I pretty much never cut garlic this way unless I need impossibly small bits for something, but I ALWAYS cut my onions this way. I tried "cheating" as you say last week because I had a really small, mangled piece of onion and I found myself incredibly frustrated by the different sized pieces. I spent at least as much time going back over the onion cutting everything into the same size as I would have just cutting the onion the right way in the first place.

I am totally devoted to Maida Heatter's cookies...It's kinda shameful, but until recently the newest book of cookies (which I assume is the one we're talking about here) and Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts book were the only baking books that I owned. I recently bought Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies which is one of the books that the recipes in the newest book were taken from. I bought it for the lake como biscotti recipe, which I've made about 10 times in the last couple of months. Anyway, I've made dozens of recipes from these books and they have all been good to great. The pinwheel cookie that's pictured on the cover is my favorite cookie of all time...I just made some last night. All of that said, though, I would probably buy the older books rather than the new one. Yeah, they're out of print, but they're easy to find. I've never made any of the recipes that are unique to the newer edition, and you miss out on all her great biscotti.

I invited some friends over for dinner tonight, and my menu is all planned, except for some pre dinner nibble things. See, the menu is pretty heavy so I didn't want to make anything that would fill people up before the first course (such as bread). However, I invited them to come over early and hang out while I cook, which means I have to have something to offer them. Here's what I'm making: black pepper tagliatelle with parsnips and pancetta (babbo cookbooks) stuffed pork loin roast (molto italiano) roasted cauliflower I also bought beets, but I'm not sure what to do with them yet. Rhubarb pie (this recipe) checkerboard cookies As you can see, I'm already a little heavy on the pork, so I didn't want to go with salumi or something. The other problem is that I'm at work now and I don't have time to go to a bunch of different stores on my way home. So, what do you think? I'm looking for something relatively light, easy to prepare, with no hard to find ingredients. P.S. Should I add a salad to the menu?

I'm really not a fan of chocolate chip cookies, mostly because everyone makes the same toll house recipe and it's just so boring. I made this giada de laurentis recipe once. I did the whole ice cream sandwich thing, but the cookies were really good on their own. I substituted frangelico for the amaretto and hazelnuts for the almonds.

It's not in flushing...it's in Manhattan's Chinatown. Chatham Square.

Maida Heatter's recipe is one of my favorite cookies ever. I think she actually does hers as pinwheels, but he checkerboard is a variation. I haven't made them since I was in highs chool, though. I know the recipe is in her newer cookie book, but I don't know which of her older out of print books it was originally from. Anyway, IIRC, she uses almond meal in hers which makes them special.

I've had Vegetable Love for a few months now, and though I was very excited to get it, I haven't actually used it yet. I find the way it's organized to be pretty confusing. She groups veggies together based on common characteristics, but they aren't interchangeable within those groups. So whereas a chapter might have 10 recipes, she winds up with only a couple for each vegetable. However, my favorite recipe for sweet potatoes is included in the book, but I got it from her Roasting book originally. One book I really like is Mediterranean Vegetables. It has a lot of main dish uses for vegetables, many of which use meat as seasoning. I also like that in the more extensive chapters there are several versions of similar dishes from different countries. Not great for really exotic vegetables (most of the more unusual veggies have information, but no recipes), but a good source for creative uses for the usual suspects.

The reason stock spoils if you put it directly into the fridge is that the heat from the stock raises the temperature in the fridge, causing it to cool too slowly and spoil. The best thing to do is to divide the stock into smaller containers and cool those to room temperature before refrigerating. This isn't a problem with smaller amounts. Alton Brown also had a pretty ingenious solution which is to freeze some bottles of water and float those in your stock to cool it.

Thanks for all the help! I actually wound up getting my soft shells from freshdirect ($4.33 each). Before I posted my request I had called around to some of the better fish markets in the city and was told that they were getting soft shells already but that they were sold out or whatever. Of course, they were getting more in, I just didn't wan to to risk not being able to get them. I think it's still really early in the season, so the supply is limited. Anyway, I got lucky and I didn't have to search the city for them, so I'm happy.

there are 2 places on grand close to chrystie that had bushels full of them last friday. They're across the street from one another- about 1 storefront in from chrystie. ← Thanks! Do you happen to remember the price? I'm assuming I'll need to bring cash. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever asked if any of them take credit cards. Do they?

I buy often seafood in chinatown, but usually whatever strikes my fancy. However, I NEED 18 soft shell crabs this saturday. I already have the phone numbers of every fish market I can think of that might have them, but I was wondering if I should bother checking any of the fish markets in chinatown? Are there any places that generally have them in season? I live near chinatown, so I could take a quick stroll through if it's worth my time. Any other leads for the elusive soft shells?

I totally disagree about the credit card processing fee. The restaurant has chosen to accept credit card as a service to its customers, but also because they know they will make more money by doing so. If they don't want to pay the credit card fees, they can choose not to accept them, but they will have to accept the loss of sales from that decision. In retail you can't pass the cost of the processing fee on to your customers or employees, so why should you be able to do it in food service?

For me, the issue isn't the element of surprise, it's more a willful ignorance. There are 2 dishes that almost always taste better when someone else makes them: macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes. When I make them at home I can't ignore how much butter and cheese and fat is in them, but when someone else makes them I can pretend they aren't clogging my arteries. Actually, the real issue is that I'm afraid to put in enough of the good stuff to make them taste good, so they're objectively not as tasty as restaurant versions. I wish I had the problem of not wanting to eat what I have cooked (my mom is like that), but I do love to eat my own cooking. The only other thing that I prefer someone else to make for me is a latte. I make excellent coffee and espresso drinks, but for some reason I just never enjoy lattes when I make them for myself. Maybe it's because I worked in a coffee shop for 7 years, but that doesn't explain why it would only be lattes and not any other coffee drink.