patris

I found what turned out to be a really nice egg nog ganache recipe on Tomric's site - clickety click. It's made with egg nog, so it tastes like egg nog. Really nice as a filling for dark chocolate cups topped off with white chocolate foofs and a sprinkling of nutmeg.

For the basket - what about piping a freeform latticework of tempered chocolate on the backside of a nice bowl, popping it off, then piping some sort of handle on the back of the same bowl? If you got the geometry right it might work...

One of our Easter desserts is a lemon cloud pie - think lemon curd with softened cream cheese and meringue folded in. Something like that might be good for demo-ing white chocolate (which I STILL have trouble with) - decorations like curls or filigree. Maybe you could also demo making snobinette cups or make bowls with balloons, and fill those with a nice mousse or filling... lemon, coconut, stuff like that.

Yeah, how could I not? Perfect pumpkin pie from the Pie and Pastry Bible. Not resistable.

Wow, I totally can't stop looking at that. It's so... surgical. And are those sausages on the table, or some sort of confection?

For me, spluck describes the terminal sound of cranberry sauce shivering out of its can on Thanksgiving day. My sister and I have a word for the slimy food bits that need to be transported from sink trap to garbage at the end of cleanup: clart.

It really is too bad they won't accept anything other than chocolate. Kerry Beal made a pate de fruit with Banyuls that was nothing short of extraordinary. Might they be open to an enrobed confection that doesn't contain ganache? That Banyuls PDF would have been terrific with a chocolate coating, I suspect.

We do the exact same thing - cook pumpkin and spices with the sugar, and add spices to the gelatin and puree. We just tend to end up with some swirls of spice throughout, because the spices seemed to settle to the bottom of the bowl (though my recipe calls for lots and lots of spices, which may encourage that effect).

We use cinnamon extract in ours - it works perfectly. I worry about putting flavoring oils in marshmallow, because I think it might interfere with aeration or, at the very least, the final texture.

Consider it done! Toasted pecan bits go into the next batch. Anything to keep my husband happy.... He does bring me coffee in bed every morning. ← A handful of mini chocolate chips or dried sour cherries wouldn't be a bad idea as well... I'm just saying...

Do it! We do a flavor called Almond Delirium - mix in toasted coconut and sliced almonds. People go absolutely crazy for them. I think someone around here did pumpkin spice marshmallows and rolled them in chopped nuts - on vs. in, but still... go for it!

This won't be remotely helpful, but this thread made me think of Shrinklits, a series of highly condensed versions of classic literature that I came across in high school. The first line of the distillation of Beowulf was, "Monster Grendel's tastes were plainish. Breakfast? Just a couple Danish." Still makes me laugh 25 years later.

Expanding on that idea - how about posh ants-on-a-log? Celery jelly with raisin-peanut butter ganache. I'm not a huge celery fan, but I'd eat that! Or breakfast in a bite? Orange jelly with bacon-maple ganache. Actually, that sounds kind of gross.

I second the recommendation of Kerry's DVDs. They are wonderfully concise, and have been enormously helpful in my amateur endeavors.

I'd absolutely use a guitar if I had one, but for the moment I'm using a 12 inch drywall taping knife. I pilfered the idea from Chris Hennes's chocolate making. It's one of several Chris Hennes Process Improvements that I've implemented. Man is a genius.

That's hugely helpful guidance for a novice like me, Tiny - thank you!

The Chai Tigers are exceptional. I did the truffles over the weekend, and the ganache was so soft it was hard to work with. Probably because I didn't table it sufficiently, but the consistency would be perfect for a molded piece.

ibjack is right on. The one thing I'll say is that you should really shop around - we're a really really really small business and we got a quote for around $1200, then shopped it around and ended up at about $400 through a guy my car/homeowners insurance agent works with. The company is Erie Insurance.

Here's a link to a directory of companies listed under "shelf life testing" from the Institute of Food Technologists website: clickety click. If you end up having it done, will you share the ups and downs of it (costs, value, etc.)?

I'm fairly certain the discount has only just taken effect since the postal rates went up last week. I was looking up rates in the days before the change, and they made quite a big deal of the lower click n ship rates. I must say, it was a pleasant surprise!

When I ship ebay packages thru paypal delivery confirmation is included in the cost of priority shipping. For all other packages, it was 18 cents. Not sure what it is now, since I havent shipped anything since the price increase. ← Holly is exactly right - sign up with Click N Ship. I've always found the carrier pickup to be reliable - perhaps I haven't used it enough! Delivery confirmation is included in the priority mail cost, at least insofar as you get a tracking number and can use that to check the status. You can even have an e-mail sent to the addressee once the package "enters the mail stream" (their term, not mine). I think the extra costs come in if you want tracking or confirmation info e-mailed to you.

We ship our products via USPS priority mail, and find that shipping on Saturday has invariably resulted in customers receiving packages on Monday. Granted, most of our shipping is local (Buffalo area), but we did ship a package to California, and it was delivered on the Monday. If you use the USPS online shipping option, you'll definitely save on priority mail costs. Even though they've raised the postal rates, they're definitely discounting online postage. I believe express rates are discounted, too.

I wonder if it's meant to be beaten into the egg whites? Curious, indeed!

What a fantastic blog this is! After reading yours, and Lior's, and Lindacakes's (?) - and others, but yours are the ones that stick out in my mind recently - I'm really struck by the beauty of documenting the simple things we do every day - eating, cooking, all the little choices we make about what and where to eat or what to do with our time. You all have taught me much about savoring the gorgeousness that usually goes ignored. I can't wait to see how the PB&Js turn out!

Chiming in late, but I totally agree with Tammy. If you're using a commercial kitchen (i.e. not your own dedicated shop), it makes sense that you'd just need to demonstrate a full understanding of sanitary practices, food safety, food handling and stuff like that. When we were inspected, it was all conversation and no demonstration. Good luck!