mktye

No, you are not alone. I love coconut, but not in granola.

When my hubbie and I did a lot of hiking a few years ago, we tried out a bunch of different granola recipes. The following is our favorite -- totally delicious and simple to make. 4 cups old-fashioned oats 1 cup sliced almonds 1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar 2 tablespoons sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup honey 4 teaspoons vanilla extract Preheat the oven to 300F and spray a sheet pan (or baking sheet) with nonstick spray (or lightly oil). Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Heat the oil and honey to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat (or in a glass container in a microwave). Stir the vanilla into the oil/honey mixture, pour over the dry ingredients and still well until thoroughly mixed (after initially stirring with a spoon, I usually use my hands to get it really well mixed). Spread the mixture onto the prepared pan and bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes or so. Bake for ~30 minutes total. Cool completely in the pan and then break up into pieces and store in an airtight container at room temperature. Makes ~8 cups (I usually double the recipe.)

First off, I must confess that I'm a lazy, rule-breaking sourdough baker, but this seems to work for me... I pull my starter (kept at 100% hydration) from the refrigerator (I typically bake with it once a week, but occassionally two or three weeks with have gone by), make a sponge, then the dough, one rise, shape and final rise. In the winter, the sponge is 6-8 hours at room temp (~76 degrees), first rise also at room temp and then the shaped rise overnight at cool room temp (~60). According to my SF bay-area born husband, the resulting loaves taste like "real" sourdough. Nice and tangy. Fantastic crumb and crust. In the summer, the house is simply too warm for an overnight final rise. Instead, the sponge is overnight in the refrigerator, with the first rise and shaped rise at room temp (~78 degrees). It results in a medium sour bread. (I just got a second refrigerator, so this summer I'll probably experiment a bit with refrigerated overnight shaped rises.) Whether it is the warmer sponge or the cooler. longer shaped rise or both, I have yet to determine. An experiment for when I have more time... Also, if you don't already have it, you might want to get a copy of Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread, A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes". It has a great section (with photos!) on slashing technique and also contains good sourdough information. It was discussed in this thread.

If you are in the area, you might want to try the "88 Market" in the Culmore shopping center on Leesburg Pike between Bailey's Crossroads & Seven Corners (6035 Leesburg Pike). It has both latin and asian foods, including fresh veggies and refrigerated items. According to MapQuest, their phone number is: 703-998-8988.

The key-lime pie with its sinfully buttery-crust is quite tasty.

I second this. We ate at Ray's for the first time on Sunday. The 90-minute deal was no problem whatsoever. Never once did we feel rushed, ended up waiting a decent (but just right) amount of time between the mains and dessert and still were out of there in 1 hour & 15 minutes. Of course the food was great and lived up to everything we were expecting!

Thanks everyone for the brioche recipe help! Yes. (And I've also tried that danish dough and was very happy with it.) Thank you so very much for posting your recipe!!!Hmm, now it looks like I'll have to make at least two batches of brioche!

Thanks Wendy! Would it be possible for you to share your favorite brioche recipe? I will be making some brioche for an upcoming New Year's Eve party and I usually make the bread-like one from "Cookwise" but it is a bit tempermental due to the amount of butter (1/2 cup butter per ~1 cup of flour) and I've been thinking about trying a different recipe.

In "Cookwise", Shirley Corriher has an interesting discussion about the order of mixing together the ingredients when fats are added to bread doughs and gives two different brioche recipes to illustrate her point. In the first recipe, the liquid ingredients are added to the flour and thoroughly mixed to develop the gluten before the butter is added -- resulting in a bread-like brioche. In the second recipe, the flour is mixed with the butter first, then the liquids are added -- resulting in a very cake-like brioche because the butter coats the gluten-forming proteins in the flour and hinders the gluten development.

I also received the KA Cookie Book and... (drumroll, please)... "La Patisserie de Pierre Herme" from my sisters and dad. Woo-hoo!

Copycat. Back in the 70's, at my parent's drive-in restaurant they served what was called a Moonburger. It was an ~14" sourdough boule, hollowed out and filled with 10 or so hamburger patties plus all the requisite toppings. Solo consumption of a Moonburger was a right of passage for the local high-school boys (and a few of the girls). It was a creation of the previous owners of the place and every time my parents tried to take the monstrosity off the menu, they were met by howls of protest. Of course, as appropriate to the times, the hamburgers were served only well-done.

Not Wendy, but ... click.

I second this. I helped my friend's daughter make a gingerbread mission (San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, to be exact) for a school project. Most the pieces we cut to size before baking, but my husband cut the angles for the roof pieces on his table saw! He said he'd never before worked with such good smelling "wood".

The in-laws took us out to dinner at Corduroy on Friday. A great evening -- everything was as wonderful as when Mr. mktye and I were there for the eG dinner. Mr. mktye and I approach most meals out with his parents with a bit of trepidation because they have quite a knack for creating scenes in public, but no worries that night since the service was superb (thank you fero style!!!) and the food was without a single fault. Almost half the table ordered the salmon with lentils, but Chef Powers was not pleased with the quality of the salmon that night, so we were asked if rockfish could be subtstituted. That turned out to be fortuitous. The crisp skin really set off the cooked-to-perfection rockfish and the salmon was not missed in the least. The funniest part of the evening was when my ten-year-old nephew received his mozzarella porcupine first course. When we noticed that he was scraping off the coating of fried potato strands, I told him what they were and that I though he would like the taste. He said: "Oh! I thought they were the spines!"

Cooking up a carb-fest for the in-laws. Eight people plus two guest dogs (in addition to our own pooch). Doing our traditional grilled turkey accompanied by: sourdough dressing; mashed potatoes; gravy; roasted sweet potatoes & turnips; brioche rolls; peas with bacon & garlic; carrots glazed with brown sugar/mustard/chives; hericorts verts with a roasted onion/basalmic topping; scalloped onions, shallots & leeks; and apple chutney & mother-in-law's cranberry relish. Plus six pies (2 pecan, 2 french apple, 1 plain pumpkin & 1 pumpkin with a cheesecake layer). Yes, 6 pies for 8 people -- we have a family tradition of eating leftover pie for breakfast the next day. Last year I made only three pies and it got really ugly... crying, bargaining, wrestling, begging and pieces of pie being hidden for those stilling snoozing. Dinner at Corduroy on Friday! I'd better not answer in case my mother-in-law is reading this!