Tri2Cook

We did that in college. Ummm... yeaaah... that's uhhh... mint.

Awesome as always.

It's Lebanese. A dense semolina cake with a rosewater scented syrup poured over. You'd have to veganize it a bit, margarine instead of butter and soy milk or water instead of the milk. Any fresh fruit that works with rosewater would pair well with it. Edit: Forgot the link: nammoura.

If you're doing falafel, how about nammoura? I love the stuff, perfumey rosewater and all.

Absolutely no disrespect to Kerry, her friends or vegans in general intended but... that's funny. I'm equally cooperative when people ask me about "diet" versions of my desserts.

Sorbets would be a good one. I'm trying to think of a way to modify this non-dairy olive oil mousse recipe to eliminate the eggs as well. The mousse is really good but not quite vegan. There has to be a tweak though. Maybe combine everything except the chocolate, thicken with ultratex or something then fold in the chocolate? I don't know (but now I'm curious so I'll have to play with it).

Cool stuff Kerry.

Nice!

Why didn't I think of that? I do beans in the smoker often but I've never thought of adding leftover BBQ meat, I always use bacon. I'll have to remember that one.

Overkill it for a few weeks. A few weeks of 6am - 10pm shifts at the restaurant (7 days a week) along with staying on until midnight - 1am doing prep/desserts for catering jobs a few nights a week redefined the lines for me. We brought in some part-time help and now 10 - 11 hrs/6 days a week feels like a part time job. I don't know what to do with all of the free time. Edit: I don't do drugs (well maybe a tylenol sinus if I have one of my bad sinus headaches but those only happen when rain/snow is moving in), I prefer diet pepsi over coke , I'm not really a drinker (a case of beer and a couple bottles of wine are a years supply for me) and I've yet to have some hot chick stroll in the kitchen and say "ok you sexy cook you, prop me up against the Hobart and work me like a batch of brioche". Bourdain wouldn't be proud.

Those look awesome Kim. I'm really glad you enjoyed the ice cream. As for the cracks... I honestly didn't even notice them until I read it and looked for them. I want to say don't worry about them but if you're anything like me you're going to worry about them anyway.

It tastes like vanilla ice cream with a note of almond and cherry that is there but doesn't dominate or jump out at you. But that's really not doing it justice. It's much more complex than that. It was one of those moments for me when you taste something that alters your way of thinking about flavors. I want to do more research on the subject before diving into serving it to other people (although one person trusted me enough to try it ), even if that research involves me eating enough of it to know for sure that nothing bad is going to happen. Supposedly heat destroys the compound responsible for potentially producing cyanide so I'm looking for some definitive information that this is true. I don't want to lose this flavor now that I've found it but I can't go around killing people either... even if they are smiling as they go. You can see the recipe HERE and HERE. Read the information (or not if you're the ignorance is bliss type ) and decide for yourself. Is it risky? I don't know at this point, I can't find any hard evidence that says it is but I can't find any science that says it isn't either. I relied on the fact that those who've done it before me are still around and still doing it. Maybe this is the poster child for "everything in moderation" and maybe it's much ado about nothing.

Fun with benzaldehyde. I'm not a food wimp. I'm no Bourdain, I have my reservations, but I won't say "yuck" if I haven't tried it and I don't worry about whether or not something is conventional and generally accepted as food. Still, some old habits are hard to break. After a lifetime of hearing "Don't eat those cherry pits, you'll die!" it kinda tucks itself away into the List of Rules to Follow. So when I stumbled across the recipe for cherry pit ice cream I was intrigued and hesitant at the same time. I read. I researched. I researched some more. I made a batch. There it was in front of me. The fact that it was ice cream instead of kool aid didn't really make me feel any less dumb about putting it in my mouth. Eventually the ol' "How else will I know?" spirit won the debate. I took a bite. I took another bite. I finished the bowl in the picture. If this stuff is going to kill me, I can't complain about my last meal. Wow. I hope all of those people were mistaken because I'd really like to stick around and try this one again. cherry pit ice cream - kirsch injected cherries

I like taking ends and dry pieces of brisket and shredding them (in the style of pulled pork), mixing with bbq sauce and putting it on a bun with hot sauce and coleslaw. Something about those dry, dark smoky bits of beef (pork too) is just really tasty. You could probably do some sort of soup with it, that would be tasty. Maybe grind it with some raw beef and make burgers (the Ideas in Food folks did that with corned beef brisket).

Wow. I can't even fathom not being able to get a rep to call you back. The reps from the companies in this area drop in and, if you accept their catalog, say hello or blink at the wrong moment, they never go away. We've had the rep from one company dropping in about once every two weeks for the past several months just to see if we're interested in anything they have to offer. Always drops updated catalogs and sales hotsheets. We've never ordered a single thing. Haven't even opened an account with them. The reps from two other companies we don't use check in with us about once or twice a month. The reps from the companies we do use usually drop in about twice a week, if they can't for some reason then they call. We're about an hour off the main shipping/travel routes and not within 5 hours of any large city but they still manage to find us.

Nice! Is the 3rd candy an everlasting gobstopper?

I wasn't suggesting burning bridges or saying no. I was suggesting being realistic about what you're willing to provide at that cost. Say yes if you want to and build those small town relationships but build them in a manner that's beneficial to all. Sorry to have to be the bearer of bad neighboring but "Rob's a swell guy" isn't beneficial to the business unless Rob can still be a swell guy when he's watching out for his own best interests as well as theirs. Since you know this person it won't be in bad form to let them know that you're doing them a favor with the price and that it is not what you would normally charge for doing the job. "I can't give you a starter salad and pork loin with a starch, veg and bread for $7 person but I can do some nice sandwich trays and a pot of homemade soup for you in that price range as an introductory offer. Hopefully you'll keep me in mind when the budget allows for something more extravagant so I can show you what I really can do."

I'm not sure I understand the question. I've found some very good recipes in little paperback church or club fundraiser cookbooks and some recipes I could live without in books from big name chefs. If a book is on a subject of interest to me, I check it out. If I like it, I buy it. If I can't check it out and I'm really curious, I order it. Doesn't matter who wrote it. I've made a few expensive mistakes that way but I've added a lot of great books to my collection that way as well. Recipes aren't the most valuable part of cookbooks anyway, the inspiration and education they provide are. Even if a book turns out to be crap, it can teach you a lot of things not to do.

Wow. That's below soup and sandwich budget. Even for drop and run. Be careful what you provide for low budget jobs, even if you're just thinking of it as "getting your name out there". Don't become known as "the cheap catering place". Once you're that place it's very hard to not be that place. Giving more for the money and giving more than the money are not the same thing. When you give them more than budget warrants just to get their attention they don't generally come back the next time saying "that was really nice of you to give us a deal that other time but we understand it can't always be that way". They say "what the hell, you only charged us $x.xx last time for this same menu". I feel like I give nothing but warnings is this thread and it probably sounds like I think it's a crappy business but that's not true. I enjoy it. I just had to learn a few things the hard way. Just tell me to shut up if it becomes annoying. I can take it. Glad to hear the tasting went well, everything looks great.

Yeah, I'm convinced that the gelatin was the culprit. The gelatin/agar combo was just too much. That was my fault, a few seconds spent thinking instead of rushing right into trying the new trick probably would have floated the possibility of that problem through my head before it was too late. Oh well, sometimes you learn things the hard way. It's still learning, so that's ok.

It is. Hopefully they'll make it easy on you. I don't do weddings. I hate turning down income but, at least for now, I don't do weddings. Too many people sticking their opinions in and claiming to have authority to makes decisions. Too much indecision. I just don't have the patience.

So I gave the agar version a shot and at this point I'm not impressed but that's with the disclaimer that there may be self-inflicted problems I'm dealing with. I used .07% agar in a batch of smoked turkey stock, froze it, dumped it in a filter lined sieve and after 72 hours in the cooler it's still not completely drained out. It was a decent sized batch of stock (about 4400g) but I've done similar and much larger with gelatin in a shorter time frame. So at this point it's no faster for me than gelatin and probably slower. The clarity does appear to be on par though. Now on to the possible fly in the ointment I considered. I did this with turkey stock which should have some self-created gelatin already going on. Would this be a factor? I'm going to give it another go with a fruit or veggie juice or something that has no natural gelatin and see what happens with that.

Yep, it has the additional benefit of gifting the bride and groom with one complimentary bubble bath for the honeymoon. Regarding Sysco, you just have to be firm with your rep. We had problems out of them the first time around, we dropped them, they begged, bargained and pleaded us to try again and we squeezed some pretty sweet deals out of them (mainly in the realm of fixed prices on things we use a lot of, such as mozzerella, that tend to climb more often than you can adjust for easily) before going partially on board with them again. We use a seperate supplier for our meats, I haven't had good luck with Sysco meats being what I want it to be, and we get our breads from a local bakery. I enjoy baking bread but there's just not room for doing it in house at this time. The main advice I can give you on Sysco is always check your invoices carefully, not just that everything arrived in good condition (we very rarely have a problem with quality or condition from them) but the numbers as well. All of the numbers. Make your rep waive things like minimum order charge ($25 a drop here if you order under a set amount). If he/she says they can't do that tell them yes they can. Because they can and will if they have to. Sysco is a big company with a lot of money and they know all of the fine print tricks to milk more money out of you (kinda like cell phone companies) but most of it can be bargained out of the picture if you call them on it. Just make sure to watch the invoices even after that because the reps don't always "remember" to relay that information to the billing department and it may be up to you to catch it and say nope, not paying that.

I'm exaggerating a bit. I still find time to experiment with food, I like knowing how to do things even if it's not the sort of stuff I do at work. I find time for my cycling and mountain biking. I've put triathlon on the back burner for now, I really don't have time for proper training without giving up things that are more important to me so I'm fine with that. I have time for late parties and things of that sort, I just rarely choose to. I'm kinda boring. I sit at home and read or stay at work after closing and play with food most nights.

We usually offer a choice of salad, soup or fries with our lunch sandwich and wrap combos. I'd say we probably do a pretty much equal amount of each over the course of a year with a slight advantage to soup (long, cold winters here). We also include a piece of fresh fruit or yogurt and iced tea, hot tea or coffee. Since they pick what they want we rarely throw anything away. The combos are popular with local businesses. They call, order x number of combos and we have them ready for whenever they want. Another thing that can boost the economy is contracts with local businesses, etc. Of course you are already aware of that with your sushi contract. It can really make a difference, especially during the slower periods. We have a contract to provide breakfast (which we don't even do at the restaurant but it was part of the contract so I do it), lunch and dinner to the local police detachment for the prisoner meals. We also have a contract to do dinner for 25 every thursday night for the local chapter of the Rotary Club. We do pizzas for 2 elementary schools every friday during the school year. They send slips home with the kids on monday, the parents mark how many slices of pizza they want their kid to have on friday and send the money, the school calls us and we give them to them at a significant discount. They use it as a fundraiser for school trips, etc. It works out good for the school and us. The kids like it too. The owner of the restaurant is a member of the local chamber of commerce so we take advantage of that by having special sheets and the menu faxed to local businesses on a regular basis. It's out there, you just have to go get it... and then give up any form of social life and sleep to maintain it.