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patris

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Posts posted by patris

  1.   What a wonderful day it was! Kerry has begun her journey home, and all the other elves have packed their goodies and headed off. Now that the house is empty, all that is left is to sort out the leftovers and clean up. The aftermath:

     

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    The ingredients table.

     

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    Bedroom barks (peppermint and toasted coconut/toffee).

     

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    Abandoned confections of every kind.

     

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    The kitchen, with more treats.

     

    My mother is currently in a rehab unit at a nursing home, so the staff there will benefit from much of the leftover goodness.

     

    All in all, the day was a smashing success, which it would definitely not have been were it not for @Kerry Beal and her endless patience and boundless energy.

     

    • Like 13
  2. 16 minutes ago, Anna N said:

     I am incredibly happy that you two are taking us along for what's going to be a spectacular chocolate day.xD

     

     

    I wish you could be here - we could use you in the dish pit (insert appropriate emoji here - I tried to post with one inserted and got told it was not an allowable character...). Rest assured, Kerry will be returning with a special treat for you!

    • Like 2
  3. 25 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

     

     

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    Kerry asked me to tell you about that cutter - it's a simple stainless taping knife from the hardware store. It's 12 inches - just the perfect size for PDF, meltaways, marshmallows, and I'm sure so many other things without a ton of hand fatigue. I also use it to scrape excess chocolate off the molds when I am making bonbons.

    • Like 4
  4. Because no day at my house is complete without too much of whatever it is, the beginnings of the food table: cheese pastry-covered olives and a plate of cast offs from the meltaways and grapefruit-Campari PDF. Guests are bringing nibbles as well, and I have spinach-red pepper-feta pinwheel sandwiches in the fridge to put out closer to kickoff.

     

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    • Like 8
  5. 5 minutes ago, Anna N said:

    So first the "spectacular" reference. Not really food related but....  I used to listen to a radio station that carried news from the Buffalo area and almost daily they would report a "spectacular fire" in Tonawanda.  It amused me greatly and when I go down to Buffalo with Kerry to visit with @patris I can't help but mention it. 

     But what is spectacular to me is how Kerry and Patty have managed to make use of every inch of what is in fact quite a small kitchen!   It sounds as if they will have a fun day today. At least I hope that comes true.

     

     

    To be honest, we are making use of just about every one of my house's 988 square feet!

    • Like 2
  6. I can tell you that for a variety of reasons, today would be a shadow of itself without @Kerry Beal - between bringing what seems like her entire chocolate workshop full of tools, pitching in to make recipes, doing dishes before I can even reach the sink, and  patiently answering my every idiot question, she has once again proven herself to be an amazing friend. I may not be able to make this an annual event without making sure it's on her calendar first!

    • Like 9
  7. 11 hours ago, Jim D. said:

    I haven't made the original Greweling recipe for a while (I developed a different version of it), but I do recall that it did not firm up enough, and I ended up having to add more chocolate/cocoa butter. So you did not have this issue?

     

    I had no problems with it at all - the texture was pleasantly soft but far from fluid, and I capped the shells fairly soon (a few hours, I think) after filling.

  8. I recently made the pumpkin caramel ganache on page 145 and loved the texture and the caramel flavor. I would like to make just a plain caramel ganache with that same texture and wondered if I could just omit the 100 grams of pumpkin purée and the spices, or would I need to up the total volume of the caramel component of the recipe to make up for that volume, as I assume the pumpkin counts as a liquifier? There is a recipe for slabbed caramel ganache on page 124 that also looks wonderful, but I will be using this as a bonbon filling so I think I want the lower chocolate to liquifier ratio in the pumpkin caramel recipe.

  9. I have been lacto-ovo vegetarian for somewhere around 4 years. I am intrigued by the idea of lab-grown meats, but doubt I would ever try them. On several occasions I have been served things I was unaware were prepared with chicken or beef stock, or cooked in lard, or seasoned with bacon or bacon fat, either at restaurants or by family who did not consider those ingredients non-vegetarian, and each time found the flavor unpleasant enough that I could not stomach a second bite. I do sometimes miss the texture of a perfectly cooked chicken breast, but on flavor alone I would probably never be able to stomach lab-grown meat. Once upon a time Wegmans sold a crispy fake chicken breast that ticked all the boxes for me, especially on top of a nice cold salad. If it had truly tasted like chicken I doubt I would have liked it at all - it was all about the texture for me.

    • Like 1
  10. 7 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

     

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    This is the free treat machine at the dealership where we left the car - @Alleguede was like a kid in a candy shop - I should have been a little more so and perhaps we wouldn't have had to stop for dinner.

     

     

     

    My lizard brain really, really wants to have a go at that machine.

     

    So sorry your trip turned so sour. Too bad you weren't closer to my neighborhood - we could have had a better meal than that breakfast on Monday!

  11. I have no photos to share, but wanted to say what a wonderful weekend it was. Meeting people whose names I have seen on eG for years,and whose faces I have seen in photos from past workshop reports, was a delight. I learned so much from so many of you! Extra, extra special thanks to Kerry, as always, and to Rodney, Jess, and Kat for making us all feel so welcome and being so generous with your time and knowledge!

    • Like 5
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