Tri2Cook

I've never had scrapple but I like goetta now and then. My grandfather was a fan of it so I ate it occasionally growing up. Making it is the only way I can have it where I live now but I don't do it often. I'm not traditional with the seasoning when I do make it. I basically season it very similar to how I season my homemade breakfast sausage, sage-forward with some heat. I hadn't thought about it in a while, might have to make a batch now that it's on my mind.

Or, and pardon my blatant greed, a couple of each for the fig and rhubarb non-hater... aka: me.

Sounds good to me. I'm curious about the green curry buttercream. Were you able to get a good balance with it? I'm asking because several years ago, just as an idea test, I made a Thai red curry sweet potato ice cream and all of my attempts to get a result I was happy with were thwarted by my wish that I couldn't taste the fish sauce and shrimp paste in the curry paste. The idea to make a curry paste sans or greatly reduced in fish sauce and shrimp paste did occur to me... but never happened.

Good stuff! Menu reads kinda like a grocery shopping list () but the food looks really nice and the building (inside and out) looks pretty amazing.

Don't blame you. You have a full plate with a few more full plates balanced on top of it as it is.

You will. I've probably done more chocolate work since I've had the EZtemper than I'd done in the 5 years combined before I had it. I've become so comfy with it that I quite often completely forget to check the temper before I start working and it's still never failed me. Of course, now that I've put that out there to draw the attention of the chocolate gods, I'll probably suffer for my arrogance...

That's worthy of a few tears... wild muscadines are one of the treasures of the southeastern United States. Muscadine jelly on a hot buttered biscuit is hard to beat.

I didn't even know this existed. $72 (amazon.ca) may push it into the "no, thanks" range for me... but it is tempting just because I was so into some of the things he was doing at the time.

Sounds and looks like it would be a little smaller than ideal but workable. The next step up (the 6 kg mol d'art), price aside, is really more volume than I'd actually need at this point.

I think my biggest question about it, and based on the pictures you shared, I think I already know the answer, would be... is it big enough to somewhat easily dump and scrape the molds over without chocolate going everywhere? It took a little searching but I was finally able to track down glass bowls large enough for that task. It was worth the search effort for the cleanup time saved.

Good eye! Like Kerry, I kept seeing the gold over the black. It being under the black makes perfect sense.

I'm not sure I'd even consider it Halloween candy if it wasn't for the fact that it's actually shown up in my kid's candy bag on more than once occasion. I'm talking about what may not only be the worst Halloween candy, it may be the most non-intentionally unpleasant candy period... Circus Peanuts. Candy Corn isn't particular bad in taste, it just isn't particularly anything except sweet. I wouldn't buy it by the pound but I don't mind a small handful.

No idea how they did it but it sure is pretty.

Have a safe flight home. Thanks for taking us along on another adventure.

I look forward to the review. I looked at the price for the mol d'art and continued to use my glass bowls and the microwave. But "fraction of the cost" gets my attention. I'm guessing a melter or two might help reduce some of the bowl juggling.

My view on yeast for bread baking is: I go to the store, grab a jar of whatever they have off the shelf, check the date, pay for it and keep it in the fridge until I need it. Never had a yeast-based bread failure from any yeast that hadn't spent entirely too much time between when I bought it and when I used it.

I was going to see if the site was working by ordering a pail of the cold-use neutral glaze they carry but it's listed as currently out of stock. That sent me checking a couple of Canadian online sources for pastry supplies I've used that didn't carry it in the past. As it turns out, one of them now carries it and, though more expensive than the l'epicerie stuff, by the time I factored in currency conversion and an educated guess on what the shipping cost from the US would be, it's close enough to avoid the cross-border stuff. So the question of their return remains unanswered...

There's not a coffee pot and a hair dryer in your room?

I tried that one and was happy with the result. I didn't have maple balsamic vinegar so I used some fig balsamic I had at the time instead. Figured it would do with there being only 1 tsp. in the entire pie. I haven't made it since but that's not a commentary on the pie, just haven't made pumpkin pie using any recipe in quite a while.

At the very least, that last option would taste so much better than any drink with tomato juice in it... or even worse, clamato juice. I'm picturing somebody saying "What can I do to this tomato juice based drink to make it even less appealing? I know! Clam juice!"

I know, it was in jest. But a large percentage of our conversation does consist of me saying things with question marks at the end.

Thanks! I wanted to ask her that myself but I feel like I'm constantly asking her how to do things or for advice on things I want to try to do. Thought I'd wait and see if somebody else would ask this time before I completely wear out my welcome.

I think that's what Shalmanese was getting at. You have to offer something more, photography, stories, specialized education, etc. to make people want to buy a printed cookbook. So many people post recipes from books with the "adapted from" disclaimer that it's usually pretty easy to find the one you want without buying a book. The secret to selling printed cookbooks is exactly that... offer them something more than they can get by just googling the recipe.

If your salads are losing money, or even generating low profit numbers, you need to reign that one in quickly. Salads should carry a ridiculous profit margin. People are willing to pay premium prices for a plate of lettuce with a few garnishes so they can feel like they're eating healthy without having to make it themselves. They're fast and, in most settings, inexpensive to make, they should never be a point of loss. If waste or excessive generosity with portioning is the problem, you'll have to address that with those doing the prep/assembly, get them on board with doing it the way you want them to and mean it. Don't let them shrug it off or do it right for a day or two and go back to what they were doing before. They'll adapt. If not, replace them. Assembling profitable salads shouldn't require micro-managing everything down to the gram. Not that there's anything actually wrong with that but, unless they're pre-assembled or you have a very large staff, there's really not time to weigh everything out each time you make a salad when it's busy. If theft is the problem, in any department, you need to get them out the door. If they've been long-term getting away with theft, they won't stop and it will be a constant battle trying to prevent it. I can honestly say that in the years I've been in this business, I've never encountered a vegetable thief. Not saying it can't happen but most of the time it tends to be higher dollar items that grow legs. Is there any chance the lack of profit is happening at the pricing end? Without having been given any numbers, it is possible that salads were just never properly priced based on cost. Somebody may have simply decided "this is what a salad should cost, it's what I'd want to pay" and went with it.

That's not a problem, there's no hurry. Just trying to figure out which one I'd want. Less expensive is better unless there's good reason to spend more.