patris

Got it this morning!

As @Kerry Beal mentioned earlier, I can accept your payments via PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle - just PM me with your preferred method and I'll send you my details.

As a lacto-ovo-vegetarian myself, I fully intend to provide robust veggie options. Looking forward to it!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone (some for the first time altogether, and some for the first time since the Toronto workshop) in a few weeks and welcoming you all to Buffalo! As Kerry mentioned upthread, I will be hosting the Friday night show and tell on my patio. I'm planning a heavy hors d'oeuvres and drinks situation with wine and hard and regular seltzers, and will be doing some of the cooking myself and ordering a few things in. If we get rained out, I have a backup plan but hopefully we will not need to use it. Saturday dinner will more than likely be at Tacos, Community and Beer, where they have a covered patio with heaters if we need them. I have heard great things about their food (tacos, unsurprisingly) but have not yet eaten there myself. It will be a buffet-style service and as Kerry mentioned, drinks will be on your own. If anyone has any dietary restrictions (assume omnivorous menus throughout the weekend with lots of vegetarian choices), please let me know so I can make sure we create an inclusive and accommodating experience. Similarly, if anyone has any mobility challenges, please let me know that too - my house is a ranch with just one step up from the patio but our rain plan is a second-floor event space with no elevator or lift. At this early stage, our weather in Buffalo is encouraging - this past weekend I got the patio entirely set up and there's no sign, at least for the next couple of weeks, that I'll regret that. Hoping it stays that way!

I am not actively making pottery at the moment, but if anyone is interested in dipping bowls I do have quite a stash of them! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we have an early warm-up this year!

Assumption correct! Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can host a gathering on my patio (I am also eschewing indoor dining). Looking forward to it!

Ah, memories. The whole experience trying to order from Croquade was not great, as I remember - I put in the order, they cancelled it the next day because they didn't have the product, then they hung on to my money for something like a month while I kept asking when they would refund me, until I disputed the charge with my credit card company. Great melters, bad customer service!

Around these parts, the Amarena cherries show up around the beginning of the winter holiday season - I start looking for them in late October/early November and as soon as they show up I always snag two or three jars, because they're never around for more than a week or two.

That fruit spread is one of my favorites - it is definitely on the tart side, and for me it doesn't have the wateriness (for lack of a better word) of a lot of spreads sweetened with fruit juice. I love it on a toasted, buttered waffle.

Yes, I did use frozen puree - Wegmans carries Goya brand and it works beautifully.

I did juice them (key limes), cursing the tiny little things all the while.

Funny - I have been eyeing the Ooni but I don’t yet have a place to put it. Rest assured though, I am fully vaxxed and quite anxious for a long-overdue visit when the border reopens!

They kept for probably a couple weeks before they started to go grainy. We had them enrobed in chocolate, which no doubt helped them keep their texture. We only made what we would sell (took orders ahead of time), so storage wasn’t a concern. They were packaged by the half pound in heat-sealed cello bags.

You're welcome. I'm glad you liked them. Everything looks so great - lucky neighbors!

Of all the events in my life lost to COVID this year, this is the one I miss the most! Thank you @curls for reaching out. Assuming things get back to normal by then, you can bet @Kerry Beal and the elves will be back at it next December.

I've been very happy with Cocoa Supply - https://www.cocoasupply.com/. Seems to be good quality and prices are excellent.

No trouble at all!

Quick update on tours: Fowlers does not do tours outside of one per year in October, for which they charge admission (the proceeds go to charity). Watsons does not do tours at all. Still waiting to hear back from Landies, but Platters does factory tours by appointment for groups of 20 or larger. I am in the "trading voicemails" stage with their person, and am hoping they might make an exception if Landies falls through and our group is smaller than 20.

I hadn't thought of Landies - I will reach out to them!

I'll make some preliminary calls just to see what the best option might be and wait until the schedule and master class attendance is sorted then!

I will look into arranging a factory tour. Fowler’s would be ideal as they are in the same industrial park as Tomric, but I think they only do one tour a year and it’s for charity. I’ll check it out though. I suspect we’d have better luck with another company, Platters, which is a bit north of the city. They have a large production facility and I believe their production area is viewable, so I think a tour would be more in their wheelhouse. They do make sponge candy and other confections on site and have a large enrobing line. Watsons would be another good choice - they are very well known here and also make sponge candy. Any sense of what day/rough time frame would be right?

I have made it a few times (small batches, not commercial kitchen sized) - I will definitely second the slow cooling. I turn my oven on the "warm" setting for a few minutes, just enough to warm it up a bit - maybe 130 degrees or so? - and then turn it off. Once I have quickly stirred in the baking soda I pour it without scraping into a well-greased pan, pop it in the warm oven and let it cool completely (for several hours or overnight) with the oven door closed. It keeps good volume but, like @curls said, there is quite a bit of non-aerated product all around the edges, with the sponge in the middle. I generally use a 9 x 13 pan for a single home batch but if I made it more often I would probably consider getting a smaller square, high-sided pan to see if I could get more usable product. The recipe I use does not include gelatin but I am considering trying it with - I'm a Buffalonian and the texture of the sponge candy that is ubiquitous around here (like Fowler's, featured in your linked video) is super tender and airy, and I suspect the gelatin is responsible for that. Mine is good flavor-wise, but can be a little harsh and shreddy on the tongue and palate.

just let me know your favorite flavors (knowing they don’t always have everything) and I will do the rest! My house is equidistant from Tomric in the opposite direction from the hotel so I will pick them up one or the other morning on my way to Tomric. oh yeah - @Kerry Beal I should probably ask you to put my sister Chris and me on the list!

Paula’s is 10 minutes from my house; I’d be happy to pick them up. For those who are unfamiliar, Paula’s makes extremely... substantial donuts. Lots of flavors, great quality, always fresh.

Have you tried Barkeeper's Friend? I use the liquid version of it on my glass cooktop all the time and it works great. I haven't gone long enough between scrubbings for anything to get really polymerized on the cooktop, though.