Tri2Cook

Yeah, the egg and sugar amounts and whether or not you want a little flour/cornstarch/etc. has to be messed with/decided depending on what you plan to put in there. I was talking about a completely blank slate. I guess it's actually an almost completely blank slate because you could even leave out or greatly reduce the sugar if you're doing a savory cheesecake.

Well if you want to start with a completely blank slate, 1 lg. egg and 1/4 c. sugar per 8 oz. cream cheese is just about as basic as it gets. Leaves a lot of room for whatever experimenting you want to do.

He said beer.

The fact that those are healthy is definitely a bonus because my time when I'm not cooking is largely devoted to my training but they're just so much better than the thick, deep fried things that I'd probably eat them even if they were less healthy. Now I want some, guess I'll have to make a trip to the store.

I use beer in shrimp or crawfish etouffee. I use it in onion ring batter. I tried it instead of wine in my wild mushroom soup just out of curiosity and I do it that way all of the time now. It's a subtle difference but I liked it and so did everybody else that tried it. I have a batch of Guinness ice cream with caramelized cocoa nibs in the freezer that I made over the weekend. A scoop or three in a glass of stout or porter makes a nice float. Beer sabayon is different but tasty, I use it with gingerbread in which I use barley malt syrup instead of molasses.

I know what you mean about the "any fat and you're doomed" warnings but I've never experienced a tiny bit of yolk or other fat causing any major problems. Maybe slightly less volume but nothing that couldn't be worked with. I try to avoid it but I definitely don't toss the whites if it happens.

I use one of these with the "berry" screen unless I'm doing a really small amount. It holds a lot and it's not any more difficult to clean than any other piece of kitchen equipment.

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=Pie...m=1&sa=N&tab=wi

I haven't seen that book yet but I've been playing around with vanilla a bit lately too. I infused a container of fleur de sel with vanilla beans and also buzzed some with dried vanilla pods in a processor. The fine stuff from the processor is more aromatic at this point but without the nice texture of the unprocessed batch. I'm hoping that picks up more flavor over time. I haven't actually done much with either yet but I've got a few ideas in my head I want to play around with.

Wow, thanks everybody. This place is way better than google. I searched every variation of fruit puree canada I could think of and didn't come up with any of these.

Thanks, I'm going to contact them too.

I made the bases for the Roasted Banana and the Salted Butter Caramel after we closed last night. I haven't run 'em through the machine yet but they taste awesome. I didn't find the caramel lacking sweetness or at all bitter but, as I mentioned, I don't take my caramel to the edge of black very often so maybe that made a difference. The freebie recipes and all the good comments here have sold a book for you, I ordered it this morning. I've never bought an ice cream book before, I like making up my own, so this should be fun. edit (update): The roasted flavor of the banana is really nice, I let a friend at work try a bite without telling her anything about it and she said "it tastes like banana bread". Good stuff. The salted caramel, I'm waiting 'til tomorrow to let anyone try it so the praline can settle in a bit but I did take a small taste while putting it in a container and it's really good. That put me in an ice cream mood so I made a batch of Kona coffee ice cream (my gf is a coffee ice cream addict and prefers it without add-ins so gotta keep her happy) and, since I just happened to be drinking a Guinness, I made a batch of Guinness ice cream with caramelized cocoa nibs too.

Thanks! After seeing your reply I searched for and found their website. I'm going to shoot them an email and/or give them a call after the long weekend.

I'm in a small town in a remote area and so far I've had no luck sourcing fruit purees (such as boiron but brand doesn't matter, only quality) through our suppliers at the restaurant or through the local stores. I don't actually need them for the restaurant, they're for me personally, but I order things for myself through our suppliers now and then. I can't imagine that they can't find anything so I'm assuming they just haven't tried too hard but maybe that's being too cynical. Anyway, anybody know a mailorder source within Canada they'd be willing to share? I know L'Epicerie ships them but not across the border because they require overnight shipping in insulated containers.

Except for a few situations (mostly savory), I almost never cook caramel as dark as recipes looking for "on the edge of burnt" tell me to. I'm not big on bitterness as a dessert component. There's probably a pastry instructor somewhere that wants to thwack me on the head with a wooden spoon for that but that's how I do things. So far, nobody has ever said "ya know, that caramel really should be more bitter".

Errr... well... I prefer to call myself a cook but I'm the top of the food chain in my kitchen so whatever you choose to call that I guess. I'm not a celebrity (and don't play one on tv) and don't have a cookbook but it's what I do for a living. I don't try to impress friends who are cooks/chefs (or anyone else for that matter if they're eating at my house) with fancy presentations, complicated menus, cutting edge techniques, etc. I want to give them good food and plenty of time to relax and have fun. That's what I like to find when I eat at a friends house as well. After spending all day with fancy this and schmancy that sometimes a big bowl of chicken and dumplings is the best thing in the world.

If they're coming to my house for dinner and not the restaurant then I think I'd be completely relaxed. Since it's summer I'd probably throw some pig and/or brisket in the smoker and do my versions of the usual suspects that accompany that type of thing, toss 'em a beer from the cooler and hope they're happy. I'd like to think someone with a beer in their hand and bbq sauce running down their chin is just enjoying it and not going over their foodie checklist. I think the restaurant would be more intimidating, whether it should be or not.

Yeah, I already learned my lesson about unfamiliar kitchens. Sometimes it's the simple things that get you in trouble. At one of our earlier jobs where I was cooking onsite I completely forgot to check the oven. When things started taking too long I realized what was going on and what I forgot to do and tossed a thermometer in the oven. Yep, it was off by almost 125 F. Required a bit of improvising to stay close to on time. That was a blusher I'd prefer not to repeat so I'm doing the Santa thing for all onsite jobs now, I'm takin' a list and checkin' it twice.

*drool*

The fresh strawberries and rhubarb combo, among my favorite spring things... those look tasty.

Now that sounds like a game plan I can live with. That fits my "don't bother me, I'm working" personality and still allows me to be the "charming" (been called a lot of things in my life but I don't recall charming being one of them) host that they deserve for their money. Thanks to everybody, I'm feeling pretty good about this now. I'm used to being in my nice closed kitchen at the restaurant but I've recently started venturing into some catering and private dinner jobs with a business partner (the owner of the restaurant but we're doing the other stuff seperately as a partnership, not an employee/employer extension of the restaurant situation) and they're starting to roll in more often than we anticipated so I guess I'm going to have to get used to it.

Thanks for the encouragement folks. I think I'm going to do it. The problem isn't really a shyness thing, I'm usually pretty good with people. Even people I don't know. The problem is I don't like to be bothered when I'm working. You can watch if you have to but, no, you can't help and I'd prefer not to discuss it right now. Ask all of your questions when I'm done. It's not a "grumpy cook" thing either, I just like to surprise people when I have the opportunity. I don't want them to see it or have it explained while I'm working on it. I know that's kinda weird but it's fun to me. But all of that aside, I'm going to do it anyway. It's for a good cause and it should be fun. Now I just have to worry about who wins, a couple of the women were asking my friend if I'm married...

There are no rules these days (or very few anyway and somebody usually finds a way to disprove a few on a regular basis which is a good thing) but I'm fairly traditionalist when it comes to filet. Over-cooking destroys everything that's good about it. It goes from juicy and tender to dry and chewy and flavor isn't really one of it's strongest features even before you cook it all out by braising. That's just me though, you should do what you want to do. If I was going to insist on using the filet for that recipe I'd definitely cook the beef on it's own and do the sauce seperately. Of course then it wouldn't technically be the same dish but who says you have to be technical?

I did a 26 person dinner last night (local Lion's Club annual District Governor's meeting, a good friend is a Lion's member and approached me about doing the job) which went very well. After the dinner I was approached by my friend and a couple other members and she asked me if I'd be willing to be an auction item for their charity fundraiser event (the local chapter works with research dealing with vision disorders and blindness). Apparently a few of the women were joking that they wanted to take me home to cook for them and the idea light lit up for somebody. Now they want to auction off me doing a dinner (4 people max) for the winning bidder. I don't have a problem with charity work, happy to do it, it's the private dinner thing I'm not so sure about. In this situation I'd have to do the charming host thing along with the cooking and I'm not sure I can pull that off. I love the buffer provided by my servers 'cause then I just have to cook, no schmoozing required, but that's not what they have in mind for this. They want a "chef's table" type situation. The venue for last night had me in an open kitchen area which I'm not used to but I adjusted so maybe I need to just relax and have fun with this. Suggestions, ideas, smart-arse comments all welcome. Thanks.

I'm looking forward to this. I'm generally a traditionalist when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. I prefer them without oatmeal, fruit, etc. I also like the standard "toll house" cookie recipe. My grandmother used to make the toll house cookies with walnuts and raisins in it instead of chocolate chips because she's not really a chocolate fan. They were really good as well but obviously were no longer chocolate chip cookies.